𝗬𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗘 ─ 𝗬𝗔𝗡𝗚 𝗝𝗨𝗡𝗚𝗪𝗢𝗡

XIX. Wildcard

"Uhhh, I guess???"

"Yayy! Okay let's go." Sunoo grabbed Niki's hand and dragged him to their destination.

---

Niki and Sunoo reached the place where the sound was coming from.

The booth was a classic game wherein you need to knockd down a tower of cans with three balls in order to win. But as much as he wanted to play, Sunoo saw the display of stuffed toys and none of them intrigued him. 

He sighed, disappointed that the prizes aren't that great.

Much to their surprise, a lot of people were at another booth - a slightly simpler one. Sunoo and Niki went over to that area.

"Wow there's a lot of people here. Is it always like this?" Sunoo asked, in shock of the large crowd.

"No. Usually its less than this. And they'd be in a line. Now it justs seems that they're crowding this place to watch something." Niki responded.

"Excuse us. Coming through. Excuse me."

Sunoo continued to drag Niki through the thick crowd - hoping that they can getr to the front to see what the fuzz was.

"A game of Three Card Monte??" Sunoo scratched his head. But what caught his attention more is a stuffed toy of a ramen bowl.

"Oh. My. God." Sunoo squealed.

"Aww little girl you lost." The old man facilitating the game teased the player.

"That's unfair!" The little girl raged and walked away angrily. Meanwhile, the old man was counting the money he recently earned from the girl. He chuckled at how easy it was to trick the girl.

As he was putting the money in his box, a teenage boy stepped forward, wanting to give the game a try. The young boy placed 1000 won on the table - the fee you need to pay before playing the game.

The old man looked at the boy, smirking at the next person whom he could scam.

"New to this game?"

The boy nodded.

"Alrighty then, follow the ace card. If you win, you get double your money back."

"Seems easy enough." The boy said in a happy tone, he was sure he could win.

"Heh." The old man chuckled.

The old man showed the boy the ace card first, and then the two other cards which were kings. Then he shuffled the cards like he usually would do. After a few seconds of constant shuffling, he stopped and asked the boy where the ace card is.

"Hmmm." the boy pointed at the middle card, only to be disappointed when it was revealed that the ace card is on the right.

Niki sighed. He knew that this game was another scam, and he felt sad for the boy who just lost his money.

"Heh." The old man collected his money. "Run along now little boy."

"I want to go again." The boy spoke, determined to win at least one time.

"There are other people who want to play, run a long."

"I'll give you a deal."

"I don't do deals, now scram."

"I'll give you 5000 won."

The mention of money caught the old man's attention. The boy was offering five times the price of his regular fees.

"If I win, you give me my money back. And I want that stuffed toy." the boy said as he pointed to a ramen bowl stuffed toy.

"Hmmm."