Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 32 - Second Blood

"Once your picture has been taken, please follow the nearby staff's instructions and proceed as directed towards the game hall."

Dae-eun tailed Gi-hun as they were led through the side door and through many colourful hallways before stepping out into a hauntingly familiar room.
The travelling labyrinth. Pinks, pale blues and yellow stairs, doorways and windows.
A clusterfuck of architecture.

The place was a mental workout just to look at.
Probably to keep us from trying to wander off... without a guide, we'd be screwed.
"This again..." Gi-hun muttered under his breath, casting his eyes to the set of screens and cameras to take their pictures.

"Bad memory?" The white-haired girl asked.
"...I smiled in my last one. Before I knew what this place really was."
He actually smiled the first time round?

"Take a picture with me!"
"Me too!"
A clamour of voices rose as a number of players began to crowd around that one guy... Thanos, Dae-eun remembered his name.

"What's with him?" Gi-hun thought aloud, prompting the girl to fill him in.
"Some kind of famous rapper." She shrugged.
"Hey!" She turned to see the rapper in question addressing her.

"You want to get in on this too?" He asked.
She had to stop herself from retching when he made a 'come here' gesture with two fingers.
"C'mon~"

Dae-eun noticed her fellow former winner give the rapper a scowl before turning, pushing her in the back.
"It's your turn."
Right- my picture.

Stepping up at the screen, the white haired girl carded a hand through her tresses, brushing them away from her eyes.
"Please look into the camera."
Her eyes trailed up and landed on the camera, both its lens and the lenses in her eyes focusing in on each other, as if sizing each other up.

"Smile!"
No.
After the first go, you thought she'd smile now?
Haha, good one.

Once her picture was registered, she followed the others as they were escorted by guards up the stairs.
And... just as she remembered... the walk went on forever.
Up some stairs, turn left, down another set of stairs, left, right, up twenty stairs.

Fuck it, I'm not keeping track anymore.
"Gi-hun!" A voice that wasn't hers called the man's name, prompting her to turn around to look at the man behind her.
Gi-hun turned his back, seeing a man of a more portly stature weaving through the crowd in order to get to him.

"You know him?" She queried, having never seen his face before.
"Jung-bae..." Gi-hun muttered the name as if he was in disbelief, especially when the shorter man grabbed his face upon approaching him, looking at him like he was studying a ghost.
"Holy shit! You're alive!"

"What are you doing here?" The former winner asked breathlessly, staring with a deep sense of dread set into his features.
Dae-eun felt her belly twist at the realisation.
If he knows him... imagine how watching him die would fuck him up.

"What am I doing here-? What are you doing here?! You've been MIA for three years, and I heard your mum passed away!"
"Your mum passed away-?" Dae-eun echoed.
Gi-hun glanced between the two, as if being reminded the white-haired girl was there, only for Jung-bae to perk up at the female voice.

"Who's this?" Jung-bae began, though didn't bother waiting for a reply before jumping to conclusions, "And why is her hair white? You got another girlfriend and didn't tell me? I thought you and I were friends, asshоlе!"
"I'm not his girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend." Both she and Gi-hun responded at once.

"Hey, keep moving, you're blocking the way!" A player called behind them.
Dae-eun continued on her way as Gi-hun pulled the shorter man after him by his sleeve.
"I'm 26, he's way too old for me." Dae-eun's snide comment earned her a cuff over the head.