Now Hiring a New Part-Timer
After clocking in that morning, the very first thing I did upon unlocking the doors was tape a single sheet of paper to the cafe entrance.
Work Hours · Hourly Wage · Contact Info
Work hours, hourly pay, contact details—I'd written down everything an applicant could possibly need. Naturally, I'd also posted the same listing on the online job boards.
"...This ought to bring in at least one person."
"And what if it doesn't?"
"Then the two of us go down together."
"...Oh."
Harin nodded as though she found my answer genuinely fascinating.
"What's with that reaction?"
"...Huh? Oh—no, no, nothing."
I gave the posting one more look. Please, just let one decent human being walk through that door.
And before long, we would come to realize just how badly we'd underestimated Cafe Fluffy's reputation.
Ding-a-ling~
"Welcome in~"
"Excuse me!"
The moment the door swung open, a pair of familiar faces came dashing up to the counter—middle schoolers we saw around the neighborhood all the time.
"Are you still hiring a part-timer?"
"We are, but..."
I looked back and forth between them. "How old are you two, again?"
"Second year of middle school!"
"..."
"..."
"Think that'd fly?"
The two of them pulled suitably glum faces, then promptly broke into grins.
"Hehe, figured we wouldn't get in."
"See! I told you it was hopeless. Deal's a deal—you're buying."
"Tch..."
These kids. Don't tell me they actually bet on that.
"Then our usual iced brown sugar lattes, please!"
"Yeah, yeah. Coming right up."
Taking in my less-than-amused expression, the pair giggled and scampered off to the window seats. Harin, who happened to be sorting the deliveries at that moment, spotted them and waved.
"Hey, kids! Back again today?"
"Hi, Unnie!"
"Unnie, would you hire us as part-timers? Please?"
"Huh? Wha— hmm..."
As Harin sat there weighing the question in dead earnest, I cut in.
"You two at it again with that prank?"
"Huh? It was a prank?"
"Booo, dense as ever~"
"Alright, customers—here are the drinks you ordered."
"Thank youuu!"
Drinks in hand, the two made for the window seats, and Harin let out a quiet chuckle before returning to her boxes.
Then.
Ding-a-ling~
"Young man, I'm here."
It was Grandmother Park, one of the cafe's regulars.
"Welcome. I'll get your usual ready for you."
"Yes, dear. And I saw that paper you've got stuck up outside."
"The job posting?"
"Mm."
Grandmother Park cleared her throat for no reason in particular and put on a grave expression. "Hehe. Can't I put my name in too?"
"...I'm sorry?"
"These old hands still know their way around a sink of dishes, you know."
"..."
"..."
A short silence—then it was Grandmother Park who broke first, bursting into laughter.
"Hehehe! A joke, dear, just a joke."
"For a second there, I honestly had to think about it."
"My, can't even share a little joke with you anymore."
Still chuckling, she collected her warm latte and went on her way.
A little while later.
Ding-a-ling~
"Oppa!"
Seoa came bounding in, that familiar voice of hers heralding her arrival.
"One chocolate frappe again today, please!"
"Sure, give me a sec."
As I set about making her drink, Seoa stole a glance toward the entrance. "By the way, Oppa..."
"Hm?"
"The part-time posting's up, huh?"
"Yep."
Seoa hemmed and hawed for a moment before working up the nerve to continue. "...Would it maybe be okay if I applied too?"
"You? Seoa?"
"Mm-hm..."
"Hmm..."
I gave it some genuine thought. Seoa was friendly and quick on the uptake—when she'd helped out around the cafe for about a day once before, she'd picked things up so fast despite it being her first time that the owners and even I couldn't help but be impressed. If she had the will to learn, she was honestly the kind of hire I'd have tried to snap up first.
But still.
"...Seoa, what about school?"
"..."
"And you're a senior in high school, remember."
"..."
Silence stretched between us. Seoa stuck her lips out in a pout and murmured, barely audible, "...I knew it wasn't going to happen."
"Hm?"
"...N-nothing!"
In the span of a heartbeat she was waving both hands again, her usual sunny smile right back in place. "Just kidding!"
Yeah. Thought so.
Frappe in hand, Seoa shot me one last playful grin and headed for the seats in the back.
And so the hours rolled by. There were more applicants than I'd expected. The problem was the quality.
Some had booked an interview slot and never shown up at all. One wandered in thirty minutes past her appointed time and declared, with all the confidence in the world:
"Isn't this place just way too hard to find?"
As though the fault were somehow mine. Then there was the applicant who spent the entire interview glued to their phone. All told, basic courtesy was in far shorter supply than I'd imagined.
"...This is harder than I expected."
I was starting to understand, at least a little, why shop owners griped so much about finding help. Maybe expecting to fill the position in a single day was greedy of me.
Just then.
Ding-a-ling~
The door opened once more. Quiet footsteps—altogether unlike the rowdy afternoon we'd been having. A young woman with black hair neatly tied back stepped slowly inside, a single resume in hand.
She came to a hesitant stop in front of the counter and spoke in a voice so small I nearly had to lean in. "Are you... still hiring a part-timer...?"
"Yes, we're still hiring."
"Um... here, this..."
She held the resume out to me.
"Excuse me."
I accepted it and looked it over carefully. Name: Ha Doeun. Age, twenty-one. Currently on leave from Hankuk University.
Oh. A junior at our university, then. For the record, Harin attended Hankuk as well.
Her appearance was neat and put-together, too—undyed black hair, clean, simple clothes. On first impressions alone, she was easily the best of every applicant who'd walked in today.
And more than that. She has quite a bit of cafe experience. Two franchise cafes. One independent shop. This is almost too good...?
But the moment my eyes slid down the page, something else caught my attention. Not a single job lasted more than a month?
There wasn't one cafe—not one workplace—where she'd stayed any length of time. Honestly, it gave me pause. People don't stick with jobs the way they used to these days, sure, but this was quitting before even finishing the settling-in period. Was there some story behind it?
I chose my words with care. "Forgive me for prying, but... your work stints are all on the short side."
"...Yes."
Doeun's gaze sank toward the floor. I could see a faint tension creep into her hands.
"...There were personal circumstances. I couldn't stay long anywhere."
A terse answer. Truthfully, I wanted to ask more—but interrogating someone I'd met five minutes ago would've been its own kind of rude. So where did that leave things?
While I was still turning it over, Harin, seated in on the interview beside me, murmured something pitched just for my ears.
"Han Doyoon."
"Yeah?"
"This one seems okay, doesn't she?"
"Her first impression's good and her experience is solid... it's those short stints that keep nagging at me."
"Ah."
Harin looked back down at the resume. After a moment's deliberation, she spoke up again. "Then... how about we just watch how she does for one month?"
"A month?"
"Mm. It's not like we have anyone right now anyway."
"...Hmm."
Frankly, it was fair. What we needed most right then wasn't a perfect person—it was someone to work beside us, starting now.
I looked back at Doeun. Not once since she'd walked in had she initiated a word. But she stood there quietly, faintly anxious, faintly restless, waiting on our verdict.
Even so. Compared to the applicants from earlier, she was better by a mile.
"Ha Doeun-ssi."
"...Yes."
"Would you be alright with working with us for one month first, as a trial?"
For the briefest instant, Doeun's eyes widened just a hair. A beat of silence—then the fists she'd been quietly clenching came undone. "...Thank you."
She took a moment to steady her breathing. "I'll work hard and learn."
Short as the words were, the relief behind them carried through loud and clear.
"Is it alright if we call you 'Doeun-ssi'?"
"Ah—yes...!"
"And you can just call me the manager."
I gestured at Harin beside me. "This here is our boss."
"Okay."
Doeun glanced back and forth between the two of us, as though determined not to forget, and gave a small nod.
"For today, I'll just walk you through the layout of the cafe."
Doeun nodded without a word.
"This here's the counter, and the storeroom's back there. We've got two fridges, one here and one here, kept separate, and the ingredients—"
Through the whole walkthrough, her answers never ran longer than a breath—a quiet "...Yes" here, a soft "Understood" there.
But she never once had to ask the same question twice. Her eyes chased every spot my hand pointed to, checking each one off, and she seemed to be quietly mapping the flow of the work in her head as we went.
...She certainly looks like a quick study. Whether she was genuinely absorbing it that fast, or simply lacked the courage to ask about what she didn't know—I supposed I'd find out once we started working together.
"And with that, the tour's done. Anything you're curious about?"
"..."
"Doeun-ssi?"
"Oh!"
Her head snapped up as if startled, and she hurried to answer. "Ah—no, nothing...!"
"If anything comes up down the line, feel free to ask anytime."
"...Yes."
Doeun dipped into a small bow. "...I look forward to working with you."
"We look forward to working with you, too."
Ding-a-ling~
She bowed her head in farewell again and again before finally stepping out of the cafe. The moment the door clicked shut behind her, Harin spoke up first.
"Seems like a good one, doesn't she?"
"Too early to say. You never really know until the work starts."
"Aren't you being too strict?"
"An interview can't tell you everything about a person."
"...That's fair."
I looked one more time at the resume lying on the counter. The first impression had been excellent. But those short stints of employment still weighed on my mind.
Hiring someone was never just a matter of filling an empty slot. Once you worked alongside a person, teaching them carefully so they didn't get hurt, shouldering the responsibility when they slipped up—that all landed on me in the end. Which was exactly why I couldn't afford not to be careful.
And yet, still. I hope she turns out to be someone who can stay with us a long, long time.
And with that, Cafe Fluffy's first interview came to an uneventful close.