"Woohyun?"

No response.

"Woohyun?"

It was as if he was dead.

Sungyeol sat across from Woohyun at the school's picnic tables. Woohyun sat across from his friend, gently resting his head and closing his eyes for a nap.

In a bowl of rice.

"Nam Woohyun!" 

Sungyeol slapped Woohyun's shoulder to wake up.

"NO DON'T WORK HERE!" Woohyun sprung up from his seat as if waking up from a nightmare, his bowl of rice flying in the air and landing on the nearby dirt. His bangs and forehead were covered in grains of sticky rice, some of it drooping down his cheeks and onto his lips. He turned from side-to-side, realizing that he was in a sitting at a table eating lunch with his friend. "Oh god, was this all a dream?"

Sungyeol was stunned, his eyes and mouth wide open as if a ghost had just popped out of nowhere to haunt him. Except in this case, it was a rice ghost named Woohyun. He leaned back in his chair, wary of even getting closer to him. "Are you ok?!"

Woohyun took a deep breath, finally gaining some composure back. He took a napkin on his lunch tray and picked the sticky rice off of his bangs and forehead. At the same time, he his lips to eat some of the rice that fell by his mouth. "No, nothing is going well right now. But this rice tastes good."

"Well, at least it's Friday right? It's the end of the week!" Sungyeol gave off a cheesy grin, putting his hands out to attempt and cheer him up. "Did you have a bad day yesterday?"

Let's see, what did I do yesterday? I had a planning meeting for this Saturday's school dance, took a math test, then I had work. Oh, and at the end of my shift my brother hired Sunggyu at the restaurant. Oh yeah, and his first day is today.

The thought of yesterday sickened him. Woohyun let out a mournful groan.

Sungyeol chuckled. "Tomorrow is going to be fun!"

No amount of encouragement would help Woohyun get out of the predicament his brother put him in. He thought about the process. First comes denial, then comes rejection, then comes acceptance. What stage is this? Woohyun convinced himself to stop complaining about the ordeal and accept it. "You know how my brother told me I was stressing myself out at work and suggested I got a coworker?"

Sungyeol nodded, remembering a conversation they had about that earlier. "Yeah?"

Woohyun sighed, the words when his brother told Sunggyu he was hired replaying in his head over and over again. It was only yesterday, and yet those words set an important precedent of his following school year. And his sanity. "Sunggyu came to Guk Pan yesterday and-"

And at that moment, Sunggyu slammed his lunch tray onto the table right next to Woohyun's to join him and Sungyeol for their midday meal. Sunggyu acknowledged the both of them casually in a head nod and his lips. "What's up guys?" He picked up his chopsticks and started gorging himself with rice and chicken cutlet, nonchalant with his food and treating Woohyun and Sungyeol as if they were normal people he ate lunch with. "Good chicken today, huh?" he mumbled with a filled mouth.

Woohyun's ears turned red, absolutely furious by Sunggyu. "Why are you sitting with us?"

Sunggyu took a sip of milk, slamming the carton down to splash on his plate. A thick milk mustache formed on Sunggyu's upper lip, which he off after the fact. Sunggyu let out an evil smile. Time to push your buttons. "Well, now that we're coworkers shouldn't we try to get along?"

Sungyeol grew pale, almost disgusted by what he heard. "Sunggyu is your what?"

"Yeah!" Sunggyu beamed at Sungyeol, preparing himself to wrap his arm around Woohyun. Woohyun felt the nerves of Sunggyu about to touch his body and jerked his hand to push Sunggyu away. Sunggyu laughed out loud at himself from the rejection, making the obvious uncomfortable lunch date more awkward than it already was. Of course, this was the Kim way of getting under people's skin. If someone annoyed him, he wanted to serve it back with extra. "I got hired at Guk Pan yesterday!"

Sunggyu's great news rendered Sungyeol speechless tested Woohyun's patience. Sungyeol scratched his head, gulping nervously at the thought of Sunggyu working at Guk Pan with Woohyun. He remembered only a couple days before Sunggyu addressing the fact that he owed Hak Yeon money, a person that Sungyeol knew better than to talk to at school. So that's how he's getting 1,500,000 won? The whole idea sounded like it could blow up in Sunggyu's face, and Sungyeol wanted to make sure that one of his friends was not involved with it.

"Yup," Woohyun put up a thumbs up, masking his feelings and trying to think positively about everything. "We're going to be coworkers."

"My first shift is today!" Sunggyu added on. 

Sungyeol nodded his head robotically, giving out a fake smile. "Congratulations I guess!"

"I know!" Sunggyu shoved a piece of chicken in his mouth and talked again with his mouthful, small bits of chicken and spit splashing out. "It's going to be great!" Sunggyu attempted to put his arm around Woohyun again, and this time around he let his new coworker give a half hug and affection towards his new job without any resistance. It was Woohyun's way of finally accepting that Sunggyu was his coworker, and it made Sunggyu almost giddy inside.

Of course, that could also be just because Woohyun was too busy crying internally to notice any sense of touch.

(((())))

Sungyeol walked into his history class and tried to spot a seat in the crowded classroom. He had lost track of time during lunch, seconds barely making it in on time before the bell rang. Thankfully, the teacher had yet to come in and Sungyeol was saved of a tardy. There were two empty seats in the classroom: an empty seat behind Hoya and Myungsoo or an empty seat next to Oh Hayoung. Well, this is easy. 

Sungyeol took off his backpack while he walked towards Hayoung, the school treasurer. Her appearance was something coming out of a magazine; a perfect face. A perfect smile. A perfect girl. Most of all, she was not Hoya or Myungsoo, and he had enough dealing with Sunggyu or his gang for the day. He placed his backpack on his desk and took a seat, feeling a little nervous being in her presence. "Hey Hayoung!"

Hayoung was dazed looking out the window, snapping out of it once Sungyeol called her name. She turned and was pleasantly surprised. "Sungyeol! How are you?"

"Good, a little flustered right now coming back from lunch." Not to mention a little flustered sitting next to her. Woohyun would always talk about how hot she looked, but it was not even that for Sungyeol. She was a simple, innocent girl who could not hurt a fly. He could see her personality shine. "Are you caught up on the reading?"

"Kind of?" she sighed, shaking her head. "I've been caught up taking care of some things for the dance and the decorating committee, unfortunately I fell behind a chapter."

"It's Friday, so after the dance you can catch up," Sungyeol smiled.

Sungyeol was considered a gentle giant around campus. Intelligent, always knowing what to say. He was the ideal model of someone parents wanted their kids to be, much to Sungyeol's ridicule. He was also friendly enough to gain a good following of friends, his shy charm oozing out whenever he spoke. As much as Woohyun, Sungyeol did his best to stay out of trouble and the people he considered trouble. He was not as brave as his best friend, who is always able to stand up for himself. Sungyeol could think of a sassy remark here and there, but he never tried to aggravate an existing situation. 

People liked Sungyeol a lot for his personality.

One of those people were Hayoung.

Sungyeol and Hayoung were both tutors on campus, and more recently the both of them have spent a lot of time together outside of the library, going to coffee shops or going to the movies. They were both still unsure of their feelings for each other; not exactly reaching a crush, but there was a lot of potential for their relationship to go past a friendship. It was simple experimentation.

"You're too sweet," she blushed, holding her hand to her cheek to hide her face.

The teacher was still not in class, yet.

On the other side of the classroom, Hoya and Myungsoo sat together talking about Sunggyu and his newfound job. 

"Apparently Sunggyu has his first shift at Guk Pan today," Myungsoo started. 

Hoya raised both eyebrows. "How long are you going to give him?"

Myungsoo scoffed. "Until he quits?"

"Until he's fired."

Myungsoo felt bad for making bets on his friend, but any moron could vouch for him in saying that Sunggyu is the worst possible person you would want to work with. "He's never even had a job before. 1 week."

"2 weeks."

"Aren't we being optimistic?" Myungsoo smirked.

Hoya cracked his knuckles. Sunggyu had always been reckless, but for the first time he had put himself in a serious situation that could determine his future. "He's dealing with Hak Yeon."

Sungyeol took a nervous gulp overhearing their conversation about Sunggyu. It surprised him by how much Sunggyu had challenged Hak Yeon, especially after the rumors spread that he had a relationship with his sister. Now Sunggyu is taking a job with Woohyun to pay him off, and Sungyeol knew that if Woohyun would find out why that things could get bad for his friend. I have to tell Woohyun sometime soon.

"Sungyeol, are you ok?"

Sungyeol turned and saw Hayoung's hand on his shoulder. It was a weird sensation, her touch very calming. "I'm good," his voice cracked.

After some time, their history teacher finally entered class with a stack of paperwork in his hands. Everyone turned quiet at his presence, but things got even more hushed when another student followed from behind. All eyes were on this strange person coming in with big lips and faded pink hair. He was basically an alien.

"Who is that?" Hoya asked.

"New student?" Sungyeol wondered.

The alien stood in front of the class, radiating a huge smile at everyone. He displayed much confidence and appeal, wearing his uniform but still looking very slick and comfortable.

No one knew who this guy was, but everyone was already in love with him.

"Who does this guy think he is?" Myungsoo whispered to Hoya.

"Where does this guy come from?" Hayoung whispered to Sungyeol.

Teacher Suk cleared his throat, using his hands to show off the new student. "Everyone, we have a new student in our class. This is Jang Dongwoo, originally from Guri, Korea. But Dongwoo, go ahead and tell the class where you have been living for the past 5 years."

Dongwoo nodded his head. "I've been living in America for 5 years in New York."

The whole class was in awe, already smitten with this new student they have only seen for two minutes tops. A good looking man, and he lived several years of his life in America? Everyone thought this guy was the whole package.

"Dongwoo, go ahead and take that empty seat," Teacher Suk asked him.

Dongwoo obliged, jolly in his step taking a seat right behind Hoya. 

Hoya and Myungsoo watched him like a hawk, up until the second that he took his seat. The both of them looked at each other, then back at Dongwoo. 

"Um, I'm Myungsoo," he said, compelled to be frinedly.

"My real name is Ho Won, but call me Hoya," Hoya shrugged, sticking his hand out for a shake. 

Dongwoo let out a smile, taking a firm hold of Hoya's hand for a shake. He loved meeting all kinds of new people, and now being back in his home country it brought a new opportunity for him to get to know everyone at school. "Nice to meet you!"

At the same time, in his experiences traveling and interacting with different communities, Dongwoo knew exactly how to read people and their intentions. Right off the bat, he knew for a fact that Hoya and Myungsoo were people he would not be friends with. I see right through you two. He let go of Hoya. As him and Myungsoo turned around in their seats to listen to their teacher, Dongwoo rolled his eyes.

"He seems like a nice guy," Hayoung whispered.

Sungyeol took another glimpse at Dongwoo's profile. Blonde hair with faded streaks of pink, very clear and soft skin, and a captivating personality. Sungyeol had never seen anyone like him before, and he was very intrigued by his aura. "He seems pretty cool."

(((())))

Woohyun sat inside Guk Pan, watching the second hand at each tick. He went to the restaurant immediately after school, two hours early than he was supposed to be. It only took him five minutes to change into his uniform polo and put on his apron, and for the rest of the time spent before work he tried to mentally prepare himself for what would be a wild ride. He slumped in his seat, dreading every second closer to 5 o' clock. 

He watched the clock to make sure that Sunggyu would not come in late, paying attention to every little detail and formality that he could use to get him fired from the job. It was all he wanted at this point. He held Sunggyu's apron in his hands. Two more minutes until it hit time.

Sunggyu walked into the restaurant by himself, a little disoriented from running to work. He was already wearing his uniform polo, all neat and tucked into his school uniform pants. His back was soaking wet in sweat from running, some of it dripping down his forehead. 

"Almost late," Woohyun snided, throwing the apron straight into Sunggyu's face.

Sunggyu grabbed it right in front of his face. "Wow, this is just what I needed," he smiled, wiping all the sweat on his forehead and back of his neck with the apron. 

"Wait, no!" Woohyun tried to put his hand out.

On the green apron were spots of Sunggyu's bodily fluids all over. Sunggyu held out the green fabric, cooling himself off and feeling a lot more relaxed than earlier. "I feel better now."

Woohyun felt like he was going to explode. "That was an..."

The fabric unraveled in Sunggyu's hand, revealing to be a green, crumpled work apron for the job. Sunggyu looked down as blotches of his sweat covered the apron. He looked at Woohyun, who turned completely red like a tomato. Sunggyu looked back at his apron, and nodded satisfyingly. "Nice apron," he commented.

Woohyun clenched his fist, biting his tongue to avoid saying drastic.

(((())))

After calming down a bit, Woohyun brought Sunggyu behind the counter to introduce him to the cash register. For Sunggyu's first ever shift in his life, Woohyun had to teach Sunggyu the ropes of the restaurant. He was required to learn how to use the cash register, take orders, and balance dishes on a serving tray.

Sunggyu sat on top of the counter hovering over the cash register, looking down at Woohyun pressing buttons foreign to him. 

"So after you take an order, you want to enter all the orders into here. Everything is touch screen, so just follow the buttons. 'Broth' has every choice of broth. 'Meats' has every choice of meet. 'Extras' has every choice of extra add-ins."

"No , Sherlock," Sunggyu groaned.

"Just let me explain!" Woohyun exploded. He held onto his breath, looking around at the restaurant and seeing some customers staring at him.

Need to be professional. Need to be professional.

Woohyun took a deep breath, looking back at the screen to continue explaining. "Anyways, now you can try to enter a mock order. I'll tell you something and you follow it on the screen."

Woohyun looked up and to his surprise, Sunggyu was no longer there. 

What the. "Sunggyu?" 

Woohyun walked around the counter area, opening the back door leading into the ktichen. His brother and cooking assistants were busy preparing different meats to add into some bowls of soup. 

"Hyung, did Sunggyu walk by here?" Woohyun peeked in.

"Not here," Boohyun called out.

Woohyun closed the kitchen door and turned back around to scan the restaurant. Several people were inside eating, some of them waiting for their food, and none of them were Sunggyu. And through the clear entrance windows, Woohyun finally spotted Sunggyu.

Getting ready to light a cigarette outside.

You mother... "Dude!" Woohyun jumped over the counter and stormed outside as fast as possible. He flung the doors open, Sunggyu brought his lighter to his face, hovering his cigarette with his hand to ignite it. Woohyun grabbed the cigarette just as he was about to flick it on, throwing it on the floor furiously and stomping on it until it disintegrated into tobacco bits.

Sunggyu shoved his lighter down his pocket and grabbed Woohyun by his apron to pull him close. "What is your problem?!"

Woohyun pointed towards the door, channeling his frustration into fearlessness. "Get back in, right now!"

(((())))

Sunggyu and Woohyun started walking over to a mother with three children, all of them climbing over their seats eager to eat. Woohyun passed a pencil and pad to Sunggyu, another lesson to teach him. "So when you take someone's order, take down every single detail. If you can't remember what they said before, don't be afraid to ask them again. You want to be careful, especially since people have allergies. Eventually you'll come across a time when they will ask you how a certain soup tastes. Throughout time, you will eventually have tried every single soup here and will be able to speak about it. For now, if someone asks you leave it to me."

Sunggyu looked down at his pencil and paper pad, drawing a doodle: starting off with drawing two circles and then a 'U' shape to top it off. 

"Got it?!" 

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine," Sunggyu assured him.

The two of them approached their table, the children hopping out of their seats in excitement while their mom looked very calming and relaxed. 

"What would you all like today?" Sunggyu asked politely.

Woohyun nodded his head. So far so good. 

"For all of us, we'll have the same thing. Salmon soup," the mom responded, giving a warm smile at Sunggyu and Woohyun.

Are you serious? Sunggyu raised an eyebrow. "That's the worst possible thing you could get here."

Woohyun gasped, attacking Sunggyu from behind and covering his mouth. "We're going to get your salmon soup soon!"

Woohyun grinned at the family, who looked at the both of them with weird and confused looks. He turned the both of them around, his smile turning into a frown as he forced Sunggyu away from them.

(((())))

"This is the easiest possible job you could ever have, and that's bringing these two bowls of soup to the couple over there."

Woohyun slid a bowl of duck soup and a bowl of eggplant soup across the counter to Sunggyu on the other side. Needless to say, Woohun was not exactly having a wonderful day training Sunggyu to work at Guk Pan. Mistake after insult after insolence, Sunggyu was performing terribly. Woohyun had tried to walk into the kitchen to explain everything to his brother that Sunggyu was horrifying as a waiter, but all Boohyun could say was one thing:

"It's only his first day."

FIRST DAY MY . Woohyun was moments away from taking Sunggyu with his bare hands and strangling him, drowning his head into pork broth, and throwing his delinquent self out of the restaurant. It was what he wanted to do, but not what his brother wanted to do.

"You have one job," Woohyun affirmed. "You can use both hands or place them on the serving tray."

Sunggyu took his first day at Guk Pan at ease, and it was an understatement to say that he was not taking the job seriously. It had nothing to do with making Woohyun angry, although he thoroughly enjoyed messing around with him. The root of it all was the fact Sunggyu never worked a day in his life, and he had no idea what responsibility was. When he sat at the restaurant on his own time, everything looked easy to him. Everything was always easy for him, and he continued to underestimate the job.

Sunggyu opted to take both bowls of soup with his own hands, figuring there were only two of them anyways. He carefully picked them up and held them by the palms of his hands, walking over to the table the couple sat at. Sometimes people were in his way, so he carefully dodged them and maneuvered his way through the tables while continuing to keep balance of the soup.

Sunggyu was half way there, turning around to see Woohyun observing every little move he made.

He continued on his way, hitting another obstacle. A kid ran by to run to the bathroom, and at the last second Sunggyu completed a spin move to successfully avoid her. I'm so good.

After a trek to the couple, Sunggyu came up with a smile and placed the bowls on the table. "Soups for the lovely couple."

They both looked down at their bowls, excited to finally eat dinner. But almost immediately their smiles turned into indifferent and confused faces. 

Sunggyu saw their facial expressions and looked at the bowls: they were completely empty.

Nervously, Sunggyu turned around to see that along the way he had created himself a path of spilled broth coming from the counter up until their chair. He saw Woohyun in the distance, and with much optimism Sunggyu flashed him a smile and a thumbs up. 

Woohyun slapped his forehead the hardest he had ever hit.

(((())))

"Great job today, Sunggyu. I hope that you've learned a lot during your first working shift here." Boohyun extended his hand to shake with Sunggyu again.

Sunggyu grinned, bowing in front of him and accepting his handshake. "It was an honor to work here, and after eating here for so long I really enjoyed finally seeing what happens behind the scenes." He was completely convinced in his mind that he had an excellent day at work. Yup. I am the boss. 

"I know there is a school dance tomorrow, but you and Woohyun will have the closing shift up until 8 in the evening. After that, you two should be able to make it in time."

What?! Sunggyu gave out an annoyed look at Boohyun, crossing his arms after finding out that he also had to work tomorrow. Along with never working a shift in his life, Sunggyu had seemed to forget that having a job is not only once per week. Sunggyu blinked several times. He had been expecting this dance for a while now, and now he had to go to it late. 

"Is that going to be a problem?" Boohyun asked.

Yes. This is a big problem. 

But under the hindrance of the job, Sunggyu remembered why he was there. He remembered what he needed the money for, and how important it was for him to get it. "Nope. I will be here right on time!"

"Have a good night Sunggyu."

Sunggyu bowed one last time, showering Boohyun in an overabundance of respect to show off. Whenever Boohyun stepped into the room, Sunggyu always shapened up to impress him. He stepped backwards as he left through the restaurant doors, pushing them open with his back and making full eye contact with the head chef until he exited the building. One day down. Many more to go. When the glass doors closed, Sunggyu ran off to go to the subway to end his day.

Boohyun smirked, looking around the restaurant. Everything was mopped, nothing seemed to be broken, and it looked like as if the restaurant was in working order. He spent his entire time in the kitchen, and walking outside he was shocked to see the whole place sparkling clean and spotless. He turned to Woohyun. "Good day, isn't it Woohyun?"

Woohyun was not in sight in the restaurant.

"Woohyun?"

And that was because Woohyun was behind the counter, laying on the floor in exhaustion and tears.

Thank you to everyone who is reading this fanfic and enjoying it! A lot of interesting things happened in this chapter, and things are going to be heating up very soon. New student? Job? A school dance? I promise, things are getting good :D