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Back in 2020...

Click. Click. Click.

That was all San Min could hear when she rolled around in her bed. She thought maybe it was the person in the apartment above, causing a racket as per usual. However, as she focused more, squeezing her eyes shut, she realised that the clicking was coming from two fingers.

San Min imagined it would be her nephew, taking a visit, perhaps by himself because of his own mother, who was also her sister. She would do anything for Saeroi, so of course with as much strength she had in her, San Min opened her eyes.

It was bright at first, practically blinding her to a point she couldn't even remember why she opening her eyes in the first place. Though, to her surprise, as she settled to the light more, it was not the navy walls she had usually waken up to.

They were light blue, or turqoise, the woman could hardly process her own name let alone the correct colour of the room. Was this a dream?

Sitting up in the bed, San Min dropped her head to observe the bed sheets, widening her eyes when she realised they were cream coloured. Cream coloured when they should've been white with a floral pattern on them.

She just sat there for a moment, pinching her arm to make sure she wasn't in a long, odd dream. It didn't work. She was in fact still there, and not just her either. San Min only had to direct her eyes to the space beside her to know that many, many other people were there.

She now knew where that clicking came from. Her new neigbour was doing it to wake her up, but he soon stopped when she glared over at him, half annoyed, half baffled.

"Why do I feel like I'm living in some sort of simulation right now?" she croaked, inspecting her hands, and whilst doing so, she noticed she was wearing clothes that were dark green and white, as well as a huge number, which she didn't bother to think about at that moment.

The man chuckled, "Don't you remember, ma'am?"

San Min tilted her head, wishing for her memories to come back, and as if her brain had decided to listened to her for once, a ton of past moments overtook her thoughts.

The strange man with the suit. Circle, triangle, square. Jun-ho's brother. Investigation. Adult's games. The smokey van.

She stared up warily at the unknown male sat in the bed next to her, "Why did they make us look like prisoners?" San Min asked, as she scanned the rest of the room. As she had thought, hundreds of people were there. 

He smiled, his lips cracking as they widened, "We are prisoners now. Prisoners begging for money." the man replied, and it didn't take a lot to realise he was observing her face with a squint to his eyes, "The last times I looked at you, number ninety-eight, you had a different haircut, and a different look in your eyes."

Her sister. She had played these games, and quit. That was why the business man decided to bother her with his question, leading to this. Well, not really. She was actually there to find Jun-ho's flesh and blood, In-ho. He deserved to be reunited with him.

"I just — wanted a change, and I work a lot." the last part was meant to refer to the difference in the sisters' eyes, but for once there were no eyebags under her own, most likely to the huge amount of sleep she probably had.

She couldn't quite put her finger on whatever type of smoke it was that put her to sleep, and it frustrated her.

"Oh." was all the man responded with, before sitting up, and climbing down his bed, "Good seeing you, again — I think?"

He clearly didn't believe that she was the same person. His instincts were obviously right, however, if San Min wasn't herself and she was in one single room, locked up in what felt like thousands of people when it was only a few hundred, she wouldn't bother to question whether her playmate looked different.

Maybe he was a detective, like Jun-ho, maybe he was a doctor. Whatever he was, the unknown male must've been in a job where he investigated, just like her. Or, he could've just been nosy.

Finally deciding to separate from her bed, which wasn't very comfortable, San Min climbed down, as her acquaintance had done a little while before, and awkwardly smiled as she passed people who did nothing but stare.

It was a very secluded room, with a lot of conversations floating around that San Min couldn't exactly hear. Though, to her surprise, she did hear a couple sentences coming from a man and a woman. When she raised her head to look at them, she noticed they were holding her hands, as if they were clinging on for dear life.

"We will get through this, my love." he told her, and she squeezed his hand.

"All for you."

The scene made her stomach warm. The last time she had seen someone so in love was when her parents were alive, and they got remarried. Her dad's brother had burst into tears, witnessing the best moment of his life yet.

As expected, the middle aged couple had caught a climpse of San Min gaping at them, and the man gave her a wave, whilst the woman just looked back, with nothing but sympathy in her eyes.

She couldn't understand why — every one was acting like this experience was going to kill them, and that made her feel sick. The warmth in her stomach had turned into nausea, and the only thing that could distract her was giving the man a quick, hesitant wave back, before walking away.

Having been a detective for a year, San Min felt the most stupid she had whilst being one. It felt like everybody else knew something she didn't, and that wasn't a nice feeling to have when you were so used to helping other people realise things, rather than them helping you.

But not everything was about her.

There was music playing, classical music. Whilst she made her way through the people, she went to look around for speakers, and this screen caught her eye.

Number of players: 187
Cash prize: ₩26,900,000,000

She couldn't help it, but a gasp had left her mouth at the sight of that cash prize. All that money, for a game. No wonder people applied, it was a luxury. Although, the detective part of her, was concerned, and questioned if this was some sort of gambling mission.

There were groups scattered around the room, but they were mostly small. Until her eyes met with a man, who appeared to have some sort of tattoo plastered on his jaw. There were many men surrounding him, and it was evident the one with the tattoo was the leader.

Now, San Min wasn't just about to leave. If she wanted to successfully investigate this place, she would have to face the leader of a gang, who seemed to be taunting someone. A girl. A girl with short, black hair. San Min had seen this happen before, and it never ended well without any help.

Taking one step before the other, she made her way towards them, straightening her posture slightly. Of course she knew no man like that would pay attention to a woman's words, hence why he was lecturing one as of now, but she knew if he tried anything with her, she'd stay the mature one. Or so she thought. 

"Hey! Are you okay?" she asked the girl, whose mumber appeared to be 067.

Seemingly shocked from witnessing someone come up to her, she parted her lips, preparing for a response, but a low, masculine voice interrupted. San Min didn't even need to turn around to know where it came from.

"Ooh, looks like she hired someone to defend her ass." he whistled, and the herd of people behind him erupted into laughter, making San Min spin around on her feet, preparing herself for whatever was going to come next. "Another girl. Although, this one does have that sexy look about her, I'll give her that."

San Min scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she forced her glare on him, "You know, it's not attractive, speaking like that."

He put a hand behind his ear, "Hm?" he let out mockingly, but she wasn't hesitant to continue.

"I said it's not attractive, speaking like that. With a tattoo like that you won't get anyone either. All a woman would think about whilst fucking you is that the snake on your face is longer than your penis." she shot back, and his smirk dropped. Literally dropped.

The rest of the group stayed silent, either eyeballing each other with shock, or just watching her, their jaws locked open.

She was proud of herself for saying that. No one, not even the boy that tricked her when she was in school could've heard that come out of her mouth. In all honesty, San Min felt like she wasn't in control of her mouth.

"If you say that to me again, I swear I —"

A woman with curly, dark hair, number 212, showed up out of what felt like nowhere, her eyes flickering from one player to another. Her face was filled with pure excitement, and at first San Min thought maybe she was entertained by the female empowerment.

"Excuse me — am I interrupting you?" she practically sung, "Sorry."

The tall, intimidating man, number 101, stared at the woman from head to toe, "What is it?"

She whipped her head around, acting as if she hadn't noticed him already, when she clearly had, "Oh. You're very good looking." and then came the wink and her nauseating grin, in which San Min took this as her queue to leave.

Trying hard not to throw up, she started to head to the opposite direction, but someone had tapped her shoulder. God, if this was that stupid embarrassment of the male species trying to worm his way into trying and failing at insulting her, she was going to — number 067?

"Thank you." she stated, her expression blank, but she was clearly not faking her gratitude, you could hear it in her soft tone.

San Min nodded, "You're welcome. He's just an asshole." she spoke, and before another word could escape her lips, player 067 had gone. She was an introvert, San Min could tell by her body language. Keeping a conversation when you were an introvert was like not speaking to anyone for en extrovert.

Attention. Your meal time begins now.

A virtual, female voice had started repeating itself, notifying every one of their meal time. It startled San Min, and the embarrassment she felt because of it became very visible on her cheeks. They were fading into a cherry colour.

Thank god no one was watching, especially player 101 — she would've had to stuff a gag between his lips and handcuff him to stop the mocking words from coming out of his mouth. Unless he liked that kind of stuff. The more she thought about it, the more she realised he probably saw it as a kink.

Choosing a line of people, San Min made her way over there, preparing herself for whatever food they were going to hand out. It was either very nice, luxury food, or monstrosity.

Ding ding ding — the second option was the right answer.

Although, she had probably had worse. Plus, they could've not given them any food or drink this early, but they did. San Min nodded at the circle guard, who tilted his head at her. She couldn't see his face, however, by the way he wasn't moving and telling her to leave the line, it was pretty clear he was being suspicious.

This was an investigation though, meaning the best choice was to walk away and stuff her face. She must've been unbearably hungry and hadn't noticed it, because the moment the food reached her mouth, she was desperate for more.

"Do you want to sit with us?" a male voice questioned from beside her. He didn't sound like player 101, nor did he have a patronising tone.

San Min stared up at him, and noticed he was in a group. Not a big one, a small one. They were all sat in a circle, it reminded her of circle time.

He had hair down to the bottom of his neck, and a face that showed off nothing but kindness. The number on his chest was 456. 4.5.6. At least it was an easy number to remember.

"Sure." she replied, a small smile on her face as she crouched, her knees brushing against the hardness of the floor, "Thank you."

Another one of the males in the group spoke up, holding his hand out, which only had half the fingers on some of them, "Ali."

Maybe it was the lack of genuine men in her life, but San Min was shocked at how they all seemed to interact with her like she was the queen. The trust issues in her brain were going off like alarms, yet she couldn't care less.

"San Min." she introduced herself, her eyes moving to all of them, "How's the food? You all enjoying it or — desperate to spit it out and never eat any of the food they give you again?" she had to get to know them to help with her investigation, not that she was using them. She'd never.

But they could still help her.

"I think that it's better than nothing." an elderly voice spoke up, making San Min look up at the man sat beside player 456. He had barely any hair, and the grin he was trying to spread across his face seemed to trigger his mouth wrinkles.

He was player 001. In all honesty, San Min wasn't expecting to see a person of that age — not that she was judging. She had no idea what games were about to come, but there was a high chance they were going to be difficult, considering the luxurious cash prize.

What did she know, though? He could've been an athlete in his youth.

San Min nodded her head, "You could say that, sir. I finished my food pretty quick." she chuckled, taking a sip of her drink as she inspected the room again. Her eyes caught on player 101, who was shoving one of the males next to him. And then he did it again. And again, until the man was no longer standing.

She scoffed, her eyes flickering back to the group she was sat with, "Player 101 is a prick."

Letting out a laugh, player 456 stuffed the rest of the meal into his mouth, "I never understood why those people stood by him." he mumbled, his cheeks puffed up from rice, "I'm Gi-hun. That's Sangwoo..." he pointed towards the man that was next to me; he had actually been very quiet.

"That's Ali, as he said. This old guy..." he reached for the shoulder of the elderly man, "Is Il-Nam, and that's it. That's all of us!"

"Nice. You all seem super cool."

With a grimace on his face, Gi-hun stared at his plate, "I wish this rice was piping hot. At least they could've warmed it up a little." he did some movements with his hands that made San Min raise an eyebrow in confusion. He was rather excited for someone complaining anout the temperature of the rice.

"All we need is a stove." he pointed to Sangwoo, "You remember doing that? That little Briquette stove we had in our elementary school classroom? We'd stick our lunch boxes on it. The rice'd get all scorched. Hm?"

They were childhood friends. No wonder why Gi-hun was so enthusiastic around him. San Min had never had a true childhood friend; they went from being her best friend to bullying her, and spreading rumours that made the poor girl seem like the villain of the story.

"When I was young, my mum used to cook me rice in my favourite plate every sunday." San Min smiled to herself sadly as she recalled the past moments, back when her parents were alive.

"She doesn't do it anymore, then?" Sangwoo asked, obviously not knowing the whole story. The whole story being that her mother passed away a year after she started this tradition.

She gulped down her drink in thirst, shocked that he was actually speaking to her, "She died. My uncle looked after me until my sister was an adult and then —" she realised she was ranting, and to people she hardly knew. "I'm sorry I —"

"It's okay." Gi-hun reassured her, with his signature grin. It was sweet, and she wished it was contagious so she could light up someone's day just by smiling. Her nephew had always told her she made his day better just by being there with him. Close enough.

She thought about Gi-hun's two word sentence. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It played over and over again in her head like a song on loop. Perhaps it was because they were the same words her dad had used when his wife, and San Min's mum, was unconscious from their car accident.

All it took was a gentle tap from Ali, and she was dragged away from her memories.

"You were gone for a moment there, what happened?" he asked, in his gentle voice.

She straightened her posture, straining a smile, "I just got distracted, I guess."

Gi-hun could tell San Min was making it up, and she could tell he thought that. However, he didn't question it. San Min was grateful.