The First Winner
"Whoa!"
The woman who had just ordered her coffee and received a coupon checked it on the spot — and a cheer burst out of her before she even knew it.
For a moment she wondered if she was dreaming. She had come to the cafe hoping to see Liria as well. Winning had been the last thing on her mind.
She approached Park Dahye, one of the staff, and held out the coupon.
"Excuse me. This is a winner, right?"
"Congratulations."
"Thank you."
"Congratulations!"
"Thanks."
She stared at the winning coupon, radiant with joy. The junior who had come with her congratulated her as if the prize were her own, and she pulled the younger woman into a tight hug.
"Wow, I'm so jealous."
"I heard they just dropped the odds to one guaranteed cup per hundred coupons."
"Honestly, they could scrap the winning coupons entirely and nobody'd have a right to complain."
"The guaranteed cup matters more anyway."
The customers watching her were wildly envious. Not a single one of them, however, complained about the odds. This was coffee whose production cost already ate more than sixty percent of its expert-appraised value — demanding better lottery odds on top of that would take a truly shameless person. Anyone like that, they were certain, would already have been filtered out by a red light, and never gotten a sip in the first place.
"Can I drink it now?"
"Of course."
"I'm sorry to ask, but would it be all right if I split it with my junior?"
"Yes, that's fine."
"I'm okay, really. You should enjoy it yourself."
The junior declined at once. Taking a share of a chance her senior had won felt wrong. But the senior was determined to drink it together. To her, this junior was someone precious — someone she meant to walk beside for the rest of her life.
"It's fine. Let's drink it together."
"Thank you."
"Right this way, please."
Worn down by the continued invitation, the junior offered her thanks. They followed Park Dahye and took their seats. Park Dahye hurried back with desserts from the Subspace Bag, and Liria sat down across from them. Then Liria poured the coffee herself, splitting it evenly between their cups.
"You are the first winner, I say."
"Really?"
Choi Rina was delighted to learn she was the first — but even more delighted that Liria had spoken to her at all. She could scarcely believe she was sitting this close, looking at her for this long. Jung Miso decided she had been right to make time and follow her senior to the cafe.
As the first winner, Liria intended to sit and talk with them a while. Looking at the two of them, she thought they seemed the sort who would be capable of a blue light before long.
They thanked her, and each took a sip.
"Whoa. What is this?"
"Wow."
"I can't believe coffee like this exists."
"It's incredible."
They could not hide their astonishment after tasting the 100% Eleas Coffee. That such a coffee existed in the world at all was fantastical. The ten-percent blend was nothing beside this. The distinctive sweetness, the bright acidity, the nuttiness, the intense aroma — all of it captivated them, and they could feel their minds clearing. They had not felt this refreshed in years.
"There's really coffee like this in the world."
"Now I get why it costs so much."
"Eleas Coffee is the finest there is."
Liria said it with a look of deep satisfaction. The sight of her, so proud and so small, captivated them all over again.
"She's so cute."
"She's seriously too cute."
"I'm so glad we came."
"Let's come often."
"Yeah."
Choi Rina had learned of Elf Cafe through her junior and fallen for Liria's cuteness at once. The cafe was far from the restaurant where she worked, and last week she had been too busy to make the trip. On top of that it was private property — no cars allowed — so the only way in was to walk up. When her schedule finally opened and she came with her junior, winning had never entered her calculations. And then Liria had poured the coffee with her own hands. She was overwhelmed.
"Please have some dessert as well."
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
She shared the dessert with her junior, already certain she would never forget this day.
To Liria, the two of them looked as though something were weighing on their minds.
"What troubles you?"
"Huh?"
At Liria's question, Choi Rina hesitated — wondering whether it was all right to tell her.
Choi Rina had loved cooking since she was a child. She had gone through culinary high school, then completed a university degree in hotel and restaurant culinary arts. Straight after graduation she had taken a position at a hotel, and a few years ago she had transferred to a restaurant.
Jung Miso had loved cooking since she was little, too. She had first met Choi Rina in high school — a year her senior, already famous throughout the school, and unfailingly kind to the underclassmen. Choi Rina had taught the younger students a great deal, and when she graduated, they had all turned out to celebrate her. Jung Miso had studied fiercely and earned a place at the same university. Seeing her senior again on campus had made her so happy, and Choi Rina had congratulated her with genuine warmth.
Years at the restaurant had left Choi Rina with no shortage of worries. Day after day of her superiors' bullying, the meager wages, the crushing workload — she was worn down to the bone. She had agonized over whether to keep enduring it or strike out on her own and open a shop. When she told Jung Miso, the younger woman had asked if she could come along. Choi Rina had been overjoyed at the offer of a partnership, and together they had decided to leave the restaurant.
It was while they were on the verge of quitting that Jung Miso happened to try a free tasting at Elf Cafe, and discovered the official website. She had fallen for Liria's cuteness on the spot and immediately told Choi Rina. By a stroke of luck, Liria had visited the restaurant on their very last day of work — and they had even gotten to serve her. Choi Rina had fallen for that cuteness too. She had sworn that when she opened her own place, it would be in a building as close to the cafe as she could get.
"Actually, I quit the restaurant not long ago. So…"
Choi Rina told them she had left the restaurant and was starting a business of her own. She had been interested in cooking since elementary school, she said, and she wanted to try opening a daily-specials restaurant — a place that served a set menu for each day of the week, kept affordable. Of course, she would also keep the office-worker staples that never went out of style.
"Then you have Liria's support."
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
Choi Rina and Jung Miso were deeply grateful. Preparing to open a business had them worried enough already — Liria's encouragement put strength back in their spines.
Silvia, who had been listening from a distance, pricked up her ears at the mention of a restaurant near Liria's cafe. She remembered seeing the two of them at that restaurant, and if they had worked there, they were bound to be good cooks.
"What kind of cooking are you good at?"
"Pardon?"
Choi Rina could not hide her surprise. Silvia, who looked to be Liria's older sister, carried a presence entirely unlike Liria's. She had heard that Silvia's concept was that of a dragon — and the pressure rolling off her felt strong enough to belong to a real one.
"Um, well…"
"We can cook most hotel and restaurant cuisine."
"Korean, Western, Chinese, Japanese — all of it."
"Hmm."
Jung Miso answered for her flustered senior. A beat later, Choi Rina found her voice and explained it so Silvia would understand.
Silvia had seen them at the restaurant, and of all the staff, these two had held her attention the most. They were humans whose blue light fell just short of the Good and Evil Detector's threshold — which only made her more interested.
"So you worked until the day we came to that restaurant, then quit?"
"Yes, that's right."
Choi Rina nodded. Silvia looked younger than she was, and yet, for reasons she could not name, she could not bring herself to speak casually. She had been watching Liria's YouTube ever since she found it, and she did not genuinely believe they were dragons. Even so, dropping the formal speech was simply impossible.
"Doesn't it take at least a few months to open a shop?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Then until your shop opens, we want you as our chefs."
If it was going to take them time to open anyway, Silvia wanted them preparing meals in the meantime. She intended to pay them properly for it, of course. Sooner or later they would conquer every delivery option around the cafe — but she wanted to eat other things too. She could tell that the food served in hotels and restaurants here was the equivalent of Selenia's fine dining. Bring these two on until their shop opened, and she and Liria could look forward to genuinely enjoyable meals. Having frequented high-end restaurants in Selenia, she understood perfectly how much a chef mattered. Even with the same ingredients and the same dish, the taste changed depending on who stood at the stove.
"Us? You want us?"
"But we're not blue lights."
Choi Rina was stunned. She had never imagined Silvia would hire them as chefs. Given the cafe's concept, there was no reason to take them in without a blue light. As Silvia had said, opening a shop required considerable preparation — and if they had work during that stretch, it would certainly be no loss. They wanted to accept.
"Liria, too, wishes for you to cook for us."
Liria was fully in favor of hiring them. People who were both skilled and good-natured were hard to come by, and if it meant enjoyable meals every day, bringing on chefs was an excellent choice. She was certain these two would meet the Good and Evil Detector's blue-light standard before long.
Just as she'd thought. Silvia was wise.