--Author's Point of View--
The day of the event was approaching, and every member of their friend group had been working hard.
Day and night, before and after school, they would immediately head toward Bloom Café.
Practicing endlessly to master their assigned roles in making the delicacy they had everyone anticipating to try that year.
"Watch the oven!" Min Oh yelled from the other side of the kitchen counter as he mixed the batter with Miles Cha. The first pair mentioned were guiding their other friends in monitoring the first batch of the delicacy.
Everything was ready, and they were in the middle of preparing for the annual event, which used to be the most nerve-wracking day of their lives.
However, they grew to love the feeling of their adrenaline rushing from the excitement.
The maintenance team outside the café was decorating the exterior of the building and removing any unrelated designs.
People would spare them a glance of appreciation for preparing the building before the event day. "Mom, look! They're doing the thing they did last year." a child watched bemusingly as the maintenance team did their job.
Yun Oh was busy shaping the delicacies that were to be put in the oven next. He suddenly saw Honey Lou struggling to figure out the timing when she should take out the ones that are in the oven, to make way for the next batch.
"I'll do that for you, honey." the blonde-haired male took the mittens from her hands and directed her to handle the finished products later on, Yun Oh saw all of this but didn't bother thinking too much about it.
'This is all for the event, there isn't anything going on between them.' he smiled at the thought of it, reassuring himself that he was the one who would end with Honey Lou, he remembered that they were officially engaged and that the news would soon break out like it always does.
'Ji Eun will surely do her job even after what happened.' he hoped.
Speaking of Song Ji Eun, she kept herself away from the eyes of the public after what had happened inside the school campus.
["Darling, what has been going on with you lately? I am worried sick."]
Ji Eun stared at her phone with the repeating voice message of her grandmother on the screen, she had been avoiding her guardian for weeks now ever since a post was made about her.
["I'm having a hard time, Grammy..."] she replied to the voice message a few days after it had been sent. ["Will you visit your parents soon?"]
'My parents... Must I really visit those people whom I did not even get to meet?' her deep thoughts ended as soon as her friends called her name out loud.
Honey Lou finished the first batch of the delicacy with Sora, Yua, Haesu, Ji Eun, Jihyun, Yun Oh, Dan, Miles, Min Oh, Byungchan, Sihyeon, Yeonju, and Song surrounding her.
"There." she whispered, not knowing that her friends were watching her box the products. "I think it's a bit not in the center." Yua commented.
Honey froze in her place upon realizing how pressuring her role felt, however, she received a pat on the back from one of her cousins, Yeonju, who smiled for the first time in so long.
"What's this? My boyfriend is smiling!" Sihyeon mentioned.
This made all of them smile as if it was a contagious disease. 'I like seeing us all together.' Sora thought as she saw the circle in its most harmonious and joyful state, trying to hide her tears and the smile that turned into a sad one.
"I will miss this."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
((The Day of the Event...)) Bloom Café was getting more and more crowded outside as the clock slowly turned 7:45 AM, the customers that had been waiting for the event were so eager to taste this year's special set of pastries and drinks.
"Where is Haesu-eonni?? The time is ticking!"
Ji Eun panicked once her eyes took a peek through the covers of the café.
The time of their supposed opening was set to be at exactly 8:00 AM.
With their manager nowhere to be found, each of them tried opening the door of her office but unluckily, it was locked right from the inside which made it hopeless for them.
"Why can't we just start on our own? She might be busy..."
Jihyun was about to uncover the curtains covering the café from the inside because the glass was transparent, they couldn't risk exposing their most anticipated menu that year which was specially made for the event only. "It's the manager's honor to do that."
Riyanna directed her friend to take a seat from one of the tables.
"Come on, sis! Open up! I know you're in there." Honey urged her sister to unlock the office door, she was entirely aware of her older sister's sudden panic attacks, specifically, on days like those. "Just remember what our mother taught us." her sister tried talking her out of it.
"Try to catch your breath and reset the pattern back to normal. If you can't, breathe in and out as simple as that." Honey added.
"I don't think this is working, baby. You should give up now."
Dan attempted to pull her to the front counters and thought about welcoming the customers themselves without the manager.
However, Honey kept banging on the door, saying encouraging words to help her sister.
"Instead of making her give up, how about you help her? You awful sweet-talker."
Yun Oh watched Dan while he endlessly tried to convince the girl with the brown burnt gingerbread hair who was unbothered by the two guys behind her.
Yua came running into the scene and pushed the dirty blonde-haired male out of the way.
He fell on the floor and landed on his bottom with a death stare meant for the reddish and short-haired female. "Sorry not sorry, you were in my way."
Yua hurriedly used all the possible keys there were in the box of keys.
"Now." Honey wholeheartedly waited patiently until her younger friend successfully unlocked the door that kept them separated from the café's manager.
Though the sound of a click made them all halt.
"I'm good now, thanks." Haesu was sweating incredibly as she looked so pale, her friend, Sihyeon, arrived on time with a new uniform fit for their manager and all the girls helped her get ready. "5 MINUTES LEFT!" yelled Miles with his head poking out from the corner of the kitchen.
"I REPEAT! WE HAVE 5 MINUTES LEFT!" he happily waved at his friends.
Miles wouldn't stop checking everything in the kitchen, storage room, and front counters as he constantly looked at his wristwatch every second that went by.
He grew anxious as the murmurs became louder from the crowd outside.
He bit his lips before returning to his station.
"Calm down, Miles." Min Oh had his palms resting on the counter with his shoulders stretching widely to gather all his courage and do their best for the big event.
--Lee Haesu's Point of View--
"Everyone!" they were all taken by surprise the moment I took a stand, a stand to actually use my authority over them in the most appropriate way I could.
'For the very first time.' I climbed up on one of the chairs and stole their attention, clasping my hands together to show them something they had never seen from me.
"Sis, what are you doing?"
Honey was trying to convince me to go down but I will not let this moment fly by.
"I just want to thank you all for doing this. Though I am paying you..." I whispered the last four words upon realizing that they may or may not actually want to be here but anyway...
"I am glad to have met you all and that you're all here working with me together. For the success of this last event together."
Before I go back to Japan...
I smiled at them and dismissed their reactions and comments. "Let's get to work then!" Honey assisted me down alongside Daniel whom I dislike so much at the moment for being with Honey.
"Are you together?"
I laughed then gave the dirty blonde friend of ours a side-eye while taking my sister by the hand and showing her to the door.
"What is going on? Aren't you supposed to be the one to uncover this?" I looked at everyone around us, waiting for Miles to shout that it was time which would be any second now...
"IT'S TIME!" he looked up from his wristwatch and carefully took it off, putting it inside his pockets, and rushed back into the kitchen as everyone else went to their stations.
"Uncover it." I have decided to give this opportunity to my sister as the next one in line to inherit and take charge of the business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Business is booming today.' just like every other year on this very day. "Yua! We've got orders lining up, where are you?" Jihyun yelled from the other end of the café as she stood on her toes like a ballerina.
"Hey, can you take these to table no. 5?" Min Oh directed our friend to serve some of his familiars from outside the school campus.
Someone with cherry-blossom pink hair appeared at the entrance of the café, she entered the place and occupied a table.
"Jinwoo, can you serve that customer over there?" I directed our seasonal employee as he arrived just in time for me to leave this station and manage all the other stations at the back.
"We've got a long line of orders for The Chess Board specialty!" Sora Young informed our friends while I spectated in a corner.
"Having fun watching us?" Ji Eun carried out a tray of our freshly baked specialty with its sweet and creamy aroma spreading across the café, her sarcastic comment made me smile.
'A smile that I hope they notice...' if only things could go back to the way they used to be...