Chapter Text
When the fighting started, Nam-gyu jumped at the weakest person in the O group he saw. Of course, he would have pummeled straight at Min-su, if the coward didn't run away the moment things got heated. Nonetheless, he got some good hits in, himself suffering little damage, before he heard Thanos yell MG Coin’s name at full volume. As he turned his head around to see what all of this was about, the YouTuber’s face was already swinging lifelessly to the floor, with a deep blue complexion and red marks on his neck. Thanos on top of him. They did it. An X was eliminated, and the vote was in their favor. Nam-gyu decided to waste no time, he yelled at full lungs' capacity that they should stop before the guards come in. And after that, everything was a blur.
They were escorted to the main hall. The barrel of the gun forcefully pressed into his back, all the way through the hallway. The announcement that player number 333 and some more were eliminated. He and Thanos giggling away through the night, wondering what the next game will be. Him, giving Thanos quiet pleads for another fix, right in the morning. Another vote. And the big red X overtaking the screen as the vote went through and their plans and their future got fucked. No high was good enough to cover the disappointment he felt when the announced prize was only 380 million won. Not even half of his debt.
As the white gas filled the room, Thanos grabbed his shoulder and massaged it real hard, murmuring something about meeting again. Nam-gyu didn't bother listening. It didn’t matter, none of it mattered. He schemed, he begged, and he killed, and it didn't matter.
And then he woke up, naked, on the same road from where he was first picked up, with a bag full of money next to him. He walked home, thinking only of the fix he got in the pocket of his jacket.
It was a surprisingly warm night for early December, with little to no clouds obstructing the full moon. Event then, the bright light of the satellite couldn't break through the million lights of the Hongdae district, the center of the night-life for young and stupid in Seoul. In one of the clubs, already closed for the night, Nam-gyu sat in front of a box of lost and found and a pile of clothing thoughtlessly thrown on the floor in the middle of the dance floor. During the night, hundreds of fashionable pairs of shoes would stomp right through this little pyramid of mismatched items, probably as a result of their intoxication, adding some more. But now, as the dawn was about to slowly creep up the sky, the pile just laid there, unmoving, unforgiving. He had to sort them through, make a picture of each item and then post them to the social media page of the club, allowing the owners to reclaim their lost earrings, shirts and half-empty juuls. Brainless job, really, but after the whole night at the club, he barely had the energy to sit upright. The tiredness hid behind his eyes, and even deeper, somewhere at this core. He took a swig from now a flat energy drink, which left a sugary coating on his tongue. Blueberry flavor. He wished he had something stronger to keep him going. He idly licked his teeth, dreaming of a small fix.
But he was still new, and he knew better than to scare the manager with his little habits. In Club Pentagon, any enhancer was fine as long as it didn't make you useless at your job, but in this shithole there were certain expectations towards the staff, and they did not include strong head. He planned on straying away from any of the hard stuff for some time, just enough to create a false feeling of a bond between him and the coworkers. Logical as it was, it did not change the fact that he was now suffering. He took the items one by one, displaying them on the black tiles, taking a picture, and throwing it to the side, creating another pile. A scarf, a necklace, a vape, a bracelet, a blouse, a bra, more necklaces, more bracelets, an undefinable piece of clothing. The items blurred into one another in his mind as he took a picture and moved to the next one as quickly as possible. Anything to get home already.
He threw another vape to the side as he reached for the next item, but he froze as his fingers immediately recognized what they were holding. A necklace with a pendant, bigger than the norm, cold to the touch. It had many intricate details on the top, but smooth sides. And it was in the shape of the cross. Nam-gyu brought it closer to his face and looked closely. It looked identical, felt identical, even smelled identical. He twiddled his thumb on the side, till he found the latch. It popped open, uncovering two circular pills inside - purple and blue. Thanos’s cross.
The pendant awakened not-so old memories in his head. Colorful corridors, tasteless lunches, running out of breath during the games while laughing out of pure joy, all that mixed with the sound of the gunshot turning into thick, black blood, the smell of bleach and sour aftertaste of disappointment when the games were brought to a halt.
Nam-gyu closed the pendant, stopping himself from reminiscing. Whatever his brain believed the cross symbolized, in the end it was just a loud and trashy, glorified zip-lock bag for a junkie. But if it was here, his owner must have been close, which is a thought he decided to focus on instead. To his surprise, he felt almost something similar to a relief, when he realized Thanos is probably still alive. Yet, he was sure he didn’t see him today at the club, no purple hair sticking out in the sea of party people on the street of Jandari-ro. Still, he knew the owner of the item, so he had no reason to post a picture of it to the fan page. He got up from his spot on the floor, stretched his tingling legs, and quickly pocketed the two tabs from the cross. Finders, keepers.
“Yo, Minji, do we have any contact with Thanos’s manager team?” he said loudly as he walked over to the entrance, where his coworker counted profit from the gate. She was a young girl, clearly a friend of the owner, and although she wasn’t bad at her job, she got under Nam-gyu’s skin a lot. Something about her attitude screamed entitled. She responded with a raised finger, commutating him to quiet down. He rolled his eyes. He hated her nonchalant approach to him, even though she was almost 10 years younger than him. But if she had to re-do her count, both of them would be stuck here even longer, so he waited without saying a word till she finished. Minji wrote something down in her phone and said, “Who?”
“He’s a rapper, somewhat popular in the local scene. I found what seems to be his cross, in the lost and found. Should probably contact him directly instead of posting it up.”
“Whaat! You know what jewelry he wears?! I didn't know you are such a psycho fan!”, she laughed and Nam-gyu was about to bark back how he even knew how his penis piercing looked like, because that is just something you share with people when you think you will die if you fail at a children’s game. Instead of sharing this information, he barked, “Why are you acting so surprised, I used to work with the guy.” Are you that desperate to move on from the manager’s dick that you are dreaming of third rate rapper’s now? , he finished in his thoughts.
“So closely, you know what he wears under his shirt. Ha…” she murmured under her nose, before admitting the club had no contact with Thanos’ team, before adding, “I don’t know him, but I’ll ask the manager later. If he has any contacts, then it’s on the blacklist. The guy went downhills years ago.” He sighed in response, disappointed with the dead end. He decided to ignore it, pocket the pendant and go back to his job. If he is lucky, he will be done before 5.
He wasn’t, of course. Luck is something Nam-gyu lacked since birth, so even now he was coming back home in the train cart overfilled with commuting salesmen and office workers at 6 ‘clock. His head was falling down, desperate for sleep, and his mind was picturing the colorful tabs in his pocket, ready to fill him up with something he missed. A fix he needed so much. Bitter taste on his tongue, wide shot irises and nausea a couple of hours later. Before he could imagine any more pleasant aspects, his stop got called, and he walked out of the cart. The following day, the first thing he did after waking up was to chew on one of the vibrant in color pills. It tasted sweet, too sweet for his liking.
Fuck my life , was all he thought as he has realized it was just powdered sugar candy.