Yoshi (extras) (02)

(2006.02.26. Yossi’s residence.)
Yossi and Rika, Miki and Aya, Makoto and Konno and Miuna were in the living room playing Big-2.

Miki adroitly rearranged the cards. It turned out to be…

♠A ♠K ♠Q ♠J ♠10
♥A ♥K ♥Q ♥J ♥10
♠6 ♣6 ♦6

Ayaya, who was seated beside Miki, gasped. It was the most beautiful hand she had ever seen. Two royal flushes and a triple six - a dream hand in a game of Big-2. She peered at Miki, who looked to be equally excited with the good hand but trying hard to keep a straight face.

Their excitement was understandable. Their revenge time had come. For this last game, they were going to recoup all their losses. And the execution was simple. The minute someone played 5 cards, it would then be all over. Since there was no other combination in a poker game that was bigger than the two royal flushes in Miki’s hand, they should win the game with ease. A clean sweep it would be. And just the thought of this made Ayaya glow from the bottom of her heart. But she tried not to smile too obviously as facial expression of any kind was a big taboo in a game of poker. She gave another glance at Miki, who seemed to be getting impatient…

“Oui~ Oui~ Who is holding Diamond Three? Osoi yo! It’s only thirteen cards, not thirty!” Miki ranted as she knocked her knuckles on the table top.

“Wait. I’m holding it…” Yossi voiced as she did some final adjustments to her card sequence. After getting a confirmation nod from Rika, she put out a single Three of Diamond on the table.

Miuna, who was seated on Yossi and Rika’s right, was next to go and put out a Three of Spade. Next was Makoto and she jumped two ranks by playing a Five of Clubs. Reaching Miki’s turn, Ayaya, on initiative, reached for the Six of Diamond in Miki’s hand but found her hand being slapped away. She turned to her girlfriend and frowned. Besides disapproving the slap, she knew what Miki was planning to do, to end the game ‘glamorously’ with a showhand of all 13 cards at a go. But Ayaka didn’t quite like the idea. She felt that it didn’t matter if they end the game with twelve or thirteen cards.

“Pass!” Miki said, ignoring Ayaya’s questioning look.

“Are you sure?” Makoto asked.

“Errmm…” Miuna rubbed her chin and speculated. “Then she must be holding all the pairs.”

“All right then…” Seeing that Miki wasn’t going to dispose any cards, Yossi put out a Two of Spade and Miuna, Makoto and Konno immediately cried out loud.

“That was fast!” Miuna shrieked.

“Bad… this is bad…” Makoto cursed as she shook her head from side to side, a frown etched across her forehead.

The girls’ reaction was just as Yossi had expected. And Rika was trying hard to stifle her giggle while Miki was getting agitated again.

“Aho!” she barked. “Are you waiting for Christmas? You think there’s another card bigger than that? Pass, PASS!” she tapped hard on the table top.

Yossi grinned, and with deliberate slowness, she produced three cards from her hand. “Triple Sevens.”

Miuna rolled her eyes. “Pass,” she said.

Makoto took one last look at her cards and said the same.

When it was Miki’s turn, she looked at her three sixes and cursed. Damn… it’s just one point short.

“Pass,” she said resignedly.

Yossi nodded approvingly. After consulting Rika, she displayed a combination of three eights.

“Pass,” Miuna said and looked worriedly at the couple on her left, searching for signs that her hunch might be right. And when she saw Yossi smirking, she began to feel unsettled.

Makoto looked at her cards. She had no ‘three of a kind’. The biggest combination she got was two pairs of Ace and King. She looked at Yossi and then at Rika, who too, was trying hard and yet unsuccessful to hide the smirk on her face, and Makoto began to wonder why couples somehow managed to resemble each other after being together for some time.

“Pass…” she finally said and secretly prayed that Miki would produce something to stop Yossi.

But just as Makoto was relying on Miki, Miki was in fact hoping that Makoto could stop Yossi. So when she heard Makoto said ‘pass’, she became hysteric. “Are you sure!!!” she shouted. “Yossi is gonna game!” Throwing all manners away, she pushed down Makoto’s cards and checked. Seeing that Makoto only had two Aces instead of three, she became resigned. She then stared hard at her own three sixes - too small again. If only she could change one of them to either a Q, a J or a 10, then she would have a ‘three of a kind’ that could easily beat the three eights Yossi had put out.

“Osoi yo!” said Yossi, mimicking Miki’s tone. She wanted to irritate the latter and it obviously did.

“PASS!” Miki slammed her hand on the table and lay against the back of her chair. Her hunch told her Yossi was going to end the game with her last 5 cards. But when Yossi did nothing of the above but allowed her hands to hover above two cards, a happy thought hit Miki.

“She is going to play a pair?”

Miki quickly looked at her cards in hand. Two Aces, two Kings, two Queens, two Jacks and two Tens, and she knew she owned some very big pairs. “Finally,” she thought and grinned. When Yossi played a pair, she was going to take control of the game.

“A pair of Two,” Rika said as Yossi spread the cards out clearly on top the pile on the table.

Miuna, Makoto, Konno, Miki and Ayaya all looked at the remaining three cards in Yossi’s hand with only one thought in mind… the remaining three cards had to be either a pair and a single card or three single cards. And most probably, Yossi would produce a pair and end her game with a single card…

But Miki was already thinking one step further. “Yossi’s definitely playing a pair. The highest pair now is this pair of Aces which I’m holding now, so when Yossi plays out a pair, I’ll be able to take charge.” She nodded her head smugly. Finally she could turn tides around. She glanced at Ayaya, who seemed to be sharing the same thoughts, and winked. All was not lost yet.

“What are you waiting for now? New Year’s Day?” Makoto quipped sarcastically. The drama was killing her. As any idiot would know that nothing could beat a pair of Two in the game of Big-2.

“All right then,” Yossi showed her final three cards of three nines. “GAME!”

“WHAT!” the five girls screamed in unison.

“Miuna with twelve cards, Mako-chan with twelve and Mikitty…” Rika counted.

With thirteen cards still in hand, it was obvious to Miki that she was the biggest loser. Miki then remembered that if she had allowed Ayaya to throw out a six earlier, they wouldn’t be the biggest loser because all three players would be left with twelve cards each and Miuna would then be the biggest loser because she was holding a Two of Clubs, the biggest single card left in play.

“BAKA!!!!” Miki stood up and shouted. After throwing her cards down on the table, she turned to Yossi and said. “A pair of two just now and these three nines…” she pointed at the winning cards which now seemed to be mocking her. “They’re a full house. AHO! Don’t you know you can game it earlier?”

However, the greater the outburst from Miki, the louder Yossi and Rika laughed. That, precisely was their intention when they purposely split up the full house and played it separately. It was called a red herring.

Then Ayaya started laughing too. And when everybody was wondering why Ayaya was laughing when she had lost, she flipped open Miki’s cards that was lying face down on the table and showed it to others. When the girls saw the pair of royal flushes that never got to see light, they started to crack up so loud and hard that tears began to form in their eyes.

“MOU~” Miki grunted and pushed her cards into the messy pile in the middle of the table. However her childish move to destroy the evidence only served to make her a bigger laughing stock.

Even Tsuji, Asami, Saito and Shibata, who had been barbequing in the backyard, were attracted by the ruckus going in the house and had walked in. Badly needing a place to hide, Miki stormed past them and into the backyard. Enough was enough. Her pride was badly bruised, and her pocket too…

DAMM!!! DAMM!!! DAMM!!!

She screamed in her head. Their bet was that the loser had to pay for the taxi fares of others. And she knows taxi fares aren’t cheap in Tokyo. The worst of it all; all these just had to happen on her birthday party…