The day was just dawning and the sun had just risen but Ming Yu, who usually sleeps until afternoon if allowed to, was already up and ready to go. As for what he’s doing… well… he’s fulfilling his duty as a man, if you catch my drift. Most main characters are noble, ambitious, and righteous. Ming Yu on the other hand, well… sometimes his mind may be ruled by his “Penor”. One of his favorite pastimes is to go on Cinder to look for dates.
Today just happened to be one of those days when his dates were set up. Nem needed his date this time to be perfect. As one could have guessed, this wouldn’t be the first time he tried to get a girlfriend off Cinder. In fact, there were numerous times when mistakes would lead up to ruined dates and wasted hours. For instance, one time Ming Yu met with a fairly tempered woman. We’ll call her, Emily. He went on a date with her. Although there are many undesirable traits that Ming Yu had such as his cowardness, lack of morals, and average looks… Well, putting things into perspective pretty much everything about Ming Yu, well, sucked. Of course, his only redeeming factor is that regardless of his overall poor character, when boiled down to his core, Ming Yu was still a sweet person who really cared about others.
Women, luckily for Ming Yu, were especially attuned to this fact and would give him a chance with them just for his personality, however Ming Yu would always mess something up. Going back to the Emily example, although Emily fairly liked Ming Yu and would like to meet him again, she needed Ming Yu to take the initiative to ask. Ming Yu, however, was still a shut-in gamer. He didn’t have many social experiences except the dates he would frequently go on. One would think he would have developed a skill at wooing ladies to court them but Ming Yu never developed such talents. Emily tried her best to give Ming Yu hints to cue to him her intentions. Ming Yu, however, never received, what seemed to him, such telepathic message. Much to Emily’s dismay, Ming Yu stayed oblivious and ended the date thinking she didn’t like him.
Other dates, on the other hand, Ming Yu had no faults in. For instance, you’ve all heard the story of the fake profiles with women who turn out to be completely different from their pictures in real life. These sort of people, Ming Yu would simply walk out on. He neither had time nor the patience for these mischief makers.
Today’s date, however, was different. Although Ming Yu couldn’t guarantee the authenticity of the woman he’s meeting, he was determined to make today absolutely perfect. He even took the time to talk to Johnson earlier that morning. Luckily for Ming Yu, Johnson always wakes up at the crack of dawn, meaning he was awake when he went looking for Johnson. He made sure to explain what he’s doing that day and asked Johnson to stay in the background. After all, how shameful would it be for Ming Yu if Johnson were to take the girl he was meeting today? After all, he’s taller, more muscular and even more handsome. Also, if Johnson was constantly following behind Ming Yu there might be some misconceptions so just in case he made sure to express how critical it was for Johnson to stay hidden today. Johnson simply laughed, which he doesn’t do often, and said, “I’ll get my popcorn ready.”
Ming Yu even made sure to consider the smallest detail, such as what he’s going to wear to the date. Although he could go in a fancy suit and tie, this date wasn’t at a fancy restaurant but rather at MoonBucks. He didn’t want to scare the girl off by preparing too much so he decided something casual was better. He decided on wearing a T-shirt that he had purchased at this year’s anime con. As for his leggings, he chose the simple blue jeans.
Although he rarely uses it, Ming Yu does own his own car and has a driver’s license. Normally, he’d walk to save the gas money, however, everything had to be perfect today. After a short 10 minute drive, he parked out in from of the MoonBucks and entered. Both Ming Yu and the girl had both previously agreed that they’d meet by the table in the back of the store in the left corner.
Ming Yu had previously expected to be the first to arrive, after all, he was a whole 30 minutes early! To his surprise, however, there was a person already on the seat. This person was, as a matter of fact, female which meant this might be his date, however since this was a public place one would never know. Ming Yu wasn’t sure whether he should approach this woman or give her a text to see if it’s her. As cowardly as Ming Yu was, his pride was even greater. He refused to let this girl see that he was scared and decided to directly confront this woman, but as soon as he started heading towards her, he suddenly jerked to a stop. This was because another man had arrived at the table. The girl looked up and saw the man and started chatting kindly with the man who had just arrived. It seemed that these two already knew each other.
Ming Yu didn’t know a lot of social cues but he knew that if someone invites you to a date and another man shows up, you either have the wrong woman or unwanted. Dejected, Ming Yu slumped onto a random seat and pondered what to do next. He decided to wait for these people to clear off this table. After all, there were still half an hour before the date was suppose to happen. After enough time for half an incense stick to burn, (By the way, although I don’t know exactly how long an incense stick takes to burn, I know that this phrase usually refers to about an hour so half would be 30 minutes) Ming Yu saw that the two people showed no signs of moving off the table.
Ming Yu was completely different in real life than in games. In games he would be courageous and wait hours on end for something as simple as a event boss, but in real life, a few minutes were too much for him to handle. After waiting another 5 minutes, he decided to give up and started to get up to go home. Just as he was about to walk away, his phone suddenly buzzed. Ming Yu checked his phone and found out that he got a message from this mysterious girl that he was meeting. She said, “Unless you already have a girlfriend, it seems the table we decided on is taken by someone else >.<”
Ming Yu scoffed and replied, “If I had a girlfriend would I be on Cinder?” Although he had no courage in real life, it seemed speaking to someone through a phone was digital enough to give Ming Yu some confidence. Enough to give some witty banter at least.
The girl responded, “Well, I’m looking around and I see 3 guys on their phones which one is you?”
Ming Yu looked around to see if he could spot this girl. Luckily, confused ladies that are looking for their dates aren’t a common phenomenon. He spotted that he was supposed to meet almost instantly. She was just like her Cinder description. This girl was thin, but not to the point of being bony. She had a fair figure and curves that could make some men feel a fire in their daitan region. The most prominent feature that Ming Yu could see was her long purple hair that looked smooth enough to make fabric out of. Her skin was jade like and looked like they never experienced the rough conditioning of the sun. As Ming Yu was observing her, she happened to look towards his direction and Ming Yu’s eyes locked with her wonderfully pretty hazel eyes.
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The girl smiled and started walking towards Ming Yu. Ming Yu was currently sitting on a table for 4 so when the girl arrived, she had plenty of space to plop herself in the seat directly across from him. After that she got onto her phone and quickly texted, “Found you! (^.^)”
To remind the audience, Ming Yu did go on many dates, however he never acquired to skill to smoothly talk to woman. As soon as he tried to talk, he felt an unusual lump in his throat as he started to stutter. “H… Hi I… I’m Ming Yu”
“Hi, I’m Chen Lan.” The girl called Chen Lan gave Ming Yu a friendly smile. Although she expected Ming Yu to be a little more confident based off how he texts, she wasn’t completely against or new to shy guys. In fact, she found that they even had a little bit of an extra sense of attraction for her.
Ming Yu started to blush uncontrollably. Although his nervousness had already somewhat messed up the date, Chen Lan’s kind attitude kept their date from being too awkward. After chatting for awhile, Ming Yu slowly started building confidence when talking to Chen Lan. After 5 minutes, he no longer stuttered but talked a little slower than the average person. After another 10 minutes, all shyness had finally faded. With the help of Chen Lan’s kindness, Ming Yu was finally able to achieve some sort of confidence with her. After all, she had spent 15 minutes talking with him and didn’t looked repulsed like some girls did. Instead, it looked like she was enjoying herself.
After talking for enough time for a quarter of an incense stick to burn, they decided to go out onto the streets. Ming Yu, despite being really bad at it, wasn’t new to the dating game. He’d seen his share of girls and knew what a pretty girl looked like and what ugly ones looked like. Chen Lan easily placed herself into one of the top 10 pretty girls he’s ever dated. It got to the point where some guys would look at her with a face full of lust.
After a while, they arrived at a carnival that happened to be running that day. Ming Yu used this chance to get closer to Chen Lan. He went on various rides with her, ate cotton candy together, and took pictures in photo booths. During the trip, the couple had an incident with a certain game booth. Chen Lan happened to see a plush penguin as one of the prizes for this game. She pointed out the booth and excited started talking about how much she loved penguins. (Penguins are, after all, the most majestic and #1 of all animals) Luckily for Ming Yu, the game was Wack a Mole. As we know from previous experiments, Ming Yu has an extraordinary reaction speed and games like these were a cinch for him. Trying to impress Chen Lan, he was uncharacteristically courageous and said, “Don’t worry, getting that penguin will be easy! Just watch me get it on my first try.”
After paying $5 dollars to play, Ming Yu went up to try out his luck. As soon as the game started, however, the moles went at a speed that no one could humanely follow. This game was obviously rigged so that the owner could make free money. Although Ming Yu’s eyes could follow the mole’s movements, his arms couldn’t. If this was a computer game with a keyboard he could’ve won despite the odds, however this was real life where Ming Yu had no physical prowess.
Although he was obviously set up, it took Ming Yu a while to realize it. He had no social skills and if it weren’t for the fact that he’d seen this cliche in several animes he’d have never known that he’d been scammed. He looked to his side and saw Chan Lan frown. She sighed and said, “Oh well, there’s nothing you can do. The booth’s set up so there’s no way we're getting that penguin.”
Ming Yu’s face turned a little solemn. He had just failed an opportunity to impress Chen Lan and was instead made to be pitied by her. Unwilling to let this opportunity go to waste, Ming Yu quickly devised a plan to regain some of his lost face. He said in a voice that only Chen Lan can hear, “I’ll get you that penguin or my name isn’t Ming Yu! Just follow my lead.”
Ming Yu turned to face the man in the booth. Ming Yu had been standing there for a while now and the man saw him as another sore loser. He told Ming Yu, “Get out of the way, there’s people waiting behind you y’know.” Ming Yu frowned it seemed that there was no line around them, in fact, Meng Yu just noticed that no one was actually bothering to line up for this booth at all! Meng Yu exclaimed, “This machine MUST be broken, I swear that the game went by too fast. After all, can YOU even score a point on this game, much less beat it?” As he yelled, Ming Yu also made over dramatic motions to make an even bigger scene. Although Ming Yu wasn’t the best at social interactions and wasn’t even the smartest of people, he was incredibly shrewd when it came to plotting.
When people saw Ming Yu create a commotion a crowd started to gather. Seeing his plan was working, Ming Yu continued to go on his monologue whilst making even more dramatic motions to over exaggerate what he was saying. “You see that girl over there with the purple hair? She’s my wife and she’s 2 weeks pregnant! I just wanted that penguin plushie as a gift to her but of course this stand robbed me of my money. Isn’t robbing a pregnant woman the same as robbing a baby? Your business just scammed a baby! You see this folks, this man has no shame, just look at my wife!” As Ming Yu said this he pointed passionately at Chen Lan, whose face was turning redder than tomatoes. After all, who can keep a calm disposition when someone claims to be your spouse and even goes as far as to say your pregnant with their child?
The crowd, however saw her red face as a sign that she was on the verge of crying. With a large audience taking pity on her, folks started to get into really loud conversations bad mouthing the booth owner. “What kind of man robs from infants? Does this person know no shame?”
At one point, someone started chanting, “Give her the penguin! Give her the penguin!” After a while, others joined in and eventually the whole crowd was protesting against the man who owned the booth.
The man was so angry, that no words came out of his throat. There was nothing he could do against so many witnesses. Giving in to the protests, he unwillingly gave Ming Yu one of the penguin plushies then started to close down his booth. After all, after being disgraced like that, who can continue business there?
The crowd was only satisfied after they saw Ming Yu received the plush. After confirming that he got it, the crowd started dispersing. Ming Yu winked at Chen Lan. “See, I told you I’d get it didn’t I.” Although Chen Lan was a little angry that he publicly claimed that she was pregnant and married to him, she couldn’t help but laugh when she saw Ming Yu’s awkward wink. Despite being shy and not having good social skills, this man was shrewd and shameless without boundaries. Although shrewd folks may have plots, they wouldn’t dare act them out in case they’d lose face, however someone as shameless as Ming Yu could care less about his face in front of a large audience.
The combinations of these two traits can run any man crazy from having to deal with him. Laughing, Chen Lan said thanks.
In conclusion, the day went well and Chen Lan genuinely enjoyed herself. Everything was looking good for Ming Yu until the end of the day approached. During one of their casual conversations, Chen Lan asked, “What do you do for a living?”
Ming Yu didn’t think much about this and nonchalantly said, “I’m a professional gamer.” A look of disgust suddenly appeared on Ming Yu’s face. Chen Lan looked at Ming Yu like he just offended her mother and yelled, “What!” Suddenly, she slapped him and furiously stomped away. While she was leaving she said, “Get a life before you start dating. Geez!”
Ming Yu remained there for a while. His expression was priceless. His jaws fell so low that they almost hit the floor and on his left cheek was a bright red hand print left from Chen Lan’s slap. To this day, Ming Yu never knew why Chen Lan suddenly left off like she did. Maybe not knowing was a good thing, after all, how depressed would he be if he found out Chen Lan hated him because she despises gamers? Although the clues were obvious, to someone like Ming Yu it was a mystery. Luckily for Ming Yu, it was better that he didn’t know. Johnson, who had been watching the whole thing, took Ming Yu home, although his constant snickering on the side didn’t help Ming Yu’s depression. He carried Ming Yu to in his own home and left for his own room. It took a long while before Ming Yu recovered and angrily said, “That’s it I give up! I’m never going out on a Cinder date again!”