Everything was almost set, Seungjo was back, and Jisung took his turn to change his sweater when the doorbell was heard, startling the two in the kitchen a bit.

“Can you get that, Kookie?”

“Yes, sir.” Jeongguk jumped to his feet at once and scuttled to the door, leaving a giggling Seungjo behind. When he opened it, an awfully familiar brown-haired girl was standing there with her distinctive hearty smile. “Hey, nitwit.”

“Hey, dorky.” They shared a big hug and walked towards the kitchen with Jeongguk keeping his arm wrapped around her shoulders. “Still single?”

“Still annoying?” he shot back with a sneer, raffling her hair and wholly messing it up.

Sejeong tsked and shoved him away, but flashed him a soft smile despite the fake annoyance she previously showed.

“Ah Sejeong, honey, everything okay?” Seungjo asked once he spotted the young girl.

“No, my parents are ruining my peaceful life.” Frustration was apparent in her tone and completely visible on her face.

“What did my hyung do again?” Jisung finally joined them as well.

“They were just bickering for over an hour about what to watch and I couldn’t see nor hear it anymore. So I thought I could join you.”

“Of course you can, sweetie. You’re always welcomed here, and you live just across from us. You can always come and hide here,” Seungjo warmly said, making a broad smile surface on the girl’s face.

“You’re the best, uncle Seungjo!”

“Yah!” Jisung exclaimed, holding his hands in the air as if he asking ‘what about me?’

He received exuberant giggles and a bone-crushing hug from his niece. “You’re pretty good as well.”

“Pretty good!?”

Another round of loud cackles reverberated through the room as they all took their seat at the table. “Let’s eat. My bunbun has to go to work in a few hours.” Seungjo pinched the said boy’s cheek, and a painful grimace took over Jeongguk’s features instantly.

“Sejeong-ah, will you come with us to Han Cafe’s opening today?” Jisung questioned as he placed food on his plate.

“I’d love that, but I have training and we have a match in a few weeks. I can’t lose that.” She glimpsed at her cousin with an apologetic smile.

“No problem, you nitwit.” Jeongguk chuckled softly, finishing with filling his plate with seemingly delicious food. “So how’s volleyball going? You think you’re gonna win this match as well?”

“The opponent team is strong, but we’re better since we have, you know, me.” Sejeong immodestly flicked her hair back with her self-bragging remark.

“That’s right! Confidence is the key.” Jisung gave her a thumbs up. “You should learn a thing or two, Kook.”

“Sorry, I don’t want to be a cocky nitwit volleyball player.”

“Yeah, he prefers being a dorky single boxer.”

“Why are you attacking my love life for the thousandth time?”

“Your nonexistent one?”

“Yes, my none—shut up.”

Sejeong made a choked sound, trying to suppress her giggle. She leaned closer then in an attempt to not be heard from her uncles. “You need to get some action finally. Your thingy is withering from zero usage.”

“Yah!” he bellowed in shock, his eyes popping out and his jaw hanging loosely.

Satisfied by his miffed reaction, she chortled and returned her attention to her food.

“Sejeong, sweetie, don’t pressure him.” Seungjo couldn’t help but chuckle as well. “He needs his time.”

“I’m trying to boost him, but his stubborn ass doesn’t want to move.”

“This conversation ends here,” the cherry-haired boy strictly stated, and after another round of laughs, they decided to drop it.

Maybe the reason Jeongguk was getting a bit mad over this was because he wanted to have someone as well, but he just didn’t know what to do about it. He shrugged it off as he thought he had to focus on his job and training and didn’t have time for flings that moment in his life.

🥀

Having the whole house to himself was a heavenly gift for Taehyung.

He woke up early to clean the spacious house before going to his piano lesson. On his way back, he went grocery shopping and cooked something easy and quick.

Done with everything he had to do, he ate a snack as he wasn’t that hungry yet, took a long shower, and got ready to go to work. What he didn’t realize, though, was that he was already late. It only struck him when he glanced at the clock in his room.

He was supposed to be on his way already, and to say that he wasn’t swarmed with terror at that moment would be a tremendous lie.

Panicking as he had never panicked in his life before, he burst out of his house and sprinted to the subway station. He also had to take a bus later to get closer to the cafe, and fuck, he had really screwed up there.

After a nerve-wracking, torturous ride with the subway and another one with the bus, he dashed towards the cafe the moment it came into view. He didn’t slow down in the slightest as he neared the door and flew it open.

He wanted to continue running and hide behind the group of people he spotted there, but he was harshly pulled back by his sleeve that was caught at the door handle. He staggered and almost toppled over, but somehow magically managed to steady himself.

He had already sucked all eyes on him, each one peering at him moon-eyed and unable to find words to comment anything. Everyone could tell how embarrassed he was as his entire face glowed with red, sleeve still hooked at the handle and expression now daunted.

The silence went on strong as he hung his head as low as possible, despondently edging his hand away and freeing himself from the unexpected death trap, or more accurately, humiliation trap.

His steps were uncertain and small, hands unremittingly pulling the sleeves of his jacket as he stashed his calcified body and still burning red face behind the mass.

“That’s, um“—a single astounded chuckle spewed out of an older man’s mouth—“great! Now that we’re all here, let me officially welcome you to our newly renovated cafe! My name—“

“Now that we’re all here.” Another man bobbed into the room dressed in a suit, hands loosely tucked in his pockets and radiating ascendancy blended with self-assertiveness. He shot a haughty look at the manager before he turned his attention to the people in front of him.

“You ass.” It was an almost inaudible mumble that wasn’t meant for the boss and good friend of his for years to hear, but he did.

The oldest of all looked askance at him — words were useless as his sharp features roared with menaces. “I don’t like new employees,” he started as he redirected his gaze to the small crowd.

“At least say your name first,” the younger man beside him muttered with an eye roll, earning another vicious glare.

“My name is Ji Chang Wook, as I’m sure everyone knows, owner of this cafe and your boss. You will address me as Mr. Ji at all times, you will comply with the regulations of this cafe, which means my regulations. As I previously stated, I don’t like new employees because I don’t know their skills, and their resume means nothing to me.

"Your spot here is not defined. Especially for the new employees. If you do a crappy job you’re out. We want artistry, readiness, promptitude, and enthusiasm. Don’t make us regret our decision of choosing you to be a part of our family. Dohwan here will say a few words as well.”

“He kinda killed the mood, so let me liven it up a bit.” He elicited many chuckles from the employees and a grunt from the older as it was expected. “My name is Woo Dohwan, I’m the manager of this cafe, and if you need help, I’m your man. We want what Chang Wook-ssi said, but you are allowed to make mistakes. You’re humans. It’s reasonable.

"If you can’t solve a problem or you have any complaints come to find me, okay? Now, I want those who used to work here to show the new employees where everything is and guide them for the day. Get to know each other, don’t fight and especially in front of customers, please get along well, and if there’s a problem I’m here, okay?”

Some of them uttered a few yesses and thank yous and loosened their stiff posture.

“Maybe this place seems different, but he’s the same vagarious, ill-natured dude.” A voice was heard quite close to Taehyung, infiltrating his spaced-out head and bringing him back to the bitter reality.

He was in a place loaded with unfamiliar faces, he embarrassed the shit out of himself first things first, and now he even had to talk to someone and ask for their help.

When the situation dawned on him, he was swept over by a burst of extreme anxiety and horror. His heartbeat rocketed; he could hear every rapid beat buzz in his ears, his vision was clouded as he hollowly stared at nothing, and right there he knew he was on the edge of fainting.

A hand that was placed on his shoulder was enough to shake him out of his chaotic state, but not to appease him.

“Hey, you’re the kid who embarrassed himself, right?”

That’s fucking great. “Yeah.”

A loud laugh pierced through Taehyung’s ears a second later, the source being the seemingly snide boy by his side.

“It was hilarious, by the way. I’m Inhyuk. What’s your name?”

“I’m Taehyung.”

“I’m assuming you don’t have anyone to show you around. Wanna come with me?”

“Okay, I guess,” Taehyung muttered, still feeling utterly uncomfortable, but at least he wasn’t alone anymore.

“You’re one of the servers, right?”

“Yes.”

A short moment of silence fell over them as they walked towards the bar. Inhyuk then came to an abrupt halt, startling the already agitated boy. “You don’t talk much, do you?”

The fluffy-haired boy twiddled with the hem of his sweater, his face overtaken by a restless expression. “Not really.”

Inhyuk snorted at the expected answer and continued his way with the other trailing timidly behind him. “Well, I tend to talk a lot, so we’ll make a great team the two of us. I’m one of the servers as well.”

“Great,” he gave him another dry response, but this time, he realized it and scolded himself internally. No, Taehyung, remember what Jimin said. Be open, make small talk. You need to survive in here. “So you used to work here?”

Inhyuk tossed his head in his direction, his face beaming with amusement at the unforeseen question. “Yes, for two years!” The pitch of his tone increased by his excitement as meeting new people was always something he enjoyed.

“As you can see, many people work here since we have countless customers every day and the cafe is quite spacious. We have three baristas. That handsome, genius-looking one.” He pointed subtly at one tall, black-haired boy. “His name is Namjoon, and he doesn’t just seem genius. He truly is. The other is, um.” He paused as he searched around, trying to spot another barista. “Oh! That guy, gorgeous as you can see, whole course meal, but one hell of an obnoxious prick sometimes.”

Taehyung struggled a bit but caught a glimpse of the boy eventually. He was handsome — he couldn’t deny that, but his somber face screamed obnoxious, just as Inhyuk said.

“His name is Kang Joon. Friendly advice, try to not get on his nerves. You’ll never hear the end of it.” A sigh leaked out of his mouth. “And for last, for the grand finale, we have that godlike, mouthwatering guy over there who may not seem like it, but he hides an extremely toned body underneath those layers of clothes.”

Taehyung’s face twisted in a disapproving grimace at his excessive description of the last barista, but he traced with his gaze where he was pointing at. It was a moving target and very difficult to distinguish anything from the stranger as there were a lot of people in his vision. He squinted his eyes in concentration, but before he even realized it, the target had disappeared.

“Oh, he just went to Mr. Ji’s office. You’ll see him later. His name is Jeongguk.”

Taehyung, still thinking that Inhyuk was just exaggerating, brushed it off and listened to his probable new friend who finally explained what he had to do.

⚜✳⚜
  

Another update to hopefully spark your excitement about this book a bit more😅