Wax's fanfic contest, sponsored by Nerf Now

Rebirth

The depots rose eventually, locking the remaining SCVs in with the zerglings and banelings. ByuN stared at the remains of his mineral line for a few more seconds before GGing out. IEM São Paulo wasn’t going to be his.

The last few weeks had been difficult ones. His losses felt hopeless, and his wins felt undeserved. Sascri should have been an easy opponent, yet victory had slipped away all the same.

ByuN cuddled his puppy. He hadn’t felt this poorly about Starcraft since GSL Open Season 2. “I was playing Protoss back then,” he reminisced. “Now that was a nightmare.” In truth, it wasn’t the game itself that was troubling him these days. It was the stuff outside of it that poisoned his enjoyment.

ByuN’s phone rang. He looked at the caller ID. It was Gerrard. He considered not answering. The thought was very tempting, but he knew there would be a price to pay for doing so. Was it worth it? The phone rang again. ByuN answered.

“So you lost again.” said the unpleasant voice of Prime’s coach. “Why am I not surprised?”

“It’s only a foreign tournament,” answered ByuN. “The GSL qualifiers are coming up. I can get back into form before then. I will do better there.”

“You will try no doubt, just like you will also try to show good game for the fans, yes?” said Gerrard. “Luckily there is no one around with enough expectations to be disappointed in either.”

ByuN contained his rage in silence, aware that at the other end of the line Gerrard was waiting, hoping for an outburst, an opportunity to deliver more scathing comments. Five seconds went by. Then ten. Gerrard chuckled softly. “You know you have not done the team proud this year ByuN. It was all Maru, and with Maru gone who will step up to the plate? You? No, you do not have the skills anymore. So how exactly will you help the team?”

ByuN remained silent again, but he knew that this time the silence was not on his side. Gerrard was going to try to convince him again.

“Why won’t you participate in the tournament, ByuN. Do you not owe it to Prime? Owe it to me?” said Gerrard. “Rich gentlemen are willing to sponsor us in this.”

“There is no... honour in this underground cup.” said ByuN haltingly. “It is wrong.”

“Only the skillful have the luxury of choosing their stage.” said Gerrard. “You do not deserve the choice in such matters.”

“These rich men are Jopok.” eventually said ByuN. He had wanted to avoid bringing that up. He knew what was coming next. “Morally, I cannot work for them.”

“Morals?” hissed Gerrard. “You didn’t have any of those when you shamed me by match-fixing with CoCa at the ESV Weekly. And worse yet, getting caught. You better lose your new-found morals or lose your position on the team. And remember how much you owe me.”

Gerrard hung up before ByuN could reply, not that there was anything to reply to that. That’s how it always went. Over the past few weeks Gerrard had seized every opportunity to hound him about this underground tournament. The Jopok wagered incredible sums of money on these illicit tournaments. Many Jopok even had their own secret teams made from tempting successful players with money, or by recruiting the dregs of the Starcraft scene. ByuN had heard rumours of these dark tournaments even back in his NEX days, but had never believed in them.

ByuN turned to the ladder. It was the only thing to do. The other players would not practice with him, not with Gerrard this angry at him. And maybe, just maybe, if he found his skill again and made it to the GSL, Gerrard would be happy and would stop trying to get him to play in that tournament. ByuN lost the first five games to blink stalkers. And then he lost a game as long as the previous five to swarm hosts. ByuN decided to go to sleep.



When he woke up, there was a man sitting next to his bed.

“Who are you? How did you get in?” asked ByuN.

“Your coach was nice enough to lend us a key.” answered the man. ByuN knew Gerrard did not have the key to ByuN’s flat. Or shouldn’t have the key.

“Get out immediately. I will call the police.” said ByuN.

“You won’t.” said the man. “You know better.”

“Maybe I won’t, but I still won’t work for you.” said ByuN.

The man seemed to think a bit about, and then pulled out a card. “All right. I will leave now. Call this number if you change your mind. My master is not a patient man, and he badly needs a terran for his team.” The man placed the card on a table, and then calmly left.

ByuN knew this was too good to be true. The Jopok didn’t make house calls without a reason. He felt like he had just spotted a warp prism leaving his main without doing anything. There had to be a reason.

ByuN looked around. And then searched the apartment. They had taken his puppy.



One week later, ByuN was at the studio with Gerrard. He hadn’t been able to sleep. His practice had gotten worse. And yet he had to play.

“Relax ByuN.” said Gerrard slightly sarcastically. “You said you would be able to crush the GSL qualifiers after all. An underground qualifier like this means nothing to you. Nothing except for a lot of prestige for our sponsors and a lot of money for us.”

“My puppy...” started ByuN.

“Will be returned to you in due time once our friends are satisfied.” interrupted Gerrard. “Crush these amateurs and you’ll be fine.”
With deep misgivings, ByuN followed Gerrard to the player area. He didn’t recognize anyone, though many of the players seemed to be wearing odd masks with barcodes printed on them.

“Some players use their skills to gain fame in the public scene, as well as for making money in the underground scene,” explained Gerrard. “So they hide their faces behind barcode masks, so people don’t recognize them. Of course many of these underground circuit failures choose to wear the masks to intimidate their opponents. Don’t worry about it. Your seat is here.”

ByuN took his seat. The person seated next to him seemed to be a foreigner. He wore sharp sunglasses, and carried a wheel of Gouda with him. ByuN had the impression that he had seen him before.

“Taiwanese mercenary.” said Gerrard who was just as surprised as ByuN when the foreigner pulled out a second wheel of Gouda out of his bag along with his keyboard and mouse. “Some groups that don’t have the influence to secure a top player in Korea try to use their overseas connections. Now focus on the games.”

Despite ByuN’s nervousness, the first series went well. His opponent 10 pooled every game (even on Alterzim), and lost every game. “Now why would he go for such a bad build?” wondered ByuN.

The second series was even shorter. The opponent had monitor issues and tried to pause, but typed “pp” instead of “ppp”. Immediately men in suits appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and led him out of the room through a hidden door. ByuN glanced inquiringly at Gerrard, and was shocked to see the sweat beading down Gerrard’s forehead. Everyone in the room was deadly scared of those men (except for the foreigner who was too busy killing a zerg with mass carriers). Gerrard answered curtly: “Dark KeSPA. Don’t ask.”

The third and final opponent ByuN had to face looked vaguely familiar. He had seen him before. Maybe in Proleague? But now wasn’t the time to worry about others. He had to win for his puppy.

This opponent was a very good player playing a very aggressive roach style that threatened to overwhelm ByuN at every turn. Eventually ByuN prevailed more out of luck than anything else. He had won, and his puppy lived to fight another day. He picked up his mouse and keyboard and was about to leave after Gerrard when he saw his last opponent pleading at the feet of some Jopok. He was begging for another chance. The Jopok slowly shook his head and signalled to his henchmen; they surged forward and grabbed ByuN’s unfortunate opponent.

As they dragged him away ByuN’s opponent cried out: “I am Bear. I am the Unofficial World Champion, and nothing you do can change that. Someone, please, remember me!” ByuN sadly shook his head—was that to be his fate one day?



It was the day of the new year. It was the day of the Ro32 of the unnamed underground tournament. It was the day ByuN would get his puppy back.

ByuN’s first opponent was the foreigner. This time he had come equipped with a wheel of provolone, and was arguing with the referee, pointing out that ByuN was allowed his Pocari Sweat. Grudgingly the referee acquiesced to the provolone’s presence in the booth.

The first game was on Habitation Station. ByuN decided to open Gangnam terran, but found to his horror that there were three probes there waiting for him, trying to block his CC. Despite ByuN’s superior worker numbers the probes ducked and weaved preventing the CC from landing. Eventually they went away, and ByuN was able to start to mine. “It’s going to be alright.” thought ByuN. “He must have delayed his economy to do this.” Then the cannons started to shoot the SCVs from the low ground.

The next game was on Alterzim. ByuN was ready this time. His opponent was nothing but a cheeser. As long as he was prepared, there was nothing the opponent could do. The Taiwanese Protoss opened with a cannon rush, but this time ByuN held it with ease. He was slightly surprised by the follow-up oracles, but they too were eventually held off. The DTs succeeded in getting quite a few kills, but ByuN pushed them back. Then 20 void rays flew into his natural and destroyed everything.

ByuN was now facing elimination, so he watched his potential opponents’ games with greater intensity than he had ever done before. Both of his possible opponents were zergs wearing the barcode mask. They were both frighteningly quick at micro-ing their zergling, baneling and locusts. It was ZvZ, so he didn’t learn much, but there was something disquieting about one of the players’ zergling micro. It was hauntingly familiar.

Six hours later, ByuN was facing that zergling micro himself. It had a magnetic quality, an ability to enthral both opponents and viewers. And it was micro ByuN had often seen on the public stage. It was micro that had won a GSL more than a year ago. And it was micro that was outclassing ByuN today. ByuN was crying now, and he didn’t know if he was crying for himself and his puppy, or for the future of the Starcraft scene.

ByuN stumbled out of the studio. Gerrard had left the studio right as ByuN had left the game. He had to find him to ask for another chance. He would play in any tournament Gerrard asked him to. He would do everything for him without a question. He just needed another chance.

As he crossed the road, ByuN heard a barking sound. He turned around. It was his puppy. They were giving it back to him after all. Gerrard was giving him another chance. His puppy stumbled towards him from across the street.

Neither ByuN nor the puppy saw the car coming. They didn’t hear it accelerate right as the puppy crossed the road. But ByuN saw the car’s front wheel strike his puppy. He heard the sickening crunch of his puppy striking the road and bouncing down the street. He heard Gerrard’s bitter laughter as the car rolled away. And he heard his own despair resonating across the city.



“Are you ByuN?”

ByuN looked up. There was a Chinese man standing there. He didn’t know any Chinese men. It couldn’t be him he was talking to.

“You are ByuN.”

ByuN looked up again. The Chinese man was still there. Maybe he was talking to him. Or maybe not. Did it matter?

“What have you been doing over the past few days? You are filthy.”

ByuN couldn’t remember the past few days. He couldn’t remember the past few minutes even. There had been a Chinese man he thought. Or maybe there hadn’t been.

“I know what happened at the underground tournament ByuN. I am sorry for you and the others.”

The Chinese man that might not be there was sorry for him. Sorry for what? ByuN tried to remember, and then regretted his decision immediately. There was nothing to remember. It was safer not to remember.

“You must shake yourself out of it ByuN. I know it’s hard, but we can’t keep letting things like this happen. We have to clean up Starcraft ByuN. We have to act.”

The Chinese man was reminding him of uncomfortable things. Of people he knew. Of things he had done. Of how he had once loved Starcraft.

“I will sponsor your myself ByuN. We will join their underground league and destroy it utterly from within. I have introduced others into their league, but I still need a champion to succeed. You can be that champion ByuN. I know you have the potential.”

Potential. He had thought he had had that once. Before Gerrard. Before everything had happened.

“We will bring them to justice ByuN. All of them. No matter how long it takes. And then you will be able to get away from the dark side of Starcraft. You will be able to return to the Starcraft scene we love.”

ByuN looked up, and kept looking up. The man was extending a hand. ByuN considered it for a while, and then took it. Starcraft still needed him, and he still needed Starcraft.

A Drink to Remember

“Thanks for everything,” Choya stated as he shook MarineKing’s hand. “It was a pleasure,” replied MarineKing as he hoisted his bag over his shoulders and put on his shoes. Both men bitterly looked in opposite directions as MarineKing prepared to leave the MVP team house for the last time. As he opened the doors and stepped outside, MarineKing pondered just where everything went wrong. He had such great plans that were supposed to establish an unbeatable legacy… But after everything that went down, the only thing he wanted to cross off his list was to hit nearest bar scene and get magnificently wasted off his ass.

MarineKing found the nearest bar in the area through his phone and headed over there immediately. When he got there, he opened the doors and went inside. The bar was nearly empty aside from a couple of people already taking up several tables. Realizing he needed to be alone to gather his thoughts, MarineKing walked over to the counter, and grabbed one of the stools near where the bartender was working.

The bartender looked up from the register and addressed MarineKing. “Sir, what will you be having?” MarineKing responded by putting his arms on the table and burying his face in his hands. “Whatever you recommend that will allow a man to forget about the past five years of his life…” At this, the bartender chuckled and reached down toward the bottom shelf. “So you’ll have the ‘Secret Combo’ order #5 then.”

As the bartender took out a giant glass and began pouring MarineKing his drink, MarineKing suddenly felt movement to his left as the stool next to him moved and a man sat down. The man took his seat, placed his jacket on the counter, quickly ordered his own drink, and then took a deep sigh. MarineKing turned for a split second to his left, nodded his head to address the man’s presence, then turned back to his own drink. Suddenly MarineKing felt movement again and noticed out of the corner of his eye that the man next to him had turned towards his direction. At this, MarineKing smelled a familiar scent that he had once smelled a long time ago.

“Whoa! A #5 SC combo? Haven’t had one of those for myself in a while. What’s the occasion? A bad breakup or something?” MarineKing laughed out loud. “Ha, I wish... I wish it was about a bad breakup… Or a death of a loved one… Or a terminal disease revelation from my doctor… Anything would be better than what I’m feeling right now…”

“Holy shit, something terrible must have happened,” the man said as he received his drink. “Want to talk about it?” MarineKing didn’t respond and just continued to down his drink. Realizing that MarineKing had no intention of responding, the man initiated again. “I know how you feel. When you feel like utter shit, the only thing you want to do his drink away your sorrows… But you know,” the man said as he reached out to grab his own glasss, “Nothing beats having a drink with a stranger you just met at a bar and spilling your guts out to him.”

With that, the man raised his glass and pointed towards MarineKing. “To you, good sir. To you…” Realizing that the man had no intention of leaving him alone, MarineKing raised his glass and clinked with the man’s glass. “Down the hatch!” The man popped his head back and downed his drink in one gulp; MarineKing followed suit.

After finishing his drink, MarineKing placed his glass down and let out a deep sigh. Since he had already consumed such a large amount of alcohol, MarineKing’s felt his body’s tension just fly away. Smiling for the first time in ages, he turned towards the man and said, “You know what? I’ll take you up on what you just said. Why the fuck not you know? Why not spill my guts out to a complete stranger?”

“That’s the spirit!” The man firmly slapped MarineKing on his back and looked him straight in his eyes. “So, spill. What’s going through that head of yours?” MarineKing arched his back, combed through his hair with his right hand, and briefly closed his eyes. “Shit man… Where do I begin…? I guess I’ll start at around four years ago, right as 2012 was ending.” MarineKing gestured over the bartender to pour him another drink before resuming his story. As the bartender headed over with the giant pitcher, MarineKing realized that he could smell that familiar scent again. Shrugging it off as insignificant however, MarineKing proceeded with his tale.

“In order to understand this story, you should probably know that I was a professional StarCraft II player. In 2012, I was, as everyone would say, ‘the shit’. I had it all. Money, fame, fortune, you name it, I had it. I didn’t think anything in the world could bring me down… But I was wrong. After my second MLG championship win… Everything just fell apart….” The bartender poured MarineKing his second glass. He grabbed it and drank half of it in one gulp. He wiped away the remains on his mouth with his left hand and continued talking. “I had a teammate, his ID was ‘ByuN’… Or ‘GhostKing’… I think it’s back to ByuN now…. Or whatever the fuck he calls himself these days…. Anyways, my teammate was… starting to completely overshadow me… He was slowly becoming… ‘The real shit’.”

The man patted MarineKing on his back. “So your teammate was on the verge of stealing the spotlight.” “Exactly,” MarineKing replied. “My former teammate, Polt, had already done it to me once. I just couldn’t afford to let it happen again… I just had no other choice… I had to stop him… I had to make him disappear… At all costs…” The man stopped patting MarineKing and look him in the eyes. “What did you do?”

“What else could I do? I pulled the most despicable and humanly degrading move anyone could do. I collaborated with my head coach and worked together to try to bring him down. The coach sold his computer without his knowledge. I tried to release his puppy outside to see if it would get lost. We fed him false information and taught him useless strategies to try to sabotage his games… Nothing worked. The guy was completely unfazed… Hyun-woo was a beast. Nothing could break that concentration of his…” Suddenly, MarineKing stopped talking, and just stared at his drink.

“And then?” The man asked. MarineKing waited a long time before finally answering. “And then… I sank to rock bottom. I pulled him aside one day and gave him an offer I knew he couldn’t refuse…” The man leaned back and started stroking his chin. “What did you offer him?” MarineKing once again paused for a duration before giving a response. “I… I told him… That I would offer him half of my championship winnings if he agreed to stop practicing… He would get the money as long as he… Intentionally stopped working hard and gradually allowed his own skills to deteriorate…”

“Holy shit! Half your winnings?! That sounds like a fuckton of money…” MarineKing shook his head as he chuckled sadly. “It really was. I foolishly thought that I would make four times as much in due time just as long as he went away from the scene… God… If I had only stopped there…” “There’s more?” The man asked curiously. “Yeah, there’s more…” MarineKing replied. “I had to make sure there was no chance that he would go back on his promise. So I spent the other half of my winnings bribing two celebrities to sleep with him. Women and money… What more could a gamer nerd want in life, you know?

“Damn… Who were they?” MarineKing drained the rest of his glass before talking. “They were nation sensation women that every man dreamed about. Superstar Lee Hyo-ri and kpopstar idol, Hyuna.” The man spat out the drink he had just sipped. “Holy shit! What?! Are you for real?” MarineKing nodded his head. “Yeah, I’m for real. And it worked flawlessly too. They both secretly met him at a luxurious hotel and spent the night with him… Lucky bastard…”

MarineKing got the attention of the bartender and signaled for a third drink. The man signaled for his second. “It worked like a fucking charm. After a 3rd/4th place finish at the 2012 GSL Season 3, ByuN literally just ‘disappeared’ from the scene. He packed up his shit and moved out of the team house. He stopped showing up for tournaments. People started forgetting about his existence… It was all supposed to be the perfect plan…” MarineKing once again stopped talking. He closed his eyes and brought his palm to his face. The man looked at MarineKing and asked his question again. “What happened? Did something go wrong with your former teammate?”

“No… Nothing went wrong with him… Everything went wrong with me… I couldn’t live up to my own expectations… I fucked up hard… I pretty much fell into a slump that I never got out of. I had one ‘miracle run’ in 2014 and that was it… I was a failure in everyone’s eyes… Joining a new team didn’t help… I had no choice… I retired and left for good…”

At this, the man put his glass down and put his arm around MarineKing. “I’m terribly sorry to hear that. It’s rough when shit goes down… Do you by any chance, think karma had something to do with it?” MarineKing once again laughed out loud. “Of course karma had every-fucking-thing to do with it. I threw away my own integrity as a human being and a professional gamer for my own selfish pride and desires. I screwed over a precious friend and teammate all for the sake of my own reputation… If only I could see him again… Let him know how sorry I am… Let him know how foolish I feel for what I said and did… God damn it… I deserve every last bit of this…” With that MarienKing grabbed his glass and in one gulp, downed his third serving.

“Do you know what I got in my mailbox recently? A letter from him… Date was June 18, 2016. In the letter… He said he had gotten into Code S for the 2016 GSL Season 2 tournament… He also wrote about how he has been killing it in Legacy of the Void… His final comment was that he would stop one day to see me… As a champion…”

“Ahh… I see… But… Doesn’t that break his promise? Doesn’t coming back to the scene go against the terms set forth in your deal with him?” MarineKing took a long and deep sigh before giving his response. “No, it doesn’t. Because the deal was that he would stay away as long as I remained relevant… I became a nobody as time went on… So he was more than in his rights to come back… And I heard on the news that… He won the most recent GSL and is now considered one of the greatest in SC2 right now…” MarineKing laughed out loud in despair and bitterness. “How ironic… Fate really is a cruel thing…”

The man nodded his head and once again patted MarineKing on his back. “I hear you buddy… Fate really is a cruel and harsh thing… Reality is something that we can never avoid…” MarineKing didn’t respond. He was far too depressed at this point to even say anything. Realizing this, the man decided it was his turn to do the talking. “Listen, friend… I can’t tell you that what you did wasn’t wrong… But from what I hear, it sounds like everything worked out for that ByuN guy. So… Maybe you should just be happy for him. And happy for yourself too! You had the privilege of getting to know this man. Sure, you threw it away because of your own greed but… I’m sure wherever he is, he has already forgiven you and just wants the best for you…”

MarineKing sat up and looked over to the man. “Yeah… I guess… Well, let’s stop talking about this. I just realized I never even asked about you. What do you do? How’s your life?” The man smiled and placed his hands on the counter. “Well, I can tell you without any doubt that my life is absolutely terrific right now. I went through a long period at one point in my life where I felt small and insignificant. But I just recently won a tournament and am feeling like I’m on top of the world. I’m pulling so much tail these days that it’s not even funny. I guess you could say, my life is perfect…”

MarineKing smiled and nodded his head in agreement. “Well, at least one of us is enjoying life.” At this, the man chuckled and and grabbed his drink. “You bet. Here I am at a bar with a complete stranger, and I don’t feel anything but happiness and satisfaction. I know you’ve gone through some rough times friend, but… Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will work itself out.” The man drained his glass and got up from his seat. “I came here because I wanted to meet up with an old friend and patch things up but... I think I’m good now. It was great to meet you. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. In fact, you know what? The drinks are on me. Take care of yourself.”

With that, the person slapped down a 50,000₩ bill, put his jacket back on, and walked out of the bar without looking back. MarineKIng stared down at the bill, flabbergasted at such a generous tip. He quickly got up from his seat and ran out of the bar to see if he could track down that man and find out his identity. But as he stepped outside, tried to look left and right vigorously, he could see that it was of no use; the man had disappeared with no having left no traces behind.

Confused and bewildered, MarineKing walked back into the bar and took his seat at the counter again. As he swilled his drink and got ready to take his final gulp, he abruptly stopped. He put his glass down, turned toward the seat that the man had previously sat on, and stared at it for a good ten seconds without saying anything else. He had suddenly remembered where that familiar scent had come from: The Prime team house.

Suddenly, MarineKing dove over the counter and grabbed the bartender’s left arm. “Excuse me, but do you know who that person was that was sitting next to me just now?!” Although the bartender took a step back from this surprise action from MarineKing, he quickly gathered himself again and resumed wiping down the dirty glasses with his cloth. “Of course I know who that was,” stated the bartender in disbelief at MarineKing’s ignorance. “That was the most recent GSL champion and greatest LotV player to date, Byun Hyun-woo.”

At these words, MarineKing released the bartender’s arm and slowly sank back into his seat. He sat there quietly without saying another word for a good five minutes. During those five minutes, it was almost as if MarineKing’s entire life was flashing before his eyes. Then, he got up, finished his drink, and prepared to leave. As he put his hand into his pocket to take out his phone, he suddenly noticed something in there that he hadn’t felt before. He pulled out something from his pocket and looked at it; it was a picture.

At the sight of this picture, MarineKing lost all the feeling in his body and slumped down to the ground in agony and disbelief. The little parting gift from ByuN was too much for him to handle. The picture showed the one thing MarineKing never thought he would see in a million years: a picture of Lee Hyo-ri, Hyuna, and ByuN’s puppy, all simultaneously licking the GSL championship trophy. On the picture, in big black, bold letters were the words: You are forgiven. Suck on this. Love, ByuN

50 Shades of Adept

The booth beside King Sejong Station was silent and dark. there were no shades of adept nor any widow mines and the hill was between two Destructible Rocks. On the corner of the map there was the calm shadow of command centre and a supply depot, made of H-beams and iron panel, blocking the narrow passage of the first base. The Korean and the boy with him sat at the booth in the shade, outside the station. It was a warm muggy August day and the weather was bringing queer atmosphere between two men in the booth. Though both were recognising awkward atmosphere surrounding them, the silence was broken only by clicking noise of marines.

The odd ambience was soon stopped. "What should we do?" the little boy asked. He had taken off his coat and put it behind the gaming chair.

"It's pretty hot," the man said. "Let's do something we’re good at."

"Sounds good to me." the little boy whispered to the man.

"You mean, you guys are going to do that?" a KeSPA referee asked from the doorway of the booth.

"Yes. We’ll do That."

The referee disappeared with an inscrutable smile, looking at the man and the boy. The boy was looking off at the line of Fog of War. his cheek was flushing whilst the map was blue and dark.

"It looks like Nada’s body." the boy said.

"I don’t see it," the man microed his troops.

"Sure, because you wouldn't have seen it."

"I might have," the man said.

The boy stared at the man’s face. "You wouldn’t have, just like you haven’t seen me for 10 months."

The man said. "Does that matter?"

"Sure, especially for me."

"Why?"

“10 months is a plenty time to give birth.”

“What the—”

"Just saying."

"I don't know," the man answered. "Is it that important to you?"

"Yes, of course! "

"You gents want some Pocari Sweat?" asked the referee.

"Yes, with Tropicana Sparkuling."

"It literally tastes like sweat," the boy said and put the bottle down.

"That's exactly how our life tastes."

"Yes," said the boy. "Yes, you're right. Especially the things you've wanted so long for, like your return."

"Cut it out."

"You started it," the boy said. "It was YOU who started it."

"Okay, my bad. Now let's have a fun time."

"All right. Let’s have a fun time. First, let me take my shirt off –it`s hot like hell– I’d like to wear nothing but T-shirts. OK, now that's better. What were we talking about?”

“Talking about Fog of War and sweat.”

“Yes, Fog of War. Doesn't that look like NaDa’s body?"

"But NaDa’s body is sleek, streamlined and curved; whilst the fog is not."

"I want to see something new. Maybe that's all we need to do now. You know— looking for new things?"

"I guess so."

The men used scanner sweep across the fog.

"It`s such a lovely map," The boy said. "They don't suddenly vanish–I just meant the hills and Vespene Geysers of the map. Could we have another Tropicana Sparkuling?"

"Why not?"

The warm breath of the men blew each other’s cheek.

"It’s nice and cool," the man said.

"So sparkuling." the boy said.

"It's really nothing but a very simple promise, Byun" the boy continued. "You don’t have to guarantee anything. Just give me your word."

The man looked at the ground the Gyuri’s legs rested on.

"I know you won't give a damn about this trivial thing, Byun. It's literally NOTHING. All I want is your word that you won’t leave me and this scene."

The man did not say anything.

"I'll go with you, stay with you, and watch everything with you all the time. Just come back and play SC2 –everything will be right then."

"After then?"

"We'll be happy ever after. Just like we were before."

"Why on earth you think so?"

"Look, I have won two premier tournaments, whilst you’ve got nothing; that's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that burdens us."

The man looked at the boy’s face, put his hand out and grap the boy’s ears.

"And you think then we Terrans will be all right."

"I’m sure we will. You don't have to be afraid. I know you’ll get GSL trophy when you come back.”

"Okay then" said the man. "And we’ll be that happy."

"Well," the boy said, "If you don't want to, you don't have to. I wouldn't compel my ideas on you. But I know it's the best way for us to take."

"But you really want me to do it?"

"My only wish is to watch you winning premier tournaments. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want to."

"And if I return, you’d be happy and, and–you'll look at me?"

"Absolutely. I’m definitely going to watch over you." "And Ren, of course." the boy suddenly added.

"I see. But if I return, people would mock my teamless situation. And, and– would you still look at me?"

"Yes, but let’s keep it aside; do not worry. Just think about bright future and all the moneys you’re gonna get”

"Then I won’t do it. Because you don't care about me."

"What do you mean?"

"You only care about my prize."

"Well, I do care about you."

"Oh, yes. I’m sure you do care about me.”

"I don't want you to do it if you feel that way."

The man stood up and left the booth. 50 shades of Adpet glided across the field and he saw his precious workers slayed by them. Somehow, that touched a raw nerve of him; all the frustrations and smothered anger suddenly broke out.

"This is all we got." he shouted. "We Terrans could have everything with Marauders but every day David Kim make it more impossible."

"Sorry. What did you say?"

"I said we could have EVERYTHING."

"Still we can."

"No, we cannot."

"We can have the Blizzcon."

"No, we can't. GSL nor SSL isn't ours anymore."

"Come back in the booth," The boy said. "Let’s keep doing what we’re doing."

"I just got to know. I can see things now."

"All right. But you've got to know what—"

"I realise," the man said. "Maybe we should just stop talking. I`m gonna crush that fxxking protoss."

They sat down at the chair and looked the fog on the dark, shady side of the map.

"Would you do something for me now?” the man asked.

The boy exactly knew what the man wanted, though he never heard anything. He picked a mouse and keyboard up and carried them to the man.

"Do you feel better?" the boy asked.

"Couldn’t be better" the man said. "Hell, it’s about time."