(POV In-ho/Young-il)

A scary silence took over when we were moving forward through the colored labyrinth of playful stairs and little balconies. The captured guard led the way, actually heading towards the management area. 'Such loyal coworkers', I thought sarcastically and shook my head. The trans-woman was smart enough to destroy every camera on our way but still I knew that the masked soldiers were on their way.

"EVERYONE DOWN!", Dae-ho shouted and a moment later we heard the shooting. The bullets were everywhere but like a miracle we all managed to hide behind the railings and remained unharmed. The 3 soldiers however got shot by our bullets and we continued our way. With every meter we moved forward I asked myself where the hell my employees were? 'Nothing better to do than letting intruders take over, huh?'

We had almost reached the management area and I sent an annoyed thought to my first officer in charge: 'I'll see all of you in my office after this and we've got some serious talking to do.'

"That's...that's the entrance to the management area and there's the control room right above.", the boy-guard stuttered and got a mask from his pocket. "You'll need a mask to get in..." He couldn't finish his sentence because he was shot in the head by soldiers who had approached unnoticed. 'I should urgently revise my security system', I thought with a silent sigh.

The same moment the shooting began anew and this time we could tell that they clearly outnumbered us by far. One player got killed and as his blood was spreading on Dae-ho's face I could tell that fear had taken control over him. He fired like crazy, wasting a great amount of ammo while barely hitting someone.

"I'LL TRY TO GET TO THE CONTROL ROOM, WE CAN'T LET THEM ESCAPE!", Gi-hun shouted over the noise.

"WILL YOU FIND IT? SHALL I COME WITH YOU?", I shouted back to him, ready to get up and follow him into his deadly mission.

"I NEED YOU HERE, I'LL GO WITH JUNG-BAE" 'Jung...Jung-bae?' For a moment I completely lost it and a feeling overwhelmed me I would never have expected: jealousy. I was furious, my heart racing, my stomach felt like someone tied a knot into it and I couldn't breathe – jealousy was completely eating me up. Since Gi-hun was already gone he didn't notice what was going on inside me, but hell, I felt it. In a deadly place where bullets were flying around our heads and I could here the screaming from the dying, I, Hwang In-ho, Frontman, the head of this whole thing, was jealous.



(POV Gi-hun)

It actually worked, we could easily enter the management area with the mask. 'Those villains are weird', I thought by myself, 'so much creativity for brutal games, but when it comes to their system of security, there's a massive lack. Stupid'

"Why did you take me?", Jung-bae broke the silence, "You could've gone with Young-il"

"Because you are my friend", I answered, trying to avoid any subject concerning Young-il.

"You only remember that I'm your friend in situations like this", Jung-bae snorted. "But I'm not stupid and not blind. You're drawn to him, Gi-hun. He seems like a total red-flag but still you can't get over him."

"Can we please discuss this another time?", I sighed, "Me and Young-il is barely a suited topic for a suicide mission."

"Okay, understood. But still... it was kinda weird seeing the two of you together. I had no idea that you liked dudes." 'Well, me neither', I thought but the guards suddenly attacking us saved me from having to answer. The shooting continued and I knew that we had to be very close to the control room, but it was obvious that the two of us wouldn't be enough to take over. And worse, more and more we were lacking of ammunition. A sharp pain suddenly pierced through my left arm's skin – I got hit. Fortunately it was just a graze, but there was no sense in denying that it got more and more dangerous for us.

"YOUNG-IL", I shouted into the walkie-talkie, "WE NEED EXTENSION HERE!"

"WE'RE LOW ON AMMUNITION BUT WE'LL TRY TO GET SOME", Young-il's voice yelled back. "WE'LL COME TO YOU AS FAST AS WE CAN"

He sounded stressed out but not in panic – and most important of all, he was alive. The thought gave me strength. I hadn't even thought about him being in danger, risking his life – Young-il was always so...smooth, so tough like nothing could ever make him lose his cool facade. Until he had opened up to me. He had made himself vulnerable in front of me – and the next moment I had led us all to a deadly mission. How could I have been so stupid? But Young-il was strong, he was not to be underestimated. I had saw him fight that rapper with his bare hands, Young-il clearly had skills far beyond our knowledge. I focused on the shooting and we were giving our all, when finally Young-il arrived with Player 015 and Player 047.

"Gi-hun! How are you! What's happening here?" He was out of breath but there was no fear in his eyes.

"We can't break through, there's too many of them.", I answered. "Maybe you could find another way and attack them from behind?" Young-il nodded and looked around.

"I had the chance to take a look at the room layouts, there should be another way to get to them." He turned to leave with the others but I grabbed his shoulder. "Wait." I pulled ammo from my pocket and closed his fingers around it. "You'll need this." Young-il inhaled in surprise and the look in his eyes was bewildered and moved at the same time. He knew exactly that we were as low on ammunition as them.

"Gi-hun, are you sure?" I nodded and our eyes locked. For a moment everything around us disappeared and it was just the two of us looking at each other knowing it could be the last time. I don't know who of us moved first but we pressed our lips together in a hard, desperate kiss, holding each other firmly one more time. And letting go. Feeling Jung-bae's confused gaze on me I watched Young-il disappear.