Follow me || Red Velvet & Seulrene

Chapter 25

"Pawn to D4."

The white figure obeyed Irene's instruction and moved two fields to the front.

"Now it is black's turn."

After Seulgi persuaded Irene to play, they had gathered in the center of the room and placed the chess figures to their start position.

They all had positioned themselves three meters apart from the plattform. Irene was standing next to their own queen, elegant and dominant like real royals.

After Irene's first move, the black pawn moved too. Right to the opposite of their own.

"He surely knows how to play..." Irene put her finger at her chin and narrowed her eyes. Seulgi was mesmerized by her view. She wouldn't even have been able to make this simple first move. She only thing she new about chess was the names of the figures.

"Knight to C3", Irene's voice echoed in the room. Again, the white knight followed the girl and moved to the said field.

Seulgi could see how their unnie struggled during the whole game. She didn't seemed to be confident at all, but out of the perspective of an ignorant person, the game didn't went bad for them.

Irene kicked a bishop, three pawns and one knight out, in contrast to this they lost both of their knights, on rook and two pawns.

It was again their turn.

"Queen to C4."

"How is the game doing?", Wendy asked after Irene's move. "I think good", the latter said and shrugged.

"Good!", Wendy gave her two thumbs up.

The game continued with no mercy. They lost two pawns in a row, just to kick the second bishop out.

Currently Irene was leaning against her own bishop and was thinking.

"Queen to B8", she intructed. Suddenly her eyes widened.

"Nonono!"

"What is?!", Seulgi got up and yelled too.

"Wrong move!", Irene screamed and pointed at the black rook.It was now approaching their queen and slowly pushed her to the side.

"Fuck!"

"We lost our queen...", Mina murmured and squinted her eyes. "Is this bad?", Seulgi hurriedly asked and fidgeted around with her hands.

"Yeah, this is bad", Irene said with a trembling voice.

"I told you I can't do this! I told you I would just loose!" Irene's voice cracked and she kneeled down to the floor, her face hiding in her hands.

They all ran to her and surrounded her.

"It is just our queen. We can still win."

"Yeah, Chae is right. We have both of their bishops. You said that is good, didn't you?", Wendy confirmed and patted Irene's back.

"How should we win with fricking two bishops and one rook? This is almost impossible!"

"Almost. It is still possible." Seulgi lowered herself down and tried to get the attention of the sobbing girl.

"If you don't try it, we will never see if it's impossible", Wendy spoke out.

"Yeah she is right. And try to forget you past for a moment and imagine this is your first game. I don't know anything in terms of chess, but you could maybe... analize you opponents strategy.", Seulgi continued.

"I am not as smart as Mina or Jisoo. Maybe they are able to do it, but do I look like I could remember an algorythm?"

"Yeah you do", now Mina raised her voice.

"Maybe you can't remember all the moves the other side does, but you can learn out of your and it's mistakes.
Look, I followed the game with my eyes too.  Funny that it's easy to kick out one of their pawns or bishops, but hard as hell to get a rook or a knight, right?

It's because of the algorythm that this Anold Priston or whoever invented. They don't pay attention to your pawns and bishops, the focus is just on the knights, rook and the queen. They want to kick them out to make it more difficult for you. Make this to your advantage and-."

"You mean I should play with my pawns? I should trick this algorythm by using completely the opposite strategy?"

"Exacly."

Irene's eyes widened. She surely got an idea.

"I think you helped her a lot!", Wendy smiled and patted Mina's back. She earned a glare. Yep, the old Irene AND Mina where back.

With more courage and confidence, they all returned to their positions. Seulgi, Chae and Wendy started to cheer for Irene. She gave them a little smile. Then the serious expression returned on her face. The game continued.

"Pawn to F6."

-

"Bishop to A6."

-

"Pawn to G5."

-

"Is it working?", Chae yelled after some moves.

"I don't exacly know. But if it's really like Mina said, I could try to distract the queen with my rook to get the king with my bishop..."

"Then do it", they all cheered.

Irene took a deep breath, then she narrowed her eyes again and fixed their rook.

"Rook to H8." They all followed the white figure's way to the corner of the platform. Irene was folding her hands in front of her chess, apparently praying that it would work.

Suddenly the others rook was moving too. Right to H8.

"Bishop to C6." The figure moved and stopped.

"Check."

They all followed the spectacle with a tensed up body. Where they about to win?

-

A few moments later, the rook moved again. A slight smile appeared on Irene's lips. She chuckled.

"Checkmate."

They all jumped up and ran towards Irene and enveloped her into a big embrace.

"You made it! Yes I told you that you would made it!!"

"Thank you guys for your support", Irene thanked them with a bright and happy smile. Seulgi's heart melted.

"Look guys, the door is open now!", Chae shouted and pointed at the other side of the hall. "Let's go!"

Seulgi ran to the beton wall with the others, curious about what it would revea. But just after roughly twenty meters, her mood changed. There wasn't another column of yellow stones.

"What the fuck", Irene whispered.

This was indeed very strange. In front of them was another huge hall. But not out of beton. Out of wood. But that wasn't all. The floor was covered by dusty ash.

"What has happened here?"