Viral Cafe and the Skill of Silence

Two college girls who looked like they could eat their weight in food glanced around before stepping into the cafe, eyes fixed on their smartphones.

“Is this the place?”

“Yeah, yeah! The YouTuber I always watch said the strawberry cake here is seriously to die for.”

The cafe was packed with customers. With no empty tables in sight, the girls hesitated, wondering if they should just leave. Fortunately, the customers at the innermost table stood up to go. The moment they did, the girls darted over and dropped their bags on the table to claim it.

They approached the counter and placed their orders.

“One strawberry cake and a vanilla latte, please. What are you getting?”

“I’ll take the whipped cream cake with an iced Americano.”

“It’s freezing out and you’re getting iced?”

“I’d drink it iced even if I was dying of cold.”

After they paid, they looked around the cafe interior while waiting for their drinks. When they spotted the statue of Cerer, one of the girls spoke up.

“Hey, I’ve seen this on social media. So this is the place. Excuse me, boss? Is it okay if we take some photos and post them?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

The girl who had asked looked at me as she spoke. Once I gave permission, the pair walked over to the statue. Until their drinks arrived, they took selfies with it and snapped pictures of each other. After they were done photographing, they tried to lift the statue, but it didn’t budge an inch. They burst into giggles at their own failure.

“Your order is ready.”

They took their coffees and cakes back to the table. Instead of eating right away, they spent several minutes moving the cakes around, photographing them from every angle. Once they were satisfied with the pictures, the girls scooped huge mouthfuls of the pure white cream.

“Whoa—this is fucking amazing!”

“It’s seriously good! I had cake at the Halla Hotel not long ago, remember? This tastes even better than that!”

“No wonder all the YouTubers were raving about it.”

The girls kept praising how delicious it was as they devoured the cakes. When every last crumb had disappeared, they stood up with obvious regret. One of them must have wanted more, because she bought an extra slice to take with her.

Every customer who visited after them left with the same satisfied expression. A few said the cake was just average, but so far I hadn’t seen a single person claim it tasted bad.

I never imagined the cafe would take off like this. Is it all thanks to the Cerer goddess statue?

The controversy surrounding the statue had brought in countless personal broadcasters. I had only left it there as a simple decoration, but it had become the cafe’s indispensable mascot. Fame bred more fame. After yesterday’s Nutube video gave us our first taste of popularity, posts about our cafe began spreading across YouTube and social media like copies of the original.

There had been a minor incident at the end where some weirdo caused a scene, but the fact that it proved we hadn’t installed any strange devices inside actually worked in our favor.

And all the YouTuber videos have been positive too.

Most of them focused on the Cerer goddess statue, but the food and mukbang creators zoomed in on the coffee and cakes instead. Since every single one of them praised how delicious everything was, viewers started trickling in one by one.

The cafe was now so full that not a single seat remained. It was a small space to begin with, but compared to last week when we barely had any customers at all, this was an enormous leap forward. On opening day I had hoped we might sell even one slice of cake. Today we had prepared a hundred slices, and more than half of them had already sold before noon.

We could have sold even more, but some customers left when they saw there were no seats. I had considered raising the prices, but after seeing how often places got flamed for increasing prices right after going viral, I decided to keep them as they were for the time being.

I wanted to move to a larger location, but we didn’t have the money and the lease still had time left on it. For now I would keep running the business here, save up, and first focus on adding an outdoor terrace or something similar.

Some might think the sudden rush of customers is just a temporary boost from the broadcasts.

But once people tasted it, they would come back sooner or later. Even that rude junior of mine who loved every kind of dessert had become a regular after falling for a single bite. She had stopped by earlier, stamped her “perfect attendance,” and left. When she saw how crowded the place I had called my own little cafe had become, she bought her cake with a complicated look on her face.

The funniest part was that even though I had taken her order at the counter, she hadn’t recognized me as her senior at all. No matter how much the hat and mask hid my face, failing to recognize the person right in front of her was impressive. It seemed the only thing left in her head was the memory of me giving her cake—my actual face had been completely erased.

Rudeness really runs in the family.

I checked the clock. It was already past two in the afternoon. My university class started at three, so it was time to head out. I looked at Park Nayoung.

“You sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”

“This is nothing. I worked at way busier places during my last part-time job. I’m fine, so stop worrying and get to school.”

She didn’t sound like she was just saying it to reassure me. Energy practically radiated from her body, and her face glowed with vitality. Part of it was probably excitement that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the cafe was doing well, but we had also mixed our bodies lightly before opening. It seemed my cum really did have a beneficial effect on others—she didn’t look tired in the slightest.

During the first week of the semester they didn’t take attendance seriously, so missing a class wouldn’t matter. But today I had an important appointment, so I accepted her words.

“Got it. Contact me right away if anything comes up. If it gets too busy, why not call Naeun?”

“No way. If she comes she won’t help at all—she’ll just eat everything in sight.”

When I mentioned Park Naeun—my junior and her younger sister—Park Nayoung shook her head firmly. It looked like she had kept the cafe’s opening a secret from her. Aside from Han Gaeul’s broadcast, Park Nayoung had barely shown her face in any others. As a result, her sister still had no idea that the cafe currently blowing up on Nutube belonged to her own older sister.

I returned from the cafe to my room and got ready for university. After changing into comfortable clothes and slinging my bag over my shoulder, a message arrived from the very person tied to my important appointment.

It was a message from Lee Yujin, my junior in her second year. When I opened the chat, two photos arrived—one of her in a white bra, the other in a black one.

“This girl really sends stuff like this without warning.”

It was a good thing I was alone. If anyone had been next to me, I would have been labeled a pervert on the spot. Dangerous photos like these needed to be saved and deleted immediately. After storing them in my album, I replied.

She followed up with several more photos. This time they were full-body shots that included not only the bras but the black panties underneath as well. Even though I had already taken care of myself once that morning, I felt blood rush downward again. I wanted nothing more than to stroke one out while staring at the pictures right then, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but I decided to save my strength for later and do a gacha pull instead.

These were the points I had gained from Han Gaeul and Park Nayoung. Normally you could only obtain points the first time you had sex with someone, but if a woman’s value rose dramatically afterward, you could gain a significant amount of points—though a large portion would be deducted. Of course, unless their value increased substantially, the points you could earn were extremely small.

Both women, however, had seen their value rise considerably recently. In Han Gaeul’s case, her subscriber count had grown from one hundred thousand to over two hundred thousand—more than double. Still, it wasn’t a dramatic enough leap for the points to be huge. On the other hand, Park Nayoung had gone from an unemployed freeloader to the proud owner of a cafe. The first time I received points from her, it had only been 232. That was far too low considering her appearance and favorability.

This recent reevaluation had granted me another 151 points from her. Han Gaeul gave 62, Park Nayoung gave 151. With a total of 213 points, I could do two pulls.

Hoping for a god-tier item or at least something related to stamina, I rolled the gacha.

“Let’s gooooo!”

It was a dud right from the first pull.

“Will I ever have a use for this?”

This wasn’t the other world, and even ordinary rope would be hard to escape from. There was even less connection to demons. At least the adjustable length made it easy to carry, but it still didn’t seem particularly useful. I tossed it into a corner of the room and started the second pull.

A basic skill that anyone could learn back in the other world had come out.

It might be a basic skill, but it was still quite useful for everyday life. Back when I was the Hero, couples or married party members would mainly use it to block sound whenever they wanted to fuck each other’s brains out in camp. Of course, since I had never done anything like that, I had never used it once. It was the kind of skill that made me feel unfairly left out.

“Wait, there’s no need to feel unfair. I can just use it now.”

With a cheerful heart, I headed off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to university.