It was late June and we were seated at a crowded gate at New York's Kennedy airport waiting for our flight to Honolulu when two young men, clearly on a mission, walked past me. They stopped right in front of a young woman and told her that they wanted two particular seats - the one on which she was sitting and the one to its left. (There were two spare seats to the right of the woman.)
She looked bewildered then picked up her bag and moved across one seat. The two men then, with no word of thanks or other sign of appreciation, sat in the two seats that they'd coveted - leaving me and anyone else who'd witnessed it wondering exactly what had just occurred.
The men were intently studying something on the screen of the same portable device. It was clear they needed to be seated together. But why had they not taken the two spare adjacent seats rather than get the woman to move along? It took me 15 minutes to work out that these men were associated with the group they'd sat beside. I knew this because once in that time one of the men had grunted good-naturedly in their general direction.
I don't know if the woman had also worked this out or whether she simply remained mystified as to what had driven this situation. I'm sure I wasn't the only one giving her sympathetic looks for being the target of this odd behaviour.
It was rude however you looked at it.