when we were dancing in the living room

[agentwilight]

Excuse me for a bit as I rant about Jung Hani and Son Myungjae once more because they just live in my head rent free especially now that I created a playlist for them and I'm now listening to Maggie Rogers' In The Living Room.

HANJAE? HANJAE.

Hanjae lore was written in a span of 10 minutes. I had been creating a character so I could write out another ship with Xy when this whole ship materialized. Jung Hani, initially, was a character I made for the sole purpose of writing jcy with hiy because Xy has a hiy muse. So I was writing her down and I felt like I needed some kind of lore here. At the time I was writing her down, I've been heavily keeping track of League of Legends stove league and I've always wanted a somewhat developed muse in esports.

That's how Hani came to be. An esports translator and producer, a bit inspired by Jeesun but Hani learned how to speak English in the Philippines with her noisy cousin Clara Jung and her inevitable endgame that is Sean Baek. She was never really into League of Legends until Clara introduced her to it, and then it sort of just became a hobby. She took up a double degree in journalism and communications and just gravitated towards the League esports scene by strokes of luck.

She started as an intern for the LCK and that's how she and Myungjae, top laner and team captain for ST Esports, met.

Hani and Myungjae as a couple are very calm. Sure there were butterflies in the beginning of the relationship and it was cheesy and a bit cringey, but they never fell for each other too fast. Their relationship wasn't a whirlwind one. If anything, it's the calmest relationship Hani's had her entire life. At some point in her life, she'd compared Myungjae to a river, calm and ever flowing. Their relationship has always been tackled with such maturity that when it all fell apart, Hani and Myungjae understood why they were mad at each other and gratefully accepted that their relationship had run its course.

Of course their relationship wasn't perfect, though it seemed like it on picture. Hani and Myungjae's biggest enemy in their relationship is their own schedules. Both of them are so focused on their careers that there were times that they forget to become a couple. Weeks would pass where Myungjae would opt to sleep in the dormitories of his team's headquarters just because he wanted to squeeze in more practice time, especially before Worlds season. Hani would go home so late at night and forget to eat dinner and she'd also forget to ask Myungjae how his practice went.

It was a solid case of drifting apart. By the time they noticed that it was already happening, the both of them had tried too hard to salvage their relationship and it ended up with the two of them holding on too tightly. At some point, it got suffocating. After all, how do they navigate trying to save a relationship when their entire relationship was built upon being effortlessly good at matching each other? They were able to compliment each other well, they were so compatible until their realities shifted the moment that they decided that their careers would be at the forefront. They were too complacent with each other.

I remember writing Seani (Sean and Hani) out with Xy and one of the things Hani told Sean was:

It's hard to believe a breakup happened because two people don't know how to love each other properly anymore.

And there's so much stuff left unsaid here, because Hani and Myungjae did want to save that relationship. They were engaged and were planning on getting married by 2026 because that's the year Myungjae is planning on retiring as an esports player. They timed it so that Myungjae would definitely have enough time to be a husband, and he's been very good at working on it too! As he stated in their interview from that one fic I posted last night, he's working on being a good husband:

Just that from now on, I guess I'll be making my way towards trying to learn how to be a more reliable and responsible future husband. I'm practicing being a good listener to my teammates so when I come home to Hani, I'll be an even better listener who can hear her out when she's having a tough time. I'm also learning how to cook from the chef in the HQ just so Hani would be able to have packed lunch whenever she goes out to work.

I think I'd like to go as far as saying that Myungjae and Hani are each other's greatest heartbreaks, especially since they pretty much lived a life together. They lived with each other for 3 years. They have a dog together. They chose furnitures together and even decided on duvets and bedsheets that they both like. Before that? They always made sure to divide the holidays between the other person's family. They would go to Hani's family for Christmas and Myungjae's for the New Year. They'd spend Chuseok together most of the time, but sometimes they'd alternate between each other's families. They were pretty much married without the ceremony, papers, and the wedding rings.

Their relationship is comfortable. They were each other's safe spaces for the longest time that it feels weird for Hani now to just... be an interviewer to Myungjae. They're co-workers now with a whole lifetime of history between the two of them. It doesn't help that the relationship had been somewhat high profile. People within the community know that they're dating and the two aren't exactly shy about posting each other on their social media profiles either.

Also I think I've completely glossed over the fact that the breakup was also extremely horrible for the both of them. The breakup was official after the 2024 Worlds (fictional, of course), but only to them. No one ever really found out, but rumors tend to circulate. Soon enough, the entire league community was under the impression that either a) Myungjae cheated on Hani or b) Hani wanted to get married and Myungjae wanted another Worlds title and felt like it wasn't the time yet. None of which were true of course. Their breakup was quite... weird with Hani and Myungjae breaking up because they tried too hard to save their relationship that they both wore themselves out in the end.

Then there's the case of the fucked Worlds interview where Hani is interviewing Myungjae after he was hailed Player of the Game during the quarterfinals and they'd been on the rocks for months. Everyone could see that Hani is trying her best not to cry!! But like... it's so obvious with the way she couldn't seem to bring her smile to her eyes and there's a glaring lack of skinship and intimacy after the game when they're so well known for their hugs backstage and their show of affection towards each other when they're not on the stage!

It didn't take a while before everyone caught on and it took Hani and Myungjae a month before they finally addressed the rumors. Just like the start of their relationship, they treated the end with maturity. An instagram post from Hani, and one from Myungjae -- two posts that literally ended the era of #hanjae for the league community.

@hanienjung posted 2 hours ago:

i'm sure you all have seen my tweet, but i would like to remind people that i have nothing but love and respect for myungjae. he's an amazing person and he didn't do anything wrong. some relationships just aren't meant to be, and that's life.

i do not appreciate the hatred towards myungjae in my notifications. we've been through so much together, that even after all of that, myungjae is still an important person to me. he will always be my favorite player, and one of my favorite people.

@reaper posted 1 hour ago:

i would like to announce that my fiancee hani and i have decided to part ways amicably. after much thought and endless sleepless nights, we both have reached the conclusion that we drifted apart throughout the seven years that we have stayed together. seasons change, and so do people. unfortunately, hani and i are no exception to this.

i would also like to take my time to express my disappointment over the rumors that have circulated over the past month. i will not tolerate any comments made against hani, especially from people who claim to support me. despite the break-up, hani is still very dear to me. she has been monumental to my growth both as an esports player and a person, and that will never change even if our circumstances did.

with this, i humbly ask for everyone to please let us heal from this in peace.

Did the breakup hurt? Of course it did. Hani spent nights in Europe crying all by herself and she purposefully delayed her flight back home just because she doesn't want to go back to their shared apartment. She doesn't want to look at the place and think about how she'll never be able to set foot in the building ever again because the pain is too much for her to handle. Myungjae, on the other hand, spent his nights in the dormitory of ST for the same reasons. He couldn't bring himself to take the apartment apart and move somewhere else. Then when Hani finally comes back to meet Myungjae, the first thing they talk about is who gets the dog because Hani's older brother can't watch their dog forever and one of them eventually has to take custody.

Hani ends up taking the dog, and probably a part of Myungjae's heart with her as well. (Not that Myungjae didn't walk away without having a part of Hani's heart with him, too.) They both left that day with the twilight of their youth belonging to each other and each other only.

In Hani's canon, she didn't end up with Myungjae, but he's the person who helped her grow the most. I wouldn't be opposed to writing Myungjae where they're endgame, but I feel like I also need to write about how relationships that are amazing and great and monumental sometimes don't last forever, and that's okay. It's life. In Hani's case, she's happy that she's able to look at her memories with Myungjae fondly.