aespa's Karina Joins tvN's "Space Rice Cake" as Newest Part-Timer

aespa's Karina is stepping behind the counter. The vocalist joins tvN's variety hit "Space Rice Cake" (Ujutteokjib) as the show's newest part-timer, arriving just as the crew opens its Seoul location.

Episode 7 of "Space Rice Cake," directed by Na Young-seok and Kim Ye-seul, aired on Friday, with the cast of Lee Eun-ji, Mimi, Lee Youngji, and Ahn Yu-jin walking viewers through the ups and downs of their first day serving customers at the new Seoul shop. The episode ended with Karina's arrival as a new employee.

Interest in the opening was intense. Before doors even opened, the online reservation waiting list had surpassed 3,000 people. Guests started arriving at 1 p.m. in 10-minute intervals, and service officially began.

Things quickly got messy. Lee Eun-ji forgot to hand out table number tags to guests, which threw off the serving flow. Ahn Yu-jin, unaware of the mix-up, assumed a table without a number was table 5. The guests who never got their tags did not know their own numbers either, and the actual table 5 tag had ended up at a different table.

Ahn Yu-jin managed to resolve the mix-up by remembering a customer's request to leave off the mayo sauce, and got the food out to the right table. She then walked Lee Eun-ji calmly through a system for keeping the POS orders and the physical number tags in sync.

The episode also highlighted the cast's chemistry. Ahn Yu-jin, who had taken charge of training new part-timers, ran a mock discipline session with Lee Youngji and Lee Eun-ji pretending to be the trainees. Lee Youngji and Lee Eun-ji flipped the script and started teasing Ahn Yu-jin about her status as the group's maknae, or youngest member.

Lee Eun-ji pushed hardest, telling her, "Didn't you hear? I'm doing the next season of 'Earth Arcade.'" Ahn Yu-jin fired back, "Not that. That's my last shred of pride. Do you know how hard I've worked to protect my spot as the maknae?" The moment became one of the episode's biggest laughs.

Later, as the shop moved into dinner service, Karina walked in for her shift. The cast, who had been struggling with a staff shortage, welcomed the new hire with visible relief, setting up her orle in the coming episodes.

Karina's appearance as a rice cake shop part-timer begins next Friday at 8:35 p.m. KST on tvN's "Space Rice Cake."