Who needs action when you got words?

Mindy says I attract weird people. Weird people always come talk to me.

Just the other night at Clementi, I was waiting for Mindy when this 40-something Chinese man came over. I still had my earphones on so I only saw him looking straight at me and saying something which I couldn’t hear, obviously. I removed the phones, and trouble began.

Him: Do you speak English?
Me: Yup I do.
Him: Erm, I need your help.

(Thinking to myself, “Whatever it is, just don’t ask to borrow my phone.”)

Me: Okay… what’s the problem?
Him: There’s a girl over there, young girl, and she’s feeling very down. I think she has some relationship problem… Maybe out of love, and she’s alone, talking on the phone.
Me: Ahuh…
Him: And there’s this group of boys sitting near her, and they’re planning to do something to her. Something very offensive.

At this point, Mindy arrived.

Mindy: What’s happening?

He briefly repeated the above, and asked that we follow him to check on the girl.

Him: I think it’s good if you can approach her and talk to her. I wanna help her but I’m a man. She’d be more comfortable talking to you. I think she needs a role model. (???) I don’t wanna see my fellow Singaporean get into this kind of trouble, and I can’t do anything to help. Can you come with me? Just go and see her first.

Mindy and I looked at each other, then followed him reluctantly. I mean, this was about the weirdest conversation I’d had with a stranger.

When we came to the girl, all we saw was a generic-looking teenage girl talking on the phone. Sure, she looked kinda spacey, but nothing like depressed. And, the bunch of guys the man was referring to looked just like normal boys who play street soccer on Sundays. They were talking and didn’t look like they even knew the girl was sitting beside them.

Mindy: I don’t see any problem here.
Him: Please just go and talk to her?
Me: But how? There’s like nothing going on?
Him: She needs some help and guidance.

Mindy and I tried to explain that there wasn’t any situation as far as we could see, and you can’t just go up to a stranger who’s on the phone and ask if they need help.

Mindy: If you really think there’s a problem, why don’t you just call the police or something?
Him: If you’re self-centred, you can go. Just disappear.
Me: What?
Mindy: Okay. Fine.

So we walked off. Cheeseen!