Chapter Text
I always knew I was a masochist. Among other reasons, dropping out of school to get my GED at 16 so that I could take care of my senile grandmother, deciding to wait tables at the only 24 hour diner in town (off the books until I was 17, of course) and then continuing to work there after my omega scent came in at 17. But I decided the most obvious self flagellation had to be when I turned 18 and was legally allowed to work past midnight, and my manager asked if I could take over the graveyard shift so 3 other waiters and the assistant manager didn’t have to keep covering it, and my dumbass said yes.
The other reasons I’m a masochist aren’t relevant right now.
So, there I was, after a month on graveyard shift, clocking in to what I was sure was going to be another boring, humiliating night. Humiliating during the bar rush, boring until the morning truckers.
“Oh, hey Sungie! Grandma give you trouble tonight?” Sana had spotted me putting my apron on. As the hostess, her bubbly personality was beneficial on the floor, and normally she and I got along like a house on fire, but tonight I wasn’t feeling it.
“Hey noona, nothing like that. I managed to get her meds in in time, and she only sundowned a bit. I just had some stuff to work on.”
A lie. I played on my phone until I was almost late. Peniel never had a problem with me coming in early when she went to bed on time, and normally I’d be here to catch the end of the dinner rush. But after a month of this, it was wearing on me.
“Well I hope you got everything sorted! Honestly, you didn’t miss much, been pretty slow tonight.”
“Eh, it’s karaoke night at Lester’s so I don’t know if that will last.” I flash her a grin, so she won’t question it. She smiles back and pats me on the shoulder, turning to head back to the front where a couple of teenagers had just walked in.
I head around to the front to see what I’m dealing with, and Momo looks positively relieved to see me.
“Jisungie, hey, I’m so glad you’re here!” Uh oh. When I raise my eyebrow at her in question, she clutches her hands to her chest and tries to look pitiful. “It’s just that I have this expo coming up, and the instructor ran us ragged today, so my feet are killing me. And he wants us in at 6 a.m. tomorrow to rehearse!” I cross my arms over my chest. “There’s only three tables, other than the kids that just walked in, and they’ve mostly been taken care of! Two should be leaving soon, and the other guy’s been here for a while, he’s no trouble! Pleeeeease?!”
I let her see me thinking about it. Two tables already taken care of means the tips without the work, and she’s desperate enough to give me that. The kids that just came in would’ve been mine anyway. The guy who’s been here for a while shouldn’t be a problem, but just in case…..
“What’s with the squatter? He’s just chilling? Or is he a weirdo?”
“Alpha, but no weird vibes, he’s been on his phone scrolling most of the time, polite but quiet. Pleeeeeease, Jisungie!?” She gives me big eyes and a ridiculously dramatic pout, so I sigh loudly.
“Fine, transfer them.” And I roll my eyes just for effect. She squeals and gives me a quick hug before heading to the computer.
“Ok, so 14 and 16 have their checks, they’re just conversing over dessert, and 10 says he’ll be here longer, so just check in every once in a while. He has coffee, and he got some nachos earlier, but I don’t know if he’ll even get anything else.” I hum in acknowledgement as I head out to get the new table’s drinks. They all want soda, and I’m not holding my breath on much more than that, given their high school uniforms and the D'n'D board one just pulled from his backpack. On a school night, scandalous. Sana seated them at 12 to be out of the way, so on the way back, I pass the squatter’s booth. Might as well get this part over with.
“Hey there! I’m Han! Momo-ssi is headed home for the night, and I’ll be taking over, ok? Let me know if you need anything!” The alpha is startled out of his revery/hyperfocus/daydream about the photo currently pulled up on his phone and stares at me during my spiel.
“Oh, um… ok.” He turns back to his phone and swipes to a different picture of what looked like the same person.
“Okie dokie then.” I murmur to myself as I duck behind the bar to get the drinks for the kids. And it turned out that I was right that that would be all they would be ordering for now. And Momo was right that the other two tables were winding down because they left soon after and both left decent tips. If only Momo hadn’t been so tired. Oh well!
That left me with the squatter and the nerds. Not that I had anything against nerds, but it made complaining about them in my head easier.
Minhyuk was the cook tonight, but since there wasn’t anything for him to do, he was hiding in the back. And no one else had come in. So here I am, bored out of my mind at 11 o’clock at night. I might as well bother somebody. D'n'D isn’t my thing, and I’ve never seen this alpha before, so new guy it is.
“Who’re those guys?” I’d slid up the banister behind him to see what he was so invested in, and this time it was a group selfie. He jerks the phone down and jolts his face towards mine, eyes wide.
But whatever he was going to say would have to wait, because just then the door jingle goes off and I have to greet the new people walking in. As usual, the karaoke crowd from Lester’s Bar 'n' Grill (one of only two bars in town) keeps me busy for the next couple of hours.
Changbin came in with the third group, and I sighed in relief internally. The second table had been loggers, but he wasn’t with them, and it can be hit or miss with those guys; on a scale between harmless flirtation and sexual assault, you never really know what you’re gonna get.
But Changbin was a good dude. Two years ahead of me in school, he was the son of the owner of the logging company that basically kept the town up and running since it employed half the town and brought in contract workers regularly. He worked full-time as a foreman there, training to take over from his father while doing online classes to get a business degree, so the workers he hung out with kinda had to take him seriously, but you wouldn’t know it with how loud and obnoxious they all were. Loud and obnoxious was fine, though, and drunk alphas typically tip well when you flirt with them a bit. As long as nothing got out of hand, drunk loggers were actually my favorite since I could mess with them. And as long as I did it with a smile, they thought I was being cute.
This group was big enough that I had to push three tables together in the middle the diner, and they were in top form tonight, loudly declaring dumb shit like “this is the best diner in the country cause it’s got the cutest waiter” and talking over each other trying to give me their orders without everyone even being seated yet. Lovely.
“How about I start you guys off with a round of waters, ok? You all stink of beer.” The laughter ratchets up a couple decibels and I turn to do just that, but one of them decided he didn’t want to wait and grabs my arm, hard. I freeze, then whip my head around.
“How bout instead of water, you take our orders like it’s your job, sweetcheeks?” He reeked, and not just of beer. His breath smelled like whisky, but his smell was rank, now that I was focused on just him. It was like, seaweed, maybe, and I was halfway to gagging when I saw Changbin get up.
“Yah, let go of him, asshole.” The alpha turns his head (not very gracefully, but he managed) without letting go.
“He’s the waiter, so he can wait. What’s your problem?” Now that he wasn’t looking at me, I could breath a little bit. Ok, how does this not end up in brawl? I have to swallow my pride, that’s how. Greeeeaaaat.
“If you let go of me, I’ll gladly take your order, sir. I was only trying to give you gentlemen a chance to get settled and look over the menu, if you’re ready now it’s no problem. If you’d please take your hand away so I can get my notebook?” I pitch my voice a little higher and manage to get most of it out without the tremble that was threatening. He took a second to process what I was asking, then looks down at his hand on my arm like he’d forgotten it was there, thinks for another second, and lets go dismissively.
“Yeah, pancakes, I want pancakes.”
Changbin was still standing, and I shake my head at him a little, before bowing slightly and walking briskly away. His way of helping had a tendency to escalate, and I did NOT need broken furniture and dishes tonight. Not to mention, I had it handled, thank you very much.
Before grabbing the waters, I poke my head into the kitchen and ask Minhyuk for a short stack, pronto.
“You ok, Sungie? Need me to throw him out?”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. This is the job, right?” He sighs and shakes his head before turning back to the grill.
Yeah, this is fine. Not masochistic at all….
That was the low point of the night, though. Changbin kept the guy in check, and the rest of the guys seemed to have sobered up at the exchange so they behaved themselves. Got a big fat tip as an apology, too, which helped.
As I was bussing their table, I noticed the guy at 10 had managed to slip out unnoticed. I’d kind of forgotten he existed between the loggers and a fussy college kid who wanted to know all the nutritional information for anything he was thinking about ordering. Fearing a dine’n’dash, I checked the table before finishing the big one, but he’d stuck some bills under the coffee cup. I felt a little guilty, I don’t think I’d checked on him in like, an hour. Woops. Oh well.
Link to diner layout (because I can't figure out how to embed the actual picture): https://www.deviantart.com/flandeezy/art/Dennys-layout-detailed-1239031964