=͟͟͞͞ ★ 26

                                    

                                          
"hey, hyung. how's table twenty looking?" seokmin asked loudly as he approached the expo station. he clapped a hand on soonyoung's shoulder to alert the older boy of his presence, jumping back when soonyoung jostled out of whatever daze he seemed to be in.
soonyoung blinked slowly as he turned to face his best friend, a hand being dragged down his face as he said tiredly, "um, i'm not sure yet. maybe ask mingyu?"
seokmin furrowed his eyebrows at the older boy's demeanor, but he shrugged as he turned to look through the window to the other side of the kitchen. he kept a comforting hand on the older boy's shoulder as he called out, "hey, uh, mingyu? how is table twenty-"
mingyu was standing just on the other side of the window, grinning down at something he was working on set down on the counter just out of seokmin's view. at the sound of the server's question, mingyu jolted back and stared back at seokmin in surprise. he coughed to conceal his smile as he looked back down at his oven dish and grumbled, "i'm busy, seok. ask your dumb expo friend."
and soonyoung may have been out of it, but he was always ready to jump into defensive mode, especially if it meant starting an argument with mingyu. so the older boy clutched a hand to his chest as he said sarcastically, "right, because i'm the one cooking the food. i totally forgot." he tsked loudly as he waved a hand at the chef, his voice raising as he said to no one in particular, "oh, but he has the time to bake a dessert in the middle of the dinner rush."
junhui rushed back to mingyu's side with a stack of clean plates, laying them out properly so that he could begin plating the food for seokmin's table. he looked around at the three boys and smirked, only having caught the tail end of their conversation, but having heard enough to connect the dots. "the desserts are for seungkwan." junhui said mischievously as he began to plate the food.
mingyu glared up at junhui as he said in a hushed whisper, "don't tell them that, hyung!"
seokmin and soonyoung exchanged a fond look, a little hint of mischief in their eyes as they turned to face the head chef, who was refusing to look at them. "aww, how cute." soonyoung said with a loud coo. he looked over the window and spotted an oven dish topped with marshmallows. the older boy hummed quietly in approval as he stood back and remarked, "seungkwan isn't much of a sweets person, though." 
mingyu grabbed his nearby oven mitt and grabbed the oven dish, a small cooking torch in his other hand. "i know." he mumbled as he avoided their gazes and quickly left the kitchen.
the three boys watched the head chef leave with confused looks on their faces. seokmin looked to soonyoung as he mumbled, "he's so weird. anyways," he wrapped a hand around the older boy's shoulders as he asked, hopeful, "table twenty?"
soonyoung opened his mouth to respond, but out of the corner of his eye, he spotted chan rushing to the back, presumably to clock out. "ask junhui." soonyoung mumbled as he wriggled out of seokmin's grasp and jogged after the younger boy who already had one foot out the back door of the restaurant.
seokmin stared after soonyoung with a small frown on his face. "what-" he turned to junhui this time, a startled look on both of their faces as the younger boy asked, "hyung, why is everyone acting so weird tonight?"
junhui, who was diligently doing his job, unlike the rest of his friends, shrugged in response as he joked, "i don't know. full moon? that's when the crazies come out."
"so, soonyoung hyung and mingyu are secretly werewolves?" seokmin snorted at his own joke, shaking his head to himself and added with a cheeky smile to junhui, "explains the anger issues."
junhui chuckled quietly in response. "yeah." he quickly set his things down and looked up at the younger boy, crossing his elbows over the window as he said, "table twenty is almost done, seok. go check on your other tables, it'll be done by the time you come back."