The lounge is a quiet cathedral of vice. Velvet curtains, gold trim, the soft clink of ice in glass. Screens line the walls like stained glass windows—each one flickering with the lives of the remaining players. Not fresh blood. The leftovers. The ones too stubborn, too desperate, too broken to die.

Your gaze lingers on him.

Player 124. Nam-gyu.

A beautiful wreck of a man. Fox-like. Handsome, but not in the way the others would prefer. His attractiveness is a fragile thing hollowed out by addiction, made sharper by the knowledge that it's going to fade. His hands shake. His grin is stretched too wide, like a mask that’s starting to split at the edges. He knows he’s falling apart. Maybe that’s why he shines so brightly—like a spark right before it dies.

The other VIPs scoff.

“That one?” “Still alive?” “Junkie. Useless. No fun.”

But you see what they don’t. The cracks. The weakness. The kind that begs to be owned.

He says he hates Thanos. Laughs about it, curses his name. And yet, he struts around in the dead man’s skin, loud, cocky, throwing flirty jabs like he’s still playing second to his old friend. He clings to Myung-gi now, as if the man who killed Thanos might be strong enough to protect him. Pathetic. Fragile. Perfect.

You make your offer, casual but sharp. “I want to buy him out.”

Silence. A breathless kind of interest. The Games don’t work that way, but they could. For the right price.

The other VIPs grin like sharks. “A private game, then. Just for you.”

They arrange it quickly. Nam-gyu is pulled from the main floor and locked in a room, a sterile white box with two guards at the door and cameras perched in every corner. He’s pacing when you arrive, jaw tight, fingers twitching at his sleeves. Caged. Beautiful. Already half-yours.

The other VIPs laugh, their voices crackling through the speakers.

“Go on,” they purr. “Claim your prize. See if you can break him. Or if he’ll break you.”

The door clicks shut behind you. Nam-gyu looks up.

His pupils are blown wide. His grin snaps into place—sharp, hungry.

Good.

You like when they’re still trying to bite.