Chapter Text
Myung-gi glanced left and right before he crossed the street, running with his hands in his pockets.
The wind blew the rain onto his face and he felt his bucket hat almost fly off as he approached the subway station.
His hands were numb from the cold as he descended the steps towards the gates.
Checking if anyone was there to see, he jumped over them and eased into a walk as casual as he could manage as he approached the correct platform.
There was practically none there, it had always been a smaller station and not many people would be out at this time.
“Excuse me”, a man in a suit, carrying a briefcase said and Myung-gi stopped.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Do you have a minute?” the man continued.
“Why?” Myung-gi muttered, he was too tired to deal with this. One group of his former fans had approached him to beat him up and demand money back. He still felt the first punch in his side, where it had hit.
“I’m not interested in whatever you're selling”, he added quickly as he noted the briefcase again.
“I am not selling anything, I am offering an opportunity”, the salesman said and Myung-gi was already full of his bullshit.
“Look-”, Myung-gi started, but the salesman set down the briefcase and opened it. He immediately noticed the fresh stacks of money inside.
“I am offering to play a game with you and every time you win I will give you 100,00 won”, the man explained.
“What game?” Myung-gi was interested despite having a bad feeling about it.
“Ddakji”, the salesman pointed at the two colourful squares.
Well I am pretty good at ddjaki, so it wouldn’t hurt. Myung-gi thought to himself.
“What if I lose?” he asked. “Do I pay you?”
“Yes, when you lose you will either pay me 100,00 won or you can pay with your body”, the man said and he had a creepy half-smile on his face.
Oh he was that kind of person.
“Yeah, no thank you”, Myung-gi replied. “I would rather not.”
“You might have misunderstood me”, the man continued. “I would simply slap you.”
Ah, well maybe I could-.
“I’ll do it”, Myung-gi replied.
“Good”, the man said and dropped his ddjaki, the red one onto the floor. “I will let you start.”
Myung-gi smiled and took the blue one. He threw it at the red square as hard as he could and it flipped over.
He cheered and put out his hand. The salesman gave him the 100,00 won and picked up his own ddjaki. Slamming it at the blue one.
Myung-gi frowned in annoyance as it flipped over.
“Money, or slap?” the salesman asked.
“Slap”, Myung-gi muttered. “Slap every time.”
So the salesman slapped him and they continued.
They played for a good while until the train Myung-gi was planning to take came into view.
In total he had been slapped 15 times and he had won 500,000 won.
“Here, take this”, the salesman said, offering him what looked like a business call. “And give me a call if you want to play again.”
Myung-gi flipped the card over and looked at the number. He raised his head to ask the salesman a question, but he was nowhere to be seen.
In his confusion he realised the train was about to leave and he hurried on board.
The only other passengers, an old lady and a group of three girls maybe around the age of 18 looked at his red face with mild disgust.
He slumped down onto one of the seats and stared at the card. The symbols or logo, or whatever it was, wasn’t familiar to him.
He pocketed the card and leaned his head against the window.
~~~~~~
He stepped off the train and started walking towards the exit, not really looking at anything or processing what was happening around him.
“Hey!” Someone yelled and he jerked his head up, glancing around to see who it was.
It was a group of four guys and a girl, they were leaning against the wall of the station.
Oh, I’m outside already. Myung-gi wondered to himself, rubbing his drooping eyes.
“Your MG Coin, aren’t you?” one of the guys asked. He had a buzz cut dyed into a mess of blue and green. It sort of looked like it had been an attempt at a world map.
“You must be mistaken”, Myung-gi replied, he really wanted to sleep, and eat. He had just gotten good money.
“No, I don’t think so”, the same guy continued. “I’ve watched enough videos to recognize you.”
Myung-gi wondered what to say, but got distracted by his phone ringing. He took it out of his pocket and stared at the name. It was Jun-hee.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” the guy yelled and Myung-gi looked up.
“I’ve really got to go”, Myung-gi said. “And I have to take this call.” He knew he wouldn’t actually, but at least it made for a good excuse.
“No, I’m not finished”, the guy started to approach him and the others moved along like his shadows.
Myung-gi took a hesitant step back and wondered if he should just run. It would certainly be easier than fighting and getting beaten up.
He didn’t have time to finish that train of thought as the guy grabbed him by the collar and shook. His phone dropped out of his hand to the ground.
“I lost so much money because of your videos”, he said. “I really thought you knew your shit and you seemed cool.” He spoke so that some spit flew from his face onto Myung-gi’s face.
“I”, the guy continued. “No, we looked up to you.”
“Yeah, but now we're all in deep shit”, one other guy said. He had a much more sensible hairstyle, it rather looked like his mother had decided on the cut for him.
“We together lost about 10 billion won, because of your stupid videos and advice”, the first guy continued.
“I-”, Myung-gi started, but did not get much of anything out of his mouth as the second guy punched in the face.
The other guy let him go and he stumbled back.
“How are you going to pay back?” the girl asked, approaching him, twirling her hair. “I can think of a few ways.”
“I don’t have that kind of money”, Myung-gi hissed.
“No shit”, the guy with the map hair snorted. “Look at the state of you.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of, we beat you up and then we'll think of some more fulfilling way.”
With those words he kicked Myung-gi hard in the knees and he toppled to the ground.
“Hey check his pockets first”, the girl said as the two guys who had not spoken approached him. “Maybe he has some money.”
Myung-gi tried to scramble away as they went through his pockets. They took one glance at the card the salesman had given him and shoved it back.
When they pulled out the money they turned around with a grin.
“Count it.” The money was shoved to the guy with the sensible haircut and the two continued to go through his pockets.
“Give me his phone”, the girl demanded and the phone that had stopped ringing was handed to her.
“It was a nice one”, the girl sighed. “Did you have to make him drop it?”
“What would we do with it anyway?” one of the guys asked. “Someone would figure out we stole it.”
“Your right”, the girl said and threw it onto the ground, away from the little overhang that had protected them from the rain.
“Hey! What are you doing!” It was a security guard and Myung-gi sighed in relief as the group fled away.
He scrambled up before the security guard could address him.
He picked up his phone and headed in the opposite direction from where the group had gone.
He checked his phone only to see it broken. The screen had cracked and what he could see, it was flashing different shades of blue that would give him a headache if he looked at it for too long.
He shoved it into his pocket and his hand touched the card.
He pulled it out, once again staring at the number.
He made his decision right then. He hurried to find the first payphone, digging out the few coins that the guys hadn’t found.
He pressed in the number on the card and waited for approximately five seconds before a distorted voice spoke.
“If you wish to participate in the game, state your name and birthdate.”
“Lee Myung-gi, born 20th of April 1994”, he spoke.
“Come to this phone on November 1st at 23.55”, the voice said and then the call ended. Myung-gi stared at the phone for a couple of seconds before leaving.
In his tired state he completely forgot about Jun-hee’s call, but he wouldn’t have called back anyway.