457 - RETURN: How it should have ended.

#4 A game inside a game

(POV Gi-hun)

It's my fault to think you'd be true.

"His name... is Hwang In-ho."

Hwang In-ho.

A name so melodically spoken, so easily rolling off my tongue. And I hated all of it.

I felt Jun-ho's gaze on me as he was observing my reaction, weighing if enlightening me was the right decision for him to make.
"What are you going to do with that knowledge?", he murmured, his eyes still glued on me like he was still waiting for me to hit the roof.

Right. A question I hadn't asked myself yet, a question that should be firs tpriority now that I had much more of a clue than I did last time. But inside of my head a plan had formed itself, nourished by stubbornness, revenge and injured pride.

"I don't know, maybe I give him a taste of his own medicine. I'm sure he enjoyed a hearty laugh of amusement after fooling me so bad... I really feel like an idiot.", I snorted and I felt the embarrassing red spread over my cheeks as I realized how I had been led a merry dance.

Jun-ho frowned. "Why?"

I scoffed. "Imagine participating in some murder-lottery-game, getting close to Player 001, a man called Mr Oh, considering him your friend, relying on him. And then the mask falls: surprise, he was the mastermind behind it all. And now  imagine... falling for that same trick twice."

Even Jun-ho couldn't hide a little laugh at this very unlucky development of events, but I had just talked myself into rage, so now I had to let it all out.

"He let me walk in there, clueless, acting all innocent like he was an ordinary player like the others, and listened to me brag about how I won the games before, while he wasn't only the leader of it all, no, he was a victor himself. I bet him and those disgusting VIPs were rolling on the floor laughing.", I complained, the shame making my face burn.

Jun-ho bit his lip to stop himself from laughing, but I could see on his tense face that it cost him some efforts.

"Well, however much they enjoyed themselves, obviously we can't just sit here and do nothing. The million-won-question is just, what are we going to do?"

"Well, obviously they must be stopped. They can't get away with what they have done-" I paused mid-sentence as something else was knocking on my brain's door: If Jun-ho was suggesting to make a plan on the base of this knowledge, it'd mean that...

"So this means... that you actually believe  me? However absurd  this story of mine is?"

The policeman scoffed. "I wish I could say that I didn't. It would be easier. Declaring you insane and blindly walk down the path of false rationality. But...", he paused like he was still processing how the words that had been tumbling out of my mouth could actually be the truth, "You recognized In-ho. The moment you started describing him I instantly realized that you must have met  him. In the flesh. His appearance isn't one to easily forget."

No, not indeed. His appearance seemed to be inked into the back of my eyelids, flashing every time I blinked, haunting me in the sleep of my restless nights. And all I wanted was to erase his picture from my mind and ban that man from every single of my thoughts.

"In case you return to the games one more time – are you planing to kill my brother?", Jun-ho murmured and took a quick glimpse at my face. I froze for a second. When I had first returned, I had asked myself that question multiple times:

What would I do if I was ever to meet the Frontman?

And when the moment had been there, my brain had short-circuited, leaving me unable to even speak a single word after the mask had fallen. But my imaginings had always ended where I saw  the man with the black mask in the flesh, where I met  him, where I talked  to him. Nothing after.