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

28

"I don't think I ever remember most of my childhood." Mi-nyeo starts."I only remember being with my mother. My dad was never really there..."

In warmth of the artificial sunset, Mi-nyeo absentmindedly fishes a marble out of the pouch, putting it up in the light. It sparkles and shines, pretty in its own right.

"I lied, too. I'm not that good at anything. I don't have--nor do I even want a baby." She admits. "But maybe if I did have the chance to learn things, I wouldn't be as bad."

"But people like you have got it good. You're smart, aren't you?" She turns to Hae Young who still says nothing, giving her the time to speak. "SNU, right? Like your boyfriend over there--"

"--He's not my boyfriend." She says bitterly. Mi-nyeo just scoffs at her.

"Well, anyway." She puts the marble back in the pouch. "I'm not as competent as I say I am, but I'm not entirely useless either. I just didn't have as many opportunities as most kids back then which is why I'm probably still in the slumps."

"That's not your fault." Hae Young tells her, though her tone remained monotonous, there was a smidge of truth and honesty to it.

"I know that." She says. "I just wish things were a little better for me back then. But even so..." She stares out in the open. "Even if I was a little smarter and a little more stronger, it's as if I'd still be treated the same way here, and out there." She spits. "Like trash."

"Women always have it bad, don't you think?" She looks up at Hae Young who only gives a small nod. "You should know. As if things aren't bad for us already." Mi-nyeo lets out a cynical laugh. She wishes she had her cigar.

"I don't have a baby and I don't want one." She says. "And all my life I've waited for some man to pick me up from the slums, but they only want one thing." She sighs, sitting back against the metal gate, staring out.

"This is what I regret in life."

"What?" Hae Young answers.

"Being a whore."

She scrunches her brows.

"You're not a whore."

She laughs dryly, sitting herself up to stare Hae Young right in her eyes. "You know, you're the first to ever tell me that. And it's probably because you don't know me, or that you're just being nice."

"You're right, I don't know you, so I can't exactly judge you." Hae Young tells her. "I don't always choose to be an asshole, you know. It's just-- You just push peoples' buttons sometimes."

"It's how you make an impression." Mi-nyeo shrugs. "You assert what you can so people can back off."

You did a pretty bad job at it though, Hae Young wanted to say, but she doesn't.

"We're all just trying to protect ourselves."

"We're all just trying to survive." Hae Young adds for her, earning a brief smile from the woman. "What will you do with the money once you win it?"

"You mean if I win it." Mi-nyeo says. Hae Young stands corrected. "I mean, I would probably pay off my debts, then I'd get a better house. I'll get out of Mia-ri. Go shopping." She smiles. "Everything I couldn't do in my youth. After all, I've got no family to spend it on, no boyfriend to spoil..."

Hae Young nods.

"Is that everything?" She asks her.

"That's all I could really say..." Mi-nyeo says. Hae Young nods, standing from her spot. With shaky hands, she takes her pouch out of her pocket.

"--Not yet." Mi-nyeo stops her, gesturing for her to sit down. "We've got sixteen more minutes." She looks at Hae Young. "Now you tell me your story."

************

In every guess, there was a hesitant pause, as if the two had been stalling the game. It was like an unspoken agreement where they would wait until the time was nearly up. Ali and Gi-Hun sit rigidly on the sandy ground, guessing odd and even marbles in their fists.

"I..." Gi-Hun says, exasperated. He was clearly losing already, with Ali obtaining about half his marbles now. "Let's take a break." He says. "Please."

Ali agrees. Being just as tense as he was, a break was definitely needed.

None of them wanted this. They only wanted to get through this together.

"I couldn't... It's too much." Gi-Hun finally admits. "I can't keep playing right now."

Ali only looks at him, tears pooling in his eyes. He understands, he couldn't keep betting on their lives like this. Though they couldn't exactly blame anyone at this point, it was just unfortunate that it was each other they had to risk just so the other could fulfill their duties as a good father.

"If no one wins, we will both die." Ali points out, and Gi-Hun already knows that. And he's desperate. Sitting on the dusty ground, Gi-Hun tries to coddle himself back to calmness, but it doesn't work. It was like death was breathing down on his neck and could feel it. Ali didn't know what to do to comfort the man. With shakiness, he scoots over to him.

"Do you have a child, sir?" He asks shakily, desperately, not so that Gi-Hun could play and lose against him, but him losing his sanity just wasn't giving Ali hope anymore. "Sir?" He shakes Gi-Hun gently. He looks at him with terrified eyes.

Ali, with calloused hands, holds him steadily by the shoulders as if to confide a child. With such gentleness and empathy, Ali begins a story.

"I have a son." He says. "He's just a little baby boy, and he means everything to me. And my wife..." He tears up at the memory of his family, sitting alone, confused, wondering where he went and what he's doing. Something inside of him wishes that they wouldn't lose hope in him.

"I am doing this for them." He says, hand on his heart. "I'm doing my best for them. And with that, I do not want to kill on their behalf, sir." He says with tears trickling down his face. "I only want to play fair."

Gi-Hun looks at him with the same teary eyes, choking back the lump forming in his throat.

"Do you have a child?"

Gi-Hun nods, thinking about his daughter and the mistakes he's recently made.

"Daughter." He manages to choke out. "I've got a daughter."

Ali nods, understanding whole heartedly. "Then she must mean everything to you."

"The whole world."

"And she waits for you, sir." Ali says, taking his hand as if to beg him to keep playing. "Our children are waiting for us, therefore we must play." He says.

It's better, he thought, for one parent to come out of this hellhole than none. That perhaps, in the friendship they have managed to create in the span of three days brewed this exceptionally complicated link of faith and trust, one of them would come out of this hellhole to take care of their children. They could only hope, but the chances are there. The good ones must win.

This seems to have worked on Gi-Hun, when he slowly unravels himself from his own tangled and shaky limbs. For Ga-Yeong, he thought that he will win the game for her, or die here a clean and noble man, so that in a way he will redeem himself on her behalf. He collects himself once more, wiping the tears away as he prepares the next round of marble. With terrified, but persistent eyes, he looks at Ali and gives him a nod.