"Hey, Shev! Have you done taking your breakfast? The hotel has sothing good on the nu today!"
"How are you doing, Shev? Don’t be too tense, okay? Even if you lose, your chance is still pretty much open!"
"Sheva, why are you so pale today? Have you not slept well? Co here, have sothing fresh! This will help turn on your brain!"
"Good luck today, Shev! I know you wouldn’t disappoint yourself!"
Sheva couldn’t help but have his mouth twitching madly. It was still early in the morning, yet sohow, everyone was making a fuss about him for nothing. Well... It wasn’t for nothing, per se. Sheva knew full well why their reaction was so exaggerated.
After Novendra did it in 2019, Sheva was going to be the next Indonesian player who would beco a grandmaster. Although it was a bit pitiful for the entire country to celebrate thislittle achievent, it showed how bad the environnt was back ho for chess to develop.
However, this reaction was indeed a little bit exaggerated. Hell, they were even more nervous than he was, and Claudia kept latching on to his sidesince he ca out of his room today. She might not want to admit it out loud, but the girl had already grown closer to Sheva, and she was afraid that he would fail everyone’s expectations.
"Don’t worry, Ia." Sheva patted her head fondly. "We will celebrate my title tonight. For now, just focus on your own ga first, okay? No need to overthink. The sa could be said for the rest of you guys! It is I who is going to fight for the title, so why is it you who are more nervous here?" He chuckled out loud, letting the others get embarrassed a little bit.
"You brat! Try to take it seriously!" dina sighed helplessly. However, a slight curl on the corner of her lips was enough to tell everyone that her nervousness started to ebb away. "You don’t know about this, but the higher-ups are following your journey intently. Let tell you that Mister Anies chatted with last night, asking if you are ready or not."
"Mister Anies?!" Sheva blinked his eyes in surprise, definitely not expecting this developnt.
Anies Baswedan was the Governor of Jakarta, the person who gave Sheva the house he currently lives in. He only t that man once, and honestly, the boy didn’t make any impression on him. After all, the eting was so short, and that happened in his exhausted period after landing back ho.
Still, Sheva couldn’t help but feel touched here. After all, the man genuinely asked about him through dina in such a crucial situation, so he should be following Sheva’s journey.
"I will thank him personally after today’s round is over." Sheva nodded solemnly.
"Not only him, but Old Man Wahyu and the others also show their concern." Bagas chid in. "You don’t know, Old Man Nabiel kept asking Sarah last night about your preparation, which really annoyed the hell out of !" He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Wait, how do you know that he kept calling her? And why are you so annoyed about that?" Sheva suddenly narrowed his eyes at Bagas. "Don’t tell ..." He trailed his words behind. However, the others figured out his implication and turned to the couple in disbelief.
"W—What are you talking about?!" Sarah stuttered, her face turned bright red. "We just edited the new video for our channels together! Nothing more and nothing less!" She tried to defend herself weakly.
"Editing video, huh... Sure..." dina said sarcastically.
"Anyway, what about you guys?" Bagas coughed a little, trying to change the topic imdiately. "Sheva is not the only one who is going to have a tough day, right?" His question forced them all to wake up, as, indeed, the other pairings were quite difficult.
Laysa, who won her ga yesterday and bounced back after the defeat in the second round, would have to face a strong Indian IM, Aditya Mittal. anwhile, dina’s luck was far worse, as the woman got paired against Amin Tabatabei, the fourth-seeded player of the tournant. As for the rest, their opponents were basically around 2300 to 2400, so while those were still pretty difficult, at least, they were quite confident that they could get sothing today.
"Don’t worry about us, we will be okay." dina grinned widely. "If anything, it is you who needs to be careful!" She narrowed her eyes dangerously at Bagas.
"?!" Bagas pointed his finger at himself with a dumbfounded face.
"Yes, you!" dina pointed her finger at Sheva’s chest to emphasize her point more. "You always let your emotions take over yourself, forgetting about everything else! But for today, you cannot do that, okay? Don’t let your carelessness ruin this historical mont for Sheva, or it will not just be who you have to answer to!"
Bagas gulped nervously, knowing that this was a woman whom he couldn’t offend.
"Don’t worry, Sister dina. I will keep her in line." Sarah smiled sweetly, which only made the boy squirm more. Seeing this, Sheva couldn’t help but chuckle, sohow feeling like his best friend was whipped completely.
He also appreciated the fact that no one tried to make a big deal about this situation. Well, the way they acted showed that this was a big deal, but they didn’t say anything to put pressure on him. All of them kept emphasizing that today was just like any other day, and they didn’t really treat it specially. However, because of that, Sheva knew that they were the ones who hoped for him to thrive the most here.
’With them being like this, losing is not really an option, right?’ He clenched his fist unconsciously.
"Don’t put pressure on yourself too much." Anna patted his hand gently, noticing that Sheva’s mind was starting to get distracted again. "Just know that no matter what happens today, we all have your back. Just don’t overthink about anything and go with all your might, okay? Don’t leave any regret for the future!"
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