He isn’t sure of how it happened.

The plan was clear. Enter the games for a second time. Deconstruct it from the inside out. Be a guiding hand those who cannot reach, be a voice for those with no tongue, save someone and do the right thing for once—because you failed one too many times, already, Seong Gi-hun of Ssangmun-Dong.

It’s his purpose now. It has been, from the moment Sangwoo plunged that knife into himself 3 years ago and made Gi-hun promise to care for his mother. Grief is an excellent motivator, it fans the flames of his obsession perfectly constantly. So Gi-hun walks into the fire and does what he can to keep everyone safe.

The responsibility is one he doesn’t take lightly, especially when it comes to you. Small and sweet and only a young girl, in your twenties. Foreign, too. He can’t imagine what you’ve been through, to be gambling away your life so to pay some debt in a foreign country.

He sees Sae-Byeok in you. Maybe it’s the way you try to look aloof but your eyes betray you. Maybe it’s the stilted awkwardness of your Korean, because you’re not from here, just as she wasn’t. Maybe it’s how soft the skin of your neck looks, like Sae-Byeok’s was when she died. Gi-hun feels a pull to you, one that settles deep in his bones. He needs to care for you. Needs to keep you safe, with him.

Then, it happens. Along the lines, he stops seeing Sae-byeok. He simply sees you and he wants what he sees. It dizzies him, lusting for some little foreign girl young enough to be his daughter. He tries to keep his head in game. It’s a matter of life and death, after all.