chapter one.

June 15, 2018

Subin is ready. Subin is so ready.

She walks into the café, taking in the Friday evening surroundings. The tables are filled and the sun is still peeking out among the Seoul sky despite the time. Every TV screen is being used to play games. Laughter is heard everywhere, voices boom out, and instructions are being frustratingly drowned out by the ambient noise as players fail their co-op mission.

Subin walks up to the counter and smiles, “Hi, I’m here for the job orientation!” The boy across her—perhaps about her age—blinks, “Ah, alright, what’s your name?”

“Ahn Subin!” She answers without missing a beat. The boy nods instantly, giving a soft smile, “Subin, okay, just follow me.” He lifts the countertop door up and Subin steps in.

Another boy walks out from the end of the hallway and Subin gasps in excitement, “Minjae!”

The boy’s eyes widen, “Oh, right! You’re here today!” Subin nods, “See you later!” Minjae smiles, “Later! Stay around and hang once the orientation’s done, yeah?” She gives a short wave before facing away, “Of course!”

He leads her straight deeper into the back, leading to a glass door just across the archway leading to the kitchen.

“The others are sitting here waiting for Jikyung, she’ll be the one to talk to you guys about all you need to know.” He politely bowed as he opened the door for her. Subin maintains her chipper attitude and returns the gesture, “Thank you!”

She walks in and the air hits noticeably cooler than the boisterous lobby. It’s quiet besides the low white noise of the TV across showing the news. Four other people are in the room, seated among four folding tables set up parallel to the TV. There seems to be small lockers where employees can store their personal belongings. Right across the door and by the TV are counters and cabinets lined up, with an electric kettle set up along with a mini fridge and a microwave.

She bows as walked along the front of the room, exchanging greetings as she passed them by.

Subin allows herself to walk up and sits to the right of the only other girl in the room, at the table closest to what is considered the front.

She quickly takes note of the other new hires. Two boys sat behind her, they resumed the conversation they had before her arrival. A boy sat at the other front table to the right, sitting alone and engrossed by his phone.

Subin turns to her left, making eye contact with her seatmate. The girl notices and gives a polite smile.

“Hi, my name’s Ahn Subin!” She bows her head. The girl mirrors her movement and maintains her smile, “I’m Kim Soyul! Nice to meet you.”

The sound of the glass door swinging open is heard and everyone turns to see a girl who had skidded on her steps, observing the people before her before greeting feebly and bowing.

Her face is blank, or perhaps there’s a hint of annoyance? She heaves a sigh, taking the closest table to her—the empty one—and sitting herself down. She also takes her phone out and distracts herself.

Subin turns back to Soyul, shrugging before carrying on, “So what brought you here?”

Dahn turns around and focuses back on his phone. The two boys, Yohan and Minki, behind him to his left continued talking and the girls—Subin and Soyul, he thinks he heard—continue their conversation too.

His phone buzzed as a notification flag popped up.

Dahnbee
Have fun at your job orientation!

A smile grows on his face as he saw his sister’s text, replying back with a quick thanks.

The door swings open and his head turns, hastily putting away his phone into his pocket.

It was the manager who had interviewed him, Jikyung.

She walked up to his table, plopping down the pile of papers in her hands. She heaves a sigh, “Hey, everyone.” A chorus of greetings is delivered in unison, some chipper and some not.

Jikyung holds up a piece of paper, her eyes scanning the contents. “Is Ahn Subin here?”

The girl raises up her hand, “Here!”

“Gong Minki?”

“Present!” Dahn hears from behind him.

“Hwang Hanyeon?”

The latest arrival simply raises her hand, silently confirming her attendance instead.

“Kim Soyul?”

“Here!” The girl beside Soyul waves.

“Lee Dahn?”

Dahn raises his hand, “Here.”

“And Yang Yohan?”

“Present,” Dahn hears one of the boys say.

“Okay, everyone’s here, so let’s get this party started.” She grabbed the piles of paper and distributed them to the six newbies, along with a pen, “These are the paperwork you guys will need to sign, I’ll go through them with you all.” Jikyung grabs the free chair beside Dahn, dragging it to the front of the room and placing it to face all of them. The manager takes a seat with her own copy of the contract.

It’s nothing new. Dahn has heard lots of safety regulations and workers’ rights for quite a few times now. Everyone signs in on the blanks and jot down their initials as Jikyung briefs them on the content.

They all breeze through the pages when Jikyung looks up from her copy, flipping back to the first page, “Alright, that should be all of it. Just pass up your stuff and we’ll get to the better stuff.”

But there’s one last page at the bottom of the pile. Dahn flips to the next page and freezes. He hears Hanyeon almost snort from behind.

Well, this is a first.

Jikyung starts, “Alright, once we’re ready to go, we’ll start off at the inven—“

Soyul slowly raises her hand, “Jikyung-sshi?” The manager raises her eyebrows, “Yes, Soyul?”

“There’s..” She trails off as she’s at a loss for words. It’s Hanyeon who holds her copy of the page up, “Contract for admission into the cult of Cthulhu.” She puts it down and Dahn hears the eager sound of her pen glide on the paper.

The manager heaves a sigh, looking into the distance, “I knew it. Hyun wouldn’t have printed all this for me out of the goodness of his heart..”

As Jikyung picks up the contracts, she nods her head towards the lockers to her left, “If you guys need to store anything, feel free to use the lockers. It’s up to you whether you guys use a lock or not, but that’s a risk you guys will be responsible for.”

The last of the contracts were collected as a gentle, defeated smile grows on Jikyung’s face, “Time to give you guys your aprons!”

Dahn stood up, all of them trailing behind Jikyung as they made their way out of the crew room.

Minki takes it all in as they go further into the back of the café, turning his head to see all angles possible.

Yohan beside him jokes, "Careful you don't give yourself a headache."

So this is what it looks like over here!

“The managers’ office is just next to the crew room here,” Jikyung knocked on the wooden door. She then pointed to the bolted wooden box next to it. It’s locked with a slit to allow paper to push through.  “This thing is mainly used for if you want to request a day off,” Jikyung explained, “When you want to request, make sure to slip in your request the Sunday before the week of your day off. Just remember to put your name, please.”

She quickly adds, “Or if you want to complain about someone or something, this is your go-to. Any piece of paper will do!”

She opens the office, shuffling over as she kicks over a big cardboard box out the door. “The aprons have three sizes! Choose accordingly, children.” Jikyung makes way as everybody picks their apron. Minki picks a medium out of the teal coloured aprons, all with the café’s logo embroidered at the front along with a small pocket.

Jikyung kicks the box back into the office before shutting the door, “To be completely honest, you guys can do whatever with these things. Customize them however you want, as long as you’ve got the logo intact!”

She continues further on, “We don’t really have a dress code besides wearing the apron on top. As long as it’s appropriate for work, then it’s all good.” Jikyung adds, “You guys should be wearing close-toed shoes, with a grip, so you guys don’t slip and die in the kitchen and we get trouble or something.”

She huffs as she realizes another detail was missed, “Oh, and your name tags should be coming in a week or so.” There are a few moments of silence until Jikyung tilts her head and looks past the newbies.

“Hello, everyone!” A male voice pops out from behind them.

“Hi!” Minki immediately answers before whipping his head to see the newcomer.

Oh, Minki recognizes this man.

“It’s the kitchen dude!” Minki whisper yells, waving fervently.

Jikyung walks next to the other manager, “This is Hyun, everyone. The one who snuck in the Cthulhu contracts.” His eyes brighten at the mention of the contracts, “Did anybody here sign them?”

Minki stretches his hand up high, as did Yohan, albeit raising it lower. Hanyeon also raises her hand. Minki excitedly asks, “Do we get anything for joining the cult?” Hyun points, “Oh, you’ll see!”

"Alright!" Minki puts a fist up in the air.

Yohan follows up, “Do we get any benefits throughout our membership as part of the cult?” Hyun scratches the back of his head, “Yeah, I still gotta think about that..”

Jikyung shakes her head and struts over to the door next to the managers’ office, “Inventory time!”

June 16, 2018

Zhihui watches as Jikyung reaches the door knob, swinging the door open.

“The inventory’s down the stairs here, though we do have a shelf behind you guys so that—! What the hell?!” Jikyung holds her chest as she stares down the stairs.

Zhihui blinks in confusion as others flinch in surprise at the manager’s outburst.

Jikyung turns to the general direction of the kitchen, “Yoonju! Why the hell is there an Elmo doll standing down here?!”

Said manager pops her head out from the kitchen archway, “Hyun told me to put it there.” She steps out of the archway, “He said that he couldn’t use the same Cthulhu contract prank from yesterday, so he just wanted to give you a good scare this time.”

“I’m throwing this damned Elmo away,” Jikyung marches down and snatches up the doll. Yoonju flatly teases before retreating into the kitchen, “Careful, it might be haunted.”

The newbies follow Jikyung down two short flights of stairs. A descent simply going down straight from the door and then another to the left. Fluorescent lights illuminate the room and shelves filled with cardboard boxes cover the walls.

“This is where we keep most of our packaging, napkins, syrups, ground coffee, and such.” Jikyung turns to face the rest, “You guys can walk around just to get the gist of where things are. You guys will learn as you go. Most things related to each other are usually found in the same area!”

Zhihui roams around and weaves in between the two metal shelves propped in the middle of the inventory room, careful not to knock anything down. The shelf on the furthest wall from the stairs held packaging, There was an array of boxes of tea, syrup for drinks, bags containing chocolate and caramel for ice cream, and boxes of sugar packets, and the like.

The guys seem a bit boggled by the load of information, all with varying degrees of confusion shown. Jihoon—if she recalls correctly—seems to be taking note of the arrangement. The two other guys frantically look around, both knocked into a daze. Junhyuk and Taeryung, she thinks.

As if sensing it, Jikyung speaks, “This might seem a lot for some of you, but you’ll get used to it. If you don’t know where things are, it’s okay to ask!”

Jikyung tosses the Elmo doll into an empty cardboard box, landing with a mechanical thunk sound.

“Ahahah! That tickles!”

Elmo’s laughter is played by a horrendous, dying built-in speaker. Zhihui internally jumps when Jihoon and Eunjae yelp. Jikyung flinches as the box shuffles around. “Nope, nope, nope, nope.” She grabs the doll as its limbs stiffly flail, the gears turning inside it audible. She holds it by the foot and flicks the switch under its foot, the doll then freezing mid-tickling sequence.

Jikyung tosses it back into the box as she sighs, “Everybody good?” It’s Eunjae and Yeonhee who are affirmative, walking right up to Jikyung to move along.

Eunjae looks over her shoulder and smiles at Zhihui, surprising her and responding with a smile of her own. Eunjae steps to the side and gently pulls Zhihui up with the rest of the girls.

“We’ll start from the worst to get it over with.” There’s something apologetic in Jikyung’s tone.

The manager leads the group back up the stairs, standing by the heavy, black coloured door to the left. There’s a push bar as the door handle.

“This,” Jikyung taps the door, “is the garbage room.” She pushes on the handle, the door swinging with a guttural creak.

God, it was like a beast had opened its jaws and unleashed its foul breath to rot life and light itself.

Well, this is much different compared to the flowers she worked with.

Taeryung wheezed, his face crumpling up in disgust, “Is this what Garbodor would smell like?” Jikyung snorts, “No kidding.” She pulls on the handle, shutting the door to end the misery.

“It can get worse than this, really.” Jikyung warned, “Try not to leave stuff around, but do be careful when moving bags around too.” Jikyung clapped her hands together, “You guys will be trained on how to use the compactor in there soon. Today is not that day, thankfully.”

The manager continued the tour and led them around. She showed them behind the wide, metallic door that revealed the walk-in fridge, to another similar door within that to reveal the walk-in freezer. Getting trapped in here would be hell.

“There are emergency levers in here in case you guys get stuck in here.”

That’s a relief.

The group rushed out and Jikyung commentated as they passed by. The metal shelf propped up against the wall right across the fridge acted as a mini inventory, “Just so you guys don’t need to go up and down the stairs all the time to stock up.”

They were shown around the kitchen, greeted by Yoonju and firing a quick question to Jikyung before they completely left, “Where’d you put that Elmo? Hyun said he needs it back.” Jikyung declined the question, “He doesn’t need it back.”

They were taken along to the front for a brief introduction to where things usually were, crossing paths with the boy she met at the front. Jikyung patted him on the shoulder, “This is Hongjun, he’s worked with us since our opening. If you guys need any help, he’s here!”

Jikyung nodded her head towards the hallway, “Let’s make our way back to the crew room! I’ve only got a few more things to talk about.”

Jihoon took the seat closest to the door and tosses his new apron for work on top of the table, nestled comfortably for the last bit of the orientation. He ran his hand through the cool surface of the table, patiently waiting for everyone to settle down into their own seats.

The chair to his left drags out and a chill runs up his spine when he realizes who his seatmate is.

Yeonhee. There was this air of undaunted confidence surrounding her, and complete with that stoic expression?

Oh, yeah. He’s intimidated.

Stay calm. Stay calm.

Calm and totally collected.

Yeah.

He threw another glance before straightening up as Jikyung took her place at the front of the room.

“I know I didn’t show you the lobby and the games,” she started off, “But you guys can go around the café after this and pick up a few stuff before your training starts!”

Jikyung clears , “Now, I don’t know whether you guys know who the owner of this café is, or what kind of person he is.”

Hell yeah, Hwang ‘Doogi’ Minjin.

It seemed the other people in the group know of him too, nodding their heads and murmuring in confirmation. This pleasantly surprises Jikyung.

“Yeah, Minjin. You guys will meet him, eventually.”

Jihoon can almost choke up thinking of the day to come.

She gives a fond smile, “So, as some of you may already know, Minjin’s a fun and laid-back guy. Perhaps a bit of a free spirit?” She shrugs, “But he made this place happen because he wanted to build a space for everyone, whether friend or stranger, to play together.”

“In short,” Jikyung clears , “Minjin wanted to create and contribute to a community where people can be free to have fun and be comfortable. To help continue the childhood tradition of meeting up with people to personally play together.”

She lets her smile grow as she looks at everybody else. “And sure,” she resumes, “You can see this as some kind of vision that we should carry to let this place thrive.”

“But he also holds this belief for us, the people who work here. This isn’t just a place for the customers, but for us too. At least, he hopes.”

Jikyung lifts her wrist, glancing at her watch, “Well, I think it’s about time I let you guys loose.”

She claps her hands together, “We’ll contact you about your training soon! Be free, children!”

Jihoon could barely hide the little smile creeping up, looking down at the apron he got and staring at the logo.

Perhaps applying to this place was worth the emotional turmoil.

author's note: the first freaking chapter, wow you guys. did i want to write more?? hell yeah. but did i want to continue extending this first chapter when it's already hit 3000+ words? nah, 'cause there's more to come!!!  hope y'all enjoyed it??? and don't worry about character povs, we'll hop into their minds as we go further in! see y'all~ (lowkey not proofread thoroughly bc i am??? tiredt. it is 2am. nyoom.)