Chapter Text
One year after the 37th Squid game.
Everyone was gathered im Geum-ja’s house, sitting around and talking. Two suitcase’s sat in the corner, belonging to the two girlfriends who were visiting from Thailand. It was the first time in a while they had all seen each other, debts were mostly all paid off, jobs secured, arguments forgiven, goals achieved.
Dae-ho stood leaning against the wall, smiling as he watched Jun-hee proudly show off her baby girl that wasn’t much of a baby anymore. He didn’t notice at first when Gi-Hun walked back in the room, phone in hand after stepping outside to take a call. There was a strange expression on his face, but it didn’t seem completely negative.
Walking to the middle of the room and raising his voice,
“They found the island and destroyed it. It’s all over.”
The room fell silent for a few seconds, before erupting into celebration.
Not moving from his spot by the wall, all he could feel was relief.
It was over. Never again would anyone fall victim to that awful place.
Jun-hee had her arms wrapped around her girl, and he could see Young-mi beaming up at Hyun-ju who looked like she might cry from happiness. Mother and son were smiling at eachother.
One person wasn’t smiling. That was Gi-hun, who had moved to the corner of the room, just watching.
“Are you okay?” He walked over, pushing his hair back. It was long again, but he didn’t mind that much. After he had confessed the real reason he had joined to Jun-hee, she had been helping him with it.
After a moment of silence, the older man replied,
“…it feels…odd. Like I was too late.” Too late to save them , although that part didn’t need to be said.
“you just saved thousands and thousands of lives from going there,” he looked up at him, “that’s…that’s honestly so relieving to think about. They won’t have them same fate as before,”
“…yeah,”
He patted Dae-ho’s shoulder, much like Jung-bae used to, “thanks son,”
He nodded, and they both walked back over to everyone else.
It was all over.
No more games.
No more debt.
No more lies.
And, looking at his family laughing and cheering and celebrating, Kang Dae-ho felt truly at home for the first time in his life.