Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gi-hun looked at the baby in his arms. At least she had been fed and was now sleeping peacefully against his body. The thought of that baby being hungry and her mom being dead had been giving Gi-hun anxiety. As much as he wanted to save her and as willing as he was to do everything in his power to make sure Jun-hee's daughter survived, he could not feed her.

It seemed ironic that the same evil minds that had chosen to make the baby a contestant in the game had also provided baby formula for the little baby during the finalists' dinner. Gi-hun hated how that forced him to be grateful even though he loathed those in charge of the games.

He raised his eyes and looked at the other players, now asleep in their beds with their bellies full. A shudder traveled through him as he pictured the next game, and how he could possibly keep such a tiny, fragile human safe from the game and the players.

At least he had eaten something, too. He'd been having trouble thinking or even just standing due to the lack of energy in his body. The moment he saw the pink guard feeding a bottle to the baby, Gi-hun had allowed himself to put his guard down and nourish his body. He knew he had to be strong if he wanted to keep that baby protected, but he also knew he wouldn't have been able to eat anything had they not given the baby any milk.

His thoughts kept drifting as he looked at the peaceful little girl in his arms. He knew he should get some sleep, but there was so much dread inside of him that it was hard to relax. Tomorrow could be the day that he kept his promise to save the baby. Or the day he died trying.

Gi-hun put the baby in the bassinet carefully and kept his hand on top of her little body. He didn't see the pink guard approach him. He looked at the soldier, his heart racing. What was it now?

"Player 456. He wants to see you," he said.

Gi-hun didn't say anything. His thoughts rushed through mind in disorderly fashion and adrenaline brimmed in his blood again.

What does he want with me?

He cast a look at the sleeping baby before looking at the guard again. Gi-hun didn't know what moved him when he started following the guard out of the dormitory. It was a complicated mix of anger, curiosity, and hope that made him clench his teeth inside his mouth and get ready for that daunting meeting with the Frontman.

~ * ~

In-ho was sitting perfectly still on his armchair, waiting for player 456 to be brought up. His pulse was fast and his blood buzzed in his ears. Part of him had been waiting for that moment for a long time. Perhaps for the last four years. Every interaction he'd had with player 456, even more so in the past few days, had been leading up to that moment.

Time to see what player 456 is made of.

Watching him through the screen as he sipped his favorite whiskey, though far more comfortable than being down there in the dormitory, was nothing like what In-ho had experienced as Young-il. Player 001 had allowed him not only to watch Gi-hun closely—close enough to see the thin layer of sweat on his skin during the games; close enough to hear the uneven cadence of his breathing as he experienced fear and joy—but to forge a bond with him. For those brief hours, as they played games together, In-ho had allowed himself to become Young-il, to experience the thrill of a life and death game, to celebrate victory with his teammates. To care.

Being back in his quarters after the rebellion, forced to watch player 456 from a distance, was not half as thrilling.

Knowing that he was about to see Gi-hun again inflamed him with a perverse sense of power and an unstoppable wave of curiosity. He knew that what he was about to propose to player 456 was downright immoral. It would make Seong Gi-hun's good heart break and his faith in people—his faith in himself—crumble. Doomed if he did, doomed if he didn't.

How far was Gi-hun willing to go to save that baby? Would he kill the others for it?

In-ho's heart was pounding in his chest as he thought about it. Could Gi-hun set aside all his beliefs and the desire to save people and get blood on his hands in order to save the infant?

How would player 456 react if In-ho took off his mask?

In-ho felt a shiver chase down his spine as he anticipated the look of utter disbelief—of betrayal—in his eyes.

His palms felt a little sweaty within the leather gloves. His chest moved with a more shallow breathing as he stared at the elevator doors, waiting for them to open. The mask allowed him to hide his growing fixation with that man.

In-ho couldn't wait to put Gi-hun through the ultimate test. But before that, he couldn't wait to see him closely again. To see the determination, but also the fear of failure that would be there in his eyes as he tried to keep that baby safe. He wanted to drink in every inflection of his voice, every quivery word that left his lips when they talked. In-ho wanted to be able to scent Gi-hun's apprehension as it came off of him in waves.

He wanted to bask in player 456 before it was all over.

The moment the doors opened and the tall man in a suit started to walk in his direction, In-ho's heart skipped a beat. His mouth went dry, his breath got caught in his lungs. On the outside, though, he looked impenetrable. A masked man with many secrets. A cold-blooded killer.

In Gi-hun's eyes, In-ho could see all the trauma that island had caused him. There was no easy-going smile on player 456's face, no friendly word as there had been when he'd first come to the island. The contrast between the man Gi-hun had been then and the man he had become was breathtaking.

I did this. I changed him, In-ho thought with equal amounts of pride and disgust.

When Gi-hun stopped before him, hand resting on the chair in front of him, In-ho reined himself in and focused on what he had to say.

"Have a seat. This could take a while."

Gi-hun stared at the masked man. His heart was beating erratically fast as his brain tried to process the many thoughts that took him over all at once. Kill him. Stop him. Make him end the games. Beg him. Take off his mask. Do something.

He circled the chair and sat down on it. There was nothing but a small center table between them. Gi-hun could have heard a pin drop as he stared at the Frontman, wondering why he had called him there.

"I have a proposition for you," he said.

Gi-hun kept staring at him, unblinking.

"It's about your future. And the baby's."

"Did we ever have a future to begin with?" Gi-hun couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. How dare that man try to give him hope after everything he had been doing in order to transform their deaths into a spectacle for the rich?

"As you have probably guessed," the Frontman went on, unfazed, "the others will target you and the baby in the next game."

"Isn't that what you and the people above you want?" Gi-hun shot back without missing a beat. "That's why you put a newborn baby in the game," he accused. "You want to see those money-crazed men kill the baby with your own eyes." He was seething. The revulsion he felt at being in that man's presence was nearly overwhelming.

"I'm trying to help you and the baby here," The Frontman replied.

Gi-hun scoffed with feigned amusement. His disbelief was like a brick wall. But as he stared at that mask, he couldn't help the way cracks appeared on that wall, cracks filled with hope.

"You're trying to help us?" he asked.

Gi-hun followed the movement of the other man's hand when he put something on the center table between them—a knife.

"Take this knife back to your quarters and kill the trash who wants to kill you and the baby."

Gi-hun raised his eyes from the knife and looked at the Frontman.

"They're fast asleep after all the food and drink," the masked man went on. "Slit their throats one by one, no one will notice."

Something inside of him clenched. The spark of very conflicting emotions stirred in the pit of Gi-hun's stomach. That made no sense. The Frontman couldn't possibly mean that, could he? He had no reason whatsoever to want to help him. Or the baby. Not after making it clear that he didn't give a damn by making that little girl a player in her mother's place.

Gi-hun leaned forward on his chair.

"Why are you suggesting this?"

Gi-hun's heart skipped a beat when he saw the other man pull back the hood of his cloak. He waited, heart hammering in his chest, as the man's hand went for the mask covering his face.

No. That's not possible. That's—

Young-il.

He leaned back, his eyes wide and unable to refrain from showing all his shock. That couldn't be true! That was the face of a friend, someone who had helped him! Young-il had been a player, he had died!

Gi-hun's eyes brimmed with tears as realization hit him. There had never been a player 001. He had been manipulated from the get go. He had trusted that man, he had cared—

"Seong Gi-hun, I'm sorry about Jung-bae."

He killed him! He killed Jung-bae this son-of-a-bitch!

The pain of betrayal quickly turned into something else, just as powerful.

Gi-hun grabbed the knife and surged against the man still sitting down before him. His body towered above him. His fingers gripped the handle of the weapon so tightly that it hurt. His chest felt tight and his heart had trouble working in the pool of adrenaline that was his bloodstream now.

Knowing that he had trusted that man, the same man who had killed one of his best friends, was so fucking painful that Gi-hun couldn't breathe. He was livid. He was hurt. Almost irrationally so.

The Frontman, on the other hand, kept staring at him with a disturbingly peaceful expression on his face.

"Do you want to kill me?" he asked calmly.

Yes! I fucking do! Gi-hun's mind screamed the answer, even though his heart still had trouble believing that was the face of a foe, not a friend. His closed fist held on to the weapon so tightly that his hand felt shaky. A shred of his control snapped and he closed the distance between them, leaning over the man on the armchair and pressing the tip of the knife against his neck.

"What do you think?" Gi-hun's voice was trembling with the intensity of his feelings. His vision was blurred as his eyes drowned in the tears he held back. A battle was going on inside of him—that man had pretended to be his friend, he had killed Jung-bae, he had lied and betrayed him, and he was the reason why the games were happening!

Or was he?

Wasn't the Frontman just another pawn—a powerful one, for sure—on the VIPs' game?

"Argh!" Gi-hun groaned. There was a ringing, loud sound in his ears as his blood rushed fast through his veins. His breathing had hitched and he felt lightheaded.

"Then go ahead." In-ho locked eyes with Gi-hun. He could feel his anger, could feel the power behind the pain driving him to near madness. "It's just you and me here," he dared him.

His body felt warm. His breathing pattern became fast and uneven. What if Gi-hun killed him right then and there? Would he fight him? Would he let player 456 go ahead with it?

Dying had been a long overdue certainty in In-ho's life. He didn't care about living enough to fight that man. He didn't think himself deserving of life. Nevertheless, he did want to see how Gi-hun would respond to the challenge he had just presented him with, and that alone was worth living for.

"There's no one here to stop you," he went on as Gi-hun struggled to try and rein himself in; to get ahold of his messy, overwhelming emotions. "But killing me won't change anything." In-ho stared into Gi-hun's eyes. They were so close now. In-ho could see the way Gi-hun's bottom lip quivered as he dealt with the many strong emotions coursing through him. His eyes zooned in on him. The thudding inside his chest became faster.

A strangled sound stumbled past Gi-hun's lips. The knife bit into In-ho's skin, drawing blood. A strange rush of excitement took In-ho by surprise, rattling him to his very core. The desire to soak up Gi-hun's emotions grew like a black hole, devouring everything inside of him, and In-ho found himself fighting not to snap. Not to consume him.

"Someone else will take my place, and tomorrow's game will still go ahead." He spoke with such brutal honesty that the other man couldn't help but heed his words.

Gi-hun's jaw was locked tight. His eyes were drowning in the wet glow of despair. His breath puffed damp and warm against In-ho's cheeks.

Gi-hun's face was still only a few inches away from his. The blade was resting firmly against his neck, below his jawline. In-ho felt the tip of Gi-hun's nose graze his cheek as he drew even closer. For a fraction of second, he didn't breathe. The absolute closeness paralyzed him.

But then, Gi-hun withdrew the knife and took a step back. He looked exhausted after battling his murderous intent.

Exhausted, vulnerable, fierce. In-ho drank up the sight of him. He felt the droplet of blood run down his neck, but didn't do anything about it.

"Fuck you." Gi-hun tossed the knife on the ground, turned around, and started to walk back down the same narrow corridor.

In-ho couldn't explain the surge of anger that thundered inside of him. In the blink of an eye, he got up from the armchair, picked up the knife again, and pressed Gi-hun against one of the dark walls of the corridor.

The older man groaned and tried to push him away.

"Are you fucking crazy, player 456? I'm giving you a chance to save that baby. Will you choose death?" he spoke right against his face.

"I won't kill them in their sleep," Gi-hun growled defiantly.

In-ho laughed wickedly.

"I don't think you understand the situation. Killing them is your best option right now. Fail to do so and tomorrow, the moment they can do it, they'll team up and get rid of you and the baby. Maybe they'll kill the baby first and make you watch. Is that what you want?" he spoke in a low, dangerous voice. His body trapped Gi-hun against the wall, leaving him no choice but to listen to him.

"Let me go!" Gi-hun squirmed.

"Now, I know you've been feeling suicidal. It's giving me a headache trying to keep you in the game. But condemning the baby? That's not you," In-ho challenged him.

"Why are you doing it?" Gi-hun blurted out the question. "Why are you keeping me alive?"

In-ho could tell that it was a question that had been consuming Gi-hun from the inside, tearing away at his sanity. He narrowed his eyes. His lips twitched with a crooked smile.

"Because it's fun," he whispered against his lips. His heart was racing madly now and his body temperature had risen a few degrees. In-ho saw the way Gi-hun's chest heaved in the small space between his body and the wall against his back. His eyes were fixed on player 456's lips. The way Gi-hun pursed them angrily, the way he couldn't stop them from trembling.

Taste. In-ho thought, embracing the madness of the moment. He let his lips ghost above Gi-hun's mouth, drinking up his heavy breath. His bottom lip brushed against Gi-hun's upper one very briefly, eliciting an electrically charged response from his body.

He stepped back. His heart seemed to be beating inside his throat, clogging up the air passage.

He pushed the knife back into Gi-hun's hand and took a deep, calming breath. He needed a moment for the rippling sensation raking through him to dissipate.

"In tomorrow's game," he went on, regaining composure, "you'll have to fight the trash trying to kill you and the baby. Kill them before they can do that. The last game cannot be played with only two players. It means the games will end. You and the baby will leave this place alive. You have my word."

Gi-hun squeezed his fingers around the handle of the knife again. His palm felt clammy. His heart was beating so fast that he had trouble focusing.

The idea that he could be responsible for the baby dying was fucking with his brain. He didn't want to do that! But could he kill those unknowing men?

He knew he wasn't going to find an answer in that place, standing so close to that man. Something about the way he looked at him scrambled Gi-hun's rational faculties and made him feel smothered by his own helplessness.

Without saying a word, he took the knife and started walking back to the elevator.

"Player 456," the Frontman called, making Gi-hun stop but not turn around. "Do you still have faith in people?"

Gi-hun's throat tightened around the lump in there. His lungs felt heavy and seemed to squeeze around his heart. He didn't know how to answer that. Neither did he know why the faint brushing of that man's lip against his mouth had stuck into his brain like a favorite movie, or an annoying melody that just wouldn't stop playing.

He made his way to the elevator and sighed, relieved, when the doors closed and took him out of there.

~ * ~ 

The knife in his hand seemed to burn the skin of his palm. Gi-hun kept looking at the sleeping baby, thinking of what to do. Right before him, the beds of the seven other players were a constant reminder of what waited for him and the baby if he didn't heed the Frontman's advice.

As much as he loathed even contemplating the possibility of killing those sleeping players in cold-blood, he knew the Frontman was right—they were going to come for him and the baby in the next game. They had already made it painfully clear how much they wished the baby would die so they could have more money.

So what? Is that a reason to kill them? To become an irrational murderer?

Gi-hun felt conflicted. He looked at the baby's little face and his chest clenched.

You promised her. How will you feel if you don't do whatever it takes to keep the baby safe?

He squeezed his fingers around the knife. The Frontman's words kept going through his head—not just his words, though, the inadvertent thought threatened to steal his focus away. The look in that man's eyes, his scent as he pushed him against the way, the closeness to his face. They messed with Gi-hun, making him feel disoriented and angry. He had cared for Young-il! He had mourned his loss!  He had been betrayed.

He squeezed his eyes shut and looked at the men sleeping on the beds opposite to his. None of that mattered now. Or did it? Because perhaps Young-il had cared, too, even if just a little. He did apologize for killing Jung-bae—like that even matters! Gi-hun thought angrily.

He's trying to help you and the baby.

Gi-hun felt the knots of tension and uncertainty inside his chest. He didn't think that the man behind the dark mask—Young-il. He saved my life in the six-legged race. And in the rebellion.—had lied about letting them walk away from the island if Gi-hun killed the others.

It was up to him now. Save the baby. End the game.

He stared intently at the sleeping men and took a few steps in their direction.

They'll kill you. And then they'll kill the baby. Or they'll kill the baby and then kill you. Gi-hun let those thoughts simmer inside his head, encouraging him to take action. You know what must be done. You have to—

He strode confidently toward the bed where player 100 was sleeping. He pressed the tip of the blade to his neck. His eyes were wide and unblinking, a maniac glow shimmering on them. His hand felt shaky, but not so much as to prevent him from killing the sleeping man if he wanted to.

Do it. Do it for the baby.

That's not who you are, sir. Gi-hun froze in place. He looked at the bunk beds and could swear he saw Sae-byeok there. The memory of her cut through the murderous intent like lightning in the dark sky and Gi-hun wavered.

But the baby—

There must be another way. I can't murder the others!

He looked at the bunk bed again. It was empty. Sleep deprivation and exhaustion were beginning to weigh on him.

He stared at player 100 again and the way the tip of the knife touched his neck.

His eyes went up to the camera in the dormitory, the one he knew the Frontman would be watching him from.

I can't. I can't do this. Can I?

~ * ~ 

In-ho was sitting on his armchair, eyes fixed on the screen. He could feel the way his heart pumped his blood hastily through his veins. His fingers tightened around the glass which he took to his lips for another sip.

C'mon, he thought. Do it. Kill the trash.

Flashbacks of what had felt like for him when he'd been in Gi-hun's shoes kept racing through his mind. In-ho would never forget the way it had felt to hold that knife and kill the first player. The hesitation that he had had to overcome, then the horror he had drowned in when he'd looked at all the blood in the butchered bodies.

His chest tightened. His heart pounded. The adrenaline levels in his blood right now were insane. That was his endgame right there—watching as Seong Gi-hun turned; as he became just as vile as In-ho had when he'd killed the other players to become the winner.

Except he's doing it for the baby, not himself, he argued in his mind.

Still. Those are seven, unknowing men he's about to murder.

Memories of how Oh Il-nam had pushed that same knife Gi-hun now held into his hand and told him to kill the other players kept getting stronger.

In-ho had spent the last nine years telling himself that he hadn't had a choice. That he had done what any other person in his place would have done. And he was about to prove that when Gi-hun, the sweet, foolish, kind-hearted player 456, joined him the darkness.

His eyes brimmed with tears as he watched Gi-hun lean over the sleeping man's lying body. In-ho was overwhelmed and it was difficult to hold back—he had once been that man. Honorable. Just. Incapable of hurting another fellow human. And now he was this monstruous thing that hid behind a mask. The Frontman. The brain behind the cruel games.

Go on. Do it. He urged Gi-hun from his seat. Kill them. I'm waiting for you.

He saw it when Gi-hun raised his eyes, meeting his on the screen. His heart skipped a beat, then fluttered under the discharge of even more adrenaline.

His mouth felt dry. He took another hasty sip of whiskey but for some reason it felt as though he was trying to swallow a rock.

No. No way. Go back. GO BACK! Inside his mind, he screamed at player 456 when he started to walk away from the other man's bed and toward his own.

You can't do this! You'll die! The baby will die! He felt anger travel through him like poison, making every fiber of muscle inside him tremble and writhe in agony.

"For fuck's sake," he spoke dryly, his voice barely above a whisper.

A single teardrop ran down his right cheek, but In-ho didn't move to wipe it. He kept staring at the screen blankly as Gi-hun went back to his own bed, right beside the baby.

He'll die, he thought ominously. He chose death over betraying his beliefs, which angered In-ho as much as it filled his heart with admiration for that man.

He did what you couldn't, he thought sadly. His eyes were still glowing as past and present converged into that very emotional moment for him.

In-ho looked at the amber liquid in his glass and finished it. He steeled himself to deal with the consequences of Gi-hun's actions.

Player 456 had made his choice.

And he would pay.

~ * ~ 

On the following morning, the players were taken to the scenario of the last game. Sky squid game, one of In-ho's personal favorites.

Today, though, as he watched from control room the players walk in and have the rules explained to them, he felt unusually tense.

This could be the day when player 456's good luck ended, and as much as he told himself that he didn't care if he Seong Gi-hun died—he had tried to help him for fuck's sake—it was difficult not to feel the way his heart kept beating erratically as the game started.

In-ho couldn't take his eyes off the screen. He kept staring at the players, wondering what their next move would be. Who would get thrown off the square first?

Hopefully, not Gi-hun.

The sight of that baby wrapped around that man's body in a bloodied jacket was both pathetic and heartbreaking. In-ho didn't let himself dwell on the tiny human clinging to player's 456 good luck now. He didn't, because that was a dangerous road. A path of empathy that he, as the Frontman, had forfeit long ago. In-ho couldn't do feelings anymore.

I tried to save the baby. It's not my fault if it dies. He hung on to that thought like a lifeline, because if he dared peek into the humanity that had turned to ashes inside of him and found out there were still embers there, warm and hopeful, he would crumble.

C'mon, player 456. You got this.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun was glad for the knife. Even if he hadn't used it the night before, it was proving very useful now. At least it kept the other players at a respectful distance from him and the baby.

He looked over his shoulder at the drop just a few feet away and his stomach coiled with a feeling of vertigo and fear.

The fact that those men were unabashedly planning to throw that little baby off the cliff for the prize was sickening. He couldn't believe how far gone they were, crazy about the money, unable to snap out of that cruel reality and realize the wrongness of it all.

Making it past the square and to the triangle was a small victory, but it quickly proved to be a short-lived one. As the men teamed up to try and separate the baby from him—so they could throw each of them off separately and end up as winners—Gi-hun clutched to the warm little bundle wrapped in Jun-hee's bloodied jacket.

No matter what happened, he knew he must protect the baby.

And a lot happened.

As the men turned on each other and secrets got revealed, Gi-hun suddenly found himself standing on the second pillar of the game with the baby and its father. But what started out as hope inside of him—surely player 333 would help protect his own baby—soon turned into a nightmare.

Gi-hun watched, his chest tight with anguish and pain, as the young man who claimed to have been with Jun-hee took his own baby, demanding that Gi-hun stay put. That man knew what it meant if Gi-hun stayed behind—the baby would have to die.

He saw the man take the baby with him to the final phase of the game, determined to leave him behind. Perhaps what hurt him the most was that Gi-hun would have been ready to die to save the baby. He honestly would. Nevertheless, watching the deranged glow in player 333's eyes made it impossible for Gi-hun to stay put and watch him throw his own daughter off the cliff.

He jumped right back in the game and wrestled the young man after making sure the baby was safe. He wrapped his own suit in his hand to protect his fist as he fought player 333 and the knife he stole from him. The crying from the baby just a few feet away was a haunting reminder of who Gi-hun was fighting for.

Part of him wondered—very briefly—if the VIPs were having fun. If the Frontman was enjoying the spectacle of watching a father trying to kill his own baby.

"Ah!" He cried out in pain when the knife slashed into his lower right abdomen, making a gash that started to bleed profusely on the spot. Gi-hun rode out the pain with the help of adrenaline and charged at player 333, determined to protect his child from her father's derailing sanity.

~ * ~ 

In control room, In-ho stood perfectly still, watching the fight unfolding on the second platform. When a soldier stood beside him, clearly needing his attention, it took him a lot of discipline to tear his eyes off the screen.

He heard the news that the guard had for him.

His heart sunk in his chest. His brother was close now. Too close. Only five minutes away.

He thanked the guard and looked at the game again. The players had started turning on each other. When they failed to separate Gi-hun from the baby, they grew desperate and reckless. Nothing In-ho didn't see coming. Few things were as fickle as loyalty when survival was on the line.

He watched attentively as the players started to get pushed off the cliff. Even though he had expected things to take an unexpected turn, he was still surprised when so many of them got pushed off on the second one. More than surprised—he was apprehensive.

With only Gi-hun, the baby, and player 333 left on the game, a lot could go wrong.

Behind the Frontman's mask, In-ho sucked in his breath when Myung-gi held his baby over the edge of the platform, threatening to let it fall if Gi-hun went closer. What a stupid piece of shit. Only a fool wouldn't have realized that player 456 was willing to sacrifice for that baby. Player 333 had just made that one mistake that lit the fire of determination in Gi-hun.

In-ho felt the way his breath hitched when player 456 was able to jump onto the last platform. The button. Hit the button, he kept thinking as the two of them fought.

His eyes went to the clock on the wall. There wasn't much time now. The coast guard would be there soon. The game had to end before that.

Oh for fuck's sake, hit the goddamn button.

His muscles became stiff when he saw player 333 slash at Gi-hun. His shirt became bloodied soon, but that didn't stop the older man from surging against the younger one and fighting him.

When the two of them seemed to roll off the platform, In-ho's heart skipped a beat. His throat tightened around a lump. He had never been so invested in someone as he was in that man. Was that it? Was he gone? Why wasn't the voice announcing the eliminations?

The moment Gi-hun climbed back onto the platform, In-ho was relieved—but only for a second.

His eyes landed on the red button they hadn't pushed. The game hadn't begun. That meant either Gi-hun would have to sacrifice the baby, or he would kill himself to save it.

Something that felt a lot like a claw, with long, sharp fingers wrapped around his heart and squeezed. A quivery feeling in the pit of his stomach made his entire body go perfectly still. Even his breath was locked inside his lungs as he watched Gi-hun hold the baby affectionately.

That was a goodbye.

There was not a doubt in his mind that Gi-hun would die for that baby. The man who could have had it all—two times a winner—wouldn't live to see his daughter again.

Despite every brick In-ho had put in the wall he'd built around his emotions, he felt sad.

The moment Gi-hun lay the baby down gently and smiled, the sadness changed into something louder, something that made his pulse race and the quivery feeling turn into a shudder.

Gi-hun walked to the edge of the platform and stared straight ahead. There was nothing but resignation in that look.

In-ho watched player 456 stand on the brink of death, ready to take the fall. Though that man had flirted with death so many times without giving in, it felt like it was the end of the road for Seong Gi-hun. He was going to sacrifice himself for that baby. It made sense, In-ho would have to admit. It was the most fitting end for that remarkable man.

"We are not horses," he spoke.

In-ho felt the words like they were an arrow—straight through his chest causing piercing pain and irreversible damage.

"We are humans," Gi-hun was saying. "And humans are…"

In-ho had to let go. No more player 456. Not more of his obsession—infatuation, perhaps?—with Gi-hun. It was over. It was goodbye. He had to stand there and watch without interfering. Without using his key to access the emergency button.

Except player 456 was about to die and that was a fucking emergency. 

His fingers felt shaky when the loud, blasting sound ricocheted everywhere on the island—including in the game arena.

Game over! Please evacuate now. You have thirty-minutes. Game over!

In-ho stared, wide-eyed, as Gi-hun stood so close to that cliff. In-ho was afraid to breathe for fear that the wind of his breath could push him off the edge.

"Sir?" One of the guards spoke. "The VIPs want a word."

In-ho took the walkie-talkie to his ear, but his eyes were glued on the confused man still standing on the platform, trying to understand the siren-like sound and the warning to evacuate.

"The coast guard is here. You must leave now," he spoke into the gadget.

"But the game isn't over! We want to see him jump!"

"I know you do. Look at him, that is a dead man standing. You know the baby is the winner. You must leave now because the police is here. This is for your own safety." He ended the conversation and turned to look at the guard behind him.

"Make sure they evacuate right now," he told the Officer. "The rest of the guards should follow protocol."

"Yes, sir."

In-ho stared at the screen. His heart skipped a beat.

"Get my boat ready. I'll go fetch the winners."

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun had already made up his mind when he pushed the button and it turned green. He wished he had been able to see Ga-yeong one more time before dying, but it was his own fault that he had allowed his obsession with that island to grow until nothing else mattered. Nothing but stopping the games.

And though he had failed, and though the players had died, Gi-hun had one more chance to do the right thing and save that baby—a little girl who had nothing to do with that cruelty. She hadn't consented to being there, she'd lost her mother—and father. Gi-hun needed her to have a chance at happiness. He was an old man who had had a good run.

He just wanted the Frontman and the VIPs to understand that they weren't horses. That what they did on that island was horrific, brutal, and immoral.

He put the baby down very carefully and gently. He smiled as he looked at her little face one last time. Be well, baby girl. I don't even know you, but I love you.

His chest ached with the pain of goodbye, but even though he was hurt, Gi-hun was immovable in his resolve. The greedy pigs behind the games needed him to die. It was their finale and Gi-hun had to play by the rules.

He started to walk away from the baby and toward the edge of the platform. An ice-cold swirl of fear traveled through him, but it did nothing to weaken his determination. As he stood on the edge, Gi-hun thought about Ga-yeong one more time.

I'm sorry, princess.

He stared into the distance at the VIPs he knew would be watching the game.

"We are not horses," he spoke. His bottom lip quivered with his anger and disgust at those people. "We are humans." His heart was beating fast. He wished he could look into the Frontman's eyes one more time as he said those words. "And humans are…"

Gi-hun took another step backwards. He was about to let go when he was startled by the loud siren that went off and the lights flickering in the arena.

Game over! Please evacuate now. You have thirty-minutes. Game over!

He frowned. What was going on? How come the game was over if he hadn't jumped yet?

Gi-hun perked up his ears. Evacuation? What was going on? He looked at the timer on the wall and hesitated. Should he jump?

Game over. Everyone, please leave the island now. Emergency protocol 001 has been activated.

Emergency protocol? Gi-hun frowned. What the fuck?

He took a step toward the center of the platform. What if he jumped and they all left the island while the baby was still there?

His heart was pounding in his chest. Doubt and fear of making the wrong choice, staying alive and having the soldiers kill him and the baby for failing to follow the rules, or jumping to his death without knowing whether or not the baby would be looked after.

When the timer reached zero and nothing happened, no voice announcing his and 222's elimination, Gi-hun felt both a frail sense of hope and an immense feeling of dread. Something was awfully wrong. There was no way that the VIPs has grown compassionate. No way the Frontman would stop the game to save him.

He ignored the pain from the wound in his lower abdomen and walked toward the baby, picked her up, and held her close.

The female voice kept announcing an evacuation. Gi-hun could feel the urgency even if there was nothing, no one there with him.

What am I supposed to do? He looked down from the edge of the cliff. There was no way down unless the game people did something about it, so Gi-hun sat in the middle of the platform, rocking the baby and hoping for the best.

He didn't see the masked man who walked toward the platform, but he did see the small square in the middle of it go down. He couldn't move fast enough to use it, so he imagined someone was coming up.

Gi-hun got to his feet, wincing at the pain from the slash wound.

A few seconds later, he saw the Frontman standing before him. He was not wearing his mask.

Gi-hun's heart skipped a beat when they looked into each other's eyes.

"What's happening? Why didn't they kill me when the clock ran out?" he asked.

"Come with me. There's no time," The Frontman spoke, unfazed by his questions.

"No," Gi-hun responded instinctively, recoiling from that figure and clutching the baby even closer to his body.

"Don't be stubborn. The island will go up in flames in twenty minutes or so. Come with me."

"Where to?"

"Does it matter?" The man whose face had once evoked tender feelings of affection in Gi-hun now looked cold. "Somewhere safe," he caved and added.

The two of them looked, startled, when glass shattered not too far from there, causing a loud, strident noise.

Gi-hun gasped when his eyes met Jun-ho's. The young cop looked at him too, but for only a moment. His eyes fixed on the Frontman.

"Why?!"

"Come. We must leave now." The Frontman pushed Gi-hun, now too astonished to say anything or protest, toward the center square that would take them down.

"In-ho! Why?!"

Gi-hun watched, shocked, hurt and confused, as the cop and the Frontman stared intently at each other. Then, as the platform went down, everything got dark around him.

--------------------------------------

tbc...

Chapter Text

Gi-hun saw the island that had haunted his dreams going up in flames. He was inside a boat, the baby wrapped around Jun-hee's tracksuit jacket and pressed up against his chest. The man who had saved him—The Frontman—was talking to the guard steering the boat into the open sea.

He couldn't hear what they were talking about over the noise of the boat's engine and the helicopters in the distance.

"What happened?" He asked feebly when the man he'd formerly known as Young-il came closer and stood before him.

"Emergency exit. The coast guard found the island," The Frontman said.

"My friend," Gi-hun began, but had to ride out a particularly intense stab of pain coming from his wound. On top of that, the baby started wailing, making it hard to hear each other. "He knew you. The detective."

The Frontman stared coldly at him. His expression looked completely inscrutable.

"He called you by a name…" Gi-hun searched his mind.

"That's not important." The Frontman sat across from him and pulled a large, black bag from under the side of the boat.

As he opened it and started pawing through it, Gi-hun tried to think of the name he had heard Jun-ho use. Did his detective friend know that man? How so? Maybe his investigation outside had been fruitful.

Gi-hun squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head back against the boat. He tried to adjust his body into a more comfortable position that allowed him to hold the baby and deal with the pain.

"Don't get up. We're on the run. I took a good way out, but there could be boats looking for us. Stay down," The Frontman commanded.

Gi-hun stared at him. He wished he felt stronger in order to confront him, but right now all his strength was being channeled into holding that baby and riding out the pain.

"Shh, shhh," he cooed, rocking the infant. A strangled moan stumbled past his lips when the wound throbbed and he had to stop trying to soothe Jun-hee's daughter.

In-ho watched everything intently. He could see the pain the other man was in, could see his failed attempt at soothing the baby that instead wailed louder and louder. His eyes landed on the bloodied spot on player 456's shirt, now partially covered by the baby and the jacket wrapped around it. There was still active bleeding there.

Shit, he thought.

He found a shirt inside the 'emergency get away bag' he had one of the guards prepare for him and tossed it to the older man.

"Give me the baby and press that against the wound. It's still bleeding."

"No." Gi-hun flinched and held the baby protectively when In-ho got closer.

For fuck's sake. He took a deep breath and tried again.

"You're bleeding, player 456. If you don't apply pressure to the wound you'll faint. I don't see how you'll protect this baby if you bleed to death."

Gi-hun stared at him, clearly conflicted.

"Besides, the place we're going to has no medical care, so you might as well do yourself a favor."

"Where are we going?" Gi-hun shot back.

"Somewhere I can lay low."

"Why don't you leave me and the baby somewhere else?"

In-ho leaned closer to him, his eyes fixed on Gi-hun's.

"I've seen your face, is that it?" Gi-hun came to the obvious conclusion by himself. "I know too much."

In-ho didn't say anything, but there was an amused, perhaps wicked, too, glint in his eyes.

"The baby, player 456, and press that against the bleeding."

Gi-hun hesitated for another moment. He must have realized how weak he felt, because he let In-ho take the baby off his arms and did as told—holding the folded shirt tightly against his wound.

In-ho pretended not to notice the way he grimaced when he did that. He still didn't know whether or not that was a lethal wound. If Gi-hun didn't stop bleeding soon, even if the cut wasn't too profound, he might still die.

Instead of dwelling on it, though, In-ho gazed at the crying baby girl in his arms and put her down beside him carefully, across from where Gi-hun was sitting.

"What are you doing?" Player 456 asked.

"Feeding her." He found the baby formula and the bottle inside the bag according to his specifications. "There's still enough from what she had last night."

Gi-hun watched as the Frontman started to add water and powered milk into the baby bottle. He stirred it with a spoon, took the baby in his arms again, and offered her the bottle.

The baby kept fussing and turning her little face away.

"Hey, there, there. It's okay. Just take it." The Frontman tried again, but the crying only got louder.

Gi-hun watched as the other man grew flustered.

A particularly taller wave made the boat jump and land heavily, and Gi-hun winced with pain. The baby was screaming now.

"Why won't she take it?" The Frontman looked at him, exasperated.

"The milk's cold," Gi-hun spoke softly. He was too weak to raise his voice.

"Well, that's all we got out here in the ocean."

"You need to warm it up."

"How am I supposed to do that?" The Frontman asked, clearly frustrated. "Shhh…" He tried rocking the baby with one arm, but it did nothing to appease the crying.

"I don't know. Why don't you try holding it against your skin for a while? Might make it warmer," Gi-hun suggested.

"Under my shirt, perhaps?"

Gi-hun nodded. "I'd do it but…" He opened his arms a little and let the Frontman see the bloodied mess on his shirt. "I don't think that's a good idea." Gi-hun hissed and gritted his teeth when he pressed the shirt against the wound again.

"Right. It's not."

The other man looked at him, then at the bottle. He kept on rocking the baby as he thought of what to do. He lay the baby gently on his knees. Then, he opened his dark suit and slipped the bottle underneath his black shirt, against his chest.

"Calm down. Wait a moment."

"Babies don't wait," Gi-hun said absently.

The other man just glared at him.

A while later, he took the bottle from under his shirt and tried feeding it to the infant again. This time, Jun-hee's daughter took it. The crying finally ceased and the baby fed hungrily on the bottle.

Gi-hun could see through his half-closed eyes the moment the other man relaxed with relief. Part of his brain—the part that was not drowning in pain—marveled at the sight of that evil man feeding the baby a bottle of formula so gently. It was like watching the wolf with the lamb and Gi-hun's chest felt tight with apprehension.

He closed his eyes but fought sleep. He wanted to know where they were going, but he also wanted to keep an eye out for the Frontman and make sure the baby was okay.

"Sir, we have arrived," the soldier informed after what felt like forever.

The truth was, they must have been on the ocean for no longer than two hours, but Gi-hun was physically—and emotionally—exhausted. He didn't know where he was being taken to, or even if the Frontman had plans to kill him when they got there, but he would be so fucking glad to get out of that boat and its constant bumping into the waves that caused his wound throb ever so painfully.

"Thank you."

Gi-hun watched the other man get up with the baby, put the backpack on, and get off the boat. He lifted himself up and looked around.

"Wait, is this another island?"

The man in the dark suit turned to look at him.

"Yes. I told you I was going to lay low."

Gi-hun stared at the beautiful two-story house ahead of them. There was a huge balcony on the second-story and tall glass windows in the front. The place seemed like something out of an architecture magazine and even though he could barely stand or think straight in his current position, he was impressed.

"Do you need help getting off the boat?"

Gi-hun snapped back to the Frontman talking to him.

"No."

"Go on, help him," the man told the guard.

"I said I don't need—" Gi-hun's words ended in a choked out moan as the pain from getting to his feet nearly made him pass out. "Get your hands off…" He breathed out heavily, "…me." He pushed the soldier's helping hands away and got off the boat on his own terms. It might not have been very wise, as the pain in his lower right abdomen was fierce, but he did find comfort in not needing the Frontman's help, or his soldiers' help for that matter.

"All right, then. Can you walk up to the house?"

Gi-hun looked at the place once again. It wasn't too far. Less than a hundred feet off the shore. He could—he would have to. He saw the wooded area around the house that pretty much isolated the property. He wondered whether more people lived on that island—it seemed big enough, but perhaps it was too remote?

How are we going to get food and stuff here?

As if answering his question, he heard the conversation between the Frontman and the soldier still on the boat. "Check your phone, I'll send you a list of everything we're gonna need."

"Yes, sir. I'll be back tomorrow around the same time. Let me know if you need me to be here earlier."

In-ho watched as the guard started the boat and steered it away.

"Wait," Gi-hun called from behind him. He was still in the water up to his knees, plodding closer to the sand. "If he's gone, how are we gonna leave? If there's an emergency, or—"

In-ho stared intently at him. That man was in bad shape. It clearly took him a lot just not to fall. No wonder, he thought. Days without proper sleep or food did that to a person, especially someone who was about his age.

"Don't worry about that. Let's go inside."

"Give me the baby." Gi-hun got close to him and reached out his arms. The shirt that had been held against the wound fell on the sad, bloodied. In-ho assessed the wound, it had stopped bleeding apparently. Good.

"Are you sure? I don't really care about holding it, but you don't look like you're feeling too well."

"I'm fine," Gi-hun spoke defiantly.

In-ho bit back a smirk. That spark of fight in player 456's eyes was still as thrilling as it had been when In-ho had first seen it on screen. It had been there for the first time the moment Seong Gi-hun stopped being that sweet fool who was ready to help everyone, and became the hard man who fought his best friend in the game arena in the finale. In the end, even though Gi-hun's good heart had prevailed, In-ho had seen that spark in his eyes for the first time—and from then on it had only grown in the last four years, until it turned into a fire that, in the end, had consumed the island itself in flames.

"All right." He handed him the baby.

Despite the pain and difficulty that player 456 must be facing in order to walk to the house, he hid it well, buried under his frail pride. In-ho appreciated that determination, even if it did make him cast a few worried looks in his direction—he hadn't saved those two only to have Gi-hun collapse with the baby and end up killing the two of them.

After In-ho opened the door and they let themselves in, player 456 stared in awe at the place.

"It's beautiful, but it's also functional," In-ho said when he saw the look in Gi-hun's eyes.

"What kind of place is this?"

"My plan B. If things go to hell during the games."

They looked into each other's eyes.

"Are you hungry?" He asked.

Gi-hun frowned, like the question surprised him.

"I don't have anything fresh, not yet, but there are some cans and other processed food we can use for now."

"I'm not hungry," Gi-hun stated firmly.

"We'll be here a while, so you might as well eat."

Gi-hun just stood there, in the middle of the spacious living room, and held the baby tightly to his chest. He seemed to be in shock, and In-ho didn't blame him.

"Player 456…" In-ho walked toward him. Gi-hun took a step back almost instinctively. "Gi-hunssi," In-ho softened his voice. "I strongly recommend you giving me the baby now. I'll put her somewhere comfortable for the time being."

"Why?"

In-ho tried to keep his voice soothing and patient. The man standing before him now was clearly less than rational. He had nearly died so many times in the past days that his fight and flight response was still very much activated and calling the shots.

"Well, because of your wound, for one. If you want me to take a look at it and patch you up, which I can do, you're gonna need to have it cleaned first."

Gi-hun looked down at his shirt and assessed the blood soaking his white shirt and the jacket wrapped around the baby. He then raised his eyes to the other man again.

"Go shower. I don't have antibiotics here today, so the sooner you clean that up, the better," In-ho instructed him.

Gi-hun's thought process felt slow. He handed the baby to the Frontman even though it made a piercing feeling of dread spread inside his chest. Or was it just pain from the cut? He didn't honestly know anymore. He was exhausted.

"Where can I do it? Get it clean?" he asked.

"Come. I'll show you."

Gi-hun followed the man in the dark clothes past the living room and the kitchen—two big and clean looking rooms facing each other—and down a corridor that led to a few rooms and a bathroom. There was a spiral staircase in a corner, but the Frontman didn't take it.

"There." He opened a white door and pointed to a large bathroom. "There are clean towels under the cabinet. I'm sure you can figure it out on your own."

Gi-hun nodded. He mumbled a thank you and closed the door. For a split second, though, he was tempted to open the door again and make sure the baby was all right. On one hand, he didn't want to leave Jun-hee's baby with that psychopath any longer than he had to, but on the other, well, what other option did he have? The wound was painful as fuck and if Gi-hun didn't have anything done about it he might not live long to protect that little girl.

He wouldn't kill her, would he? He saved us. Maybe it's just a game. Maybe this is the last game. His eyes widened and paranoia grew inside of him.

"Gi-hunssi?"

"Yes?" He jumped, startled.

"I'll leave some clothes for you outside the door. Not sure they'll fit well but at least they're clean."

"O-okay."

Gi-hun was experiencing the jitters. He knew that a lot of it was the physical toll the games had taken on his body, so he tried to focus on one thing at a time and give his mind time to adjust to what was happening. An island. The Frontman. Jun-hee's baby and I. That's batshit crazy.

His fingers were shaky as they fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. Gi-hun had to stop a few times during the process of undressing just to make sure he wouldn't collapse on the bathroom floor.

When at last he was able to take off everything, he turned on the shower and got under it, hissing when the warm water cascaded over the open wound.

"Fuck," he cursed under his breath and curled his toes as the pain took over.

He looked down at the cut and touched it with trembling fingers. Gi-hun winced as he studied the depth of the wound and tried to get it clean. It didn't seem life-threatening, but it would certainly slow him down if he were to get in a fight with the Frontman.

Thinking of that man made him shudder under the warm water. He was once Young-il. I worried about him. I felt shitty when he died.

He grimaced and tried to get the rest of his body clean. He's a manipulative bastard, that's what he is.

His breath came in short gasps as he rode out the pain and did what had to be done. Fast. The baby is out there, he told himself with growing worry.

~ * ~

Outside the bathroom, In-ho had laid the baby in the middle of the bed in the guest room. It was a room where hardly any guests slept in, except for the period in between the games when he and some of the people from the games got together. Sometimes there were fishing trips and the guys stayed the night in the guest room. Not something In-ho saw happening any time soon what with everything that had just happened during this last round.

In-ho had chosen that island to have his house on because it felt right for him. After what had happened to him, the games, the offer to become the Frontman, it made little sense for him to keep living on the continent like nothing had happened. He couldn't stand being among people and their pathetic little lives, pretending he mingled. Neither could he live on the island where the games were played. Despite all the protocols and security, it was always a risk.

The island where In-ho lived when he wasn't the Frontman allowed him to isolate himself both from the more mundane aspects of life and the nerve-wrecking nature of his work on the island. It was like being on vacation. Except there wasn't much joy in his life there—but that was hardly a problem of the location. The truth was that there hadn't been much joy in his life for way too long now.

In-ho pushed these thoughts away, looked at the sleeping baby again, and went about finding what he would need to patch up player 456.

He walked into his bedroom and put his backpack down beside the bed. Looking at it made his thoughts drift.

He's here. I'm a little mad, aren't I? What the hell do I think I'm doing?

Saving the winner. Protecting my identity. That's all.

The arguing gained space in his head as his adrenaline levels started to go down.

The island is gone. The games are over. In-ho wasn't sure what was next for him or any of the people who had been involved in that project, but he knew it was not a problem he had to sort out now.  The gashing wound on player 456's abdomen, though, was, so In-ho found the first aid kid in bathroom of the master room and put it on top of his bed.

Considering the nature of what he did on the island and the constant threat of firearms, In-ho had everything he needed for some basic emergency care. His training as a policemen helped him learn his way around tending to wounds before the doctors could. Except there would be no doctors on the island, so In-ho hoped he could do a good job closing up the wound.

The guard should be back tomorrow with staples and medicine, so he believed player 456 would be fine if In-ho managed to stop the bleeding.

There was one problem, though—In-ho pawed through the first aid kit but there were no proper drugs to help Gi-hun deal with the pain from the stitches. There were painkillers, but In-ho knew that Tylenol wasn't going to make the piercing needle hurt any less.

He took the first aid kit and, after checking that the baby was fast asleep and turning on the heat, went downstairs again.

Player 456 was standing outside the bathroom. He was wearing the pants he had offered him but not the shirt. He had one of the towels pressed against the wound when their eyes met.

"I…I didn't put on the shirt. If you're gonna do something about the wound, I figured…" He seemed a little unsure.

Shy?

"That's all right. Follow me into the living room," In-ho said.

"Wait. Where's the baby?"

In-ho stopped in his tracks and looked at him.

"Upstairs in the guest room. She's sleeping. Why?"

"I want to see her," Gi-hun stated firmly.

There were dark half-moons under his eyes and he looked pale and weary, but In-ho would give it to him that his determination was admirable.

"Fine. Can you handle the stairs?"

He watched as Gi-hun started to go up. He climbed one of the stairs, then two, then three. He stopped and breathed in deeply. In-ho thought that whatever little color he had in his face vanished even more.

"Player 456?" He asked as Gi-hun kept trying to go up the stairs. "Gi-hunssi," he called, and the man finally stopped and looked at him. "Don't be stubborn. Let's see the wound, then you can see the baby."

Gi-hun looked absolutely conflicted, but he caved.

He hated how badly it hurt and how weak he felt, but collapsing on the stairs started to feel like an inevitable reality unless he heeded the Frontman's advice.

Gi-hun went back with some difficulty, still gritting his teeth to bite back any sound of pain.

He watched as the man who was still wearing the dark suit Gi-hun had seen him with on the island walked toward a wooden table near a wall and grabbed a bottle.

He turned around and walked toward him holding a glass filled with an amber-colored liquid.

"Drink," he said, pushing the glass into his left hand. The right one was still holding the towel against the wound.

Gi-hun frowned.

"Why?" He asked.

"I have nothing else to help with the pain. From the looks of it, you'll be needing stitches."

"And who will give them to me?"

The Frontman arched his eyebrows and gazed at him.

"Wait, what?"

"I have done this before. Drink and lie down on the sofa," he instructed.

Gi-hun swallowed thickly. He stared at the fancy white couch and hesitated. Something about lying down and being helpless before the other man—The Frontman, the masked man, the cruel leader!—rubbed him the wrong way. He removed the towel and stared at the blood on it. He could see the wide gash in his abdomen and caved, understanding that there wasn't room for bargaining right now.

He put the towel down by the sofa and drank the entire glass of booze in one large gulp, grimacing as the burning feeling went down his throat. His body felt instantly warm as the alcohol entered his vessels and traveled through him. Good, he thought. That was some expensive whiskey, he could tell.

Gi-hun handed the other man the glass back and was surprised when he poured another dose.

"I don't need more."

"Are you sure? It looks pretty bad."

Gi-hun hesitated.

"I'll just fill another and leave it close. You'll drink it if you want to."

Gi-hun nodded. Why was that evil man being so nice? He didn't have time to dwell on it because lying down on the sofa without crying in pain took a lot from him. Gi-hun bit down on his tongue and squeezed his eyes shut. He felt a little faint and was glad to be lying down.

When he opened his eyes again, he watched as the other man went to the kitchen and washed his hands. Then, he came back with a chair which he put right before the sofa. The Frontman sat down on it and put the first aid kit on the floor beside him. Gi-hun saw him get a suture needle and thread. He looked at the glass with more whiskey by the sofa and felt tempted to reach for it.

"I'll clean it first," the man announced.

"Do what you have to," Gi-hun spoke flatly.

He took a deep breath and let the other man do the job. Flashes of him as Young-il, celebrating victory in the games with him and their team, flashed through Gi-hun's mind and made his heart ache.

"Mm—" He moaned and jerked a little when the needle went in for the first stitch.

"Easy. I'm not very good at this and you need to stay put to help me out."

Gi-hun nodded and squeezed his fingers into fists. He felt a little lightheaded and it didn't feel like it was just the pain. A double shot of whiskey in an empty stomach—Gi-hun had eaten at the finalists' dinner, but that had been the night before and it was afternoon now—probably got him a little drunk.

The needle went in and out a couple of more times. His fingers clawed at the sofa beneath him as he rode out the pain.

"This is a long cut, I'm afraid this won't be over soon," said the man watching him closely from the chair. "Can I go on?"

"Yes," Gi-hun answered stubbornly. "Just…the drink. I want more."

In-ho bit back a smirk and handed him the glass. He waited for player 456 to finish it and gave him a moment for the drink to help numb his senses. He wasn't even halfway through patching him up and he knew that even with the drink, it must be painful as fuck.

"Can I?" He asked.

Gi-hun nodded.

In-ho narrowed his eyes and resumed the stitches. He could feel the way the older man's body trembled every time the needle pierced his flesh, but to be fair, Seong Gi-hun was a lot tougher than one might give him credit for, especially considering his slim physique.

"Halfway through. Probably six or seven stitches to go," he announced.

"Go on."

In-ho looked at his face. There were beads of sweat on Gi-hun's forehead and his breathing pattern was uneven. He pushed the needle into the skin again and pulled it on the other side, letting the thread close the gaping wound. He did it a couple more times before he felt fingers tapping his wrist.

He stopped and stared at player 456.

Gi-hun looked as white as candle wax.

"Just…just give me a moment," he asked.

"Are you going to pass out?"

Gi-hun didn't answer. He wouldn't have to. That man was clearly fighting to stay afloat, hanging on to his consciousness by a shred.

In-ho gave him time to breathe and regain composure. His eyes swept over his body, the pain in his face, the heaving of his chest, the wound he was closing on his lower abdomen.

"In-ho."

"What?" He snapped out of it and looked into Gi-hun's eyes again.

"I remember. That's what Jun-ho called you. In-ho."

They stared into each other's eyes.

"Not Young-il. Not Frontman."

"Is he…" Gi-hun's eyes widened. "Are you the man he was looking for? His brother?"

In-ho's face didn't move a muscle. At this stage of the game, it didn't matter if Gi-hun knew his name or his relationship to Jun-ho. He had already seen his face as the Frontman. Him knowing his name was just one more reason to keep him close for safety reasons. Besides, between the alcohol and the pain, that man was not thinking straight. There was a high probability that he wouldn't remember that conversation the next day.

"I need to finish this," he said, ignoring Gi-hun's question. "Can you handle it? Do you need more booze?" In-ho looked down at the fingers still touching his wrist. He didn't know why he felt the sudden urge to withdraw from contact. His heart rate got a little messy the more conscious he became of Gi-hun's touch on his skin.

"No. Do it," Gi-hun commanded in a breathy voice and let his arm hang by his side, outside the sofa.

In-ho relaxed a notch. He went back to the stiches and pretended not hear the strangled moan of pain that clawed out Gi-hun's throat.

"Just a little more," In-ho whispered before he could really help it. Almost like he cared. 

He took a deep breath and focused again on the wound, determined to finish it quickly.

Gi-hun's breathing became ragged and the muscles in his lower abdomen tensed every time the needle went in, but he didn't ask him to stop again.

When In-ho was done, he could feel a droplet of sweat running down his back.

"I'll cover it with some bandaging now," he said.

"Why?"

"So it doesn't get infected, obviously."

"No." Gi-hun shook his head slowly. "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?"

"You're the winner. It's my job," he answered curtly.

"I'm not the winner," Gi-hun retorted. "Neither is she. I didn't jump."

"But you were going to," In-ho pointed out. "The coast guard came and messed with the end of the game. I knew you were determined to take the fall for the baby."

"Even if I had, that would make her the winner. Not me. That was the rule."

Gi-hun looked intently into the other man's eyes. He frowned. There was something curious in the way he was looking at him, but Gi-hun's brain faculties were slow and drowning in alcohol, making it hard to figure out what it was.

"'Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist,'" In-ho said enigmatically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gi-hun frowned.

"It means whatever you want it to mean," In-ho stated. There was a stern, 'this conversation is over' look in his eyes.

Gi-hun fell silent. He felt too weak to keep going.

He watched as the man covered the wound carefully before cleaning up around him.

Gi-hun sat up on the couch and watched the man take the chair back to the kitchen. He also saw him open a cabinet and get something from inside it.

"There's ramen. I'll make myself one. Do you want me to make two?" The Frontman offered.

"I'm fine."

"Player 456—"

"I'll eat later," Gi-hun said quickly before the other man could lecture him.

He got up from the couch and tried to take a few steps, but everything spun around him and he sat down again, heavily.

"What's wrong?" The man whose name Gi-hun had just remembered asked.

"Shit. I'm drunk."

In-ho let out a small chuckle.

"Of course you are. Lie down and get some rest."

Gi-hun stared intently at him from his position on the couch. He wanted to get up and go see the baby, but he wasn't sure that he could trust his legs to take him upstairs. He took one of the pillows and put it under his head. Just a few minutes, then I'll go see the baby.

In-ho watched him from the kitchen. He poured steaming water on his ramen and sat at on one of the tall benches by the counter. From there he could see player 456's eyes close and his neck relax.

A few moments after Gi-hun dozed off, though, he opened his eyes startled, looking around warily like he was about to have to fight for his life—In-ho knew that feeling. The games caused that and it was something that stuck with you forever.

"Sleep. You need to," he said from the kitchen as he ate.

Gi-hun looked at him, unfazed.

"I'm okay. I'm just giving it a little time before I go see the baby."

"The baby's asleep. You should rest."

Gi-hun narrowed his eyes at him. He looked absolutely distrustful.

"C'mon, what am I gonna do? Kill the baby?" In-ho argued.

"Why wouldn't you?" Gi-hun shot back.

"I just saved the baby. And you, Seong Gi-hun, only a few hours ago. So I know it's hard, but you rest assured that I won't smother the baby, or you, after going to the trouble of bringing you both here."

"The baby is the winner," Gi-hun argued. "The one true winner. If you kill her, you can have the prize."

In-ho scoffed, amused. He arched his eyebrows and took another mouthful of ramen into his mouth.

"Do you think I care about money?" He asked after swallowing.

"Everybody cares about money," Gi-hun shot back. "That's why you run the games, isn't it?"

In-ho's expression looked inscrutable. There was the hint of a smile on his lips, but he didn't look happy.

"You know nothing about me, player 456," he ended up saying.

"I know your name is In-ho. And I know that Jun-ho knows you. And for some reason, maybe because you're family?, he didn't tell me that he did."

This time In-ho's smile widened, but it still looked wicked and not happy. There was a glint in his eyes as he thought about Gi-hun trying to connect the dots.

"Suit yourself, player 456. Sooner or later you'll have to sleep. You are only human, you know that. And eat. You'll have to do all those things. This is your new home now."

"For how long?"

"As long as I deem necessary," In-ho answered shortly.

Gi-hun sighed deeply and fell quiet.

In-ho went back to his ramen and finished it.

He pulled his phone from his back pocket and checked the messages. The VIPs had made it out of the island safely before police arrived. All evidence of the games had been destroyed in the fire. It seemed like he and all those involved in the games would get away.

Except I have a small problem.

He put down the phone and looked at the man lying on the couch.

Player 456 was fast asleep.

He got up, washed the bowl he had used, and walked into the living room. He stared at the ocean in the distance through the tall windows, then went closer to the couch where player 456 was sleeping.

Gi-hun had his arms around his naked chest, like he was cold.

In-ho took a throw blanket from the armchair and put it on top of him before walking away.

--------------------------------------------

tbc...

Chapter Text

When Gi-hun woke up, the baby was crying. It instantly made his heart race and he became completely alert in seconds. He pushed the throw blanket—which he honestly didn't remember covering himself with—off of himself and sat up.

He winced when the pain in his lower right abdomen reminded him of the cut and stitches.

Gi-hun moved more slowly, putting his feet on the floor and being more careful as he straightened himself up. He saw a light grey T-shirt beside him on the sofa and picked it up in order to put it on. It felt warmer in the house; the other man must have turned on the heat.

The crying was loud and strident, and his heart kept pumping fast as Gi-hun wondered if the Frontman was hurting the little girl.

Unlikely. He didn't need to have saved her. Or fed her.

Unless he had some perverse kind of end game, then Gi-hun had to hurry up and make sure the baby was okay. He had promised Jun-hee he would.

With slow steps, Gi-hun made his way to the stairs and started going up them one by one. Despite how much faster he wished he could move, there was only so much he could do without feeling faint or hurt.

The baby was still crying when Gi-hun got to the second story. He followed the sound until he was inside the guest room. His eyes fell on the bed—empty—and his heart skipped a beat. He walked further in and realized the man who had brought them there was inside the bathroom, knelt beside the bathtub, and that was where the screaming was coming from.

"Hey!" Gi-hun called out. "What are you doing?!" He asked, his heart now pounding as he tried to see what was happening in the bathtub.

In-ho looked over his shoulder, seemingly annoyed, before looking at the baby again.

"I'm giving her a bath, what does it look like I'm doing?" he asked curtly.

"I don't know, drowning her?"

"Would she be screaming at the top of her lungs if she was under the water?" The Frontman shot back.

Gi-hun just stared at him, knowing he had a point.

"I had to wash her. She soiled herself," the other man explained.

"Why is she crying so much?"

"I have no idea," he sounded flustered.

Gi-hun knelt beside him, careful not to hurt himself in process, and put his hand in the water. It was too warm. Good for an adult, but perhaps too hot for an infant.

"The water's too hot."

"No, it's not."

Gi-hun narrowed his eyes at him with annoyance.

"It's too hot. Listen to me," he insisted.

In-ho handed him the baby inside the tub and opened the cold water. In a few minutes, the baby girl had stopped crying so loudly, but she still cried softly.

"Shit," In-ho cursed, like he was both exhausted from trying to wash her and glad for the lower sound of her protests.

Gi-hun finished washing her as the other man got up and left. At first he thought he had just walked out on them and gone to his room or something, but when Gi-hun finished washing her, he saw him again, standing by the bathroom's door with fresh towels, ready to dry her.

He handed him the baby while still on his knees—he didn't trust his body to get up with her in his arms, not when he felt so weak. In the games, with his adrenaline levels soaring, he could've done anything with that baby firmly wrapped around his body. Now, as the physical and mental exhaustion from the games took their toll on him, Gi-hun wasn't so sure.

He watched the man walk back into the room and put the baby on the bed to dry her. She had stopped crying and was moving her little legs and arms.

Gi-hun took a deep breath and got on his feet. He swayed a little and had to touch the nearest wall until the room stopped spinning.

"Gi-hunssi?" he heard the other man call him and cast a look at him from the corner of his eye.

"I think it's the whiskey."

"It most certainly is. That and the empty stomach. It's evening now and you haven't eaten all day."

Gi-hun walked closer to him and realized that In-ho had changed clothes. He was no longer wearing the Frontman's cloak. Something about seeing him in cream linen pants and white shirt made him look a lot less threatening. And a lot more attractive, the inadvertent thought stabbed through his mind when they locked eyes, making Gi-hun look away quickly.

"I can handle it from here. Go downstairs and eat something. You're welcome to look through the drawers and cabinets. There's water in the fridge."

He stood still and his eyes locked on the other man again.

"You won't find any guns if that's what you're thinking about," In-ho said casually before turning his attention back to the baby.

"It's not what I was thinking about," Gi-hun lied. Not all I was thinking about. "Are you Jun-ho's brother? He was looking for a man by your name."

He stood there for a moment, watching as the man who commanded the murderous games on the island dried tiny hands and feet very carefully before wrapping the baby up in a towel. There was a baby bottle half filled with milk on the nightstand by the bed. Gi-hun's shoulders relaxed a little.

"What does it matter?" In-ho shot back.

It matters to me. It means that he knew who the Frontman was and kept it from me. The idea that the police officer and the Frontman were siblings was wild, but it made some sort of weird sense. Jun-ho had seemed reluctant about killing the Frontman. He was probably trying to protect his brother. If only he had told Gi-hun about him, perhaps shown him a picture, then things would have been different. Young-il would never have happened and—

"I'm not talking about the cop, so you might as well leave," In-ho spoke, his attention on the baby.

Gi-hun left the room, annoyed. He didn't exactly feel hungry, but he knew he had to eat something. He felt conflicted about accepting food from that man who had pretended to be his friend only to end up being his nemesis. Part of him didn't want to accept anything from him. The other part was just human and his stomach was growling.

He walked past the master's bedroom and couldn't help slowing down and looking inside. Though Gi-hun didn't enter it, he did go a bit closer and saw the dark bag he had seen In-ho take on the boat sitting on the bed, open. Beside it, there was something that looked a lot like a music box. A very peculiar one. He frowned and stared at it for a moment longer before making his way downstairs.

~ * ~ 

In-ho couldn't wait for the guard to be back on the launch tomorrow with some more supplies and diapers. He couldn't fucking wait for some diapers. So much so that he texted him and asked him whether he could come back to the island in the early morning.

Never would he have thought of himself caught in the task of caring for a baby—at least not since he had lost the chance of being a father when his wife died. And now look at him, folding towels under the baby to make sure she was comfortable and dry.

He left the guest room and went downstairs to check on his other guest. Though he had meant what he had told Gi-hun before—there were no guns in the kitchen or anywhere downstairs—there were a few weapons in the master's room, locked away in a safe. Not that player 456 had to know about that.

There were still knives in the kitchen drawers, plenty of sharp knives, but In-ho didn't think Gi-hun was capable of killing him in his sleep.

He walked stealthily down the corridor and into the open-concept kitchen and saw Gi-hun holding a glass of water and staring at a couple of yakgwa cookies.

"Is she asleep?" he raised his eyes to him when he felt his presence.

"Yes."

In-ho walked toward the large windows that faced the beach, across from the kitchen counter, and started closing the drapes and turning on the lights in the house. He could feel Gi-hun's eyes on his back, watching his every movement.

When he turned around and walked toward him again, there were still two cookies beside the glass, except one had a bite on it. He assessed player 456 carefully. It was almost like he could reach out his fingers and touch the thick trauma coming off him in waves.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Gi-hun asked, making him snap out of his thoughts.

"You're not eating."

"I'm not hungry."

"You've got to be hungry."

Gi-hun stared silently at him. He took the half-eaten cookie to his mouth and ate it.

"Are you in pain? There's Tylenol in the first aid kit."

Gi-hun couldn't take it. He felt his anger, his frustration rising inside him, simmering to the point where it started to boil.

He got off the tall bench and walked up to the other man.

"Listen," he spoke the words directly to his face, his eyes shooting daggers at him. "I don't know what sort of fucked up game you're playing with me and the baby upstairs—"

"I'm not playing any games anymore."

"But I don't fucking trust you, you hear me?" Gi-hun went on as if In-ho hadn't said anything. "If you think that I'm going to be all grateful about you saving me and stitching me up, and offering food and medicine…well, you got another thing coming, Frontman," he let his voice show all the disgust he felt.

The man kept staring at him, seemingly unfazed. The look in his eyes was impossible to read, but he seemed calm. Perhaps even amused? Or was it a trace of anger that he was fighting to hold back?

Gi-hun pointed a finger at him.

"You killed my friend. You shot him before my face. You're a fucking cruel monster and nothing you do or say will make me change my mind," he was shaking with the intensity of his anger. That was why he couldn't eat—not because he was in pain, which he was, but because he was so fucking angry at that man that whatever nice thing he tried to do just riled Gi-hun up even more.

"I don't want to change your mind," the Frontman said coldly. "And I meant what I said before. I'm sorry about your friend. Being the leader of the guards comes at a price. You didn't really think that the rebellion would have no consequences, did you?"

Gi-hun lowered his finger. His eyes were wide and his face showed the angst he felt inside. He breathed hard and took a step back. His right hand touched the kitchen counter for support.

"Player 456, what did you think was going to happen when you got inside the control room? You would find the Frontman, shoot him, and the games would be over? Didn't it occur to you that my post on that island, though important, is not what makes the games possible?"

Gi-hun kept staring at the other man angrily and silently.

"Besides, what if you did stop the games by killing the Frontman or, say, holding him hostage. Then what? Would you kill all the guards? Because that would be a lot of lives to take. And after killing them, would you and the players swim away from the island? You didn't think the rebellion through."

"Shut up."

"You're naïve, and foolish, and your plan was doomed from the start. I let you carry it out just to see how far you would go. I enabled you."

A flashback memory crossed Gi-hun's head like an arrow—Young-il shooting the guard who had been about to kill Gi-hun. The man standing before him now, the Frontman, had also saved his life. In the rebellion, sure, but before that in the six-legged race when Gi-hun nearly failed his last kick. Then during the maze game when Gi-hun had tried to end his life. He had no doubt that it had been that man—In-ho—who had made sure he lived.

And then he saved me again before I jumped.

Gi-hun didn't know whether he should feel pissed at that man or grateful. Just the idea of owing him anything made him even angrier. His stomach churned and he felt sick.

"If you didn't bring me here to kill me, then I'd like to go home. And take the baby with me."

"Told you that's not possible. I need to lay low and you know too much," In-ho retorted calmly.

Gi-hun's upper lip twitched with a snarl. He could feel angry tears threating to surface, so he walked away from that conversation as fast as his body allowed him to and sat down on the sofa where he had fallen asleep before.

In-ho sighed. He put both hands on the kitchen counter and stared at the glass of water and the cookie. As tempted as he was to knock some sense into that very, very stubborn man, Seong Gi-hun was a grown ass adult who should know better, so he didn't insist on him eating.

"The guard will come tomorrow with diapers and some other stuff. Is there anything you want me to ask him for as well?" He turned around and looked at the man sitting on the sofa, brooding.

"Fuck off," he mumbled.

"Whatever." In-ho turned his attention to the kitchen, chose a few snacks, and went back upstairs with them.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun covered his face with his hands and breathed in deeply to try and calm down. He felt so much anger toward that man that it was poisoning him. His presence in that house was so unnerving that Gi-hun felt shaky whenever they were close. He couldn't stop thinking about Young-il.

Was the story about his sick wife even true? Of course not. He's done nothing but lie. The fact that he had felt sympathy for that man, that he had cared about him, made the betrayal sting even worse.

He thought about Jung-bae and the tears came to his eyes. His friend didn't need to have died. That had been so unfair. He should have been the one to die because of the rebellion. It had been his stupid idea. The fact that the Frontman was there, pretending to be an ally when he was actually manipulating him hurt worse than the stiches in his abdomen.

Gi-hun remembered how broken-hearted he had felt when he'd heard the sound of what appeared to be Young-il choking on his own blood.

He killed the players with him. I gave him my last magazine and he used it to kill the players helping him.

Gi-hun remembered the look in Young-il's eyes when he had let him have his last magazine. He had seemed so genuinely surprised and grateful when he was probably shocked at Gi-hun's stupidity.

And yet he kept saving me.

Argh. I fucking hate him.

But he knew why it hurt so much. Hating that man would make it easy to be indifferent to him now. Except Gi-hun was anything but indifferent. He was deeply affected, disturbed by his presence. Young-il had gotten under his skin, and sometimes it was hard not to see flashes of that man who could have been a friend in the dark eyes of the man who wore the Frontman's mask.

Gi-hun's thoughts were a mess.

As night fell outside and the baby slept peacefully upstairs, he lay down on the sofa and closed his eyes again, too weak for anything other than sleeping.

~ * ~ 

In-ho woke up in the middle of the night with the crying from the baby. He checked his phone—it was two in the morning. He flicked the light switch above the bed and looked at the book on the nightstand and what was left of the snacks he ate.

He sat up against the headboard and rubbed his eyes. He was so fucking tired after the games and all the responsibility and adrenaline that he really wanted to sleep. Having a newborn in the house would certainly get in the way of that, he realized quickly.

He pushed the blankets off himself and got out of the bed.

As In-ho walked down the corridor toward the guest bedroom, the crying stopped. He could tell that the lamp on the nightstand was on because the room wasn't entirely in the dark. He stood on the threshold, watching as player 456 rocked the baby in his arms, cooing to her. He also had a baby bottle which he was feeding her.

"How long have you been here for? I only just heard her cry," In-ho spoke from the door.

Gi-hun turned around, startled.

"She's been crying for a while," Gi-hun answered curtly before looking at the baby again.

"How many times does she need to be fed?"

"Many times."

In-ho could tell that the other man was still mad—and perhaps would be for the remaining time that they had to be stuck on that island together. Honestly, In-ho didn't blame him. He had done some pretty unforgivable things. He didn't expect Gi-hun to warm up to him based on how he had felt about Young-il. He would settle for the two of them being civil to each other for as long as it took the 'world outside' to react to what happened on the island.

In-ho needed to know whether his name would come up, how much Jun-ho would speak, and how the VIPs would react to the island being found. There was a lot on his plate, meaning he couldn't care less about what Seong Gi-hun thought about him.

Except he sort of did. A little, perhaps.

In-ho stood still by the door watching the man who had barely eaten anything, barely slept and who was now healing from an ugly wound to his body, rock that baby in such a loving way that it tugged at a few strings in his heart.

"Do you need help?" he asked softly.

Gi-hun looked at him over his shoulder. He handed him the empty bottle and put the baby up against his chest to burp her.

"I got this."

In-ho nodded. He could feel the resentment coming off of Gi-hun in waves, even though it had toned down considerably from their last interaction downstairs.

"I'm in the other room if you need anything," he said before turning around and leaving.

Gi-hun watched him go, then turned his attention back to the baby.

After she burped and went back to sleep, he put her carefully on the bed again, changed the wet towels for some dry ones, then put her on top of them. He lay beside her and closed his eyes.

Gi-hun didn't open them again until morning.

~ * ~ 

In-ho had stopped by the guest room and peeked inside before going down to the kitchen in order to have breakfast. He had seen Gi-hun fast asleep with the baby sleeping just as peacefully in bed beside him. It was a sweet scene. He liked both of them better when they were asleep, he thought with a smile.

Downstairs, he made himself coffee and checked his phone. The internet on the island wasn't great, but at least there was a signal unlike what happened on the island where the games had been played. He sat on the armchair and checked the news, specifically looking for anything on the island that blew up. He was so engrossed in the task that he didn't see time go by.

At about ten in the morning, when the baby started to cry upstairs, In-ho's phone vibrated with an incoming call. It was the boat with supplies.

Before he left the house, he heated up the baby bottle and put it on the counter.

"Gi-hunssi?" He called.

"Yes?" Gi-hun answered from the second floor.

"I'm going outside to get supplies. The bottle is ready. Can you handle this?"

"I can."

In-ho wondered how much longer before Gi-hun's body simply collapsed, but he didn't have time to dwell on it right now. They needed diapers, and In-ho was eager for some fresh fruit and meat from the list.

Upstairs, Gi-hun held the baby tightly and walked toward the staircase. He took several deep breaths to make sure he was steady enough to go down the stairs safely. The wound throbbed with every step and he felt unsteady on his feet. He put one hand on the handrail and clutched the baby with the other arm. He took one step at a time until he was downstairs, where he didn't see the other man.

Gi-hun started walking toward the baby bottle on the counter and picked it up to feed the infant—it was warm, he realized as he grabbed it.

He walked toward the large window that faced the beach and saw In-ho talking to a man wearing the guard's pink clothes from the games. It made Gi-hun shudder.

The guy wasn't wearing a mask, and Gi-hun could tell that he looked young.

He had an even closer look when the two of them walked into the house carrying many bags. Instinctively, Gi-hun stood even closer to the window, across from the kitchen where the guard helped In-ho put away the supplies. He clutched the baby tightly after feeding it, like those men could decide to come for him and snatch the infant away at any given moment.

When everything was organized, In-ho went outside with the man again, and from the window Gi-hun could see them talking as the guard got on the boat. He wondered if they were talking about the island—probably. Had the police been able to find anything at all about the games or had the fire destroyed everything?, Gi-hun wondered.

He doubted the Frontman would tell him.

He kept rocking the baby, pacing in the spacious living room.

Gi-hun's eyes went to the Frontman when he walked back in and closed the door. He couldn't help the way he tensed in that man's presence. Thinking about him wearing that dark cloak and mask made Gi-hun's blood go cold in his veins, so he pushed the thought away quickly. It was easier to navigate the closeness if he let the memory of Young-il's friendliness swirl with his thoughts—even if that was a lie.

He saw it when he started coming in his direction. He was saying something about food and—what was it?

Gi-hun held the baby more tightly. His fingers tingled and grew numb. His vision swam with black dots and the sound seemed muffled. He took a step toward the other man, trying to focus. He lost his peripheral vision and could only see the way the other man's lips moved, but couldn't make out his words.

He felt weak and lightheaded, and he didn't think he could—fuck.

"Please hold the baby," was all he managed to say before everything went dark.

"Hold, what? Wait!" In-ho rushed to take the baby out of Gi-hun's arms right before the taller man collapsed to the floor right before him. "What the fuck," he cursed as he tried but couldn't stop Gi-hun from falling when he has busy holding the baby.

His pulse quickened as he looked from the man lying unconscious in the middle of the living room to the sleeping baby in his arms. For a split second, In-ho battled with what to do first.

He chose to lay the baby down gently on the armchair, knowing the baby was too small to roll out of it, then went back toward player 456.

"Player 456?" he asked, staring down at him.

Gi-hun didn't move—he didn't even twitch.

In-ho crouched before his body and touched his shoulder.

"Player 456?," he tried again. "Gi-hun!" he shook him lightly but there was still no response. "Oh, for fuck's sake," he grumbled.

He looked at the sofa then at Gi-hun again. His breath caught in his lungs as he considered putting the man there. Can't leave him on the floor, right?

He tried shaking him awake again, but nothing happened. In-ho then slid an arm under Gi-hun's back and the other under his knees. He picked him up, surprised—but only to some extent—at how light he felt. He hasn't been eating well for days. No wonder he fainted.

In-ho took a few steps with Gi-hun's body in his arms. Suddenly, though, he stood perfectly still for a moment, his heart racing. The other man's body in his arms felt warm and way too intimate. In-ho's body temperature rose uncomfortably and his breathing pattern became erratic.

He looked down at Gi-hun's unconscious face. Player 456's cheek was pressed against In-ho's chest. Becoming aware of that closeness made In-ho feel like an electric discharge raked him, head to toe.

He put the older man down on the sofa hastily, anxious to put some distance between them. He saw the way Gi-hun's left arm was hanging outside the sofa and closed his fingers around his wrist, adjusting it on top of his chest. Before he could retreat his hand, though, Gi-hun's fingers curled around his thumb softly.

In-ho's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know why he felt so on edge. Something about being so close and careful with player 456 after everything they had been through, the betrayal, the anger, just felt weird. And felt something else that In-ho couldn't quite put his finger to at the moment.

"Gi-hunssi?" He called again, more gently this time. It was a miracle that Gi-hun had managed to hand him the baby before passing out. That man looked as pale as candle wax.

Gi-hun's fingers around his let go and his arm fell limp by his side once again.

In-ho got up and walked to the kitchen. He took a clean dish cloth, made it wet in the sink, then went back to the sofa and knelt before the other man.

Gi-hun felt the dampness against his cheek. His eyes fluttered open. He felt the softness, cool sensation travel down his other cheek, his forehead, his neck. When he was finally able to focus on the other person there with him, he frowned.

"In-ho?"

"Yes. You fainted," the man explained as he pulled the damp cloth away from Gi-hun's skin.

Gi-hun made as if he would get up, but a strong hand on his shoulder kept him from it.

"Don't. If you try again you'll pass out. Your blood pressure must be low. Stay where you are."

"The baby?" Gi-hun asked, worried.

"The baby's fine." In-ho pointed to the bundle of blankets on the armchair. "Luckily I caught her before you fell." He stood up and towered before the sofa.

"Sorry," Gi-hun mumbled, embarrassed.

"When was the last time you ate?" In-ho asked.

"I had that cookie yesterday…"

In-ho glared at him.

"A cookie? All day long? No wonder you collapsed. Your glucose levels must be ridiculously low."

Gi-hun didn't know how to respond to the stern look on the other man's face. He felt shitty because he could have hurt the baby.

"Now listen carefully: I'm going to make lunch in a couple of hours and you'll eat, do you understand, player 456?"

Gi-hun nodded, albeit it reluctantly. He realized that going on a hunger strike wouldn't change his situation. Even if he wasn't hungry, he had to put something in his stomach in order to be fully functional. He couldn't be passing out like that, letting his guard down before that man could be a deadly mistake. For him and the baby.

"But before that, there's fruit now. I'll get you an apple pear and you'll sit here and eat it," he commanded.

Gi-hun parted his lips to protest, but In-ho beat him to it:

"There's already one baby in this house. I don't need two to take care of. So with all due respect, get your shit together, Seong Gi-hun."

In-ho turned around and went into the kitchen.

Gi-hun sat up slowly. His head throbbed and he felt extremely weak. Still, he managed to feel annoyed at the other man. Who was he to boss him around? They weren't on the island for him to go around giving him orders, Gi-hun thought stubbornly.

As his annoyance grew, he looked around the living room and remembered falling on the floor. He had been standing, baby in his arms, when everything had gone dark. And now he was on the sofa. Which meant…

Gi-hun blushed. He looked away and took a deep breath. The thought of the Frontman having picked up him made him feel oddly distraught. That and the wet cloth against his face.

Oh wow, what is this shit? He asked himself when his chest vibrated around a hot sensation.

He swallowed around an unexpected lump in his throat and tried to take a deep breath to clear his thoughts.

In-ho walked toward him holding a pear and a mug with black coffee.

"Drink this. There's sugar in it," he said before walking away.

Gi-hun took a bite of a juicy fruit and then sipped the coffee—it was too sweet for his liking, but he drank it nonetheless.

At some point, as he stared at the fruit and sipped the coffee, he felt a rumble of hysterical laugh rise deep from his chest and stumble past his lips. It was as unexpected as it was unstoppable. He bent forward, nearly spilling the coffee, laughing so hard that his eyes welled up.

"What's wrong with you?" In-ho stared at him from behind the kitchen counter. "Have you finally lost your marbles?" He stared at Gi-hun, perplexed. "Hush now, you'll wake the baby."

Gi-hun laughed some more before he could get a grip and stop. He shook his head to dissipate the eerie sense of humor.

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't help it. The Frontman is feeding me. Giving me coffee. That's hilarious. You know, considering how you've tried to kill me time and again."

In-ho leaned against the counter and looked intently at him from across the distance separating them.

"I never tried to kill you. Don't take it personally." He smiled wickedly for a moment. "Besides, I tried, time and again, to tell you to go live your life and forget about the games. You're the one who kept coming back."

Gi-hun stared at him, speechless. He wasn't wrong. It annoyed the fuck out of him, but the Frontman wasn't really wrong. Gi-hun had had his chance to walk away but he just couldn't. That island had dug its sharp claws into his chest and he had been lured back to the games, in the foolish hope of making a difference.

Jun-ho—his own brother?—has found the island. It's been destroyed, he hoped the thought could bring him some solace.

"Anyway, if you're feeling better and up to it," In-ho went on from the kitchen. "We finally have diapers."

Gi-hun looked at the baby and at the package of diapers In-ho pointed to.

"Fine. I'll do it. But don't go around thinking that I'm always gonna be the one who changes her."

"You have a daughter. You have experience with this."

"You can learn," Gi-hun shot back. He got up slowly and walked toward the kitchen counter.

He put the rest of the fruit in the trash and the mug in the sink.

"Here. Take this." In-ho put a white pill on the counter before him.

"What is it?" Gi-hun looked at him warily.

"Antibiotics," In-ho answered curtly. He was caught up in setting aside what he would need to make lunch.

As he looked in the silverware drawer, he could feel Gi-hun's eyes on his back.

"Yes?" he looked over his shoulder, his temper flaring. After the little scene in the living room and the inadvertent closeness, In-ho could use a little space.

"Nothing. You look like you know what you're doing."

"I do. I'm a great cook and if you don't eat my food I'll take it personally."

Gi-hun frowned, but then quickly understood it was just banter and relaxed again. In-ho rolled his eyes inwardly and focused back on the ingredients he had put by the sink.

"The baby, Gi-hunssi. You'll find some baby clothes in the bag as well. There's a bassinet which I can put together later."

"Fine. I'll take her upstairs. I can put together the bassinet as well," Gi-hun said.

"Very well. Lunch will be ready in about two hours and I expect you to be hungry."

In-ho stared at the other man as he took the baby in one arm, the bag with diapers and clothes in the other, and headed upstairs.

~ * ~ 

The morning went by fast. Gi-hun got caught up with the baby and In-ho with lunch. They met downstairs as the baby slept in order to eat lunch. Only few words were exchanged—Gi-hun complimented In-ho politely on the food before they fell silent.

At least player 456 had displayed a healthy appetite. It made In-ho feel glad. Obviously because, like he'd told Gi-hun before, he didn't want to have two people depending on him in the house.

When they were done, Gi-hun offered to do the dishes and, as the baby started crying, In-ho went upstairs with a warm bottle of baby formula.

He walked into the guest room and saw the baby fussing in the bassinet. In-ho picked her up, changed her and fed her, but she wouldn't stop crying.

"What's wrong with you, uh? You're fed, you're clean…what else do you want?" He asked softly, rocking her to see if the strident crying would subside.

As it didn't help, In-ho stared into her little face. He believed he knew what she wanted, but there was no way to bring her mom back to life. He felt a pang of guilt, not for the first time.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

The crying intensified, making In-ho feel a little on edge. He didn't know what to do. He started to rock her more intently, but the wailing only got louder.

"Shhh, there there….hush now."

He felt his chest clench and his thoughts rush. Perhaps the baby could sense his agitation? Maybe she could tell that she was being rocked by the man responsible for her mother's death?

The thought caused a chill to chase down In-ho's spine.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun was going up the stairs, drawn to the incessant crying from the baby. He hoped the Frontman wasn't doing anything evil to the little girl, even though he knew that the crying was most likely a baby being a baby.

As he got closer to the guest room, he stopped in his tracks when he heard the song.

"Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars…"

Was that…was that the Frontman singing?

"In other words, hold my hand. In other words, baby kiss me…"

Gi-hun walked stealthily toward the room and saw the man who commanded the games on the island rocking the baby, singing to her. The crying had stopped and Gi-hun could see the way the baby stared at the man holding her.

"Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more… You like this, don't you? You do…" The baby made soft cooing sounds. "You're all I long for, all I worship and adore…"

In-ho turned around and their eyes met. He went instantly silent, the look in his face making it obvious that he had been caught off guard and felt awkward.

"I am…sorry. I came up to see if you needed help with her," Gi-hun apologized.

In-ho looked conflicted for a moment. He looked at him, then at the baby in his arms, and finally snapped out of whatever he was thinking.

"Yeah, sure. I'm glad you're here. Go on, take her." He put the baby in his arms. "She's fed and clean. I believe she'll sleep now," he said and made his way to the door.

Gi-hun held the baby close and stared at In-ho's back as he moved away.

"You were doing a great job, you know. I don't you think you needed me," he said.

The Frontman stared at him. The hint of a smile flashed on his lips before he nodded curtly and went into his own room. 

------------------------------------------

tbc...

Chapter Text

The next few days went by really fast. Gi-hun still moved slowly inside the house because of the wound healing in his abdomen. He avoided stairs whenever possible, so he started sleeping in the guest bedroom to be close to the baby. Once a day, as he took a shower, he made sure to clean the wound and change the bandaging. He had to give it to his roommate—the Frontman had done a decent job on the stitches there.

The guard on the launch had come back to the island five days ago to bring more supplies. Since Gi-hun still had no idea how much time he would be there for, he asked In-ho to tell the guard to bring him some clothes that would fit him better. He had been reluctant to admit that he didn't know for how much longer he would have to be in that place, stuck with the man who had betrayed him and commanded the games that had nearly destroyed Gi-hun's life. But as the days went on, Gi-hun realized he might have to stay there for longer than he thought.

Which, truth be told, wasn't entirely bad. In-ho wasn't an unreasonable, sadistic human being. As much as Gi-hun wanted to hate him and find reasons to despise him for his role on that island, In-ho gave him none.

The Frontman was polite, neat, and helpful. He did his share around the house, took care of the baby—was even affectionate with the little girl when he didn't see Gi-hun watching him. The house was beautiful and spacious, the beach—where Gi-hun had gone to a couple of times—was mesmerizing. In another universe, that could have been the perfect spot for some vacation. Except Gi-hun was healing from a serious wound, and the man there with him was responsible for the bloodbath that had happened on the island, and the baby they were looking after had lost its mother in one of those bloody games.

Everything was wrong about that place, and no amount of sunny days could change that.

"Gi-hunssi?" In-ho called from the kitchen.

"Yes?" He was sitting on the sofa, the bassinet beside him.

"My guy will come back in a couple of days. He'll bring you clothes."

"All right."

"How about money?"

"How about it?" Gi-hun took his eyes off the baby and looked at the other man.

"Is your money in the bank? Is it somewhere safe? Because you're not going home any time soon."

Gi-hun felt anger stir in the pit of his stomach. He got up from the sofa with a fiery expression in his eyes.

"I'm bringing it up because my guy is trustworthy. He can get your money wherever it is and put it in the bank for you," In-ho said.

"How do you know the money is not already in the bank?" Gi-hun shot back.

In-ho sighed. Sometimes talking to Gi-hun was like talking to a stubborn child.

"I don't know," he stated calmly. "That's why I asked." He assessed player 456 and the annoyance coming off of him in waves. "Although if you ask me, I'm sure you have it stashed in the motel you were living at."

"How—" Gi-hun's lips parted. He took another step toward him.

In-ho bit back a smug grin—but only barely.

"Because that's typical you. Anyway," he went on before the other man's annoyance escalated. "I can have someone go there and put the money in the bank where it's safe. Someone you know might think you're not coming back and break and enter the place."

Gi-hun narrowed his eyes at him. "How can I trust this guy?"

"You can trust me."

Gi-hun scoffed.

"I'll pretend that didn't hurt," In-ho mocked with a faint smile. Gi-hun only looked even more angered. "You don't have to do anything, but I strongly recommend being careful about the prize. Besides, I wouldn't steal your money. I have no need for it. And the guy who works for me doesn't either. He has a lot more to lose if he betrays me," In-ho said in an ominous way.

Gi-hun looked as if he might say something but the baby started crying.

The two of them sighed long and deeply, almost in unison. The infant had been particularly fussy and difficult to soothe in the past couple of days. In-ho had already put a pacifier on the list of things the guard should bring next, but until then it felt like whenever they put the baby down she would start screaming until someone picked her up.

"Hey, shhhh, hey, hey…." Gi-hun tried. He picked her up and started rocking her, but the crying wouldn't subside.

"Diaper?"

Gi-hun checked.

"She's clean."

"I've just given her a bottle like, half an hour ago," In-ho said. "She's not hungry. What does she want?" He knew he sounded frustrated because he very much was.

"Humans need more than food and sleep and being clean, you know," Gi-hun pointed out.

They looked at each other for a moment. The only sound was that of the baby crying louder and louder.

At some point, Gi-hun laid her down on the couch gently and started to take off his shirt.

"What are you doing?" In-ho stared at him from behind the kitchen counter.

From the small distance separating them, he could see the stitches on Gi-hun's lower right abdomen—they seemed to be healing nicely. His eyes lingered on the site of the wound for a moment before In-ho looked away.

Gi-hun started to take the baby's clothes off until she was in nothing but diapers.

"Gi-hunssi?" He asked again when Gi-hun took the baby and put her against his chest.

"Skin to skin," Gi-hun finally answered. "It's supposed to calm them." He went toward the kitchen counter as he rocked the baby.

In-ho watched them. In a matter of a minute or so, the baby's crying had toned down.

Gi-hun lifted his eyes from the baby to him and smiled, accomplished.

The sight of it took In-ho off guard—what a beautiful thing to see.

In-ho was mirroring the smile before he knew it.

"It works," he said.

"Yeah, she was missing human touch," Gi-hun said.

She's not the only one, In-ho thought to himself. He saw that player 456 was looking intently at him, as if he had been able to read his thoughts. The idea that he could have, as crazy as it was, made In-ho feel a little self-conscious.

"Good. I'm glad it works." Any residual trace of a smile faded and his face grew stern. "Do whatever you need to make her stop screaming."

He walked past Gi-hun and straight to his bedroom upstairs.

Gi-hun watched him go and sighed deeply. Every time he felt tempted to see that man as more than the cruel mastermind behind the Frontman's mask, In-ho found a way to remind him that he was indifferent to the baby, to him, to human pain in general. It was frustrating as hell.

Not that Gi-hun wanted to warm up to him—he didn't. But it would be easier if he could see traces of humanity in that man since they were forced to coexist in the same place thanks to In-ho's decision to consider them both winners and save them.

That was not going to work. He didn't think he could handle many more days in that house with that man. Even if he wasn't exactly evil or bad company, his presence was still extremely problematic and his coldness was wearing Gi-hun down.

Looking at him reminded Gi-hun of all the friends he had lost—of Jung-bae!—and made him feel angry and sad to be forced to live in that house with him.

He had got to find a way to leave. There must be some sort of way out of the island. The Frontman obviously hadn't mentioned it, but Gi-hun doubted that a man like him wouldn't have a plan B. There had to be a boat, a jet ski, something that would allow him to leave quickly in case something happened.

Gi-hun stared at the baby's face, now peaceful as she slept in his arms, and started to work on a escape plan.

~ * ~ 

A couple of days later, when the guard arrived with supplies and clothes for Gi-hun, he told the Frontman he would be okay with having the man put his money in the bank. Even though Jun-ho had seen him alive, the fact that he wouldn't be home for a while might draw unwanted attention to the Pink Motel. As Gi-hun was aware of, the place wasn't exactly very safe from people breaking and entering.

"You made the right call. The money will be put back into your account. I'll ask him for a bank statement to show you it was done properly," In-ho said.

"Right." Gi-hun wasn't paying much attention to that conversation. He kept looking outside the tall living room window at the sunny day on the beach. "Hey, listen. The baby's asleep. I think I'll go for a walk outside."

In-ho stared intently at him.

"A walk? It's cold outside."

"So? I'll wear a jacket. It's sunny. Besides, I've been to the shore before. Am I prisoner here?"

"You aren't. This is an island, though. Unless you plan to swim away, there's no way out," In-ho tried to read his intentions.

"I just need to go for a walk. Clear my thoughts."

"Go ahead. Just remember the stitches. Don't go too far."

In-ho watched as Gi-hun stared at him defiantly, put on his shoes, his jacket, and walked out.

He walked toward the window and saw player 456 walking along the shore until he couldn't see him anymore. Now, In-ho doubted that Gi-hun had only wanted to go for an innocent little walk in the sun. The other man must be trying to come up with ways to leave the island with the baby.

At least that's what In-ho would be doing in his place. What anyone would, truly. As much as In-ho wanted his life to go back to normal—the weird, wicked normal he had been living for years—the destruction of the island and the involvement of the coast guard had complicated things. It would be different if he had never shown his face to Gi-hun.

Now that he knew who he was, Gi-hun could—he would make sure In-ho was punished for his role in the games. And who knew, Jun-ho might help him.

That meant that In-ho would have to leave Korea for good. Before that happened, though, there were some bureaucratic aspects of the games that he wanted to deal with from his hiding place. Before he showed his face out there, In-ho needed to test the waters, make sure the VIPs had no hard feelings about the abrupt end of the season.

Technically, In-ho had stuck to protocol, evacuating the island before it got too risky. Nevertheless, he was very aware of his decision to end the games before the proper finale. Gi-hun should be dead, and the baby should be the sole winner. Except In-ho had been unable to watch that man throw himself into the arms of eternal sleep.

The idea of Gi-hun dying still made In-ho feel an uncomfortable tightness in his chest. He should have regretted his decision. After all, he was now stuck in what should be paradise with a man who hated him and hated being there. But the truth was, he didn't regret it. Not that he allowed himself to delve too deeply into this feeling, but In-ho had a soft spot, a weak spot, for player 456. It was crazy how that man had gone from one more pathetic loser to this beautiful, kind soul that drew In-ho like a moth to fire.

The warmth of that uncalled for attraction to that man was as lethal as the games themselves. Gi-hun's fierce loyalty, his good heart, his sense of justice… all that burned so brightly inside him that they annoyed In-ho as much as they mesmerized him. And then there was the sweetness, the naivety, the willingness to trust…they tugged at the strings of In-ho's heart, both fascinating him and driving him a little crazy.

Perhaps, he had to admit, he was a tad obsessed with player 456. No one had ever navigated the games like he had before. Gi-hun was afraid, but his fear didn't turn him selfish. He was angry, but the anger didn't make him cruel. Seong Gi-hun was one of a kind and In-ho felt a little possessive of his life to watch it go to waste.

Now he just had to figure out what to do with player 456 and the baby sleeping upstairs. Leaving the island with a new born and a player was not what In-ho had imagined when the new games had started. It was often overwhelming having to share his space with Gi-hun and someone else's baby.

But then again, if he was completely honest, it wasn't exactly bad.

In-ho walked out of the door beside the two tall windows and into the large porch. He felt the chilly wind on his face and breathed in the ocean. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore was soothing and helped put him at ease.

He looked from one side to the other, but didn't see Gi-hun anywhere.

It wasn't a big island. Sooner or later he would have to come back, In-ho told himself. Unless he figured out how to get out of the island, he thought as a thread of anxiety coiled inside of him.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun walked for about twenty minutes. He carried his shoes in his hand and let the cold ocean water wash over his feet. It felt good walking on the wet sand and breathing in the ocean air. He couldn't remember the last time he had allowed himself to have something nice. To just relax.

Not that there should be anything relaxing about trying to come up with a plan to take a baby with him and escape from a psychopath before it was too late—but right now, under the bright blue sky and feeling the warmth of the sun, Gi-hun let himself forget, for a moment, how broken he felt inside, how fucked up his situation was, and how angry he was at the man keeping him 'hostage' in that fancy house.

Just thinking about that man who had pretended to be his friend, who had gotten him to care for him, made Gi-hun feel all riled up and ready to pick up a fight. These rage-filled thoughts clashed with the glimpses of vulnerability he had seen from that man, like cracks in a brick wall. Like In-ho singing to the baby, or being nice to him even though he didn't have to. Picking me up and putting me on the couch when I fell.

He felt so conflicted that the air inside his lungs felt thicker, harder to breathe into his body.

Gi-hun looked around the beach, the endless ocean, the woods to his other side. There were a few other houses in the distance, but it didn't look like he could just walk to them what with all the rocks, the vegetation, and the estuaries.

At some point, he just sat down on the beach and held his knees close to his chest.

Gi-hun let himself be. He felt the salty wind on his skin, the brightness of the sun blinding in his eyes. How could everything be so clear outside while inside him, everything was so confusing and messy?

On one hand, Gi-hun was glad to be alive. On the other, he couldn't shake off the feeling that the baby was still in danger. That man, the Frontman, could be playing some sort of game. Afterall, he was part of the people who thought it okay to make a baby a participant in the games; the people who would have just stood and watched as a baby died a horrible death in one of the games. The kind of people who would have done nothing about it.

Except he did, didn't he? He stopped the game. He let me live.

Gi-hun knew that he hadn't won again. And neither had the baby according to the game's cruel standards. Both should have been eliminated for failing to comply with the rules. And yet there they were, in paradise, wondering—at least Gi-hun certainly was wondering—what was next for them.

He's bought diapers. And baby formula. And baby clothes. He's also put my money in the bank. Those were not the actions of someone planning to get rid of the baby or of Gi-hun.

It made no sense. The Frontman was someone evil, he was…who was he, anyway? Gi-hun knew nothing about that man. How had he become the mastermind behind the games? Why had he?

Does it matter? He let a lot of people die.

Gi-hun wanted to tell himself that it didn't matter. He wanted to judge that man and hate him. Nevertheless, his curiosity about his past kept on growing. As he let his fingers dig into the soft sand beneath him, Gi-hun's thoughts went back to their conversation on the island during the first night they had been together in the dormitory. What had all that talk about a sick wife been about?

Lies. Nothing but lies.

Gi-hun had no illusions that, as the Frontman, Young-il had fed him many lies in order to satisfy his perverse curiosity and be close to him, watching Gi-hun's sanity crash and burn during the games. However, he remembered that there had been tears in In-ho's eyes when he had spoken about his sick wife. Surely it wasn't true, otherwise, what would he be doing on this island now instead of going back to check on her? But still…Gi-hun could have sworn that he had seen true emotion there.

He knew the Frontman was a good liar, but was he a good actor, too? Good enough to cry on cue?

Gi-hun sighed deeply. He stared into the peaceful horizon and saw the sun start to make its descend on the west. He knew he had to go back home, if only to check on the baby girl. Swimming away from that island certainly wasn't an option, even if there was no baby to look after. He would never make it, not to mention the freezing cold water. He hadn't found anything that could help him figure a way out, so after over an hour sitting on the shore, Gi-hun got up, patted the sand off his clothes, and started to make his way back home.

~ * ~ 

Before he even walked in, Gi-hun heard the crying. His heart skipped a beat and his pulse quickened. He hadn't been gone that long, had something happened to the baby? Though Gi-hun had seen the other man being nice to the infant, he couldn't shake off the distrust that he might be up to no good when Gi-hun wasn't around.

He left his shoes by the door, closed it, and made his way upstairs quickly. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath when he felt the pain in his lower right abdomen. Sometimes he forgot that he was supposed to take things slow.

He took a deep breath to steady himself and walked toward the guest room.

Inside it, the man Gi-hun now knew as the Frontman was standing half-naked, holding the baby in his arms.

Gi-hun had not been prepared for the sight of the other man without his shirt on. Before he could even know what was happening, his body temperature was rising and his blood was pooling in parts of himself he had no control of whatsoever.

"I, um…" he stammered. His eyes trailed lower, drawn to how fit the other man looked.

"Oh. You're back. Good. She was crying nonstop, so when everything else failed, I tried your approach. You know, skin to skin."

"Right." Gi-hun swallowed thickly. He could feel his cheeks getting warm, and feeling that did not help at all controlling that. "I will…" his voice faltered. He stared at what seemed to be an old scar on In-ho's lower left abdomen. He looked away when he saw the way In-ho was looking into his eyes, probably wondering why the fuck Gi-hun was standing there trying to find his words. His disobedient eyes strayed again and ogled the man's chest one more time before Gi-hun was able to get a grip. "…take a shower. Got sand all over. I can handle her later."

"Fine."

He turned around and locked himself into the bathroom upstairs.

What the hell was that all about? He asked himself. I don't even like men. I definitely don't like the fucking Frontman, he chided himself.

Gi-hun leaned against the door and breathed hard. He knew what was happening—his body was still alive and screaming for attention. He couldn't remember the last time he had been with someone. He hadn't been dating a lot since the divorce, but after playing the games for the first time, Gi-hun completely ignored that aspect of his life and his biology. He had been so invested on finding the island and stopping the games that he hardly ever even thought about attraction and sexuality.

Instead of jerking off out of desire and to have fun, he had often done it just to fall asleep when his brain wouldn't shut down. Gi-hun had neglected that very primal aspect of himself and knew that, but it made no sense that it would come to his mind now.

He didn't think he was gay; he wasn't attracted to men; he hated what that man in particular represented. Yet, Gi-hun found himself reliving that moment in the Frontman's quarters when they had a heated argument after the Frontman gave him the knife. He remembered how close their faces had been, how the other man's eyes had stared into his, how his lip had brushed against Gi-hun's mouth when he spoke.

He shivered.

Don't think about that. It was wrong and fucked up. Don't let him get to you.

Gi-hun took a deep breath, took off his clothes, and got into the shower.

~ * ~

Later in the evening, as they sat across from each other at the kitchen counter, In-ho tried not to make it obvious the way he paid attention to what Gi-hun was eating and how much he was. He didn't want the other man to get annoyed, but more than that, In-ho didn't want him passing out around the house.

"Did you enjoy walking outside?" he asked casually.

Gi-hun looked at him briefly before focusing on his ramen again.

"It was okay."

In-ho watched the way he shifted his weight on the tall bench and tried to hide a grimace as he did that. He could tell he was in pain. The healing wound in his abdomen must be protesting the long walk from before.

"I'm glad. The view is beautiful and—"

"Why are you making small talk?" Gi-hun snapped.

What's wrong with you? In-ho thought. Something had put that man on edge but In-ho had no idea what.

"I'm sorry, is it better if we eat in silence? Would you rather I don't address you unless it's absolutely necessary?"

Gi-hun looked conflicted.

"It's not what I meant…" he tried.

"What did you mean, then?" In-ho pushed.

Gi-hun groaned. He put down his chopsticks and sighed.

"I see what you're trying to do and I don't like it," he stated.

"What? Make our time here more bearable? More civil?" In-ho retorted. "You don't like that?"

"That's not what I…Listen, you can't make me a prisoner on this island and expect everything to be okay because you feed me and the baby and ask nice questions."

"I see. I don't expect things to be okay, though. I was just trying to be polite."

They locked eyes. Gi-hun made as if he might say something, but he closed his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. When he opened them again, he looked weary but also angry.

"Nothing you say or do will change what you did on that island. What you did to my friends, especially Jung-bae. You killed him yourself."

In-ho felt a stab of guilt that he didn't appreciate feeling.

"I told you I was sorry. Your rebellion had consequences, Gi-hun. It was my job not to let it go too far."

"Was it your job to join the games as Young-il and mock me? Befriend me so you could laugh at me and brag about how pathetic I am?"

Gi-hun got off the bench and stood before the counter, his eyes were shooting daggers at In-ho.

"That's not why I joined the games." In-ho got up as well. He walked around the counter and stood before Gi-hun. He could see the way the man before him was trying to mask his discomfort.

"Then why did you?"

In-ho felt a fiery sensation spread inside his chest. He wasn't sure he liked the answer to that question. He had already given himself many versions of why he had joined the games as player 001, but none of them was strong enough for his rational mind. The truth was that he had wanted to be close to Gi-hun and get a taste of what he was made of. He had wanted that front row ticket to see the spark of fight in his eyes turn into ashes as he realized he couldn't fight the system. In-ho had wanted to see that endearing faith that moved Gi-hun wither away as those around him chose money over life time and again.

But even that didn't explain it completely. He could have watched player 456 from his comfortable armchair, sipping his top shelf whiskey, but In-ho had wanted to touch him, breathe him, taste his torment as he struggled to help the players.

His heart pounded in his chest.

"Because you're one of a kind, Seong Gi-hun. Watching you from my office wasn't enough. I wanted to be close to the man who won the prize and came back to fight the system. It had never happened before."

Gi-hun took a step toward him. He narrowed his eyes at him.

"Well, then, did you satisfy your perverse curiosity? Did you get off on watching me despair as you shot my friend in front me?" Gi-hun's bottom lip quivered, but there was fire in his eyes.

In-ho's chest clenched. His features hardened. I didn't get off on it, he wanted to say. Apparently, I haven't yet sated my curiosity either, because here you are, aren't you?

"You know my face now," he said instead. "I'll let you go home as soon as I make arrangements to leave the country," he de-escalated the argument and walked away.

"Oh, go ahead and leave, why not? You're a coward, you know that! You hide behind a scary mask and tell yourself it's okay to kill people, but we're not horses! Each and every death on that island is on you, and those stupid VIPs who support those sick games!" Gi-hun's mouth fell shut and a feeble moan vibrated in his throat.

He bent over a little and his hand went to the site of the stitches.

"Let me see it. I can help with—"

"No! I don't need your help." Gi-hun stepped back and snarled angrily.

In-ho could feel his temper flare. He knew where Gi-hun's anger was coming from, but that situation was not easy on him either. He could have let the game play out; he could have stood there as Gi-hun died. A little gratitude wouldn't hurt.

"I don't know why you saved me," Gi-hun went on, as if reading his thoughts. "But I'm sure it was not out of the kindness of your heart. I won't be a pawn in your games anymore. I won't—

"Oh, shut up for fuck's sake!" In-ho snapped.

"You can't tell me what to do! It's bad enough that you keep telling me where to be!" Gi-hun shot back.

"Where are you going?" In-ho grabbed Gi-hun's wrist as he made for the door.

"Out!"

"No, you're not going out right now. It's getting dark and it's not safe. Besides, I can tell your stitches hurt."

"Let go of me!" Gi-hun tried to break free from the hold on him, but it got tighter. "And don't pretend you're a good guy! That baby doesn't have a mother because of you!" Gi-hun accused.

In-ho felt his blood boil. Player 456 wouldn't understand how, given the circumstances, In-ho had done everything he could to save that baby. The VIPs wanted it dead, In-ho made it a player, then tried to save it by helping Gi-hun. How dare that man accuse him like that? Gi-hun knew nothing about him!

"You're right. I'm the monster who killed her mother," he said with a voice filled with spite. His fingers tightened on Gi-hun's wrist. "And I'll kill her surrogate dad unless he starts to show a little more respect." In-ho's put his face against Gi-hun's. His breath puffed against his cheeks and his threat hovered above his mouth.

Gi-hun widened his eyes. His left hand, the one In-ho wasn't holding down with his grip on his wrist, touched In-ho's chest in an attempt to keep him away before the confrontation escalated.

Instead of pushing him away, though, Gi-hun's hand just rested against In-ho's body. Gi-hun parted his lips but didn't say anything. His eyes looked into In-ho's with a mix of fear and anger, but as the seconds went by they trailed lower.

In-ho saw it when Gi-hun's eyes zoned in on his mouth. The other man's breath hitched and he pulled away, as if something in their closeness had electrified him.

In-ho let go of his wrist and took a step back, trying to compose himself. The feeling of Gi-hun's hand on his chest still lingered on the fabric of his shirt, soaking its warmth against his skin despite the distance between them.

"Gi-hun, I—"

"Don't."

Gi-hun turned around and walked upstairs hastily.

In-ho sighed heavily. He looked at the half eaten food on the counter and cursed inwardly.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun still felt shaky when he went into the guest room. The piercing pain that he had been feeling in the site of the stitches was nothing compared to the pounding of his heart. What the hell had just happened downstairs? Did the Frontman really mean that? That he could kill him unless he 'behaved'? Or had those been just some empty words?

And why had Gi-hun's pulse quickened and his body been rocked by a tremor at the closeness with that man?

He's driving me crazy. He groaned inwardly. The fact that Gi-hun couldn't quite hate him and 'liking him' wasn't an option was fucking with his head.

He took several deep breaths and lay on the bed beside the bassinet. He watched over the sleeping baby girl until his heartbeat fell into a calmer rhythm and his thoughts went easy on him.

Gi-hun didn't leave the room for hours, until he had to go downstairs and get a bottle with baby formula. He didn't see In-ho downstairs and the door to the master bedroom was closed. Gi-hun didn't think too much about it. He fed the baby, bathed her, and changed her, then rocked her to sleep. By the time this was over it was well into the night.

He went down to the kitchen again and fixed himself a quick snack. Still no sign of the house owner, thankfully. Gi-hun didn't know how he felt about that man right now.

On one hand, he knew that In-ho had saved him during the last game. The Frontman didn't have to have stopped the games. Even if the coast guard had been on the way, for sure he could have waited another ten seconds for Gi-hun to let himself fall and the game to be officially over. Then why hadn't he?, Gi-hun asked himself for the hundredth time.

He didn't like the feeling of having to be grateful to that man who had pretended to be his friend, who had killed Jung-bae, who had lied and sat back while players died in the games. Yet, he knew that he sort of owed his life to him, whether he liked it or not.

The idea that The Frontman perhaps wasn't done with him—that he still had some sort of evil game in store—kept Gi-hun on edge. But then he saw glimpses of that man being normal. Being kind to the baby. And it all just became so fucking confusing.

Like the fact that Gi-hun actually enjoyed being physically close even if at the same time it made him want to scream and become violent.

He hissed softly when he finished with the food and got up to do the dishes. The stitches were fine—he had checked them before. He just had to remind himself not to overdue these walks that he intended on keep having. Gi-hun was certain that In-ho had a way to leave that island that didn't depend on the guard, and Gi-hun was going to find it.

As he made his way back upstairs to try and get some sleep, he walked past the closed door of the master's bedroom and went straight to the room where the baby was sleeping. Gi-hun wondered what the other man was thinking.

Was he going over their argument in his head? Was he as affected by their physical closeness during the argument as Gi-hun found himself to be?

Gi-hun shuddered just to think. Perhaps it was better not to know what was going on in such a deranged man's mind.

~ * ~ 

The music was so low that Gi-hun thought he was dreaming it.

He only understood it was real when he opened his eyes in the darkness of his bedroom and realized it kept on playing.

He looked at the bassinet on his right side—the baby was still asleep.

Gi-hun pushed the sheets off of himself and got out of bed. He rubbed at his eyes and yawned. The music kept on playing almost imperceptibly.

He walked out of the room with careful steps and saw the faint yellow light coming from the master bedroom. The door was ajar and both the song and the faint light were coming from inside it.

Before he could stop himself from prying, Gi-hun was walking toward the sound, drawn to the words of the same melody he had heard In-ho sing to the baby before.

He peeked through the small opening and saw the man who owed the house sitting on his heels on the floor. Before him, Gi-hun could see that same peculiar music box that had escaped the island with them. That was where the song was coming from.

In other words
Please, be true
In other words
In other words
I love you

Gi-hun saw the way In-ho's head was hanging low as he listened to the melody. He knew he shouldn't be invading the other man's privacy, but Gi-hun found himself unable to take his eyes off of him.

When at last he was able to override the strange fascination with the scene, In-ho's head turned his way and saw him before Gi-hun could disappear.

The other man got up and rushed to the door at the same time Gi-hun took a couple of steps backward, feeling cautious and guilty.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out when In-ho stared at him. "I didn't mean to pry. I was just…just going to get a bottle."

In-ho narrowed his eyes and listened to the thick silence in the house. Gi-hun became painfully aware that the baby wasn't crying and the other man would figure out his excuse.

"I heard the song. I'm sorry. I wanted to see what it was about," he confessed.

In-ho lowered his eyes to the floor before raising them again.

"It's all right. I couldn't sleep. It helps me relax. I'll stop it now," he said.

"You don't need to, I mean—"

"It's okay," In-ho cut him off.

There was something so utterly sad about that man. Perhaps it was the late hour and the dim light coming from the lamp inside the room that altered Gi-hun's perception of him, but it looked like he might have been crying. Like he was when he told me about his wife. What if that wasn't a lie?

"I'm sorry about before," Gi-hun apologized before he could even know what he was doing. "I know you saved my life. I want you to know that I do appreciate it. Even if it's confusing as hell."

In-ho nodded lightly. His expression softened.

"I see. Trust me, this whole situation here is very unexpected for me as well."

Gi-hun felt tension creep into his muscles as they stood there in the hallway, in the dark.

"So, um…I should go get the bottle, I'm sure she'll wake up soon."

"How's the wound?" In-ho blurted out the question.

"It's fine. It just hurt because of the walking. I'll be more careful," Gi-hun said.

"Can I see it?"

Something in the way the other man's eyes seemed to glow in that dim lit hallway took Gi-hun's breath away. His fingers felt a little unsteady as he lifted the hem of his shirt and exposed the healing wound.

In-ho's left hand touched him, his fingertips brushing over the stitches gently.

Gi-hun shuddered violently and let the shirt fall back.

"Sorry. I didn't meant to hurt you," In-ho said quickly.

"You didn't," Gi-hun clarified. You did something worse, he thought as he felt the way his heart raced and his blood pooled in his lower belly.

They locked eyes. Gi-hun felt his blood buzz in his ears. His breath became deeper and faster. Something quivered in his stomach when In-ho inched closer to him.

It was the wailing of the baby in the guest room that made them both snap out of the eerie moment.

Gi-hun huffed awkwardly.

"Time for that bottle," he said.

"Right. Do you need help?"

"No, it's fine." Gi-hun said and walked away.

He could feel In-ho's eyes on his back until he disappeared down the stairs.

-------------------------------------------

tbc...

Chapter Text

In-ho fed the baby in his arms while Gi-hun put away the stuff the guard had just brought this time. From his position in the middle of the living room, In-ho watched Gi-hun go over the items on the list.

"What is this box?" Gi-hun picked up a medium cardboard box and started to open it.

"Must be the toys."

"Toys?" Gi-hun took some scissors from one of the drawers and opened it. There were many colorful baby toys inside.

He picked up a few of them, held them up, and smiled.

"That's nice of you," he said, then immediately averted his eyes.

"There must be a few pacifiers in this box as well."

"Here."

"Bring it here. I feel like she's about to become fussy."

Gi-hun complied. He went around the counter and handed In-ho a pink binky, which he immediately offered the baby.

"There you, baby girl. That should keep you happy, eh?" He cooed.

He didn't see the way Gi-hun was watching him closely.

"You know, we have got to come up with a name for her," the older man said.

"Why?"

Gi-hun shrugged.

"I don't know what your long term plans are, but we can't keep calling her baby girl forever."

"This is not forever," In-ho stated.

"Still. It'd be nice to give her a name, even if we're not her family."

In-ho didn't know what to say to that. On one hand, he agreed with Gi-hun. It'd be nice if the infant in his arms had a name—she deserved one. On the other, it seemed pointless to name a baby that would soon not be with them anymore. Well, she might end up with Gi-hun. Maybe he'll want to take care of her.

"You should think of a name," he said.

"Me?"

In-ho nodded.

"You're the one who did everything you could to save her. It's only fair."

They looked into each other's eyes. Gi-hun nodded in agreement and went back to putting the items away.

"I'll think of something."

In-ho waited until the baby fell asleep to put her in the bassinet. It was early afternoon and, though it was cold outside, it was very warm inside the house. Hot even. The baby girl had fussed every time they tried to put some clothes on her, so in the end they had chosen to leave her in nothing by diapers and turn the heat up.

He stared at the infant for a while as she suckled on the binky in her sleep. His thoughts drifted as he got caught up in how peaceful she looked. In-ho could not help thinking that his wife would have given anything to experience that with a baby of their own. Gi-hun's voice—closer than In-ho remembered him being—made him snap back to the moment, thankfully pushing the sad thoughts away.

"So, I was thinking about going for a walk."

"Again?"

"I think it's helping me heal," Gi-hun said.

"I think you're looking for ways out of this island," In-ho retorted shrewdly.

For a while, they just stared at each other.

"What if I am?" Gi-hun shot back. "Will I find any?"

"That depends, are you a good swimmer?" In-ho asked wryly.

Gi-hun broke eye contact by turning around and heading for the door.

"I won't be long."

"Fine."

In-ho watched him and turned his attention back to the baby. Something in the pit of his stomach didn't let him relax, though. These walks Gi-hun went on had a clear purpose, and In-ho knew that it was only a matter of time before Gi-hun realized that he wouldn't have to walk far to find what he was looking for.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun didn't walk along the shore today. He had already walked to both sides of the beach and found nothing but some houses in the distance, vegetations, and rock pools. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense that, if In-ho did have a backup plan for an emergency exit, he wouldn't make himself walk for long lengths to find a way out.

That's why, for the past couple of days, Gi-hun had started his walk along the shore just in case In-ho was looking at him from the window or the balcony upstairs. Then, when he made sure he was out of sight, he made his way back to the house going through the vegetation and estuaries that led to the center of the island.

He had already found a small trail among the trees that allowed him to move with a certain ease. Gi-hun made his way slow and carefully, aware that if In-ho decided to go onto the balcony on the second story of the house he might be able to spot him moving in the distance.

Gi-hun held his shoes and walked slowly on the leafy and wet terrain. He looked up at the sky and squinted his eyes at the brightness of the sun. Though it was chilly outside, the sun was high in the sky, and it felt warmer as time passed. After moving for a while, Gi-hun could feel the dampness of his shirt sticking to his back as he moved.

He was only a few feet away from the house, behind it, when he spotted something that called his attention—a small shed hidden away among the trees and bushes.

Even from a small distance, it blended in so well with the environment that it would have been nearly impossible to see it. The only reason why Gi-hun found it was because he nearly walked right into it.

That's it, he thought, his heart racing. This must be how he leaves the island.

His heart started pounding in his chest. Gi-hun circled the shed—there were no windows on it and the front doors were kept shut with a chain and lock. Gi-hun stopped before the doors and forced them open—the chain was thick but the wooden doors didn't seem very resistant. In fact, it didn't take him long to be able to see inside it—a jet ski!

Gi-hun could barely hide his excitement. Of course In-ho would have a jet ski to get out of the island in case something bad happened. Who was to tell that one day Gi-hun wasn't going to wake up and find out the other man was gone, leaving him and the baby behind to fend for themselves in that god forsaken place?

"Argh—" he groaned as he tried to squeeze himself past the shut doors. He was tall and slim, but the passage was way too narrow. Besides, what good would it be if he was able to slide inside the shed if he definitely wouldn't be able to get out with the jet ski?

Gi-hun knew that he needed a plan.

I've got to find the key.

He stepped away from the shed and looked around. In-ho must keep the key to the lock somewhere in the house and Gi-hun was going to find it. And then what? Leave the island and go where? You don't know these waters. You could die on the first day out there.

The somber thoughts invaded his mind and he hesitated. Besides, there was no way he could take the baby with him. Not only because Gi-hun would have no idea where to go, but also because, well, there was no safe way to transport a baby on a jet ski.

He sighed and raked his fingers through his short hair. Could he really abandon the baby in the Frontman's hands?

I'd be looking for help. I'd come back with the police. He won't harm her. He even bought her toys. Gi-hun's mind argued, but he still felt bad at the idea of leaving the baby.

I don't have to decide now.

Gi-hun looked at the sky. He could see some dark clouds in the distance that hadn't been there before. The temperature was going unusually up for an autumn day, and they might have a storm hitting the island soon.

He started to make his way back—out of the vegetation area and toward the shore, so he could be seen going back to the house as if he had been strolling along the seashore.

By the time he was near the house, the wind had changed and a loud, rumbling thunder could be heard in the distance.

Gi-hun looked up at the fast moving clouds and walked inside.

~ * ~ 

There was no TV in the house, so In-ho spent much of his time in that place reading or going fishing. Since the recent events didn't really put him in the mood to go fishing, In-ho spent a lot of time in his room reading when the baby was quiet.

The silence of the house allowed him to hear it when Gi-hun came back. In-ho cast a look through the opened window and saw the darkening clouds in the distance. In a matter of half an hour, the bright blue sky was gone and threatening clouds had started to gather in the sky above the small hills in the distance. In-ho had seen it happen before. It was going to be a powerful storm, the kind only an island in the middle of the ocean could offer.

He got up and started to close the windows upstairs. Then, he made his way down the stairs.

"Are you looking for something?" He asked when he saw Gi-hun's back.

The other man seemed to be going through the kitchen drawers, determined to find something that wasn't there.

When he heard his voice, Gi-hun turned around and looked at him. There seemed to be a sort of deer-caught-in-headlights look in his eyes that intrigued In-ho. What do you want, player 456? He thought as he walked toward him.

"I, um…I was looking for small scissors. You know, to remove these." Gi-hun lifted his shirt a little and showed him the stitches.

"Oh." That made sense.

"They're itching. I think it's time to cut them off."

"Right. It's been nearly two weeks. I think I have some nail scissors upstairs. Follow me."

Gi-hun sighed deeply. His stomach quivered with the jolt of adrenaline he had just experienced.

He had been looking for the key to the lock that would grant him access to the shed and the jet ski, and he was proud of himself for thinking fast and coming up with the scissors thing. It seemed like the Frontman bought the lie easily.

Gi-hun followed him upstairs and waited by the threshold when In-ho went into the master room.

The other man looked at him over his shoulder and beckoned him closer.

"You can come in," he said.

Gi-hun hesitated. The monster's lair, he thought, a shiver chasing down his spine as he entered the bedroom.

From a small distance, he watched In-ho go through the drawers in the nightstand beside his bed. His eyes paid intense attention as the other man pawed through the items in the middle drawer.

"I know it's here somewhere," he was saying.

Gi-hun's heart skipped a beat when he saw a keyring with a couple of tiny keys. His pulse quickened. He could be wrong, but they were the perfect size for a lock. Definitely worth a shot. Now he just had to find a way to get them without being too obvious.

In-ho shut the drawer and turned to him with the scissors.

"Here."

Gi-hun's heart fell and his chest filled with disappointment when he saw the closed drawer. At least I know where it is, he tried telling himself, even though he had no way of knowing whether either of those keys would work in the lock until he tried them.

"If you want I can do it quickly."

Gi-hun's focus shifted to the man standing before him by the bed. His heartbeat raced again, but this time there was a fiery sensation resonating with the faster rhythm.

"Um…"

"Lie down. It'll only be a moment," In-ho decided before Gi-hun could say anything.

Despite a little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him to get the scissors and leave that room, Gi-hun found himself complying and lying on the Frontman's bed. He settled on top of the pillows against the headboard and stretched out his legs.

His heart was racing now.

Why are you even here? Because the keys are here. Maybe he'll go into the bathroom and I can take them.

"Lift your shirt," In-ho said.

Gi-hun felt adrenaline brim in his blood. The keys. I need to get them.

"Scoot over," In-ho asked as he sat on the bed right beside him.

Something about the way Gi-hun was looking at him and breathing faster made him seem edgy. In-ho stared intently at him. His eyes then went to his naked lower abdomen and the way the muscles in there flexed hard with every breath.

"Why are you nervous?" He asked very knowingly.

"I'm not—"

They looked into each other's eyes.

"All right." In-ho touched Gi-hun's skin and he swore he could hear the other man suck in a gasp. Something about Gi-hun's body felt strung tight with tension, and it sprinkled on In-ho, causing his stomach to tighten and his blood to rush faster.

He cut the first stitch loose and Gi-hun hissed, his muscles flexing to shy away from contact.

"Sorry. It's just cold," Gi-hun said quickly.

"Don't do that again," In-ho spoke past the unexpected lump in his throat. "If you move abruptly I could end up hurting you."

Gi-hun nodded quickly. His Adam's apple moved when he swallowed thickly.

What the hell…? In-ho thought vaguely when he realized his fingers weren't as steady as they normally were.

He cut another stich loose, then another, trying not to enjoy the way Gi-hun's slim waist looked so good or how warm his skin felt under his fingertips. Because, honestly, there was no reason to feel any of that. It was not like In-ho was attracted to that man. A man! An enemy! Please! The thought that he might was ridiculous.

He would have laughed if he didn't feel the tension in his throat keeping him from it.

"That music box…"

In-ho stopped what he was doing and met Gi-hun's eyes. His heart skipped a beat.

"What about it?"

"Nothing. You just…you like that a lot, don't you?"

In-ho gazed intently into Gi-hun's eyes. He didn't answer him. Instead, he focused back on what he was doing, wanting to finish it as soon as possible, before another wildly inappropriate thought swirled through his mind.

He was halfway through when the baby started crying.

They looked at each other and Gi-hun put his right hand above his left one.

"I can finish this. Go see what she needs."

"Are you sure?"

Gi-hun nodded quickly.

In-ho got up but left the scissors with Gi-hun.

"I think she's hungry," he said absently.

Gi-hun's heart was rattling in his ribcage. He felt so thankful for the baby girl's interruption that he wanted to go and kiss her right now. It would give him the perfect opportunity to be alone in that room for a minute and get the small keys. Nevertheless, that wasn't the only reason why he felt shaky—the combination of the other man's warmth touch and cold scissors against his skin were messing with his thoughts in a funny way.

"Can you go feed her? I'll change her as soon as I'm done here."

In-ho nodded. His eyes lingered on Gi-hun like he could see right through him. Something about those deadly dark eyes made Gi-hun's body shudder almost violently.

"Sure."

In-ho left the room and Gi-hun exhaled heavily. He could feel a piercing stab of excitement in his chest as he looked at the nightstand.

Gi-hun waited for the footsteps to sound distant before he opened the second drawer.

~ * ~

Even though it started to rain soon after Gi-hun got home after his walk outside, it wasn't until the middle of the night that the rain turned into a full-blown storm.

The lightning outside was so bright, the thunders so loud, that Gi-hun's eyes shot open and he stared at the ceiling, heart racing.

Beside the bed, in the bassinet, the baby stirred and made some soft whiny sounds.

More lightning was followed by a thunder so loud that the window in the room rattled. Gi-hun sat up in bed, his heart racing. His mouth felt dry. He slipped a hand between the pillow and the mattress and relaxed a notch when he felt the two tiny keys in there. For whatever reason, he feared the Frontman would have realized that he took them and come confront him about them.

He then turned to the baby and pulled the bassinet closer. The pacifier had fallen out of the baby's mouth and she looked ready to cry.

"Shh, there, there…go back to sleep." He put the binky back in her mouth and coddled her for a moment.

Despite another very bright lightning and rumbling thunder, the baby fell back asleep. Gi-hun, on the other hand, couldn't seem to do the same. He got up and walked toward the window. There was so much lightning going on that the room was bright even though it was the middle of the night.

He shut the drapes more tightly to try and make the room darker for them to sleep and also because he feared the powerful wind could shatter the window or something.

Instead of going back to bed, though, he went into the bathroom to relieve himself. When he was done, he washed his hands and heard another loud thunder echo outside.

"For fuck's sake. It's like doomsday," he whispered when he left the bathroom.

The sound of hurried footsteps outside made him leave the room and wonder what was going on.

"In-ho?" he called softly when he saw the other man move hastily down the stairs.

"I'll make sure the windows are all shut downstairs. This is a bad one," the other man said.

"I can help."

Gi-hun followed him down the stairs and they went separate ways checking all the windows in the house. While In-ho checked the one closest to the kitchen and the entrance door, Gi-hun made sure the tall ones in the back of the living room, the ones facing the beach, were properly shut.

When he was sure they were, he stood still a few feet away from the window. Whenever a powerful strike of lightning lit up the sky, Gi-hun could see the tall waves in the distance. The ocean—so beautiful and peaceful in the afternoon, now looked terrifying and deadly.

"Scary, isn't it?"

Gi-hun jumped, startled, when he heard the other man's voice behind him. He turned to look at him, his heart rate erratic. The eerie glow of the night shone through the window and reflected on the Frontman's face, making him look powerful and fearsome.

Gi-hun's chest clenched.

"What do you know about fear?" he whispered in an accusatory tone. "You rejoice in it, as far as I'm concerned."

His heart was beating so fast that his breathing pattern had grown messy. Gi-hun thought about that man standing behind the cameras, Frontman's mask on, watching the players die during the games.

"I do know what fear feels like. I have played the games before."

Gi-hun narrowed his eyes. He frowned. A particularly loud thunder made him bite back a gasp. His heart was pounding now.

"You have?" He asked, his voice laden with disbelief.

In-ho felt the way tension coiled inside of him. Something about that raging storm outside made him feel both peaceful and agitated. It was an odd combination of powerful emotions.

"What I told you about my wife is true. Except it happened nine years ago."

In-ho didn't know what it was about the late hour that loosened his tongue.

"Anyway, I should—" he made as if he would turn around.

"Wait." Gi-hun grabbed his wrist.

In-ho's pulse quickened.

"You won the games, then. How…how come you're the man behind the mask?"

In-ho looked into Gi-hun's eyes. How could that man be so naïve, so good? Why did he get under In-ho's skin like a poisoned arrow, coursing through his bloodstream and demanding his attention like a…like a vice.

"I couldn't save her with the money. She died when I left. I went back to the island, except I wasn't a player anymore."

Gi-hun widened his eyes. He seemed shocked. Well, In-ho didn't blame him. He too had been shocked when he said yes to Oh Il-nam all those years ago. It was either the mask or the bullet, In-ho thought about that critical moment in his life but pushed the memory away very quickly.

"I can't believe you would do that. I mean, when you know what it feels like to be scared and helpless, to be desperate for that money! How could you—"

"Gi-hunssi—"

"No, listen to me! It makes no sense! How can you command the games when you know, when you—"

"Gi-hun!" In-ho's voice thundered much like the storm outside.

Player 456 stood perfectly still against the window, his eyes fixed on him. His fingers were still wrapped around In-ho's wrist, but not as tightly.

"I'm sorry, I just can't…I can't imagine why…"

"It doesn't matter. When you play those games, you do what you have to do to survive. I left that island a winner only to find out I had lost what mattered the most." In-ho could hear the quiver in his voice but he couldn't stop speaking. "You'd be surprised with how easy it is not to care when you're dead inside."

Gi-hun's lips parted. His fingers brushed In-ho's hand before he withdrew them.

"I'm sorry about your wife," Gi-hun spoke candidly.

In-ho might have said something, but a particularly loud thunder rumbled outside at the same time a strong current of wind blew hard against the window. Before he knew what was happening, one of the higher glasses broke from the impact and rained down on them.

"Shit!" In-ho cursed and flinched.

Gi-hun hissed and took a hand to the back of his head.

"Get away from the window." In-ho pulled Gi-hun closer to him and away from there. He looked at the shards of glass on the floor, then turned his gaze to Gi-hun. "Are you hurt?"

Gi-hun touched the back of his head. His fingertips came back bloodied.

"A little, yeah."

"Let me see it."

Before Gi-hun knew what was happening, the other man was manhandling him into bending enough for him to check his scalp.

"Can you see it?"

"Yeah, it's very small. Nothing to worry about."

Gi-hun turned around right when a powerful lightning strike brightened up the living him. His heart skipped a beat when he looked at the other man in the eerie silver light from the storm.

"Your cheek…" he said, his fingers moving faster than his thoughts and touching In-ho's cheek.

"What?" In-ho flinched instinctively.

"You cut yourself," Gi-hun stated. He took a step closer and wiped at the blood with his thumb before he had time to think it through.

When he realized what he had done, his heart started a frantic rhythm and his blood buzzed in his ears. That had been a very intimate gesture. Suddenly, the sound of the waves crashing in the distance became very loud because of the broken window. It was a sound that filled the room and wrapped around them, thick and meaningful as they stared at each other.

Gi-hun's thumb grazed In-ho's cheek. His heart slammed against his sternum when his thumb touched the other man's lips. Gi-hun nearly choked. A wave of unexpected affection grew tall inside of him. His breath hitched. His thumb felt at the softness of those lips before Gi-hun withdrew, like he had been burned.

He was breathing rapidly now.

"Um, the cut…" he blabbered.

"It's okay. It doesn't hurt." In-ho's voice sounded gravelly. It sent chills down Gi-hun's spine.

The way that man looked at him seemed to be reaching into Gi-hun's chest and twisting his lungs into a knot, making it hard to breathe. It also had an interesting impact on his body temperature.

"The rain…it'll flood the living room…" Gi-hun spoke through the tiny air passage within his throat.

"Don't worry about it. I'll try to close it with a plastic bag until I can fix it properly."

Gi-hun nodded. There was more blood running down In-ho's cheek. He felt really, really tempted to reach out and wipe it. Instead, he took a deep breath in hopes to clear his mind.

"I should go back upstairs."

"You should."

Gi-hun thought that the other man sounded a little out of breath too, but he didn't allow himself to think too hard about it. He made his way to the stairs and back to the guest room while his heart still pounded in his chest.

~ * ~ 

When In-ho went back to his bedroom, after doing some damage control downstairs, he was holding a glass with a shot of whiskey. He entered his bedroom, closed the door, and went to the bathroom ensuite.

In-ho put the glass on the sink and studied the cut on his cheek in the mirror. His heart was still beating quite fast. He reached for the hand towel on the wall and dipped its tip into the water before wiping his face off the blood.

The physical memory of Gi-hun's thumb touching his cheek, his lips, while Gi-hun's eyes gazed into his, made In-ho feel a tremor that raked him from head to toe.

It's the late hour. Weird shit happens in the middle of the night.

It didn't matter how long he looked in the mirror for, though, all he saw was Gi-hun's face, the enticing combination of fear and desire in his eyes when he had reached out his hand to touch him.

You're reading too much into this.

In-ho put the towel back, sighed, and took the glass back into the room with him.

He sat against the headboard, not yet ready to fall back asleep, and sipped the whiskey—to help take the edge off, he told himself.

Whatever the hell was happening between them was easier to be dealt with some whiskey in his bloodstream. In-ho had felt it before if he was completely honest, but whatever it was, it had got to be a byproduct from the isolation in the island.

He heard a thunder rumble in the distance. He put the glass on the nightstand and saw the scissors he had used to cut out the stitches. His heart skipped a beat as he recalled the feeling of touching Gi-hun's warm skin. Something about that slim waist and the way his muscles tensed under In-ho's touch just felt wildly inappropriate—in a good way.

For the hundredth time, he wondered if his motives to save Gi-hun had been more than practical, logical reasoning. There seemed to be something personal that In-ho was reluctant to put his finger to.

All these complicated thoughts were pushed to the back of his head when he opened the drawer to put the scissors away and quickly realized there was something missing.

His eyes narrowed and a wicked smile curled his lips.

You sneaky little shit.

So Gi-hun had found the jet ski, hadn't he? And now he also had the keys to the shed. In-ho had to give it to him, he had thought it would have taken him longer.

He closed the drawer, leaned against the headboard, and picked up his drink again. He had no doubt in his mind that Gi-hun was planning to get to that jet ski as soon as the weather improved. Maybe player 456 still hadn't thought it through—would he really be willing to go and leave the baby behind?—but he was definitely flirting with the idea of escaping.

In-ho finished his drink and put it on the side of the bed again.

-------------------------------------

tbc...

Chapter Text

Gi-hun woke up a little after the sun had risen with the baby crying beside him. He rubbed his eyes for a moment and yawned. For a split second, he forgot where he was, when he was. It felt like years ago, when he would wake up disoriented in the middle of the night whenever Ga-yeong would start crying. He sat up in bed and stared at the baby girl. His heart ached as he thought about his daughter, halfway across the globe right now, thinking he had forgotten her.

I haven't, baby. I'm so sorry. I miss you every day. He thought silently. If only he had been a better father to her…

Gi-hun picked up the baby and started to change her diaper. There's still time. I'm not dead.

His heart picked up speed when he thought about the tiny keys underneath his pillow.

Gi-hun finished getting the baby dressed and put her on the bed for a moment while he changed into jeans and a shirt.

"There, there, just a moment. I'll feed you," he cooed softly.

He slipped his hand under the pillow, got the keys, and put both of them in the back pocket of his pants. His heart raced as he thought about the implications of doing that. Was he really ready to follow through with leaving the island? Could he leave that tiny human in the care of the Frontman?

I can. I would've jumped and died. The baby would have been left with him in the end.

Still, he looked at that tiny face and the way she flailed her little arms and second guessed the idea of leaving.

He picked her up, went downstairs, and started to prepare a bottle of formula. When it was done and he started to feed her, he walked toward the large windows in the back of the living room.

It seemed surreal that after such a powerful storm the ocean looked so calm, the sun shone so brightly, and the wind seemed to blow like a gentle breeze given the way the tree tops were moving slowly.

As he finished feeding her and put her up to burp her, Gi-hun's eyes went to the broken window square right above his head, from where a cold wind entered the house. There was a plastic bag on the floor—probably what In-ho had improvised last night to keep the water out.

His heart did a funny thing in his chest as Gi-hun recalled the feeling of being so close to In-ho in the middle of the night, with the lightning strikes lighting up their faces and the thunder sounds rumbling in the distance.

While he rocked the baby, Gi-hun thought about the way he had touched In-ho's face, his thumb grazing down his skin and touching his mouth. He parted his lips and took a deep breath, fighting, unsuccessfully, to push the thought away.

It had been so long since Gi-hun had experienced anything remotely similar to what he had felt at their closeness—the electric jolt that had traveled through him—that it caught him off guard.

Focusing on the baby and playing with her helped him distract himself, but the moment the other man who lived in that house came down the stairs and their eyes met, it nearly knocked all air out of Gi-hun's lungs.

"Good morning," In-ho said curtly and walked toward the kitchen.

"Morning," Gi-hun mumbled.

"Did she sleep well?"

Gi-hun needed a few seconds to get a grip on his straying thoughts.

"Yes, like there was no storm at all," he said.

In-ho looked at him from behind the kitchen counter and nodded. Gi-hun watched him as he prepared himself coffee while also starting to make toasts.

"Did you eat?"

"Um, no. Not yet."

Gi-hun saw the way that man looked intently at him and looked away. The two tiny keys in his back pocket seemed to burn against the fabric of his jeans, soaking his skin with a warm feeling that was fueled by adrenaline. The thought of actually leaving that island today was making Gi-hun's heart work extra hard. Meanwhile, he knew he had to play it cool.

In-ho turned his attention back to breakfast. He made black coffee as the toasts got ready. He did everything with the methodical patience he was known for. Nothing in his attitude felt rushed or edgy, even though he was very much aware that player 456 was planning on fleeing the island today.

In fact, In-ho was certain that if he reached his fingers into one of the pockets of Gi-hun's jeans, he would find the keys to the shed where he kept the jet ski. Gi-hun believing that he could outsmart him made In-ho bite back a knowing smile at the same time he experienced a bitter feeling of resentment—how ungrateful of player 456 to walk away on him after In-ho had gone out of his way to save his life.

"Breakfast?"

"Yeah, okay."

In-ho watched Gi-hun put the baby on the play mat the guard had brought over on his last visit. He put the baby on her tummy and walked toward the counter.

As he poured himself some of the coffee and milk, In-ho became extremely aware of Gi-hun's eyes assessing him. He put the kettle with milk back on the stove and went back to the counter, sitting at one of the tall benches across from Gi-hun.

"Yes?" he asked when he realized the older man was still looking at him.

"The cut on your cheek. It looks better already."

"Oh, this." In-ho touched the small cut on his left cheek. The memory of how he had gotten that came crashing back into his mind. His heart fluttered.

"It's not so bad as it seemed in the night," Gi-hun said.

In-ho recalled the feeling of that man's thumb on his cheek—on his lips—and felt the way an interesting discharge of adrenaline, much like a streak of lightning, spread in his chest.

"The late hour and the lack of light can be misleading," he spoke in a voice that sounded a little lower than he expected.

Gi-hun looked at him. In-ho looked back. He wondered if the other man was thinking about their 'moment' the night before. The thought that he might made In-ho feel a little unsure—timid? Oh, for fuck's sake—

The fussing of the baby was a welcomed distraction.

"I don't think she likes being on her stomach very much," In-ho observed, more than grateful to shift his focus. He also took a bite of his toast as he looked at the baby girl in the living room.

"I know, but it's important. Leave her there for a few minutes," Gi-hun replied, equally relieved.

"If you say so…"

In-ho poured himself more coffee and did the same for Gi-hun. Player 456 sat across from him on one of the tall benches, picked up one of the toasts, and took a bite off it.

"You should know how to take care of her. You know, in case I'm not around," Gi-hun suddenly said.

In-ho's heart skipped a beat.

"Why wouldn't you be around? Are you actually planning to swim away?" In-ho teased. His eyes were piercing as he gazed at Gi-hun. He wished he could laugh at the Oh, shit, look on his face, but instead In-ho pretended to be oblivious.

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous." Gi-hun drank his coffee and chewed down another piece of toast. "I just don't want to be the one doing everything here," he said.

"Fair enough. I do try to help."

"I know. I didn't mean to say you didn't."

"But you're the one with more experience. I never had to look after a baby."

In-ho ate his toast and took a sip of his coffee. He could feel Gi-hun's eyes on him. Silence dragged for a few minutes, with only the baby's soft cooing coming from the living room.

"Is it true what you told me about your wife being pregnant when she got sick?" Gi-hun asked.

In-ho felt the bread in his mouth become more like a lump that he had trouble swallowing down.

He sighed deeply and nodded.

"I didn't invent that story. What I told you that night on the island was the truth, except it was in the past."

"Did you get to see her when you left?"

In-ho would have felt annoyed at the invasive questions, but there was something genuinely interested in Gi-hun's eyes—he cares, he told himself. A strange feeling of warmth tangled with a streak of grief inside his chest.

"I did. But not all the prize money could make a difference by then. Her condition had deteriorated fast." In-ho's eyes fixed on a memory he'd spent years burying deep inside him. "I had all that money and yet I watched her die."

Gi-hun stared intently at him. In-ho looked away and pushed the thought, as well as the sad feelings that accompanied it, to the back of his head.

"Anyway, I think we should—"

"I'm sorry," Gi-hun interrupted him. "I'm really sorry about her and the baby."

His candid response made In-ho feel a quivery sensation in the pit of his stomach. He nodded, showing appreciation, and got up.

"I think the baby's had enough," he said as he walked toward the infant who had now started to cry and picked her up. "There, there."

As he rocked her to try and put her to sleep, Gi-hun finished his breakfast, got up, and did the dishes.

The baby had quieted down in his arms when player 456 started to walk toward him.

"So, hey…I was thinking about going for a walk. You know, it's a nice day. It's sunny so it won't be very cold. The baby is taken care of."

In-ho could see how edgy the man before him was again. It made him have a hard time keeping his knowing smile to himself. Seong Gi-hun, you'd be a terrible poker player.

"Suit yourself. Will you be back in time for lunch?"

"Uh, sure."

"Okay."

Gi-hun walked toward him and stood before him, looking at the baby in his arm. He stroked a finger across her soft little cheek.

Are you saying goodbye, player 456? In-ho studied him intently. When Gi-hun raised his eyes to him, he looked guilty and awkward.

"I'll leave now, then. Don't wanna be late for lunch."

"Have a good walk," In-ho smiled, his dark eyes watching the other man until he picked up his jacket and walked out of the door.

~ * ~ 

Gi-hun looked over his shoulder several times. Even though there was no one there with him on that beach, he couldn't shake off the feeling that In-ho was staring at him.

That's crazy. He's got no idea that I have the keys. Otherwise he wouldn't have let me leave the house, Gi-hun told himself this many times until it started to have a calming effect on him.

He walked along the shore for a few minutes before going into the woods to his right and making his way back to the house through the vegetation.

When he spotted the shed, his heart started to race. He hoped he had the right keys. If they worked, though, Gi-hun would still have to figure out how to take the jet ski to the beach unnoticed. He had seen the trailer where the jet ski was on, but he wondered if he would be able to carry it to the shore without too much trouble.

Gi-hun stopped by the shed and looked around. The house was only a few feet behind him, and the beach wasn't that far either. He reached for the keys in his back pocket and took the padlock in his left hand.

His eyes were fixed on it as he slid the key inside.

"Shit," he cursed with relief when it worked and he was able to open the doors.

His body was still dealing with the quickened pulse and breath from the adrenaline discharges he experienced. He knew he was doing something wrong, something unsure. What if he died out there in the ocean before he was able to find help for the baby? What if he was able to get to the mainland, but couldn't find his way back to that same island before it was too late?

So many questions. Gi-hun felt distressed, even as he managed to successfully enter the shed.

The place looked neat and organized, even if it had obviously been a while since someone had cleaned in there.

The shelves were covered in spiderwebs and toolboxes. Some larger tools were lying around.

There were a few cans with what Gi-hun supposed was gasoline. He didn't know the first thing about jet skis, but he knew that he'd have to make sure to have enough fuel before he left.

As he went closer to the jet ski, he saw the keys hanging from a floating wristband laying on the seat.

Perfect.

Gi-hun was about to get them when he heard the footsteps and turned his head to see someone else walking in there with him.

"You look surprised to see me," In-ho spoke calmly.

Gi-hun's heart skipped a beat—it felt as though it had dropped inside his chest, causing him to feel a wave of unexpected vertigo.

"What the fuck are you doing here? How did you find out?"

In-ho had a smug grin on his lips, but his eyes looked hard. They gave Gi-hun chills.

"You took my keys when I left you alone in my room." In-ho walked slowly toward him, like a predator circling its prey.

Gi-hun's heart started drumming in his chest. He did not trust the false calmness in that man's voice. It felt very much like the lull the before the storm—a raging storm like the one they had just had last night.

"So you knew. Why did you let me leave the house?"

In-ho narrowed his eyes. The corner of his lips twitched, like he could barely keep the emotion behind his composed look under control.

"I wanted to see how far you'd go," he said. "Tell me, Gi-hunssi, would you really leave the baby behind?"

Gi-hun felt tension creep into his muscles. He realized—too late—that he was taking a step back for every step forward the Frontman took. Before he knew it, he was caught against one of the walls of that shed, nowhere to go. His eyes looked over his shoulder at a screwdriver on one of the shelves.

"I would've jumped. She would've been alone anyway," he said. His eyes were fixed on the other man while his hand reached for the tool.

"So you don't care what happens to her." In-ho was closing the distance between them.

"That's not what I said—"

"You're a fucking piece of shit, player 456. After the risks I took to bring you here you just don't give a fuck about that baby."

"That's not true." Gi-hun closed his fingers around the cable of the screw driver, ready to use it if the other man's threatening look turned into something physical.

"I told you to stay put for a while until I figure things out, I even helped with your fucking wound, and how do you repay me? By trying to steal my only way out in case of emergency!"

"Do not come any closer!" Gi-hun put the screw driver before their bodies when the other man got too close. He raised it and pointed it to In-ho's face, his chest heaving as he stood his ground.

"Do you think you scare me with that?" In-ho smiled wickedly.

Gi-hun didn't answer. He did keep holding the screwdriver threateningly at the Frontman.

In-ho narrowed his eyes. There was something deranged about the way his dark eyes glowed when he spoke.

"Either I can trust you, or I'm gonna drown you in that ocean, do you hear me?"

"Why don't you drown the baby as well if you're such a monster?" Gi-hun shot back.

"It's not right. She's the winner."

"So am I you said."

"But she's not trying to fucking leave!" In-ho snarled.

"Do you kill everyone who tries to walk out on you?" Gi-hun shot back.

In-ho just lost it. He'd been trying to hold it together and give Gi-hun the benefit of the doubt—maybe he was just keeping the possibilities open, testing the waters, seeing how far he could go. Knowing that man was actually ready to fucking leave him alone on that island with the baby drove him mad.

If he was honest, it wasn't as much about the baby as it was about him.

He's gonna fucking leave me.

He saw that screwdriver pointed at his face and yanked it out of Gi-hun's hand. Player 456 reacted instantly, shoving him away from him, triggering In-ho even more and making his control slip.

Gi-hun turned around and started pawing through the shelves of tools, frantically looking for something to defend himself with.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" In-ho grabbed at his shoulders and pulled him away before he could find something truly harmful among the tools.

"Don't fucking touch me!" Gi-hun turned around and tried to punch him.

In-ho was barely able to doge it. He groaned and charged at Gi-hun, using his martial arts training to blocking Gi-hun's blows but also to overpower him.

Gi-hun was able to push him against the wall. In a rampant of fury, he was able put both hands around In-ho's neck and squeeze.

In-ho kneed his stomach and Gi-hun doubled over in pain, letting go. It was all the leverage In-ho needed to push him against the wall again. This time, though, his fingers had a bruising grip on Gi-hun's wrists as he pinned them to the wall behind him on each side of his body.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Gi-hun nearly growled.

"You were not paying attention, player 456," In-ho spoke between gritted teeth. "I lost my faith in humanity when I played those games. I lost my faith in myself," In-ho's voice quivered; his fingers tightened around Gi-hun's wrists when he tried to escape. "I came back, and everything I did in there meant nothing. I came back to nothing. I am a broken man, Gi-hun. You don't wanna fuck with a broken man. I got nothing else to lose." In-ho's eyes gazed into Gi-hun's with a maniac glow.

Gi-hun stopped fighting him. He stood perfectly still against the wood slatted wall, chest rising with his shallow breathing. His arms were pinned to the wall on each side of his torso, his lips were parted.

In-ho stared at those parted lips. He could feel the labored breath that escaped from between them. It puffed against his nose and cheeks, making him very much aware of how close they were.

Gi-hun's eyes were fixed on him—a mix of fear and defiance that was so fucking precious In-ho wanted to bottle it up and drink it all. He tightened his fingers even further and Gi-hun sucked in his breath in response. The thought of having control over that man intoxicated In-ho. It made him feel powerful. It made him feel unhinged.

He saw the curve of Gi-hun's neck, the way his Adam's apple stood out when he swallowed thickly. Something about all that exposed skin was messing with his thoughts, tempting his self-control.

Something snapped inside of him because In-ho leaned closer. His nose followed the curve of Gi-hun's jawline. He could breathe player 456—his sweat, his hesitance, his fight. Unable to help himself, In-ho let his nose graze the skin. Goosebumps instantly broke out on Gi-hun's neck, triggering a feral appreciation inside In-ho.

He buried his nose in the curve of the other man's neck, breathing him in.

Gi-hun let out a shaky breath. He tried to tug himself free, but only for a moment.

When In-ho's lips ghosted above the spot where Gi-hun's neck and shoulder met, his damp breath puffing against it, a sound broke free from Gi-hun's lips—a moan.

It was so unexpected and raw that In-ho felt his blood rush faster in his veins. His heart thudded rapidly, and when he pulled back a little, he saw that Gi-hun's pupils were blown out.

A lot of words swirled inside In-ho's mind, but none made past the flood of desire that surged in his veins. All coherency drowned in the heated blood that traveled his veins as he pushed his face closer to Gi-hun's, their noses touching, their parted lips only inches away.

"What are you—"

"Shhh." In-ho's left hand grabbed at Gi-hun's chin firmly.

Even though Gi-hun was no longer trapped—he did have a free hand now to try and push him away—he didn't move. The older man kept looking at In-ho with that look of a deer caught in headlights, unable to avert from the train wreck rushing in their direction.

In-ho angled his face and let his lips brush Gi-hun's. He heard the quivery breath that left Gi-hun's lips. He felt the tremor of his body when he pressed into him.

More, In-ho's only functioning brain cell used all the synaptic energy in his brain and put it into that word. I need more.

In-ho's lips ghosted above the corner of Gi-hun's mouth. He pressed lightly. Gi-hun's body bucked into his.

More.

In-ho captured Gi-hun's bottom lip between his teeth, wondering if the other man would draw a line. All Gi-hun did was tremble and pant, still pliantly standing between In-ho's body and the wall.

In-ho kissed him. His lips pressed against Gi-hun's with more intention. His heart slammed against his chest. Gi-hun's free hand flew to his chest, but it didn't push him away. It seemed to rest there, looking for leverage. The touch fueled In-ho's recklessness. He captured Gi-hun's bottom lip between his own and traced it with the tip of his tongue.

The hand on his chest pressed further, but instead of pushing him, it curled around his jacket, clinging to him.

The madness was so real that In-ho could feel his blood rushing to his sex, making him harden with an urgency that was as unexpected as it was hard to tame. He licked across Gi-hun's parted lips and was rewarded with another moan.

That strangled little choked out sound pushed In-ho's buttons. He let go of Gi-hun's other wrist and captured his mouth in a searing kiss.

Gi-hun's thoughts were spiraling into heated chaos. The moment the other man's tongue slipped past his lips and rubbed against his, Gi-hun felt his knees falter and had to further press against the wall behind him not to fall.

He knew he should push that man away. What was happening between them now was more than a little insane, it was fucking dangerous. Nevertheless, as soon as both of his wrists were free, Gi-hun's hands flew to the Frontman's dark hair and he held on to him as the kiss deepened.

The way that man tasted intoxicated Gi-hun. In-ho kissed him like he had gone to war for the right to kiss him and was now claiming his spoils. His tongue rubbed against Gi-hun's in a way that was gentle and sensual, like no one had ever kissed him before. Gi-hun's heart was pounding in his chest and his blood had pooled between his legs, making him throb.

He broke the kiss and gasped, fighting for breath like he was drowning.

Their eyes met. Knowing that he probably looked a lot like the other man did now—disheveled and mad with lust—made Gi-hun tremble.

"I—"

"Shut up—"

In-ho kissed him again. His body pressed into Gi-hun's and even though Gi-hun wanted to fight him—he really did—he bucked into his body and kissed him back. In-ho's left hand grabbed at his hair while his other hand gripped his hipbone. When the other man ground into him, there was no hiding from how hard they both were.

To be fair to his body, Gi-hun hadn't given himself release in so long that it was hardly his fault the way he responded so eagerly to a kiss. He couldn't even remember the last time he had felt that kind of pleasure, let alone with someone else.

In-ho's lips traveled down his neck while his hips pushed into Gi-hun's.

The feeling of watching his betraying body arch into the enemy's touch was overwhelming.

Gi-hun squeezed his eyes shut and bit back a whimper when the hand grabbing at his hip moved and cupped his erection. His hand flew to the other man's wrist to try and stop him.

In-ho looked into his eyes again. They were glazed with lust. His cheeks flushed. Gi-hun could tell without a doubt that it had been a while for the man behind the mask as well. His fingers hesitated to stop him, so In-ho opened his jeans and slid his hand inside.

"Mm!" Gi-hun arched into the warm hand and large fingers that wrapped around his cock. His left hand grabbed In-ho's shoulder, grounding himself as his arousal escalated.

Encouraged by his response, the other man started to stroke him up and down, deliberately.

"Stop…" he begged.

"Stop?"

"Stop," Gi-hun echoed without any conviction.

He felt the man's thumb graze the crown of his cock. His fingers tightened around In-ho's wrist, urging him on even though he had asked him to stop. When he moved his hand up and down again, Gi-hun croaked out a whimper. His cock swelled against those fingers, drowning out his reason.

In-ho's forehead touched his, his eyes drinking every reaction from him as he jerked him off. There was a plea in his eyes, an unspoken urgency that Gi-hun understood very well. He reached for In-ho's pants and slipped his right hand past the waistband of his underwear. As soon as he touched the velvety skin of the other man's hard-on, an electric jolt of pleasure and shock traveled through him.

Gi-hun touched his tip—smooth and slippery with precum.

"Fuck—" In-ho choked and thrust into his hand with sheer desperation.

Knowing that the other man was just as far gone as Gi-hun was brought him some small comfort and encouraged him. He closed his fingers more firmly around In-ho's cock—not something he had ever done to anyone except himself—and started to stroke him up and down.

In-ho groaned when Gi-hun started to mimic his movements, pleasuring him with the same feverish urgency that he needed to be pleasured.

In a matter of minutes, they were both too far gone to back off. Madness was the new order for as long as that bubble of lust lasted around them. Their lips met again, as did their tongues. Their hands moved faster as their breathing grew ragged and loud.

"Please…please," Gi-hun could feel his climax building. Its strength was unlike anything he had experienced in recent months. He buried his nose in the curve of In-ho's neck and struggled not to slow down the pace on the other man's cock.

Gi-hun felt large fingers wrap around his own hand and force him to keep up the pace. He looked down between their bodies and saw how In-ho was stroking him at the same time he helped Gi-hun keep up the pace on his cock.

That was the last thing Gi-hun saw before his orgasm hit him—he cried out and came, feeling the shockwaves of pleasure that rippled all over his body.

In-ho moaned and stroked himself a few more desperate times. His clipped breathing and muffled groan preceded the warm seed that covered Gi-hun's fingers.

As soon as his orgasm was through with him, In-ho leaned against Gi-hun for a moment. Both of them were trying to catch their breaths.

The hand inside his pants withdrew and Gi-hun saw the other man wipe his fingers on the wall beside his body. He did the same, withdrawing his hand and wiping it on the wall behind him.

When their eyes met they looked both sated and awkward.

In-ho took a step back and adjusted his pants. Gi-hun did the same, eyes glued to the floor for a moment.

When he dared raise them and stare at the other man—the Frontman,—Gi-hun felt the lump in his throat and the tension in his chest.

In-ho looked at the door, then looked at him. He seemed to be struggling as well, trying to find his composure after whatever the hell they had just allowed to go down between them.

"You know what? Screw this. Leave if you want." In-ho's eyes gave him a piercing stare before he turned around and walked away from the shed.

Gi-hun exhaled heavily. His entire body was still shaky after the powerful orgasm and his mind was only just tingling awake after the numbing pleasure that had hijacked his senses. He leaned against the wall, still breathing heavily, and stared at the jet ski before him.

In the distance, he thought he heard the baby cry, but he wasn't sure whether he was imagining this.

Gi-hun looked at the open door and the keys on the jet ski. He felt the tremor that rocked his body when he tried to move—it was a feeling that nearly made his knees buckle.

In-ho's words resonated with him, leave if you want.

As did his scent. His taste. The feel of him.

~ * ~ 

In-ho nearly stumbled his way back inside the house. The quivery feeling in the pit of his stomach spread to every corner of him and made his heartbeats quick and his thoughts messy. He was thankful for the loud wailing coming from the baby in the bassinet downstairs to help him snap out of his aftershock after having ravished player 456 in the shed.

It was a long time coming, wasn't it? He felt a little voice whisper inside his head despite his control. You felt the tension. Only a fool wouldn't have.

In-ho couldn't argue with that voice. He didn't think he wanted to anyway.

He picked up the baby hastily and cooed at her.

"Hey, hey there…it's okay. I only left for a little while." Just did something very stupid. "But I'm back now. I'm here." At least  I  am.

What if Gi-hun didn't come back? What if he took the jet ski and left the island? Then I hope he fucking drowns in the ocean, he thought angrily, even though the mere thought of that happening squeezed at his heart and made his breathing difficult.

"I see, it's okay. You need a diaper change. Let's take care of that." In-ho already prepared a bottle of formula before he took the baby upstairs to the guest room in order to change her.

He realized, as he went about this, that his hands were still shaky. Probably the aftermath of his adrenaline levels still being so fucking high.

The more he tried to concentrate on the problem at hand—the baby at hand—the more his thoughts strayed to the way Gi-hun had looked all pressed up against the wall, feverishly horny and moaning under his touch.

Fuck.

He had crossed the line, hadn't he? What the hell was wrong with him?

It's the isolation. The island, the lack of what to do. His rational mind started to brainstorm excuses for his unacceptable behavior with that man inside the jet ski shed.

Any excuse would be better than facing the attraction that In-ho already knew had been there for a while. A feeling that had snuck inside his system stealthily and raided his control the moment In-ho had become Young-il and joined the games.

Shit.

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

It doesn't even matter if he leaves, does it? In-ho felt a cold feeling of insecurity and fear blend inside his chest and make him anxious.

He looked at the baby as he finished dressing her. Then, he fed her the bottle as he rocked her.

The erratic rhythm of his heart started to settle into something more predictable and steady. Nevertheless, his heart skipped one or two beats when the door opened downstairs.

He didn't go.

In-ho didn't like the warm, tingling feeling that danced around his heart, making it flutter in a dangerous way. He held his breath as the footsteps got closer to the guest room, holding the baby tightly in his arms almost as if it helped him brace himself before looking into player 456's eyes again.

Gi-hun stopped at the door. His tall, lithe frame standing there, only a few feet away. He no longer looked all hot and bothered, flushed and desperate to come. Shame, In-ho thought, it had been quite a sight to behold.

"We should name her Seung-hee," Gi-hun said before he turned around and left.

-----------------------------------------

tbc...