Go me! Back again with yet another chappy, I'm truly amazed at my speed.
Many thanks to Dianne060807 for your lovely reviews. If you had an account on Fanfiction , I would most definitely reply to your reviews.
Lastly, I want to let you guys know that I know Nothing about Go, Absolutely Nothing. So you can all guess that whatever I write is just bullcrap, but I just want to make them seem like they know what they're doing..so yeah. But if you guys really mind the Go part then I suggest that you just ignore it.
Anyways, I want to thank you guys for all your support, please enjoy this chapter as well!
Chapter 3
Jung-shin flopped himself face-down on his bed and groaned loudly,"so hungryyy!" His mother had denied him dinner after he had passed his curfew by half an hour. Su-young's house wasn't exactly very close either. He was just lucky that he had been particularly good at soccer in Japan that he was fit enough to run all the way home. However, all that exercise didn't exactly help his stomach now, it protested every now and then. His mother was truly cruel, depriving a growing boy of food. But Jung-shin had a solution for that should the time ever came that he passed his curfew again.
Grinning to himself, Jung-shin got off the bed and locked his door before heading towards his bookshelf where Go books took up the top half and school books the bottom. He took a chair and stood on it after which he slowly started to remove some of the Go books on the highest shelf. There it was! His secret stash of snacks. Jung-shin retrieved a bag of chips and tore open the packet. If his mother didn't have the rule of 'no dinner if he passed his curfew', Jung-shin would never have thought of this.
With the bag of chips in his hand, Jung-shin got off his chair and sat at his desk. The laptop which lay unattended there finally came to use. A few months ago, he finally had an excuse to ask his father to get him one when the school introduced e-learning. Besides that, he could also use it for Go related stuff. Jung-shin logged onto the laptop and opened a tab for Netgo, a site he came across a few months ago. The site allowed him to play Go with players from all over the world over the internet, strong or weak, he got to experience players of different levels. If he was lucky, he got to play some pros from Japan, Korea or China, at least those were the common ones on Netgo. Especially since Go wasn't a particularly popular game in western countries. But some westerners did play Go, people like master on Netgo who were American.
Jung-shin logged onto his account and was immediately flooded with challenges. His Netgo handle was Sai. Initially, he had a hard time deciding what username to choose, one that wasn't old-fashioned or too dorky. But then nothing he came up with seemed to work….until he recalled Fujiwara no Sai. It wouldn't hurt to play as his past self, after all everything began from Sai. Sai was the one who desired the Hand of God from the beginning which then went on to Torajiro then himself.
Jung-shin was more than aware of the rumors going around about Netgo Saint Sai thanks to Su-young or he never would have known. Said boy was so enthusiastic about Sai that he couldn't stop talking about him for an hour. Usually after a game, his opponents would try to strike up a conversation with him seeing as he never stayed to talk. But they're questions were always the same. Either 'are you a pro?' or 'are you Japanese or Korean?' The second question was posed because he had a Japanese handle but was located in Korea. Jung-shin only replied to the second but his answers were also always similar. 'Guess', then he would leave the chat. Personally, Jung-shin wasn't fond of attention, but as long as he remained anonymous, he was certain that he could maintain this peaceful life.
Jung-shin accepted a challenge from Gomonster55, a 7 dan amateur level. As usual, his game was crowded with tons of viewers that even the server was full. They exchanged greetings and started the game. Jung-shin received black with the 5 komi advantage and started first.
Ten hands into the game, Jung-shin was totally absorbed by the game, enjoying it. His opponent wasn't bad and usually when Jung-shin enjoyed a game, he'd tend to drag it out longer. He played a hand at the top right corner of the board to build up more defence and for the next five hands, focused on that area while his opponent worked on capturing his other territories. Jung-shin was losing a few of his territory but was in no hurry to recover them, he focused on strengthening the defence of the more significant cluster of stones. By the time he was done, two-thirds of the board now belonged to Gomaster55.
Jung-shin released the mouse and stretched his fingers before grabbing the mouse again. The real game began at this moment. He placed a stone at the bottom right corner of the board where a small cluster of soldiers had been positioned there previously, securing the last gap. An eye had been formed, the opponent couldn't get make that area his anymore. Gomaster55 began to work on a smaller cluster of Jung-shin's stones in the north region but Jung-shin paid no heed to defend. He began to work on setting his trap, if there was anything he was good at, it was traps.
Twenty-five hands later, Jung-shin was looking at the board intensely. Almost there, his opponent was so close to his trap but had seemed to hesitate. Did he spot it? Jung-shin was anxious. Two seconds later, Gomaster55 stepped right into the trap made specially for him. "Yes!" Jung-shin pumped his fist and jumped out of his seat, his victory was secured. His opponent resigned within the next five minutes.
"Jung-shin!"just then, he heard his grandmother calling for him from downstairs.
"Coming Halmeoni!"(Grandmother)he called back and hurriedly logged off Netgo. He jumped out of his seat and made his way down. His grandmother usually didn't disturb him in the evenings knowing that he had homework to be done, what could she want? "Yes Halmeoni?" he asked when he reached his grandmother.
"Come here Jung-shin,"his grandmother beckoned him closer to where she stood near the dining table. Jung-shin saw food. Rice with kimchi and soup, his mouth watered. Although he wasn't really a big fan of kimchi, he didn't want to say anything to his grandmother who had saved some food for him. "Your mother is out with your father tonight, don't tell her okay? And try to come back on time in future."
"Yes Halmeoni!" Jung-shin exclaimed happily and dug into his food.
"Young master, dinner is ready," a maid called from the entrance of his room.
Yeong-ha didn't bother to look away from the screen of his laptop,"is Eomeoni home?"
"Yes sir," the maid said a frown. It was clear throughout the household that Yeong-ha and his mother didn't get along, so his next sentence was pretty much expected. They didn't have meals together nor spent any family time together. Yeong-ha's mother was a serious business woman who was also a sponsor for the Seoul Go Association. But despite being a sponsor, she didn't support Yeong-ha's decision to become a Go pro although she knew he was an exceptional talent at it. As a business woman, image and reputation was extremely crucial to her. And although being a Go professional wasn't exactly a disgraceful job, it wasn't sophisticated enough for her. The job which suited her son had to involve the highest education and upbringing just like a noble of the Heian era. They had to be above every 'commoner'.
"Bring my dinner here," he said focusing on the game before him. The game between Sai and Gomaster55. Yeong-ha had never personally played Sai before, preferring to study his skills further before issuing a challenge. He watched as Sai beat about the bush with his opponent and snorted. Yeong-ha didn't get the point in wasting time with people who weren't worth it. Sai was a formidable player but wasting his time like this would be his downfall. Yeong-ha had always believed that strong players got their strength from a goal which was most commonly the Hand of God and he believed that Sai was no different.
The game ended and Sai logged off, Yeong-ha did the same. The enigma that was Sai, he wanted to find out more about the Netgo Saint. Yeong-ha had study many of Shuusaku's kifu since young and Sai's Go had an uncanny resemblance, an avid fan of the historical figure perhaps? But the similarity was impossibly similar, like Shuusaku himself adapting to modern rules. He took note of Sai's online hours and noticed that it didn't match with that of a pro's, so Sai wasn't a pro that much was obvious. Was he a student? That didn't seem possible either. That kind of strength...the youngest age he could be was probably a middle aged man. But Yeong-ha hadn't had the chance to witness his full capability, he couldn't judge accurately yet. Yeong-ha leant back in his seat massaging his head. Hopefully things will become more clear when he finally played Sai himself.
Author's note:
Wheeww...finally done. Did you guys enjoy it? It seems that Yeong-ha isn't the perfect little boy whom we all know, he's got some family problems of his own. Hmmm...should I make the next chapter Yeong-ha and Hikaru's official meeting? Do let me know your votes, I'll pick the majority.^^
And I noticed that this chapter was significantly shorter, really sorry for that. But please stay tuned for more, I promise they'll be longer in future and don't forget to review! Ja mina!
