Chapter 16 - The Trial Begins

Orm knew something was terribly wrong. It wasn't just the usual low-grade anxiety—this was an overwhelming, stomach-churning, soul-crushing sense of impending doom. Everywhere she went, hushed whispers followed her like unwanted shadows. Every glance from a passing student seemed laden with judgment. Something big was coming, something very, very bad.

Sitting in the cafeteria with Becky and May, Orm picked at her food, desperately trying to act normal. She failed—miserably. Becky, nonchalantly scrolling through her phone, broke the silence with a casual, "You do realize she's going to destroy you, right?"

Orm tensed. "Who? Who's going to destroy me?" she whispered, voice trembling with dread.

May set down her drink and stared at Orm as if she were a clueless child, "Babe. Lingling. The woman you spent WEEKS chasing."

Finally, Becky looked up with a smirk, "The same woman you let kiss you, text you goodnight, and then proceeded to tell the entire campus you were single."

Orm groaned, burying her face in her hands. "It wasn't like that!" she protested weakly.

Becky leaned in, voice dripping with sarcasm, "Then what was it like, Orm? Because from where we're sitting, you just committed social suicide."

May sighed dramatically before adding, "No, she didn't just commit social suicide..." She exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Becky. "She committed something worse."

Becky gasped, "Oh my god, you're right."

In unison, they turned to Orm, grinning like sharks circling a wounded prey, "She committed Lingling's wrath."

Orm's heart nearly stopped. She tried to brush it off, convincing herself that Lingling wouldn't actually care—that nothing catastrophic was about to happen. But as she trudged through campus, the stares and murmurs growing louder, Orm's intuition screamed the truth: she was in deep trouble. And the worst part was, she had no idea what was coming.

Orm did everything in her power to avoid Lingling that day. She took alternate routes, ducked into random buildings, and deliberately lagged behind groups of students in hopes of blending into the crowd. For a while, it seemed like she might actually escape the inevitable.

That is, until she turned a corner—and walked straight into Lingling Kwong. The hallway fell deathly silent, as if every student had collectively held its breath. In that moment, the tension was so thick you could slice it with a butter knife. Orm was completely, 100% cornered. There was no escape, no backup plan, and no Becky or May to run interference. She stood there, trembling like a criminal caught red-handed.

Lingling appeared before her, arms crossed, expression perfectly unreadable. Her dark eyes locked onto Orm's, unblinking and cool as ice. Then, in a voice so measured it could have been delivered by a seasoned lawyer during cross-examination, Lingling said,

"So. You're single?"

The hallway collectively inhaled. A voice in the back whispered, "Oh, she's done for."

Orm's mind raced. She tried to form a coherent reply, "I—uh—well—" but her words stumbled. Lingling tilted her head ever so slightly. "Technically?" she prompted, each syllable piercing through Orm like a well-aimed objection.

The way Lingling said it made Orm's knees weak, as if her opponent were methodically dismantling her testimony. Desperate to salvage the situation, Orm tried to explain, "I mean... yeah, I said that. But—"

Before she could finish, Lingling took a slow, deliberate step forward. "Interesting choice of words," she stated, voice low and even, each word measured like a legal clause.

Orm was trapped. Lingling was now so close that Orm could feel the heat radiating off her. Lingling's gaze was cold, calculated—like a predator toying with its prey. Swallowing hard, Orm stammered, "I—I was just being friendly?"

At that, Lingling's lips twitched—a barely perceptible smirk that was a sure sign of impending doom.

Just as Orm felt the weight of Lingling's accusation, she sensed another presence. Lingling's eyes flicked over Orm's shoulder, and Orm knew instantly that one of her admirers—someone who'd been watching from afar—had been drawn into the drama. And now, that person was walking up, determined to "shoot their shot" because, in the eyes of gossip-hungry onlookers, Orm's admission of singleness made her fair game.

Before Orm could even react, Lingling moved. Without a word, without turning her head or causing a scene, Lingling cast a single, calculated glance in the admirer's direction. That one look was enough. The admirer immediately stopped in his tracks, blinked as if in disbelief, and then—without further ado—turned around and left.

The hallway erupted in quiet, shocked murmurs. Becky clutched May's arm, exclaiming, "OH MY GOD, SHE SCARED HIM AWAY WITH JUST A LOOK!" May fanned herself, adding, "That was the hottest thing I've ever seen in my life."

Orm was having a full-blown crisis. The weight of the moment, combined with the knowledge that she was now a prize in someone else's eyes, only added to her mounting dread.

Lingling's attention snapped back to Orm, and this time her voice dropped to a dangerously soft murmur, "You want to act single? Fine." Her eyes flickered with something unreadable—something that twisted in Orm's stomach like a bad legal precedent. "But don't expect me to let anyone else have you."

The words hung in the air, thick and final. The hallway fell into a terrible, deafening silence as every student absorbed the magnitude of Lingling's claim. And then, without another word, Lingling turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Orm utterly destroyed, her pride shattered on the cold floor of public humiliation.

The second Lingling disappeared, and the hallway erupted. Becky screamed, and May actually fell to her knees in dramatic delight. "That was the most possessive thing I have ever witnessed," May declared breathlessly. A random student piped up, "That was straight out of a mafia romance novel!" Another added, "Did she just CLAIM Orm?"

Orm stood frozen, unable to move as her brain shut down and her face burned with embarrassment. She couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Because, really—what had just occurred? Lingling had staked her claim with one devastating declaration, and now the campus was buzzing with the fallout.

The whispers, the gasps, and the incredulous stares were all that Orm had to face. And in that moment, as the reality of the situation crashed over her, Orm realized she was completely, irrevocably ruined. Her life, once a carefully curated script of Campus Princess charm, had now turned into a public spectacle—a trial in which she was the defendant, and the verdict had already been read aloud by Lingling's cold, unyielding words.

Orm was left to pick up the pieces, standing alone in the aftermath of a confrontation that would echo through campus gossip for weeks to come. And as the echoes of stunned silence slowly gave way to whispered debates and fevered social media posts, one thing was clear: Lingling had won, and Orm's world would never be the same.