marbles // a loona squid game au

❦ the winner ❦

Yerim didn't last the night.

It was sleepless for all of them, Yeojin stayed by Haseul's side dutifully. She had never seen her sister quite this broken, so utterly hopeless. When Haseul had come back into the sleeping area, the first thing she did was collapse into Yeojin's arms, whimpering incoherently about "Vian" and "gone".

Yeojin understood enough.

She loved Vian too. She missed her like a sister, mourned like one as tears slipped down her cheeks. She held Haseul's head in her lap, stroking her hair as she felt silent sobs racked her body. The rest of the people were in similar positions, Jinsol huddled up against a somber Jiwoo, speaking quietly and Jinsol's occasional hiccups echoing across the room. Chaewon was in her own bed, on her side so Yeojin couldn't see her face. At some point Yeojin's eyelids began to droop and she lay her head back, falling into an uncomfortable but dreamless sleep.

When she woke up, she was resting firmly in Haseul's arms. If she hadn't spent the last few days watching people die around her, she might've pulled away, cringed at the affection, but now, she buried herself in the warmth, feeling Haseul hold her tighter as the lights switched on and burned her eyes.

Her stomach dropped as the familiar pink met her eyes over Haseul's shoulder, but as the two sisters sat up Yeojin realized they weren't coming for her.

Another player shrieked and Yeojin looked up to see Yerim hanging by her neck from one of the bunk beds, her sweatshirt wrung around herself and body dangling awkwardly in the air.

"Don't look," Haseul stroked her hair and Yeojin wiped the tears from her cheeks, clutching her sister tighter.

Yerim was put in another coffin another coffin and Yeojin watched them carry her away from behind Haseul, suddenly feeling like a little kid again. Like when her mom got angry and Haseul was the only person who could get in her way. Like when the boys at school would make fun of her and Haseul chased them off.

But here, Haseul was just as helpless as she was.

She could still hear Jiwoo's screams as the glass broke underneath her weight. She could still see the pure terror on her face as she plummeted to the ground below, her body falling into a crumpled and bloody mess. Yeojin had tried not to look at it, but once was enough. It would haunt her.

There was a look in someone's eyes before they died. She saw it in Jinsol when the girl stumbled out of the bathroom, her hand on her hip and her outfit under her arm. Haseul had rushed to her side, asking her what was wrong, but it only took a couple seconds for Jinsol to completely collapse. Jinsol's heaving breaths were the only sound in the room as she choked out Sooyoung's name and went limp on the cold floor.

Chaewon found a big bloody shard of glass by the sink, but the blood there was no match for the amount that spilled out onto the concrete floor, the smell seeping in like death.

Her body was carried away in another black coffin, and Yeojin ignored the pit in her stomach.

"It looks nice on you," Haseul said softly, her hands ghosting Yeojin's shoulders. Yeojin looked up from her cuff links she had been struggling with, having fallen off when she...found Jinsol.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and took a deep breath.

"Thank you," She replied, smoothing down the front of her suit and shivering a bit.

"You aren't hurt anywhere, right?" Haseul swallowed. "Just...with Jinsol-"

"Unnie," Yeojin took her hand. "I'm fine,"

Haseul nodded slowly. "Ok...ok," She took a deep breath. In the bathroom, the drip of water echoed and the fans made a dull white noise that Yeojin much preferred to the still eeriness of their sleeping quarters. It was cold, uncomfortably so, and Yeojin felt her stomach gnaw at itself in hunger.