Love's Lethal Game | Night Has Come

Chapter 05

"I gathered all of you here not to decide whom we should vote for," Kim Jun-Hee, the class president, spoke up, "But to give up on voting."

"Give up on voting?" someone repeated in confusion.

"Are you sure about that?"

Kim Jun-Hee clarified, "If we vote, one person is guaranteed to die. But if we don't, we'll all survive."

Choi Mi-Na stepped forward and queried, "What if we agreed not to vote, but someone votes in secret? What are you going to do then?"

"She has a point," said Park Ji-Soo, "How am I supposed to trust you?"

Jun-Hee responded, "We should trust each other. We can collect all our phones, so no one can vote."

Baek Eun-Ha spoke up with an optimistic tone, "He's right. If we collect our phones, no one can vote. That'll work."

"Who's going to keep the phones?" inquired Ji-Soo, "The person in charge might change his mind."

Lee Yoon-Seo gestured to the center of the circle and replied, "Let's keep them in the center for everyone to see."

"Yes, we can all watch together," agreed Oh Jung-Won.

"What if someone steals it?" Mi-Na queried again, "I'm not doing it. I'm not handing in my phone."

Cha Yu-Jun, however, believed in this method and tried to convince his girlfriend, "I think it's a good idea. Let's hand in our phones."

"Are you crazy?" responded his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Lee Joo-Young was trying to persuade Mi-Na to hand in her phone, "Who'd steal your phone? Just hand it in."

"No way!" Mi-Na replied.

"Can't you live without your phone?!" Joo-Young shouted back.

"Don't," warned Ji-Soo to her boyfriend.

"Why not?" asked Yu-Jun softly.

"Why are you yelling at me?" Mi-Na asked Joo-Young before she threw away her hair curler from her bangs onto the floor angrily.

"If we hand it in, no one will die," convinced Yu-Jun to his girlfriend.

Ji-Eun stayed quiet as she observed the heated discussion. The tension in the room was palpable, each student grappling with the dilemma of trust versus self-preservation. The idea of giving up their only means of communication in such a precarious situation was daunting, yet the alternative of voting and risking another life was equally harrowing.

"Oh, just shut the fuck up, all of you," Go Kyung-Jun suddenly spoke up.

All eyes turned to him and watched as he approached them with a large yellow trash bin which was empty and bore no odor. There was a white plaster on his cheek, courtesy of Ji-Eun for tending to his wound. He walked into the circle and said, "The class president is actually making sense for once. What's stopping you?"

He halted in the center, right in front of Jun-Hee, and dropped the trash bin on the floor. He then turned to everyone else and stated, "Hand in your phones, so no one can vote."

He then pulled out his own phone and held it in mid-air, ensuring everyone got to see it so they knew how serious he was to pull this through. He then added with a warning, "I will personally make sure all of you hand in your phones."

Kyung-Jun spun around, looking directly at Jang Hyun-Ho in a challenging stare, and said, "Listen to me when I'm being nice."

With that, he dropped his phone into the trash bin. Ji-Eun observed as he began to pick up the bin with one hand and bring it to everyone else, starting with Hyun-Ho and Jun-Hee. Ji-Eun realized how no one talked back to Kyung-Jun once he made it clear that Jun-Hee's idea was good. Or perhaps everyone was scared of opposing him when they all knew how ruthless and intimidating he was.