chapter two.

June 18, 2018

Junhyuk sat himself down at the crew room, coming in a bit early for his training.

His head is swimming.

Just passing through the front and seeing all the machines, screens, and buttons made him a bit nervous, if he had to be honest.

The employed life is already so stressful.

But he shook his head, taking a deep breath.

He needs this job and he needs to keep it.

He’ll learn well and he’ll meet new people. And he’s not totally out of his element! Games, right? He’ll be fine.

Hmm..

Is there an employee discount?

God, he hopes so. He needs to cut his chocolate milkshake expenses down by some kind of fraction.

The door swings open and he’s snapped out of his trance.

Looking up, he feels a wash of relief as he recognizes a familiar face.

“Eunjae, hey!” He smiles.

Eunjae warmly smiles back, “Junhyuk! So we’re training together, huh?” She takes the seat across him, setting her backpack down beside her and ping her bag, nabbing her apron out before closing it.

“I guess we are!” He nodded.

A figure appears behind the glass door. He gives them a glance and so does Eunjae, twisting around to see them.

Oh, it’s one of the other managers, he recognizes.

The lady opens the glass door and she gives the two a good look, gently smiling as she bowed her head, “Hey, guys!”

Junhyuk and Eunjae greet her back, straightening themselves up in anticipation.

“I’m Sion, I’ll be the one who’ll train you guys for today!” She explained, “Though I think we still have another person coming in, so I’ll just step out for a while and prepare, alright?”

Junhyuk nods, maintaining a polite smile as the manager takes her leave.

Eunjae turns back to Junhyuk, “Hey, so do you know who the other person’s going to be?”

“No idea.”


Sion dashes next door to the office, shutting the door behind her and taking a deep breath.

Jikyung looks away from the computer screen, “Sion, what’s up? I’m almost done for the day so you take care of this place, alr—“

Sion squints at Jikyung, “Holy .”

The other manager kicks back, rolling her office chair out, “What’s the matter?”

She rushes to Jikyung’s side, kneeling down and speaking in a hushed panic, “You..” She runs a hand through her hair, “The dude who was crying, like, two weeks ago at table 3. The one I put on my story snap?”

“Yeah?”

“You hired him.”

Jikyung chuckles, rolling her eyes.

So this is what it’s about.

“Yeah, I did.” She couldn’t help the smug smile inside curl up on her lips.

“Damn it, Jikyung, this is awkward! Now I feel bad about putting him on my story—“

“Well, maybe you should stop putting random people on Snapchat without them knowing, hm?” Jikyung quipped, giving a snark smile as she rolled her chair back into the desk and resumed typing.

Sion’s head dropped, sighing and running a hand through her hair once again before carrying herself up. She takes her leave, stepping out of the room as she swings the door open and closed.

She murmurs to herself, “Just be casual, Sion. Be casual.”

“Oh? Saw a hot dude or something?”

“—Hyun, off!” Hyun raises his hands up in defense as Sion holds up a fist.

“Okay, okay! I will.” Hyun grins, “But the third guy’s arrived now. Lee Dahn, right? You better get to work, Sion! Chop chop!”

Sion glowers at her coworker, stepping aside and strutting past.


Training isn’t so bad, Eunjae thought.

Though perhaps it’s because she’s been through a bunch of these motions before. She still hasn’t lost her aptitude for customer service from working back at the restaurant for years.

Really, the only time things may get a bit difficult is when it comes to the board game department. There’s just so many board games, Eunjae doesn’t think she will ever get to know every one of them like it’s on the back of her hand.

Sion said it’s fine, though. “I don’t think any one of us know the rules to every game here,” she said.

Still, Eunjae took up Sion’s offer to have a list of every board game available in the café. A little studying wouldn’t hurt, right?

Eunjae was stationed at the cashier. The café was on its slow hours, the managers made sure they received training during their non-peak days and hours. It wasn’t overwhelming as they made their adjustments to the new workplace.

The sun was still out and the sunlight was spilling through the windows. The sound system was hooked to the radio, softly playing the current hits.

The whole ambience gave her a positive mood and Eunjae’s initial swaying turned itself into dancing as she let the music take her away.

Little tutting here, a twirl there, some popping—

“So do you like dancing or something?”

She yelps, eyes widened in shock as she turns to see the person across the counter.

Junhyuk smiles apologetically, “Oh, sorry for scaring you like that!”

Eunjae shakes her head, shaking off her surprise, “No, no! It’s fine, I’m just.. more jumpy than the average.”

“But yes,” she turns to fully face her coworker, “I do love dancing, actually.”

Junhyuk nods, “That’s cool! Have you been doing it for a long time?”

“Mhm,” she smiles proudly, “Ever since I was a kid!”

He sighs, “It’s always awesome to hear about things that people have been doing for a long time.”

Eunjae tilts her head, “Oh? How about you? There’s got to be one thing you’ve been doing for years.”

Junhyuk shakes his head, letting out a sheepish chuckle, “I only have video games, really.”

She hummed and nodded, absentmindedly looking at him. “Well,” she started off, “Maybe you’re really good at it!”

“I hope so too.”

“So how’s the café on your side? Hanging in there?” Eunjae quickly steers the conversation to another topic, scanning the few tables occupied by customers.

Junhyuk pursed his lips, “A bit boring. The people here said they’re fine by themselves so I haven't been doing anything. I even checked the napkin dispensers and the condiments like what Sion-sshi said, but they’re all good.” He huffs, “That’s kinda why I started talking to you.” Junhyuk paused and then chuckled, “Though I think it might take a while to get used to this job.”

Eunjae encouraged him, “It’ll be alright!” She mused, “I’ve worked in a restaurant before, so there are definitely some transferrable skills I acquired while working there.” Her face slightly shifts, “Why? Is this your first job?”

Junhyuk could only smile, taking a deep breath before he sighs out, “Yeah, kinda..”

“Well, that’s not totally bad.” Eunjae maintained her positive outlook, “Everybody has their own pace.”

She looks to the right, seeing Dahn standing by the barista station alone. “Dahn!” She calls out.

The boy turns to look at his fellow coworkers, almost seeming like he’s pleasantly surprised, “Yes?”

Well, Eunjae really had nothing in particular for him, really. She thought she’d include Dahn in on the conversation.

“You getting the hang of things here?” Eunjae resumes the subject at hand.

“In this area? Pretty much.” He answered, scratching his head, “It’s the ‘gaming’ part in the gaming café that I’ll need to work on, there’s a lot to learn in that department.” His eyes wander, spotting a notepad and pen on the counter.

Eunjae watches as Dahn walks up to the counter and tears a piece of paper from the notepad.

He holds the paper up, giving a little smile, “If you guys don’t mind, I’ll just do some stocking up here!”


Dahn takes a hold of the pen and excuses himself, scanning the area and opening a few cabinets.

Two bags of coffee beans, three bags of sugar, a sleeve of waffle cones, at least two handfuls of straws, three handfuls of sugar packets, a bag of caramel sauce..

He lifts the list up from the counter.

Yeah, looks about right.

Dahn puts the pen to the side and walks off with the list, making his way around and to the end of the hallway.

He turns to the right, taking note of the metal shelf holding some array of items from the inventory. It seems like the waffle cones, sugar packets, and straws were already being held by the shelf here on the main floor.

Alright, so that’s only three things for me to fetch from the inventory.

He turns on his heel and looks down on the floor.

Is there a door stop somewhere..?

He spots a rubber door stop lying by the inventory’s door, gently kicking it beneath him as he opened the door. He lodges the door stop under the door, leaving it open for him for convenience when he goes back up.

Dahn treks down and grabs a plastic crate placed near the bottom of the descent, making his rounds and searching the necessities.

Heavy items placed first, he got the bags of sugar, the caramel sauce, and then the bags of coffee beans.

Heaving up the crate, he begins to make his way for the stairs before something red in one of the cardboard boxes catches his eye.

His eyebrows furrow together, gently placing the crate down as he peeks into the cardboard box in question.

“What the ?” He mutters to himself.

It’s an Elmo.

He reaches in and picks it out of the box, slowly examining it as if the slip of his hand could trigger a poltergeist. Dahn spots the switch under its foot, flicking it on and—

“It tickles!”

He nearly jumps at the demonic noise, almost losing his grip and nearly dropping the toy. His fingertip immediately flicks the switch back off. He hurriedly puts it back in the box, picking the crate up and walking off.

“ no.”

Dahn marches up the stairs and stops by the shelf, plopping in the remaining necessities before making his way back to the front.

Eunjae and Junhyuk were holding a conversation before Dahn blurted out—

“Hey, did you guys know there’s an Elmo downstairs?”

The two stare at him and then at each other.

Junhyuk opens his mouth to speak but Eunjae talks first, “Did you touch it?”

Suspicion creeps up into Dahn’s chest, “Yeah?” There’s a moment of silence before he hesitantly breaks it, “Why..?”

Eunjae grimaces, “Hyun-sshi told me he found it in the yard of some abandoned house or something. I think he forgot to bring it back with him to sell..”

Now he’s uncomfortable.

Dahn doesn’t know what to say except to remain quiet. He looks away from Eunjae’s matching expression and thinks back on the doll downstairs.

“Just kidding!” Eunjae cackles, slapping her thigh and holding herself up by the counter.

Oh, what the hell.

Junhyuk wheezes, holding his chest, “For a while, you also got me there.”

She recovers and straightens herself up, “It was from the Saturday orientation, just to prank Jikyung-sshi and give her a scare.”

Dahn has a feeling there’s a pattern for mischief in this place. “We had a prank on Friday too.” He recalled, “Hyun-sshi snuck in a Cthulhu cult contract with the actual contracts we signed.”

Eunjae widens her eyes, “Cthulhu cult?” She almost looked gobsmacked, “I wanna join! What do they do?”

Dahn kicks the crate in front of his feet to the cabinets, “I have no idea, but Hyun-sshi seems to be the leader.”

And it felt like he was witnessing Hyun raise an army.

He didn’t know exactly why, perhaps it was the gut feeling of impending chaos, but he sighed at the thought.


June 19, 2018

Jihoon stares at the screen above the barista station, taking in the orders displayed on the screen.

All the containers are labeled according to their content, everything is organized and set in front of him.

Alright, you can do this.

He crouches with a glass in his hand, taking the tongs placed in a small compartment to the side and placing ice into the glass. He straightens himself out and finds the vanilla syrup bottle placed in one of the racks, reaching in and pressing out two pumps. And then—

“Put one more pump.”

Jihoon flinches, whirling around to see Hanyeon peering right behind him, eyes boring into his.

“Unless stated otherwise, the standard amount is three pumps.” She explains, her expression ever so blank.

“Ah, thank you.” He turns around gives it one more pump.

“Also, you don’t need to painstakingly get ice with the tongs. You can just scoop it up with the glass.” Hanyeon added.

I can still do this.

But despite forcing himself to be convinced, he felt a chunk of his confidence chip away.

Jihoon doesn’t know how to react. “Ah,” he nods, “Thank you.”

He’s given a tight smile from her, “Yeah, no problem.” Hanyeon treads back to the cashier, looking out ahead of what he thinks are the windows.

It’s the evening, the sun is noticeably setting but the day still has its sunlight.

He turns back to the station until he freezes.

Wait, how long has she been watching?

Jihoon felt the sudden urge not to mess up.

Oh my God..

He reaches for the carton of coffee creamer, eyeballing the amount as he watched it flow down to the bottom of the glass. He then puts it under the iced coffee dispenser, pushing the handle and watching the coffee and the creamer swirl together.

He hears Hanyeon to his right begin to talk to a customer across the counter. They seem to be on a coffee run and are ordering drinks to go.

Jihoon glances up to check the screen—

Holy crap, how am I supposed to—

His eyes nearly pop out when he sees the new list on the screen grow as other drink orders pile on and on as Hanyeon tapped away. Reading up on each of the drinks’ particularities the energy out of his mind and body.

From the corner of his eye he sees Hanyeon lift her head up from the screen, “Is that all, miss?” The lady across the counter nods, “Yes, that’ll be all. Thank you.”

As the cash drawer pops out, the small printer shelved right in front of him spits out a long strip of labels, mockingly dangling down from the printer.

Nine labels in total.

Jihoon puts away the iced coffee in his hand to the side, feeling a bit at a loss.

Hanyeon turns her head to the right, noticing a newly arrived presence back from his break. “Ah, Hongjun!” She calls out to their coworker, “Can you help Jihoon-sshi out?” She turns away before she’s given an answer, giving her attention to the next customer in line, “Hello!”

Said person steps up to his left, “Jihoon-sshi, right?”

Jihoon nods, “Yes.”

The coworker bows his head, putting up a polite smile, “My name’s Jun, some people here call me Hongjun though. I’m fine with either.”

Yes, Jihoon recalls Jikyung quickly introducing him some days back.

His coworker scans the screen. “It’s not too bad, at least they’re all only coffee orders.” Jun gives a reassuring smile, “We can do this together. How about I put the cream, sugar, and other stuff in and you pour in the coffee?”

Jihoon already feels the weight lift off from his shoulders, along with a smile curling up, “Yes, that’d be nice. Thank you.”

Determination renewed, Jihoon grabs one of the coffee pots as Jun skillfully pulls out the paper cups from their dispensers, setting them all up in one line.

And one by one, Jun passes over the cup for Jihoon to pour the coffee into. The process becomes seamless. In no time, they’ve finished all nine drinks as Jun smoothly worked the station.

As they closed lids onto the drinks together, Jihoon bows his head, “Thank you so much for helping out.”

Jun shook his head, “Oh, it’s no problem at all.” His eyes flicker towards the screen, giving him another comforting smile, “I think you’ll do fine doing that last order.”

Jihoon turns to see a small coffee ordered, then back to Jun. “Yes. Again, thank you for your help!”

“Don’t mention it, Jihoon-sshi.”


Zhihui peeked over Sion’s shoulder as the manager tapped and swiped through the menu on a tablet, taking a couple’s orders.

It seemed simple enough. The interface clearly categorized the items and had options for customization if needed.

Sion confirms the order, holding the tablet close to her as she smiles and bows, “Thank you. Your order’s been sent to the kitchen. You can pay your bill at the counter over there once you’re done.”

Zhihui gives a little bow of her own and smiles, thanking the couple before following the manager.

Sion leads her back near the counters, “You think you can manage? There’s only a few people taking up the tables. The system’s quite simple, but if you want, I can still assist you to the side.”

Zhihui feels confident. She was a regular before she applied to the café, familiar with what the menu has to offer. She nods, “I think I’ll be able to manage! Thank you, Sion-sshi.”

“No problem!” The manager passes the tablet to her, “If you still get into any problems, just call me over.” Sion glances as the entrance swings open, nodding towards the newly arrived customer, “How about you take the order of that guy?”

Zhihui whirls around and her heart flips.

“Ah,” she clutches onto the tablet, “Okay.” Sion gives her a reassuring smile as she retreated behind the counters.

Zhihui holds the device close to her.

Why was she using it as a shield?

She didn’t know.

One step at a time, she approaches the boy’s table, forcing what she hopes looks to be a casual smile.

Don’t sound shy. Don’t sound shy—

Slipping right into Cantonese, she greets him, “Hey, Xukun.”

Nailed it.

The boy grins, laying back on his chair and letting loose as he spoke their mother tongue, “Zhihui! So you got the job here, huh? Congrats!”

“Thank you.” She hides her shy smile behind the tablet. “So,” she reverts her gaze to the menu on the screen, “Shortcake?”

“You already know me.” He lets out a light chuckle. Zhihui has to feign ignorance when she knows that he’s staring at her intently, tapping on the shortcake to add on the list.

“Does this mean we don’t get to talk often anymore?” A teasing pout played on Xukun’s lips, resting his face on the palm of his hand.

“I’m sure we’ll still find some time to talk.” Zhihui assured him, confirming and sending the order to the kitchen. “You know the drill with payment, right?” She lowers the tablet, fingers clutching onto it.

“Yup!” Xukun gives a smile, expressing gratitude with a sing-song voice, “Thank you, Zhihui.”

“See you around!” Zhihui was careful not to whirl around too quickly and walk off, making her way back to the counters. She couldn’t help but feel like he still has his eyes on her and hoped she wasn’t blushing. Sion was waiting with a proud smile.

“There you go, Zhihui!” She claps her hands, “It’s not so bad.” The manager gingerly lifts a small tray carrying a coffee mug from the counter, “Can you bring this to Soyul? She’s sitting at table 7.”

“No problem.” Zhihui carefully takes the tray from Sion, leaving the tablet in the manager’s hands.

“Thanks, love!”

Zhihui felt a little warmth over the nickname, smiling a bit wider than she’d expected.

Marching up to table 7, Zhihui approached a girl engrossed in the sketchbook laid in front of her. Pencils of all sorts of different graphite grading set out along with a pencil case almost filled to burst.

“Soyul-sshi?” Zhihui called.

The girl looks up, “Oh!” She pushes her sketchbook to the side. Zhihui takes it as a sign to put down her drink, bowing as she set it down on the table.

“Thank you,” the girl wraps her hands around the mug and looks up, ”Zhihui-sshi, right?”

“Yes?” Zhihui puts the tray between her arm and her side, once again pulling up a polite smile.

“I’m Kim Soyul! I just started working here too.” She bows her head, “It’s nice to meet you!”

Zhihui’s smile stiffens less, “Ah, it’s nice to meet you too!” She looks down and takes a peek at the sketchbook. “Oh,” Zhihui wasn’t able to hold in her surprise as she marveled over the drawings. She let out a flustered smile as she realizes Soyul had noticed her art drew some attention. “You draw well,” Zhihui complimented.

Soyul nods appreciatively, “Thank you!” She fires up a question, “So, how do you find training so far?”

“I think I’ve been doing well for the most part,” Zhihui clasped her hands together.

The girl nodded, “Yeah, Sion-sshi’s really helpful. I was training some hours before you guys came in.” Soyul gives a quick glance at the counters, “I shouldn’t hold you for so long, though. Thank you for the coffee!”

“It’s no problem.” Zhihui gives one last bow before she started stepping away. The door of the entrance swings open and she looks up to see the guest.

Oh, .


Hanyeon could feel her cheeks stiffen up from all the smiling she had to do in front of the customers.

Smile, Hanyeon. You’re going to scare the customers, Hanyeon.

“Are you paying cash or debit, sir?” Her fingers hover over the screen, ready to tap.

He doesn’t answer, he simply holds up his card.

Alright then.

Hanyeon taps the debit/credit option, waiting to listen for the beep from the machine.

The cash drawer rolls out, the small printer beside her spitting out two copies of the receipts. “Would you like your receipt, sir?” She takes the first one and stores it in the drawer.

“No thanks.” He mutters, “Thank you.” And there he goes.

Hanyeon looks up and opens to greet the next customer, only for her smile to drop and the light in her eyes to drown out.

“My little sister is training for her first job!” Minjin had his phone up, the click of the camera going off too many times for her liking.

“Oh my God,” she furrows her eyebrows, “Stop.” She could feel the humiliation in her chest.

He’s doing this on purpose. He’s doing this to embarrass me.

Minjin nods as he scrolled through his camera roll, “Hey, I should post some of these!”

“I’ll ing kill you.”

“Oh, Minjin’s here!” Sion jogs over, “Here to see your sister’s first day here?”

“Hell yeah.”

Hanyeon protested, “It’s just training!” She huffed, “I barely even went through the interview process, this is nepotism!”

Minjin lowers his phone along with his voice, “Honestly, Nyeonyeon, almost half this café’s staff are here because of nepotism.”

She can’t say anything against that.

Sion turns around, “Zhihui, Jihoon! Come meet Minjin, he’s the café’s owner!”

The two coworkers shyly approach Minjin, bowing and saying their hellos. Hanyeon quickly studies them.

They’re either really shy or they’re fans.

Her sight shifts to Jihoon.

He’s not even looking Minjin in the eye.

Hanyeon resists the urge to laugh, turning away to face her older brother.

Minjin looks past the shyness of the new employees, “Hello, guys! Zhihui and Jihoon, right? I’m Minjin. You guys don’t need to be so polite, okay?”

They only softly acknowledged, both bowing again. Minjin gave a reassuring nod, “Alright, I don’t want to interrupt your training, so you guys can go do your thing!”

They took the opportunity, stepping off politely before going to their respective stations.

Sion puts both her hands on Hanyeon’s shoulders, half-smiling at Minjin, “So, the café’s finally getting a little bit bigger, huh?”

Minjin’s eyes sparkle just a bit more, “Yeah. We’ll need to plan some bigger stuff too! Work hard and play hard!” He looks around the café, quietly admiring the atmosphere before turning around, placing his hands on his hips. A smile grows on his face, “You know what this place needs?”

Hanyeon lets her tongue slip, “Dignity?”

“Plants.” The conviction in Minjin’s voice is unmistakable.

Sion could only shrug, “Noted.”


June 21, 2018

Minki couldn’t stop looking around the café as he trailed behind Seongjun.

It was weird. A good kind of weird.

The feeling it gives just from walking and standing around certain spots, on top of wearing the teal MP! apron, is so foreign despite the café being a place he’s went to so frequently. Just going past the counters felt like uncharted territory.

“Minki!” Seongjun taps his shoulder, “Earth to Minki!”

“Ah!” He snaps out of his trance, “Yes, yes, yes!” He blinks at Seongjun.

His coworker lets out an exasperated wheeze, grinning and holding onto the ledge of the table as support. Seongjun lifts his head up, “Guess I’ll have to explain that again.” He reiterates, holding eye contact to make sure the new coworker was paying attention, “Gaho said that you’ll just be given a brief run-through for your game facilitator training.”

Minki tilted his head, “Oh, okay!”

Seongjun quickly explains, “It’s because you’ve been here a lot, we know you’re proficient in these things. But for, uh, I don’t know—For confirmation’s sake, we gotta check.”

“No problem!” Minki was made for this.

Seongjun leads him to the board game shelves, pinpointing a random spot, letting his finger land on a game. “Do you know how to play this game?” He asked.

Escape from Atlantis. Minki’s seen this game played by curious customers at neighbouring tables whenever he came to the café, but he’s never had the opportunity to pick the game up among the plethora of other options. Well, that and the fact he just can’t seem to take a break from his campaign in Dungeons & Dragons.

Minki shakes his head, “Nope!”

“Perfect.” Seongjun pulls out the box, leading both of them to a table in a quiet corner.

Seating themselves down, Seongjun uncovers the box and takes out the contents, snatching up the manual and passing it to Minki. “Read this for a few minutes.” Seongjun simply says.

And so Minki does, skimming through the pages. He already knows it’s tile-based and vaguely remembers some rules being recited when he had overheard other customers play.

The game’s simple, actually.

Minki read over the instructions twice, closing the booklet and putting it down on the table.

“Done already?” Seongjun’s eyebrows shot up as his sights flicked back and forth between Minki and the manual. Minki gives an assured nod and Seongjun blinks, “Alright, so..” He looks right into the new hire’s eyes, “How does this game work?”

And Minki responds, “Escape from Atlantis is a two to four player game! To set the board up, you just shuffle the tiles around and build the island at the center of the game board. Players can place their respective villagers on any part of the island except for the sandy beach tile, which can only start with one. The boats are placed in the sea next to the land and—“

Seongjun holds his hand up and Minki stops, “Okay, okay. How do I play the game then?”

Minki takes a breath and speaks again, “The game can be separated into three phases! Each of the players have a fixed number of three spaces to use to move their villagers around and the three spaces can be split among the other villagers. If the villager is swimming, then they’re limited to one space, but other methods of movement aren’t restricted to that rule! Like if they’re riding on a boat or a dolphin, for example! Speaking of which, boats can transport villagers of different tribes as long as there are an equal amount of—“

Seongjun puts both his hands up, “Alright, I think you’re good on this department.” He slouched down as he looked at Minki in confusion, “Are you sure you aren’t screwing around with me? You really haven’t played this game before?”

Minki shakes his head, “Nope! I’ve just overheard people playing the game, that’s all.”

Seongjun nods absentmindedly, “Well, guess I’ll have to take you back to Gaho quicker than he expected.” He takes the manual back, putting it in the box and closing it. “Let’s go! Guess we’ll have to train you on other stuff, then.” Seongjun does a quick trip to the board game shelves, shoving the box back to its rightful place and making their way to the counters.

Gaho had just walked out to the front when he saw the two approaching, a hint of bewilderment creeping up on his expression. Minki gives a wide smile.

Seongjun speaks before anybody else, “Yeah, Minki’s going to be more than fine as a game facilitator.”

Gaho raises his eyebrows, pulling out his phone and turning on the screen, “It hasn’t even been ten minutes since I left.” He slips it back in his pocket, “Jikyung was right.”

Minki perks up at the mention, “What? Did she say anything about me?”

Did he already have a reputation?

The manager answered, “Yeah, she said not to bother training you for game facilitator. I should’ve listened to her like I always do.” Gaho sighs in defeat. “She said you were like some kind of..” He trailed off, his sight landing at a distance before looking back at Minki, “She said you were some kind of GamerPedia?”

Minki repeats to himself, “GamerPedia!” He grins proudly.

Minki felt as if he just received a badge of honour.


Yohan casually slides and taps through the menu, already more than half familiarized with the interface.

He was getting quite used to this, actually. Yohan looked for Gaho, hoping to learn anything more for his training.

Subin calls him over from the barista station, “Hey, Yohan!” She waves, her amiable smile infectious. Yohan finds his growing smile reaching his eyes.

“Can you bring some whole milk from the back? Some orders came in just now.” Subin took out some coffee mugs from the cabinet above and set them in front of her.

“No problem!” The café’s going through its slow hours, he wasn’t sorely needed at the front. If he recalled, a coworker was going to come back in soon after his break. Seongjun, if his memory isn’t failing him.

Yohan makes it through the hallway and straight for the freezer room, embracing the chill around him and spotting the rack of milk cartons. He reaches in, taking out two cartons.

Two should be okay, right?

Yohan blinked.

I’ll take another one just in case.

He carried the three cartons in his arms, his skin becoming numb from the cold.

Yohan pushed the heavy door with his foot, shuffling out cautiously as the warm air hit him.

“Yohan, hey!” A voice called out from his left.

He saw Seongjun just leaving the washroom. “Hey, you don’t need to carry all those in your arms, you know?” Seongjun snatches up a crate near the metal shelf nearby holding it up in front of Yohan, “Here, it’ll be easier to carry them this way.”

Yohan carefully puts the cartons in one by one, smiling in appreciation, “Thank you!” When he realized Seongjun was still holding onto the crate, Yohan’s arms shot up, “Oh, I can carry these though.”

“Ah, alright,” Seongjun handed over the crate, “Careful.”

Yohan held the crate in front of him, “Thank you.” Seongjun nods his head towards the front, and they both make their way there.

“So,” the coworker starts off, “You on your last year of high school?”

“Yup!” Yohan reaches to the front, stopping by Subin and carefully placing the crate on the counter.

“Ah, thank you!” Subin quickly turned to him, reaching in for a carton, “I’ll just take one of these.. Do you mind putting the rest in the fridge over there?” Yohan bent down and grabbed the crate, “Yeah, no problem!”

Seongjun resumes the conversation, opening the mini fridge’s door lodged into the counter underneath the barista station, “So, what school do you go to? Apgujeong?”

Yohan crouches down to the fridge, “Thank you—And yes! I go to Apgujeong.” He places the other two cartons on the rack, giving a curious look to his coworker, “How did you know?”

“Oh, well, it was kind of an educated guess?” Seongjun grins, “I talked to Minki a while back and he mentioned Apgujeong High. So I thought both of you might be from the same school because you guys already, you know, look like friends.”

Yohan closed the fridge and stood up, “I see.” He ricochets the same question to get the conversation going, “How about you? What school do you go to?”

“I’m the one and only Yongnam student here,” Seongjun grinned, “Well, at least I’m not the only lone coworker from one high school—“

“Are the children getting along?” Sion butts in, lifting the countertop door and stepping in, “Talking about high school, huh?”

Seongjun greeted, “Sion, hey! You came early.”

“Yeah, I started the day off well, actually.” She had a hint of pleasant surprise in her voice. The manager ponders, “But high school, huh? Those were some times.” She winced, “I remember barely scraping by..” Sion looks at the two, “Make sure to do well, kids. College entrance exams will be collecting tears in no time.”

Seongjun grumbled, “Don’t remind me..” He turns to Yohan, “How about you? Got your plans set up?”

Yohan could only shrug, “Uhh, pretty much—“

“Yohan’s so smart, I wouldn’t worry so much!” A familiar voice joins in on the conversation. Yohan quickly realizes who it is.

Oh, boy.

Sion looks to her left, seeing the newly arrived Minki from the break room, “Is he?”

“Yeah!” Minki raves on, “He’s the vice president of our school’s robotics club and—Wait, aren’t you going to go into this program soon at Seoul National University or something—“

“But it’s no big deal, really!” Yohan felt heat go up his face from the sudden attention, forcing a modest smile.

Sion’s eyebrows shoot up, “Seoul National University?” Her attention is on Yohan now, “That’s crazy! Is it one of those enrichment programs they do?”

Yohan gave in to the inescapable situation at hand, “Yeah, it is. It’s just for the summer.”

Sion nodded, “That’s good, though. At least that’ll help you out with your education.” Yohan thought that would be the end of it, but she threw another question at him, “So what’s it for?”

“Oh, uhm,” Yohan stammered, “It’s for engineering and robotics.”

The manager hummed in acknowledgement, “Okay, okay.” She sighed and joked, “Even kids got their lives more put-together than I do..”

Yohan wanted to say something to comfort her or deny—despite being part of the joke—the inadequacy behind her words. He found himself desperately attempting to form a phrase.

What do I even say?

“Oh, Gaho!” Sion notices the manager come in from the hallway.

Relief washed over Yohan as the attention shifted from the conversation to the other manager. The tension Yohan felt just moments ago seemed to transfer to Gaho.

The female manager enthusiastically inquired, “How long are you working here?”

Gaho blinks, “I’ve got about two more hours left.”

“We’re working together today then!” Sion’s enthusiasm didn’t falter, “I’m starting in half an hour!’

“That’s nice.” Gaho quickly commented. He then turned to Minki, “Hey, I’ve got some stuff I want to show you around. Are you good to go?”

Minki immediately agrees, “Yeah, sure!” The two take their leave and go out to the lobby area, the manager leading the boy to the video game section.

Sion watches on as her coworker walks off, then looking to Yohan and Seongjun, “Well, I’ll just go to the back now. See you two boys around!” She turns and walks down the hallway.

There's a moment of silence.

Yohan tilts his head, “Does Gaho-sshi..?”

“Have a crush on Sion?” Seongjun completes the question. He snickers, shaking his head, “No, he just feels exhausted whenever she’s around.”

“You’ll see Gaho’s struggles soon enough.”


Subin felt the miniscule droplets splash on her face as she sprayed the last plate with the rinse hose. The steam from the hot water made her face feel moist. “Well, that’s the last of ‘em.” Subin carefully placed the plate into the dish rack to her right.

While flicking her hands to rid of the water droplets, Subin turns to Yohan, standing to her left who had just finished off drying his hands with paper towels. “And we’re done for today!” Subin triumphed, giving a high five to Yohan.

“Hey, do you have some time after this?” Subin asked as they made their way out the kitchen and across to the break room. She quickly unties her apron. She reaches for the handle, swinging the door open and holding it for the boy. 

“Because if you do, we can play Smash!” She walks up to the lockers, opening one of them and pulling her backpack out.

“If you want to, of course!” She quickly adds.

Yohan snatches out his own bag and slings it over his shoulder, “I don’t mind!”

Subin smiles, “Alright, let’s go! Coworker bonding time!”

The two made their way out. Sion was talking Gaho’s ears off before she realizes their presence, shooting a quick smile, “Are you guys going?”

“Not yet!” Subin points out to the video game area, “We’ll be hanging around.”

She found herself in a good mood, being unable to push back the giddy feeling as she made her way through the lobby. The spring in her steps betrayed her excitement.

Is it because she’s got a potential victim to absolutely crush in Smash?

Maybe.

Minki’s talking to a pink-haired boy when they come across him among the tables, sweeper and dust pan in his hands. Minki looks up to the two of them, “Are you guys going? I was just finishing up!”

Subin shook her head, “No, we’re staying around to play Smash! Wanna join?”

Minki’s eyes twinkle, “Yeah, alright!” He lifts the cleaning tools in his hands, “I’ll just put these away!” He turns to the pink-haired boy seated at the table beside him, “Taeryung-sshi, do you want to join us?”

Taeryung’s excitement was visible, “Hell yeah!” He stood up, doing a little bow, “I’m Kim Taeryung! I work here too, I just got recently hired.”

Minki dashes off to the counters and into the back.

Subin gestured to herself and Yohan, her smile growing into a grin, “Oh, we’re new hires too! Nice to meet you! I’m Ahn Subin.”

“Yang Yohan, it’s nice to meet you.” Yohan also bowed.

Subin looks to the two boys and then at the TVs set up along the wall, “We should get the game set up then!”

Taeryung gets the TV remote from the small wooden coffee table, turning on the screen while Subin dived to turn on the Wii U. Opening one of the drawers, she grabbed four Wii remotes out and laid them onto the coffee table just behind her.

She plops onto the two-seat ottoman, seeing that the game was already in the console as it booted up. “Oh!” She gasped, turning to Taeryung, “But did you see the Smash announcement on E3? It’s finally coming to the Switch!”

Taeryung lets out an unholy shriek, “It’s beautiful!” He sits next to her on the ottoman, grabbing a controller before pressing his face on the palm of his hands, “I don’t think I can wait ‘til December!”

Subin nods as she selects Smash and skips the intro, “The hype is crazy!” She navigates through the menu, making it to the character selection.

Yohan snatches a controller from the coffee table and lands himself gently into a bean bag.

“I’m here!” Minki shuffles another bean bag up to the TV, his apron removed and taking the last controller from the table.

Subin moves her red cursor to Samus, dropping it into her box. She leans back, watching her coworkers pick their fighter.

Yohan immediately goes for Kirby. Minki’s green cursor floats in circles over the roster, the boy in an indecisive frenzy before he shook his head, “Ah, whatever.” The cursor goes straight to the random box. Taeryung pouts, his blue cursor teeter-tottering between Pikachu and Jigglypuff. He ultimately went for Jigglypuff.

The screen cuts to the stage selection and Subin turns to the rest of the guys, “Random?”

Yohan shrugs, “I’m fine, either way!” Minki chirps in after, “Sure!” Taeryung clutches onto his controller, “Let’s do this!”

And the game begins.

Their fighters are transported to the Pokemon Stadium.

Minki sees that he was given Sonic. His lips purse, “I have no idea how to play this guy.”

The announcer counts down and the stock battle commences.

Minki cries out, “Gotta go fast!” Sonic spins across the stage—

And flies off the stage.

“Oh, !” Minki gaped, already losing one of his three stocks.

Subin wheezed, biting down on her lip to concentrate.

Oh, God. Okay, okay..

Focus.

Subin brought her Samus to the main platform, shielding against the Jigglypuff tumbling towards her. She quickly notes the Kirby floating up in the air and his transformation into a rock.

Everybody exchanges blows and Subin—and the other players—easily note Yohan’s modus operandi.

Taeryung yells, just narrowly dodging one of Yohan’s abuse of Down Bs, “Are you just going to spam Down B this whole match?!”

Subin laughs as she sees only a slight shame show on Yohan’s face.

Nevertheless, he continues.

Subin’s pleased to see that she’s holding her own pretty well. Minki has been an easy target for everyone and she was able to land a fully charged shot on Sonic. On top of the dangerous amount of damage the fighter’s endured, Sonic flung off the stage.

Minki lets out a panicked shriek, failing to recover and once again falling down to lose one more stock.

Subin shook her head in awe, her eyes glued to the screen, “Minki, are you really this bad at Smash?” Jigglypuff lands an aerial attack on Kirby, launching him out the stage.

Minki defends himself, landing back into the competition on his last life, “I’m not the best when it comes to these games but— BACK OFF!” Sonic leaps up just before Jigglypuff could roll and collide into the fighter. The desperation is imminent in Minki’s voice, “I’m trying!”

At this point, it was clear that she and Taeryung were the tyrants of this match.

The stadium transforms into its ice version and Subin grins at the new challenge.

Sonic spins into a ball again, “Oh, wait—GOD, NO!” Minki realizes too late, witnessing his fighter slip out of the stage and be the first one eliminated.

It’s just Samus and Jigglypuff highly damaged but with their stocks untouched and Kirby with two stocks left.

Yohan sharply inhales as he takes in his situation, shaking his head and letting his Kirby fall off the stage.

“Huh?” Subin’s surprised at the course of action, watching as Yohan again allows Kirby to fly off to the edge of the stage and get rid of his last stock.

Yohan is sheepish, “I don’t want to go against you two.”

Subin exclaims as Taeryung landed a charged attack, launching her out of the stage.

Two stocks left.

“Oh, yeah?” Subin acts quick, leaping up to meet Jigglypuff in the air and landing her Up smash, also launching Jigglypuff out.

“Now we’re even!” Subin leans over in anticipation.

Taeryung screams, “Oh, it’s on!”


Sion watches from afar as the new hires were huddled up playing a game.

“You know,” She starts speaking to no one in particular, “If I hadn’t known better I would’ve thought that there was an actual fight going on.”

Seongjun hears her out, “Seems we’ve got a competitive bunch into this café.” He grins, “I kinda want to join them.”

The screaming intensifies and Sion flinches, “I guess it was too much to hope that Jikyung would hire some good kids.”

Seongjun throws an offended look, “Hey, we’re good kids! You just don’t know how to have fun!”

Sion’s jaw drops, grinning at the jab, “Excuse me—“

Subin erupts into celebration, shooting up from her seat and crying out in victory. Taeryung howls out in fury, bursting out with fiery, incoherent gibberish.

“I won!”

“I demand a rematch! A REMATCH.”

Gaho marches in, concern written all over his face, “Is there a fight going on..?”

Seongjun shakes his head, “No, it’s just Smash.”

Sion turns to the two coworkers, deadpanning..

“Remind me to take the day off when the next Smash tournament happens.”

author's note: my soul has departed. my eyes? tiredt. the story's still in its introductory phase but i swear things will get fun!!!!!!! anyway, hope y'all enjoyed?? and i nyoOoom.