Word of mouth happened to reach us, and somehow, I had managed to drag Momo to the doorway to Jeongyeon’s estate, as we fixed each other’s clothing before the big appearance. It was just a simple, moderately sized, two-story house near the outskirts of Seoul, but as we walked up those daunting steps, nothing could have been more intimidating.

Of course I was anxious over how the others would react. I mean I did happen to avoid them for about two weeks so there was bound to be awkwardness and resentment, but that’s what made me all the more worried as the trembling hand beside me gripped mine even harder. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how Momo felt going into this.

“A-Are you sure about this Mina-chan? I doubt they even want us here this late…”

My heart fluttered at Momo’s use of my nickname, and that was all it took. I had to stay strong for this girl.

I took her face in my hands, the most proven method to calm her down. “Momo-ring, we’ve gone over this. Avoiding them for the rest of our lives isn’t going to get us anywhere. Now come on they’re waiting.”

With my hand atop hers, we pressed the doorbell together and after what felt like an eternity, the door swung open to a wide-eyed Jihyo.

“W-What a… surprise!” She attempted a fake smile yet she could barely even form a sentence.

“Yeah… it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” I replied.

Surprisingly, despite Jihyo heading the conversation, there was still an awkward lull of silence. Heads started to turn and a commotion could be heard coming from down the hall. Momo, as if she wasn’t anxious enough, decided this was the last straw and tried to make a run for it. But before she got too far, I managed to hook my arm around hers and drag her back up the steps, planting my feet into the ground at the top.

“M-May we come inside?” I put on the best smile I could while lifting up a present in one hand, trying to keep Momo from escaping with the other.

“Of course! I don’t see why not!”

The amount of enthusiasm behind Jihyo’s words seemed a little odd at first, but I found out why as the tension in the air grew thicker the deeper we went into the house. So thick, in fact, that it even got caught in my throat when my eyes met with the malicious glares of Sana and Chaeyoung. Happy birthday Nayeon.

“What are you doing here?” I could feel Sana’s scowl cutting deep.

“Obviously, Sana, she’s here for the party! Why else would she bring me a present?” Nayeon cut me off excitedly before I had a chance to answer.

As the girl, completely oblivious to the hate and anger festering in the air, skipped over to pry the wrapped gift from my arms, her eyes caught sight of the trembling figure holding on for dear life to the curtain behind me. I’d only seen it in cartoons before, but now I could confidently say that I’d seen someone’s jaw drop far enough to touch the floor.

Jeongyeon appeared next to Nayeon the instant her expression turned sour. “…M-Momo?”

Now everyone’s interest had been piqued as more girls began crowding around us and I found myself trying to keep my arm attached to my body from a clinging Momo.

“Dahyun! Dahyun! See? I told you I’d get Momo to come!” Nayeon shouted excitedly as she broke from her daze.

Dahyun scoffed and didn’t even bother looking up from where she was shuffling a small deck of cards.

“Momo? What is a Momo?” Tzuyu asked.

The group broke out into a light chuckle, the atmosphere seeming to have mostly cleared up for now.

“Momo is our friend, Tzuyu-ah. You know, the one we’ve been saving the seat for all this time?” Jihyo ruffled the maknae’s hair and pinched her nose lovingly. “Now speaking of friends, can we all get back to our game of mafia now? Dahyun, deal the cards again. Mina, have you ever played this game before?”

Momo tugged on the sleeve of my sweater as if she were warning me of something.

“No I haven’t,” I replied, “But it sounds kinda violent, isn’t there another–“

“Great! You’re going to love it! We’ll go over the rules real quick.” Jihyo cut me off early, clearly not wanting to hear any objections.

“So, there are two teams in this game: the civilians and the mafia. Civilians try to find the mafia, and mafia try to kill all the civilians. Dahyun is going to deal out one card to everyone. Whoever gets a number card is a normal civilian with no powers. A queen means you are a doctor on the civilians’ side, you get to save one person every night, and if the mafia tries to kill them during the nighttime, they survive. The king makes you the police. You get to investigate one person every night and I will tell you whether they are part of the mafia or not.”

“Doesn’t that make this game too easy then?” I asked. “The police will just get all the mafia immediately.”

“Well no one knows who is who besides the mafia, duh.” Chaeyoung was seething.

What the hell is her problem?

“Uh… yeah, exactly right.” Jihyo continued, also a little disturbed by Chaeyoung’s tone of voice. “As I was saying then, there are two jacks. These mean that you are the mafia and you will collaborate every night to pick one person to kill. And as Chaeyoung said, you two will know of each other. Finally, there is the amazing narrator, me! I will be in charge of making this whole experience super engaging for you guys! Any questions?”

“En…gaging? Why would we lie and kill and want it to be engaging?” Tzuyu asked with an innocent pout.

Chaeyoung coughed brusquely. “Not like we don’t do any of that around here, am I right?”

I winced at her remark. It was obviously directed at me.

“You’ll get the hang of it as we go Tzuyu, now if there are no more questions, let’s start!” Jihyo was way too excited about this.

I took a glance at the card handed to me, wary of the glaring looks from others. King of hearts. The most powerful role in the game – and it was my first time playing too. But maybe it was a sign. I needed to get to the bottom of this.

---

DAY 1

JY: So, who do we wanna kill first?

TY: Already? But we just started.

JY: It makes things fun! Trust me. Maybe... Momo?

NY: NO! No random killings.

And with that, Jeongyeon instantly conceded, like a well-trained pet. Momo sighed, but it wasn’t out of relief. Something was clearly bothering her. Did she not want to play that badly?

NIGHT 1

I decided to investigate Chaeyoung. That girl had to be hiding something. If any of these people were to betray the rest of us, it would most definitely be her. But Jihyo just shook her head in response and I could not have felt more disappointed.

JH: So, here’s the story. One night, a girl was on the way home from a party.

NY: Oh, come on! Do all these have to be about a party?

JH: What part of engaging do you not get?

Jihyo gave the rest of the frightened girls a smirk as she continued on with her story.

JH: Having had so much fun at the party, she didn’t notice her surroundings and happened to turn into an alleyway. That’s when she heard the rustling of a plastic bag behind her. She was being followed.

In my peripheral vision, I noticed a frightened Tzuyu reach out towards Chaeyoung, but stopped as she was grabbed by an even more frightened Sana.

JH: In that same moment, she noticed a familiar girl in the distance who she knew from the party. She broke out into a run. Fear took hold of her. Tears welled in her eyes and she couldn’t even see where she was going. Running. Faster. Faster. But then... something blocked her path. Another stranger stepped out of the alleyway to block her path. Those were the last two people to see Nayeon ever again.

DAY 2

NY: Nope! No way. Not on my birthday. I am not dying first.

Everyone groaned in response. We all knew there was no fighting with Nayeon on that one.

JH: Alright, alright. Everyone go to sleep again and I’ll get the mafia to pick another one.

...

JH: Alright everyone, heads up. That was quick. New target is Jeongyeon.

JY: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHO DID IT?!

JH: Well I mean you were the obvious next choice, but nice last words Jeong. Very eloquent.

JY: Wh