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In Between Worlds______________________________

I give Sohee a look—I need her help to make this plan work. Sliding closer, I whisper, "Take out your phone and start a voice recording."

She hesitates, clearly wanting to ask why, but I quickly turn my attention back to the girls. With a quiet sigh of understanding, she pulls out her phone.

Carrie eyes us with suspicion, her brows furrowing. "This is giving me bad vibes... my pro gamer intuition is going off. "

I smirk. "You're a professional gamer, right? So you wouldn't back down from a challenge, would you?"

She raises an eyebrow, still unsure. "Depends on the game."

"Before I tell you that, let's talk about the reward."

Suddenly, all eyes are on me. The room shifts, and it feels like an actual study session—like I'm the tutor I'm supposed to be.

"If I win," I say, "you have to say, 'I accept you as a tutor,' and change your vote to yes."

Carrie looks skeptical, but intrigued. "Weird way to make me vote for you... but okay. What do I get if I win?"

"RTX 3060."

Her eyes go wide, and she nearly topples over with her game console. "Are you serious? You know how expensive that is, right?"

I shrug. "If you win, it's yours. Not that expensive, really. I checked the price online."

Total bluff, of course.

Carrie's gaze sharpens, locking onto me like I've dangled the Holy Grail in front of her. "Alright... what's the game?"

Before I can answer, Mei interrupts. "W-wait, Carrie, if you lose—"

"Ugh," Shizuka rolls her eyes, "then she'll be stuck on my side. Geez, pro gamer, do you have some weird obsession with me?"

Carrie bites her lip, clearly conflicted. "You're right... this isn't fair to everyone. I don't wanna be the one carrying the responsibility."

I raise an eyebrow. "Aren't you literally called 'carryyourash'? Why can't you carry a game solo?"

That hits a nerve. She stammers, "Th-that's my username! I... I don't wanna deal with real-life consequences."

Ah, she's one of those gamers. The kind who uses video games to escape life's mess, to dodge responsibility and human interaction. Online, you're a ghost—able to hurt others and vanish without consequence. If I could delete Life and Death like deleting a save file, I would. But reality? It doesn't care. Time moves forward. It erases everything.

Time is cruel. It's a murderer.

"Sunbae?" Sohee's voice snaps me back to the present. I must've zoned out for a second, lost in thought.

I look around. Four girls, waiting for me to explain. "Yeah, sorry about that. Now, about the game…"

I pull out the deck of cards, slipping eight from the box, including two jokers. "Here's how it works: I'll let one of you shuffle and place the cards wherever you want. Each of you takes turns choosing two cards. That leaves two for me."

"How do we win?" Shizuka asks, already rubbing her fingers in anticipation.

"Simple. I win if the last two cards left for me are the jokers. If I draw anything else... I lose."

The room goes silent. They're realizing just how stacked the odds are against me.

Shizuka smirks. "So if any of us get a joker, you're screwed?"

"Exactly."

She narrows her eyes. "How do we know you're not cheating? You brought the cards, made the rules…"

"I won't touch the cards once they're shuffled. You can inspect them all you want." I motion for Carrie to check them, and her gamer-trained eyes scan the cards meticulously. She finds nothing suspicious.

Sohee looks uneasy. "Are you sure about this, Sunbae?"

"I'm sure."

She leans in, lowering her voice. "You realize the odds are one in sixty-four, right? You're almost guaranteed to lose."

One in sixty-four? That bad? "Er... yeah, I'm sure."

Carrie's eyes light up again, clearly confident she's got this in the bag. Sohee, though, frowns, sensing the gravity of the situation.

"Are they really that important to you?" Sohee asks softly.

I glance at the Negative Girls—each of them beautiful, broken, and fading away. My fate's tied to theirs whether I like it or not. I nod, making Sohee blush slightly. Maybe she thinks I'm some heroic figure, fighting for their future. But heroes get to choose. I didn't.

"It's my first important step," I say.

Shizuka grins. "Sixty-three chances to win? I'm in."

Carrie swallows her doubt and, with a shaky breath, agrees. "Okay, fine. I'm game."

Even Mei, caught up in the moment, nods hesitantly. "O-okay... let's d-do this."

Carrie smirks, clearly seeing the RTX within reach. "That card's mine already."

Too bad for her… in this loop, nobody's getting anything.