"Welcome to mission ; impizzable!" Gyuvin yelled from inside as he heard the gate of the shop being opened, indicating that some customers entered the shop.
He took a glance at them before they could settle down and his heartbeat fastened.
The same group of girls who humiliated him before, with a bunch of guys in addition this time. They probably were here just for the pizza, right?
Gyuvin looked around, trying to see if there was anyone else available to serve them at that moment. He spotted Seungeon, his co-worker, setting off to do his round of pizza delivery. Gyuvin made a sprint almost to the entrance where the mentioned boy was getting on his bicycle.
But before he could reach there and swap places with his friend, they called him ; his so called classmates.
"Hey, waiter! Come and take our orders."
Gyuvin almost shivered hearing the girl's voice calling him specifically. It was bad. But he had no other way to avoid them. His jaw tightened as he approached them and took out his little notepad to write their orders.
It was going okay. They were laughing and deciding after calling him but it didn't bother gyuvin that much. They finished deciding and ordered one by one.
"Which one is better?" A girl asked Gyuvin, an annoying expression resting casually on her face. The same girl he guessed to have a crush on Ricky. Gyuvin took a closer look at the menu, where she was pointing at two different pizzas, the most expensive ones. "If you're not a fan of seafood then I think you'll prefer the truffle beef pizza." He carefully formed his words, not to offend those people in any way.
"What does the seafood pizza have?" A guy from beside her asked.
"Uh canadian lobster meat, prawn, smoked salmon and mussels." Gyuvin calmly listed down the toppings.
"Which one do you like better?" She looked at Gyuvin with a pitiful look and closed the menu.
"The truffle beef one."
"Ooh seems like you guys do get the leftovers." She snickered along with her friends, exchanging nasty looks. Their laughters echoed through the entire shop, causing some other customers' attention to divert towards their table.
"It's not like that." Gyuvin softly mumbled, gaze on the floor.
She completely, entirely disregarded Gyuvin's statement. "I'll take both of them." She put on a derisive smile. "Since I can afford it, you know." She commented, her gaze right on Gyuvin, belittling him intentionally.
"Is that all?" Gyuvin asked to check if he missed anything and stepped away when he received a hum as a response.
He went into the kitchen and confirmed those orders to be made and served to the customers. He served the others in the shop and the other remaining times, he chewed on the insides of his cheeks. His heartbeat raced when he glanced at them.
They called him again and casually said that they needed more tissues. Gyuvin spotted the empty tissue holder and took it carefully. He went way for a minute, filled it with tissues and approached their table again.
But the moment he was about take a step forward to the table and place the tissue holder securely, he tripped. Or more like someone's foot made him trip and lose balance.
His chin crashed on the table making a thud noise. His eyes watered immediately. He didn't fall entirely due to the table blocking him midway. But the damage was done. Gyuvin felt a mild metal taste in his throat and a sharp stinging pain in his jaw. He could barely comprehend what had happened as he quickly attempted to stand up. His head felt dizzy and he could barely stand still. His vision was black for a good few seconds before he regained his sight.
Despite the physical pain, he looked ahead to apologise to the customers. Until he found a few phones recording the entire fall. His eyes welled up with tears, due to both physical and mental pain. He got hurt this bad and his classmates were trying to hold their laughs and recording him?
He turned around on his heels and quickly walked away.
He felt the metal taste again in his mouth. He brought his trembling finger to his tongue and felt a burning pain. He pulled the finger out and saw it being covered in blood.
He felt like crying. What did he do to deserve all these?
—
His jaw still hurt, a lot.
He desperately eyed the gate a few minutes interval. When would Seungeon return? He did not wanna face those people again.
But luck wasn't on his side. The cook finished preparing their orders and Gyuvin, being the only worker in the shop, had to serve. He carefully took placed each and every pizza on their table.
It was going fine and Gyuvin was relieved they weren't humiliating him anymore. Maybe his embarrassing and hurtful fall was till they stopped.
He returned to the counter and took the last two expensive remaining pizzas, waiting to be served and devoured.
Gyuvin took a deep breath and went to the same table. He successfully placed the beef truffle one on the table. But as he was about to put the last one, the seafood pizza on the table, he gasped. He saw it with his own eyes how that one girl flipped the pizza tray completely intentionally.
The pizza fell face down and met the dirty floor before Gyuvin could save it. The people from the table gasped too as if they weren't the ones to cause that.
Gyuvin's heartbeat rose as he panicked.
"Why did you do it?" He bent down to pick the pizza and whispered to the doer of this mess.
The girl was sneering with her friends before looking at him with a dirty look.
"Can't even do your job probably and now you're blaming me?"
"But—"
"You dropped my pizza and do you know how expensive it is?? Go replace it and clean this mess geez." She spat, not feeling a hint of guilt about what she had done. The friends of her laughing and recording everything didn't help either.
"You dropped it.." Gyuvin muttered in a low voice.
"How low can you get? Fucking your own job and then blaming your customer !? Replace this order or else I'll talk to your manager."
Gyuvin very carefully picked up the ruined pizza along with the pizza tray, head hung low. He felt so ashamed when he discovered other present customers' eyes on him.
"Also clean the mess." One of them spoke, disgust written all over her face.
He returned there with a cleaning cloth. He saw how a guy smudged the place even more with his shoe. Dirt from his shoe and the pizza sauce was then mixed. Gyuvin bore it all. He quietly did his job, cleaning the mess. Their dirty sneers reached all the way to him as he ducked his face even more. His body was shrunken as he tried to keep his composure.
He felt something cold falling on him.
He looked up and detected a girl tilting her water bottle. She dropped the water on his head, by will. Yet, he couldn't protest against it. She let out a little 'oops' as if it were just a mistake. Gyuvin scooted away and brushed the water with his hands as much as possible.
He tried so hard to keep a straight face but his eyebrows ended up being knitted again and again. He was so angry and frustrated. Yet he couldn't express him, not with his job on the line. He wanted to scream out and tell them that what they did was fucking their fault fault. The rage, the exasperation was bottling up inside him. He was suffocated.
He returned and stared at the then ruined food placed on the counter. Why were they so prejudiced against him?
His heart ached. He pinched the gap between his eyes and let out a sigh. He had to pay for it on his own. When he wasn't even in the fucking wrong.
Just at that moment, a tall figure, not as much as Gyuvin, entered the kitchen. Gyuvin observered with nervous eyes as the former noticed his sullen expression. He eyed the counter and caught a glimpse of the ruined pizza.
"Gyuvin." He called out, not enraged, just with look of curiosity and worry. "What happened?"
"It fell." The younger replied forbearingly.
"From your hands?" Gyuvin stood still, unable to deny for some reason. He was hurt, exhausted, frustrated and disparaged.
"Answer me, Gyuvin."
He shook his head lightly, stiffening a bit. "It was probably an accident—"
"Which table?"
Gyuvin looked up almost immediately and spoke, "Jiwoong hyung, it's nothing–" The male named as Jiwoong threw a stern look at Gyuvin's direction. He was mad and Gyuvin knew it from that one look. So he lowered his head again and mumbled a small '14'.
"Leave it to me and don't place a new order."
Jiwoong got out from the kitchen and approached the table Gyuvin informed him about. By the look of the students, Jiwoong knew they did it intentionally. He didn't know what their business was with Gyuvin, but seeing the younger with a glum face could only mean what he assumed was true.
"Hello, is there any problem?" He asked politely. Almost as if he were trying to be on their good side.
"Oh a pizza fell down, so we asked to replace it." A guy explained and shrugged, pretending as if nothing had happened.
"Fell down? Or was it intentional?"
"Dunno. Why would a mere worker intentionally drop such an expensive pizza? Or might be, who knows? To make us pay more." A girl spoke with sass and sarcasm in her tone.
"I'm talking about you guys. Did you drop it on purpose?"
A guy stood up immediately, clearly offended. "What do you mean we dropped it on purpose? Do wanna start a fight or what?" He snapped. Jiwoong only smiled and gestured him to sit down. "Violence isn't allowed in the shop. I'm asking you nicely."
A girl started, "Why? Can't the waiter mess his job and admit that? Also why would even drop the pizza on purpose. It's not like we have any beef with him."
Jiwoong shrugged. "He works here for a year and he never dropped something before. Pretty sure you guys do have some beef with him." He spoke as calmly as ever.
"Now listen. You guys have to do the full payment for the ruined pizza and if you want, you can order another one. No problem in that."
"This is bullshit—" A few of them protested.
"I can give you highest twenty percent of discount for that pizza." Jiwoong negotiated. "Go get your manager. Let me have a word with them." The girl from before stood up this time. She was enraged and amused at the audacity of whom she thought of as another employee.
Jiwoong laughed a little. "I am the shop owner."
Her jaw fell open. Why in the hell was the shop owner talking in favour of a mere worker? Why was he not pleasing his customers?
"I believe you have nothing else to say. Now do you want me to place another seafood pizza order? Or are you guys good?"
—
Gyuvin was anxiously biting his nails and tapping his foot. It'd been a good few minutes since Jiwoong left to talk with the customers and he didn't know what was happening there.
He stood up in a flash upon seeing the black haired older male entering the kitchen.
"Hyung.."
Jiwoong smiled lightly. "I've got it under control, don't worry."
Gyuvin let out a sigh in relief. "Did they place a new order then?" He asked and was met with a negative answer.
"They left. Probably felt insulted." Jiwoong laughed and the younger stood there in awe. He was aware of how kind Jiwoong was. The elder always treated him like a younger brother.
Gyuvin's eyes welled up with tears, for the nth time that day.
"Thank you so much, hyung."
The mentioned gave a knowing nod. "You can always count on me. You and all my other employees are like little siblings to me." He added more, "Besides, when it's your fault, I can hold you accountable for it. But you weren't the one at fault today, Gyuvin-ah." He patted Gyuvin's head endearingly, having a soft spot for the younger from the very first.
Gyuvin was beyond grateful. He surely felt humiliated by those classmates of his. But at the same time, he realized once again that he had some people in his life who care for him, a lot.
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jiwoong's appearance, we cheered !