IF I WERE THE DEVIL ; YANG JUNGWON

CARD XXVI: Reveal your hand.

[ T/W: Mention of extreme and fool behaviour] ─────────────────

When the door was closed, Ni-ki had a smile of accomplishment on his face."I knew you would eventually come to me," he turned to her, "but I got quickly bored of waiting for you," he admitted, a pout forming on his lips.

The angel looked at the demon in pure contempt. "So you used Taehyun as bait?"

His expression saddened. "You always view me as such a bad person, first the accuse of manipulation and now this," his hand went to the place his heart was located, "it slowly starts to hurt my feelings."

He looked at her with sad puppy eyes, as if he were the most innocent person in the world. "All I did was offer my help to him. Is that wrong?" As if considering the question seriously, he tilted his head.

"Help?" She repeated his words in disbelief. "You call this help?"

He nodded. "His biggest desire was to become powerful, I offered him that." Once again his smile returned. "It's simple. If you find something broken you try to fix it, no?"

"Not if it's you who broke it in the first place. You would want to get rid of it, so no one finds out you broke it." She crossed her arms over her chest. She could not get this image out of her mind. Of Taehyun on his knees on the ground with blood on his shirt, badly injured. Everything was only her fault.

"You mean the cut?" He pointed to his cheek, unable to suppress his snickers. "It's part of the game. You get punished for a wrong answer." He shrugged indifferently.

"It's not my fault." The violet-haired shook his head in denial. "It's the game's setup. I never laid a single finger on him," he defended himself while lifting both of his hands, feeling wronged.

They fell to his side again, one corner of his lips rising. "He had to move his head to the side so he only got a cut on his cheek, which is sad when I think about it." Ni-ki licked his lips in annoyance.

"A waste, really. The point was aimed perfectly straight in the middle." He closed one eye and pretended to aim at Eyun's forehead with an imaginary dart out of fun.

"He didn't play as well as I thought, frankly disappointing. But it was to be expected." He nodded to his statement in lingering disappointment.

The demon had anticipated this to be much more entertaining. But as he watched the other slowly wilt like a neglected flower drained of water, he couldn't even feel the slightest rush of adrenaline.

The violet-haired boy suddenly smiled in excitement. "I think no one plays as well as you, worthless one. Oh-" He immediately covered his mouth in surprise at his own words. Guilt was written all over his face. "Sorry, habit," he apologised, trying to hide his impish grin. "I meant to say Eyun-Noona."

She looked from the boy to the bloody spot in the background. The longer her gaze lingered, the more her hands clenched into fists.

"You used Taehyun and almost killed him in the process just to play with me here?" She asked, completely out of it. The angel couldn't understand this morbid way of thinking. "You are insane," she exclaimed at the end, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Right," Ni-ki smiled brightly. "I am not sane at all. That's why it's fun."

He was so full of enthusiasm that he jumped over to one of the canvases. "So what do you say?" His fingers brushed across the palette of colours that he used to draw the classics of his favourite period of art.