· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎A F T E R     D A R K ▎

· 。ﾟ୧ ⋆. 𝗧𝗨𝗚 𝗢𝗙 𝗪𝗔𝗥. ₊˚.༄
ACT ONE ━━━ CHAPTER EIGHT,
❝ you look lonely, join our team ❞

"𝓢o you're just not going to talk to me?" Joon-ho asked, walking towards Ji-Yoo as she began to tend to her wound.

Ji-Yoo ignored him, not bothering to look or answer him.

He sighed, lowering his head before lifting it up to face her once again.

"What if I told you that I had a much better plan?"

At those words, she froze and silence filled the room. Finally, Ji-Yoo looked at the mirror and made eye contact with Joon-ho, who stood behind her.

". . . I'm listening."

She turned around which might have been a bad idea since the two of them were incredibly close, chest to chest. Ji-Yoo swallowed when Joon-ho's hands made contact with her jaw, he dragged his soft hands down her jaw slowly, looking directly at her lips.

Ji-Yoo acted quickly, placing her hands on his chest and pushing him away.

He stepped back and took her wrist, she gasped when he pulled her towards him and swiftly turned her around so that she was facing the mirror.

Joon-ho wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his head in her neck, giving her sensitive skin a soft kiss.

A moan escaped Ji-Yoo's mouth, making Joon-ho start to suck on her neck, purposely aiming to leave a bruise. She brought up her arm and wrapped it the back of his neck, moving her head to the side to give him more access.

He pulled away slowly, smiling at the sight of the hickey on Ji-Yoo's neck.

Hopefully no one questions her about it or she's screwed.

Joon-ho turned her back around to face him, he took her chin and lifted her head up, crashing his lips onto hers. She hummed and melted into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck, bringing him down slightly.

"We should stop," Ji-Yoo spoke into the kiss. "We might get caught."

Despite her words, she didn't stop kissing him and neither did he.

"You think so?" Joon-ho whispered, lowering down to grab her thighs and lifting her up, making Ji-Yoo wrap her legs around his waist while his hands rested on her hips.

Ji-Yoo gasped when her skin made contact with the cold edge of the sink, Joon-ho set her down on it and slipped his tongue into her mouth, making her moan loudly.

She pulled away all of a sudden, "You need to tell me your plan."

"There was never a new plan."

Ji-Yoo furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

Joon-ho shrugged as his hands travelled around her body, "I lied. You wouldn't talk to me so I came up with something you would believe, and I guess my lie came through. You really are gullible when it comes to me, Ji-Yoo."

A shiver went down her spine at Joon-ho's last sentence. Feeling his hot breath tickling her neck as he whispered into her ear.

No matter how much she wanted to deny it, she couldn't help but agree with him. She is gullible when it comes to Joon-ho, she would believe anything he told her like a total idiot.

She scoffed and pushed him away, hopping off the sink and going back to getting rid of the cut on her arm like they didn't just make out a second ago.

Joon-ho laughed from behind her but she just ignored him.

Ji-Yoo squinted her eyes when she spotted the very much obvious hickey on her neck, she groaned and attempted to get rid of it, which was really difficult.

"Screw you," She said through gritted teeth, glaring at the man behind her through the mirror.

A smug smirk made its way onto his swollen, red lips, "I'm afraid you already did."

Ji-Yoo just rolled her eyes and clenched her jaw. She felt his eyes on her the whole time, which irritated her a lot. She finally had enough of his staring and turned to face him, "Stop staring, would you?"

Instead of answering, Joon-ho stepped closer to her and turned her to the side, which made Ji-Yoo confused.

"What are you doing?"

He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small container. He opened the plastic container and Ji-Yoo saw a creamy white spread. Joon-ho took a bit of the product and placed it on her wound, making Ji-Yoo whimper from pain.

Joon-ho began to spread it on her wound carefully, and Ji-Yoo started to feel the pain go away slowly.

Once he finished, he turned the faucet on and washed his hands while Ji-Yoo just watched him, staying silent.

"I lied."

Ji-Yoo gave him a puzzled look, "Yeah, I know that. You told me you lied earlier."

"No," Joon-ho shook his head and turned around to face her, "I lied about lying."

She only blinked at him.

"I actually do have a plan," He told her.

"I'm all ears."

𝓣he second Ji-Yoo entered through the doors, Sang-woo was quick to run to her. "Ji-Yoo! Are you okay? Did that masked jerk do something to you? Is your wound okay? I swear, I'm going to—"

"Calm down, Sang-woo," Ji-Yoo cut his rambling, giving him a soft smile. "I'm fine, I promise. He gave me a healing scrub, the pain is barely there now."

At her words, Sang-woo let out a relieved sigh. The two of them headed to where Sae-byeok, Gi-hun, and the rest were gathered together.

Sae-byeok hasn't spoken a word ever since Ji-Yoo was taken, so when the short-haired girl saw Ji-Yoo, Sae-byeok stood up and ran to her.

She took Ji-Yoo by surprise when she wrapped her arms around her, embracing Ji-Yoo in a hug. Not wanting to take this miracle for granted, Ji-Yoo hugged her back.

"I thought the masked manager was going to kill you," Sae-byeok told her, pulling away and stepping back.

Ji-Yoo smiled at her friend, "I'm fine, he didn't do anything."

"Yeah, except give you another hickey," Sae-byeok whispered lowly, making sure only the two of them heard what she said. Ji-Yoo gasped dramatically and nudged her friend, trying to cover up her hickey.

"Hey! You're alright!" Gi-hun exclaimed as the two girls sat down. Ji-Yoo only nodded her head and gave Gi-hun a small side smile.

"Why don't we go around and tell eachother our names now," Gi-hun suggested.

199 spoke up first, "I know what I want to be called . . . Sexatron."

Gi-hun laughed, "No one's gonna call you that. You can be Little Spoon."

"Oh . . . yeah," 199 said sadly.

"I told you, that won't catch on," Sang-woo told 199.

199 looked up at him with a happy expression, "I like it."

"If anyone's gonna be Sexatron," Gi-hun placed his hand on his childhood friend's shoulder, "It's Sang-woo here."

"Why does he get to be Sexatron?" 199 whined.

"BECAUSE I FUCKING AM!" Sang-woo shouted angrily before looking at Gi-hun. "I like it," He spoke softly.

"No," The Old Man spoke up weakly, "I was Sexatron since 1962."

Gi-hun laughed awkwardly, "I'm sure you were, Old Man."

I'm kidding, this was just for fun. I saw a TikTok of this guy re-dubbing Squid Game and I really wanted to add this in, it's so funny PLSSS. The link of the TikTok is in the end <3

Now, here's the real scene:

"Uh, well, at this point, we should know what to call eachother," Gi-hun said, "Why don't we go around and tell eachother our names now."

"I know your name already, though," 199 told Gi-hun. "Ssangmun-dong."

Gi-hun chuckled at 199's misunderstanding. "Ssangmun-dong is just my hometown. My name is Seong Gi-hun. Seong Gi-hun of Ssangmun-dong."

199 lowered his head, a little bit embarrassed.

Sang-woo looked down to 199, "So then, what about your name?'

"Ali," He answered. "Ali Abdul."

"And where are you from?"

"Pakistan."

"Pakistan?" Gi-hun questioned, "Where is that?"

"North of India," Both Ji-Yoo and Sang-woo answered at the same time. The two Cho's shared a glance and Gi-hun and Ali glanced between the two of them.

"They're right," Ali said.

Gi-hun placed his hand on Sang-woo's shoulder, "Of course, they are. These two went to SNU—"

Ji-Yoo saw how uncomfortable Sang-woo was when Gi-hun spoke about how he went to SNU like a proud mother. She cut the older man from speaking any further, "Park Ji-Yoo."

Ali looked at her and she gave him a small smile. "That's my name."

"Cho Sang-woo," He told Ali but not before giving his cousin a grateful look.

All of them looked at Sae-byeok, who was silent the whole time. She looked at Ji-Yoo first then at Gi-hun who nodded at her, signaling for her to tell them her name.

"Come on, really?" Sae-byeok questioned, making Gi-hun click his tongue.

"We're all teammates here now. We should really know about eachother, build up a little trust, okay?"

"It's fine, Sae," Ji-Yoo told the girl. "You don't have to tell them, we're not forcing you. Right, guys?" She gave all the men a threatening look and they all nodded their heads.

She sighed and told them her name, "Kang Sae-byeok."

"Sae-byeok? That's a pretty name," Gi-hun complimented. "Though I'm not sure how well it fits."

Sae-byeok only gave him an unreadable look.

"And what is your name, sir? If you don't mind," Ali asked the old man. In the end, it turns out that he didn't remember his name.

That night, however, the only thing that was floating around in Ji-Yoo's mind was the hot cop who managed to make her come back to the dangerous games.

𝓣he bright light woke Ji-Yoo up in the morning, making her groan softly and open her eyes. She immediately noticed how she was leaning on Sae-byeok, her head on the girl's shoulder.

Ji-Yoo sniffled and lifted her head off of Sae-byeok's shoulder, fighting to open her eyes. She barely got any sleep last night, sitting down while sleeping wasn't exactly the most comfortable way to sleep in.

Her butt was hurting a lot and her neck was aching, as well.

She looked over at the rest and saw Gi-hun leaning closer to the Old Man, who seemed like he hasn't slept all night. "Hey, old man. Did you stay up all night?"

The old man chuckled, "I thought they would attack again or something."

"Old man, but you must be so exhausted already," Gi-hun's voice was laced with concern for the old man.

"It's alright," The old man sighed. "You don't really need that much sleep when you're old. And I didn't help when they went after everyone but keeping night watch, well, I can do that."

A tune played on the speakers once again and the woman spoke. "Attention, players. The third game will begin momentarily. Please follow the staff's instructions and swiftly make your way towards the game hall."

Sae-byeok stood up and held her hand out for Ji-Yoo, the brunette took her hand and stood up. "Thanks, Sae," She thanked the girl, receiving a smile from Sae-byeok.

The masked guards led them to a large white room, "Players, welcome to the third game. For this game, you will play in teams. All players, please divide yourselves into teams of ten people. Your time limit will be ten minutes. Ten minutes."

The team was huddled up together, currently planning for the next game.

"Something that had teams of ten players. So maybe it's Tail Tag or Why Did You Come To My House?" Gi-hun wondered. "Tail Tag means running is involved, and Ji-Yoo, over here, is a fast runner. Or it might just end up being simpy based on luck. What do you think?"

Sang-woo inhaled deeply, "Our team already has two girls and an older guy. I'm thinking we better get more men first."

"That's a bit sexist, Sang-woo," Ji-Yoo scowled at her cousin. "What if they make us play Gonggi or Elastics? How will a team of men do that? If I'm not mistaken, girls are usually the good ones at those—"

"That's true, but when it really comes down to it, usually men are better," Sang-woo argued, making his cousin's scowl grow deeper.

Ji-Yoo opened her mouth to argue with him but he beat her to it, "It's our lives we're betting on right now, Ji-Yoo. And we gotta win."

She ran her tongue across her upper teeth, glaring daggers at her older cousin.

Sang-woo avoided her glare, "Four more people are needed. I see that five of us bring one guy to join us. Okay?"

Sae-byeok was quick to walk away, dragging Ji-Yoo with her. Whilst they were looking for teammates, Ji-Yoo whined about how her cousin was being sexist and how it was too weird of him to only want men in the group.

"I mean, he could be gay," Ji-Yoo shrugged, "Sang-woo has been... how do I say this?"

"Fruity?" Sae-byeok finished, making Ji-Yoo nod her head.

"Yes, exactly. I mean, I haven't seen him in so long so there could be a possibility that my cousin has turned gay."

"Ji-Yoo," Sae-byeok called, making the girl hum in response. "Stop talking."

"Right," Ji-Yoo nodded, remembering what they were supposed to be doing. "How about we pick a girl, hm?"

"Your cousin said to only bring men," Sae-byeok reminded her but Ji-Yoo just shrugged with a mischievous smirk playing on her lips.

Ji-Yoo looked around the room, her eyes brightening when she spotted a short-haired girl sitting alone on the steps. She began to walk towards the player's direction, leaving Sae-byeok to follow behind her.

The young girl lifted her head up when she saw a pair of legs stopping before her. "What do you want?"

"You look lonely, join our team," Ji-Yoo told the girl.

𝓙i-Yoo and Sae-byeok successfully managed to let the girl join their team, which made Ji-Yoo incredibly happy.

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine? Um..." Gi-hun counted the number of people that were in the team, seeing that two people didn't bring back a player. "Wait, did someone not bring anyone?"

"It was me. I didn't."

"I'm sorry, sir."

Both the old man and Ali spoke at the same time. The Pakistan male ducked his head down but lifted it up again when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Ali looked up and saw Ji-Yoo giving him a small smile, "It's alright, Ali. You don't have to feel ashamed, it's totally fine. Just don't listen to Sang-woo and you'll be okay."

"Thank you, miss," Ali gave her a cheeky smile, laughing quietly at the Sang-woo bit.

The SNU graduate turned to player 240, "What about you? Who brought you here?"

"Them," She nodded her head to Ji-Yoo, who gave her cousin a smirk, and Sae-byeok.

Sang-woo glared at Ji-Yoo, "I said to bring only men back here, didn't I?"

Ji-Yoo only curled her lips and gave him a dirty look in response, earning an eye roll from Sang-woo.

"This doesn't sound good," 240 spoke up. "You want me to go? I'll go now," She started to stand up but Gi-hun stopped her.

"No, wait. Hold on. It's okay. Stay where you are," Gi-hun told her before turning to his childhood friend, "We don't even know what we're doing yet. And the time's almost over. At this point, let's just find one more team and be done."

"We put together a weak team, who would want to join it? That means that once the timer's done, we'll end up with anyone that got kicked out."

Just then, player 212 came by. "Well, nobody kicked me out, huh! I'll play with you as a special deal here, okay?" The curly-haired woman pushed 240 and Gi-hun, sitting in between them. "Man, you guys lucked out today. Yikes! I'll be way more help than either of these wimpy little girls. Plus, I'm good at everything except the things I can't do."

Ji-Yoo scrunched her face up when 212 giggled like a teenage girl at the end of her speech.

"Isn't that what you told your little boyfriend?" Ji-Yoo asked her. "He must've rejected you because, well... you're here and not with him. Must be sad to be rejected, huh. How would you feel if you got rejected twice in one day?"

Before 212 can fight back, the timer buzzed and Sang-woo sighed deeply, just hoping that they wouldn't die in the third game — whatever it may be.

"The time for forming your teams is over. All players, please line up with your teammates at the entrance to the game hall."

"Hold on," Gi-hun said before any of them could stand up. "We're not gonna stay in here, though?" At this, Sang-woo inhaled and exhaled shakily.

Without any other word said, all of them stood up and formed a line.

The large doors opened and all teams went into the large open room. There was a large platform above that had a space in the middle and a thing hanging in between.

Ji-Yoo tilted her head and observed the whole thing, an idea of the game popped into her mind.

What other game would have teams and two sides with a space in the middle? It's gotta be nothing but Tug of War.

"I would now like to welcome you all to the third game. Today's game is Tug of War."

At the mention of the game, Ji-Yoo smiled inwardly to herself when she realized that she guessed it correctly.

"In order to win, you must pull the rope towards your platform in an attempt to drop your opponents down below."

One elderly man and four girls. Sang-woo must be crying his eyes out.

"Now, I will draw numbers to decide which two teams will play first. Everyone, please sit down."

After Team One beat Team Seven, which resulted in a brutal death that lead the losing team down to splatter on the hard ground, Team Four and Five were chosen to battle eachother next.

Ji-Yoo sighed when she saw that the opposing team were all men, unlike theirs which had four women.

"Team Four and Team Five, please go to your towers."

As they were heading to the tower, Deok-su's team met them on the way. He chuckled humorlessly, "Oh, man. I was looking forward to killing you guys."

Everyone ignored him, except 212 who gave him a glare, and continued their way, stepping into a bright yellow room. The platform rumbled and they began to travel up.

"Come on. Don't lose your spirit," The old man spoke up. "Tug of War needs more than just raw strength."

"Well then, what it's about, huh?" Player 196 asked the old man harshly. "We just go out and speak to them?"

"All you need is a good strategy in Tug of War and combined with good teamwork, you'll be able to win when you are against stronger teams."

"Only one thing can help us now. It's the Lord himself, I know it."

196 scoffed loudly, "You can barely stay standing, old man. So shut up and keep all your strength, okay?"

"Hey!" Ji-Yoo shouted at him, "Atleast show some respect, yeah?!"

He looked back at the girl with a scowl, "And you! Some weak girl you are. Aren't you supposed to be at home, cooking and cleaning for your husband like the whore you are, you little bra—"

"Shut your mouth or you'll wish you never spoke a damn word in your life!" Sang-woo cut him off, his jaw clenched as the man brutally insulted his cousin, who sent a very deadly glare at 196.

"Wait a minute," Gi-hun interrupted before it could go too far, "let's hear what the old man says."

"Okay, when I was young, we always like Tug of War. It's a game I know well. And back then, I would always win, even if there was a wrestler on the other team, and it seemed the odds were stuck against us."

The doors opened and all of them knew exactly what to do.

"Listen closely, and I'll tell you how my team and I were able to win, even when it seemed impossible."

The masked worker took Ji-Yoo's wrist and placed the chain on, so when the team loses, they won't be able to escape their deaths.

"First off, having a good leader is very important. The person is at the front and keeps an eye on how the other team is performing. And the rest of the team focuses on the back of their leader's head and follows their lead. If the leader seems weak or looks like their spirit is beginning to falter, then the game is already over."

The team has chosen Gi-hun to be the leader, making him the person in the front.

"And then at the end of the rope, you'll need to have someone strong and dependable like the anchor of the ship."

That would be Ali.

"After that, it's all about how you arrange the rest of your team. If one player is on the right side of the rope, then the next one should be on the left, all the way down the rope."

Ji-Yoo stood on the right side of the rope, infront of Sae-byeok, who had 240 behind her.

"Both of your feet should be facing straight forward, and then, hold the rope in your armpits. That way, everyone can put in all of their strength Finally, and this is absolutely the most important thing. Once the game begins, for the first ten seconds . . ."

The masked man fired the shot and all of them immediately leaned back.

". . . you have to hold your ground. You should lean back, practically lie down. Push your lower abdomen up to the sky, as hard as you can. And throw your head back to the point where you can almost see the groin of the person behind you. If you do that, the other team won't be able to pull us to their side. Just hold like this for ten seconds. Then the opposing team will start to get frustrated because they're thinking, "Why won't they budge?" Because they believed that they were much stronger. If you can hold out for that long, you will be able to catch a moment in your opponents' hold, and their rhythm breaks."

"Now's our chance!" Gi-hun screamed when he saw that the other team fell because they couldn't knock their team over.

Everyone quickly stood straight once again and began to pull, grunting and screaming as they let out all of their strength. The opposing team was inching closer and closer to the edge but was somehow able to win the rope in their side again.

The red flag passed the middle and went over to their side, making Ji-Yoo panic.

"We're losing! Goddamn it! Do something!" Mi-nyeo yelled.

Sang-woo, being a smart man, had an idea. "Get yourselves together and listen! Let's try something. Take three steps up when I signal."

"Up?! What now? But that's the edge!"

"Look, just trust me and they'll fall!"

"There's no way I'll do that!" Mi-nyeo cried.

"Well, we might as well try!" Ji-Yoo yelled. "Even if we do it or not, we're dead either way!"

"No way! I can't do it!"

"Move up or you'll die!" Sang-woo told her. "On the count of three! One! Two! Three!"

They all took three steps forward, resulting in the other team falling down and Gi-hun almost falling off the edge.

While the other team went to stand up, they took this time to start pulling. They easily brought the flag to their side since the opposing team wasn't even standing — more like couldn't stand.

It wasn't long until the other team lost and fell down, but since the blade didn't chop the rope yet, their team was getting dragged because of the weight of all the ten players hanging down.

Thankfully, the blade advanced down and cut the rope, making the other team splatter on the ground and their team fall down on the ground.

They laid there, breathing heavily.

Ji-Yoo may have passed the third game, but what will happen in the fourth game?

word count: 4204

kara speaking . . .
eighth chapter, done! chapter ten/eleven is gonna be so exciting omg 💀

link of the tiktok:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSeFqLcAy/

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© -𝙶𝙾𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙾𝙵𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷