Chapter Text
The ocean stretched endlessly before them, dark waves crashing against the hull of the tiny boat as they tore through the night.
Jun-ho gripped the wheel, knuckles white. His jaw was tight, his body tense, his mind reeling.
Because what the actual hell.
A week ago, he had been convinced his brother was dead—'Technical difficulties Jun-ho', In-ho's voice could be heard in the background. Jun-ho chose to ignore him and continue his rambling.
Then he found out In-ho—Young-il, apparently—was not only the goddamn Frontman of Squid Game—'You already knew this, why are you suprised'—But also parading around as a player.
'Seriously? 001? Young-il? Your jokes have gotten worse In-ho, and how did no one put this together?.'
Then, instead of doing the sane thing—like, say, finally arresting his brother for running a murder circus—he had helped him escape with Gi-hun, Gi-hun who was also apparently dead at some point, but also not?
And now they were fugitives, running from one of the most powerful underground organizations in the world, because In-ho had defected, Gi-hun had escaped again, and Jun-ho had definitely pissed off the wrong people by not dying. Death truly is the only escape huh, but In-ho and Gi-hun were really tryna prove him wrong, because apparently they can come back from the dead now.
Great, now his brother and his probably brother-in-law, are zombies, Yippee. Jun-ho wants to die.
And to top it all off—
Jun-ho rubbed his temples. "I swear to god, if you two don’t shut up, I’m throwing you overboard."
Because, of course, even while running for their lives, his brother and Gi-hun had nothing better to do than have a very weird conversation about their time-traveling doomed romance.
"I killed myself for you—" Gi-hun was saying.
"And I killed myself for you!" Young-il snapped. "We’ve been over this!"
"Yeah, and I’m still mad about it!"
"Oh, you’re mad? You think I enjoyed it?!"
"Yes!"
"I was miserable!"
"You still pulled the damn trigger!"
"And you still stabbed me!"
Jun-ho groaned loudly. "Oh my god."
Gi-hun and Young-il both paused, turning to him.
"Do either of you," Jun-ho said, voice tight, "realize how insane you sound?"
A long silence.
"...A little," Gi-hun admitted.
Young-il sighed. "It’s complicated."
"Oh, really?" Jun-ho scoffed. "Because from where I’m standing, it sounds like you two have been caught in some time-bending soap opera where you keep dying for each other like a pair of dumbasses."
Gi-hun shrugged. "Accurate."
"That is not helping your case."
Young-il crossed his arms. "Look, I didn’t ask to remember dying in another life, alright?"
"Neither did I!" Gi-hun shot back. "But here we are!"
"And whose fault is that?!"
"YOURS!"
"YOU STILL RAN BACK TO ME!"
"BECAUSE I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU, YOU IDIOT!"
Jun-ho made a noise somewhere between a strangled groan and a scream. "We are on the run from an organization that wants us dead! Can we focus on that instead of whatever weird, reality-breaking, multiverse romance drama this is?!"
Gi-hun and Young-il blinked at him.
Then—
Gi-hun smirked. "You think it’s romantic?"
"I will throw you off this boat."
"Aw, Jun-ho, you care—"
"DO NOT TOUCH ME—"
Jun-ho’s knuckles were white as he gritted his teeth, keeping the boat steady. "I should have left you both to die."
"Rude," Young-il muttered, shoving his wet hair out of his face. "You would have been dead too."
"Oh, so I should be grateful?" Jun-ho snapped. "Grateful that I now have a deadly organization—that my HYUNG was incharge of by the way!—hunting me down because my idiot brother decided to have an existential crisis about murdering his time-traveling lover?"
Gi-hun sighed, rubbing his temples. "When you say it like that—"
"There is no normal way to say it!"
Jun-ho looked about two seconds away from throwing both of them overboard.
Gi-hun exchanged a glance with Young-il.
Young-il, the man who had once held a gun to his head.
Young-il, who had killed him in another life, who had sobbed over his body, who had let himself die to fix it.
Young-il, who had chosen him this time.
Who had chosen to run.
'In-ho, who loved him, still loves him.'
And now here they were—on the run, with an organization that ran killing games gunning for them, with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and Jun-ho ready to drop-kick them both into the ocean.
But… Gi-hun smiled.
For the first time, he wasn’t afraid.
He turned back to Jun-ho. "Look, we have bigger problems right now. Like the fact that this 'Squid Game' organization is probably sending every hitman they’ve got after us, hell their leader might show up with VIP's just to make a show of our deaths."
"Technically the organiser of VIP events and face of the game is me—" Young-il chimed in.
"Says the guy who wore a mask the whole time, how are you the face—?" Gi-hun asked confusedly.
Jun-ho groaned, interrupting them. "I hate you both so much right now. Please just shut up for two minutes—Yes, In-ho hyung was the head, but he's defected, not that it matters, because they've probably got dozens of copies to replace him."
Young-il stared and then smirked, finally catching his breath, sarcasm lacing his words. "Wow, that's so good to hear Jun-ho. Love you too, hyung."
Jun-ho shot him a murderous glare. "Oh shut up, I don't wanna hear anything from you."
He sighed softly, rubbing his temples like he was deeply regretting every decision that had led him to this moment. "You two are so lucky I don’t have the energy to drown you both right now."
Young-il chuckled. "That’s the spirit."
Gi-hun smiled.
They were alive.
But they still weren't free...
Gi-hun leaned back against the side of the boat, letting the cold wind whip through his hair. "So. Any ideas on how we don’t get killed?"
Young-il sighed, rubbing his temples. "Alright, enough of this I suppose. It's time we focus." He turned to Jun-ho, serious again. "What’s our next move?"
Jun-ho exhaled sharply, finally regaining control of his sanity. "We need to disappear. They’ll be looking for us everywhere. We can’t use our names, our bank accounts, anything that ties us to our old lives."
"No paper trails, no connections," Young-il muttered, nodding. "And we can’t stay in one place for long."
"Exactly."
"So, we live like criminals now?" Gi-hun asked dryly.
"Yes," Jun-ho deadpanned. "Because we are criminals."
"Oh, please," Young-il scoffed. "If anything, we’re war criminals."
"Not helping, Hyung." Jun-ho muttered.
"He’s right, though," Gi-hun added. "We did commit treason against a powerful underground death game, which technically makes us fugitives of a war. That’s kinda hot, no?"
"I’m ignoring you," Jun-ho decided, turning back to the wheel.
"No fun," Gi-hun muttered, leaning against Young-il, who, despite everything, let him.
Young-il exhaled, running a hand through his hair. "This is going to be hell."
Jun-ho didn’t even hesitate. "Welcome to my life."