Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 43 - A Damning Fact

(A/N: This is a little bit of a shorter chapter because it's canon-divergent and a totally unique conversation. Plus, we're building up to something very exciting next chapter, so this is like that hill before you drop on a rollercoaster. Mwahahahaha.)

The silence between the two of them was deafening.
All she could hear was their faint, intermingled breaths, along with the occasional snore from the other sleeping players.
Gi-hun hadn't moved in what felt like hours and she couldn't help but think how stiff he must be.

Attempting to catch his eye, the man kept them forward, carefully scanning the beds on the other side of the room.
Finally, she had to break the silence before the noise in her head became too much.
"Are you upset with me?"

Finally, the older man took his eyes off his surroundings and turned to her.
"What?"
"...for a lot of things, really. Voting to stay. Keeping the 'returning player' thing quiet. Are you mad at me?"

He glanced momentarily at his scuffed fingernails before replying.
"Let's not get back into that..." He attempted. "...I'm tired of arguing, and besides, I dragged you into this."
"No, you didn't." She refuted his words firmly, earning herself his full attention.

"I chose this. I chose to come back. And anyway- when we were in the limo, you tried to bargain to let me go free. The only difference between us now is that we came back for different reasons."
Gi-hun hesitated, then took a breath: "Do you even want to help me...? Help me try to save these people... shut this place down. For good?"
Help him...?

She stared at him like he was crazy.
Because, in her mind, he was.
"We don't even know how deep this whole thing goes. We both got lucky the first time- heck, if it wasn't for Jin-sun, I'd have died during Dalgona."
"So you're back just for him?" He challenged, his whisper closer to a hiss. "Not these innocent people?"

"How do you know if they're innocent or not?" She shot back. "Sure, some of them might be, but we've already seen people in here that are scammers or thugs. Are you telling me we have a responsibility to save people like that?"
"Dae-eun, they are still people-!"
"—Are they worth risking your life over? Risking my life over?"

The pair of them were like a pair of wolves fighting over a bone.
Teeth bared, snarling and spitting.
Optimism wrapped in a saviour complex against realism cloaked in survivor's guilt.

Ideologies wearing flesh.

After a moment to breathe, Dae-eun shook her head.
"What about your daughter...? And your mum? I thought you were going to be with them after we escaped the first time?"
Gi-hun's face fell, as if she'd struck a nerve he'd long forgotten he had.

"...my mother's dead."
Oh.
Shit... now I feel like an asshole.

"Gi-hun... I'm so sorry... how did she...?"
Taking a breath, likely to stop himself getting too emotional, he continued.
"She was diabetic... she left it untreated and it got worse, gave her sores on her feet. And because of what I'd done, we couldn't afford to get her the help she needed. After I came home... she was there, lying on the floor."

Dae-eun's face fell further.
Imagine if that had happened to my grandfather while I was gone...
"Is that why you came here in the first place? To pay for her treatment?"

With a quivering chin, Gi-hun nodded his head.
"...and... your daughter?"
He shook his head, "She's gone to live in the US with her mum and stepdad... I was going to get on a plane to see her when..."