issue in Microsoft Word While Creating Optional Questions in Columns

I am creating a question paper in Microsoft Word (version 2021). I want to format the optional questions in such a way that the answer choices (A, B, C, D) appear in two rows and two columns — i.e., in a 2x2 format, grouped as:

A. Option A B. Option B
C. Option C D. Option D

To do this, I selected only the answer options and applied the Two Columns layout using the Columns option under the Layout or Page Layout tab.

However, the issue is:

Even though I select only a portion of the text and apply "two columns," the content does not split into two separate columns.

On the other hand, if I apply the same two-column layout to the entire page, then the text is correctly divided into two columns.

It seems that column formatting is not being applied properly to selected portions of the document.

I want to format only a specific section (the answer options) into two columns without affecting the rest of the document. How can I achieve this?