When the café first opened Myungsoo was sixteen and a freshman in high school. He’d walked in for an interview only because they offered free lunches for their employees. He didn’t have anyone at home in the afternoon, and neither he nor Moonsoo knew how to cook. The manager hired him on account that he was sixteen, male, and knew how to clean.

 

Suji on the other hand was hired because she was pretty. That would attract the guys, the manager whispered to him when she had gone round to the back to change into her apron. Myungsoo found that particularly ist. She was hired three months after he was, and he taught her the ropes. They divided the café into Kim and Bae sections—he’d take the Kim portion on the left and her the Bae section on the right. Suji had named them. She said using their surnames made it sound like they were playing for provincial rights in a country. Myungsoo didn’t understand what that meant but found it funny anyway.

 

They never saw each other outside of the café. She went to the all girls’ high school two miles away and he the all boy’s high three miles in the opposite direction. Sometimes her friends from school would drop by and giggle in the corner with a teapot. She would roll her eyes in the back, where Sunggyu the chef was always grumpy. Sometimes his friends would come from school and order nothing more than a sandwich. Water was refillable. Myungsoo found it extremely cheap of them but said nothing more than a you when they went slightly overboard with the refilling.

 

In their second year of serving the manager hired another boy.He said his name was Woohyun, and he was from the co-ed high school right smack in the middle of theirs. Suji was highly amused by that. Soon later the café was split into the Kim, Bae, and Nam sections. Myungsoo was now relegated to the south, while Woohyun took the north and west, and Suji stuck to the east. She secretly whispered to him that it was great having someone new. New meant subordination. Myungsoo couldn’t agree more.

 

Somewhere into the first quarter of their third year, Sunggyu threw the temper of the year, and the manager hired an assistant shortly afterwards. Sungyeol was also from Myungsoo’s school. He had walked in because he had nothing to do after school, and wanted to learn how to cook for the girl he liked. Myungsoo found the excuse slightly offensive. Suji found it incredibly romantic. Sungyeol managed to somehow ease into the flow of things, and Sunggyu complained lesser. Lesser, but still flared up whenever he couldn’t get his way. Times like that required Suji to deliver a slice of cake in person to him.

 

December of their third year and Myungsoo walked in to a very apologetic manager. They were not sure if they could keep them anymore, he said. Some company had decided to buy them over and all interns were to be put on hold when the purchase took place. Myungsoo calculated how many days they had left and Suji circled it on the calendar that was hanging round in the back.

 

Thirty.