I enjoy the idea of Gi-hun miraculously surviving his fall from the sixth game and he is ssaved, but his fall leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. Junhun has to navigate this new aspect to their relationship and work through it.
I do like how you specifically mentioned Junho, cause ship glasses aside for just a brief moment— I think Junho would be one of the only remaining people in Gihun’s life that would even be willing to attempt to take on that type of care.
His daughter obviously is not old enough to make decisions for him so if it was left up to her or Eunji, they’d probably put him in a home— which wouldn’t be a bad thing, there are probably plenty of great facilities— but Gihun especially would probably fight tooth and nail to stay away from systems after one that was meant to “help” him just paralyzed him and made him disabled. (Which, understandably so.) I think if anything, Gihun would leave both of them out of the equation entirely by not even letting Gayeong know— at least until he’s been settled.
He may even try to fight off having assistance entirely, but even if he somehow manages to be sent home after an extensive hospital stay where they do make sure he’s alive and just paralyzed— he specifically may not be able to do much right away without a little help at home.
I think Junho would be creepy persistent enough to find out what hospital he’s at and pick him up himself, but make an ultimatum with him where he tells him what happened with his brother and he’ll leave (he wont) or he stays and takes care of him until he does— and he won’t be a pushover about it.
With that aside, Junho might have to be super careful about being hands on with Gihun too. If we’re including Gihun’s biblically accurate hand injury, I can imagine Junho having to be extra careful how he holds his hand or hands him things. Transfers alone would be difficult because Gihun would probably have a difficult time trusting him when Junho is that close to him and has his hands on him like that.
I also think Gihun would refuse to get anything that would help him (shower chair, bed rail, etc) because he would insist its a waste of money (aka money not being used to stop the games that he knows are still going) so Junho would regrettably have to buy things without his knowledge or permission, both with his money and with Gihun’s.
Maybe their relationship from then on too is just Gihun constantly trying to fight/kill Junho because he thinks he’s still in danger. I think with this hostility it would make Junho a little scared to tell the truth— but something would have to break through before he finally tells him his actual relation to everything.
It kinda sounds like itd be a “damned if i do, damned if i dont” kind of thing for both of them at that point— like if Gihun doesnt accept Junho’s help he’s probably dead and wont be making it back to Gayeong any time soon, but Junho’s the only one willing to help him get back to a condition where he can get to her (and hes fucking PISSED about it). And Junho may possibly be fucked if he does tell him the truth— because Gihun already wants to kill him— but if he doesnt tell him anything at all, Gihun wont cooperate either.
Sorry for the LAAAATE reply on this btw anon, i suck at responding to asks bc of my health— but i had this drafted for a while bc this ask interested me so much!/gen