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In-ho ignored the VIPs. He didn’t pay any heed when the waiter was propositioned by the VIP 4 who was wearing the panther mask.
When VIP 4 and the waiter stood up In-ho said nothing. His mind had been preoccupied with three things at once: organizing the games, entertaining the VIPs and worrying about the intruder, his brother.
It was only when VIP 4 and the waiter had left when a Square entered the room and waited patiently by the door. It looked like the Square had urgent news tso In-ho excused himself the hear him out.
“Sir, we have seen signs of an intruder. One of the workers was tied up half-naked in the pantry.”
The only people who had access to the pantry recently would have either been the chefs or the waiters.
Suddenly, he had an idea where the intruder had gone.
Alarmed, he looked around the present room but knew the person he’d been searching for already left.
“Lock the room, I will come to him later,” the Front Man told the Square.
“Excuse me gentlemen but I have other matters to attend to.”
---------
“Please, take me somewhere where we can be alone.”
“That’s not the kind of face you should keep behind a mask.”
Jun-ho had known what he was getting himself into when he made that suggestion. For hyung, he told himself although from catching the conversation of the VIPs it seems VIP 4 was only a recent guest but still might offer more clues, if not the past roster of players a few years back but at least pertaining to how the games are organized.
It would lead him to more information and had also taken him away from the front man, a dangerous person to reveal his identity.
Jun-ho compartmentalized as he was made to kneel before the older man’s groin.
“If you can satisfy me in five minutes, I will change your life.”
He doubted it, yet Jun-ho kept up with the charade, just leaning a bit forward and readying his hand to strike.
The door behind him opened and before Jun-ho could make his move the man's penis blossomed in a spray of blood.
He could hear the click of a gun.
The masked man shot the VIP at the exposed genitals.
Jun-ho flinched back on his knees, some of the VIP’s blood had gotten onto his face. He hadn’t expected the violence and judging by the VIP's incredulous eyes he didn’t either. Panther toppled forward, his hand on Jun-ho’s head pressing hard.
"Get away from him," the front man spoke in Korean.
Jun-ho did not know to whom he was referring but he didn’t need to be toldt get away. He scrambled away from the VIP and tried to get his bearings.
But the masked man shot another bullet, the silencer masking the previous and second shot, and another, leg, the VIP's round belly, until even after the third bullet had delivered certain death, the front man continued in a rage-filled fit.
By the time it was over, the old man was lying in a pool of his own blood, half-covered by it.
Jun-ho was shocked by the lack of control exhibited by the front man and still stunned over the attempted assault by a man who now laid dead at his feet
Jun-ho was still stunned from his recent brush with an attempted sexual assault and the visceral death till he remembered he had lost his mask and was now on the front man's hit list
Blood pooled around the VIP's fat body and clung to the frontman's black clothes.
The front man turned to Jun-ho and Jun-ho finally got his bearings straight and grabbed for his gun.
"Stop!"
He didn't know why the front man had killed a VIP, his adrenaline-filled brain couldn't find logic behind the mysterious man's action.
No, a cause did come into his mind but it sounded ridiculous to him.
He shot the VIP because he wanted to assault me?
"Who..who are you?!" Junho did not put down his gun. Counting the number of shots left from the Front Man's gun in his memory it had been five. Jun-ho still had one last.
"Before we start shooting ourselves with our last bullet let me show myself."
Jun-ho's mind was in a whirlwind, things not adding up and wondered if this was a trick to bring him in alive first to interrogate before killing him. It was the only thing that could make sense on why the Front Man who has shown to be callous about disposing of lives all this time had spared Jun-ho's at the expense of the VIP's. A lacklustre and weak excuse.
He urged the Front Man to get on with whatever he had planned with a quick nod of his chin, never taking his eyes nor aim from him.
Jun-ho watched the Front Man unloop the band behind his head. He readied to shoot of he makes a suspicious move.
But the man simply removed his mask to Jun-ho's shock. He opened his mouth in disbelief before the mask was entirely lifted and the face behind it was revealed to be the face of the man he had been looking for all this time. At this point, hurt and disbelief overpowered him.
"H-hyung?"
"Jun-ho."
Disbelief, betrayal and fear warred across Jun-ho's face but there was also something else, an expression In-ho was all too familiar with whenever he went into one of his many 'disappearances' when Jun-ho was still worried for him.
When Jun-ho had asked him not to leave because he was worried
"Hyung..why?"
"Come with me."
Jun-ho could still not accept it, the identity behind the mask as the person he loved.
The Front man became impatient with a tinge of hurt on his face.
"Why did you do it?" Jun-ho's face was of disappointment and betrayal.
"I did it for us."
"I did it for your surgery."
Jun-ho's expression falter more like a person losing direction. He had always suspected...the money hyung got... but never like this...
"And even after... I could not get free."
Guilt showered upon Jun-ho's conscience like the rainstorm battering the poor shanty of a home they used to live in.(He could remember the noise used to keep him awake at night for how loud it was that he gotten used to sneak into In-ho's bed and asked to be told an interesting story to fall asleep.
He had been childish then and his brother, had always obliged him.
"Or do you want me to kill everyone -and I will have to- to keep you safe?"
"No! Don't do it, please hyung "
Suddenly, Jun-ho was all too aware again of the puddle of blood his brother was responsible for - no, for Jun-ho's sake - as the eyes of the dead VIP 4 seemed to stare accusingly at Jun-ho.
"Give me the gun Jun-ho."
Jun-ho scrunched his eyes shut. The image of his brother with his hands bloodied standing over the corpse of a naked old man who would have abused and have Jun-ho killed haunted him behind his eyelids along with the shame of past guilt.
His brother had given up a lot for him. It had always been that way.
He was also the one who helped him walk, their age gap big enough that for all that he remembered, In-ho had always seemed like a tall, looming, figure of protection.
He was the one who played with him and raised him when their parents were away working. Had taught him how to play children's game, study and look after himself.
Hyung was also the mastermind behind the games.
In-ho saved his life by donating his kidney.
He was also responsible for the deaths of many, the players. the workers, the woman zombie with only one kidney..
Hyung was responsible for the death of the other person in the right now.
For him, hyung had killed… and had done so more times in the past if the money for his medicine came from winning this damned game.
He didn't know any more what to do.
He opened his eyes. The expression on In-ho's face was heartfelt, sincere and desperate.
"Take my hand, Jun-ho."
The hand was bloodied, Jun-ho stared at it as if trying to see all the other blood on it.
Jun-ho reached out a shaky hand towards his brother.
In-ho grasped it and entangled both their fingers and pulled him into a slow hug
The hand felt both firm and weak at once. The strength of a man who could and did kill someone but was holding himself back from touching something valuable before holding it tightly. It reminded him of his brother back then, kind and reassuring as he held Jun-ho's hand before the surgery.
"I promise, I will keep you safe."
Jun-ho at that time did not know if he made the right decision but he was tired and missed his brother. The days of worry and the sinking theory that In-ho had already died swept away the hesitations Jun-ho held as he let himself be hugged in the arms of a killer.
In-ho cleaned the VIP Room. He would have to find a similar body to be sent back to the family for burial. There would be no hiding the gun shots. In-ho left the task to only soldiers he could absolutely trust or would kill to keep the secret.
The body had been chopped and drenched in acid to disfigure its identity and fit in the black bow-tied gift box used also for the players. When the front workers wondered why there had been an extra body to burn that day they might think it was the body of someone being punished for disobedience. They weren't wrong and neither did they find it unusual.
Jun-ho was quiet throughout, spared from the more gory details The black horror mask was already back on his face before the workers arrived.
When they were finally alone. In-ho spoke to him.
"Jun-ho, lay low in my room, you are still experiencing shock..."
"..and malnutrition," he tutted just like he used to do. It was easier for In-ho to pretend to how he was like in the past.
It worked or at least Jun-ho was not in the mood to refuse. In-ho easily herded him to his room.
Jun-ho walked like a zombie or a drowsy patient being guided to his room .
"I assume you've been here before. I couldn't say it at that time not knowing who you were but please make yourself comfortable."
Jun-ho did not pay much attention to details unless they helped his investigation the last time he was here. He was more concerned with the records so after noticing how bare and cold the room was he paid it no more heed. Now that he was here again and knew it was his brother's room he inspected it more closely, looking for signs of life or anything about him and his family.
The only personal object he could find was a music box designed as a stage with a female doll singer and musicians. The item spared Jun-ho's curiousity despite his fatigue, feeling it was a much-loved item for how out of place it looked in the cold and impersonable room.
"I will talk to you tonight. There is ramyun and a stove in the cupboard."
"And you can wash and borrow one of my clothes," In-ho wanted to remove the clothes his brother was harassed in by that VIP right away.
"And Jun-ho, don't leave the room."
Jun-ho was still sitting on the bed but when In-ho made out to leave he suddenly stood up and grabbed for his hand.
"Hyung."
In-ho stood patiently, waiting for his brother's message
"Hyung..come back."
Seeing In-ho being like the way he was in the past back before he started to distance himself from the family made Jun-ho wish that this was nothing more but a dream and there were no death games, an island full of secrets and it's pink soldiers and that his brother was not the one behind it all.
Yet, this was reality and the reality was Jun-ho was still desperately trying to see if there was any of the old In-ho left.
"I will, after I attend to matters." In-ho said gently placing back his mask as the last of his words left his lips.
Jun-ho flinched back, seeing the mask and hearing the difference of voice by the modulator.
In-ho noted Jun-ho did not look completely happy but he did not look completely scared so In-ho let go of his hand after a moment and left the room.
To be sure, he had the room locked from the inside with a card key and set up an alarm. He had one made urgently after the discovery of the intruder last time. The computer had a password and he installed a lock to the documents after the last break-in.
It was time to go back to work and put on the mask of the front man, a mask he admittedly was getting harder to distinguish himself from.
________
It was quite a while when he came back. The other VIPs were curious. Panther had also not returned. .
"My apologies but I had to attend to a serious matter concerning the health of one of our VIPs."
"It's Panther who else. Well, what happened to him?
The front man was silent before speaking in a grave tone.
"VIP 4 passed away due to a stroke while doing the real 69."
"We tried to defibrillate him but it was already too late."
There was silence before the VIPs laughed, some slapped their legs.
"Damn."
"Seriously?"
"That motherfucker. That's what he gets for being horny at his age."
"Geriatic people often have the most sexual appetites."
"We should have bet on how he'd last. "
"He'd always been an awful better. First on 69, then 96. He shouldn't have betted on himself, with that streak," a VIP laughed
"Guess he was biting more than he could chew."
The VIPs turned to each other behind their golden, gilded mask and laughed over the jokes.
"You're making me choke over my drink."
"Better drink than choke on a dick." It began another round of laughter.
The other VIPs had their glasses refilled to quench their throats after laughing themselves hoarse and laid back on their human furniture or feet upon the stools.
"Well, let's make a toast to our old friend," said someone.
"Cheers!"
"To VIP 4 for staying true to himself and pursuing a life of pleasure and of 69s till the very end"
It brought on another round of laughter as they guzzled down their expensive liquor.
They settled down after the laughs died down but there was still an air of amusement between them.
The Frontman thought that would be the last among the comments as from his experience these people didn't care beyond the need to be amused.
"So, what happened to the waiter?" Ox said.
"Must have been a shock having a guy choke on his dick."
"He is...indisposed as of this moment. Since he was responsible for VIP 4's death I assure you he will be punished."
"Harsh," the VIP shook his head before going back to watching the games. They don't really care what happened to the waiter.
Another VIP continued to stare.
"Then I'll leave you to it. But just a warning, I was the one who brought in Panther."
"So you better be telling the truth or else."
"Understood," In-ho said.
"I assure you, the waiter's body will never live this island."
The VIP slowly nodded. "Good."
He then went back to the games, making the same commentaries and jokes on the players as the others did.
In-ho paid no heed to the VIPs' crude jokes and the warning. His mind was elsewhere.
He found Jun-ho before someone had hurt him on this island and had almost been too late.
And while he had wanted nothing more but for his brother to be not involved in the games yet here he is and perhaps some parts of In-ho had always wanted him here.
He felt a great weight of burden lifted just from knowing Jun-ho was safe in his room and while the way they had reunited was not the best case scenario it wasn't the worst either. Far from it.
The past days he spent worrying his brother was after finding his ID on a dead Circle. Minf filled with dread that he might be too late and the next time he sees his brother it would be among the corpses Or worse dying somewhere alone and masked and with no one to hold his burial because here on this island, everyone has no identity but ran by numbers.
But as of now, his brother was -although shaken- safe in his room. Even if ... In-ho might make good on his words.
Later though, he will talk to his brother and try to reassure him.
Even if the outside world no longer seemed like a place for safety but...
At the same time, the stars and planets no longer seemed as out of reach like they did before.
When people think Earth as a place of hell they always talk about the moons and stars and the skies as escape.
It will no longer be just In-ho and the music box alone.
Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on
Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, darling, kiss me
Fill my heart with song and let me sing forevermore
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore
In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you