Stalemate.《Haylor AU》

Orange Toyota.

Harry's POV

"Check," I say after hitting the Chess clock slowly, ending my turn of moving my rook to g7

My opponent looks sweaty though in an airconditioned room; therefore he is nervous.

Move. Your. King. I advised him inside my head.

He's been given two chances when he did two illegal moves, we made a deal that if he doesn't move, he's out.

"Two more minutes for you," I tell him when I saw the time he has left.

The timer was set to fifteen minutes and he used thirteen of those minutes while I just used two.

Too easy.

I watch him gulp, his fiery ginger hair looks wetter than it should, his sweat clearly obvious.

He finally makes a move: his king to a8.

I rejoice slightly in my head, showing my visible smirk when I caught him staring, making him sweat more.

I move--queen to e8, "Checkmate." I say cooly, my muscles also felt a bit more relaxed after releasing the words.

Coward. He looked like he was about to cry.

The ginger raised his hand weakly to call an official who seemed to be ready to know that I won.

"He won," He pointed at me and the official started recording.

And you lost.

"Team A, Board 1, mhm..." He trailed off as he wrote down the results.

I smile proudly, looking at the opponent who was looking down.

"Okay. Styles won. Shake hands and fix the board." He said shortly and left.

I reached out my hand, the smile still on my face.

"Harry, Harry Styles. Been a good game, mate."

"Edward, Edward Sheeran. Rather have you call me Ed. I know my skills aren't good at all, I'm just a sub--"

"You're a substitute?" I question him with my offending tone, raising my eyebrow making myself look more offensive.

"Y-yeah," He stuttered, shaking my hand anyway.

We then fixed the board to its original position.

"Just remember, white always has the advantage," I put the last pawn, "never put it to shame." I give him my rare warm smile.

I never really gave my warm smile to anyone, even my team mates.

I walk out of the room and saw Coach Harrison, oir coach, with the rest of the team. He had a thumbs up in question if I won.

I gave a thumbs up back, smiling slightly but fading immediately.

I see my team of nerds cheer and attempt to bump chests with one another.

Didn't want to join them, so I walked to the parking lot instead.

Staying for the awarding wasn't really a thing I wanted to participate in and let my coach hand it to me during our next meeting.

But this time, there wasn't a next time.

Today we had our graduation and probably the start of the rest of our adulthood.

The team was just a team made within our university, and I was the senior in the team. Most of the people in my batch quit Chess on our second year, considering that they thought it was boring.

Pft, I thought to myself that year. I always thought they were sore losers and idiots who never learned how to win.

I get in my Toyota and buckle my seat right after shutting the door.

I pause for a while, thinking if I should probably apply for a job now.

I studied architecture, though I don't have any plans on having a proper job just yet.

You might think that my money and studying was just a waste after graduation. But you don't know that I was only offered for a scholarship because of my sport.

Originally, I had no plans of getting into college. I would only be content of being a chess coach or something like that.

That was until my parents had some financial problems after my high school.

Both of them divorced when I was just five or six, during my amateur tournament days.

I would always come home after practice to screaming or crying, and sometimes even silence that was making me nervous and killing me inside.

I was thankful for Gemma, my sister, for always cheering me up, and for always making me win when she would invite me for a couple of games.

That was until they did what they thought what was best.

I really hated them when they did that.

When I was a kid, I thought that adults can never separate once they promise to stay with each other forever.

I was mad at them through elementary, but that stopped when I was in eighth grade.

At fourth year high school, I realized that people really grow apart and leave, even if they don't want to, even if it's for the best.

From then on, I thought to myself that I will hate college, but that was very stupid.

I look at the diploma just right a the passenger's seat looking as meaningless to me as ever.

A girl could be sitting where my diploma is right now, but I never bothered looking for someone in college.

Yes, I'm as single as a singular noun.

I don't know how, but there might've been a couple of girls flirting with me. I can't count how many they are, but a dozen times four might help.

There were pretty ones, all of them are.

It sounds impossible for the university to have a female that's bad-looking. Well, that is for me, I guess.

I rejected all of them. They don't know me and neither do I.

Girls aren't a big part of my life, really.

But, there's this one girl that I would consider as my definition of a female.

Pretty? Probably now. Smart? Hell yes. Perfect? She was in every single way.

Sad part is, I never got to admit that she made me feel everything.

I sigh, inserting my keys and starting the engine.

I at least have this orange Toyota, I guess.

A/N:

HELLO!

I put the pic of the cover at the side bc idk if you guys see the cover???? Bc it doesn't appear when I check it so tell me if you see the book cover of Stalemate Or is it just my dp

OKAY I NEED TO STUDY FOR MY NAT TOMORROW SO BYE GUYS :(