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Thanos sat on his bed, his head slightly bobbing as he quietly mouthed the lyrics to a song that had popped into his head. His legs were pulled up slightly and his arms rested atop his knees. Nam-gyu sat on the other side of his bed, right across from him. He wore a small smirk on his face as he watched Thanos hum to himself, not even attempting to make conversation.
A presence disturbed this moment of peace however, their figure casting a shadow upon the two characters. Thanos didn’t notice at first, completely in his own world as he muttered “Bang bang bang-“ while pointing finger guns.
Nam-gyu immediately noticed however, his pleased expression quickly souring as he furrowed his brows, his head turning to the person who had just arrived.
“What do you want?” Nam-gyu scoffed, his brows twitching up as he attempted to sound threatening. This caught Thanos’ attention, and he finally zoned back into reality- first looking at Nam-gyu, then shifting his gaze to meet… Player 001?
“What the hell is this guy doing here?” Thanos complained in English, his body slightly shifting as he felt something creep over him. Last time he interacted with player 001… it was humiliating; really took a toll on his ego. Good thing Thanos was a tough cookie to crack, he wouldn’t just cower away the moment he saw player 001 again.
“I wanted to make amends,” Player 001 replied back in English, causing Thanos to raise his brows in surprise. “Amends?” Thanos repeated, looking at the ‘old’ man like he was crazy, a smile slowly creeping up on his face as he began to chuckle.
“Do you hear this guy?” Thanos looked over at Nam-gyu, who seemed to be lost now. “Uh, no. I don’t… I don’t speak English.” Nam-gyu replied flatly, raising a brow at the purple-haired freak.
“He said he wanted to ‘make amends’,” Thanos grinned in Nam-gyu’s direction, his dilated pupils reflecting the other. “Is he fuckin’ serious?” Nam-gyu laughed out loud, the two players finding the man’s words absolutely hilarious— they weren’t even afraid to laugh in his face.
Player 001 didn’t seem as amused. He wore a cold expression as he peered down at the two young men, slowly beginning to reconsider what he was about to say. “I’d like to be serious, but it seems neither of you can grasp the concept.” He stated flatly, his brows flicking up as he stated at Thanos and Nam-gyu, unblinking.
The two lowered their laughter to soft snickers, both of their gazes on player 001. “No, no, we can totally be serious…” Thanos replied with a smile, Nam-gyu nodding along to his words as he always did.
“Hah…” Young-il let out an irritated sigh, lowering his head slightly. “That’s great,” he pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them back up, his gaze averted away to look at the group he usually stuck to. Gi-hun and Jung-bae were conversing as always, Young-il was more curious on what they had to say than what he was doing here…
Why was Young-il even here? Right, he was convinced by his group to go over and apologize…
[ “We shouldn’t be getting into fights, especially when everybody is split into two sides like this,” Gi-hun declared, staring at Young-il with a serious expression, Young-il’d expression was similarly serious, but underneath he was irritated greatly.
“He wouldn’t have listened if I had only spoken to him, I had to do something,” Young-il defended himself, trying to explain his reasonings.
“I understand… but still, it would be better if you went over and apologized,” Gi-hun advised, his fingers interlocked tightly; he always seemed too on-guard. “Player 230 seems to be influential on that side, if he feels threatened he could easily persuade people into attacking us, I’m sure of it,” Gi-hun explained further, letting out a long sigh. “Would you just go over and make amends? …Please.”
Young-il’s expression darkened ever so slightly, but Gi-hun didn’t notice, beside him Jung-bae looked a bit disturbed— but didn’t speak.
“…Alright,” Young-il stood up, his glare pointed at the two idiots sitting together in one bed. “You’re correct, I’ll go do that…” Although his tone was flat and serious, there was a slight reluctance to it that made a few people in the group grow an amused smile.]
Thinking back made Young-il irritated, more irritated than he was right now. But he had to keep things under control, he wasn’t the frontman in this situation, he was just simple Young-il.
“So?” Thanos urged, raising a brow. “You gonna apologize or what, bro?” He smiled, ignoring his anxiety as he noticed player 100’s glare. Thanos just couldn’t help but think back to when player 001 had him pinned down to the floor with his hand on his neck; Thanos really thought he might die there. He even had to mutter a quiet ‘sorry’ to get this old guy off of him… he really hated thinking about it… and he hated how he got reminded of his father when he looked into Young-il’s angry eyes.
Nam-gyu stared at Thanos, noticing a few small twitches in his expression that gave away his anxiety. “…” He glanced away, looking at player 001.
Young-il slowly bowed his head. His bow wasn’t deep, showing that he didn’t truly feel too bad about what he was about to apologize for.
“I’m sorry about before, I was out of line,” he stated with an emotionless tone. Thanos widened his grin at that, “Ohh? Really?” he chuckled.
“Yes, ‘really’,” player 001 repeated. “I don’t want to have any bad blood between the two sides, but I also couldn’t sit and watch as you two beat up player 333, it was ruining my appetite,” he explained, giving a quick glance towards Nam-gyu as he clarified that both of them were beating up one dude.
“Ohhh…. I see I see…” Thanos nodded, seeming like he was in a slight daze. His head was pointed down and his face was out of view for Young-il, it almost seemed like he really did understand! “That’s—“ Young-il was interrupted as he was about to reply. Thanos bounced up, looking player 001 right in the eyes as he slowly smiled.
“You think I give a shit about your appetite?” Thanos laughed in a sinister way, slightly tilting his head, “Hell naww!” he slapped Young-il’s shoulder as he spoke in English for a quick moment. “I lost my appetite too y’know; when you threw me to the damn floor and tried to fuckin’ kill me. The hell’s your problem, dude?” Thanos snarled, getting even closer to the other man.
Young-il kept his expression calm, not even flinching as Thanos hit his shoulder. He was thinking. Analyzing.
Player 230 slowly laughed, “You don’t even have any reason to protect that other dude, fuckin’ MG coin…” He muttered the YouTuber’s name, glaring in the direction of where he’d be. “That fucker ruined by damn life, took all my money,” his voice lowered an octive as his frustration showed. “This guy had his money stolen from him too!” Thanos pointed at Nam-gyu, who instinctively nodded back to affirm Thanos’ statement.
“That doesn’t mean you should assault him in front of hundreds of people,” Young-il replied, slightly brushing off his shoulder now. Thanos huffed in reply, looking at Nam-gyu and muttering: “This fuckin’ guy…”
“I didn’t come here to argue,” player 001 quickly cut back to why he was here, “I truly wanted to apologize,” he attempted to sound sincere, placing his hand atop his heart. “I didn’t mean to resurface any memories of your homelife.”
Subong immediately looked disturbed, “What?” he whispered, slowly shifting away from Young-il. “I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.” Thanos huffed in slightly stiff English, looking Young-il up and down like he was wearing something crazy.
“Oh, sorry. Did I misinterpret what happened?” Player 001’s voice sounded ever so slightly manipulative, like he was slowly backing Thanos into a corner with his words. Nam-gyu furrowed his brows as he watched his exchange, unsure of what to do.
“Misinterpret? Fuck yeah, you made up some bullshit!” Thanos was immediately on the defensive, slightly shifting his posture to attempt and look bigger. “The fuck do you know about my homelife?” He grit his teeth, his hands balling into fists.
“You shouldn’t swear in front of someone older than you, it’s disrespectful,” Young-il stated calmly, a small sense of satisfaction came from watching Thanos get upset.
“I’ll do whatever the fuck I want, old man.” Thanos responded harshly, saying his last two words in English.
Young-il smiled, “Is that why you had a terrible home life?” he questioned, his head slightly shifting to the side as he instigated a fight.
“You little…” Thanos immediately went to get in closer and punch Young-il in the jaw, but Nam-gyu quickly scrambled over and grabbed Thanos’ arm, “Woah woah woah woah—-“ Nam-gyu laughed awkwardly, “Hyung, let’s just sit down— remember what happened last time?” he murmured, giving a closed-eyed smile as he gritted his teeth. Nam-gyu could tell that Young-il was far stronger than he looked, his ankle still had a bruise from when player 001 kicked him… And he was sure that Thanos was definitely not holding up well when player 001 had him by the neck.
Thanos’s jaw was clenched hard, his teeth gritting against each other to the point it hurt. All as Young-il smiled ‘politely’ in his direction. “Yes… I’m sure you both remember what happened last time we interacted,” malice slipped into his tone ever so slightly, enough for Nam-gyu to shiver, but not enough for Thanos to notice. “Let’s just forget about that and make-up. Alright?”
“Yeah yeah… we forgive you, just go away..!” Nam-gyu was having some difficulty holding Thanos back from lunging at Young-il, so he really just wanted him gone. “Forgive? Hell n-“ Thanos furrowed his brows; but Nam-gyu immediately interrupted, “Shshshhshshshshhs…..” he pulled Thanos backwards, the purple-haired man fell back onto the bed and was finally sitting again; his expression sour.
“Okay.. okay.. bye bye…!!!” Nam-gyu waved off Young-il, “I’m glad we were able to get things settled,” he nodded, walking away like he had really only just apologized.
“Fuck…” Nam-gyu muttered, looking at the 001 printed on his back as he walked away all calm and collected. “…” Nam-gyu looked back at Thanos, who had his head down, and his hands shaky and fidgeting with each other.
“Hey man, uh,” he glanced around, “Don’t let that fucker get to your head, he was probably just trying to rile you up so he could beat you up or something. Be glad nothing happened,” Nam-gyu attempted to make Thanos feel better, tapping his shoulder.
“…” Thanos brought his hand to his face, rubbing his eyes. “Shit…” he cursed, sounding irritated. “Fuckin’ bastard, he doesn’t know what he’s fucking talking about…” He both looked and sounded troubled; was Young-il actually onto something?
Nam-gyu didn’t mean to stare, but he did. He never imagined Thanos looking this… upset? It felt weird, the man was always so chipper and uncaring— even when people died. At least from Nam-gyu’s point of view… The only other time he sensed discomfort from Thanos was after red-light green-light; didn’t he watch that 196 girl die? Or was it 169… Nam-gyu didn’t care to remember, he hated her anyway (he had no reason to, he’s just a hater).
“Were you actually—“ he blinked at Thanos, a slight look of realization washing over his face as it finally clicked in his head. Subong immediately grabbed Nam-gyu by the collar, “Actually what? Say it, fuckin’ say it Nam-su,” Thanos threatened, looking right into Nam-gyu’s eyes; his own were now slightly red and glossy.
“…!” Nam-gyu raised his hands in surrender, slightly grinning; it was just automatic… even though there was nothing funny. “It’s Nam-gyu…” he murmured, attempting to leave Thanos’s grasp.
“Yeah.. yeah.. Nam-gyu.” Thanos nodded and repeated his name, unblinking as he slowly let go of Nam-gyu. “You better not fuckin’ mention that to anyone, I’ll kill you.” Thanos threatened once more, moving around to get comfortable on his bed. He ran his fingers through his purple hair, trying to feather out his annoyance.
“Aye-aye captain,” Nam-gyu nodded obediently, not wanting Thanos to deny him drugs because he even tried to be concerned about Thanos’ past... so much for being considerate.