tw: homophobia, mentions of blood in detail & graphic violence
please don't be a silent reader, please vote and comment!
there might be to many flashbacks in this chapter im sorry about that but i felt like they were necessary like i just wanna show how they were high school sweethearts ☹️

From the beds, I watch Su-bong, his number being 230, and a boy with the number 124 approach 333, the crypto gambler.

It's difficult to tell what they're talking about, but it doesn't take much information to know it's definitely not a pleasant interaction, as 333 attempts to leave and he gets pushed back by Su-bong's hand; I then realise he has coloured finger nails now? Ew, don't tell me he's gay now, seriously? How did I not notice this in the music videos? But no amount of nail polish can change my feelings.

He puts his arm on 124, but then eventually walks off, I quickly turn my back to him and peer over, to see him pacing around in circles.

I then suddenly hear a series of exclaims to which I subconsciously turn around, to see Su-bongs hand on the back of 333's neck, of course he's starting fights. He got into fights in high school quite often as he never knew how to keep his mouth shut, then I'd have to nurse him back to health and take care of his bloody, bruised self, that was if they managed to land a hit on him; they usually didn't.

"You said we'd be fucking idiots if we didn't buy it!" He yells.

Fucking idiot, that rings a bell.

FLASHBACK:

Me and Su-bong are walking in the hallway at lunchtime after eating our lunch in the canteen, our hands interlinked together while we silently blush and beam like how lovestruck teenagers would.

Su-bong accidentally bumped into a random boy, causing him to drop the several books he was carrying because I elbowed him flirtatiously, he politely apologised to the boy he bumped into and helped him with his books, to which the boy thanked him because he actually surprisingly felt bad for the boy, but I then found out later that was because for once, he wasn't on drugs and was sober and that's why he was actually nice to him.

As we walked off, we heard the boy murmur "Fucking idiot.", Su-bong's jaw clenched at this statement, he let go of my hand and walked up the boy and struck him in the face relentlessly, causing the boy to collapse to the ground and groan out in pain, I couldn't help but smirk at his pained state, then Su-bong got 2 months worth of detention because of it and I got 1 month for witnessing it and not immediately telling a teacher.

Even if Su-bong is sober, he will still not hesitate to stand up for himself, it was and is a very cute quality of his, sometimes.

I then hear gasps as Su-bong grabs 333 by his vest, his temper has only gotten worse, huh? I guess some things never change. He utters some things to 333 and walks off, I see him not even try to hide his suggestive stare at 196, and I unknowingly clench my jaw and furrow my brows. I should be the one that's moved on and happy, he should be regretting leaving me every single day. Why should he be able to move on? He needs to be desperate for my presence. That's not fair. Something about his attraction to her whisks an envy in my stomach, a jealousy that the last time I felt it, I nearly killed her.

FLASHBACK:

Me and Su-bong are hanging out at lunchtime, after smoking a joint, just casually sitting at a bench afterwards, he then realises he needs to get the notes from his classmate for English so he was gonna go and quickly get them. I agreed to wait for him, but it had then been a gruelling 15 minutes in the freezing cold, patiently waiting, so I decided to explore the empty hallways in hopes of finding him.

I then stop in my tracks, hearing a obviously forced high-pitched familiar giggle, I then peer slightly into the door, not to noticeably so the people inside don't see, I then spot Su-bong's classmate, Hana, and Su-bong sitting next to each other, although Su-bong seems to be attempting to stay at a distance and zoned out with his bloodshot eyes, and Hana is dramatically laughing, nudging his arm playfully, that's our thing, while he's just awkwardly smiling, not entirely in the conversation. She likes him.

I then impulsively go into the classroom, causing Su-bong immediately to be puzzled and state a bunch of things, that I honestly can't remember since my jealousy took over in that moment, and I took the first thing I could see with my distorted, blurry vision, which was a pencil casually laying in her notebook, gripped it firmly, and swiftly stabbed her neck, causing a waterfall of blood to ooze out of her neck.

Su-bong's eyes widened in terror as she fell drastically with blood that streamt down her neck and stained her white school uniform rapidly, I was surprised by the immediate impact and how she was barely conscious, shaking and twitching onto the ground while her shaky hands attempted to protect her wound, I then looked down at my blood-stained hands, now realising how my impulsivity had severe consequences.

I couldn't help but feel spectacular and shocked at the same time, spectacular that the bitch who had been flirting with my boyfriend for several days at a time was now barely alive in-front of me, but shocked at the fact how a simple pencil could cause her to be like this in a matter of seconds.

"We need to go now." Su-bong takes my hand immediately and sprints down the hallway.

We then go some random secluded closet in the corner of that hallway with a bunch of cleaning supplies and ran-down walls with growing mould on them, which I'm assuming is the cleaner's closet.

"Why the hell did you do that? She's probably dead now, you could've killed her, why?" He blurts.

"She was flirting with you!" I argued.

"She was just giving me notes and does that mean you try to kill her, Susu?"

"While flirting with you. I just got jealous."

"You have nothing to be worried about." He brushes his hand against my cheek.

"But you might go to jail." He adds, with a more serious tone in his voice and removes his hand off my cheek.

"It's fine, my older brother works in the police force and I have a way with police officers." I reply casually, not fazed at all.

"A way? What do you mean?"

"I can be very convincing." I glance at him enticingly.

—————————————

We're then brought to the camera area with pink, yellow and blue tiles everywhere, it reminds me of the Disneyland colour scheme, it's weirdly childish but in an unsettling way that makes you feel skittish.

I'm in the queue, waiting to have my picture taken and I see Su-bong, why am I seeing him everywhere? There's what, 460 other players? Why is he the one I'm seeing the most?

"You're Thanos, the famous rapper. Oh shit." A guy exclaims and then copies his raps to which I receive second hand embarrassment and he then exclaims how big of a fan he is, stating he's been to several concerts and nags him for a picture. I've been to several of his concerts as-well, but you don't see me nagging for a picture. Oh yeah, I forgot he's "Thanos" now, what a shitty name, to be associated with a fat, ugly purple supervillain.

"Me too!" "Me too!" Several groups of people run to him.

"Let's make this easier on Thanos and take one picture together."

Su-bong then turns to 196, "Hey. I don't mind having one more person. Come on.", but his expression changes to see me standing behind her, arms crossed. I then glare at him out of pure jealousy. She flips her braid & scoffs at him and walks off to the automation station.

"I-" He turns to me stuttering, his voice softening with a look in his eyes. I stare at him and walk off to the station.

"Please look into the camera." "Smile." The automated voice says, I force a smile that obviously looks fake and makes me feel uncomfortable to look at. My smile looks like a sketchy salesman smile whom has a pyramid scheme.

Su-bong then catches up to me in the queue, a guard attempts to stop him, "Sir, please go to back of the line."

"Let him." I sternly reply, the guard then walks away almost immediately.

"What? How did you-"

"I'm just intimidating like that." I quickly reply, attempting to brush it off.

"I'm sorry-"

"Why are you sorry? We aren't together anymore, you shouldn't be sorry for flirting with another girl." I brush it off.

"I meant about just leaving you suddenly, that was wrong of me, I'm sorry, Susu. I will always love you-"

FLASHBACK:
It was the first day of 9th grade and I was sitting alone in my classroom, my classmate whom was supposed to sit next to me was absent, so I remained quiet the whole lesson, choosing not to interact with anyone.

20 minutes into the lesson as I'm silently getting on with my work, a schoolboy with fluffy light brown hair and beaming brown eyes rushes into the classroom, holding onto the doorknob gasping for breath while sweat runs down his face.

"Choi Su-bong, you're late. Go sit next to Hwang Soo-ho." My teacher, whom is a moody old woman, points to the seat next to me, gesturing for him to sit.

As he struts over and sits down casually, he unpacks his things, but as he does so he manspreads massively, going into my personal space, so I nudge his leg with my leg.

"Watch it." I murmur sternly.

"My bad, Susu." He then puts his arm around me nonchalantly to which I give him a dirty look.

"My name isn't Susu, it's Soo-ho, now get off me." I state, pushing him off violently, causing him to nearly fall off his chair.

"Choi Su-bong, Hwang Soo-ho, let's keep our hands to ourselves, first and final warning."

"Teacher, it wasn't me it was him-"

"Quiet!" She shouts. "If it happens again you'll both be getting detentions."

"Thanks a lot, Su-bong." I reply, unimpressed while rolling my eyes.

Unbeknown to me, after I say that and then continue to get on with my work, he stares at me in awe while smiling to himself, he then looks at the piece of paper in front of him, grins even wider, and then raises his hand, "Teacher, I don't understand the assignment."

"Since I'm busy marking papers, I will give you permission to ask Hwang Soo-ho for help. No off topic discussion." He replies to her with a nod.

"Looks like you have to help me, Susu." He smirks.

"Fine."

BACK TO SOO-HO'S POV:

"You were just pursuing your rapper dreams, Thanos. Now you're famous and everyone loves you, you got what you wanted, but it had consequences, deal with them. And don't call me that, my name is Kim Seo-Yeong now, Thanos." I exclaim harshly and push through the lines of people to not hear his response and get away from him.