don't cry over spilt coffee
Apartment Block 17
(aka. extracurricular pt.2)
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[JAM JAM CAFÉ]
“Sorry about yesterday, Wonwoo,” the café manager apologised as his worker entered the establishment. “I didn’t know we’d have a sudden health inspection.”
“It’s alright. But I have Mingyu with me today, since he couldn’t come yesterday,” he replied in his soothing, deep voice.
Wonwoo had always been a quiet and diligent worker, which gained him the approval of his manager and coworkers. He wasn’t necessarily shy, and was able to deal with customers quite skilfully, but tended to keep to himself most of the time. His coworkers had learnt to respect that.
It puzzled the manager as to why someone like Kim Mingyu even had contact with Jeon Wonwoo. Upon entering the café after Wonwoo, he brought in an aura of cheerfulness and joy that seemed far more appropriate for a kindergarten, not a high-end coffee shop. The manager had met Mingyu on occasion as Wonwoo’s new roommate, but how their relationship worked out was still a mystery.
“Hi, I’m Mingyu!” he greeted boisterously, bowing a full 90 degrees. The manager nodded his head and shook Mingyu’s hand firmly.
Wonwoo didn’t have a shift that day, since it was Friday, but he negotiated with his manager to let him work the shift to make up for the one lost yesterday. Because the café had been closed for a health inspection, he had spent a majority of his afternoon playing Mario Kart with Mingyu. He hated to admit that he got a little too into playing the game with his roommate; it had been a long time since he’d played Mario Kart with someone else.
Unsurprisingly to Wonwoo, Jam Jam had passed the inspection with flying colours. The fact that the place was always kept impeccably clean was one of the reasons Wonwoo liked working at Jam Jam. It was also one of the reasons Wonwoo hesitated on letting Mingyu work there - the boy was an accident waiting to happen.
“Today, we’ll just let you help out at the register and perhaps some odd jobs around the place. Have you ever worked as a cashier before?” the manager asked as he led Mingyu behind the counter. The café was already bustling with customers seeking a late-afternoon coffee. Wonwoo noticed several girls from his university eyeing Mingyu inconspicuously from where they sat at a corner table.
“No. But I’ll try!” Mingyu said, determined.
“You’ll keep an eye on him, won’t you, Wonwoo?”
“Yeah,” he assured his manager. “I’ll make sure he won’t break anything. Hopefully.”
By the time Junhui arrived for his shift two hours later, Mingyu had managed to spill five coffees, collapse a shelf in his quest to grab another bag of sugar, accidentally key in an order for fifty pancakes instead of five (much to the chef’s annoyance) and pour salt instead of sugar into multiple orders of coffee. Wonwoo was exhausted from having to apologise to both the customers and his manager (though if there was something Mingyu was good at, it was apologising).
“Hey, Mingyu! How’s the work?” Junhui greeted, slapping on his Jam Jam apron and joining them behind the counter.
“Great!”
“Terrible,” Wonwoo said simultaneously as he furiously scrubbed the counter, cleaning up another one of Mingyu’s spills. Junhui chuckled as Mingyu rubbed his neck sheepishly.
“It’s a lot harder than I imagined,” Mingyu admitted, grabbing another rag and helping Wonwoo.
“Money doesn’t come easy,” Junhui said.
“I hope I get paid overtime for all this work,” Wonwoo muttered.
“Stop being so grumpy, Wonwoo. Mingyu’s trying his best!” Junhui laughed, patting Mingyu on the back.
“I really am,” Mingyu nodded.
“I know. I just wish you’d be less clumsy,” Wonwoo said.
“Can’t change a person, Wonwoo. Just accept him as he is and your life will be easier,” Junhui advised. “When I first met Minghao, I hated that he chewed his fingernails all the time. But now that I’ve accepted that he’ll never not bite his nails... well, my life is easier.”
“Thanks for the stellar advice, Jun,” Wonwoo said sarcastically.
Junhui took to serving the intermittent flow of customers, while Wonwoo and Mingyu helped out with the drinks. Wonwoo instructed Mingyu as carefully as he could, and Mingyu initially seemed to get the hang of using the coffee machine. But of course, all good things must come to an end.
“Wonwoo, something’s wrong,” Mingyu said slowly, fiddling with something on the coffee machine. It had only been ten minutes since Wonwoo had left him to his own devices.
Wonwoo breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm his oncoming headache. “What happened?”
Mingyu’s tongue was sticking out in concentration, as he attempted to fit a metal piece back into the top of the machine. “The ice was stuck, so I tried to unjam it but this piece came off.” He held up a metal pipe-like object.
Much to Wonwoo’s relief and surprise, it wasn’t actually entirely Mingyu’s fault. Wonwoo remembered having an internal panic attack when he broke the exact same part the first time he worked in the café. It seemed that it was a small ‘easter egg’ some of the senior workers left for novice workers to stumble upon.
Wonwoo took the pipe and fitted it back with ease. Mingyu gave him a relieved smile. “I thought I broke it,” he said with guilt.
Wonwoo patted him on the back awkwardly. “Not everything you touch breaks. You’re probably just having a bad day,” he assured Mingyu.
“Wow, that’s the nicest thing I’ve heard you say to him,” Junhui leaned over from the cash register and sniggered.
“Shut up,” Wonwoo mumbled. “It’s true.”
Jam Jam’s manager set Mingyu on cleaning duty next, as he figured nothing else could go wrong with simple cleaning. Aside from a few slips and dropped utensils, Mingyu seemed to be pretty good at mopping. Most of the female customers seemed to have no problem with Mingyu cleaning up their messes; it got to a point where Wonwoo strongly believed that none of those messes were accidental in the first place.
“I’m so sorry,” Mingyu’s signature apology slipped out habitually, “I’ll get you another coffee!” he insisted as he mopped up another ‘accidental’ spill by a customer. Wonwoo wondered why Mingyu was even apologising in the first place.
“That’s okay!” the customer, a young girl wearing grossly excessive makeup smiled sickeningly sweetly at an oblivious Mingyu. “Instead, do you think I could get your number?”
“Sorry, I’m not interested,” Mingyu replied bluntly but honestly. The girl pouted in what was meant to be a cute gesture, but ended up resembling more of a ty duck.
Wonwoo held back a laugh from where he observed behind the counter. Mingyu never meant anything in a mean way, but his honesty could sometimes make him sound extremely blunt. Wonwoo wasn’t sure how Mingyu felt about always being approached by girls; it happened every other day or so around the apartment block, and to be frank, it really pissed Wonwoo off. He wasn’t sure why it made him so angry, though watching Mingyu turn them down using different good-natured excuses proved to be very entertaining. However, among all the excuses Mingyu had come up with so far, he had yet to use the ‘gay card’.
Mingyu left abruptly after gathering all the dishes, much to the disappointment of the girl. She looked as if she was about to get up and chase him, but after noticing Wonwoo’s glare from behind the counter, she sat back down quietly. Sometimes, Wonwoo was glad that he possessed what Junhui referred to as a ‘resting face’.
The bell at the door rang as two more customers entered. Wonwoo stood up straighter, preparing himself to serve them (assuming they weren’t just there to window shop, but to actually buy something).
“But how are we gonna pay for it?” one of the two customers, a teenage boy with dyed blue hair, said with a troubled tone. Wonwoo recognised him, having met him a few times around his apartment block, though they had never actually talked before.
“Beats me,” the other customer, a shorter boy with light purple hair sighed.
“Welcome to Jam Jam, how may I help you?” Junhui greeted brightly as the customers approached the counter. After they placed their order, Junhui continued talking to them with great ease. Wonwoo had always been jealous of how easily Junhui managed to converse with others.
“Aren’t you two the ones Seungcheol was chasing out at his surprise party?” Junhui asked with a laugh.
“Yeah, that’s us!” the blue-haired boy grinned and high-fived Junhui as if they were old friends.
“That’s not exactly something to be proud of,” the purple-haired boy muttered.
“Was what I heard true? You broke your tap to distract Seungcheol?” Wonwoo interrupted, joining the conversation.
“Unfortunately, yes,” the shorter boy sighed.
Introducing themselves as ‘Soonyoung’ and ‘Jihoon’, the two boys seemed to settle in well with the workers in the café. Well, Soonyoung at least; it was hard to feel uncomfortable in the presence of his cheerful aura. One of Wonwoo’s coworkers, Taehyung, brought their food out and sat the two boys down at an available table.
The shop settled back into its usual peaceful atmosphere (occasionally interrupted by Soonyoung’s exclamations and Jihoon’s insistence on lowering his voice), with Wonwoo taking over the register and Junhui helping Mingyu out with the drinks.
Seeing that the place was relatively empty, Junhui started talking freely with Mingyu. He grabbed his bag from the bag rack, digging through all the junk to find something.
“Before I forget, I brought the audition script,” he said, handing Mingyu a slightly crumpled booklet.
“What’s that?” Wonwoo asked curiously, abandoning his position at the cash register.
“Oh, didn’t Mingyu tell you?” Junhui said smugly, as if he had knew a secret no one else did, “He’s gonna try out for the end-of-year play.”
“Oh, that hugely important one?” Wonwoo remembered Junhui trying extra hard to earn a role in the previous year’s play; but only being able to score the role of an unnamed background character. Wonwoo had been helping Junhui practise his acting for the past few months in preparation for this year’s auditions; leading to the awkward position they were in when Mingyu first entered the apartment a few weeks ago.
“Yeah. It’s great exposure and lots of casting directors attend it,” Junhui said. “Auditions are in the first week of school.”
“Oh, is it the same script we’ve been practising?” Wonwoo asked, leaning over Mingyu to scan the script.
“Yep,” Junhui grinned, “You can help Mingyu practise!” Mingyu nodded enthusiastically.
“Do you know what the play’s gonna be about?” Wonwoo asked, ignoring Junhui’s suggestion.
“This is the script from last year’s play, so no one knows what this year’s is going to be,” Junhui said sadly. “Apparently it’s going to be really different, something they haven’t done before. But I do know that they’re asking for two male leads and one female. Maybe it’s just another love triangle thing.”
“Haven’t heard of that one before,” Wonwoo said sarcastically. “Good luck to you both. Maybe you two could end up getting the male leads; that’ll be really entertaining to watch,” he added, returning to the cash register as he heard the bell ring at the door, signalling a new customer.
“Jeonghan!” Wonwoo greeted, recognising the long-haired boy as he entered the café. The boy smiled upon seeing Wonwoo, as well as acknowledging Soonyoung and Jihoon, who greeted him as well.
“Jeonghan?” Mingyu’s ears perked as he recognised the name of the artist which Seungcheol had told him about.
“Oh, you must be Mingyu,” Jeonghan smiled at the boy as he approached the counter. “Wonwoo’s told me lots about you.”
“No, I’ve only mentioned him once,” Wonwoo denied, heading to the coffee machine to whip up Jeonghan’s usual.
“Oh,” Mingyu laughed nervously, not sure how to react. He didn’t know that Wonwoo knew Jeonghan so well. “I heard you were the one who painted all those amazing artworks around the apartment block!”
“Oh, yeah that’s true! Seungcheol’s too stingy to buy actual decor so he relies on me,” Jeonghan shook his head.
“They’re honestly so beautiful. I’ve always been interested in design and art,” Mingyu said. “But I never got the time with school and stuff.”
“Oh, really? That’s cool to hear,” Jeonghan gave him a warm smile. “Do you know Soonyoung over there?” He pointed to the blue-haired boy who waved enthusiastically when he heard his name. “He runs free dance classes, and I was planning on starting my own with art. At my university, we have to complete some volunteer stuff during our time studying there, so if you’re interested...”
“I’d love to!” Mingyu jumped at the opportunity. Wonwoo returned from the back kitchen, setting down a coffee and muffin in front of Jeonghan, who accepted and paid for it.
“What’re you so excited about?” Wonwoo asked curiously, seeing Mingyu jitter slightly with excitement.
“Jeonghan said he could teach me art!”
“Art’s pretty broad. I’m not sure if I’ll end up doing the classes, but I’ll let you know,” he said as he slipped a piece of paper with his number on it towards Mingyu. Wonwoo narrowed his eyes.
“Well, have fun with that,” he said curtly, leaving to clean up an imaginary mess in the back kitchen.
“You’re really acting like a jealous , Wonwoo,” Junhui commented, having observed the situation through the window of the kitchen.
“Shut up,” Wonwoo hit Junhui’s shoulder. “It’s nice to know that Mingyu’s getting to know more people.”
“Your face doesn’t exactly reflect that,” Junhui pointed out.
“It’s just my face.”
“Your tone doesn’t either.”
“Shut up and get back to work, Wen.”
“Right back at you, Jeon.”
Mingyu heard the sound of laughter float through the café from the kitchen as Jeonghan took his food and sat down at Soonyoung and Jihoon’s table. Peeking through the window (technically a hole in the wall, through which food would pass through and hopefully not spill in the process), he saw Wonwoo and Junhui poking each other teasingly. Junhui slapped Wonwoo on the back before parting, so their manager wouldn’t catch them goofing off.
Mingyu was genuinely a pure-hearted person, and never would he say that he felt green feelings; his mindset was more bright and yellow than an ugly green. But couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous that Wonwoo was able to get along much better with other people like Junhui.
Mingyu remembered what Junhui had told him about Wonwoo. ”It took me ages to get him to open up to me.” Mingyu hoped that Wonwoo would open up to him with time, though at the moment, he realised just how little he still knew about his roommate.
He only knew the trivial things, like how Wonwoo liked his coffee and how often he needed to shower. Mingyu didn’t even know those things about people he referred to as friends; which just showed how different a roommate relationship is. But with ‘just friend things’ like common references, favourite colours, ex-boyfriends... Mingyu had no clue about Wonwoo. Not even his birthday.
“Hey, Wonwoo,” Mingyu said absently as he spotted his roommate emerging from the kitchen holding a plate of food. “When’s your birthday?”
“July 17th,” he replied briefly, taking the food to its rightful destination at Table #17.
Wait, wasn’t that the day before I moved in?
“Damn, I missed it,” Mingyu said regretfully.
“You wouldn’t have known,” Wonwoo said reassuringly. “Don’t worry about it. When’s yours?”
“April 6th.”
“Noted,” Wonwoo said as he rushed to serve another customer.
“I’ll get you a late present, I promise,” Mingyu insisted. He wouldn’t feel like a good friend otherwise.
“You seriously don’t have to,” Wonwoo said. He felt his cheeks heat up; they never did that, so he convinced himself that he was coming down with a fever.
“I will!” Mingyu decided happily, wiping the counter for the 100th time with lack of anything better to do.
“Why did you ask all of a sudden?” Wonwoo questioned.
“I was just wondering,” Mingyu said honestly.
“Of course you were,” Junhui grinned, walking in between the two to deliver food to a customer.
“Stop grinning. You’re so creepy,” Wonwoo said jokingly, hitting Junhui with the towel in his hand. Junhui grinned wider in response.
“Hey, Mingyu,” Jam Jam’s manager reappeared from the kitchen, startling the three boys behind the counter. “Can I talk to you?”
The manager took Mingyu aside and spoke to him in a serious manner, much to the curiosity of Wonwoo and Junhui. Mingyu returned a minute later, looking rather downcast.
“He told me that he doesn’t think I’m fit to work here,” Mingyu said despondently. “He said that they’re already overstaffed anyway.”
Wonwoo unconsciously started rubbing circles on Mingyu’s back, as he usually tended to do when he wanted to comfort someone.
“You’re much better suited for other places, Mingyu,” Wonwoo said consolingly. Mingyu gave him a small smile.
“Hey, Mingyu!” Soonyoung called suddenly, beckoning him over to his table. Mingyu obliged and walked over to him.
“Couldn’t help but overhear the manager talking to you,” Soonyoung continued when Mingyu reached his table. Mingyu had seen Soonyoung not-so-obviously sneaking past their conversation on his way from the toilet. “I was actually wondering why you were working here. Didn’t seem like your kind of place.”
“I guess it isn’t,” Mingyu agreed.
“You should come work at NO F.U.N! I know my boss is looking for some people. Preferably ‘attractive teenage guys’ she can use to lure in new customers.” Noticing the look he was getting from Jihoon, he quickly added, “Her words, not mine.”
“Sounds like a... fun place?” Mingyu said uncertainly.
Soonyoung chuckled. “It is! We make pizza and ice cream there. Tell me that’s not fun,” he said pointedly. “It’s a bit late now, but you can come in tomorrow at 1. That’s when I work,” he grinned.
“Wow, thanks, Soonyoung! I’ll give it a go,” Mingyu said thankfully. He turned back to the counter’s direction and flashed Wonwoo a thumbs up. Wonwoo didn’t know why.
Jihoon was looking at the café’s clock in a worried manner. “Hosh, it’s nearly 6.”
“Oh, right. Hang on, Seungkwan just texted me,” Soonyoung said dismissively.
Today 5:55 PM
faboolous
> hey soonyoung
> you run dance classes on fridays, don’t you?
me
> mon,wed,fri :)
faboolous
> do you think i could join?’
me
> wait really?
> you wanna try out dancing???
> THATS AWESOME YES CCOME JOIN US :D
faboolous
> it’s at rock studio, right?
me
> yeppp :)
> what made you wanna suddenly dance?
faboolous
> idk i just feel like its my calling u know
> since im like
> not bad at anything ;)
me
> righ right
faboolous
> nah its just... i want to get better
> so people will stop taking my dancing as a joke
me
> but isnt it??
> no one can dance girl groups like u do :’)
faboolous
> i dont want to just be known for that
> i wnat people to actually acknowelgde me as a good dancer
> anyway yes ill be there thank u
me
> ok dont be late
faboolous
> ok:)
“Right, I’m gonna head over to Rock now,” Soonyoung said, standing up.
“You’re gonna be late again,” Jihoon muttered.
“I have an excuse,” Soonyoung said, pointing to his empty coffee cup with a smile. “See you, Jihoon-ie,” he ruffled his roommate’s hair, “Bye, Jeonghan!” he told his long-haired friend.
Turning to the counter, he waved goodbye to Junhui and Wonwoo, who waved back politely.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Mingyu!” Soonyoung told Mingyu, who had stooped down next to their table to pick up a fallen receipt. Mingyu waved energetically, and Soonyoung left with a laugh.
“Why does he always have to make such a scene whenever he leaves places,” Jihoon sighed.
Mingyu returned to the counter and told Wonwoo that he found another job opportunity.
“Whatever pays the bills,” had been Wonwoo’s reply. He genuinely was happy for Mingyu, though it wasn’t obvious in his impassive expression.
Mingyu decided to stay and help Wonwoo out for the rest of his shift, though Wonwoo insisted he’d be fine and Mingyu could just go home. Mingyu wouldn’t accept it, and started mopping the floor aggressively to prove his point. Wonwoo sighed and accepted his defeat; there really was no arguing when it came to Mingyu.
a/n;
lowkey crying rn bc seventeen is in australia for their tour but im on the other side of the country ;-;
*sings hello by adele sadly in the corner*
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