reingkings

[reingkings]

457 Wishlist - Historical Mr Sunshine/Chicago Typewriter Fusion

This is my wishlist idea of fics I’m trying to manifest into the world. Feel free to change it up if it inspires you.

In this AU In-ho, like LBH’s character in the TV show, is a marine captain serving in the US delegation in Hanseung. There he meets Gi-hun, who on the surface appears to be merely an unemployed former journalist with a gambling problem. He drinks with the officers and hangs around not doing much.

Secretly, however, Gi-hun is a member of the Righteous Army resisting Japanese occupation and working as a spy, smuggling the information he collects.

As time goes on In-ho becomes suspicious of Gi-hun’s behavior, however the more attention he pays him, the more In-ho’s feelings of obsession and longing grow.

Meanwhile Gi-hun finds himself conflicted. He can’t but feel an attraction to In-ho but due to In-ho’s position in the US navy, the two of them are functionally enemies.

Naturally, no matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to resist each other.

[reingkings]

any 457 fic recs?

In-ho x Gi-hun fic recs

credits to the respective authors! ♡

*some of them are wholesome fluff, but some may contain topics that can be triggering, taboo and considered “dark theme” in nature; so after tapping the links, make sure you read the tags first (actually, since I'm a sucker for whump, spicy and fucked up stuff, most of them are 'dead dove do not eat', so be warned)

Overthrown

Seong Gi-hun isn't the only enemy the Front Man has. It takes him too long to realize that.  Or, Front Man's right hand man, the Officer, with the help of the Soldiers, plans to take him down. And In-ho has been too blind to see the betrayal coming.  (Ironic enough, it turns out the one who's too trusting isn't Gi-hun.)

Obedience and Oblivion (NSFW)

Dragged back into the shadows of the games, Gi-hun finds himself bound not just by chains but by the quiet, unnerving pull of the man who holds him captive. The Front Man offers him comfort wrapped in control, tenderness laced with possession. As lines blur between survival and submission, freedom and desire, Gi-hun must decide: will he rise above, or let himself fall deeper into the arms of the enemy?

and I found love where it wasn't supposed to be, right in front of me

"Young-il was a good person. He was my friend. And you killed him because all he wanted was to save his family."

"Gi-hun —" In-ho quickly stopped and shut his mouth when he realized he was letting it slip. He's Player 456 to you now, and you're not Young-il anymore, warned the voices in his head.

You're the Front Man and he's Player 456. Young-il and Gi-hun are no more. And that ache, the sudden surge of pain in In-ho's chest, In-ho could never seem to understand.

all I worship and adore (NSFW)

After the tenth year anniversary of his wife's death, In-ho decided it was time for him to feel something else that wasn't grief. He found himself in a shady brothel with a companion of an overly friendly, overly awkward sex worker named Seong Gi-hun. (It's fine, right? It's merely physical pleasure and nothing more. This does not mean you're betraying her, it does not mean you're moving on, or so In-ho told himself.)

loving you is a losing game

Gasping and gurgling and choking on his own blood, In-ho's eyes remain fixated on Gi-hun and Jun-ho.

Mister Right

“Hwang Inho,” His assailant introduced stiffly and rattled off a lengthy sequence of numbers. “Eh?” They’d given Gihun something for the pain and it was making him a little dizzy. “My name and badge number,” The man said, his jaw clenched tight as he advised, “you should lodge a formal complaint to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency when you are able to walk, sir.” “Oh…ok.” “Did you remember what I just said?” Gihun’s head lolled. He blinked groggily at the figure dressed in all black. “Are you my nurse? This needle in my arm hurts. Could you blow on it?” The man didn’t move. “Please?” He whined, blinking back tears.

One Way Ticket (NSFW)

Gi-hun arrives in a foreign land brimming with hope and dreams of starting a new life with the woman he’s convinced is his soulmate. But when things start to unravel, and the truth of his situation becomes painfully clear, he finds himself at the mercy of a stranger—Hwang In-ho, a man who sees opportunity in Gi-hun’s desperation.

Final Game

In which In-ho tries running away from his own self, his guilt, doubt and feelings. (Gi-hun is handcuffed to a bed, yet In-ho finds himself the one in chains, unable to run away.)

Material Girl

“I’m not a prostitute,” The man sitting in the small plastic chair opposite Junho’s work desk repeated. Junho glanced up from the arrest form he was filling out on his computer and studied him. Seong Gihun, age forty-three, resident of Ssangmun-dong. The system showed his only living relative to be his elderly mother. There were numerous citations on file for money issues mostly, but no prostitution. Oh, and today was his birthday. “Officer,” the man said, wringing his hands like an old woman and rocking in his seat, “I swear.” Junho took his fingers off the keyboard and crossed them over his desk. “Ajusshi, I have you on video without your pants in a popular love hotel.”

dead (for a little while) (NSFW)

Gi-hun loses the next game.

Strangely, they don't kill him.

like a good, good dog (NSFW)

"Come on," Thanos — Player 230 — said, "I see the way you look at him and the way he looks at you. A blind person could see you've been yearning for each other. Don't look at me like that, I'm just doing you both a favor here."

"What did you just say?" Gi-hun asked.

"You heard me. Fuck 001. Or die."

In a Truth or Dare game, Gi-hun landed himself with the most absurd dare. In-ho realized the price of his undercover mission may be higher than he thought when he was getting fucked at his own game. Figuratively and literally.

Alternative Universe where no one gets hurt.

Forgotten Vows (NSFW)

Gi-Hun wakes up with a wedding ring on his finger.

Dirty Business (NSFW)

Gi-hun sucks In-ho’s dick while he watches the chaos unfold.

Facilitated Karma

VIPs kind of get whatever they want, here- so when one of them orders to have Gi-hun for a night, In-ho has to comply.

Gi-hun doesn't get the memo.

All Your Pieces (NSFW)

After the failed rebellion, he dissociates on the Frontman's floor.

pick up your stitches (better than your riches) (NSFW)

Gi-hun just looks at him in silence for a moment, studying his frame intently. “How do you live with yourself?"

“I don’t know.”

When he leans in, it’s slow and deliberate. It’s like he’s showing his hands. Begging Gi-hun to squint and pretend they’re clean.

“You can tell me no,” he reminds him. Miraculously, Gi-hun just nods.

Or: Gi-hun and the Frontman meet after the games are through.

wrap my name across your mouth when i let my feelings down (NSFW)

“You haven’t eaten all day,” In-ho reminds him, a note of desperation in his voice. “Let me feed you, Gi-hun.”

Gi-hun’s eyes are unfocused and bloodshot, he notices. There are dark circles underneath them. In-ho chastises himself for not considering the fact that his companion might be sleep deprived.

“Uh, yeah,” Gi-hun awkwardly rubs at his neck with his right hand. “I could eat.”

in the flow of things

“That’s my fish,” Inho snaps, taking a step closer. His voice echoes through the narrow space, sharp with rage. The man chuckles softly. “I mean… define 'your' fish.” Inho blinks, momentarily stunned by the audacity. “Are you serious? You stole it. You've been stealing my fish.” “Borrowing,” the man corrects, raising his finger. “Relocating is the better word, actually. You keep buying more anyway, so I figured-” “Relocating? Are you serious right now?” Inho's voice rises, disbelief flooding his system. He stalks closer, fists clenched. “You’ve been breaking into my apartment and stealing my fish like it’s some kind of hobby?”

or Five times Inho came home to an empty fishbowl, and the one time he finally caught the culprit.

let's drift away in fits of pleasure (NSFW)

Fronting a secret killing game while also taking place in said game was difficult as expected, but the most unexpected inconvenience was that of sneaking out every night to return to In-ho's office. He resorted to excusing himself to the bathroom for long hours during lights out and hoping the others didn’t bother to ask in the haze of their exhaustion.

It was Gi-hun that pushed the boundaries, as he should have learned to expect these days.

Nightmares

Chapter 1: Gihun gets a nightmare and I Inho takes care of him Chapter 2: Inho gets a nightmare and trys to hide it from Gihun because he thinks he deserves to get them

TO YOUR SWEET NOTHING

"You’re up early,” came the dry, familiar voice of In-ho beside Gi-hun. “Early?” Gi-hun snorted, glancing at the clock on the bedside table. “It’s almost nine. You call that early?” In-ho grunted, shifting slightly but making no move to get up. “It is when you’ve spent years sleeping with one eye open,” he murmured, his voice muffled by the pillow.

Or, a soft lazy morning between Inho and Gihun

Would You Still Love Me?

In-ho turned back to his microscope, clearly done with the conversation, but his lips twitched into a smile. “Speaking of worms…” “Oh, please no,” Gi-hun groaned. Nothing sane or understandable ever followed that phrase. “Would you still love me if I were a worm?” “Why are you even asking this?” Gi-hun demanded. “Do you plan on turning into a worm?” His eyes widened in mock horror. “Oh my god, did you sign up for some kind of freaky experiment?”

Or, "Would you still love me if I was a worm?" fic featuring Gi-hun and In-ho!

[reingkings]

Short Story Recommendations

These all fuck me up to a varying degree of emotions

Crime

Philomel Cottage - Agatha Christie

Lamb to the Slaughter - Roald Dahl

Death and the Compass - Jorge Luis Borges

Horror

The Landlady - Roald Dahl

A Walk in the Dark - Arthur C Clarke

The Wife’s Story - Ursula K Le Guin

The Veldt - Ray Bradbury

The Hanging Stranger - Philip K Dick

The Colour out of Space - H P Lovecraft

The Spider - Hanns Heinz Ewers

Sad

The Life You Save May Be Your Own - Flannery O’Connor

A Small, Good Thing - Raymond Carver

Cathedral - Raymond Carver

The Haunted Boy - Carson McCullers

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Chef - Andy Weir

The Martyr - Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

Jambula Tree - Monica Arak de Nyeko

The Rats Do Sleep At Night - Wolfgang Borchert

Sci-Fi

Love is the Plan the Plan is Death - James Tiptree Jr

The Last Question - Isaac Asimov

The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C Clarke

The Star - Arthur C Clarke

Reunion - Arthur C Clarke

The Commuter - Philip K Dick

Exhibit Piece - Philip K Dick

To Serve Man - Damon Knight

Brothers Beyond the Void - Paul W Fairman

What the Fuck?! 

The Lottery - Shirley Jackson

A Collapse of Horses - Brian Evenson

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby - Donald Barthelme

Hopeful Monsters - Hiromi Goto

The Box Social - James Reaney

He-y come on ou-t - shinichi hoshi

The Garden of Forking Paths - Jorge Luis Borges

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just the entire collection bro)

Other

Broken Routine - Jeffrey Archer

A Man Who Had No Eyes - Mackinlay Kantor

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been - Joyce Carol Oates

The Lady, or the Tiger - Frank R Stockton

The Continuity of Parks - Julio Cortázar

The Dinner Party - Mona Gardner

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Gabriel García Márquez

On Exactitude in Science - Jorge Luis Borges

[reingkings]

What if Gi-huns first reaction to "Young-il" being the Frontman is to hug him because his first thought is "i thought i lost you!"

[reingkings]

Last chapter of Material Girl is here:

Junho grabbed his phone and pulled up his Kakao chat with Hwang Inho. He smiled a little at his older brother’s profile picture. It had been the same one since he first registered his account: a baby photo of Junho, back when he had been roughly the size of a small watermelon or large radish, cradled securely against Inho’s chest. The last message his brother had sent was telling him that the weather app forecasted snow today. It hadn’t snowed, but Hwang Inho had brought Junho his puffer jacket and a thick scarf anyway. Junho pulled up the keyboard on his phone and nibbled his lower lip in thought for a few moments. Then he wrote: hyung, I know about you and Seong Gihun. Inho wasn’t one to partake in excessive cell phone use, but he got the read receipt almost immediately. The status showed Inho typing, then nothing, and then more typing. When Hwang Inho finally replied, it was a simple: I see. And then, do you have questions? Can I come by this weekend? he wrote back. Yes, Inho replied. Hwang Junho: Did you ask Seong Gihun? A few minutes ticked by. Junho ate a few pieces of the shrimp chips. Then, a short ping signaling a new message. He picked up his phone again. Hwang Inho: He says you can always come by.

At last, we got here! The last chapter (finally complete). Yay! I didn't want it to be a huge dramatic reveal. Junho is a good boy and just wanted to see his brother happy. I didn't have a reveal to their mother in this fic (didn't seem necessary and it was mostly about Junho), but that might happen in another installment somewhere. This was super fun to write and I hope readers had as much fun reading.

Till next time!

[reingkings]

[reingkings]

WIP Maquette

[reingkings]

I've got you under my skin

[reingkings]

I think the winners of the Squid Game probably have similar behaviors to the winners of the lottery – the majority come from poverty and have no knowledge or practice handling large amounts of wealth and lose it in a few years. I imagine it’s worse in Squid Games specifically because they chose gamblers or people desperate enough to give up their lives, which makes the transition to “normal” difficult. The ones that make it probably go on with their lives and take In-ho’s advice (pretend it was a dream, never talk about it again). I don’t think all of them are utterly miserable.

My money for a winner would be on Nam-gyu too, or maybe one of 100’s lackeys? (We saw in season one that the mean ones kind of band together out of self-interest, but they’re not loyal to one-another.) If it was merit-based maybe Hyun-ju but we see that a lot of the times who you team up with matters (tug-of-war), and she is at a disadvantage.

I know it probably wouldn't matter in the long run but I would actually love to see previous winners of Squid Game in the show and what they've done since winning. They can't all have become Gi-huns and In-hos right? Did any of them manage to become happier? Who was frontman before In-ho? Is it always a previous winner? How are they chosen? Was anyone else an option besides Gi-hun? Who won the year before the current game? My biggest question is, does the director know which character would have won this year's games if Gi-hun wasn't involved? I bet more than half of the current cast would be dead up to this point, besides likely Hyun-ju and possibly Dae-ho (and fuck it, I'll even throw Nam-gyu in there, I think he would have been fine with or without Thanos)

I don't need answers but I wouldn't be upset to recieve them.

[reingkings]

My pet theory is that this bet is actually one of Oh Il-nam’s favorites to make. He just pulls it out of the bag like a party trick (which is why he didn’t pay attention since he’s always won). And maybe at one point in time, he made the same bet with In-ho when he offered him the job to show him “the truth about human nature”. But In-ho’s result was much different.

And yet, the universe just seems to love Gi-hun so much. He even beats the devil Oh Il-nam.

Maybe when In-ho is looking out the window he’s remembering the past. In fact in this whole event, Gi-hun doesn’t really need confirmation of humanity’s goodness he already believes in it (he’s just traumatized). In-ho does not.

This makes In-ho the most important witness, because he is Il-nam’s heir and will carry the games into the future. And here’s proof there’s a failure point in his religion.

Or idk something like that.

No, but on a rewatch it is SO SIGNIFICANT that In-ho flashes back to Il-nam telling him why he played the games after (presumably) watching Gi-hun's final bet with the old man.

(The editing seems to suggest that In-ho was quick to enter from some shadowy corner after Gi-hun left.)

(And worth noting that in this combined sequence of past and present, BOTH Gi-hun and In-ho are questioning why Il-nam joined the games. Men with shared trauma who are really asking the man behind the trauma "why WOULD you willing suffer through this?")

Anyway, it's almost like it's foreshadowing a growing obsession with a certain man that will give In-ho his own reason to re-enter the games. I know a second season wasn't planned at this point, but it's neat how that just all falls together.

Especially because I got to wonder what's going through In-ho's head here as he's just staring out the window/at himself after closing Il-nam's eyes.

I think he's meant to be looking at the area where the unhoused man was, but the focus on In-ho's reflection also seems to suggest that he can't see beyond himself to the good in others.

Even standing in the same spot, he can't see in the world what Gi-hun did. And In-ho is quick to turn away from it.

[reingkings]

We can't look back for nothin'

Take what you need, say your goodbyes

And it's a beautiful crime

[reingkings]

[reingkings]

Common Frank Bidart banger (from "In the Ruins," in Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016)

[reingkings]

You know the thought occurs that with the season 1 Inhun limo scene... In-ho didn't HAVE to be there.

Maybe it really is just the normal game procedure for him to drop off every winner in what may well be his personal limo, dressed casually and drinking... but y'know, that could also be a task easily delegated to someone else. Like how In-ho delegated the whole ass games to the black-robed officer in season 2.

He especially didn't have to be sitting in the lounging area with him and prepared to just talk with Gi-hun, all he NEEDED to do was drop Gi-hun off with the money. Coulda been sitting upfront like he was in the season 2 limo scene, but nope. Had to be close to a tied up Gi-hun.

I definitely think Gi-hun trying to quit with Sang-woo in the last game sparked an interest that In-ho was indulging a bit there.

[reingkings]

I'm having thoughts on not only how this could also be a piece of In-ho's whole worldview, how he might see contestants' deaths as a mercy killing for those who were never going to claw their way out of desperate circumstances.

… but that it's also wild to take this reading and combine it with how his invites to Gi-hun after winning the games are designed to look like the coffins (a tidbit presumably lost on Gi-hun, since I believe contestants are out of the game rooms before they start doing the clean-up with coffins? Truly, In-ho is out here flexing an aesthetic that few have the perspective to appreciate)

Something something about offering the mercy of someone who understands what he's gone through? How mimicking the coffins could be a way of saying, "we both survived, but also we are both dead inside, and neither of us have ever truly left the island."

[reingkings]

Imagine he’s just out of the screenframe waiting for his crush’s reaction xD

Speaking of season one moments. We all agree In-ho sent Gi-hun flowers, right? We agree this was him:

Because at this point, Oh-il-nam is out of it. He’s barely lucid. In-ho is probably the one running surveillance on Gi-hun and snitching on him.

Naturally, Oh Il-nam would say, “I want to see Gi-hun before I pass.”

But this. In-ho where in the instructions did Il-nam tell you to send him flowers? You could have done the normal thing and left it at his door like last time. But check the difference.

Contestants get a soggy piece of paper wedged in their doorframe. Gi-hun gets a hand-delivered card with a pink-ribboned envelope and a bouquet.

Also the pink ribbon resembles the coffins but also the box In-ho kept the card in at his old apartment. So on one hand it’s traumatizing to Gi-him but can also be seen as a romantic gesture. “We’re the same, you and I.”

In-ho, you are a menace.