"Ain't no way I'll play rock - paper - scissor, you stupid?"
"You sure you aren't just scared?"
"I am," Varrie says, surprisingly honest. "That's why I'm not playin' that stupid game with you. Find another... with some complexity. Like a true game."
The pair of red eyes saw through it. A game of rock-paper-scissors would be nice. But she won't play a game she might lose so easily.
In fact, she's not going to play any game that looks fair to me. After all, if my loss is guaranteed, her reward is guaranteed. The sad part here is that I can't do anything about that since I'm the one with my back against the wall. She knows this damn well.
"If you don't have anything, I do." There's that smirk I waited for. She wasn't the only one who got caught in a hook. I did too.
She is one step ahead of me.
Or so I want her to think. That is part of the plan.
The first step is letting the girls' guard down. It was hard with them hating me out of nowhere. Thankfully, Sohee's outbursts showed them that I had no prior plan before coming here (which is, in some way, true). Now I top it off by getting caught in a Varrie's trap. They now see me as some sort of idiot.
And not dangerous.
Seems like everything is going well. To the next part...
"Sohee," I whisper.
She moves closer, "Yes, Sunbae?"
"How's your day?"
"Uh… is this the right time to talk about that?"
"Yes."
"Well, if you have to know… the student council is quite busy these days. A festival is coming up. And I can't help them much because I have… You know, this to handle."
"Right… right."
"Sunbae, are you really sure this is the right time to talk about other stuff?"
"Now that you said that, maybe it isn't."
"Eh?"
I pull myself off her, leaving Sohee all confused.
"So we playin' or what?"
I stay quiet, appearing to be thinking.
"Cards? How about we play cards?"
"Cards? You brought a deck out with you?"
"Of course not. We have one right here, don't we?"
Everyone's eyes land on the box of play cards on the table. It is Claire's. She left it here before leaving the room.
I have no idea why she did that random thing. But I have a much more pressing matter to worry about.
My hand reaches for the box.
"Yo, you sure? That's the Silver Lady's thing," Varrie warns.
"Is she that scary?" I remembered her face when Sohee asked her to wake Claire up.
"Course she is. Ain't you heard of her?"
"What about her?"
Sohee, who has been quiet for a while, interjects. "That's just a rumor, Varrie."
"Yeah, well, it ain't for me. Seen her with a bunch of bad-lookin' people in the city. She's bad news, just a warnin.'"
Bad-looking people? How bad are we talking about? Can they send someone into another world? Stab someone to death only to resurrect them? No, don't think so. Whatever the consequence I get by using her cards, it's much better than what I get by failing this evening.
"I'm sure that's nothing," Sohee says.
Varrie clicked her tongue, "Well, I'm sayin' this guy the first thing when she asks me about her cards."
"You can do that."
My fingers open up the box. 52 cards— still looking new. Claire, huh. I'm curious what was in that girl's head? Who just intentionally leaves something that they just bought?
I begin shuffling, two, three times. And put it on the table.
She raises her eyebrow, "So, what do you have in mind?"
I sprawl out the cards, showing their faces. "It's a game that requires both jokers in it."
All the girls lean forward, watching the still-image of a clown laughing.
"How long is this game, schools almost over, no?"
"It's a quick game."
"Another rock - paper- scissors, stuff?"
"Not at all. That's why this requires a little bit of explanation."
I wait for the girls to catch up with their thoughts.
"Here's how it goes. We'd only be using eight cards in total. Six of them are random; anything will do, but the other two must be the jokers. All eight cards will be shuffled. After that, we'd placed them face down on the table in random order.
"You will take six cards out of the table. The remaining cards are mine."
I stop to catch my breath.
"Shizuka is quite curious, please continue," she says.
The black eyes are monitoring every single one of my words intently. Looks like she's about to make her move, too.
"If my cards are not all jokers, I lose," I shove the cards closer to the girls. "And I won't touch the cards at all—" Just in case you guys are worried that I might rig it.
They aren't my cards to begin with anyway.
Silence.
Everyone is in their own thought. Some confused. I understand that. The very game that I suggested has a worse chance of winning than rock-paper-scissors.
Varrie's rubbing her fingers against each other, looking at the cards. Hesitation. Thinking. Decision. Her red eyes up at me… her lips loose.
— "But Sunbae. This game is not fair for Nelly."
Shizuka.
The eyes are like a void. Though we're face-to-face, since the beginning, our eyes never really meet with each other. Her eyes go over and through me even now.
Varrie pulls herself back, letting Shizuka take the stage.
"How is it not fair, Shizuka?"
"If she wins, this game only rewards the dumb Varrie, is not it? However, if she loses, it punishes Little Nelly here, too."
Nelly nods hard as if saying, 'Oh yeah, that's true, that's true.' Meanwhile, Varrie has nothing to say, just sitting there with her body trembling. Is she putting up with Shizuka? She lashes out at me pretty easily. But not with her?
"The game put so much weight on half-brained Varrie and her selfishness," Shizuka continues, "She is but one of the students in the special class."
"What are you implying here, Shizuka? Do you want to discontinue the deal Sunbae made with Varrie?" Sohee catches her pretty quickly. But she failed to see the face Shizuka is making.
A smile, one that hurts people. "No, Sohee. Shizuka only suggested to... let four of the girls play."
This girl… she's something else. With her point, she could've closed any opportunity of Varrie getting in a deal with me. But she doesn't want to do that. It'd be boring. So she made it fun. Everyone will be in it. That was good, Shizuka. You made me laugh inwardly.
"Four?" Sohee asks.
"Since Sohee is the only girl here who dares to touch the silver lady's belongings, she is in charge of shuffling the cards and representing Claire."
That's one good move, too. Taking out my only ally.
"Hold on!" Varrie yelps… but then lowers her voice, "but that girl clearly has hots for that guy. What if she cheats or somethin'? Isn't this game like her idea in the first place?"
"M— my idea?"
"Oh, please, you two were whispering before."
"But we're talking about something else!"
Varrie's eyes narrow. She can't trust that. Looks like that part of the plan works.
"Sohee…." Nelly. That was Nelly's voice, "Sohee's, not like that…She doesn't lie…"
Shizuka nods, "Then that makes two against one. Sohee will shuffle the cards."
Turning to my direction, Shizuka puts a finger on her plump lips, "So how about it, Sun - bae? Still want to continue?"
"Sure."
I didn't hesitate.
Even if Shizuka never comes in, Varrie would still be suspicious. This new condition, where every girls pla,y is something I have in mind if Varrie keeps rejecting my game proposal.
Thankfully, this isn't the worst-case scenario