tot
[tot] noun
1. a small amount of liquor.
2. a small child.

Sanghyuk blankly stared at his self in the mirror. He was decked out in the pub's uniform— a white dress shirt and black pants— and had to admit he looked astonishingly good in it. But he was surprised at how quickly he got this job. 

The student was hired before he handed in a résumé or participated in an interview. The interview he did have consisted of 'what's your name' and that was it. He was pretty sure they didn't even read the résumé he handed them when he came in on his first day of actual work, today.

He still made sure to drain out all his sass and put on the mask of Nicehyuk. He honestly wanted to avoid his 30th fire, and in order to do so he had to be the perfect employee.

After making sure he was above decent (which he was), Sanghyuk left the men's washroom.

He strode across the floor, ignoring the gaze of the red-headed singer that followed his every move, and met up with the brunet at the bar.

"There you are," Hongbin examined the kid from head to toe. "You look fine. Ah, but you need one final touch." He reached into a drawer nearby and handed Sanghyuk a tiny golden plaque which he found to be half name tag.

"Um," he tried to find a way to say it without sassing. "Where is the first character of my name?" He held up his gold plate, which had nothing but the word 'Hyuk' on it.

"Oh. Funny story," the brunet chortled. "Wonshik—er, Ravi, he went to the guy who makes our name tags. But the thing is, when he went to make yours, he forgot what the first character was."

Sanghyuk stood there in astonishment that such stupidity existed whilst said janitor passed by with a mop. "I wouldn't complain if I were you," he started, whipping the mop handle threateningly close to the rookie's face. "I almost put 'something'. You were almost 'Somethinghyuk'."

As soon as Hongbin laughed loudly, Ravi fled to clean the washrooms. "Don't mind him too much Hyuk-ah," the student twitched at the name he was given. "That was Ravi, our janitor."

"So I see," the other muttered in distaste. He reluctantly pinned his name tag to his shirt as Hongbin introduced the other employees.

"The lovely person sitting on stage there is Leo, our entertainer. Say hi!"

Hyuk awkwardly waved at the redhead, who did not move.

"Yeah, he's like that," Hongbin moved toward the kitchen window behind him. "Don't make him angry. Half of the reason why our boss is still on break is because of him. Ken-ah! Come out."

A blond man appeared in the window, face smeared with grease. "He's right. The only person who Leo -hyung really tolerates is N-hyung, and he almost punched him last month!" He proceeded to demonstrate with a mound of dough.

"This is Ken, our chef and resident sunshine. Ken, you know Hyuk."

"Isn't it Sanghyuk?" The blond questioned, and in that moment the student was relieved to find somebody normal. "First name Hyuk, last name Sang?"

"Is it?" Hongbin squinted at the ceiling. "I forget." 

Sanghyuk took back what he thought; he was the only normal one.

"Oh, and of course I'm Hongbin," he gestured to the many bottles of alcohol behind him. "I bartend."

The kid mused that they probably would have saved ten minutes if he could just read everyone's name tags instead being introduced one by one. But he kept his mouth shut and smiled. 

"So do I have to take a training session?"

"Er, yeah, I guess we have to do that... Do you know how to busboy?"

"Yeah..." Vast experience in restaurants has probably made Hyuk the Michael Jackson of the busboy world, if he were being modest.

"Okay, training's done. We're opening soon. Have fun." Then Hongbin left to polish and fanboy over his wine glasses.

Hyuk stood there dumbly, unsure of what just happened. 

The pub opened, and he somehow found an orderly system in which he could work. His own system a way of working that he was comfortable with; which was new.

He'd give the customers their menus, take their orders (they didn't give him a notepad so he wrote them on his limbs), transmit the orders to either Ken or Hongbin, and then place the orders on the table. Sometimes on the janitor's command, he had to stop someone from drinking before they got too drunk. Hyuk was guessing that Ravi wasn't planning on cleaning up puke, ever. 

It was his first day, but the others could already see his potential in the pub; especially Leo, who was watching him the whole time.

Hongbin glanced at the clock at 8PM, deciding that working two hours was enough for the rookie to take a break. "Hyuk-ah! Come here!" He ushered him to sit on a bar stool next to an elderly lady. "This is the guy I was talking about, ahjumma."

Hyuk smiled awkwardly as the lady attacked his cheeks, cooing and coddling loudly. "Oh my lord! He is adorable! Where do you find these angels, oh my— he's so young!"

Hongbin fought the urge to laugh at the kid's stiffness. "Hyuk, this is Mrs. Kim. She's one of our regulars."

"You're so adorable!" Mrs. Kim squished him in a tight hug, making Hyuk let out a muffled grunt against her chest. "Hongbinnie, is it okay if I take him home?"

"I'm not sure if your husband would like that ahjumma," the bartender pouted cutely. "Besides, I thought I was your favorite..."

At Hongbin's look of dejection, the woman immediately let go Hyuk and held the brunet's hands. "Of course you're my favorite, dear! You'll always be my favorite, no matter how much fresh meat comes in here!"

Hyuk shivered at that analogy and decided to look away before things got too strange. 

"Ahjumma..." Hongbin's eyes glistened with some sort of want and need. "... Please tip me."

And when the lady jollily left the store, Hyuk turned back around to see Hongbin fanning himself with a thick wad of cash. 

"... And that's how you work the lady customers," he said in satisfaction, pocketing his overtip. "If you want to survive in the bar business, you've got to know people. You have to say what they want to hear, give them what they want. Except for your body, of course. There's a fine line between bartender and e. Take notes."

"That made absolutely no ing sense—" Hyuk immediately slapped a hand onto his mouth when that retort flew out of nowhere. Perhaps Sasshyuk wasn't dead yet.

But Hongbin didn't seem to mind. "That totally made sense! A bartender and a e are both found in a red-light district, both are often near alcohol, both are tipped well, and both are often d—"

The rookie decided to end the conversation there for the safety of his brain. "I have a question. Actually, I have several."

"Alright, shoot away." Hongbin winked at a group of college girls before returning to Hyuk. The kid waited until the squeals and fangirling died down to resume.

"Why is he—" he pointed to the white-haired janitor in a corner. "—sleeping on the job? And out on the floor, at a table, where everyone can see him."

"We don't actually use table one for customers," Hongbin answered tastefully. "As you can see, it's isolated from the other tables. So we like to throw our stuff there before working. Wonshi—ah, Ravi likes using that table as a nap site. So does Leo, actually. Most of the time Ravi and N sleep there. Ken and I are too productive to nap." There was a soft exclamation of 'amen, brother' from the kitchen.

Hyuk somewhat accepted the answer and moved on.

"Why does he—" this time he didn't point because the man he was about to mention was already staring. "—singing dude, keep looking at me? Is there something on my face?"

"There's nothing on your face. Leo's just... Hold on. Hyung! Come here." Hongbin called him over and so the singer quietly shuffled over to the bar.

"... What." His incredibly soft voice ironically startled the rookie.

"You haven't really gotten acquainted with Hyukkie here, have you?" The bartender gestured for Hyuk to stand up. "Go ahead hyung. Touch him."

The rookie whipped his head at that remark. "Wait, what?!" It wasn't specified where he would be touched and he really didn't want to know.

"Ssh. Don't be shy, hyung."

"Shy?!" Hyuk hitched a breath as the singer neared; he looked like he wanted to murder, much less shy.

Just then, he felt a pair of warm hands cup his face. He confusedly stared up at the singer as his cheeks were being squished.

With a blush, Leo muttered something like 'cute' and then ran away.

"And there you have it," Hongbin mused. "Leo has a thing for the young. Oh, no, no, not that kind of thing," he added when Hyuk made a face of horror. "No, I mean like a father kind of thing. He likes small and cute things. Like puppies. I guess you’re kind of like a puppy."

"Um." Hyuk decided that this was probably just the tip of the iceberg and not to question it. Instead he tried to be somehow flattered.

"Did you have a third question?"

"Uh, yeah. Why is this called the 24 Hours pub? You guys are open from six to one; that's eight hours." He held in a bursting retort about the poor math skills of whoever named the place.

"Oh. Funny story," Hyuk cringed at those two words. "It was our boss's idea. The name is half from the fact that he is a huge fan of Sunmi. You know the one who released the song 24 Hours? Yeah, that one. Huge fan. The other half is from the fact that we are open twenty-four hours a week."

The younger stared in disbelief. "What?"

Hongbin held up three fingers. "We're open three days of the week: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is eight hours a day. Eight plus eight plus eight is twenty-four. That's twenty-four hours a week. Hence, the 24 Hours pub. Mostly Sunmi though."

Hyuk was unable to process the stupidity and logic. The malfunction in his brain caused him to laugh. "The boss sounds like an interesting person."

Although with this set of staff, he doubted the boss could be weirder or stranger than the other employees, given their 'uniqueness'.

Later he would find himself to be so incredibly wrong.

Happy Valentine's Day, guys! >3< Put your hands in the air if you're single and you're gonna pig out on chocolate after this!
I want a boyfriend TAT 
Yeah, anyway, we get to see and know more about the other employees who work at 24 Hours! Who's your favorite? 
I'm sure some of you know this, but 24 is XXIV in roman numerals, which is VIXX backwards ;D
Someone special will finally make an appearance in the next chapter! I'll give you a hint:
was it hot?