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 Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:36 pm
"It's what?" Tu Jin was gawking at the cup. The contents of the cup, anyway. Tea had never been a big thing with her as it was, but this was just all sorts of crazy.
"It's raseberry lemon-lime vanilla ice tea," the waitress rambled on. The teenager stared at her. Was it really possible to have that much in one stupid cup of tea? She wrinkled her nose back and stared at the swirling liquid again. Maybe coming to a tea house hadn't been such a good idea after all. Being 'sophisticated' like people who drank tea was over-rated.
"How do you make this?" she ventured, looking thoughtful.
"Well, we crush the rasberries, then the lemon and lime, and--" Tu Jin held her hand up dismissively, ending the answer she'd asked for.
"Crush the lemons and limes together and you'll save money," the merchant pointed out. It wasn't that she was materialistic, but it pained her to see small businesses like this not thinking. Didn't they realize how much they were wasting? ...Okay. So she might have been a little materialistic, but still.
It was just good business, you know?
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:14 pm
Chen Shing scowled into his cup, seated not far away from the loud girl. It was rare that he came into tea houses, preferring to mix his own tea. Heh, what would the brewer say about his habits, crushing the ingredients himself, and soaking them in a small pot over a fire, with no class at all? It'd be worth hunting him down to tell him...
Why had he come here, again? Chen had decided, on a whim, that it was high time he treated himself to some decent tea, tired of making it himself. Gotten Oolong tea. Had to insist that he didn't want strawberry cherry grape what the hell ever tea. Had to keep insisting that he just wanted Oolong. That weird concoctions were not his version of a good idea.
His scowl deepened. Half-a** uppity tea shops didn't know a good staple when they brewed it anymore. And now there was a loud girl a few tables away.
Chen Shing brought his head up briefly, irritation showing plainly on his face. "She's right, you know. It takes less effort to crush them together, and you don't have to pay extra for it either." Hopefully that would end the debate. He wanted to enjoy his tea in peace, for the price he'd forked over for it.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:36 pm
Tu Jin didn't miss the look he was giving her. If he didn't wanna listen he could just mind his own business, couldn't he? She wasn't much like her stubborn, withdrawn mother, but like Rook who was loud and obnoxious. Without realizing it, mind you.
"Yeah, see?" She jerked her thumb toward Chen. "Even that tight a** over there agrees with me. I'd hate to see you get wiped out by those big-name tea shops just because of stupid mistakes like that."
The waitress was obviously beginning to look nervous and meekly nodded. "O-Okay. I'll let them know." That being said, she scurried off into the back, leaving Tu Jin to turn and grin sarcastically at Chen Shing.
"There ya have it. You can go back to angsting quietly in your corner now."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:50 pm
"Tight a**?" Chen Shing muttered to himself, his scowl now tempered with confusion and, after a moment, vague offense. Who did this girl think she was? Calling him a tight a**... Forget that he really was, in all actuality, a tight a**. Even if he knew it, Chen Shing was not the sort of person to admit his flaws to other people, and so made an issue over disapproving when said people pointed said flaws out for him.
He only snorted in the face of her grin, and looked away. "Che. I was not angsting. I was grousing." There was a difference, he insisted, between the two. The first indicated that he had something to angst over, after all. "The subject shouldn't have come up in the first place. What idiot in their right mind mixes such stupid flavors?." And what person in their right mind, he added mentally, actually drank those strange flavors? He eyed another waitress listing the 'specialties' of the tea house to a customer across the way.
"And would you mind? I like to enjoy my tea without girls screeching in the background."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:59 pm
"You shouldn't make fun of what other people eat," Tu Jin scolded in a joking voice. Really, she didn't care what this guy thought about what she ordered or if she actually bothered drinking what she ordered. In truth, she'd just told the waitress to bring her the 'most complicated thing' they had, if only for the sake of badgering her about how she could make it more productively and cheaper.
With her mother busy running around trying to find the Avatar, Tu Jin was alone, and as a...social butterfly, for lack of a better term, that had her restless. And worse, bored.
"Yeah, you're right," she agreed. No one should have to deal with that.
He should have to deal with her from close range.
A second later, she was sitting across for Chen Shing, holding the cup of conents he'd accused of being 'stupid' for him to see. "It looks pretty, though, doesn't it? Or do you see in black and white? It's more angsty than color, isn't it?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:10 pm
"Can if I want to." Oh, now he was just acting childish, complete with ornery pout. Really now. If mother saw him now, she'd...
...What?
He had to blink once, nay, twice to completely register the fact that the annoying girl was no longer several tables away from him, but no tables away from him. Sitting across from him. And pointing out that her tea looked 'pretty.'
His frown returned full force.
"I told you, I wasn't angsting. I don't have anything to angst about, other than your rudeness." He eyed the contents of her cup with distaste. It did have a nice color, but... "'Pretty' and 'Tasty' are two different things. With tea, I'd have thought taste mattered the most."
.. Why was he even talking to her? He was only encouraging her..
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:14 pm
"You know, if I were you, I'd have taken the bait if someone offered me an opening like that, instead of just claiming I'm grumpy for no reason over and over again. I'd say my parents died or something. Now that might have quieted me down." Probably not, but you know...
She leaned back in her chair, staring at the tea for just a second more before setting it down on the table. "It could be both," she pointed out. "Not that you would know since you haven't tried it. I don't like tea regardless, but if you like tea, it might be good and pretty."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:23 pm
"I didn't say I was grumpy for no reason. I'm grumpy because you won't be quiet, and now you won't leave me alone." If he hadn't been glaring before, he certainly was now. "And my parents are alive, so I don't have any reason to say they've croaked." Really now, he was supposed to lie, too? Not that he was above lying, heaven and several other people knew that he wasn't, but he just didn't want to muster the energy for a good one for something like this.
Yet.
Chen Shing glanced at her tea again. "What did that waitress say it was? Raspberry Lemon-lime Vanilla Iced Tea? That doesn't sound very tasteful to me. No matter how pretty it is."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:34 pm
Tu Jin's elbow was on the table with her head leaning on the palm of her hand, watching him talk. Complaining, at least. That's really all he'd done. How uptight.
Ding! Idea!
"HEY LADY!" she yelled at the waitress, getting far more attention than just from her. The terrified worker rushed over to them, wide-eyed. If Tu Jin noticed, she didn't care. "I want five of..um.. these things here." The teenager motioned to her cup. "One of them cold, one of them warm, one of them kind of warm, one of them kind of cold, and then make one frozen with little chunks of ice in it."
The waitress was staring (again), but if it was in response to the order or the sizable sack of copper coins Tu Jin plopped on the table was anyones guess. "Y-Yes, ma'am!" she squeaked, and was off again.
"Maybe you'll like it one of those ways," Tu Jin suggested.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:45 pm
The waitress (and the rest of the house too, it seemed) was not alone in staring at Tu Jin wide eyed. Chen Shing was among their number as well, currently looking at the girl as if she had suddenly sprouted a second head that vomited coppers and then professed her love to him, all in romantic haiku. Of all the...
"What...what the hell are you doing?" This was completely unheard of for a total stranger to do, for anyone to do, and he was having an understandably hard time wrapping his mind around it. "What makes you think I'll like the stupid drink any of those ways?" Who was this crazy girl?!
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:23 pm
"If you'd stop angsting--grousing--long enough to listen, you would have heard me say maybe you'd like one of them one of those ways." Tu Jin lifted the cup already at the table again and gulped the liquid down. It was pretty gross, but she refused to show that, because if she did, there was no way he'd even try it. What a horrible opportunity to miss!
"Tea relaxes people, I heard, and you definately need it. My mom is an earthbending teacher and she's uptight like you, and now her back is messed up. So, look at it as me doing you a favor."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:33 pm
Once he was satisfied that no, no second copper-vomiting head was showing up, Chen Shing dared to allow himself to relax somewhat. And of course, to bestow upon her a skeptical gaze. "I heard exactly what you said. I just didn't want to believe my own ears." He folded his arms.
"I already had relaxing tea, before you ruined it." Chen nodded towards his (cooling, dammit) half-full cup of Oolong tea resting not far from his elbow. "And what makes you think I'll even try any of the versions of that vile-sounding drink? What a way to waste a perfectly good pouch of coppers..." Now he scoffed, smirking to himself. She made a fuss about how much money these people would save if they just did something different, and then she bought five rounds of something she wasn't even going to drink.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:40 pm
"There are more important things in life than money, you know. I wasn't kidding about hating to see this place get wiped out by those tyrant, huge shops that are all over the Earth Kingdom. The little guy isn't respected. It's distressing." And besides, she would have paid twice what she did to have a reason to yell 'HEY LADY!' through a crowd of people across from a guy as up tight as this one.
She gnawed on her lip thoughtfully, staring at the ceiling for a moment. When she looked back to him, she shrugged. "Well, I guess you wouldn't have to," Tu Jin concluded. "But then I'd have to make more of a scene if you didn't even try it." It wasn't a warning, but--
Wait, yes it was.
And one followed by the cheerful words of, "My name's Tu Jin, by the way."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:57 pm
"You have got to be kidding. And anyway, if a place like this got wiped out, it would be their own fault." He twisted his head to look around the rest of the shop with cool eyes. "It doesn't look like they will, anyway. At least, anytime soon. It's been a little while since they opened, I heard, and they still have a presentable customer count." He shrugged, and returned to eyeing Tu Jin like she was going to dump the rest of her drink down his throat any second. "My guess is, unless their manager is a complete idiot, they shouldn't go under anytime soon. Might even make a presentable income if they come up with a mixture that doesn't sound completely retarded."
Tempting, but... Shudder. "Ugh, fine, alright. But," He held up a finger. "Only on the condition that you also try the concoctions. There's no way I'm going to be the only one doing this." Chen Shing smirked. Maybe that would convince her that she didn't need to force him to do this...
"Chen Shing."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:02 pm
"That's not a very nice attitude." It really wasn't. If monopolies took over unapposed what kind of place would the world be? "Us merchants would be in trouble if there were only big name stores left, especially in this nation. You talk like one," she added shortly.
Tu Jin quirked a brow at the 'conditions'. This was followed by a smirk. "Tell you what, Cheny, not only will I see your dare, but I'll race you with drinking them."
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