Chapter 32: What Just Happened?

Chapter 32: Chapter 32: What Just Happened?

Azura’s survival instincts—which had been dormant for approximately twenty-five years of her previous life and had only recently been revived through sheer terror—were now screaming at her at full volume.

DANGER. DANGER. THE WOMAN IN BLACK WANTS TO TURN YOU INTO A RUG.

She clutched her boba cup like it was a holy relic capable of warding off evil spirits. The cold condensation dripped onto her fingers, but she didn’t care. This cup of milk tea was the only thing grounding her to this mortal plane.

Why is she looking at me like that?! I didn’t do anything! I was just sitting here! Sipping my drink! Minding my own business!

Selena, for her part, finally noticed who was causing the ruckus at the milk tea shop entrance. When she recognized Caroline—the infamous sidekick of her personal nightmare—she didn’t hesitate. She took one step back. Then another. Then she promptly hid behind the mysterious woman like a kitten seeking shelter behind a very angry mother lion.

The woman in black responded instantly. Her posture shifted. Her hand moved slightly, positioning itself between Selena and any potential threat. Protective. Ready.

But her eyes never left Azura.

Not for a single second.

And Azura couldn’t look away either. It was like a staring contest with death itself, except death was wearing a very chic all-black ensemble and had murderous intent radiating from her pores.

Azura’s brain kicked into overdrive, frantically sorting through the information she had gathered in the past sixty seconds like a computer trying to process a virus.

FACT NUMBER ONE: The woman in black wanted to kill her. Not maybe. Not possibly. Definitely.

FACT NUMBER TWO: Selena was scared of Caroline. Which meant Caroline also participated in the bullying. Which meant Azura’s so-called "best friend" was also a menace to society.

Great. Fantastic. Love that for me.

FACT NUMBER THREE: The woman in black was protecting Selena, and Selena trusted her enough to hide behind her like a scared puppy. Their relationship was close. Intimate. The kind of bond that said, "If anyone hurts her, I will end their entire bloodline."

FACT NUMBER FOUR (AND MOST TERRIFYING): This woman was definitely one of the candidates who would kill her in the future to avenge Selena.

And right now, with Caroline slapping some random woman like it was a competitive sport, the mysterious woman probably thought Azura had orchestrated the whole thing. That she was the same monster she had been in the original novel.

NO! NO, NO, NO!

Her brain latched onto a desperate solution.

The only way to survive this was that she had to prove to this woman—to Selena, to the universe, to whatever sadistic idiot author wrote this hellhole of a story—that her relationship with Selena was actually good now!

She had to show her repentance. Her affection. Her complete and total transformation from villainess to... whatever the opposite of a villainess was.

Azura made a decision.

It was a terrible decision. A stupid decision. The kind of decision that would make any sane person question her mental faculties. But she was fresh out of good ideas, so this would have to do.

She shot up from her seat like a jack-in-the-box possessed by a demon of self-preservation.

Her boba was in one hand. Her shopping bags were in the other. Her dignity was nowhere to be found.

She ran.

She ran past Caroline, who was still enthusiastically slapping the woman like she was testing the tenderness of a steak.

She ran past the two terrified women, who watched her fly by with expressions that screamed, "Are we being pranked?!"

She ran past a growing crowd of onlookers, who had stopped to watch the chaos unfold like it was a free street performance titled "Gamma Female’s Midlife Crisis: The Slapping Edition."

And finally—finally—she reached the woman in black.

The mysterious woman’s hand immediately shot behind her long coat, reaching for something dangerous. Her eyes narrowed. Her body tensed. She was ready to neutralize the threat charging toward her like a bull seeing red.

But Azura did not attack.

Instead, she grabbed the woman’s hand.

And spun her.

Twirl.

For one surreal, beautiful, utterly unhinged moment, the two of them danced. She spun the woman around like they were in some twisted fairy tale, her boba still clutched in her other hand, shopping bags flapping wildly in the wind. One spin. Two spins. A dramatic dip. And then she let go.

The mysterious woman stood there, frozen, her hand still extended in the air, her brain buffering like a computer trying to process a command it had never encountered before.

"...what...?"

Her voice was flat. Hollow. The sound of a woman whose entire worldview had just been hit by a truck labeled "I Don’t Know What Just Happened."

Azura’s tactic had worked perfectly.

She had known—known—that approaching Selena would trigger an attack. The woman in black was clearly a trained killer, or at the very least, a woman with excellent skinning techniques. Azura, a certified "lazy potato" who couldn’t even win an arm-wrestling match against a particularly aggressive houseplant, stood no chance in a direct confrontation.

So she did the only thing her panic-stricken brain could come up with.

Be so random that reality itself pauses to question its choices.

And it worked.

The woman in black was stunned. Dazed. Confused. Her guard was down.

And Azura seized the opportunity.

She lunged forward, bypassing the frozen woman, and threw herself at Selena like a long-lost lover reuniting after decades of war.

"MY BELOVED SISTER SELENA!!"

She wrapped her arms around Selena, squeezing her tightly, rubbing her cheek against Selena’s like an overaffectionate cat who had not yet learned the concept of "personal space."

"I never expected to meet you here!! We really are kindred spirits!! Do you know how HAPPY I am to see you?!"

She pulled back just enough to look Selena in the eyes, her own eyes sparkling with the desperate energy of a woman trying to convince a jury she was innocent.

"Don’t tell me you stalked me here?! That’s so wrong of you, Selena! I’m the one who’s supposed to stalk YOU! Don’t snatch my hobby from me!"

Selena’s soul left her body.

No, really. Her eyes glazed over. Her mouth opened slightly. Her limbs went limp like a ragdoll.

She had already nearly had a heart attack two days ago when Azura kneeled before her, and now she was pretty sure every single organ in her body had collectively decided to file for divorce and leave her completely non-functional.

The woman in black finally snapped out of her dance-induced daze and took a step forward, ready to intervene—

But then she saw the scene in front of her.

Azura, hugging Selena. Cheek-rubbing. Cooing like a lovesick pigeon.

Selena, completely catatonic, resembling a corpse that had been propped upright and forgotten.

The woman stopped mid-step. Her hand hovered in the air. Her face cycled through confusion, disbelief, and then a strange, reluctant confusion again.

What the hell is happening right now?