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In-ho had no idea what he was getting into when a seemingly random well-dressed man approached him and offered him a once in a lifetime chance to compete in a game show where he could earn millions if he won.
Normally, In-ho would be incredibly suspicious with this offer. Things that were too good to be true were just that, too good to be true. But the man had happened to approach him at a time where he was incredibly desperate and struggling.
In-ho was expected to be the provider of his family, being the eldest son. Especially as his father left them years ago for another woman, just shortly after his younger brother was born.
His mother wasn’t the working type, the only thing she did was rant and rave about their good for nothing father for abandoning them, nag the two brothers, and spend every last penny she could lay her hands on. His little brother Jun-ho on the other hand was the light of his life. Nearly a decade younger than him, In-ho took his big brother duties to Jun-ho seriously. Ever since In-ho first held him as a baby, he knew that he would do anything for his brother. He was a sweet kid, always looking up to him with admiring trusting eyes, easy to smile. With no father, and their mother practically unconcerned in raising them ever since their father left, In-ho basically single-handedly raised Jun-ho. So, when his little brother got sick he didn’t even hesitate to offer his kidney to save him.
When In-ho turned 17, he decided to move out, not because he wanted space from his family (though he didn’t mind getting away from his mother), but because he didn’t want his brother to worry about him and feel guilty. In order for this to happen, he had to wove a tale and act an illusion.
By the time In-ho was supposed to go to college, he realized that if he wanted his younger brother to be able to pursue his dream of wanting to become a police detective, he would have to drop out as to not weigh more on his family’s struggling finances and instead work hard to save up enough money to send his brother to the best university that he could afford to.
He told his family that he was moving out to study in a college. After a few years, he told them he graduated with honors and was now working at a high-paying job, have a decent home, and he could now support them and send Jun-ho to his dream university no problem. In reality, In-ho left to work as many jobs as he could, lived in the cheapest apartment he could find, ate the cheapest food he could find and ate just enough to keep him going, saving up as much as he could and pretending that everything was fine.
He succeeded in his goals, he was able to send his brother off to university and successfully hide his living conditions.
But, in order for his brother to continue his studies, In-ho had to work even harder and attempt to find other ways to get money in time to pay for each semester of university.
It was not long after Jun-ho finally graduated and accepted into the police force that things turned for the worse for In-ho. He got kicked out of his low paying job, he was barely able to scrape by to buy some food to eat and pay for his tiny apartment barely the size of somebody’s closet, and he was buried neck deep in debt with no way to pay for it.
And so, without thinking deeply on the offer and seeing this as an opportunity to change his situation, he accepted the card that the well-dressed man handed to him and called the number written on it.
What followed was a real life horror show.
In-ho could barely comprehend the people around him getting slaughtered one by one like pigs in a slaughterhouse. Blood was everywhere as were horrific injuries. Deaths of all kinds, some were quick but gruesome, others were slow and excruciating.
At first he thought he might just be having a dream or a nightmare. Next he thought that it might just be a joke, that the first person to go down was just an actor hired by whoever arranged these games in order to freak the contestants out. But more and more people dropped down.
Finally, what woke him up to what kind of situation he was in was a stray bullet just grazing his arm, tearing through his sleeve to leave a thin gash, heading straight to the chest of the person behind him. Warm blood sprayed onto his back and he froze for a bit before panicking. But, In-ho knew panicking was useless, he had to win, he had to get out of here alive. So he steeled himself to compete, to focus, to pay no attention to the screams and smell of blood and death.
By the time the first game ended, more than two thirds of the people who entered the same game as him died, while he survived the first challenge along with the less than hundred contestants left.
The next games were harder than the first and just as gruesome, but In-ho persevered. He could win this, he thought. He could do this, he convinced himself. He could get out of this alive, he said.
In-ho now had a mission. Survive, win the games, find a way back, climb its ranks, become the frontman, then destroy it all from within.
He survived. He won. He found a way back. He managed to climb his way up from the bottom to the top, becoming the frontman. But he hadn't anticipated for his brother to appear, searching for him.
Now, standing in front of him on a cliffside, In-ho had a choice to make.
Save his brother, abandon all his efforts in vain, and just let hundreds more people who had no idea what they were getting in to be slaughtered for entertainment every single year. Or he could kill his brother, secure his position, destroy a messed up organization, and possibly save thousands of lives.
Heart in his throat, In-ho steeled himself and aimed. Aimed at his brother who was looking pale faced, in denial and betrayed.
“In-ho, why?” Jun-ho asked.
Hand shaking, In-ho forced his finger onto the trigger.
No. There has to be a way, there has to be another way.
His sleeve was beginning to get soaked with blood. In-ho vaguely registered that Jun-ho’s bullet was wedged to his shoulder, but he could feel no pain. Only numbness at what he was forced to do.
There has to be another way.
He thought as the pink guards shifted uneasily behind him, forming a half-circle with rifles aimed at his brother, wondering why he was still hesitating to shoot.
Please, there has to be another way.
In-ho closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
A half baked idea began to form. Slightly shifting his aim away from Jun-ho’s heart, he pulled the trigger.
*Bang*
Ears ringing, he watched as Jun-ho fell off the cliff.
.
In-ho, why? Jun-ho’s voice echoed in his mind.
In-ho scrubbed his hands furiously. His red, red hands, forever stained with his brother’s blood.
In-ho, why?
His mind played images of his brother’s last moments at him from the mirror. In-ho turned away, not bearing to look.
In-ho, why?
Filled with grief and heart aching with guilt, In-ho screamed and punched the wall over and over and over until his hands were a bloodied mess.
He collapsed onto the floor uncontrollably sobbing and pulling at his hair.
In-ho, why?
“I’m sorry,” he said, out loud onto the empty room. “Jun-ho,” he choked, “I’m so so sorry.”
In-ho, why?
“Please be alive. Please, please survive.” he hoped, whispering beneath his breath, head tilting backwards to the wall.
There was a chance, a small small chance, but a chance nonetheless. Whether Jun-ho survived or not relies on his luck now.
Through his clothes, In-ho palmed an old scar on his chest. One he got when he was shot in a back alley robbery which he miraculously survived from.
Jun-ho, please survive.
.