Johan's Girl

Using a taxi cab, Lenny arrived at Jack's QuickStop convenience store at exactly 3:58 PM. 

On the way here in the cab, using the [Go Viral!] app utility, he invested a whopping 5 v-points in the video clip of his altercation with Boss Falcone and his goons.

Lenny entered the convenience store through the back, wore his work uniform — which was the sleeveless red jacket, went to the counter, and met Mr. Singh, the chubby, full-bearded, tan-skinned middle-aged manager.

Seeing Lenny, who had a black face mask on, arrive, Mr. Singh raised his hand and glanced at his watch, which had the shorthand on 4 and the long hand slightly ahead of it.

"A minute late, Lenny." Mr. Singh said, noticing the redness around Lenny's eye. 

"Good afternoon, Mr. Singh," Lenny said with a slight smile under his face mask.

"Why're you still wearing a face mask?" Mr. Singh wished to complain but he just sighed.

Remembering the excuse about falling in the shower that Lenny had given yesterday, he gave up on inquiring about the bruises—which now spread to his other eye and had apparently gotten worse—again, because the boy would just lie again.

The chubby manager diverted the topic. "I have something to talk to you about," he said.

Slightly taller than Mr. Singh, Lenny quickly moved behind him and started massaging his shoulders as he pushed him to the door leading to the back, "You must be really tired from the day's work, sir. Anika must be waiting for you to get back. Please, sir, don't keep that little angel waiting."

Reluctantly, Mr. Singh voiced in his Indian accent, "But, what I have to tell you is extremely important…"

Lenny nodded and interjected, "I'm sure it is, sir. But I'm also sure it can wait since it's most likely about work. You always say time is money, however, time spent with family is priceless."

Mr. Singh let out a sigh of resignation and addressed Lenny. "You can close early if you want to, and remember, don't sell any alcohol to minors! Don't ruin my store." 

With that Mr. Singh closed the door leading to the back behind him, letting Lenny begin his 8-hour night shift.

"Haa…" 

Lenny let out a sigh of relief and slumped down on the chair behind the counter.

'...Mr. Singh has most likely found a buyer…' 

Looking at the usually empty store, Lenny shook his head and let out a longer sigh before muttering under his breath, "I should really be preparing for the worst…"

He settled himself on the chair behind the counter, idle. 

Just then, the bell above the push-pull entrance door chimed, announcing the presence of a customer.

Looking over to the visitor, Lenny's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the individual and slowly, he let out another heavy sigh, stopping himself from cursing out loud. 

The fair-skinned female customer was wearing a striking black blazer, a black v-neck sweater vest, and a collared white shirt underneath it with the top button undone. A short black and dark blue plaid pleated skirt graced her waist, and below, she wore long black socks and low-heeled black leather shoes.

Standing at about 5'8", she had thin eyebrows, cold brown eyes, a delicate nose, and small pink lips. Light makeup adorned her heart-shaped face and her straight black long hair with a middle parting landed deftly down her shoulders.

'...It's that Johan brat's girl…' Lenny thought with squinted eyes. After her cutting comment from before, she was way less impressionable in his eyes. 

She glanced at Lenny, walked to the shelf on the far right of the convenience store, and took two packs of chocolate cookies. Then, she went over to the beverage cooler, took out a can of Coke, and walked up to the counter.

Placing the items on the counter, her gaze was elsewhere. Once again avoiding eye contact with Lenny.

'…My goodness, am I that irritating?' Lenny didn't bother standing up to attend to her and remained sitting. He just coldly stared up at her.

But just then, an indescribable sense of dread washed over him as a task information appeared in his mind.

[Task #4: Secure Johan's girl's contact.]

Difficulty: Easy.

Reward: 3 VP.

Ending In: 19 mins 59 secs.

[Optional Tasks]:

~ Ask her out on a date (+3 VP).

~ Touch her chest (+5 VP).

Lenny's eyes widened in shock. He exclaimed inwardly, 'You've gotta be fucking kidding me!'

He wished to palm his face heavily. The scars from the humiliation and embarrassment he faced at the hands of Johan and his friends were still fresh, most especially the painful insult he had received from this particular girl. And here he was being set up by the Top Idol app to "secure" her digits, ask her out, and touch her chest. 

Despite his dejection, he still knew what he had to do. V-points were extremely precious, and hence, there was no easy way of earning them. Additionally, he had to maintain his position on the leaderboard, which had been in slight jeopardy since he awoke this morning.

'...But still, this type of task could be the reason why well-known individuals get embroiled in sexual assault cases. Dammit, no way I'm touching her chest!'

Notwithstanding though, Lenny acknowledged that of all the tasks he had received up till now, this was undoubtedly the most "tame."

Lenny mentally let out a heavy sigh and started brainstorming on the manner of approach he would use to address the female customer.

'...Ok, how do I do this? From her uniform and looks, she should be a senior in her final year, so she's either 18 or 19 years old. But since she didn't show me her ID that time with Johan, I doubt she's 19, meaning she's just 18. Acceptable, sort of. I'm just going to compliment her, get her WiChat or phone number, and ask her to go on a date with me. That's enough, I think.

'Although the date-asking optional task might be the most challenging, thinking about it, the worst she can say is no. As long as I get her number or WiChat, I'm good. However, I can't just ask her for her contact so abruptly. I need a reason…'

After a few seconds of awkward silence, which was mostly due to Lenny's thinking, the female customer spoke. Her soft voice was bold and dignified.

"How much?"

Recalling the contents of a few articles he had read a while back on how to talk to girls, Lenny stood up and smiled with his eyes, the lower half of his face still covered by the mask. 

Confidently, he voiced, "Uhm, I recognized you yesterday, but I just don't quite seem to remember where from. Perhaps we've met before?"

Lenny figured if Johan's girl had visited the convenience store and he had seen her even once, he would've remembered. Therefore, he settled on the notion that if he ever knew her, it was going to be from somewhere else.

Hearing Lenny's question, she looked slightly taken aback, but she quickly collected herself and calmly replied, "I don't think so, no."

Lenny smiled as he scratched the corner of his chin and replied sheepishly, "I guess I might just be mistaking you for someone else then…"

Trailing off, he took a couple of seconds to think of something to say. The pressure of talking to a girl made him start sweating buckets, but he reminded himself to be cool and have confidence.

'...If I recall correctly, they said to initiate small talk and ask her about her likes. This helps keep the focus on her and gives me the image of mystery…'

Lenny uttered, "Uhm, so you uh… you like chocolate cookies?"

The female customer's eyebrows furrowed in perplexion. If she didn't like them, would she buy them?

Realizing his fault, Lenny nervously blurted out, "Dammit, uh, scratch that. I just want to say you look great, and uh, this might seem abrupt, but… can we possibly exchange contacts?"

He was so tensed up and fraught with anxiety that his palms started to moist.

'...How come this is even harder than fighting Boss Falcone and his goons?! Dammit, I'm a failure of a man. I can't even talk to a girl properly…'

The female customer, Johan's girl, just raised her eyes to meet Lenny's gaze and asked with a deadpan expression, 

"What are you trying to do?"

Surprised by this negative response, Lenny repeated her words,

"What am I trying to do? Nothing. I just, um, found you pretty and thought…"

"Thought what?" she blurted out, her face slightly contorting.

"...Thought, m-maybe I could try to get to know you better…" Lenny trailed off, again.

Holding a slightly shocked expression for a second or two, Johan's girl then let out a brief, mocking giggle, and coldly stared down at Lenny despite being an inch shorter. 

Deeply annoyed, she pointed at him disdainfully and mouthed, "You stripped for money, kissed a foot, and barked like a dog. And you… you dare attempt to want to know me better…?"

Her face contorted into that of utter disgust, and clenching her jaws, she stammered, "How… How… How dare you?!"

Johan's girl found Lenny's wish to get to know her particularly insulting. Such a lowly person as him was attracted to her and even had the guts to ask for them to exchange contacts. These actions made it seem as though she was on the same level as him on the social hierarchy. An insult in the highest order.

'No, sh-she's pissed…' Lenny sullenly raised his arms and spread them wide slightly as he said weakly, "I-I had no other option…"

"That's your excuse? How silly." 

She clicked her tongue and scoffed, "You're just pathetic."

Immediately, she took out a $10 note and smacked it on the counter.

"Keep the change. I'm sure you need it," she said, picking up the can of Coke and two cookie packets.

As she turned to leave, Lenny heard her mutter under her breath, "Tch, fuckin' disgusting pervert."

Gring~

Even after she left, Lenny maintained the awkward smile under his face mask, frozen.

The task duration soon elapsed and he heard the brief message in his head.

[Task failed.]