sandbox || J.CM (VII)
♘ pairing: gamer!changmin x f!gamer!reader
♘ genre: semi-smau, fluff, crack
♘ word count: 4k
♘ warnings: profanity, insecurity
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(y/n) was seated at her setup, leant back in her seat as the group prepared for their Gang Beasts session. The voice channel was as chaotic as it was expected to be, with Byounggon and Kevin provoking Sunwoo, Jinyoung instigating them on the side, Quinn desperately trying to calm the boys down with what little authority she actually held in this case, and Changmin merely laughing on the outskirts of it all.
She smiled to herself as she glanced over to her other monitor. She could see the faces of her friends all clamoring about, the multicolored lights of Sunwoo’s setup reflecting off of his scowl as he glared into his camera, grumbling about the two boys cackling at his misfortune. Quinn was finishing her pre-stream meal, muttering for the group to shut up with her cheeks puffed with food. Jinyoung was on his phone, still jumping in whenever the opportunity arose, though entirely nonchalant in his methods. Yet it was the blank square of Changmin’s that captured her attention, the singular profile picture surrounded by green ripples emanating from him with every chuckle his audio picked up.
Over the past week, with every secret meeting between the two, with every hour spent goofing off in Gang Beasts in preparation for this very moment, that innate familiarity she once felt for the boy had all but increased tenfold. That comfort she once felt in his presence was now undeniable, a fact that she could no longer refute or question because the ease which came with talking to him was ever present and indisputable. It seemed almost too easy talking to him, as if she was talking to herself. As if she knew that the person on the other line held no virtual judgment towards her, no hostility, no expectations. Like he accepted her for her and every little thing she was.
A slight giggle left her lips as she received a text from Changmin; a string of purple imp emojis, smiling nefariously as the time to play the game grew ever nearer.
“What was that?” Sunwoo asked. “That sounded mad evil.”
“(y/n?)” Byounggon asked. She hummed in response, putting her phone away as if they’d be able to detect she was messaging someone, even if they couldn’t see her face. “What are you laughing about over there?”
“Nothing, just saw a meme.” She defended, grabbing her phone and scrolling through her recent images to try and find one she can use as an excuse if they were to ask. She received another text from Changmin: an emoji laughing with his hand shielding his smile. She bit her lip to hold back her own smile, continuing to scroll through her photos as the boys continued on as if nothing happened.
“Well, she won’t be laughing for long once I get into the game.” Sunwoo commented, leaning back smugly in his chair with a sigh, hands resting behind his head. “There will be more tears than laughs in your near future, sweethea–”
Sunwoo hadn’t the opportunity to finish his snide remark, as his audio was instantly muted. Everyone watched as he continued to speak, cocky smirk plastered across his face, hands waving about as he continued to, seemingly, provoke the lot. It wasn’t until a minute later that Kevin spoke up.
“Did someone mute Sunwoo?” Sunwoo paused at this, his mouth forming the word ‘what?’ as Kevin proceeded. “Are any of us admins?”
“Juyeon said he gave permissions to me and Changmin.” Quinn answered. (y/n) could see everyone’s eyes divert to another portion of their screen, most likely wherever Changmin’s blank square resided for them. Another beat of silence as everyone waited for Changmin’s statement on the matter, even Sunwoo going quiet on his end.
“As an admin, it’s my job to ensure peace in the server and stamp out any source of conflict.”
Sunwoo erupted in an annoyed outburst, mouth pouting incessantly as he complained, his shoulders slumped while he tapped his grievances into the chat, begging to be released from his oath of silence.
After Sunwoo had returned to them as loud as ever, they started their stream, greeting their respective fans and the rest before starting up the game. (y/n) tapped randomly at the character customization screen, too excited for the match to even care what she looked like.
Quinn was putting so much thought into her character, analyzing every article of clothing before opting for a coat and a top hat. Jinyoung was quick with his, dressing as an office worker with a sombrero. Sunwoo had chosen to be a wrestler while Kevin and Byounggon wore a variety of mismatched clothing, from overalls with a hamburger head to a construction worker with a mohawk. And at the end of it all, when they had all unveiled their characters to one another, Changmin and her were the only ones matching, the both of them wearing a chicken costume, his green, hers blue.
“Seems fitting for you two to be the chickens.” Sunwoo scoffed momentarily as the screen darkened, loading their game session. At the silence met with his statement, he quickly added on, “please don’t mute me again,” earning a round of laughter from the group just as the game began.
Their first level: the blimp.
Almost instantly, Kevin and Byounggon bolted to Sunwoo, pummeling him with jelly-like punches from their amorphous character models. Sunwoo shouted the entire time, attempting to shield himself from the onslaught of attacks, but failing nevertheless as he was soon knocked out. They lifted his body together before throwing him off the blimp, cheering together with their character’s arms raised in victory.
“We’ve defeated the evil in the world!” Byounggon whooped, followed by Kevin’s just as jubilant cheers. In the midst of their victory, the two simultaneously leapt off the blimp, plummeting to their deaths whilst still celebrating their triumph over Sunwoo, who had just finished respawning as they died. Quinn, distracted laughing at the mayhem of the lot, was unexpectedly headbutted by Jinyoung from behind her, knocking her out in one blow. Her cackles had dissolved into panicked shouting, frantic button mashing loud enough to be heard through her mic as she desperately attempted to wake up. Though her efforts were futile as Jinyoung raised her in the air, marching over to the edge of the blimp to toss her over, but wound up walking too close to the edge, as he himself also slipped off the curved edge.
“Oh shit,” Jinyoung muttered as his character began stumbling down the aircraft, Quinn’s body ragdolling beside his as they both also died.
“Changmin, (y/n), get ready to feel my wrath,” Sunwoo’s character ambled clumsily over to them, a complete juxtaposition to his imposing chuckle, though was met with an untimely demise as the two chickens dashed over to him, raining down punches unto his poor character. “Wait, wait, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go! Please! I beg of you! Show some mercy!”
“We have none.” Changmin responded, lifting Sunwoo’s body and tossing him off the blimp again. Sunwoo yelled dramatically as he fell, only stopping when he respawned again.
The round continued on in the same manner. Kevin and Byounggon goofing around as the other three tried desperately to kill one another. Sunwoo was aggressive in his ways while Jinyoung was terrifyingly calm and collected, and yet the two were both equal in their kills thus far. On the sidelines was Changmin and (y/n), seated together at the edge of the blimp, peacefully carrying on conversation as if their friends weren’t murdering one another some meters away.
“Have you tried Human Fall Flat?” Changmin asked.
“No, I’ve never even heard of it.”
“It’s similar to this in the sense that you play as gummy looking characters that are hard to control, but rather than killing each other, you solve puzzles together.”
“Oh, that sounds fun. We should play it one of these days.”
“That’d be cool, do you want that to be the next game we play?”
“Yes, I’d like that!”
“What the hell are you two doing?” Sunwoo asked, running over to the two, who had been left untouched for far too long in his opinion. Just as he reached them, Changmin stood up, pivoting 90° before headbutting Sunwoo. He sat back down beside (y/n) while Sunwoo’s body fell on the ground, letting gravity do the rest of his job as the boy began sliding off the blimp again.
“Are you busy next week?” Changmin continued, acting as if nothing had happened and coaxing another giggle from (y/n).
Unsurprisingly, Jinyoung won that round, and so commenced the next level. Elevators.
With no place to sit, the two actually fought this time around, showing the skills they’ve honed over the past week. Sunwoo was unpleasantly surprised at the sight, though didn’t question it, instead putting his all into attempting to defeat the invincible duo.
He couldn’t, and neither could the rest, leaving just Changmin and (y/n) on their own in the level, one in their own designated elevator. (y/n) suppressed a smile as Changmin’s character stared her down with its unwaveringly empty gaze, standing there, unmoving, as if waiting for her to make the next move.
“These elevators ain’t big enough for the two of us.” He commented.
“You’re right.” She responded. A second later, she leapt off her elevator, falling to her death.
“NO!” Changmin hollered, voice pained as if in an actual death reenactment, causing her to start laughing in glee. He soon climbed off his elevator as well, falling after her and causing more laughter among the group. ‘Qbert wins’ flashed across the screen nevertheless, announcing his victory over everyone.
“This is so unfair.” Sunwoo groaned. “How are you two so naturally good at this game?”
“You’re just bad at it.” (y/n) answered.
“Makes us look good in comparison.” Changmin added on.
The rest of the game, (y/n) found herself clinging to Changmin, keeping to their plan of attempting to act as natural as possible–as if they hadn’t expended most of their free time mastering the art of Gang Beasts for revenge upon Sunwoo. Most of their attacks were made together, something which even surprised themselves as they had only ever practiced fighting each other, never working together. Yet it came naturally, and almost too easy to the point that rather than coming to them, everyone would run away.
Her sides were sore from laughing, her cheeks ached with how wide her smile was, yet she wouldn’t have traded this sensation for anything else in the world. The undeniable gratification which comes with playing with her friends, though also the fond happiness which came with being with Changmin specifically. It was beyond strange, a sensation she never experienced with the others. This innate favoritism, a bias not imbibed with hostility towards the others, that she’d rather he be alongside her than anyone else, though just this comforting relief which derived from being with him alone.
“Okay, that’s our last round.” Kevin huffed tiredly, leaning back in his seat with his eyes shut. They all closed out of their game, beginning their wrap up with their viewers.
“Are we supposed to still do the truth or dare session if we don’t have the others?” Jinyoung asked, having read a string of comments in his stream regarding suggestions they can take.
“I don’t see why not.” Quinn responded. “Do you guys have any quarrels with that?”
“I’m fine with it.” Sunwoo chimed in, leaning closer to his desk. After everyone confirmed their participation, Jinyoung chose to start it off.
“Sunwoo, truth or dare?”
“Dare.” He answered almost instantly, winking to his camera confidently.
“Give your phone number out right now.” His expression faltered as the group began laughing and provoking him in unison. He sat there, actually considering it, deliberating the positives and negatives of giving out his number on a stream that not only has thousands of viewers watching at that very moment, but was also being recorded for his channel archive for future viewers to see. Eventually, his conscience came to the rescue.
“Alright, what’s my penalty for not doing it?” Kevin and Byounggon booed disappointedly, instigating their viewers to raid Sunwoo’s chat with more boo’s.
“I’m sending my address to you, buy me a meal.” Jinyoung already had his phone out, texting Sunwoo who unwillingly agreed to the punishment.
“Quinn, truth or dare?” Sunwoo went on.
“Truth. I don’t trust you just yet.”
“Fair enough.” Sunwoo snorted. He thought to himself for a moment, eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he tapped at his chin. “What’s one thing in your browser history you’d be embarrassed for others to find out?” A chorus of ‘ooh’s followed his question, Quinn humorously pulling out her phone with a smile, knowing she never looked up anything embarrassing.
“Cantankerous definition… Serendipitous definition… Was King Arthur a real guy?... Insectile definition… Song that goes nanana… song that goes na na na… song that goes nana nana na.” The rest of her search history fell upon deaf ears as the group began cracking up once more.
“Did you ever actually find the song you were looking for?” Kevin asked, chuckles still bubbling out of him as Quinn put her phone away sadly.
“No.”
Quinn dared Kevin to like every post of the first account he saw on Instagram. It wound up being Sunwoo, who gloated that Kevin was his biggest fan as Kevin liked posts from up to 2017. Kevin dared Byounggon to call a random number given to him by one of the group and flirt with them. Changmin texted his sister’s number for him, though Byounggon was met with instant rejection upon his first statement, “did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”
“Alright, Changmin, since you’ve successfully broken my heart by giving me your sister’s number, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Who’s the best looking person here?”
“Why’d you give him such an easy question?” Sunwoo asked, running his hand through his hair with a smile on his face.
“Yeah, we literally have a professional model in the chat.” Kevin noted, referring to Jinyoung who was busy laughing at Sunwoo’s offended expression at being ignored.
“I choose (y/n).” Changmin answered, to which Sunwoo let out a shocked scoff at being rejected once more–by a faceless person choosing another faceless person nonetheless. “I like Pacman, and her blue chicken character.”
“Thank you, I try my best.” (y/n) quickly chimed in, all in a futile hope to mask how flustered she had become at his response.
Just as Kevin had said, they have a model in the chat, and as Sunwoo pointed out, they have a good looking guy like himself present as well. They have Quinn, ever the beautiful influencer she is. Even Byounggon and Kevin, as annoyingly stupid as they are, were objectively handsome. And she was just herself. Though faceless, she knew the person behind the screen was someone dull, incomparable to the vibrancy of the others surrounding her.
Everyone held these expectations of what she would look like. She saw the fanart made of her, deriving from the brief descriptions she’d release about her features; although they were exaggerated in art form, taking on this Aphrodisian appearance, this paragon of beauty that she just was not nor ever would be. It was terrifying, knowing your existence is nothing but a disappointment to those who saw you as something else entirely–someone else entirely. She could never be those images that were dedicated to her. She could never be her friends and what they were. She was just herself, forever and always.
And even knowing Changmin’s words were most likely for the gag of this whole bit, choosing the only other faceless person in the whole chat as the best looking of the bunch, it still warmed her heart some. It still comforted her, knowing he had chosen her over anyone else. Perhaps it was only because of the sense of validation which came with his words. Maybe it was because it was him specifically who said it. She didn’t know, nor did she necessarily want to dwell on it.
What she did know was that at this occurrence, her heart had stuttered. Her stomach fluttered as her name left his mouth. Her eyes had widened, staring at the blank box which denoted his presence, as if magically she could see him. She wanted to. She wanted to see if there was any sense of truth in his eyes, if his words were genuine and dedicated to her. Though it seemed as if she was the only one who dwelled upon this urge as the game continued on with a short bout of laughter.
“(y/n), truth or dare.” Changmin asked.
“Dare.” She choked on her words for a second, still reeling over the influx of emotional confusion seconds prior, though luckily it was undetectable to others. She gulped, attempting to quell the anxious lump in her throat as Changmin hummed in thought.
“Do your best stand up comedian impression. And don’t stop until someone smiles.”
“Oh, we’re going to be here all night then.” She sighed, already earning a snort from Byounggon who immediately cleared his throat and went back to a stoic expression.
“If we’re going to do this, I’m video calling Changmin. I don’t trust him to tell us the truth.” Sunwoo announced, pulling out his phone and calling the man in question. (y/n) stared at his screen, hearing the dials ring through his microphone for a brief moment before they stopped, signaling the call’s acceptance. Sunwoo leant back, phone in hand as he nodded. “Proceed.”
(y/n) was momentarily astonished.
That right there in Sunwoo’s hand was Changmin’s face.
The thought had her head spinning for a second, countless scenarios and possibilities of maybe one day being in Sunwoo’s shoes. Of looking down at her phone and seeing Changmin’s face greeting her. But for now, she could only hope. She could only watch Sunwoo’s screen in what she regrettably identified as envy from herself. A yearning for something unattainable. Their identities were precious. And as close as she felt with Changmin, it was not reciprocated. It couldn’t be. It was near unnatural how close she felt with the boy in such a short duration of time, of course he wasn’t going to instantly trust her with seeing his face.
Huffing the thoughts away, expelling such negativity before it could directly influence her, she sat up in her chair, channeling every fiber of humor that could possibly exist in her, because she needed virtually anything to help her surpass this trial.
"Why aren't koalas considered bears?"
"They're marsupials, aren't they?" Kevin responded, momentarily forgetting the intention of the question and completely ruining the punch line she had prepared.
"They don't meet the fucking koalifications, Kevin."
A snort was heard among the group, one that was doubled through her headphones, a tell-tale sign of who exactly wound up laughing at the conundrum of her bit.
"Seriously? You found that funny?" Sunwoo chuckled in disbelief, staring at his phone where a giggling Changmin resided, freely laughing now as it was revealed he had already lost.
She imagined his smile to be bright. A wide, boisterous grin that crinkled his eyes. Charming in every sense of the word, mesmerizing as she fell deeper and deeper into his joyous trance. It was something that inevitably had her laughing with, needing a moment as they both crumbled into heaps of giggles.
Once she had calmed, she was able to quickly throw some nonsense truth to Jinyoung, asking what streamer he'd date and almost instantly responding with Chanhee.
"It'd be like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but it's just him trying to kill me. I don't care enough."
(y/n) studied her chat, everyone seemingly enjoying this entire session, the combo of people involved, and the concluding truth or dare game. A subtle snicker left her as she saw ‘#chanyoung’ beginning to make its rounds through the stream, already imagining the outrage from Chanhee when he wakes up tomorrow morning. The others were beginning to say their goodbyes, momentarily pulling her away from her viewers to also bid the group goodbye. Slowly but surely, everyone trickled out of the voice channel, leaving to spend the next few minutes rightfully wrapping up their respective streams. At some point, she thought she was alone, about to start speaking until a voice startled her.
“Hi.”
“Changmin?” She asked, glancing over and seeing their avatars as the only two left in the discord. “What are you still doing here?”
“What are you still doing here?”
“I was about to leave.”
“Before telling the fans of our genius plan?”
A smile slowly etched its ways onto her face, an amused hum chiming through his mic as well.
“Are we actually going to come clean?”
“Why not? We accomplished our goal, Sunwoo isn’t here, I don’t see the harm in announcing how we played Sunwoo by secretly practicing Gang Beasts this entire week.”
The chat erupted in a sudden flood of capitalized remarks, all astounded by their cunning, secretive tactics that wound up working at the end of it all. Changmin began explaining the whole situation, from Sunwoo’s hubris shining through to how every night they would play together in hopes of besting Sunwoo’s skills.
“And I couldn’t have done it without my trusty partner in crime, (y/n).” Her cheeks warmed as a soft grin replaced her otherwise wide, toothy smile. That fond aura of Changmin’s shining through once more, this cloying feeling building up inside her with every word he spoke.
“Please, it was your idea from the get. I would’ve just accepted defeat at the beginning of the week.”
“So would I have. Do you really think I’d willingly spend all my free time through the week with any of these idiots to beat another idiot for no reason other than spite?” They both broke out into a fit of laughs, momentarily forgetting where they were and who was currently listening. That is until they heard the familiar chime of someone entering their discord call.
“Hel–” Changmin began before abruptly getting cut off.
“What’s going on in here, huh?” Sunwoo asked, faux annoyance riddling his tone as he questioned the two. “What are you talking about? Anything suspicious? Anything I should know about?” Changmin and her were quiet for a moment more, most likely weighing in their options of either directly telling him, or letting him find out the whole truth later on on his own.
The second option sounded very appealing.
“No.” She stated, quickly clicking the hang up button and leaving the call before he could interrogate her more. Changmin left immediately afterwards, bringing one last giggle from her before she returned to her stream. “Yes, I admit, Changmin and I did practice in secrecy to kill Sunwoo as many times as we pleased. But everyone here should gaslight him into thinking he just sucks, okay?”
Comments flooded, for the most part agreeing to follow her bidding. Though the other portion of comments were directed towards her and Changmin. Many laughed at their extra, unnecessary efforts to play a silly little game. Some requested they stream their one on one games so the fans could watch, too. Others were giggling at the irony of the two faceless ones somehow ending up being cohorts in the grand scheme of things. The positivity reached her heart, warming and quelling those thoughts she once had when first streaming with the new guys, reassuring her that she’s still herself; her simple self loved by so many of her fans.
“Thanks guys.” She mumbled, pressing her cheek in the palm of her propped hand. “I appreciate you all to the ends of the world, you know that? Thanks for watching us be stupid for a few hours. We’ll come back very soon with more content. So, until next time! Bye!”
♘ (a/n): school is being kind to me, so im trying to write as much as i can before it picks up again jskjfs
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