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Round 0: Game rules
Welcome to Don’t Lie – a combination game of Mafia and Treasure Hunt.
In the mornings, players are given 5 minutes to hunt for a hidden prize – the Mafias’ hidden treasure. Every Citizen’s goal is to find the prize for themselves, to hide away where only they can find it, and have a chance at wealth. However, at the end of each day comes the dangers of nightfall. The Mafias, cloaked by the dark of night, are free to roam, their great wrath tickled by the threat to their treasure. With dawn comes a horrifying discovery, of a man that barely evaded death by the thickness of the Doctor’s medicine vial, or out cold, and alone, brutally silenced and robbed of their finds by a mysterious force. The Detective is called in, he investigates a player – innocent? Guilty? Or somewhere in between? Only he knows.
When it’s morning once again, the players all gather – it’s time to vote. An innocent citizen’s eradication raises the Mafias’ final prize. If a Mafia is successfully uncovered, the civilians’ reward grows. If a citizen with the money, successfully surviving through the night, is removed from the game, the prize is once again lost to the hands of the Mafia.
Everything continues until the mad cycle ends – either the Mafias successfully run with their gold, or one lucky citizen prevails, prize in hand and Mafias thwarted.
Or so you thought.
Unbeknownst to the civilians, there’s a twist to this game. There are no Mafias among the players – no citizen will be killed in the night. Yet, every player voted off will only ever be innocent. However, there is a Broker.
The Broker knows where the prize is located every round, though he cannot under any circumstance, find and claim the money himself. So, he has two choices:
- Work for a citizen to win himself a share of their victory
- Work for the non-existent “Mafia”, and claim the prize for himself
This is no longer a game of Civilians vs Mafia.
It’s a game of Civilians vs Broker
Remember the game’s first and only rule made to be broken:
Don’t Lie
Round 1: Morning
“Your 5 minutes to find the money, starts now.”
Jeonghan’s gaze immediately trained in on the bobbing head of carefully styled dark hair, zipping towards the door of the main room with a childlike desire. He followed Choi Seungcheol’s hasty rush with a contrastingly leisurely stroll, casually slinging an arm around broad shoulders, automatically stooping to hear Jeonghan.
“Seungcheol,” he whined with a teasing little grin, “What role did you get?”
“I’m just an innocent citizen, what are you talking about.” He replied, eyes flitting away nervously despite his nonchalant, dismissive tone.
No-one believes Choi Seungcheol to be the innocent, fair-playing citizen he says he is – even if he’s telling the truth. He’s got tricks up his sleeves and down his collar, back-hand deals and betrayals loaded to fire at a moment’s notice. Yet the finger around the trigger and the hands that pull up his sleeves are held up by strings; The strings trace taut lines to Yoon Jeonghan’s iron grip – the puppet-master to his favourite marionette.
Every game had the same rules: Choi Seungcheol always won, but Yoon Jeonghan never lost. Even when he didn’t win.
Arm tightening by a fraction around his throat, Jeonghan whispered, saccharine sweet,
“Do you want to tell me now, and split 500 dollars with me… Or let me find out eventually and see me on the other side with the prize?”
Like clockwork, the other man gulped, as his eyes blinked rapidly. A dot of sweat beaded at his brow as he choked out,
“I’m the detective.”
A growing smirk, more predatory than sweet, grew on Jeonghan’s lip. A Broker and a corrupt Detective; What a perfect match.
“Let’s go search the courtyard. I have a feeling the prize is there somewhere.”
Round 2: The First Night
The prize has been found by a citizen.
This was the message every player had been sent prior to the first night.
The prize has been found by citizen: Kim Mingyu.
Hence was the message privy to only Jeonghan.
“Day has come. All players may raise their heads. No Civilians were killed during the night.”
Slowly raising his head with an expression of faux shock, Jeonghan peered through the curtain of his red-dyed bangs, observing each player’s reaction with acute attention. Around hum, shouts and flailing limbs made a scene of chaotic mayhem. Some were incredulous of the Doctor’s stellar judgement, others, like Jeon Wonwoo were suspicion filled by the unlikely happening. Jeonghan especially enjoyed watching Seungcheol’s. His round eyes coloured a dark, almost black, brown, flittered periodically from the rest of the players, before returning to Jeonghan’s still form. Every time he looked, Jeonghan caught his eye. Every single time, Seungcheol’s eyes flinched away first.
Not even the voting could bring order to the gathering.
“It was him!”
“Hoshi’s the Mafia, I saw him grinning before night came!”
“Who’s the Detective?”
“I know it’s you!”
“Wonwoo, why do you look so unhappy? It’s you isn’t it?”
The cacophony of screeching settled as all the fingers pointed unanimously at one player. Notorious for his sharp eyes and uncanny perception, this time Jeon Wonwoo happened to land on the wrong side of majority’s votes.
“Innocent citizen Jeon Wonwoo has been voted off. The Mafia’s prize has risen by two hundred dollars.”
Correction, Jeonghan’s prize had just risen by $200 – although Kim Mingyu had thrown a wrench in his plan.
Round 2: Daytime
“You’re the Broker.”
“And you thought I was Mafia.”
Jeonghan merely watched him splutter, flushed red to his ears as he dragged him by the arm to a secluded corner of one of the side rooms. His lips were smiling, but his eyes were anything but. The grip on Seungcheol’s suit jacket sleeve was just painful enough to make him squirm.
“That’s alright. I know a way you can make it up to me,” he uttered, ignoring the intensified trembling of his ally’s hands. “Listen carefully if you want to win.”
Since Kim Mingyu had taken the money before Jeonghan’s puppet could find it, he was now required to involve his little henchman a little deeper than anticipated. Although not much had changed.
“You go follow Kim Mingyu and get his trust. Offer an alliance, sell out my role, sell out yours, I don’t care – do whatever you have to. He’s going to deny he’s found the money, but trust me, he did,” Jeonghan’s nails dug in just a little deeper into the other’s bicep. “When he agrees to an alliance, you’re going to make him hide the money again, and you make sure you know where he does. Then, when nighttime comes, you help me vote him off instead of the Mafias.”
Seungcheol’s eyes were glazed over, msucles gone still and lax under Jeonghan’s cold scrutiny. Before Jeonghan could finish, Seungcheol droned, stilted, and detached like someone else was speaking through his mouth, “Then in the final round, when there aren’t any nights left, I’ll go guard wherever Mingyu leaves the money. Then when he’s voted off and the Mafias ultimately win, you’ll win with the Mafias.”
“Aw, my little baby is all clever and grown up now,” he cooed, with fake adoration that grated on Seungcheol’s nerves. “Now go, and do what I said – then maybe I’ll split you a share of the money too.”
With a condescending pat on his shoulder, he sent him off, watching after him as he scuttled over to the target.
Round 3: The Final Night
I know where Mingyu hid the money.
A message from Seungcheol flashed across Jeonghan’s screen.
Good. Now kill him off.
The night’s game of Mafia wasn’t much different from the first. No-one died, and no-one was found guilty. Just like Jeonghan knew it would.
“Yah Kim Mingyu, you’re the Mafia aren’t you?”, Jeonghan threw out to the group, “You’ve been acting all cagey and suspicious ever since it was announced a civilian found the money.”
Boo Seungkwan, bless his gullible nature, turned on him immediately.
“Yeah Mingyu, Jeonghan’s right. What are you hiding huh?”
“Worried a civilian’s going to run away with your money?”
Lee Seokmin had always been an easy target, and the rest got going soon enough.
“Yeah Mingyu, it’s about time you played Mafia.”
“Wow, I trusted you! How could you?”
“Who says we vote off this traitor?”
It was all going to plan – Kim Mingyu was cornered.
Yet, just as the players were raising their hands, ready to vote the alleged traitor off, a clear voice cut through the din.
“Except Mingyu’s the one who found the money.”
It was Choi Seungcheol, gripping hard on Seungkwan and Seokmin’s semi-raised arms, one in each hand. The room was silenced once again, and the cause of it, was blatantly ignoring Jeonghan’s outraged face of befuddlement – his perfectly stoic mask broken for once.
“Yeah, that’s right. Kim Mingyu found the money. I know because he showed me. Besides, I’m the Detective, you think I didn’t suspect him? He’s innocent, and if you all weren’t desperate to grasp at any sway to determine a Mafia in a group of civilians you can’t find guilty no matter how hard you try, you would know this too.”
Now Jeonghan was on his feet. First Seungcheol went rogue from his orders which he made explicitly clear, and now he was outing himself as the detective too? His puppet was misbehaving, and Yoon Jeonghan did not take kindly to his things malfunctioning.
“Yah Choi Seungcheol,” he started, tone glacial.
“What, Yoon Jeonghan,” Seungcheol retorted, exasperation and boredom dripping from this unfamiliar voice of his. Gone were the trembling fingers and restless eyes that could never meet Jeonghan’s. Instead, his large hands held the two other players’ arms in an iron grip, steady as can be. His black, soulless eyes were boring straight into Jeonghan’s, unwavering in their intensity. “You know better than anyone there’s no Mafia in the room.”
The gathering of players exploded into chaos. Civilians were screaming at Jeonghan’s face, asking him questions, and making noises of confusion and betrayal. They were screaming at Seungcheol too, not that they fazed him. One of them had latched onto him, shaking his arms as he repeated like a broken record,
“What do you mean there’s no Mafia? What do you mean.”
Yet, Seungcheol was on a roll. “This game was never about Civilians vs Mafias, was it Jeonghan? From the start, this was about the Broker, against the Civilians.”
Jeonghan’s fists shook in uncontrollable rage as he chewed out his words through gritted teeth, “I thought you were on my side, Detective.”
With the slow, taunting, menacing tilt of his head, Seungcheol’s irises grew impossibly darker, and he smirked.
“The Detective is always on the Civilians’ side, Broker.”
Round 2: Daytime – after Jeonghan had sent Seungcheol off to find Mingyu
“Yoon Jeonghan’s going to kill you off this round.”
“What?”
“Jeonghan’s the Broker, Mingyu. He knows you found the money – and he wants to make sure I know where you put it before you’re dead.”
As soon as Seungcheol had escaped the Broker’s line of sight, he had dragged Kim Mingyu to a desolate corner of the furthest side room. They were half-bathed by the faulty set light, mostly draped by shadows from the walls.
“Why are you telling me this? And what’s going on with the Mafias? Do you know who they are?”
Staring up into the round shiny eyes of Mingyu, Seungcheol’s looked like an endless pit of emptiness, wholly consumed by the darkness of the shadows.
“Look, I’m convinced there aren’t any Mafias in the game—"
“What?”
“–Think about it. I’m the Detective, and everyone I’ve inspected except Jeonghan as the broker has turned up innocent. The Doctor saved the civilians, every single time; What are the odds of that even happening? Besides, who of the players can you think of that feel genuinely suspicious to you?”
“No-one.”
“Exactly. There’s got to be a reason Jeonghan wants him and I to side with the Mafias and split the prize four ways, after voting you off – even when I could easily get you to tell me where you hide it, take it for myself and split it just between the two of us.”
Mingyu’s brows creased in confusion, “Why would he do that? Jeonghan’s smart – he would have known that.”
“The only reason I can think of, is that there are no Mafias. All that money, the $700 that’s soon going to become $900 if you’re voted off, is all for the Broker – so long as he sides with the ‘Mafias’, and not a civilian, he gets the biggest share.”
Seungcheol watched as understanding dawned on the other man. He was silent as an airy chuckle began to bubble out of Mingyu, his entire perception of the game completely overthrown to rearrange into startling clarity – because despite the utter nonsense that Choi Seungcheol was spewing, he was also, indisputably, unbelievably, correct.
“We need to kill off Yoon Jeonghan,” Mingyu whispered, sill in a bit of a daze.
“Ah, and one more thing,” Seungcheol drew Mingyu closer.
“We need to kill off Yoon Jeonghan,” Mingyu stated calmly, stood beside Seungcheol, and drawing Jeonghan’s attention away from the monster he had created.
“What,” he scoffed, “So you can just take the money yourself? How is that any better for you Seungcheol? I at least promised you a share when I inevitably won.”
“Ah, of course, there’s just one more thing,” Seungcheol interrupted, before turning to face the rest of the players – all sprawled out in some form of distress, mouths gaping like fish as they stupidly witnessed the happenings. “We vote Jeonghan out, and not only do we get to finally send The Great Yoon Jeonghan a big fat loss, but the civilians can split the money – although, I see it fair for Mingyu and I to get a bigger share.”
A handful of heads bobbled up and down in rapid succession following Seungcheol’s proposition. The players slowly gathered, dragging their numb limbs to stand, beside the two bodies opposing Yoon Jeonghan’s lithe frame.
“So this is how you want it to end, Choi Seungcheol? Lie to my face and stab me in the back? You’re cutting all ties by doing this you know – you will never be welcome back.”
Seungcheol let out a mirthless laugh at Jeonghan’s last attempts to drag him back into his clutches – leave it to Yoon Jeonghan to pull his strings even after they’d frayed and unravelled until only two messy ends were left.
“You forget, Jeonghan, the game’s first and only rule made to be broken: Don’t Lie.”
Tearing his eyes away from the fire stewing in Jeonghan’s livid glare, Seungcheol asked with an almost manic glint in his eyes,
“So, who votes Jeonghan out?”
All remaining hands, except for the man’s himself, were raised.
“Broker Yoon Jeonghan, has been eliminated.”
“Game organisers, we request to end this game of Don’t Lie short and share my finds to the rest of the civilians – there is no need for the last day’s treasure hunt. Those in favour, raise your hand.”
Once again, all hands bar the Broker’s were raised.
Round ???: The end