Work Text:
Sae-byeok was well aware of the names people call her, the looks people threw at her as she walks through the streets of the city. She isn’t surprised, of course, she wasn’t the most heartwarming person nor the most friendliest. Resorting more into glaring at people when they get in her personal space and stealing from them when she gets the chance. The more the list of names grew worst the more used to it she becomes, her resolve hardening as the walls around her grew taller and taller each day.
When she first met Gi-hun of Ssangmon-dong she didn’t expect any less, though she was surprised when he helped her back up when she fell, even going as far as to place the straw of her milk tea back into its cup.
It doesn’t matter though, she knew by then he would find out about his stolen money, and he would soon dislike her just like everyone else before him. That’s how it goes, and it didn’t have to change.
Until it did.
After her second encounter with the old man which lead him in trouble with that snake-of-a-husband of his (He was out gambling when he was not supposed to, Sae-byeok called him out on it). She started seeing him more and more to the point where Sae-byeok was pretty sure he was a stalker. It didn’t even stop there either, when he found out she didn’t have a fixed place to stay he immediately offered her his home. Taking in Cheol from the orphanage and soon enough Gi-hun weaseled his way into Sae-byeok’s life like an annoying fly that couldn’t get out of her house despite the window being WIDE open for him to leave.
Soon enough, the world around her became more kinder to her. As if Gi-hun walked into her life bringing all the world’s joy and good fortune with him. And soon enough she had to get used to people complimenting her looks, her name, and her ability to remain calm and stoic faced even in pressuring events.
None of this deters her, she doesn’t care for anything these people are saying. Sure, it feels nice when Mister Sang-woo and Mister Cho’s mothers spoil her; sure, she feels a bit calmer when Ali talks to her about life and his son; sure, she feels a little something when Ji-yeong takes her hand and tells her about all the things she wants to do, whether it’s something for tomorrow or a decade later. But she can handle this, it’s nothing to her, why should it?
But then one afternoon Gi-hun and Sang-woo brought Sae-byeok and her brother for a dinner date with Ali and his family. And despite knowing, despite knowing Sang-woo’s only relationship he’s ever had was with Gi-hun he still says something that bothered Sae-byeok for the first time in years.
“Sang-woo,” Ali laughs between syllables, the night had been a success and they were just lounging around a bit before they could leave for home. “You must be so proud of your daughter! She is so alike to you it’s ridiculous sometimes.”
Sae-byeok blinks and looks around only to realize Ali was talking about her.
“She isn’t my daughter,” Sang-woo says, briskly. And for the first time, Sae-byeok nods to agree with him. “I’m not even interested in women,”
Ali flusters, and his wife snickers at him unhelpfully behind her hand. Just like Gi-hun is doing right now as he bites his lip to stop his laughter from breaking out. “I-I just thought- I forgot, I am so sorry! But you must admit you two are pretty… similar” he says the last part quietly, and jumps when both Sae-byeok and Sang-woo yells at him,
“WE ARE NOT!” they yell in unison, before realizing what they just did and looked at each other in disgust. Gi-hun couldn’t help himself and lets himself indulge in a giggle.
“He is right though, it would be easy to mistake you two as father and daughter,” says Ali’s wife, her soft smile hiding beneath her tan fingers. “The stoicism? The to-the-point and deadpan delivery of lines?”
“They’re both so serious and mean,” Gi-hun whines, steadily ignoring the matching glares trying to set him on fire with practiced ease, “They’re great separately, but when the two of them are in the same room together the festivity levels drop down to the negatives.”
That could have been all there is to it, leaving the idea of Sae-byeok being… his daughter there in the restaurant that one lovely night. But like a domino effect, everyone else around her starts to ‘notice’ as well. Making Sae-byeok wonder if Gi-hun had something to do with this as petty revenge for getting the older man in trouble for gambling- again.
Days after that nightmare of a dinner, she decided to help out with Sangwoo’s mother in her fish shop as Gi-hun was out with Cheol somewhere and she did not want to spend her time in the same house with his glasses-wearing husband. But to her grief, Mrs. Cho’s regular customers start cooing at her, complimenting the young girl and saying how they could almost see the ‘resemblance’
She glares at the middle-aged customer, which makes her reiterate her statement even more.
“I can’t believe he had a teenage daughter this entire time!” Says one elderly woman passing by, and Sae-byeok quietly grumbles on why street vendors have to chit-chat with every customer that comes by. Not that she’s cursing out the woman, God knows how the lovely Mrs. Cho was able to raise that stupid glasses-wearing moron.
“Oh, no! She isn’t related to him, Sang-woo’s husband adopted her little brother and they’re pretty much a package deal,” Mrs. Cho explains, nodding her head as she counts the change.
“I wouldn’t have known! Just look at her-“
Sae-byeok scowls at the old woman, who gasps in delight
“-Theyre so alike!”
Sae-byeok wonders how many baths it will take to get the fish smell off her hair if she buries her head underneath the dead fishes. Instead, she resorts to hitting her head repeatedly on the store's supports.
“Is she going to SNU too? A beautiful girl like her must follow in her daddy’s footsteps!”
Sae-byeok slammed her head against the wall a little harder. Mrs. Cho chuckles, a little bit restrained when she hears the young woman hit her head against the pole repeatedly,
“If she does, I’m sure she’ll do great.” Mrs. Cho answers and shoos the elderly customer away.
Sae-byeok sighs, “If anyone says anything about Sang-woo being my dad again, I will riot.”
Naturally, It happens 16 more times, and though Sae-byeok doesn’t riot, Mrs. Cho did notice that the money in the register doesn’t equate with the amount of seafood she sold during the day.
Day after day, week after week, it seemed like the whole world was trying to irritate her as everyone started referring to her as Sang-woo’s daughter. Waiters in restaurants, Cheol’s stupid teachers, Sang-woo’s even stupider co-workers. The list went on and on and soon enough the next day strike the second month and a half since that dinner date happened.
Would Sae-byeok be as mad if people mistake her for Gi-hun’s daughter? Well, it wouldn’t be as aggravating, to say the least.
“It’s annoying,” Sae-byeok complains one day, her back leaning against the chair as she looks around the homely atmosphere of the café. Everything smelt like coffee here, and the ambiance of the room felt like she was coming home. Except home is where a certain glasses-wearing, annoying prestigious know-it-all jerk resides, and she wants nothing to do with him and would have left him with all his belongings in tow if it wasn’t for his loving malewife Gi-hun- and the fact that they adopted Cheol and she isn’t going anywhere without him.
“I think they’re exaggerating; I don’t think there’s anything similar about the two of us.”
Ji-yeong nods, stirring her iced coffee with the straw in her hands. “I get it, I get it.” She says, before taking a long sip of her drink. Sae-byeok waits,
And then waits some more,
When Ji-yeong finished her sip, Sae-byeok questions, “But?...”
Ji-yeong raises an eyebrow, smiling. “I mean, you guys both have the same vibe going on.”
Sae-byeok felt her eye twitched, vibe?
Sae-byeok stares darkly, and if Ji-yeong was a weaker woman she would have crumbled to her knees at the sight of Sae-byeok’s growingly scary face. The other patrons shuffle away from her, just in case.
“What do you mean, vibe?” she asks through gritted teeth, and Ji-yeong shrugs, uncaring to the beast she (un)intentionally released. She had darker battles than this one, surely.
“I mean, you guys are both tired, conflicted, morally questionable people who look after their naïve blissfully ignorant dumb ‘friend’.” She grins sweetly, and Sae-byeok felt her angry rush out of her, leaving only confusion. “You guys are also, like, really hot.”
Sae-byeok gags, making Ji-yeong give out a huge chortle of laughter as Sae-byeok protests to her claims.
“First of all, don’t ever call him hot again,” Sae-byeok utters seriously, she already got enough cooing from Gi-hun himself and she doesn’t want anyone- especially her girlfriend, saying anything positive about his looks, “And don’t imply that we have the same type in a person.”
Ji-yeong shrugs once again, “I’m just saying it like it is.” She stands when she finished her drink. Sae-byeok grasps her half-empty cup of coffee as she stares at it in disbelief.
‘This is the most emotion she showed since I've met her’ notes Ji-yeong, and she shakes the taller girl by her shoulder hoping to break off her stupor.
“Come on! You promised we would spend the day together!” Ji-yeong whines, Sae-byeok woke up from her thoughts and stand as well,
“See? You can’t just sit down in this café all day wondering why you and Mister Cho are so similar!” Ji-yeong teases, dragging the girl out of her seat and out the door. “Just- I don’t know, steal their money when they annoy you. Like what you did to those businessmen!”
Sae-byeok follows, and as they walked out the door and into the fresh air of the city she feels her angry thoughts leave her. Ji-yeong is right. Nothing good can come from Sae-byeok angrily muttering about Sang-woo all the time. And she did promise to spend the whole day with her girlfriend after all.
Sae-byeok interlocks her arms with the shorter girl below her, giving her a rare smile as they walked down the streets. Along the way, Ji-yeong suggests going to the park which Sae-byeok agrees to. And as they went on their way, the sun was shining down on them, the wind cool against her skin as the world around them passes through as if they were just regular people in a calm, kind world. Nothing can ruin this moment.
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong turn a corner as they entered the park, finding themselves just a few feet away from a children’s playground until Sae-byeok stops, staring ahead of her as she squints at a dangerously familiar individual coming their way. He wears a crisp suit, a silver watch on his wrist, and glasses on his face as his arms wrap themselves around a centimeter shorter man with long messy hair and a happy grin.
Oh no.
Just before Sae-byeok could whisk away the smaller girl and book it out of there, Jiyeong, the traitor, calls out to them. Sae-byeok stares at her in utter betrayal,
“Mister Cho! Mister Seong!”
The shorter of the two waves back at them, walking a little faster as they stop in front of the two girls.
“Ji-yeong, Sae-byeok,” Gi-hun greets, smiling down at Ji-yeong who smiles back. Sae-byeok and Sang-woo on the other hand stare at each other like they just realized the gum stuck beneath their shoes.
“Miss Ji-yeong, Miss… Kang.” Sang-woo mutters, turning his nose up at the latter girl. Gi-hun chuckles fondly at his husband.
“Mister Seong, Mister… Cho.” Sae-byeok spat out, and if looks could kill Sang-woo would have been dead 10 times over. Ji-yeong rolls her eyes next to her.
As Gi-hun and Ji-yeong converse next to them, Sae-byeok and Sang-woo continued their staring contest of doom.
“Miss Kang, I thought you were out on a date with your girlfriend? Doing whatever it is you do… Like- and I’m guessing, lighting orphanages on fire or striking terror in the hearts of every teenaged boy out there.” Sang-woo utters sarcastically, not daring to be the first to break their eye contact.
“I only do that every Tuesday. Though I have to ask, what are you doing outside? You spend so much time in your office I’m surprised you aren’t getting sunburned five seconds after leaving the house.” Sae-byeok fires back.
“Mister Seong what have you been up to?” Asks Ji-yeong sweetly, putting her hands on her hips mischievously.
“We’re just heading out somewhere, a friend of mine invited us to a little something.” Gi-hun answers, chuckling softly to himself. Beside him, Sang-woo seethes.
“Very funny, some people need to work to earn money. Some people don’t resort to stealing in the streets.” Sang-woo growls through gritted teeth.
“Really? I wouldn’t have known! With a face like yours, I’d think your stealing from your clients.” Sae-byeok fires back, watching Sang-woo’s face turn red with anger.
“Ah? Where are you going, mister?”
“We’re heading to their address; they created a set to play paintball and invited us to play!”
“That sounds like so much fun!”
“It is!”
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Sang-woo snaps,
“Maybe I do! I can’t spend my time with simp businessmen all day!” Sae-byeok yells, grabbing her girlfriend but Ji-yeong holds her ground unyeilding.
“And I don’t listen to teen angst in my spare time!” Sang-woo barks, taking Gi-hun by the hand but doesn’t budge.
“Ji-yeong! We-“
“Have to leave! Now!”
The two of them yell to their significant other at the same time. But like a rock that sits firmly in its place… they both stand firmly in their place.
“You should come with us! It would be so much fun!” Gi-hun grins, his face lighting up happily as Sang-woo gawks behind him, his jaw-dropping at the sheer audacity of his husband.
“We definitely should! I’ve never played paintball before!” Ji-yeong bounces happily on her heels, and Sae-byeok screams to the sky.
“WE ARE NOT SPENDING OUR DATE WITH THEM!” Sae-byeok and Sang-woo yell, pointing to each other before realizing they spoke in sync again before turning away from the other in disgust.
“It’ll be fun, Sae-byeok!” Ji-yeong says, interlocking her arm with Gi-hun as she grins at Sae-byeok over her shoulder, “Come on! Lead the way, old man!”
“Haha… Please don’t call me that,” Gi-hun awkwardly chuckles, The two practically skips out of the park, their two love interest grumbling behind them in tow.
After the most aggravating train ride of her life, they arrived in front of a stadium. A big one as well, going as far the I can see.
“Wow! Is your friend rich Mister Seong?” Ji-yeong says in awe, walking up to the entrance without hesitance as the door opens automatically.
“You can say that,” Gi-hun says, and they walked into the building, further down they entered a room, and inside they felt like they transferred into another world.
It looked like a neighborhood from the older days, the sun casting a warm orange glow onto their surroundings. It’s almost nostalgic, Sae-byeok thinks, as she scans the room before her, despite never being around anything like this she feels like she’s in a memory of some kind, like a dream.
Seeing as immediately they were given ammo and guns, they must have been the last to arrive. The intercom above them citing the rules of the game as Sae-byeok wraps the belt around her hips, reloading the gun in her hands.
She watches Sang-woo do the same, grabbing another handgun and putting it in his belt as well. When he glances in her direction, she immediately glares and Sang-woo straightens.
He lifted his hand and with his thumb out he slowly moves his hand across his neck in a smooth, slow motion. Sae-byeok’s response was to also raise her hand, showing a different kind of finger as she glowers at him.
They’re from opposite teams, Thank God, with Ji-yeong by her side they would be unstoppable.
Gi-hun waves at her, hesitantly she waves back. And the older man follows Sang-woo to their places.
“We will kill him,” Sae-byeok says darkly and she sees the rest of her teammates run away from her in fear. Ji-yeong tilts her head,
“Don’t you mean ‘win this game’ against ‘the enemy team’?” Ji-yeong smiles, though Sae-byeok knows she knows what she means.
“No, no I don’t,” Sae-byeok says with finality. Gripping the gun in her hands a little harder as the timer counts down from ten, Ji-yeong giggles.
“It’s so funny,” Ji-yeong says right as the timer says 8, “Your names even start with the same letter.”
Sae-byeok’s scowl deepens, feeling her muscles tensing and her resolve hardening, something she hasn’t felt in a long time before Gi-hun took them in.
3, 2, 1
Right as the intercom says go she runs, not bothering to look behind her as she seeks that dreaded glasses-wearing old man.
Sang-woo.
She whips her head around, checking her surroundings. A good few of these buildings are two stories high, knowing how clever the man is he might have hidden inside for higher coverage.
She hides behind a wall, taking a deep breath before turning the corner. She finds a member of the opposite team in front of her and before he could react, Sae-byeok hits him right in the chest with a red paintball.
“Player 32, eliminated.” The voice above them announces. And Sae-byeok runs, passing the grumbling man, (he’s upset at being the first one to lose) and tries to recalls what the voice said during the time she was glaring at Sang-woo
There are only 100 participants right now, with her number being 67.
She dodges the paintballs of a woman in front of her, shooting her once near the neck before turning a corner. He must be nearby.
“Player 23, eliminated."
She runs, uncaring of the other contestants and their pitiful attempts at firing at her. She knows they aren’t a threat. No, the only threat there is in this game is her and-
A blue paintball narrowly misses her, she stops, whipping her head to the direction where the ball came from and-
There, on top of the building’s rooftop is Sang-woo. The number 18 on his chest and a spiteful look on his face as he peers down to Sae-byeok.
Sae-byeok turns to him slowly, and as she does so she shoots to her left not even breaking her eye contact as the paintball hits its target.
“Sae-byeok. You challenge me?” Sang-woo says as a faint ‘player 2 eliminated’ rings in the background. Sae-byeok has to resist rolling her eyes at him as she reloads her gun.
“Bring it on old man!” She yells and runs to take cover behind a wall as Sang-woo turns his gun and shoots paintballs at her. She hears the sounds of a tin roof being stepped on and a thud from a wooden floor and knew he was trying to get close.
Then an onslaught of paintballs hit the wall covering her. What does he think he’s doing? The idiot, he’s wasting his ammo!
Sae-byeok turns her head around to find a young man about to shoot at her. She throws herself back, shooting twice and hitting him once in the face. The voice announces his elimination immediately.
“Player 82, eliminated.”
Where is he? He can’t stay there forever! Sae-byeok picks herself up and runs towards the house, on her way she shoots 2 people, dodges fire from a woman wasting ammo by sliding across the ground, and drop-kicking a guy for attempting to raise his gun at her. She shoots him as she uses his weight to throw herself into the house’s front yard.
The house itself is big, at least compared to the rest of the houses here. If they’re in the real world it would have been the size of an average house albeit slightly smaller.
She hears a splat followed by a disgruntled yell behind her, and as she rolls her eyes she rushes inside the house, closing the door behind her.
“Hey old man,” she taunts, her gun in her hand in front of her as she crouches. She almost feels like a policewoman in this scenario. Chasing after a criminal crook during a movie's climax. But this isn’t a movie, and she isn’t a policewoman.
“Come out, we aren’t supposed to be playing hide and seek.”
Silence…
She walks up the staircase slowly, being careful of the way it creaks beneath her as the weight of her foot presses below it. And as she passed the final one, she sees nothing. Taking a few steps forward until she’s in the middle of the wide hallway. Wary of the three doors on her right side and the balcony on her left.
“Come on, you can’t seriously be hiding,” Sae-byeok says, and as she reaches for the door in the middle the last door farthest from the staircase slams open, and before he could shoot she grabs his gun, dropping hers as they wrestle to fight the other off.
“Let go, brat!” Sang-woo snarls trying to push Sae-byeok off. Sae-byeok kicks at him.
“Let go first you stupid glasses-wearing old man!”
Unbeknownst to them, Gi-hun spots them from the second floor of another building, smiling happily without knowing the two closest to him are trying to ‘kill’ each other in the game.
“Look at them! They’re bonding!” He says to Ji-yeong, who was gleefully shooting at people from her spot in the window, she looks at him.
“Mister Seong, I'm pretty sure they're trying to kill each other,” She says, before returning to shooting at people. It’s kinda ridiculous how bad these people are at paintball.
“Oh,” Is all Gi-hun says, and he watches the gun between them get thrown off the window, hitting a poor bystander on the head as he cries.
“FUCK!” Sang-woo swears, looking in the direction where the gun disappeared to. Sae-byeok as well, until she realizes-
They both look down to stare at the handgun between them. And before anyone could pick it up, Sae-byeok kicks it, sending it gliding across the hallway and down the stairs with a rattle.
They both shared a glance before running off to get it, pushing each other aside (Sang-woo) or Holding onto their clothes (Sae-byeok), as they run down the stairs.
The gun was there, right there . And Sae-byeok steps on Sang-woo’s foot hard.
“MOTHER FUCKER!” he screams, and Sae-byeok holds her hands out to grab the gun but was pulled back by Sang-woo by the collar of her jacket. Like Sae-byeok was a rebellious kitten being scolded by their mother.
“I swear to God, you are so annoying! I don’t know why Gi-hun likes you!” He yells, reaching for the gun until Sae-byeok pushes it even further, just touching the front door.
“I could say the same about you!” She shrieks, pushing Sang-woo’s chest leading him to fall, she runs off but Sang-woo grabs her ankle.
“Don’t turn your back on me!”
“Shut up! You’re not my dad!” She yanks her foot out of his grasp and reaches for the gun.
That is until the door opens and the gun shoots back to the other side of the hallway. Leaving Sae-byeok and Sang-woo gaping at it.
They both turned to the intruder, ready to scream at them until they realize it was both Gi-hun and Ji-yeong.
“QUICK, SHOOT HIM/HER” Both Sae-byeok and Sang-woo yells, but then Sae-byeok’s breath hitches. The look on their faces... They… they wouldn’t-
“Say hello to my little friend!” Gi-hun yells at the top of his lungs as he gestures grandly to the smaller girl, and Ji-yeong takes out two pistols, a matching giant grin lighting up her face.
“Smile! You sons of bitches!” she sings, then shoots both Sae-byeok and Sang-woo multiple times in the chest. Painting them both red and blue respectively.
“Player 67 and 18, eliminated.”
“WHOO! YEAH, WE DID IT!” Ji-yeong laughs, high-fiving Gi-hun as they cheer. Sae-byeok felt the world tilting in its axis. Why does she feel so betrayed?
She watches Ji-yeong and Gi-hun dance, holding their hands together as Gi-hun gives Ji-yeong a little twirl, the younger girl giggling happily.
Hmph, you know... Their names kind of sound the same...
Sae-byeok looks back at Sang-woo, who is breathing heavily as he tries to lift his head off the ground, holding up his weight by his elbows. She slowly walks to him, and as she looms over the old man she holds out her hand.
“Next time, we get them.” She says, and she sees Sang-woo pause. Then takes her hand as she pulls the old man up.
“Next time we will.” He promises, and the four of them walk out the door. Two of them tired and beat, and the other two singing happily to an old song.
It wasn’t bad, Sae-byeok thinks, as the four of them walks to the entrance trying to convince the workers that this was a team-up between enemies, a beautiful story of friendship filled with betrayal and an action-comedy buddy-cop tale that would be an instant classic if it was released in cinemas everywhere.
It wasn’t bad, Sae-byeok thinks as they laugh together down the road, though mostly Ji-yeong and Gi-hun do most of the laughing as Sae-byeok and Sang-woo nod and agrees to what they are saying.
And perhaps she could get used to the way they lovingly call each other, the grins and smiles that light up their faces as they head inside a restaurant. Sang-woo offering to pay and Ji-yeong latching onto the idea immediately, hugging the man tight before moving to take Sae-byeok by the hand to their table. Sae-byeok stifling her laughter at the businessman’s bewildered face.
And maybe as the walls around her break more and more she might learn to accept this, accept whatever thing they have right now, and try to make it stick. And as Sang-woo, for the first time smiles at her, a small act of truce in their mortal-enemies relationship. She smiles back. Allowing him to know that maybe one day she might accept him and his husband as family.
She kicks his shin below the table, smirking to herself as he grimaces. Knowing he won’t do a thing with Gi-hun around to protect her.
Yeah, maybe one day. But definitely not today.