𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄

𝐊𝐘𝐔-𝐑𝐈 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐍, 𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒. "Why?"

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, you've played Ddakji before, right?" He asked, setting the suitcase down as he sat next to Kyu-ri.

"𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 a few rounds of Ddakji with me and each time you win, I'll pay you a 100,000 won."

"𝐖𝐚𝐢𝐭, so if I hit your Ddakji and it flips over, I get paid 100,000 won?" "And if I can flip yours, you pay me the exact same amount money."

𝐒𝐞𝐨-𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐥 wanted to say no, go inside her apartment and forget about it, but... something was tempting her, screaming at her to say yes.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 can also be the first to play."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 furrowed her brows, studying the man. Well, let's just hope this isn't a cheap scam...

"𝐒𝐨, it's my turn then, right? Hm?"

𝐓𝐡𝐞 man nodded without a word.

"𝐎𝐤𝐚𝐲... Then it's a deal."

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, which color would you like to play as?" The man asked Kyu-ri.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 glanced at the envelopes. Red and blue. With a sharp exhale, she grabbed the blue one.

"𝐈𝐟 you're scamming me, I'll... I'll fucking kill you, okay?"

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 rubbed the blue Ddakji envelope in her hand, staring down at the red one. She took a deep breath, then slammed the blue envelope down.

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 red envelope didn't flip.

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 a groan, Kyu-ri buried her face in her hands.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧, the man picked up his Ddakji envelope, the red one and slammed it down on the blue one.

𝐇𝐞 succeeded with this.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 glanced at the man, suddenly feeling the crisp, cool breeze of the night on her face.

"𝐇𝐮𝐡? What's wrong?"

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, uh... The thing is, actually..."

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 don't have the money, do you?" The man asked, his cool demeanor never failing.

"𝐍𝐨..." Kyu-ri would mutter, shaking her head as it hung low.

"𝐇𝐨𝐰 about you use your body to pay?"

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢'𝐬 eyes shot open at this.

"𝐇𝐞𝐲, look man, I'm sorry but, we're not-"

𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐤.

𝐒𝐞𝐨-𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐥 stumbled back, her hand coming up to feel the sharp sting on her right cheek.

𝐈𝐭 burned, it stung, it felt like Kyu-ri had been punched with fire.

"𝐎𝐰..."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 groaned, feeling the throb in her face. It was painful, and the pain made her feel like she had been placed in reality.

𝐒𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠, Kyu-ri shook her head, trying to get rid of the pain. As if it was worked.

"𝐈'𝐥𝐥 take 100,000 won off per slap."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 gritted her teeth.

"𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐞, one more round." She said, holding up her hour Ddakji envelope.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 then, just like that, the endless rounds of Ddakji began to start. Kyu-ri would fail to flip the red envelope and the suited man wouldn't.

𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐩 after slap, Kyu-ri felt her face began to go numb. She couldn't feel much in her face, making the slaps painless.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 even with each slap, Kyu-ri continued on, round after round.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 then, finally, Kyu-ri got lucky, slamming her blue Ddakji envelope down onto the red one and...

𝐈𝐭 flipped.

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 like that.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 began to cheer. She jumped around, pumping her fists in the air.

"𝐘𝐞𝐬! Yes! Did you see that? I flipped your envelope! Fuck! Yes!"

𝐓𝐡𝐞 man clapped, holding back laughter at Kyu-ri's antics.

"𝐆𝐞𝐭 over here," Kyu-ri began to say, rolling up her sleeves. "it's my turn to-"

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 she raised her hand to slap the man, he stopped her, catching her wrist.

"𝐇𝐞𝐲, jerk, what the hell?"

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 a smile, then man grabbed 100,000 won and placed it into her hand, drinking it as he closed her fist for her.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 100,000 as promised."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 glanced at the money in her hand, biting the inside of her cheek. "Oh, yeah... right."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 sat back down on the stairs for a moment, grabbing fist fulls of her hair as she tried to not be annoyed.

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 a minute or two, Kyu-ri got up and began to walk to the door.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 then the man, who was packing up his suitcase spoke up, "Hey, ma'am,"

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 a scoff, Kyu-ri turned around. "Dude, is this some kind of pyramid scheme or what?"

"𝐘𝐨𝐨𝐧 Kyu-ri."

𝐇𝐞𝐫 full name being spoken made her freeze.

"𝟐𝟏 years old, college student, no job. Your grandfather went strangely missing when you were a child, I wonder why. Your mother lives in a mental hospital right now and has for the past five months. You gave birth to baby girl two years ago, Joo Hee-won. You have her up for adoption since you were 19 at the time. 84 million won in debt just for college. You owe 37 million more to the bank."

𝐀𝐥𝐥 Kyu-ri could hear was the thumping of her heart in her ears.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 away from the door, seething with anger, she spoke, "Who the hell are you? What business of yours is all that..?"

𝐓𝐡𝐞 man took a business card out of his suit pocket and held it up for Kyu-ri to see.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 know, ma'am, there's always more games like these where you could earn more."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 glanced at him awkwardly before taking it.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧, the man gave her a sharp nod and turned to walk away.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 card had three shapes on one side, triangle, circle, and square. The other side held a number.

𝟖𝟔𝟓𝟎-𝟒𝟎𝟎𝟔

"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 a fucking weirdo..."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 turned on her heel and pulled the door open once again, entering the apartment complex.

__________

"𝐇𝐄𝐘, 𝐈 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈 𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐒. I don't know, just take it." Kyu-ri would say as she entered her father's apartment, throwing the paper won onto the table where he was eating.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢'𝐬 father looked up at her, chewing on his dinner. "The same amount of money I gave you earlier? Did you not buy Ji-hyo dinner?"

"𝐍𝐨, I did. And In-su, I bought him dinner too. I worked for money today, okay?"

"𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 up, In-su? Did you go gamblug again?" "No, dad, I worked for this money like I said. I worked my body and my face off."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 huffed, going to the freezer to grab frozen peas and press the bag against her face. She sat down at the table across from her father with a sigh.

"𝐇𝐞𝐲, what happened to your face?" He would ask, grabbing her wrist to pull away to see the red side of her face.

"𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, don't touch me." Kyu-ri shot back, slapping his hand away.

"𝐃𝐢𝐝 you get into a fight? Kyu-ri, you're being weird. You know I love you no matter what, so why are you being weird?"

"𝐈'𝐦 fine, dad, just stop worrying so much, you'll get grey hairs."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢'𝐬 father snorted at this, shaking his head. "Since when were you worried about me getting grey hair, huh? I'm not even that old yet."

"𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐡, you are."

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 know what?" Her father asked with a laugh, "I think you should shut up and eat."

"𝐈 already had dinner."

"𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐡? What did you eat? Tteokbokki? I hate to break it to you, but that's not an actual dinner, buddy."

"𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐞, whatever. I'm not even hungry though..." Kyu-ri muttered, rolling her eyes.

"𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 you roll your eyes like that, you look like Ae-ri." "Man, shut up." "Hey, don't talk to your father like that."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 scoffed, placing a generous scoop of bulgogi.

"𝐈'𝐯𝐞 been hearing a lot about this In-su character lately, is there something going on between you two?"

"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭?"

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 and In-su. You know, is there some kind of, I don't know, maybe some tension..?"

"𝐄𝐰, no! What the fuck?"

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 slammed her plate down on the table and angrily stormed herself off to her room. She was mad. But she didn't know why. She had 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 men before, so why did it make her mad to be accused of it now?

"𝐇𝐞𝐲, Kyu-ri, I didn't mean to-"

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 was confused by her own antics, but she collapsed onto her bed nevertheless, ignoring the feeling inside her gut.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 night, Kyu-ri found it hard to even sleep. She would roll over back and forth, trying to get comfortable, to find some kind of ease that would put her to sleep.

𝐒𝐡𝐞 tried for hours.

𝐘𝐞𝐭, she couldn't. Nothing she tried would work.

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 a groan, she grabbed her phone. But when she turned it on, she was met with the lock screen photo of her on a hospital bed with Ae-ri on her right side and Ji-hyo on her left side as she held a newly born Hee-won in her arms.

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 moments, Kyu-ri shut her phone off then turned it back on.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 lock screen switched to one of In-su with a traffic cone on his head while holding up a fan of cash, giving the camera a sweet smile.

𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 didn't want to sulk herself to sleep, so she would ignore anything that could bring her any negative feelings as she sat in her bed.

𝐒𝐡𝐞 checked the time.

𝟏𝟐:𝟐𝟑 AM.

"𝐔𝐠𝐡... I need to get sleep. What the hell is wrong with me? Hee-won isn't mine to take care of anymore..."

𝐁𝐮𝐭 when Kyu-ri sat up to lay her head on the other side of the bed, her eyes caught the business card sitting on her nightstand.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 picked up the card, looking at the number once again.

"𝐇𝐮𝐡..."

𝐈𝐧 a moment of desperation, Kyu-ri dialed the number into her phone and pressed the call button.

𝐈𝐭 rand for a few seconds before it picked up, a male voice talking, "Hello. Who's calling?"

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 sighed, scratching the top of her head. "Uh, hi. You gave me your business card earlier, with the shapes..."

"𝐃𝐨 you wish to participate in the game? If you wish to participate, please state your name and birthdate."

"𝐘𝐨𝐨𝐧 Kyu-ri, 15/9/1999."

𝐓𝐡𝐞 air outside was crisp, cool, and to Kyu-ri, freezing.

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 tugged down the hat on her head, as if she was trying to get away from prying eyes, anyone who might give her a weird look, but it was 1 AM, nobody was gonna see her.

𝐒𝐡𝐞 waited in a random location she was to told go to for a little while, just standing around.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 then, suddenly, a light began to shine from behind.

𝐈𝐭 was a car.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 little white car pulled in, stopping in front of Kyu-ri. Once it was parked, the window rolled down.

"𝐌𝐬. Yoon Kyu-ri?" "Uh, yes, sir." "Password?" "Um... Red light, green light. That's the password, right?" "Correct."

𝐓𝐡𝐞 door to the back of the car then opened up slowly.

𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲, Kyu-ri climbed in. "I..."

𝐓𝐡𝐞 first thing she noticed was that everyone was sleeping except for the driver.

"𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 that everyone is uh... tired, huh?"

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢 swallowed, shifting in her seat as the door closed.

"𝐒𝐨, exactly how long is gonna take to get there? To the game venue or... whatever?"

𝐇𝐞𝐫 question was ignored and instead of an answer, there was sleeping gas. Kyu-ri coughed, suddenly feeling very drowsy.

"𝐇𝐞𝐲, man... what did..."

𝐊𝐲𝐮-𝐫𝐢'𝐬 head hung back as she was knocked out cold.

JETT YAP!!

this chapter was a bit short incase you couldn't um... tell... (I'm missing 1000 words) so I apologize for that guys😭

BUTTTTT next chapter is when she like officially meets Sae-byeok n shit like that (n shit yah) so um skibidi! (Idk how to use that word) I'm posting this chapter at school lunch and my phone is at 2%