Chapter Two.        The Gamemaster
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     Jun-ho had just barely managed to fall asleep when he stirred again, rolling over and expecting to feel Jin-ae beside him.

But he was met with nothing, only the sheets underneath him. He fully came to after a moment, realizing that Jin-ae was not there. The bathroom light was off, so she was not in there. Jun-ho frowned, pushing back the covers and climbing out of bed.

He exited the bedroom, met with an empty and dark flat. It was an open space, so he would have known if she was in there. But yet, there was nothing.

Jun-ho felt his chest tighten, an anxious feeling washing over him. He returned to the bedroom, grabbing his cellphone off of the nightstand. There were no notifications from Jin-ae, which began to worry him even more.

Jun-ho immediately called her, listening to it ring until going to voicemail. Fear was creeping into his chest now, but Jun-ho threw down his phone and began to pull on his clothes.

Something had been keeping Jun-ho up for a while, an unsettled feeling that wouldn't go away. He boiled it down to his brother's disappearance refusing to leave his mind, but now it seemed that there was more than just that.

Once he was dressed, Jun-ho picked up his phone once again with a sudden idea. He and Jin-ae had each other's locations. He did not know why he had not thought of it before.

Pulling up the app, Jun-ho paced the bedroom with urgency. Maybe something happened with her grandfather, he thought, seeing her location load just then.

Frowning, Jun-ho saw that she appeared to be traveling somewhere. It seemed like she was heading toward Moojin Port, a loading dock.

Jun-ho was out of the door in a flash. His mind was only assuming the worst, unable to get the thought out of his head that something bad had happened to Jin-ae.

He was in his car only moments after leaving the apartment, starting it up and speeding off in the direction of Jin-ae's location. His hands were sweating as he gripped the steering wheel with one, his phone in the other. Jun-ho was trying to keep a calm and focused mind, which he could have easily done if it had been any other person.

But this was the person that he cared about most.

Part of him wanted to believe there was a simpler explanation for this, but Jun-ho's intuition told him otherwise. He felt like someone had to have been playing a sick joke on him; first his brother, and now his girlfriend.

Jun-ho was following a van to the loading dock. Multiple vans, it looked like, all the exact same color and model. He tried to push back the conclusions his brain was coming to, pulling off and parking his car a fair distance away on the side of the road just in case. He got out of the car once the last van's taillights were out of sight, following on foot.

His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, but he collected himself. Jun-ho crept up behind a storage container, peering around the corner at all of the vans continuing to the port.

Reaching for his phone in his pocket, he pulled it out and checked Jin-ae's location once more. But this time, her icon appeared black and white, indicating that her location had been disconnected. Jun-ho breathed in slowly, then sent a text to his boss. He had a feeling he was not going to make it in to work.

Putting his phone away, Jun-ho pulled something from the waistband of his pants. His gun. He checked the revolver, seeing that it had all six bullets.

Jun-ho paused for a moment, drawing in a deep breath. The only thing on his mind was Jin-ae. He had to find her.

Turning, he sprinted toward the last van in the line, crawling feet first underneath it. It was going to be very uncomfortable, but he had to find a way to remain unseen.

The vans were moving, Jun-ho holding on for dear life. A few minutes felt like an eternity while he was under there, but the van finally came to a stop. He stayed where he was, not daring to crawl his way out just yet.

Jun-ho could hear voices, all of them male. He waited until they became distant to chance coming out from underneath the van, inching his way out slowly.

The subtle swaying movements made him feel as if they were on a ship, and as he slowly raised to his feet, Jun-ho saw that he was right. There were dozens of vans on a cargo ship, lined up in rows.

Jun-ho remained behind the van, waiting and listening. He peeked around the corner finally, seeing masked figures standing on the upper deck of the ship. They wore pink jumpsuits, their faces black aside from a white shape on each mask.

Then, Jun-ho heard a voice.

"I better not have to wear one of the pink jumpsuits. They are hideous."

His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, eyes widening with recognition. It was Jin-ae's voice, but he could not see where it was coming from. Jun-ho moved and glanced around to the other side of the van, seeing none other than Jin-ae making her way up the stairs to the upper deck.

Jun-ho's mind was reeling, now. What was happening? Jin-ae seemed to be perfectly unharmed, although she was complaining about something to the guards. She made her way to the balcony above the main floor of the ship, standing over all of the vans with guards on either side of her.

"Alright, go ahead," she waved a hand, turning and disappearing inside the ship's cabin.

"Begin player inspection," a masked person spoke. The van doors all slid open at once, Jun-ho still in disbelief over what he had just seen.

Jun-ho was unwilling to believe it, but Jin-ae was involved in something very sinister. He was currently stuck between the 'how' and the 'why', but Jun-ho pushed the thoughts aside. For now, he was going to have to figure out a way to infiltrate whatever was going on.

He hopped into a van, recognizing one other person in there as Seong Gi-hun. The man who had come in to the station. Everyone in the van was unconscious, so Jun-ho did the same. He laid there with closed eyes while a guard approached, beginning to scan each person's neck with a device.

All of them gave a satisfactory beep, until the guard reached Jun-ho. He attempted it on one side, and then the other. Jun-ho opened his eyes, the guard flinching with surprise before Jun-ho overtook him. He fought with the guard relentlessly, managing to wrestle an arm around his neck and put him in a chokehold.

Jun-ho did not let up, waiting for the guard to quit fighting. Finally, he went still, and Jun-ho pushed him off of him. Panting, Jun-ho quickly removed his clothes and the guard's, swapping out their outfits.

Waiting until all other guards were finished with their tasks, he dragged the lifeless body out of the van, shoving his detective badge in the pants pocket. Jun-ho picked the man up, heaving him overboard.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Jun-ho heard a sharp voice call out.

"Hey, you!"

He turned, coming face to face with another guard. This one had a triangular shape on his mask, pointing a gun at him. Jun-ho remained calm, somehow.

"Sorry," he spoke, his voice sounding different as it came out. "I just got seasick."

Another guard approached just then, this one having a square on his mask. The shapes had to have indicated something, but Jun-ho was not sure what just yet.

"Did you forget the rules?" the guard in the square mask spoke. "You do not speak unless your superior allows you to."

There was silence from Jun-ho. He had his gun if he needed to use it, but he was hoping that perhaps he could get out of this a different way.

"Go standby in the cabin," the supervisor spoke, Jun-ho following with a relieved exhale.

Once inside, he was immediately stopped in his tracks. Standing in front of him was Jin-ae, the girl eyeing him up and down with folded arms. Jun-ho did not dare move, waiting to see what she would say.

"Are you going to be a problem, guard twenty-nine?"

She was standing dangerously close, Jun-ho wondering how see through these masks were. He was having a hard time finding words in his state of shock, finally managing to shake his head.

"I need words," Jin-ae said, her tone sharp.

Jun-ho blinked, gathering his composure. His mind was racing, feeling a million different emotions in that moment. He was shocked, hurt, confused, angry.

"No ma'am," Jun-ho finally replied, the girl making a face as he spoke.

It seemed as if, for a moment, she thought she recognized the voice. But Jin-ae dismissed it at once, turning on her heel and walking away.

"The next person that forgets the rules gets a bullet to the head, understood?" she called out for the entirety of the guards to hear, none of them moving an inch.

Jin-ae walked across the cabin, opening a side door and disappearing once again.

Jun-ho finally let out a breath he did not know he had been holding in, wanting to follow after her. He felt as if this were all a bad dream, and that hopefully he'd wake up soon.

Irregardless, Jun-ho was going to get answers and unmask what was happening here.

No matter what it took.

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Jin-ae's heels clicked across the floor as she entered a room, the only one not donning a mask out of every person occupying it.

This was the control room, the place where they were monitoring every single inch of the games. Jin-ae approached the center of the room, where a man in black stood amongst the pink-clad guards.

He had a device resembling a podium in front of him, a control panel. Jin-ae stopped beside him, overlooking the images in front of her.

Spread across the floor were pictures of people, each participant of the games. They had a number under their image, a pink background glowing behind each one. Jin-ae did not see any faces she recognized, not that it mattered to her.

She knew her family nor friends were not going to be here, for they had no struggles with money. The only person that kept coming to the back of her mind was Jun-ho.

Jin-ae felt guilty, but she tried to suppress it. After all of this was over, she was going to return to him. She would make it out like she had been kidnapped; she and her grandfather had already gone over the story. Whether or not Jun-ho would believe it, Jin-ae was unsure. He was not the type to be easily deceived.

And she wished she did not have to. Jin-ae wished it could have been any other way. But a simple mistake turned into something much bigger, and Jin-ae could not go back and change what she now knew.

"You're the Frontman?" Jin-ae spoke, addressing the man beside her. She did not look at him, but he was looking at her.

He was quiet until Jin-ae raised her head, awaiting an answer.

"Yes. You are the Gamemaster?"

Jin-ae held his gaze even through his mask, her stoic expression unwavering.

"I am."

She turned her head back to the hundreds of faces on the floor, hearing someone approaching from behind just then.

"Out of two hundred and one, one hundred and eighty-seven returned," a supervisor spoke to both Jin-ae and the Frontman. "The re-entrance rate is ninety-three percent."

Jin-ae was surprised by the statistics, and the fact that so many of them chose to return. The fact that they valued money over their own lives, and that the chance of getting that money was greater than the chance of them living.

"Keep an eye on the ones who didn't return," the Frontman instructed the supervisor, "and keep me posted."

"Yes sir." The guard walked away.

Jin-ae raised her head to the main screen, which broadcasted the room in which all of the participants were held. They were being provided with their meals now, gathering into groups and talking amongst themselves.

She inhaled slowly, letting the breath out. There on the screen, dressed in the same outfit as all of the other participants, was her very own grandfather.

Jin-ae understood why he did it, even if no one else did. Oh Il-nam loved games more than anything else, living for the thrill of competition. It was how he had become so successful, by being willing to take a gamble even when it was risky.

She loved her grandfather dearly, and anyone who knew Jin-ae knew that she would do anything for Il-nam. Because he was one of the few people that Jin-ae felt truly understood her, and she could always rely on him for just about anything.

It was slowly breaking her heart to watch him like this, but Il-nam's time was coming to an end either way. If this was how he wanted to go out, then Jin-ae would let him be his own judge. A dying man deserved to do what he wanted, after all.

Jin-ae finally drew her attention away from the main screen, walking around the room slowly to observe the supervisors monitoring their screens. Each guard's room had a camera in it, to ensure that no mishaps took place.

She paused as she noticed a screen with the number 29, standing behind the supervisor. Guard 29 was the one who had caused problems earlier.

He removed his mask as he sat at the table, a meal in front of him. Jin-ae watched curiously, not thinking much of it.

But the longer she looked, the more Jin-ae's frown grew. His back was almost fully facing the camera, the side of his face slightly visible. Jin-ae leaned down beside the guard to get a better look at the screen, wondering if she was just seeing things.

"Are you able to zoom in?" Jin-ae asked the guard, who gave a nod.

"Let me get a closer look at Guard 29," she instructed, the supervisor pressing a few buttons before the image in front of her became bigger.

Jin-ae had to have been seeing things. There was no way that this guard was who she thought it was. She was trying to reason with herself, but Jin-ae knew that face she was seeing, even if it was only a fourth of it.

Standing up straight, Jin-ae took a breath. She remained passive, walking away from the guard at once. Her heart was pounding fervently, the woman feeling faint.

Either she was absolutely crazy, or Guard 29 was her very own boyfriend.

Notes.
sorry if this was kindaaa boring, i'm having to set up the plot or whatever because i can't just write jin-ae and jun-ho being a hot couple 🙄

i love how jin-ae gaslit everyone including the readers in the first chapter, homegirl knew the entire time jun-ho was telling her about the game and did not say a word

however... she doesn't know the frontman's identity... but he knows who she is...

anyway, jun-ho and jin-ae are both onto each other now, so who do you think is gonna confront the other first?