Chapter 12
Unlike the first game, the second moved along at a much slower pace, and I was able to enjoy it in my own way.
We kept discarding and drawing cards for no particular reason, locked in a tense back-and-forth. For the first time in ages, I could feel Hyunwoo's reactions and enjoy playing a game with another person.
I enjoyed watching Hyunwoo's hand, worrying about what card would come next as I fidgeted with my own. Even when an attack got through and I had to draw a lot of cards, it wasn't too devastating, so I could still enjoy myself.
'That's right! This is what games are all about!'
Unable to hide my happiness, I let it show and kept grinning at Hyunwoo.
It was fun. It felt as if I'd gone back to how things were before my world fell apart.
If only we'd had beer and chicken, it would've been perfect.
We used to play games like this while eating late-night snacks, too.
There was a certain charm to laughing and chatting excitedly while tipsy, our judgment clouded, and bickering over who won, tossing in the occasional playful insult.
'Well, even if my body's become the kind that'd probably pass out the moment I drank alcohol...'
Still, it was fun to get so caught up in a game again, reacting to every little thing Hyunwoo did and playing cautiously, almost as if I'd turned into a cat.
"...! One Card!"
"Minseo, you still have two cards, you know? They're stacked on top of each other. Idiot."
"......I know that!"
Well, maybe because I'd become like this, my head had gotten a little slower. I'd mistaken two cards for one, called out, and gotten penalized.
"This time it's really One Card!"
"Minseo... that's not it."
"Why not?! I'm right this time! I won! I've got a Joker in my hand, you know?"
"That's the 4 of Spades, and the card you played was the 8 of Clubs."
"...Ugh. Why do they look so similar...?"
Sometimes I got so excited that I only looked at the color, thought I'd won, and even revealed my trump card to Hyunwoo.
"Ah...!"
"Pfft... Cute. Have you been doing that on purpose? Now that you know you're cute?"
"I haven't...! It's a handicap. A handicap...!"
Sometimes I gripped my cards so tightly that my strength suddenly gave out and I couldn't hold them up. They came spilling all over the table, exposing my hand.
I thought even that was part of the fun of board games, so I was happy just to keep playing, trading cards with Hyunwoo, teasing each other, and chatting.
It was as if a seed had drifted into my heart, sprouted into a vast garden, and begun to fill me with happiness.
Hyunwoo was, quite literally, a new life for me.
Hyunwoo had picked up the life I'd thrown away, stitched its shattered meaning back together, and breathed new life into it.
Just as my heart was filling with gratitude and emotion at Hyunwoo's thoughtfulness, overflowing with warmth and comfort, Hyunwoo's eyes suddenly changed.
"My turn, right?"
"...Yeah."
Hyunwoo's confident gaze had me on edge, tension rising all the way to my throat. It felt suffocating, like I was barely holding on just before sinking beneath the sea.
I felt like a castaway struggling in rough waves, clinging to the one plank that remained after the boat I'd come on had been destroyed and swept away.
'...Why is Hyunwoo smiling?'
Hyunwoo had gotten serious about the game halfway through, and that smile was ominous enough to feel like a death sentence.
Gulp. I swallowed nervously and focused every ounce of my attention on Hyunwoo's fingertips.
'It can't be over yet...'
If anyone was at risk of losing, it was much more likely to be Hyunwoo than me.
My hand was still hovering around three cards, while Hyunwoo's had grown from four to eight after missing an attack opportunity earlier.
With all the Jokers and attack cards already out on the table, it was nearly impossible for me to end up at a disadvantage, no matter how badly luck turned against me.
And yet Hyunwoo smiled at me.
Hyunwoo left me with that meaningful smile, then started acting smug, as if the win were already assured.
"Minseo. One last thing I want to check."
"W-what is it?! It's not like you have anything left anyway..."
A bluff. Yeah, my brain understood perfectly well that it was a bluff, but...
Even so, my nerves treated Hyunwoo as a dangerous opponent and kept me on guard.
Besides, that talk of checking something might just be groundwork to distract me and sneak in another cheat, like in the first game. I couldn't let my guard down.
'I have to watch Hyunwoo's hands... carefully...'
Without letting my guard down for even a second, I stared intently at those hands, which moved too fast for my eyes to follow.
This body isn't good at multitasking... I'll just ignore what Hyunwoo says.
I won't try to understand. I'll just answer yes no matter what.
At the very least, doing that made it seem like my odds of losing this game were close to zero.
"This. The loser grants the winner one wish, whatever they want, right? No restrictions? You promised, okay?"
"Yeah."
Even though I hadn't heard what Hyunwoo had asked, my immediate answer seemed to please Hyunwoo, and the corners of Hyunwoo's mouth lifted even higher.
Since I couldn't make sense of the situation, I didn't bother trying. I focused on what was happening right in front of me instead.
"......"
"......"
A few seconds of silence. In that brief moment, as if the world had stopped, Hyunwoo seemed to study my expression. Then Hyunwoo sighed, as though realizing the trick wasn't working.
Hyunwoo kept shifting glances from my hand to my body and face.
Hyunwoo was obviously trying to distract me and ruin my concentration.
Having been fooled that way in the previous round, I didn't fall for it. In the end, Hyunwoo seemed to give up and began arranging the cards in hand.
"Hyunwoo. You can't win, can you? No matter how long you stall, it looks like I've already won!"
"...Why do you think that?"
I was already certain of my victory, so I taunted Hyunwoo—and got a definite reaction.
Hyunwoo flinched as if I'd struck a nerve, and the smile from before faded. It seemed to prove my victory beyond a doubt.
"You're so bad at this! What do you think I'm going to wish for? Hehe..."
I was already getting ahead of myself, imagining how I'd use my wish. Hyunwoo smiled at me again.
Maybe Hyunwoo didn't realize that smile no longer intimidated me. Hyunwoo kept giving me that genial smile for a while, then played a card.
"...? What... are you doing?"
No. It was too thick to call it a single card.
Hyunwoo had stacked all the cards in hand together as if they were one, then casually placed the pile on top of the face-up cards.
"I won, right?"
Hyunwoo looked at me with absolute confidence while claiming to have won.
Even if I'd turned into this, I wasn't gullible enough to fall for such a cheap trick.
'Oh? Trying to slip one past me?'
I grabbed Hyunwoo's wrist with a sharp smack!
"What...? I won. Let go, Minseo."
"Ha! You think I'd fall for such a cheap trick?! That's eight cards. You stacked them all together!"
"......"
Hyunwoo fell completely silent at my words.
'I knew it. You're trying to cheat right in front of me?'
"No...? Got any proof? Show me proof I cheated. And what if I really did win?"
But instead of reacting the way I'd expected, Hyunwoo shamelessly turned the tables on me.
Hyunwoo's face spread into an unpleasant, mocking smile. I was so annoyed I wondered if there was any need to ruin a perfectly good game so pathetically.
"Proof? This pile of cards. We'll know when we spread them out. What if you really did cheat? What'll you do, grant me two wishes?"
"Two? Sounds good to me. I have nothing to lose. Don't start crying when we turn those over later, Minseo."
Hyunwoo moved a hand toward the cards to check.
If I'd still been naive, I might've let Hyunwoo handle them and accepted whatever the result was, but...
"Don't. I'll turn them over."
With two wishes on the line in such a high-stakes match, I blocked off even the slightest chance for Hyunwoo to pull something and made sure everything was perfectly fair.
'Did Hyunwoo really think that would work...?'
When I looked up, Hyunwoo was staring right at me, swallowing nervously.
If the situation weren't so tense, the way Hyunwoo stared at me while smacking lips might've looked like Hyunwoo was savoring the sight of me. It was awful, but I knew that wasn't the case, so I held back.
The pile of cards was clearly more than five cards thick.
I grabbed the cards—which were obviously more than one—and fanned them open with a flourish, revealing what was inside.
"...See! You stacked a bunch of cards together and cheated after all!"
I won. That thought alone filled me with happiness, and I immediately started trying to decide what to wish for.
And then I came to a conclusion.
'But Hyunwoo was only doing this to keep me company. Wouldn't it be pretty shameless to actually make a wish?'
Even if Hyunwoo had beaten me, there would've been nothing to take from me, so Hyunwoo would've called the bet off anyway.
As I reminded myself it had all been a little act to put me at ease,
"What are you talking about? I won. Take a good look at the cards."
Hyunwoo countered by declaring victory instead.
At those absurd words, I examined the eight cards in order.
"What...? Four Jacks, the King of Hearts, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, and the 4 of Clubs...? H-how is that possible?!"
The reason Hyunwoo hadn't been playing any cards all this time...
The reason Hyunwoo's hand hadn't gotten any smaller, even though I'd made mistakes several times...
Hyunwoo had been collecting nothing but Jacks and Kings, setting up a one-turn win.
"This game is rigged. I'm done. How could my hand be this bad?!"
No matter what anyone said, I couldn't accept my utter defeat. I flipped the table over, then started crying in the most undignified way possible.