THAT WINTER, THE WIND BLOWS (JENLISA)

CHAPTER 1

Outside the apartment, I felt the cold breeze of the wind through my face. As I locate for my car parked together with the other cars in a parking lot, my face started to reddened cause of the cold atmosphere lingering within the place. Pressing the button of my car key, a sound came from the southern part giving me a signal where my car is located at. I walked towards the car, entered myself inside and started running the engine on my way to the casino.

Reaching the huge building wherein a word "Seven Luck Casino" was largely displayed and embossed, it was full of bright red and yellow lights reflecting within my car's window, telling me that I've already arrived to my destination. from afar, a young tall man with a blonde hair was standing and waiting for my arrival, as he noticed a familiar car, he started waving his arms and producing a bright smile.

"You're literally taking your time, I'm already freezing here outside. Can't you see how red my nose is?" pointing his index finger on his reddish nose.

"Who told you to wait outside, solely wearing a suit on this freezing temperature?" I started laughing, and tapped his shoulder to get inside the building.

"So, this big fish is known as Yang Hyun Suk, 46 of age, a CEO to be precise. He's really good at playing 3 card poker." He started scrolling through his phone, not giving any attention to me.

A 3 card poker huh? I thought to myself as we walked through the corrigdor, letting a smirk slip off of my face. A game where I lead and won the most, Three Card Poker is based on stud poker, but odds are different when hands consist of three cards. Because the odds are different, the hand rankings are slightly different. In Three Card Poker, straights are rarer than flushes and outrank them. In five-card games, flushes outrank straights.

As we entered the room filled of disgusting smell of nicotine, people wearing elegant clothes, jewelry was evident in every part of their body from the hands up to their necks. Giving off a vibe that every person inside this filthy room is provided of large amount of wealth. But not me, I'm not even rich in the first place, nor have this so called silver spoon in my mouth. I'm a gambler and a con artist, I play games specifically in casino and tricked them by making their brains believed that they lose the game which is actually not. On the other side of the casino, a large door awaits me, Taehyung opened the door revealing a dim atmosphere of the room, wherein a table caught my attention placed in between the space where a middle aged man's silhouette is seen sitting on a luxury couch and started walking on my direction. I felt a heavy tension within the room, causing me to sweat in beads on my temple.

"A pleasant evening, I'm Mr. Yang Hyun Suk, CEO of Yang Corp." He stretched out his broad hand to me Informing me ­how abundant his name is on the industry.

"Name's Lisa, people were telling me how good you are in a poker game." My lips formed a smile, meeting his hand with my right hand gently squeezing it.

"Oh well, I've never been defeated. Guess that's how good I am." He chuckled. And proceeds on the chair, sitting on a chair facing me.

"Guess this will be your first time feeling it." I smirked while caressing my left eyebrow with my fingers. A vein popped out from his hand as he clenched it notifying me that he got irritated from what I've told him. Unaware of our surrounding, a man came inside wearing a white long sleeve polo, with black vest and a black ribbon tied around his neck, carrying a deck of cards. Which implies that he's the dealer of the night. He bid his greeting to the both of the player, then started explaining the rules of the game.

"You simply choose between a couple of bets before the deal, see what 3 cards you receive and hope for the best." He ended his speech and began to distribute the card one by one. On the other hand, Mr. Yang placed his bet, pushing the chips both of his hands between the table.

"10 Billion Won won't hurt right?" he snickered between his breath

"1 Billion" I pushed my chips in front, staring at him with unfazed look.

"feeling a little scared Miss Lisa?" his voice was surely irritating me, but I managed to smirked and made him feel a little uncomfortable with it. While Taehyung was solely focused on the cards I was holding.

An hour passed, the chips of Mr. Yang were no more visible on our eyes. Fear and nervousness are written all over his face, beads of sweat were clearly seen on his forehead, wiping it continuously.

"Are you sure you still wanted to continue Mr. Yang? You looked anxious." Waving my card which shows a set of straight flush, that almost made him faint knowing he already loss the game.

"I-I'm fine, I still have a lot of money. This ain't a big deal, we can still continue." He stuttered, as his hands began to tremble. A smirk was evident all over my face. Wanting to see how much he can suffer from his defeat and how much money I could gain from this game.

"You're doing a great job, Lisa." Taehyung started massaging my shoulder, easing the tension I felt in every card I received. For the one final game, the dealer started shuffling the cards and distributed each card. The atmosphere began to feel hot, Mr. Yang's uneasiness was clearly seen within his eyes. Every tick of the clock gave off a heavy feeling within my chest.

Slowly, checking each of my card. First card flushes a Queen of hearts. The second was another Queen of spades. Both of my palms started sweating causing me to tremble more, then I heard Mr. Yang Chuckled which caught my attention and gazed through his direction. I looked at Taehyung feeling more tensed than ever, he gave me a comforting look telling me not to worry about it. For the last card, I swear to god I began to pray inside my head to let it be a Queen card. After a minute, the middle aged man became terrified, and slumped himself on the floor, unable to pronounce a word. Whimpering were the only sound heard inside the room.