[Tuesday, 11 October 2039]
"I'M HOME," I yelled out as I swung my bedroom door open. I took a few steps before I lunged forward and flopped onto my bed. I hugged my pillow and buried my face into it. It felt great to be back.
"THANKS FOR HELPING WITH THE LUGGAGE, APH," Aphromoo called out from downstairs, but I ignored him. Once I had opened our front door, my first reaction was to sprint upstairs to the comfort of my own room. There was no way I was going back down now.
"Did you miss me, Hunter?" I fondly asked my Poro. I picked him up and rubbed him against my nose. I took his silence as a 'yes'. "I missed you too!" I said, rolling onto my back. I held Hunter up in the air so he was staring down at me. I missed my favorite plush.
I heard a shutter come from the doorway and I immediately sat up. Hunter looked at me confused. Aphromoo stood in the door frame with my suitcase in one hand and his phone in another.
"Alright, I forgive you for not helping," he grinned, turning his phone around to show me the picture.
"Dadddd," I groaned, covering my face with Hunter. "Delete it!" I ordered, embarrassed.
"Not a chance," he replied immediately. I dropped Hunter onto my lap and saw the big smirk on my father's face. I gave him a pout, but he just laughed at me before leaving my suitcase at the door and walking away.
"Tch." I placed Hunter back in his usual spot next to my pillow before leaving my bed. 'I'll steal his cell phone later,' I thought as I walked over to my desk and turned on my computer. Hurtle should already be home, and knowing Hurtle he was either online trying to squeeze in a ranked game or already passed out on the living room couch.
'Speaking of Hurtle…' I thought as I waited for my computer to start up. I tapped on my desk, thinking about what had happened in Korea. A lot had happened, but I thought back to our promise. 'He said he wasn't going to leave me,' I recalled. Although he promised me that, he didn't officially turn down the offer – at least not to my knowledge. I wasn't even sure if he broke the news to his parents yet.
Bjergsen thought it was ridiculous that Hurtle was deciding between joining a team not yet in the Challenger series and a team that was already in LCK. Well Bjergsen wasn't completely wrong. If Hurtle was just a solo queue player being picked up by a team, the choice would be fairly obvious.
"Hey Aph! How was Worlds?" I got a message from Adept.
"A lot of fun! Too bad you and Cyan couldn't come," I responded.
"Yeah I'm surprised dad didn't want to visit home." I almost forgot that Deft was Korean, but then again I never actually met his parents. "But I'm sure Cyan would kill me if I left her in Europe all by herself," he joked.
"True. Though I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to replace the both of you," I smirked. "As long as we make sure not to associate your death and Cyan's murder with the team name."
"Wow. That's so cold, Aph," Adept responded after a few seconds. I'm sure he was staring at his screen in shock of my confession. "I don't know what to say."
"Speaking of team names, we should change ours," I typed. I gave myself a satisfied nod, happy with my transition into more important matters.
"Why don't you and your new mid laner decide?" he whined. I rose an eyebrow, amused by how offended he was.
"Alright, I'll give Hurtle a call then," I replied, already deciding to give away Adept's position to Hurtle.
"WAIT NO. I WAS KIDDING APH. I WAS JUST KIDDING," he quickly responded.
"But I was being serious."
"Wow this girl." I stuck my tongue out at the screen, even though he couldn't see me. "What happened to the sweet, innocent girl that I used to know?"
"She got lost in Korea," I mused. That wasn't exactly a lie since I did… get lost in Korea.
"Be right back. Flying to Korea."
"Wasn't that the first step to us finding a new mid laner and jungler?" I asked.
"…"
"When does step two happen? Does Cyan fly out to Korea to murder you there?" I continued. I was rather curious as to how this would play out. "Or does something else happen first?"
"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you," was the only thing Adept said. I frowned. He wasn't helping me at all. It was like he wanted to live or something.
"You're right. I should be asking Cyan since it's supposed to be her murder plot and not yours. You're just the victim."
"I'm a victim to your bullying!"
"What are you talking about? I'm just a sweet, innocent girl," I reminded him.
"I thought she was lost in Korea."
"Yeah, but I managed to find my way back," I shrugged. With the help of Karissa and Midi.
"Wait… did you actually get lost in Korea?" Adept asked me.
"Let's not talk about it."
"I'm asking Hurtle."
"FINE FINE. I got lost for an hour or two and then I found my way back, happy?" I groaned. There was no way that Adept was going to bring it up with Hurtle. I didn't need another lecture.
"Oh man, I'm never going to let you live this down." I could imagine the grin on his face. The grin that I wanted to wipe off his face.
"That'd be hard if I'm the only one who is still alive, eh?"
"SWEET AND INNOCENT. NOT MURDEROUS AND VIOLENT."
"Aw, you really think I'm sweet? Don't tell Cyan," I giggled.
"Why not?" I face-palmed. Was he really that dense? If he didn't know by now, I wasn't going to be the one to tell him.
"We brought you guys some souvenirs," I typed, changing the subject once more. "We also managed to get extra Championship Jinx codes," I added.
"SWEET! When do I get mine?" he asked me.
"After we decide on a new team name," I compromised. This was serious business.
"But what's wrong with our current team name?"
"It doesn't really represent us." If anything it only represented the two half-Koreans. Were we really going to be named after the flag?
"I'm sure Unicorns of Love really represented their team," he pointed out.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW THEY WEREN'T SECRETLY UNICORNS? HAVE YOU SEEN A UNICORN BEFORE?" I typed in all capitals.
"What are we then? The Flying Poros?" As soon as he suggested that, I looked over to Hunter. He seemed to have approved the name. Though I wasn't so sure how I felt about launching him up into the air…
"No. I was kidding Aph, please don't take me seriously," Adept had typed by the time I looked back at my monitor.
"Hunter agrees," I typed. There was a long pause. 'Ah right… he doesn't know my Poro's name.' I thought.
"Hunter doesn't agree," he replied back. I furrowed my eyebrows. How did he know whether or not MY Poro was agreeing or not.
"Fine. Then we'll wait until everyone else comes online."
"As long as Hurtle doesn't decide on the name." I giggled. Hurtle would probably come up with some troll name anyways.
"Should we have a call?" Adept asked us in our group chat.
"It'd be too messy," I rejected his idea. I was already in a call with Hurtle. By the time everyone had gathered, he was already in the middle of playing a ranked solo queue game. Earlier I suggested he join us in a group call, but Hurtle didn't want to be distracted from his game. I was a little relieved by his decision. Cyan and Hurtle deciding something together seemed like a complete disaster.
"Alright, then we'll just start thinking of a new team name," Adept replied.
"I don't see why we have to change our name," Cyan complained. "We should just be climbing the ladder."
"Do you really want to be known as a member of Taegukgi for the rest of your career?" I asked her.
"We should have chosen a Japanese name. That would have been much cuter," Cyan typed. I sighed when I saw her response. Leave it to Cyan to want another foreign name.
"Just start typing names you like," Adept messaged.
"Sugoi," Cyan typed immediately.
"Cy… not everyone speaks Japanese like you do." I could imagine Adept shaking his head.
"Fine :("
"So what names are you guys coming up with?" Hurtle asked me.
"Cyan just suggested 'Sugoi' – whatever that means," I informed him.
"She's such a weeaboo," Hurtle groaned. I giggled at my best friend's reaction. I could tell he was really glad to be playing his game.
Adept started to list a bunch of team names that we could use as references.
"A lot of them have animals in their team names, maybe we should consider that?" Hades pointed out.
"Snake?" Cyan proposed.
"It should be more fierce like a Lion," Adept argued.
"Or a mythical animal?" Hades suggested.
"That could work too," Adept agreed. I tried to think of all the team names with animals. There was the 'Raging Dragons' that almost won Worlds. I remember watching 'Modest Vixens' play at LCS. The Park twins had mentioned that their parents used to play for a team called 'WinterFox'.
'So basically no more fox teams,' I thought, '...but foxes are cute…' I frowned. This was hard.
"Are you sure you don't want to help?" I asked Hurtle.
"Yeah. I'm sure I'll just agree with whatever you like anyways," he shrugged. I rolled my eyes. That wasn't helpful at all.
"But you know how long it takes for me to think of a good name!" I complained to him.
"Like the time we made smurfs?" he brought up. I could visualize the smirk on his face.
"You need to give me time for these things!" I tried to defend myself. But I knew it was no use. We had wanted to make smurfs to play for fun, but I took over three hours to find a name I wanted. In the end we only had time for one co-op game before we had to go to sleep for school the next day.
"If you just chose one of the names I suggested…" Hurtle began.
"I was not going to be Aphrolift!" I cut him off.
"Aphazilla wasn't so bad," Hurtle retorted.
"I wasn't going to mix my name with Godzilla," I groaned.
"And you wonder why I'm not helping with the new team name," he laughed. I guess he had a point.
I turned my attention to our group chat. They had named a bunch of different animals we could choose from and were now trying to think of different adjectives to put in front of them. I frowned as I saw their progress. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be part of an animal team. It seemed so cliché.
"This is hard," Hades commented as they were shooting out combinations.
"Yeah. We should just be Adept's Angels," Adept joked.
"That's not too bad…" Cyan typed. I felt my eye twitch.
"Hurtle. We're about to become Adept's Angels," I informed him.
"OH HELL NO," Hurtle shouted. I winced, that was louder than I expected. "It was Cyan's idea wasn't it?" Hurtle immediately accused.
"No, but she's the one who agreed with it," I giggled.
"Alright! Adept's Angels it is," Adept decided even though only Cyan agreed.
"Good luck finding a new bot lane," I replied.
"Aw c'mon Aph. I know you want to be one of my angels," Adept teased.
"New team name," Cyan replied. She didn't seem to like that idea.
"Fine. It'll be our backup," Adept replied. He wasn't going to let it go.
'Why did we make him captain again?' I couldn't help but question myself. I knew he was joking, but still…
"Aph hasn't suggested a name," Cyan typed, "Wasn't this your idea in the first place?"
"I'm thinking!" I replied.
"More like you're wasting our time," Cyan messaged.
"Hmph."
"What's wrong Aph?" Hurtle asked me.
"Cyan is saying I'm wasting everyone's time with the new team name," I mumbled.
"She's just mad we didn't go with Sugoi or whatever that was," Hurtle laughed. I smiled. Leave it to Hurtle to make me feel better.
"She wasn't too happy when Adept said I wanted to be one of his angels," I giggled.
"Damn that guy. Always flirting with my best friend whenever I'm not there," he joked.
"As if!" I rose an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah, he can't steal you from Hades," Hurtle teased and I groaned.
"Tch. You're just trying to get rid of all the competition," I accused him.
"What competition?" he asked, confused.
"We all know you and Cyan have that love-hate thing going on," I smirked. Two can play that game.
"NO. Don't do this to me, Aph." I could hear a whimper come from him.
"What… it could work?" I tried to say confidently, but it sounded more like I was questioning myself.
"Let's not," Hurtle rejected the idea. "Cyan with anyone but Adept is scary," he added, "and I mean scary for the guy. Adept has already volunteered to be the sacrificial lamb."
"That's mean! Cyan isn't that bad," I tried defending her. Even though we had our differences, we were still friends and teammates.
"You're only saying that because there's no chance you'll be paired up with her," Hurtle jabbed.
"Okay, you caught me," I grinned even though I didn't actually mean that. "Why are we even talking about this? Stop distracting me!"
"You're the one who asked for my help."
"Well you're no help. At this rate, we'll be Taegukgi forever."
"Think faster! C'mon Aph! You can do it!"
"Your motivational skills need a little work," I joked. Hurtle started to complain, but I diverted my attention back to the group chat when I saw my name.
"Aph you still there?" Adept asked me.
"Yeah."
"See? She's not even paying attention. This is a waste of our time," Cyan messaged.
"OHH CALCULATED," Hurtle shouted before I could type my response. "Damn, I'm such a beast," he praised himself. He started to describe his play to me, but I zoned him out once more. I stared at my screen for a few seconds. 'Maybe…? It could work…' I started to think.
"THAT'S IT!" I yelled out, interrupting my best friend.
"What's it?" he asked me curiously.
"Calculated…" I told him.
"What?"
"Calculated Gaming," I clarified, "That's going to be our new team name."
"That's not too bad," Hurtle said. "CG – Calculated Gaming," he repeated, "It fits. I do make a lot of plays."
I decided to ignore his boasting and started typing.
"Guys, I thought of a name," I typed excitedly.
"Finally she has an idea." I could sense the sarcasm coming from Cyan, but I was too excited to let that bother me.
"Calculated Gaming," I told them. There was a moment of silence in the group chat before Hades started talking again.
"That sounds good," Hades agreed.
"Not bad. We could have 'That was Calculated' as our catch phrase or something," Adept suggested.
"It's so nerdy," Cyan commented, "but whatever. I don't care." I took that as her way of showing her approval.
"Hurtle is down for the name," I informed them.
"Of course he is," Cyan remarked.
"Alright, Calculated Gaming it is!" Adept messaged.
Within a few seconds, I got a notification: You have been invited to join the rank team: Calculated Gaming.
I clicked View and I was brought to the team page.
Without any hesitation, I swiftly clicked: Join Team
01/27/2015