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

18

"If you don't want to get hurt, then let the men do the heavy lifting"

244 tells Hae Young . She had picked up a metal beam with the wrong hand and only strained her open wound. She hissed at the pain, dropping it loudly as she assessed her fresh wound.

Hae Young just scowled at the man, who carried a single beam in both of his hands, she used her uninjured hand this time, lifting the heavy metal bar with one hand and crouching down to catch it by her shoulders. It was heavy, but she managed better than the old man. 244 stares at her in shock, yet she looks back at him with a smirk.

"What's the matter? Does seeing women stronger than you hurt your masculinity?" She smirks, waddling toward the barricade and setting the beam down.

Gi-Hun just smiles at her proudly.

"It's what I've developed over the years of carrying a man twice my size." She shrugs at Gi-hun. Carrying her sick father just had its perks. Though she was nowhere near as strong as Ali, who came to their end with several beams in his arms. He gives them a wide grin.

By the time the barricade had been set, everyone gathered by the base of the platform. "Someone needs to stand guard." Gi-Hun says, "In case someone decides to attack us in the middle of the night."

"I'll do it." Hae Young offers without hesitation. "I just woke up from a nap after all. It will be a while until I fall asleep."

Gi-Hun nods.

"But what if someone actually decides to attack? Can you fight?" Mi-nyeo added, though Hae Young has no retort. For once, the woman actually made sense.

"Then I'll stand guard with her." Sang-Woo offers much to her surprise. "And If I get tired, we can just take shifts."

"That sounds alright." Gi-Hun nods, glancing at the clock displayed before all the players. Just a few more seconds until lights out, everyone finally decided to settle for the night.

The two guards sit rigid by the top most platform, having a full view of who decides to sneak up to the barricade as they sleep. With the last second finally going down, the room is submerged into darkness, with only the faint glow of the half-filled piggy bank illuminating the room. Then silence. A whole half-hour of it. Eventually, when they realized Deok-su and his team decided to lay low for the night, they had to put their guard down.

"Hae Young." Sang-Woo starts, speaking slowly in the suffocating silence. There was a bit of hesitation as he said her name, like it was foreign and forbidden. Hae Young just turns to him.

"How is your hand?"

"What?" She asks, confused.

He just sighs, taking her injured hand again without warning. He turns her palm upward to where it faced him, opening up her fingers so he can get a clearer view in the dark. She lightly winces at the slightest pressure of his touch.

"You shouldn't leave it untreated for too long. It might get worse." He says coldly, then reaches for a water bottle sitting next to him.

"What are you doing?" She asks him.

He looks at her briefly, unscrewing the cap.

"Treating your wound."

He trickles water on her bloodied palm, her hand wincing on the sudden cold contact. Though slowly she eases into the droplets of water and the gentleness of his hands rubbing the blood and dirt away. His hands were calloused, too, burnt and bloodied with his own rope burns from the previous game, though hers was worse. The cut had deepened and tore the outer layer of her palm where blood had spread and dried. He cleaned it with such familiar gentleness that Hae Young didn't realize she'd missed.

He takes the hem of his shirt, ripping only the hem with his teeth. Hae Young rolls her eyes.

"That's not necessary you know." She tells him.

"You want the cut to get deeper?" He taunts.

She doesn't answer.

With the cloth he'd ripped out from his shirt, he tightly wraps her palm so that her cut wouldn't bleed as much anymore.

"There." He says, though hands lingered with hesitance as if he didn't want to let go of her hand. Not yet.

It was like Sang-Woo was stuck at a crossroads, holding her hand with such caution mid-air that it looked rather awkward. But he missed the warmth of her hands, when she'd hold them in her coat pockets to keep them warm during the winter, or when she'd absentmindedly trace characters on the back of his hand. Tracing, and drawing; circles, and words he'd lightly smile at. He sighs, finally letting go. Hae Young hives him an odd look.

"Thanks." she says, and looks away.

Then, there was just silence again.

"You know, that's not what I meant." He sighs.

She just looks at him in confusion.

"I mean, when I said-- Your hand--" He stammered. "It's not because I saw it as a hindrance to the game. I just... Don't want you getting hurt."

Hae Young just nods. "I understand." She says.

No one says anything else apart from short sighs, or uneasy glances, when there was something that lingered in between but they couldn't acknowledge it. Abstract and unseen, or perhaps they chose not to see it. Maybe some things are just better left unsaid or unacknowledged. When there are too many things to explain. Sang-woo had to remind himself of where he was, and why he was there in the first place. Why he joined to play and to win, not to reunite with old friends and lost love. Though, if only he knew the overloaded thoughts that ran in her mind. To Hae Young, all of the things she wanted to tell him ran rapidly and it was louder than the silence in the room. They just needed to talk, but not here.

The next few hours fall in, all spent in silence.

Though the tiredness hardly crept in for Hae Young, the sudden weight on her shoulder surprised her.

"Sang-woo?" She whispers, though he does not answer. She gazes at his face. He was already fast asleep.

"Sang-Woo, you've fallen asleep." She nudged, but he was already in too deep. He had always been a heavy sleeper.

She sighs, removing her jacket and gently as she could, she frees her shoulders from Sang-Woo's increasing weight, catching his head with the fabric of her jacket. Slowly, and gently, she lays him down with her jacket as a pillow. Then, she approaches the sleeping Gi-Hun.

"Wake up." She nudges. Gi-Hun jolts awake.

"Sang-woo fell asleep. Are you awake enough to stand guard?"

Gi-Hun prompts himself with a soft groan, looking over his sleeping friend. He nods fervently. "Alright." He said. "Let's go."