AFTER Mi-nyeo and Deok-su, there was two others, Sangwoo, Hyun-jung, Sae-byeok and Gi-hun left with two more tiles left. On the last one just before the other two, the man before the other fell to his death. The one before Sangwoo jumped to the correct tile and leaned down. There's 3 minutes left.
And the man won't budge. "Move. Quick! You can't just stop." Sangwoo says and the man glanced back at the other four. "Hold on. Wait, one second. I can tell the panels apart." He tells him. "Really? You can tell?" Hyun-jung spoke, surprised as the man glanced at her. "I used to make glass for over 30 years." He turns back around. "You can't normally tell, but... when you look at tempered glass when it's lit from the side, then you can see faint stain marks." He said then jumped over to the next one.
Sangwoo lets out a sigh of relief, probably glad he won't die. "Another hint, the sound. Tempered glass is made at a heat over 700 degrees. Pound on it with a hammer and it rings clearer than normal glass." He tells them. "Why wasn't all this brought up earlier? If you had led everyone from--" "Why would I?" The man cut off Gi-hun almost immediately, glancing back. "The players up here tried to kill us at every chance." He said and he sort of had a point.
He got up and jumped to the next one, leaning down to examine the panels again. They wait patiently as the timer was down to less than two minutes by now. As they were down to the last tiles, the lights turned off. "What's wrong? What's the problem?" Sangwoo asked right away as the man is panicking.
"I can't tell them apart in the dark."
There's one minute and fifteen minutes left. They have to hurry. "Alright, which one? You need to choose now." Sangwoo raised his voice. "I need to listen to the sound." He says and suddenly got up, patting down his pockets. "You got anything to throw?" He asked the others who also check their pockets. "Do you have anything?" Sangwoo asked the other three behind him. Gi-hun simply holds out his open palm towards the girl in front of him.
Sae-byeok takes it, passing it to Hyun-jung who then passed it to Sangwoo who then passed it to player 17. He turns back around, tossing the marble to the one on the left and they wait. "I need another." He says and Hyun-jung furrows her brows. "I need to hear the right one, so I can be sure." The man explains.
They all look back at Gi-hun who slowly shook his head and Sangwoo sighs. As the timer was down to twenty minutes now, the man kept glancing back and forth when Sangwoo jumps over. "I can't tell what it is..." He said and Hyun-jung watched them carefully, examining Sangwoo. "I'll pick, okay?"
He shoved the man and Hyun-jung gasped, her hands flying over her mouth as the man falls to his death. Sangwoo just looks down before jumping to the one on the left then to the end. Hyun-jung quickly notices the timer down to ten seconds by now, "Sae-byeok! Gi-hun." She said as she begans jumping over to the other end where she looks at Sangwoo.
"What the hell was that?" She said, sounding angry and Sangwoo just looked at her, not saying anything at first. Right when the timer was done, it makes a loud beep and Hyun-jung looks behind her to see the glass all shatter so she pushes Sae-byeok to the side, guarding her as pieces of glass fly around them, slicing small parts of their skin on their faces.
Gi-hun is holding his arm and Hyun-jung suddenly felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She hides it carefully as Sae-byeok looks at her. "Are you okay?" The freckled girl's hand goes up to her face and Hyun-jung quickly nods. "Yeah... Yeah." She lies through her teeth.
They now walk through the once colourful and bright staircase room. It use to be lively, now it felt dull and quiet. Once back in the dorm, it was all empty, just four separate beds on different sides of the walls. Except two beds on the same side, that were next to each other. Hyun-jung watched Gi-hun confront Sangwoo as she got into her bed, holding her waist.
Sae-byeok pushed her bed to be touching Hyun-jung's before getting into bed as well. Sangwoo suddenly raised his voice making both girls look over at the two men. Hyun-jung glanced between them then looked at Sae-byeok. "Those two have a history, right? With how they talk to each other..." She said and Sae-byeok nods. "They do..." She merely says.
The doors open as the alarm blares, alerting the players of the arrival of the masked men. "Players, we sincerely congratulate and commend you all for successfully making it through the first five games. The four of you are now the finalists and as such, we have prepared a special gift for each of you. Before we reveal the gift, please take a moment to change into the outfits we have brought."
The four took their gifts and were then they were all lead to the bathrooms where they all got changed. "I-I'll go into a stall to give you privacy." Hyun-jung said, her face flushed red as she walks off. "Oh... okay." Sae-byeok says and just got dressed there by the sinks.
In the stall, Hyun-jung took off her shirt carefully and saw the big shard of glass. She puts her jacket into her mouth as she took it out, covering the wound with her shirt. She grimaced and whimpered against the jacket in her mouth. "Hyun-jung, are you okay?" Sae-byeok says, putting on the jacket of her suit and Hyun-jung sighed as she wraps her shirt around her waist. "Yes, yeah... Yeah, I'm okay." She said and grimaced as she feels pain once more, pulling on the shirt and the pants.
She then puts on her jacket before walking out, each step hurt and she smiled at Sae-byeok anyway. "You look pretty in a suit..." She said and Sae-byeok smiles faintly at her. "Thanks... you look pretty too." She said and Hyun-jung just stared at her for a moment.
"Sae-byeok?" She says and Sae-byeok just hums. "Hyun-jung." She says, smiling faintly and Hyun-jung walks over to her, wrapping her arms around the girl. "We made it to the end. I'm glad you're still here..." She said and Sae-byeok blushed, hugging her back.
"Let's go..."
AUTHORS NOTE
one more chapter </3 i'm so sad over this fic and i'll be even more sad by the ending of the next chapter as well 😭
YOU ARE READING
𝟐𝟔𝟎
Fanfiction✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* kang sae-byeok chae hyun-jung had no idea what she was getting herself into when she agreed to participate in the games, but all she knew was she had debts to pay. ❝ money is the reason we exist. ❞ [ fem oc x 067 ] [ squid game ]
