Corruptions Are Best Exposed In The Autumn!

Chapter 24 - No Staff, Only Vibes

A large clang echoed throughout the kitchen and the main dining area as Lily dropped the large steel mixing bowl in her hand, spilling flour all over the floor and even on Sesame's face.

"Meow!" the cat whimpered and dashed away.

"You're going to do what?!" She shouted, causing a few heads in the café to turn.

"Like I said, I'm thinking about marrying into Dally's family," I continued while wiping the floor with soap and a cloth. "The girls name's Eleanor."

It had already been two months since I visited my father in prison, but his voice continued to echo in my head, day in and day out:

"And it helps if you get married! You can share the debt together!"

"Fuckin' old man..." I mumbled while cleaning plates in the sink. Who would've thought I'd actually consider his advice?

"Meow!" Sesame walked back to the kitchen, this time with my red scarf in his mouth.

"Sesame, why do you have that?" I kneeled and gently took it out of his mouth. The scarf was quite worn down by this point: several red strings stuck out from the side, and small rips outlined parts of the edges as well. Even though I still couldn't figure out who snuck into our café that day while we visited Mila, I still had a hunch that it was Rin.

"Kai, do you even have romantic feelings for that girl?" Lily asked. She had stopped working entirely at her station, and was waiting for my answer, causing me to sigh.

"No, I don't. In fact, I'm quite creeped out by her," I answered, knowing everything was coming out unfiltered. "She somehow knew where I worked, has been asking for me to renounce my family name on TV for a year, and was the one who stole the apology letter I sent to Mila 5 years ago."

"Wow. that's Elias' levels of creepy, indeed."

Soon, a few more customers began entering our café, and Lily and I went back to work.

Actually, it was more than just a few customers.

"Shit! Why are there suddenly so many people here an hour before we close?!" I scrambled to the front to help Lily with the cash register.

"Ugh, I knew we should've hired more people!" Lily grunted while she ran to the espresso machines. "We need someone who can prepare the food! Kai, do you know if Charles is available?"

"No, he has class today!"

The lineup stretched all the way to the entrance, and every table was flooded with customers. When I asked them where they heard about the café and any idea why there were so many crowding our shop today, I got a suspicious answer:

"We came here because your café was on TV!" A woman explained while waiting near the door.

What?! I stared back at him without muttering a word. We were on TV?

"Yeah, it was sick!" another man popped his head out from behind the line. "I don't know how this place managed to get TV coverage, but it's been blowing up on social media too!"

"It was posted by a woman named Eleanor Tren!"

Eleanor's causing all of this?!

Even though I should've been happy that so many customers were filling our place up after a rather quiet morning, there was simply not enough staff. Ever since Lora and Julian left to start another coffee shop back in their home country of Dosa, it had just been Me, Lily, and Charles running the shop. Lily and Charles both went to college together, and traded shifts every day while I worked full-time.