Soft jazz music flowed through her earphones as she blocked out everything else happening in the café. It was an hour before her next scheduled meeting with VI-King's agency and she wanted to make sure she was fully prepared for it. As much as she hated admitting it, connections were key to surviving in the world today and she wanted to make sure her clients and colleagues remembered her for her strong work ethic.
She blinked at the hand waving in front of her. Frowning slightly at the distraction, she looked up and saw Xiao Bao. Breaking out into a smile, she removed her earphones and stood up to greet him.
"Hello, we meet again. You're not with the rest of the group?" she said.
He grinned at her. "They're on their way. Our agency is just down the road and they made a pit stop to grab some mints. You're here for work?"
She nodded, "Yes, actually I'm meeting your agency in about an hour. I was just grabbing a bite to eat beforehand."
The automatic door slid open and the other four walked in. All of them had caps or hats on and were dressed in sweats. She guessed they must have been at dance practice before this. They walked up to Xiao Bao before noticing her. Another round of greetings went around.
Hao Jie glanced at her table, amusedly taking note of her scattered notes and half empty cup of tea. 'She always looks so tidy and put together, I half expected her to be as OCD as Su Yang is.'
Pulling his face mask down, he asked her, "Have you eaten? Would you like to sit with us? You can try a bit of everything that way."
She shook her head and politely turned down his offer, using work as her excuse. They were dressed somewhat inconspicuously but their presence had already started to draw people's attentions. All five of them were taller than average and even being dressed down couldn't quite dim their attractiveness.
Once they left she sat down but a flush started spreading down her back as she felt people turning to steal a glance at her every now and again.
'Just ignore them! Plug your music back in and get back to work,' she admonished herself.
Fifteen minutes later, she was interrupted once again.
She felt someone take the seat in front of her. Stereotypically blond haired and blue eyed, he reached out to pull one side of her earphone out before speaking with broken grammar and poor pronunciation. Taken aback and more than mildly irritated by his presumptuous behaviour, she coldly replied in English, "I speak English perfectly fine. And no, I'm fine eating by myself."
He smiled, "Ah it must be my lucky day. A pretty little thing like you eating on your own with no language barriers. C'mon now, I'm only here for the week. Why don't you sit with my friends and I? Maybe you can tell us what there is to do around here."
She glanced over at his group of friends who were all watching the scene, clearly entertained. She felt her insides curl in disgust; it was obvious this was some kind of joke or bet between them. As someone who had been the foreigner multiple times, she generally was understanding and open-minded towards foreigners as they tried to adjust to the different language and culture.
But what she absolutely hated were the guys who came and expected to be worshipped out of some outdated colonial sentiment. It was almost always one of two types. The first type would be the ones who probably had no game back home but found confidence because some Asian girls found them attractive due to their different physical appearances. The other type, which this guy fell under, was the douchebag. The douchebag who was a douchebag regardless where he was but one who felt he could get away with even more when he wasn't in his home country.
He became more and more insistent and she rejected him over and over with increasing curtness. She nearly lost it when he grabbed her hand. Slapping it away, she stood up and glared at him, "Don't touch me!"
"Oh c'mon darling, don't get so upset. It was just your hand," he still had that stupid grin on his face.
"Ha Na."
She heard someone call her name softly. She looked to her left and saw Hao Jie who had kept his face mask on.
"I didn't realise you were here already; we must have missed you when we came in. We managed to get a table at the back since there were so many of us. Here, I'll help you pack up, the other guys are waiting," he said while he quickly gathered her notes and stuffed them into her bag.
Without giving the other guy so much of a glance, he placed his hand on her shoulder lightly and guided her towards his table. He indicated to Wen Yi with his eyes to vacate the seat that was closest to the wall and sat her there so that she was mostly hidden from view by the rest of their group.
"You okay?" He asked softly. He had felt her shaking slightly when they were walking.
She could feel the early prickling of tears and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Smiling gratefully, she nodded and mumbled a soft "Thanks".
All five of them turned to look unhappily at the group of guys near the door who were now jeering and laughing at the guy who had been bothering her. Their English was still at a beginner's level but they could roughly make out what he was trying to do. Plus the idiot hadn't given much thought to anyone else in the cafe and had spoken in a loud voice.
Hao Jie had already gotten up to move towards her when he heard her refuse him twice and had just gotten there when he saw the guy reach out for her hand. He was normally known to be very calm and level-headed; it was one of the main reasons he had been chosen to be the new leader. But one of the few things that really tested his bottom line was bullying. Add the fact that he had a bit of a thing for Ha Na and her little lone dimple and he had been seriously tempted to shove the guy off his seat.
But he figured she would hate the extra attention it would call to the situation and he was conscious of the fact that he was still a public figure.
By tacit agreement, the five of them pretended as if she really was meant to be meeting them for lunch and started cutting up small portions to dump onto her plate while chatting about random things. Hao Jie cut up half of his chocolate croissant and slid it over to her quietly.
Su Yang caught this and laughed, "You should be honoured, Ha Na. Don't be misled by this manly looking guy. He loves chocolate like Winnie the Pooh loves honey. Normally we have to wrestle him to get even a bite."
Rolling his eyes, Hao Jie muttered, "They're exaggerating. You just look like you needed a little sugar."
She smiled hesitantly and explained, "I'm just not very good with confrontations and conflict. I know I was clearly right to stand up for myself but I hate causing a scene in public." She had actually also been extra upset that no one seemed to want to step in to help her when it became obvious that the guy was bothering her.
"You did good. No way you should have let him off the hook," he said, sincerity clear in his eyes.
She felt herself beam a little at his directness and couldn't help feeling a little proud of herself.
He was right, she did good. Why should she feel embarrassed for telling the guy off? She was just minding her own business and doing her own work. He was the one who chose to bother her and he was so rude with how forward he was being as well.
Feeling more spirited, she started polishing off her plate with gusto. Hao Jie smiled to himself as he watched her eat, pleased that she seemed to be in a better mood now.
"Xiao Bao said you're meeting our agency right after this. Just walk with us, we're heading back right after lunch anyway," he said.
She nodded at him, grateful for his thoughtfulness yet again. At this rate she was rapidly about to turn into his no. 1 fan.
After lunch they headed towards the exit with the five of them crowding her, blocking her from sight as they walked past the group of guys who were sitting near the door. Hao Jie simply walked past and completely ignored them as if they weren't important enough for him to bother looking at but Xiao Bao couldn't resist shooting them a dark glare.