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[yes-i-am-a-tree]

"I thought I was gonna die. " (Platonic!Kenny Ackerman x reader)

Summary: You were to play a part in a plan Kenny and Levi created to break you out of captivity and get away safely. The ironic thing is, you had no idea such a plan existed, so you take your own route, throwing both Kenny and Levi for a loop. Regardless, you prove to them that you can fend for yourself. You also prove that you're a terrible horse rider.

Genre: Angst but gets wholesome at the end. Happy ending.

Also, Platonic Levi x reader but to a minimal amount.

Warnings: bodily injuries, mentions of execution and murder, Kenny being a disappointed father :')

Somewhat proofread 😅 more notes at the bottom 👍

Set in a Western AU!

High noon. Exactly 12 clock was the time your execution was scheduled.

You were framed. Though they had only gotten one thing right out of their accusations against you.

You were Kenny's apprentice. You were 100% along with him every step of the way. Listening to his every order, and obeying his every command. You owed it to him. You can't even count on both hands how many times he's saved your life.

But they were wrong with everything else. The MP claimed you tried to assassinate the king. The Lord of all three walls. It's a wonder everyone believed them because you weren't big or powerful like Levi or Kenny. But they accused you anyway because they knew you were directly associated with Kenny the Ripper.

But apparently, that was in the past because they welcomed him with open arms and left you in the dust.

So you sat and waited. You tried desperately not to think about your doom but it was always on your mind. It ate away at you during the night and it loomed over during the day.

And soon. It was the morning of the last day you'll ever see the sun again. The last day you'll enjoy (not that there was much too in this cramped musty cell)

You tried to savor your last hour before one of the palace guards knocked on the heavy metal bars of your enclosure. It was time to go.

Once you were forced into the palace square it was almost like an open cathedral.

There were crowds among crowds of people. All watching with their beady greedy eyes.

Surprisingly to you though, and you were handcuffed to a pole, no executioner stood nearby. In fact, you found it weird you were chained to a pole in the first place.

You sat in the brutal sun before the crowd grew silent. The king had arrived to watch.

You looked up at him and scowled. He of all people shod know you were not guilty. It was those fucking snobbish Military Police.

Then, a familiar clop of footsteps sounded behind you. 'Of course, he's here, he's basically the head of the MPs at this point.

He then walked his brown leather boots directly in front of your line of sight. You frowned. 2 weeks ago, you would've been overjoyed to see those boots. But now, you just felt betrayed.

On multiple occasions, you hoped and even prayed that he would come and save you. I mean, hell, you had been with him for over a year, did he not care? You gave up that hope a long time ago when you were being transported to the castle prison and you saw his face in the mass of people. You saw him look away. You saw him turn his back on you.

And now he was here to mock you.

Suddenly he squatted and grabbed your face, forcing you to look up at him. Kenny's signature smirk was condescending.

"Don't you know how to show your owner some respect?"

You could hear a couple of guards snicker. You grimaced.

He seemed to grin wider at your reaction.

"What, you don't wanna talk to me? " Kenny asked teasingly.

You just glared. You regretted the last year of your life. Everything just went wrong from there. And now, you were about to die. Alone. Disrespected. And innocent.

Then, He slapped you across the face. Albeit, it was softer than any of the beats he had given you before, nonetheless, it still hurt like hell. You bit back a couple of cuss words.

You truly hated him.

"Sorry sweetheart, I have to teach you a lesson for trying to touch the King"

As he said this he stroked your face where he slapped you like he was trying to soothe you. That just added fuel to the growing fire of hatred inside. You closed your eyes to conceal your tears. He was the last person you wanted to cry in front of.

If only you had kept them open because it was obvious, while you were up that close, that he regretted hitting you. He hated doing it every time. But now was not the moment to feel sympathy.

He took ahold of your dirty hair and slammed your head against the pole behind you. It was like a shock, the vibrations rolling through your skull and the pain and ache that continued endlessly.

You couldn't help the sound of your pain that left your mouth.

Kenny kept his facade. "Don't act so fearless now, you know what's in store for you."

He back-talked you for about 5 more minutes and gave you a couple more mild hits before a loud noise erupted from the large front doors of the cathedral. A gunshot.

Suddenly there was screaming from the outside. Everyone spectating turned their attention to the doors of the cathedral.

And without warning the doors busted open. And out through the doors came someone on horseback. He had a dark hood on and you couldn't make out any of his features.

It was like a dream like some unexplainable thing just occurred. What in the world was happening? Why would anyone want to interrupt your execution?

Before you could think about the rapidly approaching horseman any further you heard the double doors behind you open as well.

You strained your neck to see. The king's guards came pouring out of them, one after the other. All suited up in armor and all horseback.

But to your astonishment, the hooded horse rider fearlessly steered in the other direction towards them.

You tried to watch their scrimmage but you felt Kenny suddenly grab your face.

"Listen to me, I'm gonna untie you and you're gonna follow after me. Got it? "

Without thinking you nodded immediately. So he quickly got to work on your bindings.

But as he hastily cut the rope off, a fleeting thought took a hold of you.

Did you want to be saved by Kenny? The man who betrayed you? Part of you would instead still be executed than go with him. You didn't want to go back to being his little obedient assistant. You could live on your own right?

Then Kenny leaned back up, finished with your rope, and instead of paying attention

to what he was saying, you noticed a stray horse galloping behind him and suddenly, it became a lot more interesting than whatever he was ordering you to do. 'I can get out myself' you thought. 'I don't need his help anymore, he was going to let me die anyway.’

As you pulled your arms off just to make sure, you put your plan into action. You quickly threw your head back, and headbutted Kenny as hard as you could.

In reality, it wasn't too hard, but the surprise most definitely made up for it. Kenny sat utterly dumbfounded for a second as you took off in the direction you last saw the horse.

"Y/N! " you heard him roar.

A part of you wanted to stop and curl up in fear but the majority of you sped up.

This was unreal, unheard of. The minute you reached the light brown horse you took a hold of her reigns and wasted no time mounting her.

She hiccupped in her movements and made a move to shake you off but obeyed when you yanked suddenly on the reigns.

The whole time this occurred you heard Kenney's yells.

In your mind, you found it funny. It was about time he stopped treating you like some dog.

You sped around the cathedral before racing towards the exit.

The crowd was loud, the guards were loud and the noise drowned out as you steamrolled your way through. You didn't even look back.

The way forward was not clear. After the double door was passed through, the people in the streets screamed in fear for the stallion bounding in their direction.

The wind zipped past your hair, and for once in your life, you felt on top of the world. You were unbeatable, untouchable, immortal.

You zoomed past shops and police, they were too stunned to stop you. You heard a faint cackling and realized it was coming from you. For some time, you felt like you could feel this way forever, free, happy... Like it could never end.

In your haste and carelessness, you failed to notice the cart in front of you until it was too late.

In your spilt second to reflexes, you steered the horse in an extremely harsh right, and it worked for a moment until you realized you were going to crash headfirst into a tree.

You yanked on the reigns once again, but the inertia flung you out of the saddle and out over the horse.

Unfortunately for you, out past the tree you were trying to avoid, laid out a deep River bank. What was supposed to be a short fall off your horse for a moment, ended up being a 4-second tumble down the rocky side of a river bank.

On your way down, the harsh ridged rocks dug into your skin and did little to hinder your fall. Your limbs got caught on small trees and the pain... The pain was immeasurable.

You hit the water with a splash and promptly passed out.

...

Kenny was pissed.

Beyond pissed.

Honestly, he was so angry it surprised him but he didn't dwell on it for too long.

He and Levi had a near perfectly fine plan, but then you had to fuck it all up with that dumbass little stunt you pulled.

Really, what the fuck were you even thinking? Now he has to go out and look for your dumbass. Any sympathy he felt for hitting you earlier felt completely justified in his eyes now.

I mean, why the fuck didn't you just listen to him? He was helping you for God's sake!??

He forced his way through the same crowds you did with his horse. Looking for any sign of your path.

After a minute of riding, through a gap in the road, Levi caught up and rode alongside him. Levi had changed out of his disguise and was looking for you too.

The more they continued through the town without any clues to your wear about, the angrier Kenny became. He was so fed up. He thought that he might actually kill you when he found you.

But as they drove up the road, there was a crowd in the way.

They slowed down but as they got closer, to their dismay, the crowd wasn’t about Y/N. It seemed like they were trying to calm down a horse.

Kenny huffed in annoyance and tried to force his way through but Levi called out to him.

"Kenny wait,” Levi ordered.

"What!? " Kenny asked exasperatedly.

"Shut up and look at the horse."

Kenny stopped at took a good look at the horse. It was light brown... And for a moment he wondered why he should even care but it finally hit him. The horse you left on looked exactly like it.

He and Levi looked around frantically. You couldn't have gone too far, he's sure they didn't feed you well.

Then, he spotted the cart. It seemed out of place from the start but it was quite literally just sitting in the middle of the road.

Moving around the crowd, with Levi following him, he rode up to the cart and dismounted.

Levi got off his horse questioningly and took both reigns and proceeded to tie them to a nearby tree.

Kenny continued to look around. "I think she's around here somewhere, I'm sure that cart tripped her up."

Levi gave no sign of agreement and instead took a look around as well. In truth, he was annoyed too but understood why you would do this in the first place. Kenny never had a good reputation for being genuine or communicative.

But overall, a part of him was worried, both before this and right now. He never thought he'd think this but he didn't want you to die, and right now, you were seriously in danger.

They continued to scout out the area, around the trees and nearby shops, until, while pushing back some bushes, Levi saw the stream. It was a large river bank with rushing water, and there was a steep decline of rocks and trees to it.

"Kenny! " Levi yelled and moved to carefully start his descent to the water.

As he stepped down the more stable rocks, he noticed that some seemed loose, like they had been moved, and there were spots where there were depressions in the ground where a rock used to be.

Soon enough, Kenny came rushing to the bank as well. Immediately taking after Levi (albeit hastily and less carefully)

It took them some time to reach the bottom, but on the way they saw broken trees and... Blood. Blood coated the smooth rocks and twigs left abandoned by the side of the bank. They grew more perturbed.

Once they reached the bottom Kenny immediately looked around the sides of the water. No signs of you, just undisturbed sand.

"She must have gotten carried away by the river!" Kenny yelled over the rushing water.

He and Levi jogged downstream (The decline into the back was too steep for their horses). It was a large basin of water, all flowing and crashing into large rocks down the slope. Further ahead laid a small waterfall, which didn't leave a good feeling in Kenny’s stomach.

They clambered down the sides and continued looking for you. So far down the stream, there was nothing, but it was their only hope in finding your wear abouts.

When Kenny looked ahead, the stream reached somewhat of a turn, or it was more like a couple of large boulders broke the stream into veins, and the largest ran down to the right and out of view.

The other smaller streams kept riding on, out into different directions but what caught his attention was the odd brown object protruding from between some of the rocks.

Without hesitation, he wadded through the strong current towards it. Levi followed doubtlessly, though, he hesitated because he didn't want to get his boots or pants muddy.

Once Kenny eventually reached the other side, he could see what the strange object was.

There, abandoned on the shore was a stray boot. He knelt, picked it up, and studied it.

It was the left boot and when he thought about it, it was suddenly familiar. He took it in his hands and stood up. There were no footprints, or bootprints, just plain sand.

"YN! " he called out. He looked around desperately. "YN!! "

Levi had already strode ahead, taking note of the boot, he walked forward checking behind large boulders. As he progressed forward, he finally spotted what they were looking for.

A body crumpled up along with the rocks. From what he could see, there was a substantial amount of blood.

"Kenny! " Levi called again as he speed walked towards your unconscious form.

Without missing a beat Kenny took off to where he heard Levi. He kept his pace until he spotted you as well, increasing in speed to get to you faster.

He couldn’t will himself to call out to you again, too afraid of the silence that might follow. You can't die. It isn't possible, he doesn't have time for it.

You were in worse shape than he thought. Of course, Levi reached you first, but from what he could see, your left calf was twisted beyond its normal capabilities. There was blood across your stomach and he could see large scratches and the beginnings of bruises started to form on your skin.

Your clothes were tattered and soaked, whatever skin was showing looked damaged in some way or another. Kenny leaned down and watched Levi hurriedly check your pulse. Even Levi looked concerned... or even scared.

Kenny watched as Levi’s face turned from anxious back to his normal scowl.

“Well, is she alive or dead?!” Kenny half yelled out of nervousness.

“She’s alive,” Levi stated in monotone, “But she’s probably broken some bones and we’ll have to carry her back.”

Kenny grumbled but felt a rush of peace. He didn’t want to admit it but he was tense the whole time before Levi said that.

“Well, let’s get a move on, I’m sick and tired of this shit.” Kenny spat. He sat the boot down and squatted to find a way to pick you up. But as his hands breached under your back and knees, you abruptly started coughing and heaving. It was a thick and heaving cough, and every time you did was excruciating.

“Finally awake huh?” Kenny taunted through gritted teeth, “Have a nice trip?”

You were too disoriented to comprehend what Kenny was saying. You groaned because of the pain and let your eyes adjust. The noise of the water and Kenny’s loud ass voice overwhelmed you.

“What…” You croaked. “Kenny?”

“Yeah it’s me, Princess,” Kenny said sarcastically, “I’m here to save your dumbass.”

“What’s going on?” You asked no one in particular. Your eyes finally adjusted and you could make out Kenny and Levi looking down at you. Levi looked more or less normal but Kenny… well, let’s just say Kenny didn’t look pleased.

“You tell me. We had a plan but it seems like you had other ideas.” he bitched.

“I,” you thought about it but found your brain was having a hard time thinking. “I didn’t know” you muttered dumbly.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Kenny said angrily, “You’re in a butt load of trouble for this little stunt you pulled, first you fuckin’ headbutt me, then you run off and now you’ve troubled both me and Levi by having to walk all the way down here to get you. I haven't even mentioned the stuff we're gonna have to do to get you back and fixed.”

You felt embarrassed, to say the least. If your face wasn’t already burning from the blood rushing to it from the pain, it sure was now. “I thought that- I thought-”

“Well you thought fuckin’ wrong, that’s what you fucking did, you screwed it all up,” Kenny cursed.

Levi had already stood up when you weren’t paying attention, but his voice suddenly made his presence known. He wasn’t one to get into his uncle's affairs, you were Kenny's little brat and had little relation to him, but this was getting to be too much.

“Can we do this shit some other time, Kenny?” Levi spoke with an annoyed tone.

“No! No, I have shit to say to this little fucker.” Kenny barked at him while staring at you.

Kenny then reached down and grabbed at your shirt, hauling you up and causing you to huff. Your legs strained and the ankle, which was numb before, suddenly felt very noticeable and painful. You whimpered and hissed.

“When I fucking tell you to do something, you’re supposed to Fucking Do It!” Kenny hissed while jabbing at you, “Don’t fucken ignore me. Don’t do the opposite. And Don’t Fucking Hit me you little-”

He stopped momentarily when he saw the tears running down your cheeks. “Oh, don’t you think for a second those crocodile tears are gonna’ make me forget this mess sweetheart. You fucked this shit up, and now you’re gonna pay for it.”

Levi cursed and anxiously shuffled on his feet, “Kenny, lets just fucking go, our horses are still-”

“Shut Up! I’m not done!” Kenny ordered, “What were you even thinking huh? Do you want this to happen? Did you think you were gonna do something? Did you think this was gonna change anything? Huh?” Kenny shook you with every question, unaware of the pain this was causing you.

Some more tears fell down your face. You kept grimacing.

After you didn’t answer because of the pain, Kenny continued. “Some shit like this happens every single time! Should I have just left you there? Maybe I should've because now I have to deal with your bullshit again. Do you want me to bring you back!?”

“Kenny, I thought I was gonna die” you sobbed.

Kenny stopped at stared at you. Since you said it through tears and hiccups it took a moment to understand you. “You thought you were gonna die?” He questioned condescendingly.

It took a second for you to answer, because of the hiccups and gasping. “I thought- that you had left me for good. You just left me to die- I thought I was gonna die.”

He stayed silent for a moment. Huffing through his nose and staring at your pain-stricken face, trying to understand exactly what you meant.

“It was when- When” You gasped. “When you turned away from me when they took me away. You turned away and left me.”

Kenny stared at you with a confused expression, but then sighed and looked down when he realized where the misunderstanding happened.

Kenny’s voice was much softer now as if explaining to a toddler he spoke, “Y/N I did that so that the MP didn’t think it was a setup. You know that I have to act so that they didn’t suspect anything.”

“No- No I didn’t because I had no clue you were with the MP. You just-” You huffed once more, “You just left me and I had to stay there with- with no food and in fear because- because I was gonna die. I thought I was gonna die for sure.” You whimpered and sputtered. “And- And you’re really h-hurting me.” You added pitifully.

Kenny hesitated, as if somewhat surprised that he was causing you physical pain, before calmly setting you back down.

He waited for a moment over you, mulling over his actions and the miscommunication that had accrued.

“Let’s go,” Kenny decided, “Levi, help me.”

Levi returned to your side hastily, happy this argument was finally over, and supported your body as Kenny carefully pulled you up and held your bridal style. As he adjusted you, you continued to groan and hiss. Your arm rose to grab onto something because of anxiety since you couldn’t remember the last time you were picked up.

Your hand grasped onto the back of Kenny’s collar and your head rested near Kenny’s shoulder. You continued to huff involuntarily.

Levi grabbed your left boot and they began to walk, without the urgency they had before, up the river. Every step Kenny took left a sting in your leg since it moved with the inertia of his movement but you keep silent.

You closed your eyes and tried to fight the shame and embarrassment that was overcoming you. ‘Another time I fuck it all up, Kenny is right, I really am just a burden.’ Your conscious tormented. ‘Every time I’m around something bad happens. They really should’ve just left me to die.’

“Kenny…” You started hesitantly, “I’m really sorry”

You heard no response and it left you feeling incredibly stupid. ‘What was an apology gonna do? Fix things?’ But something distracted you from thinking this way for too long because you noticed Kenny’s heartbeat had increased substantially.

“Just… don’t you ever do that again,” Kenny said softly while stepping over a particularly large rock. Causing you to wince.

“I won't..” You muttered.

He took this as an invitation to continue talking. “You gave me quite a fright ya know? All I know is that you’re gone and you’ve lost a lot of blood. And then we finally find you and you’re unconscious… heh, you said you were scared you were gonna die, well I was scared shitless that you actually were.” He admitted with a weak smile.

After a moment with no response, he suddenly felt a deep despairing pit form in his gut and he quickly looked down at you.

“Levi, she’s not responding.” He spoke with urgency.

“She’s just sleeping” Levi answered calmly, “She lost a lot of blood.”

Kenny tutted with embarrassment. Nodding as if he already knew that.

“Jesus kid, you’re gonna give me a heart attack.” He spoke under his breath.

★ I know I haven't posted in like, 2 years but im a one hit wonder except my hits aren't wonders they're mistakes.

Also, this is NOT lore accurate at all 😅 I can't even remember theast time I've seen at I just randomly remembered my liking towards Kenny and felt the need to write it.

And actually, if you can't tell, I wrote this on the course of 2 years, some of the beginning is low quality but the end is recent so if it sounds different halfway through apologies.

Also, I wish I could recall the name and uthor but this is a little bit inspired by their Kenny x reader fics where it's in a western AU. I just loved it so much that now whenever I imagine Kenny it's when he's some wanted outlaw in the Wild West.

‼️I have a part 2 if anyone is interested. I'll probably post it anyway if this gets attention 👍

[yes-i-am-a-tree]

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (Sang-woo x reader)

Sang-woo x AFAB* reader story. (squid game) 

* The only reason the reader is AFAB is because, in the story, they use the women’s restroom. I always try to use gender neutral pronouns*

Summary: you and sang-woo complete the 5th game together, and you end up getting hurt instead of Sae-byeok. 

Warnings: Death, Main character death, Blood, Angst, Sang-woo being  psychopathic  :’) 

I dunno if this classifies as Sae-byeok x reader bc you two do have a moment...

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It was the 5th game. You, Gi-hun, Sae-byeok, Sang-woo, and another man, ahead of all of you, were still alive. You were almost there to the end. Just one more glass panel in the way before all of you were to safety.

Thankfully you were one of the last ones to choose a number along with Gi-hun, and ended up between Sang-woo and Sae-byeok.  

At first you were prone to choose one of the higher numbers, but before you chose Sang-woo told you to wait and choose a middle number or one of the last ones, and you respected and trusted him so you waited until you got a hold of number 15. 

The only numbers left right now were 17,16,15,14, and 13. And at the moment 13 was stalling before he made his decision. 

For the past minute 13 had been trying to determine which glass was tempered or normal, and you could tell everyone was feeling the pressure of the impending doom there was if we ran out of time. 

You had all run out of ideas, and you could tell from behind Sang-woo that he was getting anxious. You had known him for 2 years when you both attended Seoul National University. 

“I… I can’t tell them apart” you heard 13 say despairingly. “If we had another marble…” 

He waited for something to intervene and save him from this situation. He didn’t want to die, and neither did anyone here, but time was running out and something needed to happen. 

You shakily stood up from your sort of crouching position. You took a deep breath and leaped onto the glass Sang-woo was standing on, forcing him to move some to the side.

“What are you doing?” He brashly asked. 

“We're running out of time.” You paused, “I’ll go.”

“No,” Sang-woo answered without hesitation. “You’re staying put, he’s going.” Sang-woo had always admired your bravery and determination when you knew each other back then, but now was not the time. 

You looked at him “We don't have time to argue, we all need to live”

At that 13 stood up in expectation that you would join him to further jump on one of the last glass panels.

“You’re not moving,” Sang-woo directed at you, and then pointed at the man in front of him. “JUST GO!” 

Number 13 stuttered at Sang-woo’s volume. Eyes glancing between you and Sang-woo. “They- They said they would-”

Sang-woo didn’t bother to listen to the man’s excuse for staying in place. He forcefully shoved him backward, the man breaking the tempered glass in front of him on the way down. Shortly afterward you could hear his body hit the bottom. 

“GO!” Sang-woo yelled in your ear. 

Mostly in fear of the man beside you, and the time running out, you quickly jumped across the last remaining glass to the end. Sang-woo and the other two followed just as briskly before the time hit zero.

Just when you thought you were safe after the clock stopped you heard glass shatter. You turned your head to see the glass panels explode before you, and in retaliation you tried to shield your body from the impending glass shards.

But it was not enough. A good sized chunk pierced you right in the side. You didn’t feel the pain much at first, but you could definitely tell it was deep. Deep enough to possibly kill you. 

...

Later, when you all arrived back to your shared chamber, You could hear Gi-hun argue with Sang-woo about how he murdered the man. But you were too tired, and in too much pain to care. You quickly noticed and accepted that there were four beds left, one for each person, and quickly claimed one to sit and wait. 

But in not much time some guards entered and offered you all “gifts.” You quickly took this opportunity to check your wound, and hurried to the women’s restroom.

When you entered the women’s restroom, you wasted no time removing your shirt to inspect the wound. You looked bad, even worse than you thought, and you had to suppress a gag. You were never good with bloody injuries, but thankfully, surviving all previous games toughed you up a bit. 

You bit into your shirt and prepared to carefully remove the glass shard. 

When you yanked it out you let out a pained yell, clenching your teeth hard around the shirt, but it was muffled.

Now, the blood wasn’t being stopped by the glass and it was leaking at a fast pace down your side and onto the sink. 

You took your shirt and wrapped it around the lower part of your torso where the wound was, and knotted it tight, eliciting another groan of pain from you. 

You hoped that was enough to stop the bleeding and leaned against the cold mirror to catch your breath. Closing your eyes, you tried to think of good memories, something to distract you because the pain was almost unbearable. 

Not long afterward, you faintly heard the door to the women’s restroom open. 

You pried open one eye to catch Sae-byeok carrying the “gift” box. She was walking toward you. 

You could only imagine the sight. Blood covering the sink and the floor beneath it. Some on the mirror, but mostly soaking your clothes. And you, clutching your wound and panting like you ran a couple miles.

“What happened?” you heard her monotone voice say. 

“I-” your voice held a considerable amount of pain. “Some of the glass got me in my...side”

Sae-byeok nodded and for a while it was silent. 

You knew what she was thinking. You were hurt. Badly hurt. If the last game was physical, there was no chance of your survival. In fact, you probably weren’t going to last the night. At this rate you were done. You were finished. 

“Do you need help?” She asked quietly. “The gift was some clothes.”

You nodded. And She took out your suit and helped you change. If one person was going to leave this place, whoever it may be, you really hoped it was her.

“Sae-byeok…” you started. “ I hope that… when you get out-”

“I'm done” she cut you off. “You should leave, if you stay here too long the guards will get suspicious” 

You slowly nodded before half limping away, but before you left you turned to her. “Thank you” You said, and exited the bathroom. 

Sae-byeok continued to stare at the ground from when she was tying your shoelaces. She didn’t want to lose another nice person. She didn’t want to get close to anyone else. Not after her…

...

When you all returned, the chamber had changed. There was a square shaped long dining table in the middle of it, the table was decorated fancily, and there were even candles and steak to eat. 

You were ushered by guards to your assigned place to sit and then, after sometime you were left to yourself. 

In normal situations, this could be seen as a nice, classy, even romantic atmosphere to eat. You would normally dig in, but right now. You felt too uncomfortable to eat, let aloe sit. And the atmosphere was tense, unsettling. Gi-hun was obviously still angry, and Sae-byeok’s mood was somber.

Then, almost hesitantly, Sang-woo was the first one to touch his food and eat. And the rest of you began too. 

You could tell, even throughout eating, everyone was wary of each other. Of course, Gi-hun and Saebyeok had trust between each other, and they both also trusted you. So really, Sang-woo was the only one to be anxious about, and there were heavily uneven opposing sides. But part of you still believed in him. Part of you still believed in everyone, but mostly in him.

Sang-woo was never a bad person. Ever since the day you had met him you knew he had a humble soul, and you always understood and helped him, and he in turn, helped you. The last thing you wanted was to side with him and fight against Gi-hun and Sae-byeok, but maybe you could see if all four of you could work together in the last game. If you made it long enough… 

But as the guards cleared the tables and cleaned up you felt worse and worse about it. Especially when one layed a single steak knife in front of you and to the rest. You knew what they were doing. They were setting you all up to kill each other before the next game! 

...

A lot of time passed before anything happened. Everything was quiet in the Chamber room. No one had anything to say, but everyone knew not to fall asleep. 

Earlier, Gi-hun had visited Sae-byeok’s bed, probably to discuss something about the next game. So it left you and Sang-woo alone on the other side of the large room.

It was extremely hard to stay awake, in fact, you were constantly fighting just to keep your eyes open, so you figured standing would be better. 

You could see through the dim light that Sang-woo was having a hard time staying awake as well. And apparently you weren’t the only one who noticed this because you saw Gi-hun stalk toward him, just a bit, with the steak knife in his hands. 

You didn’t want another murder, especially not on Sang-woo, so you (as fast as you could) limped over to Sang-woo’s cot. 

There he was, sitting up, using the wall to support himself. His head was hanging and you could see the steak knife slip out of his hand and land on his mattress.

“Sang-woo” You said softly. Constantly adjusting your stance to accommodate the pain. “Sang-woo”

He slowly opened his eyes and panicked. Snatching the knife and holding it in a defensive position. His eyes looked crazy, completely different to the way you remember all those years ago. 

“Sang-woo, it's me. I'm not here to kill you.” 

He was still anxious, and it broke your heart to know he didn’t trust you. 

“You were about to fall asleep. I didn’t want you to get hurt” You said truthfully. 

“Where’s your knife?” He asked bluntly.

“I have it right here” You said as you pulled it from your pocket. “But I have no intention of using this” and you threw it far away, in the direction of your bed. 

Sang-woo watched it clatter near the foot of your bed, and his attention was back on you. He calmed down, and remembered who he was talking to. He lowered his arm and released some tension. 

“Can I sit down?” You asked, and motioned toward his bed.

He slowly nodded. He was more scared as to why you wanted to sit with him. 

“Thanks” You answered and slowly sat down, to minimize the pain. But of course when you finally relaxed on the mattress you let out a groan of pain. This did not go unnoticed by Sang-woo, but he didn’t want to say anything, afraid of what he, himself, might do if he DID know you were injured. 

“Why?” you asked simply. You were still thinking about what he did in the last game.

He hesitated before answering. He looked up at you but also caught Gi-hun and Sae-byeok staring at the both of you from across the chamber.

“It was the only way. He wouldn’t move-”

“That isn’t true, I could've gone. I wanted to go”

He sighed and put his knife somewhere behind him rather than in his hand.

“I couldn’t let you do that” He almost whispered, ignoring the question. 

You both sat in silence. You didn’t want to argue with him. 

“You…” he quietly uttered. “You mean a lot to me, I didn’t want to see you dead” 

You couldn’t respond. You appreciated his concern, but murder is murder, and you weren’t easily forgiving that.

“You mean lots to me too, But I don’t know if I can forgive you.”

He nodded. “I… understand” 

Not too long after, your vision went black for a second. And you swayed a bit in place. He instinctively reached out to balance you, but you swatted his hands away with whatever strength you had left. 

“Please, I don’t need it. I’m fine.” but both of you knew you were lying. And he finally noticed the red coating the white button up underneath your coat.

“You’re hurt” He stated. And ignored your protests and laid you down, getting up in the process and moving his knife so you could lie down. 

“Sang-woo...Listen” You spoke. Halting his movements to make you comfortable. “I’ll probably not make it to the end, my father depends on me back home. Please help him for me. Tell him I sent you.” 

But Sang-woo was still silent. You thought he was listening but his thoughts were far elsewhere. 

“Sang-woo…” you called, your voice pained, “Sang-woo?”

His eyes were frantic. You had never seen him so upset and unsettled. 

You could feel yourself drift away. Your eyes were not focusing and you felt so, so heavy. Your eyes closed and you stilled. 

But then, You could hear yelling. And all of a sudden, something plunged into the side of your neck. 

Your eyes opened wide and at first you saw Sang-woo, he was holding himself above you. But then you saw his arm, and his hand. 

He had stabbed the knife to hilt in your throat. And red covered your vision. You saw red on him. And then with one choked sob, your eyes lost that spark, and you died. 

Gi-hun had seen it. He was worried about you the moment he saw you walk over to him. But he was also confused. How could you trust that bastard? 

And now you were dead. He had seen Sang-woo lay you down, lean over you, and stab you. He was a cold hearted murderer. And as soon as he saw you faint he was running in your direction. 

“SANG-WOO!” Gi-hun screamed in anger.

But Sang-woo didn't answer. He was still staring at you, holding you cheek. Your blood staining his face and hands. 

Once Gi-hun reached you, He shoved Sang-woo off of you, and leaned over to look. You were really dead. And as if to prove it, the lights turned on and the door to the chamber opened. 

Masked guards walked in with a coffin. And walked over to take your limp, lifeless body away. 

Gi-hun finally looked up to see Sang-woo’s expressionless face. Sang-woo looked more tired than anything else. 

“You!” Gi-hun got up. “You monster! You were friends!”

Yet Sang-woo continued to stay silent. 

Gi-hun raised his knife, aiming to strike Sang-woo, but a guard pushed him away and restrained him.

Another guard shoved Sang-woo away with the end of their gun. As Gi-hun continued to yell and scream at Sang-woo, Sang-woo watched as they took your body away, probably to be disposed of, he wouldn’t know.

In truth, he didn’t know why he did it. You were going to die anyway. It was like an urge he couldn’t control. He would go his whole life not knowing why, but out of all the people he killed. Either outright or in the games to win. Yours hurt the worst. And he would probably think about you, until the day he died.

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once again, please tell me if I made any mistakes. and please no hate, just constructive criticism :’) thx 

[yes-i-am-a-tree]

Heavy Heavy Rain (Sang-woo x Reader)

Sang-woo x reader story (Squid game)

Summary: You find Sang-woo after he had a rough morning and attempt to comfort him

Warnings: none :)

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Today was just not his day. He thought of himself fairly smart, at least smarter than most people, but right now he felt like the dumbest person in the world. 

His morning was the start of the bad luck. He woke up to his neighbors loud music at 7 am. Not only that but he was so tired he left the house with nothing to shield his face and not two minutes down the block he spotted a police officer and, just his luck, It was one of his pursuers asking around if they saw him. 

Afterward he completely booked it from his apartment complex and went at least 10 blocks before he found some rest in the park of the city, trying to escape from the police in case they had seen him. 

And just as he thought things could still go as planned it started to rain. Not rain, no, it started to pour, heavy, heavy drops of water that blasted against any metal surface. And it was especially loud when he took shelter at the local store not far from the park. 

He stayed inside a while just browsing the isles for warmth before ultimately deciding he needed a smoke before then realizing... he had also forgotten his wallet. 

He was so stressed at the moment and kept thinking to himself about how irresponsible he was acting. He never NEVER forgets. Well, very occasionally but it was only if he wasn’t in the right mind. And right now, certainly, he wasn’t in the right mind. 

He was so caught up in his pessimistic thoughts that he didn’t notice his fists clench hard enough you would see his veins, but he most certainly didn’t notice you approach behind him either. 

“Hey” 

At that his head snapped up and focused on your figure. 

“Hey, you alright man?”

When he didn’t answer right away you may or may not have silently panicked. “What if he's creeped out? What if he really just needed space?”

But little did you know he was just confused, and maybe a little disoriented. 

“Ye...yeah, just tired. Had a rough morning” he said nonchalantly, as if he wasn’t avoiding the police. And at the end of his sentence he finally looked into your eyes.

“Hey, I know you” You abruptly stated.

“Y-you do?”

“Yeah, we went to high school together, I remember sitting behind you in Geometry and in Korean History”

At that he paused and deliberated between his memories of high school. It had been so long, he really didn’t remember anyone, let alone someone who sat behind him. 

After he decided he had no memories of high school he focused again on you. His demeanor a lot more enthusiastic and relaxed than when he came in stressed and upset at himself. 

“I'm afraid I don’t remember much back then… What's your name?”

you told him your name, and he proceeded to say it a few times as if rolling it across his tongue would arouse locked memories. 

“Sorry, i've got nothing”

“Figures, you were quite the ladies man, you probably had to learn a lot of names” you said teasingly.

he let out a stiff but gruff chuckle. 

Hoping that you didn’t make him uncomfortable or remind him of bad memories you quickly directed his attention. 

“Hey, you wanna take a smoke? I think the rains’ settled down”

He looked outside. You were right. There really wasn’t anymore rain. Just puddles across the sidewalk and in the street. 

“Sure”

You both proceeded to exit the store and stood some to the far left, where there was some shrubbery that shielded your view from the street, and the wall behind you shielded you from the inside of the store. 

You leaned against the wall and supported yourself as you reached into your pack for a pair of sticks.

You handed him one and slipped the other between your lips and swiftly took your lighter out and lit your cig. 

He watched you from a few feet away as you let out a puff of grey air. He didn’t know it before but you held an attractive quality to him. Maybe it was the way you carried yourself, our attitude and kind nature to look out for others. Or it might have just been his overwhelming gratitude for you to show up and calm him down. 

As your hand went down he went to reach for the lighter but before he could even move you held it just before the cig between his lips. 

He hesitated but ultimately understood and helped steady the stick to light it. 

After both cigarettes were lit, you just as easily slid the lighter back into your pocket and leaned more against the wall.  

Then you both settled and stood for a while, and he went back to admiring you. Maybe you were just his age. Where did you work? How did you remember him?

“Penny for your thoughts?” you inquired, in search of conversation.

He hesitated. “I’m just wondering how you recognized me”

“Oh” you chuckled. “It was easy, your eyes. You constantly look tired. Like you’re carrying the weight of the world or something. In fact, you look even worse than how you were back then, anything I can do to help?”

He didn't expect you to be so forward. How come he never noticed you back then?

“N-no, it’s… it’s fine, just had a rough morning…”

You could tell that wasn’t completely the truth but you didn't want to inquire or seem annoying.

“Hey uh, how far do you live from here?” You asked again, hoping to eliminate the silence. 

he looked at you suspiciously. 

“Oh- wait” you fumbled, noticing his expression, “I was just asking because of the rain, that’s all. I don’t want you to have to walk in wet clothes, you could catch something.” 

At that he could agree, his clothes were still a bit soaked from when he got caught in the rain earlier, and they were indeed sticking to him. 

“My house is very close, do you wanna stop by?, it wouldn’t be any trouble” you offered.

It didn’t take him too long to decide. Going back to his apartment wasn’t an option, and where else would he go? 

“Yeah, that would be great.”

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Honestly, I don’t think Sang-woo is a completely bad person, he was just put under too much stress. I think if the game never happened he would continue being a good person. 

If you want to correct me, or give me constructive criticism don’t hesitate! just please no hate! (it is my first time lol)