Instant Noodles

Chapter 1: The Customer

The Huang Ti Mian restaurant, or Emperor Noodles restaurant in English, was your average hole in the wall Chinese noodle house that served the best stir-fry noodles in town. To Maria, it was a haven and a blessing that she was able to find work there.

Prior to her part-time job as a waitress there, she'd spent a whole week looking for possible summer jobs to keep her mind off… a certain someone and to earn a little cash for herself as well. And let me tell you something, it had been HELL for her.

Who knew there were so many unpleasant, horrible, and downright weird jobs out there? Not Maria. Some of the work was pretty normal but didn't have much pay like the job manning the cash register at the convenience store. A job as a mascot for a grocery actually caught her eye since the pay was quite high but under the summer heat, the mascot suit had been torture. The other jobs… well, they were scary and had questionable legality. She shuddered at the thought.

Maria smiled and hummed a happy tune as she wiped the dirt of the table and the lazy Susan (the spinning tray on the center of the table). She definitely owed Mei, her Taiwanese friend and classmate, an awesome birthday gift this year. Just as she was about to give up looking for a job, it was Mei who told her that her brother needed help in his Chinese restaurant.

Although the pay wasn't very high, it was still decent and the work was normal (thank God). The restaurant had a nice welcoming atmosphere and Mei's brother, the owner, though somewhat androgynous (Maria couldn't tell if he was a guy or a girl at first) was very kind to her. He even asked her to call him Yao Ge ge, meaning big brother Yao in Chinese. She warmly complied.

But the best thing about the Huang Ti Mian (or HTM for short), was the food. One could tell the food, especially the noodles, was great by the sheer number of customers alone. Due to its small size, the restaurant was almost always packed during lunch or dinnertime. Maria was elated when she found out the job offered free meals. Good food, especially sweets and desserts, was one of her weaknesses.

When Maria finished cleaning that table, she moved onto the next one. She was in a good mood since it was almost closing time and she could go home and watch that new K-drama on TV. And maybe eat chocolate. Chocolate~…

"Earth to Maria! Maria? Maria! …Are you even listening to me?"

Maria's chocolate daydream was interrupted by an exasperated voice. The "voice" belonged to Rachel Tan, her Singaporean friend and classmate. By the looks of it, the Singaporean seemed a little miffed at having to call the attention of her Filipina co-worker. Maria wondered if she spaced out for very long.

"Uhh… Sorry? What were you saying again?" Maria wiped the saliva that had started to form at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and focused her attention on her bespectacled friend.

"There's a customer." was the curt reply. Maria raised an eyebrow; not a single customer ever came this late especially more so since it was already closing time.

Rachel gestured the eastern side of the restaurant and sure enough, there was a customer scanning a menu on the farthest table on the right. "And a strange one too", Maria observed.

The Filipina shot her co-worker a questioning glance. The "customer" didn't seem to be dangerous but he definitely seemed suspicious. What kind of person wore sunglasses, a trench coat, and a baseball cap? At night. During summer. Indoors.

The Singaporean shrugged and said, "It must be some sort of new fashion trend or something. Those actors from Hollywood always come up with something weird one way or another."

Maria was still skeptical. The customer looked a bit nervous; he kept turning his head and looking around the restaurant as if trying to hide from someone. "Or maybe he has some sort of twitching disease?"

The Filipina made her way over to the customer's table. Upon closer inspection, the guy's clothes looked really expensive and branded as well. Seriously, if he wanted to look inconspicuous, he could've lost the cap and the shades and worn plainer clothes instead.

"Good evening, sir. Would you like to or-"

"Get me two orders of the specialty noodles to go. Now."

"How rude! He just cut me off!" Maria bit her lip and forced a smile to be polite. The smile she used was the kind she reserved for cranky relatives, strict teachers, and, in general, people she really didn't like. And man, she was REALLY starting to dislike this guy.

"Anything else, sir?"

"No. Just go already."

Maria glanced back at the customer. He brought out his cellphone and began speaking to someone. The Filipina just shrugged and went on her way to the kitchen to relay the customer's order.


After a couple of minutes, Maria came back with the customer's food.

As soon as she handed him the plastic bag his order, he immediately paid and left. She was about to clean up the table when she noticed the guy had left his phone.

Maria's mind raced; if she left now she could still chase after that guy! After a split-second decision, she took of her apron and ran after the customer.

As soon as she exited the restaurant, she quickly caught sight of the cap and trench coat turning on the corner of the street on the left and ran after them.


5 minutes later

Maria was dead tired. She had been running for the past five minutes and somewhere along the way she managed to lose the guy. She was breathless, tired, and wanted to go home already.

She was about to walk back to the restaurant when, by some stroke of luck, she managed spot the customer who left his phone again. Maybe it was a good thing that his outfit was so noticeable.

Maria mustered up all the energy she could and ran toward the guy. She followed him to an alley and started to call out to him.

"Sir! You left your-"

Maria felt a hand pull her and another cover her mouth. Her first instinct was to scream but her captor roughly whispered in her ear, "Shh… Don't move and don't talk. You'll give away my hiding place."

Maria obeyed dumbly. A million questions flooded her mind. Who was this guy? Why was he doing this? Was she going to die? If she died, who would tell her parents? And how would she know what happened next on that K-drama she was following?

Seconds felt like hours and after what seemed to be forever, she heard voices and footsteps pass.

"JAYA! I LOVE YOU!"

"I'M YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN!"

"CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?"

"MARRY ME!"

From what Maria could see, outside their hiding place there was a throng of women, how many she couldn't tell. All of them were pushing and screaming at each other. For what reason, Maria didn't know.

"OH MY GOSH! I THINK I SEE HIM OVER THERE ON THE OTHER STREET!"

After that last outburst, the rest of the obsessive sounding girls stampeded over to the other street. And that's when her captor finally let her go.

Maria was still in a daze. The whole experience just scared her senseless! When she finally regained control of her brain, she took her first look at her captor. It was that same rude customer! And that's when she started to scream at the guy.

"Why did you do that? I don't even know you!" Maria glared at her "customer".

"You don't know me..?" The guy looked confused. He finally removed his shades and baseball cap and she saw his face for the first time.

Although Maria would definitely never admit it, especially right after what he'd done to her, he was quite good looking. He was just as good looking as he was rude.

"Of course I don't know you! The only reason I followed you was to give this back!" She showed him the cellphone he had left in the restaurant.

The guy checked his stuff. When he was sure his phone wasn't there with his things, he grabbed his phone from her outstretched hand.

"So… You really don't know me?" he asked.

"Why would I know you? I've only just met you in the restaurant!"

"Good." The guy smirked. Maria tried her best to resist the urge to punch this guy. He was really annoying her.

"Well, thanks for returning my phone. Bye." The guy then began to calmly walk away as if nothing happened and left Maria just standing there, dumbfounded.

When she finally regained control of her senses, Maria checked her watch and cried,

"Diyos ko! (My God!) It's that late? I'm going to miss my K-drama!"


AN: I'm so sorry! My computer broke (and is still broken at the moment) so I had to borrow my cousin's laptop to finally update this story. My cousin was nice enough to lend his to me for two hours (and he means ONLY two hours *sigh*). Sorry for those who were asking for a quick update...

To all those who reviewed the last boring prologue namely: Random somebody, theluckyshipper, yukaeri, Luna Espejo, AnonAhoy, and AccessBlade, thank you all for your reviews very much! X3 I've never been so motivated to update before and sorry if this fic falls beneath your expectations (I'm still a newb writer, I'm afraid)... :(

I wonder if you guys can guess who "that guy" is XD Obviously, it's not Singapore anymore. I made Singa-chan a girl~ She's a smart Chinese looking girl who wears glasses and is good at Math ;D Hopefully, no one gets mad at my representation of the ASEAN... ^^;

Lastly, thank you very much if you read this whole chapter. I'm very grateful to you for that :3 (Although I'd especially love it if you left a review. Please? For Christmas? ^w^)