"Sandeul. Real name Lee Junghwan. Birthdate: March 20th, 1992. You have been accused of hacking and cheating Timepiece. How do you plead?"

"Cheating?" Eunbi repeated. She looked at L and IU, who didn't say a word. "What on earth is the Timekeeper talking about?"

"I knew it! I knew we shouldn't trust you guys!" Mingyu cried out. "Eunbi, you can't trust these people!"

"No, wait! This has to be some kind of big misunderstanding! Sandeul would never cheat! Sure, he's good at technology, but there's no way that he would've been hacking all this time to win!" Eunbi cried out.

"Are you sure? How else would these guys get multiple Returnee status?" Mingyu pointed out. "Admit it, Eunbi! You can't trust them!"

"But they helped us—"

"They 'helped' us by cheating. Why else would Cha Eunwoo be down there?" Mingyu asked.

Eunbi gritted her teeth. She turned to L and grabbed his sleeves.

"L, please tell me that this is some kind of huge misunderstanding!" Eunbi cried out.

L glanced at her, but he didn't say anything. Then, IU started to pound against the glass wall furiously. 

"Let me down there, you coward!" IU shouted at the Timekeeper. She kicked the window and glared. "This is a huge misunderstanding! Sanduel would never be dumb and cheat like this!"

The Timekeeper briefly glanced up at her, then looked back at Sandeul.

"So? How do you plead?" the Timekeeper asked him.

"What is all this? Who accused me of cheating?" Sandeul asked.

"That is for the system to know. All you have to know is that you have been accused of cheating by the following methods..." Shortly afterwards, the Timekeeper's voice became a small mumble.

"What's he saying?" Jungkook asked.

"I'm pretty sure they made it a mumble to censor his crimes, just in case we decide that we want to cheat like Sanduel," Yoobin theorized.

IU quickly turned to L. "We're being framed!" 

"Calm down," L told her, letting out a small sigh. "If Sandeul is being framed, we need to figure out who's framing him."

"How the hell are we supposed to figure that out? We made countless of enemies!" she retorted.

"It has to be one of those three," L said. "They need to share their own perspectives and report how Sandeul potentially 'cheated' the game."

"Well, two of them below are from your team. Eunbi, this clearly shows how we shouldn't trust any of them," Mingyu pointed out.

IU glared at him. "Back off, kid. Should I remind you that one of your members is below there as well?"

"It's two versus one. There's a higher chance that it's one of your teammates. Besides, how would we benefit from reporting your teammate for cheating?" Mingyu asked.

Suddenly, they heard Sandeul scream. They all looked down the window and pale when they saw blood dripping from his face. Two eyes were plucked out from his sockets, leaving him blind and in pain. The Panda wiggled the eyes with his two fingers before tossing them to the Timekeeper. The Timekeeper caught both eyeballs with one hand, then left it on a small plate that was sitting on the side.

"The Evil Eye," L murmured. He glanced at Mingyu. "That's how you would benefit from reporting."

Mingyu gulped and backed down when he saw L's serious gaze. He glanced back down at the courtroom. Sandeul seemed like he was trying to endure the pain, but it was clearly a lot more difficult to take in the pain. His whole body shivered and cowered as he blindly tried to listen to the Timekeeper's words.

"Our system as selected three witnesses to testify against you. You will give your explanations and the jury will decide whether you are guilt or not guilty," said the Timekeeper.

"That's really hard to do when you're in pain like me," Sandeul retorted.

"Let's hear what the first witness has to say," the Timekeeper said. He turned off the light on Sandeul so that no one could see him.

Park Kyung's mouth started moving, but he kept shaking his head and pounded against the invisible wall. He looked at Sandeul with a painful expression, as if he couldn't believe that Sandeul was standing on the opposite side of him. Moments later, it looked like Park Kyung was breaking down and he began to sob as he shook his head.

Eunbi felt her chest squeeze. She gently placed her hand over the glass and stared down at Park Kyung with worry. 

Kyung, hang in there, she thought to herself.

"Binnie, are you okay?" Jungkook asked.

Eunbi turned and saw Yoobin staring at Park Kyung with eyes full of shock. "Binnie?"

She quickly blinked and smiled. "Sorry. I'm spacing out. He's just... acting so distraught."

"He's not acting like he's in distraught. He is in distraught," Eunbi corrected him. "I haven't seen him like this since Bomi's incident."

"Who's Bomi?" Jungkook asked. He glanced over at IU, only to see her face darken.

"Bomi was my best friend and Park Kyung's childhood friend," IU said. "We lost her to Timepiece. He was so devastated after that incident."

"And you guys came back to Timepiece?" Jungkook said, raising an eyebrow.

"Bomi would've lived! She would've if it wasn't—" IU stopped herself and looked at Eunbi. Eunbi's face was full of guilt. IU composed herself and took a deep breath. "No, it was Bomi's choice. It wasn't anyone's fault. Forget about it."

"And now," the Timekeeper continued, "let's listen to the second witness!"

The focus was on Cha Eunwoo. He looked around nervously, but it didn't seem like he could see anyone on the upper floor. His mouth moved like Park Kyung's, but once again, there was no sound.

"Why aren't they letting us hear into the conversation? I mean, we were invited to watch for a reason, right?" asked Mingyu.

"It's probably so that we don't hear how to cheat Timepiece," L suggested. "It's probably another method to scare us, too."

"So we need to observe everyone's body language to see who's the snitch, right?" IU said. 

"That's not reliable. What if one of them is a really good actor?" L pointed out. "We can't even trust that the way they're acting is what they're doing. What if Timepiece decided to control their bodies momentarily or if Timepiece is showing us something different compared to what's actually happening down there?"

IU gritted her teeth. "They're toying with us, aren't they?"

L grabbed ahold of IU's shoulder. Jungkook stared at the two.

"Keep calm, IU," L told her.

"How can I keep calm? Three out of the five of us are down there right now!" IU exclaimed.

"…What if none of them are the culprit?" Yoobin asked. They all turned their attention to her. She gulped and nervously looked away. "I-I'm just saying that if Timepiece is trying mess with us, then what if neither of them reported Sandeul and they're just setting this up to trick us?"

There was a long pause. Then, IU slowly nodded her head.

"That might make sense," she murmured.

"What? No, IU. One of them is the snitch," L said. 

"But what if Binnie right?"

"And what if she's not?"

As the two continued to bicker about who was possibly right, Jungkook tugged on Eunbi's sleeves and pulled her back.

"Are you sure that those two aren't dating?" he whispered.

"They aren't," Eunbi insisted. "Is that important right now?"

"I feel like I made things unnecessarily complicated," Yoobin mumbled.

"Yeah, well, I still think that we shouldn't trust any of them," Mingyu said.

Eunbi sighed and tried to remain calm, but she knew that there was no way to stay calm. She looked down at the trial with worry, hoping that everything would end peacefully.

But there was something about Sandeul's eyes that made it seem like nothing would go the way she wanted.

The court eventually went to Jin has a third witness. Out of the three, he seemed to be awfully calm about the situation. He wasn't breaking down like Park Kyung and he wasn't terrified like Dongmin. In fact, his eyes kept wandering towards Sandeul's eyes, which were displayed on the table. His mouth moved, but he didn't seem like he wavered at all.

"He's calm," Yoobin pointed out. "It's like he knows exactly what goes around here."

"Are you implying that Jin might be the one who accused Sandeul of cheating?" IU asked. She curled up her fingers.

"I'm saying that he seems to know exactly what's going to happen to Sandeul," Yoobin said. She looked at her with sad eyes. "I'm sor—"

IU dashed forward and grabbed Yoobin's collar. L and Jungkook quickly held her back from throwing a punch while Yoobin trembled and paled. 

"That's enough!" L shouted. "Don't act so reckless!"

"She just said that Sandeul's going to die!" IU yelled back. "Take that back!"

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Yoobin squeaked out. "I take it back! I didn't mean it!"

"I said enough!" L forcefully pulled IU away and held her above the ground by the waist. She kicked her legs around and struggled to get out of his grasp. "Get ahold of yourself! We don't know if the Timehost and the Timekeepers are watching us, and if they are, your behavior is entertaining them!"

"Who the hell cares? At this point, they're targeting us! They're trying to split us up!" IU yelled.

There was more bickering between the two teammates. Eunbi's team only watched the trial. They kept their eyes on everyone, trying to make out who was saying what. Sandeul would occasionally scream that he was innocent, but sometimes, his voice would be censored to the point where none of the spectators could make out what he was saying.

After what felt like hours, the trial finally came to a decision:

"It is time for: JUDGEMENT!"

A loud thunderous noise echoed throughout the room. Park Kyung and Cha Eunwoo flinched, but only Jin remained still. He stared at Sandeul, who gulped and began to shudder in fear. The six spectators stared down from the window pane, watching with pure anticipation.

"The jury has made their decision. Sandeul the Fourth-time Returnee. You are found..."

The entire room went red. They could all see Cha Eunwoo screaming in his box, even though they couldn't hear his scream. Park Kyung tried to comfort Cha Eunwoo, but his voice wasn't reaching him at all. Then, he turned and stared at Sandeul with a worried gaze.

The floor beneath Sandeul changed. Everyone became silent as the words "GUILTY" were written on the bottom of the floor. 

IU stared. "No..."

"...GUILTY!" the Timekeeper announced.

Sandeul lifted up a finger and hitched his breath.

"According to the first rule of the Timepiece contract," the Timekeeper continued, "any evidence of cheating will result in either a temporary ban or an unconditional capitulation of the user's Rights to Existence. Considering the amount of cheating you have committed, we have decided to strip you of your Rights to Existence." The room darkened. "Thank you for playing."

IU screamed. She banged against the walls, hoping to at least crack the glass. However, the ground beneath them started to break and all of them began to fall down. They all screamed, bracing themselves for the brutal impact awaiting for them.

It took Eunbi a while to realize that she was back to reality. She found herself standing in a circle with Mingyu, Jungkook, Yoobin and Dongmin in the middle of the night. While the three of them looked confused, Dongmin was the only one who looked like he was about to vomit. His skin was awfully pale and he seemed quite dizzy. 

"Where are we?" Yoobin murmured. 

"It looks like we're at a park," Mingyu said. He checked the GPS. "We're not too far from the school."

"Dongmin, are you okay?" Eunbi asked, kneeling besides him. "How are you feeling? What happened back there?"

"I-I don't know," Dongmin stuttered. "Ugh, I feel sick…"

His phone pinged a notification. Eunbi glanced at it, then widened her eyes as she paled. The others took a peek, then shuddered. He looked up at with worry.

"What? What?" he asked.

"…You got the Evil Eye," Jungkook told him.

"For what? What happened?" Dongmin asked.

Eunbi furrowed her eyebrows. "Dongmin, tell us what happened at the trial."

"What happened… They asked me to share my experiences with Sandeul," Dongmin said. "Then they were talking about him cheating? I didn't know what to say—"

"What did you say?" she inquired him.

"I…I told them the truth," Dongmin said. "I told them that I didn't know anything, but that Sandeul was good with technology. That's all I said! I swear!"

"You know, I trust Dongmin more than the other two," Mingyu said.

"So it must have been Jin who reported Sandeul," Eunbi mumbled. At that moment, she received a text from L and read it out loud: "IU and Park Kyung are mad. We're going after Jin. Goodbye."

"What does that mean?" Mingyu asked, looking over her phone. "Are they saying Jin reported Sandeul?"

"And what did they mean when they said 'Goodbye'?" Jungkook asked, inching closer to read the message.

"Of course he did. He probably got an Evil Eye out of it, either," Eunbi replied to Mingyu. She looked over at Dongmin. "I guess they gave the Evil Eye randomly and one was given to you…or you reported him."

"Why would I report him? I wouldn't have known that I would get an Evil Eye for reporting cheaters," Dongmin said. He stared at his phone and placed his hand over his stomach. "It feels like I'm literally holding his eye in my hands, even though it's just my phone."

There was a moment of silence. Then, Yoobin rubbed her arm and stood close to Eunbi.

"Eunbi, I'm scared," Yoobin said. "Do you think that's going to happen to us?"

Eunbi took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm not sure. Honestly, I'm not sure at all."

* * *

The next morning, Eunbi checked the news on her phone. There were a few political news on the headline, but she noticed a small and vaguely summarized news related to a deceased college students. The news report claimed that the student seemed to have been playing with the electrical wires on his computer, which caused an explosion that shocked him and ended his life. Although there was no picture that accompanied the news, the familiar name was displayed vividly in the first sentence:

LEE JUNGHWAN, BORN MARCH 20TH, 1992, FOUND DEAD BY ELECTROCUTION AND NO EYES.