participant analysis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

participant background. 

 

born and raised catholic, upper-middle class. she lived a relatively normal childhood, with friends that her parents personally approved of—none of them were particularly unruly or rebellious. hyejung always had the nasty habit of turning her nose up at the troublemakers in her class.

 

after an astounding score of 390 out of 400 on the CSAT, she was accepted into yonsei university, master's in business administration and finance, class of 2005. 

 

 

 

2011 brought along the birth of her first child, kang eunbyul. premature, underweight, but perfect nonetheless. hyejung didn't know she could love someone as much as she loved her daughter.

 

(an interlude. hyejung was promoted to head of the finance department the same year woosung left their house after the divorce papers were settled. three years of marriage. maybe they were too different. a cliché within a cliché. but it still breaks her heart to think about it sometimes.)

 

she still lives in the same semi-detached now, has two babysitters for eunbyul: one is obsessed with a boyband, and the other wants to go to harvard. the best moment in her day is when she wakes up to hear the nonsensical babbles from her daughter, and that's when she knows everything will be okay.

 

medical history. 

 

myopia nearsightedness only worsened by her habit of reading in poorly lit spaces. she wears monthly-prescribed contacts to curb this problem, but at home, she wears a pair of frameless glasses. without the aid of prescription lenses, however, hyejung is virtually blind.

 

 

relationships. 

 

 

kang eunbyul her daughter, an intelligent five-year-old with a knack for singing disney songs and making a mess when she eats her favorite kimchi spaghetti. eunbyul makes hyejung a better person in a sense: she's less worried about meeting her strict standards because taking care of a toddler naturally means being a little flexible. hyejung still holds rather high expectations for her daughter, planning on allowing her to attend ballet classes after her fourth birthday. but hyejung loves her daughter more than anything in the world, and she would give up her life in a heartbeat for her.

 

"How did you end up detained in the mall?" 

"Eunbyul and I were having lunch at Pomodoro Spaghetti, like we always do on Sundays. Then she wanted to look at the toy store next door, so we stopped by for a while. And then, [pause] and then the lights turned off. It was completely dark in the toy store, some people were screaming, I heard some children crying. I remember picking her up immediately because Eunbyul becomes absolutely inconsolable when she's stuck in the dark, she hates it, you see. But I didn't hear any crying from her because the next minute, someone struck me right at the back of my head. When I woke up, I was in a different place, and Eunbyul wasn't with me anymore. My first thought was to run back to the toy store, but it was...all the stores had shut down and the mall was completely deserted."

 

 

"It's really, [pause] I really don't know what he wants. Money? Attention? What kind of a mistake occurred that someone would go through such lengths to watch people suffer? Was it...entertainment? [pause] I think the cherry on top to this is the fact that I'm sitting here, my sanity is being questioned, while he's probably out there laughing himself to tears. And he definitely had to be there watching somehow to be sending all the messages to us. Maybe not present at the site, but from an outside vantage point."

 

 

"Yes, that's how we knew who to kill. Everything was so methodical and precise and meticulous, it makes me so sick. To think, [pause] to think at this point in time there's still such vermin in the world. Contaminating everyone. [pause] [breathing] Contaminating me." 

 

"Before the first death occurred, did you believe your predicament? Share your thoughts and reactions throughout the game."

 

"I didn't really think much of it, all I knew was that I had to find Eunbyul. That was the only thing on my mind, imagining how scared she must have been on her own in the darkness like that. I was only half listening to what was happening, and what I was hearing sounded like nonsense. It didn't scare me at the time because I thought it was some kind of hidden camera. All I knew was that my daughter was still in the mall somewhere and I had to find her."

 

 

"No. She wasn't in the mall when I woke up after being knocked out. But the thought of the same sick man who planned this whole thing even looking at my daughter makes me want to vomit. [pause] In a sense I was quite relieved when I found out that the entire mall was empty. Then she wouldn't have to see that what was being threatened to the 12 people in that mall was real."

 

 

"Kim Hyunseok-ssi, if you were trapped in this room with me, with no one around, and someone said that one of us was going to die within the hour, what would you do?"

 

 

"[soft laughing] Well, you're wrong."

 

 

"You're wrong. We all were. [pause] I was, especially. I was brought up with the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not kill. But when you're in the face of a situation where someone is holding your life in their hands, it's like everything else that I knew, all the lessons that I grew up with, it didn't matter anymore. It was no longer a matter of choosing, wasn't just a simple game of truth or dare."

 

"All I thought about was my daughter and how I had to survive so I could protect her. I thought about death. I thought about how I couldn't die then. Not in that situation. And that's the most disgusting thing about this, [pause] that one person had the capability of reducing human beings to such a state."

 

"Was there a participant that you have connections with? What was the relationship like, and how did it affect your game play?"

 

 

"I should have. I should have died for her. [long pause] S-she was struggling...so much for so long, I just...[pause] excuse me, I-I'm sorry. [pause][crying] I couldn't imagine the kind of fear and pain she was f-feeling...when she was being...[pause][breathing] I couldn't protect her, I kept thinking about my Eunbyul, oh God, Byul-ah...and the girl's parents...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. [crying] She was just a child. [crying] I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

 

"What were your game plans, if any?"

 

"Game plans? Game plans. [laughter] Yes, because it was all just a game in the end. [pause] I hid. Made floorplans of the space, tried to find vantage spots to look out from. Made note of the participants, tried to find patterns and avoid them as necessary. I avoided cramped spaces. I prayed to God that this was all a nightmare. [pause] And I helped Participant 8 kill her targets."

 

"[pause][breathing] I...I didn't kill my first target. There was no discernible, justifiable reason for me to do it at that time, to kill them, so I just ran as much as I can, hid as much as I can, made allies, tried to strategize. I tip-toed around probability and the roulette. Other people would do the killing for me. [soft laughter] That's even more twisted, isn't it?"

 

 

"After the target shuffle, when there were only six people standing, I realized, [pause] I realized that I couldn't fight against the roulette anymore."

 

"I look weak, but I'm rather strong. Physically. I could subdue a man if I was being attacked. And I'm very diligent with details so I kept notes of everything that was happening and everyone that was participating in the game. It kept me sane in a sense, to have had that sort of order."

 

"On the other hand, it was harder for me to kill in a sense. I couldn't bring myself to do it unless I had enough time to justify it for myself. [pause] Now that I think about it, I did too much rationalizing, making up excuses as to why I fell to such a point of abhorrence."

 

"I also suffer from claustrophobia, so it would've been that much easier for someone to kill me if they knew. All they had to do was corner me in some room, make me panic for a while, then get on with it. I can't do anything when I'm having a panic attack."

 

"[soft laughter] I lost my cross during the ordeal. Ironic, isn't it? [pause] To be honest, I don't know. I don't know a God that would cause such a thing to happen and still let the perpretrator run free. Would the God that I had looked up to take responsibility for this? Perhaps there was never one in the first place."

 

 

"Live out my punishment. [pause] Punishment for letting Participant 8 die. Punishment for killing. Punishment for allowing such a travesty to happen in the same world as my daughter. [pause][breathing] Punishment for becoming who I thought I would never become."

 

"But I can't do that, right? That would be selfish. I have to live for my daughter. I have to make sure she never feels as helpless as I did in those 12 hours."

 

 

"Given the circumstances and the slightest push over the edge, we all could be. Or maybe I'm trying to justify myself again. Maybe I'm just a bad human being. [soft laughter][long pause][crying] C-can I see my daughter now? She needs her umma. [crying] She needs me. Please."

 

OBSERVATIONS.

 

an insight she's connected to the persona of dare because as a person, she's more or less conformed to the expectations of society or she aspires to do this at least. as such, she'd never choose to step beyond her comfort zone and break the rules--she would never choose dare. but when faced with a situation like the butterfly project puts her in, she's basically forced to choose it. does she stick with her morals, or does she give in to self-preservation? she says in her interview that she wasn't given a choice but there's an extent to which this is true.

 

another important aspect is her love for her daughter--is it right for her to justify killing others so that her daughter won't become an orphan? how much of her decision to kill is fueled by her need to protect her child and how much is it for herself? does k win if he manages to bring the most uptight, moralistic person down along with him?

 

a suggestion at some point i think it'd be cool if her target ended up being participant 8. parallels with her background, parallels with her own love for her child but also with how much she actually wants to live. 

 

an epilogue firstly please feel free to ask me for clarification slash provide criticism slash alter the character as u see fit! i was rather inspired while writing this, it was a challenge in characterization as it's quite different writing an 18 year old vs a 34 year old who has just a bit more experience in the world. 

 

i'm so incredibly excited for this fic because 48 hours is arguably my favorite exo fic ever (there's a dusting of this fic throughout my app) and also just the whole premise of it is so interesting and i can imagine writing the characters out would be such a fun and interesting challenge!!! good luck and thanks so much!

 

ps im sorry if the margins for the first two boxes look weird! the words kept getting cut off and i was worried they wouldn't be able to be read......