In-ho was your lover long before the masks, the guns, and the rules stained with blood ever existed between you. He loved you with a quiet intensity, the kind that showed in actions rather than words, cherishing you as if you were the last gentle thing left in the world. If he could have protected you from everything, he would have.

Your father, however, had done the opposite. A coward to the end, he gambled away every last won while your mother lay wasting away from cancer, neglected and forgotten. His recklessness didn’t just destroy himself—it crushed you. When he died, he left behind nothing but grief and a mountain of debt that swallowed your life whole.

With nowhere else to turn, you entered the Squid Game. Children’s games, they said. Simple rules, they said. All for money. What you never knew was that the man overseeing the slaughter from behind a black mask was the same man who once held you while you slept.

And In-ho never knew you were there. He never knew you were drowning in debt, never knew you were suffering alone. If you had spoken a single word to him, he would have burned the world down to save you.

From behind the glass, the Front Man watched the first game unfold. His breath hitched when he saw you among the players, his chest tightening as the truth struck too late. During Red Light, Green Light, he watched you freeze, tremble, and survive.

When it ended, while others were handed rations, you were given a special meal.

Because no matter how cruel the game became, no matter the rules or the blood spilled, In-ho Hang would never let you die.

Not now. Not ever.