Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 40 - What's Your Name

(A/N: Updates are gonna be more infrequent since I'm now back at Uni and my free time to write is being slashed aaaaa. Thanks so much for getting this fic to over 66k reads, this is absolutely mental I love ya'll. Enjoy!)

"I'm sorry about earlier. I don't know what happened."
You threw with the wrong hand.
She could help herself correcting him internally, even when her teammates waved him off saying 'it's fine', 'it's okay'.

It's not okay.
It's not okay at all.
If we'd wasted any more time, it would've been us getting stuffed in those coffins.

"In Jegi, if you hadn't stepped in, we wouldn't have made it."
Gi-hun's words were just salt in the wound, an unintentional way to try prove she was the crazy one here.
Something doesn't smell right.

There have been games before Gi-hun and I played... could he be a former winner, too?
It would explain why he's so unnervingly calm despite everything going on.
He's not overly nervous, quiet, not even outwardly manipulative.

He's doesn't fit the profile of a first-time player, it's like he has experience, like he's been here before...
Has he played these games before? Even before me and Gi-hun?
But... if that's true, why would he come back? If he won before, he should've got the prize money, right?

He said he needed to money to save his wife and his kid.
Was that just a lie?
But he sold it so well... he even cried right in front of me.

I don't-
"Dae-eun?"
The girl's train of thought was derailed as the man in question alerted her, bringing her back to reality like a cold bucket of water.

She was being stared at.
Four pairs of eyes on her, two rams, a wolf and a cougar.
Or maybe a cuckoo is more accurate.

"Yes?" She answered eventually.
"Are you doing alright? You look a little... lost in thought." 001's gaze was piercing, as if he was seeing through her.
He knows.

That reminder of her realisation before the game started only made her skin crawl, like a thousand fire ants had suddenly scuttled up her spine.
She furrowed her brow, refusing to be cowed.
So he knows, so what? It's barely an advantage unless he outs me.

"Yeah, fine. Just... going over everything in my head."
001's eyes didn't leave her, even as her own attention diverted away.
"Remember the first round?" Jung-bae piped up, "The ddakji flipped right on her first try."

"It was so aggressive the way she threw it, too." Dae-ho added with a smirk, his eyes flicking to meet hers, "Like it was out of pure determination..."
"Or rage." Jung-bae added.
More like vengeance.

Fuck you, salesman.

"That Gong-gi was really impressive, too." Dae-eun spoke up, "I think you saw all our jaws hit the floor."
"Yeah, right! It was like something out of a kung-fu movie." Jung-bae agreed, giving Dae-ho's shoulder a friendly push.
The younger man gave an awkward laugh, rubbing at the nape of his neck.

"Since I was her only son, my mother only let me hang around at home with my sisters." He explained, eyes flickering between his teammates and the steps.
Then how did the Marines happen?
"Then my dad had this idea to send me to the Marines. He thought I should... 'be tougher', or something."

Well, it kinda worked. Tough in heart, tough in character?
The man in question suddenly stood up, wringing his hands together nervously as he beheld the team.
"I was thinking... what if we go around and say what our real names are? I'm still a bit unclear on what to call everyone..."