The door slid shut behind us without a sound. In-ho started slowly walking towards the back of the room, taking advantage of the distracted players. The room was dark as the only light was provided by the illuminated bank, which made it easier for us to move without being detected. I decided to stay near the front of the room, only because I didn't want to be seen with In-ho.

Once the money was deposited into the bank, the square masked guard started speaking again. He announced the total of money in the bank and told us what we would get if we decided to leave the game. A few of the players complained, claiming that they should be making more than that, but others begged and pleaded for them to end the games, valuing their lives.

We all turned and walked towards the back of the room as we waited for our number to be called. The voting podium was brought in and the floor was lit with two different colors: red on the X's side and blue on the O's side.

Tensions in the room spiked as player 456 was called to cast his vote. I recognized him: he was the winner of a previous game. Why had he come back to play again? Surely he hadn't blown all his money already? Well, I do remember reading in his file that he was a gambler, maybe he had come to risk his life again for the money?

I, too, was a gambler, but I would never risk my life for this money. The odds were not favourable at all.

Without an ounce of hesitation he pressed the X button and was handed a red patch to put on his jumpsuit. He took it and swiftly went to stand on the Xs side of the room.

The first half of the vote went smoothly, but it felt like it went on forever. It was perhaps one of the most boring things I've ever had to sit through, and that's saying something. This doesn't even compare to sitting through the training meetings that were required yearly; at least those were somewhat entertaining. Listening to In-ho explain the rules of the games to the new hires was always amusing.

I glanced around the room, trying to assess the competition. There was a large variety of people: old, young, male, female, some with dyed hair, some with interesting tattoos...

Finally, my gaze landed on In-ho. He was, like me, looking around the room. I noticed he spent an unusual amount of time looking at player 456. No doubt, In-ho was as curious as me as to why he had rejoined the game. Only a mad-man would risk his life for money, and he didn't seem mad at all. Strange, maybe, but not crazy.

In-ho must have felt my gaze on him as he turned towards my direction, meeting my stare with an intense look. His dark eyes held mine, unreadable yet piercing. He looked at me as if challenging me to look away, I wanted to shrivel up and hide from him, but as quickly as he looked at me, he looked away. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and went back to looking around the room.

A few more players were called up and the vote was almost tied: 100 X's to 110 O's. The most recent player who voted was player 250, who decided to stay in the game. She was handed a blue patch and proudly put it on her chest before walking towards the blue side of the room. Before the next player could be called up, a voice broke out through the otherwise silent room.

"I've played these games before!"

Everyone seemed to pause as they turned towards him, waiting for him to continue.

"I knew about the first game because I have played this before! If we don't vote to go home, we will all die!" The desperation in his voice was apparent as he begged the people to leave. It was clear the past game had impacted him deeply.

So, he didn't come because he wanted to, that was for sure. But why had he returned if not for the money?

A few players challenged him, saying that they needed more money to pay off their debts. Others on the X side of the room pushed back, saying that they wouldn't have a debt to pay if they were dead. Tensions rose throughout the room. The players who had already voted defended their choices, while those yet to vote watched them argue.

"Yeah, well if I got out of here without the money I am as good as dead anyways! I am 10 billion won in debt!"

Unfortunately, I did have to agree with the old man, who I realized was player 100. If these people came in here to pay their debts, why would they leave with nothing? If he was in as much debt as he claimed, there was no chance in hell he would be able to pay that off without winning. I doubted he would win, though. No one of his age or physique had won in the years I had been here.

The voices increased in volume until they were yelling insults at each other. It was interesting how fast violence would start in a place like this. A place with equality, no rules, and no consequences. Alliances quickly formed: X's sticking with X's and O's with O's.

Before it could get physical, a gunshot rang throughout the room quieting everyone.

"We will not allow anything that impedes the democratic process." The masked manager called out, silently ordering the triangle guard to lower his gun.

The rest of the vote went uneventfully. When it was finally my turn, the vote was almost even: 180 X's and 185 O'— Keyword being almost. It didn't matter what I voted since we would be continuing the game no matter what. I walked through the crowd hesitantly, yet purposefully. When I got to the podium I quickly cast my vote and put the blue patch on my chest. The players on my side of the room cheered, and the people on the other side didn't bother to watch the vote, silently accepting their fates.

Finally, player 001 was called up. He walked up the aisle confidently, almost commanding the room with his presence. He also pressed the O button and the room cheered as he put on his patch and joined me on the left side of the room, though keeping his distance.

"The majority has voted to continue. The next game will be held tomorrow, good luck." The manager and the other guards left the room, and more came in to distribute food. We all lined up and got our meal.

Once I got to the front of the line, I could hear the guard scoff under his mask. Avoiding my gaze, he shoved my food into my hands. I recognized him instantly, guard 22. He had been fighting for a promotion—my promotion. He had been cross with me ever since I had gotten it.

It took everything I had not to scoff back, but I had an alias to maintain. I found a bed on the top row, so I had a good view of the whole room. I took out my food and started eating. An unpleasant taste assaulted my tongue and I had to force myself to finish.

I watched as In-ho got his food and sat on a bed near the bottom. He ate his food in silence, observing the players just like me. He had mentioned having a plan for us, but when was he going to act on it? I hoped he would do it soon: I wanted to go into the pentathlon with an ally. In a game like that it was crucial to have people you trust on your team.

This thought made my pulse spike. What if he didn't actually have a plan and was just waiting to see what I was going to do? What if he was waiting for me to form an alliance? Was this all a test?

I scanned the room, looking for potential companions. My gaze landed on the man from earlier, player 456. Logically, he would be the best person to team up with. He had played and won these games before, so he knew what he was doing. Also, I wanted to observe him. Why did he come back here? It would also be amusing to see what he would say about the games.

With all this in mind, I decided to go and talk to him. I didn't have a plan at all, hopefully the words would come to me when I started talking.

I climbed down from my bed and made my way over to where he was sitting. As I reached the middle of the room— right where it turned from the X side to the O side— I felt a sharp gaze on my back. I knew who it was, of course, but my curiosity got the best of me and I turned to look, meeting In-hos fiery gaze with one of my own. In that short second, we seemed to have a whole conversation. A question. A challenge. A silent understanding.

Seemingly satisfied, he averted his gaze and went back to eating his food. I gathered all of my courage and walked towards player 456. It felt like the entire room watched me as I walked across the line over to the X side.

Finally, I reached 456 and realized that he was sitting with someone else, player 390. They were clearly friends before the game; they seemed too comfortable with each other for them to have met just recently.

As I approached, they stopped their conversation and looked at me— though not in a bad way. They were clearly curious about me just like I was about them.

"Player 456," I began, my voice slightly trembling. "Thank you for saving us during the first game." I bowed my head, trying to convey a sense of gratitude.

Although I didn't play in the first game, I knew that he did try to save everyone as significantly less people died than normal.

"You don't have to thank me, I was just trying to save as many people as I could." His gaze traveled down towards my chest and the blue patch sitting on it. His brows furrowed, but he didn't look at me with disdain like I had expected, just interest.

I figured I should probably say something to get on his good side. "Ah— sorry for voting to stay! There just isn't enough money in there to pay off my debts. Even if I got out I wouldn't live long." I looked down, trying to play into the act.

456 glanced at me, his expression unreadable at first. Then, after a moment he let out a chuckle, though there was no amusement in it. "I understand, we are all just trying to survive."

390 agreed with him, bringing up a time in the past where 456 apparently lost all of his money betting on horses. I laughed with them, not only because I was trying to win them over. They seemed like genuinely good people, but their circumstances were... not the best.

The conversation between us flowed easily, all of us talking about our experiences outside of the game. We all had a shared interest in gambling, unfortunately. I learned that is how Seong Gi-hun, player 456, ended up in the game in the first place. He had gambling debts and he wanted to pay for his mothers treatments, but she had passed when he returned from the game.

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt at that confession. I couldn't imagine his pain of going through the whole game for his mother, winning, and returning home only to find her dead on the floor. I never had a good relationship with either of my parents, but I was able to sympathise with him.

Player 390, Park Jung-bae, talked about his life too. I learned that he was an ex-marine and he was divorced, just like Gi-hun. I tried to focus on the conversation, but I was too worried about having to share my past. I wasn't sure what kind of backstory In-ho had created for us, and I didnt want to ruin his plan.

After some more laughter, the conversation shifted towards me. I felt that it was only fair that I told them about myself, as they had already shared so much. Perhaps I could tell them about my other job as a waitress? I worked there most of the year, only stopping when the games started. Although this job did pay me enough to not have to work, I decided I needed a job to keep myself busy.

As I opened my mouth to speak, both of their eyes turned to look at something over my shoulder. Unfortunately, I heard what it was before I saw it.

"Yeobo! What are you doing here?"

I froze, my blood running cold. Yeobo? It was undeniably In-hos voice, but why was he calling me that? There is no way that he thought us being married was a good cover story. How would he even explain it? Our age gap was enough to make people suspicious.

I turned to make sure he was actually talking to me, but before I could get a word out he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a firm embrace. I forced my body against its will to hug him back. I put my arms around him, hoping it appeared natural. Thankfully, with my face buried in his chest, I didn't have to fake a smile— at least not until I pulled away.

As I stepped back, I mustered a small, forced smile and met his gaze, "Me? What are you doing here?"

He cleared his throat, trying to act embarrassed, "I may have... more debts than I told you about." A small smile spread on his face as he continued, "I just wanted to pay them off without you worrying." His eyes bore into mine. On the surface, they looked full of love and admiration, but I knew it was a ploy. He took my hands in his and gave them a firm squeeze. From an outside perspective he looked like a loving husband, but the truth was far from it.

"Without me worrying? What would I have done if you just left without telling me where you were going? What if you just disappeared without a trace?" Somehow I managed to make my voice crack just right so it showed the sadness and betrayal I was supposedly feeling.

"Ah, don't worry about the past. We are both here now and that's what matters. We will both make it out alive." He snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me in close to him, and I couldn't deny the flush that spread throughout my body.

Desperately wanting to change the subject and trying to ignore the feeling of his hand on my waist, I started talking about the first thing that came to my mind. "These are my new friends, Seong Gi-hun and Park Jung-bae." I nodded towards each of them as I told In-ho their names.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you my name, how inconsiderate!" A small chuckle escaped my lips as I told them my name, "I am Lee Min-ji." I slightly bowed my head in respect as I addressed them. "And this is my husband, as I'm sure you could guess."

"I am Oh Young-il." He said with a smile. "Nice to meet you both."

The conversation flowed smoothly after that. In-ho told them about our 'marriage' and how he was in debt for taking a bribe. He told them that he was a police officer, but was fired for taking that bribe. I added to the story occasionally, providing details to make it seem more believable.

Although I never talked with him about his past, I could tell that he was telling the truth—at least somewhat. The way his eyes watered and his voice slightly trembled when he talked about his late wife wasn't just acting.

Eventually, I ended up telling them that my parents had overdosed when I was a teen and left me with their debts. I had told them I was a baker by day and a waitress by night, working over 60 hours per week to help pay my debts and support us when Young-Il had gotten fired.

Somehow, the conversation shifted towards our ages, a turn I was not too enthusiastic about, though I was interested to see how In-ho would play it off. Gi-hun mentioned that he was 47, Jung-bae was two years older than him at 45.

Because we have talked about it before, I knew that In-ho was 46, but when it was his turn to share he casually stated, "I'm 40."

"My job as a police officer definitely impacted my looks..." He said with a chuckle, and I couldn't help but laugh along.

"Same here," I said. "I'm 30, though I have been told I look younger."

Jung-baes eyes widened as I told them my age. "Yeah no kidding! You look 20!"

I couldn't do anything but shrug and laugh along. I really was 25, but a few white lies never hurt anyone. Besides, they would most likely be dead in a few days.

The rest of the night went by without any issues, no fights or arguments from anyone. Jung-bae and In-ho lead the conversations while me and Gi-hun mainly stayed quiet and listened. It turned out that In-ho was a great actor. He was able to sympathize with everything they said and make up lies about our marriage. When it was announced there was ten minutes left until lights out, the discussion turned towards the sleeping arrangement.

Gi-hun stood up, stretched, and scanned the small area we had claimed for ourselves. He mentioned earlier that the last time he was here fighting broke out at night, but In-ho was able to convince him that everyone was too tired to fight. Thankfully, he decided to not build a defense. Our area was in a corner of the room, so we had a bit of privacy and protection.

"I don't think anything will happen tonight, but we should be prepared just in case. Min-ji, you should sleep in the bed closest to the wall and Young-il can sleep beside her." Gi-hun explained, "Me and Jung-bae will sleep in the beds above you both."

Not seeing a flaw in his plan, we all agreed and went to move towards our beds. Once I settled in, I made a mental note to thank whoever designed these beds. I was beyond grateful they were only big enough for one person: I would have done anything to avoid sleeping with In-ho. Sleeping beside him was enough to make me anxious.

I pulled the blanket over me and heard the bed creak above me as 456 and 390 crawled into their beds. I felt movement beside me as In-ho sat in the bed directly to my left. I felt a bit claustrophobic—the wall on my right, beds above me, and In-ho to my left. The only way of escape was how I entered my bed: through the foot of it.

"Lights out in 3, 2, 1."

The room went completely dark for a moment until the light from the piggy bank engulfed the room in a dull, orange hue. It was enough to light the room, but not enough to be distracting nor annoying. The room was silent— save for the occasional cough, sniff, or snore.

I turned on my side, deciding I would rather face the wall than be inches away from In-hos face. As hard as I tried, I just couldn't fall asleep. After what felt like hours, I turned and faced In-ho. Thankfully, his back was towards me. I studied the way his back rose and fell with every breath he took. Although I could only see his back, he did look somewhat peaceful— I almost felt bad for what I was about to do.

I reached my hand out and poked him in his back. I figured that we needed to talk about today privately. The only way to do that would be pretending to go to the bathroom. The guards would let us out, of course, the only challenge would be making sure that no one else followed.

The instant my finger collided with his back his rhythmic breathing came to a halt. He let out a soft sigh and turned to face me. My heart stopped. The day clearly had an impact on him, he had massive eye bags and his eyes were like slits as he looked at me, but he had never looked so attractive.

I didn't want to attract too much attention, so I whispered the only thing I thought of to get the point across, "Bathroom?"

His brows furrowed and I could tell he wanted to complain and tell me to go back to sleep, but right before he said anything the deeper meaning of my message seemed to hit him. He, reluctantly, got up and I followed him across the room and to the door. Since most of the players were asleep, I doubted anyone saw us leave.

He knocked on the door, but once the guard saw who it was it wasn't even a second before it opened and let us through. The bright lights of the hallway hit my eyes and I had to hold back a flinch. In-ho mirrored my discomfort, but he decided to rub his eyes— no doubt trying to rub the exhaustion away.

"Take us to my room, please." He commanded the guard who complied without so much as a huff.

The colorful halls seemed to go on forever, each step felt like a drag as my body finally realized how exhausted it was. Of course I would be tired the second I wasn't allowed to sleep. Once we reached the room, In-ho told the guard to wait outside as we would only be a few minutes.

As much as we wanted to crawl into our own beds, we both knew that we had to get back to the main hall soon to not raise suspicion.

I walked into the dimly lit room and threw myself onto the couch. In-ho shut the door and joined me on the couch, but not before getting us both a drink. He handed the cup to me and the smell hit me instantly—well, rather the lack of smell. It was just water, unfortunately. I decided to save my energy so instead of arguing about the drink, I talked about things that were actually important.

"Why on earth did you think us being married would be a good idea?"

"Why not? It's the easiest way for us to be seen together without them getting suspicious."

I had to summon every ounce of self control not to scoff in his face. Why not? He could not be serious.

"Well—number one— our age gap." I started off confidently, but I realized that issue had been taken care of already. Our lies about our ages seemed to satisfy Gi-hun and Jung-Bae, so they would no doubt fool the rest of the players, if they even cared about asking.

"You were saying..." He took a sip of his drink, but I could hear the hint of sarcasm in his voice.

I huffed, crossing my arms as I searched for another argument, which should have been easy to do, but my eyes burned and my mind was clouded with exhaustion.

"People will ask questions. How did we meet? How long have we been together? If we don't have the same story people will be suspicious."

He set his drink on the side table with a soft clink and answered my question, perhaps a bit too quickly.

"We met 4 years ago, I was still a police officer and you were working the morning shift at the bakery. I came in with my squad to get some stuff for the station, and the rest was history. Simple."

This whole situation was ridiculous. If you had told me, mere hours ago, that I would be here creating a marriage backstory with my boss I would have called you crazy. I had to hold back a laugh about the absurdity of the situation. I did have to admit, though, that he had a point. Us being married was the best option for us so that we could be seen together and no one would question it.

"Ok, that could work." I sighed, reluctantly accepting his idea.

I glanced over at him only to find his eyes already on me. There was something unusual in his expression— almost like he was... nervous?

"What?"

"I-" He started, but couldn't find the right words. "You probably won't like what I'm about to say, but think about it logically before anything else."

Now my curiosity was piqued. What could he possibly say that would surprise me, even after everything he's said today. I gave him a nod— silent promise— and he continued.

"In order to make them believe us, words won't be enough." He stole another glance at me, but looked away quickly when he met my gaze. I have never seen him this nervous before in all the seven years I've worked here. But what was he talking about? Why wouldnt words be enough?

"What are you implying?" Right as the words left my mouth I realized what he meant. My blood ran cold for the second time that day. He couldn't mean...

"We're going to have to act like a married couple." His voice came out strained, and I knew he disliked this as much as I did.

Before I could question him, he explained further, "We won't have to do anything further than holding hands, but we do need to be... visually affectionate."

"So we just need to stand close together and hold hands? Sounds easy enough." I let out a sigh I didn't know I was holding. I took the last sip of water that was left in my cup and placed it on the side table.

He nodded and visibly relaxed. "Just follow my lead and try to make it believable." He let out a soft chuckle before continuing, "When I held you today you were as stiff as a board."

I felt my cheeks burn as I remembered his touch, the way his arm fit perfectly around my body. "Yeah, well, it isn't every day you get hugged by your boss."

Although I wasn't looking at him, I could clearly picture the smirk plastered on his face."You'll have to get used to it if we are going to sell this."

I grumbled something in response as I stood up and took both of our cups. I figured that we should get back to the main hall— who knows how long it's been, and I wanted to rest before tomorrow.

In-ho seemed to get the hint. He stood up and walked towards the door. He seemed unusually chipper for someone who was sleeping minutes ago.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say that you planned this."

A soft chuckle escaped his lips as he smiled at me. He didn't deny it nor agree. Did he really plan this or was this just an unintended consequence for joining the game? Before I could think too much about it, he held the door open for me.

"Let's get back to bed, yeobo."

I couldn't deny the flush that went through my body when he said that or the flutter in my stomach. He said it so casually, so sincerely, that it actually felt like we were married. I shook my head, trying to dismiss the warmth spreading through me. I knew that we were only pretending, but still.... the thought of him holding me and calling me his? That made me feel something I couldn't ignore.

Why was I letting this get to me? It was fake.

I took a deep breath and walked towards the staircase, forcing myself to focus on anything but In-ho. Which was difficult, considering his hand was around my waist and his chest was pressed against my back.