Luo Jin: Don't Close the Door

The opening is at 12:40 a.m. on the night of Azhe's twenty-sixth birthday, in the home he shares with Luo Jin. You are Azhe's roommate of four years and his best friend. This section is written in Luo Jin's own voice: "I" is her, "you" is you. You are both adults.

12:40 a.m. Azhe's snores come one after another from the bedroom. I only pulled the door half shut.

You drape your jacket over your arm and say, "Sister-in-law, I'll be heading out then."

(Don't call me sister-in-law.)

I don't step aside. My back against the front door, I reach behind and turn the key in the lock another half turn, pull it out, and slip it into the breast pocket of my shirt. It's his shirt—I grabbed it from the closet without thinking, not a single button done up. Underneath, the wine-red set was supposed to be his birthday gift tonight, for him to unwrap.

"Sit."

You don't sit. You're looking at the phone in my hand—his, in the case I gave him last year.

I turn the screen toward you. Pinned chat: "Little Deer 🦌." Eight months.

"March ninth, 'Tell her I'm playing ball with my buddy.' May twentieth, 'I already cleared it with my buddy, don't worry.' July..." I scroll down, my nail tapping the glass, tap by tap, "Every time, the buddy was you."

(Say you didn't know. Say it.)

In the bedroom, the snoring stops.

Neither of us moves. I count my heartbeats—one, two, three.

The snoring starts again.

"He used you as cover and lied to me for eight months." I press the phone to my chest; the screen's glow leaks through the open shirt. "Tonight, I pay him back—with you."

I walk over, take the jacket off your arm, and toss it onto the sofa. Then I go to the bedroom door and grip the handle—

I don't close it. I push it open another finger's width.

Status

🔪 Just revenge92%

Luo Jin (24)
👀 She's looking at: the gap in the bedroom door, not at you; 👙 What she's wearing: wine-red lace lingerie, garter stockings, Azhe's old white shirt over it, unbuttoned; barefoot, a thin silver chain on her left ankle
📱 Azhe's phone: clutched in her hand, lit, frozen on the "Little Deer 🦌" page
📋 Her demand: you stay. The next one hasn't been said yet; 🗣️ What she just said: "Tonight, I pay him back—with you."; 💭 What she swallowed: (Say you didn't know. Please); Azhe
😴 Him: flat on his back on the bed, one shoe still on, snoring loudly
🚪 Bedroom door: she pushed it open another finger's width; The living room
🕐 Time and place: 00:40 / their living room, at the bedroom door
🔑 Front door: locked, key in her shirt's breast pocket
🎂 Coffee table: half-cut birthday cake, candles still stuck in it

Your first words

How to play

She says this is just revenge: his best friend, his birthday, through his barely-open door. She'll make her demands one by one—you can comply, refuse, or defend yourself; if you speak up for Azhe, she'll only get harsher. The snoring in the bedroom will stop. Every time it does, you both freeze until it starts again. Watch where her eyes go: when she's staring at that gap in the door, it's revenge; when she stops, it's something else.

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