Work Text:
After surviving the next several rounds, Min-su felt no better than he did after getting past the first. Hearing gunshots ring through his head, Min-su's only viable distraction was Gyeong-su's voice whispering that his blood was now on Min-su's hands, gritted under his nails. His voice cold in saying that a stranger like him was cynical. Tightening the air in Min-su's throat, calling him a manipulator, a cheater, a pathetic figure that slipped in because he got lucky.
Min-su could only agree, catching himself in watching the blood seeped into the sole of his shoe spread. The carousel was moving the ground beneath them again, children's tunes spilling through the speakers as they spun. The people around him looked just as if not more disoriented than he did, with hair stuck to their foreheads and hands on their knees to suck in what could be their final breath. Everyone's eyes were flitting through their companions, filing through possible pairs and groups that they could form according to what would be called out next.
He had come to ignore the reasons as to why Thanos acted the way he did during episodes of these games even before he realised the source of it, and at some point had even begun to roll his eyes when a sudden burst of joy took over the man's body. The pills hanging from his neck did their job well, and Min-su had wondered at first whether taking them was actually strategic, removing the heart-pulsing fear from the possibility of death. The advantages lay in having eyes bare of sweat and in having hands still from the quiver of adrenaline.
Min-su then saw the outweighing flaw in them when the voice in the speaker called to demand groups of four. Thanos had shoved Gyeong-su, smiling when stating his intention, and left without batting an eye. The memory of it happening, however, was gone before he could even take responsibility, before he could drown in the guilt of indirectly killing an ally, a friend. In place of that role, Min-su began to understand the consequences of relaxation, that being relaxed meant losing focus.
Focus is what's needed for a moment in time to stick and latch to your memory.
The carousel stops, forcing people to stabilise what's come of their balance. Everyone perks up to hear the next number, minds already prepared and eager for their bodies to move. Min-su doesn't look around to see who's watching and praying to rely on him, keeping the heavy concentration on his shoes well. He's sure he knows whose eyes grab onto him. He's also sure that he doesn't like the attention he feels burning at the back of his head.
"Three," the woman on the speaker says.
The rush is immediate, and he finds himself turning toward the people who he thinks are capable of saving his life.
Nam-gyu is the first to speak up, voice trembling with a newfound fear. "Who should we take?"
Min-su's mind is static with a flare that stretches to the edges of his thoughts, rendering him from being the one to take charge, instead waiting helplessly for someone to make the decision for him.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" Thanos yells. He's frantic with the idea, his body shaking with desperation. "Rock, paper, scissors!" He yells again, louder, over the other voices of contestants in need of finding a saving grace.
Se-mi's hand barely brushes his forearm before she says, "Come with me."
He looks down at her outstretched hand and thinks. He thinks as precious seconds tick down from the timer, finding himself not able to make the obvious choice — the better choice — over playing with chance, Thanos' leadership wavering ever so slightly each game. It's a situation that leads to the opportunity for the thought of betrayal to enter their heads, and it's an opportunity he's too scared to play with.
But, Se-mi's determined gaze catching him as he looks up, maybe he can make it seem it's to their advantage.
"We can split up in pairs," Min-su suggests, still looking at Se-mi. "Find one person each."
Thanos retracts his hand from where it's ready to signal whether Min-su would live another round as a meagre survivor and jolts forward, grabbing Min-su's shoulders and shaking them violently. Nam-gyu glares from where he's standing a few feet behind.
"Min-su, my boy, don't tell me you're too scared," he says. He then puts his mouth up to Min-su's ear, smiling sluggishly as he whispers, "We can always just leave the bitch behind."
Before Min-su can react, Thanos grips his arm and starts to tug him forward toward the edge of the carousel, Nam-gyu following closely. Min-su can suddenly feel the panic bloom in his chest, spreading from his body to his head, where he can feel the pulse of his heart begin to beat desperately. He whips his head around to Se-mi, where she stands vacantly, surveying the scene playing out in front of her like it was something to expect.
Quickly turning to look at the timer, he sees the seconds counting down from fifteen. Making the first true decision he's ever made up until this point in the game, Min-su uses the arm that Thanos is holding and flings his elbow backward into his torso. Thanos buckles under the pain and releases Min-su's arm, stumbling back a few steps only to get caught by Nam-gyu. Min-su runs without wasting another second.
Once he's back on the carousel, Min-su sprints past people shoving and kicking to get to a door and makes a swift path to Se-mi. During the commotion, Min-su sees that she's found another person to partner with. He doesn't bother to look their way and uses the time to do what he should've done the moment he was given the chance to. He takes Se-mi's hand and tugs them to an open door he saw as he was getting dragged away.
Hoping that she caught on quick enough to grab onto their third person, Min-su doesn't look back and carries the weight of the team, ten seconds ticking down deliberately enough to make it seem like time was against them. The blood from previous players reflects off the floor like an empty mirror, casting a spotlight on only their movement, isolating the faces at a level too high to reach.
The door is yellow, and it's a blessing that no one's taken the opportunity to use it. Five seconds count down, his hand shoves at the mass of the door, almost making it seem as if it was going to knock off its hinges. They pile in, and Min-su breathes a sigh of relief when the third person, a man he now notices, tumbles in. Out of breath, head acting like a lightweight, he leans against the wall and bends down. He thinks that if he stares at the floor for long enough, the room will stop blurring and spinning off its axis.
He hears the key in the door turn to lock their room, and then there's a moment of silence that gives him the time to cover his ears. Guns go off, and they sound like muffled explosions while they repeat in chorus. He wonders whether Thanos and Nam-gyu found another player, a new wave of guilt rushing over him when he realises that he might be responsible for their deaths too. His body crumbles under the weight of adrenaline, and he lets his body slide down the wall so that he's now sitting with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears like a child.
When the shots finally stop reaching his ears, he finally allows himself to open his eyes. He looks up and already finds Se-mi gently watching him, her eyes soft with admiration and gratitude. She bows her head slightly and lifts it up — thank you. He lets his gaze drift to their other occupant, a middle-aged man with hair fringing his face. He has a circle to the right of his chest with a background of blue, letting Min-su understand where he fits in this game.
Player 203.
He has fresh tears pooling in his eyes, and once he catches Min-su's stare, both of his hands come together, and he walks up to him. Min-su instinctively stands to meet his height, not allowing anyone to trap him by towering over him like a parent would scolding a kid. He does it too fast, however, as the man stumbles back a few steps, the terror from playing for his life not seeming to have quite left him yet.
But the fear leaves his eyes once he remembers the reason for his approach.
"Thank you," he says, bowing deeply. "I would have died if you hadn't shown up." He says this part with a weak chuckle, a few tears escaping from his eyes, shakily bowing once more.
The doors click to signal that they're unlocked, but nobody moves for the first few seconds. Surprisingly, it's the man that moves first, taking an unstable hand to the knob of the door and twisting to reveal the final coffin being wheeled out from the main centre. There's fresh blood left on the floor from those who couldn't find enough to suit the number and for less fortunate fixed groups who weren't fast enough.
He walks out wobbly, head moving to track the other players leaving their own doors. Min-su watches as he seems to find what, or rather who, he was searching for and bolts through the length of the main room, yelling desperately for the other person to hear. He doesn't move any further to see who exactly the man had run toward but lets the corner of his lip turn up at being one of the reasons for it. His eyes only leave the doorway that reveals the outside world when he feels a gentle hand brace his shoulder.
"Min-su," Se-mi says, hand clenching slightly, "I'm glad you did not deceive me."
Not knowing what to respond with, Min-su nods when he finds her gaze. They both leave the confined area that had been the reason for their survival and join the other players who met the same lucky yet distant fate. It's then that Min-su makes the effort to avoid the fresh blood on the floor, knowing how much he'll use it to distract himself later. He tries to make it look subtle as he searches for Thanos and Nam-gyu, some part of him hoping they won't care enough, if they did survive, to indulge him.
He recoils slightly when he sees them already waiting on the carousel, alive and scanning through the crowd for what Min-su thinks is him. Already a few feet behind Se-mi, he wordlessly steps a few feet to his right so his figure's shielded from their eye-line.
Se-mi notices, and instead of berating him for being a coward and hiding, like Min-su expects she would, she reaches back and grabs his wrist, tugging him closer. Regaining his balance, Min-su silently thanks her by shifting his wrist down so that her hand's in his and grasping it slightly harder than he probably should. They walk like that, hand-in-hand but no one gives them odd looks, and Min-su soon realises that it's because they must look normal compared to the rest of the room. He scolds himself for thinking about their position when there are cries from all corners of the room, grieving the loss of a friend or a partner who suffered their death through a children's game.
They take their first step up on the platform, trying to keep their visibility anonymous behind the faces of the rest of the people who've made it back, but it was only inevitable that they could only keep their identity hidden for so long. Soon enough, Min-su can hear the sound of loud and distinctive footsteps approaching their spot on the carousel, powerful over the weary shuffles of the other players. Se-mi comes to the same conclusion that they can't escape confrontation and doesn't move from her spot, but right before they reach them, she tugs him forward so that he's standing next to her, letting go of his hand.
He quickly moves so that his arm isn't reaching toward nothing and clasps it together with his other hand, resting them against his stomach. When he feels confident enough to look up, he sees Thanos looming over him, Nam-gyu to his left and two other players standing a few paces behind them, sneering as if they were just as equally betrayed by Min-su.
"Min-su, my boy. I'm happy you lived, man," Thanos says, his voice deceptively calm despite the circumstances. "And I see you have Se-mi with you. Did you feel better about her than us?"
The question is phrased in a way that has Min-su want to think about his answer. The real answer would be affirming his trust in Se-mi, which would further grant requited support in the future from her — but from only her. The answer they want to hear from him is that he panicked in the moment, that he felt pressured by being unwillingly taken away from a person he would betray by leaving, which would at least influence Thanos into a twisted sort of sympathy that he would forget later. Min-su could probably bring up the conversation after the game, and Thanos wouldn't be able to recall it.
"By leaving you assholes, he saved lives that would have been lost if he hadn't come," Se-mi states, crossing her arms over her chest, radiating a confidence Min-su could never even try to interpret.
Nam-gyu steps forward to stand next to Thanos, shoving a finger in Se-mi's chest. "You manipulated him into feeling guilty by just standing there like a hopeless bitch," he spits, then turning to Min-su, narrowing his eyes with a hatred developed by the chaos of gambling between lives, "and this idiot was fooled by it."
"Let's just hope that Min-su won't have to call for us next time," Thanos says. He begins to walk away, and the rest follow, all giving individual glares before turning their heads and getting lost in the crowd.
The next round goes too smoothly, guiltily smoothly, as if luck was trying to mock them. They had to create groups of six, and it seemed as if they had either gained support from surrounding players from their show of dispatching from Thanos and his new group of allies, or their positioning was just correct for other teams to latch onto them. Soon enough, the five other people standing around him now somehow don't try to trap him for easy access for the next, apparently final, round. The only person standing somewhat closer is Se-mi, but Min-su doesn't feel the need to complain.
They shift closer together, subconsciously Min-su notices, when Player 001 starts talking about the possibility of the last number being two, fifty rooms only sufficing space for one hundred people to survive. Something about the confidence in his words allows Min-su to risk chances of getting left out of a group and instead hopefully be one of the first to get to a door.
The song doesn't even get to finish because Min-su sees the light dim before the carousel even stops, the red glow of the time limit the only bright source of light to reach him. Without thinking, Min-su blindly grasps onto Se-mi's arm, nails digging into the sleeve of her arm — he has half the mind to loosen his grip, but he's too focused on the sound reaching his ears that he doesn't notice, even when a second arm links with his, just as desperate.
"Two," the lady echoes throughout the room, her voice slightly static from the speaker.
Almost immediately, Min-su's legs begin to move, jolting forward. Se-mi follows with the same intensity, and they begin to run toward the closest door they see. It's almost cinematic in the way that people almost find other partners faster, leaving their previous third behind. It's simply a matter of who's closest, who's ready to run with you, that decides the fate of who lives and who's going to be left to try and accept that a death by gun was easier than having to deal with problems outside those walls.
They reach their chosen door, and Min-su slips in after Se-mi, taking the liberty to hold the door shut to prevent anyone from trying to play out of their violence, desperation taking a stronger hold when seconds get closer to not counting anymore. Min-su hears shouting — begging — from outside their box.
He doesn't dare look out the slit of their door.
The sick temptation is what lead him to creating nightmares for his mind to perform, to torment him when he's sleeping.
Finally, their door clicks to lock.
Min-su lets go, allowing his arms to find new purpose in covering his ears.
Only this time, when he closes his eyes, he feels someone place their hands behind his head, pulling him forward to make contact with something soft. He soon realises that it's a shoulder and that it's Se-mi who he's practically hugging, heat flaring up in his cheeks as he tries to pull away. Before he can, she shoves his head back into her shoulder. After half-heartedly confirming he wasn't going to move back, Min-su can feel her arms drift down so that she's clasping him from behind his back, and he can't do anything but stare.
Her head rests atop his own.
She whispers, "I need you to survive, Min-su, because now I can't do this alone."
Tightens her grip, her voice barely a whisper: "Promise me."