At the announcement of her name, Wheein took a deep breath and walked into the room. Stepping around the table set in the center, she bowed in front of the small audience and the journalist before sitting on one of two chairs. Today, she would be the black. A beat passed, and Wheein gently slid her hands down her thighs to rid her dress, black as her pieces, of its wrinkles and tugged on her mid-length sleeves. Then, she delicately laid her forearms on the table right behind the board, waiting in the perfect center of the table. Her tattoos were on display, except for a particular one on her upper arm. 

“Miss Kim Yongsun.” The announcer said loud and clear, and a woman with light brown, almost blonde hair walked in, a bubbly smile in place as she looked over at the audience, waving as she arrived by the table. She bowed deeply, her hair cascading down and covering her face from Wheein’s scrutiny. Then, Kim Yongsun turned towards her, and Wheein got up again to shake her opponent’s outstretched hand. 

“Jung Wheein,” Yongsun said with a voice that Wheein had always found melodious and captivating. She had listened to so many of her interviews that she could imagine her voice as clearly as she could hear it at that moment. 

“Kim Yongsun,” Wheein replied, grieving the loss of the warm skin against her own as Yongsun retracted her hand and sat down. “It’s an honor for me to play this match against you, Miss Kim.” 

Yongsun looked up at her from her seat behind the white pieces with a broad smile, her dimples attracting Wheein’s gaze like magnets. “Please, Wheein-ssi, call me Yongsun.”

Wheein bowed her head at her words and sat down. She didn’t really hear the arbiter speak, too busy watching Yongsun like a hawke. The young woman couldn’t believe she was sitting before the woman she had admired for so many years. Yongsun wasn’t that much older than her, but she had been the reference she had lived with since her first baby step into the chess world. Yongsun had won her first national tournament when Wheein had discovered her interest in the game, and the younger woman’s heart. 

Yongsun, young prodigy from Seoul, with her bright smile, joyful eyes, and ferocious strategy, could only capture Wheein’s heart. It had been close to ten years now that Wheein had followed her career like she would a rock star, both groupie and unknown rival, for Wheein felt like she knew everything of Yongsun’s life. Yongsun? She had only heard her name at the start of this competition. Wheein, a newbie to the professional chess world, had taken the tournament by storm, and she knew that Yongsun must have followed her ascent to the finals with the same astonishment as everyone else. At least, she hoped she did. O how she hoped to capture more than that and, through her idol’s defeat, win her respect, her graces, and maybe… well… let’s say Wheein wouldn’t say no to a date. But first, to win.

Yongsun opened with her white pawn in D4. 

Pretty standard so far, Wheein gauged, having so many of Yongsun’s games memorized down to how long it took her to play her turns. The older woman’s eyes traveled up from the board to study her opponent as she tapped the stopwatch beside her hand. “Your turn, Wheein-ssi.” She said in a perfectly controlled manner, her voice low and warm. Wheein avoided looking into Yongsun’s eyes, not wanting to be disarmed by her own fascination for the other woman, and her eyes briefly took in the tweed vest and blazer she was wearing, only letting peak out the collar of her white shirt and the top knot of her black tie. She looked so severe, and Wheein couldn’t help but find it incredibly attractive.

Still, she followed by moving her black pawn to D5, and the next few moves happened very quickly: Yongsun moved her pawn to E5, taken by Wheein’s black pawn, then attacked that pawn with a knight in C3, defended by Wheein’s knight moving to F6. 

Yongsun looked up at Wheein then, and the younger woman finally met her gaze. Maybe she shouldn’t have, as it felt like the older woman’s eyes were piercing through her, leafing through her life like an open book. Wheein’s gaze zeroed in on the very subtle uptick of her eyebrow, the one over her mole. 

Yongsun moved her white pawn to F3, which Wheein immediately took with her black one. But when the older woman took her pawn in F3 with her white queen, Wheein almost frowned at the unexpected decision that left her white pawn in D4 defenseless. Still, she didn’t let her surprise show as, much like her opponent, they kept the most neutral face they could, and took the pawn with her queen in D4.

In the short interval it took Yongsun to think about her next move, Wheein spent half of it admiring her intense brown eyes before she looked back down at the board. Wheein caught herself and berated herself; she shouldn’t let her attraction distract her.

Yongsun moved her bishop to E3 to threaten Wheein’s queen, but the younger woman moved her queen to B4, threatening Yong’s pawn and, most importantly, keeping her queen safe. Wheein tightened her jaw slightly, preventing herself from bouncing her leg as her eyes scanned the board, trying to remember what Yongsun usually did in those situations, trying to get a sense of what was to come. Yongsun’s eyes moved up to regard her, and Wheein found the absolute confidence there terribly disarming. This was a woman who whipped life into the shape she desired, yet Wheein couldn’t give up. 

Yongsun long-castled, moving her king to C1 and rook to D1, and Wheein replied quickly (maybe a bit too quickly), with her black bishop to G4 and, in doing so, threatening Yongsun’s queen and, if moved, her rook. 

Yongsun frowned, eyes scanning the board faster than before, and Wheein felt her heart beat a tad more erratically as she saw a crack in her rival’s façade. Yongsun moved her knight to B5 and tapped her stopwatch, interlacing her fingers in front of , elbows on the table. Wheein leaned back slightly at the surprising move. Yongsun looked uneasy, so Wheein decided to dive into that crack and took the white queen in F3 with her bishop. The piece felt heavy between her fingers, important, as she tapped on her stopwatch with a confident smirk. 

Wheein woke up with a start, almost falling off her chair for a second before grabbing her desk. She groaned, glancing at the clock. 

Midnight. 

Feeling slightly icky after sleeping randomly at her desk for an hour, she gulped half a water bottle and stretched. Her eyes fell on Yongsun’s season’s greetings she had just opened before falling asleep, more precisely on the picture of Yongsun holding the black queen piece between her fingers. A heavy sigh escaped her lips.  Why hadn’t she dreamed of Yongsun as a spy instead? 

Shaking her head to herself, she got up and dragged her feet to the kitchen. Cracking open a can of beer, she took another long gulp before sighing and leaning against her fridge. Her dream came back to mind, and she fleetingly wondered if her Yongsun knew how to play chess. She sat back at her desk and gazed at that picture again, wondering why she had woken up right as she was about to win, why her brain deprived her of what she had always craved from Yongsun in any circumstance: recognition, praise… she simply wanted to impress her, even if it was just in a dream. She wanted to see her intense eyes soften and widen slightly as the older woman regarded her with awe, so impressed she was left agape. 

Spurred by the momentum of her suspended turn in their dream game that still rang through her body, commanded her fingers, she called the older woman. The call connected almost instantly. 

“Wheein-ah?” Yongsun asked, sounding worried at being called at this hour. There was the soft rumble of an engine behind her voice. 

“You finished practicing, unnie?”

“Mmmh.” She acquiesced. “What’s up, Wheein-ah?”

“I was just wondering…” Wheeinie tried not to think about how absurd it was to hold this conversation at this hour. “I’ve been looking through your season’s greetings, and I wondered if you actually knew how to play chess.”

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” Yongsun replied cheekily, her smirk evident in her voice. Wheein bit her bottom lip, crossing her legs as her hold on the phone tightened slightly.

“Why the mystery, unnie?” Wheein’s entire body grew warm at the rich chuckle on the other end of the line. 

“Why the question? Do you want to teach me?”

“I would have invited you over for a game, yeah. If you need me to teach you, I’ll teach you, unnie.” Wheein said earnestly, on the edge of her seat as she waited for her answer with bated breath. She couldn’t grasp exactly what she was hoping from all this. It’s not like Yongsun, whom she had a crush on for over ten years now, would suddenly be attracted to her. But maybe, if she played her cards right, she could get a date as a winning prize. 

“When are you free, Wheein-ah?” Yongsun asked, her voice a bit lower, almost thrumming all the way to her phone, down Wheein’s arm to rest in the pit of her lower stomach, settling there. 

“Whenever you are, unnie.”

“Always so free for me, are you not, my Wheein-ah?”

Wheein was surprised by Yongsun’s playfulness but rolled with it nonetheless. It’s not like she wanted the older woman to stop anyway.

“Always, unnie, you know I will forever follow your lead.”

Yongsun hummed, and Wheein could pick up on the contentment coloring her voice even through the slight distortion of the phone.

“This Saturday evening.”

“My place.”

“Deal,” Yongsun said with finality before wishing the blonde a good night and hanging up. 

When Yongsun sat at the dining table where Wheein had set up the chess board, her attitude completely flipped. Suddenly, Wheein was faced with a much too confident smirk. When Yongsun had waltzed into her apartment wearing the exact same outfit from her season’s greetings, Wheein knew she was done for. But now she also had to face a Yongsun that looked a bit too much in her element. Feeling too underdressed for the occasion, Wheein hated herself for wearing her PJs. Now, what would Yongsun think?! She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and decided she wouldn’t let the older woman destabilize her. 

“So, Wheein-ah…” Yongsun said as she leaned back on her chair, one arm carelessly resting on the backrest, her tweed vest completely ed and hanging open. “Teach me.” She purred. PURRED. 

Wheein narrowed her eyes with a slight pout on her lips. “Unnie, you don’t look like you need to be taught, to be honest.”

“Aigo…” It was Yongsun’s turn to pout. But Wheein tried to ignore it, though it made her want to kiss the other woman senseless, and gestured to the board. “You’re the white ones. You begin.” 

Though Yongsun’s confidence was disconcerting, Wheein focused all her attention on the match. After all, her objective was to win the game so she could win the girl. But when the first three rounds were identical to the ones in her dream, her gaze snapped up to Yong, who was watching her with a secret little smile. 

“What are you looking at, baby ?” Yongsun asked with an almost arrogant tilt of her head. 

“The future loser,” Wheein replied, not letting any of her true feelings transpire. She would never hear the end of it if Yongsun knew she would gladly lose if she simply asked.

“Is that so, Wheein-ah?” Yongsun purred as she moved her pawn to F3, just like in her damn dream.

“I didn’t know you–” She was cut in her question as she felt the side of Yong’s foot slowly go up her calf. “What are you doing?!” She gritted through her teeth, frustrated that Yongsun would resort to these low yet effective tactics to distract her.

“Nothing,” Yongsun said as her smile slowly faded, her gaze growing more intense as she stared right into Wheein’s eyes. Wheein quickly averted hers, looking over at the board. 

She couldn’t quite figure out what game Yongsun was playing at the moment, but when she took her white pawn in F3 only for her own to be taken by Yongsun’s queen, Wheein knew the game was going the exact same way it had in her dream. She could taste victory at her fingertips and, with it, her date with Yongsun. She didn’t actually think Yongsun could be attracted to her in that way, and even now that her unnie had been single for over two years, Wheein had never dared try anything. But maybe, with a fake date from this victory, she could seduce Yongsun into desiring an actual date. 

Wheein took Yong’s pawn in D4, and eventually, every turn happened just like she knew they would until, triumphant, she held Yongsun’s queen in her hand. Yong had straightened up, her foot having left Wheein’s leg as she found herself in the same position as in Wheein’s dream: sitting with her fingers laced in front of , a slight frown of concentration on her face. 

However, Wheein’s heart plummeted in her chest as Yongsun straightened up, lowering her hands to reveal a victorious smirk. She didn’t spare a single glance at the board, her eyes locked on Wheein as she took her knight between assured fingers, swapping it with Wheein’s black pawn in C7.

“Checkmate.” Yongsun’s low voice rose in the silence of Wheein’s apartment. The younger woman stared at the board, eyes wide at her defeat. H-How?!

“How??” She repeated out loud. The corner of Yongsun’s mouth was raised in the beginning of a smirk, her lips sporting a compassionate pout until Wheein lowered her head with a sigh, her eyes stinging unexpectedly as her dreams faded with her loss. 

Yongsun got up, rolling the black king piece between her fingers before leaning down to match the younger woman, a hand on the table. She tilted Wheein’s head up with the chess piece and looked deeply into her eyes. “Why do you look so defeated, Wheein-ah?” She then whispered, and Wheein couldn’t look away. “It’s just a game.”

“I…” Wheein started but couldn’t finish, looking at her with a desperation that struck Yongsun deeply. It was like the younger woman was begging her to see. Her focus shifted as Wheein’s fingers curled around the queen piece, her hold so tight that her knuckles turned white. Yongsun put her hand over hers. 

“I think I deserve a prize,” Yongsun whispered as she leaned closer, her lips brushing Wheein’s ear. The younger woman swallowed thickly, Yongsun’s perfume enveloping her in this position. The sensuality of the moment put Wheein through a daze in which Yong’s intentions became unclear, no matter how forward she was being. It felt too good to be true. It felt like a dream.

“W-What do you want?” Wheein’s voice was barely audible. Curling the chess piece further in her palm, Yongsun gently grabbed Wheein’s chin. 

“You.”

“Me…?”

“And I, on a date?” Yongsun’s intense gaze softened as Wheein blushed, though looking at her in complete bewilderment.

“A date…? But I thought–”

“That is the problem, Wheein-ah,” Yongsun whispered, her fingers leaving the younger woman’s chin to gently brush a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“You think you’re winning, you think you know what I want…” She whispered with a gentle smile, sitting on Wheein’s lap, an arm casually wrapped around her shoulders. “You think you know it all, and you keep losing.” Yongsun kissed her cheek where her dimple usually is. “I think it’s time I handle this and make us both win.” Wheein couldn’t take her eyes off her, captivated, and nodded almost absentmindedly. 

Yongsun cupped Wheein’s cheek with her free hand, her thumb gently resting on her lower lip, heavily enough to tug it down a little. “May I?” 

Wheein nodded more fervently, and Yongsun pulled her in their first kiss as the younger woman wrapped her arms around her most valuable piece, around her queen.