25. Crying

Natasha stared at Paige, shocked.

"What…?" Did she just get slapped? Her thoughts were 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." Initially, she should have said this sarcastically, but she said it innocently, somehow. 

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

Both girls looked at him, appalled by his behavior.

"What does your fight have to do with me?" He answered coldly, his eyes remaining 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 wanted to know if she would be punished but 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 so on. It could refer to the one who created this world, this system, or this book. Or all of the above. 

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

[In line with the male lead character, because the story tags have now changed 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 fell within the novel's parameters.

That was good to know, even if 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 expression changing; while her face remained icy, the look in her eyes turned slightly menacing as she glanced at his feet. 

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

He pulled his hand away from Natasha's forehead, then went to the faucet that Paige had just used and also 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 a paper towel, moistened it, and tried to wipe away her footprints.

[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 the 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 generous." She had 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, even 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 successfully cleaned his new shoes.

"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 had just come from eating at the cafeteria and was greeted by seeing his Tasha crying.