The young, tipsy male lead, laughing happily, was a sight to behold.
Paige appreciated this picture of youth, hoping he could always be like this.
Lance slumped on the couch, embarrassed of being stared at by her.
"What?" His half-lidded eyes looked lazily at her.
"You should laugh more." She stated honestly.
"The male lead is like a warm summer breeze while laughing and cold as an ice cave when not. Doesn't the typical male lead trope sound like that? So, did you feel the warm summer breeze just now?" Lance languidly leaned back and closed his eyes.
"Yup, it was refreshing. Then we have the female lead like a white lotus, a startled deer, friendly and graceful. Cannon fodders are fat and have bad skin."
She pointed at herself, celebrating her new cannon fodder role, which she had surprisingly the perfect skin for. But the weight was already lost.
Lance had peeked at her, seeing her gesture, and laughed lightly at her bullshit.
"And the villains are either hot or beautiful," Paige concluded while glancing back at the TV.
"Hot?" Lance opened his eyes and asked, irritated.
"Yes, that's an iron rule. An ugly villain is boring."
"I bet I will be hotter than Meier as an adult." He said, sure of himself.
"Well, maybe the three M murderer, as the final boss, will be hotter than both of you." Paige contributed.
"That guy would be middle-aged and likes to rip pregnant women open."
"The fuck?" Paige looked back at him, startled.
"Search online and inform yourself about your hot villain." Lance got up and went to his room to sleep away the alcohol he had drunk.
"That's not my villain," Paige mumbled and fumbled for her phone in the schoolbag casually thrown beside her on the carpet while still lying down and without even propping herself up. Paige wriggled like an earthworm.
Finding it, she read through a few articles online. That guy was really in no way a villain like the ones she had in mind. As Lance said, the way he killed was not sexy at all.
If the system had not disclosed that the 3M Murder was the killer of Paige Smith in part two, she would have thought Meier was the one to kill her because the system was insisting vehemently on her making an enemy of him.
After all that changed in part two, it would be possible that Meier did not die in an accident.
[How did Meier die in part one?] Paige asked.
[Car accident with hit and run.] The system answered.
[Who was the driver?]
[....Richard Lewson.] The system paused a little before answering.
Because of that, Paige knew that this would lead to something.
"LANCE!" She yelled, and shortly after, saw Lance, with his upper body naked and half-dry hair, running to the stairs, holding his folding knife, and looking around in alarm.
"What are you even doing?" She asked, puzzled.
"You..." He made sure no one broke in. "You yelled for me! I thought something happened! Why the fuck would you yell randomly??" His voice grew louder, with his anger rising.
"I...didn't want to stand up...." She said meekly, and before he could snap at her, she said
"Richard Lewson, who is that?"
Lance was getting angry, but when he heard the name, he was stunned.
"One of the guys assaulting people in that Monday club." He would never say, 'The guys that raped me in part one' out loud.
Paige asked the system. "When had Lance killed Richard Lewson in part one?"
The system answered both of them at the same time.
[When Lance was in his senior year, he was the last one to be killed.]
"When did Meier die?"
[.....When Lance was in his senior year.]
"Ha! So because I killed that guy too late in part one, he had the chance to kill Meier, and at the same time, the 3M killer did not murder again?" He forgave Paige for yelling this time, which was good to know.
"Mhmm, and in part two, you were kicked out of school and killed them all on the spot, becoming a murderer on the run, but letting Meier live, System, is that correct?" Paige felt like a detective and found the puzzle a bit fun.
[Yes...]
"So, the murderer has something to do with Meier?" Lance asked, but the system played dead. That was enough to answer, though.
"Okay, for now, it doesn't matter. The female lead will throw a birthday party in the future, and the whole class will be invited. We can investigate then."
Lance nodded, said his good night, and finally returned to his room, tuning the light from upstairs off to spite Paige a bit.
Paige yelled again a few times, but there was no answer, so she went to her room, too, feeling too creepy alone in the big, dark living room. She would not sleep on the carpet if she had to stand up anyway.
The following day, she did not want to go to school, as she already had the system for cheating.
But Lance hammered on her door until she stood up.
"No whining. Go to school to at least look like a student." Seeing the determination in his eyes, she sighed sadly and went to clothe herself. When she walked out of her room, Lance stood in front of her door with his arms crossed, asking her after remembering something.
"When was the last time you showered?"
"...." She didn't want to answer that. She had already soaked on Sunday, and today was only Tuesday. Why shower every day? That's not good for the skin.
Lance narrowed his eyes. "Shower. Now."
When she came out again after showering, he stood before her door.
He looked at her and saw that her skin condition did not improve after Sunday.
"Did you apply the cream from the doctor?"
This time, she directly closed the door and applied the cream.
After coming out the nth time, they were already late for school.
Lance mustered her from head to toe. Seeing her half-dry hair, he opened his mouth to say something, but seeing his look, she directly slammed the door shut and searched for the hairdryer.
Finally, for goodness' sake, they could leave.