Let Me (JayB FF)

CHAPTER 2 - THE MORE THE MERRIER

Elle dropped Ji-hoon at his school and went back home to cook. She needed to cook a new batch of baked pasta for the cafe. She has just finished cooking when her phone buzzed. It was Jaebeom. He was telling her that he would book the private room in the cafe. They were having a meeting later that night. She was lucky her cafe was quite secluded but she still provided a small private room so people could have some privacy if needed. The cafe wasn't super busy, so she couldn't rely on the cafe solely for her income. She didn't have many piano students either. But luckily, people love her food. She got more money from selling her food, like baked pasta, cookies, cake and all sorts of bread. She was lucky as well to have a kind grandma next door that wouldn't mind keeping an eye on Ji-hoon when he was back from school. Grandma would make sure that Ji-hoon changed his clothes and took a nap before playing with other kids in the afternoon. Then she would be back to her own house at 6 PM. Usually Elle would be at home around 7 PM and Ji-hoon could manage to stay at home by himself for an hour or so, so she was grateful for that.

When Elle arrived at the cafe, she started to sort out the food and baked stuff first as a deliveryman would come and picked up some orders to be delivered. Then she would keep the rest in the cafe. Mostly her stuff were baked goods, so she could heated them up when people ordered them. Other food like ramen and toast were easy to make, so it didn't take too much time to make. She didn't know much about coffee though, so she just bought a coffee machine and didn't sell many variants. After everything was sorted, she put up a sign in front of the private room to make sure that people knew that it was booked.

Today was another quiet day. Some students came by and read some books, borrowed some and only drank some ice choco. Businesses were still slow, thanks to covid, but she was glad that she could open her business again, despite having to make several adjustments to comply with the health regulations. She had to put up air filter and stuff to ensure the safety of her customers . She fixed herself some lunch and waited again. She didn't have any students today so it was quite a long day, waiting in a quiet cafe. Then one by one the member started to arrive. They all wore a face mask, giving her a small nod as greetings as they passed the counter before walking toward the back of the cafe, to the private room immediately. All of them ordered ice americano so she brought them into the room immediately after they settled down.

"Ah, noona, the shooting will be next week," Jaebeom reminded her when she walked into the room. She decided to close the cafe for their privacy. After all, they paid quite handsomely for closing her cafe frequently, more than the price she put up to rent the room. 

"Wait.. you asked noona to be your model?" Jinyoung's eyes widened and he stared at Elle. 

"Yes," Jaebeom nodded, started to slurp his drink, oblivious to Jinyoung's glare. "Why?" he turned to see Jinyoung before turning his head back to Elle. "And noona, why don't you stock up on that ice mint choco latte again? I liked that one," Jaebeom started complaining. More like whining to be exact.   

"Well, no one else ordered that one," Elle shrugged. "So most of them were expired when you're not coming here so I don't buy them anymore," she continued and his pouting was even more prominent as he heard her answer.  

"That's cheating," Youngjae whined from across the table and paid attention to Elle as well. "Noona, why do you agree to help him?" 

"Well, he made me quite an offer," she shrugged.

"What is his offer? I'm sure I could offer better things," Jinyoung challenged, looking confident that he could beat Jaebeom's offer. 

"He would pay for a part timer for the cafe, a nanny for Ji-hoon and later BBQ dinner," Elle started to list everything that Jaebeom offered her.