The Boss Caught by Her Weakness
Lately I've been realizing just how happy everyday life can become depending on who you share it with — even when the days themselves keep repeating.
In practice, it was basically dating Ajeong five days a week. After our workouts she still had to work at the gym, so things never spilled over into proper outings, but we'd reached the point where we could see each other on weekends whenever we wanted. And the moment she got off work, she'd message me about every other day asking to play League, so there was never any room to feel lonely.
Beyond that, my meetings with Hayun had essentially hardened into a fixed routine. Whether she was hitting the Vita-stick more often or just happening to step outside whenever I did, I couldn't tell — but running into her two or three times a day was common. Sometimes we exchanged a few short words; mostly we just nodded and went our separate ways. Still, every time I got close she would openly sniff the air, and I couldn't help wondering if she was missing the taste of my skin.
It wasn't boring, but in a life this repetitive, there were two days that could still throw a variable into the mix. One of them was Saturday — the day I went to work my part-time shift at Ice Bean.
Starting last week the customers had surged so hard the workload spiked overnight, and if this week looked anything like that, I was going to have to demand they hire another part-timer as soon as possible. What on earth was so special about this little neighborhood café that people kept pouring in? I genuinely had no idea.
"I'll have what I had last week…!"
"You'll need to give me the exact menu name, ma'am."
"The strawberry smoothie! You recommended it yourself last week — you don't remember…?"
"I'm sorry. We've had so many customers that it's hard to remember every single person. Shall I get you a strawberry smoothie?"
"You don't have to apologize… but it'd be nice if you remembered next time!!"
Ah.
That over-the-top energy jogged something loose. The high-school girl who'd come in last week and asked for a recommendation. Unlike before, she seemed to have come alone today.
Lately I was getting requests I never would have imagined. I'd worried that more people would mean more complaints, but thankfully nothing like that had happened even once. The problem was that people simply wanted too much. This wasn't a members-only café, yet they kept asking me to remember their usual order, or to act a little more familiar because they'd been here last week.
And yet the moment I apologized politely and explained, they understood right away — then turned around and apologized themselves before leaving. I still wasn't sure what they actually wanted, but one thing was clear: this was no longer the easy part-time job it used to be.
"Woohyun, can you take this to table four?"
"Yes~"
The boss was hard at work making drinks again today, as always. I didn't make a single beverage myself — my job was taking orders and serving.
"One Americano and one café latte."
"Oh my… thank you~"
"Um… did you make this heart yourself?"
"Yes — our boss made it personally!"
"Ah, I see…"
"Thank you. Enjoy your time~"
I did kind of want to learn latte art like that. But there was simply no time for it, so I could only hope that by next week's shift a new part-timer would already be hired.
After finishing the serving run I headed back to the counter and found the boss looking thoroughly flustered.
What now?
"Woohyun, can you take the order for me?"
"Ah — sure…"
The second I stepped behind the counter she asked me to handle the order. It looked like she'd been dealing with a complaint and was dumping it on me, and for the first time I felt a flicker of disappointment in her.
"Hello. How can I help you?"
"A recommendation…"
"Sorry?"
"I heard there's a menu recommendation service. Is that possible?"
"Ah… it's not really a formal service~ I usually recommend the strawberry smoothie, though. How does that sound?"
"I'll take that."
"Perfect~ I'll ring you up right away. Just have a seat and I'll bring it out."
"Thank you."
I'd tensed up expecting a complaint, but nothing happened. She'd wanted a recommendation, accepted it immediately, and the order wrapped up without a hitch. Curious, I asked the boss what was going on.
"Boss, is something wrong?"
"Woohyun… I think the customers don't like it when I take their orders…"
"What??"
"Whenever you're away from the counter and I step in, they keep asking where the male part-timer went…"
"Ah. So that's why…"
"Yeah. I'll hire someone extra as soon as I can. From now on, you just stay on the counter. Is that okay?"
It was absurd, but from my side it was actually a great offer. Taking verbal orders and tapping the POS a few times — that would be my entire job. And since I couldn't take infinite orders anyway, whenever there was a lull I'd even get to watch the boss make the drinks.
Once every table inside the café was full, my workload dropped. Customers kept lining up outside, but with no free seats we were only taking takeout orders. That left enough breathing room to actually talk with the boss.
"Boss, what if we raised the prices across the board?"
"Already…?"
"Yeah. At this point, people who are going to come will keep coming even if we bump the prices. More than that — everything's just too cheap right now."
"Is that so…? I'll think about it a bit more."
I'd heard you shouldn't jack up prices just because business suddenly takes off. But if we didn't raise them and thin out the crowd even a little, I was going to die. We were already failing to handle the line outside, so losing a few customers wouldn't change much. And honestly, the whole menu had always been ridiculously cheap.
Amazingly, every single item — coffee, lattes, ades, fresh fruit juices, smoothies, teas, all of it — was three thousand won. Drinking an Americano was practically a loss. When the place was empty it hadn't mattered, but now some adjustment was clearly needed.
Wait… why am I…
I was deep in thought when it suddenly hit me — why was I working this hard at it?
I turned my head and saw the boss humming as she made drinks.
Wiggle — wiggle —
Her big hips swayed left and right in time with her little nasal hums. As far as I could tell, she just genuinely enjoyed making beverages. She was the kind of person who had no real reason to charge more and make extra money.
The thought snuffed out the passion that had briefly flared up.
Whatever. Half-ass it.
Even so, the prices still needed to go up — not to make money, but to cut the customer flow a little. Instead of fine-tuning each item, we could just raise the entire menu to around four thousand won. Then, after some time, feel out the room and push it to five thousand, restoring the café to the land of milk and honey it used to be.
"We're so sorry! We've run out of ingredients for the day, so we're closing thirty minutes early!"
"We're really sorry!! Please come again next time!!"
In the end, once I declared surrender thirty minutes before closing, the boss smiled and agreed to shut down early. The ingredients really had run out — though technically we could have just taken a few items off the menu and kept going.
"Excuse me…"
"Yes, ma'am. We're truly sorry~ Please visit us again next time."
"That's not what I meant. So when do you open again?"
"Well~ ma'am—"
"Could you text me? I'll give you my number."
"Uh…"
At her request I started fishing in my pocket for my phone —
Thud—
"Ma'am, our open and close times are written right here on the glass door. You can just take a photo~ Thank you."
"Ah… okay."
"We're really sorry! Please come again next time!!"
"Woohyun, let's head inside."
The boss took my hand and pulled me straight back into the café.
"Woohyun, you can't just do everything people ask for."
"Huh?"
"It was obvious she just wanted your number."
"Ah…"
Thinking about it, there was no reason anyone would need to collect a phone number just to learn the shop's hours. I'd been so eager to chase the customers out thirty minutes early so I could rest that I'd almost gone along with every request without thinking.
"Or… did you actually like her, and I just got in the way?"
"Yeah. I know what's what. I was just trying to be nice…"
"Oh — is that so? Now I feel terrible…"
She'd clearly been joking, so I joked right back. That put the awkward position squarely on her.
"Boss…"
"I'm sorry, Woohyun…"
"Boss."
"What is it…?"
"You did that on purpose, didn't you."
"Whaat~? No I didn't — why would I… I'm really sorry."
Watching the always-composed, elegant boss flounder in front of me was so entertaining I couldn't stop.
"Don't tell me this is because you've been lusting after my butt every day…"
"Ah! No~! I told you that was a genuine accident…"
"I thought so too… but today you also stopped me from exchanging numbers with another woman, so now I'm a little suspicious."
"It's really not like that… I just didn't want you getting taken advantage of without realizing it…"
"I'm a lifelong virgin who thought he was finally about to have his first relationship — how are you going to take responsibility?"
"I… is that so?"
For a second, the boss smiled at my words.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Huh? No reason…"
"If that's how you feel about me, I don't think I can keep working here."
Obviously I had no intention of quitting. If anything, having someone like her interested in me was basically a reward.
"That's…! It's really not like that… Boss made a mistake… I'm sorry for making you misunderstand."
"You made a mistake?"
"Yes. What do I have to do for you to forgive me? I honestly didn't mean it that way…"
"Then if you grant me two things, I'll keep working."
"T-two things?"
"Or should I just quit?"
"N-no… I'll grant three if you want!"
"Then let's sit down and talk first."
"R-right!"
Scrape—
She moved in a hurry and even pulled out a chair for me. Seeing her like that stirred a twinge of guilt — and at the same time, a strange sense of conquest.
How am I supposed to walk this back.
She was so much more apologetic than I'd expected that I was starting to worry how I'd ever admit it had all been a joke.
"Woohyun, is it okay if Boss sits too?"
"Of course…"
Oblivious to what I was thinking, she was still watching my every expression. Apparently I was a more valuable employee than I'd realized. But this was a matter of work-life balance — I had to stay cold-blooded.
Starting next week, I was going to be sucking honey again no matter what.