Chapter Text
When Gi-hun wakes, he almost completely forgets everything that had happened yesterday, but the memories eventually catch up to him. With a quiet sigh, Gi-hun shifts in the bed slightly, wincing as light pain runs up his spine.
They must’ve been cutting down his painkiller dosage, he assumes. It’s not like he wasn’t used to the pain now anyway.
On perfect timing, a knock on the door turns his attention. The same nurse from before smiles as she walks in, with a tray filled with a small portion of breakfast.
“Good morning, Mr Gi-hun.” she bows her head in respect, before walking up and placing the tray onto his lap. “You’ll be open for visitors in about an hour, so you have plenty of time to eat.”
“Thank you.” he nods, shakingly picking up the fork. He’d lost a lot of strength recently.. “Do you know how long I’ll have to stay here in the hospital for?”
He’d only just realised, but Gi-hun had never actually been told how long he was expected to stay here, and he could only hope it wasn’t for long.
“Oh, right! Well, we’re going to let you recover for around a week, then we can assess how well you're doing, and based on that we will decide if you're fit to be discharged or not yet.”
Great. Another entire week in the hospital, and he’s not even guaranteed to be allowed to leave after that?
“Thanks,” he replies simply, mood souring quickly.
“Of course. I’ll always be a button away,” the nurse smiles, picking up on his mood. She gestures to the call button before turning back away and leaving the room.
Gi-hun takes his time with his breakfast, watching a brightly-coloured TV show as he’d managed to find the remote. It was the best he had for entertainment, alright?
Not too long after he finishes, there’s another knock on the door. It opens after a second, and In-ho walks in, carrying Geum-ja in his arms.
“Good morning.” he smiles politely, moving to sit in the same chair as last time. “How did you sleep?”
What’s with the small talk, he wonders, unsure.
“Fine,” Gi-hun answers shortly. He was only bearing being around him just for Geum-ja.
In-ho hums in response, and they sit in an awkward silence for a while.
Gi-hun glances towards him out of the corner of his eye, trying to decipher his reasoning for visiting him.
“Why do you keep on visiting me?” he asks finally.
In-ho doesn't move much, but his body does stiffen slightly as he thinks of a proper answer.
“Don’t you want to see the baby?” he finally responds, gesturing to the baby cuddled up into his arms.
So the baby was his excuse for visiting Gi-hun. He’ll be honest, he does want to see her, but if she comes along with the Frontman? Maybe not..
Gi-hun sighs, turning his head fully towards In-ho to look at his facial expression.
“And if you didn’t have the baby as an excuse?”
“You wouldn’t be here anyway if it weren’t for the baby.” is the only answer he gets.
For a while, a silence falls over them. Not an awkward one, it was more.. peaceful?
Gi-hun continues to watch the TV show, admittedly getting slightly hooked on it. He doesn’t pay much attention towards In-ho or whatever he was doing.
When the show finally finishes, Gi-hun turns to place the remote away, and jumps as he finds In-ho staring right at him with an odd look on his face.
“Gosh, what are you doing staring at me like that..?” he huffs, feeling his heart skip a beat.
In-ho only chuckles before turning away to look at the baby instead. She was fast asleep, one of her little hands clutching gently at In-ho’s finger he’d placed into her palm.
If you’d shown the Gi-hun from four years ago, he would’ve thought they were.. some kind of family. And he hates that.
“You do know that if I weren’t stuck to this bed, you would be dead already?” he says, trying to prove to himself that he hadn’t gone soft so quickly.
In-ho looks up at him quickly, just.. staring, for a moment. Like he’d just remembered what happened between them.
“Right,” he nods. It’s gone awkward now. Not like it wasn’t already.
With a sigh, In-ho stands, picking up his bag. “If you don’t want me here, then I guess the baby I will leave, then.”
Gi-hun doesn’t protest as he watches them head out the door. Did he screw that up? Yes. Did he feel satisfaction with successfully pissing In-ho off? Maybe.
He groans loudly, head flopping down against the pillow so he’d stare up at the ceiling.
Why couldn’t that stupid In-ho just let him die in the games? Why did he have to live?
His thoughts start to take over his body, a sudden anger taking over him- if In-ho wasn’t here right now, nobody was here to stop him.
Nobody to stop him from finally ending the torture he’d gone through for an entire four years.
In one movement, he rips the IV out, not even registering the slight pain that comes with it. Next, he tears off any other equipment stuck on his skin, his heart monitor flatlining.
He’d join Sang-woo, Sae-byeok.. all his friends again.
Once he was free, he turned to sit on the edge of the bed. Gi-hun struggles to stand up; putting too much weight on the broken leg hurts.
Before he even gets the chance to stand up fully, a group of nurses and doctors rush into the room. Seeing the state he was in, they tried to gently push him back into the bed, but he began struggling in their grip.
“Let me go!” he yells, kicking out his good leg.
There was no way in hell he’d waste the perfect opportunity. Not now.
“Sir, you need to calm down-!”
Gi-hun doesn’t pay much attention to what they were saying, but he catches a couple of words like sedate, and restrain him, before he feels a slight prick in his upper arm.
He starts to feel drowsy and gives up on his struggle. His body gets moved back onto the bed, and the last thing he registers is something being tightened around his arms before his vision fully blurs and goes dark.
-
Gi-hun awakens slowly, groaning at the soreness in his arms. He brings one up to- huh?
When he looks down, he stills as he realises that his arms have been restrained. What the heck had happened?
He tries thinking back, before he suddenly remembers. Oh right, he’d gone insane and tried fighting the doctors. He needs to work on his memory when he wakes up, really.
The door to his room clicks open, startling him slightly. Entering his room is the one and only In-ho, a nurse alongside him. They both freeze slightly as they realise he was awake, before the nurse smiles.
“Perfect timing,” she says as she walks up to his bed. “Mr Hwang here has volunteered to be the one to take you home.”
The nurse began to undo his restraints, seeming as though he wasn’t actively trying to get out anymore.
“Apologies for the restraints, we were unsure of what you'd be like when you woke up.”
“..It’s fine,” he replied. “What do you mean, he’ll take me home?”
“We suggested that you should have someone to accompany you going back home, and he volunteered,” she repeats, before the restraints are fully off and she sends him a kind smile. “If you need anything else please use the call button.”
The nurse exits the room, leaving him and In-ho alone. This time, he wasn’t carrying the baby.
“Why the fuck would you volunteer for that?” he hissed instantly, turning to glare at him.
“I’m taking you home with me.” is all he replies before turning away. “Don’t do something like that again, Gi-hun.”
And he just leaves. What the hell?
Gi-hun groans loudly. Today was crappy. He’d gone crazy, and then In-ho volunteers to take him home?
He brings one of his arms up, rubbing at the red skin the restraints had left.
What a fun day.
As he watches Gi-hun say his final words, regret and a sudden realisation fills In-ho’s chest,
In all the time he’d spent analysing Gi-hun’s thoughts, the time with him as 001, Young-il, he.. he managed to fall in love.
How stupid was he? The Frontman can’t fall for any player, let alone one that returns for a second game.
Behind his mask, a tear bundles up in his eye that he blinks away. He can’t be showing any emotion right now.
In-ho sets on the evacuation as he is told over the radio of the approaching coast guards. The perfect opportunity to see Gi-hun again. He has to thank his baby brother for that, at least.
He finds himself down in the game arena fast. In-ho kneels down beside Gi-hun's still body, slipping his mask off as he looks over his injuries.
The relief in his body as he sees Gi-hun's chest heave as it takes in deep breath is.. the most he’d ever felt.
He would make sure Gi-hun would never, ever be hurt like this ever again. He swears on it.