Chapter - 16 - Small gathering…
"Tsk… Women.."
What can he even say? He can't possibly refuse the girls. The girls in this country have higher status than boys. They are not treated unfairly for their gender or met patriarchal parents.
Except for chasing men…
Of course, girls can't chase men. It's not that they can't but being chased by men and chasing men have very different acceptance here.
If a girl is chased by many men, she is charming, precious and desirable even if she is not that beautiful. If a girl chases a man, forgetting about whether she succeeded or not, she will drown in the spit and gossip of neighbour aunties first.
It's like… lowering their position in the relationship.
That's why Kyaw Myo Myat and Myo Ko are not afraid of Anawar's handsome face. Only hopeless romantics will choose to like the cold man, Anawar. Their reputations are at risk if he doesn't respond to their feelings.
"We are here."
Not the same shop they sat in that morning. They passed two more shops. The girls are not here yet.
"Get the long table"
Aware of the trainee's routine, the teashop provided both long tables for 8 people and normal tables for 4. Looks like gatherings occasionally took place here.
With a cup of tea each and some snacks on the table, they waited for the girls. Not wanting to feed the fried snacks to Wine, Anawar ordered two half-boiled eggs and a glass of milk.The waiting time was not long. The girls arrived in a quarter of an hour.
The four girls sit on the opposite side of the boys. Wine saw the little deer in the four girls opposite him. When he saw her up close, the expected excitement didn't appear. He was very calm.
"Hello…"
"Hi, there. Nice to meet you.."
Kyaw Myo Myat's expression didn't have flaws but Myo Ko was visibly excited. Anawar still has the cold face that rejected others' approach.
The happy but calm Kyaw Myo Myat took on the role of introducing each other.
"Only two of you will know me as we are classmates in Class B. I am Kyaw Myo Myat and this is Myo Ko. We are both from Class B. These two are Anawar and Wine, from Class A. We are roommates in the Dhanya dorm."
"Hello, everyone. I'm Hayman, the senior. They are Su Myat, Mo Mo and Yuya, freshmen. Mo Mo and I are roommates and… Su Myat and Yuya are roommates. We got two-person rooms in Saw Thandar' dorm."
Hayman was a short and small girl who looked like a sister next door. Mo Mo was tall and thin with glasses. Su Myat had a thick body frame and thin arms and legs, with a round face.
Yuya? She was the little deer Wine had been talking about. With pinkish white skin, round watery eyes and tall structure…. The only flaw which is not a flaw was she looked naive.
Wine raised one hand and waved at them with a smile. The girls gave him a reserved smile back. They are not as active as the later generations because they are not baptized by the Korean and Chinese dramas yet.
Anawar just nodded. Busy shelling the half-boiled eggs. He put the eggs into the sweetened milk and pulled back Wine's attention towards him.
"Eat it while it's hot. It will taste fishy later.."
"What about you? You put both eggs in the milk."
Wine sprinkled some salt in the milk.
"Let's eat together. Use the spoons from the tea.."
"Hmm… taste it. Putting salt in it makes the milk sweeter."
When the other friends were racking their brains to get the topic that could be interesting to the girls, the two of them were busy eating eggs in the milk.
Anawar was a conversation killer. Wine could talk with them on many topics from cosmetics to shopping dresses but was seduced by foods shared by him time after time.
"So, if you have a long torso, I don't recommend wearing low waisted jeans.."
"Wine, sticky rice steamed with pork is not bad. Here, taste some.."
The conversation was occasionally disturbed by the feeding of Anawar.
"Why are you leaving facial foam on your face for a few more minutes? It won't help you clean deeper, okay? Your face will be ruined by the chemicals later.."
"Wine, help me eat half of this fried bread with red bean paste.."
Wine gave him a sidelong glance which could be translated 'Why don't I know you are a foodie?'. He was acting like he hadn't seen food for a good period of time since the girls were here.
Are you attracting their attention with a unique method or repelling them?
Anawar just shrugged and didn't care. He was robbing Wine's attention from the girls, not trying to attract the girls.
Both Su Myat and Yuya wanted to talk to Anawar but he hadn't given another look after the nod when they were introduced.
However, Wine felt something didn't seem right while chatting. He could feel Yuya was subtly orchestrated with malicious intentions.
When they were talking about the College kitchen and food stalls, the topic led to..
"Yuya dislikes washing dishes. I told her don't be this dirty but she still left the plates unwashed overnight."
When they were talking about clothes and dresses, she was reprimanded again…
"We have two water tanks in our dorm. The water is released in a fixed time. If you are late, you have to pump water from the artesian well yourself. Yuya is so lazy that when she is late, she just soaked the clothes overnight without washing."
"How did you live at home? She can't even sweep the floor…"
They are talking with a teasing tone, not blaming. Is this really the case? If they are just teasing, why are they talking in public? They were doing PUA to her…that she was inferior to them.
Can you feel the malice?
Wine could feel it. Whether she was lazy, dirty or not, it's not their job to popularise it to the boys they just meet.
Wine could see Kyaw Myo Myat and Myo Ko are starting to lean towards the three girls. Wine decided to talk less and focus on sharing snacks with Anawar as he wanted to distance from them.
As for Yuya, he will see…
If she is too weak to stand up for herself, how can others help her? In the small College without entertainment from the outside world, rumours can spread faster and harder to disappear than the highschool. Her future in the College will be hard.
"Waiter!! Bill please.."
"How do you want to pay? Separately or collectively?"
As expected, the waiter was a seasoned player. He knew exactly what the trainees wanted..