1:19AM.

For once, Yeri was quiet. She sat there scratching her head and humming to herself and she looked rather annoyed at something.

‘C’mon,’ Seulgi said. ‘It’s your turn.’

‘So let me get this straight.’

‘Here we go again.’

‘You plan all this out, presumably weeks in advance, right?’

Rosie was silent, eyes on snakes and ladders.

‘Mr Jae’s been visiting for how long, exactly? Anyone?’

‘About eight weeks,’ Jennie said from the other sofa. She had been watching them play for some time and unlike with Irene when she sat down Yeri had not invited her to play. Had not talked to her at all.

‘Eight weeks.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Why not just say two months then?’

‘I don’t know. Does it matter?’

‘Suppose not,’ Yeri said. ‘Was just making sure you knew that eight weeks was two months, you know?’

‘I’m not stupid.’

‘Not that stupid, sure. Anyway, back on topic, I just wanna hammer home the facts. Nail down the tent peg of facts. Tightly secure and bind the facts in place. Just to be super positive. So, he’s been coming here for two months – or eight weeks, if you like – and in that time you got talking to him. Correct?’

Rosie was silent.

‘And somewhere in that timeframe, somehow you come to the conclusion that he wants my granduncle dead and is actually willing to go through with that, am I right here? I mean, that’s pretty ing crazy. I’m not saying I don’t believe it, because, well…you did it. You killed him. But still. As far as stories go, it sounds like something this one would write.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Wendy asked.

‘Nothing. Where did you even come from anyway? And what’s that?’

Wendy held up the square bottle. ‘It’s bourbon,’ she said.

‘Great.’

‘I found it in Mr Kim’s lounge upstairs. Good stuff. Do you want some?’

‘No, I’m good, thanks. Think I’ll stick to water and champagne for now. Love a bit of the bubbly. Anyway, where were we? Oh, , yeah…you and Mr Jae. So, you somehow concoct a plan to have the guy killed – my granduncle, I mean, not Mr Jae, but don’t you worry, we’ll get to that part too. And then, once you’ve got that sorted, you decide that the best time to do it is at this dinner party, when there’s more people in the house, more people you can lay the blame on. Yeah? Yeah, I bet. Now, as for the timeline, just so I’m one hundred percent sure – you plan on cutting the power and switching his medication around, but you don’t get chance to do that, because the storm knocks the power out for you. Boom, of supreme luck right there. But then Mr Jae cuts the power anyway, because…why, exactly?’

‘Because Mr Kim didn’t die,’ Wheein said. ‘He was still alive, remember? He came out of his room on the balcony. That was right before the power went out.’

‘Right. Of course. Silly me. So, you switch the medicines – boom, your job’s done and dusted. All you have to do now is wait for this decrepit seventy-year-old man in ill health to die a painful and helpless death via morphine overdose, writhing around in agony at his desk.’

‘Jesus. Do you have to make it sound so…morbid?’

‘Well, was it not?’

‘No. Because—’

‘He didn’t die, yeah yeah I get it. But it’s the intent behind it, right? Anyway, back on topic once again – you and Mr Jae see him alive up there on the balcony and you both freak out, because the guy should be dead, but he’s not. He’s right there, smiling down, telling us about the ing stew we’re about to be eating. And so Mr Jae takes a cheeky trip to the generator room, knocks out the power, and then…what? Irene, help me out here. I seem to have forgotten the next part.’

Irene remained silent. She was sat on the same sofa as Seulgi and every so often they would glance at each other and Seulgi would smile softly and turn away again but otherwise neither said a word. They just played snakes and ladders.

‘Irene?’

She leant forward a slight to move her piece on the board.

‘Great. So…nothing, then? Did we even go over that part?’

‘No,’ Irene said.

‘Didn’t think so. And I mean, don’t you think that’s a big ing glaring hole in your description of events? We don’t even know if Rosie here killed my granduncle.’

‘Thank you,’ Rosie said. ‘Finally.’

‘Oh, don’t get me wrong, you’re going away for a long, long time. I mean, even if we don’t get you on a murder charge, which I expect we will, considering, y’know, you killed Mr Jae, you’re looking at a big fat attempted murder charge for my granduncle, too. Because even if you didn’t kill him – which you did – you at least admitted yourself to switching the vials around. And in case you didn’t know, that’s attempted murder, sweetheart.’

‘Who’s we?’ said Wheein.

‘What?’

‘You said, “Even if we don’t get you.” Who’s we?’

‘Oh, I meant the police.’

‘Do you work for the police?’

Yeri scoffed. ‘That’s the most insulting thing I’ve heard all day,’ she said.

‘Well why did you say it then?’

‘It’s a figure of speech, Cornificius.’

‘Who?’

‘Cornificius. What? C’mon, guys. You know, right? Lucius Cornificius? Roman rhetorician and consul, famous for allegedly writing the Rhetorica ad Herennium, the first book to classify figures of speech into four separate linguistic and literary categories? No? Not ringing a bell? Jesus, read a ing book for once, please.’

‘What relevance does this Confucius guy have on anything?’

‘Cornificius, and I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you? I was making a joke by comparing you – a person who is incapable of understanding figures of speech – to the guy who wrote the book, literally wrote the book, on figures of speech. And-’ she paused. Then: ‘You know what? Forget it. It’s like talking to a slab of concrete.’

‘What was your ing point?’ Sooyoung said.

‘Woah, relax.’

‘How about instead of going on and on with these tangents about completely unrelated , you actually get to the point for once?’

‘Why are you so bothered all of a sudden? It’s not like we’re going anywhere for the next…Irene, what time is it?’

‘Half past one,’ Irene said.

‘Four or five hours. Take it in your stride.’

Sooyoung clicked her teeth and folded her arms and said no more.

‘Right, back to where I was – where was I? Oh, yeah. So, you’re going to jail no matter what, but – and this is a big but – get it, big ? – we still don’t actually know who stabbed my granduncle, do we? We didn’t figure that part out. Because you just assumed it was Rosie, as that makes the most amount of sense, but Rosie here denies it fervently. Don’t you?’

‘I didn’t stab him,’ Rosie said. She sounded utterly defeated. As if there were no more excuses she could give to protect her name.

‘Well you would say that, naturally. But, yeah…my point stands. Irene?’

Before Irene had a chance to reply Seulgi rose and turned and walked away.

‘Hey, wait,’ said Yeri. ‘Where are you going? Seulgi. Come back! We haven’t finished the game yet. For Christ’s sake, what is it with people and commitment? This is why I stay single. Never ends up in anything other than a broken heart. Stick to speed dating and , that’s my philosophy.’

Irene watched her go all the way up the stairs and disappear out of sight. When she was gone fully Yeri finished her glass of champagne and said, ‘I suppose you’re gonna go follow her now, aren’t you?’

‘What’s it to you if I do or not?’

‘You can do what you like. But I asked a question.’

‘No.’

‘What?’

‘There’s your answer – no. we don’t know who stabbed Mr Kim, because we don’t have any DNA evidence, and no we don’t know if he was already dead before the knife went into his back, because we don’t have a toxicology report either. But Rosie here admitted to switching the medicines when the power was out, which is all we need. It’s a logical conclusion.’

‘I didn’t,’ Rosie said.

‘We know. You’ve said.’

‘No, I mean I didn’t switch the medicines when the lights went out.’

‘What?’

‘I did it when the lights were on.’

They all looked at her.

‘It was, like, five twenty or something. I don’t know the time. But Mr Jae told me he would distract Mr Kim and give me reason to sneak into his study and switch the vials around, which I did. The lights were on. I thought about doing it when the power went out, but then I thought maybe he’d still be in there, or maybe I’d get caught or something.’

‘Wait,’ Wheein said, ‘what? Slow down. I’m confused about the whole timeline now.’

‘Okay okay,’ Yeri said, ‘let me get this straight, just so we’re all clear. Lights go out just after five, right?’

‘Five oh five,’ Irene said.

‘Right. Lights go out at five oh five, thanks to the storm, but in that time…nothing happens? What is it, then? Just a red herring? An unfortunate coincidence? Another one?’

Rosie shrugged and rolled the dice. ‘I didn’t do anything,’ she said. ‘Why would I lie about that? I’ve already told you I switched the medicines.’

‘Okay, so…lights out, but nothing happens. Then the lights come back on, Mr Jae talks to my granduncle, and while he’s distracted you switch the medicines.’

‘Yes.’

‘And then half an hour later, right before dinner, Mr Jae cuts the power in the generator room, including the phone lines, and then you grab a knife, sneak into my granduncle’s study, and get all stabby stabby?’

‘No,’ Rosie said. ‘How many times do I have to say I didn’t stab anyone until you believe me?’

‘Who did then?’ Jisoo asked, lurking behind the sofas.

‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Presumably Mr Jae.’

‘Right,’ Wheein said. ‘And then you poisoned him, and blamed it on me?’

‘What? Blamed it on you? How—’

‘You put that vial of naloxone in the drawer in my room. No idea how you got in there, mind you, but yeah.’

‘Oh , yeah,’ Yeri said. ‘I totally forgot about that part.’

‘I think you all did.’

‘I didn’t do that either,’ Rosie said. ‘I never stepped foot in your room.’

‘So how did it get there, then? Black magic ritual? And what did you use to poison the stew? Morphine? Cyanide? Does cyanide have a smell? Can you get cyanide in liquid form? I think you can, right?’

‘Cyanide would be easy for a maid to get,’ Sooyoung said. ‘I read that potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide are often found in foods. I bet you can get your hands on that stuff super easily in, like, salt or something. I don’t know.’

‘Salt? Really?’

‘I didn’t ing poison the stew!’ Rosie said. ‘How— you know what? Never mind. I give up. It’s your turn.’

‘What?’ Yeri said.

‘It’s your move. Roll the dice.’

‘Is that meant to be some sort of vague threat?’

‘What? No. I mean, literally roll the dice. It’s your move.’

‘Oh. Yeah.’

She cupped both dice in her palm and blew on them for good luck and rolled a combined five and moved straight to the longest snake on the board and with it dropped all the way back down to the beginning. Square number one.

‘.’

‘ to be you,’ Wheein said.

‘Yeah yeah. You’re gonna eat your words in about ten minutes time, just you watch.’

‘I don’t think I’ll be eating anything tonight, to be honest with you. Irene. Irene, where are you going?’

‘For a walk,’ Irene said.

She found Seulgi in Mr Kim’s empty lounge, standing at the far side of the room by the window and watching herself in the rainwarp of the glass. If she heard Irene come in she made no show of acknowledging it and Irene never made a sound. She just stood there watching Seulgi, her heart swelling. She was so beautiful, almost unfortunately so, because it distracted from anything else Irene had to think about. And she had a lot to think about indeed.

‘Don’t stare,’ Seulgi said. ‘It’s rude.’

‘How did you know I was here?’

‘Heard you coming up the stairs. I know what your footsteps are like. Always two at a time, always left foot first.’

Irene smiled. The rain beat on. Somewhere out in the darker world stars hung in their wayward sockets and lightning broke again in sourceless violence and Seulgi rose Counterseulgi in the brief white glare of the glass and was lost again and all was dark once more. Seulgi turned to Irene, posted there in the doorway like a visitation.

‘What’s wrong?’ Irene said. ‘Seulgi. Tell me.’

‘Nothing’s wrong. It’s just…’

‘Just what?’

The reply was a long time coming. Seulgi sighed. ‘Why do I always feel like such a ing failure?’ she said.

‘What? Where’s this come from? Is this about—’

‘It’s not about any one thing and I don’t know where it’s come from, so don’t expect an answer to either of those questions. I just…I dunno, Irene. I feel so helpless. Like I’m trapped in my own useless body and I’m not smart enough or talented enough to do anything about it.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I don’t know. I really don’t. The artwork, my career options, everything that’s happened tonight. You know, this is what made us fall apart. I always felt like you were too good for me. Like I was beneath you, like you could do so much better than to stick with someone like me. I mean, look at tonight for an example. Here you are, making friends with all the guests and fitting in and things, and then a ing murder happens, and everyone freaks out, and you’re right there taking charge and calming everyone down and sorting things out properly. You’re walking around putting all the pieces of this mystery together like you’re some ing jigsaw wizard or something. You even found the guy’s will in a box in his collection room. Even when you were freaking out to me about being useless earlier you ended up solving it. And here I am doing what, exactly? I just wanted to help. I still wanna help. Wanna do something good for once. All I’ve done today is make out with you and get laughed at by Yeri. And neither of things are fun without reciprocation.’

‘I reciprocated,’ Irene said.

‘No, I— forget it.’

She looked so very hurt. Irene couldn’t bear to witness it for much longer. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said gently.

‘I know.’

‘We could always make out again if you want. I could put some tongue work in this time.’

That made Seulgi laugh, if only for a moment. ‘Idiot,’ she mumbled.

‘Just because I’m good at taking charge doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing. I’m still winging it some of the time. Most of the time. It doesn’t mean much at all. Just means I know how to talk over people quite well.’

‘I’m serious.’

‘So am I. Seulgi. Seulgi, look at me. You’re so much more than you think you are. So much more. You’ve just got to stop comparing yourself to others all the time, because it’s not going to help you at all. Everyone is different. Completely different. Trust me, I’ve been there before, and it’s not a good place to be. You’re talented and gorgeous and amazing and yes I still love you and I want you to succeed and yes I also realise it’s weird that we’re talking about this in the middle of a dead man’s lounge room over a pool table but hey, it’s been a day of weird so far, so what’s one more slice of weird on top of that?’

Seulgi laughed again. She looked as if she had been crying. The pale light made a mess of her face. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Guess you have a point there.’

‘I’m sorry. For everything. If we’re going to talk at some point, I’d rather it by right now, now that we’ve figured things out, before I get chance to it up again. Because you know I will. You know that the moment the police arrive or we leave, if we haven’t sorted things out then I’m just…gone. You know what I’m like.’

‘Yeah,’ Seulgi said with a solemn little smile. ‘Yeah, I do.’

‘I don’t have much else to say. Only that yeah we may argue all the time and yeah we may get on each other’s nerves and yeah sometimes it made me really goddamn annoyed when you’d accidentally leave the bedroom window open and then you’d steal all the covers and I’d wake up at four AM in the freezing ing cold listening to some drunken idiot outside throwing up, but we were good, weren’t we?’

‘Not all the time.’

‘No. Probably not even most of the time. But I loved you.’

‘I loved you too. I still love you.’

‘Well then.’

Seulgi was quiet for a while. There existed an awful roiling in Irene’s stomach that had her thinking perhaps she was wrong. And then as if to confirm these fears Seulgi said, in her infinite wisdom: ‘You know real life doesn’t work like the fairytales, right?’

‘Yeah. I do.’

‘That we can’t just meet up out of the blue one day and make out and then suddenly it’s all sunshine and roses and all the problems are forgotten.’

‘Rainbows.’

‘What?’

‘It’s, uh…sunshine and rainbows.’

‘Oh. Well whatever thing that also comes with sunshine and is positive. It doesn’t work like that.’

Irene hung her head. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Yeah, I know. I just…yeah.’

‘A lot’s changed. We’ve changed.’

‘I know.’

‘I don’t know if it would work between us anymore.’

Irene found that she had nothing more to say. She put one hand on the doorframe and turned to leave and Seulgi said, quieter: ‘But.’

‘But?’

‘I don’t know if it would work between us, but I’d be willing to try. If you are, I mean.’

Irene broke into a beaming smile. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘More than willing.’

‘Good.’

‘I’ve been thinking about you for months. Not in a creepy way or anything, or like…fantasising about you. But just about making amends. These past few months I’ve just…I mean, I’ve been trying to call. I’ve been on my own for long enough.’

‘What?’

‘I said—’

‘No, I know what you said. I’ve been on my own for long enough.’

‘Yeah.’

‘That’s lyrics to a song, isn’t it?’

‘Uh…no.’

‘Yes it is.’

‘It isn’t. I just made it up.’

‘Maybe you can show me how to love. That’s the next part, right?’

‘No idea what you’re talking about.’

Seulgi just laughed.

‘Are you coming back downstairs?’

‘I will do, yeah. Just give me a couple minutes to, you know…be with myself.’

‘Yeah. Of course. Seulgi.’

‘Yeah?’

It was Irene’s turn to smile. ‘I love you,’ she said.

‘I love you too.’