Chapter 32: The Best Place for Waiting
"Ugh…… I'm exhausted……."
It was early morning. Noona rubbed at eyes that refused to stay open, whipping her head back and forth as if she could shake herself awake. For a tangle of reasons, she hadn't managed a decent night's sleep. The first was my proposal. She'd been so happy that even on the verge of drifting off, she kept breaking into a helpless, giddy grin. The second was simpler. Today was the day the cafe opened for business.
"Customers…… they'll come, right?"
She was fretting that we might open to an empty room and nothing but flies. We had nearly thirty people on the payroll. If not a single customer showed and the place sat dead, every one of those wages would be pure loss, so of course she was worried.
"I told you not to worry."
"But stiiill……."
She wouldn't let it go. The memory of the first day she'd ever opened a cafe of her own was clearly still burned in. The truth was, the place she'd poured her twenties into hadn't had much of a debut. A whole day of work, and she'd sold seven Americanos — that was the story, wasn't it? With that behind her, she was afraid our cafe would walk the exact same road. I could have told her a hundred times, though. There was nothing to worry about.
"Look at this. Just counting the people who said they'd come after I posted on the community, we're already in the thousands. We shouldn't be stressing about having no customers. We should be stressing about what to do if too many show up."
Noona stared at the phone I held out. Days ago, I'd already left a post on the MyTube community saying the cafe would open today. Comments promising they'd definitely stop by numbered in the thousands.
"Ha-eun. You trust oppa, don't you? Quit worrying and let's get ready. You've got to look pretty when we head out."
I gave her backside a light pat, soothing her the way you'd soothe a little sibling.
"Who are you calling oppa!"
"Aagh!"
Thanks to that, her worries cleared. What I got in exchange was pain.
Hold on. Weren't worries and sorrows supposed to halve when you shared them, while happiness grew? Why was the pain the thing multiplying…….
Still, I'd accomplished what I set out to do — getting the worry off her — so I watched her head into the bathroom and made for the one on the first floor.
Downstairs, I caught Namcat slipping out of the toilet.
"Sleep all right?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Poksini kept gluing herself to me. Annoying as hell…… but I slept fine, I guess."
He registered that it was me, offered the greeting, and let out a small sigh. The same cat who beat Yubu without a shred of mercy went soft the moment it was Poksini. And given how he walloped Chikin-i now and then, it wasn't that he cut other cats any slack.
Oh! Is it because she's female?
I looked at Namcat with a very particular expression.
You little brat. So you're a guy too, huh?
"Ack! What!"
"That look on your face is disgusting."
"You little furball……."
Namcat drove a Nyangnyang Punch into my shin out of nowhere and vanished, as if his business here was finished.
Watching that tail sway as he strutted off, all high and mighty, I got the itch to be petty. No Churu for you today, you little shit.
"Right. Shower first."
Revenge on Namcat could wait. I needed to wash. The cafe opened in two hours, and this was not the time to stand around. Wash up, get ready.
I showered fast, rubbed toner and lotion over my face, and went at my hair with the dryer. Or — was "went at" even the right phrase?
"I'm doing it exactly the way they said. Why isn't it working?"
I'd followed the hair designer's instructions to the letter, and none of the intended effect had survived. I fiddled with it in the mirror for a while, saw that nothing I did changed a thing, and gave up. A few rough scrubs later, my usual face looked back at me.
"Have I gotten better-looking lately?"
The hair was docking me three points, maybe four, but it was still passable. Bathroom buff?
Satisfied enough with my own face, I went straight for clothes. The staff got uniforms, but I had no intention of wearing one myself, so I hesitated for a moment.
"Familiar is best."
The hesitation didn't last, of course. Cotton pants and a thin shirt — the kind of thing I could throw on without thinking — and I was done. Not so casual it looked sloppy, neat enough to pass, and comfortable enough that looking after animals in a cafe wouldn't be a problem at all.
"Suhwan! You ready?"
"Yeah!"
I'd dressed and was checking myself in the mirror again when Noona's shout pulled me out to the living room.
She was out there fastening a collar on each of the animals. They weren't collars meant to control them. They were proof, in case any of them ran off or got snatched, that they were my pets — expensive ones, with an ID chip and GPS built in. A public cafe was exactly the sort of place where a lapse in watching them could turn into trouble, so we were putting them on to head that off. Take the collar off and the tracking died, but I'd set it so an alarm would sound the moment they left the cafe. We'd be able to respond fast.
"Help me a second. Maru keeps trying to bolt. She's the last one…… hold still!"
Every time Noona tried to get the collar around her neck, Maru thrashed, and Noona staggered. Maru was strong enough to drag a grown man around. Noona wobbling was no surprise.
"Maru, stop!"
Two words, and the resistance was over. The moment the command landed, Maru locked up. Noona didn't waste the opening, and the collar went on. Maru scratched at it lightly with a paw, clearly annoyed.
"Uncomfortable?"
"Yes…… I don't like collars……."
Whatever bad memory a leash carried for her, Maru kept pawing at it. Even so, I couldn't just leave it off.
"I'm not trying to clip a leash on you. It's just so people know you live with me. Is it that bad? You really can't stand it?"
"If that's all it is……."
Once she heard I wouldn't be attaching a leash, Maru finally stopped scratching. There was clearly a story there. I decided we'd have a real talk about it later and got to my feet.
Maru had been the last one, so we were finally ready to head to the cafe.
"Shall we?"
Noona tucked Natae under her arm and strode off, full of nerve. Looked like she'd decided to take my word for it and just assume the customers would come.
"Oh my god!"
The moment she crossed the entryway and flung the front gate open, she startled so hard she nearly went down. If I hadn't been right there to catch her, she and Natae would have been rolling around on the ground.
"Eek! I'm a fan of Lord Shinsoo!"
"Whoa, that must be Natae. Look at that face — already can't be bothered."
"That really is an eagle-owl. Look at the size of it. And a cat beat something like that?"
"Lord Shinsoo and the Sacred Beasts, clocking in for work…… yes. This is an Outstar moment."
There was only one reason Noona had nearly toppled. A huge crowd was lined up right in front of our house. The cafe sat right beside it, so the line that started at the entrance stretched all the way to our gate. Open the gate and lock eyes with a total stranger — of course she jumped.
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah……."
Noona nodded on reflex and stared at the people standing in line.
"All of these people are customers?"
It wasn't me who answered her dazed question.
"Yes! We've been waiting for the cafe to open! The person at the very front got here before the sun was even up!"
Thanks to a woman beaming as she bragged about her place in line, Noona's eyes went wide.
"See? I told you a lot of people would come."
Noona nodded, wearing a face that said she still couldn't believe it. Rub her eyes, shake her head — the line running from the cafe to our front gate refused to disappear. She stared at the waiting line in a daze, then seemed to snap back to herself and led me and the animals toward the cafe. With this many customers already here, the plan was clearly to open as fast as possible.
"Lord Shinsoo! Are you opening right away?"
At the head of the line — the cafe entrance — a couple gazed up at me, eyes shining.
I shook my head.
"We still have to get ready. I didn't expect anyone this early. I'm sorry."
"Not at all! We're the ones who came early."
Right. You're the ones who came early. Who shows up at the crack of dawn for a cafe that just opened?
Not something I can actually say.
I had enough sense not to let the thought out of my mouth. I just smiled with my eyes, grateful, disabled the security system with my fingerprint, and opened the door.
"You guys go play over there, or rest. Figure it out yourselves."
Inside, I turned all the animals loose at once. Every dog except Natae shot straight for the lawn and started running like a maniac.
Maru. Weren't you moping about that collar a minute ago?
Watching her sprint at maximum happiness, my composure nearly ran away from home.
"Boss-unnie! Boss-Unnie's-Boyfriend-Oppa! I'm here!"
"Boss. We're here too."
While I was still blank from the absurdity of it, Yeongji and the rest of the staff arrived one after another. I told them we'd open a little early, and we got to work. Thanks to the training ahead of time, they moved with a smoothness that would have put veterans to shame. Dust that had settled overnight vanished in a flash under their hands, and the drink team sampled a cup each of what they'd made while checking the machines. Nothing beat Yeongji's Americano first thing in the morning.
"Let's give it everything today."
I lifted the Americano Yeongji had pulled for me. The staff followed, and with that, we opened the cafe.
I flipped the CLOSED sign on the door to OPEN, and people came pouring in.
"Whoa! This interior is no joke!"
"Oppa! There's a vending machine! Oh — Churu and pet treats?"
"It says not to give the animals anything except treats from the machine. So if I buy one, I can feed the sacred beasts?"
"Eek! Unnie, look! That's Namcat! That haughty walk! The power that sends owls flying! He's so cool!"
"Hey, hey, go grab us a spot over there. Natae's flopped out. Let's try holding him."
"There's a doggy~ Eunyeong, want to say hi to the doggy?"
"Honey, quick, a photo. A photo!"
"The drinks are a bit pricey…… but if you think of it as the admission fee, it's not unreasonable."
Everyone launching into their own review at once, the little background track playing in the cafe drowned under the noise. They'd all found us through MyTube, and they already seemed to know the animals fairly well. But they must have read the terms of use — dressed up as a warning notice — while they waited, because nobody was making a scene.
I watched the customer-service side and the drink side already spinning at full speed, then looked over at Noona. The same Noona who hadn't been able to sleep for worry was greeting people with a bright, open face.
Heh. No way this fails. I didn't expect them to show up this early and actually wait in line, though.
I looked at the counter already ringing up sales and smiled, thoroughly satisfied. Right up until the couple who'd been first in line came over asking for an autograph, anyway. I wiped away the grin that probably had dollar signs in the eyes and turned to them with a gentle smile instead.