Part 1The Pro Gamer's Secret Crush

After my gaming buddy rejected my request to duo for the third time, I sent him a tearful plea:

[Baby, let's get back together. I miss you so much. This season is too hard to rank up alone.]

As soon as I hit send, my message popped up on the livestream of the hottest new pro gamer, Silas Thorne.

The usually cold and aloof Silas suddenly looked like he was about to cry.

Through the screen, I heard his inner thoughts:

[It's over. Was that message meant for her ex-boyfriend?] [Did she send it to me by mistake?] [If they get back together, what am I supposed to do?!] [Sob... I haven't even had the chance to confess yet...]

Me: ??? Wait, is he calling me "Baby"?

* * *

I'm a famous actress. But nobody knows my secret: I'm a hardcore gamer. If I can't game, I might as well be dead.

Not only that, I'm also a toxic flamer online.

Like right now...

"Are you playing with your feet? Sprinkling rice on the keyboard and letting a chicken peck at it would produce better gameplay than this."

"Why do you keep spamming surrender? Are you allergic to winning?"

"Even a bot would play better than you. Did you buy your account on eBay?"

I stared at our jungler's 0-10 scoreline, seething with rage. He was playing my favorite hero, Kai'Sa, and absolutely butchering her. It felt like a personal insult.

I turned on my mic and unleashed a five-minute tirade without taking a breath.

Just as I inhaled to start round two, a calm, clear male voice came through the channel:

"Sorry, my little cousin was playing just now. Don't worry, we'll win now that I'm here."

I laughed, incredulous. Bad score, so blame the little cousin?

"Why don't you say your 80-year-old grandma was playing? With those excuse-making skills, you should be a politician, bro."

Before I could finish, the jungler dove into the enemy team.

I was about to mock his suicide mission when Kai'Sa executed a flawless combo, dashing around like a ghost.

What??

Triple kill?

My insult died in my throat.

The jungler sighed. "Please stop talking. It's distracting."

This guy thinks he's all that?

I was ready to keep flaming, but another perfect bush ambush left me speechless.

The second half of the game became his solo highlight reel. His score went from 0-10 to 20-10.

Before I knew it, the enemy nexus exploded.

We won? Just like that?