Busan | October 24 | 21:00

The buzz of the casino floor, the hum of the conversation, the cheers of the occasional people winning, the never ending ding-ding-ding and thunk-thunk-thunk of the slots that make people think someone's always winning when there's really not and the brisk of the shuffled cards.

To Kris Wu, it is the same as a bachelor man's paradise of a big television screen playing a game, a lazy boy chair and a beer in his hand. Kris is home.

He walked around the casino, looking for a familiar face -someone who should be here- but without success. Craning his neck for a few minutes, he decided to stop for a while and play.

"Chips, please," he pulled out several crisps, setting them on green felt. It feels good to be back.

"Sure," The dealer took his money to replace them. She then placed the chips in the table. "Good luck."

"Thank you," Kris looked up and recognized an old friend in the background. He isn't the one who he is looking for, but a familiar face is better than none.

"Twenty. Dealer has nineteen. Good start." The dealer rearranged for a new game. "Alright. I'm going on a break now."

"Here. Thank you very much." Kris said without looking up, knowing the one who is relieving her is a long time friend.

"Thank you. Good luck." The first dealer walked away, while a second dealer replaced her.

"You have a good one," the dealer who replaced her patted the first dealer on the back gently as she walked away. He glanced up quickly, not recognizing Kris at first. "How are you, sir?"

"Hello, Minseok." The dealer glanced up at Kris, his eyes going wide and stops what he is doing briefly. He quickly hid his astonishment as he recognizes an old friend.

"I beg your pardon, sir. You must have me confused with someone else. My name is Xiumin. See?" he tapped the name embroidered on his vest.

Kris continued to smile at Minseok or Xiumin as he liked to call himself, while starring at him. "My mistake."

"No problem, sir." Xiumin replied.

“The table's cold, anyway." Kris said, collecting his chips that have been doubled.

"You might want to try the lounge at the bars. It gets busy around one o'clock." Xiumin suggested, a double meaning behind it.

Kris stood, looking at Xiumin in the eye. "One o'clock?"

Xiumin smiled, glad to see an old friend back out. "Yes, sir."

"Thanks, Xiumin." Kris said, before walking away.

"No.” Xiumin followed him with his gaze. “Thank you."

❇︎

Kris checked his watch -- 12:58 -- then the lounge around him. The prison has more nightlife. He is nursing a glass of bourbon, while reading the newspaper and scans it quickly.

His eyes move down the page and stops at a header "Seoul landmark to be razed: Former Owner Denounces Plans" accompanied by a photograph.

The photograph showed a pale, well-coiffed developer and new owner of the casino, Kim Jinwoo with the microphones of numerous reporters or journalists shoved in his face. Behind him in the photograph, is the scowling former owner of the casino KoKo, Byun Baekhyun.

"Checking up on current events?" A voice said behind Kris. Kris lowered the paper. Minseok is now sitting beside him, changed out of his former outfit of dealer's threads.

"Xiumin?" Kris said disbelievingly.

"Glad to meet you. Kim Minseok can't get past the gaming board." Minseok pointed behind him where he came from. Kris reached for his bourbon. "You just got out?"

"This afternoon," Kris replied, before being direct. That's why he is here. "Have you seen them both?"

Minseok signaled to a passing waitress. She ignored him. Kris sipped his drink while hiding his barely concealed chuckle.

"Last I heard he was teaching movie stars how to play cards. I haven't heard from the girl besides doing a few jobs in Europe last year. He might know where she is, though. Why? You have a plan already?"

Kris hid his worry when he learned she's doing jobs in Europe, but relief and pride are shifting through him when he thinks of her. Kris looked at Minseok for a moment before answering, "Are you kidding? I just became a citizen again."

Minseok stared at the tall guy for a moment, finally catching his eyes. Kris can't help but grin. Of course he has.

The smaller guy turned his eyes to heaven, shaking his head and laughing in disbelief.

"Jesus..."

He dropped his head and stared at Kris for a moment. "It's tough now. Our line of work. Everybody has been so serious. There are too many guns, too much technology. What are you going to do? Steal from ordinary people?"

 “Well, that would be criminal.”

"So what's left? Banks? Hah. Banks don't have any cash now. It's all electronic." Minseok thought it over for a few seconds. Kris let him. He would realize it sooner or later.

"Only place that still takes cash is..." Kris nodded at him to continue. Minseok appeared to have finally got it. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not." Kris retorted.

Minseok leaned over to Kris and yelled at him silently. "A casino?!" He looked around the lounge, paranoid but Kris could see the excitement bubbling over him.

That's it. His friend has gone crazy, Minseok thinks.

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes...." Kris smirked and leaned back.

Well, if his friend is crazy, who is he to judge? "When?"

"Very soon. Interested?"

Minseok smiled. Kris has his answer.

❇︎

"Officer Im Minho? This is Wu Yifan. I was told to contact you within twenty-four hours," he listened. "No sir, I haven't been getting in trouble. No, sir, I haven't been drinking." Kris smiled as he's asked if he's even thinking about leaving the city. "No, sir, I wouldn't even think of leaving the city."

❇︎❇︎❇︎

Seoul | October 24 | 21:00

Yura brushed her dark brown hair to the side at the same time she checked the clock on the current hotel room she has stayed for a few nights. She pushed all the paperwork away, standing up from the comfortable chair she has been seating on for hours and stretched her body. She still has to finalize some plans and make sure that all they need is ready.

The mid-twenties woman walked to the room's bathroom, shrugging her remaining clothes on the way. After showering, she wrapped herself in her bathrobe. She reached for a hand towel in the glass shelves once she saw that the long shower must've caused the mirror to moist. She wiped it the moist off the large mirror and looked at herself with an eyebrow raised.

She gave herself a pep talk. She needed to focus for tonight. Her and the team would be ten figures richer each when the plan she organized would be successful. They planned to steal a historical painting from the museum that her and her fellow thieves are staying a mile away from them, and then replace it with a forged one she painted. Nobody would recognize the forged one has been replaced, only if the art experts would suddenly want to check it up.

She inhaled deeply when she felt a nervous energy running through her. Lee Yura never gets nervous. For Christ's sake, she's one of the most successful thieves out there. Even more successful than the male one and she's also younger than most of them. She made her first big heist at the age of fifteen, doing con jobs with her father when before that. She has done numerous cons and heists without fail.

With a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her soon-to-be-filled with red lipstick lips, she pushed the negative thoughts away. No one is going to ruin the day she planned for almost a month and the couple of weeks she made sure it runs smoothly before they execute it.

She smirked, ready for the day ahead of her.

But... there is one. Or maybe even two.

❇︎❇︎❇︎

Incheon | October 25 | 03:00

Luhan's tall and angular physique is leaning against his Porsche. It’s one of his many car collections. He's lost in thought, eating nacho chips and thinking about how bored he is and how he can make it more exciting, but he knows he has no hope. A man has to earn in some way and teaching movie actors is the only good enough pay for one of his time-offs. It's not exactly worth the ten million won an hour each every time they give him a headache. As good as they are in acting, they are opposite in learning to play poker.

"Hey, Han!" Luhan's head snap towards the voice to one of the actors he's teaching. "Luhan, what's up, man?" He walked away from his car begrudgingly; bringing his chips with him, and threw it in the trashcan along the way.

"Let me ask you a question, are you incorporated?" Changwook inquired, following Luhan like a puppy. Luhan shook his head with a scoff. They entered the club through the private entrance in the side and made their way down the hall. "Well, okay. If you're not you should really think about it, cause I was talking to my manager last night-"

"Taehun." Luhan stated, more than ask.

"No, not Taehun, my business manager..." The actor realized something, "actually, you know what, they're both named Taehun." From this point in the hall, they can hear the club's music, indicating that they are near to the center of the club. "Anyway, he was telling me that because of what we do could be considered, like, research for a future gig or whatever, I could totally make it a tax write-off, the one thing is and this, like, just his thing-" Luhan turned to face him, already predicting what's he going to propose. There's a waitress who passed by in the middle of them, he smiled briefly at her and fixed his tie, "-stupid, but I'd have to pay you by check."

Luhan stared at him, with his arms crossed. Changwook looked at him and felt weak by his unwavering gaze. What a great idea sounds last night just sounds one of his stupidest ideas now.

"Or we could just stick to cash," he melted and Luhan nodded in silent agreement. "Yeah, let's just stick to cash."

❇︎

No matter how many times he says these things, these actors won't just pick up. Actors are supposed to memorize their scripts, why can't they just remember what he has taught them before?

"Jongsuk . To the left. Deal to your left."

"It's not blackjack."

"Blue, that's a fifty."

"How you bet is your business, you want to make them think you're betting for a reason."

"You don't want four. You want to fold."

"You got three pairs. You can't have three pairs. You can't have six cards in a five-card game."

They all started arguing about Geunsuk's extra card. Luhan figured he's going to have gray hair before this game finishes. He just knows it.

And then Changwook has to put the icing on the cake.

"Fellas, fellas, fellas! All reds."

Luhan stared down at the mixture of red hearts and diamonds, then felt like killing himself.

❇︎

The club is packed. He sat at the bar, pressing the cold whisky on the side of his face while staring blankly at the bump and grind show in front of him. People behind him watch the show with approval and amazement, Luhan's not convinced. He has seen better.

Shouting over the music, the bartender asked, "How's the game going?"

"Longest hour of my life," he said truthfully.

The bartender grinned at him, not hearing what he said. "What?!"

"I'm running away with your wife." Luhan cleverly told him, in the same volume.

The bartender smiled at him, not able to hear him, giving Luhan a thumbs up before moving away. He grinned. At least he has something to amuse him even just for a little while.

Behind the bar of two windows with dancers writhing behind red-light- district windows, Luhan caught his own fatigued expression in their reflection. Then out the corner of his eye, he catches sight of a man passing through the pulsating crowd. Someone familiar to him. He followed.

❇︎

Luhan returned to the back room. He skidded to a halt, seeing what he saw earlier is correct. There seating in his chair before is… Wu Yifan.

"Oh, hey Luhan. Uh, we got another player." Changwook introduced him to Kris, not that he needs to that. Kris met his eyes. Luhan nodded a little, a disbelieving smile forming on his face, coupled with an emotion that says it smells bad in this room, "if that's cool with you."

Luhan dealt the next hand.

"Mr. Wu, what do you do for a living? If you don't mind me asking."

"Why would I mind you asking? Two cards." Kris meets Luhan's eyes before adding, "I just got out of prison."

A glance is given among the other players.

Changwook's eyes are wide. "Really?"

"Why were you in prison?" Jongsuk asked, having gathered enough courage to ask what is on the mind of the other players in the room.

"I stole things."

Another few glances around the room.

"You stole things? Like, uh, jewels?"

This time, Luhan replied to them. "Headmasks." Looks are exchanged. Everyone digested that.

"Any money in those headm..?"

"Headmasks," Kris finished with a straight face. "There's some."

"Don't let him fool you," Luhan intercepted, "There's boat-loads, if you can move them." He finished his deal. "I'll take one," he spoke to his left, but this one is for actually Kris, "... but you can't."

"My fence seemed confident enough." Kris said. You know why I did it.

"You're dealing with cash, you don't need a fence," Luhan retorted, but what he really means is - You already have me, .

"Some people just lack vision." I know, I know. I'm here now, aren't I?

"Probably everybody in cell block E." I forgive you, but don't do that again.

A hush silenced the room. Now the other players realized. These two have a relationship, not just any other relationship – it is a criminal one. And judging from their steely glares across the table, it’s not a happy one.

"That's five hu