Jungle of the Times

When Lan decided to give up her ruse, Mercy's eyes widened and her eyebrows wiggled with anticipation. She nodded as Lan began and when she said she was just a friend, Mercy was ready to pounce. To tell Lan that she knew all about 'friends' and that Lan didn't have to hide anything between two girls. But when Lan said they only met twice, Mercy instantly frowned. The rest of her revelation left much to be desired and seemed almost embarrassingly innocuous until Lan got to the name. Mercy's eyes widened once more and she stood up from her seat.

"Wait.. Lu Jiao Jocelyn!?" She said in disbelief. Mercy shook her head. "H-How ... are you two friends!?" She said and scrutinized Lan. "That Jocelyn is a horrid girl! If you had said, Jocelyn beat you up and you wanted to get even, then I'd believe you. But if you are going to sit here and tell me you're friends, then I just can't believe that one bit!" Mercy said, closing her eyes, sitting back in her chair, crossing her arms and shaking her head.

If she was reading Mercy right, then Lan figured that she had been pretty successful in convincing the secretary that she and Jocelyn were just friends. That was really all that they were, anyway. In fact, they werenâ€t even that—the last time they had seen each other, Jocelyn had thrown food on Lan and stormed off. After that, Lan couldnâ€t have been faulted for trying to avoid the other Chinese girl at all costs. Instead, she was actively seeking out a match with her. Perhaps Lan was simply a glutton for punishment.

Mercy certainly didnâ€t seem to understand it, either. She was up on her feet, loudly asking how Lan could be friends with such a horrid girl. Lan sank back into her seat, her face losing its red hue as her embarrassment was replaced by the simple anxiety that resulted from being yelled at, even if it was a surprised yell, rather than an angry one. “We…we had a nice t-talk,” Lan said, half lying. They had exchanged a few pleasant sentences during their last meeting, before the…incident in the cafeteria, but it probably couldnâ€t have been considered a “talk.”

“B-but, like I said, maybe weâ€re not…uh, friends, but w-we do…know each other,” she continued. “And we have our Chinese…Chinese origin in common. That would make the match…it would m-make it interesting. I think.”

Mercy raised an eyebrow at Lan. "What?" She said. "Isn't she, like, Australian or something?" She said. The girl certainly looked Chinese but she didn't sound it. Mercy flopped back in her chair and pulled up Jocelyn's profile. "Huh... I guess she has dual citizenship? She was born in Sydney but is a Chinese citizen too. Weird." Mercy shrugged. She didn't really care. But as she scrolled absentmindedly through her profile, she looked at it. "What.. the hell..?" She muttered to herself.

She then looked at Lan and back at the screen. "Huh... I think I see why you want to get so close to her now." Mercy grinned. "Oh, you sly little vixen." She said, teasing Lan. "I had no idea that coy manner of yours was an act! Well, well well." She said and smiled smugly at Lan. "I guess it's not my place to judge. Do you REALLY want a match with her? I geuss she WOULD be fine to face against since she kind of sucks int he ring and you're a rookie and all."

“Sheâ€s Chinese and Australian,” Lan replied quietly, straightening herself back up a little in her chair. As awkward as it had gotten, this was still technically a job interview, and she didnâ€t want to appear lazy or bored by slouching in her seat. Right now, that seemed to be the important thing, as Mercyâ€s surprise had worn off and she was no longer asking Lan so many…personal questions.

When Mercy got that knowing smile on her face, however, and started speaking as if she had figured out some secret that the Chinese girl was keeping, Lan felt a little blood rushing back to her cheeks. “Sly little…vixen?” Lan repeated, struggling to understand what the pink-haired woman meant. It took her a second to remember what the word “vixen” meant, and then, it took still longer for her to try to comprehend how the word applied to her. She didnâ€t see herself as a vixen at all.

“I…itâ€s n-not an act. I p-promise,” Lan replied. “What…w-what do you mean by th-that?”

Mercy chuckled at Lan. "I suppose that is a pretty absurd thing to say about you.." She said. "I thought you were trying to charm your way into the girl's pants so you could get at all the trappings that comes with dating a diplomat." Mercy vibrated her lips dismissively. "Pffft, but I don't think you could charm anything at all! Maybe that's why you want the match? Maybe if you beat her she'll respect you. She does seem to have bad taste in associates." Mercy turned her head. She clenched her fists a bit. She knew the woman associated with Allison, who was a depraved individual. Someone else trying to inadvertently ruin her life.

Mercy realized what was going to happen to Lan when she made the match. She decided to give the girl one last warning. "I'll make the match, if you want, but I'll tell you something. "If you're smart, you'll stay away from that girl. You'll forget she exists, you'll leave her alone and you won't get involved with her. You'll just get hurt if you do. She's a bad apple, that one." Mercy then added. "And she's clinging to a rotten tree, if you know what I mean. Good girls like you just end up swinging from it."

“Oh, no!” Lan squeaked. At this point, she wondered if this deep red blush would be permanently burned into her face. Everything Mercy said just seemed to make the crimson hue more vibrant, more obvious upon her cheeks. “No, I, uh…I wouldnâ€t do that,” she finished, the look on Mercyâ€s face suggesting that the secretary believed her, or was doing a good job of hiding her disbelief. “A…diplomat?” she added questioningly, wondering what the secretary meant by that. Jocelyn certainly wasnâ€t a diplomat.

“A-and…I really c-couldnâ€t charm…uh, anything? Anyone?” she stuttered out, feeling not just embarrassed, but rather deflated. If she had a greater sense of pride, she would have tried to argue that point. But she didnâ€t have the courage to argue with a woman in a position of authority like Mercy. She just sat quietly, and listened to the pink-haired secretary explain how she should stay away from Jocelyn. Everything she said, from Lanâ€s personal experience, was true. But Lan could not bear the thought of Jocelyn being irredeemable, of her being completely rotten. It had only happened once or twice, and each time only for a few seconds, but it had felt to Lan like they had really connected. Maybe just because of their shared heritage. But maybe they could shed all of those preconceptions everyone seemed to have of the two of them and be friends.

Maybe…

“O-okay,” Lan stuttered, with a curt nod. “Iâ€ll…remember that. Th-think about it. But…but I would still like the match. Please.”

"No. Not anyone or anything." Mercy said flatly in response to Lan's reaction to saying she lacked charm. She was being serious. Lan was a total cutie, but with her abject shyness, she wasn't going to be wooing people or stirring up a crowd into a frothing frenzy anytime soon. She then looked at Mercy and tilted her head. "What?" She said. "I thought you knew." Mercy shrugged. "Jocelyn's dad's an ambassador. You know. the fancy kind. If she did something bad here, she'd have diplomatic immunity or something." Mercy then frowned. "Well, I don;t know if THAT'S how it works. He's a Chinese ambassador to Australia. I guess that doesn't technically make [i]her[/i[ a diplomat, but kind of. All that other stuff is true."

Mercy shrugged. "Well, whatever. Her record is pretty awful so you'll probably have an easy time with her for whatever reason you want to fight her. If she plays fair." Mercy then lowered her head. "If she's alone." She added. Mercy's fingers dug into her desk. "Actually, I hope you beat her ass! She's been making my boyfriend's life miserable lately!" She said, losing some of her professionalism. She couldn't just keep holding back any longer.

"She helped beat up his sister! She's involved with a wicked woman that almost got me killed!" Mercy typed away angrily at her computer while she arranged the details of the match. "You're just... really naive, i think!" She said, looking at Lan. "And maybe kind of dumb too!" She said, frowning. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you!"

Lan pressed her lips together tightly and glanced down at the floor when Mercy confirmed that she hadnâ€t any hope of charming anyone. Lan didnâ€t have too high an opinion of herself, but she liked to think that at least she wasnâ€t ugly. Perhaps, however, that just wasnâ€t the case.

When Mercy explained what she meant by her diplomat comment, things came together for Lan. Jocelyn had begun to say something about her father when they went to the cafeteria together, but hadnâ€t finished before the...incident. From that small snippet she had heard, however, Lan had gotten the impression that her countrywomanâ€s father was an imposing, important man. That profile fit an ambassador perfectly. It all made sense. “Oh,” she said, with a nod, still avoiding any more eye contact. “Okay. I think I understand.”

She grew quiet again as she listened to Mercy complain about Jocelyn and what the Chinese-Australian girl had done to her boyfriend and her boyfriendâ€s sister. Lan hadnâ€t known about that. She had known that Jocelyn was a little rough around the edges, but…this was different. Still, oddly, it didnâ€t really change the way the blonde Chinese girl felt about the matter. She still wanted to be Jocelynâ€s friend, even if everyone she met and every single sign the universe gave her told her to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

“I…Iâ€ll do my b-best to beat her,” Lan said, watching as Mercy typed furiously on her computer. “And Iâ€m…s-sorry about everything sheâ€s done. Maybe…maybe…” Lan trailed off again, not quite sure how she had intended to end that sentence.

Mercy watched lan sputter to a halt and simply do what looked like a programmed response. "Why are you apologizing?" Mercy said, shrugging. "Did YOU help do those things?" Mercy then added. "It's a rhetorical question." Mercy then stood up and swung around the desk. She put her hands on Lan's shoulders. "Ok. I think we're done here. I'll let you know when the fight is. If I have to listen to you stutter out every sentence anymore than I'll start apologizing for everything."

Mercy shook her head. "Sheesh. She stepped away from Lan and put a hand on her hip. "Well, maybe you'll learn how to have more confidence. We can only hope that's what you can manage from this affair if you survive it." She said, not very confident in Lan's abilities.

“I…” Lan began, but decided it was best not to try to say anything in response to that. She had been apologizing just as a courtesy thing, she supposed. She hadnâ€t really known what to say when Mercy told her about what Jocelyn had done. The girl who she was aspiring to be friends with had beaten up Mercyâ€s boyfriendâ€s sister. She had been a little worried that the secretary might be offended by her interest in Jocelyn.

“Oh…okay,” Lan would say, as Mercy told her that the interview was over. “S-sorry about the…stuttering. Iâ€ll try not to, uh, not to do it so much if we s-speak again.” As Mercy took a step back and took her hands off of her shoulders, Lan would stand up, folding her hands in front of her. “And…you know, y-you should come see the match. It would…b-be an honor for me. You m-might…might, uh, be s-surprised.” With some effort, the Chinese girl put a smile on her face and made eye contact with the secretary once again.