The room fell silent. Even the smallest movements felt magnified. Nobu hesitated, eyes darting between us, the words caught in his throat.

  What happened next genuinely surprised me.

  “Yaeko… only has 12,000 points…”

  The words hung in the air. For a second, there was an unsettling loud silence. Yaeko looked hurt. Betrayed, even.

  I was surprised because why would Yaeko lie and say she has more points than she actually did? I’d understand if she claimed to have fewer points. It makes you less of a target, which is exactly what I did.

  But saying she had more points has no strategic benefit. It makes no sense. But Nobu would know lying like this seems unbelievable - so it’s more likely he’s telling the truth.

  What if he expected us to think like that? It’s a ‘wine in front of me’ all over again.

  “Are you serious? Do you hate Osamu that much that you’d make me look like a liar to get back at him?”

  Yaeko was the one to break the silence, denying the accusation. Her unwavering gaze was locked onto Nobu. Her voice, loud and emotional, yet unshaken.

  However, Nobu seemed to sink further into frustration, guilt twisting his features.

  I'd genuinely assumed he wouldn’t lie... but come to think of it, wouldn't this be the perfect time for him to do just that?

  I looked at Keiko. She was watching this entire scene unfold with an expressionless face. Why wasn’t she starting the next round?

  “No… Of course not. I’m not lying!” He looked at Yori, but it sounded more like a plea than a defence.

  “Nobu. If you weren’t targeting them, then why did you choose to check Yaeko’s point total?” Mei was the first third party to get involved. I looked at her, then at the cameras.

  This was the outcome they wanted.

  I wanted to step in and diffuse this situation so badly, but I was being bound by my friends’ impressions of me. I easily dealt with Yuto, both in the game, and in facilitating his growth after.

  This was different.

  How could I diffuse the situation without my friends noticing the skills I’ve hidden?

  “I… don’t know…” He held his face in his hands as Yaeko scoffed. He handled this terribly. If he’d just admitted that he likes Yaeko the least out of all of us, that isn’t targeting her, it’s just the least bad choice from his perspective. His desire to be seen as a truly nice person kept him from admitting that, and now it looks like he chose Yaeko specifically so that he could lie about her point total.

  “Nobu… you have to understand… we all have so much trust in you…” Nobu winced as Mei took a deep breath and looked away. “We- no, I don’t want to believe that you’re lying right now… but if you didn’t have a solid reason for choosing Yaeko… then to us it looks like you chose Yaeko just to lie about her point total.”

  As this scene played out, I saw an opportunity to at least bring some good from it. I whispered to Yori as Mei questioned Nobu.

  “You think that I’m the liar?”

  Nobu’s fists clenched.

  He was no longer pleading.

  His voice filled with spite.

  “After everything we’ve been through, and everything you know about me, you think that I’m the liar?”

  He finally raised his head and looked Mei dead in the eyes. There was an overwhelming intensity behind them.

  Hibiki couldn’t watch.

  Choko looked on blankly.

  Yori was waiting.

  I was observing.

  None of us would be helping her here. She needs to learn to deal with this pressure.

  “I’m sorry Nobu…” her voice started shaking. She couldn’t maintain eye contact. “Please…” she looked at him once again.

  “Please just tell me why you chose Yaeko!!”

  It was an outburst filled with raw emotion. Even Choko, who’d been watching blankly, had to turn away.

  “I don’t care if you think I had no reason to choose her. You say you trusted me before this, so why can’t you just trust that I did have a reason?”

  Sitting back and watching was becoming much harder, but I forced myself to stay silent.

  “If you have a reason, then why can’t you tell us!” Mei shot back. Her eyes started tearing up. Even I had to look away. I hated to see her like this, but what real friend would take her opportunity to grow away from her?

  Yori grabbed my wrist. He couldn’t take it any longer. He had to interfere.

  “No, not yet.” I whispered. His wrist tightened as I looked him in the eyes.

  “Just trust me.” We held eye contact until he reluctantly let go.

  Nobu noticed the tears from Mei’s eyes and he looked down for half a second. The pain that comes from seeing your friend get hurt because you’re too weak to admit something was tearing him apart.

  Would it be enough for him to confess?

  “I…” his voice softened. It was immediately noticeable. “I…”

  Yaeko had been surprisingly quiet during this back and forth. She felt like she was in a position of power, and felt no need to interfere. But that power was quickly slipping. Nobu was about to overcome his pride and explain.

  “Just look at him pathetically trying to cling onto his lie.” Nobu immediately looked at her. The fire in his eyes was instantly relit. “If you’re going to commit to a lie, at least have the courage to stick it out.”

  Nobu explosively stood up, and I didn't care anymore.

  I had to interfere.

  “Yaeko. That’s enough.”

  “Akira, stay out of this.” Nobu looked at me before he started walking over to Yaeko. Choko opened her mouth, ready to calm Nobu down, but the intensity behind his words paralysed her.

  “Akira, please do something!” Mei begged for me to do something, but what could I do? Yaeko had baited him into a rage to make him look guilty. Her next words would probably be something like “if he was innocent he wouldn’t be acting like this.” Nobu made it clear that words would have no effect on him, and they were too far away for me to get between them.

  As Nobu got closer, Yaeko’s smile vanished.

  She realised that he wasn’t messing around.

  She felt genuine fear.

  When Keiko was scared that I would hurt Yuto, she immediately got involved. Why is she just watching this happen?

  As my eyes met hers, I heard a loud sound.

  Like something hit the floor, hard.

  I instantly turned around, bracing myself.

  It was Osamu.

  He’d gotten in between them. The sound came from his chair hitting the ground.

  “Get out of my way, Osamu.” Every word was filled with venom.

  “Nobu… I know that you’re hurt… but this isn’t the way to fix things. If you come any closer… there’s no going back…”

  Nobu had a tear rolling down his eye, but I didn't focus on that. More importantly, things had changed. I couldn’t interfere earlier because there wasn’t enough time.

  Things are different now. Osamu acting as Yaeko’s shield buys us the time needed to diffuse this situation. It’d be better if this came from Yori, but there wasn’t any time to explain.

  I quickly stood up.

  “He’s right, Nobu.” He looked at me, ready to shut me down, but I wouldn’t let him. “For what it’s worth, I’m still 50/50 on who’s lying.” As I said this, Nobu’s body immediately loosened up. “I think your reaction could either be an emotional breakdown from being incorrectly accused of lying, or a breakdown from being caught lying.”

  His fists unclenched as I said this.

  “I know one thing for sure, though.”

  I felt the weight of everyone’s eyes on me, but that didn't change anything.

  “If you don’t back down, it won’t matter who’s lying or not...”

  I had to be harsh.

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  I’d created some cracks in his armour, and I needed to exploit them.

  “You’ll be dead to us.”

  His arms dropped to his sides. He took a few seconds, before turning around and walking away. He sat back into his chair without saying a word.

  Once Osamu returned to his chair, the game continued, but the effects on the confrontation remained.

  Yaeko’s hand was shaking. She still felt terrified.

  Mei had a tear rolling down her cheek.

  Hibiki couldn’t bring herself to look anyone in the eye.

  Choko looked at the three of them with a sense of unease.

  Yori’s fist was clenched, but he sat back in his chair. It was excruciatingly difficult for him, and he probably didn’t understand why I needed him to hold back, but he’d gotten through it.

  Osamu looked at Nobu, but it wasn’t a look of hate. It was one of sympathy.

  As for Nobu… he refused to look anyone in the eye.

  He didn’t look angry.

  He didn’t look sad.

  He just looked… done

  Keiko watched with the same expressionless face as before. When she realised I was looking at her, she looked away. Guilt? Shame? I didn’t know. I tried to comfort Mei, but it didn’t work. I quickly whispered something else to her before the next prompt was sent.

  “We will now continue the game starting with the fifth prompt. Please check your phones.” The Keiko overseeing our game felt drastically different to the Keiko that oversaw my game with Yuto.

  Did her boss tell her not to interfere? Or now that she’s no longer scared of me, she doesn’t feel the need to get involved? I decided to put those thoughts away and focus on the task at hand. I checked the notification.

  “Round Five prompt: The group must unanimously vote for one player. That player will take 3000 points from one person, and give them to another. If no consensus is reached, 1500 points will be deducted from everyone.”

  A few seconds went by without anyone speaking up. The fallout was clear.

  “Nobu, who do you think should win this vote?” I knew he’d have a hostile response, but I wanted to see how bad it would be.

  “Does it even matter?” He didn’t bother looking up when he spoke. He felt defeated.

  “Why wouldn’t it?” I wanted to explore his hopelessness further.

  “Because it doesn’t matter who’ll win this vote. They’re only going to take points away from me.” Right now, that was an undeniable fact in his head. Words alone wouldn’t change that, so I didn’t focus any of my efforts on it.

  “What if we voted for you to win?” Nobu looked up for a second, but Yaeko instantly shut it down.

  “And why do you think any of us should ever trust him with that power?” She spoke in a condescending tone, intentionally choosing to use the word "trust" to send Nobu into a deeper despair. I quickly reasoned that this was a manifestation of her pride. She sees Nobu’s accusation as a challenge. An insult, even. As such, she wants to show how much better she is by making him pay the price.

  What she’s doing is wrong.

  I might struggle to fix Nobu, but I won’t let her tear him apart any further.

  “I expect you to trust him because I still trust him.” Nobu looked up when he heard the words, while Yaeko scoffed and looked away. Everyone else watched me, waiting for me to continue.

  “Before this all happened, he was the most trustworthy in the group. That’s an undeniable fact.” I paused and looked around, making sure to look everyone in the eye. I needed to let this sink in.

  “That shouldn’t change until there’s proof he’s lied to us. Sure, he shouldn’t have approached you like that. I can’t imagine how scared you were.” Nobu’s lip twitched, but he kept his head up.

  My first step to dealing with Yaeko was validating her fear. After everything that happened, I didn’t really care whether it made her feel better. I did it to make sure I appeared unbiased.

  “You might even say that the outburst was the result of him getting caught in a lie, but the truth is, everything that happened does have a plausible explanation if you assume Nobu’s innocence.”

  “Really? Go on then, explain it for us, Akira.” I was learning a lot about Yaeko right now. In school, we were peers. Even then, she let her condescending nature slip through. Now that she felt she had power, she was letting it all show. She even phrased her question as an order. I made an important mental note. If she doesn’t learn to control her pride, it’ll be her downfall.

  “Well,” I looked at Mei. “The first issue is the reason why Nobu chose you if he wasn’t targeting you. That was a fair point that Mei raised.” I paused to make sure everyone was paying attention. Osamu leaned forwards, resting his chin in his hands. Hibiki and Choko both kept looking at me as I spoke. Yaeko was the only one who didn’t seem interested, but I knew that was an act.

  The second she sees an opportunity to outsmart me, or to point out something I missed, she’ll interrupt me.

  I’ll force her to respond.

  Right now, it doesn’t matter who’s telling the truth and who isn’t. The top priority isn’t to figure that out.

  It’s to restore group dynamics.

  The only way to do that is to introduce uncertainty regarding who the culprit is. If I can do that while baiting Yaeko into fighting against my logic as hard as she can, it’ll only make Nobu look more credible.

  “The truth is, there’s several reasons.” That was a lie. There’s only one that comes to mind, but it doesn’t matter. I only need to give one. Saying that there’s several just adds to my point. If she asks me to elaborate, I can point out how she’s changing the topic and gain the upper hand.

  Importantly, it doesn’t just make my point stronger.

  It sets a trap for her to fall into.

  “However, the most believable one is that he simply likes you the least, Yaeko.” As I said this, Nobu’s eyes widened. He reacted as if I’d read into his soul to find that answer, but in reality, everyone in the room could've figured it out for themselves.

  “Ok, so he targeted me because he likes me the least, and?” She rolled her eyes before replying. She dodged one trap, and fell right into another.

  “This isn’t something you can just say “and?” to. That question just shows you’re missing the point.” She gave me the chance to undermine her validity. This directly challenged her ego. I wanted to make her flustered, so she’d make more missteps.

  “Nobu “targeting” you is only condemning if the only explanation for it is a malicious one. The truth is, there’s a very simple, and very human reason that he chose you. And it’s one that every single one of us can understand.” I glanced at Keiko. It was only for half a second, but I saw a smile before she realised I was looking at her.

  “The reason he chose you is because he’d rather choose you than any of the friends he’s close to. Don’t even try and tell me that isn’t understandable.” The group shared some murmurs of agreement. The last time I thought I cut off her escapes, she surprised me.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen again. Not once I’ve learnt how she acts.

  I was too prideful last time.

  It was too arrogant of me to think I could cut off her escapes when there’s infinite paths for her to choose from.

  That’s why I wasn’t trying to block all of them off. I made one of them seem more attractive.

  I guided her to make a choice that I had a counter for.

  “If that’s true, then why didn’t he choose to check your points?” She leaned back into her chair and smiled. She must not have realised how the group dynamics were shifting due to her pride blinding her.

  Even though everyone looked at me for an answer, they weren’t impartial judges.

  I’d given them hope that Nobu might be innocent.

  I just had to give them one reason, and they’d cling onto it. The fact that it naturally counters her point just increases the impact.

  “The reason he didn’t check my point total is the exact reason we let him win that vote anyway.” I paused for a second and looked him in the eyes as I said this. I needed him to not just hear my words, but to see them as well.

  “It’s because his entire personality revolves around trusting others, and wanting to be trusted by them.” I paused.

  I wanted to give Yaeko an opportunity to attack before I continued countering, but she didn’t bite. I chose to keep going.

  “Yori, Mei, Hibiki and Choko are all close with Nobu. It was obvious he wouldn’t pick any of them. Osamu had immunity, so that left us two. The reason he didn’t choose me is because I was the one who advocated for him to win that vote. It’s simple human behaviour. If someone does you a favour, you do them one.”

  I needed to draw on experiences we’ve all had to make Nobu’s decision make more sense. However, I could still do more. “But more than just that, this is Nobu we’re talking about.” I doubled down on his position of trust before this entire fall out.

  “If he checked my point total, that’d be like saying he doesn’t trust me. There’s no way he’d do that after I just voiced my absolute trust in him. He simply values trust way too much to do something like that. That’s why he chose you-”

  “Why didn’t he just explain all of that earlier?” She leaned forward. She was still oblivious to how the atmosphere was changing, but she was more engaged in this back and forth.

  My new strategy was working perfectly. This was the easiest counter argument.

  And it’s one I’d already prepared for.

  “Why else than because he was ashamed?” Normally, I’d pause to let everyone else relate to that sentiment, but right now I had all the momentum.

  I wasn’t going to let them passively relate to Nobu.

  I was going to shove it down their throats.

  “Mei, Hibiki, you both withheld how many points you had, right? Mei, you already told us it’s because you felt embarrassed. I’d only imagine it’s the same for you, Hibiki.” The truth is, I have no idea why Hibiki withheld her point total, but it’d be stupid for her to speak up and tell me I’m wrong. Even if I was making it up, no one could say otherwise.

  “And it’s not just the two of you. We can all understand being too ashamed or too embarrassed to reveal something, especially to a group. Imagine how much worse it would feel when one of your closest friends just accused you of lying.” I looked at Mei as I said that. I knew it’d hurt her, but it needed to be done.

  “Nobu, who values being everyone’s friend and a person everyone can trust, was too embarrassed that he chose to check your point total over mine simply because I showed him some trust.” There was still one thing left unexplained.

  It was obvious.

  That’s exactly why I knew Yaeko would fall for it.

  She was like a puppet dancing along to the melody that I played for her.

  “You’re saying he’d rather have a violent outburst than swallow all of his pride and admit that?”

  There it was.

  This argument was over.

  “No. Not at all. There’s no way someone who’s innocent would do that.” Everyone looked at me.

  There was confusion, and then silence.

  “What, so you’ve been wasting all of our time?” Yaeko chuckled.

  “Don’t be so naive, Yaeko.”

  What started off as a trial for Nobu was about to be flipped on its head.

  “After all, Nobu was about to confess.

  That is until you intentionally provoked him.”