THE BEACH | Squid Game

013

Chapter Thirteen | The One Behind It All

Saebyeok closed her as she felt the breeze hit her, sitting on the pale yellow sand under the heated sun in the blue sky that barely had any clouds blocking its view. It has been a year ago since the Squid Game happened. She finally got her mother out of North Korea and her little brother out of the orphanage.

"Byeokie, byeokie!" She heard Cheol's voice and opened her eyes.

"Can I please have ice cream?" He pleaded, pointing at the ice cream truck nearby. Saebyeok nodded then handed him a thousand won, before running.

"I must ask," She heard her mother's clear North Korean dialect. "To where you got all this money from?"

"I have told you a hundred times already," She spoke. "That I won all this in a lottery."

Her mother chuckled and nodded her head. The two enjoyed the sight of the waves crashing against the shore and watched the people enjoying themselves on Jeju Island.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Her mother questioned, making Saebyeok raise a brow and tilt her head.

"What do you mean?"

"You got me out of North Korea, got Cheol out of the orphanage, and have all this money with you. What are you going to do now?"

Saebyeok stayed silent and didn't respond. What did she want to do? She barely used the money that she had won for herself, and only used it for her family's needs. Was it the guilt that surrounded her? The fact that over four hundred people had died for her to have a luxurious life?

Saebyeok stayed silent and heard her brother's voice, whipping her head in his direction. He sat down beside her and enjoyed his ice cream.

"Oh!" Cheol suddenly exclaimed making Saebyeok furrow a brow. "And that ice cream man told me to give you this!"

Saebyeok widened her eyes when he handed her a card. The same card with the circle, triangle, and square that was given to participate in the games.

"Cheol, where is that ice cream truck now?" She questioned, as soon as she saw the truck not being in the same spot anymore.

Her mother frowned and patted her shoulder. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"

She ignored her and had her grip harder on the card as she read.

"August 1, 11:30 pm. Sky building, 7th floor. From 001.'

-

Saebyeok walked into the halls then entered the elevator door. Other people looked at her weirdly when she pressed the seventh button, not knowing who she is.

Saebyeok stuck her hands inside her pockets when she heard the elevator ding and the doors were opened. She walked through the hallway then took a deep breath and opened the door. She was inside a large empty room, but in the corner, she saw a man laying down on the bed, beside a window, with many machines and a table lamp.

Saebyeok narrowed her eyes as she quietly made her way over to his direction. She saw him take off his oxygen and inhaled deeply.

"Can you pass me some water?" He asked weakly. Saebyeok didn't reply as she was still in shock and disbelief. "Please, Saebyeok?"

Saebyeok snapped out of her thoughts and poured some water into the glass and handed it to him. He took it from her and drank a few sips before putting it back on the table.

"...Were you the one behind it all?"

"That man over there," He ignored her question and pointed his finger out the window. "He must be drunk because he's been sitting there for hours. He looks homeless too."

"Just answer me, damn it!" Saebyeok exclaimed in anger and frustration.

"No one's helping him." He then turned his head over to Saebyeok. "But would you?"

"Can't you hear me?" Saebyeok questioned, swallowing a lump on her throat. "Why did you do that to us?"

"Do you think you would stop walking? And help that disgusting, stinking drunk, piece of trash?"

"Answer my questions!" Saebyeok yelled in anger, grabbing the old man's collar. "Why did I get to live but others didn't?"

"Listen, let's play a game tonight. That man out there...if he still remains out there by midnight, I win. If anyone comes and helps him, you win."

"I think I'm done with your sick and twisted games." Saebyeok loosened her grip on the old man and let him go, turning her back and walked away.

"Seunghee...is still alive."

Saebyeok stopped dead in her tracks and looked back at the old man. "What?"

"A cop managed to break in, and save her body from burning into ashes. If you win, then I'll tell you where she is."

"Don't do that..." Saebyeok spoke coldly, clenching her fists. "Don't give me hope."

"It's true..." He spoke weakly in a raspy voice. "What I'm saying...is true."

Saebyeok looked at the window to see the man still out there then back to the clock to see she still had a few minutes left. She sighed and walked her way over, looking out the window.

The room was filled with silence, but Saebyeok spoke up. "If what you're saying is true, then why did you let her live and didn't send one of your men to kill her?"

"Because I had fun playing with her." His response made Saebyeok raise a brow. "She could've won if the glass didn't hit her or how Sangwoo didn't stabbed her, you know. Her plans, strategies, and the way she thinks just made me feel alive again. It had been such a long time since I felt that way."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you know what the people with too much money have in common with people who has no money?" He asked, and Saebyeok shook her head. "Life is no fun for either of them. No matter what I ate, drank, and spend my money on made me feel nothing."

Saebyeok scoffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, owning a lot of money is such a big problem."

Before it hit midnight, sirens could be heard and seen through the glass window. A police car stopped and helped him by giving him a blanket and took him into the car.

"I win." Saebyeok declared, looking back at the old man. But all she saw was his stiff and dead corpse, and the machines started beeping and flatlined. She sighed softly closed off his two eyelids about to pull the blanket over him but noticed something on his hands.

She squinted her eyes and took his right hand then opened it, revealing a piece of paper.

'XXX Medical Center, Room 458'