,,𝐬𝐢𝐱

,,you awoke to the sound of a familiar melody.

you slowly opened your eyes, you'd made it another night. you only hoped your friends had as well.

"before the last vote closed, police used their skill. during the night park ji soo was executed by the mafia. park ji soo was a citizen. all participants, identify the mafia and begin to vote."the familiar voice announced.

none of your close friends had died but ji soo had, you couldn't imagine what yoo joon must be feeling right now.

you got on your feet and opened the door. you saw seung bin and jin ha walking past as you opened it.

you made your way upstairs as you got closer you heard crying. it was yoo joon with ji soo in his arms.

you felt bad for him, losing someone you loved it must be hard.

you already saw a group there, you noticed yoon seo, jung won, and jun hee in the crowd.

yoo joon kept crying and some of your classmates decided to take their leave.

,,you all made your way to a abandoned part of the youth center.

kyung jun had called everyone over, which was definitely odd to say the least. when you arrived you saw that eun chan, da bum, and yeon woo were already there.

you made eye contact with da bum, you greeted him with a small smile. he was okay but you always got this odd feeling around him.

"why did you want to see us all?"yoon seo was the first to speak.

kyung jun stood up and made his way over to the group, jin ha and seung bin taking a few steps forward.

"'park woo ram was a mafia.' see? what did i tell you?"kyung jun said.

"go kyung jun has a great hunch."seung bin clapped.

you noticed the boy sported a pair of glasses, that was new.

"what's the police doing? learn from him."seung bin spoke taking off the glasses.

"did you see that? if you want to catch the mafia, do as I say."kyung jun instructed.

do as he says...you'd expect a whole bunch of violence with him in charge. as for catching the mafia would he torture everyone till they break?

that was a scary thought, he trusted you, you were sure of that. or maybe you just hoped he trusted you as much as you trusted him.

"what do we do?"jin ha walked to his side and asked.

"you'll take turns saying who you think is mafia, and I'll pick for you."kyung jun explained.

less violent that you had anticipated but still it could quickly go wrong. though there was no way everyone here would do as he says.

his reputation was already decreasing his chances of that. you'd always told him to be mindful of it...

you were mindful of yours, that's probably why you'd made it as far as you have. being smart wasn't really your thing.

you also couldn't fight, you really didn't contribute much when you really thought about it...

jung won was smart, she'd make a perfect mafia. jun hee had a strong sense of justice and he was pretty responsible.

yoon seo could reason with just about anyone and she strived to end this game.kyung jun was strong, a decent fighter.

so...what did you add?

the kind person who everyone was on good terms with, that was a facade you had made for yourself.

they could say you were kind, but you only did it to benefit yourself.

"why do you get to decide? we should decide together."jun hee rejected the idea of following kyung jun.

"yes, who do you think you are?"somi asked.

"didn't you see woo ram try to kill me last night? who other than me is definitely a citizen?"kyung jun started speaking.

"I think...the mafia's among the people who voted for me yesterday."kyung jun theorized.

if that was true kyung jun would absolutely go after your friends. they'd voted for him yesterday.

"no. we're really not mafia."na hee spoke up.

"you sided with woo ram and tried to kill me. what clearer evidence is there?"kyung jun accused them.

he did have a bit of a point, there was probably a mafia or two who had voted for kyung jun. though there could also be one that didn't.

"we really didn't know. don't judge based on last night."jun hee defended.

"then what should I judge you on?you're the only people who voted for me."kyung jun questioned.

"is that it? your logic is crap."jung won spoke up.

that definitely ticked off kyung jun, though yoon seo quickly defused the situation. she definitely had a knack for it.

"what about ji soo then? why kill someone we were all friends with? we had no reason to."somi reasoned.

"who cares how close you are when you could die?"kyung jun scoffed.

your eyes widened a bit at that...had all your trust in him been misplaced...? if he couldn't trust those closest to him, he'd have no ally's.

you saw jin ha and seung bin give him a bit of an alarmed look. they'd done everything he's told them to yet he didn't trust them enough.

kyung jun...didn't trust you enough either. your known him since you were in elementary school, all those years of friendship and he still didn't trust you?

had you done something to lose his trust? was it telling him you didn't want to be seen around him as much?

then again it was probably smart to not trust anyone. people could lie so easily, you'd know.

"wasn't ji soo a doctor?"yeon woo asked eun chan.

"read the notice properly. it says she was a citizen. yoo joon must be the doctor. he pretended not to be."eun chan answered.

"yesterday the police used their skill, so why didn't the doctor?"da bum spoke.

"yes if they'd used their skill, ji soo could've lived."mina said.

"on the third floor, weren't ji soo and yoo joon alone? then why kill just ji soo?"somi questioned.

"could cha yoo joon be a mafia?"mina asked.

"he killed his girlfriend? that's really freaky if it's true."jin ha was clearly freaked out.

"ji soo did give him a hard time. always telling him off."yeon woo explained.

you all stayed silent for a few moments, that thought was definitely nerve wracking. it would also support kyung jun's earlier statement.

"you lot are so frustrating. I'll pick someone for you."kyung jun declared.

"he thinks he's in charge."jung won grumbled.

"kim jun hee's mafia. you can tell when he got the axe and went crazy to save woo ram."kyung jun accused jun hee pointing him out.

"he did it to save him thinking he was a citizen. we were all betrayed by someone we trusted. he really got us good. were victims too."somi defended.

you could almost laugh at her statement.

"yes, I don't think we should vote for jun hee just because of that."na hee agreed.

"then shall I pick one of you? go and vote already."kyung jun dismissed their words.

"hey. don't you know about presuming innocence? don't insist when you don't have proof."yoon seo spoke up.

"what?"kyung jun muttered.

"we're not voting for whom you dislike the most. this is just like a witch hunt."yoon seo said.

"my hunch is proof. is there proof he's not mafia? there isn't."kyung jun took a step forward.

"proof? there's proof. there's a surveillance room in the basement. I'm sure everything was filmed."yoon seo declared.

you swallowed, what? when had yoon seo found this? that would mean it would show all the mafia wouldn't it?

,,you all gathered around jung won.

as she was the one with the most experience with computers and tech stuff she was in charge of doing all that stuff.

"we can get the mafia in one go."kyung jun muttered.

"that's awesome."jin ha was in awe.

"mensa work faster. you're so darn slow."seung bin started to rush jung won.

"it's mensan."jung won corrected.

"i just turned it on, wait. what's this? hang on."she said looking closer at the computer.

"what's wrong?"yoon seo asked.

"there are no files, someone deleted them."revealed jung won.

"are they saved somewhere else? look again."yoon seo stepped closer to jung won.

"it's not that, they're really gone. it wasn't even formatted automatically. someone deleted them on purpose."jung won explained.

"lee yoon seo, what's going on? you trolled us."jin ha angrily spoke.

"gosh, you mafia jerks. nice team play. did you delete them?"kyung jun huffed.

"it's not like that."yoon seo denied.

"as if it isn't. you and jun hee defended woo ram from the start. you showed up late because you deleted the files. you're just pretending you didn't."kyung jun accused.

"it's not like that!" yoon seo raised her voice.

"lee yoon seo."yoo joon came up out of nowhere.

"how did you know you could see the footage from here?"yoo joon asked.

you were also curious as to how she found it, you knew she wasn't a mafia but you still wondered how she managed to find this.

"what?"she asked in disbelief.

"you knew because you went looking to delete the files. no?"yoo joon spoke.

"what...? I came across this place by chance."yoon seo defended herself.

"if she deleted the files, why would she have brought us here?"jun hee defended.

"yes, and she doesn't know how to do this."jung won added on.

"it's game over."kyung jun said holding up his phone.

that was when you heard the siren go off and notifications flood the room.

"go kyung jun voted for lee yoon seo."the voice announced.

now you were in disbelief, you looked at kyung jun. why was he going after yoon seo? the last thing you wanted was for your friends to be against each other.

"kim jin ha, shin seung bin voted for Lee yoon seo."it kept announcing.

those two always followed kyung jun's lead, just this once you hoped they hadn't.

"cha yoo joon voted for lee yoon seo."the voice revealed.

then more people started to walk out of the room.

"guys wait...! I'm really a citizen. I'll prove that I am. give me until today, please."yoon seo pleaded with your remaining classmates.

"yoon seo really isn't a mafia."jun hee spoke up.

"right! please give her more time..."you started pleading as well.

"I'll restore the files. give me some time." jung won said.

"yes, we can vote later at night." na hee stood up.

"right. once the files are restored, we'll know who's the mafia." da bum agreed.

thankfully your classmates agreed, that would give time for yoon seo's name to be cleared.

jung won had sent a text saying that everyone would meet up at 11 p.m.

you saw yoon seo curl up and start crying. jun hee went over and placed a hand on her back to comfort her.

"yoon seo, I'll be back in a bit alright? I've just got to do something real quick."you gently spoke to her.

she nodded as you heard a few sniffles. you looked at jun hee and jung won and said your goodbyes before walking out.

you really wanted to have a word with kyung jun.

,,just as you made it to the snack bar you saw yoo joon walking out.

yoo joon walked past you without saying a word. you just glanced at him and payed your attention back at the current matter.

you looked inside and saw a group of them eating. kyung jun, seung bin, jin ha, eun chan, and yeon woo.

you frowned this is what he was doing huh?

you crossed your arm and let out an annoyed sigh, loud enough to catch their attention.

they all paused and turned to look at you.

"I'm a bit hungry, mind if I come in?"you put on a passive aggressive smile.

they all turned to look at kyung jun, it was obvious you weren't in the best of moods.

"fine, grab what you want."kyung jun shook you off.

you made your way in and grabbed a few chocolates bars, you'd give them to yoon seo and the others later.

you then made your way over to their table, even if there wasn't any seats left.

"move."you coldly spoke to eun chan.

eun chan was normally very nice to you, and he hadn't voted yet but you weren't in your right mind to go and treat everyone like you normally did.

eun chan paused and looked around awkwardly before standing up. you took his seat and sat there in silence while opening a bar of chocolate.

clearly you had ruined the mood as no one bothered to talk, they didn't even take another bite of their food. they just looked at you then kyung jun, tension was clearly in the air.

"get out."kyung jun instructed placing his drink down.

he turned to look at the group of boys and signaled for them to leave. they all picked up a bit of their food and left whispering amongst themselves.

a moment of silence lingered before kyung jun spoke up first.

"something's wrong...what's up with you?"he asked.

"oh nothings wrong I'm just fine! it's not like you're trying to vote out one of my best friends!"you spoke condescendingly.

"you can't just blindly trust anyone."kyung jun responded.

"it's not blind trust kyung jun, yoon seo isn't a mafia!"you raised your voice a bit.

"you don't kno—"kyung jun was cut off.

"I do know! I know that's she's a civilian! jun hee too! they aren't mafias!"you cried out.

"how can you be so sure?"kyung jun also started to raise his voice.

"you can't trust anyone in this game (f.name)! I'm trying to survive, if you don't agree with me then you can go ahead and get yourself killed!"he shouted.

"you're the one who's going to end up dead if you continue to act like this! not trusting anyone isn't good you need ally's not minions! I trust you I really do, but please put some trust in me as well..."you had tears in your eyes by this point.

"I...can't fully trust anyone, that includes you."kyung jun whispered out.

"fine, don't trust me then. I won't trust you either...and take this back too, I don't want anything to do with you."you pulled off a necklace and placed it on the table.

it had been a gift he gave you on your birthday back when you were in middle school.

you had tears streaming down your face, why was he so stubborn, he always had to do things his way. you stood up and started to take a few steps in the opposite direction.

"what the hell? you're seriously going to walk out on me?"kyung jun scoffed.

"you said I can go ahead and get myself killed didn't you? what do you care?"you croaked out.

"just because I said it doesn't mean to go to it!you're way too careless. that's why I've always stuck around you."kyung jun said.

"well I don't need you to protect me, I'll be fine on my own."you spoke.

"that's not it...I..."kyung jun ran his hands through his hair.

"you what kyung jun?"you looked at him.

"I...lo—fuck! why can't you just go along with what I say?"he shouted frustrated.

"nevermind hearing you out. I'll make sure that yoon seo, jun hee and jung won make it out, I'll do it the way I want."your tone was cold.

you looked at him once last time with tear filled eyes and walked out. you walked past the group of boys who had been kicked out earlier.

you didn't care for what they thought as of now. in the background you heard things being thrown around the room and curses.

this was like deja vu, arguing with kyung jun...like this had happened before, though you had no memory of it.

,,you were all gathered back in the surveillance room.

jung won had sent a message to everyone saying she could probably restore the footage on the third floor.

everyone was gathered there so unfortunately you'd see him...there was no way to permanently avoid him.

though you didn't even look his way, and you stood far from him.

"it's done."jung won finished.

"what?"you heard someone say.

the people behind you shot up from their seats and everyone got closer to the computer.

"the footage from yesterday is restored. all we should do is check who entered ji soo's room."jung won spoke.

you looked up and saw the hallway. yoon seo let out a cry and held onto jun hee.

"where is it?"someone asked.

everyone looked at the screens only for them to start glitching out of nowhere. you heard confused murmurs all around you.

then you heard something spark. it was near where kyung jun was. everyone backed up from that area just in time as it exploded and burst into flames.

jun hee sprang into action and grabbed a fire extinguisher. you heard coughs come from various parts of the room. you let some out yourself.

after it the room cleared up, kyung jun started poking at the burnt piece.

"were you freaking trying to burn all of us to death?"kyung jun asked.

"it really wasn't me."yoon seo said hoarsely.

"hey, what's that?"eun chan pointed out.

you all turned to look at a small screen that displayed the pool room. then someone popped up.

"I think there really is a ghost."na hee said.

"look."yoon seo pulled out a picture.

somi took it from her hand and looked at it.

"look at this. she's the ghost in the footage."yoon seo pointed out.

"I think...there really is something other than us. that ghost must have to do something with the mafia game."yoon seo cried out.

"stop with your nonsense. it's a fake video you guys made."kyung jun scoffed at her.

"you idiot, look at the time code. it's filming in real time."jung won said.

you looked at the screen again and the same person, or well ghost, kept popping up and moving around.

"then...will you play the game that kills people as they say? what if you win? do you think we can survive and get out of here? do you still think you can even after seeing how others died?"yoon seo bombarded him with questions.

"get a grip. we should find out who made us play the game. if we only find the relation...between the ghost and the mafia game, we might be able to get out of here for real."yoon seo explained.

everyone stayed silent.

,,you bit the inside of your cheek as you laid your back against the wall.

everyone had decided to move to the pool. you got up and made your towards the three people that just came in.

yoon seo, jung won and jun hee had just come back.

"hey, it's almost midnight. will you not vote?"kyung jun asked them.

"how about we vote...in a different way?"jun hee suggested.

"jun hee, we don't have time right now. how can we do it differently?"somi asked.

"you almost killed us all. what nonsense are you saying now?"kyung jun spoke.

"right you stupid class president. we almost died because we listened to you."seung bin said.

"we can listen to him first before we decide."jung won added.

"what is it? tell us?"yoo joon questioned.

"out of 14 votes, yoon seo received 4. you die when the majority quotes for you. otherwise you won't die. we can divide the remaining votes so that she isn't voted by the majority."jun hee explained his idea.

"so you want to make another person receive four votes like yoon seo to make it a tie."jung won summarized.

"yes. that way all of us will vote without abstaining."jun hee concluded.

"but, who will become to receive the same number of votes?"somi asked.

everyone looked around at each other in silence.

"vote for me."jun hee said.

"what?"somi said in disbelief.

"jin da bum voted for kim jun hee."the voice announced.

then voted started to poor in. you grabbed your phone and cast your vote as well.

"voting is over."the voice said.

you checked your phone once more and it said the same thing the announcement had.

"it worked. it worked, it's actually worked!"yeon woo cheered.

you kept your eyes glued onto your phone. the last time they gave you a few moments of false hope before it came crashing down.

you waited as you heard people happily cheering.

"as lee yoon seo and kim jun hee received the e same number of votes, hold the second round of voting for the two for 5 minutes."the voice suddenly came on.

so you were right...it hadn't worked after all.

"only those who didn't vote for either of them in the first round will vote again. If they're tied again, everyone will be executed."the voice instructed.

that meant you had to vote again? and this time for one of your friends?

"they're going to kill is too?"da bum asked.

suddenly red lights started flashing and a siren came on, it was just like that night all over again.

"I knew it. Let's just vote for that scumbag and end this."kyung jun pointed at jun hee.

"only the six of us should vote, right? me, yeon woo, (f.name), mina, somi, and who else was it?"eun chan spoke up.

"the class president. he voted for jung won earlier."da bum said.

"it means yoon seo received one less vote already."jin ha spoke.

"one minute has passed already."yeon woo panicked.

"what do we do? who should we vote for?"mina cried.

"kim somi voted for lee yoon seo."the voice revealed.

somi stepped forward and took the photograph out of yoon seo's hands. somi then started to tear the picture into small pieces.

"it was strange when she talked about this ghost and dragged us into this. we were going to vote for yoon seo, hurry up!"somi shouted.

"this is not right! don't vote for her."jung won raised her voice.

"just freaking vote for anyone!"seung bin screamed.

you were torn, yoon seo and jun hee were both friends of yours. how could you vote for one of them?

"it's me. I'm mafia. so vote for me."jun hee spoke up.

"hey...why are you saying that?"yoon seo whispered.

"are you crazy?"somi stepped near him.

"I told you to hand it your phones so that you couldn't vote. I was the one who deleted the security camera footage."jun hee revealed.

you let your mouth drop open a bit, jun hee wasn't a mafia he was lying. he was lying to save yoon seo.

"I'm sorry. I didn't it because I wanted to survive, but killing people...I can't do it anymore."jun hee lowered his voice.

you saw yoon seo shake her head, she was in complete denial.

"I knew it when he was running around with an axe. just vote for the jerk and end this!"kyung jun pointed at him screaming.

"wait. hey it's not you, why are you doing this? it's not you."yoon seo kept repeating those words.

"choi mina voted for kim jun hee."it announced.

so this is how jun hee wanted it...he really was admirable. if he wanted to save yoon seo, you'd help him.

"(l.name) (f.name) voted for kim jun hee."the voice continued.

you heard somi screaming at mina as more people start voting for jun hee.

you saw kyung jun, jin ha, and seung bin run out first.

then the others started to pull somi away while you and jung won started to take a reluctant yoon seo away.

"kim jun hee got the most votes and he will be executed."was the final announcement.

you kept dragging yoon seo away as you heard jun hee's screams of pain. due to those yoon seo only kept trying harder and harder to break free.

you kept walking until you all made it into a hallway. though you all hadn't gotten enough chance to hide as you all fell on the hallway floor.

with one of your friends gone you knew you'd have to act soon.

WORD COUNT : 4148

longest chapter yet I think...this is going to come to an ends soon. I'll have to tweak the plot just teensy bit though.

,,yaani.