The Special Menu
Just as Yeoncheong greeted her very first customer—Seoyun—and sensed the start of a very rough road, Seoha, the student council president, was making her rounds of the first-year classrooms alongside Chaerin, the first-year vice president, checking whether the booths were running into any problems.
The first-years, unlike the experienced second-years, kept running into unexpected issues one after another.
"Seems like this year's first-years really prepared hard."
Seoha remarked as she stepped out of a classroom running a mini-game booth. A triumphant smile bloomed across Chaerin's face as she followed her out.
"Nothing's gone wrong, so honestly, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself."
"The festival's only just beginning... but they do say a good start is half the battle."
It was a way of saying problems could arise at any moment, but Seoha felt her hard work had been worth it, and she was secretly in a good mood too.
She toyed with the long, trailing sleeve of her outfit and smiled. That was when Chaerin voiced the question she'd been holding ever since she first laid eyes on her.
"Seoha-unnie, whose clothes are those?"
The black jersey was conspicuously oversized. It certainly didn't look like something Seoha had bought for herself.
If she'd bought it by mistake, she would have exchanged or returned it. Unless she was a fool, no one would deliberately purchase a garment this enormous.
"Oh, this? A classmate lent it to me—said I should at least get into the festival spirit."
The way Seoha kept fidgeting with the fabric even as she answered made it clear how delighted she was with it. Watching her, Chaerin was certain of who had lent it.
Yeoncheong had lent her the clothes out of pure kindness, but Chaerin firmly believed that her gift of movie tickets was what had moved their relationship forward.
She struggled to suppress the corners of her mouth curling skyward, lips twitching—
"What? Is something wrong?"
Seoha completely misread her junior's expression.
"N-no! Not at all!"
Startled, Chaerin shook her head and waved both hands side to side, shaking it hard enough to make her head spin. Then, in a single glance, she took in the full picture of the senior she so admired.
Her silken black hair swaying like flowing fabric and her jewel-like crimson eyes went without saying. The oversized black jersey with its frilled trim evoked an authentic maid outfit, and the faint smile resting on her lips captured the gaze of every student passing by.
In other words, Chaerin's impression upon seeing her, distilled into a single sentence, was this:
"I'm so happy."
"Huh?"
"To get to see a sight like this from right up close... I could die with no regrets."
She'd asked if something was off, and now her junior was suddenly leaving a last will and testament. Flustered, Seoha did her best to grasp what she meant and asked,
"So... you're saying it suits me well?"
As if nothing had happened, Chaerin smoothly returned the conversation to normal.
"Yes! It suits you as if it were your own clothes."
"Does it?"
This time it was Seoha's mouth corners that could no longer be contained. Hiding her lips behind a sleeve through which only the tips of her fingers peeked out, she cleared her throat for no particular reason and said,
"Ahem. Well then, let's finish the other half of the rounds. That way we'll have at least a little more time to enjoy the festival ourselves."
"Yes, unnie!"
The two resumed their tour of the first-year classrooms, and for a while Seoha moved about with her sleeves pressed over a smile she simply couldn't rein in.
Meanwhile, the Jersey Maid Cafe's puppy, thrown into her greatest crisis since the festival began...
...was suffering at the hands of Seoyun.
"Wow, it's autumn already, and this puppy doesn't seem cold at all."
As customers trickled in one by one, Hasol and the other friends grew busier—but Yeoncheong was dealing with the seniors entirely on her own, with no one coming to her aid.
"Yeoncheong, what's on the menu here?"
"Woof."
Keeping a wary eye on her surroundings, Yeoncheong pointed a gloved hand at the menu sitting on the desk in front of the partition.
For a moment, Seoyun and her friends were thrown off by an answer of a type they'd never imagined—but then, watching Hasol serving nearby with "nyaa" appended to the end of every sentence, they broke into grins.
"Oh, so it's not just the costumes. You're really going for the whole thing, huh?"
One of the seniors, regarding the trembling Yeoncheong with an affectionate look, spoke up.
"Then can you bring us a menu? Probably too much for those paws of yours, though?"
Without a word, Yeoncheong clamped the menu between both of her barely-mobile hands and carried it over. At that, the seniors clapped and showered her with praise, patting her head.
"Wow, this puppy understands human speech so well."
"Right? This is the kind of dog I'd want to raise at home."
As the seniors browsed the menu and chatted among themselves, they tilted their heads at the section labeled Special Menu.
"Free Use Coupon? What's this?"
"Yeoncheong, what's this Free Use Coupon, and why does it cost one of our voting stickers?"
The drinks and refreshments listed alongside it were perfectly ordinary, but the Free Use Coupon was something even Yeoncheong, who had helped make the menu, was seeing for the first time.
Just then, one of the friends passing by with refreshments in hand explained.
"Ah, that's what you get if you vote for us—a Free Use Coupon that lets you play with the puppies or kitties however you like."
"For example?"
When the seniors pressed for details, the friend hesitated—apparently she hadn't thought that far.
"Um... things like having them sit on your lap, or making them do aegyo, probably?"
"What kind of dog..."
The person concerned was hearing all of this for the first time, and just as Yeoncheong opened her mouth—concept be damned—
"Sounds fun. I'll use one of mine on this."
Cutting her off, Seoyun pressed one of the two voting stickers she was holding onto Yeoncheong's paw-pad glove.
"You guys should use yours on it too."
"Sure, why not? I'm curious anyway, and we've each got two votes."
"I'm saving mine. The festival's only just started."
At Seoyun's urging, one more senior stuck her sticker onto Yeoncheong's glove.
Having secured two voting stickers in a matter of moments, Yeoncheong hurried around to the back of the partition.
"Hey! What is this Special Menu thing?!"
She hissed the words low enough that they couldn't be heard from outside, and Suyeon, who had been bustling about, reacted.
"What? Did someone actually order it?"
"Just now. Seoyun ordered it. On me."
Yeoncheong held up the voting stickers stuck to her glove. Suyeon and the other friends crowded around with wide eyes.
"Whoa. She really did?"
"Two of them, no less."
"Maybe we should've listed it at two voting stickers from the start."
"We only put it in as a joke..."
Only then did Yeoncheong learn the truth of the matter.
Right after the menu was finished, someone had complained that things were too boring. So, purely for fun, the Special Menu had been added.
Since it had been a gag item from the beginning, no one had reported it to her—and apparently none of them had imagined that anyone would actually slap their voting sticker down on it, given that no one had told them not to.
A sigh escaped her naturally at these friends who'd pulled a stunt without consulting anyone—but Yeoncheong and the Vice Class President weren't blameless either, for never double-checking the menu.
And right now, that wasn't the problem.
"What are we going to do about this? Just tell them it was a joke and give the stickers back?"
When Yeoncheong asked, holding up the stickers stuck to her glove, an awkward silence fell. Everyone had something they wanted to say, and everyone was watching everyone else's face.
In the end, Suyeon—her closest friend among them—was pushed to the front.
"Could you... could you maybe just do it? Once?"
"What?"
"The festival just started. If we announce the Special Menu was a joke, it'll totally kill the mood."
It wasn't exactly wrong, so nothing came to Yeoncheong's mind to say in response. Suyeon caught her hesitation and pressed the advantage.
"Seoyun's only asking because she likes you in particular. The odds of anyone else ordering it are basically zero. Just once. One single time. Hmm?"
Head tilted slightly, both hands clasped together, eyes sparkling as she begged—this was Suyeon's signature move, the one Yeoncheong had only ever seen occasionally back at the start of the semester.
It was the devastating weapon that had crushed Yeoncheong every time they'd butted heads over club activities, and even after all this time, it hadn't lost an ounce of its potency.
"Hah... fine. Let's send Seoyun out first, then we'll talk."
"Thank you, thank you so much! That's our Yeoncheong. Best class president ever."
Saddled with the saccharine praise of Suyeon and the others, Yeoncheong marched herself back into the tiger's den.
There's an old saying.
Even if you enter a tiger's den, you'll survive—as long as you keep your wits about you.
But no amount of vigilance will save you if there's more than one tiger in the den.
True to the saying that birds of a feather flock together, the senior who had ordered the Free Use Coupon was hardly any different from Seoyun.
She treated Yeoncheong like a genuine puppy—trying to seat her on her lap or lay her down, asking for her paw, poking at her exposed flank through the jersey.
She could have refused, of course. Instead, Yeoncheong fielded every single bit of teasing with flawless composure.
There were two big reasons for this.
First, once Seoyun and her group left, it would all be over, so her urge to just endure this one round was strong.
Second, this was an unforeseen situation, and with no clear line drawn, she had no idea where "too far" even began.
So it was that Seoyun, who had spent a long while enjoying refreshments and drinks with Yeoncheong perched on her lap, was now working toward a new objective.
"Yeoncheong, are you really not going to say a single word?"
"Woof."
Hasol, who was wandering around taking photos with customers, appended "nyaa" to everything but otherwise said her full share. Yeoncheong, however, wouldn't utter a syllable beyond "woof"—and that only made Seoyun stubborn.
"Ahh~ come on, do some aegyo like that kitty over there."
She was doing this precisely because she had no confidence in her own "nyaa" routine—and between doing aegyo and playing the full dog, Yeoncheong would rather commit completely to the puppy act. She had absolutely no intention of complying.
"Mreow?"
Perhaps she was finally getting the hang of it—her junior even tilted her head as she drew out the word, and the other seniors cackled as they looked at Seoyun.
"Gyahaha! I think the puppy's saying no?"
"Serves you right. You should've treated her better from the start."
"Hey, come on! Yeoncheong, nobody treats you as well as I do, huh? You know how I feel, right?"
A flustered Seoyun shook the Yeoncheong perched on her lap—
"Grrrrr..."
—and Yeoncheong only growled, playing the mood up even further.
"Pfft. She doesn't seem to know you at all?"
"Yeoncheong. Good girl. Good."
"PUHAHA! This is way too fun! She's so cute I'm losing my mind."
Bolstered by the other seniors' cheering and encouragement, Yeoncheong's performance was at its peak—when Seoyun, besieged on all sides by her junior and her friends, launched a counterattack.
"GOTCHA!"
She seized the bare skin exposed here and there and kneaded it thoroughly, and a strange sound burst from Yeoncheong's mouth.
"This puppy doesn't even know to be scared of people."
"HGWAAAH!"
Having vented her frustration to her heart's content, Seoyun wore a satisfied smile while Yeoncheong lay sprawled across the desk, breathing hard. Seoyun poked at the cheeks of the now helpless puppy.
"How's that? You won't defy your owner now, will you?"
Poke, poke—Seoyun prodded her squishy cheeks, cooing about how soft they were. Yeoncheong rolled her eyes, glared at the senior's index finger, and then opened her mouth in perfect rhythm.
Clack. Her jaws snapped shut—but the senior had already whipped her finger away.
"GRAH. So close."
"This is where Seoyun's supposed to get bitten."
"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be my friends?"
Seoyun voiced her hurt at her friends rooting for the junior instead of her.
"So what? She's adorable."
"Exactly. Do you have any idea how hard it is to play along with someone's rhythm like that?"
"Yeoncheong! Quick, bite her while she's distracted!"
Yeoncheong grinned at the seniors' banter and made a show of snapping her teeth. Even Seoyun found the act amusing enough that she finally burst out laughing.
While Yeoncheong was noisily playing with Seoyun and her friends, the ones who'd ordered the Free Use Coupon...
...Suyeon was peeking through a gap in the partition, her head poking out just barely, an unhappy look on her face as she watched.
'She said she didn't want to do it... and now she's having the time of her life.'
She'd whined that the outfit was far too thin, complained that they'd gone and made up some nonsense Special Menu without asking... and now there she was, throwing herself into it like it was her true calling. Suyeon could not have been more displeased.
'We never should have assigned it to her. Should've just told everyone it was a joke from the start.'
Watching Yeoncheong cuddle up so happily with Seoyun made her feel genuinely sour. Just as she was thinking that she wanted to be the one playing with her like that—
It seemed their time was up, and Seoyun's group began rising to leave one by one. Seoyun held out both hands, saying she had one last request.
Yeoncheong tilted her head, a question mark hovering over her face. Seoyun smacked her lips, incredulous that she didn't get it.
"Um... you know how puppies boop their noses? Like that—just once?"
Yeoncheong deliberated for a moment, but since this was supposedly the last thing, she slowly leaned her face in.
"Woof."
A curt, businesslike woof, as if to say, are we done now?
Seoyun and her friends snapped photos for a long, long while before finally leaving the classroom with thoroughly satisfied expressions.
"Yeoncheong! We'll spread the word about this place!"
"Yeah! We'll bring hordes of third-years over."
"WOOF!"
That time, her bark carried a desperate plea—please don't—and utterly spent, Yeoncheong scurried back behind the partition.
"Haaaaah......"
Self-loathing catching up to her only now, Yeoncheong crouched down in the corner.
"I've lost it. I've completely lost it..."
"Hey, weren't you a little too into it back there?"
Suyeon approached her corner-time refuge with a dissatisfied look on her face.
Yeoncheong was performing her penalty exactly as promised. She was the one who'd endured every humiliation imaginable—so why was Suyeon making that face? Yeoncheong had no idea.
"Beats me. I guess I just got swept up in the mood while I was doing it... Anyway, it's over now, right?"
"Over? Nothing's over. You just made things so much worse."
"Why?"
As Yeoncheong painfully lifted her head, Suyeon told her.
"Because after watching you, every single senior out there is ordering the Special Menu now."
"WHY?!"
The cry that tore from Yeoncheong's mouth was swallowed up and lost in the din of the bustling classroom.