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partytrick91 · 4 months ago

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If junho had joined the games with inho then he should volunteer in mingle to leave group when lower number is called and find a different one to screw with inho

hey anon sorry this took a while! this was such a fun idea for me to think about when I saw it that it got me out of my writer's block for a bit and I wrote a short fic on it. this 3k word abomination is equivalent to a bomb strapped to my chest and opening it will result in everyone exploding

In-ho looked up to the digital number display board, expectant eyes that knew more than he let up flashing with a hint of an ego that was anything if not just truth in himself. He knew what number was going to be asked for next. He had chosen mingle himself when this year's games were in construction to be made after all.

When the children's song had begun playing again in its near nightmarish tune, with the horrid scenery of blood splattered across the floors and a metallic odour wafted through the air, reminding the remaining players of the unfortunate ones who were left for dead and just weren't fast enough, In-ho started counting.

The melody played and he had steadied his feet on the large circular panel as it began spinning slowly. He could already make out in the corners of his eyes who sought to whoever else, who was looking where to for a possibility to stay alive until the next round. Those who had become each other's closest allies would only group selfishly together, any extra bad egg would be pushed out without another thought and stepped over by a dozen shoes just to be in a safe group of the number called for. Teammates became hard horned flocks of sheep that made the every man for themselves turn into those in their own only. The players who were desperate would pull the sleeve of anybody in their way and not waste any second to look back, it was their life first before anyone else.

The song would stop at forty five seconds in this round, going on much more longer than it did before just to agitate the players and heighten the tension for a sick joy of entertainment. In-ho had reached twenty-three in counting when his eyes drifted to the man standing next to him. His own younger brother beside him wearing that dark green tracksuit with a bright red X stamp on the left side of his chest.

Jun-ho had gotten into the games this time.

His younger brother hadn't wanted to be part of their little team, at least he hadn't wanted to be too friendly with them. He was too tense when standing near In-ho to make any small talk and too in his head about his justice in the waning to really be as friendly as he should've been. He came off stiff, always on edge. Players felt uneasy with him around. In-ho believed it to be mostly the generational guilt that made him that way.

After the vote where In-ho saw his younger brother and his younger brother saw him, Jun-ho had marched up to In-ho and grabbed his hand before yanking him into the lavatory. He pushed (albeit In-ho just let him do all this) him into an empty stall and then complained right in In-ho's face that he couldn't believe his older brother had come down from his “stupid fucking office” just to hinder with Gi-hun's plans himself. Jun-ho had argued about it to him in such a way for twenty minutes In-ho felt as though he were being told not to poke his nose in any business he didn't need knowing about, and it was even more tiresome for In-ho to hear Jun-ho being so persistent on not telling him how or why he was here in the first place when his older brother asked, he started cutting Jun-ho off multiple times asking about it just to try and wear him down as they were bickering in the small bathroom.

In-ho knew why Jun-ho was here. The how part was a given answer already too. His younger brother's knowledge of knowing who Gi-hun was, and the two of them being almost acquainted with each other already had given In-ho everything he needed to know with just a look at the two of them talking amongst themselves from afar.

Around the half hour mark where In-ho started reaching a limit from the nagging of being told to “just go away” continuously, he steeled his face and had to remind Jun-ho that he was the one who made the game this year. In-ho was practically in charge of the entire thing now and Gi-hun had come back with an intention of doing something both brothers already knew about but stood on opposing sides of it and of course In-ho had to intervene.

The two brothers were only able to not rip at each other's heads because of history, shared blood.

“This is literally part of my business.” He responded after Jun-ho spat on about how childish his older brother was acting, only brave enough to do so with the adrenaline rushing through him from the shock of really seeing In-ho again after so long.

In-ho will admit now it was haphazardly in a way of him trying to tell a joke with the chance he had — ‘literally my business because I'm the boss now’ he laughed to himself — but Jun-ho obviously hadn't found it funny at all and grit his teeth as he tried to throw a punch at him to the gut, where In-ho easily caught his fist before he could do anything. He gently told Jun-ho while they held hands together, as though the world around them right now wasn't about playing children's games that meant losing was losing your life in the end, that staying quiet was the best option for him here. In-ho would say after that he'd make it the only option for him if Jun-ho refused to abide.

So in spite of Jun-ho wanting to be on his own most of the time, In-ho would drag his younger brother everywhere he went whether Jun-ho wanted to be there or not. In-ho took his hand in his and Jun-ho could only follow if he didn't want to cause a scene that would have them both seem suspicious. When In-ho's group of “friends” ate together and he saw that Jun-ho was hesitant to join them, In-ho pulled his brother down to sit next to him. They'd be pressed up against one another, shoulder to shoulder as In-ho quietly told Jun-ho in the little space they had to not stuff his mouth like he always did as an eight year old. You could choke, he tells him.

Jun-ho wouldn't say anything to In-ho when they were around each other so closely, whenever In-ho spoke to him that way.

The way a proper older brother would.

He would only ever stay silent after the argument they had in the bathroom, just a use of short words and hums that In-ho deciphered by body and eyes. In-ho could somewhat understand why, other than having told Jun-ho himself to keep a low profile; it was a fear, in case he'd let his guard down in the peace of it all. Nostalgia, maybe. His younger brother didn't want to lose face in the feeling of comfort that inevitably came around when In-ho was here with him.

In-ho couldn't blame him for it, it was reasonable. Though he'd like to say he hid it better.

He counted up to thirty-five now, his eyes glossing over his younger brother who shouldn't have been standing next to him to begin with. Ten seconds and the song would come to a halt, and the scrimmage and yelling would begin and the flock of sheeps would become rampaging bulls.

In-ho, without turning to Jun-ho, instinctively held out the palm of his hand towards him. The habit had kicked in faster than In-ho could reason with himself on it, Jun-ho getting lost was a complete nightmare of a thought for him. If ten year old Jun-ho wasn't walking beside him, school bag much too large for his body that he'd be trying not to topple over so he didn't fall face flat on the gravel, In-ho back then had near killed himself with his own worrying and raked every corner of his hometown to find his baby brother. Jun-ho's little fingers being wrapped in his hand were the only thing that could ever really bring a quiet to In-ho's loud mind, especially with how busy he had been everyday with work.

Five seconds to the stop, In-ho's hand still empty. He shakes it a little, come on. Grab it already. When he doesn't feel the graze of blunt nails along the creases of his palm and as it was supposed to sink in between his own fingers in a tight lock, losing Jun-ho never being a choice, In-ho turns his head to face him at three seconds.

Then he realises. Jun-ho isn't even looking at him.

In-ho's about to demand Jun-ho to hold his hand when his timer hits zero and the song abruptly stops. The lights go out.

The robotic voice echoed through the room “three!” in a playful and nearly endearing manner, you'd think a string of giggles would then follow after and that maybe she had been playing with you the entire time. She was playing with everyone, one could argue, only she couldn't be seen and with the way she spoke so politely you might believe that she'd be kind enough to accept a forfeiting if you had just asked nicely.

In-ho hears shouting from all directions of where he's standing, right hand still outstretched waiting for the only person it's held out for. The real counter starts. Thirty seconds going down, and In-ho's patience that won't wait for his brother's suicide has him making a grab for Jun-ho's hand that pulls away just quickly enough and In-ho's eyes widen when seeing it happen. Jun-ho finally looks at him then, pupils staring from underneath his upper lids. The cold rancour of his gaze was empty of everything but a bitter hostility that In-ho had seen in the days where he had forgotten to pick Jun-ho up from school or tried feeding him vegetables as a kid, except this was more than tenfold of that only immature reluctance. His annoyance and unwillingness bored into In-ho's eyes, heavy of a year of bleak darkness, unmoving. There was a means of violence behind his eyes if he was forced to do whatever it was that In-ho wanted.

Jun-ho was glaring at his older brother, a fratricide almost, and In-ho was told by it as so — he wasn't going anywhere with him.

Twenty six seconds counting down to zero.

A frustrated yell just about tears through In-ho's throat when recognising the untimely act of a grudge, nearly does before both Gi-hun and Jung-bae rush amid the two of them and he sees Jun-ho then blink twice and suddenly his face is curtained with an overwhelming, pure innocence of worrying as his eyes began darting left and right, sweeping across the numerous players who were scrambling around to get into groups of three. Gi-hun hastily tells In-ho, “Young-il”, the obvious: “we need one more person!” But then his eyes bolt to Jun-ho upon noticing him and he realises that there's one too many people and it's a sudden dawning decision on who to take and who to leave behind to find a group of his own.

Fear began crawling up Gi-hun's face with his eyes widening, and it's as though his brain was visibly turning in circles in his head to think of what he should do. But the second he seemed to have thought of something and was about to propose any half baked idea that’s popped up from the top of his head in the spur of the moment, he's cut off when Jun-ho opens his mouth and tells Gi-hun the exact words that In-ho never expected out of him — never wanted to hear roll off from the boy's tongue.

In-ho glances down as Jun-ho plants one foot behind him, and he immediately understands what his brother is about to do and he thinks of killing Jun-ho himself with his own hands.

“Don't worry, I'll find another group. You three should go!” Jun-ho told them in one fell swoop of a breath as though he had been wholly prepared to have said the words beforehand. It carried such a firm determination that it briefly had the other two older men believe that death would back down even if it had found Jun-ho to be the only player standing without a group at the end of the countdown. But In-ho was far, far from stupid, having known Jun-ho since he was born and fortunate to not have grown blind with age either. The split second of a loathing that was unmistakably directed towards him bearing down on In-ho with the weight of a mountain hadn't gone unnoticed by him.

Jun-ho wasn't playing the self sacrificing hero for them.

Jun-ho, in the absolute worst and as he believed to be the best time of all, was hoping this rebellion against his older brother was enough of an act of revenge. Payback against In-ho for all of the miserable days of his younger brother unable to even walk after waking up from his coma. The painful hours of rehabilitation to simply be himself again and the empty chair that sat next to him everyday when he had dinner with his mother who could only ever be in tears and he couldn't say a word to her — and here was In-ho. The man who shot him in the shoulder not so long ago, ordering his younger brother around to properly behave so his mouth was kept shut so as to not slip a word or two to any of the players that maybe a wolf had managed to hide in the herd and was planning to eat all of them when the time for it arrived. Here was In-ho playing the good guy.

The nerve of you, the glint in Jun-ho's eyes laughs.

When In-ho had seen this — what this was for Jun-ho was no more than a try at his older brother where if In-ho wanted to do anything to him now, it would waste each second of a chance for the people in his team to live. His younger brother must've turned deranged. In-ho found the entire thing to even be proof to point a finger and declare Hwang Jun-ho had finally gone mad.

His ceaseless affection and understanding for Jun-ho's well being, in the dim lights and the terrorising cries going we need two! one! three! people! with puddles of carmine blood drying up and sticking to the floors all around them, it had all completely balled up into a spit of outrage over his younger brother's (In-ho would like to say ‘wretched and idiotic’) “selfless decision” just to get back at him and most of all even choosing to do such a thing now.

In-ho took a step forward, brows knitted together with each and every line showing and his lips tightened into a deep frown, “what on earth are you doing?” and he reaches for Jun-ho's hand but Jun-ho takes another step back with his eyes never leaving In-ho's twisting face of utter astonishment that his younger brother was honestly rejecting the promise of safety that stood right in front of him with the catch that either Jung-bae or Gi-hun would be left to find anybody else just to make a fool out of In-ho's feelings. There was not at all a real reason for Jun-ho to refuse to go with In-ho except to actually irritate his older brother in the most extreme possible way by risking his own life in doing so.

Jun-ho's vow in that he would definitely get to another group in time — “Don't worry,” he had said — had Gi-hun in that mullish belief of his, clutch onto In-ho's shoulder and tug him backwards with Jung-bae next to him.

Fourteen seconds for them to try and reach a door without being slammed out of the way by other players. It's the same fourteen seconds for his younger brother to find two others to group with and would save Jun-ho half the time he had if he just went with them, if he had just decided to suppress the habit of a need to push back at his older brother like a child.

In-ho lets himself be dragged away in the opposite direction from Jun-ho and he thinks to shout his name a dozen times in an explosion of his annoyance but doesn't. He rationalises with himself first, blinks his eyes shut and tries to calm down, Jun-ho making it to the next round without In-ho's supervision constantly on him was possible, odds were higher than most. But his brother deciding to mess around in the midst of the commotion that risked his own elimination had In-ho's blood boiling. He thinks that the second Jun-ho steps out from one of those coloured doors for the next round, In-ho will take him by the collar and give the boy an earful of how he could’ve died choosing to do something so stupid, drag him by the ear so he can only follow wherever In-ho pulls him. He feels hims starting to get light headed from the entire idea of his younger brother having planned on doing this from the start, or had it been that he thought of just then when In-ho held out his hand to him? In-ho could hear Jung-bae poorly trying to comfort him with a string of babbling about how Jun-ho will be fine.

While In-ho was being hauled off to any doors still open for them with Gi-hun's grip on his shoulder that was just near to tearing the fabric of his track top, he lifted his head for another glimpse at his younger brother. Jun-ho’s eyes had never left In-ho’s own when he was pulled back, he saw his older brother’s exasperated expression pointed towards him, narrowed black eyes with even darker bags beneath and the wrinkles between his brows as In-ho tried to hold himself back from ripping out of the hold on him to reach Jun-ho and shout at him in a fit of his temper. In-ho watched slowly as a smile grew on his younger brother’s face. It was almost hysteric to look at, his lips parting open to reveal two rows of white teeth, upper and bottom sets clenched against each other in an almost bright and wide grin for In-ho to see as Jun-ho began to turn on his heel to those who were still looking for one more in their group. He could hear it then, one burst of a squeak blown from a colourful wand with a star shape on top, floating through the arena in glistening soapy bubbles — Jun-ho had giggled.

In-ho’s shoved into a room, walls coloured yellow and a smell of sweat floods into his nose and he coughs. He sees Gi-hun rushing to hold the door close using his entire body with Jung-bae following behind him to help. “Jun-ho will make it,” Gi-hun says, voice breaking at the last bit and either he's saying it to himself or In-ho, the brother doesn’t know. But In-ho nods his head anyway even if the other man can’t see him, trying to assure his own mind of what had just happened.

There was Jun-ho turning him away just to irk him, then he remembers the little noise that came afterwards. Nevermind that, he shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose when Gi-hun and Jung-bae start yelling over each other on which way was best to properly keep the door shut. In-ho imagines again that when he sees Jun-ho, he’ll give him a slap on the wrist and a firm warning, In-ho thinks he should tell Jun-ho how much trouble he’s caused for the group and even demand his younger brother give everyone an apology.

He takes a breath in, coughs again before shaking his head and running a hand over his face. During the special game later, he’ll just take one or two of Jun-ho’s gimbap. That would be enough to teach him something.

(again thanks for sending this ask to me anon! I know this might be an overdone answer but the idea of Junho annoying Inho to "screw with him" was so fun to try and write for me)

#LOVE IT #fic #hwang in ho #hwang jun ho

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