Raine put the drinks down on the kitchen counter and went into an empty room to grab a blanket. He carried it to the still-sleeping Sora and carefully laid it over her.

She’s going to have a backache from hell tomorrow morning, he thought. He would have woken her up instead if he didn’t think there was a small chance she would want to keep playing chess. He grabbed his briefcase and his drink and switched off the lights. Then he left the suite and closed the door behind him. He tried opening it to make sure it was locked, which it was.

Then he took the elevator to the ground floor. While inside, he looked up and saw a security camera lens staring back at him. Well that’s good.

He got off and headed for the reception counter. After passing the receptionist his passport, he had to wait for a few minutes. In that time, he saw a few people exit an elevator and head for the front entrance. It was an odd group composed of a lean middle-aged man with a pack of cigarettes in his hand, two red-haired women wearing sunglasses, and a young man with a bald head and a cough mask.

Nice indoor sunglasses, ladies! The glare of the lobby’s lights is really intense, isn’t it? He felt like saying that, but he didn’t want to start a fight.

“Hey, nice sunglasses. This lobby has some pretty intense lights, doesn’t it?”

The group stopped. Raine felt his jaw slack. What the hell? Does he want to start a fight?

The sarcastic words came from a square-jawed Korean man in a black coat, sitting on a sofa with a briefcase on his lap. He got up and ambled over to the group with one hand in his pocket.

Raine stood there watching. He shot a glance at the receptionist, who was watching closely and had a hand on the phone.

“You must be a bright guy,” the Korean man said to the bald young man. “I mean, it’s obvious. How do you do it, brother? Do you use car wax on your head?”

“Ignore him. Let’s go,” the middle-aged man said loudly. The two women stared at the Korean man for a moment and followed reluctantly. The young man in the group stood where he was, staring at the Korean man and looking ready to swing a haymaker. “Hey. You too. Quit wasting time.”

The young man reluctantly followed, shaking his head in frustration.

“Going for a smoke?” the Korean man asked. He was following them out of the lobby. “I smoke as well. Can I borrow a lighter?”

Raine watched them leave through the automatic glass doors. The Korean man kept harassing them even as they walked out of view. Raine turned his head and met the gaze of the receptionist. They shared a half-disturbed, half-confused look that said “I have no idea what the hell just happened.”

“That was very weird,” Raine said, smiling wryly. “How often does that happen?”

“Not often at all, sir,” the receptionist said with a forced laugh. “Anyway, here is your keycard. Your room number is 2103 on the 21st floor.”

Isn’t that close to Sora’s suite? Raine took the keycard, thanked the receptionist, and took the elevator up. He wanted to crash in bed.

Walking to his room, he felt some anticipation. He knew it wasn’t going to be as ridiculous as Sora’s suite, but even a tiny room with a fraction of the luxuriousness would make him cheer.

He opened the door to Room 2103 and turned on the lights. “Yes. Yes!”

He threw his arms into the air in celebration. The room was twice the size of his own at home, with a queen-sized bed, a little kitchen, and a recliner in front of a flat screen TV. The last time he’d had a room even remotely as nice was when he’d interned at a hedge fund in college. And that room hadn’t had the beautiful view he now had of the city and lacked the incredibly comfortable recliner that Raine plopped onto as soon as he tossed his blazer onto the bed.

Raine sat there for a minute, looking out the massive window with his hands clasped behind his head. Then, as he was staring at the lights of L.A, he realized something. This room has to be at least $300 a night. Levin’s spending more on it than on my pay.

Levin had gotten him a room there for convenience, but he could have booked one at a cheaper hotel in downtown L.A. Raine could reach Beverly Hills in an hour by bus from there.

It didn’t really bother him, but he wished Levin had just paid him more instead of giving him such an expensive room. He sighed and got up. He headed to the bathroom to take a shower and brush his teeth. Then he turned off the lights and fell onto the bed.

. . . .

He woke up at 8:30 AM. He switched on the TV for some background noise and washed up. For breakfast, he had two snack bars from the little basket of sweets on the dining table. Then he made himself some instant coffee with one of the complementary packets on the kitchen counter. The coffee tasted far better than he’d expected. My god, fancy instant coffee exists.

With the TV still on, he changed into fresh clothes.

“Breaking news, two young women were found dead in an alley in Century City. Each suffered a gunshot to the head. Neither has been identified yet, and police say they believe the deaths to be murders, but have yet to release any further information—”

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Raine turned off the TV. He really didn’t need to hear about killings before his day even started, especially not while he was a rich girl’s bodyguard. 

There was still plenty of time until eleven, the time he’d agreed with Louise to start work that day. He grabbed his laptop from his briefcase and read some articles on Bloomberg. There wasn’t anything interesting. What am I going to do until eleven?

His phone vibrated, and Raine saw a message from Louise.

“Car key.”

Ah, that’s right. After responding, Raine threw on his blazer, left his room, and headed down the hallway to Sora’s suite. He knocked, and Louise opened the door immediately.

He passed her the key and told her where he parked the car. But before she could close the door, Sora cried from behind her, “Hold on! Could we have one more match?”

Can I pretend I didn’t hear that? He knew he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry Miss Sora, but not right now,” he said with an apologetic smile.

“I’ll buy you a meal downstairs—anything you want!” she said.

Too bad, I’m not a foodie. “Too b—” He immediately cut himself off. That was close. 

He cleared his throat and tried again. “I’m sorry, but I’ll still have to decline. I’ll see you again later today, Miss Sora. Good bye.”

She had a look of great disappointment on her face that he calmly ignored. He gave her a polite smile and headed back to his room, where he returned to his desk. He set an alarm to ring at 10:30 AM, and started Planet E.

He spent nearly two hours in Blue City, shooting, running, and being bored.

Then he received a message from Louise at 10:15 AM, on the dot.

“We’re at the tennis court on the third floor. Be here at eleven.”

Raine sent a reply and stretched. He closed Planet E and turned off his laptop.

Ten minutes from eleven, he left his room and went down to the third floor. He followed the signage to the tennis court, passing the swimming pool, the gym, and the game room.

The sun was shooting its rays of suffering down at the court. Or rather, courts. There were two. One was empty, and on the other, he saw Louise and Sora.

Louise looked exhausted. Utterly exhausted. She was leaning over her knees and panting. On the other side of the court, Sora was wiping off her sweat with a towel and had a smile of triumph on her face. She was obviously tired, but she didn’t look nearly as drained as Louise.

“Okay, I’m done. Done,” Louise said. She stumbled to the benches and chugged water from a plastic bottle.

“Thanks for the match,” Sora said.

Raine walked over and greeted them. The first thing Sora said wasn’t “Hi” or “Hello.”

“Mister Raine, do you play tennis?”

No. Even if I did, I wouldn’t play against you. “I don’t, Miss Sora. But are you still up for a chess match?”

He saw a competitive fire in her eyes. “Of course.”

I should just let her win this time, he thought. Sora and Louise got their things, and the three headed to Sora’s suite.

Raine waited in the living room, setting up the pieces, as they showered. He turned on the TV to play the radio. The first thing he heard was a pop song about vanity. He smiled wryly and changed to a different station.

He got up and went to the fridge to get a bottle of water for Sora. Inside, the soft drink he’d taken had been replaced, and there was a green glass bottle he hadn’t seen the previous night. Sake?

He shrugged and grabbed a bottle of water. He put it beside the chess board and sat in an armchair.

He heard the sound of a hair dryer from one of the rooms, and Sora soon came out of her room, dressed in a black blouse and jeans. Her long hair was still damp, and a towel hung from her neck.

“Do you mind if I turn off the TV?” she asked.

“Go ahead.”

Then she took a seat, and they started the match. She was white this time and made the first move. Raine moved a pawn. He put minimal thought into the game, only making sure he made legal moves.

A minute or two into the game, Sora noticed. “Please play seriously.” There was a hint of irritation in her voice.

Wow, she’s annoyed. What a proud person. It was a pain to give her just enough resistance to make his moves seem reasonable like he had before. So he did the easier thing. He won.

“Checkmate,” he said.

Sora leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath. “Another match?”

“Okay.” Fifteen minutes later, he checkmated her again.

She sighed in frustration. “You’re good.”

“I had a lot of practice in college.”

“You sure did a lot in college. What did you do, sleep four hours every night?”

“I managed to get seven most of the time. It’s your turn, by the way.”

“Who did you practice with to get so good? Were you in your university’s chess club?”

“I wasn’t. I just played against drunk friends.” He smiled wryly. “One is a professional player now.”

“Where did you go? Stanford?” she asked. She made her move.

“UCLA,” he said as he captured a knight.

“Urgh...”

Raine couldn’t tell if she made that sound because of his answer or because he took her knight. Maybe both?

Louise came out of her room then, carrying her backpack.

“Miss Sora, I’ll head off now. I’ll be back and take over from Raine at four o’clock. And Raine, I’m leaving the car key on the counter.”

Raine and Sora said goodbye to her, and after Louise left, Raine moved his queen and said, “Checkmate.”

“Goddamn,” Sora said, hitting her forehead with her palm.

Raine barely held back a burst of laughter. He decided to go a little easier on her so she wouldn’t get too frustrated.

“Did you play chess all day in college?”

“No, but like I said, I played a lot.” He took a second to think about whether he should say more about it.

She noticed. “And?”

“My friends and I played drinking games often.” He gave her an embarrassed smile. “Our favorite one involved chess. We called it Dead Liver Chess.”

Sora blinked. “What?”

“You take half a shot for every pawn you lose, and a full shot for every piece that’s not a pawn. You take two shots if you lose the match.”

“That sounds fun.”

“It was.”

Sora nodded. “Okay, let’s play it once Louise is back.”