“I notice weaknesses and insecurities, and I try to help people grow past them whenever the opportunity presents itself.” I studied his reactions as I laid down the foundations.

  “I’ve been aware of Mei’s and Osamu’s for a while now. Do you know what they are?” I needed to set a baseline understanding.

  “Well, Mei admitted that she feels like we don't trust you. You’ve already mentioned how Osamu has an insecurity of feeling entitled, but apart from not asking Yaeko out, I don’t know how else that would manifest.”

  I quickly realised that this might be the last time Yori ever views me as a friend.

  But for some reason, I don't feel scared.

  I want to trust in him.

  I want to believe that he can see past the real me and still accept me.

  It’s completely irrational, but I’m still choosing to trust him.

  “For Mei, she actually has two things.” Yori tried hiding his shock, but his eyes opened a bit too wide. “You’re right, she admitted to feeling like we don't trust her. Beyond that, she lacks any confidence in herself.” He slowly nodded as I elaborated.

  “Sure, she studies hard and she’s confident on tests, but she isn’t confident in her abilities to actually get things done, whether that’s facilitating group discussion like you, or preventing friendships from shattering like me.”

  His slow nodding gradually sped up.

  “For example, when she was scared that Nobu might hit Yaeko, she looked at me to help instead of trying to talk Nobu out of it herself.” I could see that Yori understood my point, so I transitioned to Osamu.

  “As for Osamu, you’re completely right. He has a fear of looking like he thinks he’s entitled to things.” I slowed down as I took a second to think.

  I’d just had an emotional conversation with Osamu.

  Out of respect to him, I didn’t want to reveal everything, so I decided to keep to details I only knew about before that discussion.

  “It manifests as him being passive in conversation, even when he has stuff to say. It means he’s relieved when other people speak instead of him, even if he wasn’t done speaking.” Yori didn’t seem convinced, so I decided to give him another example.

  “Back when we were discussing how our first games went, I had suspicions about these manifestations. I wanted to confirm them.”

  Yori swallowed, breaking eye contact for a second as he began understanding how in control I was, but I ignored it and continued.

  “Yaeko, Mei and I were the first to talk about our games. We all said how many rounds it took, and referenced our point total.” I looked Yori in the eyes as he nodded, recalling the conversation. “Do you remember what happened next?” I patiently waited until he started speaking.

  “Yeah… you asked Osamu how his game went… you were doing it to confirm your read on him?” Yori looked at me in disbelief. Even though he pieced it together, he still didn’t believe me.

  “Exactly.”

  I smiled, trying to put him at ease.

  “As expected, he just said he won and shrugged off the question. He gave no other details.” I made sure to note Yori’s blank stare before continuing.

  “I intentionally asked him what his strategy was. He immediately stiffened, leaning back in his chair. He wanted to hide, but a second later, I saw a flicker of energy spread across his face. After that, he started smiling.” I paused, giving Yori time to connect the dots himself.

  “His initial reaction was to hide, but when you showed you were genuinely interested, he got excited to explain it to you…”

  I could feel a sense of slight disbelief, but it didn’t sound like he was shocked.

  He’s slowly starting to understand, but this was just the surface.

  “Based off your reaction, I’m sure you didn’t even notice the important part.” He turned to face me, trying to figure out what I was talking about.

  A few seconds passed and he shook his head, so I started explaining.

  “He started explaining his strategy to me in detail, but he looked around and noticed everyone staring at him.” Yori instantly made eye contact as he understood my point.

  “That’s when he stopped explaining… I noticed it was a bit weird how he moved on so abruptly, he felt uncomfortable with everyone watching him because he was scared to be the focus of the conversation.”

  He smiled for a second, but I didn’t feel any relief yet.

  I eagerly waited to see if he kept that smile when he saw the true extent of it.

  I waited to see if he still smiled when he saw what I allowed to accomplish my goals.

  “Exactly. Keep both of those in mind as I tell you about my plan.”

  I softly chuckled, embracing myself for what’s about to happen..

  “We’re about to get to the good part.” Yori sat with a straight face, awaiting my challenge.

  “I guess I’ll start by telling you I lied about my point total.”

  Yori’s mouth slightly opened, but he didn’t condemn me.

  He knew I wouldn’t bring it up without explaining it, and it didn’t even matter whether or not he knew.

  He’d never tell anyone without proof.

  He saw how damaging an accusation could be when Nobu accused Yaeko. He could be recording the conversation on his phone, but I could say with absolute certainty that wasn’t the case.

  He would never record a conversation like this.

  Even if he had proof, he understands that I’m trying to save our friendships. Exposing me would make people lose trust in me, putting our friendships in greater danger.

  Even if he exposed me because he’s the traitor, I’d rather fight an uphill battle against a known enemy than to protect everyone from every single threat.

  “I was in an argument with Yaeko. I wanted to show her that she can’t just have her way and ignore what’s best for the group, so I was arguing that she should lose the points from the third prompt-” He interrupted me.

  “Yeah, you used a mathematical argument to prove you still had fewer points than her.” I nodded before agreeing.

  “That’s right, but she shifted to an argument based off trust. She said that I shouldn’t be trusted with making decisions if I was hiding my point total.” Yori nodded to show me he was still following along.

  “At that point, the back and forth wasn’t about getting Yaeko to stand down. It was to make sure I didn’t lose control over the group.”

  My gaze drifted away as I explained.

  “I knew that this game was designed with destructive intent. The first prompt wanted to make the group gang up on someone. The third prompt was a failsafe, guaranteeing chaos and destruction if the first two failed.” Yori also looked away as he understood that I don’t just read people.

  He’s starting to realise that I analyse every single thing around me.

  “I knew that if I lost control of the group, I wouldn’t be able to protect anyone from the very things this game was designed to accomplish.” I swallowed, waiting for Yori to meet my eyes before continuing.

  “I could have told the truth about my total, but I understood that could make me a target, or make it easier to eliminate me later down the line. That forced me to lie so the group wouldn’t lose trust in me.”

  I carefully watched as Yori processed everything.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “With that information in mind, can you try to figure out how I made sure my lie wouldn’t be exposed in the fourth round?” I felt a bit of anxiety creep in, but I decided to ignore it as he took a few seconds to think.

  “Let’s see… I remember you instantly suggested that Nobu should win the vote.”

  He paused.

  “You must have known how disingenuous it would look if you advocated for yourself or me or Mei… that would make the group trust you even less. But how did you know that Nobu would check Yaeko over you?” He leaned back as he continued analysing.

  “I didn’t.”

  He immediately smiled in confusion at the shock and absurdity of those words.

  “To clarify, there was no reason Nobu would choose Yaeko over me at the start of the round.”

  Yori’s smile vanished as he watched with curiosity.

  “I realised I could create a situation where I could make Nobu win the vote, and exploit his personality to make sure he wouldn’t check my point total.”

  I intentionally used the word “exploit” to elicit a negative reaction from Yori, but there wasn’t one. He wasn’t surprised by my thought process anymore, and he didn’t seem repulsed by it either.

  “I used Nobu’s status as the most trustworthy in the group to make a logical argument on why he’d be the obvious winner.” Yori nodded, but that was only the simple part.

  “The reason I acted immediately was because I had to be the person that said he should win.”

  He nodded more slowly.

  “Nobu’s close with all of you guys except me, Osamu and Yaeko. I knew that if one of us made a big show of how much we trust him with that power, his personality would never let him betray that trust by checking our point total, so my lie would be protected.”

  I felt a tinge of guilt as I reflected on my conversation with Nobu.

  Now that I understood he craved validation, it became even more obvious he wouldn’t betray that trust, but I kept that information to myself.

  “You did that all so you wouldn’t lose control of the group. So you wouldn’t lose your ability to help us.”

  He quietly laughed.

  “Did you really think I’d be scared off by that?”

  I couldn’t help but smile.

  He hadn’t seen anything yet.

  I wondered if someone else would feel anxious or scared.

  I wondered what it meant for me if I couldn’t feel those emotions in such a pivotal moment of my life.

  I ignored those thoughts. There’s no point being scared or anxious. It won’t accomplish anything.

  I continued to dive into the unknown head on.

  “There’s a lot more.”

  I stopped smiling.

  I knew he’d just become less and less likely to accept what’s to come.

  “During the fifth round, I had another argument with Yaeko where I tried to show how Nobu wasn’t guaranteed to be guilty. That included explaining why Nobu chose Yaeko, and I did it extremely easily.”

  I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I asked the most dangerous question yet.

  “Why didn’t I explain that immediately during the fourth round? Why didn’t I protect Nobu when Yaeko baited him into that rage?”

  Yori’s smile immediately vanished.

  He swallowed as he stared at the empty sheets of paper on my desk.

  “You’re saying you needed him, no you allowed him to be in pain…?” He looked up at me. “You could’ve helped him… but you didn’t…”

  His voice fragmented.

  “Why…?”

  This was much closer to the reaction I anticipated, but there was no point stopping without explaining the benefit.

  “I saw an opportunity to help Mei and Osamu grow past their weaknesses.”

  I answered, devoid of any emotion.

  Yori continued to look anywhere except my eyes.

  “I wanted to create a situation where Osamu would be forced to speak up in front of everybody. After that, I needed someone to praise him and give him positive feedback on this new behaviour.”

  I cleared my throat before continuing.

  “I started by whispering to Mei just before the fifth round started. I told her that she needed to choose the right time to praise Osamu for stepping into the spotlight and protecting Yaeko.”

  Yori plainly looked into my eyes. I imagined that he was still trying to understand how I could believe that Nobu’s pain was worth something.

  “I was going to wait a bit to put my plan into action, but Yaeko started attacking Nobu again. She intentionally used his weakness, his desire to be trusted against him. When I saw that, I couldn’t sit back any longer. I had to step in.” Yori quickly looked up at me with hope in his eyes.

  “I always planned to show how Nobu could be innocent. By introducing uncertainty, I could limit the damage of the betrayal and try to protect our friendships.”

  I paused.

  I glanced at Yori to see if he was looking at me before I turned away again.

  “I waited because I decided that Nobu’s temporary pain was worth helping Mei and Osamu grow.”

  Yori ran his hand through his hair.

  No other reactions.

  No smile. No twitches. No rigid body language.

  I wasn’t sure what he was thinking.

  I didn’t want to overload him, so I waited until he said something.

  “Well… what was your plan?” He didn’t turn to face me, but there wasn’t any anxiety or pain in his voice. Even though it went against his moral compass, he was genuinely trying his hardest to see my viewpoint as something good.

  He was trying his hardest to accept me and the way that I think and act.

  I swallowed as I realised something terrifying.

  He’s actively trying his hardest to accept me.

  If he can’t, then who can?

  I paused for a second. I turned my hands so I stared at my palms.

  Before this conversation, I’d already accepted it. I was fine living a life without a real connection.

  That was a cost I was willing to pay.

  I turned my hands back over.

  So why am I this scared right now?

  I forced myself to ignore it and keep explaining. I just had to finish showing Yori everything. Whatever he decides, I can make peace with it.

  This painful hope would be over soon.