Chapter Forty Four: Game Over
Pairing: Dark!Inho (Frontman) x Fem!Reader (y/n)
Fandom: Squid Game (오징어 게임)
Summary: Y/n and Junho confront Inho at the edge of the island, forcing every buried fear and truth into the open. When Inho finally realizes she’s terrified of his violent side, he breaks — choosing to abandon the games, evacuate the island, and destroy everything that once controlled him.
Warnings: Violence / physical fight. Pregnancy-related stress. Gun mention. Manipulation themes. Explosions. Escape scenario. Toxic dynamics (canon-typical)
Author's Note: Guys, it's officially the second last chapter of the series. And brace yourself because this chapter is a rollercoaster of emotions.
Tag list: Let me know if you want to get tagged.
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Inho was already rehearsing it in his head.
The way he’d walk in, pull her into his arms, kiss her temple, and tell her about the trip—their trip. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere warm. Somewhere he could finally put the ring on her shaking finger.
He was smiling under the mask when he reached the hallway.
Then the masked officer rushed toward him.
“Frontman—sir—there’s something you need to know.”
“We investigated the body from last night. S-sir… that wasn’t someone else.”
“That was Guard 16. Someone else—someone unauthorized—must have entered the facility.”
For a split second, everything inside Inho went silent.
His jaw clenched so hard the muscle twitched under the mask.
His voice was so cold even the guard flinched.
This was the same pattern as three years ago.
He didn’t wait. He turned and walked—no, stormed—toward the private chamber.
A strange pressure built in his chest. A pulse of dread that tasted bitter on his tongue.
No. No, please—just let her be inside. Let her be waiting for me like she always is—
His eyes scanned the sheets, the pillows still slightly indented where she slept… the quietness of the room that should have held her warmth.
Barely a whisper. Barely a breath.
He took one slow step into the room.
The silence answered him.
His heartbeat turned violent.
He forced himself forward, hands shaking, breath quickening behind the mask.
A slip of paper on the table.
He reached it like a man walking toward his own execution.
When he opened it, read it and recognized Junho’s handwriting…
Everything inside him snapped.
A whisper that made his jaw clenched.
Then he slammed his hand on the table.
Until the wood cracked, until blood smeared across the surface, until his knuckles split open.
Breathing like a man possessed, he stared at the crimson streaks on the note.
Suddenly, everything fell into place like a cruel puzzle—
Her strange behavior in the morning.
The way she said she loved him, over and over.
His voice dropped to something monstrous—raw, trembling, betrayed.
He pressed his bloody palm to the note as if trying to crush it into dust.
“How could you do this to me, kitten…”
His voice cracked—part fury, part heartbreak, part madness.
“After everything I gave you… after everything I became for you…”
He lifted his head, eyes burning behind the mask, a storm of obsession spiraling into something far darker.
A slow, broken smile spread across his lips.
“You think you can take my children and disappear?”
He let out a breathless laugh—empty and terrifying.
“No, no, no… you’re mine.”
A whisper dripping with venom and love.
“Both of you. All three of you. You belong to me.”
He turned sharply toward the door, mask tilting just enough to show the shaking rage within.
His voice was no longer human—just wrath shaped into syllables.
“I’ll tear this entire island apart if I have to.” he whispered.
“I’ll find you, sweetheart. There’s nowhere in this world you can hide from me.”
And with blood dripping from his fingers, he walked out.
The metal door groaned open as Junho pushed it with trembling hands. A blast of cold coastal wind hit them—the sharp smell of sea, the vast drop of the cliff stretching below.
Because someone was already standing at the very edge.
Just him—gloves off, hair tousled from rushing, and his hand… his right hand bruised, raw, the knuckles split and dark with dried blood.
He wasn’t looking at them at first.
He was studying his bleeding knuckles like they belonged to someone else.
When he finally heard their footsteps—two pairs, hesitant, terrified—he lifted his head.
A calm, soft, gentle smile.
“Oh,” he said lightly, brushing dust off his sleeve.
Y/n’s breath lodged in her throat.
Junho’s heart nearly stopped.
How had he gotten here before them?
How did he track them so fast?
The air grew colder as Inho took one slow step toward them.
“Why do you look so scared?” he asked, voice almost playful.
His eyes were red—bloodshot, furious, trembling with the rage he was barely holding together behind that deceptively calm expression.
Inho tilted his head, smile widening as if he were genuinely touched.
“Were you leaving… without meeting your hyung?”
His voice dipped into something darker.
“That hurts, Junho. Truly.”
Junho opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out.
And this time the smile wasn’t gentle—it was sharp.
“And you,” he murmured, eyes lowering briefly to her stomach before meeting her gaze.
“Were you going to leave without saying goodbye to me, sweetheart?”
Her nails dug into her palms.
He stepped closer—slow, relaxed, like this was all some small misunderstanding.
“But we’ll talk about that later, okay?”
His hand curled and uncurled at his side—the bruised one, still bleeding slightly.
Then he looked between the two of them.
“You both look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said softly.
And though his posture was loose and calm, and his voice was gentle...
His eyes were burning with a fury so violent it made the cliffside wind feel warm.
Y/n’s lips trembled as she finally managed to speak.
Her voice was barely a whisper, thin and shaking, but Inho lifted a hand—slowly, almost gently—and her words died immediately.
“No.” he said quietly. “I know.”
He took half a step closer.
“You have nothing to do with this.”
Y/n blinked in confusion.
Inho’s eyes never left hers.
“He—” he tilted his chin slightly toward Junho, “brainwashed you. Manipulated you. Filled your head with nonsense.”
His smile returned, but it was strained now, stretched too tight, cracking at the edges.
“It’s okay, kitten,” he whispered, voice warm but trembling with restrained fury.
But the way his jaw clenched…
The vein pulsing at his temple…
Y/n shook her head, voice barely audible. “Inho, please—”
He talked over her again, too fast this time, too sharp.
“It’s not your fault. You’re scared, you’re pregnant, you’re confused. He took advantage of that.”
Junho stepped forward instinctively, but Inho’s eyes snapped to him, and Junho froze mid-step.
That single look felt like getting pinned to a wall.
Inho’s voice dropped lower, no warmth left now.
His gaze hardened into something lethal.
“You just don’t learn, do you, Junho?”
The wind howled between them, carrying tension so sharp it could cut skin.
He dragged his eyes back to Y/n—hungry, pleading, furious, desperate—all at once.
His voice softened again.
“I know you didn’t want this. I know you would never leave me on your own.”
Another small step forward.
“And I’m being patient.” he breathed, voice cracking with the effort.
“I’m trying so hard to stay calm.”
His hand tightened at his side again until his knuckles bled fresh.
“But you two keep standing so far away…”
“Like I’m the danger here.”
Inho’s calm façade was thinning—splitting at the edges like cracking glass.
Inho inhaled slowly, his chest rising with a deep, trembling breath.
When he exhaled, the air around him felt colder.
He lifted his hand toward Y/n.
Soft. Patient. Almost tender.
“Come here.” he said quietly.
“Let’s go inside and talk.”
Her fingers tightened around Junho’s sleeve instead.
A crack formed in Inho’s expression.
He tried again—lower, quieter, sharper.
That was when Junho stepped forward, placing himself slightly in front of her.
“Hyung,” Junho said, voice steady despite his racing heart.
“Stop this madness. She’s not coming back with you. She’s leaving with me.”
The shift in Inho was instant.
His eyes went completely still—like a switch flipped behind them.
The kind of stillness that meant danger.
He said his brother’s name like a warning—like a final one.
“Stay out of this. This is between me and her.”
“No.” Junho snapped back. “I’m not stepping aside this time. I’m not letting her stay here—especially like this.”
His gaze flicked briefly to Y/n’s stomach.
And something utterly feral flashed in his eyes for a split second.
But when he spoke again, he was calm.
“You’re confused.” Inho said softly.
“You think you’re helping her. You’re not.”
He took one careful, controlled step closer.
“I’m willing to let this go. All of it.”
His voice was smooth as silk but laced with steel.
“I won’t punish either of you. I won’t say a single word about this little… escape attempt.”
Junho’s brows furrowed. “Hyung—”
He pointed at the cliff behind them—not angrily, but like giving instructions to a child.
“You leave this island. Right now. And she—”
his eyes softened when they landed on Y/n,
Inho’s calm was thinning now—cracking around the edges like ice under pressure.
“But if either of you refuses,” he whispered,
his voice dropping into a chilling, velvet threat,
The air felt like it froze.
Every heartbeat felt loud.
Every breath felt borrowed.
Because Inho wasn’t threatening them.
Y/N’s breath trembles as she inches backward instead of forward.
“In-ho… Junho is right.” she whispers, voice breaking. “We should leave. All of us. Go home. Live like a family—”
The word family shatters something in him.
Not the soft kind of shattering.
The vicious, slicing kind.
In-ho’s face doesn’t change — not at first.
He’s still, too still, like someone trying to control a quake from inside his own chest. His knuckles are bruised, raw, fingers flexing involuntarily at his sides. Even then his voice comes out strangely soft.
“You’re taking his side?”
Violently, deceptively calm.
“You want to leave me again?”
She opens her mouth but he cuts across her, his composure starting to crack around the edges.
Her name lands like a warning shot.
“Stop making this hard for me. I am… I am trying not to lose control. Do you understand?”
Jun-ho moves before she can answer.
“Hyung, stop this madness,” he says firmly, stepping between them. “She’s not going anywhere with you. She’s leaving with me.”
“Jun-ho,” he says, voice so low it almost scrapes. “Stay out of this. This is between me and her.”
“No.” Jun-ho snaps. “I won’t let her stay here. Not like this. Not in the condition she’s in.”
A sharp breath hisses out of In-ho’s nose — the last attempt at sanity.
“If you go back home,” he says, staring at Jun-ho like he’s negotiating with a child, “if you pretend none of this happened… I won’t do anything. I’ll forget this little escape of yours. Y/N will stay with me. You will leave. That’s the only thing I’m asking.”
“And I’m telling you no. You can't take care of them here, like this.” Jun-ho fires back.
Something inside In-ho fractures.
A hairline crack that spreads too fast.
“Don’t,” In-ho growls, “forget who raised you. Who helped both you and eomma after our father died. And now you stand here telling me how family should work?”
Jun-ho freezes — only for half a heartbeat — because the old wound hits its mark.
But he still doesn’t move aside.
“It’s not the same, hyung,” Jun-ho says quietly. “Things are dangerous here. She’s pregnant. She’s scared. Think about her — not about yourself.”
But In-ho isn’t listening anymore.
He never hears anything after the word leave.
His eyes turn back to Y/N.
Wet at the corners with fury he’s barely containing.
“Come to me.” he says again, but the softness is gone now; it’s a command wearing the shape of a plea.
A muscle twitches under his eye.
His fingers curl into a fist.
The calm mask finally begins to crumble.
“Y/N,” he warns, voice lifting for the first time, sharp and jagged, “don’t do this to me. I said I won’t hurt anyone. I said I’ll let everything go. Just. Come. To. Me.”
And when she still doesn’t move…
When she stays behind Jun-ho…
In-ho’s breathing goes ragged.
Because that’s the moment he finally realizes.
And that — more than betrayal, more than escape — is what makes him truly dangerous.
One sharp, decisive step forward — the kind he only takes when he’s already made up his mind.
His hand lifts toward Y/N’s wrist, fingers open, ready to pull her to his side.
But Jun-ho’s hand shoots out and catches his wrist mid-air.
The sound that leaves In-ho isn’t anger.
A hollow, stunned exhale.
He looks down at Jun-ho’s grip, then up at his brother’s face, eyes narrowing with slow, simmering fury.
“…How dare you” he whispers.
It’s betrayal wrapped in venom.
And before Y/N can even inhale—
In-ho’s fist connects with Jun-ho’s jaw in a vicious punch that sends him stumbling sideways. Y/N gasps, both hands flying to her mouth, her whole body trembling so violently her knees almost buckle.
“Stop—! Please, stop!” she cries out, but her voice shakes too much, too weak to cut through their rage.
Jun-ho wipes the blood from the corner of his mouth and charges back, slamming into Inho with the full force of a younger brother who has finally had enough of living in someone’s shadow.
The two crash against the concrete wall of the exit tunnel.
The sickening thud of knuckles hitting skin, bone, ribs.
Y/N’s heart races so fast it feels like it’s crushing her lungs.
“In-ho! Jun-ho! Please—please stop!” she begs, voice breaking as tears spill down her cheeks.
But neither of them hears her.
Jun-ho shoves Inho back, panting.
“This ends today!” Jun-ho shouts. “You don’t own her—!”
In-ho tackles him before he can finish, slamming him onto the cold ground, pinning him by the collar.
His knuckles are already bruised, split, bleeding — but he still punches.
“Shut up!” he roars, voice raw with rage and betrayal. “You don’t get to take her from me! You—!”
“STOP!” Y/N screams, a sob ripping out of her.
She clutches her belly with one hand, the other reaching out helplessly toward them, shaking so hard she can barely keep it lifted.
Her knees give out, forcing her to sink halfway to the ground.
“In-ho… please,” she sobs, tears streaming. “Please stop— you're hurting him… you're scaring the babies—”
That last word finally hits him like a bullet.
His hand freezes mid-swing.
His shoulders rise and fall with ragged, harsh breaths.
His bloodshot eyes flicker toward her — kneeling, shaking, terrified, clutching her stomach.
Something in him falters.
And that moment — that heartbeat of hesitation — is all that keeps the brothers from tearing each other apart completely.
Inho watches junho kneel beside her, touch her, comfort her—
and for the first time since he walked here, he doesn’t react.
Like his body forgot how to move.
Y/N’s shaking breaths fill the cold air, and Inho’s eyes track every tremble in her arms, every shudder of her stomach beneath her hands. Her earlier words echo endlessly in his skull.
You’re scaring the babies.
He swallows—slowly, painfully—his throat clicking with the effort.
Then his voice comes out low. Not angry. Not even steady.
“…The babies are scared of me?”
His gaze shifts to her belly.
He sounds like a man asking for the truth even if it will destroy him.
Y/N sobs into her hand, unable to speak. Unable to lie. Unable to reassure.
It breaks him more brutally than any confession could.
Something cold slides behind his eyes.
He rubbed his face once, as if her tears physically hurt him.
Junho gently rubs her back, whispering it’s okay, whispering to breathe, whispering to calm down—but Inho hears none of it.
His voice is quiet, almost hollow.
“…And you. Are you still scared of me too?”
Her lips part, but nothing comes out.
Just soft, broken trembling.
But In-ho doesn’t need words.
The silence drips down his spine like ice.
He lets out a small laugh—cracked, humorless, utterly devastated.
Another breathless little chuckle.
His eyes drop to the ground as he presses his bruised knuckles into his palm, grounding himself in pain.
“My own babies,” he whispers with a tight smile, “are scared of me.”
Junho flinches at the way Inho says it—like he’s realizing a prophecy he spent years refusing to acknowledge.
He looks up again, eyes glassy but unreadable.
“You’re scared of this part of me. When I lose control.”
“When I turn into a monster.”
And his mind runs through different thoughts.
“What if the babies grow up like this?”
“What if they grow up scared of me? Of this place?”
“What if—they always want to leave me, too?”
What’s left is something much more dangerous.
and with no one able to stop it.
The wind howls around them, ripping at their clothes, stinging their eyes, carrying the salt of the sea far below.
Junho is still crouched beside Y/N, hands on her shoulders, trying to steady her trembling body.
Slow. Mechanical. Like someone pulled invisible strings and forced him upright.
Tears dried stiff on his cheeks.
His hand slips behind him.
And when he pulls it forward—
Y/N’s breath leaves her lungs in a gasp. Junho jerks to his feet instantly along with y/n.
“Hyung—what the hell are you doing?” Jun-ho demands, voice shaking despite his attempt to sound strong.
In-ho doesn’t look at him.
“I will never let my own kids grow up fearing me.” His voice is calm. Too calm.
The kind of calm that comes right before catastrophe.
Junho’s heart plummets. “Hyung—don’t start this again. Don’t you dare.”
A twisted, hollow smile curls on Inho’s lips.
He lifts the gun slightly.
“Three years ago… right here… we both shot each other.”
Y/N grips her belly and sobs out, “In-ho, please—calm down. Please, let's talk normally—”
“No. You lost that chance.”
A cruel chuckle leaves him—low, unhinged, heart-wrenchingly empty.
“You both betrayed me. You two.”
He gestures between them, gun still in hand.
“The only two people I ever truly loved.”
“Hyung!” Jun-ho shouts. “You’re not thinking straight!”
“I’m thinking clearly!” In-ho snaps back. “For the first time in my life.”
Jun-ho steps forward, shaking with anger. “This place turned you into a monster!”
“No.” In-ho fires back instantly, finger tightening on the trigger.
“You turned me into this!”
Silence hits like a gunshot.
Y/N’s crying stops for a second as both brothers freeze.
In-ho continues, voice raw and trembling.
“I came to this place as a player… because you were dying, Junho.”
His gaze shifts to the younger man.
“We needed money. I had no choice. I sold my life to this hell because I couldn’t lose you.”
Jun-ho’s lips part—speechless.
Y/N’s sob rings thin and broken in the cold air.
“I wanted a normal life too.” In-ho whispers, eyes glossy. “You think I didn’t? But I stayed trapped here. Became this… thing.”
His voice breaks into something darker.
“How could you of all people do this to me? I thought you finally started understanding me.”
“I do understand you.” she whispers.
“Liar!” he explodes, the word echoing off the cliffside.
He takes a shaky breath, nodding as if accepting something painful.
“I warned you, didn’t I?”
“You’d regret it for the rest of your life.”
He turns his head toward Jun-ho.
Inho lifts the gun under his own chin.
Jun-ho lunges—but stops when In-ho barks.
Jun-ho grabs Y/N, pulling her back, shielding her body with his own.
In-ho stands at the edge, gun pressed hard under his jaw, eyes unfocused.
“I’m tired.” he says softly, broken.
“Tired of being a monster. Tired of fearing you’ll run. Tired of imagining my kids looking at me like I’m something to escape.”
Y/N sobs “No—no, they won’t—Inho, please—they’ll love you—”
“You two can leave together.”
Jun-ho’s eyes widen in horror. “Hyung, stop! This isn’t funny—”
“I’m freeing you.” In-ho whispers.
Tears stream down his face.
“I loved you.” he tells Y/N, voice breaking. “More than anything. The only woman I ever loved.”
He reaches into his coat.
Pulls out a small velvet box.
“I was going to propose. To surprise you. To take you on a trip. I wanted to give you everything.”
She collapses to her knees, crying so hard she can barely breathe.
“Hyung—she didn’t want to leave! It was my fault—I forced her—please—don’t do this!”
But In-ho just smiles sadly.
“Tell the babies I loved them.Tell them I wanted to meet them. Show them my pictures… tell them stories…”
“INHO, STOP!” Y/N screams.
“I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU!”
Y/N squeezes her eyes shut, shaking, screaming his name.
The sound tears the world apart.
Y/N’s scream collapses into silence.
Jun-ho freezes, bracing for the worst.
Gun smoking—pointed toward the sky.
Sobbing like a man whose soul just split open.
He couldn’t risk her harming herself.
He couldn’t risk leaving the babies.
He couldn’t stop loving them.
Y/N runs to him—falls on her knees and throws her arms around him, crying into his neck.
He clutches her back with shaking hands, burying his face in her shoulder.
“How could you do that?” she sobs.
“How could you even think about leaving me? I can’t live without you—I can’t—”
He sobs into her skin, guttural and broken.
She cups his face, wiping his tears, kissing him over and over—his cheeks, his forehead, his trembling mouth.
“I’m not leaving.” she whispers fiercely.
“I’ll stay with you here. On this island. Forever.”
Junho stands a few feet away, wiping tears silently, chest still heaving—but relieved.
Y/N cradles Inho’s face like she’s holding a shattered man together.
He clings to her like she’s the only thing keeping him breathing.
And for the first time, he truly believes she might stay.
Inho finally lifts his head from her shoulder.
His breathing uneven like he’s holding himself together with the thinnest thread.
He raises one trembling hand and wipes her cheeks slowly, thumb brushing the tears away.
Then his other hand slides up, cupping her face completely, holding her like he’s afraid she’ll disappear if he blinks.
For a long moment— he just stares.
His own face softens in a way that is almost painful to watch.
Then he nods once and whispers, voice hoarse “Go with Junho.”
His thumb keeps stroking her cheek.
“Go with Junho.” he repeats, quieter, but firmer.
She shakes her head immediately.
“No. No, I’m not leaving. I said I won’t—”
“You need to leave right now,” Inho interrupts gently, swallowing hard. “I’ll come to you. I promise. After I finish everything here.”
Her hands grip his wrists like she’s terrified he’ll vanish if she lets go.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” Y/N cries. “I will stay. Here. With you. And we’ll leave together.”
Junho steps closer, voice calm but firm.
“Hyung… she’s right. We’re not leaving you again.”
Inho’s chest rises and falls sharply.
He closes his eyes for a second like their words hurt him and soothe him at the same time.
When he opens them again, they’re filled with a soft, cracked warmth.
He gives Y/N a broken, tiny smile.
“You’re so stubborn” he whispers.
“So damn stubborn.” A faint laugh through tears. “And I always… always lose to you.”
He leans his forehead against hers, eyes closed as he breathes her in— shaking, exhausted, but no longer on the edge of ending everything.
Then he stands up, pulling her up with him.
He doesn’t let go of her hand.
His voice steadies, but only barely.
“I have things to finish.” he says.
“Things I should’ve done a long time ago.”
He looks at both of them—Y/N with devotion, Junho with wounded affection—and nods.
“Wait for me.” he says softly. “I’ll end everything… then we leave together.”
He squeezes Y/N’s fingers— a silent promise, trembling but real.
And for the first time since stepping onto the cliff—he looks like a man who wants to live.
Inho goes inside, leaving Junho and y/n behind. His steps are heavy but determined, echoing through the cold corridor.
He heads straight to the surveillance room where the guards sit behind rows of monitors. They all stand when he enters, sensing something is off.
“Evacuate.” Inho says sharply.
The guards exchange looks, confused. “Sir?”
“I received a direct message.” he lies smoothly, voice flat. “Police are preparing to raid this entire facility. Leave. Now. Take every boat you can.”
Panic ripples instantly. The guards begin shouting orders, grabbing weapons, bags, anything within reach.
Inho watches for a moment, expression blank, then slips into a side room with a secured console. He picks up the inner-line radio reserved for the VIPs.
“This is Frontman. Immediate evacuation. The police have breached lines we did not anticipate.”
He ends the transmission before anyone can respond.
He opens the concealed wall panel. A red button rests inside, untouched for years.
His fingers hover for a heartbeat.
A deep metallic alarm hums to life beneath the island. The countdown begins.
Outside, the docks shake with hurried footsteps as guards sprint toward the ships, shoving each other in their rush to escape.
He stands alone in front of the surveillance monitors—dozens of screens showing every hallway, every room, every game arena.
Memories flicker across each image like ghosts.
He exhales, shoulders shaking once.
Then he turns away for the last time.
He walks to his private chamber.
The room is dim, warm, so unlike the rest of the island. It smells faintly like her. His gaze softens—painfully—when it lands on the little things he brought for her, for the baby, hidden like secrets he never allowed himself to keep.
“Pack everything in here,” Inho orders quietly. “Only the baby things. And…”
He opens his drawer, hands trembling slightly, taking out the wooden box.
“This. Handle it carefully. Put everything in the helicopter. Go.”
The guards nod and rush to obey.
Once they’re gone, he stands alone again, breathing hard, gripping the doorframe for support as the weight of everything settles across his shoulders.
He forces his legs to move.
Outside, Junho and y/n stand near the cliff edge, the ocean wind whipping around them. Junho keeps glancing toward the around nervously. Y/n keeps searching the doorway with desperate eyes.
When Inho appears— Y/n runs to him instantly.
She throws her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. He closes his arms around her slowly, tightly, as if afraid she’ll disappear if he loosens his grip.
She pulls back, cupping his scarred face. “Thank you.” she whispers. “For choosing this. For choosing us.”
Inho’s eyes drop to his hands—trembling violently.
“I don’t know how to do this.” he admits, voice cracking. “I don’t know how to live out there. I don’t know how to face a world I walked away from.”
Y/n grabs his hands, gripping them firmly. “You don’t have to know. I’m with you. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together. You’re not alone anymore.”
His chest rises with a shaky breath.
He looks at her—really looks—and something fragile flickers in his eyes.
“Thank you.” he murmurs with a broken, quiet smile.
She smiles through her tears.
Behind them, Junho steps closer, voice steady. “Hyung… the island is going to blow. We need to leave.”
He takes y/n’s hand—firm, grounding, real—and whispers.
He leads her and Junho toward the helicopter as the countdown ticks steadily beneath the island, each second pulling him closer to a future he never believed he deserved.
