NOVEL NEXT Chapter 314: After the Game
"Why are you crying like this, Ia?" Sheva sighed helplessly, trying to soothe the girl by rubbing her back gently. "Even Sister Medina and Sister Irene, who lost their game, are not that sad, so why are you so affected like this?"
The two older women who sat in front of them made a lot of rude hand gestures, enough to break the awkward silence with soft giggles and chuckles. Anna herself also smiled a little, but the girl was too busy reassuring her little sister to think about anything else right now. While her sister's reaction was a little bit exaggerated, Anna knew that Claudia was a sensitive girl and could often cry even over the smallest matter in the world.
"You—You don't understand!" Claudia said, still sobbing silently. "We had a good chance to force a draw, but I threw away my game! If only I could be a little bit stronger, maybe we wouldn't have to suffer from the loss!"
"I say…" This time, it was Laysa who spoke. "Are you not being too dramatic here? We also could've won the matchup earlier, and yet Sister Irene and Sister Medina threw that chance away, but you don't see them falling into depression like this, right?"
Both older women felt the corner of their mouths twitching unconsciously at the jab that was thrown at their gut. However, unlike Sheva's before, this time, they decided to stay quiet, not saying anything else. If they thought before that Sheva's jab was uncalled for since the boy himself didn't really play, Laysa was a different case.
The girl not only fought alongside them, but she also achieved the best result here, winning a tough matchup against Vaishali Rameshbabu. That alone was enough to make her untouchable, at least for the argument today.
"Also, don't be too sad." Sheva smiled mischievously. "You could be like the men's team, you know? Getting swept embarrassingly."
Bagas choked instantly when he heard that, while the others snapped their head straight away in Sheva's direction. All of them had a disbelief expression written on their face; never in their mind would they expect Sheva to mock the men's team so openly like that.
Indeed, compared to the women's team, who died standing tall, the men's team got humiliated pretty badly by Serbia. They got swept pretty clean, with none of them having a chance to fight back, even for a single move in their game.
Of course, this disappointed everyone, as the team itself didn't play that badly in this tournament. Hell, they even beat Romania, the team that, on paper, was stronger than Serbia. The only difference between the team that beat Romania and got swept against Serbia was Sheva's presence, so most people thought that this was the reason they lost the matchup.
Unfortunately, this infuriated Novendra more, who wanted to prove to himself that he was still the indispensable member of the team compared to Sheva, and that was why he was not here with the others for dinner. As for Master Susanto… Well, it seemed that with everything that had happened off the board, his mind also got tired, and the man needed to take a rest from everything. He was not young anymore, so it was understandable that the man would avoid going out with the youngsters often.
Only Taher and Arfan, who played for the team earlier, joined this dinner, and they could only smile wryly at the jab delivered by Sheva. Oh, they were not angry here. No, they played badly, and they didn't have the right to point their finger at anyone else. They were just being self-depreciative here, lamenting their bad luck today. Those two knew that their performance was affected by the conflict last night, yet that didn't excuse their result today.
"Stop being so insensitive like that!" Claudia slapped his chest a little bit too hard. However, by the small smile on her face, Sheva knew that her mood started to bounce back, and soon, the girl would be back to her usual self.
'Ah… The wonder of a teenage girl…' Sheva sighed. 'Their emotion come and go like a storm, enough to give everyone a headache…'
"Anyway, have you all seen our current rank?" Laysa suddenly asked, changing the topic of the conversation.
"No, I haven't, and I don't think I want to see that," Arfan answered with a tone laced with bitterness. Of course, Laysa ignored him completely. The girl picked up her phone immediately, opening the website on her browser. Sheva also did the same, feeling curious about the team's current situation. He still remembered his mission to get the country into the top 15th in the standings, and it would be bad if they were a bit too far from that spot.
"Still 48th, huh?" Sheva sighed in relief. It was pretty bad, but definitely not the worst-case scenario here. "At least, the gap is still quite tight, so the possibility of bouncing back is pretty open. However, I don't think that we can afford to lose again." He thought solemnly.
Meanwhile, Laysa and the ladies felt quite smug. Even though they had just been defeated, the women's team was still in the top 20 in the standings. To be more exact, they were in 14th place on the table, and with 4 wins and 1 loss, they had the same record as the other 9 countries in this event. It showed that the competition was still quite tight, but nevertheless, they were happy to be in their position right now.
"Well, at least, we are still at the top 20 as I bragged before." Laysa smiled, nudging Sheva's waist playfully. "How about your target? What? Top 15?"
Sheva could only smile wryly, knowing that Laysa had the right to brag here. Hell, he would do the same if the men's team were in a better situation. Unfortunately, right now, he could only swallow all the teasing silently while also hoping that the men's team would be able to bounce back later.
"Anyway, the pairing for the sixth round should be out already, right?" Sheva asked, ignoring Laysa's playful smile. "I wonder who would be our opponent tomorrow…"