“Ah. What do we have here?” The silhouette spoke with intrigue and entered the broom closet, closing the door behind.

“It’s Elena. We shouldn’t provoke her.”

Maya managed to hear the duo whispering, and a rush of hope came over her.

“Erm. What brings you here, Elena?” Price asked, casually.

Given the rumoured tension in the supposed new love triangle, and Maya potentially being Elena’s new love rival, it was natural for the two to assume Elena would be more on their side in this situation. They were wise to tread carefully, though.

“Nothing much. I just thought I might find something interesting in here.”

Elena’s usual carefree demeanour persisted even in this kind of situation, disheartening Maya. There was no way Elena wouldn’t realize what was happening here, even if she were a little slow.

“W—well, you… you go ahead. We were leaving, anyway,” the girls, slightly nervous, tried to get out of the uncomfortable situation.

“Huh? Are you excluding me from the fun?” Elena asked with feigned disappointment on her face.

“N—no. We… we were just—”

“Who gave you permission to play with my toy?”

Elena’s sudden cold and stern voice made them flinch. Perhaps Price and Hailey thought it would be best to leave before they got involved in whatever twisted idea Elena had in mind, but they did not expect to be reproached.

As they stared at her with pale faces, like rabbits caught in a snare, uncertain of what to do, Elena suddenly smiled, returning to her carefree demeanour.

‘How? How can she smile?’ Maya was shaken.

“Ah, you’re also into photography? Let me see.”

Before Price knew what stumbled upon her, Elena had swiped the phone from her hand, leaving a confused Pricilla staring at her empty palm, realizing this could end badly.

“Your composition is awful,” Elena critiqued her work while going through her photo gallery. “Look, this one’s even blurry.”

Elena showed her the screen only for a moment, which wasn’t enough to comprehend what was on it.

“I see that you were going for mood lighting, but you can’t do it with a shitty phone camera,” Elena continued enthralled by the phone screen.

However, what Elena was doing was blatantly deleting photos one by one. Everyone could tell, but they were helpless to do anything. Pricilla and Hailey looked at each other, feeling tense.

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t delete all of them,” Elena gave them an unnerving wide smile. “Look, this one. Showing you rip clothes off innocent people. That would make quite an impactful stir. Do you mind if I send it to myself? Oops, already did.”

Stolen story; please report.

Watching the scene unfold in front of them, Maya and Leo suddenly found themselves as spectators of someone else’s show. At this point, Elena was doing whatever she liked while talking to herself, without anyone having the courage to stop her. The level of intimidation Elena alone could create was frightening. No one could tell what she could do next.

This isolated broom closet suddenly became a cage, not just for Maya, but the two girls who entrapped her in there.

“When we’re at it, why don’t I capture the faces of the creative artists as well,” as she was talking, Elena suddenly lifted Pricilla’s phone, and a bright light blinded the duo.

“Flash is for the shocking effect. Look at your faces. It truly shows the dreadful realization of what it means to create art.”

Elena laughed at them appearing on the screen. Her reverberating laughter in this small space sent chills down their spines, while she sent the picture she just took to her phone.

“I like what you were going for here,” Elena waved at the scene in the room, her face showing almost deranged amusement. “It’s inspiring for me as well. Let’s continue further, to see where the creative rush takes us, shall we?”

At this point, the dire consequences of their actions became starkly clear to Pricilla and Hailey. It seemed Elena had just acquired plenty of evidence for blackmail. With this, Elena had them in the palm of her hand. If she wanted to report them, she had clear evidence. If she wanted to crush their social lives, she could spread their deeds around and make them into villains at the cost of Maya’s dignity.

The duo were unable to raise their gazes from the floor, feeling shame and regret for their actions. Or most likely being only regretful of being caught by such an unpleasant person. And Elena seemed to be having a ball time simply because she could.

“We—we’re sorry.”

“Y…yeah.”

“We weren’t going to do anything bad.”

They started with excuses.

“Haa… This is boring…” Elena sighed, relaxing her body, suddenly losing interest. “You know, these days, I’m more into sculpting. I was itching to carve something out,” Elena slipped the phone back into Pricilla’s hand and affectionately brushed her cheek with her palm. “I see some nice material in front of me.”

“Eek!” Pricilla jerked away, shivering.

“Just run!” Hailey grabbed Price’s hand and started dragging her away.

They looked quite foolish as they fumbled their way out of the broom closet, tripping over some cleaning equipment near the door. The two were crushed by the feeling of predators suddenly becoming prey. It must’ve been even more degrading as they couldn’t help feeling intimidated despite Elena never pointing a single threat their way.

“Amateurs…” Elena mumbled to herself and then glanced toward Maya.

Opening her mouth without finding any words, Maya could only stare at Elena. She was feeling embarrassed about the pitiful state Elena found her in.

“You owe me, yet again… My reputation as a lunatic really goes far and wide,” Elena let out a regretful sigh. “Keith’s going to complain again…”

Without giving her a second glance, Elena walked away, leaving Maya alone in the dank broom closet.

Left to her own devices, Maya fell to her knees in relief and began sobbing intensely. The situation that felt so helpless only moments prior was suddenly resolved in such a simple manner. Elena could’ve been nicer about it, but there was no denying she was Maya’s saviour right now.

However, the lingering feeling after just being saved didn’t feel like a clear resolution. Perhaps it was because Elena barged in, stole the show, but never gave any kind of acknowledgement to Maya until the very end.

What was going to happen next? What were Elena’s true intentions?

One thing she did make clear was that Maya was under her protection of sorts. Anyone wishing to mess with Maya in the future will have to be ready to face the discomfort of dealing with Elena. Was that what she meant when she called Maya her ‘toy’?

Maya stayed in the musty broom closet for a while, slowly gathering herself, and fighting the urge to wail like a small child.

Leo was by her side, comforting her to the best of his abilities, a bitter expression on his face. He didn’t like Maya pursuing a friendship with that troublesome girl, but this time at least, it was abundantly clear what she could do… and he could not.