Chapter 2

It was a busy monday morning at Black Pearl Coffee Haven. The barristas were busy preparing coffee orders while the waitresses were running around the shop getting orders and serving the customers. 

Yuri, the owner of the cafe, was in the storage room checking the inventory of ingredients when she heard a loud noise coming inside the shop. She decided to see what it is about and saw the large number of incoming customers starting their day early. 

Her cafe is located at the heart of Seoul surrounded by different business offices. Their patrons are usually the employees from the surrounding offices going to their work early in the morning. 

They were short handed today because one of her staff call in sick. Usually during this time of the day customers are rushing in to get their daily dose of caffeine.

She looked over at the counter where Amber is and saw that she was struggling from punching and preparing orders. Yuri walked towards her and decided to take over the cashier.

"Hey Amber, I'll take the orders so you can concentrate on preparing it." Amber saw her boss and nodded at her. She moves to the other side of the counter to give Yuri some space to take orders. 

Yuri was busy talking to customers while taking their orders when she spotted her regular customer that have now become her friend. She smiled at her when their eyes met.

"Hi Yuri!" Tiffany smiled brightly while greeting her friend when it was her turn to order.

Yuri smiled back apologetically at Tiffany. "Hi Fany - ah, your order is not yet ready. As you can see, we were so crowded today and then one of my staff is absent. I forgot to prepare your order earlier. I'm sorry."

Tiffany smiled. " It's fine Yuri. It's still early and I still have time. I will just wait. Don't worry about it and besides it is the first time that this happened."

"I'm really sorry, you could wait at your usual table its vacant. I will check if your orders are ready. Give me ten minutes."

"Okay. Thanks."

Tiffany watched her friend called one of her staff to man the cashier before opening the door leading to the kitchen.

She walked towards her usual table. Yuri always make sure that her favorite spot in the cafe is free whenever she comes in the morning because sometimes she eats her breakfast there.

It was by accident how she found out about this cafe. Taeyeon, her boss always drink caramel macchiato before starting her work and it is part of Tiffany's job to get her coffee every morning.

One morning, the coffee shop where she usually buys her boss' coffee is closed for renovation. She wanders around the area near their office to find another cafe when she spotted Black Pearl Coffee Haven which is only three blocks away and decided to buy the coffee there.

The outside of the shop is black and white which gives off a classic modern feel with big glass panes. Upon entering, Tiffany instantly fell in love with its interior. The inside of the cafe is bright and colourful with a combination of pastel colors painted on the walls with a touch of fluoro pink and yellow. The walls are also decorated with cut paper pencil illustrations , a mural with a composition of photos, and fluorescent panels framed in wood colors which give it an artistic touch to the space.

During that time Yuri is the one that had taken and prepared her order. 

"Hi, I'm Yuri what would you like to have?"

Tiffany smiled at the barrista showing her eyesmile. "I'll have one caramel macchiato and one flat white to go. Thank you."

Yuri was taken aback by the smile that she automatically smiled back at her.

"Would you like to try our milhojas? It goes well with macchiato?" asked Yuri while punching her order.

"No. Thank you."Tiffany said while giving the payment. She waited for a few minutes before her name was called.

"Caramel macchiato and flat white for Miss Tiffany!"

Tiffany went to the counter to received her order and was surprise to see a pastry together with the coffees. She looked at the barrista only to see that she is smiling at her.

"It's milhojas. It's a thank you for smiling earlier, I'm having a rough day because of those delay in delivery of ingredients and seeing you smile like that kind of lift up my mood." Tiffany sincerely smiled at Yuri upon hearing what she said. 

And that's how her and Yuri's friendship started.