41 Poker (4)

Kibum threw his cards on the table to reveal his Jack and Queen. Dozier groaned while Kyuhyun was disappointed in his meager Ace and Six. Jamie, too, dropped his pair of 2's. Only Sunye did not react.

"So, this round belongs to me," Kibum grinned. He reached over to take the chips but Sunye stopped him.

"Three of a kind," she revealed, putting her cards down to reveal a 10, adding it to the other 10's which were on the table. She had the higher hand in the first round.

Kibum glared at her before smiling. "The lady is lucky," he said. "But your luck might run out."

"We'll see," Sunye smirked as she took the chips. SD had given her his black card so she had almost an infinite amount of money to spend. While bankrupting the annoying pest was a tempting offer, her competitive side was taking over. Kibum's cocky expressions were getting to her nerves and she wanted to beat him at his own turf. The man was too arrogant and she needed to manipulate the game in her favor.

"Round two," Maurice announced. He reshuffled the cards and dealt them to the players.

"Call," Dozier said.

Sunye checked her cards and to her slight disappointment, it was a 2 of spades and 6 of clubs.

"Call," she echoed. They went around the table as the players put in their stakes. Everyone except Kibum called.

"Raise," he declared. 

Maurice nodded and put the cards on the table. A King of Hearts, Ten of Spades and Jack of Hearts. Sunye made some quick calculations in her head.

"Check," Dozier said. Maurice obliged and turned another card. It was a Nine of Aces.

"Fold," Sunye declared. The other men chortled at her. It was obvious to them that she had a low hand and was cowering. But if there was something Sunye had learnt SD and to some extent, agreed with, was that sometimes being a coward was the best way to win. Show them the weakness and let them attack before you go for the jugular vein.

"Check," Jamie said. Maurice upturned another card to reveal an Ace. Kibum grinned which made the others nervous.

"All in," he announced. He bet all his money and everyone let down their cards. 

To no one's surprise, Kibum had a Queen of Hearts and another Ace. It was a royal flush for him, the highest tier.

"Guess the little kitten was afraid to lose a little money," he grinned as he took the chips. Sunye did not reply but waited for the next round to begin. Maurice dealt her the cards and she took them to study her what her hand would be.

"Raise," she declared.

….

SD hummed to himself as he made his way through the stinky sewage. His clothes were marred with feces while the pungent smell was getting stronger and stronger with every step. The tunnel was dark and it was almost impossible to see anything. Any normal human would suffocate and die in there but not SD. He was used to such stenches and could probably tolerate even worse ones. The human shit on him did not faze him either because once he was focused on getting what he wanted, he was not afraid to dirty his hands.

"Gross," Orea muttered through the earphone. "How can you even tolerate all that? I feel like puking every time I think of you in that sewage!"

"I'm used to it," SD shrugged as he glanced up. There was a hole above him which led to his destination. 

"The old man screwed you up that bad, huh?" she asked. "That must have been some grueling training he made you go through."

SD was quiet. He had no intention of talking about the old man. Touching on the topic of his past was something he was not keen on doing since it was unimportant to his mission.

He climbed into the hole. It was surprisingly big but wet with fungus and waste.

"Aish, I hope my pretty skin won't be affected with all this," he muttered.

"Don't worry modern day Dorian Gray," Orea said. "If your black heart couldn't rot your skin off then a little shit will have no effect either."

"How nice," he said in a sarcastic tone. He crawled a few meters before stopping. He knocked the concrete wall above him and reached over to press his ear against it to make sure there was no one on the other side. He took out a small, cirular disk. It was inactive but once he stuck it on the wall and pressed a button, the lights lit up.

SD quickly backed off a few meters before he heard a mild explosion and the wall cracked. It was a pocket bomb Orea had designed to crack walls. It would not kill a person but was effective in injuring someone from point blank range.

"The corridor outside the room is empty," Orea told him, checking the cameras from her laptop. "And Sunye is still in the poker room with the others. So far, she's seated on one spot so no danger there."

"Good," SD said as he punched the concrete pieces to open a wide enough hole to let himself in. It took him several minutes but he eventually managed to enter through it. He landed inside a large bathroom with a wide tub. The sink was leaking thanks to the explosion so he turned off the water pipe. Other than that and the floor, nothing else seemed to have been harmed.

"The documents are inside a safe," Orea instructed. "All you have to do is, place the chip on the safe's lock and I can hack into it to decode the password. After tha, get the papers and get out of there."

"I will do that," he said. "But first…"

Orea frowned when she heard the shuffling of clothes. "W-what are you doing?" She asked in horror.

"Do you mind giving me some privacy?" he asked as he stripped off his clothes and entered the shower. "I need to take a shower."

"GAH!" 

She screamed and disconnected the call. His girl was risking her life playing poker with the mafia and he was taking a shower? She really could not understand the Sadistic Doctor's thoughts at all!

SD hummed to himself as he let the cool water touch his body. Humming happily to himself, he thoroughly washed himself up. The cool shower after such a hectic day seemed well deserved. 

Getting out of the shower once he was crisp and clean, he took out a tiny box from his dirty clothes before shoving them through the hole in the ground. He was not worried about the mafia finding his clothes. Since they were mixed with sewage, they would not be able to identify his scent nor his DNA on it. He grabbed a towel from the rack and dried his hair before wrapping his lower waist with it. 

His earphone lay on the sink. He picked them up and redialed Orea's number.

"Are you even serious about this mission?" She asked at once. "You're taking a shower in the middle of it?"

"Hygiene matters to me," he pouted as he went towards Kibum's walk-in closet to choose a fresh pair of clothes for himself. 

"Ugh, this guy had terrible taste in clothes," he commented as he went through Kibum's plain shirts. "Oh well…"

"SD!" Orea's shrill voice came from the other end. "SD! Sunye!"

She was panicking. The tracker on Sunye was suddenly moving fast and it seemed like she was being taken somewhere upstairs.

"SD, I think they've taken Sunye!" she exclaimed.

SD took out his phone from the box and glanced at it before shrugging.

"SD! Did you hear what I just said?" Orea yelled. "They've taken Sunye!"

But he was calm as he went through the clothes. "I think I'll go with this boring black shirt and pants," he finally decided.

"SD-"

"Don't you think black complements my handsome looks?" he asked, ignoring her words.

"SD what are you-"

"I have a date tonight so I wanna look like a hunk," he sighed. "Too bad, this guy has such a bad taste in fashion!"

Huh? Orea's mouth gaped open in horror. She glanced back at the monitor to track Sunye before finally realizing why he was so calm.

"You are a weirdo," she muttered.

"I know," SD said with an evil smirk. 

Sorry Sunye, he thought. I'm going to be unfashionably late this time.