Chapter Text
“I still can’t believe you did that,” Seulgi said flatly, not even looking up from the espresso machine.
“What? I wrote it under the sleeve. Chances are she won’t even notice,” Wendy muttered. The embarrassment of having written a phone number on a customer’s cup earlier was finally starting to set in. “Large cappuccino?” she interrupted herself to shout out the next drink to the cafe. A surly older man in a blazer picked it up without a word and left. “Besides, she clearly has good taste,” Wendy continued, referring to the girl’s simple order: a small hot tea.
“You’re just lucky the boss is away,” Seulgi continued to scold, rolling her eyes. “Could you get more heavy cream from the back?”
“Aw, it’s almost like you’re jealous that I thought of it before you did,” Wendy teased with emphasis, quickly regaining her usual cheery attitude. She placed a hand on Seulgi’s back as she passed behind, letting her know where she was. Despite being new, Wendy picked up on these unspoken tricks quickly, which was good in this kind of business. It was sink or swim for these new baristas, especially while their boss was on his extended vacation, and it was up to Seulgi and the other floor managers to make sure everyone stayed afloat.
She didn’t even spare a glance at the cheeky girl as she left - too many drinks on the bar waiting to be made. Seulgi wasn’t jealous per se, though the customer had been abnormally pretty. Like, pretty enough for her to forget whether she put vanilla in that caramel macchiato or not. Pretty enough for her to almost make that Americano into a latte. Pretty enough for her to trick Wendy into handing off the drink while she made some excuse about needing to change out a syrup pump.
She tried to keep her stern expression as the newer barista returned with the carton, but it was hard to hide a blush with her hair tied back. She was never very good at concealing her emotions. “Thanks. Can you make me more whipped cream?” Wendy nodded obediently at the seasoned barista and began mixing the ingredients.
Seulgi groaned internally at the amount of drinks in line. She glanced back at the registers, all three occupied by her coworkers furiously writing more and more cups and stacking them behind the others.
“Hope you won’t forget about me over there,” Seulgi called behind her where she spied Wendy struggling with a CO2 canister. Sink or swim, indeed, though Seulgi felt like she was starting to drown in orders.
“Just a sec-” and then there was the tell-tale fsshhhhh and shriek letting the whole crew know that Wendy had just gotten half-charged whipping cream all over herself.
And the back counter.
And the wall.
And Seulgi.
“Wendy!”
“I’m sorry! Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Wendy spun around and grabbed some paper towels from the sink and began hastily wiping Seulgi off.
“Whoa, watch the hands! Just clean yourself off and come cover for me,” Seulgi said, laughing. It seemed like not a day went by without some little catastrophe happening. And why did it always have to be during the rush?
+++
Unfortunately, the girl whose cup Wendy wrote the number on did notice. Or rather, her friend noticed.
“Irene,” her friend pointed at the drink in her hand. “What’s that?” she asked with a strange smile that was a mix of amusement and surprise. She held the cafe door open for Irene and the smaller girl easily passed underneath her outstretched arm.
Irene raised an eyebrow at her as they walked back to the car. “It’s just tea-”
“No, that.”
Following her friend’s gaze, Irene looked more closely at the cup in her hand. “Oh.” It was very obvious what it was. Irene was speechless.
“I mean I suppose I can’t blame them, but really?” her friend continued with a knowing smile. Irene just gave her a stern frown. “Do you remember which barista it was?”
Irene blinked, pausing before she opened the passenger door. She actually had no idea which one it could have been. From the register, to the bar, to the hand-off station, it could have changed hands three or four times, especially with how busy it had been.
Her friend was already settling into the driver’s seat so Irene quickly got in. “Actually... there must have been about five or six of them behind the counter…”
Her friend scoffed. “Well did any of them catch your eye?”
Irene turned to her with a scandalized expression. “I’m going to be running that store in a couple of weeks and you want to know which one of my future baristas I find cute?” To be perfectly honest, Irene had been paying a lot more attention to the team dynamics and the store’s flow than to any individual barista. She did seem to recall that they had been mostly girls, though...
Her friend gave her a lopsided smile and shrugged her shoulders. Irene pinched the bridge of her nose.
“This is a lawsuit waiting to happen, isn’t it?” she groaned as they sped off.
+++
“Seulgi?” It was a manager from another store. He stuck his head in the back room looking for the veteran barista.
“I’m back here- Heechul?” she called from the desk, turning to look at him curiously. It wasn’t often they got a visit from another store manager, and when they did it usually wasn’t good news.
Heechul looked around the stockroom, making sure it was just the two of them, before shutting the door behind himself. The room became eerily quiet as the noise from the cafe was dulled to a chaotic hum. His normally playful expressions were dark as he walked over to where Seulgi sat.
His confidential nature was putting her on edge. “I’m not interrupting your break, am I?” he asked, seeing a half-eaten sandwich on the desk in front of her.
Seulgi shook her head. He was in fact interrupting, but whatever it was he wanted to talk about, she’d rather just get it over with. It was disturbing to see the sarcastic store manager this serious about something.
“I’m glad. So your manager,” Heechul began hesitantly, “well he’s leaving the store.”
“Kyuhyun?” Seulgi asked, her brows knitting together in shock. It was a silly question - there was only one person he could mean, but the news was so unexpected she couldn’t help but ask. She had been summarily put ‘in charge’ while their manager had gone on a long vacation, but there had been no indication that he wouldn’t be coming back...
“Yeah, Kyuhyun. Listen, Seulgi, while he was skiing... he had an accident.” Seulgi listened numbly as Heechul described the incident: the major head trauma, the broken arm, the long recovery period, the extended leave of absence.
He paused, watching Seulgi’s unreadable expression. He started to reach out a hand to pat her shoulder, but stopped. “Hey, he’s going to be alright. He was on his way up to a district office position anyway.”
She nodded slowly, then turned her gaze up to him. “So what’s going to happen to us?”
Heechul stuffed his hands in his khaki pockets. “Well actually they already have someone in mind to replace him. She’ll start next month.” He knew Seulgi was the rockstar barista of their district, next in line to start training for a store of her own, but company policy dictated that you couldn’t become the manager of a store you had already worked in. Too many conflicts of interest.
“They work quick,” she remarked, still trying to process the sudden change.
“They do,” he agreed respectfully.
Seulgi couldn’t keep this orphaned feeling from washing over her. All of them at the store had been such a tight-knit group, every since Seulgi had started working there a couple of years ago, regularly going out together after work. They were a family. A weird, dysfunctional, family.
“I know you’re probably not supposed to tell me, but do you know what hospital he’s in?”
+++
Now it was Seulgi’s turn to shut the door behind herself, creating a pregnant silence within the stockroom. The rest of her crew looked over at her expectantly, easily reading her serious expression. She had asked them all to stay after close for her announcement. Those who weren’t working today had come in specially.
“So,” she began awkwardly, “I don’t know how many of you probably already know, but Kyuhyun’s not coming back.”
Chaos.
“What do you mean not coming back?”
“Was he fired?”
“Oh god…”
“Seulgi?”
Apparently none of them had heard yet. Seulgi sighed and hooked her hair behind her ears, a way of composing herself. Everyone fell silent. “He had an accident and he won’t be able to come back to work. Heechul said he’ll probably be promoted to district manager.”
A mixture of worried expressions and beaming smiles at their beloved boss’s promotion filled the room. Seulgi shook her head.
“Not our district.” Now just the worried expressions remained. “I think it’d be nice to get him some flowers and cards from all of us. Heechul told me where he’s recovering, so if a couple of you want to go deliver it with me, we can do that.” They nodded at her.
“Our new manager starts next week,” she continued, already raising a hand in anticipation of their outcries. “Apparently she’s already been in the store and was impressed by us, so hopefully it will be a smooth transition.”
“She?”
“She’s already been here?”
“I hope it wasn’t during the whipped cream fiasco…”
“Excuse you.”
“I wonder what store she’s coming from.”
Seulgi’s pleading eyes met those of her fellow floor managers, and they tried to help her keep the peace.
“Guys it’s not going to be that bad, really. I know we’re all going to miss Kyuhyun, but this is… just business, you know?” one of them placated, trying to inspire silence. Seulgi gave up and decided to speak over the din.
“Her name’s Irene.”