A/N: Okay first and foremost I'd like to say that the poker game scenario is something I picked up from watching the Liar Game (A japanese suspense flick) yeah, so if you guys want to know the proper explanation of the winning tactic, its most likely explained there kekekeke anyways just so you guys know. (+_+)

P.S. I've released my second story guys, hope you like it as well, its called Lingering thoughts of You (shameless self-promotion kekekeke)

Warning: Taeny's relationship's first test.. oh wells and Sooyoung is still dying.. kekeke

"So shall we start?"

The man's words seeped into Tiffany's ears and, though she managed to look calm for the entire time Sunny was in the room, in all honesty, she was afraid... Afraid of going against this man... but she had to, and she was always the type of girl to never give up... she'd hope this wasn't the first time. She gave a confident smile and sat opposite to the man, who by this time had summoned a dealer to their table.

"I will be today's dealer.."

A woman in black stood beside the poker table. "We're playing poker, right?" Tiffany asks all of a sudden and the man before her laughs loudly, confusing Tiffany. "Wahahaha, yes... yes.. poker. But.. not just any type of poker." he answers slyly. Tiffany soon feels a bit of worry crossing her heart, making it beat faster than usual. "What do you mean?" she asks and he laughs out loud again, "We're playing 17 poker" he answers after his laughing fit, and Tiffany could only furrow her eyebrows in confusion. She's never played this type of poker before, and her father always said that a game can only be won if you knew everything about it... its rules, mechanics, winning tactics and also... cheating tactics as well. Her tinge of worry became more of a bucket of ice splashed on her body, making her shiver... She felt stupid for even initiating such a stupid, reckless decision.. but there was no turning back now.. and all she could do was to stand by her decision and make full use of her knowledge on poker, she obtained from all those years she was forced to watch endless poker games at her father's casino, on the order of course by her beloved dad.

"I don't know how to play."

She states calmly, although inside she feels her stomach going in knots and twists.. It was always a bad idea telling your opponent that you weren't aware of the game being played... but somehow she wanted to turn it into an advantage, making him open to arrogance and reckless actions.

"I'll explain it to you both then.."

The girl in black interrupts Tiffany. She takes a new set of cards from under the table and opens it in front of them. She pushes the top coat in a wave and soon all the cards are shown in a semi-circular array. Each card was face-front so they could both clearly see the suit, the color and the number... or rather the faces since apparently this set of cards lacked the number cards.

"The game rules and mechanics are the same of ordinary poker, only the deck is composed of face cards and one joker.. thus a total of 17 cards. The possible winning cards are the same as well, the weakest being one pair.. although the strongest is slightly altered due to the presence of the Joker which the player can use as any face card, he/she wishes to use. To begin a hand, like in regular poker, both players must pay an ante of 100 chips. Once the hand is dealt by me, and given to each of you, the first betting round commences. This is the wager phase, and there are three possible actions you could take, 1) raise, 2) fold which would mean the dealer gets the antes, 3) call. Once the bets are called, cards are exchanged next. After the exchange would be the second betting round and once a call is declared yet again. The cards are revealed. The winner gets all the chips on the table and since each will be given 1000 chips, the final winner would be revealed after 10 rounds when your the opponent has lost all of his chips."

The girl explained and it took a while for Tiffany to actually register her words but she managed to keep in mind the important things like, 1) the game is totally like poker, 2) having the joker seemed to even the odds and 3) she was crazy to talk big and enter this match.. The man before her gave his deck of cards to an usher who was giving them their chips. The dealer pulled out a new deck and again opened it in front of them, she began shuffling the cards first using an overhand shuffle then a dovetail shuffle. Carefully, Tiffany observed her surroundings, the dealer and her opponent. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but she knew something about this game was off. Three matches finished and Tiffany was actually winning, much to her surprise. She felt happy.. she could actually win this, she thought.

Meanwhile, Hyoyeon had finally began feeling better, while Sooyoung's breathing continued to become slow and low. Sunny, Yuri and Jessica were contemplating on how to break out of the prison cell, they were currently in. Although, Tiffany was winning, it had to take 10 rounds for her to actually win the game and Sooyoung's health was slowly declining further. Moreover, the curtain was put back up, since Tiffany's opponent made it as his personal request to have their game private.

"There's gotta be a way outta here.." Yuri mumbled. Sunny nodded and Jessica gave a defeated sigh.. "Well, we need to find it fast... sigh.. if only they didn't take out our earpieces, we could've just asked Yoong or Seohyun." Jessica rubbed her forehead in frustration.

"Unnie.."

Jessica and the two other girls were startled. "Holy Sh*t.. are we hearing things now?" Yuri nervously said looking sideways. Sunny was equally frightened as well, the voice sounded just like Yoona's voice. Was having the earpiece on too long, deluding them to hear Yoona's voice.

"Unnie.."

There is was again, and the three girls kept close to each other, "Yah! Dweebs! She's up there" Hyoyeon who was finally up pointed at the ceiling which had a small square opening, possibly an airvent. Inside the vent was a waving long haired girl with an alligator smile. "Aish!" Jessica crossed her arms and pouted, while Sunny and Yuri face-palmed.

"Unnie, come on. We don't have much time."

"Okay.." Everyone started to help each other getting out of the room and into the vent with Yoona. The tight space only allowed them to sit back and crawl, Sunny helped Sooyoung move.. it was fascinating how slim Sooyoung was, that they were able to fit together in that tight space and it was even more fascinating that the great thinker Sunny was so out of her head that nothing seemed to matter, nothing except saving this girl whose arm was loosely wrapped around her neck, everyone proceeded in a tight line following each others... behinds.. but none the less they reached the end of the vent and jumped down to the ground.

"Come on Orcus! We don't have much time!"

Everyone turned their attention to the midget screaming at her giant, who for some reason was a bit smaller than before but definitely huge enough to almost occupy the room with his height. A couple of black energy balls were also being aimed at the large metal door of the safe. "Wait.. Why do you guys have powers?" Hyoyeon asks randomly, "We all do unnie. Tae-unnie already disarmed the blocking device. We couldn't tell you because we lost contact when you guys were captured." Seohyun answered, "Haha! Praise the midget minions! Who would've guessed the passcode was Mushroom, kekekeke..." Taeyeon added while smiling dorkily at the others. "Yeah, and I had to look for you myself unnies, cause there wasn't any video coverage of those rooms, heh.. luckily I found you guys in time." Yoona added, "Wait.. So.. you guys don't know what happened to us back there?" Jessica asked as she turned to look knowingly at Yuri, then to Sunny and finally to Hyo. The three latter girls just kept quiet. "Hey Yul! Where's my Fany?" Taeyeon asked as she looked over them one by one. Yuri suddenly stiffened her body and moved closer to the safe in front of the smaller girl, "Enough talk Tae. I think we need to hurry." Yuri looked back at Jessica and gave her a 'Don't tell her yet' look and the other girl just nodded. Everyone who was now able, summoned their swords and attacked the safe.

Tiffany on the other hand was getting frustrated. Her winning streak had suddenly come to a complete stop, although she had won 5 rounds already, her opponent seemed to win the next rounds so much easier than her. It was already the nineth round and Tiffany suddenly suspects something from her opponent. She's seen this type of gambler in one of her Dad's casinoes before, how could she have fallen for this type of trick. But, as much as she wanted to risk it, she had to confirm her theory before trying the best possible solution to this mess.

"Let's change the shuffling... I can see you peeking through the cards."

Tiffany calmly says, and her opponent just raises an eyebrow at her. "Let's have two dovetails instead." she presses her claim. The man just smiles slyly and gives a nod of approval, soon the dealer opens up a new pack and does two dovetail shuffles. She looks through her opponent and allows the game to continue as if nothing happened. She observes him closer... and there at that moment she realized it... she was right. Cheater she thought. A small smile creeping up her face as she prepared herself to end this stupid game. She knows, that poker was always a game of bluffs and confidence, somehow she managed to finally come up with the ultimate bluff. The bluff that will win her back her friends.

Booooooom!! Boooom! Blag!! Clank!! Booooom!

The dust and the smoke from the explosions filled the room that the other eight were currently in. Finally, after a few hard shots and attacks the metal door was destroyed, revealing the small pedestal where the small pink crystal awaited them. Taeyeon, Yoona and Seohyun ran towards it, not noticing the others scattered around the room looking for something else. "We got it!" Taeyeon held the crystal giddily and showed it to the maknaes, who were as happy as her, but the others were too busy. "Yah! Guys the crystal's here." Taeyeon shouted at the others but still ignored her. "Aish! Where the hell is it?!?" Jessica shouted in frustration, "Where's what unnie?" Yoona asked, "The antidote, he said it'd be here." Hyoyeon responded, "What?" Taeyeon asked, Yuri and Sunny sighed. "Soo's poisoned.. The antidote's supposed to be here Tae." Yuri explained, "Well, I can just heal her. If you want." Taeyeon suggested but everyone shook their heads, "Its going to get worse if you try to heal her Tae." Hyoyeon answered. "Guys.." Sunny spoke in the confusion. Everyone turned to her, seeing the sadness in her eyes as she looked over at Sooyoung who was coughing out blood.

"I think he lied to us."

The last and final round of poker. Tiffany had perfected her technique during the couple other more rounds she had let him win. She had already realized how he was cheating the game. He had memorized the location of the Joker and he knew how he had done it because she too had done the same... only it wasn't the joker she was memorizing.

"All in"

She smiles confidently at her opponent. He smiles back, "Call." His grin widening as he shows her his cards. It was a full house with the use of the Joker card. "Looks like you've lost, hehehe time to claim my prize." he begins to gather the chips with his hands, "I don't think you wanna do that." Tiffany blankly remarks, the man raising his eyebrow at her. She smiles sarcastically as she finally shows her own hand. It was a four Queens. The man widens his eyes and stands up, "How?!?" she smiles at him in satisfaction. "Simple... Perfect Shuffle." He groans in frustration and randomly throws some of the chips towards the wall. "I win. The passcode for the safe, I need it now." Tiffany demands from him as she stands up from her seat. He turns his gaze towards her, she could see his anger building up. He takes a deep breath and somehow he seemed calm. "The passcode." Tiffany insisted. He grinned and walked closer to her, Tiffany began to feel afraid causing her to step back as he continued to step closer to her. "W-What are you---" Tiffany turned as she felt the table hitting her lower back.

"We had a deal, Miss. I'll give you the passcode, after this."

The man pushes her harshly causing Tiffany to fall on her back, on top of the poker table where they played. She felt his cold hands moving up on her thighs towards her hips, pushing her dress up. She stopped him and was about to fight back, "You didn't think I let your friends escape for free now did you?" she furrowed her eyebrows but after a few seconds she realized what he had said.. "They're safe then?" she lowered her gaze, and he just chuckled,

"Don't worry, I keep my word. Now keep yours."

"I'm sorry Taetae.."

"What are you guys talking about?" Taeyeon questions everyone in the room, "We don't have time Taeng. We have to go back and get Tiff." Jessica manages to answer, and everyone except Taeyeon, Seo and Yoona were aware of what was happening, but it didn't seem to matter as they joined the other who were now using their powers to blow up the walls that divided the building into rooms. After a few more explosions, they managed to reach the prison cell from before. But instead of rushing over to get Tiffany, everyone stopped and stared. The seven other girls looked over to Taeyeon, who had open and was now clenching her fist. Her eyes were growing red and a blue aura was enveloping her. Yuri and Hyoyeon held her arms but she shoved them away. She was angry. How could Tiffany do this to her? Why? Why was a man on top of Tiffany? After a few moments, she couldn't see anything anymore. Everything was black.. pitch black.

A/N: Sigh... I know its taking a long time for the Soosun moment but, just hang in there guys.. cause its on the next chapter kekekekekeke, anyways... Tiffany's gonna have some major explaining to do and well.. Oh and by the way.. Somethig for you guys to ponder on, Since there isn't any antidote.. Is Sooyoung gonna die? wahahahahahaha (^0^)

P.S. Don't cry too much on the next chapter... just kidding

See you~~~~~~>