"You're awake. Finally."
The voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
It was there. So close, it felt like it brushed against Gi-hun's skin. Cold. Low. Like silk stretched over barbed wire.
Gi-hun's eyes snapped open, lungs panicking as if he hadn't taken a breath in hours. The room around him was dim-grey walls, no windows, just a single camera in the corner blinking red like a heartbeat. The bed beneath him was too soft. The air, too still.
He wasn't in the games anymore.
He wasn't anywhere he recognized.
"W-Where..." he sat up fast, only to feel it-something tight. Around his wrist. A cuff. Connected to the headboard. No.
Panic rose like bile in his throat. He tugged, hard, and the cold metal bit into his skin.
Then he saw him.
The man standing in the corner like he'd been there the whole time. Maskless. Calm. Watching.
In-ho.
Black turtleneck. Leather gloves. Dark circles under his eyes like shadows carved into bone. And a smile-not wide, not fake. Just... knowing.
"You slept longer than I expected," he said, walking forward slowly, like a lion circling a wounded deer. "But I waited. Like I always do."
Gi-hun flinched. "What the hell is this?! Where am I?! Why am I chained-?!"
In-ho sat at the edge of the bed like he owned it. Like he owned him.
"You keep asking the wrong questions," he said, brushing a knuckle across Gi-hun's cheekbone-so gentle, it made his skin crawl. "You should be asking who brought you here."
Gi-hun froze. "You're insane."
In-ho leaned closer, their faces inches apart. "Insane? Maybe." His voice dipped. "But I'm not the one who left."
Silence. Heavy. Suffocating.
Gi-hun stared at him-at the man who'd watched hundreds die. At the man he once trusted.
"You stalked me," Gi-hun whispered. "You were watching me all this time."
In-ho tilted his head, eyes sharp. "I was protecting you."
"From what?!"
In-ho's smile fell.
"From the world. From yourself."
He leaned in, lips brushing Gi-hun's ear.
"From forgetting me."
Gi-hun jerked back like he'd been burned, breath shuddering. "This is sick."
But In-ho only chuckled, the sound deep and low. "You have no idea how sick I can be."
He stood, walking toward a drawer. Opened it. Pulled out something Gi-hun couldn't see.
"I didn't bring you here to hurt you," he said, back still turned. "I brought you here to fix you."
Gi-hun's heart pounded. "Let me go."
"No."
The answer came fast. Sharp. Final.
In-ho turned slowly, holding... a blindfold.
"I'm going to show you what it means to belong to someone, Gi-hun," he said, voice almost tender.
"And by the time I'm done, you'll stop begging to leave-
You'll start begging to STAY."
YOU ARE READING
No exit, just us.
Romance"I told you, Gi-hun... there's no leaving me. Not anymore." After escaping the games once, Gi-hun thought he was free. But nightmares don't end-they evolve. He wakes up trapped, again. But this time, the games are different. No masked men. No contes...
