Chapter 236 : Stardustincafe (1)
Chapter 236: Stardustincafe (1)
Midterms were finally over.
“Aaaaargh! That professor's a real bastard!”
Dusty Jian raised both arms and let out a satisfying curse.
The test material was insane, and the difficulty? Brutal. I nearly stormed out of the exam hall.
“Why did I even study…?”
If I was going to bomb the test anyway, I should’ve just watched our guys’ self-content that came out yesterday.
Lee Jian muttered in regret.
Still, thanks to that, my mind felt clearer.
Dusty Jian threw himself onto the bed and fiddled with his phone.
Tons of messages from a Deokchin were piled up.
A same-age friend I met at the last concert, and we'd been fangirling together ever since.
– ya Seo Ian is so hot lol
– they’re up to something again today
– ugh my sundubu is SO cuteㅠㅠ wanna put him in my mouth
She was a bit intense, but still, a reliable friend.
– Kang Siwoo looks like he's gonna slice customers with that stare lol if I owned a café I’d hire him on the spot
– ya Ha Junseo is downing a 6-shot Americano with his own hands;;
– and
– Do Hamjji is seriously insane
It was about the self-content.
As soon as I read those, ding– a new message popped up with a notification sound.
– Lee Jian~
– Your exams over?
I nodded and typed back a reply.
└ Yup!!
– Did you watch the self-content???
Of course I did….
“I saved it for now so I could watch it after exams~.”
Dusty Jian hummed a tune as he opened YouTube.
The wait had been painful, but binge-watching after the exams felt amazing.
[Stardustincafe1: A Customer Came to Our Café]
It was the first episode of Stardust Healing Self-content #1, uploaded yesterday on the official Doubles account.
Gotta give it to Doubles for churning out this kind of fun content nonstop.
“Give the self-content team double pay.”
Thump-thump.
Jian hummed as he pressed the play button.
.
.
.
.
As soon as the video began, an awkward narration started to play.
[Seven boys working at a café for the first time]
Technically, it was six.
[On a busy weekend afternoon, of all times]
[The owner stepped out…!]
At the same time, Kang Siwoo spoke with a serious face. His voice was oddly solemn.
“Guys, the owner’s not coming today.”
“Huh?”
“So we have to handle everything from open to close! I’m already nervous. Oh no! What do we do?”
“…Hyung, stop acting.”
“Pfft.”
At Jin Sehyun’s sudden comment, laughter erupted from the back.
Meanwhile, Cha Seongbin, looking laid-back, tilted an empty cup and immersed himself in his barista persona.
“It’s fine. I’m confident.”
“Say that after you’ve actually poured water into the cup.”
Once again, Jin Sehyun’s blunt retort cut him off.
“Ahem. Ahem.”
Cha Seongbin cleared his throat and merely brushed his innocent bangs.
In the rather spacious set, the seven members sat clustered together.
Neatly arranged tables and softly lit ambiance.
Looking around the interior, which was styled very much like a real café, Seohan spoke up.
“This café must be doing really well.”
“Why?”
“Minimum wage has gone up, but there are seven part-timers working at the same time….”
“Hey.”
“You’re too much of a realist!”
The youngest was jaded by society.
Hearing that, Kang Siwoo solemnly nodded in agreement.
“Right. That’s why the owner’s been struggling lately.”
“I’d be struggling too. If it were me, I’d cut staff first.”
“Ah….”
Seo Ian couldn’t hold back and started coughing with laughter in the back.
Endless ad-libs from the younger members. Even so, Kang Siwoo stuck to his scripted lines.
“Anyway, even without the owner, our café must maintain top-notch service and professionalism, so let’s start by dividing up the roles.”
“Just talk in your normal tone, please….”
It felt like watching a kindergarten teacher trying to relate to kids, and the younger ones cringed.
Eventually, Kang Siwoo gave in with a sigh and nodded.
“Let’s divide the work.”
“Yes~. Anyone have a part they want to do?”
“What are the options, anyway? I don’t know much about café work.”
Actually, the only one here with prior café part-timer experience in a past life was Do Seohan.
Which is why Haim’s cheerful question didn’t really get a textbook answer.
“I think…”
Always on the lookout for a chance to make a joke, Cha Seongbin jumped in first.
“We need someone in charge of the tables.”
“The person who wipes them?”
At Seohan’s question, Cha Seongbin shook his head.
“No, just the table itself.”
“Huh?”
“You need a table to put cups on, right?”
“So, like I was saying. Ta-da~ Who wants to be in charge of the tables?”
This café is insane.
Cha Seongbin looked around cheekily as he spoke.
“Anyone confident in their flatness~? What, no one?”
"Seo Han, I nominate you."
"Why me!"
"Because you’re a former fire truck. Fire trucks are pretty flat too."
You really remembered that?
After watching the livestream he did with Do Seojun, fans started teasing him by calling him a fire truck.
The problem was, there was no way Seo-chingwang Jin Sehyun would’ve missed that—and the moment he proved it, the theory became fact.
"Why is Seo Han a former fire truck?"
Innocent Seo Ian asked with wide eyes, and the other members who got the reference burst out laughing.
"Then we’ll go with Seo Han for the table."
"This is ridiculous."
The first table manager was decided.
Next, Kang Siwoo took over the proceedings.
Since he was in charge of the hall as part of <Stardust Café>, with the owner absent, most of the authority fell to Kang Siwoo.
He needed to assign tasks carefully so none of the part-timers complained.
"Our café’s still new."
"It was built yesterday."
"Right. So we’re missing quite a few things. Anyone… want to handle the menu?"
"Me! I can recite it all from memory!"
"Then Haim can do the menu~."
The second role, Menu Manager, was confirmed.
Pleased with how smoothly the roles were being assigned, Kang Siwoo smiled.
"Anyone good with beans?"
"That’s Junseo-hyung’s job."
"I heard there’s a madman here who puts 6 espresso shots in his Americano."
Part-timer Ha Junseo from <Stardust Café> was already famous in the neighborhood for his unusual taste.
Rumor had it he joined the café just to drink all the beans he wanted.
"Junseo-hyung sometimes chews whole beans at dawn."
"Pfft."
"Hey, it’s not that bad!"
"This won’t do. Let’s bring in a Byeoldol witness."
"I saw you having a tea party with the grinder last night."
[The Stardust Café part-timers are currently living together because they get along so well.]
"Then Junseo-hyung, you’re on the coffee machine."
"I’ll grind with my head!"
"You’ve lost it…."
"His pun game is seriously impressive."
"Wait. Do Seohan has a complaint."
"Huh? What is it?"
Right then, Jin Sehyun, who was tidying up cups in the back, raised his hand.
"He says he doesn’t want to do the table."
With a sulky face, Seo Han nodded at Jin Sehyun’s words.
The hall manager had a soft spot for the youngest part-timer.
Kang Siwoo patted Seo Han’s shoulder with a worried look.
"Why? Then what do you want to do?"
"The entrance."
"Oh, want to handle the door?"
The café had just been built, so the door was a bit unstable.
[Stardust Café lacks pretty much everything.]
"Ring a bell when someone walks in."
"I can do that."
Seo Han had originally dreamed of becoming a fire truck.
"Siren’s doable."
Nod, nod.
The youngest had big ambitions today as well.
And as for the rest….
"I’ll take orders."
"I’ll handle the kiosk."
"Should I take the orders?"
"I’ll cook~."
Watching all that, Seo Han tilted his head.
"What the—why is everyone picking normal roles?"
Honestly, none of us knew back then.
That Stardust’s self-content…
…actually involved serving real customers.
[Did you see the Stardust self-content lololol]
Do Seohan: Table → Entrance Manager
Seo Haim: Menu Manager
Ha Junseo: Coffee Machine (not using the coffee machine—he is the coffee machine)
Three of them got the cursed roles while the other four picked normal ones and it’s hilarious lol
Meanwhile, Cha Seongbin’s pun game just keeps leveling up
– They teased it as a calm healing content but the audio never stops lololol
└They’re all just waiting for their pun timing lololololol
└Don’t deliver your punchlines like you’re Bardol, I’m begging you ah lolololol
└I switched to the self-content zone because I wanted to see my babies get pats ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└Fr not even bickering, it’s just totototototodak vibes
└I know exactly what that means
└Even imagining it is crazy cute
– Cha Seongbin’s pun power is overflowing, so valid, dude’s insane
└Just the fact that he thought of “table” at that timing lololololol
└Judging by the others’ reactions, it wasn’t scripted lol too funny
└Our sly fox composes songs and dominates variety shows…
└Jinseongbin is a genius…
– But at the end there was a shot of Do Seohan making a latte and he actually looked good at it?
└It was cut short so you couldn’t see well, but yeah I think so
└I work at a café and even I could tell his hand movements weren’t normal
└No way, our clumsy baby?
└lolololololol why do the fans trust him less
└Calling him clumsy is a bit harsh
└But think of all the stuff Seo Han’s cooked!
└Okay fine, that’s fair
– Only 20 minutes long? That’s such a tease. It felt like they filmed way more—hurry up and edit, please
└So true. Doubles, drop ep 2 now ㅠㅠㅠ
└There’s a woman who just finished midterms crying and desperately waiting here…
└Yes, yes, the world needs to see serious-latte-making Seo Han
└Just imagining it is so cute I wanna kidnap him into my pocket
And then.
That night, Doubles dropped episode 2 without warning.
[Stardustincafe2: We’re Making Huruu in a Total Mess]
On screen, Do Seohan was trembling nervously. The youngest part-timer at Stardust Café.
He opened his mouth slowly, looking shocked.
"Why is the sugar this color?"
"Seohan!"
"I’ve never seen this in my nineteen years!!!"
The title had already felt ominous…
Jin Sehyun added in a worried voice.
"Our café’s not gonna explode, right?"
"Nooo. I’ve got PTSD from stuff like that."
"……?"
A crisis had arrived for the former café part-timer.