"And in this position, Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov sacrifices… THE ROOK!"
"The rook!" Behind a small stall in a crowded market district in Jakarta, a boy suddenly howled, dropping the phone in his hand to the ground. "Oh! Oh! Oh! My phone! No! Don't die!" The boy wailed pitifully as the phone turned blank after hitting the ground.
"Here is your order, Miss. Please, come again." The other boy, who was standing on the stall, smiled while serving the food to the customer, trying his best to ignore his idiot boyfriend behind him. He was also embarrassed when the customer, a beautiful woman in her early thirties, giggled amusedly at his friend. Inwardly, the boy even cursed at his best friend once again for not caring about his image. 'What the hell, Gas! A beautiful woman is laughing at you! Where is your fucking dignity?!' He roared inside his heart.
Unfortunately, he couldn't vent out his complaint right now, as this was pretty much rush hour in the street. All of the workers from the nearby buildings came out one by one, either to buy lunch or even to stretch their legs after a long day. This was also the time when the boy was busiest, as many people visited the stall to buy something from it.
Of course, the boy also couldn't chase away his best friend. After all, this stall itself was owned by his best friend's father. It sold various food items related to chicken, such as chicken wings, fried chicken, and even some snacks that went viral quite a long time ago, including crispy chicken skins. The stall was quite successful, and his best friend's father was kind enough to let him work here.
"Hey, hey, Sheva, why are you looking at me like that?" The boy behind him who was playing with his phone suddenly said, glancing mischievously at him. "Do you envy me for being able to sit relaxedly when you have to work?" He just rolled his eyes in exasperation, not even having the necessary strength to refute that.
Yeah, his name was Sheva. To be more exact, it was Adrian Sheva, for a famous Ukrainian footballer in the past, whose name was Andrey Shevchenko. It seemed his late father was a huge football fan and hoped that he would become a good footballer too. Unfortunately, fate was cruel. He didn't have any talent in sports, and sometimes, he was even bullied for his weak appearance. Fortunately, he had already graduated from high school, so he didn't have to worry about this kind of school drama in the future.
He was already 18 years old, and this year, he was accepted to be a student at Universitas Indonesia, one of the best universities in the country. Yeah, even though he was weak in sports, in terms of studying, the boy was confident that he was among the best. Hell, he was even about to major in mathematics, the biggest nightmare for all high school students outside.
Unfortunately, before he could register his name and pay for tuition, the pandemic tragedy called Covid-19 suddenly attacked every inch of the world, and his family was, unfortunately, unable to escape from it. His late father, a journalist, died at the first wave of the pandemic, reporting the actual horrifying situation in the hospital. As for his mother, while she was still alive, she was laid off from her former job due to the company's bankruptcy, and now, she had to be satisfied with selling traditional snacks in the market as her current job.
That was why Sheva, being decisive as he always was, didn't even hesitate to pull out his name from the system, knowing that his mother wouldn't be able to pay even a quarter of the total tuition. So, yeah, in the end, here he was, working in a street food vendor that his best friend's father owned to help the family's tight financial situation.
As for his best friend, the name was Septian Bagaskara, or Sheva would usually call him Bagas. Unlike Sheva, who had a tan skin and thin body, Bagas was a little bit chubby, with uncontrollable curly hair and somehow a pale, white skin that made him look like a vampire. Sheva and Bagas had been friends with each other since they entered high school, what with them both being weak in sports and always being isolated in the PE class.
The kind of solidarity from one bully victim to another was enough for Bagas to lend a hand when Sheva needed it most, offering him a job in his father's stall with a decent wage. Of course, it was far from enough to help Sheva get out of this pitiful situation, but at least, it was enough to relieve the pressure on his mother's shoulder.
"What are you watching by the way?" Sheva couldn't help but ask, glancing curiously at Bagas's phone. The rush hour was finally over, and Sheva finally had a time to take a breath.
"Oh, this is a YouTube channel that goes viral currently for its chess content, GothamChess," Bagas answered without even turning his eyes around.
"A… Chess?" The corner of Sheva's mouth twitched unconsciously, trying to make sure that his ears didn't deceive him. "Since when did you have any interest in something that could exhaust your brain?" He asked.
"Since a month ago, I guess." Bagas shrugged. "Oh, well, I couldn't help it. I mean, this guy has a funny personality, and even though it is chess, he has a knack for explaining so many complicated things into something simple and easy to understand even for a dunderhead like me."
"Really?" Sheva was taken aback. Then, he saw the number of viewers that the channel had in the video, and he couldn't help but feel impressed. "More than one million in one video? It seems this channel is quite strong here."
"I know, right?!" Bagas nodded, happy that his best friend agreed with his judgment. "I mean, I didn't expect that chess could be interesting!"
For that, Sheva just rolled his eyes in exasperation. He knew what kind of a boy Bagas was. He was always easy to get hooked on something, yet also always easy to get bored once he knew he wasn't good at it. In the past, Sheva had seen his best friend jumping from one field to another, trying to find something that could keep him engaged for a long time. Hell, there was a time when his best friend wanted to learn mathematics from him, bragging that he would become a world-renowned mathematician in the future. Well, that lasted only for one hour, before the boy finally gave up after having a headache learning about trigonometry.
So, yeah, even until now, the chubby boy still couldn't find anything that he was good at and interested in, so Sheva couldn't help but doubt that chess would be the lucky charm here.
Of course, he didn't say that out loud, not wanting to hurt his best friend's feelings. He spent the next few minutes listening to his best friend's rant about the trivial knowledge he had read about this sport in the last few days. In the end, though, he didn't expect Bagas to offer, "Do you want to play a game against me?"
Sheva had half of his mind to refuse the offer. After all, besides the fact that he still had to work, he himself didn't have any interest in chess. However, right as the words were about to escape his throat, the boy could hear something ringing inside his head.
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