"So after the hurricane, that's probably when you started working on the Resting Ground and met with Dr.Morgan, didn't you?" Nora confirmed, as that sequence of events felt the most likely to happen.

  "If you were to abbreviate the story, then- Whoa! Son of a-" *swing* Soren quickly dealt with the ambush from the knight, before returning back to the conversation, albeit in a slightly sour mood. "As I was saying, that would be the long and short of it, if it weren't for the fact that the Resting Ground wasn't hiring at the time. See, after the passing of the hurricane, it would be some time until Glaxion City would return to its usual rhythm, so until then, I needed a new job to sustain myself with. But due to the damage caused by it, quite a few of the jobs I was intending to apply for weren't available anymore, mainly because their locations were facing similar problems with the convenience store I was previously working with. It was during that time when I first came across the Resting Ground and became its customer for a few weeks, as well an involuntary mediator for the shop..."

  *4 years ago*

  "Tsk... Another bust... Can't say I wasn't expecting them to give the job to someone else, considering there were three guys more competent than me during the interviews... F*cking hate you mother nature..." Soren cursed, as he read a message on the phone about another refusal from the company he applied to, before closing the message and taking a seat on a nearby bench.

  'What an absolute mess... This is easily the second worst week of my life... Losing my job because of a bloody hurricane, losing a number of job offers due to many locations being heavily damaged because of said hurricane, the rest of the job offers being oversaturated with applicants from all over the city... And f*cking rotten cherry on top this garbage storm pie... Is the forced closure of my personal favorite cafe, due to said storm...' Soren inwardly cursed, as it had been nearly three days from the passing of hurricane Ophelia and was looking at some of the mobile cranes, slowly picking up tree trunks from a nearby apartment complex, before slowly placing them on a nearby log carrier.

  Seeing the heavy duty vehicles performing their work, Soren decided to stop complaining about things beyond his control and instead, focus on performing more job applications, lest he wanted to live on the streets in the near future. With renewed resolve, Soren decided to go through all of the available job listings, including ones that were on the northern half of the city, but before performing any more applications, he decided to get himself a cup of coffee, as he'd need every ounce of energy he could muster, if he wanted to finish before the end of the day.

  With that in mind, he decided to open his mapping application and went through the list of nearby cafes, as he slowly crossed out all of the cafes that were outside of his budget range, or the ones that were closed for repairs. After spending around twenty minutes walking around and occasionally asking some of the locals, he finally arrived at his cafe of choice, a small and old coffee house that went by the name of Resting Grounds. It's exterior was nothing impressive, as it simply had a couple of plastic potted plants on each side of the wooden door, and a light brown canopy with the name of cafe written in black and bold letters.

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  Entering inside, he was met with a rustic interior of light brown wallpaper, plain brown wooden tables and chairs, as well as some faded portraits of people on the wall. Aside from the monotonous brown interior, he also noticed a few people sitting on a nearby table, mainly old men playing with black, rectangular rocks covered in dots and a couple of people behind the counter. One of them was a young man with curly, brown hair, which was nearly covering half his face and was currently lazily staring at the TV, as they were wiping a part of the counter, while the other person seemed like an old man with extremely short, dark gray hair, who was currently sitting on a rocking chair and seemingly stared at the wall.

  'Is this some tacky hideout for old men to gamble away in the morning or something?' Soren thought to himself, as he checked on his phone to make sure he was at the right place, before taking a seat on a two-seat table. Within a few seconds, the curly-haired man arrived in front of his table and asked lethargically. "Good morning sir... What would you like to order...?"

  "Hmm... I'll have a sweet Cappuccino with a bit of cinnamon." Soren ordered, as his eyes stared at the prices over the coffee counter, before the man went back to the counter and slowly started making his Cappuccino. While waiting for it, Soren also turned his attention towards the TV, which was currently playing a news report about the estimated casualties by the hurricane, as well as the estimated damage caused to the many shops and households. As he kept watching it, he wondered if he was lucky or unlucky with losing only his job and nothing else, since his apartment building had avoid most of the damage caused by the hurricane.

  "Here's your Cappuccino sir..." The curly-haired employee slowly put Soren's drink front of him, as well a cup of water. After thanking the employee, Soren took a sip of his coffee, before starting applying for more jobs on different parts of the town. Time slowly passed and just as he was going to turn in another job application, his focus was broken from a commotion that was happening in front of the counter, between the curly-haired employee and a furious, black-haired woman.

  "You call this coffee? This isn't coffee, it's just... water with coffee powder. I want my money back! If I don't get my refund, I will sue and close this coffee shop down." The woman yelled out, as she slammed her coffee cup towards the poor employee, while he could barely get a word out. "U-Um... M-Miss... But..."

  "I don't give a f*ck about your buts! Either you give me a refund or I'll sue this place until it goes under!" The woman yelled out furiously, as she had no intention of listening to him.

  "C'mon missus, don't be such a stick in the mud... I'm trying the coffee for myself and it tastes just fine." The man on the rocking chair stated casually with their rough voice, as he had gotten up from the chair and tried the coffee himself, to make sure its taste wasn't off.

  "You...! You disgusting lecher! Don't you have any shame from drinking a woman's cup!?"

  "I don't see any problem with trying out a coffee cup that my own employee has made. Besides, I made sure to drink from a side your lips haven't touched, so what's the problem now young missus?" The man asked calmly, as he was staring back with a fearless expression, before adding a bit more. "How about this instead? We'll make you a new cup and it will be on the house, so long as we put this little conversation behind us. How about it missus?"

  As Soren was watching the exchange unfold, he couldn't help but marvel the way the man was handling the situation so smoothly, as his few experiences with dealing with unreasonable customers usually ended in full-blown arguments, despite his best attempts to deescalate the situation. Contrary to his expectations though, the woman's next response reminded him that there are some people who are beyond reasoning.

  "No! I don't care about your coffee. Either you give me a full refund, or I'll sue this place until it's been wiped off the face of the earth!"