Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 27 - Call To Action

She contemplated the name.
Seong Gi-hun.
Possibly the only other person who could understand her position, considering he won the games too.

Despite having his number and his address, Dae-eun hadn't spoke to him since they both got out of the games.
Not a phone call, not a visit, heck- they didn't even go out for a drink.

Bzzt... Bzzt
Right- the call.
Distracted again.

Clicking the green button, Dae-eun held the phone to her ear, hearing the line connect.
"...Dae-eun?"
The girl had to take a pause... who was this?

"Uh... yeah?"
"Oh, good. It is you, I got worried for a sec there that you'd changed your number."
Dae-eun was even more thrown, this was Gi-hun? He sounded so... different.
His voice had lowered, tempered like hot metal, he sounded exhausted.

What the hell's he been doing these past three years?
"We haven't spoken since the games, Gi-hun."
"I know, I know... sorry to just call out of the blue like this. I just... I'm at a dead end."

The girl paused.
"If you're about to tell me you somehow spent all your money, then—"
"No! No! Are you serious? I've barely made a dent in it... that's not the kind of dead end I'm talking about."

Huh?
Dae-eun's eyes flicked over to her wallet, wherein lay the gold credit card she had been given.
"...okay, then why are you calling me, huh? And what the hell have you been doing the past three years?"

"I've been looking for the guy that got us in."

Dae-eun felt her blood freeze, icicles pushing the boundaries of her blood vessels, the hairs on her neck standing up as if to escape.
"...I'm hanging up."
"Dae-eun, wait."

The drop in Gi-hun's tone made her thumb pause over the disconnect button, the Gi-hun she remembered would've started desperately pleading with her... not literally ordered her.
She tried to stop her teeth from grinding, it felt like she was being held hostage, but her hands weren't even bound.
"I don't want anything to do with the games anymore, Gi-hun. I won. Enough said."

"And think about how many other people are gonna die so someone else can 'win'."
Dae-eun felt like grinding her teeth into powder, he was so fucking right and she hated it.
"The other people aren't our problem- they choose to go in."
"You and I both know that's not true. They're preyed on, just like we were. Because they're desperate. You think that asshole with the briefcase would target someone who wasn't up to their eyeballs in debt?"

He even got better at arguing... the naivety really died for both of us, huh.
"...so what are you trying to do, exactly?"
"If I find the salesman, I'm betting he can lead me to the game's higher-up's."
"You're betting-? Gi-hun... you're basing your whole plan on a hunch?"

"Why else do you think I'm calling you? If it weren't for your persistence to keep going when I wanted to quit, we'd have gone home empty-handed. This money I've got is thanks to your stubbornness."
My greed, more like...
"It's because of you I have the chance to save the new players from the games."

"Save?"
Gi-hun went silent when she spoke, as if hearing his own words made him rethink.
"Three years Gi-hun, and you still have a saviour complex..."

"And what about your guard friend that helped you during the games? Does he mean nothing to you as well?"
Jin-sun.
Dae-eun almost bit her tongue off, now Gi-hun was playing dirty, bringing up anything he thought may convince her to help him.