Softener [OT23] (updating)

♡ 31 ♡

yuta moved from japan a few years ago and started his business with johnny. he initially liked to keep things to himself, neither opening up nor losing his guard until he finished observing the people around him. at first, johnny wanted to recruit more workers for their cafe but his best friend disagreed because he needed to figure out who has the most efficient trait or someone peculiar he could learn from.

yuta wanted the team to fully function in perfection as he didn't want his first start up business ended up failing abruptly. about twenty people attended the cafe interview but none of them was accepted into their team. one of them however managed to pass as a worker in trial, her name was shuhua, a young first year college student majoring in science at a nearby university.

" oh come on yuta-nim, i need a friend! " shuhua was complaining to her boss who seemed to have zero intention in another debate. " don't you have them at college? " yuta coldly replied, he pretended to not know what kind of friend she whimpered about.

" tsk, i mean colleagues " she rolled her eyes, displeased to hear yuta's respond. " calm down shuhua, " johnny who had finished cleaning up the equipments interfered. " we just haven't find the right person, " johnny shook his head.

it was yuta's first goal to create a stable ambience before expanding the business, he found it sufficient enough to put shuhua in the cashier while he and johnny prepared for the orders. besides, only a glimpse of people had become the cafe's regular including some of shuhua's close friends. recruiting another worker would only confiscate their surplus that they needed to save.

months later, the business began to grow rapidly as shuhua succeeded in promoting their coffee samples to her college friends during her college festival. even if most of their orders came from online delivery, johnny had settled his decision to upgrade the cafe with private wifi so in order to use it, the costumer must at least bought something from the cafe.

johnny also expanded their coffee beans diversity to increase older people's attention. yuta was too afraid to try that but after johnny managed to convince his right hand man, they were surprised to find new regulars were enthusiastically waiting for the cafe's new releases.

most of their costumers who came to the shop was female as they were attracted towards the friendly owner and the mysterious japanese barista at the back. however, yuta himself didn't have any interest to show up at the front desk. at least not until johnny announced the cafe's new part time worker.

and as soon as sofia arrived, yuta started to bow his observation to one person. from his perspective, johnny seemed to have an immense relationship with the new girl since there were no interviews, no discussions, and no job applicants written in front of the cafe's chalkboard. the more he thought, the more infelicitous the situation became.

sofia had just entered the team for a couple of weeks and she started her relationship with yuta as acquaintances, but it all changed due to this one moment. it was sofia's fifth day working at johnny's cafe, she had fully understood the basic of coffee preparation during her quick trainee days but she still needed more time and improvement in order to get both johnny and yuta's approval as a real employee.

johnny's decision to set a month trial was highly supported by yuta even though the girl did have an interesting place at johnny's heart. besides, yuta couldn't imagine himself working with a complete newbie who knew nothing about coffee. as a short tempered person, he also didn't want to yell at sofia each time she made a mistake. it would be best to have her trained and familiar enough to work at the stations.

on that day, the new girl took off johnny's reserved apron and sat across yuta on the table. the mysterious barista was going to teach her about some latte techniques, " excuse me. " the sound of keyboard clicking quickly filled the damp atmosphere. if only yuta decided to put his laptop down and placed a scented candle in the middle instead, it could be called as a date due to their close position. however, this particular 'arrangement' had made the girl noticed  him a little more every day.