Back to the 11th round as Max dealt the card to the gamblers. Seohwa detected an ace diamond under his left sleeve while she had only 8 and 9 diamonds. Seohwa used her heightened senses to time the swap perfectly.
When Max was about to slide the ace diamonds from his sleeve onto the table, he also fluttered his eyes shut to which Seohwa simultaneously used her wind ability to swap her 9 diamonds and his ace diamonds.
Back to the present.
Seohwa glanced at the guns as Max scoffed, “Stand down. Miss Sasha needs to tell me how she won.” With his order, the security stood down.
He then faced her again with brightened eyes, “You hadn’t touched the cards at all for the last round. What trick did you use?”
Seohwa observed him.
This guy… he’s like a big puppy asking for a treat.
“First off,” Seohwa started, “I came here to gamble some money and now that I have and want to go home, you want me to spill the beans?”
“I see! It is quite rude!” Max realised, “But then again, we can’t have you leaving with a large amount of money. We would be at a loss.”
Seohwa smirked as she pointed at Junkie, “I believe Junkie here has some debt, yes?”
Max glared at Marcus as Marcus nodded, “Yes, $5M, due in two days.”
“Perfect! How about this? I give you all $5M and I’ll keep the $3M leftover, how about it?” Seohwa suggested.
Max pondered before shaking his head, “$3M is still too much.”
Max looked at Seohwa’s face and noticed her eyes had turned pink.
Was her eyes always pink?
Seohwa then subtly suggested, “I’ll show you my trick in exchange for that $3M, how about it?”
Max felt his mind blur as he nodded his head in compliance, “Alright.”
“I want $3M in cash now.” Seohwa glanced at Marcus with her pink eyes.
Marcus became entranced as he nodded. He went to the desk and packed a large suitcase worth $3M.
Marcus gave the suitcase to Seohwa as she took it. She then smiled as her pink eyes glowed bright, “Alright, here is the trick. All of you will not remember the existence of a man named Junkie and the young lady Sasha. You will wipe them off your memory and you will erase their existence in your book accounts. Is that clear?”
All of the men there were dazed as they nodded, “Yes…”
“Good, and you will return to normal with your memories wiped about us once we leave.” Seohwa clapped as she pulled the shocked Junkie out.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Once they had left, the charm entrancement wore off as Max and Marcus stood still and wondered what they were doing.
“Right! The 12th round!” Marcus returned to his smiling face towards the guest, “I don’t know why I was in a daze just then! Forgive my manners everyone!”
“Quite alright, I lost focus for a second there as well.” Bill chuckled, “But man, I lost so much.”
***
In the mustang.
“Ya could’ve done that from the start, and ya could’ve chosen to take the full $8M, why didn’t ya?” Junkie asked curiously.
“It would be wrong otherwise. We would be the same as them.” Seohwa sat in the passenger seat, gripping the $3M case tightly. She then faced him, “The question is, why didn’t you? You could’ve used your illusion ability to cheat from the start.”
“Hmph, it wouldn’t be fun otherwise.” Junkie pouted, “And besides, they need to earn a living. If they didn’t, who knows what else they would’ve done to earn cash.”
She was then reminded of a phrase she heard, “We’re not normal humans. But that doesn’t mean we’re monsters either.”
“What’s that?” Junkie raised his brows.
Seohwa smiled as she looked down, “Hawk—well, a mentor of ours told us that we aren’t fully human nor are we fully monsters. We’re the in-between. That got me thinking. If humans by themselves can be monsters and do terrible things, why can’t we, who are in the middle, do good?”
She then faced Junkie, “You owed them a debt, but it was on purpose, wasn’t it?”
“…” Junkie chuckled, impressed, “Quite observant, ain’t ya?”
“If we knew this, we wouldn’t have acted the way we did.”
“Nah, don’t worry ‘bout it. Being an adult means making choices and how ya take responsibility.” Junkie smiled as he drove through the desert road, “As I made the choice to help them earn money, they also chose to increase the interest rate for my debt. It became too big for me. That was my mistake. So in a way, ya still saved me.”
He then patted her head, “Ya ain’t gonna be bad for an adult. Some adults still don’t get that bit about responsibility. Ya doin’ good.”
He then removed his hand and coughed as his ears turned red from never giving out compliments so sincerely before.
Seohwa chuckled at how bashful he got as she closed her eyes while he drove them home.
***
When they came back, it was already 3:55pm.
“Welcome back!” Hwayeon smiled as she was placing down lunch on the dining table.
Yerin ran down, hearing them return, “How was it? Did you pay it off?”
Jiho waved his hand as he continued to watch on the TV. Taeseok sat with him while he ate his munchies.
Minggu came back from the farm groaning, “I’m starving! Oh? You’re back.”
Junkie and Seohwa glanced at each other as their lips curved up. Seohwa picked up the large suitcase and waved it, “Not only pay it off, but we earned $3M!”
Junkie laughed, “Nah, ya did it all on your own.”
“…”
“WHAAAAAAAT?!!!” The Furies yelled not out of anger this time, but out of pure astonishment.
Yerin then calculated, “Wait, that means $500K each? Since we have to divide it by 6, excluding Junkie.”
Junkie frowned but he had no words to retort since Seohwa practically paid his debt off for him.
Seohwa opened the suitcase and gave everyone their cut of $500K.
All of them were excited and began talking about what they wanted to buy. As they did, Seohwa gave $50K to Junkie from her cut, “Here’s yours.”
“For me? Why?” Junkie raised his brows.
Seohwa smiled warmly, “Obviously, so you can still do your ‘fun’, but only lose $40K.”
“Ain’t ya a good lass?” Junkie chuckled as he got the $50K.
After he received the $50K from Seohwa, he then saw the rest of the Furies eyeing him.
“I don’t know why Viper is giving you $50K but I’ll do the same.” Jiho smiled as he handed $50K to Junkie.
Yerin scoffed as she handed her bit, “This $50K is to pay you since you are raising us until we become adults.”
Hwayeon chuckled at Yerin’s shyness as she did the same.
Only Taeseok and Minggu reluctantly gave him their $50K as Minggu sighed, “If this 50K is to pay for your guardianship, then alright.”
Junkie ended up with $300K as he was baffled at the kids’ attitude. He then laughed.
These brats… they’re gonna give me a headache the next few years.
***
Dust Devil Den.
After the working day was over, Marcus went to the front desk and check the current earnings in his ledgers. He paused when he noticed a discrepancy in his accounts.
Why are there multiple crossed out names? And it says someone paid a full $5M debt? Who? I would have remembered it…
Knock. Knock.
Marcus looked up and saw Max with his blonde hair back and went pale, “Y-you’re Mad Max!”
“In the flesh…” Max chuckled, “But, something has been bothering me the past couple hours… I need to confirm something… do you have CCTV cameras around?”
