Probably Your Baerista ― Nine Percent

2 | Samples To Be Handed Out, Not Stuffed Into Your Mouth

Despite being overwhelmed by the influx of customers, the nine managed to (almost) properly do their job. Their jokes about wanting people to swarm their shop on opening day became true and it was probably one of them said it in a wishing tone rather than being satirical. It was a blessing that none of them spilt any drinks or dropped any food or punched in the wrong orders. But getting some names wrong was the inevitable luck of baristas.

As the morning grew into the afternoon, they were graced with a shocking increase in customers due to it being lunch break for nearby offices. Suddenly remembering about their plan after seeing Xukun and Chengcheng pouring drinks into mini cups, Zhengting pushed the empty cup he was holding to Justin and headed to the kitchen. Entering the kitchen, he managed to grab hold of Zhangjing, who was heading back out after his short rest (which included snatching a few newly baked cookies).

"What's wrong? I didn't eat too much okay!" Zhangjing yelled in defence, thinking he might be scolded by the younger for once again munching on food. Eyes widened at the older, Zhengting stopped in the middle of the kitchen. Quickly dismissing his thought of lecturing Zhangjing (plus the job is reserved for Linong), Zhenting dragged him towards the corner of the kitchen. Letting go of the older's hand, Zhengting took the tray full of bite-sized assortment of pastries and placed them in Zhangjing's hands. 

"Oh.. give out samples..." Zhangjing softly spoke, finally realizing what Zhengting wanted him to do. "Now, go out there. I'll ask Linong to be handing out samples with you after Xukun and Chengcheng finishes making the drink samples," Zhengting spoke and he ushered Zhangjing out of the kitchen. "Oh, just make sure to not eat the samples..." Zhengting spoke before returning back to his work.

Walking slowly between the crowd of people, Zhangjing soon found himself standing in the sidewalk and nodding to people who passed by and those who came in and out of the shop. After what seemed like a long moment of awkwardness, Zhangjing was welcomed with a familiar voice, "Why are you suddenly introverted?"

Turning his gaze, he saw that Linong stood beside him with a tray of drinks. Falling out of his state of awkwardness, he returned to normal and replied to Linong, "Took you long enough." 

"Don't tell me you acted like a lost child purposely just to wait for me..." Linong stared at the stoic Zhangjing. "I can never understand you. One minute you could sing and scream into someone's ear and suddenly you're a statue..." shaking his head, Linong turned to the passing people. He offered them the samples with a smile.

With a leg lightly kicking Zhangjing, Linong managed to make the older to greet the people with the samples. Channelling his usual friendly spirit, Zhangjing's awkwardness slowly faded away despite the subtle Malaysian slangs he'd let out every now and then out of anxiousness. 

"Are you anxious because you can't eat the samples?" Yanjun asked out of nowhere, making Zhangjing snap towards him with a glare. "What? We're just here to give you more samples because you're running out, right Xukun?" Yanjun defended himself and raised the tray he was holding and next to him, Xukun also raised his tray.

Xukun went to Linong and exchanged trays while Yanjun did the same with Zhangjing. In the middle of exchanging, Zhangjing managed to snatch the last piece of pastry and shove it into his mouth. With a stoic expression, Yanjun stared at him for a few seconds before leaving the munching foodie.

"When will you stop eating?" Linong asked as the came back to stand next to Zhangjing. Balancing the tray with one hand, Linong used his other hand to roughly wipe off the crumbs Zhangjing had at the corner of his mouth. 

"Okay, are you trying to help or subtly punch me?" Zhangjing responded with an unamused tone and lightly glared at the taller younger one. "I'm just worried that people would stop coming here if they know one of the baristas keeps on sticking his fingers into the food. Some would find it unsanitary you know?" Linong nonchalantly replied before putting on a bright smile and continued to offer coffee samples.

"Okay, I'll only eat the leftovers then," finally giving in just so he doesn't get cornered by Linong (again), Zhangjing gulped down the pastry forcefully, a bit sad that he couldn't properly savour the texture of the pastry. Like it wasn't even a proper size to be savoured thoroughly to even begin with.

And so, the two continued to hand out samples until the lunch hour ended. As the sea of customers started to clear up, Zhangjing came in with wobbly legs and dramatically dropped himself onto the first chair he could see and hugged the tray. The crumbs on the tray fell to his lap and to the ground as a result of his action.

"I just cleaned that up!" Justin screamed, pointing at the crumbs. "Oh please, that was in the morning. And Zhengting helped you. Or else you would still be trying to pole dance with the mop," Zhangjing sent back a remark which made Justin pout and head to the closet to get the mop.

"For someone who eats a lot, you sure don't have much energy," Xiao Gui chuckled as he spoke in a subtle mocking tone. Letting out another glare (god knows how many times he did it since morning), Zhangjing let out a simple comeback, "Shut up."

Yanjun came up to Zhangjing as he wiped his hands with his apron and let out a laugh. With eyes closed and drooping in the chair, Zhangjing asked, "What are you laughing for?"

"You look like a sogged up small piece of bread," Yanjun replied with another chuckle and for a moment, he swore he saw Zhangjing puff out flames out of his nostrils. But before Zhangjing could reply, a loud voice resonated through the shop and it came from a person the nine know well. Leaving the nine in a slight confused state.

"So, where's the VIP table you guys set up for us?"