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"I need to go to the bathroom," Levy says, all in one breath, holding his phone against his chest.
Tania gives him a look watching him stand up to his feet.
"Don't just leave," she protests, gesturing towards the crew. "Maybe he'll come back."
"Tania." Levy stares down at his screen, the notification that's there. He's in the bathroom. "He's not coming back."
"How do you know he's not coming back?"
Levy sighs. He turns the screen towards Tania. "I'm not misreading this, am I?"
"Hikaru Nakamura?!" Tania exclaims, snatching the phone off of Levy's hand. "Why is Hikaru Nakamura texting you?"
"I don't know, alright!" How many minutes has it been since Hikaru got up and left the stage too? Three? Five? "Apparently, he's found Firouzja."
Tania's gaze switch between Levy and the screen. "This is above our paygrade, right?"
Levy doesn't blink. "Absolutely."
A beat. Tania hands the phone back to Levy. Standing up from her seat, she fixes her dress and says, "I'm coming with you."
--
Levy carefully walks into the men's room, to stumble upon none other than a very frustrated Hikaru Nakamura. In front of a bright red stall, he's standing his signature stand: one foot slightly above the other, arms firmly crossed, head bowed, nursing a bored expression.
And of course, he's huffing and puffing as soon as another human being is present in the room to witness.
Levy hesitates, unintentionally grabbing the hem of his t-shirt, pulling at the fabric. He doesn't quite know what to do with hands. He doesn't quite know how would anyone find themselves in a situation like this.
A chess grandmaster locks himself in the bathroom in the middle of a match. An another chess grandmaster -who's also his opponent- is sulking by the stall he's locked himself in. And Levy Rozman -who's nothing but a mild inconvenience to these people- has, for some reason, been summoned into this mess.
He points a shaky finger towards the stall. "He's in there?"
Hikaru looks up, then, foot tapping impatiently against the tiles. "I can't talk him out of it," he says. "Go on. Have at it."
Levy stares at him in disbelief. You're not supposed to be the one to try and talk him out of it, he thinks deliriously. I'm not supposed to be here.
"I was-" he begins, a chuckle forcing its way out of his mouth. He turns his back to Hikaru, facing the mirrors. "I was excited about this." He runs a hand through his hair, short on the sides, getting longer and longer on the front, and clasps his hands on the nape of his neck. "I was excited about this."
Fuck. He really was. He would've preferred it was the final, that he was pulling up the analysis board next to a Carlsen - Lazavik game, matching the tone of Tania in the commentary, taking it from a clever wordplay to make one of his own, but he liked Hikaru and Alireza enough that he wasn't all that disappointed.
And they just had do this to him. Alireza; first with his questionable moves on the board, then with... whatever this is, and Hikaru; first with his questionable attitude on the stage after Alireza left, then with... also whatever this is.
"Are you guys okay in there?" A curious voice echoes in the men's room. "Do I need to call someone?"
"Tania," Levy lowers his hands, placing them on his hips. "Just get in here."
Tania does. Much more faster in her movement than Levy was at the beginning, she looks at Levy, then Hikaru, and lastly, her gaze lands on the only closed stall. Paralleling with Levy's shaky finger, she raises an eyebrow at the door.
"He's in there?"
Hikaru groans, loud. Levy feels responsible to catch Tania's eyes, doing his best to put on a look that says: Just ignore him.
"Okay, okay," Levy repeats, though he isn't sure who is he trying to convince here. "Okay." He raises a hand he's made into a fist, and lets it hover above aimlessly for a few seconds before knocking - two times, gently - on the door. "Firou-" God, no. Raspy voice. No surprise; he's tired, aged a thousand years in the span of a few days. Fucking...Paris. E-Sports World Cup. I was excited about this. He clears his throat, tries again, "Firouzja?"
"Jesus Christ," Hikaru says beside him, making each word count. "Just say his name. We're all... acquaintances here."
"Right." Levy takes a deep breath. He turns to Tania, helpless. "Would you like to- I don't know- take the initiative here?" Come on, help me out.
But all Tania does is to give him a thumbs up, and smile big. "Levy, you've got this."
Levy nods, attention back to the door. He's going to lose his mind here. "Okay." Not okay. It's obvious now that he's trying to convince himself now. "I've got this."
Another deep breath. Levy closes his eyes, starts to count back from ten in his head. Ten, nine, eight... four, three, two... One. He opens his eyes. "Ali?" he calls out, cautious as if not to startle a sleeping animal, or a child, maybe. "Alireza?"
Levy stills. Not a damn sound, besides Hikaru's non-stop mumbling along with his foot-tapping, which now has picked up by Tania as well. "Guys," Levy stares down at the tiles, then back at them. "Please."
"Sorry," Tania whispers.
"Whatever," Hikaru says.
At least they both stop with their tapping. Levy has a sudden urge to bite his fist. He flexes his fingers, about to turn to Hikaru and ask Are you one hundred percent sure he is in there?, but a muffled voice stops him.
"I'm not going back there."
The accented English, soft speaking voice (slightly rough from probably what Levy's suspecting of, but he won't be jumping to conclusions here); that's Alireza alright. Levy, joining Hikaru this time, curses under his breath.
"It's okay," Tania speaks before he could - Thank God. "No one's asking you to."
"I am," Hikaru chimes in. Levy's definitely going to lose his mind here.
"You're not," Tania says to him. Then, turning back to the door, "He is not."
"Yeah, man," Levy backs his co-commentator up, as he should, obviously. "It's over. As much as it pains me to admit."
"Oh, come off it." Hikaru unfolds one of his arms to wave a hand. "Were you even enjoying that?"
I was, actually, Levy thinks, bitter. Until Alireza decided to up and leave.
"Alireza," he says, once more, wondering how many times does he have to repeat the name to make Alireza show his face. "Do you maybe wanna step out? People are worried here, man."
"Man? That's a boy."
"Not helping, Hikaru."
At this point Tania must have lost her patience, because she kindly pushes Levy aside, asking Alireza, "Do you want us to leave?" and even though Levy's not so sure about leaving Alireza alone here, he thinks Tania's approach could prove useful.
And voila, it does get Alireza talking again.
"I will come out," he says, voice much more recognizable this time. "But I don't want to see him."
Tania frowns. "You don't want to see who?"
"It's me," Hikaru answers on Alireza's behalf. "He doesn't want to see me."
Levy makes the mistake of making eye-contact with Hikaru, then, the question crossing his mind for a split second. What did you even do to him?, and it shouldn't be possible for Hikaru to read his mind the way he does.
But it is. Somehow, it is.
"There was a technical issue," Hikaru begins to explain matter-of-factly, staring directly into Levy's eyes. "I had nothing to do with it. It affected my performance as well. I have no idea what he's on about. He's been acting like a child this whole time and don't give me that look, Levy, you thought it too."
"I promise I'm not giving you looks," Levy's quick to defend himself. "And I didn't think anything. I'm sure Alireza had his reasons to-"
"He left me hanging there for twenty minutes. Who does that?"
Levy can think of a name or two, but he knows better, so he keeps his mouth shut. His silence won't do anything but to piss off Hikaru even further; but it still beats the alternative, which is getting further involved in the chess drama. Hikaru's a firecracker, he thinks to himself. He burns fast. This too shall blow over after a thirty-minute-long YouTube video.
Tania's awfully quiet now, eyes fixated on Hikaru -is he going to leave or not?- and Levy's not willing to speak either.
"That's it," Hikaru says, eventually. "I'm leaving."
"Can you just-" Levy starts, ignoring the way Tania's eyebrows raise. He is so going to regret this. "Wait outside?"
"Wait outside?" Hikaru repeats in astonishment. "I don't know if you know, but I've got a bunch of interviews. Then I have to get back to my hotel, analyse these games, send it to my editor; analyse Magnus' games, send that to my editor-"
"I know, I know." Levy cuts him off. He's literally going to do the exact same things. "But stay a while?" For me, he doesn't say. What does Hikaru Nakamura even owe to him? Nothing. "Please."
And Hikaru, much to Levy's surprise, lowers his arms and stands up straight, seemingly considering this. "Fine," he says, between his teeth, almost a hiss. "Five minutes. And I'm out of here."
Levy wants to kiss him on the mouth. "Thank you," he says instead. "Five minutes. Got it."
Tania starts knocking at the door as soon as Hikaru's out the bathroom. "Alireza?" she calls out simultaneously. "You can come out now. Hikaru's left."
Levy holds his breath at the sound of a lock opening, and he can swear Tania does, too. The bright red door opens, and Alireza steps under the light. Levy, despite everything, finds himself thinking, Hikaru's right. That's a boy.
Though he doesn't find the time to process what he's seeing or rearrange his thoughts, because Alireza's takes a lazy step forward, then another, and fully hugs Levy without uttering a single word.
He hears Tania squeak beside him, and all he could say is, "Heeey, buddy." Buddy? Levy feels like he could die from the embarrassment. You're talking to a grandmaster, get it together. "You okay there?"
Talk about not knowing what to do with your hands. He desperately looks at Tania, mouthing What do I do? and Tania somehow takes it as an invite, opening her arms wide and joining in. A group hug. How sweet. Levy likes hugs. But, generally, and preferably, with people he knows on a personal level; and not with -to put it like Hikaru- acquaintances.
Fuck it, he thinks, hugging Alireza and Tania back. It's not like I'm making any content out of this. This stays here. He sort of wishes they hadn't kicked Hikaru out.
After the group hug's over, Tania pulls out a bunch of napkins off the wall and hands them to Alireza; because obviously he's been crying and wiping the tears on the sleeves of his undershirt. And Levy, mirroring Tania's behaviour, reaches for Alireza's glasses ("Can I borrow these for a second?") and uses the hem of his t-shirt to clean the spectacles one by one - something he does for himself often. He not only sees, but knows how dirty they could get after a good cry.
Alireza lets Levy put on his glasses for him. "I'm sorry," he says, mostly looking at the ground, but Levy nods anyway. He wants to ask, so bad. What happened? Why did you abandon the match? What were you doing here alone? But so far he's handled this pretty well, and he doesn't want to let his curiosity get the best of him.
He's not a journalist. He doesn't run this tournament. He's not a part of Team Firouzja.
Levy's... Levy. Gotham Chess. Guy who screams the roooooooook for a living. chess.com's poster child, despite not being a grandmaster. Someone who's made a good number of people fall in love with online chess by simply being in love with chess.
And with people who play chess, good chess; even though they often don't end up love him back.
"It'll be alright," he says, and means it too.
Alireza adjusts his glasses, then nods at Levy as if to thank him. He glances at Tania, nodding in her direction as well, before staring back at the ground. "I didn't want to do this today," he admits, voice low. "Not- not after yesterday. I just- I want to be as good, you know?"
Does Levy know.
"And today... that second game. I wanted to get up and leave after that. I was completely..." He pauses, making a vague gesture above his head. "But I stay, I keep playing. I know it's not good. Then, after the break, that... I don't know what that was. I still don't know."
"Yeah, no, we didn't get it either. No one said whether it was a chess.com thing, or..." Levy trails off, since they weren't informed on what caused the issue. He'd be just making wild guesses if he were to keep talking. "They called it a technical issue, but didn't say what kind of an issue. It was pretty annoying."
"It was bad," Alireza says. "I lost my focus. Then I thought: I don't want to do this today."
"So you got up and left."
"He finds me here. Hikaru. I say some things, he says some things; but I'm just saying you can have it, you know? Third place, bronze medal, the money; you can have it. And he says to me: This isn't what it's about. I make a fool out of him, he says."
"He got pretty mad," Tania comments.
"I am not going to apologise," Alireza continues. "Not to him. I am not going to apologise. I tell him this. I tell him he can make video about it if he wants."
Ooff. Words land like a punch in Levy's gut. I told him he can make a video about it if he wants. He feels nauseous. "And what did he say?"
"Tells me to grow up."
"Jesus," Levy breathes out.
"Well." Tania claps her hands. "Levy. How about you go first, then I'll see if the coast is clear?"
Oh, right. Hikaru. If he was still out there, that is.
"Deal," Levy says.
--
They walk out of the building together once Hikaru's done with his interviews. They're supposed to go on their seperate ways, yet Levy can't help but to stop him to ask, "Why did you say you were jealous of me?"
Hikaru pretends to be confused first, but it's okay, Levy knows his patience today.
"In the lie detector video," he clarifies. "You said you were jealous of me, a little. Why?"
"I don't know," Hikaru shrugs. "I feel like you got this content creator business way more figured out than me. Numbers say it all."
Levy doesn't care about any of that. Numbers - Levy doesn't care about that. Okay, he cares -he actually cares a lot- but he that's not what he wants to hear. "You're no less content creator than me," he points out. "And you're a grandmaster."
"Levy. You need to let this Woe is me I'm not a GM act go. It's no longer serving you. I'm bored, you're bored, your editor is probably bored; everyone is bored."
"I know, man. I've already let it go. I've let it go yesterday. I'm asking about something else. Why can't you just be honest with me? You do it in front of a camera, tied to a ridiculous machine, and it's not even real, it's pseudo science-"
"Alright, alright. I've said it because I think you're a good person. Genuinely. Not an asshole like the lot of us. Happy?"
"Yes. Very happy. Thank you."
"And don't worry about Magnus. He didn't mean it like that."
"He said he does like me quite a lot, so... I've gathered."
"Good. Today was... a lot. I don't know what's going to happen with Alireza now. And I'm not supposed to take it personally or whatever, but how can I not take it personally when he just- Why not just shake my hand, you know, say something even if it's just some dumb excuse? But no. I guess respect doesn't always go both ways, but I don't have to tell you about that, do I?"
Levy doesn't answer. He can't bring himself to.
"Anyway, doesn't matter." Once again, Hikaru waves a hand. "I guess what I'm trying to say is... don't change, Levy, yeah? It's a good thing people can always count on you to be there, at the end of the day. Commentating, streaming, analysing, hell, even shouting the rook at the top of your lungs. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"I think I do, yeah," Levy says, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Same goes for you."
"No, no. You're different. I try, I do; but you're different. That's why I said I was jealous."
Hikaru Nakamura thinks he's a good person. Magnus Carlsen thinks he's not a chess player. Levy wonders if he'd be willing to throw it all away for the title. Be an asshole like the rest of them, why not?
Levy keeps on standing still for a good minute after Hikaru leaves, people passing by him left and right. What a miserable city, Paris. What a miserable day this is. His phone buzzes in his pocket, and he reads the text from Lucy as he finally gets to walking.
Everything okay there?
He presses call, too tired to worry about the time difference. Lucy picks up anyway.
"Hey," he says.
"That bad, huh?" Lucy replies, which is a polite way of saying: You sound like hell.
"Yep. That bad. Worst day ever. Didn't even get to do my job."
"I think you had a pretty decent amount of doing your job for... four or five games there. But who's counting."
"You were, apparently."
"Nah. I wasn't even watching. Just noise in the background."
"God. I miss you."
Lucy scoffs. "You're homesick."
"Yeah. That's what I just said."
"Go get some rest, alright? Sleep it off."
"I will." He won't - not before he analyses these games first. "I'll see you soon."
He waits for Lucy to hang up before shoving his phone back into his pocket. Back to his poor set-up in a hotel room, now. Back to staring into a lens, speaking for audience.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am exhausted.
Maybe the reason behind Alireza's dramatic exit from the tournament wasn't such a big mystery, after all.