Most of the time, having a lot of options is a good thing. In some situations, however, having too many options can be one’s downfall — like when you’re a half-broke dude taking your girlfriend out on a shopping trip.
Uniqlo had options alright. Lots of them.
It certainly didn’t help matters that Su Chan had so kindly decided to capitalize on those options. She practically tore the store apart, eager to try on every single outfit the store had to offer. The saleswoman was, of course, more than happy to indulge her. Once again, Li Yundong took his place on the couch while Su Chan marched in and out of the fitting room, each time appearing in a different outfit: pencil skirts; skirt suits; blouses; summer dresses; jeans; capris; revealing club dresses!
Su Chan totally killed every single one of those outfits. By the time Li Yundong realized that there were over twenty outfits added to their to-be-purchased pile, he knew that she was about to kill his wallet too. It kind of gave a new meaning to phrases like killer curves or killer good looks.
Worse, they hadn’t even gotten what they came here for — a formal dress to be worn to Zhou Qin’s party. By his estimation, the twenty plus outfits would cost him at least several thousand yuan already. Now add in the formal dress, not to mention shoes and other accessories…
To hell with it.
He would be damned if he allowed another person to badmouth or slight Su Chan because of her clothes. Su Chan didn’t deserve any of that shallow BS, and Li Yundong was going to pull out all the stops to ensure that shit like that never happened again.
“Do you guys have formal dresses?” Li Yundong asked the saleswoman.
The saleswoman looked like she was about to do a victory dance right in front of him.
“May I know the occasion it is for?”
“It’s a birthday party…” Li Yundong said, then paused in thought. “Well, a rather fancy birthday party, I’d say.”
The saleswoman grabbed Su Chan’s arm and dragged her towards another section of the store. Li Yundong got up from the couch and followed them.
The saleswoman stopped in front of a mannequin and pointed at a long, purple dress.
“What about this one?”
Even when worn by a lifeless mannequin, the dark purple silk dress took Li Yundong’s breath away. The dress was strapless and had a unique design for its hemline — sophisticated folds and layers which looked like overlapping clouds.
For a moment there, Li Yundong tried to picture Su Chan wearing that dress. She’d look like a princess. No. She’d look like a goddess.
When he touched the fabric of the dress, the silk felt cool and smooth as it slid along his fingers like some sort of semi-liquid substance. However, the euphoria lasted until he lifted the price tag.
130 thousand yuan!!!!
Li Yundong gasped and looked at the saleswoman as though he was a pig about to be carted off into a slaughterhouse.
The saleswoman chuckled. “This is the best formal dress we have, sir,” she said, then gave Li Yundong a hopeful look. “Maybe your partner can try it on first?”
Li Yundong stared at the saleswoman blankly for a moment or two, then turned to Su Chan who was staring at the dress in awe.
“Okay. Let her try it on,” he said.
“Really?” Su Chan asked, unbidden excitement glinting in her eyes. “Can I really try it on?”
Li Yundong smiled and nodded. “Yes, of course!”
Go big or go home, right?
The saleswoman removed the dress from the mannequin, then handed it to Su Chan. Su Chan took the dress happily and made a beeline towards the fitting room.
Li Yundong sat in the couch outside the fitting room and waited for Su Chan to appear in the dress. Somehow, it took longer than the other clothes she’d tried on. He supposed it made sense. It was an elaborate dress after all. At one point, he felt a little thirsty. So he got up and stood in front of the fitting room, then knocked on the door.
“Hey, Su Chan. Stay here and don’t go anywhere, okay? I’m gonna go get us some drinks.” he said, then paused “You can try on more clothes if you want.”
“Okay,” Su Chan said.
Li Yundong exited the store and walked along the avenue in search of a cafe or a restaurant. So far, he had no luck. All the stores he’d passed were retail stores for various luxury brands. Just when he was about to change his mind and turn back, he saw a CoCo Fresh Juice & Tea further down the avenue.
When he got to CoCo, the queue was so long that it went past the door! He didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that this was probably the only store in the entire avenue that sold drinks.
In the end, Li Yundong’s habitual liking for milk tea won out, and he joined the queue instead of leaving. Forty minutes later, Li Yundong left CoCo with two takeaway cups of pudding milk tea.
When he got back to Uniqlo, the store was pretty much empty. The cashier gave him a smile, which he politely returned. Without further ado, he walked past the clothes racks and entered the fitting area.
“Hey, are you done yet? I’ve got drinks for us!” Li Yundong yelled outside the fitting room.
Instead of an answer, he heard the sound of rustling fabric from behind the door. He reached up to knock, but when his knuckles brushed against the door, he realized that the door was slightly ajar. Getting changed in public without locking the door? How could she be so careless?
A small smile played on his lips.
Time to teach her a lesson.
He pushed the door open.
“Surprise!!!”
However, the joke was on him because he was the one who got surprised in the end; the person inside the fitting room wasn’t Su Chan but a young girl with a baby face.
The girl stared back at him with a blank expression, like her mind hadn’t caught on to the fact that some dude had just barged into her fitting room while she was still naked from the waist up.
Despite her baby face, the girl was tall — slightly above five feet from the looks of it. And her bare breasts certainly gave the word “well-endowed” a whole new meaning.
Li Yundong tried to look away, but it was too late. When the two pink, rosy buds on the girl’s chest caught his eyes, he inadvertently crushed the takeaway cup with his grip. Right. Barging into a fitting room with a half-naked woman inside wasn’t embarrassing enough. He had to squirt milk tea all over her tits too.
Thanks a lot, Universe.
“S- s- sorry! I’m so sorry!” Li Yundong reached out with his free hand in an attempt to clean the mess on the girl’s body with his sleeve.
“Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!”
Li Yundong was shoved out of the fitting room.
SLAM!!
Moments later, the door reopened and the girl stormed out angrily.
“You sick pervert!”
Li Yundong backed away from the girl with his hands raised. “Look, I’m really sorry! I thought it was someone else! I swear!”
“I call bullshit!”
Li Yundong flinched at the woman’s shrill voice, then sat down when his calves hit the edge of the couch.
“You planned this from the start, didn’t you!”
“Plan? What are you—”
“You’ve been stalking me and lurking around my house, haven’t you, you pervert!”
“Hey, I think you’re confusing me with someone else. I never—”
“Confused? Hah! There’s no way I’m mistaken. Just look at that perverted and lewd face of yours! I’d be able to identify you even with my eyes closed!”
Li Yundong huffed in exasperation.
“Listen to me, miss,” he gritted. “This is a misunderstanding, okay? I went in because I thought my girlfriend was in there!”
“Girlfriend? You?” A derisive snort made it past the girl’s lips. “You think I’m an idiot? No woman would want anything to do with you even if you were the last man on earth!”
“Hey, watch your mouth, lady. It isn’t fair to put all the blame on me,” Li Yundong said, his voice sizzling with indignation. “First of all, I’m not lying to you. I really was here with my girlfriend, and she was trying on a dress inside that fitting room when I left the store to buy drinks.” Li Yundong raised the takeaway cups for emphasis. “Besides, you’re the one who forgot to lock the door! And why didn’t you answer me when I was yelling outside the door! This never would have happened if you identified yourself to me before I barged in!”
“Oh, so now you’re blaming me, is that it?” The girl stomped her foot in anger, her melons jiggling in the process. “You said you have a girlfriend? Where is she now?? Who can verify your claim?”
Li Yundong pointed towards the cashier who was trying her best to hide her giggles. “She can! She was the one who greeted us when we arrived at the store!”
The cashier schooled her features and opened her mouth. However, the self-proclaimed molest victim interrupted rudely before the cashier could even get a word out. “Hey! Do you know who I am? I suggest you choose your next words very carefully. Otherwise I’ll personally ensure that your shop closes down permanently starting tomorrow!”
A conflicted look flitted across the cashier’s composed features. “Miss, this man isn’t lying. He really did come in together with his girlfriend,” said the cashier with poise. “You’re more than welcome to check our security footage and verify it for yourself.”
Li Yundong sighed in relief. Thank f*ck! Can’t believe I was this close to facing sexual assault charges…
“I bet your girlfriend looks like some disgusting crone. Or maybe she’s a retard,” the girl taunted. “No woman in her right mind would choose to date a man like you!”
Li Yundong’s expression grew dark in an instant. People could curse and yell at him all they wanted, but he would never allow anyone to badmouth his Su Chan. Never.
He took a deep breath, his eyes flashing like lightning.
“That’s bullshit,” he sneered. “My girl is a hundred times prettier than you.”
The girl dissolved into derisive laughs.
“That’s impossible! Go on, then. Bring her out and show me how pretty she is… Hahahaha!”
