Chapter 1: Red Light, Green Light
Gi-hun: In my town, we had a game called 'Squid Games' We called it that because it's played in a court shaped like a squid. The rules are simple. Children are divided into two groups, the offense, and the defense. Once the game starts, the defense can run around on two feet within bounds, while the offense outside the lines are only allowed to hop on one foot.
But if an attacker cuts through the waist of the squid passing defense, then they are given freedom to use both feet.
Inspector Royal. For whatever reason, we called that the inspector royal. When we were ready for the final battle, all the attackers gather at the entrance to the squid. In order to win, the attacker must tap the small closed-off space on the squid's head with their foot. But if someone on the defense manages to push you outside of the squid's boundaries, you die. That's right. You die.
Victory. Once you tap the squid's head, you win and yell out 'victory' At that moment, it felt as if I owned the entire world. Exhilarated.
"Ah, wait a minute! Hey, open the door! Ah, shit!" Gi-hun cursed when he missed the train. I was at the train station with my dad, Gi-hun, Scourge, Sonic, and Emily. Gi-hun picked me up from my date with Scourge and we were making our way home but it looks like it will be a while since we missed out train.
When I was little, Gi-hun took me in after I lost my family. I lost my family because I ran away. I had enough of my husband and my wife, Scourge and Fiona abusing me so that's why I ran away from my family. A few years later, I was able to reunite with them. Scourge and Fiona felt bad for abusing me and making me run away, so they apologized for their abusive ways. Since they apologized to me, they haven't abused me or Sonic. Scourge, Sonic, and I went on a date with each other to improve our relationship.
We took Emily as well because we thought it would be good for her to do some bonding with Scourge since he is trying to improve things with us.
Gi-hun sighed and walked towards a bench as we sat down. "Well, looks like we won't be home for a while," Emily said.
"That's okay honey, we'll wait for the next train," Sonic said. It stayed silent for some time. Scourge and I were playing on our phones while we were waiting for the next train. Suddenly, a man took his seat next to us. The man looked at us and smiled. "Hello sir, hello Ma'am. Can I talk to you guys?" He asked.
"I don't believe in Jesus." Gi-hun snapped.
"It's not that." He said. "Listen, I want to let you and your daughter in on a great opportunity to..." The man started but was cut off when Gi-hun pulled a gun on him. The man raised his hands up. Gi-hun clicked the gun and it turned into a lighter.
"I come from a long line of Buddhists, so find another guy to preach to." Gi-hun snapped again. The man sighed and put his hands down. He spoke up again. "Mister, Miss. Would you like to play a game with me?"
"What game?" I asked.
"Who are you? Salesmen huh? You people have all kinds of tactics. And I know your only doing your job, but I really don't have time to sit here and..." Gi-hun stopped talking and looked at the briefcase the man had opened. Inside the briefcase, there were three rows of money, one red card, and one blue card. Scourge became interested. "Woah, what's with the cards and the money?" Scourge asked. The man took out the red card and the blue card.
"I'm sure you played ddakji before, right? Play a few rounds of ddakji with me, and each time you guys win, I'll pay you 100,000 won." The man said.
"Wow, is all of this real?" I said. The man nodded.
"Wait, so if I hit your ddakji, and it flips over, I get a 100,000 won?" Gi-hun said.
"And if I can flip yours, you will give me the exact same amount of money." The man said. Gi-hun and I looked at each other, then we looked at the money. Should I play? Is this worth it? "I think I will play," I said.
"Hold on Lana, I don't know if this is such a good idea," Sonic said.
"Oh come now Sonic, let the kid have some fun," Scourge said.
"You and the black hedgehog can also be the first to play." The man said.
"Alright," I said.
"Hey look, I had a bad day today. You pull a scam or you rip me off, well then I'll... I'll kill you, huh?" Gi-hun said. "So then, it's my turn eh?"
"So which color do you want to play as?" The man asked us. Gi-hun and I both picked blue. Gi-hun prepared to throw the ddakji but he didn't flip the red one over. Uh-oh. The man picked up the red square and flipped it. Gi-hun looked at the man nervously. "Well, what's wrong?" He asked.
"So the thing is..." Gi-hun started.
"How about you use your body to pay?" The man said.
"A what?" Gi-hun said. Without a warning, the man slapped Gi-hun hard across the face. "What the hell man?!" Gi-hun shouted.
"I'll take a 100 grand off per slap." The man said.
"Okay now it's my turn, step aside," I said. The man set his red square on the ground and I prepared to throw my blue square. When I threw my square, I didn't flip it. I grunted with frustration. The man threw his red square and was able to flip my square over. Oh no. I laughed nervously. "You see sir, I..."
"You don't have the money to pay. Well how about you use your body?" The man said. I knew he was gonna slap me, but I was still shocked when he did. "Dude!" I yelled as I covered my face. The slap actually hurt.
"Damn," Scourge said. "Even I don't slap that hard."
"Same for you, I'll take 100 grand off per slap." The man said. My mom looked worried. But I didn't care. I wanted to keep going.
"One more round," I said as I held up my square. Sonic took my arm. "Sweetie no more, I don't want you getting hurt," Sonic said. I ignored my mom and kept going. Gi-hun also kept going with the game.
"One more round." Gi-hun and I said again as the man slapped us. Gi-hun and I kept going and going, and we kept getting slapped along the way. People who were walking by stared at us as we were playing our game. The man flipped our squares again and slapped us again. Gi-hun and I kept repeating this game. By now, we had marks all over our faces and I could feel some blood trickling down my cheek but I didn't care.
After one more slap, Gi-hun and I prepared to throw our squares again. With one powerful throw, we were able to flip over the red square. Our mouths went wide open and we screamed with excitement. "Wow, sis. You did it!" Emily said as she high-fived me.
"Mom, Scourge, did you see?! I won!" I said excitedly. Sonic sighed and put his head down. "Shadow is gonna kill me," Sonic said.
"Did you see that?! I beat you, man! Did you see that? I did it. I won. Get over here. It's my turn to do this." Gi-hun said. As Gi-hun was gonna slap the man, the man stopped him. "What are you doing, jerk?!" Gi-hun shouted.
The man held up the money. "Your 100 grand sir, ma'am." The man said. The man placed the money in our hands. "Your welcome sir, ma'am." He said.
"Oh, yeah. The money." Gi-hun said.
"Thanks," I said.
We sat down back on the bench. Gi-hun and I were happily counting our money. "How much did you get?" Emily asked.
"Exactly 100 grand," I said happily. "Here, have some," I said and handed some money to Emily.
"Oh no Lana, that's too much to take from you," Emily said.
"No, no. It's yours now." I said. I handed a couple of bills to her. "Wow, thanks," Emily said.
"Hey, where's my money?" Scourge whined.
"You don't get any," I said teasingly.
"You know sir, ma'am. There are other games like this where you can make even more." The man said. Gi-hun and I stayed silent. "Come on, it must sound tempting."
"Hey dude, is this some kind of pyramid scheme or what? Look, I'm desperate, okay? Still, not that desperate yet." Gi-hun said. The man stood up and looked at us. "Mr. Gi-hun. Earlier, you signed away your physical rights. Your name, Seong Gi-hun. 47 years old You attended Daehan Technical High School, worked at Dragon Motors, Assembly Term one. The company laid you off 10 years ago. Opened a chicken shop bar, and then a small snack bar. Both of them failed you're working as a chauffeur. You've been divorced for about three years, you have two daughters, one of them is ten years old and the other is 21 years old. A hundred sixty million won owed just to loan sharks, and you owe 250 more to the bank."
My eyes widened. How did he know all of this? The man then looked at me and began speaking to me. "Miss. Lana Hedgehog. When you were 13 years old, you ran away from your family after being abused. Mr. Gi-hun adopted you when you ended up here. You attended the same high school as Mr. Gi-hun. When you turned 20, you got a job at the AMC theater and borrowed 250 million won from the bank to try and open up your own theater. That failed and you owe 250 million won to the bank."
What he said to me almost made me pass out. Scourge was furious. "You fucking stalker!" Scourge yelled. Gi-hun and I glared at the man.
"Who are you? What business of yours is all of that?" I demanded. The man suddenly took out a card. The card was brown with three shapes on it, one triangle, one square, and one circle.
"We don't have many spots left. Just think about it." The man said. Gi-hun and I took both of the cards from him. The man left and got on the train. "Good luck!" He called.
I looked at Gi-hun. "Daddy? What do you think this is?" I asked.
"I don't know. Looks like an invitation to some game or something." Gi-hun said.
"Come on, let's just go home and talk this over," Sonic said. Gi-hun and I then looked at the money and smiled. "Alright then," Gi-hun said. When we got home, we decided to stop at a shop first. Gi-hun and I were singing happily.
"You drink at all tonight?" Sang-woo's mother asked us.
"No." Gi-hun and I said as we laughed.
"Geez Lana, calm down," Sonic said.
"Aw come on Mom, it's not every day you win 100 grand of won," I said happily.
"Lana and I haven't had a drop but we feel tipsy still, anyway," Gi-hun said. "Because look what we got."
Gi-hun and I happily held out the money. Sang-woo's mother looked disappointed. "Gi-hun, Lana, what did you do now? You gambled again?" Sang-woo's mother said.
"Don't you look at me like that? I didn't. We earned it all this time, it's legit." Gi-hun said.
"What's with your face, by the way? What did they beat you guys up for now?" Sang-woo's mother said.
"Hey. Forget it. Sang-woo been around here? How's he doing at work?" Gi-hun asked.
"Always keeping busy. Right now, he's on a business trip abroad. Ah, ungrateful prick." Sang-woo's mother said.
"Ah, tell him to give me a call when he gets back in town. After all I did? He got into Seoul National University, thanks to me. I used to take him to school when we were young. That's why he went to school, got a good job. He at least ought to buy me a drink." Gi-hun said.
"What are you talking about now? Here, take this home, okay? Not to a bar. Go straight home." Sang-woo's mother said firmly. Gi-hun took the bag of food and handed her some money happily. "Here. Keep the change." Gi-hun said.
"Come on Lana, let's go," Gi-hun said. As Gi-hun left he kept singing happily. I was happily skipping and humming along. Man, I felt great. Can't wait to show Fiona and Rouge what I got when I get home. Suddenly, we heard a cat meowing in the distance. We saw a homeless cat digging for scraps. Poor thing looked hungry. Gi-hun and I went over to the cat and petted it.
"You hungry, huh?" Gi-hun asked the cat. "Here. Come on." He said as he handed the cat the fish. "You have to finish it, okay? Lana and I got that with the money we made getting slapped, so enjoy it." Gi-hun said. We gave the cat a couple of pets and then we left. Gi-hun continued singing.
"Race you home, sis," I said.
"You're on!" Emily said. Emily and I sped towards our home. We kept running and running with our speed until we got home. I won the race. I still felt so happy when we got inside the house. It was late when we got back inside.
"Hey, Lana." Tails said when he saw me.
"Hi," I said.
"How was your date with Scourge, hun?" Rouge asked me.
"It was great! Look what I got today!" I said and held up my money. Rouge's eyes widened. "Wow," Rouge said.
"Hold on, where did you get all of that money?!" Fiona shouted as she snatched the money from me.
"Hey, that's my money!" I yelled. Rouge then noticed my face had cuts on it and grew worried. "Oh my god, what the hell happened to you? Did you get in another fight?" Rouge said.
"Oh no, it was nothing like that," I said. Rouge then glared at Scourge. "Did you do this to her, Scourge?! If you did I swear I'm gonna beat your ass!" Rouge yelled.
"Chill out, it wasn't me. Some man was slapping her while they were playing a game." Scourge said.
"What?" Rouge said. "Babe, is this true?" Rouge said as she lifted my chin up with her hand. I nodded. "Yeah, but it was worth it. He gave me money when I won." I said.
"Okay. But don't go making bets like that again. I don't want you to get hurt." Rouge said.
"I won't," I said. I then looked at Fiona. "Can I have my money back please?" I said.
"When you give me a kiss," Fiona said. I sighed and gave Fiona a kiss. When I did that, she gave me my money back. Later at dinner, Gi-hun was still admiring his money. Gi-hun handed some of his money to his mother.
"Here, some allowance," Gi-hun said and handed some to her. He laughed. "Come on, take it."
"Hold on. Were you out gambling again?" Mal Soon said.
"Of course not," Gi-hun said.
"Wait a minute. What did you do to your face?" Mal-Soon demanded. Gi-hun stayed silent.
"Answer me now!" She demanded again.
"It was nothing like that!" Gi-hun argued.
"Hold on. Are you saying this money is stolen?" Mal-Soon said.
"I didn't steal anything Mom, I earned it all! I worked, okay? All day, I worked for my hands and faced off to earn this money for us. Oh gosh." Gi-hun said.
"So did you get fried chicken for Ga-yeong?" Mal-soon asked.
"Yes, I got her dinner," Gi-hun said. "And my present and everything, it was nice."
"And did anything come up tonight?" Mal-soon asked.
"Like what?" Gi-hun said.
"Ga-yeong, her mother, and her stepdad are all going somewhere. They're moving to the US next year." Mal-soon said.
"Next year?" Gi-hun said.
"That's right. Her stepdad's job begins soon and needs him to go soon. So the entire family is going to move there." Mal-soon said. Gi-hun sighed. "I see." He said and took another bite of food. "You hear me? How can you eat anything right now, huh? You need to get your daughter to stay here." Mal-soon said.
"And how do I do that? We're done. We settled that when we agreed to the divorce." Gi-hun said.
"I talked to the man upstairs who knows the law, and he said that the father had to show the child will have financial support, and when you can prove that... then you can take custody. Huh? If she moves to the US, do you know what will happen? She'll forget how to speak Korean. She won't be able to talk to you like she can right now. You're going to become a stranger to her. Are you sure that you... can really keep going without seeing your little girl?" Mal-soon said.
The room stayed silent for a while. Later that night, I went up to my room and laid in my bed. I kept thinking about how much money I owe to the bank. I'm supposed to pay it off by next week. My parents are rich but they didn't help me because they said I should have been more responsible with the money and I shouldn't have borrowed so much to open up my own movie theater which failed. I kept tossing and turning, trying to go to sleep but I couldn't.
Scourge and Fiona are sleeping together right now, and Rouge is sleeping with Knuckles so I didn't really have anyone to cuddle with to help me sleep. I turned over towards my nightstand and saw the card the man gave me earlier. His words kept echoing in my head. "We don't have many spots left. Just think about it?"
I thought about it for a moment. Should I give that number a call? If it will help me pay off my debts, then yes I will give that number a call. I got my phone out and dialed the number. "Hello? Who's calling?" A man said when he picked up the phone.
"Hello. You gave me your business card earlier." I said.
"Do you wish to participate in the games? If you wish to participate, please state your name and birthdate." The man said. I gave him my name and birthdate then hung up the phone. I walked outside to wait for them to come pick me up. When I was outside, I was surprised to see Gi-hun here too.
"Daddy? You're playing the games too?" I asked.
"Yes," Gi-hun said. A few minutes later, we saw a car approaching. The car rolled down the window and there was a man in a red jumpsuit and a black mask. "Mr. Seong Gi-hun? Miss. Lana Hedgehog?" The man said.
"Uh yeah," Gi-hun said.
"This is me," I said.
"Password?" The man said.
"Red Light Green Light. That's the password." Gi-hun and I said at the same time. The man opened the door and we walked inside. Everyone seems to be sleeping. "Ah, I guess everyone is... pretty tired... um how long will it take to get to the game venue or whatever?" Gi-hun said. Suddenly, smoke appeared from around us.
In a few minutes, everything was black.
A/N: New story everyone! I am so happy to be writing Squid games again, it's been about a year since I have written this. Credit goes to Bioshock722 for letting me use their OCs, Dash, Emily, Maria, Molly, Knightly, Thorin, and Raven. I do not own any Sonic or Squid games characters. The only character I own is my OC, Lana. Please don't forget to leave a review!