Playing the game, I never expected to be matched against my own boyfriend. It all started when I slightly harassed a girl in the game—just a simple "A" tap. Suddenly, she turned on her mic and snapped, "I'm in a bad mood today. Why are you attacking me?"
She huffed, then whined, "Jungle! Come here, quick! Someone’s bullying me."
The jungle player didn't even bother farming anymore. He rushed straight to my lane, trapping me under my first tower. The girl killed me twelve times in a row.
As if that wasn't enough, after every kill, the jungle player spammed my corpse and sent me back to the respawn point. Then, he opened his mic and sneered, "Apologize to my girlfriend, or I’ll make your life hell."
I froze. That voice... it was unmistakably my boyfriend’s. I quickly checked the game panel. Sure enough, the enemy team’s jungle player was my boyfriend, Gian Vincent. As if fate wanted me to hear the truth, he forgot to mute his mic after speaking. His teammates started laughing.
"Hahaha! Look at Katty Hamilton, she got destroyed twelve times!"
"Serves her right. She bullied Winda Kris in the training match earlier. Gian is just standing up for her."
"Gian, are you still with Katty? When are you dumping her?"
Gian chuckled lazily. "I’ll break up with her after this match. I’m just dragging it out until then."
Someone else chimed in. "Wow, you’re really using her to the last second, huh?"
Gian responded casually, "She plays well and clings to me anyway. Might as well keep her around until the championship is over. After that, I’ll dump her. Winda is my real girl."
——
My hands trembled. I pieced together the cruel reality from their conversation. I had pursued Gian for so long before he finally agreed to date me. But now I understood—he never truly liked me. He just needed me for the competition. Without my spot, he wouldn’t have been able to compete at all since tournament rules had strict team composition requirements.
And today? They had deliberately queued up against me because, during our daytime training match, I had unknowingly defeated Winda a few times. She held a grudge and orchestrated this setup to gang up on me.
Normally, training matches were anonymous—shared IDs and voice changers prevented players from knowing who they were up against. But I played under Gian’s scheduling every night, so I recognized this was Gian’s number.
"She definitely doesn’t realize it was you who killed her," one of Gian’s teammates laughed.
"Haha, nah. Besides, I was using a voice changer. I’ll turn on another mic," Gian said, before repeating coldly, "Did you hear that, enemy team? Apologize to my girlfriend, or I’ll crush you."
Unfortunately for him, his mic malfunctioned. Everything they had just said reached my ears, loud and clear. If not for this glitch, if I hadn’t recognized his game ID, I would still be blissfully unaware of his betrayal.
My in-game character stood motionless, stunned by the revelation. Gian seized the chance and struck me down with another combo.
After the kill, he asked in a low voice, "Winda, happy now?"
Winda giggled. "Brother, isn't it a bit much to kill her so many times?"
"As long as you’re happy, I’d kill her from morning till night just to please you," Gian replied smoothly.
"But what if she gets mad and stops playing with you?" Winda teased.
Gian scoffed. "No chance. Winning the championship is her lifelong dream. Don’t worry, once she’s racked up enough points, I’ll replace her with you. In the end, the championship will be yours… and so will I."
Winda giggled again. "Brother, you’re so good to me."
My chest tightened. A bitter taste filled my mouth. Not only had I been nothing more than a tool to Gian, but he also planned to take away everything I had worked so hard for—the championship, the recognition and my spot on the team—all to hand it over to another girl.
Gian’s voice cut through my thoughts like a blade. "I’ll dump her after the game. Winda, you’ll always be my real girlfriend."
At that moment, something inside me shattered.
