Chapter 19

[Russian Roulette]

The next meeting of Der Märchenclub was filled with more worries. They all had acted as if things were under control, as if the meeting was like any other previous meetings. They all dressed up in their usual glory, they tried to talk about different things, and they tried to forget the darkness that lied in the club.

Choi Sooyoung was somehow sick of all the fake pleasantries. She always trained herself not to be the coward, she always spoke what was there on her mind, and fortunately, she was gifted with a loud voice from birth. The bluntness was actually also owned by the other members, namely Kim Hyoyeon, Kim Heechul, and Jung Jessica. But while Jung Jessica and Kim Hyoyeon were pretty much ignorant people who would not mind other peoples’ business, Kim Heechul usually always invited himself to other peoples’ affairs.

Sooyoung glanced at the oldest heir of the Kim family, faintly noticing how quiet he had been. But then again, even when he was at his usual energetic self, Heechul was not the hero type. When he spoke out loud, it was more to bring trouble, rather than justice.

Choi Sooyoung was not like that.

She was loud and she prided herself for being a righteous person. And someone had to set things back to track.

Having requested her bodyguards to arrange chairs so that they formed circle in the middle of the Bluebeard Chamber, Sooyoung then grabbed the microphone from the stage and announced, “Guys.”

Perhaps it was something about the Choi bloodline inside her vein (that always made her carry the usual charismatic aura), that one word for her was enough to make all people focused their attention at her.

Seating herself on one of the chairs in the arranged seating, she then spoke again, “Please gather together. We need to discuss how we’re going to deal with this onwards.”

She did not care at that point if she was dubbed as the bossy type. To her relief, the other members of the Club slowly took their seats on circle. 15 members remained, as both Seohyun and Shindong were already dead and Kangin was still in a comatose.

After all the members were seated, Sooyoung began, “We are expected to play the game and guess the roles again today. Kangin Oppa’s role has been guessed by Sunny. The white feathers, the hints, were found also in the incident involving Heechul Oppa, Shindong Oppa, and…Seohyun. Although we are all competing to have the right guess, I think it’s only fair for all of us to have the make sure we have the same information. And probably, we shall start with you, Heechul Oppa. You need to tell us the details of the incident when you were stabbed.”

Sunny looked uncomfortable. Heechul spoke up for the first time that night. “Why should I share the information, if I can use it to save myself?”

Sooyoung took a deep breath. “There’s chance we all can survive from this, alive. All of us.”

Heechul snickered. “What made you so sure, Choi? Because you plot this whole madness yourself?”

People were at the stage where they were too tired to hear Kim Heechul’s resentment towards the Choi. So despite his provocative words, most people ignored Heechul.

“I understand that you feel like you need to save your life, Heechul Oppa,” stated Sooyoung. “And you are free to decide how merciful you want to be with the rest of us. But I know you must also care for your other cousins, and you don’t want to send them to death by not telling the whole information, do you?”

“I can choose to just inform my fellow Kims, rather than to publicize it to all of you.”

Sooyoung was not one to quickly lose wit, even compared to Heechul. “Ryeowook Oppa,” she suddenly called. “If you were at Heechul Oppa’s place, would you share the information?”

Ryeowook hesitated, clearly torn by his own friendship to Sooyoung and his devotion to his Hyung. He was uncertain, but he knew that Heechul had been acting pretty irrational lately. Softly, as if afraid to Heechul, Ryeowook replied, “I think…it’s better for us all to stay alive, Hyung.”

Heechul’s expression clearly showed as if he was feeling betrayed. But the next moment, he closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest again. “Whatever. It’s not I can give you meaningful information anyway, as I was immediately rendered unconscious after I was stabbed.”

“Can you describe the event more?”

Cracking an eye opened in annoyance, Heechul muttered, “I don’t remember much. It was dark, I was only walking on the alley to meet my friends. I was talking on the phone to Ryeowook, so I didn’t notice when somebody stealthily sneaked behind me. That person hit my head from behind and he also made sure to leave a stab on the back of my stomach. I cannot see the attacker clearly. He was concealing himself.”

“So it’s a man who attacked you?”

Heechul was about to reply, but he stopped himself before the information was revealed too much. His eyes lingered quickly at Yoona.

“Heechul Oppa?” Sooyoung called again.

Clearing his throat, Heechul then muttered, “That’s all the information I remember. I don’t know whether it’s a man or woman who attacked me, but judging from the strength, it was most possibly a man.”

Oh, are you trying to cover up your high school’s sweetheart? his conscience mocked him. The girl that you knew you could never have. The girl that made you feel the need to blur up your ual orientation, chasing Hyukjae, Donghae, and the other males instead?

Heechul snorted at his own thought.

Sooyoung sighed as she leaned back. “Alright. Guys, so you can derive whatever conclusion you might have from Heechul Oppa’s cooperation. Now, Sungmin-sshi,” she said as she directed her attention to the young police officer. “Can you elaborate more on the details of Seohyun and Shindong Oppa’s death?”

Sungmin suppressed his own ego and decided to act as if he cared for that silly game. “As what I have told you, Seo Joo Hyun died as she was drowned. She was drugged before she was drowned so that she could not fight back when she was chained to the cement beneath the pond. As for Shin Dong Hee, he was burned to death, but I suppose this is not animportant information as he himself has informed you his roles prior to his action to leave the club, right?”

Sooyoung nodded.

“By the way,” spoke Sungmin as he glanced to his cell phone. “I am informed that Park Jung Soo already arrives. He’s waiting in front of the door. I suppose you all are ready to play his ridiculous game, huh?”

Sungmin’s notification alarmed them all. The tension arose. They stood up from the chairs set up in circle to return to their previous seats that faced the stage. People began to whisper next to each other. Their anxieties were well covered though, when the grand door leading to Der Märchenclub swung opened. Two polices were guarding Park Jung Soo in. As opposed to his latest appearance before the members of Der Märchenclub, he was back looking as the usual prim and proper manager. His black suit was well ironed, his chin was free from any stubble, his smile was plastered to his face, and his trademark black eye mask covered his eyes.

Jung Soo walked in grace towards the stage. The standing microphone was already prepared on the middle of the stage: the show was his to begin.

He did not waste another time.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here again today. Without further ado, let us begin tonight’s game. A piece of paper will be circulated among you soon and you can write your name and your guesses on it. Any question?”

“Will there be a penalty if we guess wrong?” Kwon Yuri asked.

“No, but if you guess right, you’re a step ahead on surviving.”

“What if there are more than one people who have the right answer?”

“We can only have one winner per each round of the game,” explained Jung Soo. “When Sunny-sshi guessed the Humpty Dumpty role, there was no competitor. However this time, everyone is participating, and we’ll depend on one’s luck. After you write your answer on the paper, put the paper inside the glass box that I will prepare after. I will pick each paper out. The first paper that I pick that contains the right answer will be chosen.”

“Can we randomly guess the roles of those who are not yet given the White Feather? For example, can I guess on Donghae’s role instead even when he hasn’t gotten any feather?” that time it was Lee Hyukjae who was asking.

“Only guess the one with white feather. And as we have clearly missed lots of chances to guess in the past, let us put our game back in order, shall we? Please guess in a chronological order of the hints, the White Feather.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Just please do it,” said Jung Soo, his eyes stole a glance at Lee Soon Kyu. Immediately noticing the secret glance, Sunny averted her head away, wanting to evade peoples’ suspicion. She did not want people to know that Jung Soo had given her an extra hint.

Kwon Yuri, who sat right beside Sunny, saw it though.

Jung Soo spoke nothing afterwards. He bowed and stepped off the stage. Not so long after, the servants hired for Der Märchenclub wandered around, giving them all a piece of paper, an expensive looking pen, and a small board to ease the members in the writing process.

Sunny accepted the pen with trembling hand. True that she was given an extra hint, but that did not make the guessing easier for her. If anything, the burden of knowing something, of almost reaching out to the truth, felt very heavy on her shoulders.

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