The scent from coffee dripping down from the coffee machine and the sound of fruits grinding with the ice spread out the whole café. The calm classical music played; people were resting with a cup of coffee or drinks by themselves or with their friends.
While I was working at the café, I wore big, brown apron on my back and waved with a coffee scent. The coffee scent around my body galvanized me.
All of the sudden, a group of people who broke the mood of the café, which I hate, came to the counter to order their drinks.
“Hi, may I help you?” I asked. They started to discuss what they want to drink. One boy seemed as a leader of the group, started to ask his friends what they wanted.
“Hey, what do you want to drink?” the boy asked.
“Lemonade” Boy with red hair answered.
“You?” he asked again.
Then the boy with funky pants on answered, “Milk shake, no I want kiwi juice”.
“And you?” he asked again to another one, and then the boy with headphone on his neck answered
“Mocha cappuccino.”
He turned to me with a credit card and said “And I want Ice black coffee”. I was so perplexed because I thought he would repeat the orders that his friends actually just “answered” the question. I asked him with smile and apology if he could repeat the order. Because his friends were already at the table to save their seats, he had to go to table to ask his friends and then comeback to order the drinks. He seemed so annoyed that he needed to go back to the table. His face blushed red like a tomato with annoyance. However, he did not express his anger easily because people were watching him and I was confronting him with smile. He went back to his friends and asked what they wanted. The belief confirmed.
I imagine what if I just told him “Can you repeat the order?” without apology and smile or expressed hatred. Expressing hatred could release my stress but could lead to bad consequences.
I believed that smiling always lead to positive consequences if I’m in an unaffordable situation. It is important to me because it motivated me to have positive insight on everything. Also if I did not have this creed, I would not persist to confront unaffordable situations or people. As a cashier, I always reminded myself to be friendly and be appropriate to customers. However, even though I reminded myself, sometimes I could not control feeling on my face. After the incident, it was much easier for me to work delightfully because I had belief that most people will be nice to me if I’m nice to them. “No spits on a smiling face” is a famous term in Korea, which means no people, be rude on a smiley face. While I was working at a café, the incidents had proved the statements and my belief.