Chapter Text
It wasn’t a surprise that everyone wanted to be in the monitoring.
The gossiping due to the return of who had come to be the most beloved winner (ah, his growth in the guards’ hearts was quite impressive. What started as common ignorance, then switched to common dislike and disgust and in the end coming to be love was so ironic) after the boss was everywhere. At every corner guards would discuss the matter, waiting for those in the monitoring or the common room to keep them updated. They were hungry and desperate for something to make their jobs fun and dumb - and that was Gi-hun and the boss’ m ass ive crush on him.
The new guards couldn’t understand what the whole deal was - they hadn’t experienced the golden era of the 33th Squid game, never knew what the feeling of creating the nickname Gihussy was, nor why they called him the boss’ Backman . They couldn’t grasp the meaning of every information about the boss’ feelings, couldn’t imagine the horrors of seeing Gi-hun arching his back during the Dalgona game. They could never understand why Min-hee was the queen saviour, the girlboss of the staff and why she was as iconic as everyone said she was.
A couple of square guards sat on their monitors, as the other guards in the common room were starting to wake the players with the alarm. They were chatting quietly about their expectations for this year’s game.
“I really hope he wins,’’ one of them said, looking at Gi-hun. The man was slowly waking up. The picture of the boss’ holding him in his arms bridal style had spread through all chats and everyone was eating it up.
“Even if he doesn’t, the boss won’t let him die.’’
“For sure. I heard that he has a whole team of people that are after him, ready to overthrow us.’’
“Oh, yeah. The circles told me that the boss had personally found a tracker in his tooth, so he took it out and threw it on an abandoned island.’’
“Bro is already gatekeeping his future husband.’’
“As he should, that Gihussy is not something to skip.’’
They laughed loudly, making everyone look at them. Min-hee, kinda close to them, rolled her eyes and kept working. She had been assigned to be on the monitors where the best views of Gi-hun were, storing footage for the boss and sending it to his rooms. Oh, the memes were gonna be legendary .
“For real. He gyatt to keep him alive.’’
“Like the queen said once, In-ho wants to be in hoe.’’
Suddenly, the doors opened and the boss walked in. All chatter died down and the square guards went back to their jobs, ignoring the laughter building up inside their throats. The boss headed towards Min-hee.
“Heya, boss!’’ she exclaimed joyfully and switched the TVs on the wall to show only Gi-hun.
She had been to his private rooms half an hour ago, having been looking pissed at him while passing by the monitoring on the way there. Now she was better for sure, kicking her short feet in the air, dressed in her new guard suit and humming to a popular tiktok sound she had probably edited the boss’ and his hubby to.
“How is it going?’’ he asked her calmly and leaned his elbow on the back of her chair.
“He’s just waking up, nothing interesting so far. You really had to order to have him sleep right under a camera, huh?’’
“Shut up,’’ the boss told her and all she did was chuckle. It was kinda weird to see the boss actually being a pookie to someone, but Min-hee was the best at everything, so it was no wonder she had made the boss’ babygirl side show up.
Gi-hun started turning in bed, everyone glanced up to the boss. The man was staring at the screen, not moving, just observing, and then… they saw that player 044, the creepy looking woman. She was staring straight through Gi-rizz-hun's soul.
“I hope she dies soon,’’ the boss leaned in to whisper to Min-hee and she nodded.
“Yeah, she looks creepy as fuck. She’s a shaman or something.’’
“That makeup she has on is horrendous.’’
“Right? She looks like one of those porcelain dolls you’d see in a horror movie.’’
“Even worse, that ugly smile is gonna haunt me forever.’’
Listening to the boss talking shit about someone was… fun as hell. The man was really just like a teenage girl. If only he wasn’t a bitch most of the time…
And then it happened. It had been less than an hour and it ALREADY FUCKING HAPPENED.
The Gihussy was on display. The man was arching his back again, right in front of the camera, and everyone was TRYING to not look at the boss’ reaction. They were barely keeping themselves from exploding in chatter, this was TOO MUCH to take in. That gyatt to be a curse put on them because of all the players that had been killed before.
“Dayummmmm’’ the boss said under his breath and Min-hee groaned.
“Go to your fucking room, you disgusting pervert,’’ she told him and punched his elbow softly. “I’mma have this sent to you in a few seconds, don’t ya worry. Get the fuck out.’’
The boss disappeared as quickly as the display of the cake of Gi-hun. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and began screaming.
“SWEET MOTHER OF NEPTUNE!’’
“THE FUCK WAS THIS?!’’
“WE JUST STARTED, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!”
“HE COULDN’T HAVE ARCHED HIS DAMN BACK MORE, SHIT!’’
“BRO IS READY FOR A HAWK TUAH!’’
“HE’S LIKE AN OMEGA IN HEAT!’’
Min-hee looked around in the room and started singing, “Good googly moogly-’’
“THAT THING IS JUICY!’’ sang back a few others.
And they all knew it was only about to get worse….
or freakier …
“Did you hear?’’
“What?’’
“There was already a display of the cake.’’
“THE FUCK?!’’
Eun-chan and Tae-joon sat on a small table in the lunchroom, eating their warm meal. The first game was about to start soon and they had to get ready - Eun-chan was on duty to kill players, while Tae-joon had to be in the monitoring this time. The two were waiting for Gun-ha and Ha-joon to join them. Min-hee had told them she’ll have lunch with the boss, as they already had a lot to discuss.
“I know, right? Someone managed to take a pic from the monitoring, it’s… wild,’’ Tae-joon said and shrugged. “Do you want to-’’
“SHOW ME TO ME, PLEASE! SEND IT TO ME, RACHEL!’’
Tae-joon began snorting and locked down at his phone. His snorting filled the lunch room, making everyone turn to look at him. “Don’t worry guys, I’m just looking at the Gihussy display.’’
Eun-chan grabbed Tae-joon’s phone and upon seeing the photo - the photo from the dark room, with the boss’ being in it, looking GAY at the massive cake Gi-hun possessed - he started snorting too.
“Fuck it, I’m glad we don’t have a Dalgona game this year,’’ he said, still snorting. “I gyatt something in my eye.’’
“EUN-CHAN! Shut the fuck up!’’
“What, I’m just expressing my feelings. Gi-hun’s hot.’’
“I really hope the boss doesn’t hear you.’’
“I’ll die, thinking of that rizz’s ass.’’
“Ew, man, everything’s wrong with you.’’
“Thanks for letting me know, average beta.’’
“Bro, where did that come from?’’
“I spend too much on tiktok…’’
“You’re just like Min-hee…’’
Min-hee was barely keeping her sanity. She was on the verge of breaking down, due to her overwhelm.
Glancing at In-ho, she tried appearing calm and collected. The man was appearing stoic, eating a piece of the cake he had ordered for Gi-hun, while looking at the TV in front of him. The players were signing the contracts for participating in the games and Gi-hun was looking tense and angry, unlike his previous self. Min-hee would’ve gotten the appeal if a woman was looking that way. She had a thing for angry hot women, who could blame her?
Right as In-ho and the others had arrived, he had dragged her to his rooms to explain everything - and having to actually keep it a secret was so hard. Yeah, she was good at keeping secrets, she did in fact keep SO MUCH secrets, but one like that? The struggle was fucking slaying her (actually slaying). It was such a delicious secret…
In-ho was going to join the games right after the end of the first one. Try to get close to Gi-hun, become his friend, maybe make him fall in love… And she had to be in command during that time. And she knew everyone would go even crazier over that information and she was anticipating the shock, the drama of it all. Her gang was about to explode. She loved these brainrotted bitches too much. And also the guy who was forcing her to make edits. She had too much of a soft spot for him, her cute middle aged bestie.
“He's everything…” In-ho said and sighed, hearts in his eyes. If she didn't know any better, she'd say he really was a teenage girl having her first crush. What she knew was that In-ho was bathing in the attention from Gi-hun who kept glaring at cameras he passed by. The fact the older and taller man had been obsessed with him for the past years was feeding In-ho’s delulu thoughts. They actually needed to fuck it out.
“I'm so excited for what you're gonna do,” she said.
She was the first and only one to know of this as of now. It was kind of his way of getting even with her after she had been the last to know of Gi-hun’s return. She appreciated that he was thoughtful.
“I totally will try to sleep with him.”
“That much is already obvious. You need to keep me updated on everything, somehow.”
“We'll think of something. I need you to keep tabs on both of us, do what you're best at.”
“As if you need to tell me. You know I'm the best.”
“Of course you are. I heard the others call you “the queen dick ignorer vagina adorer”.”
“As they should.”
And then Gi-hun glared at another camera. In-ho stared back and the eye-fucking was so intense, Min-hee felt like her bsf was barely holding himself from actually going down to the common room and stealing Gi-hun so that they could have passionate enemies to lovers say gex. They really needed to fuck out their feelings.
“You're such a simp,” she uttered and averted her gaze. “By the way, look at what I've done!”
She pulled out her phone from her pocket and unlocked it, then went to her gallery app. She had drawn a heart around In-ho and Gi-hun in that one picture where In-ho held him bridal style.
“Send it to me right now,” In-ho said and blushed. “This will be my new wallpaper.”
“Hehe.”
Kang No-eul did not understand shit.
The other guards were weird. Really weird. They talked about “the boss’’ whom she haven’t met and someone named Gi-hun that had returned to the games throughout the whole day. They were fighting and talking nonsense, worshipping someone called Min-hee, arguing and squealing like teenagers. It’s not like she was working at a place where people died like flies, but like she was the new kid at the local highschool. She felt out of place.
These people were breaking so many rules, it was insane. They were on their phones a lot, showing photos and laughing loudly, completely ignoring her, which, to be fair, wasn’t personal. She definitely hadn’t expected that when accepting the job offer. She hoped the higher ups weren’t aware of whatever that bullcrap all were obsessed with was the topic of the day.
She was walking, making her way to the first game. The place was weird, but the pay was what she needed. She would try staying as far as possible from the weirdos she had to work with, focus only on the job. It sounded easy, she wasn’t the socialising type at all.
Coming to a corner and turning left, she was suddenly knocked down on the ground, having lost all her balance, as she had bumped into someone.
“Shit, I’m so sorry!’’ a robotic female voice said and No-eul looked up.
It was another guard, but that one was unlike the others - she was dressed in a baby pink suit and had a square on her mask, making her automatically an important figure. No-eul didn’t know if she should speak up.
“What’s your name?’’ the other woman asked and rose on her feet, then offered her a hand. No-eul accepted it.
“Kang No-eul. I’m new,’’ the north korean said and the pink guard nodded.
“I’m Jang Min-hee,’’ she introduced herself, then took off her mask, revealing her to be… quite gorgeous. No-eul was in awe. “You can speak around me, don’t worry. I’m the Frontman’s assistant, soon to be the one in command.’’
That was interesting. The woman looked smart, bold, and then No-eul realised that she was the very Min-hee everyone talked about. It made sense, she was… stunning.
“Shouldn’t you be up there then?’’ No-eul dared to ask, deciding to take off her mask. When she did, Min-hee smiled even wider.
“Well… it’s hard to explain. No one should see me,’’ Min-hee said.
“That seems impossible, you’re quite noticeable.’’
Did she just flirt?
The other woman blushed and looked away.
“I-I gotta get going. But I hope I see you again, gorgeous.’’
And then she was going down the hall. No-eul shook her head and kept walking to her destination…
Hours later, the voting was about to start.
The guards in the monitoring were quite bored. The boss hadn't shown up in a few hours, Min-hee was in his rooms, everyone knew the games would definitely continue. The number of players that had died during the first game was impressive, the number so much less than any other year - and all because of Gi-hun, the entertainer he didn’t know he was. But that was all about it. They currently had no entertainment, so they tried looking for one.
“Oi, Crypto bitch!” one guard yelled across the room.
“Bro, I mentioned Crypto one fucking time three years ago!” the Crypto guy answered. Truth be told, he actually had done it more times. He wasn’t supposed to return to work for the Game this year, but after he had lost all his crypto money, he had no other choice but to come back and had obviously complained about it.
“Look, isn't player 333 the one that made you lose your money?”
The Crypto guard looked up at the man on his colleague's monitor. Fuck.
“It's him!” he admitted.
“Oh my God, I knew it!” another guard said. “I won, Sae-ho, give me my 10000 won!”
“I'm gonna be the one to kill him, that motherfucker!” Crypto guard yelled.
The other guards shrugged his comment off, but did laugh for a second, and went back to work
It was all so boring!
The voting started then. One by one, everyone voted. The same boring shit. The results were close to a tie and the guards hoped someone would save the situation and vote with a circle to continue. They needed their tea with Gi-hun and the boss. The players were so boring this year.
Soon enough, there were only two people left to vote. And then someone pointed out a thing.
“Uh, guys?”
“Yeah?”
“There wasn't a 001 when we checked in all players…”
Oh.
Oh.
The realisation that struck anyone made the room go silent for a bit. And then, when the boss showed up to vote… the screams echoed through the halls. The yells of joy, of excitement.
“BABY, WE’RE TOTALLY BACK IN!”
“THIS WILL BE LEGENDARY!”
“WE’RE GETTING A BATHROOM SEX FOR SURE!”
“THE BOSS IS A GENIUS!”
“HE'S TOTALLY GETTING THAT CAKE!”
“LET HIM COOK!”
“AND THE CROWD…IS DYING FROM EXCITEMENT?!”
This was getting better and better…