25. Crying

Natasha's eyes followed her, shocked.

"What..?" Did she just get slapped? She was interrupted by the door opening. 

"Hello." Lance stood in the doorframe with crossed arms, observing both of them. The female lead's eyes watered.

"She....she just came in and slapped me..."

"Oh? You did?" he looked at Paige inquiringly. Paige answered honestly.

"Yes." Originally, she should have said this sarcastically, but she just said it innocently, somehow.

Natasha ran to Lance and wanted to bury her head in his shoulder, but Lance stopped her with an outstretched single finger on her forehead from coming near him; he looked a bit disgusted by Natasha.

Both girls looked at him, appalled by this behavior.

"What do you girls fighting have to do with me?" he answered coldly, his eyes always staying on Paige, observing her every expression.

Now Paige finally understood what he wanted to test.

[The male lead acts out of character—not according to the storyline. What will happen now?]

She initially just wanted to know if she would get punished, but she didn't want to mention it first. 

[I have to ask the creator; please wait,] the system said. 

'Hmm. A creator?' she thought. It could be the term in this world for 'Lord God,' 'Main system,' and such. It could be the one that created this world, or this system, or this book. Or all of the above. 

The system came back shortly; meanwhile, only Natasha's sobbing was heard. 

[In line with the male lead character, because the story tags were now altered from 'From friends to lovers' to 'From enemies to lovers'.] 

[Mhmm.] Paige said while applauding Lance for his test. They could alter the storyline not only from her side to make it less sadistic, but from his side too if it were within the novel's parameters. That was good to know, even when she could have lost a hand because of his test.

She felt a bit dissatisfied when she thought about this and planned to confiscate his newly purchased shoes.

Lance saw her changing her expression; while her face was still icy, the look in her eyes turned a bit menacing as she looked at his feet. 

'Oh no.' He had a bad feeling. However, seeing that his experiment was successful and Paige would not get punished if he acted out, he was satisfied.

He put his hand away from Natasha's forehead, then went to the faucet Paige had just used and, too, washed his hands.

The female lead, seeing his behavior, ran away crying.

"Poor girl," Paige commented dryly before stomping heavily twice on his new, bright blue sneaker. 

"Ouch, why?" Looking down, he whined again,

"Whyyy?"

Lance took the paper towel, making it wet and trying to wipe her footprints away.

[Can I disclose the punishment you would have implemented on me?] 

[...] It paused; Paige could feel that constantly asking for permission was getting on its nerves.

[Yes.] Finally came as an answer.

"My punishment was to lose a hand if something was wrong with this scene. We were lucky, but two stomps for a hand are already gracious." She originally wanted to take them away, but she couldn't bring herself to do it anyway, so this was the result. He looked up in horror,

"A hand?" That was convincing enough; he was really too hasty.

"Okay, fine," Lance sighed.

"But I thought about it; yesterday I left the female lead behind. Before that, Jace saw us together crouching on the floor in the corridor. Both times, no punishment, though it was out of character."

"I will forgive you this time." She felt it made sense besides not really caring anymore, while she boredly looked at the girls who came to the entrance of the bathroom, but didn't come in because there was a tall, handsome boy wiping his shoes. 

"This is the girls' bathroom," Paige reminded him. 

"Wasn't it you who told me to come here?" he asked, finally having cleaned the new shoes successfully. 

"Don't let it sound so misleading." She whispered, then went out, while he hastily followed.

When they entered the classroom, Natasha was silently crying in her seat while the other girls in their class tried to calm her down; at the front was Pigtail.

She shot an icy glare at them, but before she could start, Jace asked loudly,

"What happened to you?"

He just came from eating at the cafeteria and was welcomed by seeing his Tasha crying.