Two pairs of eyes locked onto one another; their gazes are intense and unyielding amid the heavy atmosphere of the room. One pair of eyes came from behind glasses that belonged to a youthful boy with dry skin in contrast to the sweaty body of his opponent.
Since the previous turns, both of the contestants have still been frozen on their seats like sculptures, refusing to move even the tip of their fingers. It's like both of them are playing "who moves first loses" with their lives on the line.
But no human could stay like that forever. And I really mean human, especially in a competition like this chess tournament.
.
.
Tik-tok...tik. Tik, the timer continues counting down on the boy's side, with no stop and no waiting.
But the boy still has not moved.
and his face does not even show any sign of hurry.
But with only 17 seconds on his side, what's the he going to do? . . .
.
.
.
" if you are going to stay there and do nothing i- "
The boy moved, before an Oppoents could really end what he said.
He points his left hand forward on the chessboard, aiming toward one piece in the middle.
While an eye never left the opponent's stressed face.
As he's about to reach it—"Ah!?"
Unexpectedly for the opponent, The boy suddenly pulled his hand back, hestination? unsured?
Instead of choosing another piece, he casually flicked away the ant that was crawling on his white collar.
" ah..."
The opponent flinched—just for a moment—at the boy's strange actions.
"Haha...you're scaring me, to be honest. "
He let out a dry laugh. While trying to adjust composured back from a previous movement.
he blends forward, flicking both his wrists slowly but casually.
Then, ended with the gaze back at the boy, staring at him intensely. staring like he wants the boy to feel pressured or shocked. Make the boy feel like he's confident.
Even then his true feelings are still visible through an eyes.
In opposited way,
The boy didn't seem to care about what the opponent tried to do or adjust. As his focus pouring over the chessboard in front.
It's makesense because the game has come close to an end. And any move could meant an end on either side. But before reaching that point, the boy has to figure out where he was standing.
He look closely..
Black and white chess pieces lay scattered, remnants of a long and exhausting battle. Only a handful of pieces remained on each side—each carrying just enough weight to tip the balance, yet not enough to guarantee anybody victory.
To an outside observer, it was a draw.
If both sides decide to settle, it won't be surprising.
.
.
The boy moved again,
And this time he stopped playing around.
The boy's picking up the bishop on the white square and moving it forward. 3 square inches in diagonal.
Once the boy placed it down on that squared, an Oppoent heart race.
It's his turn now.
the Opponent started scanning over the chess. Looking for the piece he could move.
But there was one voiced suddenly distracted him from a deep thought.
"What are you trying to move...?"
The boy tilts his glasses with two fingers, covering up half of his face and hiding his true expression underneath.
In return, the opponent gazed briefly upon the boy's mockery comments but tried to paid no attention, and quickly turned focus back on the game.
.
.
After the third analysis, with time running close to its end,
the opponent finally saw it.
A gap that small, familiar. The kind of pattern he had seen countless times before.
an If he pushed through that square… everything would settle him for the win.
He let out a quiet breath, shoulders loosening just a little.
He reached for the piece with Confident and Certainly
The only pattern that experience player like him know.
.
.
But little did he know the boy also saw it clearly.
Even though nothing before his eyes had changed, something unseen began to take shape.
The black rooks pulsed.
From them, a dense, circling force spiraled outward—heat without flame, pressure without weight. He could feel it rather than see it, like standing near the campfire, which could never burn your skin. And the lines appeared.
They spilled across the board, stretching from square to square. Some were barely there, faint, transparent, and uncertain—tracing paths that might be taken, possibilities that lingered on the edge of thought before dissolving.
Others were different... Sharper and brighter. These lines cleanly draw above the broad, anchoring themselves onto specific squares with certainty.
They did not waver. They did not question.
They simply were.
Between the ghostly threads and the solid paths, the board was no longer a game. It was a map of intent. The boy could not explain why he saw it or felt it this way. It's simply just there every time he plays the chess.
So he's guessing it's the natural talent.
Check if the opponent is really moving his pieces in that direction, following a bold line.
Once that he stopped, that black rook stayed right on the square.
The boy had been staring at. Even though he had been checkmated in this position and there was little he could do to change anything... Is it really nothing he could do?
"Huh!?"
"How!?"
All referees stood up from their chairs with an unbelievable look.
As everything has completely shift.
Just a second ago, that black rook proved itself to be dominant on the chessboard.
But after the boy moves a queen from her hidden spot to the end of the board. It immediately trapped the opponent king inside.
and brought the game to an end
The referees fixed over both players; all of them were left speechless after the unexpected. especially to the opponent who still stared down the chessboard.
While the boy starts stretching himself in relaxation.
A slow, sinking realization settled in.
There was nothing he could have done.
The outcome had been there from the beginning.
His fingers curled slightly against the table.
Across from him, the boy met his gaze.
casually, not caring But underneath it Something hidden, not arrogance. Not quite.
But a subtle, unsettling hint like he knew everything… all along.
...
Shiguma slipped his golden medal out from his neck and put it inside his tattered trouser pocket. He barely knew that the ribbon attached to the medal was dangling out of his damaged pocket.
As his leg was completely numb.
After an hour of sitting still on the chairs, unmoving to the point that his nerves seem to be shutting themselves off.
Until Shiguma started moving again—
And once he did, a sharp pain ran up from foot to torso like a burning torch.
In such a flash of pain, it makes him think about waiting, waiting until the pain is gone and his legs return to normal, but he can't and has to keep walking forward.
Not that he actually wants to.
But because his friends are waiting for him.
"You made it on time."
Once Shiguma arrived over the school backyard, Tae was waving at him with a friendly gesture and happy smiles like usual.
Who is he? Shiguma knew him the best.
Tae is one of the two Shiguma closest friends that knew Shiguma since he was just 8 or 9 years old. They studied at the same school and shared several similar interests...
Tae was one of the smartest students in the class, smart to the point that he always won every mathematical tournament he ever joined, and every "best student of the year" award from the past till now has been granted to him.
Everyone remembers him as "the genius of the school."
For Shiguma, what makes Tae very memorable is not because he's a "genius" but because of his natural scent that is sweet like an expensive perfume or cooked potatoes mixed with lavender. This scent persists even though he didn't shower for a week.
Shiguma really likes his friend's smell; that's why he always likes to stand very close.
even now.
"A little close again, are ya?"
Tae slaps Shiguma's shoulder lightly with a soft laugh that sounds like a gentleman.
Aren't you taking a shower today? sweet smell so strong."
Shiguma bantered back with soft tapping on both Tae's shoulders; he could feel his friend's warm skin through the clothes, running into his heart and filling the air around.
"Of course, howdy, chess king."
As he's seen, it's getting fun. Kawin burst into the circle, excitement washing over his face.
Shiguma and Tae both turn to his friend; smiles fade slightly but are never gone.
Who's he?
Kawi, another one of Shiguma's friends, looks like Shiguma but is shorter and...sleepy, even now. Both Shiguma and Tae knew Kawi slept very late. They tried to warn his friend that such behavior could lead him to "fail in the class."
Kawi really took advice and agreed, "Oh well, one day...one day I will do it for my health."
And he failed the class because he never did that....
He cares only about the game he played, not the class? the lesson? the future career? Throw it out of the window.
Despite his lazy behavior, nerds like Shiguma and Tae still choose him to be friends...the reason is "he's fun to play with."
game, he's the best.
But for conversation...well, probably not....
.
Tae rolls his eyes at Kawi after he hears about "chess," which subjected instantly flowed into his mind.
His brain naturally processes a sentence in just a second; it's just so fast that he isn't even finished blinking.
and the word already came out.
"I'd figure out that you lost against that professional chess player...right?"
Shiguma instantly raised an eyebrow over Tae's underestimated assumption.
He's prepared to respond back, but
Pause.
Nothing came out; even a second already passed.
Only the air sound responded back to them.
The next second after, both of his friends started to feel suspense over Shiguma's actions.
And that's when the silence eventually breaks:
"I won."
Just a single word, erasing all sound around them.
Like nature wanting them to hear it very clearly.
As everything Tae and Kawi heard in their ears was Shiguma's answer echoing repeatedly.
"What, really!? You did!?"
"You barely practice...how did you win?? Natural talent??"
"To be honest it's hard to explai—"
Tae screamed out in a joyful voice before he came forward and shook the soul out of Shiguma's body.
"You're going to be very rich, I am sure...but why haven't you gone and applied for the province league yet?"
At the end of the sentence,
Shiguma joyful smile suddenly fades away. replaced with dead eye and dormant expression.
But inside himself, the chest felt tight, like it was being gripped by a strong hand.
Tae whom observed from the outside, he too could feel some change,
But he thought it might be something else.
just maybe.
" And you can finally leave this sucky place."
Tae turned to Shiguma after finished all the sentences with eyes full of determination to solve a puzzle of what is hidden inside Shiguma.
He was so sure that he could get the answer. right now...
.
It's making Shiguma's heart closing off harder.
"Well..."
Shiguma looked up to the sky,
he saw Humongous white clouds.
Its traveling past his head in the sky with a shape like A flying ship from fantasy book he read.
Shiguma sighed so loud, like he needed them to hear what was stuck inside his mind.
But it never reached.
"Why are you saying this village was bad? This is our home after all. "
Shiguma is asking the different subjects, deeply hoping his friend will forget about the previous conversation.
"I am surprised...you don't know." Tae raised an eyebrow with an unexpected expression.
"Even the idiots like Kawi also knew."
"Who the fuck are you calling idiot—"
Tae pushed Kawi's face away from the scene before returning to Shiguma with serious eyes.
Such a look was turning the warm atmosphere down...
To the point, Shiguma could feel slight coldness while standing in the middle of the sunlight.
"Listen closely."
.
In the last 5 months, there a strange phenomenon occur, a thing unexplained by any logic.
Such as the sudden disappearance of a villager's cat, dog, buffallo, cow, with no corpse and not even spoor of where it go.
Reported by a villager who encountered a phenomenon after they got back to their home from work. They discovered numerous dead people lying inside. shocking them to their ass.
But when the police arrived, all of the corpses just disappeared, like they never existed in the first place. For the cause, at first the police thought that the villager must be hallucinating from the tiredness.
Until it starts to happen to another villager and happens with the exact same details.
That's not all.
The newly transferred village headman was found dead inside his residence.
They found several nails inside his bloody vomit.
Police reported the heart attack from intestinal bleeding as the cause.
But they could never answer why he swallowed the nails in the first place.
.
"All this is just very clear: something bad is about to happen!!!!"
Tae's tone got stronger and stronger in each sentence, anger leaking out like heavy rain pouring over both Kawi and Shiguma.
Especially Shiguma, he felt like he was getting washed over by hot lava instead of the rain. burned not only his dry skin but also his mind.
"Even then...all of the adults are just...ignorant."
Tae breathed in heavily before he fully turned to look at Shiguma with a calmer look.
"Annoying, right?"
For a minute everything seemed to tone down; even an air returned to its warmth.
"Well...That sounds heavy..." Shiguma replied, "but it also feels like fantasy to me."
"Nah uh...it's all real, Shiguma!!! You must have seen the fear in those villagers!!
"I'll think about it—" Shiguma breathes in deeply, calming his mind to not go mad with a furious tone with Tae.
He closed his eye—
"Huh!?"
Suddenly, everything around Shiguma went silent, only ringing echoing inside an ear.
When he opened his eyes, he could not feel his friend's presence even though they were still in front of him.
Could not feel even a warmth of the sunlight that was touching the arm.
And at that moment, his sense accepted one thing.
A cold air pierces through like an invisible blade, sharp and tingling, crawling into his nerves.
Shiguma breathes heavily.
Something dangerous is lurking in an area.
He rolls an eye around them; he could see the wall of the school, no. An empty garden, no.
"I feel like someone is watching us."
Shiguma warns his friend while he's breaking a sweat from a creepy feeling that is still lingering in his nerves.
"Well, it's probably bird Haha...…"
"I don't feel good here."
"Ok, let's get some drink then; I am very thirsty." Tae slaps lightly at his own neck. "There's more story to be told, Shiguma!"
Still expressing with the friendly face, Tae slapped Kawi's shoulder and dragged him out of the area while Shiguma still stood with a feeling that started to tone down.
He looked around again, hoping to find something that his sense was screaming at, but the result was...the same.
So he leaves.
.
.
The banana trees that stand in the middle of other trees, which were planted in a long line, like a fence. Look normal, nothing particular.
Above it,
There's nothing beside the bright sky and white on the background...
But
If you look closely, there's a pair of eyes floating above the leaves. Small and white pupils hidden within the reflection of the sky.
Once the area became empty, the true anatomy began to materialize.
slowly painted over the blue sky.
Long grey hair stretches long and messy like a cobweb.
The entire body looks like the life force has been drained out, leaving only loose skin covering a movable skeleton.
It rots and smells like piles of thousands of dead bodies.
Not even a bird dared to come close.
What's more disturbing is his sight.
It's never left Shiguma.
even though the boy had already left an area.