Episode 101. Break Room Management (2)
‘Let’s define our positions first.’
The night before, upon arriving at the lodging, that was the first thing I said to the guys.
‘Positions?’
Lee Cheonghyeon asked back.
And for good reason—we had all learned how to make everything from americanos to smoothies together.
But if we worked like that, customers would end up waiting forty minutes each. There’s a reason division of labor has developed as modern society advances.
I divided the roles based on the performance the guys had shown.
First, considering that Jeong Seongbin was natural at smiling and talking to people and was meticulous, I put him in charge of taking orders at the counter.
Next, to Lee Cheonghyeon, I assigned verifying prepared drinks against order slips and calling customers, tasks that made full use of his extraordinary memory and quick wit.
For Gang Giyeon and Choe Jeho, I decided to pair them as a set and put them in charge of making smoothie and tea beverages. Those two are complementary beings, so rather than giving them separate tasks, it was better to attach them as one team.
And Bak Juu was…….
‘Juu, just think of pulling shots all day long.’
‘What if customers mostly order drinks that don’t have coffee……?’
That won’t happen. Even if you make americanos all day, your hands alone won’t be enough.
Lastly, I decided to take charge of making coffee-based drinks other than americanos, taking out the trash, and doing dishes if Choe Jeho and Gang Giyeon couldn’t handle them.
Sure enough, as soon as the guys entered the cafe, they took their positions and checked the ingredients.
“Did you decide your stations in advance like this?”
The PD asked Jeong Seongbin, who was attaching a memo to the POS machine.
“Yes! Iwol-hyung found interior images of the cafe yesterday, so we discussed it in advance!”
Perhaps because it’s their first official variety show, their discipline is ironclad. I was about to give him mental brownie points when the camera suddenly turned toward me.
“Iwol-ssi, how did you know the cafe was here? Yesterday we only told you the approximate location.”
“I narrowed it down to places near where you told us that had open kitchens and normally employed three or more part-timers. Since you said it would proceed as an event-style shoot, I chose a cafe with an entrance facing the main road.”
“You found this place based on just that?”
It wasn’t an immediate certainty. I had filtered them down to a final Top 3 out of about ten places and just checked all three interiors beforehand.
I didn’t bother explaining because it might seem like I was showing off over nothing.
Then, the alarm signaling business preparation rang.
In principle, production crew intervention stops from business preparation time. From right now, as the alarm rang.
I tied on my apron and prayed internally.
A ridiculous wish that all the office workers commuting to Gangnam today would be in a good mood.
* * *
“Intern.”
“Yes, PD-nim!”
“You said they haven’t worked part-time jobs much, right?”
The Main PD asked, seeming bewildered. The junior writer glanced toward the kitchen and nodded.
“Then why are the kids so sharp?”
Spark was so composed that it was hard to believe their average age was barely twenty.
‘I did think they were unusual ever since they all matched in black tees.’
Since it was a private cafe rental, this place didn’t have separate uniforms.
The production crew had thought that since they were an idol group where member appeal was important, they would dress themselves in appropriately individualistic and clean outfits.
However, Spark broke expectations and appeared all in black short-sleeved tees.
On top of that, they wore six identical aprons, as if they had bought them separately. From afar, they looked unmistakably like staff of this cafe.
‘Why did you buy aprons?’
‘I thought it would be rude to use the cafe supplies as we pleased.’
……or so he said. Their preparedness was impressive.
Up until then, the production crew was just a little surprised, not greatly flustered.
Anyone could have a plan. Before confronting the situation.
And not long after, office workers preparing for 8 o’clock work poured in.
Right now was when they needed to film the cast members hectically flustered, taking orders frantically early on.
Surely, that was how it should have been.
“We’ll help confirm your order! Is it an iced americano?”
“Seongbin-hyung, from now on tell them in advance when taking orders that the wait time is over 10 minutes!”
“Ahh, three cups going out now……!”
Beyond the bar table, drinks were being made like a factory.
And that wasn’t all.
“Choe Jeho, are your hands free right now? Please open a new milk for me.”
“I’m not doing anything right now, does anyone need something?”
“Giyeon-ah, can you wipe the coffee bean powder here……?”
If work piled up on one side, other members would swarm over to help before returning to their positions at an expert-level speed.
‘The members communicate really well.’
The sound director, who had been listening to the series of conversations, admired.
Even while customers were swarming and it was hectic, if the target they were calling out to was clear, they definitely called them by name, and when asking for something, they spoke as specifically as possible. They made sure no one had to say anything twice.
The timing of Kim Iwol’s intervention, who had said he was on odd-jobs position, was also appropriate.
Kim Iwol rustled busily around the kitchen, then returned every 30 minutes to endlessly produce americanos together with Bak Juu.
Sure enough, this time too Kim Iwol returned right on time and shouted toward the kitchen.
“I’ve filled the paper cups, and I’ve washed the towels so whoever needs them, use them. The folded carriers are in the break room because there’s no space!”
“Yes!”
No sooner had Kim Iwol’s words ended than another wave of customers flooded in.
‘Does that friend have some luck in calling customers?’
The Main PD thought Kim Iwol was simply a magnet for work. However, he soon realized this was no coincidence.
Although flexible working hours were being introduced, South Korea still tended to have fixed commuting times.
While 9 to 6 was the most basic, many places cut off commuting times starting from 7 or 8 o’clock in 30-minute increments.
There was a reason customers surged every time Kim Iwol popped out like a cuckoo clock.
It was a point the production crew, who had started filming from early dawn for the sake of the ‘they’re having a hard time’ picture, hadn’t thought of.
So after that war-like time passed and 10 o’clock came, the cafe’s customer rush gradually subsided.
At last, it was time to catch their breath and…….
“Which ones were the kids who planned to eat lunch early? Get your lunchboxes in advance.”
“Me, Giyeon, and Seongbin-hyung!”
……half the manpower’s lunch time had arrived.
* * *
Kim Iwol, after distributing lunchboxes to the younger brothers, stood in front of the POS machine in place of Jeong Seongbin.
Taking advantage of the vacancy in the kitchen, the PD entered the kitchen with a camera and asked.
“Iwol-ssi, are you going to take orders?”
“Yes. I think I can do it just looking at Seongbin’s memo.”
Where Kim Iwol pointed, there was a memo Jeong Seongbin had attached before opening.
On the memo were neatly written order-taking lines, types of beans, final order confirmation lines, and so on.
Kim Iwol handled the intermittently coming orders without difficulty.
Occasionally there were customers who ordered several cups while running coffee errands, but since Bak Juu, the americano person, and Choe Jeho, the other drinks person, remained one each, there were no mishaps of people eating being called over.
“Was there a reason you predetermined the meal order too?”
“Yes. Our members are still growing, so they shouldn’t skip meals and need to eat.”
Then Kim Iwol smiled slyly. It was a smile that gave the impression he would do very well in society.
The afternoon was chaos multiplied by two compared to the morning.
First, office workers who had eaten lunch poured in on their way back.
The aftermath of the free event becoming known was also significant. People who had heard about it from office colleagues came too, and the front of the cafe was packed.
They had cafe employees on standby in preparation for this, but Spark’s response was nothing if not composed.
Because Jeong Seongbin, who was taking orders, informed them of the wait time in advance, customers without time to spare turned around on their own.
The remaining customers had ordered knowing from the start that they had to wait, so they didn’t complain either.
‘And the drinks came out within 10 minutes anyway.’
Since each person was handling only one thing, their skill seemed to have improved in that short time, and everyone’s working speed had increased.
If there was a difference, it was Kim Iwol’s movement path.
In the morning Kim Iwol had gone back and forth between odd jobs and Bak Juu’s side, but now he was busily moving between the refrigerator and the blender.
“Your mango yogurt smoothie and Shine Muscat ade are ready!”
The menus Lee Cheonghyeon called out had also become much more diverse than in the morning.
The Main PD alternately looked at the colorful array of drinks lined up in front of Lee Cheonghyeon and Kim Iwol, who was taking out a new pack of frozen strawberries in front of the commercial refrigerator.
‘He…… he’s good at his job.’
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed a new cast member would soon be added to the “Cast Who Conquered Dosam.zip” video.
* * *
The Dosam filming wrapped up without any major troubles.
When Choe Jeho and I were doing closing cleaning, the guys who had left work first came in casual clothes, which was a bit surprising, but.
‘Why did you guys come here?’
‘Guys? We’re customers.’
‘Owner, please give us four of whatever takes the most hands to make in this cafe!’
They did that. Then when I actually said I’d make them an Earl Grey peach shake, they jumped in surprise and refused.
Then they said why is there so much dust in this cafe, and each took out cleaning tools and finished all the cafe organizing.
‘No, what cafe in the world makes customers work?’
‘If you didn’t order drinks, you’re not a customer.’
After grumbling and even doing the closing announcement, it was 11 PM.
I stayed up all night with eyes wide open in case the company contacted us with “Guys, did you cause an accident on set?” but no such contact came.
So I thought Spark’s first variety show outing had only been a moderate success.
“Guys.”
“Yes?”
“Spark is trending!”
“Really?!”
Not long after the filming day, the day the Dosam footage aired.
At the manager-nim’s sudden words coming to the practice room, the guys stopped dancing and ran to the manager.
Above the phone screen, the word Spark was clearly visible.
Dosam Spark
1,210 posts
DosamVibrationBellGuy
2,509 posts
.
.
.
“Wow…… wow!”
Lee Cheonghyeon, who was gaining popularity as “Dosam Vibration Bell Guy”, checked his phone several times with sparkling disbelieving eyes.
Looking beside him, Choe Jeho was also slightly furrowing his brows and looking down at the screen. He probably can’t see letters this size well without his glasses.
“It was worth washing the blender diligently.”
Even Gang Giyeon shrugged his shoulders and said.
Jeong Seongbin, who had been silently looking at his phone, also wore a faint smile and murmured, “I know, right.”
Perhaps because everyone was satisfied that they had started well without anyone making a mistake.
Up until now, I hadn’t realized that my very small mistakes were accumulating.