Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 8 - Candied Folly

(Happy Late Halloween! I turn 17 on the 8th!)

Another game meant another trip to the room with stairs to nowhere.

The Players climbed the stairs, Dae-eun ascending behind Gi-hun with 199 and the old man behind her.
Sang-woo had gone off ahead somewhere, she didn't know where, but he'd just suddenly begun weaving ahead in the line.
It didn't really bother her, they would all get to the game room eventually.

Up seven steps, down three, left, right, right again-
Dae-eun noticed something off. It was supposed to be a left, then a right, then two lefts.
She had vaguely recalled the direction the guards lead them when they went to Red Light, Green Light.

The same way a child knows the corner turn on to the street with their house in the car.
She just... knew.
Dae-eun figured the new room would logically be completely different from the one where Red Light, Green Light was played.

Likely so it didn't put anyone at an advantage who'd done observation checks and analysed the room thoroughly during play.
Going in blind was the only way to make things fair.
And these people were nothing if not fair.

They entered a doorway and walked along a dark hallway for a few moments before lights flickered on above.
The soldiers leading them paused and turned to their left.
The wall seemed to slide apart, making an opening for the soldiers to head through.

Dae-eun and the other players were lead in.
She wasn't first. She wasn't last.
She was in the middle-ish.

Sang-woo had come back to join them as they walked in, though he didn't explain where he had been.
Dae-eun said nothing as they walked in, instead copying most of the other players' behaviours.
Look up, around, and absorb information.

The room was square, roughly.
The floor was sandy, like the Red Light, Green Light field.
The walls were painted with clouds and pale blue, in an unrealistic fashion, akin to a child's wallpaper.

The walls had coloured picked fences nailed into them, again, child-like.
There was a single, large light in the centre of the ceiling, possibly to simulate the sun due to no opening being present.
What confused Dae-eun the most was the props in the room.

A jungle gym, slide, swing set and a merry-go-round were present in the room, the same colour as the fence around the wall.
What was the concerning part was that they were huge.
They towered at least two and a half times the size of the players, like it was built for giants instead of men.

"Why the hell is this playground so huge? What's the game here?" Gi-hun was talking to himself, asking the same questions as everyone else.
The woman over the PA announced her presence again as everyone finished filing in.
"Players welcome to the second game. We will begin shortly."

She didn't repeat the instructions, which was odd as she always did that.
"Hey, what do we think?" Gi-hun asked.
His friends around him were silent. He turned to the younger girl at his side.

"Dae-eun, what do you think?" He asked hopefully.
The girl took another look around, eyes flicking across the field and spotting four doors that his eyes seemed to have neglected.
She lifted a finger.

"I feel like the playground equipment is just for show."
"So what's the game?"
"I have a hunch, but I feel like it's something to do with those." She pointed towards the doors.