Work at the TF Group Seoul office was lively as usual with the constant bickering between Jamie and Jackson, Wendy trying to ignore them and failing, Mark pretending nothing was happening while holed up in his personal office and Yugyeom being blissfully engaged in making coffee. What about Jinyoung? Jinyoung sat quietly behind his desk, appreciating every small moment of amusement and boisterous laughter that was thrown his way.

Nonetheless, with the opening date of the coffee shop looming over their shoulders, everyone was feeling the pressure and stress as there were still details that were yet to be finalised. It had already been decided that TF Group’s first Seoul coffee shop would be 24/7, making it different from other coffee shops and enhancing its attraction to students who were always in search of somewhere relaxing to study during all hours of the day. However what they were missing was a concrete theme for the coffee shop to follow, something that served as an identity, something distinct and recognisable like how Gureum had established itself as a fusion of the traditional and the modern.

“What is missing in Seoul’s coffee scene?” Mark questioned, eyeing every individual sitting around the oak table in the meeting room. “Or rather, what is our target demographic lacking that we can fill in?”

“We could go for pastel coloured theme, that’s very popular with young girls nowadays because it’s very ‘instagrammable’,” Wendy said while making the air quotation motions with her fingers.

“That will put off the people who just want to sit down and chill.” Yugyeom frowned. “Also customers who just care about taking photos for their social media will be there just for the clout and do little to help us gain a loyal customer base.”

“What about a film theme?” Jackson quipped, clapping his hands together as though he was a genius. “We can do some really cool stuff and name the drinks after film quotes and characters. The uniforms can also be characters of films.”

“That would require a ton of paperwork for copyrights and licensing rights idiot,” Jamie immediately shot him down. “Also film theme is so generic, we would need to narrow it down and even then, we would need to keep an eye on recent trends and what will be popular in the long run.”

Jackson glowered at the girl, not appreciating her tone of voice. Before it could explode into a full blown argument, Mark threw the report he was holding onto the table, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Trends come and go but TF Group is here to stay,” Mark sighed while massaging his temples. “Following trends may get the buzz going initially but it won’t last. We need something more… timeless.”

“There is also the difficulty of predicting trends for when the coffee shop is set to open,” Wendy added. “It would be pointless to plan something that is trendy now but will die out in the next few months.”

“Either way, I don’t want to follow trends,” Mark said in a dismissive tone. “That’s not cool.”

“That statement just brought your whole ‘we are here to stay’ speech to a real not-so-cool level,” Jamie sniggered.

Mark gave Jamie a lazy glare before using his legs to give himself a push and swirl his leather chair in circles while in deep thought. Yugyeom glanced around with a hint of helplessness in his eyes. As barista he had always just had to focus on making sure his coffee tasted great; this kind of behind the scene stuff was out of his depth and he found himself in the sidelines, not having much to offer. Compared to him though, Jinyoung felt even more out of his comfort zone, having never worked in the service sector or within the food and beverage industry. Nonetheless, all of them wracked their brains to think of something.

“This is so hard,” Jackson groaned, slamming his forehead against the table.

“Okay let’s narrow it down first,” Mark exhaled, trying to organise his thoughts. “Let’s forget about the customers first. What is it that we want in a coffee shop? What are we looking for?”

Another heavy silence fell, weighting down on everyone. Jinyoung carefully looked around him and despite having remained silent this whole time, a glimmer on inspiration hit him.

“Home.”

Mark tilted his head towards Jinyoung with curiosity, motioning him to continue and expand on the topic.

“I mean, we all live apart from our families, some more than others. Over half of the people in this room alone live in a completely different continent from their families,” Jinyoung explained, forcing himself to not rush in his explanation. “And on a larger scale, since Seoul is the capital city, there is a tremendous amount of people who have immigrated here from elsewhere — whether domestically or internationally. Exhausted and fatigued city dwellers might not want to return to an empty rented flat at the end of the day so with our coffee shop being 24/7, it meets the basic requirement of what these people need.”

“A place where they can take refugee during all hours,” Wendy concluded for Jinyoung.

“A home away from home,” Mark pondered out loud, a spark of excitement and approval in his eyes.

“Yes.” Jinyoung nodded. “If I were to narrow it down further to a more specific feeling or phrase then it would be that when they enter the coffee shop, it becomes a natur