Sliding my glasses back on, I saw the scene more clearly now. A girl and a guy were in a hot argument.
A very seemingly superheated one.
If it were just an argument, I guess probably, the crowd wouldn't have gathered.
However, the girl was doing the most. Tugging at the head of the guy, pulling his shirt, slapping violently his chest, oh, name it!
She was going the extra and was way too aggressive. The most remarkable part was that the guy was not doing anything, in particular, to defend himself at all.
He only stood there and allowed the girl to debase him in all unmanly ways possible. I guess the men were probably covering their faces, thinking of this one as a total disgrace to them.
Indeed, indeed, he was.
What stunned me yet again was the heightening of her ferociousness. As though her annoyance was perked the more by his silence and lack of resistance.
Now, I longed to hear whatever might be the cause of such an unimaginable scenario.
What drove a man into being publicly harassed by a woman?
Harassed without no motion of self-defense on his part.
As though my thoughts were louder than the noises booming, someone from whatever direction said to – whoever else they were speaking to about the cause of the incident.
It flew to my ears thankfully. I thought the wind must have transported it.
"I can't believe she's harassing him so publicly and shamelessly because he came to the bookstore with another girl. It is more annoying to see him being such a dunce and not fling her upside down because she's a rich girl!"
That was the first nag I heard before another came running too.
"Of course, he can't do shit. He's munching off of her and even had the guts to come out with another girl!"
It seemed the duo arguing from God knows where around me were in contradictory views concerning the brawlers.
Oh, so, they were lovers. Toxic relationship I must say.
I knew the girl looked familiar. So, she's a rich girl. I probably knew her face from somewhere on the internet.
I was still in my innocent thoughts when the system came binging loudly.
[Beauty assignment starts now!]
"Is it 29 minutes yet?" I blurted in wonder to myself.
[Target within range!]
[Identifying target from a cluster of humans<>]
The system just had to be so quick and sudden, right?
It just had to have my heart racing every time it was time for the task. I knew it had already been sending me warnings as a reminder but it was so silent after announcing the 29 minutes timeframe.
Sigh!
It was all a coy to announce the task right the moment it started.
That hypocrite!
The sensor was already moving across the faces of the men in front of me and kept on moving and moving forward.
Oh, dear lord. I saw the direction it was going and clasped my hands together, praying for that to not be the target until it stopped right on his face.
[Target identified!]
It pinged jubilantly.
Why not just die, system? Why do you have to be so jubilant about such a horrendous act?
I thought to myself that the system would be the end of me. It was bound on getting me in trouble.
But then again, what was I expecting?
Transforming such an ugly person as myself into a stunning beauty would definitely not come as easy.
Of course, I would need to endure pain and discomfort. After all, nothing good comes easy.
But then again, this was a killing price. Just how long would I be able to meet up with the tasks?
Would I be able to survive this?
Nevertheless, let's live through this one first.
"What demonic thing do you want me to do this time, dear system?" I groaned to myself, feeling my legs wobble in sheer nervousness.
[Kiss a man for two minutes and lose your nearsightedness!]
It was a double exclamation from me.
What?!
And again... What?!
The system would cure me of my eye condition and I wouldn't need to wear those glasses that made me even more weird than I already was?!
Oh my, that was huge.
A huge, huge, huge, reward.
But kiss that guy for two minutes?!
In front of this many people? In front of the bitch currently hitting the life out of him?
Not even to say she was that way because she saw him with a girl. What would she do to me – to him, if I kissed him right in front of her?
Oh, some of these people even had their cameras recording the scene yet, the system wanted for me this hell.
Maybe I should just skip this one and wait for the next task.
"I'm skipping!" I scoffed out, glancing at the scene again.
The girl had stopped hitting him now and looked like she was ready to go. Maybe if she leaves, maybe I might reconsider.
[Failure awards host an ugly feature!]
The system reminded me.
Damn, I did forget. I can't fail a task or I get some ugly ass features which were the last thing I wanted right now.
Whoever said beauty was pain needed to do some rephrasing. Beauty was anguish, misery, suffering, and pain combined.
That one single word was not enough to define beauty!
Maybe if I had just walked on and not decided to come poke-nosing, I wouldn't have been in such a situation.
Now, I wished the target was a neighbor instead.
I could not eat my cake and have it so, fixing my shaky hands beside me, I began to approach the target.
I was right, the girl after spewing some more dose of curses began to the storm away. I followed her with my eyes and found a pink Ford parked in the parking spot on the road.
That was definitely her car.
She was wearing pink too. Lots of it. Only her hair wasn't pink in her attire.
Oh, damn the devil. I knew now where I knew her from. She was the younger country diva. The little sister of President Zen's betrothed.
If I was going to get into the company, I shouldn't get on his soon to be in- law's bad side, right?
"Oh, system why?!" I roared at the topmost of my voice as I closed my eyes and charged at the target.
I really had no reason to yell as I did but it was my personality. Being lousy and loud was a part of me that I didn't think I could get over.
The crowd, the target, and even me were taken aback when I went on my toes and dragged his neck down before planting my lips on his.
"What the?!"
I could hear the loud gasps from the onlookers.
Oh, Cosima, you would definitely live to regret this.
[Task status; Initiated!]
[Countdown begins <>]
[1:59 — 1:58 —1:57....]