Yup, the muse has struck, and the Chinashi Files are being reopened. Now, I'm going to take a second and clarify a bit of who's who. Xuan and Felicia are the hostesses, Yao and Kiku are the managers, and Alfred, Alak, Alice, Ivan, Chessa, McKenzie, Mei, Yong-Soo are the current waiters, and Leon is a former waiter.

Now for a few more characters who are introduced: Antonio= Spain (bus boy); Lovina= fem!South Italy (table cleaner); Leon= Hong Kong (He was mentioned in the last chapter)

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Xuan grinned as she walked into Chinashi. She had been working there for almost 4 months now, and it didn't seem like she would be quitting anytime soon. Waving at Yao as she walked in, she clocked in to her shift and walked back to the front desk. All of a sudden, Felicia walked up to her.

"You take dance right?" the blond asked. Xuan was taken slightly aback by the question.

"Yes, I do tap and contemporary." She replied. Felicia rolled her eyes and let out a loud sigh.

"Then can you please tell Yao that Gangnam Style is not a contemporary dance?!" Felicia practically begged. Xuan's jaw dropped, and her mouth fell open, before she began to laugh hysterically. Hearing the two, Yao walked over to see what was going on.

"What's so funny?" he asked the girls, who were doubled over laughing.

"Yao, Gangnam Style is in no way shape or form a contemporary dance." Xuan gasped out between laughs. A confused look passed over Yao's face.

"But it is! I mean…" Yao trailed off as he began to do the dance. Felicia dashed away from the hostess desk, leaving Xuan to stare in amused horror as her boss tried, and failed, to show her just how contemporary Gangnam Style was.

(Flaming Line Break)

Xuan stared. She shook her head. She looked again. There was no way that this was the reservation book for that night. There were 7 reservations for 6:30 alone: smaller ones that could be combined, but it wasn't the main reason she stared. For 6:00, there were only three reservations. This wouldn't be that bad normally, except for the size: One was 14 people, and the other two were for 20 people each. And it was already 5:45.

Granted, the tables were already set up, but it was still insanely large. Suddenly, the door chirped, and in walked 8 people.

"Hi, welcome to Chinashi. How many?" She asked, keeping a smile on her face. With those words, the madness began.

For the next 30 minutes, Xuan literally did not stop moving. Between checking off the reservations, seating the reservations, balancing the walk-in parties for both sushi and hibachi, informing waiters, and collecting menus back from passing waiters, she didn't think she would be able to catch her breath.

Her head was spinning as she finally got a break at the hostess desk. Her brain rushed through all the things she still had to do, like figure out where to put the 6:30 groups, track down the waiters, and help bus the tables so they could seat people faster.

Just when she thought things couldn't get any crazier, Alfred walked up to her with a slip of paper. Internally, Xuan groaned. Another reservation?!

"Hey, Xu! That party of 8, Christie, they just called to cancel." He told her. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and grabbed a pen to mark that they canceled.

"Wait… can I do that?" Alfred begged, sounding like a child. Xuan laughed and handed over the pen. As Alfred dramatically swiped the pen over the reservation after writing cancel in flowing script, she smiled. Even with the insanity, she could always count on him to somehow make her smile.

(Nope, that's not a sign of romance. Just a friendship line break)

Xuan sighed as she walked back to the kitchen. It had been a really busy night, and she was looking forward to the food. Each night on the weekends, the chefs would cook food for the staff. It could be anything, from tilapia tempura to shrimp fried rice.

Grabbing a plate, she used the tongs to pick up what looked like marinated chicken wings. She joined Alice near the hibachi room entrance and took a bite. Instantly, her mouth felt like it was on fire. But it was really good. Off to the side she noticed one of the bussers watching her.

"This is really good. What is it?" Xuan asked politely. His eyes widened, before he broke out into a big grin.

"Oh! You like the chicken feet?"

(Line break time. I'm pretty sure it's okay to leave that one as it is.)

Xuan loved working at Chinashi. Everyone was awesome, and she always left smiling. She thought she knew everyone by the end of her first month. She was proven wrong on two separate occasions.

The first happened during her 3rd week, but she didn't think anything of it. Any time she would rest her head on her hand, she'd hear a voice call, "Wake up! Customers!" which proceeded to make her jump each time.

Finally, she decided enough was enough. She put her head down again, and when the accented call came, she jerked around and looked at the speaker. He was a tall, gangly man with cinnamon colored hair and green eyes. He appeared to be Hispanic.

"Xu! I see you've met Antonio." Alfred cheered as he walked over to her with a stack on menus. Taking the stack, she looked over at the man. He simply grinned before snapping his fingers and walking away.

"Wake up!"

(Another Line Break. Time to Meet Some other players)

The second time she didn't know someone happened just the next week.

Valentine's Day had come and passed in the blink of an eye. It had been only about a month since Xuan had started working at Chinashi, but she already felt at home. She still was adjusting slightly, but she felt like she had met everyone.

One Friday night, it became busy really fast. Xuan rushed around, telling waiters about tables as fast as she wrote them down. She was hurrying back to the kitchen to tell McKenzie about a table when a black-clad boy? man? approached her.

"I'm Leon. I'll take that table." He rushed out before walking away. Xuan was left staring at the spot where the supposed waiter had been. Something clicked in her mind that Felicia had said during her training. Something about two waiters having really similar names so everyone called the newer one by a nickname.

Xuan shrugged and went back to the desk. When she got there, Leon's name had been added to the rotation, with the table next to his name.

(Yeah, it's another line break. What can I say? The muse was flowing)

Xuan agreed. Alfred agreed. Mei agreed. McKenzie, Chessa and Alice agreed. Everyone at the restaurant agreed: Yong-Soo was annoying. Within two months of him being hired, he had spent probably a quarter of that time just bugging Xuan about getting a table. In fact, there were three moments that happened that made Xuan want to strangle him.

The first incident just frustrated her. The second creeped her out, and brought out Alfred's "over-protective brother" side. Finally, with the third, she just told Kiku. Not that she'd meant to, but it happened.

Xuan had just finished cleaning the windows. It was the one main chore she had to complete, other than watering the plants and refilling the mint dish. On good nights, it took her maybe five minutes. Bad nights required at least 15. But that night, it had been a super bad night. After a good 20 minutes, Xuan threw away the newspaper and put the spray back in the "hiding spot", as she and Felicia called it.

"The windows look good." Yong-Soo said as he appeared behind the hostess. Xuan rolled her eyes and nodded. Then, Yong-Soo walked up to the windows, held out his hands, and covered half of them with fingerprints. Xuan nearly growled. 20 minutes of hard work messed up by a guy who wasn't funny at all.

Xuan stood back in the kitchen with Alice and Chessa, enjoying a bowl of rice. The prospects of pig stomach soup didn't sit well with the hostess, so she opted for some hot, sticky goodness. Yong-Soo walked over to the girls with his bowl of soup, and did a double take.

"You're not putting anything on it?" He asked, motioning towards Xuan's bowl. She shook her head, and watched confused as the waiter pulled out a large bottle of orangeish pink sauce.

"Not even Yum-Yum sauce?" He wheedled

"No Yong-Soo. I'm fine." Xuan huffed, exasperated with him. She went back to eating, but had barely taken a bite when the bottle hovered and tipped slightly over her food. She jerked the dish away and kept eating. The bottle moved again, and she turned around to avoid the incessant waiter. Then an arm wrapped around her and the bottle hovered over her food again. She jumped away, disgusted and she shoveled down the rest of her food before stalking out of the kitchen back to the hostess desk.

"Woah, what happened Xu?" Alfred asked seeing her bad mood.

"Yong-Soo wrapped his arm around me to try and put Yum-Yum sauce on my rice, even after I told him no." she snapped.

"He did what?!" Alfred gasped, anger appearing on his face. He slunk away, and had she not been so mad at him, Xuan would have felt sorry for Yong-Soo.

Xuan was mad. Not just mad, furious. A table had gotten seated, and their waiter hadn't been told. But it wasn't Xuan's fault. Nooo, it was Yong-Soo. You see, Xuan had been trying to find Alice and let her know that she had a hibachi table, when a party came in. Xuan informed them that she would be back in a minute, but now they were gone, having been seated, supposedly ignored, and then they left.

Xuan let it slide though. It was one table, and the damage was already done, but she noticed that Yong-Soo avoided her for the rest of the night. The next Sunday though, that was when everything came to a close.

Xuan felt bad for Alice. She had gotten three tables so far that night, but they were all smaller, whereas Yong-Soo had gotten parties of 6-8 people.

"I have the worst luck ever!" Alice ranted, pacing next to the hostess desk as Xuan and Kiku looked on.

"I mean, it's horrible! Not to mention Yong-Soo being so pushy and everything." Alice grumbled as she walked away to roll napkins. Xuan nodded sympathetically, before noticing Kiku staring at her.

"What does she mean Yong-Soo being pushy." Kiku asked. Xuan's eyes widened as she realized that he didn't know what the waiter had done. She explained everything awkwardly, stumbling slightly when she saw Kiku, who was usually stoic, start to look upset.

To be honest though, she didn't really care. Yong-Soo deserved whatever he got from the incident. It was the third, and last time he really bugged her.

(Yes, that has happened to me. I thought I'd mention that in a line break)

It wasn't often that things creeped Xuan out. She was a high schooler for crying out loud. She had seen boys in strapless dresses, a teacher literally cackle and heard an honest cat fight. But staring at the gold statue placed in the entrance to Chinashi, it freaked her out, just a little.

It was a standard lucky cat statue, with the dark gold disk, green scarf and red collar. It even waved at people who came in. But it sat there on the table and stared at her. And she didn't stare back. How could she? It just stared with dead eyes.

One night, Xuan stood behind the desk, staring back at the cat for a change, counting the number of waves. She knew the exact moment when Alfred tried to sneak up behind her and stopped with his head almost on her shoulder.

"Dude, that thing is creepy."

(Short but sweet Line break)

Xuan hummed as she walked into work on Halloween. She knew it would be dead, but she didn't care. She was getting out of a long church service, so she didn't mind having to work. In fact, she welcomed it.

Her cheerful rendition of "Spooky Scary Skeletons" trailed off as she took in the new decoration on the hostess desk. Normally it was either fake Birds of Paradise or a fake orchid. Instead, there was a pumpkin. A glowing pumpkin. Getting closer, she realized that it was fiber optics surrounding each opening on the jack-o-lantern.

She shrugged and clocked in. As the girl stood by the desk and waited for customers, Yao walked over to her.

"Where's your costume?" He asked. Xuan shrugged. She didn't know that she could dress up for the night, so she just put on an oversized locket and called it done. When she looked up at her boss, her jaw dropped.

Yao had dressed up as a stereotypical bartender. He had a white button-up shirt, a bow tie, suspenders and dress pants with an apron and a towel slung over his shoulder. Xuan began to laugh. It was perfect and fit him to a t. Then Xuan noticed Alice and McKenzie walking over as well. The two of them were wearing matching soda shop checkered aprons, pink ties, soda shop hats and oversized cat-eye glasses.

"Yao, can we take a picture together?" McKenzie asked, pulling up her camera phone. Giggling, Xuan took the phone and watched as the two girls posed on either side of him, Alice with a tray and McKenzie with a menu.

Sure, she ended up only working until about 7:45, but it still was a great night. And now she knew that she could come in wearing a funny hat and tie on Halloween. Bonus.

(Last line break for the chapter, I promise)

It was a well-known fact for Xuan that when people are tired, they act differently. Alfred basically turned into a zombie, Alice acted snappier than usual and Chessa didn't really get tired, but you knew when she did. What Xuan didn't know was that two employees of Chinashi became incredibly slap-happy, and therefore just plain goofy.

The first one kind of scared her. It hadn't been that busy for a Friday, but it was busy enough. Strangely, whenever she went to go tell Ivan that he had a table, he would grin widely at her and nod. Xuan passed it off as it being a good night for him. That's when things got weird.

Xuan and Chessa were standing next to each other talking, when Ivan came up with the goofiest grin imaginable on his face. Chessa pulled him into the conversation, only for Ivan to do something neither of them expected. He started giggling.

Yong-Soo was the second one, and his slap-happiness scared Xuan more than anything else she had seen.

It seemed like a normal, albeit busy night. Four waiters working hard on a Sunday night, while Xuan waited for customers to come in. It was almost a dream to Xuan, because for once, Yong-Soo wasn't hovering or bugging her.

"Hi Xuan." He said, coming up behind her. Xuan turned and smiled.

"What's new?" She asked, somewhat surprised that he was smiling too. The conversation continued until Yong-Soo began describing something funny that happened to him. All of a sudden, he started jumping around, clapping and giggling. Xuan's eyes widened as she watched the normally cynical waiter act like a 7-year-old. It actually scared her.

The rest of the night was kind of the same. The two would be civil, then Yong-Soo would start giggling for no apparent reason.

Xuan knew people acted strangely when they were tired, but this was the craziest thing she'd ever seen.