Chapter 38

38 The Restaurant Drama

It was the last working day of the week. The whole week the Rencontre team worked diligently and kept reading the incoming scripts. No matter what they did, all they had in their mind was the scripts. Now they had a good number of scripts for Kyung-Soo to read. Upcoming Monday they would have something to show him.

They were forbidden to do any other work except finding the right scripts. The screen glare was making their eyes tired. All were busy with their work when the clock struck at 12.30 pm. Thank God, it was time for lunch. Their eyes would get the necessary rest. One by one everyone started moving towards the cafeteria for lunch.

“Ritti!” Jae-Hwa’s head popped from her cubicle, and she looked at Nivritti.

“Hmm...” Nivritti stopped reading and looked at Jae-Hwa’s cute head.

“Let’s eat outside today,” proposed Jae-Hwa.

“What?” asked Nivritti, surprised.

“I want a change from boring cafeteria food,” pouted Jae-Hwa.

Nivritti narrowed her eyes and stated, “You are paying then.”

“Fine by me.” They both smiled at each other.

.....

They informed Dae that they were going for lunch, took out their wallet from their purses and left the department. As it was noon, they ditched their overcoats and left them on the coat rack. They came out of the building and the warm sun rays hit them. The street was busy with people going to cafés and restaurants for lunch.

A few of the girls were still camped outside the K&Q building to catch a glimpse of their favourite band, ASD. They kept taking pictures of the giant hoarding that was still there displaying the Rencontre competition.

Nivritti and Jae-Hwa stood outside the building for a second as they had not decided where to go. “Where should we go?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“You tell me, you know better,” said Nivritti.

“Let’s go to a new restaurant that opened just a few weeks back,” suggested Jae-Hwa.

“The one on the corner?”

“Yes.” Jae-Hwa grabbed Nivritti’s hands and pulled her away with her.

Happily, they walked to the restaurant and sat near the window. It was a beautiful, sophisticated restaurant. Waiters and waitresses dressed in white and maroon combination were running around serving people. The whole environment was filled with rich aromas. The delicious-smelling food was making them hungrier.

The walls of the restaurant were the same colour as the uniform of the servers. It looked like they were inside a giant dragon fruit. The dimly lit restaurant had a pleasurable ambience. A waiter came and handed them a laminated pamphlet that had a QR code on it. The words “scan for menu” was written in Korean as well as English.

The girls opened their phones and scanned the QR code. An elegant looking menu in white and maroon appeared on their phone. They examined the menu for a minute and placed their order. They ordered kimchi fried rice, Korean fried chicken and Bulgogi.

When Nivritti first arrived in South Korea, she found the food to be different yet similar. The flavour, taste, and texture were not that different from Indian food yet had a uniqueness about them. Now her palette was getting accustomed to Korean food.

The steaming food arrived after a few minutes and the mouth-watering smell hit their noses. Jae-Hwa picked the chopsticks while Nivritti went for a fork. She was yet to learn how to eat with chopsticks. Jae-Hwa used to teach her, but Nivritti was having trouble handling the chopsticks.

While talking about the various scripts they received and the ones they liked, they started devouring the food. The hot, spicy, steaming food warmed them from the inside. Jae-Hwa was eating everything by picking it up with chopsticks, but Nivritti had to use her hands when it came to fried chicken.

After finishing eating, Nivritti leaned back in her chair and huffed loudly. “Oh, I am full. I ate so much, I can’t even walk,” she groaned.

“Me too,” Jae-Hwa grunted. She took the last bite of the fried rice and leaned on her chair as well.

“Oh no! I have to wash my hands. How will I reach the washroom when I am not able to walk?” said Nivritti while breathing heavily.

“Drag yourself there,” taunted Jae-Hwa. “I will go and pay the bill.”

“Ask them to bring the cheque to the table,” suggested Nivritti.

“No, I can’t sit anymore, I have to stand,” said Jae-Hwa and pushed her chair back. The amount of food they ate was making their stomach heavy.

“Fine, I will be with you in a jiffy,” groaned Nivritti, sarcastically.

“Oh no, take your time,” Jae-Hwa was too full to notice her sarcasm.

Groaning and huffing, Nivritti stood from her seat and looked for the washroom sign. She quickly washed her hands and her face, took out lipstick from her wallet, touched up her makeup and came outside.

She looked around for Jae-Hwa but could not find her. There was a commotion near the cashier’s desk. A few rowdy men were laughing and teasing someone. She thought they were having fun with the cashier. But where was Jae-Hwa? Did she leave the restaurant already? No, she would not leave her alone.

Then she noticed a few patrons, instead of eating their food were recording those men. That was suspicious for her. She changed her position and came in front of the cashier’s desk. The cashier was standing and trying to calm the men down.

After seeing what was happening, she closed her eyes and huffed and puffed like a bull in anger. Those boys were not making fun of the cashier, they were harassing Jae-Hwa. By their looks, they were clearly foreigners. They didn’t look like Korean men at all.

She knew Korean men were soft-spoken, polite, and respectable. These men were nothing like that. They were trying to touch Jae-Hwa and make her talk to them. But the cashier was standing between them.

Nivritti blew her gasket. First of all, she was angry at the patrons. Instead of helping her, they were recording her unfortunate situation. Second, she was angry at the restaurant owner, even though they had a lot of waiters, none of them was helping Jae-Hwa except the middle-aged cashier. And third, she was angry at the men. They were assholes. They found nothing wrong with touching a girl without her consent.

First, she moved towards the people who were recording the whole drama. “If you have even a single decent bone in your body, stop this nonsense right away. She needs help and you are recording it. Is that what your mother taught you? Instead of helping someone let’s record and put it on the internet and gather views. How vicious are you?” she scolded everyone in Korean and moved towards the men.

All those who were recording the whole scene immediately lowered their phones and lowered their head in shame. No one recorded a thing after that. A few men stood up to help Jae-Hwa, but the foreigners were large, so they avoided approaching them.

One man had Jae-Hwa’s hand in his wrist and was laughing at her. Jae-Hwa was on the verge of crying. She never had to endure such brutal harassment all her life. She had experienced some catcalls every now and then, but no one ever touched her without her consent.

Nivritti moved forward and grabbed the man’s hand tightly. All the men turned and looked at her.

“Let her go,” she commanded. The men just laughed at her. “Oh, you think you are alpha males, strong muscular men, right?”

“You are absolutely right, sweetie,” laughed a man.

“Don’t sweetie me, that will give you diabetes,” growled Nivritti.

But her anger and her seriousness had no effect on them. “Ha-ha, you are funny,” said the man who had Jae-Hwa’s hand in his hand.

“And you are arrogant, misogynist, male chauvinist, stupid morons,” snapped Nivritti. “Why are you harassing a small girl? Why are you destroying the dining experience for everyone with your rowdiness? Do you hate women in general or this girl is special? What happened, your mother didn’t love you enough? Should I give her a call and tell her that she raised an idiot? Do you treat all the women like you wanted to treat your mother? If you want, I can get you all help. Let’s walk together to a therapist’s office and talk about your issues. You four people using force on an itty-bitty girl prove that your large muscles are compensation for your small penis. Do I need to talk more, or will you let her GO?” she shouted at them.

Jaws dropped all around. No one knew whether she calmed down everyone or made the situation worse. Without saying another word, the man let Jae-Hwa go. Great! She calmed everyone down. Jae-Hwa ran and stood behind Nivritti. Nivritti touched her hand and comforted her.

“Now get out,” barked Nivritti.

One of the men took a step forward and said, “why would we do that?” Nivritti stared into his eyes with fury and stood her ground. But the man was not afraid of her. He moved forward and grabbed Nivritti’s hand tightly. He dug his fingers into her skin. Oh no! she made the situation worse.