Always? Always ▪︎ {Squid Game} Sae-byeok x OC

S1 E8 - Front Man {Part 2}

As the four ate, Ji-ah looked at the men as they aggressively stuffed their face whilst occasionally giving each other sour looks. But her and Sae-byeok on the other hand, they were struggling quite a bit. The little energy that they had left was slowly being used as they too ate, but they didn't consume as much as the men did.

However, a few minutes later, the guards came and began to take things away after seeing that most plates were empty. Most being the ones on Sang-woo and Gi-hun's side. Ji-ah and Sae-byeok's plates looked like they were hardly touched.

But as the guards cleared the table, they left one thing in front of each player. A very sharp and pointy knife. It was placed in front of them and they all looked at the knife, before realising why it had been left. They then looked at each other, but didn't speak a word.

They each held the knife in their hand and went to their beds, watching as everything else got cleared away.

What was left was a lone table in the middle of the room, it had several lit candles on it.

With each player in their beds, (except from Ji-ah and Sae-byeok as they shared one), they held the knife in their hand on high alert as anytime, someone could just come and try to hurt them. But what Ji-ah was more focused on, was sitting up next to Sae-byeok. They both tried to look lively and not come across as weak to the other two players, but it wasn't as easy as that as they could feel themselves slowly slipping away.

Gi-hun looked at the two girls and noticed that they looked extremely exhausted, but he thought nothing of it as he got up and made his way to them.

With their head hung low and their eyes closed, trying not to fall asleep, they heard a voice near them.

"Sae-byeok, Ji-ah."

The girls immediately lifted their head and jumped, pointing their knives at him in fright with a shaky breath. But Gi-hun reassured them.

"It's alright, I didn't come here to kill you."

Their hands were shaking slightly, but they kept their tight hold on the knife. Gi-hun stated.

"You've both been dozing off, I'd have killed you already if I wanted to."

He then looked at his knife and announced.

"I have this with me because of Sang-woo there. Protection, you know."

He then slipped the knife into his suit jacket pocket and the two girls slowly put their hands down. Gi-hun squatted next to them and leant his back against the wall, looking at Sang-woo. There was a bit of silence until Gi-hun spoke again.

"You're not holding up too well, huh?"

That was to the both of them, but Ji-ah didn't have the energy to talk, so Sae-byeok did.

"No, it's okay, we feel fine."

Gi-hun asked.

"So how come you barely touched your food earlier?"

Sae-byeok tilted her head before responding.

"It wasn't very well cooked, that's all."

Sae-byeok inhaled a shaky breath and Gi-hun looked at her.

"Stop lying, please. I know you're not fine, Ji-ah definitely is not either. She's hardly speaking. Are you both hurt?"

Sae-byeok asked shakily.

"What if we're hurt? Are you gonna try to treat it?"

She glanced at a very tired looked Ji-ah and gulped a little before stating towards Gi-hun.