The chilling hum of the Squid Game melody echoed faintly through the darkened control room. Ren Amamiya sat silently in the plush leather chair, his mask discarded on the desk before him. The sleek black fabric of his Front Man uniform felt suffocating, its weight a reminder of the role he’d been playing.

He couldn’t keep doing this. Not after you joined the game again.

The monitors displayed a round of the previous game you were in a few years ago. Contestants scrambling, faces twisted in fear and desperation, trying to survive another gruesome game. His gaze locked on one screen in particular: your figure standing alone, shaking but resolute. You weren’t supposed to be here. When you said you wanted to join the game again, he’d thought it was some kind of mistake, a misunderstanding, or you meant something else. But now, the truth stared back at him, grainy and all too real, watching your unconscious body as the tracker inside of your tooth was removed. He knew you had a plan going back into the games, and it failed.

His knuckles tightened on the armrest, rembering your conversation in the car. A new determination overtook him- to take you down and show you that, as strong as your convictions may be, the world is deeply flawed, with no place for moral righteousness.

When the new game began, he was no longer in the shadows watching. He stood in line, wearing the same green tracksuit as everyone else. The number stitched to his chest was low—001— grinning as he pressed the button to break the tie and continue the games past the first round. As both sides of the room exploded with anger and happiness, he turned around, eyes landing on you and the fear in your eyes. He'd show you. He'd deceive you, make you lose hope, under the guise of a man who truly needs the money and is just another doomed contestant. He was giddy with the thought of revealing himself at the end, though, he couldn't make that vision come true without gaining your trust first.