valentine's day A quarrel.

♫ Listening to: Sprinter - Kalafina
Last watched: none.

Oh my God, today was the scariest day I've ever had when doing my floor duties.

Correction, today's the scariest day I've ever had working in TGV!!

I was having my floor duties today with Kian Siang, Satheesh and Munsif. It all happened around 5.50pm. 10 minutes before my duty ends. And 5 minutes before the customers could go into Cinema 5 to watch Slumdog Millionaire.

This customer came up to me with his wife and told me he lost his handphone in the cinema just now and apparently, his phone is super important because he needs it for work.

Me: Which cinema?
Customer: Cinema 5.
Me: Your seat number?
Customer: *shows ticket* J7 and J8.
Me: Okay, please wait here for a moment, I'll try searching it for you.

So I took my torch in and shone at the seats - nothing. Below the seats - nothing. The row in front - nothing. The row behind - nothing.

I went back to tell the customer that his handphone was nowhere to be found.

But still he insisted on us searching the cinema thoroughly. He said he was the last person to leave the cinema, there was no one else. Implication? He's saying indirectly that either one of the staff must have taken his handphone, or the cleaners.

Munsif was the person who was in charge of opening the doors of cinema 5 previously.

So I went to search the whole place for Munsif, while leaving Satheesh and the evening staff, Wong, to deal with the customer.

Nope, couldn't find Munsif either.

So I made my way back to floor... only to find the customer quarrelling with Satheesh. When I came, Satheesh was already raising his voice shouting back at the customer, and I had no idea what was going on. But I do know that Satheesh is a very calm and mellow person. If he ever raises his voice, it means that something must irk him very much.

The customer was saying something about a challenge, like "you wanna fight? Are you challenging me?" And Satheesh did not back down.

The next thing I knew, the customer took off his shirt and pounded at Satheesh.

Like, ohmigosh! Most of the TGV staff ran their way up to spectate the situation. Some of the boys went up and tried to hold Satheesh back and ask the customer to calm down.

If it wasn't for the customer's wife, who was holding him back and crying, begging her husband to stop, I think the customer would have actually punched Satheesh in the face.

Everyone, including other customers who were staring with curiosity, asked me what happened, but all I could say was I left before they started quarrelling, and when I came back, they were already fighting.

3 of the managers came to control the situation and settle things with the customer. The customer was yelling "I'm a customer you know! I'm a customer! And this is how the staff treats a customer? By shouting??"

He even told Mr. David to check the CCTV again, to see who started the fight first. Implication again? He was blaming everything on Satheesh.

I went to ask Melvin about how all this started.

Melvin: The customer said something about "pukimak (a Hokkien swear word)". Then Satheesh told him "don't be so kurang ajar (the crude version of rude), you better talk properly." So, the customer started be impatient and started shouting. So Satheesh shouted back.

Poor Satheesh :(

I didn't know how the managers managed to solve the problem. The quarrel continued at the cinema foyer. But god, that customer is nuts. All this, for a handphone?

Every one of the staff was clearly feeling unsettled too. I was totally FREAKED OUT. And scared. Was on the verge of trembling. First time seeing something like this happening in a cinema.

When I was about to leave, I saw Satheesh again in the office. I went up to him.

Me: Satheesh, so how are you feeling, everything okay?

I was surprised that he actually smiled back.

Satheesh: Nah, I'm fine.
Me: You sure? Cause just now when I saw you I was already feeling very scared.
Satheesh: You were scared ah?

You weren't? O.o

Satheesh you're a true man!!

Right now, I'm feeling very guilty. Cause I think it was partially my fault. If I actually let the customer come with me into Cinema 5 and let him search the whole place to his heart's content, maybe he might give up eventually and go back, and NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

Right?