Chapter Text
I never thought I'd cross paths with someone like him again. Much less after those damn games. I thought the worst was over, that all I had left was the emptiness, the memories, and the guilt breathing down my neck every time I tried to sleep. But there he was. Jun-ho.
He appeared as if nothing had happened, as if two years hadn't passed. As if he hadn't vanished into the shadows after infiltrating that hell with a badge and a face too clean for all that blood. We met by accident, if accidents still exist in this world.
It was weird at first. I just wanted to close the loop, to understand more about the system that swallowed us all up. But he... he had that way of looking at me. As if he expected me to still have answers. As if he still believed I was something more than just a guy who won by not dying, and just barely.
And yet, I didn't walk away.
Over time, I started looking for him, even waiting for him. That he'd show up at the cafes he liked, that he'd send me cryptic messages as if he were still in undercover cop mode. I'd laugh, but I'd respond. And then we'd end up walking together, sharing silences that spoke volumes.
I liked him. I shouldn't have, but I did.
"Taste knows no age, no gender, no logic," my former loan shark told me, ironically now my right-hand man in this crazy organization we're trying to bring down from within. Yes, the same guy I once owed so much money to that I was hiding from him. Life takes dizzying turns.
"As long as they're adults and there's consent," he added, biting into a cookie as if he were talking about the weather. "Look, Jun-ho may be a cop, but there's sure to be a lot you can teach him. And not just about games, if you know what I mean."
I shot him a look. He hates me when I do that, but he also likes to provoke her. "Don't you have something to do?"
“Sure. Go get some food. But first… tell me, Is this because you think that if he likes you it's because you remind him of his older brother?”
“I don't know,” I murmured. “Maybe. Sometimes I look at him and think he's about to call me ‘big brother,’ and not exactly in a brotherly sense. It unsettles me.”
The pawnbroker shrugged. “As long as he doesn't do it in strange contexts, there shouldn't be a problem. Now, excuse me. Your stomach rules.”
He left me there, with the refrigerator whirring and a lump in my throat. I kept thinking about Jun-ho. His tight smile, the way his fingers brushed against mine when he handed me a glass of water. How, even after everything, I could trust him. Or at least I wanted to.
Maybe I was confused. Or maybe it was something more. Something finally worth exploring, even if it hurt. Even if I had to unravel, again, to find out.