𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐔𝐏

𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘, 𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐋𝐘.

“Attention, players.
I will now announce the results
of the second game.”

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢'𝐬 head shot up to looks at the board with the money and the number of players. The play amount began to drastically drop.

“Out of 187 players who
parctipated,
79 players were eliminated.”

𝐓𝐡𝐞 room went dark and the piggy bank began to fill up with more money.

“The prize money accumulated
this round is 7.9 billion won.”

𝐈𝐭 was a lot of money, much more than her debt. To receive the total prize money would be amazing, Kyu-ri would be able to do so much with that amount money.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 the image of the man falling down the slide, blood spreading down it made Kyu-ri shudder. She thought it wasn't doing anything to her, that she was desensitized even, but something, a feeling was now crawling inside of her.

“The total prize money accumulated
so far is now 34.8 billion won.”

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 tilted her head, staring up at the piggy bank. She had just got back, just returned here this morning. So, why did she start having a weird feeling about it? As long as she could make it out with Yu-mi, she was more than happy.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 was when she paused. Oh. She had started feel some bond between her and the younger girl and she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she seemed so young, so innocent and needed protection.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 that was up for debate.

“Attention, players.
Your mealtime starts now.
All players, please form a
line in the center of the room.”

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 the announcement, people began to form two lines in the center of the room, ready to get their food for the night.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 Kyu-ri grabbed her meal, she arched a brow at it. An egg and a fizzy drink.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 she didn't really care. She glanced up at the guard, something seemed off about said guard, but she ignored it. Kyu-ri only shrugged and grabbed her food. She could handle eating that little, there would be points in her life where she would go days without eating. Just like the old days then, right?

𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 again, Kyu-ri sat down next to Yu-mi and her group of friends.

𝐘𝐮-𝐦𝐢 stared at her food, looking disappointed. That was when Kyu-ri noticed. One of the boys from the morning mealtime had disappeared.

“𝐇𝐞𝐲, where—” Kyu-ri began to speak, but Yu-mi already knew what she was asking. “Min-jun is dead. He picked star and then messed up. I told him that circle and triangle seemed the safest but he didn't listen. Not like he knew, but... I should've tried to convince him harder.”

“𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, it's not your fault, you still tried.” Kyu-ri told her. But Yu-mi only sighed, still disappointed.

“𝐀𝐧𝐝 this is all we get for food...” The younger girl muttered. Kyu-ri nudged, speaking up, “Hey, when I was seven, one time I ate a whole glue stick to stop my stomach from growling.” She said, earning a smile from Yu-mi. Laughing, she asked, “How was it?”

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 smiled.

“Players, lights out in

“𝐆𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐲.”

𝐘𝐮-𝐦𝐢 laughed, shaking her head once again. Kyu-ri realized how good it was to see the younger girl laughing, how it felt like she was actually doing something right.

“𝐈'𝐦 gonna go to the bathroom.” Kyu-ri muttered. With a quick sip, she finished her drink and left.

𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 she was in the bathroom, she quickly did her business. There was nothing to stall about, just quick in and out.

𝐁𝐮𝐭, by the time she had began to wash her hands, she heard yelling, screaming, and fighting above all.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 slowly peeked out of the bathroom. Her eyes were immediately met with the sight of a clearly dead man laying in the center of the room and 456— no, Gi-hun standing slightly to the side of him.

“Player 271, eliminated.”

𝐈𝐭 was stupid, really. The man hadn't meant to mess up that bad. Kyu-ri immediately turned to face 101, knowing that it was his doing. She scoffed and stepped out of the bathroom. As she walked out, the player count went down and the money went up.

__________

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐊𝐘𝐔-𝐑𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏, 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐀 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌. Immediately, in instinct, she sat up. It had been a quick motion, no way of being stopped.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 then, she found herself crawling off of her bed, tiptoeing silently, trying to figure out what was going on. The screaming had continued the whole time, until coming to an end of labored breaths and eventually, no sound at all.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧, more screams began to emerge. The lights began to flicker, and chaos ensued.

𝐎𝐧𝐞 second, Kyu-ri be somewhere, and the next she'd be so far away from that spot. With the flashing lights around her, it was hard to tell what was going on. But she was aware of the blood bath around her.

𝐀𝐬 she continued to sneak around, a woman, around her age fell into Kyu-ri, knowing her over. Her body hit the floor, a sudden ache becoming prominent in her ribcage. It hurt, but she sucked it up.

The girl grabbed her shins and croaked, “Help me...” from her cracked lips. The words were dry, sounded rough, like she had been dehydrated. But Kyu-ri didn't react, not anymore than the sharp gasp she took and the way she froze up. She didn't help the girl, no, not at all. By the time she could even come to her senses, the girl was being dragged away. She screamed, tried to wiggle free, but nothing worked for her. She was as good as dead.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢'𝐬 brows shot up, in shock and fear. Her eyes widened and she immediately turned around to find somewhere to hide. Unfortunately, she slipped over a puddle of blood, knocking herself back to her feet. When she stumbled back up to her feet, she was immediately knocked over again.

“𝐊𝐲. Don't try to fight me, to fight this.”

𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐲, with a deep breath, Kyu-ri squeezed her eyes shut. “Just kill me, Ji-ho. I'd rather die than be your bitch.”

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 a light chuckle, Ji-ho crouched down to be closer in level as her. His chuckle was a cruel sound, the one you hear from psychopaths. “Oh, Ky, I won't kill you. I love you too much to do that.”

𝐒𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲, a bunk bed got knocked over. Then another followed.

𝐉𝐢-𝐡𝐨 grunted, straining against something. It seemed like he was stuck, in pain, or maybe both.

𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 to her feet and quickly turning around, Kyu-ri saw that his ankle was stuck under the metal frames of the first bunk that fell. So, naturally, she quickly ran away.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 looked around for Yu-mi. It was a desperate attempt to save the younger girl, where she had no clue about her wherabouts. But she couldn't have the younger girl dying because she failed to protect her. It's not my job to protect her.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 then Kyu-ri paused. But it feels like it.

𝐀𝐬 she began to fight in her brain, to pick apart her own thoughts, she heard a familiar sound of panting nearby. Her head perked, catching the face of the woman, 067.

𝐒𝐡𝐞 had been nearly strangled by 101, but managed to escape that predicament. After that, she took off through a set of bunk beds, trying to escape him in total.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 had sparked something in Kyu-ri, a stupid idea, really.

“𝐇𝐞𝐲! 067!” She screamed as soon as she saw 101 was distracted with another player. The older girl glanced back at her, giving her a sharp glare. Kyu-ri ignored it all in all, just trying to help. “Follow me.”

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 like that, the two girls were dashing through the dormitory, dodging death every other second. It was a total death wish to be in here to begin with, but this was something different. This was the price of greed.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 then, 067 pointed something out. “Him,” she said, “he'll keep us safe.” panting between each word.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 two girls had then ran up to him, to be met by, “You're here.” 067 shook her head, wheezing. “Like you said.” There was a pause, nobody said anything, just staring at each other. But then, 456 shoved both of the girls out of the way, tackling someone behind them to the ground.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 hit her head, groaning from the pain. When she looked up, it was 456 and 101 brawling on the ground her eyes were met with. 067 then ran up and kicked him.

𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 players came around and a bigger fight among a group of people broke out. 067 hauled Kyu-ri up to her feet, holding her upright.

“𝐇𝐞𝐲, Ssangmun-dong, what are you doing? We're just helping cull the herd.” 101 said with a laugh. “She's our teammate, you got that?”

𝐉𝐢-𝐡𝐨 came from the side, dragging Kyu-ri away from the group. “Ky, come—” Kyu-ri cut him off, kicking him back. Then, one of Ji-ho's teammates tried for her. Pulling and grabbing.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 felt like she couldn't escape her situation. She just wanted to close her eyes and let death have her, but she knew she couldn't just give up.

𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲, she slammed her fist against the man's head, sending him stumbling back. He fell to the ground, collapsing. Kyu-ri then began to punch him over and over, again and again. Blood sprayed, bones cracked, but she didn't care. She was mad and she was taking it out on him.

𝐒𝐡𝐞 only stopped when the man beneath her had stopped moving. Ji-ho's eyes widened beside her. “Ky, look... look what you did.” Kyu-ri knew she had killed him. But it was a misunderstanding. She didn't mean to. She didn't aim to beat him to a pulp. It just... happened.

“𝐉𝐢-𝐡𝐨...” The word came out in a choked cry, the rest of the sentence dying on her tongue. “I didn't mean to.” She muttered in a bitter tone.

“𝐖𝐞 are all going to die in here? Everyone, every single one of us is going to die! Please. I'm so scared. Stop this madness! If you keep this going, then we're all going to die in here!”

𝐀 man had screamed, clearly scared by his tone if the words weren't clear. Kyu-ri had crawled back, away from Ji-ho, away from the dead man.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧, the lights came back on, a buzzer sounded, and the guards rushed in. There were gunshots, a lot of them, reminding Kyu-ri to stay in her place.

“𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐩 your weapon.” A guard ordered. “Turn around.”

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 in the near area had listened, scared of what would happen if they didn't. Then, they all began to be patted down, being checked for weapons on them. Kyu-ri tried to keep her breathing even. But the more likely she was going to die, the less likely she could keep her cool.

𝐀 guard paused by Kyu-ri, causing her to internally scream. At first, she thought was about to be reprimanded for what had happened in the bathroom the night before, but that wasn't the case. The guard in the square mask had asked dher a question.

“𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 008, do you know anyone named Hwang In-ho here?” Kyu-ri swallowed. Yu-mi, Ji-ho, and Player 456 is Gi-hun, I think. I can't remember. And... who else told me their name?

“𝐈'𝐦 trying to think, one second.” Kyu-ri had told the guard, still holding her hands up as she continued to think about it.

“𝐍𝐨,” she stated, “I don't know anyone of that name.”

𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐲, the coffins were brought in, the numbers of dead players began to be announced, and the previously dangerous atmosphere turned temporarily safe. Just for now.

𝐁𝐲 the time everyone had settled back down, conversation had eased its way among the group.

“𝐀𝐫𝐞 you alright?” “Huh?” “All of the... That was dangerous. When did you get up there?”

“𝐖𝐞 were worried about you, sir, when you disappeared.”

“𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 here got hurt, so that's good.”

“𝐔𝐡, well, at this point, we should know what to call each other. Why don't we go around and tell each other put names now.”

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 199 smiled and piped up, “But I already know your name, though. Ssangmun-dong.”

𝟒𝟓𝟔— no, Gi-hun. Gi-hun laughed at that. “Ssangmun-dong is just my hometown. The name is Seong Gi-hun. Seong Gi-hun of Ssangmun-dong.”

𝟐𝟏𝟐 turned towards 199, patting his shoulder. “So then, what's your name?”

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 a smile, 199 answered. “Ali. Ali Abdul.” “And where are you from?” “Pakistan.” “Pakistan? Where is that?” “North of India.”

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 cleared her throat at that. “North-West, actually.”

𝐀𝐥𝐢 nodded his head. “That's right.”

“𝐎𝐟 course, he is.” Gi-hun happily said, patting 212's shoulder. “This man went to SNU—” Gi-hun glanced and pointed at Kyu-ri like he was about to say something, but he was cut off.

“𝐂𝐡𝐨 Sang-woo.” 218 had said.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧, like a sudden realization, the men glanced back at 067. “Come on, really?” She asked. “We're all teammates here now. We should really know about each other, build up a little trust, okay?”

“𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐠 Sae-byeok...”

“𝐒𝐚𝐞-𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐤? That's a pretty name. Though I'm not sure how well it fits.”

𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭, all eyes we're on Kyu-ri. They all nodded for her to speak, to say something. “Hey, emo, what about you?” Gi-hun asked.

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 her head, Kyu-ri snorted at what he had called her. “The name is Yoon Kyu-ri.” She mumbled under her breath.

“𝐇𝐮𝐡? Kyu-ri?” Gi-hun looked her up and down. “I don't think that fits either.”

𝐀𝐧𝐝 he wasn't wrong. Kyu-ri wasn't a star, she didn't exactly shine, at least, not like she used to. She was washed up, a shadow of herself now. Not a star. She was dull, sat in the background more often than not.

“𝐀𝐧𝐝 what is your name, sir? If you don't mind.” Ali then asked Player 001. “What? My name? Oh. It... Uh... Let me think. Hold on, it... So...” His brain seemed to lag, not quite grasping onto its own memories. “It... They call me...”

𝐆𝐢-𝐡𝐮𝐧 spoke up, “It's okay.” he said. “Hey, old man, you must be rely shook up today. You know, when I'm stressed, my home address slips out of my head, along with my social security.”

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 tilted her head. “When you're stressed, do you get drunk, perchance?” She asked, before immediately turning her attention to the old man.

“𝐇𝐞𝐲, if you can't remember, that's okay. My grandma had dementia before she passed away last year. She kept calling me Hye-kyo, my mother's name because in her mind, I was still about nine. And apparently I looked like my mother. But um, enough about that. Just... Tell us when you remember. But we can just call you a nickname or... just plain old Player 001.”

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 Kyu-ri had said seemed to make enough sense that Gi-hun nodded along. “Once you get some rest, you'll be fine.”

JETT YAP!!

I'm so sorry that it takes me like 4 days to write each chapter. Honestly, it only takes me like an hour to write each one, but my last ass write like one and a half each four days so I'll try to update faster. ALSO I finally got rid of the skank ass bitch friend I should've gotten rid of months ago! Are you guys proud of me??