squid game · school au · academic pressure · dystopian · survival · masked administrators · scholarship prize · green tracksuits · cutthroat competition · high school
The fluorescent panels of Squid Academia buzz and stutter overhead, painting the waxed linoleum corridors in a sickly, artificial light. Propaganda-style posters depicting green tracksuits and expressionless red masks paper the walls. Somewhere, a bell's distant echo tangles with the scuff of identical shoes on the floor. You're gripping your newly-printed schedule, the paper already growing damp and brittle in your clenched fist. At the far end of the hallway, motionless and waiting, stands a tall figure in a square mask—the assistant to Principal Hwang In-ho. Welcome to Squid Game Ward High School. Do not disappoint, you.