Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 1- Ddakji

Song Dae-eun stepped off the train as she arrived at the intermittent stop, sneakers squeaking on the clean tile floor.
The girl walked around and took a seat on on a bench to wait for the next train, her eyes caramel-coloured in the pooling flood lights overhead.
She turned her stare up to the board displaying times, gleaning when the next train was from the neon LEDs.

23 minutes...

Light footsteps appeared on her left before the bench took on the weight of a second person.
A man, tall, dressed in a smart tailored business suit and carrying a pitch black briefcase.
Dae-eun's jaggedly-cut black hair slightly obscured her vision, thus, she took out a hair-tie and began twisting the band around her locks, save for the one strand which had been dyed hot pink.

Just as she finished, she noticed the man in the suit was looking directly at her, slightly startling her.
"Uh- hello?" She questioned, her gaze lost in his pitch-black eyes.
"Ma'am?"

"Yes?"
"Would you like to play a game with me?" His voice was eerily calm, and the young woman felt unnerved by him, narrowing her eyes as she beheld him.

"What kind of game?" She queried.
The man placed his briefcase on his lap and unclipped the clasps, flipping it open carefully.
He twisted the case towards Dae-eun, revealing its contents.

Two different-coloured folded paper cards, and three stacks of won with ascending value.
Dae-eun's brow knitted together as the man took the folded cards and held them up towards her.
"Are you familiar with the game Ddakji?"

The children's game...?
She nodded, earning a smile from him.
Her suspicion only grew, along with the sense of unease bubbling in her stomach.
This is so sketchy...

"If you can flip over my card, I'll pay you 100,000 won."
The distrust in the woman only grew, free money? Sounds too good to be true.
"And if you flip my card?"

"You will pay me the same."
Dae-eun looked between both cards, then to the briefcase still on the man's lap.
She turned her gaze to the platform they were on, finding it almost empty.

No witnesses...
She finally turned back to the man's eyes, still seeing nothing in the void of his pupils.
It's almost like his soul's missing.

She sighed, giving into her old habit yet again, nodding her head. "Fine, I have nothing to lose."
With a soft, almost imperceptible smile, the man extended both folded tiles to her.
"Choose your card."

She drew the blue, standing up as the man in the suit followed her.
He placed his card down on the floor, gesturing with a polite hand for her to go first.
The young woman held her card up and slammed it down, making the card bounce, but not flip.

She failed.

She grimaced, silently cursing herself as her opponent picked up the red card.
He glanced up at her briefly before throwing it down without hesitation, her card flipped with ease.

She lost.

The man in the suit glanced up towards Dae-eun with a casual tilt of his head.
A lightbulb went off.
Right- pay, of course this was a scam.

"About that..."
He only smiled. "That's alright. How about you use your body to pay?"
"My what-?"

SMACK.
The man immediately slapped Dae-eun in the face, leaving her stunned and stumbling.
Reaching up to touch her now-stinging cheek, she almost feeling the blood rushing to prepare a bruise.