(Gi-hun POV)

The classical music playing and the lights turning on made me wake up and the first thing that came to my mind was that I actually had a nightof good sleep. The second thing were last night's ... incidents. I covered my face with my hands and tried to process everything; Young-il, the way we talked about his past and then how we had... a moment. I took a deep breath, my hands still on my face.

'Focus, Gi-hun. There's another death-game right ahead, there are lives to be saved, there are battles to fight.', I told myself. I couldn't let Player 001 distract me from everything I came here for. "Rise and shine, Mr 456", I heard Jun-hee, the pregnant girl, say; I looked ad her and she gave me a soft smile. With a sigh I stood up and looked around, noticing that the others had already gone to the bathroom. I hurried to follow them when I suddenly heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Wait up", Young-il said, coming towards me and we continued our way to the bathroom. "Morning", I mumbled, considering if I should avoid his gaze or not.

"Hey" Young-il softly grabbed my elbow to make me look at him; we found ourselves alone in the corridor for a moment. "There's no need to be weird around each other.", he said and gave me a smirk. "After all... it just happened. I didn't expect it to happen, but it did – and personally I don't regret it." I returned his grin; it felt good to hear him say it.

"I don't regret it either.", I admitted. "I just can't afford to get...distracted by you." I gave him a meaningful look and he laughed teasingly. "Distracted? Careful, or one could think you actually care."

I rolled my eyes at him and put my arm around his shoulders, squeezing his neck playfully. "Shut it." As we arrived at the bathroom I let go of him to not give the others reasons for suspecting something and also to get some distance so I could focus on the next game.



"The next game is the mingle game" The mechanic female voice sounded from the speakers, explaining the rules of the following game. We all remembered it from our childhood. The round platform we were standing on started rotating and a song started playing – a song I sang along to a thousand times in my childhood. If the situation hadn't been so serious some of us would've probably sang and danced along, but now the only ones dancing were that high rapper and his friend. I caught Young-il's eyes and he smiled at me ironically.



(POV In-ho/Young-il)

"Dunggeulge dunggeulge" CLAP "Dunggeulge dungeulge" CLAP "Binggeulbinggeul doragamyeo chumeul chupsida, Sonppyeogeul chimyeonseo" CLAP "Noraereul bureumyeo" CLAP "La-la-la-la, jeulgeoupge chumchuja"

I had been choosing this catching song for this game on purpose, causing a bloodbath mixed with an innocent dancing song was exactly my kind of dark humor. But now I got even a little worried when I saw the tense faces of Gi-hun and the others. In the end they could all die here because of my idea of having fun. My guards would kill Player 456 like any other, without hesitation...or wouldn't they? I remembered the cameras in the dormitory and froze. 'Shit' I'd have some serious explaining to do if any of my guards or even my right hand in the black overall would have seen what Gi-hun and I did last night. On the other hand... I was still the Frontman. 'Everyone who makes a stupid comment is going to get fired', I thought by myself.

"10 players" The speakers announced the first number in which we should team up and we hectically looked around. We saw the group around the old lady with her son, the trans woman and the fearful looking girl and teamed up with them. "WE'RE MISSING ONE, ONE MORE PERSON!", Dae-ho shouted. The trans woman grabbed the weird shaman lady "Gotcha, WE'RE 10, GO!" We ran to an empty room and closed the door which immediately locked behind us. Gi-hun instantly turned around and looked outside through the small slot and barely a second later the shooting began. I saw him suffering more with every shot we heard and I still couldn't believe it. 'Dude, we are safe! You didn't even take a moment to appreciate that you're alive, you only think about others, how is this possible!?', I wanted to shout, but I stayed as I was, watching him in silence. And still the thought crept into my mind that maybe he was right. 'Bullshit' I pushed the unwanted emotions away. 'Focus, In-ho. Enough that you got carried away last night and completely surrendered to your emotions... now it's time to get back being the bad guy.' I pressed my lips together as if it could make me forget the feeling when they touched Gi-hun's. Waayyy softer than I would've ever imagined...

With a click the door opened and we returned to the rotating platform.

"Dunggeulge dunggeulge" CLAP ...

"4 Players"

It took me less than a second to make a decision. "The four of you go", I shouted towards the others, "I'll find someone, don't worry!" I disappeared into the crowd, raising 3 fingers. "I NEED 3 MORE PEOPLE"

As the round was over and everyone returned it didn't take long until I heard my name – to my disappointment not by Gi-hun. I ran towards where I heard them until I finally saw him. Automatically a wide smile appeared on my face. "Gi-hun!" Our eyes met and I wanted to wrap my arms around him – but couldn't because Jung-bae came between us pulling me into a hug. I paused in surprise, again searching for Gi-hun's gaze until Jung-bae let go of me. Gi-hun looked sincerely relieved when he said: "Oh thank god. You got me a little worried there." My smile got bigger.

"Don't worry, the bad penny always turns up again."

"Very funny.", Gi-hun rolled his eyes at me, "Still I should prefer that you stay alive a little longer."

"And why is that?", I teased him with big puppy dog eyes and he gave me a meaningful look.

"You know that very well. But now focus on not being killed, Player 001."