CHAPTER 59: BAGAS’S GIRLFRIEND~!

They spent the rest of the journey in silence; only the noises of the humming vehicle engines from all over the place could be heard in the middle of this traffic. It wasn’t the ideal situation for a deep talk or thinking about something provocative. However, Sheva couldn’t care less. Right now, she was still quiet, his mind wandering about what Bagas had just talked to him about earlier.

’Making a strong narration to make the others support me, huh?’ He muttered inwardly. ’Man, Bagas sure has the strangest idea ever.’

Of course, he didn’t deny it immediately. After all, Sheva saw—or heard—about the benefit of good publication earlier, about how Anna got so many things from the local government out of nowhere. It would be a lie if he said he wasn’t jealous. However, this was not as easy as Bagas said, and Sheva knew it too.

This wasn’t just about chess anymore. Hell, if that was the case, Sheva would be happy. After all, he had a system inside his head, and being a top player was just a matter of time. It was the idea of him being in the spotlight that frightened the boy. He could still remember yesterday in Hanoi, when he was dragged by Bagas for an interview in front of a camera. The mere thought of having to do that every day...

"Hell, no! No way in hell I would turn my life into that kind of circus!" He shuddered at that thought. "Still... 100,000,000 rupiah... A car... It is too tempting to get ignored like that..." Yeah, right now, he was in the middle of a dilemma, not knowing where to step forward. Fortunately, Bagas quite understood his feelings right now, as the fat boy emphasized once again.

"Don’t worry too much about the future. You still have a long way to go. Just focus on improving your rating and maybe get a title or two, then we can talk about this again. You still have time, so enjoy every moment as long as you can..."

Honestly, if the last part didn’t sound like a threat, Sheva would believe it instantly. Still, he swallowed all of his discomfort, knowing that Bagas was right. He still had a lot of time, and he didn’t need to worry about this. After knowing that, it was like something was lifted off his shoulder, and his mood went back to normal once again.

They spent the next ten minutes navigating their way through the traffic and went straight to the chicken stall owned by Bagas’s father, where Sheva usually worked. Some sort of nostalgic feeling hit the boy hard as he saw the stall from a distance. It was strange, really, as he was absent only for a week. However, with the career change to be a professional chess player and with all that happened in Vietnam last week, it seemed like he was gone and hadn’t seen the place for years.

However, that thought disappeared instantly when he saw a long-haired girl with a deep blue dress and wearing jeans standing in front of the stall with a fuming look, as if she had been waiting there for a long time. Even though Sheva couldn’t see Bagas’s face from the back seat, he could imagine his best friend turning pale at the sight of that girl.

"YOU!" Right after the girl saw their arrival, her thunderous shout echoed straight inside their ears, showing her displeasure toward them both. "YOU!" It seemed that she was furious here, as the girl could only repeat the same thing over and over again.

"Hey, Beauty." Sheva greeted her back with a shaky smile, trying his best to ignore Bagas, who was cowering while excusing himself to park the bike. "Is the beast having one of his ’episodes’ again?" He could feel Bagas’s glare boring a hole in the back of his head.

"Yes, and you know that it is because of you!" She glared fiercely, enough to make Sheva wince. "I don’t know how you convince him to start the YouTube channel when I, his girlfriend, have been trying to do that for almost forever! You know how long it was? For—Fucking—EVER! I have been inviting him to come to my channel, and he always rejects me! Why would he do that for you?!"

Yeah, the girl in front of Sheva was Bagas’s girlfriend, a beauty named Sarah. She was basically the girl whom all the boys loved in the school, so it came as a shock to everyone when Bagas announced that they were dating. Hell, Sheva even thought that his best friend was fooled by the girl for his wealth or something like that, considering Bagas himself wasn’t the best-looking guy around.

However, after getting to know her, Sheva realized that Sarah wasn’t the gold-digger that he was thinking about. Hell, as a successful YouTuber whose gaming channel had more than 2 million subscribers, she could earn what he won in the Hanoi tournament on a daily basis. During her two years dating Bagas, she had also never asked for anything, always satisfied with whatever he gave to her. She was pretty humble and had a genuine feeling toward Bagas, and although no one knew what she saw in him, Sheva was happy that his best friend had a good girlfriend like her.

However, even if their relationship was wonderful, there was always one thing that Sarah was dissatisfied with, and that was the fact that he had always refused her invitation to go to her channel. Yeah, she wanted to introduce her boyfriend properly to her audience, yet every time the girl mentioned it, Bagas would always dodge the topic quickly.

At first, she thought it was because her boyfriend was shy, not wanting to be in the spotlight. However, after Sarah saw Bagas thriving in the ’Black Rook’ channel, she was fuming, ready to confront her boyfriend.

"Whoa, hold your horses and let me explain first, Girl." Bagas raised both hands up to show a sign of resignation while also trying to calm down his girlfriend. After seeing Sarah’s temper subdued a little—although she still huffed in annoyance—he sighed in relief before starting to explain. "While yes, I am sorry for not explaining to you about the ’Black Rook’ channel, I know that you are smart enough to realize the repercussions of you having someone like me as your boyfriend, right?"