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

41

There is uneasy quietness, as Deok-su carefully eyes the three huddled into one corner of the room. To him, it was either a feast or a trap, though none of the four players had the energy left to attack for the night. There was anticipation somewhere; where three of those who stayed awake were ready to leap at any moment. For now, it was just the quiet before the storm.

Sitting on the floor by the foot of his bed, in his exhausted state, Sang-Woo still tries to figure out the last game. The last performance as they had been told. It was ominous and uncertain, being eaten alive by this battle of curiosity and fear and none of the two were winning. Sae-byeok was the first to speak in the silence, as if she had been reading his mind the whole time.

"What do you think the next game is?"

"I don't know." He tells her honestly. His mind was too exhausted to think further.

It was the last game of this hellhole, and whether or not they'll make it out of there collectively and in one piece is unclear. Aside from that, there was also the prize money stagnating at 4.52 billion won. And if all four of them won, that cash prize will be divided among them, which just won't do. That is where their dilemma sets in. But to Sae-byeok and even to Hae Young, it didn't matter anymore. The cash stocked up in that piggy bank was no longer their escape out of their debts, but an escape out of this shithole. More than that, it was everyone and anyone who has lived and died throughout all five games. Everyone, everyone. Sae-byeok now carried that heaviness with her; in her silence, in her desperation. It's shown in how she cared for the older woman, and how she now played the rest of these games with Ji-Yeong close in mind. Her brother, her mother, the ghosts of people lingering in that fucking that made it suffocating. Everyone.

"What will you do with the money?"

Sang-woo couldn't answer her, but the silence that filled only made it worse. It was loud, telling, echoing the guilt and shame he had hidden for so long.

"Pay my debts." That's it, a quarter of 45.2 billion in his pockets as he walks away from this hell, but not a free man. In the world outside, there are people waiting for him to account for the things he had evaded, all long overdue. It's miserable out there just as it was in here, but there was a chance somehow in this horrid place. A small, risky chance. And it cost a lot.

He hadn't realized the grief he was feeling of everyone he had lost in the past six days. An old friend, a new friend, a father figure he should have had a long time ago. And as he sits by the foot of the bed, staring at her sleeping figure. He was afraid, so deathly afraid, that he would lose Hae Young for the third time, and this time for good.

"Thank you for taking care of her." He finally tells the kid, who didn't seem at all moved by the sudden sentiment. Or at least she didn't show it.

"She has helped me a lot." Sae-byeok admits. "I just don't want to be anymore of a piece of shit in this place."

You and I both. Sang-woo chuckles cynically in his thoughts.

He looks at the kid, timid, yet calculating. It was like staring at a younger version of himself if only the cynicism and dullness stayed in his youth. He noted that Sae-byeok had his cynicism, but had Hae Young's courage. She was a whole new generation of strength and bravery, but also another generation victimized by whatever shit the real had thrown at them. They all just wanted to live in peace.

"It doesn't matter what the next game is." Sang-woo finally says. "In order to survive and get out of here victorious, the three of us have to stick together."

Sae-byeok just nods, silent. As if she had any other choice. It was a collective philosophy now that killing anyone else is a last resort act of desperation. Now this game had turned into more of a race; whoever gets to get out alive first, will carry the responsibility of avenging those who have fallen, and all three of them were ready to fall.