Chapter Text
It had been a week since arisu had gotten pardoned from the hospital he was previously staying at Due to overcrowding.
He had been discharged to a Korean hospital on the border of Seoul which wasn’t an inconvenience either way.
He now ambled over the streets of busan using his renewed freedom and taking in the scenery of the small seaside city.
He was looking for a cheap gosiwon on the edge of Korea as usagi had suggested, she also proposed a small place they could get if they joined their funds together,
arisu had accepted in a jerk of excitement yet he didn’t realise the drawbacks until it was too late.
A small plastic bag was swinging from his hand as he trudged along the coast of busan, he hadn’t told usagi the truth, he had genuinely forgot about the hospital bills he had to pay back and soon found himself in quite a hefty debt.
But Korea wasn’t forgiving.
Their prices were, as usual, quite the fee and arisu had to make enough money in a months time in order to hold up his not-so feasible lie.
50 million won seemed like it wasn’t a lot,
Until it was.
He had bought a small room in a cheap gosiwon for 200,000 won,
it was still a lot but busan was a big city after all,
Arisu was only lucky he wasn’t trying to buy in the beating heart of Seoul.
He had no belongings to carry, and no house to live, arisu strangely didn’t feel the need to own something,
he felt oddly attached to being free.
After waking up in the hospital he had felt different.
the need to have no name, no trace of his existence lulled his fantasies on,
the urge to be able to slip away without a moments notice, the longing to be forgotten.
And that’s exactly what happened.
He arrived at the station with his small plastic bag hanging by his waist,
A long breathy sigh escaped his lips as he sat down on the side of the underground tunnel with a further glance he spared at the train departure times,
He confirmed it was going to be a long wait.
The train station was almost empty,
The usual rush hour had ended and people were most likely all working.
It was truly unlucky that Arisu had no work to go to,
he had barely any luck In Tokyo concluding in an even lower result of finding a job in busan.
This resulted in an ever growing steady stream of debt that fed off his fictitious amount of money.
Time sluggishly dragged its way onwards which left people eons of time to arrive and catch their train including the act of leaving and exiting the station.
Arisu’s train would show up soon.
The air shifted beside him as someone asserted their presence next to him by sitting down and placing their briefcase on the floor next to their feet.
Arisu couldn’t help but stare,
his gaze lingered on the briefcase it was a polished black leather with cleanly cut pristine edges, it looked quite expensive,
he noted that the man might be of high regard before his gaze slid up to his silhouette.
He looked very professional, clad in a suit, grey and gently pressed he spotted the small of a tie that ran down his shirt tucked under a grey blazer, his apparel fitted the man rather well and complemented his appearance, slicked back hair adorned the space above his crown, his eyes were meticulous and dark meager lips were pulled back in a thin line that lay gently on his blank face.
He fixed arisu with a cold stare, was it that of disgust arisu didn’t counter due to the fact that just as quick as it had arrived it had dispersed
a small sly smile wormed its way around the corner of the man’s lips newly layering the the previous emotion but it never quite reached his eyes.
“Would you like to play a game”
The man cheerily inquired.
Arisu slightly stiffened at the man’s casual request, he fixed the man with an incredulously intense gaze, it bored through his skull teething and testing as it outlined the region between their bodies.
However within the realm of obtuse vehemence the man’s smile never faltered,it never wavered or tergiversated, it remained challenging. As if he were dissecting his next move with great apprehension.
The man decided against it and drew his briefcase out from under the bench his fingers tested the locks delicately tracing his digits over them before they snapped up and he opened it in a quick flick, it looked captivating but what was more was the fat stacks of cash that was neatly piled inside.
Arisu’s fingers practically dripped with a temptation to snatch a wad of that money and make a run for it.
The man’s intense gaze froze him in place enticing his eyes to look further, he swallowed the building lump in his throat as he grazed his eyes to what appeared next to the money,
there he saw the two pieces of card tucked neatly behind the pristine leather case.
Arisu wasn’t from Korea but the bright constraining colours screamed in the eyes of a familiar visage.
He knew about Ddakji and the envelopes but next to such a large sum of money set the seamless cards in a new light.
Arisu had to wonder what this man was trying to hint at.
“I’ll play” arisu replied after a heavy sum of contemplating, the man’s mouth quirked slightly at the corners his eyebrows shot up in an act of feign surprise, of course he knew Arisu was going to accept anyway, he might’ve been a conman and set this game up before, but regardless Arisu was ready to face the challenge.
The rules were fairly simple, choose a coloured envelope and throw, if you landed a hit you would get 100,000 won,
But if your opponent hit you would have to pay them 100,000 won,
It was a gamble but it was an easy one, it wasn’t like some of the other games he had played.
Although Arisu had never gambled before he felt luck was on his side.
The man picked up both ddakji cards and extended his arms in a gesture of prompting arisu to choose one.
The two cards stared back gauntly contrasted to the hands that pulled them out, they now looked simple, clean folds and a robustly sturdy figure glinted in the jittery light of the station.
He hesitantly picked up the red envelope and flipped it over to inspect the card closer, he held it in-front of the dealer as if to confirm his option.
It left the man with the blue ddakji card.
They both positioned themselves opposed to the other, their stances were that of a fight, which it was. Their teeth of paper pointed and sharp, the folded edges glinted menacingly, their fists of money to
be shoved from one to another, their blood of pride, how it could hurt where their claws could cut.
Arisu landed the first punch, his card hit the floor in a pathetic slap, his paper flinched as its Pristine edges met with the grimy floor of the station.
‘Miss’
Arisu’s bit back a harsh retort as he saw the untouched blue card that remained lying face down.
His opposer rolled up his sleeves to make his retaliation, the air stopped as his arm threw down hard and cold. Arisu’s breath became layered with a thick sheathe of dread as his card got flipped onto it’s back. The momentum was catastrophic,
he felt his breath exit in a short puff of defeat.
The man fixed him with that knowing gaze scrutiny lined the edges of his eyes seeping into Arisu’s soul like he knew this pathetic vermin didn’t have anything to repay his debt with, wiggling in his cocoon of a steadily thickening financial decline.
Any words arisu would have uttered died in his throat as the man slowly drew up to his full height.His eyes now glared greedily at the boy, his loathing for this power hungry bastard increased a fracture.
Out of the corner of his eye Arisu’s vision snagged on a figure, his head turned slightly and his breath stumbled over his teeth and cascaded over his bottom lip haphazardly.
A man, a familiar face that sent his current mental state go hurtling off the side of a steep edge.
Was it the ghostly visage of daikichi karube that stared back at him dotingly, that fixated him with a fiercely adoring gaze.
It was that intense act of beholding that spurred Arisu’s soul to flame,all these years karube had fought his fights and arisu had just sat back and watched, like a pathetic nobody, what use was he if not of now?
His tempered rage gnawed inwardly at his thinning patience, the thin stripe of time that was slowly peeled away to one singularity point in the horizon, had he neared enough to behold in witness, to counter its force of pull and insert the push?
Karube spoke of a time when Arisu’s would have to pay back his dept,
a promise to one day fight like karube had, a guise so thin his words so thickly appeared to wrap into them.
Karubes vow.
his fingers twitched in mere anticipation, His shoulders loosened, rolling them back in their sockets as he reared his shoulder blades in a poised hawkish bearing.
Like a guttural instinct that was wedged behind his oral cavity he sprung, he didn’t know where it’s origin lay he assumed it was a fist that was now sweeping through the air trajectorising one focus point in its isolated certainty.
He heard the sound of his train grew nearer, the rails creating a hollow gushing sound.
His fist was projecting a fast discharge in line of his target
Contact was a synonym for this situation.
But in the wrong context.
His fist collided with the wrong body part,
Arisu had realised that too late as the palm of a different hand had enclosed around his balled up hand.
His eyes widened and his breath caught against his uvula in surprise.
He met the man’s gaze,
Except it wasn’t cold like before, it had bloomed into a new expression,
It didn’t fit the man’s face at all, it had a vehement tone of atmosphere that bore heinous repression and flickered incessantly, as if arisu was exactly the man he was looking for.
A business card had been inserted into the small of his palm concealed by the thick array of emotions littered on the man’s face.
As he spoke it was that of a gentle whisper
“Call us, there aren’t many spots left.”
The man withdrew his hand, the business card remained clutched between The pleat of Arisu’s hand,
Arisu tried to decipher the man’s gaze by fixing him with an intense glare filled with a conscious searching.
The man would not waver however his gaze lined with that thick rim of scrutiny And intensity that arisu no doubt couldn’t learn to replicate.
“What?”
Arisu’s voice broke through the fog like a sharp knife,the edge of it was illustrated with a lubricant of concern.
The man responded with a pity full smile before he got swept away by the crowd.
They streamed around him enclosing him in a cacophony of noises,
He spotted the man ascending the station,
Although arisu attempted his mission to catch up it seemed futile as he got swept back further into the station.
Arisu eventually gave up,
He turned back to board the train, he knew he was already falling behind schedule, he found getting back to the gosiwon was the easier option, after all
He’d left a noteworthy first impression, he was bound to see that face again.
The train ride was tedious to say the least, arisu remembered only fragments due to the overwhelming heat of it being crammed full of people, to say the least it wasn’t a great experience.
Luckily he had arrived at the station before he had fainted from extreme heat exhaustion.
Currently he was sat on the bed in the dim haze of the gosiwons tightly packed room, it was actually quite nice.
A small bed was laid in the corner as well as an accompanying desk and chair,
a door to the en-suite was located on his right. It was a snug fit,
for the time being at least.
A small perception in the palm of his hand spurred his mind into action,
The small brown card lay in his now unfurled fingers.
His naturally intrigued nature piqued as he thought back to what the diligent man had proposed, a request to participate.
Arisu didnt know what for but he deduced it might be in aim of acquiring some money.
Either way he would know by the end of it.
Business cards were double sided so naturally the reasonable thing to do flip it over,
he read the delicately printed numbers on the back his eyes slowly traced the curves and splotchy edges that the numbers reflected.
After looking blankly at the card for a few minutes arisu had defined it down to a conclusion that it was in fact a phone number.
He clicked his tounge satisfied with the result.
His hand free hand shot out to reach for his phone his eyes remained to train on the inconspicuous brown card in his palm.
His Lock Screen flashed on providing Arisu’s with a staple light source, his eyes dove over and searched the screen slowly sucking in his breath as the photo played out before his eyes,
it was such a still photo but it seemed to animate itself before him,
The screen was decorated with the pictures of his now deceased friends, one that provoked a tender burn,
a scar that hadn’t fully healed.
The vehement guilt weigh his back like a cold iron pelt strung over his shoulders by the thinly waved laces of fate.
he weighed the opportunities, his options.
He assessed them haphazardly, the choices were thin but time was more delicate.
The strange man had reprimanded him of the liminal spaces that were bound to be occupied in continuous flux of time.
Although arisu had already made up his mind,
he was going to partake in the cash grab scheme.
The number on the phone had instructed him to provide a name and date of birth and arisu had willingly complied to the strange request.
A time and date were exchanged and confirmed, leaving him with that very same business card, a place to be and a sense of unwavering unease.
It was charismatic the street at night, not a soul was bound to walk.
It was eerily familiar.
A small montage of Shibuya station flashed across his vision.
But Shibuya was never empty.
A black van crossed into his perspective,
Arisu looked at the van out of interest, it was a bit alluring the tinted windows enticed his eyes to look, if this was his mode of transport, why did it look so undeniably bosky.
It approached and rolled down its tinted windows, a strange man was perceived in the frame of the van, a black mask adorned by a hot pink jumpsuit, arisu wanted to throw his head back and laugh,
This was the opposite of intimidating.
He guffawed at the figure letting out a breath of disbelief, shouldn’t such a shady business have better employees?
instead of reacting to Arisu’s vulgar reproach the figure just turned his head slowly to face arisu, a sort of uncanny feeling washed over arisu, the lack of facial features of the mask for example and the taciturn approach the guy gave him was a total juxtaposition of what he first perceived the figure to be.
The van door was opened by a different pink profile, enticing him to follow, he stumbled into the van haphazardly and claimed the seat nearest to the door, upon looking behind him he was met with a crowd of sleeping people.
“Long ride?”
Arisu tried to string together a pun in hopes of easing the already built tension, a silent stare was the best reaction he got.
An awkward chuckle escaped Arisu’s tense frame as he slumped into one of the leather chairs, he started to regret his decision as the form slowly reached out for the door only to slide it Shut with a hollow thunk.
Arisu’s brain fired warning signs that he had only noticed now, pure adrenaline kept him from lashing out and trying to exit the vehicle,
His brain fired exit plans sluggishly and impractically;
maybe he could escape when the next person boarded,
He hesitantly looked around at the faces of the other people in hopes of finding a clue or something rather in desperation but when he looked back a wave of pure horror washed through the thin fabric of his limbs.
A thick mist of gas had been released into the air, the tension he thought was thick was replaced by a swamp of chemicals,
it invaded his lungs and seeped through his pores into his mind clogging it and rendering it useless. The last thing arisu heard was the gas pooling past his ears,
a small whimper escaped his throat before he blacked out into a subconscious slumber