Burnout ⊗ Jeongchan

③⑥ Sleight of Hand

Jeongin pressed a playing card on the table.

He let his thumbnail dig into the thin surface of the card, holding it, ensuring it couldn't slip from his fingers again. A jack of diamonds. A card the crew unintentionally let slip over to his seat when they forgot to shuffle it into the deck for their game of poker. Or maybe they let him keep it. However the situation, it was a pleasant distraction from the thoughts worming in his head, from the frown sewn onto his lips, and from the quiet pain aching in his chest. He really wished it would go away.

The arm on the back of his chair lifted to properly pick a prime selection of playing chips from the top of a stack before it's owner. Carelessly, as if the chips had a poison coating that infected him with every touch, Chan tossed them into the betting pool and returned his arm to it's spot behind Jeongin's chair.

Hyunjin's eyes flickered down to the cards in his hand, to the betting pool, then across the Chan. He quirked an eyebrow, keeping a suspicious glare trained on the older's face as he stated, "You're bluffing."

Chan kept a blank face.

It began. The other's gaze kept flickering between his hand and Chan. After a few beats of silence, Hyunjin placed his cards on the table, and quietly groaned, "I fold."

"Chan, your cards?" Changbin pursed his lips. As if he already could predict the next outcome.

The King placed his cards on the table. A single pair. Minho quietly flipped Hyunjin's cards over. Three of the same number, a three of a kind. Hyunjin had the better cards, but since he folded...

In an instant, they could see the color from Hyunjin's face drain with regret. He threw himself against the table, a cry of despair wracking his shoulders as Chan took the playing chips from the center of the table with an overconfident smile. Along with that, taking Hyunjin's convenience store raspberry slushie from the betting pool. That would make a winning streak of four rounds. Four. The only reason it wasn't more was because Minho and Jisung decided to pass cards under the table in an effort to win. They, shortly after Jisung started giggling, were caught and expelled from the next few rounds.

Chan passed the slushie to Jeongin who immediately wrapped his hands around it and let the condensation on the cup seep a winter chill through his skin. From another end, he could feel Hyunjin's hopeless stare pierce through the side of his head as Jeongin sipped at it, I would feel bad if it didn't taste so good.

"Another round?" Minho asked. He watched Hyunjin, and if Jeongin wasn't crazy, he could see the slightest twinge of pity in his eyes.

"You four can. Some errands in the city I need to get done before we go home tonight," Chan tossed the rest of his playing chips to the center of the table as he stood from his seat. He collected his phone off the table before turning to Jeongin and pressed a chaste kiss to the side of his head, muttering to him, "I'll see you later."

Jeongin hummed a light acknowledgement, one from the joy swelling in his chest and the pride in his veins, from the blissful reminder that yes, this was real as his eyes followed Chan's figure out of the shop and his ears chased the sound of a car start before tires rolled along the asphalt. When he turned back to the table, Jisung was wiggling his eyebrows at him with that sleazy grin that screamed louder than the belting horn of a train. That slushie was suddenly very interesting. "Nice shape, nice size, vibrant color, cool temperature"; he chose to avoid the sordid smiles from his friend with qualifiers of the gambled off slushie.

The other crew members quickly fell back into another round of poker, this time dealing in Minho and Jisung. Although they were all supposed to play against each other, Jeongin somehow felt it would turn into an intense rivalry between the cheating duo and the slushie-less Hyunjin. He had half a will to watch them play before but now, his attention dropped back to the card he was playing with. It's face was down, the body of it placed under his palm as he pulled up at the corner before letting it snap in place against the table. He created a steady rhythm with it and let the soothing fidgeting of the card draw his eyelids down slowly.