elder dragon highlander
Dec. 21st, 2024 02:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agentwilightpairing: kim mingyu/jeong jinsoul
words: 3,646
universe: alternate universe - modern setting
rating: g, general
content warning: none
summary: mingyu is forced to learn how to play the godfather of all card games, courtesy of his roommate jeon wonwoo, and the cute girl who’s adamant on letting him know that he’s absolutely shit at magic: the gathering. [ kim mingyu finds himself doing everything to impress a nerd (jung jinsol). ]
crossposted on:
WONWOO FORCEFULLY OPENS MINGYU’S DOOR ON A SATURDAY NOON WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A WARNING. Mingyu didn’t even have time to open his mouth to complain because Wonwoo all but started talking so fast, almost like he’s chanting a spell that could attract all their ancestors.
“—now get up, shower, get dressed. We’re going to my friend’s card shop.” Wonwoo hardly ever bosses Mingyu around, but when he does, Mingyu remembers the reason why he’s a freelancer and not working in corporate.
“You couldn’t have told me this last night?” Mingyu’s head is hammering, a suffering and punishment brought about by his time in the club last night with Eunwoo and Jaehyun.
“I did, but you were too busy making sure your hair looks good enough for people to notice you in the bar.” Wonwoo rolls his eyes and very hastily throws Mingyu’s towel straight to his head.
Mingyu frowns and takes a sip of water from the hydroflask he leaves on his nightstand, a band-aid solution to the horrible hangover he will be facing for the rest of the day. It doesn’t help that there’s a shit ton of light coming from the hallway because Wonwoo likes leaving the curtains open during the day.
“You have twenty minutes. Jinsol is waiting for us.”
“Who the fuck is Jinsol?”
JUNG JINYOUNG, THE CARD SHOP’S OWNER, HAD BEEN WONWOO’S SENIOR IN THE COMPUTER SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF THEIR UNIVERSITY . (And probably his senior in playing whatever this nerd game is too.) Mingyu doesn’t know why he of all people has to be looped into this when everyone knows that he’s not the least bit interested in card games.
Nevertheless, it’s not like he has much choice. Jinyoung beckons Wonwoo to the counter and Wonwoo drags Mingyu along with him. He doesn’t really listen to whatever conversation the two nerds are having. He’s too busy trying to distract himself from the horrible headache, and the stench of nerds in the room.
(Well, to be fair, it’s not like the room reeks of body odor altogether, but you can smell the aroma of different ramen flavors fusing together in the air and it’s enough to make Mingyu want to leave Wonwoo behind and bolt without looking back.)
Wonwoo nudges Mingyu and gestures towards Jinyoung. To be honest, Mingyu is too bored, but his mother had always taught him that politeness can go a long way. Despite the lack of interest in the setting and the people altogether, Mingyu manages to smile and bow to Jinyoung.
“I’m Kim Mingyu, Wonwoo’s roommate.” He keeps it short and concise, mostly because he doesn’t really know what to say. He doesn’t even know why he’s here at all.
“I’ve never seen you before. Do you know Jinsol as well?” Jinyoung’s question manages to pique Mingyu’s interest. Wonwoo had mentioned Jinsol before but left no context as to who they are.
“Nah. Mingyu’s a film major, Jinsol is in music production. I doubt their paths have crossed.” It’s Wonwoo who answered, much to Mingyu’s annoyance.
“Hmm. Alright. Usually, Jinsol tells me about the friends who come to visit her. Anyways, are you here to play Magic as well? Or did Wonwoo drag you along just like he did with the rest of his friends?”
Mingyu throws Wonwoo a menacing sideways look.
“As a matter of fact, he threw my door open and forced me to go. I don’t even know jack shit about Magic.” Mingyu tries his best not to sound too conceited, but he thinks it came across like that anyway because Jinyoung’s face fell a bit.
“Then why come with Wonwoo? It’s not like you don’t have free will.” He hears a girl’s voice from behind him.
It’s not long before the girl appears behind the counter, right beside Jinyoung. Mingyu couldn’t see the resemblance, but the way she swats Jinyoung’s hand away when he tried to poke her on the forehead immediately told Mingyu all he needed to know.
It doesn’t register to him, not for like five seconds at least, that he’s looking at the prettiest girl he’s ever seen. He thinks that she looks like she could be an angel, or an idol that he could only see through phone screens and digital ads plastered all over Seoul.
He doesn’t even realize how much he’s staring until Wonwoo nudges him once more. He clears his throat and looks someplace else, not missing the fact that her brother is glaring at him.
“This is Jinsol. One of the best Magic players in Korea. She has been in the Championships thrice ever since she started playing.” The information Wonwoo gives Mingyu is nothing worth noting. Mingyu wants to know what her type is, how he could get her to go on a date with him, or if she would willingly slip into a dark alley to make out with him.
“Did you go to the same university?” The tone in Jinsol’s voice suggests indifference, but Mingyu gives in to the other part of his brain that tells him she wouldn’t have asked him anything if she was truly indifferent to his existence.
Some people would call it delusional, Mingyu would like to call it optimistic.
“I did, yeah.”
“Hmm… Then you must really know nothing about Magic. If you went to the same university as us and you play, you would have known me from the get-go.” She shrugs and leaves them behind in favor of looking for a card in one of the display cabinets.
Safe to say, Mingyu has found himself a new crush, and a new hobby.
MINGYU SPENDS THE REST OF HIS DAYS RESEARCHING ABOUT MAGIC: THE GATHERING. Turns out that it’s the most complicated card game to ever exist, as well as the godfather of all card games on earth, YuGi-Oh, Pokemon, and One-Piece included. Nights after working as a freelance colorist are now dedicated to researching which pre-constructed decks would work, and which playstyle he likes the best.
Wonwoo thinks that he turned Mingyu into a monster — and it’s probably true given the fact that Mingyu had been telling Wonwoo that he wants to go card shopping every single day, and Wonwoo could only do so much to indulge the new obsession that he’s indirectly responsible for.
“You’re thinking too big for something you haven’t even played for a while.” Wonwoo complains when Mingyu decides one night that he wants to make his own deck instead of going with a pre-con like everyone else who wants to start the game.
“What can I say? I’m competitive.” Mingyu smirks to himself and all but drags Wonwoo out of their front door.
“No. You’re just trying to impress Jinsol, just like every single guy who goes into that card shop. Goodluck, though.” Wonwoo doesn’t complain anymore, but he does convince Mingyu eventually that learning with a pre-constructed deck would make Mingyu’s learning curve better instead of trying to rawdog a game that takes months or even years to be amazing at.
“I’M NOT PLAYING WITH YOU.” Jinsol breaks his heart (alternatively: crushes his ego) in a span of five words.
It’s a Wednesday evening in the card shop and Jinsol had been sitting behind the counter, chewing on a pen, when Mingyu came with Wonwoo in tow. After two weeks of playing numerous 1v1 matches, Mingyu finally developed the courage to play with Jinsol — or at least, try to.
When she rejects him, he’s too flabbergasted to even try and ask why. Perhaps it’s his face that gives it away, or the look of concern on Wonwoo’s. No one was talking, not even Jinyoung who just emerged from the card shop entrance.
“You act like you’re better than everyone here just because our hobby doesn’t fit your idea of normality.” She doesn’t even look at him. She just continues chewing on her pen and looking at her laptop screen.
It makes Mingyu feel very miniscule. It’s like he doesn’t even matter at all.
Mingyu catches Jinyoung beckoning both him and Wonwoo to one of the empty tables, and they both go just to get rid of the awkward tension that suddenly enveloped the room.
“Sorry about her.” Jinyoung bites his lip, “Jinsol just feels very strongly about Magic. She always had trouble making friends growing up. When I taught her how to play Magic, it’s when she was able to socialize better.”
Mingyu swallows the lump that formed in his throat. This is the thing he’s always told off about, that he should watch his words more. That he needs to be less obscure about his surroundings and the people around him.
Still, talking out of line about something like this has never really made him feel this guilty until now.
“It’s part of the reason why I made this card shop. It’s so Jinsol can always find people to talk to when she’s having a hard time.” There’s a serene smile on Jinyoung’s face, a doting brother to his little sister.
“Wonwoo-yah! Did you bring your deck?” Jinsol calls out to Wonwoo from behind the counter and Wonwoo only flashes Mingyu an apologetic look before leaving him at the table with Jinyoung, deck and all accessories in hand.
There’s a good five minutes spent between Mingyu and Jinyoung just awkwardly nodding at each other and looking at the table where Jinsol and Wonwoo were playing. Neither of the two came back to the table to rescue them, and Mingyu is left using up all his willpower to properly apologize to Jinyoung for judging the hobby everyone in the room has grown to like.
“I’m sorry about what I said a few weeks ago.” Mingyu couldn’t even look at Jinyoung. He keeps his gaze firmly planted on the wooden table, reading up some of the words that some players have probably vandalized on it.
“You’re fine. I know what people think about card games in general. I won’t hold it against you. I just wished she didn’t hear it, that’s all.” Jinyoung pats Mingyu’s shoulder, albeit a bit awkwardly.
“Well… now that I’m here. Do you mind playing a round with me? I don’t know how to play this properly, and I think Wonwoo’s getting tired of playing with me now.” Mingyu suggests.
When Jinyoung agrees, Mingyu feels like he’s taking a step in the right direction… whichever direction he might need to take if it meant impressing Jinsol.
MINGYU DOESN’T SEE JINSOL FOR ANOTHER FEW WEEKS, NOT UNTIL A POST-PRODUCTION MEETING IS HELD BY A PRODUCER WHO WENT TO THE SAME UNIVERSITY. He tries his best not to seem overeager at the thought of seeing Jinsol somewhere outside of her brother’s card shop, but he fails miserably when he feels his cheeks hurting from the wide grin visible on his face.
“I didn’t know you do film work.” Mingyu is merely stating an observation, but Jinsol flinches and reacts to him like he’s a repulsive, slimy, disgusting piece of shit meant to be thrown in a horrible sewage treatment plant.
Seriously, he knows that he fucked up a bit by being so conceited with the way he reacted to the card shop at first, but he doesn’t know that it was this deep for Jinsol.
Then again, Wonwoo reminded him the other night that Magic: The Gathering is a very special interest for Jinsol. He feels himself growing smaller even more to the point of wanting to disappear.
Jinsol takes a few steps backward and looks at anything but his eyes. “Yeah. I went into music production because I wanted to become a scorer.”
Mingyu finds himself looking back at her with a newfound awe and wonder. In his line of work, very few would choose to become a scorer. All the music production majors he’s ever met are all fascinated with the idea of producing music for idols or becoming independent artists in their own right. No one ever told him that they wanted to create music for film.
Instead of pushing Jinsol to talk more about her scope of work, Mingyu clears his throat and finally does what he should have done a few weeks ago.
“I’m sorry.” He finally musters up the courage to say it.
Jinsol looks at him with wide eyes, the first time she ever looked at him properly, and he realizes that her eyes are very brown and very expressive.
“I was an asshole for talking about Magic and the card shop like that.” He brings a hand towards his nape. He’s never been good at apologies. “Now that I’ve got a chance to play it, I realized how fun it could be.”
The thing about Mingyu, though, is that sometimes he does lie for the sake of impressing a girl. It’s not the first time he’s done this. What sets this lie apart from the rest is just how badly he wants it to be true.
He finds the game confusing, a bit annoying, and sometimes downright unbalanced, but it makes him only want to get good at it so he’ll finally be able to enjoy winning.
Jinsol is back to staring at the floor, her feet shuffling in different directions but never taking her anywhere but in front of Mingyu.
“Alright. Apology accepted.” Her voice is a bit small, but Mingyu hears her crystal clear. “I’m sorry, too, for being so harsh with you.”
“Will you play with me now?” Mingyu feels like now is as good a time as ever to ask.
“No.” Jinsol laughs and the sound of it takes Mingyu’s heart as a hostage.
He thinks he’s never heard a laugh as nice as Jinsol’s. It doesn’t matter if she laughed because the idea of playing with a newbie like Mingyu is repulsive for her. Mingyu finds that he would rather listen to her laugh at him instead of hearing her laugh with someone else.
“Why not?” He likes the challenge. He’s always loved a challenge.
“Because we’ll both be busy working on this film for the next month. We can play when we’re both done with this.” Jinsol shrugs, effectively reminding Mingyu that there is work involved here and that’s why they’re both present in the same space.
“Also because I’ve been told that… I’m not the most beginner friendly person to play with. Jinyoung- oppa told me that I have to stop giving new players a hard time…” She trails off.
A girl who refuses to play with him just because she’s not the most beginner-friendly player? Mingyu finds that absolutely adorable and extremely hot. He doesn’t even realize he’s smiling until Jinsol tilts her head and asks why he looks like he just won the lottery.
SO MINGYU’S MAGIC: THE GATHERING TRAINING ARC CONTINUES, MUCH TO EVERYONE ELSE’S DISMAY. His persistence can sometimes come across as annoying and incredibly inconvenient when he doesn’t operate under the same clockwork life as everyone else.
Wonwoo is a software engineer and works in corporate, and while most of his work is remote, he’s busy eight hours a day. Jinyoung, his newfound friend, is even busier than Wonwoo; he’s a co-founder of a start-up company and he’s in charge of the entire company’s operations. Their lives are dictated by hours set by society’s ideal productive hours, as opposed to Mingyu who can just do whatever he wants as long as he’s able to meet his deadlines and scheduled presentations.
It’s also for that reason that everyone just turns him down whenever he asks them to play with him on a work night.
jung jinyoung: i can’t keep playing with you on a work night.
jung jinyoung: i know u like my sister and u want to play w her
jung jinyoung: but i really can’t help u anymore. i’m busy.
jung jinyoung: also… i shouldn’t be helping u!
jeon wonwoo: i can’t help you either.
jeon wonwoo: i’m on my third overtime this week…
jeon wonwoo: just go to the card shop and play with the other dudes there
jeon wonwoo: they’re just as strong as me or jinyoung
kim mingyu: :/
kim mingyu: i just don’t wanna be lumped into the beginner category.
When it’s clear that neither of the two are going to help him, Mingyu just decides to go to the card shop and look for other people he could play with. Sure, they’re looking at him like he’s crazy, but they helped him anyway, and he just found out that he’s definitely improved since the first time he played with Wonwoo.
MINGYU IS STARING AT JINSOL WHILE SHE PLAYS WITH A DIFFERENT SET OF PEOPLE WHEN HE HEARS WONWOO PLACE A DECK BOX ON THE TABLE. Instead of the usual deck box Wonwoo brings out, it’s different. Mingyu tilts his head and merely raises an eyebrow at Wonwoo.
“It’s Jinsol’s deck. I’ll play it against you so you’d know what to expect.” Wonwoo then proceeds to take out all one-hundred cards out of the deck, the commander card placed on its respective spot on the mat, while the rest are shuffled into the deck.
“Then what deck is she using now?” Mingyu gestures over to Jinsol on the other table, looking like she’s currently destroying every single person playing the game alongside her.
“Her old one. She’s beaten every single person in that table at least twice with this deck today. They all wanted to nerf her a bit.” Wonwoo continues shuffling the deck.
Mingyu looks at the cards and notices that this deck has been accessorized, a clear sign that this deck is loved. The back of the card sleeves features a white and green illustration of a dragon. The art looks so good that every line seems like it's hand-painted to the sleeves itself, though Mingyu knows that it’s not. Months of playing this game gave him enough knowledge to know that these are just special-anniversary sleeves released by their brand five years ago.
“I mean… they are playing with someone who’s been in the Championships three times. They should have expected the losing streak.” Despite his very obvious bias towards his crush, Mingyu’s words are merely an objective statement.
“Yeah, but here’s the thing, this format we’re playing isn’t even supposed to be competitive. She competes in Standard and Limited; we’re playing Commander. This deck I’m holding now… it’s not even a competitive deck. She just made it because she liked Astarion in Baldur’s Gate so much. I guess her being so invested in the source material just made her even better when she’s using it for Magic.” Wonwoo passes the deck to Mingyu and Mingyu cuts it, making sure to be gentle with Jinsol’s cards.
“So, she’s just… a god amongst men when it comes to Magic?”
“Jinsol is very smart, I thought we’d established that already? Me playing this with you is just me trying to send you into battle with preparation, just so you won’t lose pathetically.”
Right. The last thing Mingyu would want is to lose pathetically to her. He doesn’t mind losing, but he would love to go down fighting at the very least.
AFTER FOUR MONTHS OF BEING DOWN BAD FOR JINSOL, AND BEING OBSESSED WITH MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MINGYU FINALLY GETS HIS WISH. Jinsol agreed to play with him ever since Wonwoo and Jinyoung both vouched that Mingyu would be able to hold his own against her. He feels like a character from a sports anime, heading into his first championship after the long training arc. It’s both nerve-wracking and exciting.
He’s still doing this to impress Jinsol, of course. By now, it has already been established that the only reason Mingyu is trying so hard at the game is because he wants to get Jinsol’s attention. He wants to be the guy that she will turn her focus to, the one who persevered among others.
(The other week, Wonwoo laughed at Mingyu and told him that he’s just one of the many admirers of South Korea’s MTG goddess contributing to the sales of Jinyoung’s card shop. Mingyu felt offended somehow. At this point in time, his crush on Jinsol is beyond shallow attraction. Mingyu took that as added fuel to his desire to win and just be good at the game.)
“We’re playing Commander, right?” Jinsol asks and Mingyu only nods. She takes out a light baby pink deck box and gently sets her mat on the table, making sure that all the sides are aligned and none of them are creased.
“A new deck?” Mingyu notices that this isn’t Astarion or the Ninja girl that she used to play with when people tell her they’re sick and tired of going against her Astarion deck.
“I saw the cat and the dog, and they were too cute.” She gives him a sheepish smile.
Mingyu falls for it, but at the same time, fears for his life because he absolutely has no idea how this deck works, or if he even has a chance against it.
It takes exactly thirty-four minutes for Jinsol to defeat him, her little breaks to attend to some customers and people who know her included. While a crushing defeat can sometimes bring one’s character down, Mingyu only feels like he’s taking a step closer to where he wants to be.
“You’ve done surprisingly well for someone who’s only been playing for a few months.” Jinsol’s compliment almost goes over his head. He was too busy admiring the way she’s gently placing his cards into perfect-fit sleeves.
“Does that mean you’ll play with me again?” Mingyu cheekily asks as he takes another card with a perfect-fit sleeve from her so he could place it inside the art sleeves he just bought.
“Yes, Kim Mingyu. I’ll play with you again.” The smile on her face brightens up Mingyu’s day, and he silently thanks Wonwoo for introducing him to this game.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
elder dragon highlander or commander is a format of magic: the gathering in which you build a 100-card deck around a legendary creature called the commander. every card must be different or 1-of-1 save for the land cards. this format can be played with just 2 people, or with multiple people. usually, the commander format is a format for just having fun and everything. it's mostly played in casuals.
the standard magic format is somewhat like pokemon, and without a commander. you can have repeats of any card you want. while the limited magic format is when you create a deck from cards you get from booster packs that the tournament will give you. these are the two formats that jinsol regularly competes in.precons are preconstructed decks that you can buy. they're decks made by the company who made magic and they're ready for playing as soon as you get them. this is the deck that mingyu has.as usual this fic is unbeta'd because i really could not be assed.
