"So, tell me what happened." The man, Investigator Cho, said as he pressed record on the tape.
"I can't remember much of what was actually happening, but..." Jia sighed as she rubbed her head. "It's Mr. and Mrs. Park. The parents of Park Seeun... The girl in my class who committed suicide." Jia started out. "They're in charge of this all."
"What happened?" Cho asked.
"From what I was told when I woke up... Mrs. Lee told me it was all a game. They wanted us to experience death over and over again, so we could suffer of death the same way their daughter did... They told me they'd keep us there forever..." She explained.
"Game? Could you elaborate?" He asked the girl.
"You know the game mafia, right? You have a group of friends playing it. Some are the mafia, one person is the doctor, one person is the cop, and the rest are citizens. They had us play a game of mafia... But everything felt so real." Jia began to cry again.
"The last game I played... My role in the game was a mafia... But the rules were twisted in some way... I had so many of these advantages." She added.
"Elaborate on these advantages." He told the girl.
"Well, in the game mafia, there are no advantages... But, in the game I was playing, I was known as 'Mafia Number 1'. The advantages I had was that I was making the final decisions, I was the leader, win or lose the game, I'd still live, I had the ability of a doctor, so I was able to save people." Jia recalled her role.
"And... Oh Jungwon..." Jia said. "Oh Jungwon?" The man cocked an eyebrow. "Park Seeun... They programed their daughter, Park Seeun, to play as this girl named Oh Jungwon." Jia recalled. "Oh Jungwon? Does she exist?" He asked. "No." Jia shook her head. "She only existed in the game..."
"Can you remember anything else?" He asked her.
Jia took a deep breath as she thought about it.
"They said something... Like, I've played the games a thousand times already..." Jia said. "So... I guess there were different outcomes of the game, but I only remember the last one I played."
"When Yoonseo woke up... Me too... They questioned us on why Jungwon died in both of our last games." Jia recalled. "They said Jungwon was programmed to be the last player alive in the game and that we should've died in the games."
"Do you remember anything else from this 'game'?" He asked the girl.
"In my last game I played..." Jia tried to think. "The mafias were me, Jin Dabeom, Kang Yewon, Park Wooram, Kim Somi, Choi Juwon, and then Oh Jungwon... Who was Park Seeun." Jia recalled.
"The cop was..." Jia groaned as she buried her head into her hands trying to think. "It's okay, take your time." Cho told the girl. "Ahn Nahee." Jia said. "Ahn Nahee was the cop... The doctor was Cha Yujun." Jia recalled.
"Everyone else was citizens." She said.
"Do you remember who was first killed in this game?" He asked. "Um..." The girl sighed. "Heo Yool." Jia said. "We all voted for Heo Yool because we thought he was the creator of this game and because we thought it was just a fun game..." She said.
"Can you recall how everyone's death was?" He asked.
"Heo Yool... He began to struggle, covering his ears... Then his eyes were white... He smashed his head into the floor but... But... Me and Eunchan... Right, it was Eunchan... We stopped the boy, but he smashed himself into two different framed painting... Then he ran out, jumping through the window, that's how he died." She recalled the first death.
"Choi Junwon died next." She said. "But you said he was a mafia." The man said. "He was... I guess he violated some rule and he killed himself by smashing a fire extinguisher against his head." She said.
"Then... We decided to leave, but we couldn't because... Ah..." Jia sighed. "The place we were at. It was enclosed with this white line... If we stepped close to it, trying to leave, we were warned that the game had to be played in the boundaries... Then, two students... Lee Sanghwan and Kim Hyunseok stepped outside the line and they began to act the same way Heo Yool did, and they killed each other by bumping heads so many times and then Hyunseok was still alive so he... He took a rock and smashed his own head." The girl recalled the next death.
"Then... Some of us decided to go out." Jia said. "Out?" The man asked. "Yeah." She nodded as she thought. "We found out the line allowed us to go up a mountain and then to a village." She said.
"Did you guys make it to the village?" He asked. "No." She shook her head. "We made it to the top of the mountain... But we couldn't find the path after... Then, Wooram used his camera and we saw some people but they were frozen, along with these birds... None of them were moving, then an alarm went off and Kim Donghyun was executed." Jia called out the next death.
"After, we left the mountains and back to where we came from... We then decided to not vote at all. We set our phones in a bin and left it in the middle of the room and waited until midnight and nothing happened... Then, two students died, and in order to live, we had to vote." Jia said as she recalled the horrifying night.
"A lot of people died because of that." She said. "Jang Hyunho... He also died that night, but when everyone finished voting, night fell and the citizens fell asleep, the mafias woke up and we chose who to kill that night... At the same time, I chose to revive Hyunho."
"Did Hyunho return back? Who did you guys decide to kill?" He asked. "Well... Because I was mafia number 1, I allowed the other mafias to take control at times. I let Wooram choose, and he chose to kill Lee Juyoung... And Hyunho did come back to next day." Jia said.
The man nodded as he wrote everything down.
They continued on as Jia explained the rest of the deaths.
"The end. How did it end?" He asked. "Can you remember that?"
"It's blurry, but I think so..." Jia nodded.
"We were on the rooftop since Dabeom had a hold on Yoonseo... Yoonseo figured out that Jungwon was actually Seeun." Jia said. "He told Jungwon to jump off the roof, then Yoonseo bit him?" The girl said unsure.
"But Junhee began to attack the boy, but Dabeom hit him with a rock and then told Jungwon that he would go down with her if that meant he had to break the rules to kill her since mafias couldn't kill each other. So, he ran over to stab her, but Yoonseo got in the way and he stabbed her instead." She recalled everything.
"Then, I... Jungwon called me. She told me that she gave me permission to break the rules and to kill Dabeom... So, me and him fought for a while before I eventually stabbed him and he died... Then, Yoonseo was dying as well." Jia said shaking her head.
"So... Jungwon... Or Seeun... She didn't want Yoonseo to die, so she fell off the rooftop and died... And the game was suppose to end there. Another advantage I had was that I'd become a citizen in the end, but that didn't happen... So, in order for the game to end, I jumped off the roof, and I'm guessing that's when it ended." Jia said.
The man continued to write.
"Do you remember when you found out and was certain Oh Jungwon was actually Park Seeun?" He asked.
"We all got this message telling us to check the name of the game host, it was Park Seeun. After the name was revealed, all of us... Our memories somewhat came back about the girl. We all met in the broadcasting room to talk about it. After that, I took some time to think about it and it all added up. Jungwon constantly came up to me, giving me all these advantages... No one should be able to do that unless they're the game host, so that's when I figured out she was Seeun." Jia said.
"One last question, how long have you been awake?" He asked. "I..." Jia counted the days. "A month? I'm not sure... I kept count of the days, but I'm also not sure what day it even is..." She answered.
"Thank you for your time, Kwon Jia." The man said. "I know it was very sudden to pull you aside to ask you what happened, but I appreciate your help with this." He told her.
"Of course..." Jia nodded.
The man stopped the recording and closed his notebook as he got up.
"If we need to know anything else, we'll ask you. And, if you need to tell us anything you remember, please reach out." He handed her his card. "Thank you, Investigator Cho." Jia said. He smiled as he nodded.
"Your classmates will be out for a while, but I can assure you they'll be fine when they wake up." He smiled. "You're free to visit them whenever you'd like, but all of you guys will likely need some type of therapy for what had just happened." He sighed as he handed her a piece of paper.
Written on it was the place that her classmates were being checked into to recover.
"Okay, thank you again, sir." Jia bowed. "Anytime." He returned the bow as he led her out of the room. He went over important details to her parents.
Jia looked over to see Yoonseo had also finished.
"Yah, Lee Yoonseo." Jia walked over. "How are you? Are you okay?" She asked. "I think so." Yoonseo nodded. "How about you?" Yoonseo asked. "I'm doing better... I haven't been back in the game for a while." Jia said.
"Jia, come on, let's go home." Jia's mother called her. Jia turned around giving a quick nod before turning back to Yoonseo.
"Let's meet them all soon." Jia smiled. Yoonseo smiled as well as she nodded before Jia walked off.
"Are you okay, Jia?" Jia's younger sister, Jiwoo, asked. "I really missed you." Her sister said as she almost cried. Jia hugged her sister as they walked. "I'm okay, Jiwoo." Jia said. "How's high school been since I've been gone?" Jia asked curiously. "Quiet... Everyone, the students and teachers, they couldn't believe what was happening." She answered.
When they got home, Jia headed up to her room, which she feels like she hadn't seen forever. Though being in the game only felt like a week, it for some reason felt like forever too.
There was a knock on her door.
"Come in." She called out. In walked her sister. "We made your favorite food today." She said bringing in a plate of it. "We missed you a lot today, so we decided to make it... Surprisingly, you returned home." She smiled.
Jia smiled as she took the food.
"Thanks, Jiwoo." Jia said with a smile. "Can you tell me what happened?" Jiwoo asked. "Jiwoo, don't bother your sister. Let her rest." Their mother walked by. Jia gave a small laugh before she patted her bed. "Come sit, I'll tell you a little bit." Jia said.
At the end, the girl was shocked.
"Are Hyunho and Kyungjun okay?" She asked. "Are you worried about them?" Jia questioned. "I mean... They are pretty good looking guys." Her sister nodded. Jia laughed inn disbelief. "And after all... You and Hyunho have liked each other for a long time and you're dating Kyungjun." She said.
"They'll be okay." Jia nodded.
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