two - everyone is tickled pink
Exotica
About fifteen minutes later, Sehun took back every word he said to Suho.
After Sehun had been unexpectedly hired, Suho had assigned him to a server position which hadn't been too bad-sounding at the time. Until Luhan brought him to the staff room where Lay and a kid around his age were waiting. And promptly left him there, giving him a pat on the back and an enthusiastic 'good luck!'
Sehun figured he'd need it.
"Alright, kid," Lay said, turning to him. "I'll be in charge of your training."
"My name is Sehun."
"Right, Sayun," Lay nodded and then turned to the other kid. "This is Tao."
"No, not Sayun. Sehun."
"Oh. My mistake, Serun."
"No, it's....just....nevermind."
Lay nodded and turned back to Tao who had clearly been ignoring anyone else's presence for the last few minutes. It shouldn't be too hard with the music blasting out of the earphones shoved into his ears.
"Tao," Lay said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Tao, say hello to our new recruit."
Nothing.
"Tao!"
Silence. Except for the chorus of Kelis' Milkshake.
"TAO!"
"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard~!"
Oh great. Now, he's singing.
"Come on, Sekun. There's no stopping him when he gets that far," Lay sighed out, removing his hand from Tao's shoulder. "I'll give you the basics of being a server."
With one last look at Tao who looked like he was really getting into the music (dancing and singing), Sehun followed Lay out to the storage rooms.
~○~
"This is your serving tray," Lay said, handing Sehun a new, silver slab of metal. "Just don't hurt anyone with it. Tao regularly throws his at customers who annoy him, or occasionally at Kris."
"The co-manager?" Sehun asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "But, isn't he...I don't know...scared of him?"
Lay looked amused. "Tao? Scared of Kris? He's the only one that isn't. Plus, I think that's his way of showing affection. Throwing heavy silver trays, I mean."
While Sehun contemplated whether he should be more scared of Tao than Kris or not, Lay rummaged through the storage shelves, producing a waiter uniform that Sehun stared at in disdain. After spending years of being cramped into his school uniform, dressed like hundreds of other mindless kids, he wasn't looking forward to accepting another one.
The uniform itself was fairly traditional, looking exactly like the waiter outfits Sehun had seen on television. It consisted of a simple white shirt with the collar resting atop the maroon-colored vest, a red and white striped tie underneath with black pants and shoes. He hated it, but Lay seemed to stare at it with the utmost adoration.
"This is the uniform," Lay stated.
As if Sehun didn't already know that.
"You are to wear it every day you come to work. Failure to wear it or wear it properly results in death and/or extreme bodily harm," Lay continued with a smile. "So, if you value your balls, I suggest you try your hardest to wear this uniform with pride and admiration."
Lay shoved the entire uniform into Sehun's arms. "Now go get changed, newbie. After you're done, meet me out front. We might not be opening today, but tomorrow is your first day, and you need all the training you can get."
~○~
Upon getting changed into what was probably the ichiest uniform ever, Sehun trudged back out to the main entrance room of the restaurant. The first thing he noticed upon arriving was that Lay wasn't there. Figures. The second was that Luhan was at the fancy podium at the front, penciling in reservations with a phone attached to his ear. He looked so serious for once, and Sehun found this utterly cute.
He wanted to make his way over to him, but Lay had been right when he said he needed all the training he could get. So, with a sigh, he turns his back on Luhan and wanders around to look for Lay.
He explores the restaurant itself, looking around the many elegant tables for a sign of his absent-minded mentor. Instead, he catches sight of two unfamiliar guys chattering to each other while cleaning glasses behind a bar. They're wearing uniforms similar to Sehun's except for the vests (which are black and red striped instead of solid red) and the ties (which have bow ties in place instead).
Eventually, they look up and notice Sehun gawking at them. They exchange a look before the taller one lifts his hand in a wave, beckoning Sehun to approach. Despite the fact that Sehun really doesn't want to talk to any more weird employees of Exotica, he approaches the bar.
"Who are you?" the shorter one of the two asks curiously when he stops in front of them.
"Sehun," he replies. "I was just hired."
The two immediately begin to grin, creeping the hell out of Sehun.
"I'm Chen," the shorter one says to him. Then, he points to the taller one next to him. "And this is Chanyeol."
"We bartend," Chanyeol explained. "And sometimes, we resist drinking all of the wine."
At this, Chen fully grinned once again, and produced a bottle that had 'Tickled Pink' written across the front. Below the words was a pig, frolicking like its life depended on it in pink flower petals. Chen proceeded to the bottle lovingly while Chanyeol stared at it with a look of pure and utter want.
"Chanyeol and I managed to get our hands on this," Chen said, still the bottle. "In the 70's, everyone drank this like it was KoolAid. I've been waiting to get a taste of it. So, what do you say, newbie? Want to join in on a little....'initiation'?"
Sehun could not believe these guys he just met were asking him to get wasted with them. "W-well, I don't really-"
At some point, Chanyeol had ninja-jumped over the bar, and slung his arm over Sehun's shoulders. Sehun felt like he was going to faint.
"C'mon, man!" Chanyeol exclaimed. "We always take the newbie out for a quick drink!"
Sehun looked from Chanyeol to Chen, and for the first time that day, sincerely wished Lay would show up. Thankfully, someone did show up for him. Someone who he thought was even better than Lay, really.
"Guys, stop bullying Sehun!" Luhan said, walking towards them.
Chanyeol immediately dropped his arm from Sehun's shoulders and jumped back behind the bar. Chen was quick to hide the bottle of wine. Sehun just looked at Luhan with what he hoped was thanks in his eyes.
"So, you've met Chanyeol and Chen, I see," Luhan said. Sehun nodded at this. "Then, you only have Kyungsoo, Kai, Xiumin, and Baekhyun left and you'll know the whole 'group'. They didn't come in today, but I'm pretty sure you'll meet them tomorrow."
The only thing Sehun could do was nod at all the unfamiliar names.
"What are you doing over here with these too anyway? Isn't Lay supposed to be training you?"
"I-I couldn't f-find him," Sehun said, cursing himself for stuttering.
Luhan shook his head. "He's probably in the staff room. I'm not sure if he sent you here for you to meet these two idiots or he forgot he wanted you in the staff room instead."
Luhan grabbed Sehun's hand and promptly started to lead him back to the staff room. Chen and Chanyeol waved with their creepy grins before turning their attention back to the wine. Not that Sehun really noticed. He was too busy relishing in the fact that Luhan was holding his hand.
They stopped in front of the staff room door and Luhan released Sehun's hand to his disappointment.
"Good luck with you training," Luhan says.
Sehun nods and turns to open the door.
"Oh, and Sehun!"
Sehun looks in Luhan's direction once more.
"That lisp you get when you're nervous," Luhan says. "I find it adorable!"
And then he turns and heads back towards his podium, leaving a stunned and bright red Sehun behind.
a/n
About the lisp thing. I have a classmate that had a lisp, but speech therapy and practicing without it at school got rid of it. Now, it only appears when he's nervous, at a loss for words, or getting really emotional. So, I implemented that in here! Not that I don't absolutely LOVE Sehun's cute lisp, but I wanted to change it up a bit just for this story. I hope that's okay! :D
Note that Luhan probably watched Sehun the entire time he was conversing with the trolls and getting utterly nervous around them. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known Sehun even had a lisp.
Thanks to all of my new subs! I love you guys!
omg people marry me plz ;__; here you go have some dorks
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