· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎A F T E R D A R K ▎

· 。ﾟ୧ ⋆. 𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗦. ₊˚.༄
ACT ONE ━━━ CHAPTER FIVE,
❝ they were melting sugar ❞

𝓙ust like before, Ji-Yoo opened her eyes to see herself facing the bottom of a bed. She sat up and looked around, surprised that a lot of people came back.

The number of players on the screen now wrote '187', meaning that only fourteen players didn't come back out of the remaining 201.

Huh, people must really be that desperate.

"Ji-Yoo," a familiar voice shouted from a few feet away. She snapped her head in the direction of the voice, only to see Gi-hun with Sang-woo standing beside him.

She stood up and walked in their direction, mumbling things under her breath about Sang-woo coming back.

"Gi-hun, Sang-woo," Ji-Yoo let out a fake surprised voice, giving Sang-woo a small glare from the corner of her eye.

Gi-hun gave her a small smile, "You came back! What a surprise. Isn't it, Sang-woo?" He looked at his childhood friend.

"Yes . . ." Sang-woo said uncomfortably. "So you're here, the both of you. I didn't think I'd see you."

"I wasn't really surprised when I saw that you were back here again," Ji-Yoo told her cousin in a sarcastic tone, making him roll his eyes. "I mean, it's not like you never told your dear cousin about your bankruptcy, or that you lied to both your mother and me that you were in Korea all this time."

Sang-woo just sent her a sarcastic smile in response, giving her a dirty look.

Gi-hun clicked his tongue at their bickering. "Neither did I," He let out an awkward chuckle. "And you? Your mom, did you see her?" Gi-hun asked Sang-woo.

Sang-woo lowered his head, avoiding eye contact with the two of them. Ji-Yoo scoffed at her cousin's actions, but before she could say anything, someone chimed in.

"Hey, good sirs!" They all turned their head to see player 199 running over to them. The foreigner looked at Ji-Yoo, "Hello, miss!" He greeted cheerfully, receiving a small smile from Ji-Yoo.

"Oh. Hey!" Gi-hun pointed his finger at 199. "It's my angel."

"I'm happy to see both of you," He turned to Ji-Yoo, "and nice to meet you, miss. I hope we make it."

Gi-hun sighs dreamingly at 199's words.

199 turned to Sang-woo, "Thanks for the bus fare, sir. It meant so much to me," He bowed.

Ji-Yoo raised her eyebrows at 199's words, turning to her cousin with a teasing look. "You gave him the bus fare? Wow."

"Because he said that he'd walk from Yeouido to Ansan," Sang-woo reasoned, ignoring the smirk that formed on Ji-Yoo's face.

Gi-hun chuckled, "That's so heartwarming. We're like a bunch of soldiers at training camp, huh?" He laughed, but the two Cho's stayed silent.

"A training camp is what?" 199 asked Gi-hun, seemingly not knowing what a training camp was.

"You know, it's like the army shooting guns."

"Oh! Soldiers all training together?"

Gi-hun nodded, "Uh-huh." His face fell into an expression that hinted that he realized something, Gi-hun looked at the two cousins. "Wait a minute. Since we're on the subject now, you should join me. We should just form our own team, don't you think?"

"Also on the subject of joining, I should go ahead and join my only friend over there," Ji-Yoo gestured to Sae-byeok, who was sitting alone on her bed.

Just as she was walking away, player 199 called out to her. "Nice to meet you again, miss!"

Ji-Yoo let a tiny smile slip out at 199's politeness. He was too pure to join this dangerous game, he deserves better.

"Sae-byeok!" She tried to get the girl's attention, running up to the young woman with the stone-cold expression on her pretty face.

Sae-byeok looked up at the mention of her name. She's never told anyone in the game her name except for one person. "Ji-Yoo?"

"Hey! Fancy seeing you here," Ji-Yoo smirked, sitting across from Sae-byeok on the bed.

The short-haired woman blinked at her, knowing that Ji-Yoo pressed X when they last saw eachother. "What are you doing here?"

Ji-Yoo shrugged like it was no big deal, "Same reason as you."

"Hey!" A rough voice yelled, making the two girls turn their heads to the side. Player 101, who fought Sae-byeok before the first game, and his 'gang' walked up to them. "You two!"

Ji-Yoo and Sae-byeok shared a confused glance, Sae-byeok shrugged and the both of them stood up. She took Ji-Yoo's wrist and pulled Ji-Yoo with her to find out what 101 wanted with the two of them.

101 crossed his arms, "I'll take you and your friend in again and look past everything." He offered, wanting the two girls to join his team. "Come and join us."

When the two of them didn't answer or react, he tilted his head slightly. "We were a good team for a while out there, huh? And it seems that you and her make a pretty good team as well."

"Are you actually serious?" Sae-byeok asked him, not believing a word that came out of his filthy mouth. "I mean, everybody out there is still looking for you."

"Stop with the act. It doesn't matter how tough you are, you're not going to win in this place. Not on your own. Didn't you notice? Those jerks with masks came in and removed the beds of the people who died. Make one mistake out there, and yours is next," 101 laughed mockingly.

Sae-byeok gave the girl beside her a look that basically said 'is he actually serious right now?', Ji-Yoo tried to hide her laugh which made 101 confused as to what was so funny.

"Worry about your own ass, okay? And I'm not alone," She glanced at Ji-Yoo, who gave her a smirk, but the men just laughed at Sae-byeok's threat. "Don't join him. This guy's a damn dumbass. He liked to pick all of his little minions' pockets just so he could fill up his own. He got bold enough one day to go after his head honcho's pockets, but now he's in here. 'Cause he was stupid and got caught."

The men in his team's faces dropped at the words that came flying out of Sae-byeok's mouth, not knowing whether to believe her or not.

"You know what people in my hometown would call you, huh?" 101's face twitched in anger. "A damn revolutionary asshole."

The men began to laugh, not being able to hold it in. Ji-Yoo let out a small chuckle at the insult, which only embarrassed 101 even more.

"You communist little bitch, I'm gonna-" Sae-byeok stepped back, pulling out the pocket knife she snuck in. Ji-Yoo saw the weapon in her hand and frowned slightly.

"Excuse me," an older woman cut 101 from doing anything to the two girls. "Am I interrupting you? Sorry."

"What is it?" 101 spat.

"Oh, boy. You're really good-looking," She winked at him, making 101 scoff. Ew. "Come on, let me join you guys."

The more Ji-Yoo observed the curly-haired woman, she noticed that it was the girl who begged the masked guards to let her go.

"Hm, wonder if she named her 'child' yet," Ji-Yoo wondered in her head.

The older woman, player 212, then proceeded to try and convince 101 to let her join his team, which only resulted in her getting laughed at. She also insulted both Ji-Yoo and Sae-byeok, saying how she was better than the two 'skinny girls'.

"Attention," the woman on PA spoke, "Your mealtime begins now. All players, please form a line in the center of the room."

Ji-Yoo grabbed Sae-byeok's arm, dragging her away from the group and to the open space in the room. She saw Sae-byeok looking up when Ji-Yoo dragged her away but the brunette woman paid it no mind.

While Ji-Yoo and Sae-byeok were eating the food they provided, Ji-Yoo took this time to ask Sae-byeok about the knife.

"Sae-byeok?" The black-haired girl hummed in question, glancing at her friend for a moment with a confused look. "I saw the knife you had earlier... where did you get that?"

Sae-byeok stopped eating and placed her container on the bed, swallowing her food before clearing her throat.

"I snuck it in," She replied simply.

"And how did you do that? I'm pretty sure they take everything you have before they change you," Ji-Yoo said. "And you were supposed to be passed out by the sleeping gas."

"I wasn't affected by the gas," Sae-byeok told her. She already knew what Ji-Yoo was going to ask her next so before she could open her mouth, Sae-byeok explained why. "I covered my nose with my shirt and pretended to be asleep. Idiots believed the act," She snickered.

Ji-Yoo was amazed at Sae-byeok's plan, she wished that she thought of it as well.

"Hey, what's that on your neck?" Sae-byeok pointed to something on Ji-Yoo's neck. She squinted her eyes, trying to figure out what the purplish mark was on Ji-Yoo's neck.

"Huh?" Ji-Yoo touched her neck and the memories of what happened last night before she came back to the game filled her mind. Shit.

Sae-byeok leaned in closer to get a better look, "Is that- Is that a hickey?!"

"What?! No way!" Ji-Yoo denied, "Why would I have a hickey? It's not like I slept with anyone..." She lied but Ji-Yoo was never really good at lying when it came to being caught so sudden, especially when it was Sae-byeok who called her out.

Player 067 raised her eyebrow at Ji-Yoo, silently judging her for her really badly said lie.

Ji-Yoo sighed in defeat, "Whatever. It doesn't matter, it'll fade. Let's just hope that no one else sees it."

Sae-byeok nodded and the two of them continued eating.

𝓔veryone slept peacefully that night- well, tried. Player 212 was being really loud, yelling and screaming at the masked guards to let her go to the bathroom.

Ji-Yoo groaned in annoyance and turned around in her bed, placing her pillow over her head, attempting to mute out 212's irritating screams.

"Wake up," the voice of Sae-byeok whispered from beside her, making Ji-Yoo remove the pillow and look at her friend in confusion. "Come on," Sae-byeok grabbed her hand and pulled her out of bed, receiving a whine from Ji-Yoo. "Shh."

"Where are we going, Sae-byeok?" Ji-Yoo asked, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

Sae-byeok quietly walked towards where 212 was, trying not to wake anyone up. As if anyone was able to fall asleep, Ji-Yoo was sure that the players had a hard time getting to sleep when 212's loud yelling wasn't possible to tune out.

"Just follow me and don't say anything."

The two of them stayed hidden for a moment until 212 was finally able to have permission to go to the bathroom by threatening to take a piss right there on the floor.

When 212 was about to walk out, Sae-byeok appeared with Ji-Yoo by her side. "I gotta go, and so does she."

"Oh, yeah?" 212 scoffed, receiving a blank look from Sae-byeok. "I beg to get the damn toilet, and you two are gonna sit right on top of it like that? Hey. You're two pretty annoying girls, aren't you?"

Ji-Yoo looked at 212 up and down, "Oh, shut it. As you said, we don't control when we're supposed to pee." She recalled the words 212 said earlier when she was fighting the square masked guard.

Without another word, Ji-Yoo grabbed Sae-byeok's wrist and walked out, following the masked guard as he led them to the direction of the bathroom.

The minute they entered the bathroom, 212 immediately ran to a stall. Ji-Yoo raised an eyebrow, her expression quickly changed to a disgusted one when she heard moaning from the stall.

"Ew," Ji-Yoo gagged, shaking her head.

Sae-byeok began to walk towards the stall, she opened the door to see 212 smoking. 212 tried to hide the cigarette but the two young girls already saw it.

"Don't scare me like that!" 212 told Sae-byeok. "What?" She gave Sae-byeok a weird look and placed the cigarette between her lips once again.

Sae-byeok took out her pocket knife, making 212 gasp and cough, smoke coming out of her mouth when she coughed.

Thinking that Sae-byeok was going to harm her for smoking, she innocently offered a cigarette. "Wanna smoke a little? How about you?" She looked at Ji-Yoo who stood beside her friend.

"You can stay put on the bowl and smoke some more," Sae-byeok told her before walking in the stall with 212 and going on top of the bowl.

"What are you doing, Sae?" Ji-Yoo sighed, making Sae-byeok glance at her for a second when Ji-Yoo came up with a nickname for her before looking back up at the vent above her.

There was a look in Sae-byeok's eyes when she glanced at Ji-Yoo that the brunette just couldn't exactly form out.

"What are you doing?!" 212 exclaimed.

The two of them watched as Sae-byeok used her knife to unscrew the screw on the vent, it wasn't long until the vent flew open and Ji-Yoo then understood what Sae-byeok wanted to do.

"Hold on, you're not going in there, are you?"

Sae-byeok looked up into the vent, trying to figure out if she could see anything from her current angle.

"I wanna see what's up there. Buy me some time. Then I'll tell you if I find anything," Sae-byeok began to tie her hair up.

Ji-Yoo shook her head at her friend, crossing her arms as Sae-byeok stepped on 212's shoulder and went up the vent.

Player 212 looked at Ji-Yoo with a look, making the younger girl roll her eyes.

"Do whatever you want," Ji-Yoo told her, "Just... don't make it too gross."

212 then proceeded to scream her lungs out, yelling about having a really big shit that won't come out.

Ew. That's gross.

It wasn't long until there was a knock on the door, "It's time to go back."

Ji-Yoo's eyes widened in panic, not seeing Sae-byeok return yet.

"Just give me a second, okay? Come on, you. Oh, it's all blocked. You bastard, get out! Hurry the hell up! We're in a rush, okay?"

The brunette didn't know if 212 was talking about her nonexistent poop or Sae-byeok, who seemed to be taking forever to come back from the vents.

"You need to go back," The masked man said from outside the door. "Come out now."

The two players shared a panicked glance. Ji-Yoo headed to the door and opened it a bit, big enough for the masked man to only see her.

She gave him a nervous smile, "Uh, you don't want to come in here. It's really bad... and nasty. Trust me, you'll die the minute you step in here," Ji-Yoo told the guard who didn't react in any way.

The two of them could hear 212 screaming about no toilet paper in the background. Ji-Yoo closed the door when 212 ran to the sink and began to make the guard think that she was wiping her ass with the water.

Ji-Yoo's face scrunched up in disgust, "That's extremely disgusting. Do you have to do this? Couldn't you have chosen to perform something less disturbing?"

212 just shook her head and winked at her in response.

"You have to come out!"

"Damn it! There's no toilet paper here either!"

Ji-Yoo opened the door once again, making sure that she was the only one that could be seen.

Before she could say a word, the masked guard spoke first. "Move, or you will be moved."

When Ji-Yoo refused to step aside, he sighed and pushed the door open, pushing her aside since he was much stronger than her.

"Hey!" She yelled, following him as he walked towards the stall where 212 was in. "You can't just barge in here and—"

He flung the stall door open, only to see 212 sitting on the bowl with Sae-byeok standing infront of her with a roll of toilet paper. Ji-Yoo let out a sigh in relief at the sight of Sae-byeok.

"You bastard, what the hell?!" The masked guard quickly closed the door, embarrassed for his life. "I can't believe this."

He turned around to see Ji-Yoo with her arms crossed, glaring at him.

The sound of the toilet flushing filled both of their ears and 212 opened the stall door, immediately attacking the guard for his disrespect of her privacy.

"You little bastard!" She pushed his shoulder so that he would face her, "Hey, jerkface. You, I said don't come in, didn't I? Even she, over there, told you not to come in," 212 pointed at Ji-Yoo. "You harassed us in there, yeah? Hey, the second I'm out of here, I'll sue your ass, okay? Is that clear? Asshole!"

212 bumped his shoulder as she walked away, Sae-byeok gave him a cold look as she walked past him.

She took ahold of Ji-Yoo's hand and the three of them walked back to where everyone else was.

Once they stepped into the giant room of beds, 212 kept on bugging Sae-byeok to tell her what she saw. "Hey, what did you see? Huh?" 212 whispered, making Sang-woo, who was still awake, turn his head slightly.

"Come on. What did you see?" She asked and placed her arm around Sae-byeok's shoulder.

Sae-byeok removed 212's hand from her shoulder, annoyed. "I'll tell you tomorrow."

Player 212 scoffed, "Why tomorrow? Just tell me now. Hey. What did you see?"

"Aish! Can you please stop asking," Ji-Yoo whispered-yelled at 212, who began to annoy her a lot. "Don't you realize that there are ears everywhere in this room? They could snitch on us and get us killed."

After that, 212 shut her mouth and the three of them headed to their beds in silence.

Just as Ji-Yoo was about to head to her bed, Sae-byeok took her arm. She looked back at her friend and furrowed her eyebrows, "What is it, Sae?"

Just like before, Sae-byeok shifted slightly at the nickname.

Sae-byeok stepped closer to her and placed her hand against Ji-Yoo's ear, blocking anyone from seeing or hearing what she was whispering in her ear.

"They were melting sugar."

word count: 3211

kara speaking . . .
fifth chapter, done! i absolutely love what i did with ji-yoo & sae-byeok's relationship, they're so cute omfg

confession!! this was originally supposed to be a sae-byeok AND joon-ho love triangle fic but i wasn't sure if i should do another love triangle fic since i already have VISIQUE VIOLET, so i came up with the final decision of just making another fic for sae-byeok

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© -𝙶𝙾𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙾𝙵𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷