Michelle lowered her head and took another bite of the cheesecake. But then, she felt that it was flavorless, so she chewed it slowly.
Seeing her lost in thought, Nina could not bring herself to ask more. "Talk to me about it whenever you're comfortable."
Michelle gave her a curt nod, which upset Nina. She wanted to talk about something that Michelle might find interesting.
"Mimi, how about you take a few photos of me? Am I qualified to be your model?" Nina asked, blinking her eyes at her.
"Of course you are, Nini! You're the most gorgeous woman that I have ever met. You're going to look good, regardless of how bad I click your photos," Michelle replied with a bright smile.
Nina heaved a sigh of relief.
Michelle finally smiled.
"Then we'll do a photo-shoot real soon!" Although a part of her said that because she wanted to comfort Michelle, another part of her wanted to get her photos clicked. That way, she would always be able to cherish her beauty, even after she had grown old.
"I am afraid we can't do it today, though. My camera broke, but thankfully, it was not the camera from the studio," Michelle said as she pointed to the camera bag with a pout.
Upon seeing her long face, Nina suddenly felt as though she had said something wrong. "You know what? I will buy you a new one."
"No, thanks. The man who was the reason my camera broke told me that he will buy me a new one tomorrow," Michelle said in a serious tone.
"So, was it someone else who broke it?" Nina asked.
"Well, although he was the reason the camera fell and broke, I should have been more careful, so I also blame myself," Michelle said with a sigh.
Nina was confused. "So who do you blame?" she asked.
"I blame him, of course! He was the one who startled me." Michelle tried to remember that morning's events. "I had been to BL Alley four years ago. It was a beautiful place where couples displayed the most unfiltered form of love, so I wanted to go there today to shoot some photos. I found a nice spot and sat down as I waited for the light. That's when..."
Michelle stopped mid-sentence, and Nina immediately understood that that was when she must have met the man who broke her camera.
"Before the light came, a man came out of nowhere. He looked so scary, I was terrified. He was so scary-looking.
He looked so fierce, it felt as though I had borrowed millions of dollars' worth of money from him and did not pay him back. When he saw me, he bent over and sniffed my hair. I tried to balance myself and accidentally pulled the tripod over, thus making my camera fall."
Michelle description of the incident was so vivid that Nina almost felt like she had seen it in person.
She then took a sip of the tea and asked, "But why did he smell your hair, though?"
"I found it strange, too. So I asked him and he said that I smelled like one of his favorite smells. It scared me so much that I was afraid to ask any more questions. I thought that he would bite me if I did," Michelle replied, patting her chest. She was trembling with fear, even though it was something that had happened much before.
However, Nina was certain that he was trying to accost her.
She could not help feel that it was odd as she had only seen men ask a girl's number or name politely if they seemed to be interested in her. She had never heard of a man smelling a woman's body in public.
But then, she also thought that he must be looking for someone.
"Then what happened? Did he harass you?" Nina asked.
"He didn't and I'm not that easy to intimidate. I told him the brands of shower gels that I've used," Michelle said proudly.
Nina burst into laughter as she teased, "You literally buy every shower gel that looks cute or comes in a nice package. I hope you didn't just..."
She could not say more as she figured that Michelle must have told the man the brand of every shower gel that one would find at a supermarket.
If he was smart, then he would not end up buying all brands of shower gels in the supermarket.
"Did he leave after he said that he would buy you a new camera?"
"No. He still talked to me. He asked me what my name was, and where I studied or worked. It felt like a background check, so I didn't give him any information."
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