Chapter 27
As soon as we went up to the second floor, the atmosphere felt completely different.
Much quieter and more serious than the noisy, restless grade-school kids on the first floor.
Adults, middle and high school students, and, on rare occasions, older elementary schoolers were all looking intently at the chessboards.
When we went up to the second floor, they briefly broke focus and looked our way.
The director introduced us.
“These are two friends who will be joining the intermediate class starting today. Please get along with them. Student Yua-yeon and Student Arin.”
“Hello! I'm Yua-yeon! Nice to meet you!”
I bowed deeply.
Arin copied me and bowed deeply too.
“P-please take good care of us...”
Giiii—
Everyone in the intermediate and advanced classes came out to stare at Arin and me.
About forty pairs of eyes.
All of those eyes were focused on us.
Gulp.
The moment I was hit by all those gazes, my mouth dried out before I knew it.
Two little girls. Slightly out of place for a place like this.
In my head, of course, I knew we'd be the center of attention.
But my body reacted as if it wasn't obvious at all.
Thump-thump.
My heart pounded, and my mouth went dry.
My amygdala was reacting.
Even while I knew this was a safe situation, the moment so many eyes focused on me, my unconscious reacted first.
If I were standing alone on a lecture stage to prove the Riemann Hypothesis, I'd react several times more strongly than this.
'Let's get used to it. Starting now.'
I consciously exhaled, hoo-hoo.
A breathing method I'd relied on whenever I felt nervous ever since my past life.
With a mindset of not avoiding the gaze, but naturally accepting it.
Practicing speaking and moving even while feeling anxious.
While I was thinking that,
a middle school boy walked up and knelt down to meet my eyes.
“Nice to meet you. How old are you?”
“I-I'm five, and my little sister is three.”
A brief silence.
Then, all at once, the reactions burst out.
“What, five? Three?”
“Really?”
“That's amazing.”
A high school girl came up to me and said,
“That's amazing... My little brother is seven, and he still plays with Huchuping dolls. To be learning a headache-inducing game like chess at an even younger age than that, and in the intermediate class too.”
I placed a hand on my hip and puffed out my chest at the praise.
“Heheh. My sister and I are pretty smart, you know!”
The high school girl burst out laughing.
“Aww, cute. Starting today, this place is going to be worth coming to.”
Swish.
Then she took a Peroro chocolate out of her pocket.
“This big sister is giving you a gift because I want to be friends with Yua-yeon. Here, take it.”
“Eek... Is it really okay for me to take this?”
“Of course. I have plenty.”
As she reached into her pocket and pulled them out, a whole pile of golden candies appeared.
So the rumor that Korean high school girls keep all kinds of snacks stashed in their pockets... it was true after all.
I wouldn't need to become a high school girl twelve years from now just to prove that proposition myself.
“Arin, was it? Here, you take one too.”
“Heeek... Th-thank you...”
Arin fidgeted and accepted the Peroro politely with both hands.
Stare...
Arin and I looked at Dad while holding our chocolates.
In case he might not give us permission.
“Heh-heh-heh. Mom isn't here, so it's fine. Eat up.”
“Yay-! Then I'll eat it happily!”
I peeled off the gold wrapper right away.
My mouth was still too small to fit the whole piece in at once.
First I bit off half with an aaam, then popped the rest into my mouth.
Nom.
Munch-munch.
The chocolate rolling around on my tongue was sweet and nutty.
“Mmmnumm-mummm.”
“Nyum-nyum... heheh.”
The moment the chocolate's sugar touched my tongue, my brain started pumping out dopamine and endorphins in an explosive rush.
As a result, the stress hormone cortisol decreased, and my racing heartbeat gradually settled down.
Arin seemed to have relaxed a lot too after eating something sweet.
“How is it? Hehe, it's tasty, right? It's my favorite snack.”
The high school girl who gave us the chocolate said with a bright smile,
“Heheh. Yes! It's super tasty!”
“Thank you... unni...”
“My name is Seo Eun-chae. Let's get along.”
Eun-chae unni held out her hand. We took her hand.
“Yes, Eun-chae unni!”
“M-me too...”
After the greetings were over, Arin quietly looked around her.
Most of them were seriously playing while looking at the boards.
I could feel Arin's shoulders relaxing a little.
Unlike a kids' café, there weren't any kids suddenly shouting or running around here.
'That's a relief. Seems like she likes it.'
✒️✒️✒️
Several days passed.
Arin and I gradually settled into the chess club.
Our win rate against the intermediate class was about fifty-fifty.
Our skill level was exactly about average for the intermediate class.
As expected of the director, who had taught so many students, he seemed to have judged our level perfectly.
And there were occasional days when advanced-class students would play training games against intermediate-class students, but our win rate against the advanced class was truly miserable.
We could barely win two or three times out of twenty.
Even if I twisted the position into knots, the high-rated players seemed to actually enjoy twisted positions even more.
'Come to think of it, Dad never seemed to mind making the position complicated when we played either.'
In particular, Eun-chae unni was the biggest shock—once she sat down at a chessboard, she was a total wrecking machine.
She was completely different from the friendly smile she had when she handed out chocolate on the first day.
Her skill seemed even stronger than Dad's.
I heard she'd been at it for more than ten years?
“Uuugh... Eun-chae unni, that's too much.”
“Aaaah! Sorry, sorry. Should I handicap myself by taking a rook off next time for our cute Yua-yeon's self-esteem?”
“...Hmph! Don't tease me!”
Seo Eun-chae grinned and teased me.
She was quite a mischievous person.
✒️✒️✒️
About two weeks after I started coming to the club.
The director said,
“Yua-yeon, aren't you improving too fast?”
“Really?”
“You're doing better than when you first came. The depth of your positional reading is completely different.”
Awkwardly,
I scratched my head in embarrassment.
“Heheh. I worked hard to beat the older kids in the advanced class.”
“Take it slow. They've been playing for years.”
A middle school girl in the intermediate class said from beside me,
“Yua-yeon is seriously weird. In a good way. Does it even make sense for a five-year-old to play positional chess?”
“Positional chess is fun. Twisting things around is more fun, though.”
“See? That's exactly what's weird about it.”
A middle school boy beside her jumped in.
“But Arin is no joke either. Her tactics are insane. I thought I was winning last time, but then she hit me with a surprise tactic and took my queen.”
Arin lowered her head slightly at that.
“Th-thank you...”
Arin bowed her head and replied in a tiny voice.
But I noticed it.
Arin's ears were a little red, and the corners of her mouth were lifting...!
“Heheh...”
'Heh. So Arin's finally gotten a taste of it too—the flavor of praise!'
Maybe because she inherited Mom's genes, getting praised made you feel all giddy, like you could practically fly.
Arin seemed to have inherited that sort of personality strongly too.
Pat-pat.
I patted Arin's embarrassed little head.
✒️✒️✒️
After two weeks at the chess club, a noticeable change appeared in Arin.
At first she had been a kid who would clutch my hand tightly just from entering the club.
Before long, she started opening the door and going in ahead of me.
Jingle-jingle.
“H-hello-.”
Having more familiar faces around and interacting more often, she was gradually losing her tension.
Predictable people.
People who followed the rules, waited their turn, and communicated logically.
As Teacher Park Ji-su had said, this was a fitting environment for Arin, whose development was far ahead of her peers.
“Arin, want to play with me today?”
When a boy in the intermediate class spoke to her, Arin nodded.
“Yes, I'll play.”
Watching that, I thought to myself,
'It's going well.'
Fortunately, the urgent fire of Arin's social development seemed to have been put out.
✒️✒️✒️
One day.
Mom called out to me while she was sitting on the sofa reading an academic journal.
“Yua-yeon, I need to talk to you for a moment.”
“Hm?”
Trot-trot-trot.
I closed my book and ran over to Mom.
Mom showed me a promotional poster on her phone.
“What do you think about Yua-yeon participating in this?”
“An oratory contest?”
It was a poster for an oratory contest.
“Yeah. It's a contest where you stand in front of a large audience and speak clearly and loudly on a given topic. Your current goal is to overcome stage fright and regain your lecturing instincts, right? I thought this contest would be the most helpful.”
I thought about it for a moment.
'An oratory contest.'
It was an unexpected direction.
I had even forgotten that something like that existed in the first place.
I ran a simulation in my head.
A place with several hundred people gathered.
Yua-yeon standing alone on a podium.
Yua-yeon speaking clearly and loudly.
The audience applauding her and praising her speech.
— Aaaah, mic test, mic test! Hello, I'm Yua-yeon! Today's topic is blah blah, this and that, yadda yadda!
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-!
“Heehee.”
Just imagining it was delightful.
“Yua-yeon, you're drooling.”
“Ah-.”
Sluurp.
Anyway.
Setting aside whether the topic was appropriate or not.
For stage fright, an oratory contest was a pretty good opportunity.
“Mom, that's an amazing idea, isn't it? Okay. I'll do it.”
“Really? Then let's look into it together.”
Mom opened her laptop.