C H A M P I O N     O F     D E A T H

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        IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF NIGHT, WELL, THAT'S WHAT SHE THOUGHT IT WAS AS THE LIGHTS WERE OUT FOR THE NIGHT WHEN Sae-bom stirred awake, her face buried beneath the soft white blanket as muffled banging rattled the door across the room.

       She groaned, pulling the covers tighter over her head, but it was no use. The sharp voice of a woman, yelling about needing the bathroom, cut through the early morning quiet like a knife.

       "Just shut up already," Sae-bom mumbled, pressing her palms against her ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. She shifted under the blanket, her body half-hanging off the small bed, shoes dangling over the edge of the mattress.

       The woman's pounding and yelling continued, most likely annoying every other player inside the room, relentless and grating, until Sae-bom finally had enough.

       She kicked the blanket off, scowling, and slid off the side of the bed onto the cold floor below. Thankfully, her bed was lower than the top bunks scattered around the room, making her descent easy.

       Rubbing her face, Sae-bom blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the dim, gold-hued light emanating from the massive piggy bank suspended from the ceiling.

       Its glow bathed the dark room in an eerie shimmer, casting long shadows over the rows of bunk beds and the restless bodies stirring beneath them. She passed where her group was sleeping, and walked quieter to not disturb them.

       Moving carefully through the maze of beds, Sae-bom tried to keep her footsteps quiet, though her curiosity was piqued when she noticed another figure rising from their bed. Her fingers instantly reached up to touch the necklace.

        The shadow moved toward the door, their silhouette blurred by the faint light. Sae-bom narrowed her eyes, unable to tell who they were—male or female—but something about them felt.... familiar.

      The figure must have heard her soft steps because they stopped suddenly and turned around, their head looking over their shoulder at the young adult.

         Time seemed to freeze.

      Sae-bom's breath caught in her throat, as her gaze locked onto the face illuminated faintly by the golden light above, and felt the necklace get warmer against her skin.

       Her lips parted, the words trembling on the edge of her tongue, "Sae-byeok?" She whispered, barely audible, yet loud enough to send a shock through her younger sister.

        Sae-byeok's expression mirrored Sae-bom's—stunned, disbelieving. They stared at each other in silence, hidden between the towering bunk beds, safely out of sight from the rest of the room.

        But not from the watchful camera.

        Unbeknownst to the sisters, a camera shifted silently, its lens trained on them. It observed their interaction with eerie precision, focusing particularly on Sae-bom, as though studying her every move.

      Breaking the silence, Sae-byeok's voice quivered as she spoke, dark eyes wide in a few different emotions, the main being shock, "Unnie, what are you doing here?"

       Sae-bom didn't answer—not with words, at least. Instead, she closed the distance between them in a few hurried steps, crashing into Sae-byeok and wrapping her tightly in her arms.

      Tears burned at the edges of Sae-bom's eyes as she clung to her sister, one hand cradling the back of Sae-byeok's head, fingers tangling into her dark locks while the other pressed against her back.

       Sae-byeok didn't resist. Her arms came up instinctively, gripping her older sister just as fiercely, her face buried in Sae-bom's shoulder, and felt her lips perk up noticing the necklace around her sister's neck.

      They stood there, silent but trembling, the weight of their reunion pressing down on them like a tidal wave.

       After a moment, Sae-bom pulled back, only to immediately pinch Sae-byeok's cheek with her thumb and forefinger, pulling the skin to scold her sister.

      Her voice was sharp, but laced with relief, and bent her head down to the girl's level, "Are you out of your mind? Leaving a stupid note saying you'd be back?! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

       Sae-byeok winced, grumbling under her breath as she rubbed her cheek when she brushed her sister's hand away gently, "You're always so dramatic..."

      "Dramatic?!" Sae-bom scowled, her hand darting back up to pinch the other cheek, but Sae-byeok pushed it away before it could land.

       "I'm fine," The younger sister mumbled, her voice quieter now, as she avoided eye contact, "Even if you hadn't come, I would've been okay. I would've come back eventually. You know I'm alright on my own."

       Sae-bom sighed shakily, her relief mingling with frustration, "You're unbelievable," She muttered, but her voice softened as she pulled Sae-byeok into a side hug, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, "Your brother's safe. He's still at the orphanage, and he'll be fine while we're here."

       Sae-byeok nodded against her sister, her hands clutching at Sae-bom's green tracksuit, "You shouldn't have come," She whispered, her tone betraying her anxiety.

      The elder one clicked her tongue, tilting her sister's chin up to meet her gaze, "And let you go through this alone? Not a chance. If this is what it takes to bring our family back together, then I'll do it. We'll do it."

      Sae-byeok's lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes betraying her inner conflict. She didn't reply this time, simply closing her eyes and leaning into Sae-bom's embrace.

       For the moment, Sae-bom let herself feel the relief of finding her sister, though the lingering thought of In-ho gnawed at the back of her mind. He wasn't here—or at least, she hadn't seen him yet.

      There still was hope if Jun-ho was inside the building, looking for in-ho also. It left a hollow ache in her chest however, but she shoved it aside for now.

       The embrace was cut short once more, as the noises from Player 212 brough them back to reality. The Kang sister's shared a look with each other, and watched the woman frantically yell and hit the door.

       "Let me use the bathroom! I gotta go, now!" Player 212 stressed, palms banging against the door that had a light above it making the area lit up a small amount, "Listen, the room is full of men. Want me to go right here?"

        Sae-bom cringed hearing the comment, and grabbed her sister's arm to bring her along, not wanting to be apart from her anymore. Sae-byeok didn't question it, and followed close behind.

      She spotted the glass door, where there was a window that was now open, and a tringale masked guard was standing there, listening to the ranting.

       The window was closed next by the square guard, causing Sae-bom to hold in her laughter as she watched Player 212 crash out over it, "What an idiot..." She mumbled to Sae-byeok, who smirked in agreement.

       "You don't think I'll do it here on the floor?" Player 212 now threatened, and cursed as she turned around to pull her pants down, getting into a squatting position on the floor, "Here I go!"

       Sae-bom went pale in the face next, and quickly ran up to the door, "Yah! I don't think you want to clean this up, do you?" She exclaimed to the closed slider window, and tapped her palm against the door, "I gotta go to the toilet too, can you let us in please--"

       Not even a second later, the door was pushed open with a clung, and it freaked Sae-bom out at how quickly they listened. Either they listened to her, or they heard how Player 212 was going to.... pee on the floor.

      "Follow me." The distorted masked figure spoke, a triangle presented on the mask as his gazes moved over the three standing around the door.

       Player 212 scoffed, and pulled her pants back up, "Damn, Koreans won't listen to anyone until they start screaming at you." She glared talking to the guard, and gave Sae-bom a slight grin when she came up beside her, "Hey--"

      Before she could say anything, Sae-byeok came up on the other side of her sister, and purposely bumped shoulders with Player 212, "I gotta go."

      "Oh, yeah?" Player 212 turned to look at Sae-byeok, unaware of who she was about to angry with, and sneered up at the taller girl, "I begged to get on the toilet, and now you're just gonna come in like that? Even Player 450 helped!"

       She lifted up a finger to shove Sae-byeok's forehead, but all of a sudden she was shoved forward by someone. The elder woman stumbles and exclaim curse words, as she landed in a heap against the wall inside the other room.

       "Ya! What the hell--!" Player 212 went to shout and curse out the one who pushed her, but saw Sae-bom walking past her with a calm expression, hands in her pockets and following the guard towards the toilet with her sister beside her.

       Sae-bom could tell that ticked Player 212 off, and she tipped her head back with a lopsided smirk, catching the glare the other woman sent her as they walked past her, "Bit clumsy, aren't you?"

       Player 212 spluttered out a response, but it was a bunch of jumbled words together, and pushed herself back up from the fall she had. Muttered curse words escaped her, and she ran after the sister's who disappeared into the female toilets after the guard led them there.

      They waited till the door was fully closed leading into the bathroom, and Sae-bom pulled open the door that belonged to the stall that Player 212 was smoking in.

       She flinched at the sudden invasion, and almost dropped her cigarette that Sae-bom was grimacing at, "Don't scare me like that!" She whispered yelled, and glanced at the sisters staring at her, "What?!"

       Sae-byeok flips open her pocket knife, gaining a look from her elder sister but she ignored it as Player 212 gasped surprised. She starts choking and coughing on the smoke she inhaled, and offered the cigarette, "You want one?"

       Sae-bom rolled her eyes, and pulled her hands out of her pockets, "No, she doesn't. You shouldn't be smoking right now anyway." She comments, taking Sae-byeok by the shoulders, "Stay put on that bowl, and try not to get us caught."

      The ravenette walked into the small stall more, and pushed Player 212 out of the way, so Sae-byeok could stand up on the toilet bow, and start to unscrew the nails holding the vent in the roof out.

       Player 212 yelps, and grunts at the push, as she leaned against the white tiled wall, "What are you doing?" She whispered yelled once more, gaining no reply from either of them and heard the metal clanking from the vent.

       Once it was open, and placed down carefully, the Kang girl turned to her sister with a soft stare, "I can go and see, if you don't want to, Unnie." She offered, knowing her sister hated tight and small spaces, "I won't be long."

       Sae-bom smiled crookedly at her sister, and shakes her head, ignoring the questions coming from Player 212, "No don't worry, I'll go. I rather you here safe, then up in the vents in case we get caught." She assured, helping down the girl who seemed conflicted, "I'll take the blame if we do."

       "What do you think you're doing?!" Player 212 questioned both confused, and interested, as she watched Sae-bom jump up onto the bowl, her taller figure almost touching the top of the hanging down vent.

        Sae-bom titled her head to look at the stressing adult, before glancing back up into the darkness of the vent, "Plan was to see what's up there. Buy me some time, and then maybe I'll let my companion tell you if I find anything once I tell her."

      Player 212 shot the young adult a scowling expression, not getting time to reply as Sae-bom had grabbed onto the sides of the vent, and heaved herself up in one single movement, grunts leaving her from the lift.

       She didn't expose how Sae-byeok was her sister nor her name, in case something went wrong. She also didn't trust Player 212, but she knew her sister was safer in the stall with the elder woman then stuck in the vents looking for clues to the next game.

       The darkness inside the vent made it hard to see anything, and her eyes glanced both ways where it lead to two different paths in the vents. She pulled herself up the rest of the way, feeling her muscles straining and rolled inside the tight space.

       She spat out her hair in her mouth, and grimaced feeling how hot it was already, "Maybe this was a bad idea..." She mumbled to herself, before sighing and began to crawl on her hands and knees along the cool metal.

       Another vent opening was in the floor beneath her, and she spotted the guard outside the toilets through the grate, waiting for them to finish up their business. She felt sorry for the guy having to deal with Player 212's act.

       Picking up her crawling speed once she past the grate, her head snapped towards another corner in the vent, and changed her course to left instead of right, where the only sound she could hear was her heavy breathing.

       Oh, and the loud yelling coming from Player 212 about how her business wasn't out. Smart, buying time, Sae-bom thought to herself, continuing her crawling in the darkness.

        While she was inside, Sae-bom had no idea her sister went against her instructions and was crawling in the vents with her, but on the opposite end. She thought it would be better if they both checked, and she also knew how bad direction skills her sister had.

       A steady hum of a T.V caught the girl's attention, and she snapped her head towards the sound. Up ahead, she saw another grate leading up into the vent, but this time, the light inside was illuminating a bright gold colour, making her curious.

       She shifted her body towards the new grate, feeling her palms and under her knees getting sweaty from the crawling she was doing wearing a track suit, but pushed on knowing this could be important for their safety.

       Sae-bom laid flat down on the floor beneath her, so she could glance inside the unfamiliar room better. The gold light lit up her sweaty features, and only could see bits and pieces from the grate blocking her view.

       Her gaze narrows noticing the massive T.V screen inside the room, followed by a black lounge in front of it. But what really caught her attention was the lone black mask, that had feminine features placed next to piggy pank, the same one in the main room but the one she was looking at was much smaller.

       The entire room looked fancy, even the alcohol sitting in a shot glass on the table near the lounge. She wondered how many rooms like this there was inside the building, who exactly that room belonged to.

      However, she didn't have much time to ponder, as her necklace suddenly betrayed her by landing against the grate, causing a loud clanging sound.

       Sae-bom's face paled drastically, and her blood ran cold as she grasped the necklace, rolling onto her side to hide from the view of the grate. Fear was heightened even more hearing soft footsteps in the room below her, and she tried to quieten her heavy breathing.

     In that moment, she felt like the air around her was getting lesser and lesser, to the point where she couldn't breathe, almost like the walls around her were closing in.

       It made matter worse when she sensed someone was staring right at her, getting a look at her feeble position and where she currently was hiding. Wide eyes glanced at the opposite way to freedom, away from where she laid in fear.

       If she stayed for a minute longer, she would of gotten another clue to who that room belonged to, but the young adult was moving faster then she has before, wanting to get out of the vent as soon as possible from the occurrence.

      It was the right move to pull, as inside the bathroom the triangle guard had made his way into where the girls were, and was about to find out that one of them wasn't in the bathroom stall.

        Sae-bom was smarter then that.

      The triangle guard heard a thump sound next to him, and his fingers around the gun tightened automatically as he span around to where the sound came from, momentarily distracting him from Player 212 yelling.

      Sat on the edge of the bathroom bench was the female in question, Sae-bom, who was twirling around her sister's necklace between her fingers and smirked lopsided at the guard amused.

       "Y'know this is the girl's bathroom, right?" She drawled out in a deeper tone, hoping off the ledge as her green jacket was tied around her waist, showing off the bold 450 on her shirt, "Where's your decency, huh?"

      The guard's fingers instantly loosened up on the weapon, and stood back up straighter like he was actually listening to her words, which made her both curious and anxious for some reason.

       She couldn't pond on it for long, as she watched with a chuckle at how the guard opened the door on Sae-byeok and Player 212. The younger one was pinching her nose holding toilet paper, and the other was mid way pulling her pants up sat on the toilet.

       "What are you looking at, motherfucker?!" Player 212 screamed her curse, eyes wide like they were about to pop out and the guard quickly slammed the door shut, his reaction giving off how embarrassed he was.

       Sae-bom trailed up beside the tense guard, and shrugged her shoulders with a head tilt, "She did warn you, mister." She remained, a cheeky smile present and the man glanced at her briefly.

        The sound of the toilet flushing next was heard, and the toilet door was swung open, Player 212 walking out first to pister the poor guard, "You fucker! You--" She slapped his shoulder and pointed a finger at him, "I said don't come in, didn't I? You sexually harassed me in there! Hey, the second I'm out of here, I'm gonna sue your ass, okay?"

        Obviously the guard didn't say anything, nor made any indication he understood, but Sae-bom had a feeling he did under the mask. She pressed her side into the door beside them, arms crossed over her chest to watch the scene play out.

       Player 212 gave one last sneer at the guard, and thwacks him on the shoulder, as she walked out of the bathroom. Sae-byeok was next, who nodded at her sister and got one back, leaving Sae-bom with the embarrassed guard.

       "Nothing new, right?" She hummed out with a sly smirk, pushing off the door she was leant on and walked around the guard to catch up with her sister, feeling the guard's unwanted gaze on the back of her figure.

      The three eventually made it back inside the main rooms where all the beds were, and Player 212 was straight away blasting the sisters with questions about what they saw.

        Sae-bom gave her sibling a scolding stare in the dark, figuring out she went against her wishes, but sighed and kept one hand around her forearm, "Honestly, I didn't see anything interesting." She mumbled loud enough for them to hear only, "I only saw this fancy room that might belong to one of the guard maybe. I'm not sure."

      Player 212 rolled her eyes, and slapped the side of the woman's shoulder, "Something useful would help!" She sneered in a whisper, causing Sae-bom to narrow her eyes on the shorter woman, "What about you, huh? What did you see?"

       Sae-byeok's lips were in a thin line, not going to spill to anyone but her sister with what she found in the vents, "I'll tell you tomorrow, it's late." She drawled lazily, shoulder bumping Player 212 away from her elder sister.

       "Why tomorrow? Just tell me now." Player 212 whined after the sisters, who kept on walking through the maze of bunk beds away from her annoying voice, "You must have seen something--!"

       Unbeknownst to them, Sang-woo, who was awake when he saw Sae-bom wasn't in her bed, had heard the entire conversation, and knew what his plan was when the lights were switched on.

        To question either one of the girls, but he knew Sae-byeok would be a easier target considering Sae-bom hated his guts.

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        LIKE CLOCK WORK, THE BEAMING LIGHTS SWITCHED ON WHEN IT WAS DAY TIME OUTSIDE AND ALL THE PLAYERS WERE WAKING UP FROM A RESTLESS NIGHTS SLEEP, and were now asked by the female over the PDA to form lines like they did before, to grab their food for breakfast. Some followed, and some didn't.

       Sae-bom was standing in line behind Gi-hun, the girl being near his middle back in height, as she was taller the most female's, but not as tall as her friend in front. She did wish she was though, but at the same time not.

       She kept an eye on her sister, who was in the line across from her, both of them coming to an conclusion it would be best to stick to little contact in case someone found out they were siblings, and use it to their advantage in games.

       The older one also knew how Sae-byeok liked to be alone, much like her, so she wasn't worried at all. Sae-bom would rather be all by herself also, but she had a group to protect now and she didn't want to leave her friends.

      Plastic rustling caught her attention, as the lines were slowly moving with each package handed out to the player who received it next, and she glanced around the area.

      Her dark eyes scanned the swarm of people around, hands in her pockets with her jacket back over her shoulders again. She tried looking for a familiar black haired male's figure, but still came up with nothing, making her hope drop once more.

       Biting her bottom lip, she shakes those thoughts away to stay on track, and watched as Gi-hun tries to ask for chocolate milk instead of plain, not that she blamed him. She liked milk, but not a whole bottle like that of it.

     "When I was a kid, I had problems digesting it, so I just skipped milk when I was in school." Gi-hun tried to explain his reasoning, but was met with silence from the circle guard, who continued to hold up the food and drink for him to take.

       His face fell realising he wasn't going to get that chocolate milk, and just grabbed the stuff from the guards hand with a frown on his face. Sae-bom watched him stop to wait for her, and Player 01 behind her, and chuckles to herself feeling bad for him.

       It was her turn now, and she turned back to see instead of milk, it was water, in the same bottle, but she could tell by the clearer colour of the liquid. She arched a brow at the guard curious, but he just moved his hands forward more for her to take the pastry and water.

       That's so weird, she thought grabbing the water and packaged food with a thankful smile. Once again she was showed favouritism, and once more they somehow knew she didn't like milk was much. It was fishy, and it made her skin crawl on edge not liking the treatment, but also wasn't going to complain.

       Player 01 comes up beside the duo, once he grabbed his food and walks with them back to where the others in the group were sitting, "My goodness. As a kid, I'm willing to bet you got spanked a lot."

       Sae-bom gaped in surprise at the vulgar way he said that, and slipped the bottle into her pocket, waiting for Gi-hun to reply. She knew it was true though, he was an evil child when he was younger from the stories his mother told her.

       "How did you know?"

      Player 01 chuckles some more, his kind gaze looking between the two younger adults, "My son did too. He was just like you, friend." He tells them, before looking forward to walk off where the stairs were next to the beds.

      Sae-bom's heart clenched remembering who else didn't really like milk, seeing a flash of a certain handsome man's smile in her mind that made her grip the pastry packet in her hands tighter.

       Before her mind could dirft to far into her memories, she came back to reality and sat down between Gi-hun and Ali on the steps. Her eyes found the figure of her sister inside her bed, a few bunks up from the ground which set her nerves on ease.

       She turned back around to her group, knowing she'd get Sae-byeok to join them eventually, and spotted the intense stare Sang-woo was giving her sibling. She gritted her teeth, and nudged his leg a bit harsly, knocking the male out of his trance.

       Sang-woo didn't meet her warning glare, and instead directed his attention to the other players in their group. He heard Ali ask why he wasn't eating his food, that was left untouched beside him.

       "Have it." The elder male told him, and Ali couldn't believe what was hearing , "I don't eat most mornings." He continued, and flashed him a small smile, one that made Sae-bom's eyes soften just a smidge.

        Ali beamed happily, and took the food from him, "Thanks so much, sir." He murmured holding the plastic, and opening it to now eat another bread pastry.

       "You know, geniuses never eat much." Gi-hum hummed his comment with a mouth full of food, gaining a sigh from Sang-woo, "Take mine too." He offered Ali his milk next.

       Reaching with his free hand, Ali grabbed the bottle, "Thank you, sir." He bowed his head a little, and Gi-hun just smiled softly with a chuckle.

       Sae-bom finished the last of her food and water, making sure to place her rubbish with the others, just as the same classical music begins to play over the speakers, loudly. This made everyone in the group pause, waiting to see what happened.

       "Attention. The second game will began shortly. Please follow the staff's instructions and swiftly make your way towards the game hall."

      The female's high pitched flowed through the speakers into the room. Sae-bom caught her sister's gaze, and gave each other knowing looks. No matter what the game was, they had each other.

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❪ ✏️ ❫ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂 : 4558
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
i fear that long chapters might be here to stay now because i wanna smash out s1 asap so we can get to the angst with in-ho even though this season will have A LOT of angst anyways but yk what i mean, i just wanna write in-ho being all protective over sae-bom and vise versa lmao 😋

yeah i made the sisters meet in this chapter because i also couldn't wait any longer and they are always my favs so i wanna write scenes with them before.... well yeah 💔

anywaysss you all know the drill, vote,
comment, ect mwah <33