Jeju Girls (Squid Game AU)

7: warm on a cold night (1/2)

The girl thinks she can win. 

She imagines the defeated look on her hoobae's face when the clock strikes twelve and they proceed to count their respective yields. Her own pile would consist of more than just bills. She had managed to get her hands on a Rolex watch and a presumably 2-carat ring.

Even with the initial disadvantage, she was sure she was going to win. 

"Last spot of the day," Sae-byeok tells the overconfident shorty. "Choose wisely."

They had decided on taking turns picking spots around the city. Ji-yeong surveyed their surroundings. Most of the shops had already closed; everyone gone home for the day to burrow into their warm beds to shelter from the heavy snow. The pair wandered further into the region, reaching a building that still had its lights on. Sae-byeok could feel the thumping vibrations just by looking at it.

A short-haired woman stood at the counter of the entrance as they entered. "Just two?"

Ji-yeong raised a peace sign at her. The staff member had them pull out their ID's; after scanning them, she had them stretch out their hands. The woman stamps the backs of their skin with a fluorescent pink heart encircled around a capital A.

"Enjoy your visit at Artemis." She said, sending them on their way.

The whole place was lit up only with black lights and flashy white strobes, out of tempo with the music; walls designed with 3D honeycomb shapes, it's corners curved to imitate a dome; the dancefloor sunk into the ground like a fighting arena. To Sae-byeok, it looked like a child's playroom, albeit a very intimidating and overly crowded one.

"Meet you here in 30 minutes?" Ji-yeong asks. Her white hoodie illuminating under the ultraviolet lights, giving her face a mysterious sheen.

"Sure."

The shorty skipped off onto the dancefloor without a word of goodbye, mixing in with the bodies swaying to the music. Sae-byeok knew her hoobae was going to have fun first, whilst she herself would get straight to work, already searching the club for easy targets. Her eyes incidentally meet with a pair that were already set on her.

The stranger smiles. When Sae-byeok doesn't look away, the girl excuses herself from her group of friends, striding towards her. She was wearing a showy outfit: short holographic skirt, flared to show off her long legs; white sweater with a cutout on her chest; two small red neon hearts stamped on her cheeks.

"My name is Hye-jin." The girl twirled a piece of highlighted hair, "What's yours?" 

"Areum."

"That's a pretty name. For a pretty girl." 

There was a look in the girl's glinting eyes that Sae-byeok thought was familiar. She had seen it before in a pair of lighter brown eyes.

"Unnie," Hye-jin's sultry voice drags her back to the present. "Can I buy you a drink?"

The flashy girl circles her arm around the other's, giving her bicep a little squeeze as her ample chest presses into her as well. Sae-byeok felt the hairs on her body rise.

"Let's get to know each other more," the girl with the twin hearts says. 

Sae-byeok couldn't seem to budge.

||

Men.

Although in this case, it was the lack thereof.

Sae-byeok hadn't spotted a single one of them in the club. Just women. Lots and lots of women. Women dressed head to toe in lavish jewelry and tight clothing. Their exposed skin painted with neon patterns. Mysterious animals that danced and grinded onto one another under the pulsating lights. Sae-byeok wondered if Ji-yeong was doing the same.

"Does the drink taste bad?"

The girl's delayed reaction gave Hye-jin the chance to pull the straw of her drink to the other her own puckered lips. Her other hand wrapped around Sae-byeok's. Cold.

"It tastes fine to me. " Hye-jin says innocently, looking at Sae-byeok through her dark curled eyelashes.

She hadn't removed her hand yet.

"I didn't say it tasted bad."

Hye-jin brings the glass close to the other girl's plump lips. "Then why aren't you touching it?"

Sae-byeok doesn't know what to say. Her parted lips lingering at the tip of the straw. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches two women sitting a little too close together. Their hands below the bar counter; smiles too mischievous to be friendly. It was giving off the same vibes as this girl right now. The way her skirt rode up a little too high when she crossed her legs, and the circling of her thumb on Sae-byeok's hand. 

Something goes alight in the thief's thick head.

"Excuse me?" Hye-jin's voice turning rancid. Her tone directed at the short girl with green-orange neon paint swiped across her cheeks. In her hand was the drink she had bought for Sae-byeok.

Ji-yeong ignores the girl's accusing manner, latching her lips around the rim of the glass to take a sip. Her face grimacing as she spits it back out. "Too sweet," she gags.

A/N:
Another bar scene as a double feature. How unoriginal of me.
I was halfway through till I realized this. Too late. Too late.
I promise it'll be the last huhu.

Art: @huyandere (tumblr)