Because the café also serves food, usually when newcomers start work we start them off with the basics of the basics: dishwashing. Then we cover floor duties like serving, greeting customers and so on before we allow them to be near the bar area.

When Jooyeon tells Yixing this, he maintains his expression and nod to everything she is saying. Sometimes – not always, but we do get some occasionally – when newcomers learn that they would be covering everything including dishwashing, they change faces and within their first week, they would be out. But those who looked at the bigger picture would stay on and gain more knowledge than anywhere else.

This is just my point-of-view, and I stand by it, because I really did gain more than I wanted to when I first started this job. Who knew that a small café would have so much to offer?

“Suyeong,” Jooyeon snaps me out out my daze. “Mind showing him around? You’ll be his buddy for today.” She pats my shoulder and pushes me lightly towards him. ‘Buddy’ is our term for pairing. Every newcomer would be assigned a more experienced colleague to be guided and to show the ropes on their first few shifts. I admit, I at bringing newcomers around, which I guess is why Jooyeon is letting me take Yixing.

I take a deep breath and smile, hoping that it actually looks like a smile rather than my face is cramping. “Sure,” I shrug. “Come on, I’ll show you the back room first.”

I show him the light switches – which switch is for which light – and then the back room where we rest; the storeroom; the kitchen and how to wash the plates properly and how to operate the dishwasher (believe me, a lot of people actually do not know how to wash a dish cleanly and efficiently); the bathroom, the kitchen crew which consists on two chefs and one baker for our in-house baked goods; the table numbers and how we read dockets and how to send food.

Usually by now, the newcomers would have an overwhelmed look on their faces, and this means that I gave them too much information to digest. But Yixing seems to be absorbing everything pretty well, and answered all my random questions about things I had covered earlier on right.

“I guess that’s all I should tell you for now,” I stretch my back a bit. “Wouldn’t want to overload you on information on your first day.”

He laughs at my comment and nod. “Thanks for bringing me around and giving such a detailed explanation. Is there anything I can help with for now?”

His question takes me back by surprise, because usually they don’t ask for things to do; we assign them things to do to prevent them from just standing around and doing nothing. But he actually asked for something to do, and I rack my brains for something that he could help with.

“Well, uh, there’s some empty plates on the tables, right?” I point out. “Maybe you can help me clear those and wash them at the back?”

He nods slowly. “Sure.”

I follow him at the back and he stacks the bowls and plates nicely into one big stack before bringing it into the kitchen. I was again, taken aback because people would usually have some troubles stacking plates more or less, especially on their first day on a new job that they never had experience with before. But he seems to do it like it’s second nature, like me.

But I was different because I had experiences in waitressing before I landed this job.

I go over to Jooyeon and nudge her lightly. “You sure he had no working experiences before? He seems pretty familiar with everything to me.”

“He told me he hadn’t worked in a café before, not totally zero work experiences.” Jooyeon corrects me. “Maybe you can talk to him and know more. You know, try to get along and know each other better.” She smiles and elbows me, wriggling her eyebrows a bit.

“I know that look, Song Jooyeon.” I roll my eyes. “I don’t need a matchmaker for a manager, thank you very much.”

She gasps dramatically. “Hey! You should be glad that you have such a caring manager, alright?” She slowly breaks into a laugh as I do the same. “Anyway, you should go check up on him. I didn’t pair him up with you for nothing.”

I nod my head and head towards the kitchen door. “Alright, boss.”
 

As I go in, I notice there is a washed load on the other side of the dishwasher waiting to be dried, and I go over to help while Yixing washes.

The kitchen crew isn’t anywhere in the kitchen, and I’m guessing they went out to have a smoke or something.

“So how old are you this year?” I start and Yixing looks up briefly while washing before resuming.

“Twenty-four.”

“That means you’re older than me.” I mutter. “What was your previous job?”

“I was