LOVEGAME OVER

2 - Get ready

"Okay, Seokjin-ssi," Yoongi replies clumsily, but his words just do not feel right.

It is not that he feels uncomfortable with his friend's mother's gender. From what he has understood, Mrs Kim was born male, although she considers herself as a woman, and likes to be considered as such.

But he feels uncomfortable calling her by her first name. He respects her too much for that.

Yoongi eventually follows Taehyung who has been getting impatient, and they enter his spacious bedroom filled with high-tech items. The eldest immediately crashes on his friend's bed, waiting for him to turn the TV and console on. Yoongi totally feels at home there. He even feels more at home than at his own place. Ever since he met Taehyung, at the beginning of high school, he has spent nearly every afternoon playing with the younger boy. And it just feels right to him.

Taehyung logs in his account, entering his pseudonym, "taerrific56", and hands Yoongi a joystick. He has chosen a war game this time. Yoongi does not mind, he never really does.

They start playing, and Taehyung quickly gets excited and loud, as he always is when he is playing. His friend is much calmer, as he clearly struggles to keep up with Taehyung's avatar. When he finally gets himself killed, Yoongi groans and his friend gladly laughs at him, "You barely lasted ten minutes! Are you becoming rusty?"

"Well, I, for one, haven't spent the first ten years of my life playing video games," Yoongi answers, though his tone is not abrupt. He resumes in a matter-of-fact way, "If my parents had had the money, or if they'd known I existed, maybe I'd be as good as you, and you know that. Who knows? Maybe I'd be even better." He smiles a little.

Since Mrs Kim and her husband adopted Taehyung, when he was four, the boy had constantly played video games, hence his impressive skills. But Yoongi is not jealous. He knows better than to be jealous of the Kims.

They resume playing, and the youngest keeps screaming at the big screen, bossing around and insulting Yoongi without truly realizing it or even meaning it, each time he messes up or does not do as he says.

A knock on the door finally interrupts them, and Mrs Kim's head pops into the room. Taehyung does not bother to glance away from his game, but Yoongi throws her a questioning look. His friend's mother asks in a tinkling voice, "I made dinner. It's your favourite, Tae. Are you coming?" As her son is not responding, she goes on, "Do you intend to play all night long? You've played for three hours now. Don't you think you've had enough video games for the day, guys?"

"Leave us alone, mom!" Taehyung speaks up, still not turning around to face her. "You're being annoying."

"Are you coming for dinner?" Mrs Kim repeats in a weaker tone.

"We'll nibble something later. Can't you just go now?"

Yoongi stares at her with a sorry look as she goes away, carefully closing the door. Taehyung is frantically pushing the buttons of his gamepad, while enthusiastically screaming at the non-player characters on the screen.

"You're being harsh with her," Yoongi simply comments, as he is waiting for his avatar to resurrect.

After a moment of silence, Taehyung finally answers distantly, "She just wants us to stop playing and be with her because she feels lonely. It's not my fault dad's never here. But do I complain? I don't. I wish she just shut up."

Yoongi shrugs. As they go on playing through the night, only getting up to grab some leftover food, passing by Mrs Kim who is watching TV on the sofa, Taehyung's phone starts vibrating repeatedly. At first, he does not pay attention to it. But he finally unlocks it and glances at his texts, before locking the phone again.

"You're not answering? Who is it?"

"It's just Jimin." As Yoongi apparently waits for something more, Taehyung only adds, "Come on, I need back-up here."

His friend sighs, but obeys.