The smiling k

Chance encounters

The next couple of months went by like a whirlwind for Tang Yao. She had managed to wrap things up with her university, almost packed and survived two shopping sprees with Jiyang- one to lament her breakup with Ai Jia and the other to celebrate Tang Yao's new job.

As she was sitting in front of the contract Xiao Rui placed in front of her, her mind wandered to the time she first learned how to play omoyji arena. She was a bored high school freshman. Her then boyfriend ( a term she thought was overstating their relationship, they were a situationship at best) , Jian Yang would spend countless hours playing the game. She was annoyed, but wanting to see what all the fuss was about had asked him " Jian Yang, that looks like a lot of fun! Teach me . I want to play as well"'. He had then patiently guided her through creating an account, picking a persona and playing her first game. She had chosen mid, because she wanted a position that was strong, did not need to protect others as much or run around the map a lot. Jian Yang was a jungler and when they played together, he would simply stick to her in her lane and protect her. It was only later that she realized that he was adopting the "basic strategy of playing a game with a girl" , instead of playing like he normally would. That was one of the many things about him irked her. Then, he moved out to be an e-sports player for CK ( a professional OPL  team) and she pursued her education abroad. Distance and schedules had made communicating hard, so, the already tenuous relationship collapsed when she saw a photo of him with a showgirl on his lap.

After they broke up, Tang Yao continued to play games with a different id - Smiling. She established her identity as an aggressive mid who would single-handedly carry games. She was the King of Kyoto on the China server ,and also was a master on the Korean server. She became quite well known and had amassed 30K followers on her twitch account. She streamed her gameplay sometimes but had never shown her face , leading the audience to believe that it was really a man playing behind the idea.

Xiao Rui waved his hand in front of her face , " Tang Yao, are you okay? Is there something wrong with the contract?"

Tang Yao shook herself from her stupor and smiled, " No. All good" She picked up the pen and initialed the contract.

Xiao Rui shook her hand ," Welcome to ZGDX!!!Tang Yao , the finals of the spring tournament is in two days in Shanghai. Will you come to attend that? You will get to meet the rest of the team and our new coach aka the mid who is retiring, Ming God.  We are all excited to have you. We will also put out a formal announcement on the day of the spring finals against CK. Of course, you can take more time to come if you want"

Tang Yao hurriedly responded, " No No. I'll be there cheering for my team also Ming god is my cousin" with a wry smile. 

Soon after, Tang Yao made her way to Shanghai the day before the finals. ZGDX had put her up at the same hotel where the players were staying and even offered to take her on the same van that the rest of the team took to the venue of the finals the next day. Tang Yao embarrassed, told the support staff, " I haven't washed my hair in two days. I want to make a good impression and not scare off the rest of my future team mates". In reality, she didn't really care about her looks, she just needed a bit more time to absorb her new reality.  She realized she needed some food and water so walked to the convenience store  next to the hotel.

She noticed the store was running low on water and was down to the last large water bottle. Tang Yao needed to buy other things first and didn't want to lug the bottle around the store. So, she carefully picked it up, put it on the top shelf and played a game of Tetris with other products on the shelf to hide the water.  Confident that she had hidden it, she went about shopping.  Unbeknownst to her, a tall figure had seen the last two moves of her Tetris game. He smiled to himself, thinking, ' This shorty is good at Tetris but is a noob if she thinks the top shelf will hide the bottle'. Picking the bottle up carefully without disturbing the rest of her arrangement, he paid and left. Needless to say , Tang Yao was irritated when she returned to the shelf to see the bottle missing.

The tall figure, known as Lao k aka K aka captain of ZGDX made his way up to the suite he shared with his team mates. He threw the bottle at Little Fatty, the support of the team and said, " Enjoy it. This is the last bottle. A shortie played a good game of Tetris to hide it but overlooked the fact that it was on a shelf that is eye level for normal people. What a noob! Next time, get it yourself"

Little Fatty exclaimed, " K-ge. You are the best AD. She should have opted for a better strategy" K smiled and started walking out of the room. Xiao Rui stopped him and asked, " Where are you going?"

K closed the door behind him and flippantly retorted, " To eat some candy " knowing full well that eating candy was against the rules and each violation was 1000RMB deduction from his salary. For a repeat offender like the K, it was 3000RMB. But as the part owner of ZGDX, he could care less. He wasn't much of a sweets person in reality. He liked to take a lollipop or two occasionally to calm himself; it was more about the fun of doing something he wasn't supposed to. 

K took a couple pieces of lollipops and put his arm in front of the elevator doors as they were closing. He saw a short girl carrying an oversized brown bag full of food and other essentials. He smiled and pressed 26. Tang Yao smelled the faint scent of sweets, perfume and mint hidden behind the brown bag. She looked  up from around the bag to see her captain- the legendary k. Freaking out inside, but keeping a calm facade, she tried to press 46- the floor she was on. She didn't want to meet him like this. She made a valiant effort to press the button that was high with a heavy bag, till the figure next to her asked her in English " Which floor?" She mumbled 46 reflexively sensing his amusement. " Thanks" , she responded and added, " I can reach it, its just a heavy bag" in fluent English. He responded, " Oh" and walked out. Tang Yao thanked her lucky stars that he hadn't seen her face or recognized her.