EGOIST (Sang Woo x Fem!OC) [COMPLETED]

2

It was the bright fluorescent lights and an oddly comfortable bed that snapped Hae Young back to consciousness. A slowed version of the Blue Danube plays from hidden speakers in the large room. In her post-wake haze, she had thought that the haziness of the warehouse-sized room was almost dream-like, and perhaps it was. But the more she woke up, the more she realized that it wasn't. Curious, she looks down, her rain-soaked office attire gone and replaced by a green tracksuit with a number patch sewn on the left chest. 099. And looking around, she realized everyone was wearing the same thing. Getting off their beds, huddling to the center of the room where stacked metal-framed beds surrounded them. This place felt like a stadium; so big yet crowded at the same time. Though she remembers that she had signed up for a game, she did not expect to be in a place like this--whatever is place is even. Despite the brightness and the people in tracksuits, this place was ominous, and she somehow couldn't help but feel lonely in the numbered crowd.

She looks over, finally standing from her oddly comfortable bed as she makes her way down the platforms. Before her, a crowd gathers even larger, where a commotion brews. Two players butt heads in the center space, though she was lost as to what was happening. When Hae Young went closer to take a better look, she witnessed the larger 101 pulling a kid by the roots of her hair, until a familiar man joined in.

Hae Young knows him.

456 shakes the kid from the collar, screeching.

She knows him.

The commotion brewed even more, with 101's attention now divided from the scrawny kid to the other man, running around the crowd in circles, calling for help from someone they don't even know.

"Help!" He yelled, avoiding the bigger man's advances with little ease. "He's going to attack me! He--"

A buzzing noise came from somewhere around the room that shocked everyone to alertness. as the metal doors before them open up to marching, booted, feet. A bit of hope washed over him to think that they would be men who'd stop 101 from further harassing them.

Except, they weren't.

Everyone falls silent in the echoing room as Strauss dominates the air. Masked men in bright magenta suits make an entrance by the front of the doors. Ants. Hae Young noted. Those men in masks looked like ants, white circles painted over their black ones, as a singular square-painted mask steps forward steps forward from the line. He speaks.

"I would like to extend a hearty welcome to you all."

His voice was low, indiscernible, and it sent a chill down her spine. She reckoned that maybe there is a voice modulator somewhere behind that mask, yet it still managed to make him sound inhuman. Cold, and emotionless. Unidentifiable. Something was already wrong, she could tell. If not for the obvious kidnapping, the obscure place they were in, and men in masks that somehow have control over the room. This place was either a prison or an experimental facility. Either way, none of them were game shows, and Hae Young already wants out.

"Everyone here will participate in six different games over six days. Those who will win all six games will get a handsome cash prize."

"How are we supposed to believe you?" One speaks out from the crowd, already inciting a questioning of authority. "You suddenly put us to sleep, take our phones and wallets away, then bring us to this mysterious place. Now you show up saying you'll pay us handsomely for playing a few games?"

It was all too good to be true, that's probably what they meant. There was a catch here if the prize money was so easy to obtain. Hae Young looks around the room, scanning watchful, uneasy faces. Some did not hide their apprehension, and some were indiscernible. They were all a group of strangers trapped in a large room with no knowledge of where they were, what was happening, and who these people were; panic should ensue soon.