❝𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗣𝗜𝗘𝗖𝗘 ━━ 𝗠.𝗬𝗚 & 𝗞.𝗧𝗛

05 | The Knight

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"Mr Kim, How about a game of chess?"

Yoongi realises how late it is only when Taehyung opens the door with his hair tossed all over. He looks younger now, with some youth and colour on his face.

"You were asleep." Yoongi notes,  "Sorry, I didn't check the time."

Taehyung chuckles, shaking his head, "Chess is a game of the clock, my friend...but there's no fixed time to play it."

Yoongi chuckles, "Rubbish!"

"Waking up a young man at midnight, do you expect poetry?"

Yoongi laughs, entering inside and closing the door behind him. Taehyung fetches something from a shelf before heading to the lawn. "Here you go. Listen to this song." He says, putting the CD in the player.

Yoongi is surprised to see there are people still owning a CD player.

"This was my mom's favourite song. She used to play it at every party and say...Tae, sing with me."

Yoongi doesn't recognise the song but he sees the peace it brings to Taehyung. "Mr Min... presenting..."

Yoongi sees him remove another box, which looks like a vintage casket, from the shelf.

"The Kim Taehyung Special."

Inside the casket, there are vodka shot glasses but then there's a twist— each of them has a chess piece stuck to its bottom.

"These pieces are used only at parties."

Yoongi raises an eyebrow, "So why today?"

"Because we're partying  today." Taehyung shrugs. "Today, you've become my friend."

Yoongi chuckles.

"Ask how?"

"How?"

Taehyung grins, "For the first time today... You didn't call beforehand. Just rang the doorbell. At midnight!"

Yoongi smiles, feeling comforted at the thought of having a friend.

"Now, the rules of this game. If your pawn dies, you take a shot from it!"

And with the clink of their glasses, the game commences. 

"Pick it up. Come on!"

And even after two hours, when they both are drunk and silly, Taehyung asks for another toast.

"Let's raise a toast to our friendship!" and they clink their glasses together again. Yoongi eyes the chessboard before saying, "Make your move, Mr Kim. Save your Knight."

Taehyung shakes his head, still silly grinning, "This is bad. This reminds me of a poem...There's no escaping the sleep. Then why, in worry, stay awake? So far from myself, I stand... What was it ahead?"

"I don't feel my own heartache."

"Aah! You knew this one!"

"My wife...Jiwon...she loved literature, did some reading for her..."

"Well then Mr Min, I'll work some magic..." he moves his knight two steps ahead. "To win back the queen of your heart and return her Knight in shining armour."

Yoongi brings his rook close to the King and grins, "Checkmate!"

"You're a quick learner. You won." Taehyung says, winking.

"No. You won." 

Taehyung raises an eyebrow. 

"This game was about drinking. Lose pawns, drink vodka! I only lost a couple. But your whole  army went down."

Taehyung laughs, "Now you know the Kim Taehyung Special. In this game...you win by losing."

...

"Yes?" 

It's a woman in her sixties that opens the door.

"Umm is this Jiwon's house?"

"Mr Kim?"

"Hi, Jiwon," Taehyung smiles.

"Please come inside," Jiwon's mother invites Taehyung. The younger one doesn't beat around the bush and comes straight to the point.

"We're doing a play my sister Nina wrote. Your daughter, Ari, was to play the pawn. I'm sure you remember."

Jiwon nods, eyes empty and trained to the floor. Jiwon's mother tears up when she sees the lack of response from her daughter.

Taehyung pauses before he continues, "I hear dancing is your passion...If you come and teach dance to the kids... it'll make Ari and Nina happy."

"I'm sorry. I can't." Jiwon replies, almost instantly.

Taehyung looks at her mother who keeps caressing Jiwon's back, "Jiwon, there's one more mother here who has lost her child. She is alive, but has stopped living."

Jiwon's mother sobs and then wipes her tears with the back of her hand. Jiwon looks up at Taehyung with big round eyes.

"What you and I have suffered... Do not inflict that on your mother. Don't kill her daughter."

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