GAME OVER | SQUID GAME

⚪️ CHAPTER 26 ⚪️

"Jun-ho will escort you back home." He explained, Sang-woo being completely dumbfounded, taken aback as well by the fact that Gi-hun even bailed him out to begin with. Did he still care, or was this his way of getting Sang-woo to forgive him somehow? That part would be pointless, as Sang-woo was already missing him so much.

Having on decent clothes felt so new to him and yet the familiar feeling made him feel safe. A short-ish amount of time stuck in one place and now he was leaving. He couldn't say he was upset to be leaving; if he wanted, he could've seen God right from that jail cell.

The drive back to Sang-woo's apartment was deathly quiet, but Jun-ho could understand that. Sang-woo only stared out the window, taking in the scenery he didn't appreciate before this moment, basking in the morning sunlight and feeling a shiver from the cool morning air. Wide open space, no closed-in jail cell. Freedom.
Jun-ho, in his heart, believed Sang-woo deserved this, even if that went against his team completely. Too much had gone down for him to feel good about keeping him in there. The money fraud didn't even matter to him at that point.

"Give this to Gi-hun when you see him. He's probably been missing it." Jun-ho handed Sang-woo the phone, getting out of the car with him and that ultimately got his attention.

"You're coming in, too?"

"I need to take that Park Seok-woo guy in for questioning. You should've heard the rant Gi-hun was on last night, it was like his life depended on it. Hopefully it didn't." He replied, going inside with the ex-prisoner and heading straight up to their floor.

Admittedly, Sang-woo was a bit nervous. He could feel it in the chilling atmosphere that had befallen the apartment complex. The farther up the elevator went, the sicker he felt. But his expression betrayed any evidence of that; this needed to end.

"I'm going with you." Sang-Woo turned his head to Jun-Ho, who glanced at him with a curious glint.

"It's best if you go home and rest up. You shouldn't involve yourself with this man anymore." He replied with a light shake of his head. Sang-Woo glanced downward, shaking his head as well.

"I have everything to do with this. And whatever he's up to with Gi-Hun, I need to take care of it. This is beyond just running my name in the dirt, or posing to get me in trouble."

The elevator chimed, the doors sliding open along with it. Sang-Woo felt like he was barely conscious. His feet just took him to wear he needed to be; he felt like he was floating, or like he was programmed to have one destination and one destination only.

Jun-Ho firmly rested his hand on Sang-Woo's shoulder, ushering him to stay close behind. He pressed his ear to the door, hoping to catch something on the other side. Silence continued to fill the air. He raised his hand to hand to knock for an answer, but Sang-Woo stopped him. He had to give Seok-Woo credit, he was smarter than that; especially with Gi-Hun on the line.

A few firm kicks were enough to bust the door open. Jun-Ho immediately had his gun up at the ready, the two men carefully walking around the apartment and scanning it in silence. Sang-Woo looked for anything that might belong to Gi-Hun, while Jun-ho crept towards one of the closed doors. He could hear something on the other side; muffled sounds like breathing and the odd whimper. Jun-Ho caught Sang-Woo's attention with a wave over, his expression telling him he needed to take a listen.

Sang-Woo crept over to the door as well, pressing his ear to it and hearing the same sounds. Whoever was in there, caught their presence, the muffled noises sounding like an attempt at communication.