Élan: A Youngblood World

1 | Evening In The Garden |

       THERE were only two choices: to be fooled and admit stupidity, or not to be fooled and show how stupid you really are.

       Had he not been of good sportsmanship, Kayne would have slit the smirk off the idiot's face, whose dark eyes mocked him behind a pair of eyeglass under the shadows cast by his raven hair.

       "Well?" Zakuro teased, as he had been doing since the beginning of playing chess. "It's an opportunity I'm offering: a queen for a queen. Take the shot? Or not?"

       The brunette was on the edge of his seat. His sky-blue eyes surveyed the pieces on the hollow green and white squares, scratching his cream chestnut locks. From the position of the wood-carved pieces, he could infer two possibilities. One, his contender may be planning on ridding their most powerful piece each to minimize their advantages to their lesser units, in which he counted three ranked units at his disposal while his opponent had five. Two, it was common to think that chess is a game of the mind; you do not just play the pieces, you play your opponent.

       And if one knows his foe too well, Kayne knew Zakuro was too cautious a player to pull a bluff. Kayne brought a pon forward, blocking the diagonal passage between the two confronting queens. 

       "Suit yourself." 

        The night was young. It had only been past a quarter hour since they started laying out the pieces of the game on one of the table stones. What felt like long due hours playing was a mere couple of minutes. The limited time counter while playing gave their duels a fast pace, and despite the seconds of thinking of strategies and constructing predictions from the countless probabilities of the game's turnabout, it was exactly that feature of chess that thrilled the two boys at most. 

       A match between thinking grounded on decisiveness, risk, confidence, and strength of mind, all determining your rate of winning. Kayne, on the other hand, may have only needed to think further beyond his choices.

       "Checkmate. I win again."

       It was a quick maneuver. A few moves no less than five. Zakuro held his hand out, which Kayne willingly shook in defeat. 

       "You could have taken my bid. It was an anticipated draw, after all."

       A draw. 

       Kayne clicked his tongue at the remark, stretching his arms. "So you meant to say it was never meant to give me leverage to chance a win?"

       Zakuro placed the pieces back in their box, careful not to miss out on one to put it back in the convenience cabinet. "Could be. Or you just gotta believe I'm unequaled."

       Kayne rolled his eyes. He had grown accustomed to this brat's arrogance, yet again, he could not deny a sense of truth in those words. The sooner someone accepts his vanity, the better for their sanity's sake. "Whatever, Nut Head."

       In the middle of the park, the glinting fountain put up a serene show, lit only by the miniature garden lamps hanging on the fieldstone walls that marked the boundary of the territory while others flanked along the edges of the marble pathways, lined along by a few ornate street lights splashing a wide range of white dazzle. The bright moon was in its full appearance, high above the clouded night sky sprinkled with the first few stars. Rings of flower beds in rainbow batches furnished the lawns. Lush shrubs snipped into small delicate trees budding the most endearing blossoms of roses, jasmine, bougainvillea, and such on the lime fields.

       The tranquility was disturbed by the sounds of two more of their companions already scuffling in the early pleasant evening. One grappled the other boy by the head, pulling him into a lock while drilling his knuckles into his captive's cobalt blue hair.