"attention! lights are out in ten minutes." the PA announced through the blazing speakers

thanos leaned his back and head against the wall. sitting there in silence with nam-gyu laying on his back in his bunk bed that was above his. neither of them really said anything to each other after the embarrassment they both brought upon themselves earlier on

both men felt their arrogance dim when they heard the applause coming from their elders and all the players. it was a humbling experience for the two, thanos watched from across the room seeing that kyung was laughing sitting beside dae-ho

gi-hun sat in his bed seemingly stressed about something, he looked sad. the thought of proceeding with a second game tomorrow caused him to feel queasy especially not knowing exactly what they'd be playing

it has been three long years since he'd be in here, he thought it'd be too easy for them to have the same games as before. what truly terrified gi-hun was not knowing if he could help save the remaining players, death would be occurring no matter how much he yelled or conducted the games

thanos saw kyung bend her head downwards pulling her long silky hair up into a high top messy bun, dae-ho frowned seeing him lean his head back evidently seeing something on the back of her neck. his hand touched her neck making her reflexes kick in grabbing his hand tightly.

her body language changed in a instant, kyung scooting away from him clearly ashamed. thanos felt his eyebrows wiggle nosy to know what it was

"are you okay?" a voice appeared snapping him back into actuality, he scowled at the person without even seeing who it was at first

his face softened seeing that it was mi-ma, he cleared his throat. "yeah, i'm all good señorita."  confidence started filling in his veins, she was the last person he expected to chat with him

she stood there with her arms crossed nodding slowly, thanos leaned up patting the empty spot beside him. mi-na rolled her eyes taking a seat across from him, "how are you feeling?" she asked referring to the ass whooping he got

he shrugged, "i feel great." he commented with a playful grin

mi-na scoffed, "okay—-" she quickly stood up giving him one final glare, "if you say so..." she left suddenly going back to her bed smirking evilly, thanos found himself intrigued with the beautiful woman who practically was playing games. she knew exactly what she was doing coming over to thanos

"is your baby a boy or girl?" dae-ho proceeded carefully not wanting to invade too deeply into her personal, private life. kyung looked at him apathetically which caused his heart to skip a beat

he quickly raised his hands in the air, "i-if you don't mind me asking." he gulped loudly

kyung continued to blankly look into his eyes, being under her gaze frightened him. while they both barley knew each other, dae-ho already could see that she is a firecracker when she needs to be considering how she slapped thanos earlier

dae-ho saw the whole thing and thought it was pretty badass of her to do. he knew he would like her after witnessing the fire within herself

"i'll shut up." he muttered with embarrassment, kyung laughed confusing him

kyung smiled at him, "i'm just messing with you." she teased with a playful tone

dae-ho placed his hand on his heart breathing out a breath of relief beginning to ease up, "not cool." he jokingly frowned

they both smiled with kyung rapidly turning her face into seriousness, "she is a girl and she's not my baby." she revealed rubbing her hands together

dae-ho kept quiet but shot her a displeased looking frown, "she is my baby sister."

gi-hun was nearby listening in on their chat, he mentally sighed glad that kyung didn't have her own child. she is too young to be bringing a baby into this world, he thought quietly.

"what's her name?" dae-ho asked interested, clearly engaged in their conversation

a tiny smile crept up onto her face thinking about her, "her name is hana." she whispered proudly

"that means 'the number one'." dae-ho informed her, kyung nodded her head chuckling

she chirped hearing hana's beautiful laugh appear in her head, "i know. that's literally what she is to me... my number one reason."

dae-ho could see how much her sister meant to her. talking about her brought some sense of comfort to kyung, making all the bad deeds that occurred today be erased from her mind

he caught himself smiling thinking of his sisters who are growing up so fast, "how old is hana?"

"she is a month old." kyung answered feeling herself get emotional, it made no sense how fast this first month of hana's life has gone by. before she knows it, she will be two months old. watching her grow is tough to witness

dae-ho had more questions than answers as they kept continuing to talk, "are you taking care of her all by yourself? are your parents in her life? is she okay? he flooded her with questions, his mind beginning to race

he sounded stressed knowing that a girl like her was in this place, "alright solider. that is enough." jung-bae hit him in the back aggressively

kyung and dae-ho looked up to see him standing behind them both with his hands placed on his hip, "it's okay." kyung assured with her hand gesturing for him to relax

"are you sure? don't feel the pressure to talk about things you are not ready to discuss." jung-bae's voice bursting with harshness, him going straight into dad mode

kyung nodded, her brown eyes soft. assurance was behind the faint nod she gave jung-bae who nodded going to take a load off sitting by his bestfriend who shot him a dirty look but he didn't notice

she sighed biting down on her bottom lip timidly then focused on his eyes, kyung knew the only way she'd get through this story was by looking him dead in the face. "my mother passed away two hours after giving birth to hana." kyung divulged quietly, loud enough to where only they could hear

dae-ho kept his facial expressions under control nodding his head for her to proceed with her story, "there were many complications when my mother gave birth from severe bleeding to high blood pressure to an embolism."

kyung shook her head having to look down at her lap, she started to grow jittery beginning to bounce her foot up and down remaining calm.

"a week after she passed, my father died." she twisted her lip to the side then stared at the ceiling for a second

kyung shrugged not ready to go into details quite yet. their deaths were still fresh and it was taking a lot for her to even discuss them in this moment, "yeah basically, it was either hana goes into foster care or i step up—-"

she shrugged her shoulders looking at dae-ho, "i decided to step up and be the sole care provider for hana." she finished swallowing the big lump that was in her throat

"but—-" kyung smiled, "i have my childhood bestfriend soo and her parents who help me so i'm not completely alone, you know?"

dae-ho mentally sighed now knowing this information. he couldn't imagine having to do all of this on his own, "how old are you?" he asked rocking back and forth

"nineteen." kyung answered simply

dae-ho leaned back eyeing her up and down, he laughed loudly, "you're joking right?"

"i'm not." she chortled at his facial expression

"you are literally a baby taking care of a baby, i command you for that." dae-hoe faintly grinned

kyung nodded knowing he stated nothing but the truth, they just looked at each other for a few seconds trying to read each others faces. the lights quickly turned off, both of them looking up at the ceiling then back at each other

each of them sighing, "get some rest, yeah? tomorrow is probably going to be a long day." dae-ho groaned standing up on his feet extending a hand out to help her get up

kyung took his offer happily, they stood there awkwardly for a minute. "goodnight." he whispered

"goodnight." she whispered seeing him getting into his bed. dae-ho quickly got under the covers shutting his eyes getting comfortable

her and gi-hun made eye contact, he signaled for her to get in the bed across from him. kyung kicked her shoes off sitting them underneath her bed then tucking herself under the covers. she shut her eyes starting to fall asleep, gi-hun and player 001 silently watched her for awhile making sure that she was safe and untouched

the guards and employees of the games watched from the monitoring room seeing that everyone was knocked out. no noise came in or out of the dormitory, silence was visible

kyung constantly tossed and turned in her bed not being able to really get as comfortable as she would like but she still was able to get some rest. during the middle of the night, she was suddenly awoken to a hand covering her mouth

it startled kyung with her heart ready to explode, she opened her eyes seeing that thanos was bent down on his knees leaning over her bed looking at her. he shushed her lifting his index finger up to his lips, being as quiet as possible knowing that the three men around them would blow a fuse if they saw him

"we need to talk." he whispered

confusion filled behind her eyes, her eyebrows frowning. he knew this position probably was scary for her so he quickly moved his hand away, kyung quickly punched it but he wasn't bothered by her heavy hitting hand

kyung lifted herself up glancing over at gi-hun who was fast asleep, she looked at thanos who had pleading eyes. "let's make this quick." she moved past him standing up to grab her shoes quickly putting them on

the two migrated away from everyone going to stand in the corner near the front of the dormitory, nobody would be able to hear them from there. kyung crossed her arms, "what is it?" she asked grumpily pissed that she was woken up

thanos leaned back against the wall letting out a sigh, "earlier was crazy señorita."

kyung rubbed her eyes barley even processing anything was saying, "what do you want dude?" she asked getting antsy

thanos shrugged sliding his hands into his jacket pockets, "i just wanted to talk to you."

"about what?" she asked shrugging, his sudden approach after their physical altercation was weird... if kyung was him, she definitely wouldn't want to talk or engage with herself ever again

"because, there is something about you that i like señorita." he smirked confidently, his ego was back

the confidence that oozed from him was courageous, kyung had to give him that. he was acting like he didn't just get publicly humiliated a few hours ago...

"stop calling me that." kyung warned sounding groggy, she was ready to go back to sleep. all the seconds going by talking to this moron could be put into getting some rest

"come join me." he tried convincing her crossing him arms

those three words alerted her fully waking her up now, "excuse me?" she asked squinting

thanos laughed at himself thinking of how his choice of words came out, "just stay by me during our time in here. i'll protect you better than those four goons over there."

kyung got defensive immediately, "one of those goons whooped you ass earlier and deservingly so." she quipped with sassiness

thanos rolled his eyes ignoring that comment, "you know i'm telling the truth."

kyung laughed, "yeah, i don't think a junkie is going to do a better job of protecting me than who i am with now." she shrugged

thanos frowned, "what—-" he chuckled

"i've been around enough drug addicts in my life, i know one when i see one." she called out

while she has no idea what he took, his sudden change in behavior during green light, red light was obvious to her. she watched as he went from scared to a kid in the candy store, his high-strung energy said it all

"i'm not a drug addict." he mumbled

"and denial is a river in egypt, i'm going back to sleep." she began to lift her feet up walking away from him, thanos seized the opportunity to check out what dae-ho saw on her neck

she had a nasty looking bruise on the back of her neck, thanos ran after her grabbing her hand leading her back to where they just previously stood. her back hit the wall, thanos barley leaving any space between them

he was studying her black eye and the cut on her forehead, he barley paid any attention to it before. kyung looked down at her feet feeling nervous; "who did this to you?" he asked actually sounding like he was being serious

"none of your business." she snapped

thanos and his patience were wearing thin with the girl, "so you can smile and tell your personal life to another stranger but can't do the same with me?" he asked with a scoff referring to dae-ho

"why are you even talking to me?!" she asked raising her voice forgetting that there are people sleeping, "seriously, what is your angle?"

"i'm just trying to get to know you on a deeper level." he swore with softness attached to his deep voice

kyung shut him down with ease, "you can stop trying, i don't want anything to do with you." she pushed past him going back to bed

at the very top of the bunk beds.... someone was watching their entire engagement.....

sorry for the late night update guys!! will write a new chapter tonight and post it in the morning! we hit 700 reads, i thank you all who are commenting, voting and reading!! i appreciate you all so much and thank you all so much