Jang and Riko both looked like they had been working without a moment’s rest, as if they would collapse from exhaustion if anyone so much as touched them.
“You must have had a hard day today. I don’t plan on ordering anything.”
Hearing my answer, Jang replied in a much gentler tone.
“…We used 6kg of coffee beans just this morning. Normally I work with a Canadian employee named Lincoln, but he didn’t come in, so Riko and I have been working by ourselves.”
I didn’t really know how many cups of coffee 6kg made, but it seemed baristas roughly understood each other when they talked like that. Riko took bread out of the oven with tongs, plated it, and set the plate down on a metal tray. Shin Haeryang suddenly threw a question at the frightened, exhausted staff.
“Meiji. Do you believe in the Infinite Church?”
“Didn’t you hear me cursing them out just now?”
“I was wondering if any of you might be believers of the Infinite Church. Answer me.”
“I don’t believe.”
“Riko. Do you believe in the Infinite Church?”
Riko took out a new plate, served a steaming blueberry crumble pie, and answered.
“No. I only believe in money.”
Hearing those voices steeped in exhaustion, Shin Haeryang nodded slightly toward me. I guess this meant neither of them was an Infinite Church believer. Shin Haeryang, who had been staring at the empty front of the cafe, pointed to the vacant spot and asked Jang.
“Where did all the tables and chairs out front go?”
Meiji Jang made an expression like she’d been caught off guard, then furrowed her brows deeply as she answered.
“You’ve been at the other underwater bases this whole time? They took all the tables and chairs here to the garden this morning. It’s better than having those black-clad bastards in front of the cafe, but still, without the tables and chairs, the place looks really empty, right? Does it look weird?”
Before Shin Haeryang could answer, Riko replied, still holding her tongs.
“Stop talking about those damn tables already! Those bastards are camped out in the garden, so even if you curse three times while making a drink here, they don’t kill you!”
Jang was pouring soy milk, but her hands trembled so much that she spilled it. She roughly wiped it up with a kitchen towel and answered.
“Aren’t you angry? We watched those crazy bastards rob us of our chairs and tables!”
“Let them take it all! As long as they don’t touch people in return. Give them whatever they want and quietly hole up here! Once the ingredients run out, they won’t ask us to do anything more!”
“Then they might kill us! They might eat us instead of drinking coffee or eating bread!”
“Why do you only think such pessimistic thoughts?”
Meiji Jang raised her eyebrows at Riko’s words and said.
“How do you know they won’t kill us even if they take everything they want? We told them not to take the chairs and tables, but they took them anyway!”
“Just……let them have it. Tables, chairs, whatever.”
“It’s not like this ends just because we give them everything they want! Sure, I’m fine with it if the tables are gone forever since I don’t have to clean them! But you, me, or the other shift workers are the ones who’ll have to clean up that mess later. It’s not like they’ll restore the tables and chairs here when they’re done with them. Whether they die, run away, stage a sit-in, or whatever, it’s the survivors who have to deal with the aftermath. If blood splatters all over the tables or they kill someone there, who’s going to clean it up and wipe it down? In the end, it’s us. Who do they think they are! Just because they have guns, they can do whatever they want? Then can I also dump a handful of detergent into their drinks if I feel like it? I hate having to tell my regular customers that there isn’t even a table to drink coffee at or a chair to sit on. ……What I hate most is me, taking orders while too terrified to kick them out!”
As Meiji Jang spat out each word filled with resentment, Riko quickly scanned my face and Shin Haeryang’s. She seemed afraid that one of us might draw a gun on her for daring to curse their religion.
“I should have refused to take orders from bastards like you from the start. I should have told you to get lost.”
Jang looked at the completed drinks and food with a tone full of regret. Riko spoke to Shin Haeryang, who was carrying a gun, as if trying to soothe him.
“Jang is just blabbering because she’s worked too long today and is exhausted. Neither Jang nor I has any personal feelings about your religion.”
“I……have plenty!”
Riko yelled at Meiji Jang in annoyance.
“Shut your mouth! Do you think we’re only living for today?!”
“I don’t mind if you curse them all you want.”
Surprised by Shin Haeryang’s answer, Riko now looked at my reaction and spoke with difficulty.
“Shin. You might not care, but the person who came with you might feel differently.”
“Ah. I’m fine too. Our side has committed many wrongs. We deserve to be cursed.”
“…….”
Riko seemed to have never expected that there would be two people who said it was fine to curse their religion freely. Shin Haeryang examined the numerous drinks set on the tray and the mountain of stacked bread and pies as he asked.
“Are the food and drinks you’re making now also for the Infinite Church believers?”
Jang began to pour out curses about the Infinite Church believers at Shin Haeryang while brewing tea through lemongrass and rooibos tea bags. Riko no longer tried to stop Jang.
“Yeah. They ordered all ten drinks and bread we’re making right now. Sandwiches are already sold out. I heard they couldn’t get a bite to eat because they’ve been busy terrorizing since early dawn. Heavens. Should I applaud them? The Infinite Church? Why should I happily brew coffee that’s going into the stomachs of cultists from some pseudo-religion I don’t even know?”
“If you prepare the ordered food, do the believers come here to pick it up?”
It seemed like they had almost finished making everything that was ordered, and I was afraid that other Infinite Church believers might visit this place besides me and Shin Haeryang. If some loyal believer merely eavesdropped on our conversation, it felt like a shootout would erupt. Fortunately, there was no one around.
As if she had been waiting for me to ask that question, Jang spoke in an excited voice.
“Those garbage bastards who aren’t even fit for recycling asked us to deliver the coffee and food. I’m so dumbfounded my ears are clogged, my nose is clogged, I feel like my blood vessels are going to burst! Why do I have to deliver too? Food delivery isn’t in my job description! Even if the presidents of various countries wanted to come sip coffee while flower-viewing at the First Underwater Base, I told them to come pick it up here! A guy who couldn’t even greet me properly until yesterday gets all cocky the moment he picks up a gun, saying he’ll take this, he’ll take that. Make this, make that. Bring out the food! They’re ordering us around like they got a new slave? Who do they think they are, telling us to bring them food!”
Now Riko couldn’t hold back either and started cursing the Infinite Church believers along with Jang.
“They had guns! Those insane crazy bastards showed up pointing guns everywhere in the cafe! We had no choice. We didn’t handle it wrong! If we hadn’t done what they said, they would have shot us.”
From what I heard, when delivering food to the garden, they had told Meiji Jang to come alone. Jang said in a subdued voice, her momentum deflated.
“Of course I’ll deliver it. But I don’t like it! Do you think I’d obey just because these nuclear waste bastards point guns at me? Do you think I’ve never held a gun? Huh?! How did you know! I haven’t held one!”
Riko gathered forks and clattered them onto the tray, then took out knives and placed one on each tray that had bread.
“Please! Get all your ranting out here! When you deliver this, keep your mouth shut tight like a clam!”
Shin Haeryang looked at the Infinite Church believers’ drinks and blurted out something absurd to Meiji Jang.
“Is there no substance in the cafe with enough toxicity to kill them instantly upon eating?”
“……What do you normally think about? Do you expect a normal cafe to keep several pufferfish in stock? Thinking that someday a terrorist or some old enemy will come order at my workplace? Please go catch one somewhere! Let me see those bastards die eating it! ……Riko! Is there anything growing on the farm that we could add to the coffee?”
When passing by the sea farm, I had only seen ordinary vegetables like eggplants, green onions, spinach, onions, and radishes. I suppose adding those to coffee or food would make them extra healthy. Were there separately hidden poisonous plants being cultivated? Hearing the question, Riko looked at Jang and Shin Haeryang with an incredulous face and said.
“Did you think we’d be growing poison hemlock like the kind that killed Socrates at the sea farm? The researchers said they try not to grow highly toxic plants on the farm or in the garden as much as possible. They said the top priority was experimenting whether crops could grow normally with the limited sunlight at the underwater base. Food is what’s important right now; they said they’d grow toxic plants much later. And the snakes kept on the farm supposedly have to bite a person about ten times before the person dies—at that point, I doubt they even have venom.”
They have to bite about ten times to kill someone? At that rate, the person probably dies from shock due to the pain rather than the snake venom. Rojo let out a deep sigh and said.
“Just……make what they ask for, deliver it as told, and stay still. If we do as they say, they won’t kill us.”
“True. I’m against putting anything in the food unless it can kill them for sure. Those picky bastards would notice something was off after just one bite whether it’s fertilizer or detergent. The others would just vomit and have diarrhea for a bit before going ‘Ah, we need to kill the barista who made this coffee,’ and storm the cafe. And Shin. Why do you want to get our own people killed?”
“Do you like all the coworkers you work with?”
At Shin Haeryang’s words, Jang, who worked at the underwater base, closed her mouth. I asked Riko.
“Did Kim Jaehui happen to come by here? He’s a tall Korean with red hair. He likely got off the elevator and came this way—have either of you seen him?”
As soon as Riko heard Kim Jaehui, the answer came immediately.
“Ah. That guy who hates carbonated drinks? He came by about an hour and a half ago, took three cups of coffee, and left.”
Shin Haeryang asked Riko.
“Do you remember where he went?”
“He went toward the diving area alone. He ordered three cups of coffee, so I asked if he was going to drink all three by himself, and he said two more people would be coming soon. He said he’d take them ahead and wait.”
It seemed Kim Jaehui had expected us to come.