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Nam-gyu wasn’t a very loved child growing up. His family never paid attention to him even when he tried so hard to impress them with his academics. Things only went downhill when he dropped out of college and got a job as a promoter at Club Pentagon where he first met the rapper that requested the most obscene drugs from him ever.
He went into debt. Investing in crypto wasn’t his best decision, he admitted, but he was influenced by his ‘friends’ along with the way they also influenced him to use strong, effective drugs. Nam-gyu knew that he wasn’t that type of person before. But the attention he would get from his father whenever he came home high out of his mind – sluggish and nonverbal – was what he was craving for his entire childhood. He was finally taken care of.
When he got the offer from the salesman, all he could think about was the money. The money that could give him a second chance and redeem himself to his parents (although his late mother couldn’t be there for him anymore, he’d still keep her in mind).
The moment he got into the game, he was set to win. Although he got withdrawals from the ecstasy that he was taking a day before he was kidnapped by the van, which explained his extremely shaky hands during the Six-Legged Pentathlon, he tried his best to keep himself calm for the sake of winning.
Strangely, he was attached to a certain person that he was already familiar with.
Thanos – his unruly purple hair, the tattoos that ran from the back of his neck onto his hands, his colorful nail polish – was a complicated character. Nam-gyu couldn’t figure him out despite having already met him and getting acquainted during his days at Club Pentagon, he swore that Thanos hated his guts and that he was only teaming up with him because he was a ‘fan.’
There the two were, sitting beside each other on the same bed as the lights went out. Nam-gyu had begged him for a pill earlier in the game because of how much he was shaking – even Se-mi noticed and called him out on it – so he needed something , a relief that Thanos had right in his cross necklace.
“Please. I just need one more, I swear I’ll leave you alone after,” Nam-gyu pleaded, his whole body facing Thanos as he put his hands together.
He would never beg like this. Nam-gyu was giving up his pride and ego just for a little pill that could possibly help him survive in the circumstances they were in right now, and it wasn’t even guaranteed.
Thanos looked at him with his eyebrows furrowed together, “You’re a fucking junkie. Have I told you that before?”
Nam-gyu could only scoff at Thanos’ statement, barely being able to stay still because his hands were starting to shake again, “It’s not like you’re the better person here. You brought a cross that’s full of what you claim to be the ‘strongest you’ve ever taken,’ and you’re calling me a junkie?”
“Don’t get smart with me, Nam-su.” Thanos snickered, his hand grabbing at the necklace’s pendant and clicking the cross open.
“It’s Nam-gyu.” He reiterated his name, correcting Thanos.
Suddenly, Nam-gyu’s chin gets grabbed by the purple haired male and he grits his teeth at the way Thanos tightly grabs onto it. Nam-gyu visibly gulps, he doesn’t know why he was feeling this way towards the man in front of him and he wanted to know why it was Thanos in particular.
“I told you not to get smart with me.” Thanos lets go, pushing the other male away but Nam-gyu is able to remain sitting on the bed, “I was going to give it to you, man.”
Thanos opens the cross completely and reveals the colorful pills inside. Nam-gyu’s eyes lit up at the sight, swiftly grabbing one to put in his mouth. The tightness in his chest – the anxiety consuming him every second he was there – was finally let loose when he swallowed the crushed pieces of the pill. Nam-gyu bites his bottom lip with a smile and Thanos smirks at the way the other male reacted (while he, himself popped a pill, too).
When the third game came around, Nam-gyu didn’t trust anyone but Thanos. Sure, Min-su was someone Thanos relied on, but Nam-gyu couldn’t say the same about him. It’s not like he was getting jealous but he wasn’t getting his way anymore when Thanos took a liking to Min-su. Nam-gyu wasn’t in control anymore.
He decided to finally talk to Thanos – one-on-one – before the second voting began. Nam-gyu basically dragged the other male into the men’s bathroom, he wasn’t furious but frustrated at the way that Thanos was acting towards him. It was time that he set his boundaries so Min-su could finally stop getting in the way of what Nam-gyu wanted.
“What the hell do you think you are, dragging me in here?” Thanos crossed his arms, his sleeves rolled up all the way to his forearm and it revealed more of his tattoos, “I gotta talk to my man Min-su, he needs to vote O again so we can play one more game, you know?”
“We don’t need him.” Nam-gyu stated in a deep voice, his hand caressing his own cheek as he spoke, “We were better off alone. That bitch Se-mi isn’t good for anything either, so why can’t we go back as two again?”
Thanos smiled widely at the other male, “What, you catching feelings for me now? The fuck are you trying to suggest, huh? You want these pills all to yourself?”
Nam-gyu aggressively put his hands on Thanos’ collar, grabbing at his tracksuit and almost shaking him back and forth, “I’m not like that.”
“The way you’re reacting says otherwise, my boy.” Thanos has this cocky and condescending tone in his voice as he remains still while the other male visibly gulps at his answer.
Nam-gyu only tightens his grip on Thanos’ collar. The purple haired male grabs at his cross since his hands were free anyways and opens it up, taking a pill from it before closing it completely.
“Since you want my drugs so bad, why don’t you come get it yourself?” Thanos puts his tongue out and places the singular pill on the tip of it.
The other male’s breath hitches, his lip quivering clearly as his eyes lock at the sight in front of him. He loses grip of Thanos’ collar and almost lets go – he doesn’t really know what to do. Nam-gyu has never felt this way for another man before and he wonders if this is what he actually wants.
Was it the drug he was yearning for,
Or was it really Thanos?
“You have a big fucking ego, you know that?” Nam-gyu uttered his last words before his hands swiftly rose up to Thanos’ cheeks, finally pulling him in for a kiss.
The way they kissed wasn’t exactly soft – it wasn’t rough either – but the two finally got what they wanted after they first interacted on the first day. The subtle touches they would give each other during the games and when they were spending time with Thanos’ other allies, they were both touch deprived and they knew that.
They grab at each other as if they were animals, messing each other’s hair up as Thanos roughly presses Nam-gyu on the bathroom’s tiled wall. The pill that was swirling in their mouths gets crushed eventually by Thanos when he pulls away and only leans back in again when he finishes swallowing it.
Although this was cut short when someone else entered the men’s bathroom, Nam-gyu quickly hid in one of the stalls while Thanos faced himself in front of one of the sinks. Myung-gi (who actually really needed to take a piss) gives Thanos a weird look when he opens the door and he just slowly backs away because he didn’t want a fight.
“Fucking asshole.” Thanos refers to Myung-gi, breathy and panting.