It was five o’clock and the entire service team was gathered in a circle standing at attention during lineup while Yeonhee, the restaurant manager was giving out the night’s announcements and specials.

Tonight is Sehun’s first day of work. He’d been recruited by his long-time friend, Jongin, one afternoon while the two were playing basketball. Jongin had told him how fun it was being with the rest of the team and how great it was to be making enough money for school things and for dates. Sehun was hesitant at first since junior year was about to start but was wholeheartedly convinced when Jongin cheekily grinned and told him how cute the female servers were and how easy it was to get tips from rich ajummahs who frequented the restaurant.

Fast forwards two weeks and here he was with his dark brown hair sleeked back with a bit of mousse donned in a grey button up and black slacks.

Sehun glanced around the room. The first person he spotted was Jongin sending him a eating grin. Jongin mouthed you’re going to love it here! He quickly looked away to avoid embarrassment, he did not need Jongin acting like a doting mother on her son’s first day of school. As Sehun looked around the room he noticed that everyone here seemed rather good looking and young, there wasn’t anyone present that looked older than the early thirties. He especially noticed a cute brunette by the name of Sooyoung who began to pink as she tried to hide her shy glances from Sehun.

“Hey everyone! This is Sehun! He’s the newest addition to our team, actually Jongin recruited him! Please treat him kindly and teach him as much as you can, he’s still fairly new at service.” Yeonhee chirped, pulling Sehun out of his short-lived reverie.

Everyone said hello and Sehun bowed and smiled, “Thanks for having me. I’m happy to be here! I promise to work hard.”

From across the circle, Junmyeon smiled at his manager and looked over the new hire thinking that man was he tall. Sehun had short dark hair and a tall broad frame that was kind of intimidating since he wasn’t smiling anymore. He had high cheekbones and a sharp jawline and Junmyeon just knew he would be raking in tips come summertime thanks to his handsome looks.

Yeonhee smiled at Sehun’s words and turned his attention towards Junmyeon, “This is Junmyeon, our lead server, he’ll be training you. Junmyeon’s a natural at this and a great teacher.”

The two men exchanged their hellos and pleasantries while the rest of the team was dismissed from lineup. Yeonhee gave Sehun his training packet, apron, and name tag before disappearing off to the kitchen to help Kyungsoo prepare for the start of service.

Sehun’s eyebrows furrowed together as he glanced over the material. There were a lot of French words and slang that he wasn’t used to as well as table settings and cutlery that were new to him as well. Diagrams showcasing how a table is to be set prior to service, during the course, and what needs to be removed or reset in between courses were also in the packet. The next couple pages held key information regarding wine service and dessert/coffee service. Who knew there would be this much studying for a part time server job? And it wasn’t as if Sehun had no experience serving either. During high school he and Jongin were café servers and during freshman and sophomore year of university he had landed a part-time job as a server in a well-known white tablecloth restaurant in Incheon. He knew how to sweet talk guests and how to be polite and charming to make extra tips. He knew how to be nice in general because he was a nice person. He also knew how to bus tables and clean up after himself. What he didn’t expect was this level of dedication, this level of… attention to detail?

Jumyeon noticed Sehun’s overwhelmed demeanor and cleared his throat to get his attention.

“Don’t worry about all that right now,” he said as he took the packet away from Sehun and turned it back towards the page filled with vocabulary, “The most important thing at the moment is for you to understand the language we use in the kitchen and out here on the floor. It really isn’t all that hard once you hear and experience it firsthand.”

Sehun still wore a look of mild confusion before pointing to one of the words on the list. 86’d was printed and boldened. Sehun didn’t understand how to say this or how to comprehend it. In hangul there is no instance where a past tense verb is used as a contraction, much less a number used as a transitive verb. He mumbled the number out loud, voice drawling up into a question.

“Sunbae, this doesn’t make any sense.” Sehun stated while giving Junmyeon an incredulous look. Junmyeon laughed softly and explained to him that it was meant to be said in English.

Usually 86’d meant that a specific item on the menu has been sold out or the kitchen has run out of it for the day. It can also mean to refuse someone service, usually a guest who has been extremely rude, unruly, and thus rendered unwanted. There are many theories about how this term came to be around. Some people believed it stemmed from The Great Depression and how soup kitchens would often make only enough servings for eighty-five people and so if there was an eighty-sixth guest then he or she would be out of luck. The person doling out the soup would yell 86^th! And if there was more soup it would be replenished and the person would be served, however if there was no more then that would signal that the item had ran out and something else had to be offered. Others believed it was coined during the Prohibition Era in America. In New York, located at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village of Lower Manhattan, was a bar called Chumley’s. The police would call Chumley’s bar before making a raid and tell the bartender to “86” his customers, which translated to “get everyone to exit and out the door onto 86^th street and scram.”

“Though there are plenty of other theories too, stuff made out of legend though. Some include instances with cowboys and whiskey, while others stem from pharmaceutical companies and their various pills.” Junmyeon nodded happy to be sharing a fun fact with the younger male. He finishes off the history lesson with, “Though the French didn’t use this term until it became popular kitchen slang in America in the 60’s. It’s definitely been around since the late 1920’s but the French didn’t come onto the scene until the culinary boom hit America almost thirty years later. Nowadays almost every kitchen in the West uses it. We use it too, but mainly for a way to discreetly say we’re out of something in front of guests.”

Sehun just stared at Junmyeon before responding, “Whoa. That’s awesome. Can we 86 someone?”

Junmyeon laughed and said, “Hopefully we won’t have to. But we usually do hear Chef yell 86 around 8pm on Fridays and weekends. Soo’s specials are really popular.”

Sehun felt a bit more excited about his training. What other nonsensical and weirdly wonderful things would he learn about the history of service?

“Sunbae, do you know any more cool stories about the phrases? Ooo. What about this?” Sehun says as he points to another phrase In the Weeds, “Please tell me this has some backstory about people getting high.”

Junmyeon laughs again a little louder this time before clapping Sehun on the back.

“Eyyy, don’t be inappropriate at work. We’ll save that story for another time,” Junmyeon’s eyes glistened with mischief before he continued, “As for now, let’s get through the rest of vocab and get you started on recognizing and understanding the table numbers, seat positions and sections. We’ll go over standards of service after that, which just means how we talk to our guests and how to present the check. Sound good?”

Sehun nods. Sehun’s a little stunned and a little awed by how much Junmyeon knows. He definitely didn’t realize how much went into being a server. This whole time he thought that serving was easy, and it probably is too, it’s just that he never really thought about the how and why of the job. It was clear that Junmyeon would teach him a lot, even if it was just in passing or a random fact here or there. Junmyeon was just smart and passionate about his profession.

Maybe this isn’t going to be too bad thought Sehun I think this is going to be rather fun. Man, I gotta thank Jongin later tonight.

Little did he know that in just two weeks he and Junmyeon would each be at their wits end…