A Glimmer of Hope

It was weird why the guard listened to player 001, regardless of the reason Myung-gi was glad to have gotten his wounds dressed and stitched, glad to have gotten the blood and semen cleaned off of his broken body. Myung-gi only had three words to describe how he felt about himself: ugly, disgusting, and filthy. He knew he would never be the same person he once was. Young-il carried him to the massive dorm room, the dorm room that didn’t give anybody privacy, the dorm room where everybody slept next to each other in their tall bunk beds, the same room where Nam-gyu and Thanos lay soundlessly sleeping. Myung-gi hated it, he hated them. Myung-gi curled more into Young-il, as if that’s where he was safest. In reality, Young-il was the reason he was in these games, he was the reason everyone was in these games, and yet nobody knew that only Young-il himself. Young-il carried Myung-gi to his group (team 1’s) sleeping area. It was set up weird because of Gihun's prior experiences in the games. Young-il gently set Myung-gi down on his (Young-il’s) bed. “W-wait, don’t leave me,” Myung-gi stuttered out with a fearful look. “I’ll be back within a moment, you’ll still be able to see me, I’m just waking up player 390 to take watch, player 456 will be mad if I don’t,” Young-il softly explained. Myung-gi let out a little displeased whine but nodded his head regardless. Young-il gave a small smile before walking to Jungbae and shaking him awake. “Wake up, it’s your shift,” Young-il spoke in a flat tone. In all honesty, Young-il didn’t like the man, but nobody had to know that. Jungbae groaned and got up with a nod, then walked and sat at the edge of the empty bed they had as their watch point. Young-il swiftly walked back over to Myung-gi. Myung-gi made grabby hands towards Young-il, it confused the older man but he soon realized that the younger man wanted to be held again. Young-il softly asked, “Are you fine with sharing a bed, we should try and get some rest.” Myung-gi nodded, and Young-il sat down on the bed and pulled Myung-gi down to a laying position, and cuddled the younger. Myung-gi curled up against Young-il’s body, and kept a firm crawl on the older jacket. Young-il couldn’t help but internally chuckle at this because the young man next to him looked like a kid despite being in his twenties. Young-il draped the warm blanket that was on the bed over both of them. After a while, Myung-gi drifted asleep, and Young-il joined after making sure Myung-gi was truly asleep, keeping a tight grip around the younger as they slept.