vir·gin
[vur-jin] adjective
1. a non-alcoholic drink.
2. pure; unsullied; undefiled.

The job market is tough.

Pubescent high school students know the first hand experience of being rejected for a job because they were too young and/or lack experience. So they fill in the ranks; students are seen in fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and malls as your everyday cashier or busboy.

Pubescent high school student Han Sanghyuk knows the first hand experience of being fired from a job because he (self-proclaimed), multiple times.

If one named any part-time job they could think of, Sanghyuk probably had that job. Any type of work one could name, he was probably fired from that job as well.

He’s been everywhere; six fast food locations, three family restaurants, one moving truck, four conveniences stores, three department stores, two clothing stores, one lingerie shop, three gas stations, three libraries, and three zambonis. This student has had 29 jobs and 28 dismissals. Having done the routine so many times, it was like Sanghyuk had developed a sixth sense of some sort that told him when he was going to be fired. And today in this lovely chicken restaurant, he humored himself into buying party poppers to celebrate his incoming 29^th fire.

His assumptions were confirmed while he was packing a greasy box of wings into its paper bag. His boss—a round man in his forties or so—came out onto the floor during the shift.

“Han Sanghyuk, come into my office please.”

 The student let out a sigh and ignored the worried stares of his coworkers. “29^th time’s the charm,” he muttered to himself as he left his position.

Sanghyuk entered the boss’s room and seated himself in what he scornfully called the ‘chair of de-hiring’ for lack of a better word. His boss was sitting across from him behind a desk, a frown protruding on his old face.

“Sanghyuk-ssi,” he started, staring intently at the boy. “You know why you’re here.”

“I’m being laid off?”

“Precisely,” the man folded his fingers in a boss-like fashion. “I have been warning you for four weeks now.”

“Three and a half.” There were times when Sanghyuk couldn’t tone down the retorts. This was one of those times.

“Your work performance has not been doing so good.”

“Well.”

“You come in late almost every single day, sometimes without uniform. I’ve had customers complain about your rudeness, I’ve had employees complain about your rudeness. And because of you, we set the record for kitchen accidents,” his boss pulled out a hanky to wipe the sweat growing on his shiny head. “Remember Minah? She’s still in the hospital.”

“To be fair,” Sanghyuk ignored the glare that was shot at him. “She started it.”

“That is quite enough son. You are fired.”  The boss sighed, and went looking around in the drawers nearby. “Now where did I put your letter of dismissal...?”

“It’s probably in one of your fat rolls.” It was starting.

His boss turned to look at him blankly. “Excuse me?”

The uncontrollable sass.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you had the lost city of Atlantis lodged in your fat,” he didn’t know why people thought of him as rude. “You probably can’t even see your toes, maybe you ate them. You should lay off the chicken, tubby.”

He honestly didn’t know why.

“YOU SIR, HAVE AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM!” He didn’t know why the white envelope was thrown at him and why he was brutally shoved to leave the restaurant.

So he stood out in the parking lot, staring at the white envelope. “They’re the ones who are rude.”

But maybe they were right. They, being his past 29 bosses were probably right. Maybe Han Sanghyuk did have an attitude problem.

The kid sat on the curb, letting out depressed sighs. He needed another job. And this time, Sanghyuk swore on his two-hundred-thousand-won Naruto collection that he would keep his sass in check. He didn’t need a 30^th dismissal.

With Sasshyuk executed from his life and a fresh attitude in mind, Nicehyuk stood up and went job-hunting for the 30^th time.

The job market is tough.

It is so hard to find work these days that one would do anything to keep the job they have currently, even if said job completely .

That was the story of Ravi's life.

Meet Kim Wonshik, a graduate from the Seoul College of Art and Design. Often called Ravi, this graduate thought he was going to have the time of his life when he graduated post-secondary education. He had his life planned out; after whisking away a cute brunet to marry, Ravi would go off to Paris, where he would study the wonders of art history. Then after several years of study, he and his spouse would return to Korea and buy a pig farm. It was the life he had always dreamed of. 

Nowhere in his plan did it say to become a janitor at a third-rate pub.

But that was exactly what he was at the moment, the sweep-man of a dingy little bar called the 24 Hours Pub. It depressed him to no end, thinking that he could've been in France eating frogs instead of scraping gum off the tables. As miserable as he was, he did see some upside to the job, however.

His co-worker was a cute brunet.

On this particular fall afternoon, Ravi was on his way to work after the pub had closed for about a month. He was slightly nervous to open it up after so long, but being the custodian with the keys, it was his responsibility to.

So he stood at the front door, hesitating to put the key in the lock. It wasn't until someone almost scared the bleach out of his hair that he finally moved from that spot.

Ravi let out an unmanly shriek when a whisper of 'boo' touched his ear. He whirled around to see a man with a grin and dimples, topped off with hazelnut brown hair.

"H-H-H-Hongbin," he stuttered against the wall, attempting to still his heart. "H-Hi."

"Hi Wonshik," Hongbin calmly greeted and pushed a pair of black frames up his nose. He glanced between the startled janitor and the locked front door. "So are you going to open it, or...?"

"R-Right." Ravi hurriedly composed himself and put the key in. "Here goes nothing." The door was slowly pushed open, and the two stared at the inside curiously. 

The air was stuffy and very uncomfortable. All the chairs and tables were dusty, and unintelligible stains graced the dark carpet. The place looked completely dingy.

Hongbin let out a relieved sigh. "Everything's still intact." He let himself in and switched on the lights.

"Oh my Gogh," Ravi followed afterwards and marvelled at the dark marks on the furniture. "How long has it been since we've been in here?"

"Twenty-two days and three hours," the brunet answered pointedly. He went behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of white wine off the shelf. "My babies! You're still alive."

Ravi left their bartender with his precious alcohol and went to open his janitor's closet, only be startled for the second time that hour.

Mixed in with his mop and rubber gloves was their perky chef.

"Hi Ravi!" He chimed, pleasantly chewing on what looked like to be a churro.

Ravi promptly groaned and pulled the blond out. "Ken-hyung, how many times have I told you not to hide in my closet?! There are toxic chemicals in here!"

Ken let out a long burp. "No wonder why that blue Windex stuff didn't taste any good," he chortled at the janitor's look of horror. "Just kidding!" He then skipped away, leaving Ravi there dumbfounded.

The chef moved to the bar, where he proceeded to spin himself on one of the stools. He grinned at the blurred images of a brunet hugging a wine bottle. "Hi Hongbin!"

"Hey Ken," the bartender diligently put the bottle back on the shelf. As he was turning on the cash register, a sudden realization came to him. "Wait, how did you get in?"

"The back door's still broken," he was still spinning steadily. "So is the kitchen! I can't cook anything in there!"

Hongbin blankly turned to the kitchen door behind him and peeked in. "... Ooh, that's a lot of ash." He glanced back at Ravi, who was pushing a broom across the floor. "He's not going to like this."

At that moment the front door opened, and a tall, sharp-eyed redhead waltzed in. He immediately spotted the spinning chef and put his hand on the blonde’s head, forcefully stopping him.

"... Oh god, the room is spinning." Ken promptly fell flat on the floor, in which Ravi manoeuvred his broom around the chef and continued sweeping.

The bartender smiled at the man. "Long time no see, Leo-hyung." 

The redhead stared dully at him before breathing the one word. "... Peppermint." Then he sat down and waited patiently.

"... That's the first thing you say to me?" Hongbin chuckled whilst boiling water in a kettle. "So like you."

Ken picked himself up, groaning loudly. "I think I'm going to puke."

"Puking time is usually after we open," Ravi murmured, leaning on his broomstick. "Speaking of puke; how's the boss, Leo-hyung?"

"Not coming to work for a week," Leo responded simply.

The janitor scoffed. "Wow. We clean up after his mess and he doesn't even have the courtesy to show up at work on time. What a jackass—" Ravi sprinted away immediately when Leo turned around to give him a glare.

"Here you are, hyung." Hongbin slid him a fresh cup of peppermint tea. "Warm up your pipes, we're opening in ten minutes."

The redhead caught the mic he was tossed and sauntered to the stage, sipping his tea and performing vocal exercises.

"Wait, we're opening with just the four of us?" Ken asked with worry in his voice. "Not that the boss does anything productive, but aren't we a little understaffed?"

"A little' is an understatement," Hongbin sighed. "We don't have a choice though. The other guys quit after the accident so we're just left with five people. We have to pay for damages to the building too."

"So why don't we hire new people? I think I saw a 'help wanted' sign in the back."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Hang it out in the front. I'll run it by the boss later."

And with that, the employees were all moving about to start the work day. Ravi was wiping down the tables, Leo was singing softly to the mic, Hongbin was polishing glasses, and Ken came out of the kitchen covered in soot.

"Whoa," Ravi stared at his hair, which had gone from blond to grey. "The kitchen can't be that dirty." He left his spot at the tables to check it out.

"Wonshik," the bartender stopped him before he walked in. "You might not want to go in there."

"Come on, it seriously can't be that dirty!" He opened the door.

The entire room was dark with ash. One couldn't tell where the stove and sink were anymore, much less the floor. The light was on, but it was still hard to see with all the floating residue. And on a wall was 'I need therapy' sprawled out in month-old ketchup.

"... I have to clean this?" Ravi stared at the horror a moment more before fainting.

Ken and Hongbin blankly stared at the janitor's body on the floor, background music by Leo. 

"... I'm just gonna," the chef wheezed, holding up the dusty help wanted sign. "Hang this." He went outside, leaving their bartender to take care of the unconscious Ravi.

"I warned you." Hongbin started to drag him across the floor by the wrists. When he was halfway across the store, Ken returned from his adventure from the outside.

"Now we just have to wait for someone to apply." 

"No one," Leo's voice echoed from his microphone. "Is going to work at a place where a fire was caused due to a drunken employee."

As if on cue, the front door opened to reveal a curiously cheeky male. "... Uh, I saw that you guys were hiring." He said, glancing all around the place.

A blackened man and a nerdy-yet-attractive-looking brunet dragging an unconscious (dead in his eyes) janitor across the floor was all he saw before him. In the background he could hear someone singing something about being ready to get hurt.

When the nerdy-yet-attractive-looking brunet told him he was hired on the spot, pubescent high school student Han Sanghyuk had no idea what he was getting himself into.

HI GUISE!!! How's the first chapter? Beginnings are always boring...
Since Neo and Rabean were the main characters of my other fics, I'll try my best to focus more on Hyuken!
Also! Since I'm trying to keep this fic PG-13 (which is hard with all the alcoholic content lawl), I *might* upload some chaps to my tumblr instead of AFF. Will keep you guys noted. 
See you next Friday! <3