Chapter 15 — No One Wants to Lose

The semi-finals of the regional inter-school tournament took place at the district gymnasium, this time with a smaller scale but a much more tense atmosphere - only the eight strongest teams in the region remained, competing in a knockout format, with the losing team stopping the game immediately.

"Our opponent today is Le Quy Don school," Mr. Hung announced when the team gathered before the match, his voice serious. "Their squad is strong in all four positions, with no obvious weaknesses to exploit. They need to play to the best of their ability and not be subjective."

Lam Khe knows that means she will have a rematch with Khanh Linh, the opponent she drew with in the previous group stage. A familiar feeling of nervousness crept into my heart, but this time, it no longer had the color of fear like before, but was more like an eager anticipation of a challenge.

"Are you ready?" Nam Phong asked as they sat next to each other waiting for the match, his hand accidentally touched her hand as a reassuring gesture.

"I think so," Lam Khe replied, smiling, feeling the warmth from that gentle touch spread throughout her body, dispelling some of the remaining tension.

The rematch with Khanh Linh took place with much more tension than the previous time. Both had carefully studied the opponent's playing style from the previous game, making this game a real battle of wits, with each move carefully considered.

Lam Khe applied a new strategy that she and Nam Phong had been preparing for the past two weeks — a less common opening variation to bring Khanh Linh out of her familiar preparation zone. That strategy was clearly effective, as Khanh Linh had to spend more time thinking right from the first moves, gradually being pressured by time as the game entered the complicated mid-game phase.

At move thirty-five, when Khanh Linh's clock had only a few minutes left while Lam Khe still had plenty of time, Lam Khe saw a decisive opportunity - a combined attack between queen, rook and bishop could create checkmate within four moves.

Her hands no longer shook when performing that series of moves, a steady confidence had completely replaced the fear that had dominated her heart for many years. Three moves later, the checkmate position was completed, ending the game with Lam Khe's convincing victory.

"You played excellently," Khanh Linh said as she shook her hand after the game, her voice sincere even if somewhat regretful. "Last time I thought I understood your playing style, but today you are completely different, much stronger."

"Thank you," Lam Khe replied, feeling genuine pride spread in his heart, not the familiar relief of a safe draw, but the complete joy of a victory won through effort and careful preparation.

The final result of the semi-finals, Trung Vuong's team won three out of four matches, officially entering the regional finals that will take place a month later. That news spread quickly throughout the school, making the Chess Club suddenly become the center of attention, something that had never happened in many years.

"We really have a chance to win the regional championship," Nam Phong told the team during a small celebration at a familiar tea shop near the school, his voice still filled with excitement. "If we win the final, not only will the club be kept, but we can also receive additional investment funds for next year."

The whole team was delighted at that prospect, but Mr. Hung, although also happy, still maintained the necessary alertness. "Don't let this victory make you subjective," he reminded. "Our team will face Nguyen Du school in the finals, a strong team that has won the regional championship two years in a row. We need to prepare more thoroughly than ever."

In the weeks that followed, the team's training intensity increased significantly, with a dense practice schedule almost every day of the week. Lam Khe, although sometimes feeling exhausted from having to balance classwork and chess practice, still maintains a spirit of optimism and high determination.

One evening, after late practice, when Lam Khe was preparing to leave, her phone vibrated with a text message from her mother, who was away from home on business all week: "Your father seems a bit tired today, please take care of him for me." Lam Khe read that message, a bit of worry flashed through her heart, but she thought maybe it was just because her father had been working hard recently, there was nothing to worry about.

Coming home, she saw her father sitting in the living room with an unusually pensive expression, distant eyes looking out the window, holding an old phone that he rarely used.

"Are you okay, Dad?" Lam Khe asked, a bit worried by that unusual expression.

"Dad's fine," he replied, but his voice was somewhat forced, not entirely convincing. "Just something at work today, nothing to worry about."

Lam Khe looked at his father for a while, sensing something was wrong but did not want to ask further, afraid of embarrassing him. She went up to her room, but a vague feeling of insecurity still lingered in her heart, like a small cloud quietly appearing on the horizon, signaling that a storm might be silently forming behind, even though no one in the family had yet fully realized its severity.

That night, she texted Nam Phong about today's practice session, about the progress in tactics preparing for the final, but she did not mention the feeling of insecurity she had just experienced when she saw her father, partly because she was not sure whether it was something to worry about or not, partly because she did not want to disturb the team's general happiness with an unknown worry.

Before turning off the light, she replayed the conversation with her father in her mind, trying to find any details she had missed. She remembered the way he held his old phone, an old push-button phone that she once told him to keep "because he was familiar with it", but rarely saw him actually use it in daily activities. She remembered that distant look in his eyes, completely different from his usual calm look. Maybe she was just thinking too much, she reassured herself - her father's small business had been under a lot of pressure lately, so it was understandable that he was tired and pensive.

But there was a small corner in her heart, a corner that had been used to checking for any unusual signs for the past six years, that still wasn't completely reassuring. She remembered that in the past, before everything broke out, her father also had the same contemplative evenings, and also kept secret phone calls that no one in the family knew about, until it all unfolded into an irreversible event.

She shook her head, trying to dispel those negative thoughts. Her father has changed and has been stable for six years now, there is no reason for her to suspect without concrete evidence. Maybe she was just letting an old obsession creep back in, exaggerating a completely normal thing into something scarier than it really was.

She put the phone down on the table, looked at the old wooden chessboard next to the bed, the faint moonlight from the window shone on the chess pieces standing silently in the dark. The two kings, white and black, were still standing opposite each other in the middle of the chessboard as always, still in the same positions from the last game she played herself a few days ago, neither of them had yet achieved a complete victory. She told herself that tomorrow she would find an opportunity to directly ask her father what was going on, instead of letting worry silently gnaw at her mind like she had done in the past. That is also a lesson she learned from Nam Phong and from her own chess journey — facing the problem directly, instead of avoiding it, is always the right path, even if it is a bit scarier.

But sleepiness came before she could fulfill that self-promise, and Lam Khe fell asleep with a vague feeling of insecurity still lingering somewhere in her subconscious, not knowing that in just a few weeks, that feeling of insecurity would become a real storm, threatening to sweep away everything she had worked hard to build over the past few months - both on the chessboard and in her own heart.

Outside the window, the city is still awake, distant lights flickering like lost stars in the night, completely indifferent to the small upheavals silently brewing in a small house, where a young girl has just learned to trust herself, and a father is still struggling alone with the ghosts of the past that he has never really told anyone.