Loved By The Villain And The Male Lead

"Kari! You're still signing up? Are you almost done??! Let's have lunch!" 

Su Ning gave her friend a huge smile of relief. 'Saved!' she thought.

"Uhm, just about," Su Ning said apologetically.

"What sign-up takes this long?! Have you gone to see the theatre club's booth yet?" Minshi demanded and Su Ning shook her head in response. Minshi was taller than the average Asian woman at 167cm, she was tanned and fit and had shoulder length hair that was dyed brown. With naturally high cheekbones and monolids, she was an attractive woman.

Minshi turned to the trio manning the food tasting booth and shot them a dirty look. 'They're probably just purposely keeping Karina here to get more buzz. This club's obviously a dead zone,' thought Minshi as she saw the list of empty sign ups. 'Obviously more people will sign up for a club if there are pretty members and Karina is a top class beauty.'

"Are you guys done? Karina and I have a lunch appointment," she said to the group.

"Ho—hold on a minute here," Cody blurted. "We're still discussing something with Karina."

"Oh really?" Minshi said distastefully. "Pray tell what were you discussing?"

"Uhh.. it's.. re— related to our club.. uhh.. club recruitment," Cody sputtered. Minshi was glaring at him so fiercely that he instantly felt his heartbeat quicken.

"Yeah?" Minshi challenged.

"Yeah!" Cody blustered. "E— And you're being— ru— rude … ** softly ** rude interrupting like this."

"How am I rude when I had an appointment with Karina first?" Minshi demanded slamming her hand on the table, causing Su Ning's eyes to widen in surprise. 

Cody flinched and his heartbeat grew thunderous but he didn't back down.

"Bu— but she's talking to us right n— now?" Cody spoke, initially intending to sound confident but ended up stuttering.

Minshi snickered, "Are you asking me or telling me?"

No matter how weak and cowardly the 169 cm Cody may appear to be, he still possessed his male pride. He can't let a girl bring him down like this without a fight!

"Te— telling you! Karina is in the midst of a discussion with us! I'd appreciate it if you make like a tree and leave!" Cody announced with false bravado.

Author's Note: Make like a tree and leave is a pun used in a derogatory manner. Trees have leaves and the process of shedding or 'leaving' is used to tell the person you want to get rid off to leave. (●*∩_∩*●)

Having been raised in the United States, Minshi immediately understood what Cody had been trying to say. Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she took an ominous step towards Cody. 

It seems both Justin and Allen knew as well as they both had an alarmed look on their faces. Their hands grasped either side of Cody's arms.

"Hey! Are you crazy?!" Justin hissed at his friend.

"Feck! You eijit! Why would you say that?" Allen whispered on the other side.

"Iono man! It just came out!" Cody muttered back clearly distressed.

Author's Note: Feck is an Irish slang for fuck; it's a more polite way of saying the cuss word. Eijit is an Irish slang for idiot. (*･ε･*)

Su Ning who was originally from C Country didn't get the reference and she stood to the side staring at the group with a perplexed look on her face. She caught the eye of Allen, shooting him a questioning glance. On the other hand, Allen returned an anxious glance, mouthing an apology. "Sorry." 

With her face dangerously close to Cody's, Minshi said coldly "Let's take this outside, hmm?"

Cody swallowed audibly. 

The pressure exerted by Minshi's 167cm presence was disproportionately strong and the three men felt themselves cower slightly. Even Su Ning was slightly taken aback by Minshi's strong personality. Knowing it's not quite right to have someone else fight her battles for her, Su Ning decided to speak up.

"Minshi, they were just asking if they can use me as the face of their club," she explained to her friend, looking slightly abashed. 'I should've interfered before it got to this point,' she rebuked herself. Su Ning waited until Minshi had calmed down a bit before continuing. 

Su Ning turned to the group manning the booth and said apologetically, "I'm sorry but using my face is a bit… uncomfortable." 'They seem like nice people but I don't really know them well. Also, I really don't need other people selling my photos in another country,' she thought to herself. 

Almost immediately, Cody and Justin's faces fell; on the other hand, Allen looked somewhat relieved. Su Ning felt a little bad seeing their disappointed faces. So she said instead, "If you would tell me the schedule, I'll stop by next week to help man the booth. Maybe that could help with recruiting more members."

The trio perked up and requested to add Su Ning on LINEE a popular messaging app in Japan. The entire time, Minshi was eyeing Cody, still miffed at his previous comment. At this point, Su Ning thought it was best to get these two as far away from each other as possible. So, after signing an autograph for Allen, Su Ning hurriedly bade his new friends goodbye before leaving with Minshi. The problematic man in question was left staring at the two girls' departing backs, his hand over his heart. THUMP THUMP THUMP

'Is this what it feels like to fall in love at first sight?' Cody thought to himself with a dumbstruck look on his face. When he would bring this up to Justin at a later time, his friend would cheekily comment, "More like.. love at first fight."

Beside him, Allen was looking at Su Ning's autograph with a dopey smile. 'It's Star. She's even more beautiful in person. Amazing.'

It seems like out of the three only Justin was genuinely delighted that they managed to recruit a new member to their club. 'Just one more member and the food tasting club can be officiated!'

......…:

Meanwhile, Minshi and Su Ning decided to have lunch at McDonalds nearby. Su Ning heard there was a special menu that was exclusive in Japan and really wanted to try it out. After quickly getting their orders, Ebi-Filet meal and Gran Teriyaki Burger meal for Su Ning and Minshi respectively, the two went up the second floor to partake in their meals.

Author's Note: Ebi-Filet is shrimp filet. The sandwich is composed of a shrimp-stuffed patty, topped with coleslaw, between two sesame seed buns. ヾ(*´∀｀*）ノ This author-nim really likes this sandwich.

"Kari, you're really too nice," Minshi finally commented after taking several bites of her teriyaki chicken burger.

"Huh?" Su Ning hummed with a mouth full of fries.

"You're even going to help them recruit! This is the first time I'm hearing of a new member helping with recruiting!" Minshi exclaimed, nearly knocking over Su Ning's sakura mcfizz.

Author's Note: Sakura McFizz is a seasonal drink in McDonalds Japan. It tastes like Sprite with cherry blossom syrup. ＼(^ω^＼)

"Aiyah wo de qi shui!" Su Ning unconsciously blurted out.

"Your qi shui is fine! Girl you're too into food! No wonder you easily got by those con artists," Minshi admonished. Minshi used to take Sunday Chinese language classes when she was young so she still had an elementary understanding of the language.

Author's Note: Aiyah wo de qi shui means Oh no! My soda. Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

Su Ning gave her friend a sheepish grin before responding, "Uhhh well… the club needs 5 members for the food tasting club to be registered officially this semester."

"They don't even have the minimum number of members?! Minshi nearly yelled in surprise.

"Hmm I'm surprised myself. The club seems really interesting," Su Ning commented while chewing on her fries.

Her friend gave her a deadpan look before rolling her eyes as if to say 'Are you really that naive or just pretending?' "It's because of the members," Minshi finally said aloud.

"They're not particularly good looking. They all look pretty nerdy, except maybe Allen's a bit cute. But still in a nerdy way."

"…" Su Ning remained silent, a frown on her face. 'People discriminate based on looks even in uni in another country?'

"Hey.. I'm just telling the truth. Clubs with pretty people get more signups. Plus, it's a food tasting club. And girls tend to be cautious of what they eat; they don't want to gain weight especially with summer around the corner," Minshi claimed.

"But we could just recruit more guys though.." Su Ning refuted.

"Guys wouldn't want to join a club created by 3 other geeky guys," Minshi responded, rolling her eyes.

"Minshiiiii…." Su Ning rebuked.

But her friend merely responded nonchalantly, "I'm being honest with you. Beauty sells."

"…" (Su Ning)

"Don't worry your club's going to get a lot of signups next week," Minshi said with a cheeky grin.

"Really?" Su Ning asked, her ears perking up.

"Yep, you're manning the booth," Minshi chuckled.

"Your face is a great selling point," she continued.

"Uhh thank you?" Su Ning said with uncertainty.

"You're welcome," Minshi responded, giggling.

"How's the taekwondo club by the way?" Su Ning asked, changing the subject.

"Oh! I ended up signing up for the wrestling club instead," responded the girl flippantly.

"What?!" Su Ning exclaimed.

"I already used to do Taekwondo back in Cali so I want to try something new. Besides, they said no experience was necessary," was Minshi's casual response.

"Wow," Su Ning uttered. 'Minshi is really really awesome. She's so confident and fearless. It would be great if I could be like that someday.'

** The author has something to say: wow is our little ningning having a girl crush? (σ≧▽≦)σ **