Four cousins of Korean-Thai descent made of two sets of sisters, Serena and Melanie, and Kierra and Linna, with their fathers being brothers and their mothers being friends before marrying into the same family. The four were currently living and studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea for the past several years while their families lived in the US. They've visited both Thailand and South Korea over the years when they were younger during holidays and vacations, but wanted to study abroad and settled on South Korea. The quartet went by their Korean names, Chaejin, Chaewon, Yiyeon, and Yiseul, respectively, for convenience. The cousins were currently on winter break from the university and at the moment they were working at a restaurant, Gong's Food, instead of having fun like a majority of their peers.

"Sir, there is no need for your anger."

Linna had shielded herself in time by using one of the serving trays to block the shattering glass shards due to the table she was currently tending to had thrown at their glass angrily at her. The customer began yelling at her incoherently. She remained calm and spoke after the customer quieted down.

"I'm only here to inform your table that no alcohol will be further served as y'all reached the allowed limits within the set hour."

"That is total bull! We only had six bottles. There's a lot of us. How could we reach the limits?"

"Sir, there's only three in your party and yo-

Before Linna could even finish her explanation, the owner, Gong Hyungjin, immediately came over to disfused the situation.

"We're so sorry, sir. I'll have her bring out another one on the house."

He glared at Linna.

"Jung Yiseul, apologize."

Linna gave him a weird look.

"I'm not apologizing to him, Mr. Gong."

"I'm ordering you to do so, Jung Yiseul."

"No."

"Jung Yiseul, apologize to this gentleman right now."

"No. He's not a gentleman and I'm no-ahh!"

Hyungjin roughly placed his hand on her neck and forced her to bow to the customers. When Serena witnessed the incident, she instantly ran over to aid her younger cousin as the other two were busy in other areas of the restaurant. She kicked the back of the owner's thighs to knock him down to his knees as he released Linna's neck to break his fall with his own hands. Serena swiftly pulled Linna away from the older man and the table with a glare directed at them all.

"How dare you lay a hand on her? There's clearly a notice on the wall of how much alcohol is served to a table per party and per hour."

"Jung Chaejin! How dare you disrespect me?" The owner shouted at her.

Hyungjin could barely stand up due to landing on a few of the smaller shards of the shattered glass.

"Let's go."

Serena swiftly pulled Linna along with her to the back of the store. Kierra and Melanie asked what had happened as they heard loud sounds and spotted the other two while following the pair.

"Mr. Gong is being an like always." Serena replied before casting them an apologetic look.

"I don't know about y'all, but I'm quitting despite not putting in my one month's notice. I guess we'll be working for Auntie Jiwon after all."

The others nodded, thinking the same. Jiwon was the younger sister of the girls' fathers and actually moved back to South Korea permanently after graduating high school. She's now a small businesswoman, preparing to open up her first cafe after leaving her corporate job of twenty years. Since the quartet decided to move abroad for their studies, she's been taking care of them since and helps when needed or whenever their parents worried a little too much. Anyway, Serena quickly changed back into her regular clothes, left her uniform, and grabbed her belongings. The other three did the same and the four returned to the front.

"I will not pay any of you if leave." Hyungjin threatened.

"The four of you clean up this mess right now and take care of the customers."

"I quit." The cousins chimed at the same time with a smirk.

"Have fun finding a replacement for us on such short notice." Linna added with a knowing look.

"Don't go. I need you this weekend. It's Christmas Day! I don't have any one else to do it!" Hyungjin yelled after them before changing gears.

"Yah! I'll make sure you won't get work anywhere else!"

"We'll take our chances!" Melanie replied nonchalantly.

"We're not taking any more crap from you either, Mr. Gong." Kierra said with a firm tone and gave him a firmer look.

"So, you don't scare us."

The customers were staring and whispering, wondering what was going on, unlike the employees, minding their own business.

"Have a good day, sir."

The quartet mocked salute as they turned away and left.

"Despite how small the place is, it's pretty cute." Melanie complimented upon the place when the quartet arrived at the location of their aunt's cafe.

The place wasn't that far from their school and their home which compared to Gong's Food, was actually quite convenient for the quartet. After notifying Jiwon of their current unemployed statuses, she wanted the quartet to come by for preparation before the grand opening.

"Seems like a typical cafe though." Linna said with a smile.

"I like it."

"We're glad." A male voice said from behind them.

The quartet turned to see three familiar faces and their new co-workers, Moon Chanran, Lee Eunchan, and Ha Minjee. Eunchan was the one that had spoken. The trio previously worked under Jiwon's supervision for a few years as new interns when they had graduated university and decided they, too, wanted a change of pace in their work life. Then again, Jiwon was one of the fews in the workplace that treated them kindly and wanted to continue to work under her guidance.

"Wasn't our aunt supposed to be here?" Serena inquired as Minjee responded.

"She and Minwoo are taking care of other things and asked us to step in."

Kang Minwoo was their aunt's long-term boyfriend and Jiwon has been patiently waiting for Minwoo to pop the question any day now.

"But since it's you four, we know that y'all will catch on fairly quickly." Chanran commented with a goofy smile.

"I dunno about that." Kierra said with a playful tone as Chanran nudged her with her doing the same back.

"No, I agree." Minjee concurred with a smile as she gave the quartet a serious look.

"Just in time, too, since Jiwon had to let go a few of the staff she hired previously due to misconduct."

"Oh, wow, really? What they do?" Linna asked.

"One was for ual harrassment. Another was for stealing products. The third for vandalism. As for the fourth and fifth ones, they basically didn't show up a majority of the time for training despite Jiwon and others calling and messaging them." Chanran listed with explanation.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Anyway, welcome to Simplistic." Eunchan greeted as he passed by to unlock the doors while casting them with a playful smile, "Now, let's head inside to prep y'all for this Thursday's soft opening."

The trio explained to the quartet on how Simplistic would run as well as where things were designated and for usage. The group spent all evening going over the menu, prices, set-up, uniforms, other work-related functions, and non-work issues. The cafe shop would operate for seven days a week with specific hours to see how things would go for now. Monday through Thursday, the hours were from three in the afternoon to nine at night. Then Friday through Sunday, from twelve noon to six in the evening. However, Simplistic would run operation as a team of seven now with Jiwon handling ownership and business side.

"So there's an order of seaweed rice ball, a loaded mochi waffle, a lemon cloud ade, and a cherry blossom ice cream." Melanie read back the order before annoucing the overall total.

"That'll be a total of thirteen thousand and five hundred won."

Melanie ran the register with Kierra, Linna, Minhee, and Serena made the orders while Eunchan and Chanran ran out the orders and cleaned the area. Anyhow, all worked every positions and assisted the other if needed as the orders were all made to order. As for their uniforms, it consisted of an ash gray visor with the shop's logo, a beige sweater also with the shop's logo, black leggings or pants, black sneakers, and an ash gray striped apron with the shop's logo, too. Simplistic sold a variety of items from bottled waters, canned milkis, fruit slushies, fruit slushies with cotton candy, ice cream, ice bars, rice balls, corn cheese, tteokbokki, bagels, and mochi waffles. And if you came in during the last half an hour before closing, all items were half off, so the shop could start afresh the next day. Jiwon came earlier to handle the pre-opening and inspection while giving Minjee orders and instructions on how to go about stuff and so didn't have time to meet up with her nieces. Minjee went through everything with everyone when they arrived in time to work.

"Here's two sets of furikake rice balls."

Kierra placed the two small plates onto a tray.

"Awesome. Thanks."

Chanran took the tray, placing it alongside an original and apple milkis before he ran out the order to the customer.

"Yeon, do you have the spicy tuna roll ready for customer number twenty-four?"

Serena looked over at her cousin while setting a mango slushie onto another tray.

"Yeah. Here you go."

Kierra handed her the plate as Serena thanked her while setting the item alongside the slushie and a bottle of water.

"Seul, do you have that moffle bomb and a plain one ready?"

"Just finished it. There you go."

Linna placed it onto another tray alongside a plain mochi waffle.

"Nice."

"Thanks." Eunchan flashed them a smile before taking the order upon returning from delivering another order.

"Y'all are doing a great job."

"Thank you and you, too." Serena responded while placing a plate of plain mochi waffles onto another tray.

"This one is ready with the two mango cloud ades and corn cheese for customer number six, too."

"Nice."

Eunchan also took that order with Chanran coming up to the counter, awaiting for the next set of order to go out.

"Hey, Chanran." Minjee called out to him.

"What's up?"

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