Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-3-

Suddenly the coins started shooting out of the small machine, directly hitting the floor, making an unbearable sound of metal hitting metal. I tried to stop it, but nothing worked. Panic came up. I tried to calm myself down, but I couldn't as the wave of coins continued hitting the floor.
"Dude, I told you to not touch anything!", Jihoon shouted, as he saw me crouching next to the coin shooter. He hurried, pressing in a password on the code pad, which stopped the shooting and that horrible loud sound. "Why didn't you just listen to what I said! Do you know how time consuming it is to bring that mess back to normal? I don't have time for it!", he exclaimed, grabbing his hair really tight.
"I didn't know it would shoot coins like that, I'm sorry", I quickly apologized.
"Why didn't you just listen to me? We don't have time!", he kept going, not even taking a breath. He suddenly seemed so stressed and paranoid. As if that one mistake would take whole caratland down.
"Hey, Jihoon! Calm down! It's sunday, we can fix that really quick", I hold his shoulders.
"N-No, we can't. We don't have time", he whispered to himself at the verge of crying. He had a total mental breakdown.
"Just tell me what to do and that mess is cleaned faster then you can blink, okay?", I smiled, willing to help. He nodded and gave me instructions.

Like that the time flew so fast that it got already dark outside.
"You do that all alone?", I asked, after bringing the last box to the storage. Jihoon quietly nodded. We were sitting on the border of the game stands, under the lightning sign, eating waffles from the food court that Jisoo brought us some minutes ago.
"I usually have a really tight schedule, not allowing any mistakes. If I do so, the whole routine gets messed up and I won't finish work until the next morning. With your help it was faster then I thought", he explained. I couldn't even imagine one person doing all that alone: sorting the coins by hand, filling up the pick games, blowing all the balloons, check the plastic ducks and glue new sticker on them, counting the amount of obtained prices and the list went on. Doing all that alone... I wouldn't even finish that till the next morning. Now it made sense why Jihoon had that mental breakdown, only one thing could really destroy the harmony of time and tasks.
"Jihoon, you're doing an amazing work here", I tapped his shoulder. He looked at me with a shocked and surprised face. "What?", I asked, he still stared at me.
"It's just that no one ever said that before...", he confessed, biting his lips and his cheeks turning pink.
"You're so cute", I giggled, seeing his reaction over my compliment.
"Hey, I'm not cute!", he said, his face blushing harder, as he hit my shoulder.
"Okay, you little puncher", I said. Jihoon's face suddenly getting sadder.
"It's sad that you'll leave soon", he murmured. I wanted to say something but kept my mouth shut. Leaving? Why?

Seokmin suggested that we go eat at the food court. Even though Jihoon and I already ate waffles we still went with them. Maybe it's because I'm new and they want to know me better or something like that.

It was 10pm at the time we reached the food court. There were several stands, even a supermarket, all owning the boss of caratland. I wondered how he looked like...
"So for Soonyoung, who's new, we gonna introduce him to the best burger I ever ate", Seokmin declared as we reached a burger shop, "The burger here is fantastic."

Everyone ordered their food. We were waiting for them to bring it in. Mingyu was talking to Wonwoo, who didn't seem bothered by that. Seokmin, Jisoo and Hansol were also busy chatting, while Seungkwan sticked to Hansol. Literally. He had his arm crossed with Hansol's and Hansol didn't even bother. Junhui and Minghao were sitting next to each other, still arguing about something. Chan tried to start a conversation with them to calm them down, but Junhui and Minghao didn't even listen to him. Jihoon stayed quiet in his corner. When the food arrived everything got really quiet. No one talked, just eating. I also ordered a burger since I didn't want to seem rude towards Seokmin since he recommended that burger. The burger was tasty though even if I was about to explode.

"You seem overwhelmed", someone suddenly said to me. It was Chan, grinning.
"A little bit. I mean I don't know you guys so well", I murmured the last sentence.
"We're not used of getting new staff. Usually they come and stay for about three days until they leave again. That's why no one bothers to talk to you. They think you'll leave soon too", he explained, finishing his glass of coke. Why leaving? Why would everyone leave? What is that secret? I just nodded and drank from my soda. "Ah, and they're not mean, besides Wonwoo and Jihoon, they can be scary as hell", Chan laughed, but frowned when he mentioned Wonwoo and Jihoon. "And a little introduction for you: As you can see Wonwoo and Mingyu are always together. Even though it doesn't seem like it, Wonwoo is actually really comfortable around him. Seungkwan is always around Hansol if he's not working. Sometimes it feels like he wants more from Hansol than just a normal friendship, but you know, Hansol is not that type to realize things if you don't tell him. Hao and Jun fight every day, but they really care for each other, but of course they don't let the other know to protect their pride. Seokmin and Shua are like those leading guys. Shua actually being caring and Seokmin more like that "Let the kids make mistakes so they learn themselves"-type. Even if Seokmin is younger then most of them sitting here. And Jihoon... well let's say he's only working here so he can make a living", Chan gave me a more detailed introduction to everyone. "Oh, and I forgot to mention him. He's Jeonghan, the assistant of our boss. He just comes and looks around", he said pointing at a guy standing next to the door. I didn't even notice him. His hair was really bright, almost white, "But I wouldn't recommend you staying next to him. Many people say he's... Let's say a little flirty."
Chan kept talking about something, but I didn't really listened since I payed more attention to that Jeonghan guy. Like how the hell did he came in or how the hell didn't I notice him before?

Once we left the burger shop I felt the tiredness overcoming me. After all it was 1AM. Seokmin was still cheerfully talking to Mingyu and Jisoo. Everyone was still so vivid. Even Jihoon, who was quiet the whole time. Chan looked at me a little worried since I stopped smiling, not like before.
"Are you fine?", he asked, once he noticed that I stopped paying attention to his words.
"Yeah, I'm just a little tired", I yawned.
"Oh yeah, rest well. You just need to go to the hotel and ask that guy for a room. Say you're from the amusement park department and he'll give you probably a room next to mine", Chan explained. I thanked him and made my way to the hotel.