No Strings Attached

Chapter Thirteen

“Ah, so it’s ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’. What a nice name. There’s such a long queue, the cakes must be really good,” Rosé said in amazement at the crowds lining up at the café Lisa owned.

Jennie and Rosé stood across the road from the café. It was the first day of opening and many people were at the café.

“Give Lisa a call and see if we can cut the queue.” Rosé tugged at Jennie’s arm.

“No. I don’t like to ask for favours unnecessarily.”

The two women strolled into the café. It was painted in apple white with minimal decorations on the walls. It wasn’t a big café though the use of space was well thought out. There was a huge glass display where it was filled with cakes of various kinds, and that occupied most of the café. There was a small white chalkboard on the counter, stating the chef’s special for the day.

There were only three sets of chairs and tables in the café. It was mainly a take-away concept, similar to the store which Lisa and Jennie went in Tokyo. There was a huge mural of the Tokyo city skyline on one side of the wall. The kitchen was tucked at the end of the café and the fragrant scent of butter filled the café.

A young woman was manning the cashier counter and she was busy picking out the cakes from the glass display and putting them into white boxes for each customer. Jennie looked around for the person she knew but she couldn’t find her.

She’s probably busy in the kitchen since it’s the first day of her store’s opening.

Just then, a woman in white baker’s uniform emerged from the kitchen holding onto a tray filled with jars of cookies.

“Yeri, I’ll place them in the basket right over here,” the woman said.

“Sure Jisoo unnie,” the young woman replied.

Jennie walked up towards the cashier counter. She saw the girl’s name on a nametag she was wearing. “Excuse me, Yeri, is Lisa in today?”

“Lisa? Oh, she went out for a while. She’ll be back soon. Are you her friend?” Yeri said.

Jennie nodded and smiled. Yeri led Jennie and Rosé to two empty seats nearby and served them iced water.

“I’ll let you know once she gets back,” Yeri smiled and went back to the cashier’s counter to attend to her customers.

About fifteen minutes later, Jennie saw a familiar figure walking past her and heading for the cashier counter. It was none other than Lisa. Yeri and Lisa were talking to each other, with Lisa’s back facing Jennie and Rosé. Yeri used her hand to comb Lisa’s hair and helped to adjust Lisa’s uniform as the apron was not properly tied. Jennie felt a pang of sourness in her heart when she saw Yeri helping Lisa.

Yeri pointed towards Jennie and Rosé and Lisa turned around. Jennie and Lisa’s eyes met briefly. Lisa flashed a grin before continuing her conversation with Yeri.

A little while later, Lisa appeared at the table.

“Hello ladies and thank you for coming by,” Lisa greeted with a smile.

“It’s your opening day, we’re here to lend you support! Do recommend some cakes to us. Jen is famished! She hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast just because she wanted to leave some stomach space for your cakes,” Rosé exclaimed excitedly.

“Oh really?” Lisa narrowed her eyes at Jennie and laughed. Jennie looked away and pretended she didn’t hear what Rosé just said. She gave Rosé a hard kick underneath the table.