Work Text:
“What do you mean we’ll get paid with half a Subway sandwich?”
Five minutes into the gig and Gunwook already knows he’s about to have the worst time of his life. If he wasn’t about to get kicked out of his dorm for not being able to pay rent for another month, he wouldn’t have even read the flyer that had the announcement for an “acting job” for the Willy Wonka Experience. But now that he’s here, all he wants to do is to run out of the barren warehouse as fast as he can.
“I’m sorry, Gyeonwook, but we’re short of money after spending everything else for the venue,” the bald man who is allegedly the “event coordinator” told him.
“Short of money?” Gunwook looks around the room, “Bro, this place looks like you spent no money.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, man. We tried really hard to make everything perfect. But nobody’s perfect, you know, so why try?”
Gunwook looked down at the AI-written script in his hand, looked at his surroundings once again, and looked back at the face of the event coordinator who was staring back at him with nothing but apathy in his eyes.
“Fuck this, I’m out of here.”
He stormed away from the conversation, hearing the man shout “Hey! Geonu, come back!” behind him. If he can’t even remember the correct names of his employees, then this event truly was a mess to begin with.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Gyuvin, the friend he roped into this mess, says as he’s also trying to escape the mess that is this scammy event.
“Bro, I’m so sorry. If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn’t even have asked you to join me on this.” Gunwook sincerely apologises to Gyuvin.
Gyuvin tapped him on the back and said, “Dude, don’t apologise. We’re two university students desperate for money. It’s either this or selling foot pics pretending to be Song Kang. Also, who would’ve known this would end up like this?”
“Junhyeon did. That’s why he was laughing at us when we told him about this gig.”
“Well…”
The two reached the door and were ready to get out of the warehouse when the door busted open and a woman walked in asking, “When are you starting?! The event was supposed to start 30 minutes ago.”
She opened the door even wider to reveal a large crowd of children with their parents looking at them expectantly.
Fuck my life.
♡જ⁀➴🤎🍫
“Where the fuck is our event coordinator?” Gunwook asks exasperatedly as he gathers all the workers in the warehouse for a quick meeting.
“Event coordinator?” A lady wearing a green bob wig asks back as if she has never heard of such a person before.
“Yeah, the bald man who was talking to us earlier. The one who looks like he’s perpetually sleepy, or drunk, or… something else.” Gyuvin answered for Gunwook, backing him up with his query. He’s thankful Gyuvin is here because he has felt so gaslit since he first set foot in the building.
“Oh, I saw him go to one of those portable toilets at the back but I haven’t seen him since then.”
Gunwook ran to the back as fast as he could, hoping that he would catch the scam artist who dumped all these responsibilities on them and made this their problem. He got to the singular portable toilet at the back of the building and started knocking on the door.
“Hey! Get the fuck out of there!” He said, continuously knocking on the door until the man came out.
The only response that he got was a long pained groan.
Now curious along with the annoyedness that he felt earlier, he asked, “What the fuck are you doing in there?”
“I don’t think you want me to go out there right now,” he said, his voice sounding like it’s been forced out of his throat.
A few seconds passed and an echoing sound of something erupting into the toilet was heard from inside.
Oh.
“Geonu? Gyuwook? Is that your name? I’m so sorry, but I ate a chocolate from the candy pile in there and now I’m just shitting myself. Literally. I think the candies are expired or something.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.”
Gunwook dragged his body back into the warehouse to announce the news. He thought announcing someone’s death to their also dying grandma would be an easier task.
“Umm…” Gunwook starts before raising his eyes and meeting the round eyes of the little girl who looks a little bit like Squirtle.
“Gyuvin, I need help.”
The two of them huddled together with their backs to the group to discuss whatever was happening before releasing the information to the rest of the group.
Gyuvin starts by asking, “So, what’s up?”
“Umm, so we’re utterly fucked. Baldy is shitting himself right now.”
“Literally or metaphorically?”
“Literally.”
Gyuvin looked like he’d stopped breathing for a moment, his eyes wide and body stilled. Gunwook hears the stuttering of his breath before finally snapping out of his paralisation.
“Well,” Gyuvin says, “I’m shitting myself. Metaphorically, that is.”
The both of them turned around to look at the others and finally broke the news.
“Listen, I’m also just an employee here. I literally don’t know anyone in charge so I literally should just walk out of here. But there are tens of children waiting outside there who have been anticipating this event for a long time, and parents who won’t hesitate to eat us alive. Would it hurt to at least try? For the children?” Gunwook says, the desperation in his voice evident. Desperation to let the others know that he was not in charge of this event, but also the desperation to convince the others to work together to make the “Willy Wonka Experience” work.
Gyuvin follows this up with, “For those who want to leave, we would definitely understand. We don’t even know if we’re going to be properly paid for today, so you’re not required to stay. But if you’d like to help, just for the sake of the happiness of those kids outside, it would be very much appreciated.”
The actors and staff that were there looked around and nodded at each other as if agreeing to Gyuvin and Gunwook’s grand speech. This gave hope to Gunwook that maybe things would be okay. Not a perfect event, but at least still something to give the kids an enjoyable day.
“Okay, let’s make dreams come true.”
♡જ⁀➴🤎🍫
This is a living nightmare.
Out of the thirty people who were hired to work that day, only twelve of them stayed. Aside from Gunwook and Gyuvin, there were Seokjin, Jimin, and Jungkook who stayed there out of the kindness of their heart, and then there were Eunchae and Kyujin who stayed because their parents couldn’t pick them up and drive them home. The rest of them, whom Gunwook hadn’t met yet, remained in the warehouse because they weren’t there during the meeting and did not know what just went down. What they don’t know won't hurt… at least that’s how Gunwook is justifying it in his head.
The first thing the workers did after the meeting was to check the expiry date of all the candies that were bought for the event. Apparently, out of the five boxes of candies, only three packets of jellybeans were not expired. All of them have agreed to just ration these packets amongst the children and give them one each.
They’ve let the visitors come into the building because the increasingly cold winter weather had the parents complaining more and more. Not that it’s heated inside, it’s probably just as cold as outside.
As he was walking to his station, he saw a short man wearing a green sweater the same shade as the atrocious wig he was sporting. He looks like he fits the role of an Oompa Loompa so Gunwook assumed that he is one of the actors hired for today's event. The man is still on his phone call to someone while everyone else is bustling around, trying to make everything something work.
“Hey! What are you doing standing there still? Get to work!” Gunwook yelled at the man wearing a similar green sweater that he’d been provided.
“What?” the man said.
Growing more annoyed that the man would rather stand here and act stupid than start working, Gunwook says, “We’re already stressed enough trying to hold everything together here. Maybe try carrying your weight.”
The shorter man looks at him weirdly as if Gunwook is speaking to him in another language.
“I’m so sorry but I think that there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m a parent of a child here, not an employee.”
Normally, Gunwook would have the rationality to feel ashamed of this honest mistake and try his hardest to apologise to the customer, but with all the mess that he has to think about since the start of this event, he’s lost all control of his brain-to-mouth filter.
“Well, why the hell do you look like that then?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you wearing green? Next time, don’t wear the same colour as the workers here. Especially with that height.”
“Excuse me-”
Gunwook didn’t hear the rest of the short man's words because he was already rushing to get to his station.
(On his way there, he could hear Gyuvin trying his best to play the role of The Unknown to entertain the kids whose dreams and hopes were on the brink of being crushed.
“What is that?”
“It’s The Unknown!”
“Nooo!”
Gunwook makes a mental note to help his friend with his assessments for the next semester. He has never felt more sorry for his friend.)
The event went… okay for the next 30 minutes. The sound of children’s screams echoed in the warehouse as parents questioned any staff that caught their eyes.
“What is happening here?”
“Where are the people in charge?”
“I will be getting a refund.”
He wishes he also had the answers to their questions.
During one of his downtimes, Gunwook decided to take a 15-minute break. He went to get himself a cup of water from the singular water dispenser in the building located in the workroom. On his way back, he saw a girl standing in a restricted part of the warehouse on her own and looking lost. He looked around to see where her guardian could be but there were no other adults around.
He approached the girl and sat down on her level before asking, “Hey sweetie, are you alone right now?”
The child looked up at him and hesitated for a bit before looking back, probably looking for her guardian.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me, but you’re kind of in a restricted area right now.”
“Oh, s-sorry…” The child finally says.
“Where’s your parent?” Gunwook prods for answers once again.
“Umm, he said someone called him from work, and to wait for him here. But I don’t know where he is right now.”
Gunwook mentally scoffs. If there’s one thing Gunwook hates most, it’s irresponsible parents. How could they just leave their child here all alone, especially in this environment?
“If you want, we can walk out there right now, you can sit with me in my station while you wait for your dad. Is that alright with you?” He says before extending his hand to the girl.
The child nods and takes Gunwook’s hand. They walked back to his station which had been kept close while he took a quick break. He got a foldable chair and propped it up behind the table where the child could sit and wait. As he was going through his bag, he found a lollipop which he was sure was there since last year. He decided to give it to the girl either way.
“What’s your name?” Gunwook decided that he might as well get to know the child.
“My name is Wooyeon! I am four years old! What’s your name?”
“My name is Gunwook. I’m 22 years old. Nice to meet you, Wooyeon.”
“Are you an Oompa Loompa?” Wooyeon asks.
“Supposed to be, at least.”
Curiosity got the best of Gunwook and decided to ask the child, “How did you find out about this… Willy Wonka Experience?”
“Well, Daddy doesn’t have work on Saturdays. Normally, we go out to play and eat but Daddy has been pretty busy lately. He found out about this event cause we watched the movie last week,” she answered, the lollipop in her hand so it wouldn’t hinder her talking. Gunwook notices that the child has a hard time saying some words. It's almost reminiscent of how his foreign friend Ricky says some words sometimes as he's still not used to speaking in Korean.
“Are you at least enjoying yourself?”
Wooyeon quickly put the candy back in her mouth and diverted her attention to the ruffles at the bottom of her dress. Actions truly do speak louder than words.
“So your Daddy is the one who came here with you?”
“Yeah, but people were calling him so he went outside to take the call because he said it’s too noisy in here.”
The two spoke a bit more, making the time of waiting more interesting for themselves. A few minutes later, the sound of a man shouting was heard near Gunwook’s area.
“Maxine? Maxine, where are you?!”
The man, the same green sweater-wearing man he saw earlier, was looking around frantically, looking for whoever “Maxine” was. His eyes laid on Wooyeon and relief washes over his face, running as fast as he could in their direction. Gunwook grabs the child as fast as he can, scared that the yelling man will hurt or even kidnap the child.
“What are you doing here? Who are you?” Gunwook questions the man accusingly.
“I’m her dad. Give me my child!”
“You were looking for a ‘Maxine’, this child’s name is Wooyeon.”
The man breathes deeply, clearly annoyed by Gunwook and having to deal with his bullshit for another time.
“Her English name is ‘Maxine’, and her Korean name is ‘Wooyeon’. She was born and raised in Canada, that’s why she has two names. I told her to tell her Korean name when she’s here in Korea that’s why she introduced herself as ‘Wooyeon’, but I call her ‘Maxine’ at home,” the man yapped, slightly heaving as he was still trying to catch his breath.
Gunwook glared at the man a bit more before turning to the child in his arms.
He asks her, “Is he telling the truth?”
The child answers by nodding enthusiastically.
“Are you sure? Are you being honest with me?”
“Yeah! Daddy told me lying is bad so I always tell the truff? Trooth? Twuth?”
“Truth.” Gunwook and the man said at the exact same time.
Gunwook looks at the man again and sees how much adoration is in his eyes as he’s looking at Wooyeon. This, along with the desperation that he exhibited earlier while looking for Wooyeon, was enough to convince him that this man really is the girl’s father.
“Congratulations, I guess you are the father,” Gunwook jokes as he hands Wooyeon to her dad.
The man only responded by slightly bowing his head and muttering a barely audible “Thank you” before getting out of his area with Wooyeon in his arms.
♡જ⁀➴🤎🍫
Gunwook resumed his work after that encounter. The situation has gone from bad to hopeless within 30 minutes since a lot more people came after the initial crowd. Thankfully, no one has been hurt yet, unless it’s him purposefully choking himself with jellybeans just to end this whole event.
A few minutes later, and a few more verbal abuse from parents, Wooyeon and her father come to his station once again. He’s honestly surprised they’re still here after all this mess.
“Here you go, sweetie,” Gunwook said, handing Wooyeon a singular piece of jellybean.
The girl looked at the red jellybean on her palm, almost as if questioning not just the candy, but also her whole life.
“Daddy, why do they only give us one piece of candy?” she asked her dad.
The man looked at him as if asking the same question himself. Gunwook just looked back at him with a look of apathy, clearly not wanting to deal with the child’s queries or the inevitable disappointment that she would feel when he told her the real reason.
“Well… jellybeans are really precious candies and they’re really hard to make, so the factory can only hand each child with one jellybean each,” the father bullshits his way into answering that question.
“Of course, you’d know that you Oompa Loompa-looking ass,” Gunwook says under his breath.
To be fair, Gunwook gives him props for coming up with a logical answer instantly. But he also can’t help but hate the guy since he knows that he left his daughter alone just to take a business call.
“I’m so sorry, but what’s your problem, really?” The man asked him, clearly already done with his antics since earlier.
“I don't have a problem with you.”
“Clearly, you do, because you’ve been attacking me since earlier when I haven’t done anything against you. I don’t even know you!”
In Gunwook’s rational mind, he knows he’s in the wrong and that this man has done nothing to him. All of his irritability towards this man is because of this whole fiasco. But he’s already heated, and he’s definitely going to double down on this argument.
“Well, I hate parents who irresponsibly leave their children like that. I mean look around, this is not a safe place to just leave your child alone like this. That’s my problem with you.”
At this point, a lot of people have now been looking at the two men arguing with each other. Wooyeon’s dad was looking at him as if he wants to slit his throat. Gunwook has definitely struck a nerve, and it might be too late to apologise now.
“You’ve gone too far. Where’s your manager? I need to talk to whoever’s in charge here because you have gone too far.”
“Hold on for a second, let me call him for you.”
Gunwook looks back and does a 360 turn to look back at the man.
In his best, most professional customer service voice, he says, “Hello, sir. I am afraid our manager is busy shitting himself in the bathroom after eating some expired chocolates. In the meantime, I will be in charge of this place. How may I help you?”
The man looked at him incredulously, looking at him as if he’d completely lost his mind. To be fair, Gunwook does feel like he is losing his mind every second he spends in this place with his green bob wig on.
“You know what-”
The man was about to walk up to Gunwook when all of a sudden, siren sounds were heard from outside the warehouse.
Three police officers walked in, immediately asking for the person in charge of the place. Gunwook, who already knows none of the other people will step up, walks to where the police officers are and answers for the group. Gyuvin also stood there with him, ready to answer whatever the police officer asked him. The two officers walked further into the warehouse, possibly to search the place, while the oldest-looking one stayed with Gyuvin and Gunwook.
“Are you two the ones in charge of this place?” The police officer asked.
“No, sir. We’re just employees here,” Gunwook answers.
“Our event coordinator basically abandoned us and we’re basically just fending for ourselves,” Gyuvin adds.
“Then what’s the name of the person in charge here?”
Gunwook and Gyuvin looked at each other, suddenly realising that they didn’t know the name of the man who hired them for this event.
“So you don’t know the name of your employer? Okay.” The officer quirks his eyebrow after saying that, obviously not believing what they were telling him.
“We saw the details for this gig on a poster near our house. We called the number and he said we’re hired,” Gunwook explains.
Gyuvin follows this up by explaining their situation, “We were pretty desperate for money to pay rent so we just took the job without thinking about it.”
Still sceptical about their reason for staying here, the officer continues the interrogation by saying, “If you already know that this event is a mess, why are you still here?”
“Because the children were already outside the door before we could even escape this hellhole. Yes, we were scammed into working here, but so were these kids and parents who paid for this experience. I stayed because I wouldn’t want to ruin their day and crush these kids' dreams.”
Just after Gunwook said that, two police officers approached them while they were supporting their passed-out event coordinator in their arms.
“Sir, we found this man passed out in the portable toilet at the back. I’m not sure if he’s dying or not because he’s sweating severely and his lips are so pale.”
“Who is this man?” The balding police officer asks Gunwook and Gyuvin
Gunwook answers, “He’s the actual event coordinator. He’s been out there since the event started, shitting himself. Literally.”
“Explosive diarrhea,” Gyuvin chimes in from beside him.
The three police officers looked at the two of them as if they had just grown three heads.
“We’re shutting this place down. Clean up and leave as soon as possible.”
And with that, the Willy Wonka Experience ends.
♡જ⁀➴🤎🍫
Gunwook closes the door behind him, finally getting out of the warehouse after cleaning the place for an hour straight. Gyuvin went first because he had a midnight shift in his job at the convenience store, while Gunwook willingly told the other workers to go home an hour after the police came and closed the operation. He’s already embarrassed enough that he asked these people to stay here, he’s not going to embarrass himself even more by asking them to clean with him.
He was looking for his phone in his bag when he heard a cough. He raised his head and saw Wooyeon’s father standing in front of him. It’s like the haze from the stress earlier was suddenly lifted and Gunwook remembers all the things he told the man earlier. God, can this day just please end?
“Can I help you?” Gunwook says hesitantly.
The guy also seems to be a bit hesitant, clasping his hands so hard that they’re almost white from where he is gripping it. He takes a step towards Gunwook before starting talking
“Umm… I just wanted to say thank you for taking care of Max- Wooyeon earlier. It actually was irresponsible of me to do that.”
This is not Gunwook’s chance to apologise for what he said earlier.
“I’m so sorry for saying that earlier. I swear you didn’t do anything bad to me, heck you probably didn't do anything bad at all. I was just generally so frazzled because this whole thing’s been a mess, and I’m not even in charge of this place, I’m just a broke university student who decided to take this gig because I can’t pay rent for this month, and it’s evident I’m not getting compensated at all for today, and I feel so sorry that I dragged my friends into this, and-”
The guy suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping him from his monologue.
“Hey, hey, breathe. Just… inhale, exhale.”
Gunwook followed the man’s direction, suddenly feeling the tightening of his chest as he recounted everything that went wrong that day.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
“There you go. Good boy.” The man said as he rubbed circles on his back. Gunwook doesn’t know why but he blushed from what he just called him.
“You okay now?” The guy checks in once Gunwook seems okay enough.
“Yep, umm, thank you for that.”
A comfortable silence dawned upon the two as they tried not to make eye contact.
“May I just ask”, Gunwook starts, “why did you stay earlier when you already know that the whole event was… a mess?”
The guy takes a few seconds to think before answering, “In all honesty, I was already ready to go home after I found Wooyeon with you, but she wanted to stay there because she wanted to talk to you again.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, she actually doesn’t open up to strangers that easily but somehow, you did it.”
Gunwook has never been good with his kids so he was honestly surprised to hear that.
“You said you were struggling to pay rent earlier?” The man then asks him.
Gunwook blushes at this. He doesn’t know why but telling multiple strangers today about his current financial situation is something that embarrassed him.
“Yeah, uhh, well, the renting situation has just been a bit of a mess lately. I had to let go of my part-time job because I’m currently in a crucial time in my degree and I can’t handle having that many responsibilities at once.”
The man just nods at this, seemingly understanding the predicament that he’s currently in.
“You know, I’m a single father to Wooyeon, and it’s honestly been stressful for me to handle the responsibility of being a father and handling business, so I definitely understand where you’re coming from,” the man says.
“I know you said you just resigned from your job but I would like to offer you a job as a babysitter to Wooyeon.”
The only response that Gunwook could muster up to this was, “What?”
“Wooyeon liked you a lot, and as I’ve said, she’s not one to open up easily. She’s four years old, she’s honestly a very well-behaved kid, she just needs someone to pick her up from kindergarten and be at home with,” he explains.
“After everything that I told you earlier, you’re still offering me a job?”
The man just giggled a bit at what Gunwook just said.
“I don’t hold grudges like that. I saw how you cared for my daughter’s safety earlier, as well as how well you played with all the kids that you met. I also heard your conversation with the police officer about making the kids happy. I think that says a lot about your character.”
Gunwook can’t believe everything that has happened today. He enters a job to hopefully give him more money to pay for rent, finds out that the whole event is a scam, spends a whole non-paid day in an ugly brown sweater and green bob wig, getting the cops called on them, and now being offered a job of being a nanny. Maybe God is real.
“Obviously, we can discuss the salary before you agree. Not to sound conceited, I am pretty well-off so I can guarantee that I can pay you adequately and fairly.”
“No, I believe you. I, uhh, I’m definitely inclined to accept your offer but would it be okay to think about it until tomorrow? I’m just, I’m really spent today, and this whole day just feels like a fever dream,” Gunwook says.
“Of course. I understand that.”
“Do you want to exchange contacts?”
“Oh yeah, sure,” the man says before whipping out his phone.
They exchanged phones to type each other’s phone numbers.
“By the way, my name is Matthew.”
“I’m Gunwook. I’m sorry again that we had to meet this way. I swear I’m normally kinder than how I was today.”
Matthew laughs at this and says, “Don’t worry, you’re forgiven. Besides, it’s a fun story for the future.”
“I agree.”