Chapter 87: Mollru Becomes a Part-Time Worker

“Your order is ready~.”

The one who saved me from being bombarded with endless questions by a group of high school girls was Jiyeon.

Placing a convincingly made iced Americano in front of me, she glared at the students crowding around me, her eyes sharp.

“Hey, aren’t you all going to back off?”

With a wave of her hand, as if shooing away flies from a stall, the girls reluctantly stepped away from me.

“Aww, Jiyeon showed up. It’s over now.”

“Let’s go, let’s go.”

“It was fun! Let’s talk again next time, unnie!”

Only then did I finally let out a breath.

“Ugh…”

I felt drained.

I stretched my neck and arms, trying to shake off the exhaustion.

In my past life, I had no real connections with women.

Even though I had started interacting with more women recently, none of them had the same high energy as those girls just now.

The closest thing would be Ryuah, who had a puppy-like personality and often dragged me around, but even she would seem like an amateur in comparison to that scene.

“You must be tired. Here, drink this.”

Jiyeon handed me the drink she had just made.

Iced Americano in the middle of winter—she really knew my taste.

“Ahh…”

The bitter yet nutty flavor of the coffee lingered in my mouth.

The refreshing chill from the ice was a bonus.

She had completely figured out my preferences by now.

The idea that drinking iced coffee in winter was some kind of extreme behavior was nonsense.

What’s wrong with drinking iced coffee in the cold? It’s delicious.

The real lunatics are the ones drinking hot coffee in the scorching summer.

Seeing people sip steaming beverages in the middle of a heatwave made me feel dizzy with heat.

“You used to hate anything bitter, but now you’re drinking it just fine.”

“…Did I?”

“Yeah, back when we went to cafes, you only drank sweet stuff with me.”

Blueberry smoothies, java chip frappuccinos, sweet potato lattes, and so on.

Despite her outward appearance, Ji-eun—the original owner of this body—apparently had the taste buds of a child.

“Ahh, this doesn’t even count as bitter.”

And it really didn’t.

This wasn’t straight espresso.

A café’s Americano was just black coffee diluted over and over again.

If someone found this bitter, then they probably hadn’t tasted the real bitterness of life yet.

“This coffee… is nothing compared to life, Jiyeon. As you go through life, you’ll realize this coffee is actually quite sweet.”

I shared this little piece of wisdom with her, feeling proud of my insight.

Jiyeon’s expression twisted as if she had just witnessed something horrifying.

“Unnie… That was the most boomer thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Cough!”

I choked on my Americano, nearly spitting it out.

Boomer?

All I did was share my perspective, and suddenly I was a boomer?

Besides, I wasn’t even that old.

In my past life, I had been pushing thirty, and as Ji-eun, I had been living for almost a year now…

If I did some rough calculations, that still put me at thirty.

But these days, thirty isn’t even considered old.

People still lump thirty-year-olds together with those in their twenties, calling them “young adults.”

I wasn’t bothered by this. Not at all!

“Uh, unnie, sorry. I take it back.”

Jiyeon must have misread my silence, thinking I was hurt by her comment, because she quickly retracted her words.

Not that it mattered to me.

The weather was nice, and my iced Americano was delicious.

“Are all the guys out having fun?”

I casually asked as we chatted over coffee.

By then, the steady stream of customers had slowed down.

Only a few female students, including Jiyeon, were left in the classroom.

This school was co-ed, but all the male students seemed to have disappeared.

“The booth doesn’t need that many people at once. Most of them probably just wanted to wander around. We’re taking turns in shifts too.”

Apparently, they were rotating in three shifts.

I nodded and changed the subject.

“If you start dating someone, bring them to me first. I want to see what kind of guy he is.”

The world is a scary place.

As someone who firmly believes that people are the scariest thing of all, I couldn’t help but worry.

At least if I met the guy, I could get a sense of what kind of person he was.

Besides, men have ways of noticing things about other men that women might miss.

Even though I wasn’t technically a man anymore, my former male instincts would surely be useful here.

But Jiyeon just smiled, as if she had heard something amusing.

“There’s no such person. I need to actually like someone first before I can start dating them.”

“I bet you’ve gotten a few confessions, though.”

“That’s true, but… how’d you know?”

She tilted her head and looked at me curiously.

It was impossible not to know.

Jiyeon had an undeniable charm that naturally attracted attention.

She murmured to herself as if she had figured something out.

“Well… yeah. If anything, you probably had it even worse. You must have gotten just as many confessions, if not more, right?”

Even though I had no actual memories of my school days, I could confidently answer yes.

I didn’t even need to remember—it was obvious.

Just closing my eyes, I could picture it clearly.

“What about you? Is there anyone you like?”

“Why does the conversation keep coming back to this topic?”

“Because I’m curious?”

Well, when it comes to school life, isn’t it mostly about studying or dating?

If Jiyeon had been a younger brother, the stories might have included messing around with friends, but since there was no way her chromosomes would suddenly switch from XX to XY, that wasn’t happening.

Academics felt too far removed from the vibrant, youthful school life I imagined.

Besides, kids these days seemed to start relationships pretty easily.

“I don’t really have anyone I like. Ah, well, maybe one person, but they probably don’t even realize I like them.”

So Jiyeon’s love life was ongoing.

The surprising part was that it was a one-sided crush.

With a face like hers, most people would probably fall for her if she even hinted at interest.

Now I was curious about this person.

“They must be pretty dense.”

“Right? I bet they don’t even realize I’m talking about them right now.”

Just as we were casually chatting, shadows appeared outside the window, followed by a crowd of noisy students flooding the hallway.

“-Class 3 is running a café.”

“-A café, huh?”

“-Let’s grab something to drink before we go.”

The once-quiet café, which had been completely empty just moments ago, was suddenly packed with people.

Most of them were students, but I also spotted a few teachers and even some outsiders like myself.

“I need to get back to work. My shift’s almost over, so just wait here, okay?”

I nodded in response.

But why did they all rush in all at once?

Did some big event nearby just wrap up?

Absentmindedly, I chewed on the leftover ice from my Americano and observed the situation.

Something seemed off, though.

“-Wait, what? Hyejeong, where is everyone?”

“-Well… Yeonsu went to the bathroom because she had a stomachache, and Hyeji went to meet her boyfriend at the front gate.”

“-Of all times!”

Just when they needed people the most, they were short-staffed.

Not that the missing girls were at fault—there was no way they could have predicted the sudden rush.

Even Jiyeon had brought me along thinking there wouldn’t be a problem.

But now, they were clearly in trouble.

Too many customers, not enough hands.

Looked like I had no choice but to help.

“Ugh… what do we do now?”

Jiyeon, telling customers to wait a moment instead of taking their orders, seemed flustered.

I approached her.

“I’ll help.”

“You will?”

“I can handle the counter, take orders, and call them out when they’re ready.”

It was a small school café booth, after all.

There was no POS system, and all orders were written manually.

No reason I couldn’t do it.

“Thank you so much, unnie!”

Hyejeong, who was preparing drinks in the back, lit up with relief.

“I’m counting on you.”

“Yeah, yeah, leave it to me.”

Jiyeon sighed in resignation and handed me an apron and a bakery hat.

I tied the apron snugly and stepped up to the counter.

“Vanilla latte and chocolate shake… Hey, what do you want?”

“Do you have any recommendations?”

“A hot Americano with a chocolate chunk cookie. Or you could give me your number instead?”

This wasn’t exactly a real job, but it felt like one.

It wasn’t too bad, though it did involve interacting with a bunch of different people.

And dealing with random people was always exhausting.

“-Wow, she’s really pretty.”

“-Go talk to her, man.”

“-Loser in rock-paper-scissors has to ask for her number?”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

At first, this kind of flirting was amusing.

But when it kept happening, it became tiring.

These kids had no brakes—they were unbelievably forward.

“Unnie, do you have Instagram?”

The stream of customers, regardless of gender, continued to show interest in me.

Whether it was romantic attraction or just plain curiosity, everyone seemed fascinated by the unfamiliar face in their class.

At least the students who had left earlier were starting to return, which helped things run more smoothly.

Even so, we were still short-staffed, so I couldn’t step away just yet.

“Shift change is coming soon, just hang in there a little longer.”

“Why are so many people coming all of a sudden…?”

“Someone posted on the school community board that there’s a super pretty person at our café.”

My face burned instantly.

High schools had their own online communities now?

Just imagining my face being talked about and shared in real-time made me feel strangely embarrassed.