#⌕ showing results for: squid game

[kurooscopy]

sweetest rylie i'm SO late to this, my apologies (/﹏＼) ᰔ !! i was stewing on all your smarty pants thoughts the whole time i was away tehe

spoilies under the cut.. i yapped oops :3

yess, i too was on the fence, i was worried that it'd feel like they were just milking s1's success.. but i rewatched s1 afterwards too and after seeing the closing scene again, there's no way we couldn't get more s2 answers !! i feel like s3 will be hardly games-focused at all though >~< mixed feelings bc the format is soooo entertaining lol 😭 but also i'm so interested to see where they're going w the detective plot !!! i think the jun ho/in ho drama + breaking out/ending the games will prob be s3's main focus yk

(but ur actually cooking w the gi hun winning again thing.. that would be so sick and twisted (entirely the point)..)

PLS THANOS 😭😭 i'm glad i rewatched everything bc he annoyed me so bad first time round but. literally my guy lmfao he's so funny

dae ho's incomptence also annoyed me first time round as well i fear.. but when i watched again i was like oh :((((( he's just a little guy just a cutie patootie :(((( i need to wrap him in many blankets !!

ur so right about s2 cast actually bc the longer i try and think of a fave, the more stumped i am bc i love them all !! hyun ju was my GOAT fr tho omg i LOVED her and her storyline ugh it made me tear up a couple times >~< espc with the voting and the mingle game (that game omg.. STRESS)

also a big fan of grandma and her son, although you're right i do have a bad feeling about them as well 😖😖 keeping my fingies crossed tho

frontman was SOOO LIKEABLE in the games right 😭😭😭 !!! i really enjoyed the acting tho bc sometimes there'd just be a certain look on his face or a twitch in his eye and suddenly ur like omg yea.. Bad Guy.. the last scene where jung bae got shot and in ho faked his death over the radio actually had me distraught oml

+ on the topic of amazing acting, gong yoo as the recruiter 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 PLSSSS i have. many things to say about him 😀 lmao

wait u could be right about strawberry girl's dad !!!!! holding onto hope bc she broke my heart so bad omg 🥺🥺🥺💔💔 cried. the only other direction i could see that going is to give no eul (011) a more important role going into s3.. maybe helping to stop the games or smth.. bc there's been quite a bit of speculation about her possible connections to sae byeok from s1 !!! she intrigues me so bad i'm interested to see what happens with her bc i totally thought she was going into the games to get money for the little girl and i was gagged when she put on the pink suit 🫣

tldr; i'm absolutely frothing for s3, it can't come soon enough !!

rylie omgee i've been watching u post about squid game and i just finished s2 last week so i must know your opinions !! what did you think, who did you like, and how excited are you for s3 ? :33

ADAAAA!!! omg yes i would love to talk about squid game hehehe i’ll post it under the cut in case ppl have watched yet, and also i rambled a lot LMAO

i really liked this season !! i was so on the fence about it at first bc i was like hmm . did we really need a s2?? but i ended up loving it!! i’m kind of glad we had some comedic moments to break up s1 and all of the sad moments… bc it’s so depressing LOLL.

AS FOR WHO I LIKED … so many characters 😭 that was another thing i enjoyed about s2, i felt more attached to them than in s1. bc i kind of knew 456 would win in s1 so i was like well…. i can’t like anyone LMFAO. whereas in s2 i was like maybe they can all get out of here alive (doubtful but. 😔💪). i LOVEEE dae-ho, he’s such a cutie patootie sweetie pie. i’ve seen people hating on him like ???? SIT DOWN HELLO? i love him pls he did nothing :(( toxic fav is thanos LMFAOO i fear i’m in love w him. he’s so funny, i was dying every time he was on the screen. i also loved jun-hee ( the pregnant girl? i think that’s her name), i really hope she makes it out :( 333 kind of annoys me; i feel like he’s just gonna ditch her again if they get out but :/ and the grandma she’s funny !!! i’m worried her and her son are going to die together or one will sacrifice themselves for the other :,) but honestly i liked everyone at least a little bit!! who was ur fav?

one thing that made me mad was the detective storyline 😭😭😭 i’m sure they’re gonna do something more w it in s3, but it was so frustrating seeing them go NOWHERE with that plot. esp bc the first 2 eps really revolves around that.

and i liked this 001 more in this season … the old guy makes me so mad like why is he so whimsical 😭 but it was interesting to see the frontman play bc i was really like hm…. maybe he is turning nice 🥰 LMAOO. he was too good of an actor </3 i did like the games too!! mingle stressed me out SOOOO bad but it’s been my fav i think.

i honestly don’t know what’s gonna happen in s3. i was kind of thinking 456 might die but …. now im like what if he just wins again and realizes he can never stop the games 😭 i also feel like the vips are gonna be even more sick in this season … idk where they are yet but ik they’re coming 🤢

i think the dad is still alive though!! i’m kind of thinking the pink guard girl (011 ??) shot him in the shoulder or leg or something where he wouldn’t die. and then i think he’ll escape and maybe find the detective ?? i feel like there’s something there with him. if he is really dead i think that’s kind of a dumb plot to focus on for an episode and never do anything with 💀

and …. sigh. i also wish thanos would still be in s3 but i told my sister i was like wow … they really killed him off to let us know we’re getting serious 😭 no more laughs </3 my boy </3 GDHSHSHS

i am SOOOO excited for s3, even though i know it’s gonna break my heart 🥲 but who knows …. maybe it will have some sort of happy ending. we shall see

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS PLS SHARE

[godpunch]

PEARL SPLATOON 😏

The half heart is because people literally either get Pearl down SO WELL or they don't know her at all. You can even tell by the way they draw him. I've gone on about this for like half an hour before I'm Opinionated.

BUT YEAH PEARL. I love her so much. The transmasc butch former metal singer that owns my entire ass <3 My absolute fave whose resting face looks angry but would and has gone above and beyond for strangers just because he could. Local she/he legend <3 if anything happens to him in side order I will put the game down and never touch it again she means everything to me. I would even buy orange juice with pulp in it just for her.

[prettycopperpennies]

How They React When They Find Out Their One Night Stand Had A Child

Headcannon/Oneshot hybrid 😵😅

Squid Games x F!Reader

Including: The Frontman/Player 001/Hwang In-ho | Player 230/Thanos/ Choi Su-bong | Player 388/Kang Dae-ho | Player 333/Lee Myung-gi | The Recruiter

Description: Years later they bump into you, a past one night stand. But they were not expecting to see a toddler who looks suspiciously like them by your side. Takes place after the squid games.

The Frontman/Player 001/Hwang In-ho

~ He would still recognize you after your one night stand a handful of years ago. He would approach you with a charming smile, but his entire expression would change when he saw a little toddler pop up at your side. He would deftly notice the similarities between him and this little child almost immediately. Especially in the dark hair and eyes.

~ Your awkwardness would also be noted by him, although he wouldn’t necessarily call it out. Instead, he’d be focused on bringing the unusual situation to light.

~ “Well… Is there anything you’d like to tell me, darling?”

~ Within minutes he would feel a responsibility to his child and the mother of that child, despite just learning of said child’s existence. He wouldn’t need to hear your explanations as to why you didn’t reach out to him. Instead, he would be focused on you and your child’s life.

~ What is your living situation? How are you supporting the both of you? Who watches your child when you go to work?

~ And he’d quickly offer solutions to the “obvious problems”. You clearly needed a bigger place to live. And you couldn’t be working full time. He could easily be supporting the two of you financially.

~ You would insist you didn’t need any help. The only thing you would be beholden to accept is the ask to allow him back into his own child’s life.

~ The first time he picks up his child for a day is also the first time he would see your cramped apartment. You could see the slight disapproval on his face, despite his efforts to veil his feelings. It wouldn’t surprise you though. Even from just that one shared night years ago you could tell he was a man of a particular taste.

~ He had curbed talking about taking care of you both, but every time you tried to pay your rent your landlord would insist it was already paid. And he was always offering to watch your child as you went to work.

~ But everytime you came back home, exhausted from a day of working, he would start up again. “Why not take me up on my offer? Wouldn’t you like to spend your days going shopping, sleeping in, and playing with our child? Hm? Doesn’t that sound so much better?”

~ If you ever caved and started letting him fund your simple lifestyle, your willingness to let him in more and more would only serve to bolster his confidence. Soon you would be having people show up who insist they were hired to clean your apartment, private chiefs who have been prepaid to cook your meals for the next month, and even a nanny. Your child would become so spoiled as he bought them intricate, expensive toys and designer clothes they would grow out of within a week.

~ You could try to insist to In-ho you didn’t need any of those things, but he would insist that you do.

~ “Darling, if you don’t have a nanny then who will watch our child while we’re away on our date?”

~ He would eventually start to ask you out nearly every weekend, and soon his gifts started to skew more romantic. Ever since he saw the two of you all those months ago he was working towards this exact outcome; to have the both of you in his life.

Player 230/Thanos/ Choi Su-bong

~ You wouldn’t believe your toddler was fascinated with the very rapper you had hooked up with that resulted in them even existing. And that’s ignoring the fact you definitely had not allowed your toddler to listen to his music. You seriously had no idea who told them about him, but one day after daycare they suddenly had a new obsession.

~ So one day when you were walking down the street it was no surprise when your child spotted the celebrity they were slipping out of your grasp and running in their obsession’s direction. You chased after them, but of course they had an easy time slipping through the many people on the crowded street while you were struggling to make it through the throngs.

~ Thanos was busy signing autographs and taking selfies for the mass of fans surrounding him, but he looked up in interest as the group broke into a chorus of ‘aw’s and ‘so cute’s. Soon he spotted the source of the crowd’s affection. There was a toddler looking up at him with starstruck eyes. He leaned down, waving to them and jokingly asking if they were a fan. 

~ Someone in the crowd joked how similar the two looked, and a few others agreed. He asked the crowd whose child this was, but when no one responded he got a little worried.

~ “Hey kid, where’s your mom?”

~ It was as if you were summoned by the rapper, suddenly popping up in the midst of the crowd to grab your kid. You were out of breath as you picked them up and told them not to run off again. Thanos decided to speak up on his little fan’s behalf, saying “Don’t worry. I kept an eye on them.”

~ As soon as the two of you locked eyes, he finally realized who you were. And who the kid was too. Suddenly the crowd seemed a little claustrophobic for him. And, apparently, for you. You suddenly were ducking through the throngs, trying to leave the awkward situation as quickly as possible. But Thanos followed you easily, just keeping an ear out for the yells of his kid.

~ He managed to shake his fans and find you almost a block over. You were tiredly asking your kid to breathe as they threw a tantrum. He felt a wave of guilt, wondering how exhausted you must be from raising this kid on your own.

~ “Listen to your mom,” he told your kid as he approached the two of you, “You're about to run out of oxygen, kid.”

~ Your kids' eyes lit up as soon as they realized their hero was nearby. But as excited as your kid was, you were equally as nervous by the appearance of Su-bong (or “Thanos” as your kid knew him as). You eyed the tall figure anxiously, waiting to hear what he had to say to you. Somehow you were still unprepared for the very obvious question of why you didn't tell him.

~ You quickly listed off a litany of answers that would often run through your head as you tried to justify your decision. You didn’t really know each other, but even then he didn’t come off as the type of person who wanted kids. He was a celebrity, and you didn't want your kid growing up in the limelight. You didn’t want him to think you were trying to trap him into raising a kid.

~ As soon as you ran out of excuses, Su-bong spoke up and simply asked when would be a good time for him to visit his child. You were a bit taken back. You honestly had always doubted he would want anything to do with his kid, but here he was asking you when he can see them. You told him that weekend should be fine. The two of you exchanged numbers, you gave him your address, and he gave a promise to drop by.

~ Every weekend he would drop by to pick up your kid, and then drop them off by the end of the day. You would listen as they told you all the fun things they did that day. Su-bong obviously immediately spoiled them rotten.

~ One day you were surprised to have Su-bong invite you along. You hesitated at first, but as your child begged you to come you found yourself agreeing to the proposition. Soon, when Su-bong was coming by he was taking you both on some sort of adventure for the day. 

~ Eventually, there was at least one evening a week where Su-bong would come by to take you out to dinner. And he wouldn’t just come by to pick your kid up. Soon you let him stick around your house instead, and the visits expanded well past the weekends. Before either of you realized it, you had become a little family of three.

Player 388/Kang Dae-ho

~ Dae-ho wouldn’t quite believe what he was seeing when there was a little toddler sitting on your hip. He had originally come up to you to say hi, of course remembering you despite it being one fleeting night years ago, but when you turned around and the child came into view he was floored.

~ For a moment he had thought you had simply gotten married and started a family of your own, but as he looked at the child he started to see how much it looked like him. He would be standing in open mouthed shock that you would have to be the one to break the silence, asking him to say something.

~ He would gather his composure after that, introducing himself with a smile and a wave to the child. Your heart would twist a little with guilt as you noticed how easily he could get them to laugh.

~ That laughter is what got you to ask if he wanted to join the two of you for ice cream. He would, of course, immediately accept. It seems the two of them were utterly fascinated by each other, which both broke and mended your heart as you watched the pair.

~ He would scoop on as many gummy bears and m&ms that your kid asked for till the toppings were piled so high they seemed to outweigh the ice cream. You went to pay for the three ice creams, but Dae-ho would quickly pull out his own wallet and cover the costs. You would insist he didn’t have to do that, but he would assure you it wasn’t a problem.

~ Dae-ho had a million questions for you, namely why you hadn’t come to him when you found out you were pregnant, but he knew he could ask those questions eventually. He was currently trying to cram years of missed out interactions into one desert filled outing.

~ You were less than surprised as the sugar high hit them both seemingly at the same time. Soon your child was dragging you both towards the little arcade in the back of the cafe. Dae-ho spent nearly ten dollars in quarters as he attempted time and again to get your child’s choice of stuffed animal out of the claw machine. You momentarily allowed yourself to get swooped up in the fun, trying and failing to beat Dae-ho on one of those strength testers.

~ You both had a shock of awkward reality when your child asked if all three of you could use the photo booth. Of course, there was one thing that would inevitably get you both into the booth: neither of you could say no to your kid.

~ As soon as Dae-ho saw the photos of the three of you crammed into one booth his heart felt as if someone was reaching into his chest and squeezing tight. His child sitting between the two of you with an ice cream stained face and laughing, or the photo of him pulling a face while you and your child laughed, or the smile of his child that looked nearly identical to his own: every tiny photo confirmed one thing for him.

~ He wanted nothing more than to have you both be in his life from this moment onward.

~ You spent longer in the ice cream cafe than you had meant to, and soon the sun was beginning to set and your kid needed to go home to sleep. Dae-ho carried them out to your car, and once again you felt a pang as you noticed how natural all this was for him.

~ When you suggested the three of you hang out again this weekend, he immediately agreed. You thought that was the end of the conversation, but after Dae-ho settled the toddler into their booster he was turning back to you.

~ “So… why didn’t you tell me?”

~ You explained how you didn’t want to pressure him into anything, how you were nervous how he’d react, and after a few years you decided it had been too long. He listened to your explanations, and apologies, with much appreciated patience. You knew it wasn’t a perfect reason, but it was enough for him for now.

~ After that, he was dropping by nearly four or five times a week, and soon enough he was basically a mainstay at your place. The three of you seemed to fall into a new domestic situation with such ease that when Dae-ho asked you out it wasn’t hard to say yes. You seemed to fit perfectly into each other's lives.

Player 333/Lee Myung-gi

~ Myung-gi had spotted you, and your toddler, at the same bookstore he was currently inhabiting. It would take him a moment to realize where he recognized you from, but as soon as he realized it was from a one night stand he re-evaluated the child holding your hand.

~ After some quick math in his head he would realize he could very easily be the father of this child. But why wouldn’t you tell him? At least, he thought, you would contact him for child support. So obviously, it couldn’t be his kid, right?

~ But there was no denying it. The kid was a spitting image of him. As the reality dawned on him, he found his feet unable to move. It was like he was glued to the carpet as shock set in. He was so in his own head he didn’t notice the toddler approaching him.

~ He looked down when he felt a small hand tug on the edge of his shirt. Myung-gi’s mouth went dry as he looked face to face with his own kid. They were looking back with tear soaked cheeks, asking for help. They had somehow lost track of their mom and needed someone to help find her.

~ “Oh… Uh, sure kid.”

~ Myung-gi paused for a moment as the kid reached a pudgy hand up, but he eventually took it in his own. He glanced in the direction he had last seen you, but you were gone. He had the kid walk him back to where they could remember you were last, but of course you weren’t there either.

~ He stifled a sigh as his kid started to cry again, sniffling every few seconds. “It’s alright, we’ll find your mom.” But soon they started to bawl, unable to quell the worry the longer it took. Myung-gi reached down, picking them up with ease. He patted their back awkwardly, not sure at all how to handle this situation, but somehow it worked.

~ He felt some sort of unfamiliar feeling of protectiveness as the child calmed in his arms. He decided to head to the cashier and see if they could make an announcement over the intercom. As he made his way over he would every so often assure the toddler in his arms everything would turn out just fine.

~ As he headed to the front he spotted you already talking with a manager. He could see you were clearly very worried. As soon as he pointed you out your child would immediately start calling for you. The relief flooding your face as you spotted your kid was evident to everyone around you. You rushed over and Myung-gi handed his child over with an unexpected pang of pain. He watched as you wiped away your child’s tears before holding them in a tight hug.

~ “I cannot thank you enough. Thank you so-”

~ As you turned to thank the helpful stranger you would come face to face with the last person you were expecting to see at that moment. Myung-gi cocked an eyebrow at your shocked expression, a move that informed you he knew exactly who’s child that was.

~ “I think we need to talk.”

The Recruiter

~ He spotted you, holding the hands of a child, while he was in the middle of “work”. He normally would go on with his job, but he didn’t want to risk you noticing as he slapped a stranger straight across the face. Even though it was a one night stand you had managed to make quite the impact on him.  Instead, he hurriedly ended the unfinished transaction as the child started to notice the game being played.

~ Your child would be tugging at your hand, and once you glanced in the direction they pointed to you saw the person you least expected to. He waved in your direction, but instead of returning the gesture you picked up your child and hurried up the subway steps.

~ He noticed your odd reaction to seeing him. It made him reevaluate the situation. As he looked closer at the two of you, he started to notice the similarities between him and the child who was currently looking at him over your shoulder as you rushed up the stairs.

~ He would quickly follow you, not letting you get far before he stepped in front of you. He glanced between you and the child, openly putting two and two together. You would feel a tinge of guilt as he finally kept his eyes on you. He waited silently for you to speak up.

~ His tactic would inevitably work, and soon you’d be trying to explain away why you hadn’t gone to find him and tell him. He would notice you trying to keep everything generalized, and would once again glance in the direction of the child in your arms. With an annoyed sigh he would tell you that the two of you could talk about this later. Then he would go on his way and let the two of you go on yours.

~ But later you would receive a text from your old one night stand. “Are you free to talk yet?”. You would stare at the text, debating whether or not to answer. But eventually the guilt would take over and you would respond with a yes.

~ Moments later you would be getting a phone call. You were prepared to explain yourself once more, but instead he wanted to discuss when he could start to see his kid. You were a little surprised. You really weren’t sure if he would be interested or not.

~ Within a few days he was dropping by as your “friend” who was going to hang out for a bit and get to know your child. You tried to give them some space, but you couldn’t stop peaking your head in to see how it was going. You couldn't believe just how similar they looked.

~ Within moments he was feeling a swelling need to protect this little bundle of joy in front of him. As they bobbed around the room, showing him every book and toy in their possession he could feel himself getting more and more attached. Those few hours flew by, and he was already asking you when he could come by again.

~ After a few weeks you got the usual text, expecting it to be asking when he could come see his child. But instead it was asking when you would be free. Between coming by to pick you up for a date or dropping in to visit your kid, he was around quite a bit. Once he started spending nights there he never really left, and without noticing it the three of you became a family.

[would-you-punt-them]

I just want to tell you this:

Thank You So, SO Much for informing people about the horrid Mr. Beast situation occurring within his Squid Game Beast Games.

I don’t think would’ve known about this awful and disgusting event occurring as much as I do now if you didn’t post about it on this blog.

Thank you.

I do think it isn't something that should be brushed under the rug, and I also feel that the more people know about it, the worse it becomes for Jimmy when the Beast Games show actually comes out.

One thing I forgot to include in the post is that the Las Vegas shoot is going to be uploaded on YouTube as an extended qualifier to the actual show on Amazon Prime.

It's worth noting that the contestants didn't know that until they arrived at the stadium. They'd been told that the Las Vegas shoot was the Amazon show, and there would only be 1,000 competitors (which is how it is marketed by Amazon). They only learned that the player-count had doubled and this wasn't going to be on Prime once they were on set, and were shown a video message from Jimmy saying he forgot to mention that actually there were 2,000 people and this wasn't the Amazon show (though MrBeast later claimed that this was always the intent).

I don't know when the video(s) will be uploaded, but I honestly can't wait because I'm dying to know how they're planning on editing the footage to cut out the horrors that took place during the challenges.

Like, how are they going to show the Red team losing the first challenge with the rope and pulley? On the one hand, surely they've got to show the 400 people who were eliminated in that challenge. But on the other hand... what exactly do they have to work with?

The production team refused the Red team's pleas to stop the challenge and demanded they keep going to the end, presumably because they needed them to do it for the sake of the video. Instead, anti-capitalist icons that they are, the entire team abandoned the challenge mid-way anyway so they could go help their teammates who were literally being strangled, throwing the game. And once they'd abandoned the rope, they never picked it up again.

Obviously, the producers can't show competitors being throttled. But that means that they also can't explain why the Reds lost the challenge. If the throttling happened toward the end, maybe they'll be fine, but if it happened closer to the middle, there's no way for them to explain why those 400 people just gave up so early.

It also presumably means any overhead shots of all the teams are ruined, because that would require them to explain why the Reds just aren't participating.

Maybe they could show the Reds giving up, but give a different reason. But no reason I can think of works. If they say they "tried their best but knew they couldn't win", they would then also have to answer the question of why the challenge was impossible for them - the reason being that their team of 400 consisted of about 380 women, while their opposing teams consisted almost entirely of the youngest and strongest male competitors.

And I'm not sure how they're going to explain that, because if they show the challenge of everyone going for coloured jerseys, they can't reveal why the teams ended up so unbalanced, as the actual reason is that the male contestants were hoarding jerseys and were physically violent against the female and elderly contestants, and organised themselves to guarantee they were all on the same team, resulting in a gender split.

I'm also not sure how they plan to edit around challenges like the briefcase game, where in the middle of the cramped field the male contestants were attacking and trampling the women. It's going to take a lot of editing to cut around that. And while they can edit out the injuries occurring they can't edit out the fact that by the end of the challenge there are suspiciously fewer female contestants remaining than there were to begin with.

Additionally, they're going to have to justify why the contestants started off so diverse in gender and age, only for the 1,000 who made it to the actual Amazon show predominantly being young and male, without it becoming clear that no one else had any chance. They can't introduce new contestants to re-diversify the cast, because 1,000 were promised by Amazon, 1,000 qualified, and people will complain if they try to fudge the numbers or cheat by introducing last-minute entries, which is especially bad now that he's currently under fire for allegedly faking and rigging competitions.

Jimmy also can't just not upload it at all, because then he'd have to explain that as well, and this is such a massive event people, both fans and detractors, are going to notice.

The more people know about it, the worse his situation becomes, because there's just no way out of it without inviting questions he doesn't want people to know the answers to.

While this is obviously too much to hope for in this timeline, in an ideal world enough people start talking about this that Amazon cancels his show due to the controversy - Jimmy has said Beast Games is intended to be his break into more traditional media, and I think it would be nice to shut that down.

[celestiamour]

ft. kim young-mi, park min-su, choi su-bong, kang dae-ho, kang mi-na (separate) x f! reader — squid game

╰₊✧ noticing that you have nipple piercings┊0.6k words

contains: suggestive/slight smut!! nipple piercings & play obviously, perversion of varying levels

➤ author's note: i kinda want them, but the only piercings i have are on my earlobes when i was like a baby and they are crooked because i wouldn’t stop squirming :(

━━━ .°˖✧ kim young-mi - player 095 ˚₊ ⊹

╰₊✧ this girl and her gay little eyes cannot stop staring for the life of her. her mouth is slightly agape and everything, absolutely shameless with all the dirty thoughts running through her head translating on her face. the girl boner she has is crazy, and it only gets worse when in private because she will be sucking on them nonstop— the only time she’s more of a dom in the bedroom, she just loves how cute they look on you and how sensitive they become. might get them for herself since she finds them so attractive, but promise to hold her hand for it!

━━━ .°˖✧ park min-su - player 125 ˚₊ ⊹

╰₊✧ similar to young-mi, he also can’t help but continuously sneak peeks, but he’s much more subtle about it and feels a little guilty. he doesn’t point it out or acknowledge it because of how shy he would get talking about something so intimate in his eyes, but you certainly will and tease him about it relentlessly. this poor boy becomes so flustered and beet red, give him a break because he’s trying so hard to be respectful, even if he probably got hard at the mixture of his thoughts and your mocking words.

━━━ .°˖✧ choi su-bong - player 230 ˚₊ ⊹

╰₊✧ if you aren’t fully pierced or tatted up, he probably thought you were too chicken for the sort at first, but when he sees the metal bars straining through the fabric of your top accentuating your tits, his eyes go all round and he becomes a menace. it doesn’t matter if you’re in public, he will drag you to the bathroom and beg you like a loser to let him see. he just wants to make sure they are healing right, that’s all, even if you got it done all long time ago and his dumbass only saw them now. he’s even more completely and utterly obsessed with your chest, which is something you didn’t think was possible— his hands will always find their way on your tits somehow while occasionally pinching the sensitive bud because he’s a meanie like that. (also would be really into chains connecting them—) would also probably want his own pierced after seeing yours, but he likely has other piercings like on his ears and mouth so the process isn’t anything new to him.

━━━ .°˖✧ kang dae-ho - player 388 ˚₊ ⊹

╰₊✧ this gentleman takes everything within his soul to be respectful. will likely give you his jacket/hoodie to cover up, knowing that if he notices them then other people would too, and he doesn’t like the idea of strangers staring at his girl’s chest since they are for his eyes only in the most wholesome way possible. asks a lot of questions like when/where you got them done and how much it hurt, he thinks it’s one of the coolest things ever even if he probably wouldn’t get them for himself. super careful when handling them, but also so fascinated by them. 

━━━ .°˖✧ kang mi-na - player 196 ˚₊ ⊹

╰₊✧ she probably has been thinking about getting hers pierced herself before seeing yours, so she might be a little miffed that you got them without her and insists that you come with her when she does get them done. will bitch and moan through the entire process, but loves the final result and will walk around wearing thin t-shirts for a while to show them off. will also buy lots of pretty pink gem jewelry and insist on you matching with her because you’re girlfriends! being her partner entails that you have to match in everything fashion, including piercings. likes playing with them similar to thanos, almost in a sadistic way but can't take it when you do the same with her.

[thanosscross]

My Darling - Choi Seung Hyun x reader part 2

Summary: After months of not seeing your best friend, you finally reconnect, only to find out what he truly thinks about himself and the two of you, resulting in a brokenheart, and a new relationship

Warnings: none really, Seung Hyun having a slight panic attack

As you wrapped up filming for squid games, you were very quickly thrown back into the tour lifestyle, Bouncing from country to country, you couldn't shake the sadness of missing your friend though. As you got ready for your next music video shoot you took a nervous breath, you had sent an invite to Seung Hyun to come shoot on your video with you, using the excuse that you work well together acting, but he never replied. So you nervously waited, having a back-up actor if needed, but you specifically wrote this song about Seung Hyun, so it only felt right to get the chemistry behind the song right.

As you stepped on set you took one last glance around, all you could see was the empty warehouse set filled with props and crew, but Seung Hyun was nowhere to be seen, sighing sadly you checked your phone one last time, seeing nothing almost brought tears to your eyes, had he not meant what he said? Yea it had been a few months, but he did promise you..right?

As you started to film some of your solo scenes, you manager rushed over with a smile "Y/n! Y/n! Turn that frown around, baby! Your guy called, he's on his way, just stuck in traffic!" He cheered, you face immediately lit up, smiling excitedly and jumping up and down "Really!? Really!? He said he'd do it?" You gasped grabbing his arms "Yes! Yes! He did!" He smiled, he knew your situation, he had to hear about Choi Seung Hyun constantly, he tried to warn you it might not be the best for your image, but you quickly snapped at him going off about needing to get over things, your manager knew you since you were young, barely 17 whenever he signed you on, now you were nearing your thirties, your twenty eighth birthday approaching quickly, so seeing you this excited over a boy was something entirely different.

Unknown to you, Seung Hyun had ditched his taxi long ago, he was close enough to be able to make it running, traffic was picking up anyways. As he ran up onto your set he saw you standing off to the side, waiting while looking around occasionally "Seung Hyun!" You shouted seeing him, throwing your jacket down to sprint to him, as soon as you were close enough, Seung Hyun immediately lifted you into the air spinning you around in a hug, squeezing you tightly "Hey! Hey! Careful! Don't hurt her!" Your manager shouted in a panic "Don't worry about him, he just doesn't want anything messed up for my show" You giggled looking down to your friend, your heart racing feeling yourself being that close to him again. "So are you really gonna do the video with me?" You asked excited, Seung Hyun nervously smiled "Ya know..I don't know...I want to..but I don't want to ruin your image and stuff..." He mumbled, you frowned, you knew he was still ashamed of what happened and how badly everybody reacted, it hit him hard and it was always worried about how it'd effect the people around him "Seung Hyun! I don't care about that! You are my best friend! I want you to be the part so who cares!" You argued cupping his cheeks, Seung Hyun couldn't hide the blush on his cheeks feeling your hands being so intimate than you had ever been with him.

"I guess..If you're sure.." He mumbled "I'm so sure! If anybody has anything to say I'll give them a piece of my mind!" You huffed grabbing his hand marching towards set, he gave your manager a look raising his eyebrows, your manager just nodded mouthing the words 'every time'. Filming was something neither of you expected, as your manager and director worked together to get everything right, going through the lyrics it started to make you realize things a lot more clear. You loved Sueng Hyun, more than best friends. Seung Hyun felt panicky, having to be so intimate with you was getting him flustered and it was all going on camera, for you to see later and see.

After you filmed a scene of Seung Hyun following you through an empty street in town, he took a moment to stop and breath, lighting a cigarette to calm his nerves, but there you were, looking at him with that adorable puppy look. "Are you okay?.." You asked softly, going to rest your hand on his arm but he just shrugged away, he couldn't help it, your touch was making him feel hot, like it was burning him, and he was now becoming very conscious of his t-shirt and all of the hate he used to get before he closed it all out. "I-Im sorry I-I just-" You stopped him from speaking, noticing his shaky hands and the tears falling from his eyes as he slowly slid down the brick wall trying to keep his breathing calm, but the panic attack was already settling in. You immediately kneeled next to him, slowly taking the cigarette from his hand, not wanting to see him accidentally burn himself, as you tried to sit next to him he tried to lift you up to your feet "T-T-that ground i-is disgusting" He whimpered, your heart broke a little bit, he was more worried about you sitting down he didn't realize he was sitting down himself "It is..so why don't..we go over there..and sit on that bench?" You asked, taking his hand in yours, still holding his cigarette in the other, guiding him slowly to the bench as he tried to calm himself down, feeling like an idiot for getting like this around you, but like the sweetheart you were, you still took care of him, not even knowing the reason why he was freaking out.

"Seung Hyun..." You called sweetly, cupping his cheek with your free hand "Honey..take a deep breath for me, what's going on?" You asked, Seung Hyun followed your instructions, not realizing he was holding your wrist gently, caressing his thumb over it. "If I ask something...Will you be honest, Y/n?" He asked shakily, his leg bouncing as he looked around, taking the hint you took the cigarette placing it to his lips gently "I don't want you to drop it..but of course" You whispered, you weren't concerned that you were acting more like a wife or girlfriend than friend currently, you were more concerned with making sure Seung Hyun was okay. "Is this..about us?..is that why you wanted me to be here so badly?" He asked, inhaling before exhaling, lifting your head up gently as he blew the smoke to the side so he wasn't getting it in your face. "When I'm with you..things feel different..like..stronger with you..I'm happier, sadder, angrier, everything when it comes to you" You explained sheepishly, going to pull your hand away from his cheek, but he stopped you, instead moving your hand to his lap to interlace your fingers as you spoke, the same thing he did anytime you'd get teary eyed opening up to him during your guys's filming for squid games "I-I didn't understand it..until I saw you again, and I felt like I never wanted you to leave like that again" You whispered looking away from him "I-It was hard..really hard..and barely being able to speak to each other, made it harder.." You whimpered, biting your lip to keep yourself from crying.

"Are you sure we're not just..close friends?" He asked, not wanting you to jump into something you didn't want, you didn't take it as that, you took it as he only saw you as that, close friends. "Y-Yea you're..you're right" You sniffled, taking a deep breath putting on your best show face to hide the plain hurt on your face "Ready to finish up?" You asked, Seung Hyun frowned, knowing he upset you, he just silently followed behind.

Whenever you finished up filming, you rushed towards your small makeup trailer, just needing a moment, Seung Hyun was stuck off to the side, frustrated with himself "Seung Hyun, yes?" Your manager asked approaching him "U-uh yes yes that's me" He confirmed, your manager sighed "Listen, I don't mean to make things..awkward..between you two, but in the ten years I've known that girl, she's never talked about another man or woman like she has you, Mr. Choi, she's one of your biggest fighters, even before she got back from that tv show filming. Meeting you gave her the drive and motivation to work and write again, she's produced an entire album! In a month! So whatever happened earlier between you two..You better not ruin my girl, she's special, not another one like her, until you make a comeback" He explained before nodding over to the trailer "Fix it. Not my broken mess, not my problem to fix" He demanded, Seung felt offended by that, this man seemed to care about you, and yet here he was calling you a broken mess? "Y/n is far from a broken mess, she's single handedly the most independent strong hard headed woman I've ever met, not to mention the most thoughtful selfless and beautiful! Any guy would be lucky to manage her! Or even have her in their life!" He shouted, your manager just kept an eyebrow cocked at him as he shouted, never noticing you slowly making your way out of the trailer "So why don't you tell her that!? Instead of messing with her head for months!?" Your manager shouted back "Because I'm not good enough for her! And because of who I am I never will be!" He shouted back, trying to control himself and not storm off, every bit of anger washing away whenever he was met with your terrified gaze, even when filming while screaming in your face, you never looked scared of him, but in this moment, you looked truly terrified.

Tears brimmed your eyes, hearing what both men said was like a knife stabbing you to the heart, you stormed past, not wanting to see either of them in the moment, heading back to your tour bus. Your chest hurt, it felt heavy but like it was hot at the same time, as soon as you got the bunks of your bus you let yourself cry for the first time since Seung Hyun first left, never noticing the bus door shutting and closing.

"Jagi" Seung Hyun whispered sadly, kneeling next to you as he tried to get him to look at you "Honey, You are not a hot mess" He whispered, you just glared at him "How could you say that about yourself? I opened up about my worst mistake..and you still think you're not good enough?" You whimpered "Y-You're crying because of what..I said about myself?" He asked confused, tilting his head as you shoved him slightly "Yes! I care about you! And it makes me sad hearing you think that" You argued shoving him again "I love you, you asshole! And you're too blind to see you're perfect!" You added on before realizing what you were saying, Seung Hyun's face changed as you spoke, you just glared at him, trying your best to cry anymore but his words just echoed in your head forcing you to lose your battle 'because of who I am I will never be good enough'.

"Jagi, please don't cry" Seung Hyun begged, cupping your cheeks, desperately wanting to see your smile like before, he tried his best to keep his mind from spiraling "I just...I care about you a lot, and it hurts so bad hearing you talk about yourself like that, Seung Hyun, you are good enough for anything you want to be good enough at, because of who you are" You corrected his statement from earlier, now it was his turn to get teary eyed, trying to ignore and hide it he just hugged you tightly "I love you" He whispered as he rested his head against yours, if it weren't for the hairdo they had you do for the last scene you would've never felt his tears "As a friend?.." You asked pulling away to look at him, using your thumbs to wipe his eyes and cheeks gently "I don't..I don't know..but I want to" He whispered, cupping your cheeks before kissing you softly, you happily kissing him back, running your hands through his hair as he gently bit your bottom lip before pulling away "So..does this mean.." You whispered, looking up to him hopefully "Maybe so..I don't know" He smirked, quoting part of the chorus of your song, you giggled blushing hiding your face in his chest.

--

Part three my lovelies?

[luvsferrariss]

˚⟡˖ ࣪. ʚ 💌 ɞ of shadows and sins - OO1

˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ Synopsis: Y/n was handpicked by their boss to help the recruiter find new players. However, it was obvious that the man wouldn’t like the girl assisting him, constantly belittling her and mentioning how weak and unqualified she was for the job. But in reality, he knew about her influence and was afraid of being replaced.

˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ The Salesman x Female Reader (British)

˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ Warnings: Typical Squid Game elements—blood, weapons, death, etc. Age gap: the reader is between 24-25 years old, while the recruiter is 40. Some angst and feelings of loneliness. The reader lives in Korea but is not Korean; she is British.

˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ Author’s Note: Hi loves! I’m making a short series about the salesman. I hope you all like it! English isn’t my first language, so there may be mistakes—sorry about that!

next part here ! 🤍

You sighed as you watched your coworker fail once again. The man he was trying to talk to didn’t care at all and walked right past him. You just sighed, rolled your eyes, and crossed your arms, leaning against the metro wall near the stairs.

The recruiter began walking in your direction with his chin held high, a proud—or perhaps wounded—expression on his face, and you laughed at his frustration.

“What happened, Mr. ‘I-can-do-everything’?” you teased. He simply walked past you, heading up the station stairs.

“Shut up,” he muttered, and you chuckled, following behind.

“Did you manage to do anything at all?” he asked as soon as he noticed you catching up on the stairs.

“While you wasted time talking to one man, I got four. All of them on the verge of bankruptcy—desperation was almost funny, I nearly felt bad for them.” You stuffed your hands into the pockets of your beige trench coat. “With their financial struggles and my pretty face, did you really think they wouldn’t accept?” You smirked, stopping in front of him and framing your face with your hands as if showing off.

He simply walked past you, bumping your shoulder.

“You’re so full of yourself, seriously… What’s even fun about your game? No one actually likes Gonggi that much,” he scoffed.

You just shrugged. “That’s what I was told to do. And your job isn’t that exciting either, right? At least mine is getting results. Yours, on the other hand…” You glanced up at the sky as you stepped out of the train station—it was already nighttime.

“Can you shut up for a single minute? I already have to deal with you all the time. For the love of—just stop talking, girl,” he snapped.

You simply looked at him, already used to his sudden outbursts.

“Oh, baby, don’t be sad. Tomorrow will be your day, and you’ll manage to recruit some people. Besides, aren’t you the boss’s impeccable, invaluable favorite recruiter?” You pouted playfully, stopping in front of him again, this time by your car. You cupped his face in your hands, only for him to push them away and roll his eyes.

“I’m not arguing with a brat… Why don’t you just go back to your family?” he said, setting his black suitcase down and rubbing his chin. “Oh, right. I forgot. You don’t have anyone because no one can stand you. Your parents abandoned you, and your fiancé cheated on you…”

He spoke slowly, and when his gaze met yours, he noticed a brief flicker of vulnerability—but you quickly masked it with a smile.

He almost felt bad for you. Almost. But he didn’t regret saying it, and he would do it again if necessary.

“Whatever. Family is just a burden. I don’t need anyone, and I can live just fine on my own. Besides, maybe you should be worried, huh? The boss would never have sent me to you if he didn’t think you needed help. Maybe he realized just how useless you are.” You winked and got into your car.

As you started the engine and rolled down the window, the man remained standing there, lost in his thoughts, trapped by your words.

“Hey, baby, don’t walk around alone at night. This area is dangerous,” you teased before driving off.

He simply clenched his jaw, a growing resentment bubbling inside him.

He saw you as a threat. You would never take his place.

( . . . )

When you arrived at your apartment, you tossed your keys onto the table and hung your coat in the closet. You placed your shoes inside as well before closing the door.

With a sigh, you headed straight to the bathroom, undressed, and stepped into the hot shower—you really needed this. The water cascaded down your body, relaxing you, and a tired sigh escaped your lips.

Your mother and father would never have been proud of the person you became, but that was their fault. They were the ones who raised you the “right” way. Any mistake was met with punishment.

You became cold, sarcastic, and quiet around others. But no one ever really knew you. No one saw the pain, the fear, or the scars you carried from a disturbing childhood.

You had a slight fear of showing emotions or affection to anyone. There was only one person you had ever felt comfortable with, but even they betrayed you. So now, you truly had no one.

That day in the alley changed your life—but you still wondered if it was for better or worse. Everything felt strange. You felt strange.

Some days, your emotions felt numb. Other days, you just wanted to break down and cry with someone. But everyone you had trusted either betrayed you or left you traumatized. You would never trust anyone again.

Snapping out of your thoughts, you turned off the shower and wrapped yourself in a towel, drying your hair with another. You went to your room, grabbed some pajamas from your closet, and got dressed. After brushing and drying your hair, you applied some perfume and walked into the kitchen to make some tea.

One of the perks of living alone and having no friends was that you could use the guest room however you wanted—so you turned it into a library.

Once your tea was ready, you grabbed a book and headed to the balcony of your penthouse. The cold air brushed against your skin, but somehow, it didn’t bother you.

[hewasverycinematic]

Psychological warfare has been committed

So in-ho is my second favourite character from S2 of squid game (After the salesman cause daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn)

anyway

he's so complex and layered so I thought I'd list all the times I noticed him just fucking with Gi-hun

Sang-woo styling

So the first one has been said before many a time and it's how he's obviously styled his hair similar to Sang-woo. This works in two ways; One being that he's showing familiarity to Gi-hun, making him instantly comfortable around him, but ALSO that he should not be trusted in the same way Sang-woo definitely shouldn't have been. But also in a way that's so subconscious to Gi-hun that he wouldn't even register it. The other way this works is that the fluffiness makes him seem literally soft just from looking at him, making not only Gi-hun trust him but the rest of their little squad. So even if Gi-huns sub-conscious kicks in with the "maybe lets not trust him, he looks like that dude who betrayed me last time and he's got that same number as someone else I shouldn't have trusted" he would look insane (Rightly so.) This also makes Jung-bae not telling him he's suspicious of 001 even more painful.

Mingle

Then grabbing his best friend in the mingle game. Not much to say on this one, I originally thought it was odd bc why Jung-bae? It makes itself clear by the end of the season that he needed Jung-bae to stay alive for the gut punch at the end. It's also very clear, however, that Dae-ho would 100000% have paired up with him, so why did In-ho need to take him specifically? Well, he knows there's not being enough rooms for everyone. So he knew he would probably have to kill someone and this also makes sure Gi-hun doesn't see this side of him and cause tension/distrust early on. (He saw his reaction with Sang-woo and the glass bridge remember)

X O

He originally votes to continue the game, telling Gi-hun that he did it because of him. This really is a double blow, because he's basically shifting the blame of the games continuing onto Gi-hun. If he hadn't been there to give faith to "Young-il", he possibly would've voted X and this set of games would have ended. But he's also, once again, makes Gi-hun believe he has the power to make change and help people. The tone in which he speaks to him, whilst also being a bit told off, makes him come across as meek and clueless i.e. harmless. He does this alot in front of Gi-hun, the amount of times he apologises and says he must've misunderstood or didn't know adds to this.

The second time he votes, he changes to X. And, again, says it's because of Gi-hun. Repeating the same steps as before backwards, but getting the exact same result. Gi-huns ego is boosted (literally showing he can change O's minds) and appearing powerless as a follower.

Late night talking

Narratively, I love this scene, we get to hear directly from In-ho his motivations for going into the first game. But we also get to see how messed up he is that he's lying about something so deep and personal. Using it as a way to get closer to Gi-hun, appearing to let his guard down, I honestly think In-ho needed that conversation as he seemed to have disappeared to Jun-ho before he could properly grieve and process. Then again there's a gap in his history that we as the audience do not know about. After he won and before becoming the Front Man (I'll probably make another post on my theories for S3) In terms of Gi-hun this conversation is probably the one which solidifies his trust in 001 as he's showing he does care about someone so much he is willing to risk his life and ensure others death. The reasoning mirroring Gi-huns in the first series, they are one and the same in that aspect. But it's so evil because In-ho knows all this and uses their shared grief against him.

"We'll have to hope more of the other side died"

After the Mingle game, Gi-hun suggests counting how many people are left on each side, and In-ho responds with "We'll have to hope more people from the other side died". This instantly made me think of the scene in the first season where Ji-Yeong is mock praying that they can send more people to their deaths for their own survival. This is so on the nose that I'm surprised Gi-hun didn't pick up what In-ho was putting down. He's slowly drip-feeding into Gi-hun that he's thinking the exact way the hosts want them to. Us vs. them as opposed to us vs. the machine, which is a direct link to when the frontman tells Gi-hun that the games won't change unless the world does. He's also got a slight smirk in his eyes which is essentially him internally going "I told ya so"

"Is that really what you want?

Before the third vote Gi-hun & co are discussing how to make sure they win the vote. Whilst Gi-hun wants to go over to try and persuade them to change from O to X, In-ho says "If we provoke them now, we may end up in a big fight before we even get to vote. Is that what you want Gi-hun"

And then after the tied vote and during the conversation of The Plan™ Gi-hun asks "Are you going to kill each other all night and hope you survive? Is that what you want Young-il?"

This is so ironic because they're saying the exact same thing back to each other "Are you sure you want to fight?" Which has sooo many layers. Yes, they're talking about the players being split into X vs. O but what Gi-hun doesn't realise yet is that he is the O (player) and In-ho is the X (host). As In-ho says as the frontman, the games only work if there are players. And the games stop if there's no one to host (If society changes and there's no wealth disparity making VIPs obsolete).

And that's just the literal meaning of what they've said. The fact that this is the first time Gi-hun has repeated In-hos' behaviour, in a somewhat catty way and not in an "I'm just like you, you should trust me" way. It still shows how similar the two are. I think this is why people theorise that Gi-hun will be the next front man. I think the point is that during the rebellion, he already is the frontman, just to the players following his orders.

Also, can I just add the cinematography of the beam separating the two is *chefs kiss*

Repeating Jung-bae

So we all saw the jealous look In-ho had when listening in to Gi-hun and Jung-baes conversation. I, actually, think he saw it as another way to toy with Gi-hun later on as we see. In the conversation with Jung-bae they're laughing about how much of a cheapskate Gi-hun was when they were friends. In-ho is in a totally non 457 way showing he can be the same as his best friend, but with it being such a common thing to say, if this wasn't a show it'd be something to easily overlook. With it being a show, I cannot overlook the parallel.

Rebellion things

Smaller things I noticed:

When discussing the special game he only said "you" instead of "we" - "How are you going to get the guns" etc.

Until he says "Small sacrifice for the greater good? In that case, I'm with you" - Further pointing out how similar they have become.

He didn't shoot the guards when they were in the stairwell/corridor unless he was speaking. Possibly to cover up the fact he wasn't shooting - Was he saving ammo? Doubt it - Says he's nearly out of ammo without checking - Not wanting to be hit in the crossfire? Maybe

Saving Gi-hun

So he saves Gi-hun twice, once when he's about to be shot and again when he shoots Jung-bae instead. I don't believe this is just because he's grown fond of him but because, as Gi-hun said in the limo, the games are so much more entertaining for the VIPs with him in. Unfortunately, I have to speculate that him being in there has caused more money to be donated by the VIPs, further upholding the games. The reality is Gi-hun was never going to be killed. He has plot armour both for us and the VIPs watching.

The final fuckery from In-ho as Young-il is the "Are you sure" with the most suspicious look on his face. People kept saying that that was the ammo that shot Jung-bae, but it wasn't, it wasn't even the same gun. It was really the last of the ammo they had, and giving it to In-ho was just leaving them defenceless, being the catalyst to the retreat and end of Jung-baes life.

Other sass

Joking about the umbrella dalgona as if he wasn't watching

"Besides, we've got a previous winner with us" as if he wasn't also a winner

Making dad jokes about his name

Disappearing in mingle to reenforce to Gi-hun that he cares about his wellbeing

unrelated note: people saying why would he kill his own guards, as we see with no-eul, they're seen the same as the players. (trash) he doesn't care about them either

[dogtoling]

RE: Question about whether the Deepsea and the Octarian Domes are directly connected to each other. sorry i'm stealing your reply @bucketsquid but i see a chance to talk about this i have to take it. So idk let's try to decode how they might actually be connected.

This is the obvious conclusion. For the record I think it's the RIGHT conclusion after Side Order because they seemed to REALLY imply it this time. I thought for a really long time that the Deepsea and Octarian domes HAVE TO be connected because not only are they both subterranean but also literally how else do you get that many freaking Octolings in there? Since the metro is connected to the Inkopolis subway anyway wouldn't it be WAY EASIER TO JUST GET SQUIDS? (though to be honest i still stand by this.)

Anyway the obvious assumption is that the Deepsea and Octarian domes connect to each other. though it's not so straightforward. How they connect to each other exactly? we don't really know. Anyway let's get back into this in just a second i need to show what absolutely dashed my hopes and made me really mad when it happened

THIS MAP. THEY POSTED THIS MAP. Before this map I was having a great time because this is what the map was in my head:

"why was that the map in your head" idk. the giant stretches of water surrounding both canyons and inkopolis stretching into said body of water gave me the mental image that the canyons were in the ocean by inkopolis' coast. alongside some of the very old concept art that shows some of the domes even being underneath inkopolis if i'm not mistaken!

from the art of splatoon 1. this is an ancient and I MEAN ANCIENT manga depicting what is obviously an early concept of the story so it shouldn't ACTUALLY be taken as fact (almost nothing in this manga holds up anymore). But some of the things WERE kept! I have to assume this is also why you get into Octo Valley through the sewer in the games because the story mode was meant to take place literally straight underneath Inkopolis... it makes a lot less sense in the final result when you supposedly take the sewer like 50 kilometers (i dont know the actual distances but i think they're able to be deciphered) underground to a canyon in the middle of nowhere.

Why is there even continuous sewage all that way. What is happening. Is it even a sewer or a really long underground secret tunnel that Captain Cuttlefish dug because he's been really bored for 100 years.

kind of besides the point. back to the issue of the deepsea and the octarian empire being connected. You know, with the Deepsea Metro being located in Inkopolis Bay and the domes supposedly being all over the Inkopolis underground and the surrounding locations, it didn't seem that far fetched that they could siphon Octolings from the underground (where they live) to another very close-by fork of the underground (the Deepsea). However,

1. the Deepsea is NOT Octarian territory, but its own type of society. which is really weird considering how much Octarian iconography is down there, let alone how many OCTARIANS are down there

2. We have SO LITTLE knowledge about the true scope of the Deepsea that you can't even say for sure whether the Deepsea is *JUST* the Deepsea Metro and the facilities and industrial cities in that exact specific area, or if it's a big underwater and underground empire similar in scope to the Octarian domes, maybe even built in the exact same dome network - or a neighboring one. (This would mean they have a border somewhere undefined, underground.)

3. At face value with only the map, this is the distance for a Single Octarian to travel in order to get from where they live/are stationed, to get to the Deepsea Metro which is cluttered with one billion octarians

HELLO? THAT IS SO FAR. it's even worse than the distance Agents 3 and 4 are swimming through the god damn sewer. This also makes very little sense if we assume all the subterranean domes in all of these locations are exclusively under their surface counterparts... which... well, we don't know.

We know that the Deepsea Metro is connected to the Inkopolis Underground (it even shows this on the map with the little dotted line). I don't really know the significance of that but I've taken it to mean that the Deepsea Metro that is highlighted in the map shows specifically the area covered by the Kamabo Corporation and the tests there, and honestly again, I don't even know if the Deepsea is any bigger than that. Since it's been stated to be an independent society from Inkopolis or the Octarians, you would ASSUME there'd be ample space for people to like, live, and maybe work, and produce stuff you need to like, live. Instead of the test facility being literally the only place that exists plus a city built around only that to sustain everything.

Furthermore, we don't know if Octarians have cities on the surface in their part of the surface world! This is something that really bothers me because I think knowing whether or not this is the case would change SO MUCH (i'm currently under the assumption it is a barren wasteland with Literally Nothing). However given the location of the Salmonid Swim Zone, we can SEE cities in the background of multiple stages, and judging by this map those would be mainly on the Octarian coasts. This could mean that Octarians have surface cities where they coexist with the Salmon, it could mean that they USED TO have surface cities and abandoned them, OR it could mean that Salmonids actually live on Octarian surface turf while the Octarians themselves live underground! Idk! There's a lot of options!

I kind of doubt Octarians have cities on the surface because if they did, then it would feel redundant for the game to keep coming back to "the Octoling world" being this horrible military regime underground that people try to get to the surface from. If it was that easy to get to the surface it feels odd that it would be a big deal. We know that the Octarian domes, at least in Octo Valley, are specifically an underground *secret* military base.

(*Secret* being explicitly stated before and it would imply that they wouldn't necessarily NEED to live underground, but it's just way easier to do Secret Things underground. Plus the surface is a wasteland so honestly not a lot to lose there.)

We still haven't really seen what they have aside from that. We don't know where they get their food, for example. There's got to be farmers in a society. There HAS TO be some kind of surface access or activity, and if you squint, Octo Canyon IS a surface city that they seem to have free access to. So why not have others? It seems only logical to have more. In this case the oppression of the Octoling world and being forced to stay underground feels really case-specific, but it seems to also be an overarching thing that's quite widespread, so... I don't know, I WANT MORE OCTARIAN WORLDBUILDING *PLEASE* i'm working with crumbs here.

Anyway. my current assumption of the subterranean areas of the Deepsea and the Octarian empire goes something like this, all things considered that I've talked about...

(Not exactly that but you get the general picture)

When you put it this way, it suddenly makes a lot more sense that Octarians would be getting into the Deepsea. Generally I tried to keep the locations of Octarian tunnel systems to their turf, and the locations of Deepsea tunnels under the ocean floor, though with Octarian domes explicitly stated to have been dug by humans there's. really no reason they couldn't stretch into Inkling territory. We have no idea how big these tunnel systems are in scope, NO idea.

And that's also the problem with trying to solve this part of worldbuilding, because my concept could easily be right but it could also be COMPLETELY wrong! It's totally possible that the dome networks are actually secluded and tiny and are *just* under the Octarian craters and nowhere else, and it's totally possible that the entirety of the Deepsea is JUST Kamabo Co and the few settlements surrounding it. I'm not that confident that I'm right but I'm not really confident that we'll get answers to these questions either, at least as long as the story modes keep intentionally avoiding expanding on existing game locations and pretending theyre not in the splatoon world at all by making their key locations abstract and closed off bubbles on purpoCOUGH HACK who said that

There is 1 thing I've completely failed to mention in this post and it's that Octo Valley and the Deepsea Metro are like, explicitly connected. Which by the way makes NO SENSE given they're on opposite corners of the map. But between what we know from Side Order and from this Official Snippet from Splatoon Base, the Official Splatoon Story Resource By Nintendo,

Ignoring that none of this makes sense anymore or is intentionally misleading compared to what we know from Agent 8's memory loss now. Anyway. This seems to just imply the Deepsea is *under* Octo Valley. WHICH WOULD LINE UP WITH SIDE ORDER, weirdly enough. It is possible that the Deepsea domes could actually OVERLAP with Octarian Domes, it's just built FAR under sea level, not bound to the actual location of the sea itself.

I want to point out that this segment in the splatoon base and the game itself and dev interviews all tend to contradict each other in some ways when you look at them side by side, which is frustrating, but also serves as a reminder that sometimes the official resources don't know exactly what they're talking about either. so it's often not worthwhile looking them up and trying to conclude something based on it just to find out that it's literally contradicted in the game itself.

anyway, we know One Thing now and it's that there's at least no way that Octarian domes and the Deepsea AREN'T connected to each other in some way. this post doesn't exactly solve the issue of How but there was an attempt. I don't think this is ultimately something you can come to a concrete foolproof conclusion on until there is more information. But in the meantime I guess there's speculation.

[free-for-all-fics]

So I had this thought about The Recruiter from Squid Game and it would not leave my head until I wrote it out as a prompt! Pls tag me if you’re inspired by this at all, and I’d love to read it! 🔴🔺🟥

Before he became involved in the games, he grew up in a poor household. His parents were high school dropouts. They would have a lot to do once their baby arrived. While terminating the pregnancy had been seriously discussed, his mother ultimately decided against it. She thought of it as a happy accident. She had been an orphan and on the run all her life, but when she became pregnant, she finally felt like she put down roots. She didn’t care if the father, her boyfriend, didn’t want anything to do with her or her baby. She was going to have her baby and raise it well. She knew it was a jungle out there, and if her child took after her, they’d be a handful…but she wanted her child to be happy. She didn’t care if her baby was a boy or a girl so long as he or she was healthy. She thought if she lost her pregnancy, she’d look back on that time as a living hell. His father was nineteen and his mother was eighteen when he was born. They married before she was showing. The rumors were that he arrived sooner than either of his parents planned, conceived earlier in their marriage than expected, or that he was the result of indiscretion, a love child, and the premise for the marriage. While his existence lent itself to both predicaments, the latter could be corroborated by the testimonies that his father was "immature and not ready for marriage" nor "prepared to raise a family". He "felt trapped in the commitment that being a part of a family required and couldn't handle the responsibility of raising a child." It was very possible his father married his mother out of obligation or was forced.

Either way, it was to salvage her reputation. As a result of her pregnancy, his mother never got to fulfill her dream of going to college. All of the money she saved for her tuition went towards childcare. She was a stay at home mother, while he grew up watching her do all kinds of odd jobs like peeling and selling chestnuts, babysitting, pet sitting, sewing clothing or plush dolls, etc. in her efforts to put food on the table. She made sure he had clothes on his back and food to eat, nearly working herself to death while his father spent most of his days between jobs and unemployed. What paychecks he did bring home were mostly used to feed his alcohol, drug, or gambling addiction.

And then you came along many years later. You were also an unplanned pregnancy and, whether your mother couldn’t afford to terminate or she decided not to do that nor give you up for adoption, you lived under the same roof. Your brother was at least twelve years older than you and, within two years after you were born, your father, the coward that he was who always ran away from his responsibilities, just up and left. He was gone and all his belongings and all his money, what little there was, was gone too. He didn’t even leave a note. Your brother came home from school and found your mother crying at the dinner table. Without her saying anything, he just knew. You weren’t the burden, your deadbeat dad was. He hated his father. He was a shitty man, a shitty husband, and an even shittier father. He was little more than utterly useless, a total waste of space. If he looked at him for too long it made him physically sick. His father didn’t beat him at first, only his mom. He could’ve done something to stop it. But he didn’t. His father made his home a living hell. That’s why he was glad he was gone.

Despite the hardship your birth and your father’s abrupt leaving added onto his mother and himself, he could never hate you. You were just a baby. You were innocent in all of this. It wasn’t your fault you were born into a family living on or below the poverty line and that money was so tight all the time. It wasn’t his fault either. After your father abandoned you, your mother worked even harder to raise money. But her income wasn’t enough and, when he was still a minor, he had to make money by running errands or doing chores for neighbors and contribute his earnings to provide for you and get you through school. He had to help pay for your uniforms, books, and other supplies. But he loved you more than anyone and you loved him just as much. Instead of hanging out with his friends, he stayed home and babysat you. At first, you were resentful of being watched at all because you were going through that phase where you thought you were all grown up and big enough to be left alone for a few hours. But he had a way with kids, his energy so much like one that it was hard for them to hate him. In just a few hours you were best friends, thicker than thieves. Despite your big age gap, he loved spending time with you. He’d play with you and draw with you while watching you whenever your mother needed a break. He and your mother made sure you were raised well with proper discipline so you wouldn’t grow up spoiled but, at the same time, wouldn’t grow up traumatized like they were either. Once he was old enough to work, he opened his own bank account and worked his ass off at all kinds of jobs to make enough of his own money to pay his way through college. He’d be damned if he let his father come crawling back like a dog begging for scraps and have access to a single cent. But he saw what debt did to people, how it so easily spiraled out of control and destroyed lives. He’d be damned if he took out a loan he couldn’t pay back, he thought.

When there was no money for dinner, he made sure you still got to eat by either stealing from convenience stores or giving you half of his lunch. Even a cup of noodles or a bread roll was like a feast fit for a queen in your eyes. But the biggest dinner treat when you were a child was Happy Toast. Happy Toast was pretty simple. It was a piece of toast. With a happy face drawn on it in tomato sauce. Once or twice every couple of weeks, your brother would get you Happy Toast for dinner. Those nights were the best. You didn't have to use cutlery! You could eat with your fingers! Your brother would let you choose whether your Happy Toast had straight or curly hair! And, even better, your brother and you got to sit at the table and have dinner by yourselves. Mom would still be at work or already asleep, so that left you and your brother alone in the kitchen. Sometimes he’d make you what he called Shark Infested Beans to put on your Happy Toast. Before you were born, your mom would make him a bowl of baked beans, with little toast triangles standing up in it for the shark fins. Sometimes the toast fins would have bites taken out of them. She told him the sharks had been fighting and it was the funniest thing in the world to him back then. He was in his late teens when he finally found out that those bites were all she'd eaten that day. He did that with all of your meals to get you to eat your food, making a game out of it by pretending the rice was a spaceship, the vegetables were cars, the fruit were bicycles, the meat was airplanes, etc. But Happy Toast nights were amazing.

Your brother got his driver’s license and bought himself a car and rented a cheap apartment so he could move out as soon as possible after his 18th birthday. Even though it wasn’t the prettiest or most impressive car and was like a junker more than anything, it worked well enough to get him from point A to point B. The same could’ve been said for his apartment. Old and dingy, small and not very pretty, but clean and livable. He made plans to go off to college. He’d spent so many years working towards earning his college tuition, studying and preparing for graduation, and raising you that he’d accidentally let university applications fall through the cracks. But one day, he checked his admission results and…

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED!

But it wasn’t like just anyone accepted could go to college. He needed money to go. He’d saved up enough money for the initial deposit - four million won - and he’d pay the rest off with part-time jobs while he was at school. It was amazing! God, he had a pretty rough day that day. But that result made up for all of that. He was a college student now. He got in. Very soon, he’d fulfill your mother’s dream of him becoming a college student. Her son was totally awesome, right? But just as he had all of that money saved up and was well into his third year of college, on track for graduation, the worst happened: Your mother died. She had worked herself to death, after all. When he got the phone call, he didn’t know how he managed to act like a normal, vaguely irritated son for the entirety of it. Inside he was white hot rage. The first thing he did when he hung up the phone was shatter it. His whole apartment became a particularly fragile punching bag. If anyone were to have come inside, they would’ve looked at the destruction with bewilderment and asked, "Did you get robbed?"

Stepping into his childhood home for the first time in so many years made him sick. He swore he could still smell your mother's perfume in the air, but he turned the corner and there was another woman cooking and prancing around in her fucking kitchen like she owned the place. She wasn’t one of the neighbors. She wasn’t anyone he knew. She said she was his father’s girlfriend and that his father was a truck driver now and so he wouldn’t be coming to his own wife’s funeral. He wanted to string her up by her intestines. To choke her with them. He wanted to kill her first and make his father watch the entire thing. But he couldn’t do that. So he’d have to just settle on making sure to psychologically torture her in some way to make up for it. But however painful the step-whore's death would be, he imagined that he would make his father's twenty times worse if he ever saw his face again. That would be for his mother and for you. But it would have looked suspicious if the older man died at home. So he waited, impatiently. His death would come someday and he had to stay alive to witness it.

Speaking of death… Maybe it was a little vindictive of him to call his father for the first time in four, nearly five years to demand he forfeit his parental rights and give him custody of you before his wife was even in the ground. But he was gonna get around to it anyways, eventually. It was not a request. He never asked his father for anything and he wasn’t going to start now that his mom was dead. But when he brought it up, your father laughed his ass off about it as if it was a joke. He laughed again when his son threatened to take him to Family Court. He needed money to send in an application or push forward a petition. Money his father knew he didn’t have. Though he couldn’t do anything in that moment, that topic of discussion was far from over.

You didn’t come downstairs when he first arrived and he wanted to roll his eyes at his father’s side piece telling him, "she's not usually like this, honest-" as if she gave a shit about you at all and wasn’t just there because his father told her to come in his stead to save face. He was the only one left alive who genuinely loved and cared about you. You were still just a kid. It wasn’t your fault your mom died, your dad was a piece of shit, and your dad’s new girlfriend was a useless whore. When you slinked your way downstairs and dragged your feet in that petulant way that only kids could, he started to rethink about not taking up the job offer he was given. You spent all of dinner not saying two words to your dad’s girlfriend, but you had the nerve to scowl at her the entire time like she was intruding in your house and you were wondering when she was gonna leave. Or die.

Circumstances being what they were, he had no other choice but to use his college savings for your mother’s funeral. He held your hand as you cried and comforted you as well as he could. But you couldn’t stay inside for long. You could barely breathe through your sobs already, and the air felt musky and you felt like you were suffocating with all those people around offering you their sympathies and condolences. He took you outside for some space and fresh air. But after the funeral was over, there was her memorial to worry about. If he didn’t make the payments, his mother’s pictures and the urn containing her ashes would be moved to storage. He learned that the hard way when he took you to visit her on the third anniversary of her death when you were thirteen years old, and she wasn’t there. You were crying, clutching a bouquet of flowers you didn’t know what to do with.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“Where's the urn that used to be here? Our mother's.”

“This one? Did you not know? The payment on this space is three years overdue now. And we couldn't get in touch with the guardian.”

“So are you saying you threw it away?”

“We didn't throw it away. We have it in storage.”

“In storage?”

“Yes.”

“How could you just shove it in storage because of overdue payments? Do people need to be evicted, even in death, due to rent overdue?”

“We have our internal rules as well.”

“How much money do we owe you?”

“Five million won.”

“What?”

“Five million won.”

“Five million?”

“Get out of the way. Can you keep things quiet around here?” A passerby trying to mourn their loved one asked.

“I apologize.”

“Let's continue this outside.”

“Please, sir. Can you take my mom out of storage? I brought a present for my mom. My teacher told me that you're supposed to give white roses to people you respect. Please, sir. Please,” you begged as you cried, not caring if it made you look pathetically childish or immature for your age. You didn’t know what else to do or say.

While you were in another room being watched over by a neighbor, your brother faced your mother’s urn, talking to it as if he were talking to her.

“Mom. I do have most of the money and I can take out a loan for the rest. Your wish was for me to go to college. Right? That was your wish. Well, I’ve been to college, but I don’t need to graduate. So I’m going to drop out now, okay? My sister can graduate college instead, right? I'm your son whom you're proud of, so I can drop out of college, right? I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry. I don't think I'll need to graduate college. I'm sorry if you’re disappointed, Mom. But I’m making this decision because I'm going through such a hard time. Things are so hard for me right now. I miss you so much, Mom. Sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I miss you, Mom. I'll come see you soon.”

He took out all of the money he had in his savings and took out a loan for the remaining won he needed and used it to pay off the debt that was owed for your mother’s memorial. While he couldn’t graduate college now and had debts to pay, you were at least able to give your mother white roses and smiled as you talked to her.

After that, despite working a lot, he was still struggling financially, and had spent the last bit of his money on a few grocery items just to get through to payday. Three days later — and the night before his pay would arrive in his bank account — he had absolutely nothing to feed you for dinner. The fridge and pantry were bare, apart from a few pieces of stale bread, and the usual condiments.

"I'm hungry…” you complained. You looked malnourished. Like you hadn’t eaten in days.

He fought back the burning tears behind his eyes. And that was when it hit him. "Let's have Happy Toast!" He exclaimed, plastering a smile across his face. With great laughter and fun, you drew tomato sauce faces on pieces of toast, and you gobbled them up with the same reckless enjoyment he remembered having on Happy Toast nights as a child. Him? Oh, he didn't eat any. He supervised from the kitchen. There wasn't enough bread for him to have dinner and for you to have a full stomach. That night, after you were sleeping happily, he thought back to those Happy Toast nights as a child. From the perspective of an adult, their frequency made sense — his parents were paid biweekly; Happy Toast nights were probably the night before payday. And Dad was in the military — he could eat dinner at work for free (or close to it), which is why those were the only nights he wasn't home for dinner. And Mom? She made the exact same choice he did. Now, you and he ate "poor" food all the time. Your standard dinner was seaweed soup, made with small portions of the cheapest meat, lots of seaweed, and a sprinkling of soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, and salt to taste. Your mother often made it for your and his birthdays since she couldn’t always afford rice cakes or actual cakes. But Happy Toast was a treat from that mundanity — and the real testament to both your mother's parenting, and your financial state.

While you ate, you started telling him things. “I hate playing happy family. Dad’s girlfriend only ever pays attention to me when people are around. She’s always gone and Dad never calls. I think they both wish it was just them, that I wasn't here—”

Your brother might not have been the most empathetic person around (obviously) but something about the things you told him made him feel for you. You had a sad little orphan thing going on. He didn’t know why he thought he should spend more time with you while he was home, but he did. Maybe it was because he knew his new job as a pink guard in the Squid Games was starting soon and that it was dangerous and he could get shot if he wasn’t careful. Maybe it was to better sell you the lie about what he did for work and explain how he’d suddenly have all this money to give you anything you asked for someday soon. You pouted when he told you he was leaving for his new job soon and would be gone for at least a week. Until he came back, he arranged for a neighbor to watch you so you wouldn’t be left alone in the house. You weren’t missing school or starving to death on his watch. The day before he left, he took you out to some diner he knew you’d like for a special "brother/sister" breakfast. You moped in his car, you stomped your way into the restaurant, and you slouched in your chair when you were seated. When he asked you if you wanted crayons to color with, you instantly knew that he was lovingly mocking you like he used to do. Sensing the game was on, you took a big sip of your water and tried to spit it out towards him like a super soaker water gun, hoping to wet him. It didn’t work, but he admired your spitefulness. When your food came, you only sat in silence, pushing it around your plate for a bit before you broke.

“Dad sucks. He’s not even here, and I hate him.”

“I know you do, but try not to. Don’t waste your energy on thinking about him. He’s not worth it. Indifference is so much worse than hate. Trust me, I know from experience.”

“I can’t help it. Even if I try not to think about him, I still do. I’m sure he hates me too.”

You didn’t start crying big alligator tears like he thought you would. He was already preparing for it, thinking about how he was going to have to bribe you with ice cream or something to stop you from crying. Instead you sunk further into your seat, like you wanted to melt there.

“He doesn't hate you.”

“He just wishes I was never born. That I wasn’t around...doesn’t he? Neither of them want me around."

“How did you know?” He asked, and then sighed. “Don’t take it personally. He was the same with me when I was your age. He’s never liked children, not even his own. That’s why I moved out as soon as I could. Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault he left. He would’ve found another excuse to go even if you hadn’t been born.”

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too. I’m sorry I couldn’t take you with me when I left home.”

He wondered what the hell your dad’s girlfriend was doing behind closed doors to make you feel the way you felt after your mom died. He knew his father was lousy, he'd already grown up with him. But your dad’s girlfriend had seemed normal. A little fake, but normal. He didn’t know what went on in that house before he got there. So you told him. About the neglect. The long hours alone that sometimes became days. By the end of it, your little hands were balled into fists and your food was ice cold. The entire time your brother sat quietly, hating himself for letting your suffering go on so long and despising your dad and his girlfriend even more. At the end, you regretted telling him anything. You started to turn to the window, ready to ignore him until he decided to take you both home. You turned back around when he said,

"Dad should’ve never been granted sole custody of you after Mom died. He is unfit to be a parent."

You blinked up at him, wide-eyed. You were shocked he took you seriously. "Yeah, he is." You finished eating your breakfast quietly but neither of you left the diner feeling the way you did when you came in.

The week he was gone passed by uneventfully. Prior to leaving, your brother ended the lease on his apartment and, when he came back from wherever he went for work, he stayed home with you. Even though it was very late at night, you were standing outside the neighbor’s house you’d been staying at to greet him when his car pulled up. When he took you home, neither your dad nor his girlfriend were in sight. You told him about school. About the things you'd been doing since you last saw him. About how you managed to watch some of the horror movies he snuck you, and you didn't even have to sleep with the light on afterwards. He sat through it all dutifully and maybe even with amusement. He sat shell-shocked for a minute. Frankly, he'd never talked to a kid for as long as he talked to you. You were not the same withdrawn kid you were when your mother died, that was for sure.

You curled up on the side of him and the two of you fell asleep on the couch together. He woke up a few hours later when your dad finally made an appearance, stumbling in with his girlfriend. They were both drunk and shushing each other too loudly. It pissed him off, thinking about how they'd have probably gone out on the town and left you alone even if he didn’t make arrangements to have you stay with a neighbor or if he wasn’t there to watch you himself. He wondered just how many times you were left alone in this house that was too big and lonely for him even when he was a teenager, let alone a fucking kid like you. When he ran into your dad and his girlfriend, they were in the kitchen, opening another pack of beer like they weren’t wasted enough.

"Thanks for finding someone to look after the kid last week. I know she can be a lot." His dad’s girlfriend said.

The words made him stop cold and he looked behind them, to the drawer that the knives were kept in and almost said fuck it. If the miserable bastard hadn't wanted to be a father this badly he should have kept it in his pants or gotten a vasectomy. He wanted to cut his dad’s dick off. He wanted to stab his dad’s girlfriend in her throat to make her shut the fuck up.

"Yeah, no problem." He had to leave before he killed either of them.

He didn’t wake you up so you could go up to bed on your own. For some reason, he thought about the last time he ever got carried up to bed and picked you up and took you there himself. He remembered the feeling of waking up, drowsy but safe on his mother's shoulder. Of being tucked in, and then waking up in bed later, only vaguely aware that someone else put him there. He was younger than you were then, that last time. But he didn’t think it mattered that much. He didn’t think you'd ever get cared for like that if he didn’t do it himself. Though your mother did her best, she was often too weak and exhausted to carry you, even when you were very little. He didn’t think it was enough and he wanted to make you feel as loved as he was by her. At least, when your mother was alive, she was there for you. So he put you into bed, and tucked you under the covers, and sat beside you for awhile, just staring. He looked up when he felt like he was being watched, only to find your dad in the doorway staring at him. Then the old man turned around and went to bed. He didn’t say a word to him about his behavior and poor decisions. Not even a goddamn fucking apology.

Whether or not it was a special occasion like a holiday or your birthday, your brother gave you a present: Your very first cell phone with his number already saved in it. He smiled and ruffled your hair, telling you not to be a stranger and to take care of yourself whenever he had to go away for work in the summer. He told you that if there was ever an emergency when he wasn’t there and you needed him, to just give him a call and he’d come running. Your dad stood so stiffly as he got ready to leave on a long truck haul again. He’d be gone for months, leaving your brother to look after you. He extended his hand towards your dad for a handshake, not wanting to put either of them through an awkward goodbye hug. He didn’t deserve such warm familiarity.

“These things aren’t human. They’re just trash, utterly useless in this world.”

He kept telling himself that and worked hard for a few years. Then they gave him a gun. It felt pretty good. Like his existence was acknowledged for the first time in his life. The months went quickly and, before he knew it, it was time to don his pink uniform for another annual round of games. But he wasn’t as excited as he thought he was going to be. He didn’t know why he was starting to get second thoughts. But he had a job to do and it was too late to back out of it now. The years went by quickly. A mass murder here, another one there, in between figuring out what to get you for your birthday or what color dress you preferred for a school dance. Life outside the games was hard, but inside it was easy. Despite real life creeping in and threatening to bleed over into the bottle world the games were held in, he had almost forgotten about his dad entirely.

Almost.

Summer hit again when it finally happened. He doesn’t know which year it was but one day he was about to shoot a man who had lost a game. The guy seemed familiar. His dad. His dad was suddenly standing right in front of him. He was in tears, desperately begging him to spare his life. His pink and black uniform concealed his identity. He didn’t say a word but, even if he had, the voice modulator would’ve masked his voice. He didn’t know it was his own son pointing the gun at him. And he never would know. There was crying, begging, pleading. He drew it out for a long time. At the end of it, his father was whimpering, staring at the bloodied corpses of other players and asking why. It was a question he didn’t deserve the answer to. So he shot him right in the middle of his forehead, and realized, “Ah. I’m cut out for this job.” He had absolutely no qualms about shooting his own father dead. No remorse or guilt. He killed him and it was his best work yet. He had plenty of practice over the years.

He was offered a promotion to be a recruiter for the games shortly afterwards. It was easy being a pink guard. He only had to work for a week out of the year. But being a recruiter would require him to work year round. Once the games were over for the year, he’d be as busy as ever. He’d need to find and recruit more players for subsequent years. He should’ve been eager to accept. But something was gnawing at him, threatening to eat him alive from the inside until he asked his superiors, hesitantly, "Since my dad died in the games… If I become a recruiter…what's gonna happen to my little sister?"

And there it went. The reason his stomach had been twisted up into knots. He killed his own father for failing a game. He couldn’t care less about that. His father had it coming for a long while. He had been as shitty as he could be, outright forgetting to feed you or pay the bills to keep the lights on. You were once hospitalized from severe malnourishment and food poisoning because of your father and his girlfriend’s incompetence and negligence. Two days after your eleventh birthday, you were sent to bed without dinner by your dad’s girlfriend. You were almost unable to sleep because you were so hungry it felt like you were starving. You had already run out of the candy you had stashed away in your room. Later, your sleepwalking got so bad that you got out of bed and went around the house, eating various non-edibles. First, you went to the kitchen and ate animal food that your dad’s girlfriend bought for her pet. Then, you went to the bathroom and ate from a tube of toothpaste. Then you ate the berries or seeds from a plant on the window sill because you confused them for edible sunflower seeds or berries. You thought all flower seeds or berries were edible. In your dreaming state, you didn’t realize what you were actually eating. Your dad didn’t want gossip, so he almost didn’t bring you to a hospital, just like how he never brought his wife to a hospital after beating her. It was his girlfriend who found you and called the ambulance, not him. He would’ve let you die and claimed it was an accident. Your brother was terrified and pissed when he found out. He got a speeding ticket on the way to the hospital and was there the entire time while they worked to save you from the toxins in your stomach. If he hadn’t swooped in and worked his ass off or stole food to feed you, you very well could’ve starved or been poisoned to death sooner.

Needless to say, his dad had been living off of borrowed time anyway. And as for his dad’s girlfriend… Knowing that appearance is everything, he made sure to publicly bond with her. He went grocery shopping with her. They got lunch. Anything to sell the image of a perfect family. Anything to alleviate suspicion when she wound up dead and her body went missing thanks to the connections his new job offered him.

But you? They weren’t planning on killing you. There were strict rules to the games. One of them was players had to be ages 18 and up to play. Minors were ineligible to play. They hadn’t killed any kids. And they never would. Ironically, when discussing how much fun and thrilling it would be to watch desperate people who were drowning in debt die in deadly children’s games - the thought of killing actual children or watching them die made the viewers and organizers uncomfortable. While it may not have seemed like it to the players, even those responsible for the games weren’t completely morally bankrupt. Even their kind of evil had standards. But what about the aftermath? He didn’t know what was going to happen to you if he couldn’t take you in. You were still a minor and had no other living family besides him. Were you gonna get carted off by the state? Or shipped away to some other family who couldn't give a shit about you? The thought made him sick, but he didn’t want to admit it. But his superiors told him they thought of that and the proper arrangements would be made so he could legally have custody of you. No matter how busy he was, he’d still be able to make time for you and keep up a somewhat healthy work-life balance. For him, they made an exception to the rule about recruiters needing to cut all ties with family to uphold the secrecy of the games. They let him keep you, someone from his past life in the outside world.

After the games were over, he was allowed to return home. He snuck back into his childhood house and you were just where he left you. Tucked in and sleeping soundly in your bed. He went to his own room and fell asleep with a smile on his face. He got up twice in the night, restless. Each time he wound up outside your door. Sometime later, police officers showed up at the front door, hats in their hands, and handed him a legal envelope with the signed transfer of custody papers. They told him that something awful was believed to have happened to his dad, though his body wasn’t found. He pretended to be shocked. He closed his eyes and tried not to think of how you were definitely eavesdropping, too impatient for him to come and tell you what was going on after the police left. It was to help with appearances, sure, but he was actually looking forward to looking after you. He felt a lot less smug when he turned around and you were sobbing your eyes out. The moment he sat down next to you, you threw yourself at him, clinging to him like he was a lifeline. And he was surprised at how quickly he wrapped his arm around you. At the way he rubbed your arm and squeezed your shoulder, trying his best to soothe you. You weren’t crying for your dad. You were crying for yourself.

“What's gonna happen to me, Oppa?" You wailed, helpless in the way only a kid could be.

He was looking down at you and, before he knew it, he opened his mouth and said, "Nothing's gonna happen to you. You're my sister. We're family. See this paper? It means I’m going to take care of you from now on." It didn’t make you stop crying but he kept saying it, over and over. “You're gonna be okay. Nothing's ever going to happen to you. I’ll take care of you, I promise. Come on, are you hungry? I could eat, so let’s eat. I’ll make you seaweed soup.”

You were better off with him anyways.

Looking back, your brother practically raised you even before your parents’ deaths, so him becoming your legal guardian didn’t feel that much different from how things were. You thought you’d feel some kind of change, but you didn’t. You’re an adult now. It wasn’t until you were much older that you really understood that Happy Toast wasn't really a treat - it just had good PR thanks to your brother. Though he helped you a lot throughout the years, you didn’t want to financially rely on him for everything. You wanted to be independent. You got a job and paid for most of your college tuition and living expenses including your car, apartment, and phone on your own. Whatever money you borrowed from your brother to pay for the rest, you made a budgeted plan to pay back in installments over a period of time.

“I can't take your money just because we're family! I donated that money to you!”

“What did you just say? Donate? Did you donate that money because you felt sorry for me?” You asked. You huffed and stood up. “I want to go home.”

“Where do you think you're going? You are home. You have a room here.”

You shook your head. “This is where you live, but I meant I want to go back to my own place.”

“Sit down. I know how precise you want to be with money, but don't do that to me. I'll wire the money back to your account.”

“No! It's your money. Just take it.”

“Would you take it if you were me? What kind of a man would take his little sister’s money...especially when she's doing financially bad! I'd be reluctant to take it even if you had lots of money.”

“Don't look at me like that. I think even family members should pay back what they owe. And I’m not even doing bad. I’m doing just fine. Better than fine. I can afford to pay you back. I may not be making nearly as much as you, but it’s not like I can't pay my rent if I don't have that money.”

“Don't you get it? I don't want it.”

“But I want to pay you back!”

“Stop being stubborn!”

“Oh, whatever! I'm leaving!” You got up and grabbed your coat, your purse, and your car keys.

“Hey! Stop right there! I'll count to three! One, two, two and a half, three...”

Ignoring him, you put your shoes on and left, his front door shutting behind you loudly even though you didn’t slam it.

He immediately grabbed his phone and called you. When you picked up, he said, “Hey! One, two—”

The line went dead again. You hung up on him.

“Hello? Hello? Hey! Hey!” He looked at the screen and then threw his phone on the coffee table in frustration. He couldn’t believe you were paying him back! And on top of that, you insisted on paying interest. He was so pissed! He would’ve smacked some sense into you if he could’ve.

~

It’s now present day and you haven’t heard much from your brother in the last two years. While others may find it odd, it’s normal for you to not hear from your brother much. You still don’t know exactly what he does for a living beyond working in business. All you know is that he’s often busy with work and is called away from home to go on long business trips all over South Korea, often to places where he can’t be reached by phone. But he always emphasized to you that if there was ever an emergency and you needed him, he’d drop what he was doing and come to your aid. Luckily, you haven’t had to take him up on that offer. In the past two years, though his communications were considerably less than previous years, he still sent you the usual birthday and holiday cards and called you periodically. That was enough to assure you he was well. As the saying goes: No news is good news.

But then, in his mad hunt for The Recruiter, Gi-hun discovers your existence and connection to the man he’s been after. The loan sharks he’s hired to investigate and search for him somehow find out this information through what seems almost like a miracle or lucky break and they relay said information to Gi-hun immediately after confirming it’s legit.

“Sir, we’ve been doing what we can to find that man. His whereabouts and identity are still unknown, but we found something. It might be a lead.”

“What is it?”

“He has a younger sister.”

“I'm sorry?”

“He has a younger sister.”

“Living?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. We cross-checked and verified the information multiple times. It’s legit. She lives in Seoul. But if we question her, a lot of craziness might go on all at once and, in the end, she might not be able to tell you anything if he’s kept her in the dark about these games to cover his tracks. She might be afraid if we just show up at her home or corner her in public. We don’t know if she still keeps in contact with her brother and, if she does, she may tip him off that we’re onto him and we may lose all of our progress, what little we’ve made, if she goes into hiding too. How should we proceed?”

Gi-hun tells them to watch you from a distance for the time being and, when the time is right, to question you subtly, casually. He tells them no matter what, to not let you know they’re looking for your brother, just that they’re looking for someone who might have seen something rather than someone who did something. No one thinks that their family or neighbors are capable of what The Recruiter’s done. He tells them that they should get started. After tailing you and monitoring your activity for days or weeks to learn your routine, the opportunity finally comes. They approach and give you a cover story that they’re looking for a missing dog that was last seen near where you live. They even show you a picture of the dog.

“We're hoping that you may have seen something and not even realized it. Maybe you have a neighbor who takes his trash out late, works on his car in his garage, anything that might put someone outside at an odd hour and give them the opportunity to see something.”

“I see. But it’s hard for me to remember things like that. Is there anything specific you’re looking for?”

“It won't be overt. Neighborhood kids probably aren’t afraid of this person.”

“They aren’t? The person you’re describing…is it possible they have an explosive temper?”

“Definitely. Why do you ask?”

“Anger wasn't normal at my house after my dad left. Usually when it happened, when it exploded, it was an anomaly. A surprise. My older brother was overly solicitous. Too nice. And if I wanted anything... Bicycles, toys, dolls... All I had to do was ask. But in public and in groups, he always held my hand. Always. Sometimes so tight, it almost cut off the circulation. But the weird thing is… I can never remember him putting me on his lap or carrying me in his arms or on his shoulders, holding me in any way beyond an arm around my shoulder or a quick side hug. He only ever held or carried me in his arms when I was asleep. And...my brother would always have these talks with me. He was terrified someone would take me.”

“Because he knew what was out there.” Men like him. Mr. Kim doesn’t say that last part out loud, only thinks it to himself.

“You know, maybe this person took your dog because he or she wanted to give a gift to his or her kid or little sibling, but couldn’t afford one. My brother used to buy me things all the time and, when he couldn’t afford it, he stole it for me.”

“What kinds of gifts?”

“Anything. Everything. I told you, there was nothing...” Your eyes lock with a dog as it passes by, being led by their owner on a leash.

“What is it? What else is on your mind?”

“My whole life, there's only one thing I wanted that I couldn't have.”

“Which was?”

“A pet.”

When you were seven years old, you found a puppy on your way home from school. You ran all the way home with this little ball of fur. You were so excited. And when you got to the house, your brother was the only one home. He was nineteen and was visiting during winter break. You gave him the puppy to hold while you got it some milk. You didn't have dog food, but you thought, well, a puppy's like a baby, so milk, right? You heard the puppy yelp and when you got back, your brother was in the bathroom and he turned and told you to put the milk away before it spoiled. You didn't understand. He told you that your mother didn't need the hassle of another mouth to feed and you were never to do that again. He tilted his head and you saw the puppy limp in his arms. Dead. You started crying and you could swear he looked like he was having fun. He buried it in the woods or in the backyard before your mom got home and swore you to secrecy by scaring you, telling you that you’d both get in a big heap of trouble if she found out what you guys did. Cruelty to animals is part of psychopathy. You know that now. But what you don't understand is that...

Your phone alarm or reminder goes off, breaking you from your trance and deep thoughts. You’re running late. “I’m sorry, I have to go. I hope you find your dog. Good luck.”

After meeting you, Mr. Kim and Mr. Choi are in Jonggak Station, eating vending machine food that is less than appetizing and bemoaning their lack of progress even after questioning you. And then it happens. They hear a loud clacking. They look up and see your brother, throwing down a red paper ddakji tile and slapping a man. When the man wins, your brother hands him 100,000 won. The clacking continues and your brother applauds the man when he wins again. Mr. Kim’s hand is shaking as he holds up his phone to call Gi-hun.

“We’ve found the guy. It’s him.”

“Are you sure?”

“The ddakji, slapping, and money. It’s just like you said. He’s handing over the card now.”

“Where are you?”

“Jonggak Station, but he’s leaving.”

“I’m on my way. Follow him carefully, and keep me updated on his location. Stay on him until I get there.”

“I got it. I’ll be in touch.”

Mr. Kim and Mr. Choi tail him as he buys a hundred bread rolls at a bakery and a hundred scratchers at a convenience store. They follow him down the street.

“Hey. He’s gone into Tapgol Park.”

“I’m heading there now. Do not approach him. Wait for me.”

“Okay. Hurry up.”

They follow him into Tapgol Park, pretending to read newspapers and watching as he approaches every homeless person in the park one by one.

“Excuse me, sir. Hello. You seem to be struggling, living a life with no future. I have a little gift for you today.”

“A gift? What is it?”

He holds out bread in one hand and a lottery scratcher in the other. When the homeless man tries to reach for both, he pulls his arms back and up and shakes his head. “You can only have one. Bread, or lottery. You have to choose one.” He holds them back out.

The man picks lottery. The Recruiter holds out a coin.

“Ah…you lost.” He holds out his hand. “The coin, please.”

The homeless man gives it back and the Recruiter picks up his grocery bags and briefcase and moves on to the next person. And the next person. And the next person. So on and so forth.

“Woo-seok.”

“Yes.”

“What do you think he’s doing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s a good guy. I’m confused.”

“How come he’s not giving us one?”

“Beats me. Man, I had a lucky dream last night.”

The Recruiter stands in the middle of the park and dumps all of the leftover bread onto the ground.

“What is he doing?”

“Why would you throw away perfectly good food like that?”

When the homeless man tries to grab the bread, The Recruiter stomps on it, nearly crushing the homeless man’s fingers as he squashes it beneath his shoe. He gave them all a choice between prioritizing survival by choosing the certainty of the bread, or choosing the random chance of the lottery scratcher that they were likely to lose. While he approves of the very few people who picked the bread, he has nothing but contempt for the many people who chose the lottery and continued to gamble instead of focusing on staying alive.

“I gave you a chance, and you made your choice. I’m not the one who threw these away. It’s you, ladies and gentlemen.”

He grunts as he’s more than happy to stomp on and kick the once perfectly good bread just to spite the homeless people. Unbeknownst to Mr. Kim and Mr. Choi, he was like the game players and homeless people at one point in his life, having hit rock bottom. He spent years doing all kinds of grueling work, all to pull you and himself out of the hole you were both born into. And sometimes, when he made progress, something unforeseen happened in his life to set him back. It felt as if he climbed closer and closer to the surface, just about to claw his way to freedom, to a better life, only to have more dirt shoveled into the hole, making him slip and fall deeper into it. He hates his past self. His actions in the park are an expression of self-hatred and an attempt to set himself apart from the vagrants. And then he just combs his hair back and tucks his tie back into his suit blazer like nothing happened. His social experiment complete, he gets into an orange taxi.

“Where are you? Are you coming?”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“This guy is a total nutcase. He’s in a cab now. I’ll keep you updated, but hurry!”

“I got it.”

“I’ll send the address. Call when you arrive.”

“Where’s Seong?”

“He’ll be here in ten minutes.”

The Recruiter walks down an alleyway.

“Hey, we might lose him if we wait. Let’s just get him by ourselves.”

“By ourselves?”

“That’s right. Are you scared? It’s two against one. Don’t be a coward now that you’re married.”

“It’s just that something seems off with that guy. You heard what his sister said. Besides, Seong told us to wait until he gets here.”

“But what if we lose him? What if Seong doesn’t give us the money? Woo-seok, it’s a billion won!”

“You’ll give me half, right?”

“Don’t you trust me? I officiated your wedding, for God’s sake. Come on.”

They run down the alleyway, chasing after The Recruiter who leisurely strolls down the way and turns the corner like he’s going on a nice, relaxing walk and isn’t being pursued.

“Hey, you! Stop!”

“Stop! Hey, you!”

Although it’s two against one, they’re no match for The Recruiter as he subdues them both easily, knocking them out cold after a few hits with just his briefcase. He watches from the top of a building as Gi-hun runs around the alleyways below. He pulls out his phone and calls you.

You pick up within three rings. “What’s up?”

“Would you come over?”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

“No. I’d like to, but I can’t. I should really focus on this project I’m working on for a client. The deadline is coming up and I haven’t made as much progress as I would’ve liked to by now.”

“It would just be for a few minutes. An hour at most.”

“An hour is a long time when it’s the afternoon and you have a deadline like I do.”

“Come on. Please? I miss you and it’ll make me feel better to have you here so I can see your face. Don’t you miss me too?”

“Of course I miss you, but—”

“It’s important.”

“More important than my work?”

“Yes.”

“How so?”

“Remember how you always asked me what I did for work in the summer and I was always very closed lips about it all?”

He hears you snort over the phone.

“Remember? It’s impossible to forget. You always used to say you’d tell me when I was older. A phrase which you know always upsets me. I gave up on asking after a few years. Figured you were never gonna tell me and it’d be a secret you’d take to your grave.”

“But I wasn’t lying. You deserved an explanation, and I really did want to have a conversation and explain everything to you one day when you were older. And, well…that day has come.”

“What are you saying?”

“If you still want to know what I really do for work, come over. You’ll see when you get here.”

“Okay. But just for a few minutes to an hour at most. I’m going to hold you to that. I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay. See you then. I love you.”

He doesn’t say ‘I love you’ to you often. He just isn’t that kind of person. So when he does say it, you know he really means it.

“I love you too. See you soon.”

Unbeknownst to you, he had hidden cameras installed in every room of your apartment or house after you moved in to keep an eye on you. After you hang up, he taps an app on his phone, switching over to the live feed of your apartment or house. He watches you. Ever since you nearly died while sleepwalking, he had to follow you around every night whenever you had an episode since you couldn’t afford treatment or medication. He was afraid you might kill someone. Or yourself. Though you’re on medication now or otherwise have taken the proper precautions and have your sleepwalking under control, he still worries. Better safe than dead.

When you arrive at his place, he welcomes you inside, taking your coat and your purse for you. He leads you upstairs. You don’t know what to make of the scene in front of you. It isn’t at all what you thought it would be. Underneath the chandelier, there are two men tied up in chairs in the middle of the room. But not just any two men. You recognize them as the men who questioned you about a missing dog earlier in the day. Now they’re both gagged with black dog bone shaped gags and blindfolded with black blindfolds. Their skin is bloodied as if your brother got physical with them. Your brother removes their blindfolds and turns on the gramophone. “Nessun Dorma” begins to play loudly. What the fuck is going on? What you’re seeing before your very eyes brings back all the memories you tried so hard to repress. Looking back and forth between your brother and the bound and gagged men, your past traumas end up knocking on your door once again. It feels like the air is being dragged out of your lungs with punches to your stomach. Your thoughts are spiraling out of control and there is nothing you can do. Seeing them bloodied like that, they look eerily similar to the boys that you dated and even the ones you didn’t. Boys that all had one thing in common: They broke your heart. Whether it was because they cheated on you, dumped you for other girls, stood you up at a school dance or on a date, or asked you out as a cruel prank. For a minute that feels like an hour, you dissociate. Your mind is thrown back into the past when you were a teenager.

~

When the sound of the door opening brought you back to your senses, you dried up your tears and put on a happy face to greet your brother, except that when his eyes met yours, he could sense something was wrong. You tried to pretend like nothing happened, you really did, but nothing ever escaped your brother’s eyes. When he arrived home with his usual attire and briefcase and saw your figure laying on the floor, close to a corner of the room and shaking your way through an episode of heartbreak and betrayal, he felt his blood boil despite his cold exterior. Underneath the impassive mask, his eyes were taking in account every detail, from your body posture to your wet eyelashes. He was a very attentive man after all, he didn’t get his job as a recruiter for nothing. Seeing you clutching to yourself as your life depended on it, desperate to relieve the emotional suffering, he couldn’t do anything else but clench his jaw, body stiffening due to the urge to protect you from any harm, be it emotional or physical.

“What happened? Who did this to you?” It was a shot, knowing you well enough to bet that your state was caused by someone else rather than yourself.

Despite showing worriness, his voice also carried danger. And you, poor thing, you were being washed away by tides of confusion and sadness. You couldn’t bring yourself to speak up, the only sounds leaving your mouth being sobs. You wanted to crawl towards your brother but wouldn’t he think you were pathetic? In any case, you didn’t move. Upon seeing you having trouble breathing, a million things crossed his mind and yet he didn’t rush to your side. He went through his usual routine of undoing his tie and taking off his jacket. This time, however, his movements seemed slightly stiffer and more aggressive than usual. Despite not knowing what he was thinking, it was the silence that was killing you. He was a dangerous man beneath that charismatic facade and a part of you knew that. But another part of you also knew that he promised that no harm would come to you and you believed his words faithfully. How much of his words were true at that point? The uncertainty caused you to sob as uncontrollable tears escaped your eyes. You were completely shaking under the stressful emotions that took over your body. Your brother, on the other hand, picked you up from the floor and helped you walk to the couch, ignoring your tense fingers grasping and wrinkling his perfectly ironed white dress shirt.

“Who did this to you?”

You had a feeling he already knew. He made it clear to you in the past that it was pointless to hide anything from him. You didn’t answer.

“Tell me who did this to you,” he tried once again, more firmly this time.

Upon still receiving no answer, his fists clenched and unclenched as his blood boiled. It became impossible to keep his cool when you were hurt like that. Fuck, he would even kill the person who did this to you.

“Who are you protecting with your silence? Why?” he spat, voice rising as his emotions took control, but he didn’t dare yell at you. “Hm?”

You barely managed to say the boy’s name before he sat down next to you and continued to demand to know. Your brother was persistent, he would not give up until he had what he wanted. His breathing became shallow, fast, and he was rabid. So you gave him what he wanted — a name. You managed, between sobs, to whisper the name he was looking for. The name he already knew, but wanted you to corroborate. He gave you a light pat on your shoulder, content with you obliging but with fury running through his veins. Suddenly, his hand was itching and the gun inside his briefcase felt heavier than before. A hand landed on your trembling shoulder before his expression softened. He waited until you had your attention fully on him before he decided to speak up in a stern voice.

“We have two options,” he raised two fingers in front of your eyes, giving you the false sensation of choice and comfort. He took one finger down and held up his pointer finger. “Option One: I’ll take care of you at this instant and everything will go back to normal, or—” He held up a second finger so it looked like he was making a peace sign. “Option Two: I’ll find a way to make him pay. Right now. What do you say? Which one is it?”

Surprisingly, his voice soothed your nerves and you stopped crying. Still, you could only sit there, apprehensive for the outcome and having these faltering feelings for this recently discovered darker side of your brother. His temper didn’t show, but you knew from that moment on that he was capable of anything. You ended up picking Option One, too tired to take care of yourself so you let your brother do it for you. You despised violence and would much rather let things go as if nothing ever happened. You only hoped your now ex-boyfriend would be safe from harm. Your brother thought it was unbelievable how you were worried so much about the person that put you in that situation. What you didn’t know, however, was that he was going to make that stupid boy pay anyway, despite your obvious concerns. He had the means to do it and, whether you believed it or not, he would hurt or kill others for you, even if you didn’t ask him to. Later that night, he ended up helping you bathe and dressed you in more comfortable clothes before cooking you dinner - seaweed soup. When it came time to go to sleep, he placed you in bed and tucked you in. It was all just like he did when you were a kid.

“I told you to stay away from that boy.”

“I know. I’m sorry I lied to you. I shouldn’t have, but...”

“I’m going to ask you one more time. And this time, I want you to answer my question and I want you to answer truthfully. What exactly happened?”

It was about time that he figured out what you were hiding.

“He…and his friends…they… At first he was so cool, he bought us all booze and cigarettes. He had a car and his own apartment. We were kinda going together for about five months. Tonight, I was at the beach with some of my and his friends. I was flirting with him, you know, a little buzzed. Then another car came driving onto the beach and there were a bunch of girls in it and…it was dark but it was still so hot outside… He asked me to grab more drinks from the extra cooler he left in his car and when I came back…she was laying in the sand topless, her swimsuit bottoms halfway down her legs while his head was…his mouth was…he was… He never cared about me. He was just using me to get closer to another girl. To make her jealous until she took him back. You were right. I should have known better, but I considered him a good friend and loving partner! He…he shared his food with me.”

Out on the streets of your neighborhood, starvation was one of the most common causes of death, right after death from exposure, drug use, alcohol poisoning, and murder. Sharing food was a big deal. And growing up the way you did with your brother, the only man who loved you, how could you not have seen it as an act of love? Because of your brother’s gestures of platonic and familial love with food, you were confused and misconstrued your ex-boyfriend’s similar gesture as an act of romantic love.

“You’re telling me you were secretly dating? That you snuck out and went off with your friends to meet that boy and have a party at the beach when you should’ve been at home studying or asleep in bed?”

“I know. I’m sorry. I thought he loved me, but he tricked me.”

“And if it was all a trick? If any of that food or those drinks had been spiked? You could have been kidnapped or hurt or assaulted.”

“I know that, too.”

“Then why did you do it? You're smarter than that.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “From now on, don't cry in front of any other man besides me. If you do, I'm going to get mad at you. They’re not worth your tears. They’re not worthy of you or your heart. Don’t give your love away so cheaply,” he said to you, wiping away your tears.

You nodded and fell asleep soon after.

While you were asleep, he quickly left you alone in the house and disappeared into the night, determined to solve the situation whether you or his superiors approved of his methods or not. Whatever happened next, he’d clean it up and take care of it. His years spent working as a pink guard meant he was good at cleaning up messes and destroying all traces of evidence. Next thing you heard was the sound of the key rattling and turning in the lock of the front door in the wee hours of the morning just before there was a soft click as it shut. Your brother was home, and you had no idea he even left.

You didn’t see your ex-boyfriend again after that. You didn’t see that girl he cheated on you with either. They didn’t show up to school the next day. They didn’t show up to school at all. They just stopped coming. But there weren’t any missing persons reports made for either of them. Some said they transferred schools. Some said they dropped out. Others said they ran off and got married. It was all rumors. Nobody knew the truth. Except for their murderer.

~

They were the first, but they weren’t the last. Whatever the offense was, your brother made every person, man or woman, wish they hadn’t hurt you. Dating and romance was difficult for you because of your brother. He’d be damned if he let history repeat itself and you ended up marrying a man he considered to be a lowlife or deadbeat like your father. But at the same time, it was as if no man was good enough for you in his eyes. Everyone else in the world apart from you and himself were pieces of trash, there were just some who got lucky and made it out of the dumpster. Every man was somehow beneath him and, by extension, beneath you. There was always something about your potential partners that caused him to disapprove. You were exasperated and it got to a point where you wondered if he was going to arrange a marriage for you. You even confronted him and asked him if that was the case, but he said no. He did have an ulterior motive, but it wasn’t that. Unbeknownst to you, he blackmailed or bribed every single man who was interested in you to stay away from you and never contact you again. And those he couldn’t scare away or buy off ended up dead. He wasn’t totally unreasonable. You could have male coworkers and friends. Even best friends. Of course you could. Just not male lovers. Unless you found one that met his impossible standards. Because of his weird superiority complex and classist ideologies, for the longest time, you were an adult virgin who had to use sex toys or your hands to find release. That very well might still be the case to this day. After one too many awkward dinners or gatherings where you tried to introduce your potential partner to your brother, you gave up on love and dating. You instead focused your time and energy towards your career. Just like he did. He never had a girlfriend or fell in love as far as you knew. But you had a feeling that, even if he did, he wouldn’t tell you about his love or sex life. If it wasn’t for your own life experience, you wouldn’t think he was even capable of love. Though you tried to block them out from your memory, you’d be lying if you said there weren’t times your brother frightened you.

This is one of those times.

“These men here… When you met them earlier today, though it was the first time you saw them, it wasn’t the first time they saw you.”

“What?”

“You didn’t realize, but they’d been following you. They were watching your every move, studying your routine.”

“What? Why?”

“A man hired them and a bunch of other loan sharks to find me. He offered to pay one billion won to whoever succeeded. During their investigation, they learned you were my sister.”

“How?”

“I left the information for them to find. All that time spent staking out subway stations and they still had nothing to show for their two years of work. No leads, no clues. Their incompetence was amusing at first, but I eventually grew bored of hiding from and evading them. So I gave them a nudge in the right direction.”

“You led them to me?”

He nods. “But they still didn’t know how to approach you. So they followed you and watched you for an extra week before finally making a move.”

“So their story about the missing dog…?”

“A ploy to get information about me out of you. They thought maybe you knew something about my work. Now you see I had good reason for keeping you in the dark all these years. I knew that the less you knew, the safer you’d be. But all things kept in the dark must come to light eventually. And so here we are.”

Your legs feel like they’ll buckle underneath you. You fall onto the purple couch in the room. It’s one of the only things of color in his entire house. Your tastes in home decor are completely different from his. Apart from your bedroom here, which he lets you decorate however you want because it’s your space, everything else in his house is black. Everything. The curtains, the chairs, the tables, the shelves, the clocks, the dishes, the appliances, the record players, the shower, the closets, his bed, the elevator. Even the walls are painted black and the floors are black tile or black wood. You complained that so much black was suffocating and reminded you too much of death, that it was like he lived in a funeral home. Even funeral homes had more color than this. You told him he needed a pop of color somewhere in his living space too, so he let you pick out this purple couch yourself as a sort of compromise. You put your head in your hands. A part of you can’t believe this is happening. The other part of you realizes that all of the clues about the man your brother really is underneath the facade he put up were always there, you just couldn’t or refused to see them.

“What’s going to happen now?” You ask hesitantly as you pick your head back up and look your brother in the eye.

“These men here will be very sorry. They'll wish they never involved themselves with you and that they could have done something to stop me. They'll wish things could be different. They would do anything for things to be different. So…” He puts his hands on Mr. Choi and Mr. Kim’s shoulders. “You’re going to play a game now. Rock, Paper, Scissors, Minus One. I trust you know the rules. You form a shape with each hand, then take one away. The game is decided by the remaining hands. Of course, there’s a penalty for the loser.” He pats them on their shoulders.

He picks up a gun. Oh, god. There’s a gun. You didn’t notice it before. How did you not notice it?

“I’m sure you’ve seen this in movies. It’s called Russian Roulette.”

“No! You can’t be serious!” But you know he is. Dead serious.

He ignores your protests. “I’ll place one bullet into a revolver and close it. I’ll point the gun at the loser’s head and pull the trigger.”

You’re so scared when he puts the gun to his own head.

“Your odds of death are 1 in 6. Your odds of survival are 5 in 6.”

You notice his finger is actually on the trigger.

“Wait, don’t—!”

He pulls it, making you flinch even though it’s a blank. The gun clicks but, as fucked up as this situation is, you’re relieved. You don’t want your brother to die. He’s the only family you have. You don’t know what you would’ve done if he blew his brains out just then.

But he whistles as if what he just did was nothing.

“Not that bad, right?”

The men look towards you, their scared eyes pleading for you to help them even though they know you can’t. You left your phone in your purse downstairs. Even if you try to make a run for it, your brother’s legs are longer and his stride is wider than yours. He’d easily catch you before you made it three steps towards the stairs leading downstairs. And then what? Would he tie you up too? You’re being held captive just like they are. You’re just the captive audience. Your eyes are just as scared and helpless as theirs even though it’s not your life on the line. You just want to apologize to them. But you know it won’t do any good.

“Please... Please, don't make me watch.”

“What?”

“You never let me see you angry, right?”

“I’m not angry, little sister. Far from it.”

“Please, don't make me watch this.”

“You don’t want to watch? But this is what you wanted, isn’t it? Once this is over, I’ll tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what I do for a living. But first, I’ll show you. Give you a little taste.”

“And then what’ll happen to me? I know what happens to people who know too much.”

He laughs as if you just told a great joke. “Nothing will happen to you. These men here…they aren’t the only ones who were watching you. When you became an adult, I told my superiors you could and would keep the secret, even if you didn’t do what I do. But they had to be sure, so they watched you too.”

“For how long?”

“Years. I finally got their approval to tell you everything and I just had to bring you here to celebrate.”

“Celebrate? This is like a celebration for you?”

“Of course. This is like a ‘take your little sister to work day’ for me. You can think of it like that if it’ll make you feel better.”

“It won’t. Please, let's just leave.”

“I can’t leave just yet. These men have something I need first and one of them is going to give it to me. But not before I have my fun.”

“If you make me watch this, I will never forget it. I will never forgive you. Please, Oppa…” You hope the term of endearment will get through to him.

It doesn’t.

“Why are you acting so squeamish? It’s nothing you haven’t seen before. You told me you watched those horror movies I sent you and didn’t need to sleep with your nightlight afterwards.”

“I lied. I didn’t watch those movies at all.”

He sighs. “I had hoped you’d get over your strong aversion to blood and violence as you got older, but I see you still haven’t.”

“You don't have to do this to prove a point, Oppa.”

“Oh, but I do. I’m not just proving a point. I’m doing this for your benefit. Even at your age, blood and death still makes you physically ill. It’s my fault. I coddled you just the right amount when you were little, but I did it too much when you were older. I didn’t do enough to desensitize you from those things, and I need to fix that. Rape, assault, fraud, arson, murder... Why do you think these crimes are punishable by law? Why is it that they are prohibited by law?”

You don’t answer.

“That's because they are part of human nature. Left to our own devices, humans will rapе, steal, and kill each other. That's just who we really are. But there are no laws in this room. Isn't it a waste to not do any of those things? Such human nature empowers us!”

You curl forward like a shrimp and put your head to your knees. You feel as if you’re on the verge of vomiting.

He tsks at you. “Stop fucking around. You’re younger and smaller than me, but you’re tough. I know you are. The fun is just beginning.” He grabs a waste basket and puts it down next to your feet. “Fine. If you really can’t stomach this, then pull your hair back and vomit into this.”

“I don't want to stay.”

“Oh, now you don’t want to see what I do for work? Too late and too bad. You’re staying. Consider it tough love.” He turns to Mr. Kim and Mr. Choi. “All right. Now, let’s play. On my count. Rock, paper, scissors.”

While Mr. Kim follows the rules and forms a rock and scissors with his hands, Mr. Choi’s hands are shaking too violently. He doesn’t make any shapes.

“You didn’t play. You broke the rules for the first round. Disqualified.” He points the gun at Mr. Choi’s head and pulls the trigger. Blank.

You flinch.

He spins the cylinder. “Now, let’s play again. Rock, paper, scissors. Minus one.” He points the gun at Mr. Kim’s head and pulls the trigger. Blank.

You flinch again. You hate this. You can’t watch but you can’t look away either.

Your brother pulls out a handkerchief and dabs the sweat off of Mr. Kim’s forehead. “Don’t be so nervous. Like I said, your odds of survival are 5 in 6. Let’s play again.” He spins the cylinder. “Rock, paper, scissors. Minus one.” He points the gun at Mr. Choi’s head and pulls the trigger. Blank.

God, it doesn’t matter what the odds are. You flinch every time.

“It’s getting a little boring, isn’t it?”

Oh, God. Your entire body is filled with even more dread, if such a thing is possible. So much that it threatens to overwhelm you.

Your brother puts more bullets into the cylinder. “Let’s reverse the odds now, shall we? Your odds of survival are now 1 in 6. Your odds of death are 5 in 6.” He spins the cylinder. “All right, let’s play again. Let’s speed it up, okay? Rock, paper, scissors. Minus one. Rock, paper, scissors. Minus one. Rock, paper, scissors. Minus one. Rock, paper, scissors. Minus one. Rock, paper, scissors!”

It all goes by so fast. Too fast. Your head is swimming and spinning at the same time from the whiplash of looking back and forth between the three of them, your eyes darting all over the place and not knowing where to keep focus.

He pauses for dramatic effect, letting the suspense linger painfully. And then… “Minus one. Too bad. You didn’t take one away. Disqualified.”

The opera music crescendos and climaxes as he points the gun at Mr. Kim’s head and pulls the trigger. You flinch and cry out at the loud gunshot. Mr. Kim’s blood splatters on your brother’s cheek, but he’s unfazed and only admires his work. The music stops. You can’t hold it in anymore and vomit into the waste basket.

You feel like you just spent an eternity in an unbearable hell where your brother played God or The Devil. Time moved so slowly, to a crawl. In reality, it was no longer than five minutes.

“Congratulations on your win. Now, can we have a talk?” He looks at Mr. Choi and then back at you from over his shoulder.

You lift your head from the waste basket and look up at him. You know that once he’s done talking to Mr. Choi, you’re in for a talk too. While you look at his face, really look at it for the first time while his mask is completely off and you stare deeply into his eyes, your brain doesn’t even have room to be shocked or traumatized by what you see. A part of you always knew, didn’t you? You knew how tired your brother was. You knew how exhausting his life is. You watched him live it. You watched him fight it. And you saw the man he was becoming, saw the man he really was underneath the facade and you did nothing. Because you loved him. Because he was all you had in the world. You saw how desperately he wanted to be different. You watched him try so hard to be a good brother and, in many ways, he was. But in the end, he just couldn't stop the other thing.

After sweating him for a few minutes, he gets what he wants out of Mr. Choi and knocks him out again. You and your brother are alone.

“Now that that’s taken care of, I believe you and I have a pressing matter to discuss. But let’s do it over a hot, home cooked meal. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!” He tries to joke.

You don’t laugh.

When you make no attempt to move, he grabs your arm and helps you up. You and he go downstairs together and he pulls out your chair for you, helping you sit down at the dinner table before he pushes your chair back in. You sit there silently and watch him as he takes off his suit blazer, rolls up his sleeves to his elbows, and puts on plastic gloves to make seaweed soup. Prep time for seaweed soup is ten minutes. While his back is turned, you see your purse hanging by the door. You debate making a run for it. You move your legs to the side. Your chair squeaks from under your shifting weight. Damn it.

“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.” Your brother says without even turning around or looking up from what he’s doing at the stove.

You freeze and stay seated, painfully listening to the wall clock tick. There’s nothing else you can do. Cooking time for seaweed soup is thirty-five minutes. Additional time is usually around five minutes.

He sits across from you at the dinner table and serves the food when it’s done. While his appetite is larger than ever after killing a man, yours is completely gone. He notices you playing with your soup instead of actually eating it.

“You should eat.” He taps your bowl with his spoon.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You should be. You just emptied your stomach a few minutes ago. Don’t worry. This is just the start of your desensitization training. Whether you witness it or commit it, the first murder is the hardest.”

“The first? There’s gonna be more?”

He nods. “Being surrounded by death is hard at first, but it will get easier with time. Now eat. I made it with higher quality meat and seaweed, so it should taste even better than what we used to eat as kids.”

You reluctantly take a couple bites. It does taste a lot better than you remember. But you don’t have it in you to savor the taste. Your brother eats with relish. You eat with obligation.

“You know, people who grew up by the seaside cook this soup with rockfish, not beef. Once you’ve had it that way, its memory follows you all the way to the city. You can’t replicate that childhood taste, no matter how hard you try. But some are beaten for not getting it right.”

You swallow nervously. You know he’s talking about himself and your mother, how your father used to beat him and her for nothing and anything.

“Before you were born, we always had seaweed soup at home. At first, I thought it was because Dad liked it. I only found out later that Mom had never gotten it after giving birth to me. Mom never had a mom, and that haunted her throughout her life. The day she was beaten by Dad and taken to the hospital with chipped teeth… I saw her cook seaweed soup and eat it in the kitchen in the dark. To think he did that to her… All over something like seaweed soup. Every time she was hurting, and every time she was beaten, maybe she thought it would heal her, or maybe she believed her fate was sealed because…because no one had ever made her that soup. To me, seaweed soup is a reminder of death.”

You freeze, your spoon halfway to your lips. You lower it and stare at your bowl of seaweed soup. After your father was presumed dead and the police came with the custody papers for you, he made you seaweed soup. The night you went to the beach, after you told him your boyfriend cheated on you, he made seaweed soup for dinner. In that moment, it finally and suddenly clicks for you that your father didn’t die in a vehicular accident. Your ex-boyfriend and the girl he cheated on you with didn’t transfer, didn’t drop out, didn’t run away and get married. They were murdered. By your brother. And those are only the ones you know about. How many others had he directly or indirectly killed? A pit forms in your stomach at the question you don’t dare to ask. Even if he knows the answer, you don’t want to know.

He looks at the time. “You should head home now.”

“What? Are you seriously kicking me out?! You promised me that you’d give me an explanation! That you’d tell me everything!”

“I did. But it’s been an hour.”

“So?”

“When I called, I told you it’d be no more than an hour. You said you’d hold me to it. So you should go home and work on that project of yours. I’ll explain another time.”

You narrow your eyes at him as he smiles at you. “I know what you’re doing. Stop it. Forget what I said. You were right. This is more important.”

“Are you absolutely sure you want to know? Curiosity killed the cat, you know.”

“And satisfaction brought it back. We’ve passed the point of no return. You might as well tell me everything. Now. Stop playing games.”

“Oh, but I can’t. Playing games is my job.”

Your seaweed soup grows cold as he takes his time to tell you everything and answer your questions. He’s a recruiter for something called the Squid Games. Children’s games with a deadly twist where elimination means death. He finds and lures in desperate people who are drowning in debt so deep there is no chance to come up for air with a game of Ddjaki and the tantalizing offer of 100,000 won for every time they win. But for every time he won, he’d slap them instead. That was just one of many tactics he employed. Before he was a recruiter, he was a guard. He killed players and burned their bodies. He directly and indirectly killed a lot of people before you were a teenager, including your own father. You wish you could shed tears for your old man, but you can’t. Your father was horrible to you both. Your brother once told you...the best day of your lives was the day your father went missing and was presumed dead, because his abuse finally stopped and you would be happier and better off now that it was just the two of you. But did he deserve the fate he was dealt? You don’t know about that.

What you do know is your brother is a sadistic killer who gets his kicks from other people’s misery, misfortune, pain, desperation, and fear. And that could very well include your own now. But despite everything that’s happened…you still don’t hate him. You don't hate him. You don't. You try, but you just don't. No matter what else he is, he's your brother. Now, you're not responsible for the things he did in the past or the things he’ll do in the future. But you can't change the fact that to you...he’s still your brother. Your brother who played with you, fed you, comforted you when you cried, took you shopping, and tied your shoelaces. Your brother who helped you through the awkwardness of your first menstrual cycle because your mom was already dead and couldn’t do it herself and bought you everything you needed including chocolate, a heating pad, tampons, and pads, and showed you how to use them. Your brother who bought you a large bouquet of your favorite flowers and stood up and clapped loudly when it was your turn to walk on stage and accept your diploma or degree for your high school and college graduations. Your brother who told you how proud he was of you and how proud your mom would be for graduating college with flying colors. But you just feel like he's winning if you don't hate him. But there’s no real winning, is there? There's just...living. Moving forward. And if you keep doing that... You'll be all right. Is that true? It is for you. It has to be. You’ll never get to apologize to any of the victims. Nor the families of the men and women your brother directly and indirectly killed in the past and will kill in the future. If only you could just apologize to one family that had been hurt that way... But it wouldn’t be good enough.

After taking your and his dishes away, your brother rolls down his sleeves and puts his suit jacket back on, buttoning it. He tells you he’ll clean up his mess upstairs when he gets back but, for now, he’s going to play another game of Russian Roulette, but with a twist: To make the game appear a little more serious, he and Gi-hun will each take turns pulling the trigger without spinning the cylinder again. The bullet will be fired within six attempts, and the game will be over. He’s thought of every possible outcome so that, no matter what happens, he’ll make it out alive and return to you. His suit is already rigged with piping filled with fake blood and he has a fake bullet that’s painted to look real to the naked and untrained eye. He can quickly swap out the real bullet for the fake one without Gi-hun noticing by using sleight of hand if the bullet comes up on his turn. In his line of work, it isn’t enough to be just one step ahead. He has to be at least five steps ahead of the other person he sees as an opponent. No matter what happens, whether or not he has to fake his death, he’ll get up and walk away. He’ll have to go back into hiding for a while. It’s up to you whether or not you come with him.

He goes off to face Gi-hun, taking Mr. Choi’s tied up and unconscious body and Mr. Kim’s corpse with him. He’s going to stage the former in a hotel room and dispose of the latter. He leaves you alone in his place to mull over his offer. You can’t leave even if you want to because he’s taken your purse and locked all the doors and windows that only he has the keys or knows the passcodes to since he changed them all. There are bars on the windows or the glass is so thick they’re practically impenetrable and there’s nothing you can break them with. There’s no landline phone or internet connection. You’re trapped until he gets back. You have a choice to make now. Go back to your old life and carry on as normal, or join the games as a recruiter. As a recruiter, you won’t have to see any violence or bloodshed like you would if you were a guard. You’ll just have to lure players in. Like fishing. But if you go into the field, he will be responsible for you in the beginning until you get your bearings and then you’ll be responsible for yourself. Though you’ll work together or independently, you will still be a team working under the same people and towards the same goal. Either way, you have to keep the secret if you want to stay alive. If you try to snitch, he can’t protect you then and you’d only succeed in getting yourself killed. You don’t know what to do. Stay in your old life or go into a new one. By making this irreversible choice, you will carry the burden of knowledge and alter the course of your entire future no matter what you decide.

[mewritestufflol]

Chapter 3: A Vote for Fate...?

Pairing: Kang Dae Ho x Fem!OC Kang Eun-ji

Warnings: Squid game level violence, reunion,Slow Burn,Angst,Graphic Violence,Death,Blood and Injury,Psychological Trauma,Guilt,Emotional Manipulation,Survival Horror,Mild Language.

The players stood frozen in place long after the mechanical voice announced the end of the first game. The bodies still lay where they had fallen, eyes wide, blood soaking into the dirt beneath them. The silence was suffocating.

Eun-ji's breaths were shaky, her fingers digging into her palms. Her entire body ached from how tense she had been, but she forced herself to stay upright. She couldn't show weakness. Not here.

Beside her, Dae-ho remained still, his gaze sweeping over the surviving players. His grip on her wrist had loosened, but he hadn't let go.

Then, the front gates creaked open. The masked guards stood in perfect formation, rifles slung across their chests.

"All players, return to the dormitory."

No one moved at first. No one wanted to turn their back on the bodies. But what choice did they have?

One by one, they shuffled toward the exit.

Eun-ji didn't realize she was holding her breath until she stepped through the gates and the doors slammed shut behind them.

The first game was over.

But the nightmare was just beginning.

The atmosphere inside the dorm had changed. The once-noisy room was now filled with heavy silence, broken only by quiet murmurs and the occasional choked sob. Eun-ji sat on the edge of her bunk, staring at the floor. The number of players had decreased significantly. Earlier, the room had felt crowded. Now, the empty beds stood like grave markers.

Across from her, Dae-ho leaned against the metal frame of the bunk above him, arms crossed. His expression was unreadable.

"You okay?" he asked, voice low.

Eun-ji let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Do I look okay?"

Dae-ho didn't respond. He just kept watching her, studying her like he was trying to figure something out.

She sighed, rubbing her temples. "I just—" She shook her head. "I knew this was bad, but I didn't think it would be this."

Dae-ho exhaled through his nose. "It's worse than you think."

She glanced at him. "You seem awfully calm about this."

He looked away for a moment before meeting her gaze again. "I've seen worse."

Eun-ji frowned. He never talked about his time in the marines. But now wasn't the time to pry.

Suddenly, an alarm buzzed, cutting through the tension in the room. The screen flickered on as the masked manager's voice echoed through the arena.

"Congratulations for making it through the first game. Here are the results of the first game."

The giant pig-shaped bowl hanging from the ceiling was now filling up with money, bills fluttering down like a messed-up kind of snowfall. And beneath it, the sound of digital trilling echoed through the massive room—sharp, jittery, almost like an excited robot losing its mind.

"Out of 456 players, 91 players have been eliminated. Three hundred sixty-five players have completed the first game. Congratulations again for making it through the first game."

A desperate cry rang out. "Sir! Please don't kill us! Please don't kill us. I beg you! As for my son's debt, I will do whatever it takes to pay you back! Please forgive us!"

The masked manager remained unmoved. "There seems to be a misunderstanding. We are not trying to harm you. We are presenting you with an opportunity."

Eun-ji's fingers curled into her palms as she watched the exchange. Opportunity? What kind of twisted game was this?

Then, a familiar voice rang out. "Clause three of the consent form. The games may be terminated upon a majority vote. Correct?"

Eun-ji turned her head to see Player 456, Gi-hun, stepping forward.

The masked manager nodded. "That is correct."

A murmur of hope spread through the players. Could they actually leave?

"Then let us take a vote right now."

"Of course. We respect your right to freedom of choice," the manager replied. "But first, let me announce the prize amount that's been accumulated."

"The number of players eliminated in the first game is 91. Therefore, a total of 9.1 billion won has been accumulated. If you quit the games now, the 365 of you can equally divide the 9.1 billion won and leave with your share."

Eun-ji's mind raced. Could they actually just walk away?

"Each person's share would be 24,931,500 won."

A frustrated voice shouted from the crowd. "Fuck. We almost died, and they're giving us 24 million? That's fucking bullshit."

The masked manager continued calmly, "The rule is that a hundred million won will be accumulated for each eliminated player. If you choose to play the next game and more players get eliminated, the prize amount will increase accordingly."

"So if you're the only one to survive, you get 45.6 billion?" someone asked.

"That's correct."

A mix of excitement and dread swept through the room. The stakes were clear now.

"Now, let's begin the vote. If you wish to continue the games, press the O button. If you wish to end them, press the X button. The vote will be held in reverse order of your player numbers."

A tense silence followed. Eun-ji's heartbeat pounded in her ears.

  Was this her chance to leave? But if she left, then what?

Please tell me how it is and make sure to comment<3 and if you wanna be added to the tag list.

Headers credit: @sisterlucifergraphics tags: @silas-222

[dr-spectre]

honestly the only thing i wish now since team past won is that we don't get a great turf war game.

A more past based aesthetic sounds inherently cooler for a game no matter what people say.

I think i was being a little too harsh and mean towards Team Past and I was riding the high of the Grand Fest....

At the end of the day, what makes Splatoon's world so special is that it's world follows our time, a year passes in our world, a year passes over there. Stopping the timeline would be a bad idea and I think the developers know better. I have faith in them.

I dont think we're gonna get a great turf war game because Splatoon 4 was most likely already in pre-production before the Grand Fest, and they are just choosing what aesthetic to wrap the game in. They probably have a bunch of storylines planned out too and now they can get to work on the next game. That's just how game development works, especially Nintendo ones where gameplay is first and story is second.

The results of the final Splatfest of each game do make an impact but not THAT big of an impact. Callie vs. Marie decided who was gonna play the villain role in the next hero mode as they already placed down the set up for that story line in the songs Tide Goes Out and Bomb Rush Blush, as well as the Splatfest dialogue creating tension between the two.

Marie won so the developers gave Callie some angst, and she strolled down to Octo Canyon, said to good ol' Octavio "Hey I wanna be evil and stuff." And Octavio was like, "aight sick yo. But you gotta wear these hypnotic shades first tho." And Callie was like "COOL! :D"

Chaos vs. Order impacted what the next game was gonna look like aesthetic wise, and even then it's not as extreme as a lot of people envisioned. Splatsville is Inkopolis but basically... a little bit more chaotic and clearly not as wealthy of a city as Inkopolis. Deep Cut's aesthetics and personality were based on the theme of chaos, we would have probably gotten a three person Idol group regardless but what team won in Splatoon 2 impacted what they were gonna look like. The rest of Splatoon 3 is just regular ol' Splatoon. It's not a crazy Mad Max chaotic land like what some were expecting and that Inkopolis was gonna be up in smoke.

And, of course, the losing team was yet again the central theme of the villain, this time, the idea of Order itself and even then its different from how Callie vs. Marie played out. Marina becomes Marina Agitando at the start of the story to get it out of the way and to subvert expectations. And then the real villain, Overlorder takes centre stage.

I dont think we're gonna see the whole "losing team becomes evil" thing because its a tired old trope and it created so much just.... bullshit in the community, I'm gonna be so real. Like you know this already and my stances on Hypno Callie and what people say about her but... I digress!!

I wanna end off my rambles by saying that the best part of Team Past winning, is that Callie and Marie got to win TOGETHER! It feels like the perfect cap to their arcs and it feels... good.... you know? It just, makes me happy that these two girls are just finally happy and are on each other's wavelengths so well. They even show that in Blushing Tide but ive already gushed about that song.

I feel like thematically Team Past/Squid Sisters winning feels.... perfect? It feels... right? I guess? Starting off in darkness and hate, fighting each other, coming together after being reminded of the good times they've had, healing their broken bond, finally winning... as a team...

I think im taking the loss pretty well LMAO! I mean I was on the winning team of Chaos vs. Order so I'm perfectly fine with coming in second place.

[irlkokichiouma]

my pet theory is that any danganronpa media worth its salt has to be a little bit about a corrupt bullshit orginization and how much it sucks. the first 2 games are literally about how the punitive justice system sucks fucking shit. first game shows this by every blackened having a Reason for kilking outside of "murder yaaayyy," yes even celestia, her desire for money is explained in depth from her free time events and how she grew up, everyone had a Reason. sakura's suicide was the result of societal punitive justice instead of institutional and how people who think their moral outrage is good bc its aimed at the "correct targets" will just end up hurting people. second game takes this even furthur and goes "in the first game, punitive justice was bad because all these people were victims of circumstance. can you keep those same morals when the people being subject to punitive justice ARE actual criminals of their own free will?" with the added part about the nwp explicitly being a rehabilitative justice program. kamukura's inclusion and honestly dr:0 as a whole since the whole catalyst was kamukura is just a little bit about how any kind of exceptionally smart child is propped up as Something Amazing and is basically forced to use that talent for the greater good despite any feelings the child themself may have about it or how stuck they feel or how traumatized or tortured they become in the search for and nurturing of that talent, and any child thats not that is constantly told theyre inferior to the former and Why Cant They Be Like That and are seen as lesser-than by everyone around them. ultra despair girls is also kind of about that with the warriors of hope and their backstories. dr3 and v3 fall short because they are not about that at all. dr3's future arc is a bit stronger than despair because it actually is about an institution that sucks and despair's feels too much like an interpersonal thing and All Junko's Fault when the whole point was junko just took advantage of unrest that was already there. v3 is about an Institution That Sucks however the institution is "what if you loved a murder game so much you made it real" which doesnt fucking happen. you can make approximations like comparisons to true crime, reality tv, and for a more specific example that squid game reality show. but they didnt even kill people on that. v3 is critiquing something that does not measurably exist and also it doesnt connect to even a single theme from the rest of the series. my other pet theory is that kodaka is scared of the number 3 and thats why the ones with 3 in them are like that

[457zine]

📣 PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT 📣

We are excited to announce X O: A NSFW Inhun (457) Zine!

Centered around the romantic relationship between Hwang In-ho and Seong Gi-hun of the Netflix Show Squid Game, we hope you're ready for the games!

Interest check open in 2 days! 🦑

⬜ The games are for-profit, with a digital/physical zine book and merch.

🔺 Players are comprised of 25 page artists, 5 merch artists, and 15 writers.

⚪ The plans for the games are tentative and will be based on the interest check results!

🩷 MEET THE MODS 🩷

Our Pink Guards are dedicated to making sure the games run smoothly, so be sure to stay on their good side, or who knows what might happen...

Any other questions? Please refer to our Google Form on our Carrd or our Tumblr Ask. See you on February 9th!

@fandomzines @zineapps @zinefans @zineforall @zinesunlimited @anizines

[uh-velkommen]

Every review I saw for Squid Game season 2 was negative-- saying it was slow, drawn out, or boring and as someone who wasn't particularly enamored with season 1 the way everyone else was, I'm here to say

You are all liars.

Season 2 was as perfect of a follow-up to a season 1 that anyone could ask for. It had the same quality of writing, directing, and acting. The tone was a little confusing at times as this season felt a bit more comical and it didnt have the same scary, desperate feeling that season one gave you but that was entirely due to the set of people participating in the games this time around. That's what I really enjoyed about this season, actually. I worried that having us sit through the exact same games, telling us the exact same message again, would be boring. But this group of folks were entirely different and watching Player 456 try his hardest to save the people, just to sit back and hear them ask how many people died in the last game and then go "that's not enough!" for the sake of raising everyone's take home pay was brilliant.

I feel like the last season really focused on how trapped the players were. Showing that though they knew the stakes, they still tried to hold onto their humanity. It's what gave Gi-hun the motivation to put a stop to the games. But season 2 highlights humanity's selfishness. At times, I questioned why he wanted to keep trying. I went, "This batch is hopeless. Let them die. It's what they voted for." And that picking and choosing of who deserves to live and die is exactly what the games are doing. Gi-hun sees the people around him and falters for a second at their behavior, but in the end, he still wants to save as many people as he can.

Raising the stakes by allowing them to vote after every single game was a great addition because it showed how the people who survived had no problem saying, "One more game!" not considering the people who didn't or won't be able to survive. Unlike the last batch, this group wasn't so eager to kill others in the dormitory to win more money, this time, their free for all was a result of bipartisan voting. There stood a group of people who were acting from a sense of morality, and it was getting in the way of their chance at wealth.

As for the pacing, sure, some scenes and dialogue lingered on a bit longer than they needed to but what I think people were actually complaining about was the fact that we don't spend as much time IN the games as we did in season one. Which says a lot about what people took away from this series. It's the sensationalization of the games themselves. People don't remember character motivations or backstories from season 1. They just remember the red-light green-light song. There were no continued conversations about how people risk their lives turning to loan sharks because systems in place make it impossible to afford to live. Instead, people are talking about how to cook the perfect dalgona. People are buying merchandise instead of protesting. Taking the whole message behind the show and burying it under sweets and nostalgia. So naturally, with season 2, these people were expecting more fun and games, but because the season had its own climax that it was building towards, aside from the games, people grew bored of watching.

It's so backwards because people usually hate when season twos just rehash or repackage what happened in season one. But this time around that's what they wanted, to see people play their lives away. They've categorized the series under a different genre. It's no longer a social commentary to them, it's a survival horror. Pure entertainment.

[dandeliont3aandsageleaves]

To the people who thought it was funny that I got into sonadow and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise through a dream, I'd like you to know this is a regular occurrence. Here is an incomplete list of media I've dreamt about and subsequently got into the fandom/media as a result:

Squid Games: I knew nothing of the show besides it was on Netflix, but ended up dreaming that a bunch of people were kidnapped by a rich guy and that there was an old guy in the group who was in on it. Lo and behold, that was the plot of the show. My subconscious spoiled the first season of Squid Games

My Hero Academia: I had a dream where Todoroki and Izuku were cuddling under a tree. At the time I had no idea who those specific characters were, just that they were from BNHA

Hobbit: Bilbo and Thorin made an appearance in a dream, I don't actually remember what it was about just that they were there and I had to watch the movies after

Fairy Tail: a bunch of characters died in a cave collapse and the world ended. I don't know why, but the fandom carried me through high school

Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow and Sonic were racing each other in the dream, and also hugged and kissed. I also remember there being fandom discourse cause Shadow was like 50 years older then Sonic???? Idk I just got here man