This will be my first purely Hetalia one-shot! There are a few things I need to mention about this fanfic before we begin. 1. This is based off of events that happened to me at my job. I really do work at an Asian restaurant. 2. A lot of the characters may be OOC; I modified and genderbent them slightly to fit the events better. 3. This is basically crack in the form of a restaurant AU.
Here are the human names. I took some liberties with names, especially the genderbent characters…
Xuan=Vietnam; Alfred=America; Alak=Thailand; Alice=fem!England; Ivan=Russia; Felicia=fem!Poland; Chessa=fem!Lithuania; McKenzie=fem!Scotland; Mei=Taiwan; Yong-Soo=South Korea ;Leon=Hong Kong; Yao=China and finally Kiku=Japan.
Hope you enjoy! And, this goes to puzzlingprofessorlover27, yes, this is basically what it's like.
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When Xuan got the phone call that she had been hired as a hostess at Chinashi, the trendy Asian restaurant in her city, she almost couldn't believe it. But two days later, and dressed all in black, she found herself shaking hands with Yao, the enthusiastic manager.
"It's great to meet you aru!" He said smiling brightly. The Chinese man was small, and almost feminine, but clearly loved his job.
"This is Felicia," He said, gesturing to the blond girl standing nearby. "She's going to train you tonight." With that, the manager walked off to the bar, where he began to clean glasses. Xuan looked at the girl. She had shoulder length blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, only the ends were tinged with a blue-green. She held herself confidently, and gave the smaller girl a blinding grin.
"It's, like, nice to meet you! Yao took all the fun away of introducing myself, but oh well. Anyways, welcome to your first night a Chinashi!" Felicia led Xuan away and began showing her around the restaurant. Leading her down one side, the two stopped at a table in the back, where four people sat, wrapping silverware in maroon napkins.
"Guys, this is Xuan. She's the new hostess!" Felicia chirped, as the four stopped for a moment. Xuan took in the odd assortment. There was one boy, and three girls, all looking completely different. The male stood up and shook her hand. He had blond hair, with a small piece sticking up, blue eyes, glasses and a bright smile.
"Great to meet ya! I'm Alfred, one of the waiters." Xuan cautiously shook the offered hand, before turning to the others. A girl with long hair, pulled up in a braid, cocked her head and studied the girl, causing her to shift awkwardly.
"I'm Alice." The girl with the braid stated shortly, offering a slightly coy smile, as if not quite sure what to make of her. Across the table was a girl with brown hair pulled half off her face, and a black beanie on her head.
"I'm Chessa, and I usually work at the bar with Yao, but I do serve if it gets busy." The girl said with a quiet but cheerful voice. The last girl at the table scanned Xuan much like Alice had, but smiled with a more confident look.
"I'm McKenzie, but you can call me Kenzie." Just then, Xuan got a strange feeling that she was being watched, and glancing behind her, found two more people chatting quietly. Felicia glanced at the girl, and quickly walked her over to the two.
"Xuan, this is Ivan, and Mei. Guys, this is Xuan, the new hostess." Xuan noticed that Felicia seemed more subdued around Ivan, but shrugged it off. The duo continued their tour, with Xuan being shown the kitchens, the hibachi room and the bar area, as well as where to find everything.
"So," Felicia began once the two were back at the host desk, "are you ready to begin?" Xuan smiled, and nodded, ready to begin the challenge.
(This line break was created by a chef for your tasting pleasure)
One week later, and Xuan had settled into her job nicely. She easily interacted with customers and waiters alike, and had met Kiku, the quiet but polite manager, who was almost always at the restaurant. Felicia arrived a few minutes before Xuan that first Sunday when she worked, and began to show her the Sunday jobs, as they were nicknamed. The first job was to clean the menus, and that went quickly. The next job also flew past, as making kids chopsticks wasn't that hard. It was then that Xuan met the famous waiter with the rubber duck tie.
"Hey, I just realized that you haven't met Alak yet." Felicia noted when she saw that he would be the next person to get a table. At that very moment, a tall, black haired figure with glasses walked up to the two.
"Perfect timing Alak! I was just going to go find you so you could meet Xuan!" Said girl grinned slightly and nodded at the man. He seemed young, and his eyes sparked with life.
"It is nice to meet you." He said quietly. He then glanced down at the book, grinned at seeing a reservation for 14, and walked away.
"Don't worry Xuan! Alak is usually pretty quiet." Felicia chirped, shaking the girl out of her thoughts.
(Line Break, Line Break, Liney Breaky, Line Break,)
It was the week after that when Xuan first began to have trouble with her job. It wasn't that she was having trouble remembering anything, or logging tables and informing the waiters. No, the fault was Yong-Soo's.
Xuan could still remember her first meeting with the Korean man. It was one of the nights when she worked solo, and Felicia was at dance team. She noted a person, in all black like her, being walked around by Alfred. Seeing her glance that way, Alfred walked over, the shorter person following him.
"Xuan! This is Yong-Soo. He's the new waiter, replacing, well… Leon." There was an awkward pause at the name. Leon had been a waiter before Xuan was hired. He got fired for not showing up three days in a row, then rehired for a week, Xuan's 2nd week, before being fired again.
"Nice to meet you." Xuan said, breaking the odd mood that infected the hostess desk.
"Yeah, yeah. Tell me when I get a table, okay?" Yong-Soo said in a bored tone, before turning to talk to Kiku. Xuan shot Alfred a confused look. Surely Yong-Soo knew that was her job, and that she didn't ever not tell a waiter about a table. Alfred shrugged in response, before leading Yong-Soo off.
A few hours later, just before Xuan's shift ended, Alice came up to the hostess desk, looking ready to punch someone.
"How did Yong-Soo get hired?" she huffed. Xuan blinked, before turning towards the blond waitress.
"I don't know. I didn't even know they were looking." Alice scowled at the answer.
"No, I mean how did he get hired. He's an absolute jerk! I was a preemie, and so I'm skinny because of that. And do you know what he said to me? He said, and I quote, 'You need to eat more. You look like you have an eating disorder. You may want to see someone about that.'" Xuan's eyes widened. She had known about Alice being born early, and came to the conclusion that Yong-Soo simply hadn't heard about it. But she let Alice rant, knowing that her temper would eventually run out.
(Line Break Again… Just bear with it and move on)
For the next three weeks, Xuan swore that Yong-Soo was trying to make her life miserable. It seemed like if they weren't busy, he would either be sulking in the back, or up at the desk bugging her. She sighed and looked down at the reservation book, checking the time to see how long she had before the next reservation. Suddenly, she heard loud laughter approaching her.
Laughter wasn't unusual, given that most people who came to Chinashi were there for the hibachi shows. Expecting to see a party leaving, Xuan turned around, only to find Felicia walking towards her, hunched over in a fit of laughter.
"What happened?" Xuan asked, giving up her spot by the wall to allow Felicia to lean there.
"Alfred just told off Yong-Soo!" Felicia laughed before dissolving into another fit. Xuan's eyes widened. Alfred had a reputation, as did most of the staff. For example, Alak was the one good with kids, Mei was the quiet one, and McKenzie was the one who you couldn't read. Alfred's reputation spoke of his kind, but funny nature, and his knack for not hating anyone. Except for Yong-Soo that is. Alfred, who didn't hate Alice for always trying to convince him to shut up, who could make Ivan smile, admitted to hating Yong-Soo about a week previously, when Yong-Soo decided to seat people at a new table when he could have easily added them on to an open table that happened to be Alfred's.
"So, Alfred had been preparing a tray of soups to bring to his table, and he was balancing it perfectly, when Yong-Soo came barreling through the entry, almost knocked over Al, and then tried to make Al apologize for getting in his way, when he was only carrying a glass of water. Alfred flipped! I've heard him curse, but never at a person! He may as well have punched Yong-Soo, who looked shocked! Honestly, I think the only thing that stopped Alfred from fighting was the fact that he still had that tray of soup!" Felicia gasped out between laughs. Xuan covered her mouth as she too began to laugh at the story.
Suddenly, even though Yong-Soo had been a pain in the neck, even though he still bugged her, it felt to Xuan as if the tables had turned. Maybe she would survive Yong-Soo. Maybe she would be at Chinashi long enough to become a waitress.
She certainly hoped so.