"Talk to him!"
"I don't speak Thai."
"But you might as well use that slutty dress while you're wearing it."
"I'll just wait for him to talk to me."
"There are tons of girls dressed well today in the night market, you need to get to him before someone else does. Besides, he's not going to see you if you don't talk to him. He's just staring at the menu above the stall. He's not going to be staring for long. Thais can't read English."
"What if he doesn't doesn't want to talk? What if he only says hello back?"
"If a guy walks up to you and says 'hello' and you don't want to talk to him, you try to talk to him a bit, don't you? He will certainly have the same common courtesy."
"I've never seen a young unshaven Thai like that. I guess I won't have this opportunity again." She collected all the courage she could from the reassuring faces of her five friends at the aluminum table. It wobbled a little bit as she said, "wa-dee-ka," the more colloquial form of "hello" than they teach in school. It was to show off her Thai skills, though she knew to go further in a Thai conversation would be a huge struggle.
He looked over, startled, then smiled. He smiled like a father to his daughter when she wants to impress him but he is clearly only able to give the smallest amount of token approval. And then it was gone and he was again transfixed on the menu.
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