Shay wasn’t hopeful about making friends, especially after what happened at the last party. But as she was-- standing by herself-- she was a weird, awkward, and, most of all, obvious outlier in a sea of hundreds of pretty, dressed-up people.

Nuri wouldn’t care. She wasn’t that kind of person.

But Shay had to be considerate to her as the hostess of her gala. It wouldn’t look good if her other invitees thought Nuri invited an outright loser.

So, just like she did at school, Shay needed some plausible deniability.

She had to be seen socializing at least a little.

So... conversation. Normal conversation with a regular person. That was the plan.

Shay honed in on aNother girl mAaaybe in similar circumstances. AloooOne. It was the girl with the dark, wavy hair who offered her drugs at Nuri’s last party. (Her hair was straight, this time, though.) Similarity! Familiarity! They had so much in common!!

Oh, no! They made eye contact! Shay panicked as they started approaching.

“Hey, again. We met at Nuri’s. Love your dress.”

AhhhHhh! They made the first move! Well played! But that was bad because Shay completely forgot that person’s name!!

“Th-thanks,” she said with a big, cheesy smile meant to cover up her awkwardness but probably made it worse. Hm. She grabbed the skirt of her red, white, and black dress, swaying it back and forth. “I got it from Perseus last week.”

“OooOh. No wonder!” the girl said. “I’ve been meaning to get a few outfits from there. That one’s gotta be from the Eorzea line, then?”

“Yep!” Shay turned and pointed down at a specific spot. “Check it out! It has pockets.”

They had a short conversation about pockets. That was a nice, safe topic to discuss without needing to know names.

“Oh, Shay, we never got properly introduced did we? It’s Lucinda. My dad’s the founder of Morbius Logistics.”

Shay gasped melodramatically and waved her hand. “Really? No way! Oh, I didn’t even notice. You’re just-- so easy to talk to! Aha! Hahaha... hah... My name is Shay. My grandpa’s in charge of the Hongdai Group.”

Her name was Lucinda! Did that make them friends? Introductions were enough to be friends, right?

Unfortunately, the next conversation topic her new friend chose was... Montgomery Jiang.

And... Shay was too caught off guard by the betrayal to do anything about it.

And then-- since that guy was somehow the popular topic of discussion, more people started to join the group.

Some guy with a stutter mentioned just how much weight Monty had lost. Then, another person started talking about the tips Monty gave out on losing weight. That was dumb, though! He didn’t go through a full-on transformation on his own! He was only like that because of Tyvan!

THEN, everyone started talking about how Monty was humble and easy to talk to! Those were out-RiGht LIES! Monty only had two settings: stupid-and-Rude and stupid-and-Mean! They were just giving him a pass because he was part of their rich-people circle.

It was painfully easy to slip out of that crowd unnoticed. Not even Lucinda looked back.

Ugh. Shay only had one setting: Stupid-and-Shay.

She took on a stupid mission that she stupidly wanted to finish even withOUT Tyvan as her date. If she didn’t, she could have been at home... watching a rom-com with Yeonha... or reading josei manga with Heidi. (Or... trying to get Raia to read a certain genre of manga that had a certain demographic.)

Whatever.

Shay decided to try conversation again. She didn’t have anything better to do. And anything was better than just standing around, feeling sorry for herself.

Also, networking was important for her future as an heiress. It was a good thing and she had to get over herself.

So... she found... a regular-looking person-- regular considering the setting.

It was a guy... tall-ish, wearing glasses, and with a shaggy haircut. His suit looked a bit loose on him, like he lost weight. Or maybe it wasn’t fitted. (But maybe it wasn’t fair to compare him to Tyvan or Bishop or Callum.)

Shaggy haircut-guy seemed safe to talk to. He didn’t look intimidating-- and maybe he was feeling awkward too?

“Hey,” she said, “Um. Are you enjoying the uh... festivities?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Grrrgh. She wished she prepared a more normal line-- but once that was out of her mouth, she couldn’t take it back.

The guy looked up with almost a sparkle in his eyes. And he smiled... a wide, creepy smile with blazing white teeth that gave off a predatory feel.

Oh, no! She had chosen poorly!

“I know you like what you see,” the guy said.

“Nope. My mistake. Thought you were someone else.” Shay spun right around, trying to leave.

Her wrist was caught.

She fReaKed out-- for about 2.5 seconds. Freaking out didn’t make sense. She could absolutely beat the snot out of that guy if she wanted to.

AhhHh. Would it be okay to lay him out on the ballroom floor? Nuri wouldn’t care. She’d probably encourage it.

If anyone else wanted to say something, they’d have to think twice as long as they were in range of a gong fu kick.

Ah. The medical bills, though? No... Grandpa would probably be fine with it. He seemed like the type of person that liked to beat people up. And he had a whole team of lawyers that’d been working with him for decades.

...Tyvan?

What would he think?

No... he wouldn’t be mad, either. He’d probably say something like ‘I assume you handled it with discretion and alacrity.’

So. even though Shay had fully decided on teaching someone a lesson... a flash of red crossed into her vision.

Monty?

Montgomery Jiang?

He’d grabbed the guy’s wrist and shoved him away.

“What the fuck?” creepy-guy shouted, “Do you know who I am?”

“fUck no,” Monty said. “Do you know who the fuck I am?”

The crowd-- of course there was a crowd, they emitted a low ‘ooooOOooH’ like they were kindergarteners watching drama unfold between the sandbox and the jungle gym.

Creepy-guy went through several dramatic changes in not even 30 seconds. He fixed his expression, lowered his posture, and even adopted a softer, higher-pitched voice.

“I... I was just having a friendly conversation, Mister Jiang.”

Monty raised his chin. “Next time your hands get friendly, you’re gonna get my hands up your fuckin’ ass-- five fingers, spread!”

Wow. What a hero~

It wasn’t the hero Shay wanted, but... using words to de-escalate a situation was ultimately better than what she was planning.

Monty turned back to her, his voice kind and concerned, “Hey, are you--”

Shay tilted her head. Why did he stop mid-sentence?

“What the fuck?” he said, “What are YoU doing here?”

Uh. Huh?

Shay opened her mouth.

She bit her bottom lip.

Monty.

Did... he?

Did that. duMb-ASS. lit-er-ally. FORGET. why they were there?!

ALSO, he was supposed to be her PLUS-ONE! (How did he even get IN without her?!)

“I take it back,” Monty said. He put his hand on Shay’s back, shoving her ungently toward creepy-guy. “Go ahead. Take her. Do whatever you want.”

What-- what the fUCK???

Shay’s dress didn’t have sleeves, but if it did, she would have rolled them up and given Monty a beating he definitely deserved.

Normally, she wouldn’t be confident in administering a Monty beat-down, but she KNEW the HEAVENS would be on her side if she decided to kick his ass then and there!!

She kept her voice down, so just Monty could hear. “You were supposed to be my battle-buddy.” Then, she clenched her teeth to accentuate his name: “Rider.”

It took a second, but a gleam of recognition dawned in Montgomery Jiang’s eyes. “Oh. Oh, yeah.” But then he scowled again and said, “Then what do you think YOU’re doing? You’ve been practically looking for trouble?”

That wasn’t fair! Trouble found her! Err... trouble was disguised-- and she fell for its trap!

“Monty, you’re supposed to be helping me.”

He threw his hands up. “I’m only here on Boss’ orders. As long as you don’t literally die, I don’t care what happens to you.”

--”Ooh, looks like we’re having fun.”

The crowd gave way for Nuri, walking up with a confident swagger.

Grand as her entrance was, though, she was dressed... regular. It was supposed to be a gala, a high-level formal event, but Nuri couldn’t care less-- not that Shay expected her to. She wore a sequined black hoodie with her mid-riff exposed. And that was on top of a buckled, denim skirt with a big cut that showed off basically her entire right thigh. Then, her red hair was styled aggressively up and it looked like... she was chewing on some gum?

Shay was partly appalled, but mostly thankful that an actual savior had appeared on her behalf.

“This fucker bothering you, Shay?” she grinned.