Summary: Thanos, who is once again completely under the influence of his pills, decides to have some fun with his little boy Min-su. Coincidentally, he notices that his new, loyal follower Nam-gyu has no idea how to properly tickle someone. Naturally, Min-su becomes the perfect target for practice.
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Min-su breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He had just barely survived the Mingle Game, which probably came straight from hell, and had returned to the Dormitory unharmed.
But at the same time, his survival immediately meant less to him when he thought back to how he had just betrayed his one true friend here, Se-mi, just a few minutes ago. He had betrayed Se-mi so that he could run to safety with Thanos and Nam-gyu. Only to be completely ignored by them afterwards.
She could have died, from a shot to the heart or through the head, just like all the other ordinary players. As if her life were completely worthless.
And if that situation had happened, Min-su would probably never have been able to forgive himself. Hell, if Se-mi died, he would probably go completely crazy in here.
So completely on his own, solely in the company of two drug-addicted lunatics who would betray him at every opportunity if it meant that they would survive instead.
The two crazy guys who, as luck would have it, had to show up behind him exactly at a moment like this. “Hey, ma little boy Min-su!” Thanos' booming voice rang out, snapping him out of his guilty thoughts. And just seconds later, the smaller man found himself in a tight, involuntary hug.
Of course, he would have loved to pull away or push Thanos off him, but the rapper was clearly stronger.
“I'm really sorry, Min-su! I really thought I was holding your hand. But instead, I ran with that one,” he explained, pointing far too conspicuously at Nam-gyu, who was standing right next to him.
But of course Min-su didn't believe that guy. How could he, when Thanos and Nam-gyu were the first to form a team every round?
No matter what number was called, it had been clear to the two pill poppers from the start that they were a team.
Thanos wouldn't have cared if he had died. As long as he had his drugs and the hope of winning the prize money, he probably didn't care about anything at all.
“Besides, it was really crazy how you beat Se-mi. At first I thought you weren't going to play anymore, but then you just played scissors! So cold!,” Nam-gyu remarked, demonstrating with his hands how Min-su had played against Se-mi.
Player 125, however, did not seem happy about this painful memory and turned away, rolling his eyes. As always he didn't have the courage to say anything back to them, so he decided that from now on he would simply refuse to talk to them.
What he didn't notice though was the hard jab in the side that Nam-gyu received for his comment from Thanos.
“Shut up, Nam-su! If we upset him, he might vote for X.”
“Do you really think that coward would dare to do that?” Nam-gyu asked incredulously, glancing at Min-su, who was now sitting calmly on his bed as if everything was okay.
Thanos nodded knowingly. Min-su was indeed shy and gullible, but he was not stupid. By now, he must have realized that Thanos was manipulating him.
Afterall Nam-gu wasn't really his friend either, even though he shared his drugs with the former Club MG.
Thanos often seemed high and confused, but even someone like him had plans and only did what was most convenient for him.
A follower who did everything Thanos told him to do was simply more useful than an intimidated man who had the self-confidence of a mouse and couldn't stand Thanos.
“Let me take care of this,” the rapper declared and strode confidently over to the younger man's bed.
“Hey, ma bro Min-su! Why are you sitting here all alone when you could be with me and Nam-su?” he asked innocently, but failed to get a response.
Min-su just continued to stare silently at the floor beneath his feet, without even glancing at Thanos.
“Yo Min-su, don't you wanna talk to me?” the purple-haired man tried again. This time he did get an answer, but unfortunately one he was not at all happy with. Because Min-su actually dared to shake his head at him.
On one hand, he was naturally afraid of being beaten up by Thanos and Nam-gyu if he stood up to them, but on the other hand, he also partly blamed them for making him play rock-paper-scissors against Se-mi. If it hadn't been for them pressuring him, he could have thought about it longer and let Se-mi win. Then she wouldn't be so angry with him now.
Thanos, however, had no intention of hurting Min-su. That probably wouldn't help him achieve his goal. If he scared his boy even more, he would only make him turn against him.
No, in order to convince Min-su to vote for O, he had to come across as likable and trustworthy as possible.
“Come on, Min-su... talk to me,” the older man fake pleaded, giving him his best puppy dog eyes. He also sat down next to Min-su and put his arm around his waist. This gesture, which was actually meant to make Min-su feel closer to him, seemed to amuse the other one a lot though as he suddenly giggled.
“Man, what was that? Are you ticklish, bro?” Thanos asked with a smile, immediately understanding what had just happened.
This was followed by an almost tense silence until Thanos tentatively ran his hand up and down Min-su’s side.
Once again, he let out a bright giggle and instinctively leaned away from Thanos' hand.
“No! Don't pull away!” the rapper complained, sounding almost genuinely disappointed, which made it hard to tell whether he was really enjoying this or was simply trying to get on Min-su's good side.
He skillfully used the brief moment when Min-su looked at him in surprise to put his arm around his waist again and gently lay him down on his lap.
Once he had managed that, he used his left hand to hold Min-su's hands above his head so that his prey wouldn't escape again.
However, he was surprised to find that Min-su could actually fight back if he wanted to and was now trying with all his might to pull his hands out of Thanos' grip while kicking wildly in the air.
This forced Thanos to use his right hand to hold his victim down as well, but now he obviously had no hand left to tickle. Of course, there was only one solution for the druggie: Nam-gyu had to come.
“Nam-su, my bro! Come over here and help me!” he shouted, pointing to Min-su, who was now lying immobile across his lap.
Nam-gyu obediently strolled over to the two of them and waited for Thanos to tell him what to do. Out of habit, he naturally assumed that he might have to get a little violent, at least enough to scare Min-su.
Until suddenly the sentence, “Just tickle him a little for me, okay?” came out.
Something Nam-gyu knew he had experienced before, of course. Even if that had been when he was 6 years old. He knew it was some kind of game, or at least something that made others laugh. He himself had loved the feeling when he was little and innocent.
But now, about 20 years later, he found it difficult to even remember what it was, let alone how to do it. He tried hard to remember his kindergarten days, when it had happened frequently but sadly couldn‘t recall a single damn thing about it.
“I don't want to,” Nam-gyu muttered when he couldn't really recall any memories of this weird tickle - thing.
“Why not? It's easy,” replied Thanos, visibly confused, quickly poking Min-su in the side before holding him down just as quickly.
Just like before, Min-su giggled and tried helplessly to roll away, but of course he couldn't.
“Come on, give me a hand,” Thanos grumbled, continuing to hold the younger boy down.
“All right,” Nam-gyu said, looking a little more confident after seeing Thanos’ attempt. All he had to do was the same thing the other guy had done afterall. It couldn’t possibly be that hard. Carefully, he moved his hand to the exact spot Thanos had poked and repeated the exact same motion. However, he applied significantly more pressure than was actually necessary.
“Ouch!” Min-su interjected, looking up at Nam-gyu in disbelief.
“What are you doing? You’re hurting him!”, Thanos grumbled and shot his teammate an angry look.
“Sorry,” Nam-gyu muttered and tried again. This time he was careful to be a little gentler, but got no reaction at all.
“Not there,” Thanos grumbled again when he noticed that Nam-gyu had placed his hand way too high which definitely wouldn’t tickle anyone with normal lying nerves.
“You’ve done this before, right?”
Nam-gyu briefly considered just lying, but decided against it when he realized that his non-existent skills were living proof to the contrary. So he shook his head slightly, feeling a little embarassed.
“Are you fuckin' serious? Believe me, if I weren't restraining our little boy right now, I'd be taking care of you,” the older man declared annoyed.
“Actually, it's not that difficult,” Min-su suddenly chimed in. As much as he disliked Nam-gyu, somewhere inside him he still felt a little sympathy, because the drug addict's ridiculous attempts were genuinely embarrassing to watch.
“Min-su is right. Just reach out and poke him in the side. Right under the last rib,” Thanos instructed his follower.
“Um... okay.” Nam-gyu began to feel his way around the ribs of the other boy, as he had no idea where the last rib even was.
He wasn't a doctor afterall or even a person that was smart enough to know those things.
If Thanos had had his hands free, he would have facepalmed himself by now at the latest. It was hard for him to understand how someone like Nam-gyu, who generally liked to annoy people, didn't know how to tickle someone properly.
It was just so absurd how someone who was being an annoying little shit all the time had not the slightest clue what tickling was. One of the most annoying things on earth!
But to the great surprise of all three, Min-su suddenly started giggling again.
“What is he doing?” player 124 asked in confusion, but didn’t stop what he was doing. Thanos also shook his head in confusion this time, knowing that it wasn’t Nam-gyu’s intention to tickle Min-su right now.
Nevertheless, it seemed to be working, because the other guy shook his head, laughing, and still tried to roll away from Nam-gyu’s hands somehow.
“Is it that bad?” asked the club director, who was now genuinely interested in this whole tickling thing.
Min-su nodded in agreement and just kept laughing himself silly.
“Okay... that is... surprising,” Nam-gyu muttered, pausing his attack for a moment. Apparently, he was more talented than he thought, even without knowing what he was actually doing.
“Should I do it again?” he asked, lowering his hand dangerously close to Min-su's stomach.
“No!” Min-su pleaded, but couldn't help smiling. He knew that he wasn't really being asked anyway. Nam-gyu was just playing with him to give him a brief feeling of control.
And secretly, it was also kind of amusing to get tickled by someone who had no idea about tickling. After all, Nam-gyu was a beginner, so how bad could it possibly be?
“Hmm... but I want to,” he grinned nastily and stroked his hand over Min-su’s stomach just as he had done to his ribs before. But to his surprise, his new plaything remained silent.
“What’s the problem now?” he asked, annoyed, waiting for the older two to lecture him again.
“Different places, different techniques. Try pinching him a little. But be careful,” explained Thanos, who now seemed to be in a much better mood.
Nam-gyu did as he was told and gently pinched Min-su's stomach, which elicited a rather unmanly high-pitched squeal from him. Nam-gyu immediately let out a sympathetic sound and continued peacefully. Now that he had the right technique and all the time in the world, he was going to have a lot of fun with Min-su.
“Well, ma little boy Min-su, how do you like that? Isn't this the perfect bonding activity?” Thanos asked, grinning down at the younger man. However, he tried to appear as friendly as possible and as little mean as possible.
“I‘m…nahahat so sure!” Min-su stammered between another fit of laughter.
“Wow, he's enjoying it a lot,” commented Nam-gyu, who knew all too well that Min-su wasn't laughing out of pure joy. The other player didn't seem to hate it, but he wasn't enjoying it either. It was probably a kind of love-hate relationship.
“Try his hips,” Thanos advised encouragingly, and that's exactly what Nam-gyu did.
By now, he knew roughly what to do and pressed his thumbs into Min-su's hip bones with just the right amount of strength and intensity to make sure he wouldn't stop laughing for the time being.
Meanwhile, Min-su wanted nothing more than to be stronger than the two of them and get some kind of revenge. If he had the courage and strength he needed, he would have already taken Nam-gyu on and done exactly the same thing to him just so he would experience this awful feeling himself since he didn't even seem to know how bad it felt.
But by now, he didn't even believed that Nam-gyu had never done this before anymore, because it tickled far too much for him to be a beginner.
“Pleahahase just stahahap! That tickles!” pleaded Min-su, who had given up trying to free himself and was instead saving his energy up for laughing.
“Aww, did you hear that? You're tickling him,” Thanos laughed, noticing how weak Min-su had become.
So he decided to use his left hand to playfully slide down Min-su's outstretched arm until he finally reached his underarm and teasingly poked him there as well.
“No! STAHAHAP THIS!” Min-su laughed, but made no further attempt to free himself.
“But why, Min-su? We just want to have some fun. As a team,” Thanos said innocently and continued without a care.
“Besides, this is our way of saying sorry. We really didn't want to abandon you,” Nam-gyu added and tried almost too hard to sound serious.
“Look here... S-O-R-R-Y,” the black-haired man spelled out in a childish voice and wrote the Korean syllables of the word across Min-su's midriff with his fingertip.
Min-su, who had now completely lost his mind, made a last, desperate attempt to grab Nam-gyu's wrist and somehow stop him, but of course failed miserably.
“OKAY HAHAHA; OKAY!APOLOGY ACCEPTED... or something like that!” he finally said, words he really hadn't expected to hear himself utter.
“There you go. I told you we're the perfect team,” Thanos laughed, looking quite proud (though more of himself than of Min-su).
“So are we really stopping now?” Nam-gyu asked, giving Thanos a disappointed look. Just when he was getting the hang of it, he was supposed to just stop? No way!
“Of course not Fool. I haven’t taught you the best part yet.”
Min-su, who had used the short break to fill his lungs with enough air, listened in alarm. It wasn't that he was seriously suffering; after all, tickling was absolutely harmless.
Nevertheless, he didn't like the idea of a second round at all.
But suddenly, Thanos, who had been relatively restrained with his teasing comments so far, turned directly to him: “Don't worry, ma lil' bro. I'll just show the rookie one thing, then we're done, okay?”
And as absurd as it was in this situation, Min-su nodded obediently. He didn't want to upset the unofficial team leader and possibly incur something far worse than a harmless tickle attack.
“Great,” Thanos said, signaling Nam-gyu to hold the younger man in place.
“Okay, watch and learn,” the rapper instructed, lowering his head so that he was now directly above the nervous player's stomach below him.
“This is called Raspberry,” he explained, pulling up the other's dark green player jacket just enough to expose a small part of his stomach.
“What are you doing?” Nam-gyu asked, slightly unsettled, but of course he trusted that his dealer knew what he was doing. After all, he had more experience with this than him. “Could...could you please not do that?” was Min-su's response, who from his own experience knew exactly what Thanos had planned for him.
“Come on, Min-su, we agreed. One more thing and then we're done,” Thanos purred mockingly. Min-su couldn't respond to that, so he just sighed wearily and nodded knowingly. How could he stand up for himself when he knew he had actually agreed to it?
“So, look,” Thanos said to Nam-gyu and before Min-su could even register that it was already happening, he felt the unbearable sensation on his skin.
That damn ticklish tingling, coupled with the already weird sensation of Thanos’s mouth on his skin. Once again, Min-su doubted that Thanos knew the meaning of the term “personal space.”
“HELP!” was the only thing Min-su could utter in his now absolute hysteria, and he looked to Nam-gyu for help, hoping that for once in his life, he would feel atleast a little bit of compassion.
“Help? From me? Forget it,” grinned Number 124, signaling Thanos to move out of the way so that he could now try out this raspberry thing for himself.
“Nam-gyu, please wait! Can I take another quick break?” asked Min-su, gasping for air.
Nam-gyu, who was shocked not only by the question but also by the fact that someone had finally remembered his name, paused briefly before simply shrugging his shoulders.
“Thank you,” the still breathless player sighed with relief and instantly relaxed. Actually, it wasn’t so bad just being teased by the two of them when they could have easily beaten him up just like that MG coin guy a few days ago.
Maybe it was all just a big misunderstanding and the two of them weren't really mad at him. Maybe he should stay on their team and with Se-mi after all.
“Okay, that's enough now,” Nam-gyu decided after about two minutes, which Min-su had spent thinking and the two druggies had spent fooling around.
“Get ready, little Min-su,” Nam-gyu purred, looking Min-su straight in the eyes.
“Do you want to tickle him too, or would you rather have a nice chat?” asked Thanos, who was getting slightly annoyed by Nam-gyu's (in his eyes Rookie) antics.
“Just having a little fun, chill out.”
Just like Thanos before, Nam-gyu bent down until his mouth was directly above Min-su's stomach. It was obvious that Nam-gyu was aware of what personal space was, but he too seemed to be playing ignorant today just for the sake of having fun.
But at this point, even Min-su himself didn't care anymore. Because whether it was well-intentioned attention or simply disguised torture, he wanted it to stop.
Exhaustion and utter embarrassment were slowly beginning to catch up with him as he realized how many players had probably heard him laughing today.
And that included Se-mi, who was probably wondering why -...
The renewed, absolutely terrible sensation and the damn feeling of not being able to stop laughing tore Min-su from his thoughts and robbed him of any remaining spark of dignity.
Min-su could do nothing but laugh, kick, roll around, and try to do it all as controlled as possible so as not to attract even more unnecessary attention.
He honestly hadn't expected Nam-gyu, whose mind and sense of socially acceptable behavior were still functioning well, to try to copy Thanos.
But obviously, Nam-gyu was just as capable of being childish and immature. Or maybe it was because of the pills they were both constantly taking.
Anyway, whatever it was that had taken over Nam-gyu, he did it almost as bad as Thanos and that was enough to drive Min-su crazy.
“Wasn't that funny?” Thanos asked innocently, patting Nam-gyu proudly on the shoulder to celebrate his friend’s newly learned torture method.
“I'm nahahat so…sure...” Min-su began, but fell silent when he saw Thanos raising his hand again, playfully but with a serious expression.
“You're actually kinda tolerable when you’re too busy laughing to be annoying,” Nam-gyu commented before getting up and simply disappearing.
“So don't even think about betraying us now, Min-su! You won't have as much fun with the others as you do with us,” Thanos said confidently before leaving as well, leaving Min-su exhausted, confused, but somehow strangely relaxed.
In fact, he hadn't had to think about Se-mi the whole time, or what a coward he actually was. And in a rather strange and incomprehensible way, he was even grateful to the two idiots for that.
Everyone, please let me know how you liked this fic because I consider writing a sequel in which Min-su gets his revenge and at the same time shows Nam-gyu what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a tickle attack.
Also I‘m open for suggestions if you want me to write that fic so feel free to tell me your ideas in my ask box :)
