“Well!!!!???? What are you standing around for, then??? Didn’t I tell you to hurry up, you idiots???? Are you deaf!!!????”

“………….. ………………sorry!! Sorry!!”  “Sorry!!”   Snapping to, the kids quickly scampered to the back of the kitchen, to the jobs they’d been assigned – Tao to help the guy peeling potatoes, Sehun to the giant basins were there were already three people washing dishes, and Jimin and Hana over to the preparation station to help the girl cleaning fish…

Once they’d left the Admin Offices, after a long session with various big shots, they’d been directed to the colleges they needed to get to by uniformed clerks (who had seemed more’n a little intimidating). The second years, with Yuuna Sensei, had been taken to the South side of the ginormous campus, where a large, heavily wooded building stood, the front looking more like some sort of European…castle… than anything. The impression was only heightened by the man who was waiting to receive them – tall, broad shouldered.. with the faintest darkening of hair about his chin, in a pristine white Chef’s outfit, with the sleeves rolled up to reveal his muscular arms.. one tendril of dark hair falling to his forehead, out of his upswept do that only added to the aura of grown-up handsomeness. He looked like a foreigner..an actor, or…or an action star or something! They’d all been super impressed – Hana almost squealing -

That was….

Right until….

He’d opened his mouth.

“Well, Good luck, everyone~~~” casually waving as she laughed unsympathetically at them, Yuuna Sensei let the prof – the evil demon-cook from hell who did a total 180 everytime he looked at her – lead her out to the restaurant, happily accepting the mug of freshly brewed coffee and cream filled pastry he offered, in his best, perfectly suave, charismatic and even flirty manner – which held only till the moment he stepped back into the kitchen.

“HUUUUUHHHH!!!??? What the is this!!??? Dog ??? Do you think my customers want to eat your dog ????” Screaming at one of his students – all the staff working in the restaurant were college students – plus, for the day, Sehun, Tao, Jimin and Hana – Professor Kitazawa sent the plate whizzing across the length of the kitchen, to crash into the huge sinks Sehun was working at, shattering into a dozen pieces. “Get back and do it over, you useless worm!! I don’t have time for maggots in my kitchen, mess up I’ll throw you out! Ah-You!! You there!!! Gorilla !! Who the told you to put in the noodles!!?? Did I say you could?? Huh??? Did I?? The water isn’t even done yet, even a blind man would know better -  you stupid brainless git!! - Kanae!! Did you salt that properly???” As he moved through the kitchen, back and forth, giving orders, insults and accusations without drawing breath, Sehun felt his hands shake –

What the hell was wrong with him!!!!!!!!!!!!

, I –

“Ah!! Kid!!”

“….hu?”

“Be careful!!”

“….huh?”

The senpai washing dishes with him smiled kindly, nodding towards his hands. “If you shake that much, you’ll drop a plate, and then you’ll really be in trouble.”

“….ah…..ahh ayah…” running his fingers under the tap to wash the suds off his gloves, Sehun clenched his fist. “How…what – how do you work in this place!!!”

“…..eh…??” looking totally puzzled, the senior tilted his head to one side. “Here?? Ah, I applied repeatedly! Eheh, that’s the only way, you have to try and try and try -  6 times before I got in!!!” Beaming proudly, he flashed Sehun a “v” sign, still holding the soft-bristled brush he was using.

“….bu…but…him..!!”

“….ehhh…aahh, Professor Kitazawa??? He’s amazing, isn’t he!!” Suddenly making heart eyes of worship, the senior wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand, turning back to the tub of steaming water. “He’s one of the most brilliant chefs in the entire world! He’s won 36 national prizes and 19 International awards for his cuisine so far, and he’s one of the youngest chefs ever to get 5 Michelin stars for a debut restaurant… He was the youngest person ever to get the Forestbrooke Medal of Excellence too, and he’s won it 7 times after that!! To think someone like that would be working right here…. Aahhhhh, I still almost can’t believe I get to work under him!!! He pioneered this cuisine we use in this restaurant, blending traditional dishes with global influences… Ah! Do you know, 3 months a year we close down the restaurant and he travels around the world, studying different countries’ cooking… He goes to work at different restaurants too, with the biggest names in the industry, even 4 years with Chef Gregor Turner!!” The senior enthused, dreamily.  “One day, if I can be even half as good as him……”

“It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“….hmm?.... ooorrghhhhhmmmmm…” Tao groaned, as Sehun shifted.

It was late in the evening, and they’d just gotten back – dragging themselves into the room too exhausted to even switch the lights on, Tao had flopped into his bed face down, and Sehun had flopped down on top of him, sitting on his back.

“That guy is such a total jerk….”

“…grrmmhh…. Yeaahhh…Sehun, massage my shoulders….”

“…….” Mischievously, Sehun dug his elbows in – but Tao was too tired to care, just groaning instead.

“I’m saying, he’s such a total prick, but… but they all really like him!!”

“…..yeaahh… well, it’s coz he’s super talented right? And for all of them working there, that’s their dream, so…. he’s like their idol…”

“…yeah…. They’re all really dedicated, aren’t they…”

“Yeah! Especially Kanae-san… - ouch!! Sehun!! Whaddya –”

“Especially Kanae-san~~” Sehun mocked in a breathless voice. “Idiot… just coz she let you have extra cake at lunch…”

“Ehehee~~~besides, I split it with you~~”

“Hrmpphh….”

“But yeah… they’re all really….. it’s kinda weird right, that many of them, and all so… focused? And determined…”

“Yeah! Like they’re so…driven…!! All of them?? It’s scary!!”

“…I guess… more’n “all of them working there are driven”, it’s more like.. only people who are that driven could possibly get to work there?”

“…yeah.. I guess you’re right… ehehe, no one else could stand him!!”

“hahhahaha~~~ true~~”

“Uuuggghhhh…. Man, to think it was so much hard work… uggh it’s almost enough to make me hate food!!”

“……..ree~~aa~~lly~~~”

“…………. ……………… ehehe, naaa, I love food!! Bu – ah!! Owwww!!”

“…eh?”

“..ah? Ah, no nothing, I just put my weight on my arm…”

“Ah!!” Suddenly sitting up so fast, Sehun fall over onto the bed, Tao looked over, concerned. “Sehun! Your arm…is it still hurting?”

“Er? Ah…..” blushing, Sehun looked down at his arm, experimentally pumping it up and down. “Just when I lean on it.. otherwise it’s fine…. thanks…”

“Oh!! Thank goodness!! I-”

“Aaahhh!! You just totally over reacted anyway!!”

“….I was so scared, okay!!!” Tao reached to clutch at the chest of Sehun’s shirt. “I really thought Sehun got hurt!”

“….it…was fine…. Ehehe, I could totally have lifted that on my own, anywa- eh- wai-

Tao!!!!!! Nothing happened, okay!!!! I’m fine, coz you grabbed it right in time, so the plates and stuff didn’t fall on me, right?? So it’s alright!!

Eeehhhh….

Stupid, don’t cry….

and then you even yelled back at the professor… omg seriously…. That was the time to cry, you idiot, not now….

Honestly…. “

Reaching out, Sehun pushed his fingers into Tao’s hair, ruffling the soft silky black strands. “…Honestly..” gently, he gripped tighter, pulling Tao’s head in, into his chest. “There, there.” Comfortingly, he patted him, trying not to giggle at the way his hair, shacking with his sobs, tickled his chin, or the sight of this big giant Wushu-master crying. “Aargh, you’re so troublesome… you were perfectly fine just a second ago, and then you had to go and remember…… C’mon, kid, Its fine now, Tao totally saved me, and went and got mad and yelled at that professor, all “how could you ask him to carry that, it’s so dangerous”, and all that, so it’s fine, okay!! Don’t cry~~~”

“…bu….bu..I was so scared….” Tao, who had clung onto Sehun as he hugged him, pulled away, titling his head up to look at him…

His eyes red, tears b out, swelling and dropping in sparkles down his cheeks..

His nose turning red…

So close Sehun could actually count the drops on his lashes….

His body, pressed up to Sehun’s, still jerking with the occasional sob…..

“Ah!!” “Gruhm – “ Blushing fiery, the next moment, both boys sprang apart, Sehun leaping onto his own bed, Tao scrambling down his, to put as much space between them as possible.

“Aaahh… haha… but cooking is really hard on the body ne….”

“Hehehe, yeah…my hands got shrivelled from being soaked in the water so long~~”

“Ho h ho, yeah, and my fingers feel sprained from all that potato peeling~~ ehehe, but at least I didn’t have to do onions, poor Hana~~”

“Haahaha, yup yup, though I’d have liked to work at the dessert station…”

“Eeeehh, idiot, they wouldn’t let you eat the stuff….”

Loudly talking in patently forced cheer, the boys kept their eyes steadfastly turned away from each other – till at last, the bell rang for dinner, cutting somewhat into the tension. 

------

“…Aaahhhh…hurry up, I’m so hungry I could eat a cow!!”

“HHHAAA!?!??? If you wanna eat, stop sitting there like an emperor and get helping!!”

“….ohhh, shuttup, I’m in no mood to even look at another kitchen for the rest of my life~~”

“……………”

“Ah!! Ishihara kun, why don’t you take the salad over there, go on.. Jimin, here, just put this spoon in, would you… “ Stepping in hurriedly before the president and the second year came to blows, Yixing Sensei capably directed them about, till, before they knew it, everyone was sitting down to the meal.

“So.. Cooking Day was tough?”

“……………………..”

“YESS!!!! SENSEI, IT WAS AWFUL!!!!!!” “THAT MAN IS A MONSTER!!” “it was soo hard, first we had to clean fish and it stank so bad, ugggh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh, it was so sliimmyy and the uuugghhhh gunk inside – “ “He actually made me put my hand down it’s throat-” “he called me a useless , coz I didn’t want to and – “ “he made me peel 50,000,000 potatoes!! Like on and on and on and on and-” “The onions!!!! There were so many they burnt so bad – “ “he kept yelling at everyone – and so harsh, he- “ “Hana cried!! He actually made Hana cry – and even I would have in the end, he was so terrible!!!!” “Yeah!!!! But then Tao yelled at him, so- “

“WHAT????” Yixing Sensei, who had been listening to the tirade with a faint smile, exchanging glances with Yuuna Sensei above their heads, finally snapped to at that. “Tao yelled at him!!??”

“Eeeehhh!?” Shocked herself, Yuuna Sensei turned to them too. “Wha- when did that happen, I was there the whole time and-”

“HAAA!!??? Yuuna Sensei was just sitting there in the restaurant, drinking coffee and eating snacks all day, and not even bothered if we were dead-” “Yeah!!!! Even when he was being so mean to us, you didn’t even do anything! You didn’t even come into the kitchen!” “Just coz he was being all…flirty with you..”-

“You-”

“YOU GUYS SHUT UP!!!!! HOW DARE YOU TALK TO YUUNA SENSEI LIKE THAT!!!” Even before Yixing Sensei could start scolding, there was a crash from the other end of the table, as Senri stood up so fast, his glass of water went flying across – unfortunately right at Ishihara senpai – but Akihiko didn’t even care as he started spluttering and yelling, firmly focused on his anger at the second years talking about his beloved Yuuna Sensei like that.

“…Haaaaaaaaa!!????? I’ll talk however I want, shut your face, you stupid first year- “

“Like I care about your seniority, , you have no right-”

“ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!” Yixing Sensei slammed his palm on the table-  making everyone gasp and start, an abrupt silence filling the room. “You – All of you, are out of bounds. Hana, Jimin, you know how far across the line you stepped, so apologize to Sensei right now, don’t ever let me hear you speak like that again!! Senri – respect your seniors. Ishihara, go get a towel and wipe that up –”

Stunned by the strict, angry tones form the last person they’d expect to actually get angry, everyone did as commanded, Hana and Jimin apologizing, Ishihara getting up to fetch a towel.

“…eehhh…it’s fine, it’s fine~~” Yuuna Sensei, casual as always, waved away their apology. “But I’ll tell you one thing, though, we – Yixing Sensei and I – are just here to observe…keep an eye on you, as it were. We’re not going to interfere in anything that happens while you’re at work.”
Pausing for a sip of tea, she continued.
“Work Experience is more than just learning how to do a job, to carry out an order or plan and perform a task. In the real world, you’ll have to face different kinds of people, and put up with different situations.. It’s not going to be easy, and there are going to be people who might seem….shall we say, “difficult” to deal with. These people might be your superiors, your juniors, whatever… but being part of a workforce means being able to deal with people like that…. Till now, because you are “children”, your entire lives you have been indulged, and everyone – basically everyone you have ever met, has had a certain consideration to you because they are aware of the fact. But in a few years, you will be stepping across the bridge, to the adult world – and then no one’s going to make allowances for you. More than anything, that’s what this “work experience” course is about… To teach you how to handle those type of situations.”

“…Ta…o?”

“…..hrnmnrr…”

“Are you asleep?” Sehun’s voice was low, in keeping with the cosy silence in the chill of the dark room, but a chuckle sounded out from the other bed just the same.

“Yeah~~”

“~~” Grinning himself, Sehun turned over to lie on his back…. He couldn’t even make out the lines on the ceiling, it was so dark…. He stretched his arm up, but he couldn’t even see his hand…

“It was kinda…..scary, right?”

“…hmrm?”

“What Yuuna Sensei was saying….”

“….hrnmn.”

“TAO!” Laughing, Sehun rolled over to try to kick him – but it was no use, the idiot had snuggled up right next to the wall on the far end of his bed, so Sehun couldn’t quite..reach…. “Seriously, listen!”

“……yeah…”

“…Do you think that’s true? Like..everyone’s been nice to us coz we’re kids?”

“…….well….yeah?”

“..Mmff. But loads of people have been mean to me too!!”

“….maybe, but still, in their minds they would have thought, “Oh he’s just a kid in the end” so they wouldn’t have reacted the same way as if you were grown up?”

“……….but…uggh… is that really true?  It’s kinda scary to think, in a few years…..hey, what if we end up working for a guy like that!”

“I’ll quit.”

“……. Ehehehe, .”

“No, I’m serious!! Anyway, even if I’m a hundred my parents won’t let me work in an environment like that….even if it is my dream job or whatever….if it means me being hurt, even mentally, there's a limit to what they'd allow”

“….. But what if it’s not so simple, like… if we have to earn money, and…we will have to, make our own money, right? To eat…rent…”

“……. Transportation, clothes, electricity and water and stuff… ehehe, yeah, I guess, sometimes, it could happen that your situation…. That circumstances make it impossible for you to have a choice…  it might not be so easy getting a job that you can throw one away just coz your boss is a ....”

“….. …. Arrrghhh…I feel so stupid!!”

“….eh?”

“I mean…not stupid, like…inadequate? What am I gonna do, ya know? It’s just…. Well, take like, Kanae-san, right? She’s so pretty and smart and fun, but she spends all her time getting called a “worm” and that her cooking is bad – even though it’s actually so good…And she does it coz she’s thinking, if she puts up with it and finished training, she can get a really good job, and earn loads, coz she’ll be known as that guy’s student…”

“…yeah….”

“But…well…. It’s so tough!! To go through that day after day…just coz of…. You always think, oh, something will come up, right? Like….”I’ll get by”, or… when people try to ask you “what will you do when you’re old?”, you really just think, “oh, I’ll do something…whatever… something will come along, and I’ll be fine” right? I mean, we’ve never done anything…. decided stuff like that, right?”

“…well…that’s true, if you think about it… we go to school, coz that’s what we’re told to do, we just do the things our parents tell us, and our teachers… Even the meanest teacher isn’t like that, in the end, we always feel supported by them… we only have exams to worry about, and those aren’t all that difficult to study for, coz the syllabus and stuff each year is basically set for our age and…. well, whatever happens, we have our parents to fall back on, so, thinking about it, we have a lot of security, right?”

“Exactly!!! But when we become a bit older, we’re not gonna have a safety net at all!! We have to deal with stuff on our own, make our own decisions…we won’t have anyone to help, and even the situations we’ll face won’t be carefully planned by other people taking our age into consideration…. Till now I only thought of it as freedom, ya know, like “I can’t wait to get my own job and start earning, I can get out of here”, etc etc… but now… thinking about it, it’s kinda scary, right?”

“yeah! We won’t even have our parents by us to help, and..”

“And even then, I wouldn’t wanna be a burden to them, even after I’m grown up….”

“…well…. Well I gueess the only thing to do in this case is like…. get married to someone who’ll take care of you~~~~”

“…………… ……….!!!!”

Laughing, Sehun pulled his pillow out from under his head and flung it at the bed opposite – but Tao only hooted. “Missed me~~ ehehe, I knew that was coming~~”

“Ohhh shuttup, give it back.”

“…..naa, I think I’ll keep it~~”

“….. TAO! Give it back!!”

“…eeehhhhh why should I~~~ Sehun gave it to me first~~”

“I did not “give” it to you!! I threw it at you!”

“All the more reason for me to keep it then~~”

“…….. Huang Zitao, you donkey~~” yelling through his laughter, Sehun launched himself in the dark onto the other bed, happily landing right on him.

“WHRA-Sehun!!!! Gett – omfhm –Hunnie!!!! Get off!!!”

“Haaaaaa beahwhwhahahaaa~~”

“Ouch!! You stupid – oh, that’s how you wanna play it, huh~~huuuuhhhhhh~~”

“Gru- donkey Tao, you’re – wai- stoppppp, you’re too heav- ahhahhahhahahhaaaa –”

Laughing and yelping at the top of their voices, tickling and wrestling, the boys fought over the pillow –

Feeling that odd strange tension spiking, as their limbs connected –

But still…

Like this it was okay

Coz they were playing, laughing and teasing and playing..

So that tension was only a buzz, a thrill spiking their mirth deep deep down….

Till –

CCRWWAAASSHHHH!!!

“ah…”

“Ah! Omg…..bwahaha-se –ahhhahhhaaahahha – sehu-hahhahhaaa n are you alright..”

“..hehehheee, omg, yeah…hahahhaaaa ohh this table….hahhaaaaa-”

CRASH!!

“..hu..”

“YOU TWO IMBECILES!!”

With a loud bang, the door of their room burst open-  revealing Ishihara senpai, his spectacles firmly in place, clad in a neat buttoned down pinstriped pyjama set as he angrily punched the lights on. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!????”

“…ah…..” Sheepishly, Tao bowed his head, as Sehun picked himself off the floor, and reset the small bedside table he’d knocked over when he fell. “Sorry senpai…we..”

“IT’S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!! STOP MAKING NOISE AND GET TO BED, SOME OF US HAVE WORK WE’RE SERIOUSLY DOING TOMORROW!”

Without waiting for a reply, Ishihara-san slammed the door shut and left.

“………….. …………………….”

“……………….. ……………………………”

“Haaaaa!!!???? Wasn’t he the one just making more noise-” Startled, Sehun snapped towards the bed – where Tao had said the exact same line with him.

“…………..”

“EHEHHEEEE!! I knew Sehun would say that, I just knew it!!!” Laughing and hugging the pillow, Tao rolled over, giggling as he buried his face in it.

“….shuttup!! Gimme that!!!!” Grabbing the pillow back, Sehun stomped his way to the switch to flick the lights off, before making his way back to his own bed.

“…….ahaaaaa…” with a long sigh, he flopped down, fluffing up the pillow as he stuck his face in.

Damn……

Tao was still snorting and chuckling, before calling out a goodnight.

“….um…goodnight…” Sehun muttered in reply, squeezing his eyes shut till the breathing in the next bed had stilled to a steady, sleepy rhythm.

Damnit!!!!!!

This…..

In the end, it was a long time before his heart stopped beating so hard and he was able to fall asleep.