i'm your a to z | jihancheol

joshua's first (and last) day

chapter 1

Joshua walked into the kitchen of the new restaurant he'd got a job at. He was glad to finally get out of his last one as the coffee shop literally no one went to. This time, he'd scored a job at one of the most famous restaurants in the area so he was excited. Nervous as hell, he smoothed his uniform as he walked up to who he assumed was the head chef and cleared his throat.

"Hello, um," he started and the tall man turned around. Joshua was surprised to see it was a young man seeing he'd expected someone much older.

"Oh, hey, are you Hong Jisoo?" the chef asked and held his hand out to shake with a wide smile.

"Yes, but I prefer the name Joshua." He shook the man's hand and smiled. "It's a pleasure to be working here."

"I'm Kim Mingyu." So he was the head chef. "It's a pleasure to have you here. Junhui can show you around and you can start taking orders whenever you want."

"Okay, thank you, sir." Joshua waited as another tall man walked over -why the hell was everyone tall? He noticed this man didn't look Korean.

"Hi! I'm Junhui but you can call me Jun," the man introduced with a grin and shook Jisoo's hand. "Come on, I'll show you around and we'll be best friends!"

"Don't scare the boy, Jun," Mingyu chuckled and walked away.

"I won't, don't worry, boss." Junhui swung his arm around Joshua's shoulder -which he did not appreciate but stayed silent about- and walked around the absolutely humongous kitchen.

The kitchen itself was larger than Jisoo's whole apartment. There were different sections separated by shoji-like screens. Each was for a different meal or type of meal, such as lunch and dinner had different sections as well as the vegetarian meals and meals with meat. Everything was so clean and organized. Joshua knew he'd enjoy working at the place.

"So what made you come work here?" Junhui asked once they were done with the short tour. Joshua noticed the boy wasn't completely fluent in Korean which confirmed his earlier thought.

"Well, my old job wasn't paying well enough and I'd gotten bored of it."

"I can promise you won't ever be bored of this job," he giggled. Joshua had to admit it was cute. "Are you from around here?"

"My family is, yeah. But I was born and raised in America."

"Woah, that's so cool! From the loud and crowded pigeon-infested part, the cowboy part, or the really hot part with crazy men?"

"None of those." Joshua grinned at Junhui's explanations of New York, Texas, and Florida. "I'm actually from hot but crowded Los Angeles, California and I've lived there for about nineteen years."

"Oh, so the really cool part that I want to visit," Jun laughed. "I'm from China but I moved a few years ago."

"That's so cool," the American said. "What's your first language?"

"Mandarin; I'm from Shenzhen."

They kept asking and answering each other's questions after that. Joshua found Junhui a fun person and was glad he'd have a friend at work. Sadly, though, their conversations had to come to an end when one of the managers had told them to get to work.

Taking orders as a waiter wasn't really entertaining but Joshua didn't mind.

Well, until the day was almost over and a much older man kept staring at him. He didn't think much of it until the man stayed much longer than he should've. The restaurant was almost empty seeing it was nine p.m. on a work night and that man was the only one left.

Joshua reluctantly went over to take the man's empty plate and utensils, avoiding eye contact. He tried his hardest to ignore the sound of heavy breathing and the feeling of a gaze on him. Before he could ask, "is there something you fucking need?" he felt a hand between his thighs, pinching at them.

He dropped the tray he was holding, only the utensils left in his hand. Joshua glared at the man, who was busy looking at his lower half with a predator-like expression. The now furious boy dropped the fork, only knife left in his hand.

"Sir, please don't touch me," he spoke in a calm but clearly annoyed voice as he hid the knife behind his back.

"You can't make me listen." He sounded like a stoner. Joshua felt his hands go up his legs up and reach his backside.

Without thinking, he pulled back and slapped the man. Without wavering, the pervert stood up and reached forward as if he was going to grab Joshua's face. That's what earned him a kick in the balls and a knife that went from his throat and down to his collarbone.

"Oh, fuck." Joshua pulled the knife out of his throat as to not leave evidence and ran out of the restaurant.

At that moment, he knew he fucked up.