Hustlers || Taekook

Chapter 2

"You? You lost a hundred grand? In one round of Red Five that lasted like four minutes?"

"Go on, rub it in."

"Wow. I've played Seokjin before, but I never got that wrecked." Jimin seemed a lot more chipper sitting at the bar, drink in hand, colour having returned to his cheeks. Jungkook shrugged, ordering himself a drink.

"I think he was playing around with me. He knew, you know. He knew that I swapped out cards, and he knew that I'd swapped one wrong. He didn't say anything until I was leaving and he passed me in the corridor. But he didn't tell me how he did it. Get all those good cards, I mean." Jungkook spoke absently, tapping his fingernails against the polished wood of the bar countertop.

Jimin raised an eyebrow. "Smart guy. Which card?"

"What do you think?"

"You fucked up on the five of hearts?" Jimin turned to him incredulously and Jungkook took his drink with a faint smile, narrowing his eyes as he thought back.

"Good playing, Jungkook."

Jungkook paused in the middle of the corridor, turning to face Seokjin with a certain degree of apprehension. Seokjin was smiling again, but it didn't give off the dangerous air it did during the card game. Jungkook still kept his hackles up though, trying to pick out anything, even the slightest detail about Seokjin that could give him a clue about what just happened.

"Are you mocking me?" Jungkook asked lightly and Seokjin laughed, shaking his head.

"Not at all. You could try switching to your left hand. When you're swapping out the bottom cards I mean." Seokjin advised pleasantly, as if he wasn't telling Jungkook that he caught him cheating, and as if he wasn't telling Jungkook how to cheat better. Jungkook's fingers curled into a light fist.

"You saw?"

Seokjin shrugged vaguely. "Didn't have to. I heard it. You didn't mean to give me all those cards, did you? Especially not the five of hearts."

"No... No I didn't. How did you do it?" Jungkook asked slowly, cautiously, and Seokjin just smiled again, a harmless, bright thing.

"The five of hearts was purely a mistake on your part. As for the rest... Keep playing, prodigy. It's a trade secret."

"Yes I did accidentally give him the five of hearts. But I didn't fuck up." Jungkook replied evenly, measuring his words and taking a sip of his drink.

"...What." Jimin spoke flatly and Jungkook felt a grin cut across his face.

"I thought I did, but I didn't. I can't wait to play him again."

~

Jungkook didn't end up playing against Seokjin for a while. He kept going back to the casino, every night, winning stacks and earning a name for himself. Each night got a little more daring, a little more dangerous, a little more illegal. He raised the stakes, he pushed his opponents, and Hoseok gradually lead him further and further down those corridors, until it got shadier and shadier, and more and more private. He played against the workers, he played against the gamblers, he played against other newcomers like himself. He eventually started playing against CEO's and the like. Each night he tried something new, he tried a different way of swapping cards, of hiding cards, of setting up the cards from the start. He did lose a few rounds, and he lost big, but he won it back the next rounds anyway. There went his winning streak, but that had been broken by Seokjin already anyway.

The ridiculous thing was, he only ever played the one game. Red Five. Even after two months of playing at BigHit, he'd never learnt any other versions of poker. He was beginning to want to though.