"Daddy?" the five-year-old girl called from her bed to the man leaving her room.  It was 7pm, and she still wasn't asleep.  Outside, rain was falling heavily, although thunder and lightning had not yet been near.  Not that it worried the girl.  Some girls her age were terrified of storms, but her father taught her not to be afraid.  For the past year or so, she had slept peacefully through many storms, safe in the knowledge that no harm would come to her.  In fact, her father had instilled a sort of love and reverence of the rain in her.  They would often run through puddles and play in the water, despite her mother’s warnings of catching colds or dirtying her clothes.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Can you read me a story?"

"Inara, it’s late.”

Inara.  An Arabic-rooted name meaning "illuminating, shining".  A name which belonged to the most adorable girl he had ever laid eyes on.  One he had helped to create.  She was as cute as any five year old would be, with the darkest ebony hair and deep brown eyes that twinkled brighter than any star.  Eyes he decided she had definitely inherited from her mother, no matter what her mother said otherwise.  She brought brightness to any situation; even the most sombre of moments was made lighter by her mere presence.

"Please, daddy?"

Her father smiled to himself and turned back to his attention-seeking daughter.  "One story, ok?"  She beamed her usual toothy smile as he walked to her small bookcase.  "Which one do you want?"

“Waitress and the teacher!”

He chuckled quietly and picked out the thin book she loved so deeply.  He must have read it to her no less than two hundred times over the past three years.  He could recite it by heart to her.  It also helped that it was a story he had written just for her, and as a result was the only printed copy in existence.  That made it special.

“Ok, but after this, you go to sleep,” he ordered as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Ok, daddy,” Inara nodded and made herself comfortable.

“Alright then,” he started, opening the book.  “Once upon a time, in a land not too far away from here, there was a beautiful little girl.  She was sweet and kind and had a lot of friends, and everyone called her ‘Sunny’ ...”

“‘Because she was bright and warm like the Sun,’” Inara beamed, completing the line.

“Very good,” he smiled.  “Now, Sunny wasn’t a queen in this city.  She wasn’t even a princess.  She was a normal little girl who lived with two friends in a small house, and she worked as a waitress ...”

 

~~~

 

"Thank you very much!  Come back soon!" Sunny cheerfully called after her customers as she walked to the table.  She picked up the payment folder and opened it.  "With the other half of my tip," she muttered to herself, closing the folder and taking it to be cashed.  Working at the American diner themed restaurant was fun for Sunny, but she still wished she could earn more money, possibly even enough to afford her own place to live.  “Tiffany’s” was the one of the newer restaurants in the middle of the city and Tiffany Hwang, the owner, had spent a lot of money on promoting the diner.  It offered the “authentic 50’s diner experience”, and Tiffany’s natural American English made the experience more believable.  Sunny collected the plates with a beaming smile on her face and took them to the kitchen, toning down the cheery façade as soon as she walked through the swinging doors.

“Will lunch times ever not be busy?” she asked.

“Oh, I know!” Taeyeon, the restaurant’s head chef answered sarcastically.  “It’s so annoying!  Gee, if only there was a place those people could go to at lunch time.  You know, somewhere they could eat and do what normal people do at lunch times?”  Sunny picked up a tea towel, walked behind Taeyeon and whipped her for her retort.  “Careful, Sunny,” Taeyeon shook her rear at the waitress, almost taunting her for an encore, “I might get used to that.”

“You mean you’re not already?” Yoona absently called out, releasing the eighteenth portion of fries into the deep fryer that day.  Or was it the nineteenth?

“Not with a tea towel,” Taeyeon smirked.

“Two ‘quarters’ with the works!” Seohyun called cheerfully through the hatch, attaching her completed order slip to the rail.  “Sunny!  Come on!  Customers!”

“Coming!” Sunny habitually brushed down her pastel pink skirt, turned up her bright smile and left the kitchen.

“Taeyeon, you really need to cut out the flirting with everything that moves,” Heechul requested, putting the fresh burger patty underneath the grill.

“Hey, come on,” Taeyeon sighed.

“It’s not becoming of a lady.”

“Heechul, you’re just jealous because she doesn’t flirt with you,” Hyoyeon shouted from the back of the small kitchen, not once taking her eyes from the salad she was diligently slicing.  Yoona laughed at the immature jibe at Heechul’s expense, but Taeyeon was not amused.

“Hyo, cool it,” she calmly ordered.  “Heechul, a word, please?  In private?”

Obediently, Heechul followed his manager to the corner of the kitchen, the other  staff members falling silent and returning to their tasks.  “Taeyeon, I know that you are my manager, but …”

“Quiet,” Taeyeon glared, holding up her hand to silence him.  “I know what you mean.  And I appreciate the sentiment, but you need to know something.  You’ve been here for only a month, so I will tell you this as a fellow human being, but I am only going to tell you this once.  I only flirt with those that I’m really comfortable with.  I’ve known all of the people here since before this place opened up.  I’ve known Sunny since we were in eighth grade and Tiffany since fifth.  I feel more comfortable with those two than my own parents.”  Heechul opened his mouth to argue, but Taeyeon cut him off.  “Because of that, I feel I can be more like my real self with them, and I’m not going to change who I am for anyone.  But I know that there is a time and a place for it.  That’s why I don’t flirt in the public area of the restaurant, but the private area of the kitchen is fine.  Nobody can see us, and we’re just having some fun.”

Heechul nodded, uneasily.  “Yes, ma’am,” he bowed.

“Heechul,” Taeyeon smiled.  “In the kitchen, when we’re working, it’s ‘Yes, Chef’.  When I need you to do something, it’s ‘Yes, Chef’.  When I give you an order, it’s ‘Yes, Chef’.  When I’m giving you a quiet piece of friendly advice, like I am now, ‘Yeah, Tae’ is enough.  I’m not some kind of ogre, and this kitchen won’t work if we’re not all in it together, so I don’t act like the Boss.  Just the chef.  Got it?”

Heechul relaxed and smiled.  “Yeah, I got it,” he nodded.

“Good,” Taeyeon smiled, as Tiffany walked through the door.

“Enjoying yourselves over there?” she called.

“Sorry, Boss.  Just letting Heechul know how things work here,” Taeyeon apologised, walking away and returning to her workstation, Heechul following suit shortly after.

“Problem?” Tiffany asked, standing behind Taeyeon.

“No, Boss.  Everything is sorted.”

“Taeyeon …”

“Everything is fine, Boss.”

“Stop calling me ‘Boss’!  You know the rules.  They are your rules after all.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Tae …”

Tiffany couldn’t see the slightly erted, entirely cheeky smirk crawling across her chef’s face.  She didn’t need to; she knew her friend well enough.

“Do I need to bend you over the counter and take the spatula to your again?”

Taeyeon choked and covered , trying to restrain her laughter.  Yoona and Hyoyeon had already lost the fight to restrain themselves, leaving Heechul to deal with his discomfort alone.

“Or are we graduating to the wooden spoons now?”

That set all three of the girls into uncontrollable fits of laughter, Taeyeon especially.

“Ok, Tiff, you win!” she screamed.

“You know not to mess with me, girl,” Tiffany smugly smirked, turning on her heel and leaving the kitchen.  “Whatever you two had going on, fix it.  Before I fix you.”

 

~~~~~

 

Seohyun, Sunny, and Sooyoung chased around, taking orders, bringing purchases and cleaning the tables for customers.  The main lunchtime rush was in full momentum as Sunny stood at the bar.

“Two strawberry shakes, please,” she ordered.

“Coming up!” Leeteuk replied, picking up two glasses.

“Hey, Sunny,” Sooyoung called from behind her.  “Guess what?”  Sunny rolled her eyes and turned to her caller.  She leaned in closer to Sunny and whispered.

“Loverboy’s here.”

“Shut up,” Sunny blushed, returning her attention to Leeteuk.  She should have known to expect that from her.  Ever since she told Sooyoung that one of their regular customers had attracted her attention, Sooyoung would always mention his arrival to her.

“Oh, and he’s sitting right in Seohyun’s section,” she followed and taunted her, mocking sorrow and despair.

“I said shut up!” she hissed.

“You’re teasing Sunny about him again, aren’t you,” Yuri interrupted, collecting the two empty glasses from Sooyoung.

“Wouldn’t you?” Sooyoung grinned.

“No,” Yuri replied.  "Sunny clearly has excellent taste in guys.  If it wasn't for her liking him, I'd be all over Mr. Dreamy in a heartbeat."

"Can you both just stop already?" Sunny collected the prepared milkshakes and returned to her table.

"Come on, you two," Leeteuk quietly scolded them.  "Give her a break."

"What?" Sooyoung answered indignantly.

"Let her have her crush without being teased for it."

"It's just a little fun," she sulked.

"Hey, and I wasn't teasing her," Yuri defended herself.

"No, that's true,” Leeteuk conceded, “but I had hoped you would be more defensive over her.”

“Leeteuk,” Sooyoung complained, leaning on the bar, “stop being so boring.  Live a little!”

“Since when have you called him 'boring'?” Yuri asked.

“Well … he's being a bore!” Sooyoung protested quietly.

“Yeah, I know,” Yuri smirked and glared directly at Sooyoung.  “In every way you can think of, Leeteuk is 'boring'.”  Sooyoung’s eyes widened and she scuttled away, blushing half a dozen shades of pink.

“That sounded like you were turning the tables on her, but I have no idea how,” Leeteuk shook his head.

“Meuhh, now she knows how Sunny feels,” Yuri shrugged and continued with her job.

“You know she’ll keep doing it, right?”

“Mmmhmmm,” Yuri nodded, restacking the clean glasses behind the bar.

The pair continued working, serving customers and providing orders for the waitresses.  The lunchtime rush afforded them very little time to talk, but they managed to have small snippets of conversations in between orders.  It was only a short while later, during a longer quiet moment, that Leeteuk turned to Yuri.

“So, just how did you turn the tables on her?” he asked.  “It’s really bugging me.”

Yuri turned to her questioner, smiled and wrinkled her nose; a sure sign that she would never tell him her little secret.