Seat Exchange (Sun, Moon, Star)
Twelve chairs are placed in a hall a-la musical chairs. Actual game is however more complex.
Each player receives a message over the phone what number they're assigned, from 1 to 11 and one player is given X. Then each turn players swap seats to form "straight" so that for example players with numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are sitting one after another. Numbers in a straight can also wrap around so it can actually be 9, 10, 11, 1, 2. All players in a straight win but third player in the middle also gets 10 garnets. Straight must be made with exactly 5 players, if some other player joins from either side forming longer straight than five — game doesn't stop. At the end of every turn announcer tells longest straight number and then all players get their numbers increased by 1, so 1 becomes 2 and so on. X becomes 1 and former 11 becomes X for the turn. If 5 people successfully form a straight, X for the turn becomes loser and goes to deathmatch.
This game requires heavy negotiating skills because you need to convince people to swap for you to form a straight that they can be outside of. You also need to be sure that they are not lying to you about their number. Also if game goes for too long with many turns, eventually everyone will be X because it rotates. So in one turn you are negotiating a straight but come next turn you might need to ruin it.
And that's exactly what happens — nobody can agree to form a straight over many, many turns. Main match goes deep into late night, making everyone frustrated.
Eventually position becomes so players can form TWO straights so that 10 players all win and leave out X (Hongchul) and the other player (Sangmin) in the cold to fight deathmatch. The problem is to do this they need Sangmin to do the swap which he is obviously not gonna do because he will go straight to deathmatch. Jinho then devises a plan to ditch second straight and form one straight with players he has and he finally ends it.
Hongchul is in a Deathmatch and he picks Jaekung who looks like an easy target. Elimination game is Sun, Moon and Star — a variation of Winning Streak with rock-paper-scissors. Each of the 10 players not competing in deathmatch picks either sun, moon or star. The elimination players must bet on what each of the players picked using tokens.
Another big difference from Winning Streak (which rather cruelly decides the outcome) is that other players can bet their garnets on the outcome of the deathmatch.
Jinho who helps Hongchul shows yet another flash of brilliance when says that he should bet on Sun a lot because when he was fifth in making his pick, stack of Sun tokens was already lower than others.
Yoonsun initially helps Jaekung because she saved her in the last deathmatch. However, when people realized that they can bet on the outcome of the deathmatch, most of the players decide to collude and all bet on Hongchul telling him their right picks. When Yoonsun sees that it's already decided and majority is on Hongchul's side, she betrays Jaekung and bets on Hongchul like everyone else.
Jaekung predictably loses and Noh Hongchul goes on.
Tropes:
- Angry Dance: when yet another attempt at building a straight falls apart frustrated Sangmin exclaims "when are we going home?" and busts out an angry breakdance move.
- Foreign Cuss Word: Jiwon's *UCKIN PUMPKIN shirt. Not many people in Korea would recognize it as profanity to begin with, but Jiwon also strategically places his badge over F letter so he could always claim it was EUCKIN PUMPKIN or something.
- Living Lie Detector: Sagnmin uses his people skills to detect if someone is lying about their number. He successfully detects Yoyoong's lie, but fails with Yohwan (maybe because he never said anything when asked if he's 10 so he didn't technically lie).
- The Stinger: Jaekung lost deathmatch and she is waving everyone goodbye and sappy music plays. Then Jiwon says: "it's all your own fault". Record Needle Scratch, and cue flashback to EVERYONE betraying her and betting on Hongchul.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: when Jyunghyun is asked about his pick in Sun-Moon-Star, he says it is akin to his image, implying bright Sun. Jiwon quips that middle-aged Jyunghyun must have picked fading Star.
