ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣 𝟛𝟟𝟠; [𝕊𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕕 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖]

Calling Card

Jun-ho and Jisoo sat at a stall eating fried chicken together. They ate in silence, not saying a word to each other. Jisoo was embarrassed, first Seok-min paying for her groceries and now she got her dinner paid for? Her pride was hurt. But hunger hurt more.

"Jisoo-ah," Jun-ho finally spoke. "How much do you owe?"

She let out a loud breath, and glanced up at the night sky. "You don't wanna know."

"200 million won?" Jun-ho asked.

Jisoo shook her head and motioned her hand upward.

"500?"

"750 million won." She said, putting her face in her hands. "And I have one month to pay most of it off."

Jisoo laughed bitterly. What a cruel world she lived in. It wasn't fair that her father didn't want her, that he couldn't run a successful business. Why was she paying for all of this?

Jun-ho let out a low whistle, "Damn."

"I'll probably be dead next month, so if you would be the one to put Dae-song in jail for me as my dying wish, I would very much respect that."

Jun-ho slapped her lightly on the back of her head. "You're not dying on me, I already saved your ass once."

Jun-ho had first met Jisoo when she was eighteen, six years ago. She had gambled with counterfeit money, and hadn't gotten away with it. She had been beaten to near death but Jun-ho who was a rookie cop at the time had stepped in and saved her life.

"Yeah, yeah," Jisoo stood up from the stand and took 10,000 won from her pocket. "You're not paying for me."

And with that she left Jun-ho sitting by himself at the stall.

On her way home she bumped into a man carrying a brief case. He dropped it and Jisoo bent and picked it up and handed it to the man. "Mianhae," Jisoo bowed but the man stopped her.

"Park Jisoo?"

She froze. She knew she didn't know this man so how did he know her name. Was he one of the loan shark's men coming to collect their money? She slowly looked the man in the face, and stared him down.

"Would you like to play a game with me?" he asked, leaving Jisoo dumbfounded.

"What?" she said. "Does it look like I want to play games?"

He walked over to a near by bench and opened his brief case. Inside was tons of won, 10,000 won, 50,000 won.

"Park Jisoo, 750 million won in debt, 500 to Lee Dae-song, 100 to Yu Ji-sung, and 150 to Ho Soon-young."

Her eyes widened. How did this man know what she owed people?

"Who are you?" she asked, but received no answer.

"Play a game with me, you win, you receive 100,000 won, you lose, you give me the same."

He took her silence as an agreement and he held up two folded squares of paper. "Red or blue?"

"Blue."

He handed her the blue paper, and offered to let her go first. The game that the two were to play was quite simple. All Jisoo had to do was throw her square at the man's and flip it over. Easy.

Jisoo held the paper square tightly in her hand, and then chucked it down at the man's paper. It didn't flip. She let out an exasperated sound and looked up at the man. "I-I don't have 100,000 won."

And with that the man slapped her across the face. Her face burned and she glared at the man.

"Ya!" She yelled. "What was that for?"

"Each slap deducts 100,000 won that you owe me." The man said.

And with that the game really began. Jisoo lost count of the amount of times she had been slapped by the man in front of her. But, after many tries she managed to flip over his paper. She let out a cry of joy and held her hand out to the man, "Pay up." And he handed her the money, just like he had promised. Jisoo knew she couldn't stop here, so she continued playing. She soon had won a couple hundred thousand won.

"You can win even more playing games," the man said. "All you have to do is call."

And with that he handed her a card with a circle, triangle, and a square. She flipped the card over and saw a number on the back. She looked back up and the man was gone. She took out her phone from her pocket and dialed the number on the back.

"Do you wish to participate in the game?" A male voice came over the phone.

"Yes."

"Please state your name and birthdate."

"Park Jisoo, November 13th, 1994." she stated.

And with that she was signed up for these games. She was to meet someone at midnight at a bus stop and they would take her to the games. She said a silent apology to Seok-min and Jun-ho and headed back to her house.

Jisoo glanced at her phone, 11:50. Ten minutes until she would be heading to the game. She sat on the bench at her designated meeting spot and waited. Before long, ten minutes was up. A van pulled up in front of her and the door opened. She looked inside and saw that everyone was asleep.

"Must've been a long day for everyone." She said to the driver, completely oblivious.

Then, gas came out through the vents. Jisoo moved to cover her mouth, but she had already breathed it in.

And then, she was out cold.