-maybe I wish to die more than I wish to live
[N a r r a t o r]
YUN RYUNG never saw the world in the true beauty like those around her. She didn't smile when she saw flowers and she never laughed at funny jokes. Nor did she feel the need to take a photo of the sky everytime she thought it was pretty. Mostly because that wasn't on her mind at the moment.
Even now as she sits on her bunk blankly listening to the strangers around her she doesn't feel the need to listen or look. She just blew the strands from her eyes, brushing them back and fourth between her fingers.
The corners of her mouth fold down as the gaps between her crinkled lips etch forwards. Her amber eyes fall onto the girl next to her. Her bones crackled and her heart burned underneath the light freckles that kissed Sae-byeok's face. The tanned skin around her collarbones draning the colour from her eyes, turning it into a smoked hue.
She couldn't like Sae-byeok, not that she has ever thought about it. But the two don't know each others names, is that a valid enough reason of why you shouldn't or can't like someone. To be honest Ryung didn't even understand why she kept her close, or kept dragging herself along with her. She felt half as safe with her then she did alone. And the company is equal to the silence in her apartment when no one is home.
Regardless the two stuck together, through ends and all.
"He just killed someone!" Ryung looked towards 456, his arms waving around his figure as he pointed to 101. Who hid his face with the few greasy locks of his unwashed hair. "Can't you hear me? A man just died. This isn't right." 456 waddled around each corner of the room, staring into the walls in hope someone could hear him. "We shouldn't be killing each other like this." His chest compresses against his heart and deflates once his throat tightens.
"Player 271, eliminated."
Sae-byeok felt her body freeze. The cool shivers running through her system as she feels each inch of her blood trun cold. The voices in her head seem to turn to whispers as they down their careless mumbles into pointless words filled with small talk.
She watched as the money piled into the piggy bank, more endulged in the paper thinned faces and printed money signs than the deceased man in front of her. His body slid against the floor as his cheek collided in perfect unison. His body hardened into the black coffin. The pink ribbon lacing his body into a concealed hug, walking out of the warehouse as if it was nothing.
GI-HUN, wasn't a good guy nor as he claimed himself to be. But out of every single person that stood in this room, his blood stood pure. He kept watching people die. He forcefully dawned his eyes on bodies that once populated this earth. His mind drained from the bare thoughts that cursed his brain. He shouldn't care, he couldn't care because his life was still on the line and he is willing to threaten it every day.
But still, watching people die isn't as much as a thrill to him. Not like Ryung.
"We shouldn't go to sleep tonight. 101 is up to something. The asshole makes it so obvious." Sae-byeok resists the urge to turn her head to meet the shorter girls gaze. Instead, she just keep her head forward. Keeping her legs closely toned together.
"I agree, we should stay close. Just in case the other need back up or something." Ryung looks blankly at her so called companion. Sae-byeok feels her amber eyes covering her face, leaving crisp trails along the goosebumps of her body. Sae-byeok doesn't say anything. Like many times before she respondes with a simple nod.
"Hey pickpocket." Gi-hun stands by the bar of the bunk beds. Keeping a stern distance between the two girls. "You two sure you'll be okay? You two don't seem to be on good term with that thug over there." His her flops to the left as he directs his motions towards the group behind him.
"So what?" Sae-byeok wasn't all to familiar with anyone older then herself caring so much about her dafety. Her memory only vaguely remembers the safety of someone elses arms. Or what it's like to feel their warmth radiate of their bodies. Or even simple words like 'are you okay?' or maybe a 'stick with me.' let alone anything like this. But after these few nights with Ryung she had faded ideas of what comfort from another person may feel like.
"If anything happens after the lights go out, we're all meeting by my bed." Gi-hun instructed. His rigid lips stick together as he spoke. His outer corners of his mouth drying out as his words came out rougher. "You guys should join us."
Sae-byeok turns her head. Placing her eyes on the wall ahead of her. "I don't trust people. Especially people who crawled into a place like this."
Not even a second after those words left her mouth. Ryung could feel her heat descend in her chest. Her heartstrings tugging and pulling at her as they drag her last blood cells out of her body. It hurt more than it should've and she didn't even understand why.
"What about her then?" Gi-hun turns his attention to Ryung. Her deadpanned expression unreadable. Her waterline pooled slightly as she felt the substance drip inbetween her pupils. The dark circles under her eyes seemed more evident now as Gi-hun stepped closer. Sae-byeok with held her silence. Keeping her face stoic as she shook her head slowly at the man. But before she could even mutter a word. Ryung had gone on and taken it right out of her mouth.
"We are simply companions. Trying to make our time here a little more bareable." Ryung scoffed at her own words. Not beliving a single word of it as it slipped her tongue like honey. Or in this case rougher than gravel. "Like you have a right to say that.You don't trust people because they're trustworthy. You trust them because you have nothing left to lean on."
He left unspoken. The only sounds were the blank steps of his feet as he retracted his trail. "I'm going to go." Ryung folds the cuffs over her wrists. Turning on an angle as she walks up the ladder to her own bunk. Sae-byeok felt the words clump into her throat as she let them dry out along the rest of her speechless sentences.
"66." Sae-byeok stuck her head between the bars of her bunk bed. Her eyes squinted as she covers her hand over the jarring lights above her. "Yes?" The girl asks. Propping her body weight onto her elbows. "I think I know what the next game is."
::::::::::::::::
"Lights out in two minutes." The robotic voice monotone as it filled the room with echos.
The two girls sat side by side. Keeping their shoulders leant together. Feeling the minimal breaths. And the bare beats of one another chest as the numbers decreased from the board. "Lights out in thirty seconds." The womans voice spoke once more.
The silence more threatening then the sounds around them itself. The quite rooms shared into a transparent abyss as the worry on each players face became less then subtle more and more by the minute.
10 seconds, and tonight could most likely be the last night they breath. Touch, and within seconds both or one of them coukd die tonight.
The lights shut down. The blanket between Ryung and Sae-byeok seemed thinner to the duo as they pressed their bodies closer to one another. The feelings of each others heartbeats, falling and dropping in unison brought the darkened climax to its limit.
That scream. That scream Sae-byeok and Ryung are all to familar of hearing. It's almost unbothered to their delicate ears.
The screams filled with warehouse, bringing each player to an alarm. Bodies flung and blood marking the walls. Claimin their dead bodies into a clearance. Ryung felt her hands sweat and the back of her shirt dampen as she ran across the warehouse. Barely escaping the broken bunk beds as they fell from corner to corner. In a perfect domino array. Sae-byeok gone from her side.
Her body turned in every direction as she shouted hopelessly for the girl. Her eyes felt weak yet her bones shook and the enrgy within her body flared. The spark between her fingers and palms spreaded to each bone in her body as her breaths seemed to come out colder from her mouth.
"Is it finally time to kill these bitches?" Her mumbles being heard by the men around her as they huddled for the shorter girl immediately. Her hands flew to their shoulders. Pressing the blade between her finger deeply into their fragile skin. Their bones crack underneath her palms as she flattens out their bodies like flies.
Their blood stained the pads of her fingers as she wiped it against the thick material of her jacket, The crevice of her lips crack opne into a halfhearted smile as she spins her knife, lacing it between each finger. Staring proudly at each body she now has the pleasure calling her won. Her new profound trophies that now decorate hee little wall of achievements.
The lights now flashing. Even the smallest glance at her companion and she knew within seconds it was her.
Her feet quicken towards the taller girl. The soles of her feet ache as it slams against the floor in consistent patterns.
Even then when Sae-byeok had the blanket wrapped around her neck. And Deok-su right in front of her trying to kick her body to death she stilled tried desprately to find Ryung. Even at the brink of death her mind still somehow thought of others beofre her own, for once.
The knife in her hands repeatedly cutting through Deok-su's flimsy body. The way she heard his groans fill her ears with meoldic screams as she pressd her switchblade further and further into his skin til she felt the tissue of it break. The bones barely touching the blade as she twisted it into his thigh and shoulders.
Her body slammed to the wall. The spine of her back feels as if it could break any moment. As he presses his wet bloodied palms over her neck. Digging each finger against the thin coat of her neck.
"Kinky." Ryung huffed with an amused laugh. Her forearm nudged into his neck. Pulling the strands of his greasy her into her grip. His head leant backwards, keeping her knife on his neck as she cut long length around his cheekbones and neck. Trailing it further down his collarbones til she sees the beauty of Scarlet red paint his lathered body. "You two bitches." His arms tug as Sae-byeok as the taller girl kicks his shin repeatedly. "Maybe I wish to die more than I wish to live?" Ryung pulls his head back futher. Smirking to herself as he tries to break her hands off his neck. "Fucking run you dumbass!" Ryung shouts as she pulls her arm from Deok-su, running off with the taller girl in her hands.
"You really are convincing me that you are dumber than I am."