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

51

They agreed to meet in the coffee shop a block away from his apartment, obscure, and near his home. It will be a quick meet. She will say what she has to say then he can go back in hiding.

When he approached her, Su-bin sat straight up on her seat, almost as if she was looking down at him. She wasn't the same new intern for the team way back when, but held this sophisticated, authoritarian gaze. It has been a while since they've seen each other-- years even. She stares at him bitterly, upset, disappointed.

"You fucked up." She tells him. "Royally."

"Do you think I don't know that?"

"You embezzled money from our clients, and now you're not the only one involved for the shit you did years ago. And now, the rest of us-- your team. We're all being investigated for your bullshit!"

"You weren't in my team a year after you joined in." He pointed out. "So I fail to see how this involves you."

Su-bin sighs, frustrated. "You're not the only person involved with this. You used team two's name, the company's brand, so anyone and everyone who works with you will be questioned-- Do you not see how fucked up that is?"

He does. He definitely does. Isn't that the reason why they're here talking? Evading the police,, his mom, her.

"And you used your own mother as fucking collateral." She hissed. "Sang-woo--"

"You don't have to enumerate all of the things I've messed up." He tells her. "And don't tell me the degree of danger I am in, because you have no reason to be concerned about me. You got dragged into my problem? Then get yourself out, because as I remember, you're not my boss anymore."

"I fired you for a reason." She retorts. " And that exact reason is because you're a fucking asshole, and you see it, but you still don't do anything about. It's your fault that you drag people down in the dirt with you."

He doesn't look at her, instead fishes for the phone that was vibrating in his coat pocket.

"And all the people in your life, you'll drag them down with you as well."

Sang-Woo sighs as he sets his phone down. Su-bin catches a glimpse of the caller ID. She sighs in disappointment.

"And you're still doing the exact same thing."

"Oh?" He says sarcastically. "And what's that?"

"Pushing away the people who care about you." She tells him. He doesn't say anything else.

She sighs one more time, leaning back as she collects her things, preparing for her departure. She stands to leave, but turns to Sang-Woo before she goes.

"If I were you," she tells him. "I'd tell her everything before you drive her away because you shut her out too much in your life."

And so she leaves him to grieve, to solve his shit alone. This is, after all, all his fault.

He looks down, his phone vibrates again. He sighs before picking up.

"Hey." He greets. "I'm sorry I couldn't answer your calls earlier. II just woke up--"

The call had dropped. He takes his phone off his ear, staring at it in confusion, before realizing what was waiting in the rain for him. His heart sank. Hae Young had been standing there the whole time drenched in rain, dejected, betrayed, angry. And she had every right to be. She does not say anything. She couldn't. So she just turns around to leave.

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

There is no luxury treatment given to the victors of the game. At the end of it, they were just stripped off of the bloody tuxes and were forced back into their old clothes they had on when they first entered the games. No medical treatment, no check-ups, just blindfolds and being shoved into a car. It was cold in there, though both Sang-woo and Sae-byeok felt the other's presence in the backseat of that limousine, silent, exhausted. What else was there to say, anyway, but empty apologies that meant nothing. They were back to being strangers at that point, though they weren't entirely alone.

They hear a bottle open, then a drink being poured. The man of mystery in that car with them raises a toast, though they could not see. "Congratulations on your victory." He says coldly.

"It has been a while since we have had more than one victor in the game." He pauses, perhaps taking a sip. "It was quite the performance. We've never seen anything like it."

A performance. Sang-woo swallowed dryly. There were a lot of things he would like to say, but his exhausted heart tells him to keep quiet. There are different ways and times he could grieve for her, but not like this, with blindfolds on and wrists bound together, with the kid next to him equally lost and terrified.

"Who are you?" Is all he asked, anyway. While Sae-byeok remained silent. She just wants to go home.

"That you do not need to know." The man tells him. "And it's a fruitless goal, too."

"I understand." He tells them, setting the drink down. "How difficult this may be to comprehend. It is quite unbelievable to be honest, to make it out alive these games. It may stick with you for some time." He tells them honestly. "But you will be back home, and you can think of it all as just a bad dream."

"A bad dream?" Sang-woo's voice was low, with tired anger and loose restraint, heavy with emotions and regret.

"We killed all those people and it's just a bad dream?" He spat. "While this is all just a game to you, isn't it?"

In the relative silence of his pause, he hears Sae-byeok beside him sniff, suppressing a sob as he feels her shake from everything.

I killed the person that mattered to me most all for a bad dream? But he did not get an answer, nor did he get to take a chance for another question as a familiar hissing came, emitting from the nooks and crannies of that car, then they could feel the sudden change in the temperature, the gas slowly engulfing them us it lulled them to sleep. This was the beginning of a nightmare for them, of an unfulfilled wish and empty promises, the ones that they have to carry even after they leave. Of bodies piled up in floors, hallways, of bloodshed and everything that hurt too much to be even remembered. Everything that was difficult to forget. This is not a dream. It was far from a dream, when all the wounds stung so much, some of it leaving a scar to taint them forever. This is not a dream. This was reality.