Astronomy // Duty After School

Chapter Fifty-Four.

With everyone gathered in the meeting room, Chi-yeol set down three crumpled voting ballots onto the voting box. Chun-ho and So-chul were at Yu-jeong's side.

"What is this?" Yu-jeong asked.

"It's a voting paper So-chul had," Chi-yeol answered almost hesitantly. "They are three 'no' votes. Please explain why... So-chul had these." There was a beat of silence before Hui-rak darted over to take a look.

"Wh-What is this?" Hui-rak demanded. "Why are the 'no' votes here?" Sun-yi walked over and took a specific ballot from Hui-rak.

"This is definitely the 'no' vote I wrote yesterday," Sun-yi stated, holding up a curved X for all to see. "The fact that he was hiding this means he fooled us and made it look like there were more 'yes' votes."

"Who fooled us? Do you mean So-chul did that?" So-yun asked.

"What are you talking about? Platoon Leader would have noticed something like that," Yeong-shin stated. They all turned to look at Chun-ho and Yu-jeong.

"I asked So-chul to destroy the old votes. That's why he had them," Yu-jeong said simply.

"Why did he only have 'no' votes? He even had three of them," Yeong-su said. "Isn't this evidence that the voting was corrupted."

"Don't jump to conclusions. So-chul had no reason to do that," Yeon-ju stated. "And Platoon Leader wouldn't deceive us."

"What is all this nonsense? Hey, talk clearly!" Bo-ra demanded.

"Hold on, guys," Ae-seol said quickly. "What are we speculating? This would only cause misunderstandings."

"Then we can find the truth right now," So-yeon stated. "If it wasn't manipulated, the result would be the same as yesterday. Who are the ones who voted 'no'? Raise your hands."

"Hey, we shouldn't just do this carelessly—" Tae-man started to say.

"Why won't you let us?" Sun-yi snapped. "Wang Tae-man, you're acting suspicious."

"What?" Tae-man seethed. "All you were doing was getting excited earlier. Just shut the fuck up for a second!"

"Fuck?" Sun-yi repeated.

"Yes, fuck!"

"Hey!"

"What?"

"Do you think I don't know how to swear?" Sun-yi snarled.

"Go ahead, then!" Tae-man exclaimed.

"Stop, stop!" Yeong-shin said, quickly stepping in to break the fight up. Sun-yi muttered under her breath, shaking away Yeong-shin's hand and storming away. Tae-man, too, backed off. "Don't get worked up. Let's sort things out."

"I heard... So-chul arguing with someone earlier," Chi-yeol confessed.

"What?"

"If... that's the case, would they be an accomplice—?" Chi-yeol was abruptly interrupted.

"Hey, Kim Chi-yeol. What are you talking about suddenly?" So-yeon demanded.

"Who did he argue with?" Yeon-ju asked. "Are you sure? Why are you mentioning this now? You didn't say anything earlier!"

"I couldn't because it was the wrong time," Chi-yeol defended. "We would've been traveling home with even more doubt. That's why I didn't mention it. I don't know what's going on... First of all, we need to find out who he was arguing with at the hospital. So-chul, you'll make things easier for us by telling it yourself." So-chul, however, was not one to rat out his friends. "Then... Let's talk about what everyone was doing and where."