The smile that lingers on the corners of his mouth after which disappears is sort of a mist. It clouded his phrases in order that I couldn’t inform in the event that they have been true or false. Who’s ‘he’? It couldn’t presumably be him in heaven….

As I contemplated, I heard a well-recognized voice behind me.

“Simeon.”

A employees member I didn’t recognise came to visit and whispered a message to Simeon. I shortly realised it was time to go. In fact, Simeon was the one one with a objective, however there was no method she might wander round alone whereas being watched.

As I used to be taking within the sea for the final time, Simeon spoke in a delicate tone.

“You don’t should go in proper now, Shin Hajae-ssi.”

“Uh, actually?”

“Yeah. The employees can be watching you anyway.”

The place else are you able to be outdoors while you’re underneath surveillance. I nodded shortly earlier than altering my thoughts.

“I’ll try this, then.”

“Okay. Keep so long as you need.”

A chilly gust of wind blew previous me. I squeezed my eyes shut, and once I opened them, Simeon was proper in entrance of me. Simeon smoothed down my windswept hair and whispered soothingly.

“However should you’re going to run away, might you no less than inform me upfront?”

His smile, which had been frosty till now, appeared in some way wistful.

“As a result of I… don’t like folks disappearing and not using a phrase.”

I’ve been caught on a distant island for every week now. I’ve been sitting in entrance of the window all day, staring out on the ocean. The waves lapping on the cliffs and the water bathed in sundown colors make me really feel like I’m again in my outdated life. Again to the time once I was dwelling with Heo-sang. Again to the times after we laughed and talked with none worries.

Did I actually don’t have any worries?

Wanting again, it was rather more painful than it’s now. Each time I appeared into the space, I felt responsible considering that I must depart him sometime, however I pressured myself to smile as a result of I didn’t need the very last thing he would keep in mind about me to be depressed. I simply mistook it for happiness.

However reminiscences are at all times superbly packaged. Any ache or disappointment is glorified because the fever of youth. And so the true me turns into more and more sad. I turn into a silly individual, unable to flee the previous.

“…Now I’ve to dwell in actuality, not the previous….”

Haa…. The glass window the place the lengthy sigh touched turned cloudy. It was as if it was frosted.

I used to be hugging my knees and searching on the sea when somebody got here to my room. Answering the knock, I informed the individual to return in and the door opened. It was Simeon, wearing a crisp black shirt.

“Are you busy?”

“Not busy.”

How might I be busy on this room with nothing to do however watch the ocean?

“What can I do for you?”

I ask, rising from my seat to alter the topic, and Simeon complies.

“I used to be questioning should you’d prefer to play chess with me.”

“…What?”

I puzzled if I used to be suspected of spying. The truth that he requested me to play chess so casually, with the questioning as an afterthought, made me really feel uneasy. If he loses curiosity in me like this, I’m afraid I’ll be disposed of like a rat or a chicken.

i checked out him suspiciously and requested once more.

“Now?”

“Sure. Not one of the guild members know easy methods to play chess.”

“I don’t know both.”

“You lie.”

His tone was flat, as if he already knew the reply.

“I… Is it that apparent that I’m mendacity?”

“No, it isn’t. I used to be simply going over your head, and I respect your honesty.”

The good-looking face smiled, however solely barely. Simeon opened the door, and the bodyguard on the door got here in with a chessboard. He set the board down on the desk and deftly set the items. It didn’t appear to be one thing he’d executed a couple of times.

After the bodyguard left, Simeon walked over to the desk and bluntly requested.

”White?”

He pulled out a chair with a white chess piece on it, like he was escorting a girl. I didn’t prefer it, however I sat down within the chair he pulled out and glanced up.

“Are you giving up the participant to me?”

“Since you’re a visitor.”

White has a bonus over Black if he begins the sport first. So within the outdated days, I used to offer Heo-sang, a newbie, white each time and hold black myself. Now, seven years later, the positions are fully reversed, and it’s a brand new feeling.

I puzzled how a lot he had improved within the meantime. As I nervously performed my first transfer, Simeon gave me a small exclamation.

“D4. That’s a reasonably regular begin.”

“I’m not an excellent participant.”

We went backwards and forwards just a few occasions after that. It wasn’t me who wrote the sudden construct order, it was him. I believed he’d be aggressive proper off the bat, however he’s been patiently shifting the items round and squeezing my breath away. Like he was interrogating me for the primary time.

Thud. With the cheery sound of a chess piece being set down, he spoke up.

“I’ve lastly caught up with the stalker who’s been pestering our folks.”

“Oh….”

“He’s unconscious now, however when he wakes up, he’ll blow the whistle on every little thing.”

You assume I’m on the identical facet as the one that tailed me? If that’s the case, that’s even higher information.

“Nicely, that’s good.”

“What do you imply, that’s good?”

“As a result of now all that’s left to do is evident my identify. Like I mentioned, I used to be simply getting paid to take photos of you.”

With that, I moved my pawn and captured his knight. Simeon, reasonably happy to be disadvantaged of his first level, smiled and muttered.

“We’ll see about that.”

He’s a person I can’t fairly work out. For those who’re so suspicious, you shouldn’t be taking part in chess proper now, you need to be torturing, interrogating, or in any other case pressuring me for info.

Why the hell are you feeding me three meals a day and caring for me? Is it since you’re fascinated by my immortal physique, or as a result of I appear to be John?

I requested, quietly shifting my pawn to test his queen.

“Do you continue to doubt me?”

“Nonetheless?”

Anticipating me to maneuver my queen and escape, Simeon leisurely moved his rook to knock out my pawn.

”I by no means trusted anybody.”

The rating continues to be in my favour, however why does it really feel prefer to be dropping, nonetheless. The opening, which had began off at a gentle tempo, has him on the ropes.

“You got here into the alley then, didn’t you? Whilst I lower by way of the boundary.”

“I didn’t power it, I simply type of slipped by way of.”

I vented my frustration, however it didn’t make it any higher.

“That’s why I’m suspicious.”

“…What?”

“As a result of I put a situation on the settlement in order that nobody else might get in.”

The phrase “situation” despatched a shiver of foreboding down my backbone. Simeon paused, my stiff expression, then spoke.

“Solely those that know my face can enter.”

Rattling it. As I stiffened, Simeon moved his pawn precisely as I had executed and grabbed the knight, which, in his lengthy fingers, felt like me with a dummy.

“When did you see it?”

“”I, too… I don’t know. We will need to have ran into one another someplace.”

“You didn’t discover out about it whereas performing some background analysis on me?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“…Actually?”

“No. I imply, irrespective of how a lot I search, nothing about you comes up.”

I intentionally feigned frustration and stared at him with vast eyes. As normal, Simeon stared again, unfazed. The neurotic battle continued with no concessions. I’d take a pawn, he would do the identical, and if I pressured his queen, he would use it to strain my king.

Within the meantime, the rating had caught up and was lastly tied.

“Nicely, that’s nice, I’m not going to go someplace and inform them anyway.”

One other shut name averted. I swallowed onerous and felt the prickly coolness on my throat. It have to be my temper that makes the thorns really feel so sharp.

Simeon, quietly finding out the chessboard, made a wierd transfer. He moved the bishop guarding the queen to the facet. It was as if he was intentionally making method for his queen. So, together with his tasty queen in sight, I used to be unable to make a transfer.

I knew he wouldn’t make a rookie mistake, however I didn’t need to miss my golden alternative to seize the queen. In the long run, I hit the queen with my remaining rook. The rook in the midst of the enemy territory shortly turned pawn meals, however I used to be the one who benefited ultimately.

……. Or not? Simeon spoke up when he couldn’t make the subsequent transfer as a result of he was feeling uncomfortable.

“Do you settle for any requests?”

”So long as it’s not in opposition to the legislation.”

I moved a pawn to defend my king and added

“However after that picture request for you, I’ve determined to not do something involving folks once more.”

“Why?”

“As a result of I don’t need to undergo the identical state of affairs twice.”

Simeon chuckled at how ridiculous that sounded.

“That’s a disgrace, as a result of I used to be going to entrust you with the job.”

“….what?”

“I need to discover somebody who sorted me as soon as.”

With that, Simeon made one other bishop transfer to seize my pawn. The one knight defending the king was gone. I couldn’t afford to be distracted in such a important state of affairs. This wasn’t about chess, it was about my loss of life.

“Took care of… you?”

“Sure. He simply disappeared, leaving solely a letter, and I don’t know the place he went.”

“Oh…….”

“If yow will discover him, I promise to offer you something you need.”

I might hear the sincerity in his calm voice.