17:THE GAME OF CHARADES

"In playing charades, you need to have one who will guess and one who will act. In this activity, you will need to choose who will guess and who will act. There is no time limit. For you to win the game, you need to be the first one to answer all of the charades correctly."

Raia furrowed his eyebrows as he heard the instructor. He was well aware that he was not good at acting or guessing. He looked at Osamu, but it seems like he was thinking about the right strategy as well.

"But! But wait, there's more! Here's the twist," Mr. Gojo added.

"You can challenge anyone inside that room, and once you win your bet against them... they will automatically fail the test and will not be able to pass it," he added.

Raia raised his eyebrow. "What a nonsense twist," he said to himself.

As Mr. Gojo finished his last words, the screen went blank again. The other teams seem to be thinking about their strategy. Unlike the first two games, this is not against the other team but against your teammate. If your teammate is slow in picking up what you mean, then you both will lose.

That's why the right strategy should be considered to make the win much more possible. Raia was about to tell Osamu his ideas, but he was stopped when Rio suddenly approached him.

"Raia...is it?" Rio asked him. Both Osamu and he looked at the guy, confused.

"Yes?" Raia answered and faced him.

"I challenged you," he said. Raia was filled with awe.

"Huh? Rio, what are you talking about?" His partner tried to interfere, but Rio didn't give a damn.

"Huh? Why?" Raia asked him innocently.

"Don’t make that kind of face. It irritates me. Take this as a reward for defeating Wrenn," Rio added.

"Wrenn?" Raia suddenly remembered his last game with Wrenn, and he felt something when he looked at Rio.

"Oh, I forgot, Wrenn is his best friend, right? Is he here to take revenge?" Raia asked himself.

Without any words, Rio turned his back.

"Let me tell you something. Not because you defeat him, that means you're better than him, so don't start getting cocky just after your one victory," Rio said before he continued walking away. The guys who saw that scene also turned their gaze away from him and tried to deal with their own business.

"What the hell is his problem?" Raia asked himself.

After a minute, the final decision has already been made.

Rio decided to be the guesser, just like Raia, Emma, and Ryota, while the actors are Tobi, Osamu, Everett, and Eva. After finalizing the roles of every player, another door opened. Raia took a peek inside it before they went on. Only four chairs are circling each other.

"What the hell is this?"

"For real?"

"Are we going to play like this?"

Gasps and doubts could be heard and seen from them. There are eight of them, and they are going to play at the same time. But there are only four chairs in front.

Emma suddenly went over and sat on the chair near her. "Then it means only the guesser has the right to take a seat," she said before she crossed her legs and sat comfortably. The others seemed to understand what she meant, so the three remaining guessers also took their seats.

While the actors stood in front of their partners while waiting for the next instruction.

"Well done, players! I think we already know how to play this game. Are we all ready?" Mr. Gojo from the monitor asked them.

"Yes, sir!" All of the boys shouted together as if they were some kind of military group.

"Yosha! Then, let the game begin," he said while wearing his creepy smile. After Mr. Gojo pushed a button, a glassy, transparent, tube-like standee went up in front of the actors. The guesser also starts to be alert the moment their partner starts to act the word.

Osamu went forward to reach the standee. They waited for the word to appear on the screen facing them, but it only took a second for them to realize something was wrong. Osamu’s body stiffened as he saw the screen, and even Raia could instantly notice it. Even the other actors were taken aback. They were expecting a word to appear, but all they saw was a clip of action they needed to follow.

Osamu’s forehead creases while watching the clip.

"What is this? I felt like I was watching some kind of horror movie. The room is dark, and the person in the clip is holding a knife. Then eventually she smiled and looked away. I don’t even know what it means, but I can’t just portray what she did. I believe there’s something there—a message or something. And that is what I need to portray to Raia," he told himself, trying to persuade himself based on his knowledge.

The other players seemed to think twice, just like Osamu. It seems like they are being careful even in the first round. Another guy from the monitor room smiled.

"They look appetizing, aren’t they, Mr. Rayven?" He said this while grinning and sticking his tongue out. It looked like he was a hungry stray dog right now, different from the composed guy that is always smiling in front of the students.

"Keep your filthy mouth shut, Glutton. You’re making it hard for me to eat my meal," a guy named Rayven answered him while busy chewing something in his mouth.

"They look so smart too. I wonder how big their brains are. Are they juicy? Or sweet? Kyahhhh! I can’t stop myself anymore!" He continued and yelled as if he had already lost his cool.

Rayven looked at the monitor. He saw how careful the players were to act on what they saw.

"It's expected, though. Even if I have no expectations of others, unlike Raia, every guesser should think outside the box, and even the actors also need to think critically about the deeper meaning of the clip they saw," he said, continuing to chew his food.

RAIA’S POV

It’s been ten minutes, and Osamu is still looking at the screen. I don’t know what he’s seeing or thinking right now. Even the other actors seemed confused and trying to figure something out.

"Damn, what is taking him so long?"

I looked at him again when he went in front of me. He was looking at me, but I couldn’t read what he meant. It's as if he's confused and doesn’t know what to do.

"Fuck!" he suddenly blurted out of frustration after a second of acting something. He went back again to look at the screen in front.

"What the hell would it be?!"

For the second time, he went in front of me again and portrayed himself. This time, it's more organized and well-performed. He's like a guy running while holding something. Is it a marathon? Or maybe something like what an escapee should do?

"Yes, yes, yes," he said suddenly, nodding and smiling.

"An escapee? A criminal? No, no, he’s holding something; is it sharp?" I asked him.

He nodded. 

"A knife,"

"Yes,"

"Okay, a criminal is trying to kill someone with a knife," I concluded with a smile, but he shook his head.

"What?!" I looked down and thought deeply. I have no idea, aside from a criminal. What would it be?

I stared at him for a while and saw his frightened expression. I’m not sure, but... It seems like it’s not just there; it hints at something!

I smiled at him.

"It must be a warning to run or flee," I concluded as I looked at him. We both looked at the screen and saw a green light flash on it.

"Shit! I knew it!" I said to myself and continued guessing his actions. 

And just like the first one, every answer is very different from his actions. It's very hard to guess. Maybe this is what he meant by "thinking outside the box," isn’t it?

Raia continued playing the activity, and even the others who were struggling to answer tried their best to complete the five acts. Apart from Raia and Rio's group, they don't have any timers because the latter challenged him. It means they should give three consecutive answers, and if they do it before the other team, then the latter will be out of the game.

But nothing is going according to his plan. Rio clicked his tongue when he saw that Raia had already answered at least two questions and was already starting the third one. If he answered the third one, then it means the end for them.

"Tsk! "Don't fucking kidding me," he grumbled to himself as he returned his gaze to his partner. He was about to answer when he noticed a red light in front of them.

"Fuck! Don’t tell me..." He mumbled and looked in Raia’s direction.

"What the hell? How did he answer those questions so fast?" he wondered to himself while grinning his teeth. In the end, he had no choice but to walk out of the room with his partner.

"That’s why I told you not to make a crazy challenge like that. It's pretty obvious; it makes no sense for you to challenge him on that nonsense bet," his partner, Tobi, complained to him. Rio can’t talk back at him. He was aware that he had made a mistake. It fired him up when he heard the twist from Mr. Gojo, and he became impulsive because of it. He shamefully walked and passed Tobi.

Everett looked at his friend while walking out of the room. He didn’t expect that Rio would be out first in this game, though he must have thought about it once since he made an unbelievable bet like that.

The other players are thinking to themselves, "He must be stupid to make and accept that bet."

Even if you look at it many times, you won’t gain anything from it, aside from the fact that it can help you reduce the number of opponents. Other than that, there’s nothing advantageous to the winning side.

Everett looked at Raia’s group, but even the two seemed unfazed and unbothered. He clenched his fist, even more, when he saw that they had already finished four questions.

"What are you? A post? Why aren’t you acting or acting something?" Emma suddenly wakes him up with her loud, cracking voice. It seems like even Emma felt the pressure during the game.

Meanwhile, someone on the monitor smiled when he saw that his plan was going as smoothly as he thought it would. Osamu also exceeded his expectations as Raia's partner.

"It seems like he did his best with what he had to do," he said to himself. After over half an hour of observing and watching the monitor, the game finally reached its conclusion.

He smiled as he saw the victorious one, who finished answering the five acts first. As expected, it was Raia’s group.

"Good job, Osamu. Perhaps I should give an award to you next time," he said meaningfully.

Little did the others know that something was already going on. Raia, on the other hand, smiled at Osamu, not knowing anything, while the others, who were left defeated, looked at the two with regret. But they can’t do anything now. It's all over.

In the end, they were asked to get out of the room to have the final game between Raia and Osamu. Mr. Rayven, who is watching, smiled a bit.

"Yesterday’s ally, today’s enemy, huh? How unfortunate is it?" he thought to himself as he focused on the monitor, despite knowing who would win the game.

Raia looked at Osamu, calculating its movement. After they won, he didn't see Osamu smile back at him. And even now that they are going to go against each other, the latter still refuses to make eye contact with him.

"Is he this serious about this game? Does he want to win this?" he asked himself.

After a second, their eyes finally made contact. Raia flinched when Osamu suddenly smiled and murmured, "The winner has been decided already."

He furrowed his eyebrows as he heard it.