Checkmate

Edition excerpt from Checkmate Vol 03 (2025): Detached. Disinterested. Dispassionate. All words used to describe Soohyun and his uneventful, mediocre life. Yet as a teen, he had a fire, a passion burning within, all thanks to one person: bright-haired and brilliant Eunsung. Throughout high school, Soohyun obsessively competed with Eunsung for the top spot in all things, only to consistently come in second place. And as high school ended without victory, so did his passion for anything. But all this changes when, as an adult, he suddenly sees Eunsung again-except the other man is in the news, embroiled in scandal! Something ignites in Soohyun. Fiery hate, long thought dead, comes alive within him once more. Determined to see a fallen Eunsung with his own eyes, Soohyun reinvents himself as a reporter and begins dishing out one dirty article after another. He's sure that with each scathing hit piece, Eunsung will come crawling to Soohyun and begging for mercy. Except it doesn't happen. Eunsung doesn't react at all the way Soohyun expects! Just who is being manipulated, and who is the manipulator?