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“Everyone, you have your assignments. Festival is tomorrow. Let’s win this!” Class representative Park Hyeshin called as the class cheered.
Jonghyun quietly placed his textbooks into his bookbag and got up to leave. He was met by Dongho in the corridor as he stopped by his locker. A lot of students didn’t understand how the two were friends. Jonghyun was quiet and always had his head in a game. Dongho was much more outgoing and athletic.
“Sooo...last festival for us, isn’t it.” Dongho murmured as they left the school to head back to their dorms.
“Seems so.” Jonghyun responded, silently waving bye to a few classmates they passed.
Dongho glanced at him. “You think Minhyun and Minki are going to show up?”
Jonghyun rolls his eyes. “I hope not. As much as I love those two, I’d rather not cause a scene our last semester before we leave.”
Dongho hummed. “I can’t believe we were able to keep under the radar for so long.”
“Well, in our defense, make up does make us look different.” Jonghyun glanced at him. “Or at least it does for me. I don’t know about you.” He grinned.
“Hey!”
Festival Day
“Where’s the green tea? We need it behind the counter!”
“Did the cakes arrive yet?”
“Move that table over here!”
“Minseok, go change!”
Class 6-1 was the epitome of chaos as the students rushed to make sure everything was in place for the festival opening in just an hour. Every year, each classroom competed to have the best “booth” and they were determined to win this year with their idea of a maid/host cafe, taken straight from Japan. They would all take shifts. Each student that was not performing in the evening’s talent show would be a maid or host with their very own catchy introduction. Maids would do their best aegyo for the male customers, while hosts would provide a cool demeanour act to make the women swoon. Theoretically, that is.
“Alright, we ready for business?”
“YEAH!”
Just in time, as the first customers from the class next door trickled in. Though they couldn’t sign up for first shift, Jonghyun and Dongho had taken second shift rather than the coveted third shift--as students could spend all day exploring the festival--in hopes that they’d finish before school ended at Minhyun’s and Minki’s schools. They didn’t want to know what those two would have in mind for them.
And they were right.
It was a mere fifteen minutes from the end of their shift when Jonghyun heard an excited, honey voice from the entrance of the classroom. He groaned at the possibilities of what Minhyun might do to have fun at their expense. A body shifted near him.
“Shit, Minki got here at the same time.” Dongho murmured.
“Great. Just great.” Jonghyun muttered.
“Oh, really? We get to choose who our maid or host is?” They heard Minhyun loudly exclaim from the other side of the room.
“Yup. And then they’ll perform their signature introduction for you! Jieun is free right now, and she does the best aegyo in this class!” The receptionist Hyerin excitedly chattered. Jonghyun could tell she was rather awed and enamoured by Minhyun’s visuals. Normally, Jonghyun couldn’t blame her...but he wasn’t feeling the most hospitable towards Minhyun at the moment.
“Mmm…” Minhyun pondered.
“Psst.” Minki nudged him. “Jonghyun and Dongho are trying to hide in that corner.” He hissed.
Minhyun glanced over to see where the two adamantly avoiding their eyes were standing. Then he turned back to Hyerin and gave her a dazzling smile. “Actually, we’d like for Dongho and Jonghyun to be our hosts today! We can do that, right?”
Hyerin faltered. “Well, yes. Of course. Are you sure? I think their shifts end in the next fifteen minutes.” She also couldn’t understand why these two handsome boys would want two hosts as their servers. Sure Jonghyun and Dongho weren’t bad looking from certain perspectives, but...they also weren’t the best looking in the class if these two customers were inclined that way.
“That’s fine.” Minki chirped.
“Alright, this way then.” She grabbed 2 menu print outs and led them to a table near the window where Jonghyun and Dongho were standing. “Jonghyun, Dongho! You guys are up!”
Jonghyun cursed. He had a bad feeling.
“Ahahaha...see you on the other side.” Dongho whispered as he grabbed a single rose stem and headed towards the table. Pretending he didn’t know the two, he put on a wide smile and cheerfully exclaimed, “Welcome, sirs! My name is Dongho and I’ll be your host today. A rose for the man as lovely as this flower itself.” He whipped out the rose from behind him with a flourish, dipping into a bow, and handed it to Minki.
Minhyun and Minki glanced at each other before grinning.
“Why, thank you good sir.” Minki playfully accepted the rose. “Did you come up with that yourself?”
Dongho laughed sheepishly and whispered, “The class rep deemed me a lost cause and scripted it for me.”
Minhyun laughed. “Did they script one for Jonghyun too?”
“Nah, he got lucky with his. They said it was passable.”
Just then, Jonghyun walked up, a serious expression on his face after calming down. Stopping at their table, he crossed his arm over his chest and bowed deep. “Masters, my name is Jonghyun, and I am at your command today. How may I be of service to you?”
Minhyun and Minki looked at his bowed frame, before Minki exclaimed, “Aww that’s boring.”
“Do aegyo for us!” Minhyun excitedly said. “They wanted to offer someone to do that for us, right?”
“Oh great idea! You said you’re at our command today, right?” Minki slyly teased.
Jonghyun gave them a deadpan look that essentially said ‘I’m going to murder you guys later.’ “No.”
Minhyun and Minki boo’ed. Dongho raised his hands to indicate Jonghyun was on his own.
“C’mon, pleaaaaaaase?” Minhyun weedled.
“You do it all the time at home!” Minki defends.
“That’s at home and not at school.” Jonghyun was adamant. Besides he had his pride and a reputation to uphold.
Their commotion brought the class representative over. “What’s going on here? Is anything wrong?” She asked in concern.
Minki gave her innocently wide eyes. “Oh nothing’s wrong, Jonghyun says he’s our host for today and we just wanted him to try to do some aegyo for us, but he won’t even try.” He looked down sadly.
They could all see her melt at Minki’s acting. Jonghyun knew he was probably done for as she turned to him. “Oh...our hosts aren’t trained to prepare for that, but I’m sure he can at least try!” She gave him a glare.
“But-” Jonghyun tried to protest that it wasn’t required of them.
“You can at least try, right?” She pressed. “Keep our customers happy?”
Jonghyun muttered, “They’re just here to purposely make fun of us.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing!” Jonghyun yelped. “Okay, okay.” He took a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for public embarrassment. Then he put his fisted hands under his chin and widened his eyes. Speaking in a cutesy voice, he chirped, “Hi Masters! Jonghyunnie is here today to serve you! Let Jonghyunnie know what you want, oka~y? I love you~” He ended with his hands forming a heart and head tilted cutely to the side, fluttering his eyelashes.
The entire classroom fell silent for a second. Then chaos erupted as both cafe workers and customers chattered about how unexpectedly cute his aegyo was, especially as it was coming from the one quiet boy who always had his head stuck in his games. Jonghyun inwardly groaned as he realized everyone had been paying attention and not just his friends.
“Okay, what do you guys want served? Our shift ends in 5 minutes.” Jonghyun flatly said.
“Green tea for me.” Minhyun said, smiling widely at the dose of cuteness he just received.
“Same.” Minki grinned at the successful prank.
Dongho took pity on Jonghyun having to interact with the class and said he’d go fetch the orders. Meanwhile, Jonghyun slipped into a chair at the table, putting his head into his hands. “Whyyyy.” He whined.
“Don’t worry Jonghyun, it’s all for your own good.” Minki sayid offhandedly.
“Because you’re cute, and the whole school deserves to know it.” There was a glint in Minhyun’s eye. “Besides, they’ll figure it out anyways when we debut. You’re too cute for it to not come through.”
“I hate you.” A muttered response came.
“We love you, too~” Minhyun and Minki sang.
Later that night, during the talent show, Jieun came up to Jonghyun and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to take my place in the aegyo contest later? I’m sure you’d win it for us.”
Torn between feeling obligated to help his class win and his embarrassment, he had to turn down her suggestion for a third reason. “Sorry, I don’t have anything prepared, and you’ve practiced hard for this. I’m sure you’ll win for us!” He said encouragingly.
Jieun gave him an unreadable look. “You know, I’m not sure why none of us figured it out. You’re not all that quiet, are you?”
Jonghyun blinked in confusion, eyebrows furrowing cutely. “Wha-?”
“Jonghyun-ah! Let’s go! Minki’s saving us seats!” Minhyun’s voice from a ways away called.
“Be right there!” He called back.
“Go have fun with your friends. I’m sure we’ll see you on the stage soon, right? We’ll all support your debut!” Jieun grinned, waving as she ran off.
Jonghyun watched her disappear around behind the stage. “Well...cat’s kinda out of the bag, I suppose.”