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royaltywritesstuff · 3 days ago

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Game of a Lifetime

summary: you join the games desperately needing money for the debt your parents had left you in. it didnt take long for you to realize you had messed up big time. you make your way through the first two games making a team that turns into a group of friends (i such at summaries sorry).

story's content (lowkey used this like ao3 tags a bit sorry): usual squid game death, games, and violence, angst, hurt, comfort, fluff, y/n is NOT used, she/her pronouns used for reader, hyun-ju x female reader, reader has anxiety, anxiety and panic attacks, readers parents are assholes, readers parents taught her how to shoot, fight, and kill though, homophobia, transphobia, hyun-ju and reader both have scary dog privileges with each other, lowkey reader wanting hyun-ju in the worst moments, mention like brief brief of sh (reader has sh scars), protective reader and hyun-ju, possessive reader and hyun-ju, reader rocks a man's shit for hyun-ju, you hunt down and kill player 100, reader is lowkey sadistic during keys and knives and jump rope, something snaps inside reader when you enter the keys and knives arena, hyun-ju is kinda into it, hu=yun-ju kills myung-gi(player 333), background Jun-hee x Se-mi x Young-mi at the very end, happy ending.

18+ MINORS AND MEN DNI

suggestive themes and violence

Wordcount: 22.2k

if i missed any please let me know, i make mistakes and forget things :) i also apologize for spelling mistakes, or any other mistakes at that. i didnt proofread this nor do i have a proofreader, so pls feel free to point them out and i will fix them !! the beginning i was getting a feel for things again so if later on my writting seems better thats why. if i missed any warnings pls lmk

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You joined the games thinking it'd be something easy like what happened in the subway with the man in the suit, but this is completely different. You’re playing a bunch of life and death games with like 400 different people.

Seeing the woman, 196 you think her number was, get shot for moving during red light was when you realized you fucked up. You fucked up big time. You weren't made to be in these games. You weren't made to hurt and betray people like almost everyone else here.

As you sit in your bed, back leaned against the wall, legs drawn up to your chest with your arms wrapped around them, food long forgotten; you just replay the events of the first game.

A man, 456 you remember his number had been yelling at the start of the game and no one believed him. You had a feeling he was right but didn't want to believe it, yet as the first person died your gut sank. You should have listened. Shouldn't have called him crazy in an off comment to another player. It's too late now, not like it mattered. People have said and done way worse.

You're pulled out of your head when someone clears their throat next to your bed.

"Excuse me," she said softly once she noticed you were more present "are you going to eat dear?" The older woman asked with a concerned look in her gaze.

"I uhm," you cleared your throat getting rid of the rasp in your voice "I'm actually not really that hungry. If you want it, you can have it." You say with a smile that doesn't quite reach your eyes as you look up at her. You see the numbers 149 on her chest and take note before meeting her eyes.

Her eyes widen at your kindness.

"No, no dear I didn't mean it like that! I meant it as in, you need to eat." She says quickly. You just shake your head.

"I'm not hungry when I get stressed, so please, take it." You say handing it to her. She smiles gratefully at you.

"Well then you wait here as I go grab my son, the least we can do is give you company!" She says nodding her head to herself. "You have this nice corner too!" She says before turning to go find her son.

While she was gone you had found yourself watching a tall woman who was across the room. She was sitting alone on her bed keeping to herself. She didn't look up or around the room. She looked kind and caring. You remember her from the first game; how she had taken a position at the front of a line and then she even helped the yelling man when he and another player almost fell during a red light.

Before you can watch the woman for too long movement catches your attention and you look over to see 149 and another player, 007 walking over. You meet the woman's eye as she walks over and sits down on the end of your bed and the man sits on the steps in front of her.

"This is my son dear!" She says with a nod towards the man.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Park Yong-sik." He bows his head.

"Oh! Forgive me, I didn't introduce myself sooner, I'm Jang Geum-ja." The woman smiles. You smile back and give them your name.

The three of you sit and talk till it's time to sleep. You stay in your bed while they find 2 empty beds by yours.

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You woke up to the lights being on and a song playing softly in the speakers. You squint your eyes and see a bunch of other players doing the same thing. You slowly sit up and get out of your bed. You look over and see Yong-sik helping Geum-ja, once they're ready to go you follow the rest of the players to the second game.

You walk in the room looking up at the tall walls and ceiling, the detail that was put into making this room give you a feeling of false security makes you put your guard up even more. You stop to listen to the person on the speaker telling you to split up into teams of five.

"Well, that means we just need two more!" Geum-ja said happily. You nodded in agreement scanning the crowd of players seeing most players flock to other players they consider strongest or most comfortable with.

Your eyes find her quickly as she walks up to a group of men who need another player, you watch as they just look at her disgust and look away. She just looks down and moves on.

"Stay right here, I'm going to go grab someone." You say quickly over your shoulder and make your way through the crowd to her.

"Hey," you say to her kind of out of breath from fighting through the crowd "would you want to join my group?" You ask and point over to Geum-ja and Yong-sik. You didn't expect her to be this much taller than you. You'd guessed she was about 6ft, but she seems so much taller up close. She looks down at you and meets your gaze.

"Yeah, that'd be great actually." She says with a soft smile.

The two of you are making your way back through the crowd when you spot another woman who was just walking around by herself without a group. You push past two men who were blocking your way. They whipped around to say something but when they saw who was following you, they quickly turned back around.

"Excuse me?" You say lightly grabbing the woman's arm, trying not to startle her or make her uncomfortable. She slowly turns to look at you. "Would you like to join our group?" You ask with a soft smile.

"Y-yes please." She says with a slight nod.

"Follow me." You say looking at her and then the taller woman. They both nod at you.

By now most people have divided into their teams of five making it easier for you to get back to Geum-ja and Yong-sik.

When Geum-ja sees you followed by the two women she smiles ecstatically.

"Good, good!" She says with her arms spread. Before she can say anything else the voice in the speakers announces that the time for picking your team is up. She explains the next rules of the games, and everyone moves to the middle of the two rainbow circles.

As you stand up for your turn your stomach sank with dread and anxiety. Not eating did nothing to help, and watching every other group before you fail had drained the hope from you. But as you were shackled to your teammates you took a deep breath. You can't give up before you even start the race. You had a team to work with, and everyone seemed good at the game they chose. You hoped your anxiety wouldn't mess you up too much when it came to spinning top.

As your team linked arms and got ready to start you took one more deep breath before the race started. Your team arrived at Ddakji quicker than you expected and the woman you grabbed at the last minute, player 095 you noted once you had sat in the middle of the circle grabbed the red one and the circle guard placed the blue one down on the ground. You watched as she failed her first try, she tried again and again. You felt the woman next to you place her hand around you as she leaned forward to look at the woman on the other side of the line.

"Tilt it." The woman, player 120 on your right says to 095. You look at her, you stare at her admiring her as she helps the struggling woman by giving her tips.

"Pass." Breaks you out of your trance, your team and the players watching cheer; you quickly link arms and move to the next game.

Yong-sik misses the first few throws of flying stone and Geum-ja is quick to snap out of, you don't know what she said, just that it was something about someone who the man disliked. He threw the stone and knocked the other one over. The other players broke out into cheers as your team linked arms and moved onto the next game.

Gonggi, Geum-ja had picked to play this one confidently. Your team crouched down with her as she threw the pieces up and caught them. She messed up dropping one, Yong-sik was quick to reassure her before she tried again, but she dropped another piece. Yong-sik gave her a pep-talk about who she was and on her next attempt ended with everyone hearing a 'passed.' Followed by cheers from you and other players.

Spinning Top, what you've been dreading. You grab the top and rope, taking a deep breath before slowly but surely wrapping the rope around the bottom the top. You gasp when the rope slips from the coil you had it in around the top. You quickly try again you almost have the rope halfway in the coil when it slips again due to your shaking hands.

"Fuck." You mutter as you look at the rope and top briefly before glancing at the time.

"It's alright. We have the time." You hear from your right. You look up at her to find her looking at your eyes. She nods encouragingly. You nod back shakily. You feel your hands shake more as you sniffle. You start to wrap the rope and when you're almost finished it slips and you just start crying, you don't care about the number of eyes on you; the meal you skipped yesterday along with your anxiety comes crashing down all at once. Your hands shake uncontrollably as you look back down and go to try again with tears running down your face.

You're stopped by two hands on yours.

"Hey." She says calmly, you look up at her, tears still running down your face. "You've got this. Just breathe, focus. You were bragging about how good you were at spinning top. Remember how much of a breeze this is to you." She says not looking away from your eyes, she squeezes your hands and smiles at you sweetly. You nod sniffling again and wiping your face.

"Okay." You say softly not looking away from her eye. "Yeah, okay. You're right." Your voice becomes more confident and sounder as you talk. You nod one more time before she squeezes your hands one last time before letting go. You take a deep breath and hold it for a few seconds before letting it go. You get the rope around the top successfully; you take one last deep breath before you let the spinning top go, flicking back your wrist as you throw it. You watch in disbelief as the top spins perfectly.

Everyone cheers and you laugh and smile with relief as player 120 grabs your arm in excitement. Then your team links arms and moves.

Jegi, the game that you were the worst at and the one that the woman on your right was confident in.

"Turn around." The tall woman said, looking at you and your other teammates. Geum-ja went to say something but both you and Yong-sik stopped her and just turned her to look away. You heard her tell the players watching the same thing.

Everyone went quiet as everyone was looking away as she kicked the jegi. You counted in your head each kick; as soon as she hit it for the fifth time you waited for the speaker to say 'Pass.' before turning around and cheering. Your team quickly locked arms and made your way to the finish line. Just as the timer hit zero you crossed the finish line, marking you as the first team to win the Six-Legged Pentathlon. All the players erupted into cheers when you crossed the line.

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At mealtime your team had gathered around at your bed, you are sitting on your bed, Geum-ja sitting on the foot of the bed opposite of yours, Yong-sik sitting next to her, player 120 next to you, and player 095 sitting on the floor in between the two beds.

"What's your names?" You ask once everyone has settled into their spots. "I meant to ask before the game started." You look between the two women.

"I'm Kim Young-mi." The woman with the number 095 on her jacket says. You smile at her and nod.

"I'm Cho Hyun-ju." The woman next to you says as she looks down at the floor below her feet.

"Nice to meet you both officially." You say looking between the two before giving them your name. Geum-ja and Yong-sik also properly introduce themselves.

"You know, once we get out of here, we can all come over to my place for dinner!" Geum-ja says after with a wide smile.

"Yeah, that'd be nice." You say softly looking up at everyone.

While talking with everyone you had taken off your shoes and moved to lean back against the wall and hug your legs. Hyun-ju had moved and leaned against a poll of your bed; Young-mi was still sitting on the floor, but she had moved to lean her back against the bed Geum-ja and Yon-sik were sitting on.

All of you continued talking until it became time to vote, you all stayed near each other as they started calling numbers to vote starting at 001.

"Player 120." The square guard says. You look at her as she takes a deep breath. She meets your gaze and sends you a small nervous smile, you send her a reassuring one back. She walks up to the buttons and stands there for a moment before you hear the higher pitch of the circle being pushed. You looked up at the vote count and see a vote get added to the O side. You hear Geum-ja next to you gasp.

"What's she doing?" She whispers to you.

"I-I don't know." You want to defend her knowing what you're going to vote but you're scared of how she'd react. "I'm sure she has her reasons. Why don't you ask her after the vote." You say as Hyun-ju meets your eyes as she walks to the O side. You look over at the X side as you hear Young-mi crying.

"I just want to go home." Is all you hear from her before Yong-sik moves to comfort her. You look back over to Hyun-ju who refuses to look up from the floor. You let out a sigh.

"Player 444." You hear and you step forward and past all the people who watch you walk up to the buttons. You look between the red X and the blur O in front of you.

"Fuck." You whisper to yourself and push the blue O button quickly, taking a blue patch and looking at the floor as you walk over to the O side.

You walk up and stop next to Hyun-ju, refusing to look up at anyone, but you feel her eyes on you. You don't know if it's shock, disbelief, or something else but you don't want to find out.

As soon as the voting is over you leave and go to your bed not wanting to meet anyone's eyes still. You hear Hyun-ju behind you; her presence is soft and just there, not too much, not pushing.

You hear the sounds of their footsteps and the sound of Yong-sik calling after his mom.

"What happened to dinner?" The first thing she asks when she reaches your bed where you're in the same position as before, shoes off, back against the wall, legs up to your chest, and your arms wrapped around them; only the only thing that's different is the tears running down your face.

"Mom, I'm sure they have reasons!" You hear Yong-sik say to her as she looks between you and Hyun-ju, who is sitting on the edge of your bed next to you; her position putting you behind her, so she takes the majority of Geum-ja's harsh looks of disappointment.

"Go on, what are they?" She asks her head tilted up.

"My parents, they uh, they were deep into gambling and spent every paycheck they got on gambling. Bills weren't getting paid, food barely going on the table, birthdays and holidays missed and forgotten." You paused as you sniffled back a hiccup. "Eventually all the debt they had come back to them, and they were murdered by a man they owed a lot of money to." You paused and picked at the nonexistent fuzz on your pants. "They left me no money, the house taken away. I had no place to live. The same man that killed them decided it was my job to pay my parents debts." You finally look up; you meet Hyun-ju's eyes first then slowly everyone else's before looking back at your pant leg. "They left me nothing, so I had to work. It was nowhere near enough though." You pause again for a second. "I just need one more game. That'll finish off paying the debts they left me." You finish looking up at them all. "I'm sorry." You say and wipe the tears running down your face and hug your legs tighter.

"Everything was fine before I told people who I really am. Sure, some people thought I was a bit strange, but I never had any big issues. But once I told people I wanted to live as a woman and started transitioning, everything changed. My mom cried a lot, and my father stopped talking and calling me. I was fired from my job and all my friends stopped talking to me. I wasn't done with the treatment and procedures, yet I wasn't earning any money, so my debt kept piling up. Although I felt liberated, my life had become so much harder." She pauses and takes a deep breath; you place your hand on top of hers as an encouragement, she looks up and meets your gaze you give her a small nod and a soft smile. She smiles back, eyes full of tears as she looks down.

"You are beautiful." You say holding eye contact when she finally looks at you, her eyes full of tears.

"When I get out of these games I plan to move to Thailand and finish my transition." She says finally looking up at everyone else.

The group continued to talk as you spaced out, Hyun-ju hadn't moved her hand from under yours. You squeezed it as you spaced out staring at the bed in space in front of you. She looked back at you before she shifted her position to lean her back against the pole on the corner of your bed. Her shoulder next to yours.

"You okay?" She asked softly so only you could hear her. You looked at her as you nodded a bit.

"Yeah. Are you?" You ask and tilt your head a bit. She nods and looks down at the bed between you.

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You woke up in the middle of the night needing to urgently use the bathroom; you looked at the beds around you and saw both Hyun-ju and Geum-ja's beds empty. You got up quickly and hear Geum-ja talking to someone.

"She's a woman, she can come too." You catch as you walk up before she spots you. "Oh her too!" She says with a smile. You give her back a smile before you see another woman between her and Hyun-ju. You study her for a minute before you look up at Hyun-ju to see she's already looking at you; her eyes asking if you're okay. You nod at her before tilting your head in asking the same question; she nods and smiles softly.

The four of you follow the guard into the bathroom, the woman you don't know, player 222 immediately goes into a stall and locks it. You go into a stall and lock it.

When you leave the stall you see Hyun-ju at the sinks, Geum-ja, and player 222 both in stalls. You walk up to the sink beside the tall woman; you wash your hands as Hyun-ju tries to fix her bangs.

"You want help?" You ask her softly. She looks at you through the mirror as you dry your hands with paper towels. She nods softly.

“Yes please.”

You walk up to her and rewet your hands; you reach up and start fixing her bangs for you. She stands there leant up against the sink and watches you. You look down and meet her eyes.

"You know I meant it right?" You ask softly as you lean back a bit to give her more space.

"What?" She asks, tilting her head.

"That you're beautiful." You hear her breath hitch causing your chest to tighten a bit. You see as the tips of her ears tint with blush. She looks down quickly letting her hair fall and hide her blush. "Seriously. You're stunning." You say as you grab her chin gently and make her meet your gaze. Her blush deepens as she meets your eyes. You smile softly at her before looking up at her bangs. "There." You say as you take a step back so she can turn around and see for herself. As she looks at her bangs, she meets your eyes.

"Thank you." She says in an almost whisper.

"For what?"

"For caring, for helping me." She says as she turns back around to face you.

"You did the same thing for me." You say not looking away.

"Yeah, I guess, but this is different."

"How so?"

"It-" She pauses and looks down at the tiled floor. "It just is."

You go to reply but hear a sob come from a stall. You turn around and see Geum-ja had come out of her stall and just finished washing her hands at the sinks across the room. The older woman looks up at you and Hyun-ju before looking at the stall the fourth woman that came in here with you had entered.

"Dear, are you alright?" She asks as she walks up to the stall. After a few exchanged words that you didn't catch, the stall opens and Geum-ja crouches down and comforts the woman. You look back at Hyun-ju before the both of you slowly walk up to the stall.

"Is she alright?" You hear Hyun-ju ask over your shoulder, she's closer than needed but you don't it doesn't bother you like it normally would.

"She's pregnant." The woman crouched down says. Your eyes widen and you hear Hyun-ju's breath catch in surprise behind you. After the woman, Jun-hee, learned was her name was okay, the four of you left the bathroom and made your way back to your beds.

You lay down and look to your left to see Hyun-ju just sitting up with her back against the wall in her bed.

"You okay?" You whisper to her. She looks over at you.

"Yeah." Her voice broke a little. You frowned at her even though you knew she couldn't see it.

"Wanna talk about it?" You move over to the right to make room for her in your bed. You pat the space next to you as you sit up. Reluctantly she moves over to your bed and sits next to you. "What's wrong?"

"What you said after we told Ms. Jang why we voted O and then repeated in the bathroom."

"Did I make you uncomfortable by saying that? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry." You quickly spit out before she stops you by lowering her head, so you meet her eyes.

"No, you did nothing like that." She chuckles softly. "Quite the opposite actually. No one's called me beautiful like that, with that much meaning behind it. Not with that much care." She says as she plays with her hands anxiously.

"Well then they're fucking stupid." You say with a stern tone that surprises her. She looks up from the bed up to you just to find you staring daggers into the blanket. "They clearly haven't looked at you. I mean truly looked at you. You're stunning from just a glance across the room. But when you really look, you're magnificent." The more you speak the softer your tone gets. Hyun-ju just stares at you while you talk. When you look up because of how quiet it is you meet her teary gaze. "What?" You whisper softly.

"Nothing." She whispered back and shook her head slightly. Instead of saying anything she took a breath. "Can I sleep here tonight?" She asks softly, letting out her breath and looking down at the blanket.

"Of course." You say with a firm nod. You wanted to bring up how she so clearly wanted to say something else, but you weren't going to push it; therefore, instead you lifted up the blanket and slid under it, laying down and holding it up for her.

"Thank you." She says once she's settled under the covers. You nod and turn over on your side facing away from her; the space left between her front and your back was so small you could feel the heating radiating off of her.

You let out a sigh and settle further into your pillow, shortly after she hears your breathing slow and find a steady pace. She falls asleep to the sound of your breathing.

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You woke up to the feeling of an arm wrapped around your waist, breath hitting the back of your neck, and your back pressed against the front of someone else. Your sleepy state makes you take a moment to remember Hyun-ju sharing your bed with you. You smiled and looked back at her still sleeping form over your shoulder. You looked forward again as you wondered how long you had to enjoy this before the lights turned on and you had to get ready for the next game.

Although you were still sleepy you were content to just lay here and let Hyun-ju hold you. You normally wouldn't let a woman you met just yesterday hold you like this but you both needed it; you didn't know why or how, but this felt different. No, it was different. This woman had stopped you from having a panic attack in front of hundreds of people, she took the brunt of the harsh looks when you both voted O, and she made sure you were okay before telling her own story.

At some point while you just let yourself lay there and get lost in your thoughts, your arm moved and sat on top of hers, your hand drawing meaningless patterns into her jacket's sleeve.

You don't know how much time has passed since you woke up and just decided to lay here but you felt the woman behind you tighten her arm around your waist and somehow pull you closer; she took a deep breath as she tucked her head into your neck. Briefly you stopped the patterns you were drawing before you slowly started them up again causing her to let out a content sigh into your neck. She slowly started to wake up and realize what she was doing when she finally registered her face buried in your neck.

"Fuck, I'm so sorry." She says quickly before removing her face from her neck and going to remove her arm from around your waist to push herself back; you grabbed her wrist making her freeze and look at you.

"No, it's okay you can stay like that." You softly say to her as you turn to look at her. She looked at you in shock a little. "I almost had a panic attack yesterday, trust me you're fine. If anything, I need to be held." You say with a dry laugh. Her gaze softens as she moves to the position she was in previously. Her arm tight around your waist, your back to her front, the only thing changed was her face in your neck. Now it just lays on her half of the shared pillow.

"As long as you're comfortable." She murmurs behind you, sleep still filling her voice. You hum and nod your head softly.

"Very."

The two of you lay there like that till the lights turn on and the music starts to sound through the speakers. Your body presses back against hers not ready to get up yet.

"We gotta get up." She says softly from behind you and squeezes her arm around you as light encouragement. You groan in annoyance before you remove yourself from the tall woman and get out of bed. You stretch before putting your hand out for Hyun-ju to use as help to get up, which she kindly takes ducking her head.

The two of you say your good mornings to your team members with small smiles on your faces ignoring their questioning looks as to why you were in the same bed.

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When you walk into the next game's room you gasp at the sight of a big round platform in the middle of the room and then a bunch of different colored doors surrounding it. Hyun-ju leans over to you and bends down to your ear.

"Stay close to me." She says so only you can hear. You turn your head and look at her with a question. "I don't know the game, I just, I want you to stay close to me." She says before looking at you. You nod firmly and walk with her to the platform.

After the rules were explained the platform starts spinning, you and hyun-ju stood close to each other, Yong-sik, Geum-ja, and Young-mi stood not too far from the two of you.

"Six." You hear the voice say before everyone scatters. Your team of five runs towards a room and opens the door, you get inside after a random player has run to join your group. Behind you Hyun-ju closed the door and leaned all her body weight into it. You exchanged a look with her and then a nod before you let out a breath when you heard the lock latch. Gunshots shortly sounded in the huge room ringing into the small room the six of you had run into.

When the doors unlatched, you all left the small room, you looked around at all the blood that had been spilt by the players unable to get into groups. You stepped back on the platform and stood next to Hyun-ju, the rest of your team standing next to you. The song played through the speakers as the platform started to spin.

Each round a different number was said and each round you and your team stuck together until you couldn't. When you heard ‘three’ sound through the speakers you looked at your team.

"You guys go, we'll find someone!" You say before grabbing Hyun-ju's hand and running towards a room, she follows you no question. As you're running you see a woman with shorter hair looking for a group. Running past her, you grab her wrist to drag her along. You didn't bother to even look at her number before grabbing her wrist. You pull the two of them into the room before leaning your full self against the door stopping other players.

"Thanks." You hear the woman you grabbed say, you look up at her reading the number 380 on her chest.

"Don't mention it." You reply out of breath as the door latches Once the gun fire stops and the bodies are cleaned the door unlatches and you're let back out. As you walk out you scan the crowd looking for your teammates turned friends. You spot Geum-ja as she spots you, before you even think about it you run over to her and hug her smiling brightly. Hyun-ju quickly joins the hug along with Young-mi. "I told you we'd be fine." You say with a smug look as you pull away from the hug. Geum-ja swats your shoulder and you laugh at her.

"Two." The speaker says abruptly. You act on instinct; you grab the side of Hyun-ju's arms and push her running as fast as you can. You push her into a room with a dark purple door. Once inside you huff as you hold the door shut with your body as you catch your breath. You glance up and see Hyun-ju staring at you, you raise an eyebrow in question as you straighten your back against the door.

"What?" You ask between your huffs.

"I- you acted so quickly." She says studying your face. You nod at her.

"I had to. I had to make sure we survived." You say still panting.

"But the others-"

"Geum-ja and Yong-sik have each other. And we had all those people from when ten was called. Young-mi had someone to go with." You say cutting her off before she could finish speaking. She just stares at you with this unreadable look. "I thought last night made it obvious that I care about you."

"But you said it like you were just repaying a favor."

"I mean it like that. I didn't want you to think I was weird for growing an attachment to you so quickly." You say looking down and away from her eyes. You hear the door unlatch, somehow you missed it latching in the first place. You turn and open the door as Hyun-ju processes what you just said. Her chest tightening as she smiled to herself and followed you. Your eyes scan the room as you step out instantly seeing your friends.

"Are they okay?" She asks you, already knowing you saw them.

"Yes, I told you they would be." You say with a smile over your shoulder as you walk back to the platform where the others meet you. The game continues for a few more rounds before it stops and the guards send everyone back to the dormitory.

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You walked behind Hyun-ju as you both walked into the dormitory. During mingle you had expanded from your little group into a bigger group of ten.

When the men came into the dormitory talking about the fight that had broken out in the bathroom it was when you were sitting next to Hyun-ju and Young-mi talking to them surrounded by the other seven people in your enlarged group. Hyun-ju moved herself more in front of you when the yelling started. You just sat and let them yell it out.

Once everything settled a little bit player 456, Gi-hun you found out his name was started talking about when lights out happened that the O's were going to attack. You looked down at your X patch but not long before it was an O, you reached for Hyun-ju's hand that was down on the steps next to yours. You lay yours over hers as you listen to Gi-hun warn all the X's about how the Os will attack then right as the guards storm in you act like you were killed and take them by surprise.

When it does come to lights out time you feel sorry for the players who weren't warned. You had made sure you found player 380 and warned her about the planned attack and told her to just hide under a bed. She nodded and thanked you before giving you her name. You nod, give her yours and walk back to Hyun-ju.

As the lights go out you quickly and quietly move and lay under your bed and pull Hyun-ju with you. You see movement from other X's as they slid under their beds. You look at Hyun-ju and the two of you share a look before you see movement in the corner of your eye coming from the O side. You jump slightly as a player's shoes land right in front of your face. Hyun-ju is quick to press her body to yours and sneak an arm around you to cover your mouth with her hand. Your heartbeat picks up and you aren't sure if it's from fear or from how Hyun-ju is holding you. You watch as the player walks away from your bed and to another looking at the sleeping player before harshly stabbing them with the broken glass bottle they had found, that's when a scream rings through the large room. You jump and your breath catches and picks up pace.

"Shhh." She shushes you quietly as she pulls you tight against her body so nobody hears you. You press yourself more into her trying not to let a high-pitched sound escape your throat. Hyun-ju quickly glances at you before looking back out watching the other players. The carnage goes on for a few minutes before you hear the doors open, quickly Hyun-ju pulls you out with her and you two space out a bit and pretend to be dead players.

As the guards start checking bodies near you, you hold your breath. As the guard bends down to you to confirm your number you grab his head and smash it into the knee you were bringing up. You grab his MP5 and shoot him twice before he falls to the ground, you quickly look over to Hyun-ju and shoot the guard overtop her. She quickly grabs his revolver and maneuvers her body to shoot a guard coming up behind you. You watch as basically thrusted when she shot. You pause and just stare at her before you recollect yourself. Quickly you move and get behind cover and start shooting guards as the try and push forward, Hyun-ju right next to you.

The two of you take out all of the guards except a square guard, you come out of cover and move up quickly to the guard keeping your gun pointed at him.

"Down on the ground now!" You shout at him sternly as you walk up to him, not lowering your weapon. He put his hands up in the air and you're quick to remove the revolver from its holster. You remove his mask and toss it to Gi-hun. "He's all yours." You say with a nod and walk over to Hyun-ju.

"Where'd you learn to use a gun like that?" She asks as soon as you walk over. You chuckle at her.

"My father taught me before he got into too much debt saying how I'd need to know one day. Never knew it'd be for something like this." You say with a dry laugh. Her gaze softens as she looks at you. You look down, breaking eye contact.

"At least you can put it to good use." She says with a soft smile. You look up and offer a small smile that doesn't reach your eyes.

"Everyone listen up!" Gi-hun says loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. You turn around and face him moving a bit closer to Hyun-ju. "We need people who are willing to fight. We plan on storming the control room and taking over this place so we can get out. Whoever can fight, please step forward." He says looking at the crowd. You and Hyun-ju step up and stand behind him, Jung-bae quickly following you two, Dae-ho was quick to follow him, In-ho after him. Gyeong-seok steps up and picks up a gun and stands next to Hyun-ju.

"Why is that manwoman up there?" You hear a man on the O side ask. Your head snaps over to him. You put your gun on safety before throwing it down and stepping forward.

"What the fuck was that?" You say fuming with anger while stepping towards the man.

"I said 'Why is that manwoma-" Before he can even finish his sentence you punch him right in the jaw making him fall back on the floor of the large room.

"Wanna say that shit again?" You ask looking down at him. He groans in pain before slowly getting back up a smirk on his face.

"Yeah actually." He says as he stands back up and steps closer to you. "Why. Is. That. Thing. Up. There?" That makes something snap in you. You punch him square in the nose, making him fall to the ground again before climbing on top of him and punching him three more times before you feel someone pulling you off.

"Hey! Hey, hey, that's enough." You hear a man, Dae-ho you think, say in your ear. You launch your elbow back full force hitting him in the nose. He grunts in pain and quickly lets you go. You scramble back onto the man and continue to punch him.

You feel someone much stronger grab your arms.

"Hey. That's enough." You hear her say low and stern in your ear. You look back and see Hyun-ju holding you by your arms and pulling you back away from the man who is bleeding from his nose and multiple other cuts you made on his face. You try to break free before she tightens her hold. "Hey." She says harshly breaking you out of your rage clouded fog. You relax and put your hands up in surrender. She pulls you until you are across the room from him. "The fuck was that?" She asks you.

"He can't say shit like that to you." You say not wanting to meet her eyes. She grabs your chin and makes you look at her.

"So, you decided to beat the shit out of him?" She asks with a raised brow.

"Well, yeah. What else was I supposed to do? Talk to him nicely about it?" You ask glaring over at the man who was now sitting on the steps leading up to the higher up beds holding his nose which you assume is bleeding and smile smugly. Hyun-ju smiles and shakes her head.

"You need to save your anger for you know, the real enemy." She says with a bit of tease in her tone and smile.

"Oh, I still have plenty of that for them. But I had some certain special anger for him." You say looking back at her. She smiles at you fondly. You study her face for a minute. "What?" You ask.

"Can I try something?" She asks softly. You nod.

"Yeah," you basically whisper back.

Her eyes flick down to your lips before she slowly leans in. You look down at her lips before briefly meeting her eyes. The look you get is all you need to close the distance between the two of you. Her hands cup your face, and your hands settle on her waist. The kiss is short lived but all you need. You pull back and rest your forehead against hers. She leaves her eyes closed for a few more seconds before opening them and looking at you.

"Better?" She asks in a whisper. You meet her eyes with a bright smile on your face, and you nod. You peck her on the lips once more before you pull apart aware that you're in fact in a room full of other players.

"I'm not apologizing though." You say stubbornly.

"Wasn't gonna ask you to." She says with a smile before tugging you back up to where you threw your gun down.

You pick up your gun, checking it to make sure it’s still okay as Gi-hun explains what the plan is. After he’s done he looks over to Hyun-ju and nods giving her everyone’s attention. She carefully and sternly teaches everyone how to use the MP5s you had collected from the guards. You just stand there watching her like an idiot. At some point your mouth may have opened a little cause once she walked back over to you she pressed two fingers under your chin and closed your mouth for you.

“Careful, you’ll catch flies.” She says with a smirk.

“Shut up.” You mumble and look down.

“Hey Hyun-ju.” You hear player 246, Gyeong-seok say as he walks over, breaking your little moment with Hyun-ju.

“Hm?” She hums in question, not yet looking away from you.

“Where’d you learn to use a gun like that?” He asks and that makes her look over at him.

“I was a sergeant in the Special Forces.” She says with a firm nod. He just nods and tries to strike up more conversation before Gi-hun announces it’s time to go. The three of you follow the battle team out.

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“I’m out!” You hear someone shout from where they are hidden behind a pillar from the oncoming gunfire. You look over at Hyun-ju who is reloading, she glances over at you before looking back at her gun to finish reloading. You peek around your pillar and lay down covering fire as a player makes a move to push forward, you kill two guards before hiding back behind your pillar.

“There’s ammo in their pockets!” You hear In-ho shout as he pulls the radio away from his face. You quickly look over at Hyun-ju.

“The dormitory.”

“What about it?” She asks as she pulls back behind her pillar.

“The guard we killed in the dormitory. They have more ammo in their pockets.” You say while checking how much was left in your mag. You look down the line. “There’s ammo in the dormitory!” You yell up the line catching In-ho’s attention, he looks back at you.

“We need to send someone back.” He says loudly over the gunfire the soldiers are laying down.

“I’ll go!” You hear Dae-ho shout over the noise before you can even offer to go. “I’ll go.” He says again. In-ho nods at him.

“We’ll lay down covering fire as you go Dae-ho.” Hyun-ju says as she looks at him. The man nods quickly in agreement. You look at Hyun-ju giving her a nod that you’re ready.

You both lean out from behind your pillars shooting at the guards as Dae-ho starts to run. You shoot down 2 guards making them slump forward and fall all the way down to the bottom. You shoot another one in the arm making them grunt loudly in pain before you run out of ammo in your last mag.

“Fuck.” You say as you move back fully behind the pillar. You look down the line and see In-ho put the radio in his pocket.

“I’m going to help Jung-bae and Gi-hun!” He yells to you as he looks at the mags he has left. He looks at you. “Take this, you’ll put it to good use.” He says and tosses the mag to you.

“Thank you.” You say with a nod and reload your gun.

“I’m going to take two players with me, you and Hyun-ju stay here with the rest and continue to distract them while Dae-ho gets the ammo.” He says putting the mag he kept in his pocket. You nod firmly.

“I’ll cover you.” You say and lean back out and fire at the guards as the three other players go to help Gi-hun.

You conserve your ammo shooting when others aren’t but everyone is running out quickly. You hide behind your pillar.

“Where the fuck is Dae-ho!” You yell out of anger and stress. “It should not take him this long.” You say and pick up the radio. “Dae-ho where the hell are you? We need that ammo now!” You yell into the radio. Hyun-ju pulls back behind her pillar and looks at you. You wait for his reply. “Dae-ho! Answer me!” Your anger turns to worry as he doesn’t reply. You look over at Hyun-ju. “What if something happened?” You say to her pulling the radio away from your lips.

“We can go after him and make sure.” She says calmly. You nod and look at the other players.

“We are going to go after Dae-ho! We think something may have happened, he should be back by now.” You yell to them, you look back at Hyun-ju before looking down and pulling a revolver you took from a guard out of your pants pocket checking to see it has all of its bullets still in it. You remove the MP5 from around your body and slide it down the line. “Take that, it still has half a mag in it!” You yell before standing up against the pillar, grabbing the radio on your way up.

Hyun-ju also slides her MP5 down the line before standing up and getting ready to run. You look back at Gyeong-seok, he nods at you.

“Covering!” He yells as he peeks out and starts shooting at the guards. You take your opening and run for it, quickly making it to the stairs and down them followed by Hyun-ju. You stop and check the hallway before quickly moving down it, Hyun-ju right behind you. When you get to the dormitory you see Dae-ho’s radio on the ground in the hallway right before the dormitory’s door. You rush over to pick it up. Look up at Hyun-ju and show her the radio and she looks at the open door. You stand up and rush into the dormitory.

“Where’s Dae-ho?” Hyun-ju asks from beside you as you glance around the room.

“There.” You look and see Se-mi pointing to where he is huddled up on a bed shaking, clearly panicking.

“Shit.” You mutter under your breath and walk over to where Geum-ja, Yong-sik, and Jun-hee were standing in front of the row of beds he was in.

“What happened?” Hyun-ju asked from beside you.

“I don’t know dear. He came in here talking about ammo in the pockets and Yong-sik helped him gather it up but when he went to leave he froze. He ran back here and has been muttering to himself, he won’t talk.” Geum-ja explains looking at the man worried. You look at Hyun-ju before crouching down and picking up the MP5 Dae-ho took with him. You hand the gun to Hyun-ju.

“The ammo?” You ask softly. Yong-sik points to Dae-ho and you see him cradling it, you nod at Yong-sik before slowly making your way over to Dae-ho. He looks up at you.

“I’m sorry.” He says to you. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He says over and over.

“Hey it’s okay buddy.” You say softly. “You don’t have to go back, I just need that.” You say and gesture to the ammo he’s hugging. He looks down at it before quickly shoving it your way. You gently pick it up and then turn around and walk back over to Hyun-ju and the others seeing Se-mi had walked over. You crouched down and put the ammo down in front of you. You pull out your radio and hear In-ho apologizing to Gi-hun and then you hear his breathing slowly stop. Your eyes widen as you look up at Hyun-ju then everyone else.

“We got to get back out there to the others.” Hyun-ju says before the others radio in.

“We are getting surrounded! We are out of ammo, we can’t hold them back anymore! We’re sorry.” Gyeong-seok says through the radio. You quickly look up as you hear the main door open and guards storm in. You kick the ammo away from your group and slide the revolver away. You nod to Hyun-ju and she sets down the MP5 and slides it away. Every player puts their hands up as the guards rush in and secure the weapons and radios from you.

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You’re sitting on your bed with your body leaning on Hyun-ju’s as you sit in silence as Geum-ja, Yong-sik, Jun-hee, and Se-mi quietly talk to each other when the main doors open again and guards walk in carrying a box that they put the dead players in. You lift your head off of Hyun-ju’s shoulder to look around for any player that could be dead but find no one. You look back over at the guards as they lower the box to the ground in the middle of the room. They leave it there and turn and walk back to the elevator. You scramble getting out of your bed and to the box quickly. Hyun-ju and the rest of your group are not far behind you. You push the lid off the box and gasp when you see it’s Gi-hun.

“Is he alive?” Geum-ja asks. Hyun-ju steps up to the box beside you and feels his pulse point, she looks up and nods.

“Yeah.”

“Thank god.” Geum-ja says and grasps Yong-sik.

You and Hyun-ju lift him out of the box and over to a bed where your group had been staying. You sit down on the stairs next to Hyun-ju.

“Where’s everyone else?” You ask softly anxiously wringing your hands together.

“I, I don’t know.” She says as she looks down. You open your mouth to say something else but you stop when you see Gi-hun walking up to the guards who just walked out of the elevator.

“Why’d you keep me alive?” He yells as he approaches the guards. “Huh? Why am I so special? Why do I get to live and they don’t” His voice rises as he gets angrier. He’s stopped when a triangle guard walks up to him and points a gun to his chest. You and Hyun-ju sit and watch as Gi-hun grabs the barrel of the gun and points it at his head. “Do it!” He yells. “Fucking shoot me!” He’s pulled away by two other guards, they handcuff one of his hands and attach the other cuff to a bed post.

The guards set up food for everyone to get and eat. You and Hyun-ju stand in line with Geum-ja, Yong-sik, Young-mi, Jun-hee, and Se-mi all of you talking to each other as the line slowly moves. Once you get to the front you look up at the circle guard.

“Can I give player 456 his food?” You ask. The guard just stands there looking forward, you look up at the square guard. “How is he supposed to get his share?” You ask, voice laced with venom.

“Player 456 has made no move to get up for his food. We would hate to waste the food when he refuses to eat.” The square guard replies looking down at you. You scoff and go to say something else but feel someone grab your arm softly. You whip your head around and look at them. Hyun-ju looks at you and shakes her head.

“It’s not worth it, come on baby.” Your body melts and your heart picks up speed at the nickname and you let her pull you away. You manage to collect yourself and walk over to Gi-hun offering him some of your food.

“Here take some of mine too.” Geum-ja says as she walks up beside you with Yong-sik.

“It’s not your fault sir.” Yong-sik says. “It’s Dae-ho’s. He didn’t get the mags back to you.”

“It’s not Dae-ho’s fault either.” You butt in quickly. “He clearly had some PTSD attack or something.” You say shooting Yong-sik a look making him wince and look away. You look over at Dae-ho then back at Gi-hun. “No one’s to blame. We didn’t think to check their pockets. We overestimated ourselves and we paid for that. All of us are equal to blame here, not you, not him.” You say to him as he just looks at the ground.

After you and your group went back to your corner of beds and ate, you just talked amongst yourselves, laughing a little as you share stories and crack jokes to lighten each other's mood. It’s the only thing you can do when you’re basically waiting to die in these games. Your little bubble pops when you see Gi-hun grab player 044 by the neck and say something to her. You go to stand but feel a firm hand settle on your thigh. You look over and see Hyun-ju watching it go down but keeping her hand on your thigh. You sigh and look back over as Gi-hun forcefully lets go pushing her back.

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You walk into the dormitory from the bathroom talking with Se-mi and Jun-hee. You smile at something Se-mi says to you both. The three of you continue talking as you walk back over to the corner your group has claimed.

“Myung-gi?” You hear Jun-hee. Your head snaps up and you look up and see player 333, Myung-gi crouching down next to your bed. He slowly stands and turns holding a green shard of glass from a bottle the player had been given, the shard and his hand was covered in blood.

“What the fuck?” You say and shoulder past him and to your bed. You freeze as you see Hyun-ju, laying on her side with her back towards you blood soaking through her jacket. Your ears start ringing as you fall to your knees. “Hyun-ju?” You whisper as you climb into your bed and move her head into your lap. You look up and see Se-mi pull Myung-gi away from you and Jun-hee holds the bloody shard in her hands yelling at him but you can’t hear over the ringing in your ears. Geum-ja moves and blocks the fight as she talks to you, yet all you see is her mouth moving. You look back down at Hyun-ju, her eyes are closed and her face is pale. You feel the anger and grief build up. You start sobbing, whispering her name like it’ll magically bring her back.

Two circle guards walk over with a box, you refuse to look up at them as they approach. One of them grabs up under your arms. You yell as they pull you away from her body, your arms flailing trying to hit the guard so he’ll let you go. You break free and tackle the other circle guard, you fight, hit the guard twice before you feel the gun against the back of your head, you don’t let that stop you, you don’t care as you keep hitting the guard beneath you, a gun shot sounds through the large room.

You jolt awake with a gasp. You look around frantically, you’re sitting up in your bed. In the dimly lit dormitory, tears run down your face as players sleep around you.

“What the fuck.” You whisper as your voice cracks. You sit up leaning back against the wall and hug your legs. You sit there and choke back sobs as everyone sleeps.

“Baby?” You finally hear from beside you in bed. You choke back a sob with a sniffle and you wipe the tears that run down your face. “Oh sweet girl what’s wrong?” She asks fully awake now as she sits up next to you.

“Nothing, just go back to sleep.” Your voice betrays you as it breaks on your first word. Her face softens and the dim lighting.

“Talk to me.” She says as she moves so she’s sitting behind you, your back pressed to her front with you between her legs. “What happened sweet girl?” She asks gently. Her gentle tone and the way she gently moved you handled your body till she was behind you holding you makes you break down sobbing in her arms. She just sits there holding you letting you get it out and take your time.

“I-I had a nightmare.” You finally get out between sobs. “Jun-hee and Se-mi were with me leaving the bathroom. When we made it back to the dormitory and to the beds we’ve been sleeping in, we saw Myung-gi crouched down next to the bed you and I have been sharing.” You pause to stop yourself from sobbing. “He stood up and turned to us, he was holding a shard from those glass bottles we got the other night and it was covered with blood.” You took a deep breath trying to calm yourself. “He uh, he had stabbed you while you were sleeping with your back turned, he had no care for anything. I held you dead in my lap.” You sob out and start hyperventilating. Hyun-ju tightens her hold on you, grounding you a bit. “I tried stopping the guards from taking your body. I had one pinned beneath me and I was hitting him.” You pause as you let out a sob. “I felt the barrel of a gun against the back of my head, but I just kept hitting the guard.” You say as your breathing starts getting more frantic.

“Baby, none of that really happened. It’s not going to happen. I’m right here. You’re right here. I’m holding you right now. If that was real I wouldn’t be holding you.” Hyun-ju says into your ear gently as she tightens her hold. “I need you to breathe with me sweet girl.” She says as she takes one of your hands and places it on her chest before placing her hand on your chest. “With me.” She says before she takes a deep breath, you copy her. She holds the breath in for ten seconds before slowly exhaling out of her mouth, you do the same thing but choke on a sob right before you get all the air out. “Almost.” She says softly. “Again.” She breathes in again and holds it for ten seconds before exhaling. You do it with her, this time not choking on a sob. “Good.” She says slowly before moving the hand on your chest to your stomach. She pulls you closer to her. The two of you sit there in silence for a few minutes before she breaks it. “How are you feeling?” She asks lowly.

“Better.” You say weakly, slightly out of breath. She nods and kisses the crown of your head and just rests her head there.

“Is she okay?” You hear Se-mi whisper to Hyun-ju. You look up and see that she’s peeking her head down from the bed above yours.

“She’s getting there.” Hyun-ju answers and squeezes you with the arm she still has around your stomach. You see Se-mi silhouette nod before she moves back to be fully in her bed.

“I didn’t mean to wake anyone.” You say in a broken sounding voice.

“It’s okay sweet girl. They’ll just go back to sleep.” She says in a sleepy voice.

“Can we lay down?” You ask looking back at her.

“Of course baby.” Hyun-ju says and moves both of your bodies so you’re both laying down, she’s wrapped around you protectively. “Get some sleep, I’ll make sure nothing happens okay?” She whispers against your ear before placing a kiss on your neck. You nod and close your eyes.

“You sleep too.” You mumble out before falling back asleep.

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You wake up to Hyun-ju softly shaking you, you look back at her and she smiles at you.

“Good morning.” She says with a smile.

“Morning.” You say sleepily.

“It’s time to get up.” She says and lays a peck on your lips, you chase her as she pulls away and she chuckles. “Come on baby.” She says as she stands up and puts out her hand for you. You take it and let her pull you up.

You follow the rest of the players out and onto the stairs as you make your way to the next game. You look up and that’s when you see it. The human chandelier, the players who so bravely fought with you in the rebellion hanging in front of everyone as a sick display. You hear the voice from the speaker talking about how this is an example but you can’t comprehend any words. You take in a breath you didn’t know you were keeping from yourself, you blink and quickly look down feeling sick at the sight. You feel Hyun-ju grab your hand and she nudges you to keep going. You listen and continue walking, refusing to look up.

Once you make it to the game room you move over to the side away from everyone, Hyun-ju, Jun-hee, Se-mi, Yong-sik, Geum-ja and Young-mi all follow you. You stand there refusing to look up, your stomach full of guilt.

“Don’t blame yourself.” You hear from in front of you. You look up and see Se-mi standing there. “That, out there, wasn't your fault. You and Hyun-ju did what you could to bring them back the ammo in time. The guards were coming to the dormitory, who knows how many you would have ran into on your way back and then you’d be up there with them. You’re alive, you’re here. But that doesn’t mean that their deaths are on you.” She says not looking away from you. You sigh and nod, you look beside you and to Hyun-ju.

“She’s right.” Hyun-ju says with a nod. “We did everything we could without killing ourselves in the process.” You look down.

“I know but I just can’t help but feel like it’s my fault.” You say.

Se-mi goes to say something but is interrupted by a square guard telling all the players to grab a ball. Everyone lines up and starts to walk up to the gumball machine full of red and blue plastic balls.

When you step up to the machine you twist the knob and wait for a ball to drop down. You grab the blue plastic ball that fell, you move over to the side where the rest of the blue players went. You turn around and see Hyun-ju holding a red plastic ball, meeting her eyes you suck in a quick breath and let it out controlling yourself as she walks to the red side. You look back over to the front of the machine and see Se-mi with a blue ball. You watch as Yong-sik draws blue, Geum-ja draws red, Jun-hee draws red, and Young-mi draws red.

“Well shit it’s just us three.” Se-mi says and looks at you and Yong-sik.

“What even is this fucking game?” You mumble mainly to yourself.

“Guess we are about to find out.” Se-mi says and lazily gestures to the two sets of circle guards, one set with a cart full of red boxes and the other set with a cart full of blue boxes. You listen as the square guard explains how the game is fucked up hide and seek. The blue team has keys to doors that can not be relocked once unlocked. You look at the key in the box you were handed. The guard explains how the red team, the seekers, are supposed to kill one blue player to pass the game and how the blue players are supposed to survive the full thirty minutes.

“How are we supposed to kill them? They aren’t just gonna stand there and let us kill them.” You hear a seeker yell out. You watch as the seekers are given red boxes and the square guard explains how the knives they are given are to be used to kill the hiders.

“Oh fuck.” You say and scan the seeker side and meet Hyun-ju’s eyes as she holds the box with a knife.

“You will be given a short amount of time to find someone to swap with.” The square guard says as a timer starts to countdown. You walk over and meet Hyun-ju and Young-mi in the middle of the room by the machine. Se-mi walks up beside you, you look over at her.

“Where’s Yong-sik?” You ask her and look around the room.

“Oh he went to go find Ms. Jang. Said how he needs to switch with her cause she has a bad knee and can’t chase down another player.” Se-mi explains as she looks around the crowd lazily. You nod and look back to Hyun-ju and Young-mi. You meet Young-mi’s gaze.

“Will you- will you switch teams with me?” Youn-mi asks softly. She looks down at the ground. “I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to kill someone.” She says with a sniffle. You grab Young-mi’s hands, not the box, her hands grabbing her attention.

“Of course Young-mi. You won’t have to do something to a player you don’t have to.” You say reassuringly, you hand Young-mi your blue box and take off your vest. She passes you the stacked boxes as she takes her vest off, she grabs the blue box and vest from you, taking the key out of the box and laying it around her neck before she puts on the vest. Hyun-ju holds your red box as you slide the red vest on.

“Thank you.” Young-mi says and gives you a brief hug, you hug her back before pulling away and looking at Se-mi.

“Will you be okay?” You ask her. She meets your eyes after scanning the room.

“I’ll be fine.” She says with a nod.

“As soon as we get our kills we will come and find you.” Hyun-ju says and looks between the two, you nod agreeing. You look behind you as you hear someone walk up to you.

“Ms. Jang.” You smile at her, you look behind her and see Jun-hee. “Jun-hee, I thought you were a seeker?” You tilt your head at her.

“I was but I switched with someone I knew before here.”

“Ms. Jang, where’s Yong-sik?” Hyun-ju asks from beside you.

“Oh he went to go talk to Gi-hun.” She said with a smile. You look over at Hyun-ju, worry written on your face. Before you can say anything the square guard announces that the time to switch teams has ended and for the blue team to line up to enter the arena. You and Hyun-ju sit there and talk amongst the two of you as you wait for the blue team to get in their hiding spots.

“Hyun-ju,” you grab her attention, “you remember what I told you about my nightmare?” She nods. “I have a bad feeling part of it will be true. I won’t let you die, what I’m trying to say is: please watch out for Myung-gi. I don’t trust him and I have a bad feeling he’s gonna do something horrible.

“I won’t leave your side for a second okay?” She reassures you. “We are in this together, and when we both pass we will go find Se-mi, Jun-hee, and Ms. Jang.” Hyun-ju says determined.

“Red team please get ready to enter.” The square guard says. You and Hyun-ju stand up and follow the other red players into the arena. As you walk into the arena you scan the faces and numbers of your ‘teammates’ and see the guy you beat up before the rebellion and scowl, but you don’t see that old man who you remember saying ‘One more game, no more, no less.’ You remember hearing his debt was 10 billion won.

You look around as a song plays through the speakers, you pick a random hallway and bolt down it knowing Hyun-ju would follow you. You needed to get a head start on other seekers and the best way to do that was to do everything first. You check rooms searching for certain people. While searching you catch a glimpse of grey short hair. You picked up speed and followed him. You rounded a corner and saw him struggling to open a locked door.

“One more game, no more, no less, right?” You say from the end of the hallway tilting your head. He jumps at the sound of your voice and looks up at you. “Oh wait, you said that thinking you’d make it through huh? I’m honestly tired of your fuckass voice if I’m being honest.” You say as you step closer, he turns to run and is met with the sight of a six foot tall woman. He jumps and steps back a few paces. “What? Scared?” You tease as you stalk closer. “Didn’t think you’d be hunted down by anyone? Yet you had no problem putting such a big target on your back.” You say as you pick up pace. You see him trying to plan an escape.

“Don’t try it.” Hyun-ju says to him lowly. “You’ll just make it more painful.” She warns.

Player 100 ignores her, he turns and rushes at you taking his chances with the shorter of you. He slams you against a wall as he barrels past you. Quickly you lightly toss your knife flipping it and you carefully grab it by the blade, you straighten yourself and take a deep breath. You wind your arm back and throw the knife at his back full force. The man yells out in pain and falls face first reaching at his back. You huff out a laugh before running after the man.

“Nice try.” You smirk as you grab the blade that’s buried into his back to the hilt by the handle, you turn the knife ninety degrees causing him to let out another scream of pain. You see the key that’s around his neck on the ground as you straddle his back pushing the knife into him more, you grab the key looking at. “You won’t need this no more.” You say and tighten your hold around it before yanking it, breaking the chain from around his neck. You remove the knife from his back before you can do anything he flips under you and pushes you making you drop the knife, it scattering behind you. You glance back at it before back at him as he gets up to run. “Fuck that.” You mutter to yourself before leaving the knife and running after him. You turn the corner and briefly see Hyun-ju running after you running past your knife grabbing it. You pick up speed as player 100 runs down a straight away. You hold the key between your fingers as a weapon once you close the majority of the space he created. You push yourself to run fast, you grab his shoulder, yanking him back into your hand. The key driving into his stab wound making him fall to the ground, you move around him and skidding backwards to a stop facing him. You pant as you walk up to him, hand and key covered in blood. You glance up and see Hyun-ju jogging to a stop. She holds out your knife to you over the man laying face first on the floor. “Thanks baby.” You say sweetly to Hyun-ju.

“Of course love.” She smiles. You look down at the man.

“Okay I’m tired of chasing him.” You say bored, you crouch down and carefully drive the knife into his neck. He chokes as you pull the knife back out. You stand up straight and look at Hyun-ju.

“Player 100 eliminated. Player 444 pass.” The speaker announces.

“Let’s go get you your kill babe.” You say and let her lead the way.

Hyun-ju quickly finds player 306 after he got left behind by player 044 and her group of followers. You both chase him down the hallway, remembering this specific hallway you whistle grabbing Hyun-ju’s attention as you point to yourself and turn and run down a hallway to your left. You run faster as you hear the man’s pants as he runs from Hyun-ju, as you near the intersection of where the hallways meet back up you drop down and slide through the intersection angling your knife and slicing his left leg. He yelps in pain and falls to the ground. Hyun-ju jogs to a stop behind the man and next to you. She lends you her hand and pulls you up. You step back and watch as she approaches the man. She doesn’t drag it out, she drives the knife into his back using it to pull him on the ground closer to her; she removes the knife and slides it cleanly into his neck. She pulls the knife out slowly letting his blood drip on to the floor a bit. She stands up and looks at you, you look at her proudly.

“Player 306 eliminated. Player 120 pass.” The speaker sounds through the halls. You grin at her and hold out her hand, she takes it and the two of you walk to go find Geum-ja, Jun-hee, Se-mi, and Young-mi.

You’re walking a few paces in front of Hyun-ju checking rooms and hallways, as you close a door you hear one open. You glance over and see Se-mi peaking out, she spots you and smiles with relief.

“Hyun-ju, baby over here.” You call to her, she walks back out of a room and walks over to you looking at the door where Se-mi is. You both walk into the room looking around the sea themed room.

“Is she?” Hyun-ju trails off.

“In labor? Yes.” Se-mi answers as she crouches down and grabs Jun-hee’s hand as Geum-ja and Young-mi talk to her soothingly.

You go to say something but the door behind you opens, you turn around and are met with player 226; he looks past you into the room at Geum-ja, Jun-hee, Se-mi, and Young-mi.

“Were you two just gonna keep these four all to yourselves?” He asks with a look of anger on his face. He steps into the room and lets out a scoff. “I wouldn’t expect any better from two faggots.” He spits out, he looks at you. “You know if you wanted to get dicked down by a man all you had to do was ask.” He says with a smirk.

“The fuck was that?” Hyun-ju asks as she takes a step forward. The man looks at her, she’s towering over him even from feet away. You see him nervously shift his weight from one foot to the other and nervously move his fingers on his knife's handle. You don’t hesitate as you bend down and charge at him, you ram your body into his and wrap your hands around his waist as you push him out into the hallway. You move your arms from around him as you run him full force into the wall opposite of the door, he grunts from the impact. You grip your knife and plunge it into his pelvis. He screams in pain.

“So I’m actually not into men.” You say as you yank the knife out of him and stab him in his gut making him drop his knife, you kick it away quickly. “Fuck you.” You spit out through gritted teeth as you stab him a few more times before driving your knife into his heart. You yank your knife out of him, face full of anger and disgust. You shake your blood off your knife and walk back to the room. “I fucking hate men.” You mutter as you walk into the room, Hyun-ju closes the door and leans against the wall next to you.

“You okay?” She asks softly, breaking you out of your predatory fogged mind. You sigh as you meet her eyes.

“Ask me after we get out of the game of murder.” You say honestly and let out a huff of a laugh. She cracks a smile at that and laughs a little.

“Okay.” She says with a nod and looks over at the four other women in the room. “Anything we can do?” She asks and pushes herself from off the wall.

“Keep protecting us.” Geum-ja says. “We got everything over here covered.” She says with a firm nod glancing over at you briefly. You continue to lean against the wall and just take a minute to yourself. You tip your head back against the wall, close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Ten minutes pass, Jun-hee’s holding her baby girl in her arms as it cries from Jun-hee’s jacket that was used to swaddle her. You’re leaning against the wall as Hyun-ju stands closest to the door. Your head snaps over to the door as you hear it open, you pull your knife out of your pocket and you stand up off the wall.

“Myung-gi?” You hear Jun-hee ask, he doesn’t even look at her, he just lunges into the room. Hyun-ju stops him by wrapping her arm around his waist and throwing him back into the hallway. You follow her out after you slide the knife you got from player 226 over to Se-mi.

Once you step into the hall you close the door and instantly get tackled to the ground. You let out a sound as you land on the ground with Nam-gyu, player 124 straddling you, his knife in his hand as he lets out a high pitched laugh. You grip your knife as you pull it up from the ground and drive it into his leg. You shove him off of you, you repeatedly stab his thigh dragging him closer with each stab.

“Fucking bitch!” He spits out as he swings his knife at you but misses, he tries again but this time you quickly stop his arm with your knife. He screams in pain and drops his knife, you grab it and slide it away towards a wall away from the both of you. You climb on top of him quickly.

“Fucking tweaker.” You hiss as you stab him in the heart and quickly remove your knife from his now dead body.

“Player 124 eliminated.”

You stand up and grab his discarded knife, you walk over to the door and see Hyun-ju still fighting Myung-gi. You look at the ground and see both of their knives discarded and forgotten as Hyun-ju slams him into the wall. Myung-gi hits her back, she doesn’t let go as her arms tighten around him; she stands fully and bends back slamming him to the ground full force onto his back. He lays there winded as Hyun-ju grabs one of their knives and climbs on top of him. Myun-gi grabs her wrist as she goes to stab his heart. She lays her other hand on the butt of the knife’s handle, his other hand also grabs her wrist. He lets out a grunt and uses all his strength to stop her. Hyun-ju presses down harder, tilting her head up and to the side gritting her teeth as she overpowers him, driving the knife into his heart and letting out her breath. She takes her hand and wipes the side of her face smearing blood across it.

“Player 333 eliminated.”

You walk over to her grabbing her by her collar and pulling her up to her feet. She looks down at you before you pull her into a passionate kiss that’s all teeth and tongue, she lets out a noise as she puts her hands on your hips. You lick into her mouth tasting a hint of blood, she moans into the kiss and pulls you against her body.

“Fuck.” She breathes out when you pull away from her and press your forehead against hers. She flexes her hands on your hips, and you breathe out a laugh.

“Watching you fight does something to me.” You confess in a whisper against her lips. She chuckles.

“Yeah well I’ve been holding myself back since you beat that man up for saying something before the rebellion.” She says out of breath, you smirk up at her. You pull yourself further away from her and turn to the door where you left everyone.

“You know I think player 226 was the one who said that by the way.” You chuckle as you pick up the knives in the hallway.

“Thank god you killed him.” Hyun-ju says as she walks to the door and opens in, she steps inside followed by you.

“Ma. . .” You hear as you walk into the room quietly. You grab Hyun-ju’s arm as you see Yong-sik with his back to the two of you. As Yong-sik steps forward you look at the clock and see a minute left. “Ma, I couldn’t do it.” He says holding back tears. “I couldn’t kill anyone.” He’s walking past Geum-ja and Young-mi, towards Jun-hee who’s holding her baby and Se-mi who is standing in front of them with the knife in the hand behind her back. You move quickly and quietly. You wrap your arm around his neck putting him in a headlock making him drop his knife.

“Yong-sik I’m sorry but I can’t let you hurt any of them.” You say firmly in his ear as you pull him back away from them.

“Player 388 eliminated. Player 456 pass.”

You tighten your grip around Yong-sik, you huff out a breath in anger.

“Did you seriously go talk to Gi-hun before the game and tell him how it was Dae-ho’s fault?” You ask through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t his fault.” You say as he tries to break out. “If you were so for it being Dae-ho why didn’t you kill him yourself huh?” You ask as you tug him back towards the door. “But instead you try and kill a freshly new mom who JUST gave birth.” You spit out in disgust. “You disgust me.” You say before you turn and throw him down into the hallway. You stand in the doorway and watch as he sits there and looks up at you. The seconds on the timer tick down to zero and you listen as the guards storm the halls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You follow Jun-hee and Se-mi back into the dormitory, Hyun-ju is behind you followed by Geum-ja and Young-mi. You apologized to Geum-ja for your behavior towards Yong-sik but you needed her to understand why you did it. Geum-ja had sadly told you that if you didn’t do something she would have. You hugged her and told her you were still sorry. She hugged you back tightly as she cried into your shoulder.

You walk to your bed and sit down next to it, you don’t feel like you deserve the comfort of it. You feel disgusted with yourself, you had to choose between one of the first people to have been friends with in the messed up games. You couldn’t be selfish though, not when there was a newborn innocent baby who did nothing but get born in these games. She shouldn’t get punished for that by losing her mom.

You sit in the corner as Hyun-ju sits next to you and your friends sit in their beds, you tilt your head back and sigh as you let the exhaustion of the game you just played settle in, your legs hurt from all the running. You’d never pushed yourself to run that fast and much before. You feel Hyun-ju grab your hand and pull it into her lap and just hold it as she talks to Se-mi and Young-mi. Geum-ja is helping Jun-hee feed her baby. You close your eyes and just sit there taking in the win you and your team fought so hard for. You may have lost someone, but a brand new innocent life was brought into this world and you have to protect her in every way you can, her and her mom. You sat there and promised yourself that you’d do whatever it took to get Jun-hee and her baby out of these games alive.

When meal time came everyone got in line for their food. You got yours and sat back down next to your bed, everyone else going back to their beds and eating talking softly amongst each other. You look around searching for Geum-ja, you see her talking to Gi-hun; her back is turned to you so you can read her lips. You look away and reengage in the conversation happening around you.

You and Hyun-ju are some of the final few in the bathroom. You’re at the sinks farthest from the door, Hyun-ju has you perched up on a sink as she cleans the blood off of your face.

“Did your parents teach you how to fight?” Hyun-ju asks softly as she wets a paper towel. You nod.

“Yeah, they insisted that I need to protect myself, but really it was so they could use me as their little dog to fetch money or drugs for them.” You sigh after. Hyun-ju looks at you, her gaze soft.

“At least it comes into use now.” She runs the wet paper towel over blood that was on your cheek. “I mean using them in a murder game isn’t the best but it lets you survive.” She says and pulls the paper towel away. She looks into your eyes and you break eye contact and tilt your head back fighting tears. “Hey, hey what’s wrong?” She puts the paper towel down in the sink and cups your face.

“I killed Yong-sik.” You say with tears running down your face, you sniffle. “I killed one of the first people in this game to show me kindness. I got him killed in front of Ms. Jang, his mom and the first person to show me kindness in this hell.” You break and start sobbing the guilt eating at you. “It’s my fault.” You hiccup. “It’s all my fault. They trusted me and I just fucking killed him.” You sob. Hyun-ju pulls you off of the sink and into a tight hug letting you cry into her chest.

“You didn’t kill him. He had the whole game to find and kill someone.” She said, her tone soft. “You couldn’t let him kill Jun-hee, even if he got past you, I would have stopped him, and if he somehow got past me Se-mi was sure as hell gonna stop him.” She took in a breath. “You beat me to grabbing him.” She tightens her hold around you. You take a deep breath and choke on a sob, she looks down and kisses the crown of your head. “His lack of action is not your fault. All you did was save a brand new mother and her baby.” She whispers against the crown of your head.

“I know but what if Ms. Jang hates me?” You ask after a sob escapes you.

“Baby she literally cried against you, she’s far from hating you. The way she acts around you and talks around you she cares about you like you’re her daughter.” Hyun-ju says firmly and pulls back a bit to meet your eyes. You look up at her and sigh.

“I just feel bad. I know I did the right thing, but I still feel bad about it.”

“You chose to be selfless and that says a lot about you.” Hyun-ju says and smiles softly, you smile back weakly. Hyun-ju finishes getting the blood off your face without putting you back on the sink, she lets you have your arms around her as she gently wipes the blood off. You let go of Hyun-ju when she’s done, you move and grab a new paper towel. You wet it in the sink before walking up to where she is leaning back against a sink. You lean your body into hers and begin wiping the blood she smeared off her face. You get all the blood off of her quickly, you move back out of her space and take a step away before Hyun-ju wraps her hand around your wrist and tugs you back into her chest. You look up at her.

“Hm?” You hum. She looks down at you and wraps her arms lazily around your waist.

“Thank you baby.” She says softly. You tilt your head at her confused.

“For what?”

“For trusting me.” She takes a deep breath. “For being open and honest about how you’re feeling, I know it’s hard. I just want you to know I’m proud of you.” She says with a smile. Your smile reaches your eyes and you cup her face with the hand that isn’t holding the damp bloody paper towel; you pull her down into a soft yet deep kiss.

You pull away from her lips resting her forehead on yours, you rub your thumb on her cheek. You don’t open your eyes, not yet. You just feel. You feel her breathing, you feel her pull you closer, and you feel the way she holds you so firmly yet gently.

“Thank you,” you whisper, “for making it so easy to trust you.” You open your eyes and gaze up at her. She’s already looking down at you with a soft, bright smile. You reluctantly step back and out of her space. “C’mon, let’s go back to the dormitory.”

The both of you walk back to your little corner side by side, hands brushing as you walk and making little jokes. When you walk up you see Se-mi sitting against the wall next to Jun-hee’s bed as Jun-hee settles into her bed. You smirk at the sight, you look and see Geum-ja helping Jun-hee set up a spot in her bed for the baby. Hyun-ju goes and sits in your bed as you walk over to Jun-hee and Geum-ja.

“The baby’s gonna be good for the night?” You ask as you look down at Jun-hee.

“Yeah, she should be fine for tonight, she’s been fed and Ms. Jang made sure she was okay.” Jun-hee said smiling at Geum-ja gratefully, she returned a soft smile. Once Geum-ja was done she stood up and climbed into her bed getting ready for the lights to go out.

“Ms. Jang,” You say softly, grabbing her attention.

“Yes?” She asks tiredly as she turns to you.

“I know I’ve already apologized multiple times, but I wanted to apologize again about Yong-sik. I should have found another way for him to live, I should have tried harder, I should hav-” She stopped you by gently cupping your jaw with her hand.

“Oh my dear, you did what everyone else would have done.” She said sadly. “I was going to stab him with my hair blade if you hadn't grabbed him.” She looks down hating that she admitted that. She removes her hand from your jaw and reaches back into her hair, she grabs the sheathed blade and pulls it out of her hair. “Dear I want you to take this,” She grabs your hand and lays the blade in your palm. You look up at her in shock.

“But Ms. Jang, this is your family heirloom. I can’t take this.” You say hurriedly, shoving your hand back towards her.

“Yes you can.” She says and firmly yet gently pushes your hand back to you, she takes her other hand and closes your fingers around the blade and rests her hand on top of yours. “I’m giving this to you because you’re the closest thing to a daughter I will ever have and I want you to take it. You’ve earned it by saving me more times than you think you have.” A tear runs down your face as you pull her into a tight hug. She huffs out a laugh and hugs you back letting you cry into her shoulder. “Now go get some rest dear, you have another game to pass tomorrow.” She pulls away and smiles at you.

“Goodnight Ms. Jang.” You say and walk away.

“Goodnight dear.”

You walk over to Hyun-ju and see her talking to Young-mi, she sees you walking over in the corner of her eye and reaches a hand out to you, not looking away from Young-mi. You toe your shoes off and slide into bed next to her. You lean into her side and fidget with the blade Geum-ja just gave you.

Once Young-mi retreated to her bed the lights went out, you and Hyun-ju lay in your bed facing each other. You’re looking down at the blade still in disbelief and awe.

“Did Ms. Jang give you that?”

“Yeah right before I walked over here. She said how I was the closest thing she will ever have to a daughter.” You say with a sad tone. You close your hand around it and look at Hyun-ju. “Let’s get some rest, yeah? We have a game tomorrow.” She nods as you flip on your side with your back to her, she moves closer and presses her front to your back leaving no room between the two of you. She lays her arm across your body and her hand settles protectively on your stomach over your shirt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You woke up and turned onto your back under Hyun-ju’s arm, you stretch as you slowly wake up more. You lightly shake Hyun-ju awake.

“Good morning.” She mumbles with a soft smile.

“Good morning baby.” You smile pushing hair out of her face and behind her ear, her eyes flutter open and she looks at you. You lay your hand on her arm and draw mindless patterns as you just look into her eyes, just admiring her beauty.

You’re broken out of your peaceful bubble by the lights turning on but no music, your brows furrow and you quickly move to get out of bed feeling that something’s off. You scan the bed near you where everyone sleeps. You see Se-mi half awake rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Jun-hee sitting up confused, and Young-mi looking down at you.

You don’t see Geum-ja. You freeze. You whip around to the back wall. You see her, hair down, her body hanging limply. Your heart stops. Your breath catches in your throat. You fall to your knees, a sob caught in your throat.

The sound of you landing on your knees makes Jun-hee get out of bed to comfort you, but she freezes when she sees what’s made you react this way. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth as tears well in her eyes.

You don’t even notice the circle guards enter the room until they set the box down and walk over to her body. You’re up in a flash. Hyun-ju is on you quicker, holding you back by your waist as you yell and scream trying to break free. Yelling about how she’s not dead, how she can’t be dead. You thrash and flail in her arms desperately yelling and pleading. The two of you fall to the floor as you desperately cry out for Geum-ja to wake up.

Once the guards are out of the dormitory do you go quiet, the whole dormitory does as you go limp in Hyun-ju’s arms. The heartbreak is too much, you can’t hold yourself up or use your limbs. They’re too heavy. The room is closing in on you. Your breathing picks up. Everything feels like too much. Your emotions. The floor beneath you. Your breathing. The lights. The stares of other players. You can’t handle it. You can’t stand it. You have nowhere to go where eyes won’t be on you and it makes everything ten times worse. But then you hear her.

“Baby.” She says softly in your ear. “Baby I need you to breathe for me. If you don’t breathe you’re just gonna feel worse.” She pulls you closer, her grip around you tightening, grounding you. “I need you to take a deep breath for me right now, okay?” You can’t speak, so you nod. “Good.” She says as you choke out a sob and take a deep breath, you hold it for ten seconds before releasing it. “Again.” You shake as two more sobs come out; you take in a shaky breath, hold it, and let it out shakily. “Good, good baby.” She whispers to you. “I need you to name me five things you can see.” You look around.

“I see Jun-hee and her baby.” You sob and take a deep breath. “I see the stuff on the walls.” You choke back a sob. “I see the players on the other side of the room.” A shaky breath. “I see Young-mi looking upset and worried.” A shaky exhale. “And I see our bed.”

“Okay good, now four things you can feel.” She says and squeezes your waist encouragingly.

“I feel your body against mine.” You sniffle. “I feel the looks of other players.” You close your eyes and your body shakes as a sob forces its way out silently. “I feel the cold air of the dormitory.” You let yourself fall more into Hyun-ju. “And I feel the blade Ms. Jang gave me in my hands.” You whisper.

“You’re doing so good love, give me three things you can hear.”

“I can hear your breathing.” You suck in a breath that only shakes towards the end. “I hear Se-mi softly talking to Jun-hee and Young-mi.” You lay your hand on top of Hyun-ju’s on your waist. “And I hear the murmurs of players across the room.” You squeeze your eyes shut tighter.

“Perfect baby, how about two things you can smell?” She kisses the top of your head lightly.

“I can smell your perfume barely clinging on to you.” You squeeze her hand under yours. “And I smell sweat.” You take a deep breath and hold it for five seconds before you let it out slowly.

“Mhm, what about one thing you can taste?”

“I can taste the salt from my tears.” You say and slowly open your eyes. Hyun-ju squeezes your waist.

“I’m so proud of you baby.” She whispered into your ear. You let out a dry chuckle around tears as you turn to face her. “Better?”

“Much better, thank you.” You answer softly and rest your forehead on her shoulder and just sit there, letting her hold you as you cry. She just sits there and lets you let it all out, not caring about the looks of other players. Only caring about you.

Eventually you are forced up and out of the room, you’ve stopped crying for now. You make your way up the stairs and to the next games. You walk into the next games room and reach for Hyun-ju’s hand at the sight of the two giant dolls holding what looks like a jump rope and a bridge with a gap in the middle of it.

The speakers explain that you have to cross the bridge while jumping over the spinning rope within the twenty minute time frame, and that you get to decide the order. You look over at Hyun-ju as the rope starts moving. You turn to look at your friends, they look just as worried as you are. You look over as Gi-hun walks over.

“Let me help you and the baby.” He says looking at Jun-hee. She looks up at him confused. “I’ll go across first and make sure your baby makes it over there okay. I’ll protect it from the other players while you cross.” He says looking up from her and around your group. Jun-hee looks at you for help but you just look at Gi-hun. You remember seeing him in hide and seek, players were scared and running from him the whole game. He had finally snapped and had no care for anything.

“Fuck,” you mutter, “giving him the baby may be the best bet.” You say quietly so only your group can hear you.

“What?” Se-mi spits out in anger. You glare at her for how loud she was, she looks around and meets a few players eyes before bowing her head in apology. “What the fuck.” She says quieter as she looks back at you.

“You didn’t see Gi-hun during hide and seek,” you look at Gi-hun, “no offense but you look like you literally went crazy.” You said to him then looked around the group. “Players were running away from him scared. Not just blue players, red players were avoiding him at all costs.” You say glancing at all of them. “Everyone thinks he’s lost it. They won’t try to attack him unless absolutely necessary and even then they’ll hesitate. He can carry over the baby and I’ll be right behind him to make sure no one tries anything.” You say looking between all of them as you talk.

“Shit, okay that’s kinda smart.” Se-mi says and runs a hand through her hair.

“Jun-hee, this is your call.” You say looking at her as everyone else in your group does.

“Yeah, okay, yeah we’ll do it.” She says with a sigh and hands Gi-hun her baby. He puts the sleeves that are tied into a knot around his back and nods at you. You nod back. You turn to Hyun-ju and grab her hand firmly.

“Hey I’ll see you on the other side okay.” You say and kiss her before pulling away and squeezing her hand. She tightens her hold on your hand and pulls you back to her, she cups your jaw with her free hand as she kisses you deeply. You smile against her lips before pulling away.

“The other side.” She whispers against your lips, you squeeze her hand again before reluctantly pulling out of her reach and following Gi-hun through the players just standing there.

“You ready?” He asks once he gets to the start of the bridge. You nod.

“As ready as I can be.” You reply and look forward. He nods firmly before looking forward and waiting for the rope to pass before quickly moving onto the bridge.

The rope comes back down and he jumps, landing on his feet and wobbling a bit. He steadies himself and moves forward. The rope swings back down and he jumps again landing with a wobble as you quickly make your way onto the bridge. You jump as the rope swings back down and land steadily, you move forward following Gi-hun after he steadies. The two of you repeat that before Gi-hun gets to the gap. You watch as Gi-hun jumps over the rope steadies and then jumps the gap quickly. He steadies, jumps the rope, and moves forward. You carefully wait, you wait till the rope swings back down; you push yourself forward over the gap as you jump over the rope. You land wobbling before steadying yourself. You and Gi-hun repeat the process of jumping the rope and moving forward slowly but surely. You both make it to the other side and hear cheers, you turn around and see Hyun-ju cheering along with Young-mi with a proud smile on her face. You move over so they can see Gi-hun.

“Jun-hee! The baby’s fine!” He yells to her and holds up the baby for her to see. You watch as she lets out a sigh of relief and hugs Se-mi.

You look at the other end of the bridge and see players are starting to make their way over. You take note that player 096 was leading the way for everyone, you remember him being in player 100 and player 226’s group. You watch as he quickly makes his way across the bridge, you move back as he makes it across the bridge. He barely glances at you and Gi-hun before he quickly turns around and pushes the player that was behind him off.

“What the fuck.” You say as you step forward.

“What are you doing?” Gi-hun asks from behind you.

“Can’t you see? Winning us the game.” He says with a disgusting smirk on his face, your face scrunches up in disgust. You share a look with Gi-hun, seemingly reading your mind he nods at you as you step towards the man as he pushes a woman off the bridge.

“What’s stopping me from pushing you off right now?” You ask as a sadistic smirk curls your lips up. He glances back at you before looking at the scared man in front of him as he jumps over the rope.

“Come on man move!” The player yells at the man as the rope swings back down. Player 096 double takes and looks back at you.

“Why the fuck would you push me off?” He hisses out as the man on the bridge jumps closer. “I’m winning us the fucking game.” You step closer as the man on the bridge moves closer. Player 096 quickly pushes the man off the bridge before turning to you quickly. “Stay the fuck back.” He spits out.

“Or what?” You challenge.

“Or I’ll push you off next.” He says, sounding more scared than confident.

“You don’t sound too sure of yourself on that one.” You say lowly and step forward as he turns to the next player coming up. He glances back at you before looking forward and getting ready to push the incoming man. You glance up at the time, ten minutes are left. You look to the other side and see only a few more people till Hyun-ju, Jun-hee, Se-mi, and Young-mi are up. After them there’s no one.

“Get back before I push you.” The man spits more confidently this time as he pushes a woman off.

The next player to come to the end player 096 lets get past him. Player 203 smirks at you as he steps closer to you making you step back.

“Had to bring your little friend?” You ask with a tilted head. “Seems unfair, no?” You pout. Player 203 barks out a laugh.

“Oh she’s funny.” He looks over to player 096 as he pushes another player. “Can we keep her?” He asks, making your gut twist in disgust.

While he’s distracted you charge him, you tackle him to the ground making player 096 whip around and see you on top of the man while you land a punch to his face.

“Oh, you bitch!” He spits out and moves to hit you.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Gi-hun warns, making the man pause and look up at him. Gi-hun set the baby down in the flowerbed behind him carefully and stepped forward once you had attacked player 203. With player 096 distracted you moved and kicked his knee making it sound out a loud snap. He doubles over in pain as you move back away from the two men. You let out a huff as you look up at Gi-hun.

“Thanks.” You say with a chuckle. He just looks down at you and then the two men. Player 203 is quick to recover, he stands and charges at you throwing a punch and landing it on your jaw. You groan in pain and duck down as he goes to hit you again, you shift to behind him. His back is to Gi-hun and the baby as you take small steps back to the edge.

“You stupid bitch.” Player 203 says with a smirk, he bends down getting ready to charge and tackle you. You watch as he runs at you full speed, you stand there as he closes the distance; last second you move out of the way and stick your foot out, tripping him. You watch as the satisfaction leaves his face, and as he falls face first over the edge. He screams as he falls to his death. You walk back over to player 096 as he finally stands up, you look over at the bridge and see that Hyun-ju, Jun-hee, Se-mi, and Young-mi are making their ways across now. You glance at the clock seeing there are five minutes left.

Player 096 limps back over to the bridge, he glances back at you before jumping onto the next player taking her off the bridge with him. You walk over to the bridge and look at the players left, you pause as you see Hyun-ju a few jumps away. Your eyebrows furrow as you step back and look at Gi-hun as he holds the baby.

“What happened to the other players?” You ask, looking between him and the bridge.

“More men tried to be like player 096 but ended up killing themselves too.” He explains as he fixes the baby’s swaddle. You let out a breath and your eyes widen.

“Fuck, okay.” You say in disbelief. You tilt your head back and just breathe, you jump as someone hugs you from behind. Her arms slide fully around your waist as she pulls you back against her. You let out a hum as you smile and open your eyes and look up at her. “Told you, I’d see you on the other side.” You say softly. She laughs at that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After jump rope they sent all of you back into the dormitory, guards came back in with boxes shaped as gifts. You’re all sitting in your little corner talking to each other about what you’re gonna do when you get out of here with all the money. You’re fidgeting with Hyun-ju’s hand in your lap when they walk in. You listen as they explain that you are the seven finalists.

“Seven?” You call out looking up from Hyun-ju’s hand.

“Yes, seven.”

“There’s six of us.” Jun-hee counters. The guard points to the baby in her arms.

“Seven.”

“What the fuck?” Se-mi says standing up. “How does the baby count as a player?” She asks defensively. Jun-hee grabs her arm when she steps forward.

“Se-mi, we all are just going to vote X. Please just let them speak so we can get out of here.” Jun-hee basically pleads to her. Se-mi opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself and let out a breath.

“We have provided all of you with a change of clothes. You will be given time to change into them. Please take your time as there is no rush.” The square guard says as you are handed the box. You look at the box then up at the guard who turns and walks back to the elevator. Hyun-ju nudges you, you look at her as she gestures to the box in your hands. You look down at it before opening it; you’re met with the sight of a suit that has your number on the right side of its chest.

“Well damn.” Se-mi says as she looks into her box.

You are in the bathroom standing in front of the mirror with your box sitting on top of a sink. Se-mi, Jun-hee, and Young-mi have already changed and left the bathroom. Hyun-ju already cleaned off the dried sweat on her face with help from you. You’re staring at yourself holding a wet paper towel. You let out a breath and begin wiping off your face.

You look back through the mirror as Hyun-ju walks out of a stall, she left her jacket in the dormitory. Her shirt showing off her arms perfectly, you don’t realize you’re staring till she chuckles as she washes her hands. You quickly look up at her to see her smirking at you. You blush and look down at the sink under you. You look back up into the mirror and continue to wipe your face. You toss the paper towel away once you’re satisfied with your work; you look over and see Hyun-ju staring at her box that she hasn’t opened yet.

“Are you going to be okay wearing that baby?” You ask as you walk up next to her, she looks at you.

“I can deal with it, I just won’t like it.” She says honestly and looks down at the box again. You grab her chin gently and make her look at you.

“You only have to wear it this one time, after whatever bullshit they make us do you won’t have to touch it or another suit again.” You say firmly. She smiles at you genuinely. “You’ll look absolutely stunning in it though.” You add softly.

“You think so?” She asks a bit teasingly and tilts her head.

“Oh I know so.” You say lowly and pull her into a deep kiss. She kisses you back just as deeply. You break the kiss for air and rest her forehead on yours. “You look beautiful no matter what you wear Hyun-ju.” You whisper, she looks at you with teary eyes and smiles. She kisses you chastely.

“Come on, let's get dressed.” She says before pecking your lips and pulling away. You step back, turn around and walk a few steps to your open box. You look down at it before putting your hand on the hem of your shirt, before you can lift it up hands stop you. “Let me help.” She says softly, yet a hint of firmness in her tone. You look at her trying to figure out what she’s trying to do. “Not in a sexual way, just let me help?” She asks. You relax a bit at her words and smile a little.

“Okay.” You let go of your shirt letting her grab it, you lift your arms above your head as she lifts your shirt up and over your head. She folds it neatly and places it on the sink next to you. She looks over your body, just admiring. You feel shy and wrap your arms around yourself.

“ ‘M sorry.” She murmurs and grabs the white button up that also has your number on the right side of your chest. She wraps the button up shirt around you, you slip your arms into the sleeves and she carefully buttons up the shirt.

“It’s okay baby, don’t apologize. I’m just self-conscious.” She meets your eyes after you say that, her eyes full of understanding. She pecks your lips.

“I can let you change yourself the rest of the way if you want.” She offers. You shake your head.

“No, this is okay.”

“Are you sure?” She checks as she places her hands on top of your hips. You nod. “Word baby.”

“I’m sure.” She slides her thumbs into your pants a little and pulls them down gently, you step out of them. She glances up your legs and to your face as she folds your pants, she stops and looks back down to your thighs. Her breath catches as your chest tightens; her gaze slowly travels over the scars that cover your thighs. You can tell that she wants to ask, wants to make sure you’re okay. But she doesn’t, instead she continues on like she didn’t see them. She places your neatly folded pants on top of your shirt, she grabs the black dress pants and unfolds them. She crouches down.

“Step.” She says softly, you step into one pant leg. “Other leg.” You step into the other pant leg. She stands up as she pulls your pants up, she buttons and zips your pants before tucking in your white button up. She grabs the pre-tied bowtie and puts it around your neck before tightening it to look normal. You meet her eyes as she pulls your suit jacket around you and waits for you to put your arms in the sleeves.

“Come on, your turn.” You say and walk over to the box with her suit. “Last time.” She reluctantly nods at that and walks over. “May I?” You gesture to her shirt. She nods.

“You may.” You grab the hem of her shirt and lift it off of her and over her head. You fold her shirt as you admire her. You placed her shirt down and grabbed the button up, you wrapped it around her and let her put her arms through the sleeves. You take your time buttoning up the shirt.

“You really are gorgeous.” You say once you finish buttoning her shirt and grab her bowtie, you put it around her neck and tighten it just right before you look up at her. You see a tear run down her cheek. “Baby,”

“I’m sorry.” She says with a small sob.

“For what?”

“I’ve never been taken care of with this much care.” She holds back a sob. You cup her face.

“You deserve to be taken care of just how you take care of others.” You say looking into her eyes. “You have taken care of me more times than I can count. You deserve to feel the same way and care I felt and feel.” She frowns as more tears fall down her face, you wipe them away with your thumbs. You just stand there and hold her for a few minutes letting her cry as you gently wipe her tears away.

“Okay, I’m okay.” She says shakily.

“You sure?” You don’t move yet. “The guard said to take our time. So take all the time you need. If anyone says something, they won’t, then I’ll tell them off.” You say jokingly but seriously. She laughs at that.

“I have no doubt about that.” She grins. “But yes, I’m sure. Let’s get out of this messed up place.” You nod.

“Do you want to change your pants yourself, or is it okay if I do? I understand if you just want to.” You say gently as you grab the black dress pants.

“You can. I trust you.” She says, you nod and place the black dress pants back into the box. You carefully pull down her pants, fold them, and place them on top of her other shirt. You grab her black dress pants and crouch down.

“Step in for me baby.” She listens and steps into one pant leg. “Now again.” She steps into the other one. You stand and pull her pants up, you button and zip them, you tuck in her shirt carefully. You grab her suit jacket, pulling it around her as she slips her arms into the sleeves. “All done.” You say with a smile. She smiles back at you.

“Come on, let’s go finish these games.” She says and holds out her hand. You grab the blade Geum-ja gave you and tuck it into the inside pocket of your suit jacket before you take Hyun-ju’s hand.

The two of you enter the dormitory and see everyone sitting at a big long table full of food. Two chairs near the end are left open for you and Hyun-ju. She gently pulls you over to them and pulls out your chair for you, you sit down and smile at her. She sits down next to her.

“Players, we have provided you a meal before your last vote to stay or continue to the last and final game.” The square guard says. “We have plenty of it so please, feel free to ask for more.”

You look around the table. Jun-hee sits next to her baby on the end, next to her sits Se-mi and Young-mi, to your left Gi-hun sits, and to your right Hyun-ju sits with your hand in her lap holding it as circle guards place food on the table in front of all of you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•⋅⊰∙∘☽Three years later☾∘∙⊱⋅•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You walk along the sidewalk, work bag in hand and headphones on. You have a small smile on your lips as you make your way down the busy street. You turn up your music as you walk a little faster. You sigh as you space out to your music as you walk your memorized route back to your apartment.

You walk for about sixteen more minutes before you turn down a familiar street, you pull out your keys as you pull your headphones down to lay around your neck. You move up the stairs taking two at a time. You press the button calling the elevator, you smile at the person exiting the elevator and get on. You press the button for the seventh floor, the elevator dings announcing your arrival to the floor. You step out and take a left, you walk down the hallway till you reach your apartment's door. You slide your key into the lock and unlock it, you step in before latching the door behind you and toeing off your shoes. You toss your keys into the key bowl, you remove your headphones from around your neck, turning them off and place them near the bowl. You hang your work bag up on a hook on the wall next to the door. You take two steps in before you hear the sound of little feet padding towards you.

“Auntie!” She squeals and giggles as you pick her up and spin her around. You hug her tightly.

“Hi Ja!” You beam at her as you carry her into your apartment, you walk into the kitchen first.

“Welcome home baby.” Hyun-ju says as she walks up to you and pecks you on your lips.

“Hi love.” You smile up at her as she offers you a water bottle.

“They’re all in the living room. If you want to go say hi, I’ll be there in a minute.” She says as she moves around the kitchen grabbing different things. You hum as you turn and make your way to the living room. You round the corner and set Ja down.

“Mommy! Mommy! Auntie’s here!” She exclaims excitedly and runs over to Jun-hee, interrupting whatever conversation she was having with Young-mi. Young-mi looks over to you with a smile, she stands up and walks over to you pulling you into a hug.

“Hi.” She says softly.

“Hey.” You return, you pull back just to get pulled into a hug by Jun-hee. You chuckle and hug her back, you pull back already expecting Se-mi to pull you into a hug. You hug her back, the hug is interrupted by Hyun-ju walking in with drinks for everyone. She hands out everyone’s drinks as you sit down in the big chair that was empty. Once done Hyun-ju comes and perches herself on the arm of the chair you’re in. You grab her hand and start playing with her hand as she talks to Jun-hee about something they were talking about before you got home.

Hyun-ju looks down at you once the three other women were distracted by the three year old.

“How was work sweet girl?” She asks, watching you mindlessly play with her hand. You look up at her.

“Today was good actually.” You say with a soft smile that she reciprocates. “Mm, that reminds me.” You say mostly to yourself as you look over to the three women. “Se-mi, how’s the shop going?” The shortest haired woman looks over to you.

“Good. I’ve had way more customers since we relocated to Thailand.” Se-mi says with a little smile. “It’s nice to actually do what I’ve wanted to do for years.” You nod and smile at her success. “Plus we are just overall happier here. Ja gets to see you and Hyun-ju multiple times a week, we have weekly get-togethers, and we can actually do what we want.” She says and looks over at Jun-hee and Young-mi with Ja.

“Auntie, can I have a snack?” Ja perks up and asks.

“Of course, bug.” You say. “D’you want gummies or crackers?” Ja tilts her head and looks up as she thinks.

“Gummies!” She says happily. You smile at her and nod, you move to get up but feel a hand on your shoulder.

“Stay,” Hyun-ju says softly, “I’ll grab them.” She says as she stands up and walks into the kitchen. You watch as she walks out of the room and into the kitchen.

“Can I go with Auntie Ju-Ju?” Ja asks Young-mi.

“Go ahead, love.” Young-mi says softly. Ja beams up at her and runs to follow Hyun-ju to the kitchen. Jun-hee is quick to look at you and lean forward on the couch.

“So when are you gonna ask her? I know you have the ring already.” Jun-hee asks quietly with a smirk on her face. You glance towards the kitchen and lean toward Jun-hee.

“Soon.” You take a sip of your water. “Really, really soon.” You pause. “She deserves perfection and I plan on giving it to her.” Young-mi smiles all giddy like and Jun-hee giggles like a high school girl hearing a big secret.

“Don’t wait too long, I know you want perfection but don’t let her beat you to it.” Se-mi says softly from her spot on the couch. You open your mouth to say something but stop when you hear Ja talking to Hyun-ju. You look over to the entry way and see Hyun-ju walk in carrying Ja as she eats on her dinosaur gummies.

“Ma, look they have my favorite dinosaur gummies!” The little girl exclaims before popping a gummy into her mouth. You smile at the sight.

The evening goes on with all of you talking and playing with Ja. You stretch and get up from the chair you’ve been sitting in since you got home, you walk out into the hallway and make your way to the kitchen. You rub your neck as you open the fridge and look at what’s there to make for dinner. You feel arms snake around your waist, you lean into the body behind you.

“What’re you looking for?” Hyun-ju asks as she lays her chin on top of your head. You continue to scan the fridge.

“Something to fix for everyone to eat.” She hums in acknowledgement.

“Want me to help?” She asks. You look up at her, making her lift her head and look down at you.

“Always.”

So the two of you begin grabbing things out of the fridge to make for dinner, you decide on pasta, Ja’s favorite. The two of you move around the kitchen in an easy flow, at one point Jun-hee wandered her way in and was sitting on the counter talking to both of you as you cooked. Shortly after Se-mi and Young-mi were dragged in by Ja. Se-mi had picked Ja up and placed her on the counter to sit next to Jun-hee. Se-mi returned to Young-mi who was leaning against the other side of the counter where Jun-hee and Ja were seated, she just watched as you moved around the kitchen. Se-mi eventually wrapped her arms around Young-mi and the two stood there with Se-mi hugging Young-mi from behind and laying her chin on Young-mi’s shoulder. Once you and Hyun-ju finished cooking, all of you moved into the dining room and sat at your table to eat. You all finished about twenty minutes ago and were just sitting there talking.

“Auntie?” Ja said, grabbing your attention.

“Yes, bug?”

“Can I see it? You tilt your head at her.

“See what?” Ja looked down, almost shy.

“The blade.” Ja said quietly. You froze looking at her shy posture.

“Geum-ja.” You hear Young-mi say. “We’ve talked about you asking about that.” Young-mi said sternly. Hyun-ju grabbed your hand that sat on the table, you looked at your conjoined hands as she squeezed your hand reassuring you.

“I’m sorry.” Ja says quickly. “I just wanted to see it.” She says not looking up from the table.

You take your free hand and reach up into your hair, you pull out the sheathed blade and hold it for a second. You never go anywhere without it. It’s always in your hair or on your body somewhere, you had a special chain made for it so you could wear it as a necklace when you wanted your hair down.

“Just look. Don’t touch it okay? Don’t want you to hurt yourself.” You say and gently set it on the table. You feel Jun-hee and Se-mi staring at you with worry. Hyun-ju slightly pulls you closer, and Young-mi holds Ja’s hand.

You don’t blame her for wanting to see it. It’s one of the only things you have of who she’s named after. After the games you hunted down to find Geum-ja’s family but couldn’t find anyone, so you took her stuff. You couldn’t leave it all there to just sit, she deserved more than that. So you took her stuff with you and Hyun-ju to Thailand, it’s scattered around your shared apartment. A touch of her in almost every room. Even after three years it was still a fresh wound, you still cried and blamed yourself for her dying. Hyun-ju was there to comfort you every time, she’s always there no matter what. She’s your support and she’s hers.

After a few minutes you take the blade back and put your hair back up with it. You move on to a different topic. Young-mi brings up how she got promoted at work and that means she will have more free time to spend with everyone. You congratulate her with a hug and a smile as she tears up after you tell her how proud you are of her.

“I talked to Gi-hun yesterday,” Jun-hee says, “he said he’ll be in Thailand next week with his daughter on vacation. He mentioned how he’d like us to meet her and show them around when they arrive.” You gasp and smile at her words.

“Really?” You ask excitedly.

“Yeah. He sounded excited to see us and for us to meet his daughter.” She smiles and looks at everyone.

You all spend the rest of the time planning on what to do when Gi-hun and his daughter arrive, where to take them, what places to eat at, what day they could all come over for dinner. By the time Ja was tired and the three women got ready to leave, you had everything planned out.

You hugged all of them goodbye as they walked out. You sigh and turn to Hyun-ju as the door closes. You reach out your hands to her, when she takes them you pull her in and set them on your waist as you hug her. She hugs you tightly and pulls you closer, you both stand there like that for a few minutes before Hyun-ju steps back and leads you by your hand to your bed. She carefully undresses you, laying kisses on the scars on your thighs before redressing you. The two of you lay in your bed tangled up. She has her back pressed to your front, your hand lays on her abs from over her shirt. Your breathing slows a little.

“I love you Hyun-ju.”

“I love you, my sweet girl.”

A/N: PLS DONT KILL ME IM SORRY ABOUT GEUM-JA'S DEATH. i sobbed while writing it so. i wouldn't be opposed to making a part 2 if it's requested enough ! anyways thanks for reading !! :D

-roy

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