The dealer stood up from her seat and stepped aside without being asked.
Lady Luck slid over into it, still grinning around her lollipop, and pulled the deck of hwatu cards toward herself across the green felt. She didn't shuffle them the way the dealer had, carefully and evenly. She just picked them up, split the deck with one hand, and let the two halves fall back together in a soft rattle. She did it once. Twice. Then she set the deck down in the middle of the table and spread her hands.
"Same rules," she said. "Two cards each. Pairs beat everything. Highest pair wins. No pair, count the numbers, highest last digit takes it." She looked at Kyung-min and Hyunwoo. "You two know how to play. I watched the last hand from the door."
Kyung-min swallowed.
"Should we be worried?" Hyunwoo murmured beside him.
"No," Kyung-min said, a little too quickly. "No. It's fine. It's just cards. Cards are cards."
He did what he always did.
He looked ahead.
