24. Slapped

Paige nodded and told him that he had to go to the girls' toilet at lunchtime to rescue the female lead from her.

"Go in after you hear me slap her, and be the hero."

"Okay. I want to test something then too," Lance announced before they took different paths to the classroom.

Paige slept through the classes until her scene started. Everyone else went to eat, and Paige followed the female lead to the bathroom. This scene was important; it was the second conflict between Natasha and the school bully, establishing her as the villainess.

The female lead would just be slapped. But firstly, the male lead could rescue her; secondly, the female lead's brother would be outraged upon seeing a slap mark on his sister. This led to the introduction of a new character.

The female lead initially came from the countryside, living with her sick grandmother. So how did she end up in this prestigious school? It was because she rescued a runaway child who was being attacked by a dog.

At that time, she had thrown rocks and managed to strike it. She carried the child back to her hut and stopped his bleeding. When he was found by his wealthy family and admitted to the hospital, the doctors said that without her providing first aid, he would have died.

The parents were grateful, yes. But they would never adopt her just for that. However, the child became obsessed with her.

Paige will meet him this weekend as a consequence of today's scene, the crazy yandere number three, Meier.

Meier had a matching storyline for a sadistic novel. Maybe he would have been the second male lead, but he died as a teenager in an accident. He was now twelve years old and a sociopath. Let's just say the dog had a very good reason for attacking him back then.

When such a creepy child wants something, he does not necessarily get it. Yet, Meier did. And what he wanted back then, a few years ago, was to have that older sister who saved him as his real sister.

It was unclear if he had ever developed romantic feelings for Natasha before his death because he was just too young for the author to write about this without going to jail. But he at least had a platonic, yandere-like love for her. 

She couldn't say she was truly happy to act this out and would love to never meet Meier in her life. She glanced at the punishment for not slapping the female lead. 

[Losing a hand] 

[Oh come on, why threaten with body parts again? That's just mean.] 

[Punishments were upgraded again for the host not cooperating.] 

She gave the system the middle finger again. Paige would make sure to slap the female lead hard; she could overcome anything but losing body parts; that was just insane. 

She walked in and recited, with crossed arms and while staring at the floor, "Hey. Get the hell away from Lance; he's mine." 

Natasha had just retouched her makeup because she wanted to go after Lance and eat together. She was frightened by the bored voice coming from behind her suddenly. Looking at Paige, she was unsure if she was being bullied because she sounded so listless while speaking.

"Are you okay?" Natasha asked. 

[Text!] Paige called the system, but the system had to calculate again because the reaction from the female lead was not as in the original. 

There was a short, awkward pause until she saw the words before her eyes again. 

"Have you heard what I said? Give me your seat and don't have delusions about him." 

Only now did Natasha register the content of Paige's words, and her eyes turned more fiercely. 

"No. I like him, and I will fight for him." 

Once more, the text deviated. Initially, she was first Lance's acquaintance, then a friend, then a lover. Now they weren't even acquaintances. She should have said something like, 'We're just seatmates', instead of confessing outright.

There was another pause, and the system calculated briefly before saying, 

[Just slap her already.] 

Paige nodded inwardly and slapped the female lead hard. The sound echoed through the girls' bathroom.