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“Kang Sae-Byeok!”
Hearing her name, her footsteps immediately halted. She knew that, if she were to turn around— even for a split second— she wouldn’t be able to ever leave the game, alive, or dead. She knew that she would try to save Ji-yeong. The one who’s calling out to her.
And so, she doesn’t turn around. She just stands there, figure wavering, tears unwilling to roll down her cheeks.
“Thank you,” the voice continues. So lively. Sae-Byeok thinks. So lively and beautiful and warm and alive- she stops the trail of thought. “For playing with me.”
The whispers of sorrow and almost fear edge onto the last few words, wavering. The sentence echoes in her head as she grips her fingers into trembling fists, eyes shutting, teeth clenching— waiting for that sound. A sound she’s heard so much the past few days it almost sounded normal— but just not now. Not when Ji-yeong was the one standing in front of where the sound would come from.
Sae-byeok hears the gun being loaded, her whole body shaking, though also still frozen. She’s still wishing for some kind of miracle. Something, anything that could save Ji-yeong. Why was she being so delusional?
30 minutes ago, she had come to accept the fact that one of them would have to die in the next half hour, playing this very game. So then, why, if she had accepted it, is she still praying for a miracle? A miracle that won’t ever happen?
A tear rolls down her cheek and she hears it— the sound she now dreads, hates, fears.
A single gunshot.
The sound of a body collapsing onto the ground, lifeless.
She knows exactly who that was. The person who was just speaking to her moments ago, seconds ago. Happy, smiling, and alive— just seconds ago.
“Player 240, eliminated.”
And finally, Sae-Byeok can stop holding her breath, wishing for some stupid, false miracle. Because Ji-yeong is dead. Because the one person she had grown to care about now laid meters behind her— limp and cold.
And it was her fault.
Entire body numb, she steps forward, the motion stiff, her legs much heavier than they were minutes ago.
She had made it past the fourth game. She won.
She had won, and she should be happy.
Except she’s not.
Because all she could hear was silence, and the constant echoes of a voice she now hates. Fears. Loves.
“Kang Sae-Byeok! Thanks, for playing with me.”
The tears don’t wait to rush down her face anymore, now. They fall, all at once, and suddenly, her heart feels painful, and her entire body feels nothing but sorrow and heartbreak.
Because she regrets. She regrets agreeing to become partners with Ji-yeong. She regrets talking to her. She regrets throwing her marble. She regrets everything—
But most importantly, for not being able to say the simple sentence consuming her entire being:
I love you.
And now, she would never be able to tell her. Never be able to hear her voice, or see her smile, or touch her. Because Ji-Yeong is dead, and Sae-Byeok is not.
Because love cannot perform miracles.