Inexplicable Dream Team one-shots

What's on the Menu? Love! // SapNotFound

| platonic |

[8510 words]

Sapnap underestimated how difficult his new job would be. Located only one kilometer from his studio apartment, the locally-owned coffee shop is the most popular bakery and cafe in the city, yet it does not offer a training program for new employees.

On Sapnap's first day as a baker, the coffee shop's owner - Dream - assured that he would adapt quickly to the demanding environment despite his lack of training.

Determined to prove his worth, Sapnap spends his entire 6am-2pm shift working on menial tasks around the coffee shop. He sweeps floors, he sanitizes cutting boards, he washes dishes, he wipes tables, he mops spills, and he empties waste bins. Supposedly these duties will help him familiarize himself with the coffee shop's layout, but Sapnap suspects that their real purpose is to test how he performs under stress.

At 7am, the first wave of customers floods into the coffee shop. A line of people dressed in business-casual clothing forms near the cash registers. Within minutes, the bakers and baristas have begun preparing the morning's first orders.

Sapnap still feels unprepared to tackle baking duties, so he weaves between his other coworkers as the coffee shop becomes busy. Fortunately most of the employees in the bakery and cafe are polite to him, or they ignore him. However, one man makes it clear that he has no patience for the clumsy newcomer.

"Oh my god, can you please stop blocking the doorways like that?" George, the kitchen manager, glares at Sapnap. "I've almost dropped like, three trays of stuff just because I need to keep dodging around you!" Without waiting for the newcomer to apologize, he carries a large platter of freshly-baked brioche rolls through the doorway that Sapnap was unintentionally blocking.

Shrinking away, Sapnap watches the manager pass him. Someone already hates me, he thinks dejectedly. For the rest of his first shift, the new baker tries to pay attention to how much space he is occupying. His underarms become sweaty with stress, and his head spins.

Despite Sapnap's efforts, however, another negative encounter with the kitchen manager soon follows. Near the ovens, Sapnap leans to avoid an open oven door, but he loses his balance on the white-tiled floor, which is slippery with flour.

"Ugh, stop getting in my way!" The kitchen manager flinches when the new baker bumps into him.

"Sorry," Sapnap mumbles, wincing with embarrassment when his voice cracks.

By the end of the new baker's first day at the coffee shop, he has made one enemy and no friends. That afternoon, after he arrives back at his studio apartment full of exhaustion and disappointment, he lingers in his shower for longer than usual. Stretching neither eases the tension in his back nor does it soothe the ache in his muscles. Only once he is laying in his bed does he finally relax.

Maybe it would be a rational decision for Sapnap to quit: he should cut his losses by leaving now and searching for a less stressful job. However, despite his dread for tomorrow's shift, he knows that the first day at a new job is naturally challenging. He cannot judge the entire coffee shop based only upon one shift! If he starts somewhere new and hates that place even more, then he will wish that he had given the coffee shop a second chance. He must try again.

Today was a rough start, but it has to get better from here, he hopes, before he finally drifts into a slumber.

The next morning, Sapnap inhales a deep breath to calm himself when he dresses in his baker uniform, leaves his studio apartment, and climbs into his car in the complex's parking lot. Beneath a soft dawn sky, he drives through the city until he reaches the coffee shop.