Lucky Number 067 (Kang Sae-Byeok/You (Fem) )

-Chapter 18: One Lucky Day-

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"You should celebrate," I hear a voice say. "That was quite the game there." It continues. We stay silent. I knew Gi-Hun was near me because I could hear him shuffling around earlier and muttering. "Why? Why did you do it? How can you?" He asks. I hear someone chuckle. We were blindfolded and our hands were bound behind us. I'm assuming we're in a car from the occasional shake of the surroundings. "You bet on horses. It's the same here but....we bet on humans. You're our horses." The voice replies. I let out a low chuckle. "And to be honest, I did not expect you to finish your race." The man says. "But you. Number 307." He says to me, "Many people bet on you. Especially after the incident with 067." I grit my teeth and shake my head.

"Incident? You mean the cold blood murder?" I say. "You're sick. Betting on people's lives. Why don't you give it a try, huh? Having someone you love die. Especially during a sick children's game." I say. He's silent for a while. "You don't know what I know. What I've been through." He says. I laugh out loud. "And you know me?" I ask. I turn my head, assuming the direction of the man. "Trust me. You made a big mistake in picking me to be in the game." I say. "I won't forget what happened there."

"Who are you?" Gi-Hun asks. "It was a dream. Just think of it that way. And it really wasn't a bad one for you two either." The man says again. "Who are you?" Gi-Hun repeats. There was no answer so Gi-Hun continued repeating his question. Soon, I heard the hiss of what I assume was that gas again and I held my breath slightly. "You two are lucky." The man says as I feel my eyelids become heavy. "If this is lucky...." I start. "Then I don't want to be." I finish before my eyelids close.

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"Believe in Jesus or burn in hell!" I hear someone shout. I groan as I feel rain splash against my face. The rough pavement against my skin. I hear someone walk beside me before I feel my blindfold being ripped off. I see a man with a sign that says 'Praise the lord' looking at me with a confused expression. Instead, I just stood up and told him to untie me, which he did. I spit out a yellow card that had been placed into my mouth and observed it before walking to a groaning Gi-Hun beside me. That guy reminded me of the praying guy from the games. I pulled Gi-Hun's blindfold off and knelt down to undo the ties. He looks at me and his expression calms down. He spits out a card, similar to mine before speaking. "It's you," he says. I'm silent as I work on the ties. Once it was off, he stood up and silently, we walked to the nearest train station.

Inside, we walked to the nearest ATM and inserted my card in. "Checking IC card information" The ATM lady speaker said. "Please select the amount you would like to withdraw" I looked at Gi-Hun who nodded as I typed in 10,000 won. "Enter your 4-digit PIN" I thought for a moment and looked at Gi-Hun who shrugged. Then it dawned on me and I typed it in.

0307

The machine beeps and the machine works. "Counting bills. Please wait." Soon, it dispensed 10,000 won. "Please take your cash" It said I took the money and looked at the screen. BALANCE: 22,799,990,000 won remaining. The games split the cash. I took my card out and let Gi-Hun have his turn. He does the same as I do, having the same amount remaining. God, that's a lot. After that, I agreed to go with him to his place as it was late and it would take a while for me to get home. We walked out of another train station, through a market like place "Gi-Hun!" Someone called.

We turned and I saw an old lady walking towards us. "Are you...what happened? What's going on? Did you get into another fight?" She asks him, examining his bruised face. He doesn't answer and the lady sighs and turns to me. "Who are you?" She asks. "I'm a friend of his." I say. She must have seen the cuts on my face too because she shakes her head. "Wait right here." She says before walking to a stall and bringing a bag back and handing it to Gi-Hun. They talk about his mom and how she wasn't at work for a while. Who was this lady? Gi-Hun's aunt?

"Gi-Hun..." She says. "By any chance...have you heard anything recently from Sang-Woo?" She asks. My eyes widened as I realized we were talking to that man's mother. She sees the look on his face and sighs. "Nevermind. You should go." She says. She waves to me and I nod back before pulling Gi-Hun with me. We arrived at his small apartment which was eerily quiet. "Hey, Ma. Mom? Are you asleep?" Gi-Hun shouts out as he looks around. There was no reply, and I had a gut feeling something was wrong. "I'm home, ma." He shouts out. He walks into a room and gasps. I looked in to see who assumed it was his mother on the floor.

He sits down and shakes her. "Hey Ma. Just...Just open your eyes." He says. She doesn't respond and he starts sobbing a little. "Come on. Please. I'm home now, Mom." He says. "I got some money for us now." He adds. Still no response from his mother and he starts crying. I remember somewhere in my mind that Gi-Hun told us that his mother was sick. I guess....I guess we were too late. Gi-Hun holds his mother, sobbing into her hair as he rocks back and forth. I stood at the doorway, not knowing what to do.

I stayed the night at his place. Although I stayed on the couch as I didn't want to take up any space. Gi-Hun was grieving for his mother and I understood that. I grieved for my father when he passed, I hadn't had the time to grieve for Sae-Byeok yet. I still felt numb to it. By the morning, I thanked Gi-Hun for letting me stay and we exchanged phone numbers. Or more, I left my phone number on a paper on his table as he watched, still emotionless. I left and made my way to my apartment. I found many letters on the floor. All about overdue rent and overdue medical payments. I scooped them up and placed them on the table. Y/B/N wasn't to be back until tomorrow, so I had a day. I had a day to complete my promise.

I stood outside the building. Looking at it from outside. It was small and had a slightly worn out play area. There was a lady outside, sweeping the ground of leaves. It made sense that this was the only place that accepted him. I walked up to the lady who saw me coming and nodded. "Hello. May I help you?" She asks. I nodded as I looked around. "Is there....By any chance...a child named Kang Cheol?" I ask. She nods and leads me into the building at the desk where another lady looked at me. "Who are you?" She asks. "You aren't his sister." She says. I take a deep breath and shake my head. "No. But I am a friend of hers. I promised her that I would help her collect Cheol and take him home." I say. "If that's true, what is his sister's name?" She asks. I'm silent. I haven't said her name out loud since she...

"K-Kang....Kang Sae-Byeok." I say, taking a gulp after. She nods her head and stands up. "Follow me." We walked down a hallway before entering a room which was brightly decorated with books, toys and drawings. "Cheol, someone is here to see you." The lady said. "She knows your sister." She adds before leaving us. I sat on a chair opposite to his bed which he was sitting on. "You must be Cheol." I say, examining his face. He really did look like Sae-Byeok. "The family resemblance is there." I add. He looks at me with his wide eyes. "Miss...do you...do you know my sister well?" He asks. I take a deep breath before nodding. "Yes...I know her.." I start. "We are good...friends." I finish off. He nods at me, believing me. He doesn't know what happened to her.

"Does that mean you know where she is right now?" He asks. I take a deep breath and look at his table, debating my answer. That's when I saw a framed picture on his table. It was a picture of him and Sae-Byeok smiling at the camera. She looked so happy. So carefree. I imagine that this was probably the last image of her in the whole world. I close my eyes before turning to Cheol with a forced smile. "Of course. She's just a little busy. You know why." I answer. He nods and smiles a little. "Are you here to take me home?" He asks. My heart ached at that. He didn't know where she was. He had hope. Something I lost. I nod again. "Yes. You're going to live with me and my brother until Sae-Byeok returns." I say. "It might be a while. She's....she's gone a long way." I add. He nodded and started packing his suitcase as I went to sign and pay.

I felt bad for lying to him. But I didn't want him to know that he lost his sister. Probably forever.

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A/N: At least we didn't wait a year. *Cough* Gi-Hun *Cough*

Word Count: 1621