PRISM | sunnew ✓

eleven

"i'll be with you in a moment!" sunwoo said, placing all the dishes onto his tray and bringing them to be washed in the kitchen before heading back out to take orders from a family of four.

"why don't you take a break sunwoo?" his coworker jiyun asked, eyeing him with concern and passing him his bottle of water. "you've been moving nonstop and it's not like boss is going to pay you anymore if you don't take a single break," jiyun said.

sunwoo shook his head and headed straight for another table that had to be cleaned.

although he did feel insanely tired, moving around helped him to disregard his own thoughts. by drowning himself in his work, he didn't need to think — all he had to do was move.

while he was cleaning, the door swung open and quickly, sunwoo turned around to greet the customers. but, when he saw a familiar head of soft pink hair, he instinctively hid his face with his empty tray, directing all his attention back onto the table he was meant to be cleaning.

he checked his watch and saw that it was already dinner time, a new batch of customers slowly making their way inside and a part of him held onto the belief that with so many people around, he wouldn't have to end up serving chanhee and the group of people he was with.

so, he quickly wiped the table and made his way back to the counter, pretending as though he did not just see his online 'enemy'. "hey, do you mind serving table 12? there's a really cute girl in table 17 and i want to serve them," jiyun asked, tying her hair up into a tighter ponytail as she took her notepad and checked her reflection on the back of a spoon. "how do i look by the way?"

sunwoo looked up and mentally counted the table numbers only to feel chills run down his spine at the realisation that chanhee was seated at table 12. but, seeing jiyun so excited to talk to someone made sunwoo sigh, giving her a thumbs up and waving her off as she excitedly made her way to table 17.

"i'd really appreciate a fire right about now," sunwoo muttered, moving his fringe out of his eyes as he walked on over to table 12.

unlike the previous table he served, he could tell that the feelings between everyone there were strictly for business, his eyes wandering to chanhee who sat in the utmost corner of the booth. and, for a second, he felt his heart drop at the sight of the ulzzang boy looking as though he had been berated, his eyes seeming as though they were on the verge of tears.

at times, sunwoo hated how he naturally had good observation skills, his mouth being faster than his brain in asking things based on observations (which often resulted in him being yelled at or being aggressively spoken to) but in that moment, he thought that it was a blessing, his observations surpassing his own embarrassment and allowing him to act accordingly.

"hi, i'm sunwoo and i'll be your waiter for today," he said, chanhee immediately raising his head and looking in his direction. "what would you be having today?"

"hey pretty boy, what do you want?" a man much older than chanhee asked, shoving the menu at him and hitting his face. slowly, chanhee put the menu back onto the table as the director rolled his eyes. "come on, choose."

"why don't you ask me instead director! i'm not as pretty as nyu but at least i'd answer," another boy said, batting his eyelashes and pouting which caused everyone but chanhee to laugh. the boy turned his attention to chanhee and, imitating the director, he shoved the menu into chanhee's hands. "are you illiterate?" the rest of the table laughed and sunwoo noticed chanhee closing his eyes for a moment before opening his mouth to speak. only problem was, no words fell out.

but sunwoo wasn't the only one who caught onto that.

"i forgot! he likes to play mute! god how many flaws do you have huh nyu choi?" a girl about the same age as them asked, jabbing at chanhee as though he were some display she could place her filthy hands on. "such a pretty face but the lack of social skills is amazing!"

the director laughed. "all he's good for is for bringing in sales because he's just pretty-"

sunwoo scoffed, his sudden reaction causing their chatter to die down as they looked at him. "you have something to say waiter boy?"

"well firstly, i don't think he lacks social skills. in fact, i think the rest of you severely lack it. plus, the things you find funny aren't actually funny — they're just plain rude. and, the last time i checked, being rude does not correlate to being humorous. also, why should he reply to any of you if you aren't even polite to him? he doesn't owe any of you a reply if you're being complete jackasses," sunwoo said, keeping his voice as neutral as possible (although he so badly wanted to lose his calm right there and then because how could people be so fucking insensitive?).

the director stood up and sunwoo had to stop himself from laughing at the fact that the director had to look up at him to make eye contact. "before you try and intimidate me, might i suggest getting a stool first so at least we could see eye to eye?" sunwoo said, quickly checking on chanhee's reaction and feeling relief flood over him when he saw chanhee try to hide a smile.

"you-" the director started but before he could even finish, sunwoo's manager came out. "your staffer was being rude to us!"

his manager, hansol, stared at sunwoo and back at the table then back at sunwoo again. "i highly doubt sunwoo would be rude without a reason," he started. "and we don't really tolerate creating such a scene in our establishment so if you have any issues, feel free to leave. it's dinnertime and a lot of other customers would love to take a seat."

"is this how you treat customers you ungrateful scum!" the director took his glass of water and hurriedly, sunwoo stepped in front of hansol, getting soaked in his stead. "this business deserves to fail."

wiping the water from his face, sunwoo approached the director. "and you deserve no better for treating someone like he's worth nothing more than a fucking object for people to gawk at," he spat, shaking the water out of his hair and ensuring that the director got some water on him as well.

"sunwoo, go change and head back home yea? i'll deal with this," hansol said, patting sunwoo on the shoulder.

but before sunwoo left, he held out a hand to chanhee. "i'm soaked in water but i'm guessing you'd prefer going with me than staying with them right?"

"nyu would never-"

chanhee nodded, grabbing his bag and taking sunwoo's hand as the pair walked away from the screaming of those at table 12.

✧˖*°࿐

author's note:

ive been wanting to spoil this since chap 9 because i did get this comment

AND I REALLY WANTED TO SAY YES BUT THAT WAS A SPOILER

also, for a moment, this book was doing kinda well which got my hyped but IDK the reads have been dropping since chap 9 which is kinda sad but it is what it is so THANK YOU for sticking around <33

ALSO for those wishing me to get well soon in the last chap, im better now so thank you! your well wishes must have sped up my recovery (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡