Chapter 1 – The Interview

Wednesday, 10 January 2018

Wendy’s Apartment, 6:30 AM

AUTHOR POV

It is still early in the morning and Wendy just finished putting on her clothes that she is going to wear for the interview. She’s going to prepare her breakfast and as she opens her fridge, she doesn’t see much of an option for her breakfast today. It’s either strawberry yoghurt or she can drink milk accompanied with bread. It’s not that she doesn’t have money to buy food, she’s a rather clumsy person and sometimes she forgot when it is time to do her grocery. She lives alone in her 2-bed apartment. Her parents live overseas in Canada while her older sister is currently working in Busan, so she is on her own in Seoul. She spent most of her study in Canada but she graduated from a university in Seoul.  

That’s pretty much a summary of Wendy’s background, but today that background information will not play any part in her interview with the company that she hopes she can call as her workplace. The company is called SME which stands for Superior Marketing Enterprise. The superior in front of the name is not just for show, this company is the leading company in terms of promotion and advertising in Seoul and to some extent, on national level as well. This is the reason why there are a lot of people who want to apply job in this company and the company also actively trying to recruit more people but in the past 3 years, there is only 5 person that are accepted into the company and the scary thing is not only that the number is really low for a company that actively trying to recruit, but the 5 person that are accepted into the company are janitors (3 people) and security staffs (2 people). The reason that these 5 person accepted is because the previous 5 people working for the company are resigning due to injury related problems. So pretty much those are recruitments that they are forced to make.  

That is pretty much what Wendy has to up against this morning and she is well aware of those facts. After deciding that she will have the strawberry yoghurt for breakfast, she grabs her bag, brings her file and she takes the bus that will take her to the bus stop that is really close to the building. SME is located in the 40^th to 45^th floor of the Valenti building. The 50 story building is the home of many other companies and high class restaurants, security is really tight and everyone will never enter and exit the building without proper supervision of the security. Anyone who isn’t an employee of the building tenants need to get a visitor pass and get their picture taken for facial recognition software that they are running. In summary, no one can get in or out of the building freely and undetected. Wendy doesn’t think too much about the interview during her trip on the bus and when she’s arrived, she doesn’t even show the nervousness that she feels and she acts really calm. Once she registered for her visitor pass, she goes up to the 42^nd floor where the interview will be conducted. She is welcomed by a receptionist who shows her the waiting room where she sees 3 other person in the waiting room. She takes a look at the digital screen in the room and it shows how many people are doing the interview for today and it shows whose turn it is going to be as well. There are 6 more people after her that will be doing the interview. She greets everyone in the room and she waits patiently. She catch a glimpse of someone who just finished his interview and he seems dejected, Wendy knows what the fate of that person job application is already. 3 more people goes into the interview room and they all left with a very somber expression on their faces. It is now Wendy’s turn as her name shows up on the digital screen in the waiting room.

She knocks on the door and she hears a voice from inside letting her in the interview room. She opens the door and she is quite surprised to find a young woman, probably around her age, sitting down in front of her. Their eyes meet and Wendy can sense a very powerful aura coming from this woman. She smiles at Wendy and asks her to sit down,

Woman: “You must be confused right?”

Wendy: “What do you mean?”

Woman: “A girl around my age hold a high position in this company and is interviewing me right now. Your mind must be thinking something like that right?”

Wendy: “Ah no, it’s just that you are so young and beautiful, maybe I’m just surprised that’s all. I don’t think age has anything to do with position in the company.”

Woman: “Hmm, I think you are speaking the truth, so your name is Son Seungwan and you also put Wendy as the name you want to be called with, do you want me to call you Seungwan or Wendy?”

Wendy: “Ah call me anything you like, my friends always call me Wendy but my parents call me Seungwan so I already get used to be called either name.”

Seulgi: “Okay then Wendy, my name is Kang Seulgi. I am the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of this company and I am the one who will determine whether you are qualified to earn yourself a place in our workplace. Interestingly in your application form, you didn’t put down a specific role that you want as a job in our company, why is that?”

Wendy: “To be very honest, this is the first time that I am working in an office like this. As you can see from my resume, since I am just graduated not too long ago, I never really do any work part time in the office during my time as a university student. I just worked in a café as a part time accountant and sometimes as a barista as well.”

Seulgi: “So you don’t exactly know which role will suit you well here in the company because you never have the experience before?”

Wendy: “Yes it is something like that, I hope that is okay?”

Seulgi: “It’s more than okay to be honest. We are rejecting a lot of applicants almost every day, most of them told us a very long story about how they admire our company and they want to work a specific role in our company. Since I do this almost every day, to see someone with a different mindset is really a breath of fresh air for me.”

Wendy: “Thank you.”

Seulgi: “You live on your own in an apartment here in Seoul, if let’s say you are needed to work overtime until late hours, do you have any boyfriend or family members here that would be worried about it?”

Wendy: “No, I don’t have any boyfriend and my older sister live in Busan so pretty much it’s only me in this city so there wouldn’t be any problem when I need to work overtime.”

Seulgi: “I see, it’s a shame though.”

Wendy: “Sorry, but what do you mean?”

Seulgi: “It’s a shame that a beautiful girl like you don’t have any boyfriend.”

Wendy: “Ah, hahaha…. (Scratching her head). You caught me by surprise really unnie. Ah sorry, I just called you unnie even if I don’t know your age.”

Seulgi: “Don’t call me unnie, we born in the same year and in the same month, I’m just a few days older compared to you. Just call me Seulgi, I prefer things to be more casual here in my office.”

Wendy: “Ah okay then.”

Seulgi: “So let me ask you something, why do you want to work in our company? Is it because of our reputation or is it because you are hoping to get a good paycheck by working with us?”

Wendy: “To be very honest, it’s neither. I know this company has a very huge positive reputation in our country and also I won’t lie that if I work here I will get a really good wage but those things aren’t my first priorities when I was filling out the online application form to apply for a job opening here.”

Seulgi: “Interesting.”

Wendy: “I’ve heard good things from people working in your company. Some of your employees use forums and social media to really express their happiness working with you. I might not be a psychic but I can sense a genuine happiness from them that is not come only from a huge paycheck but there must be something special here that makes them happy to work here and in my mind an employee will work better when they are happy. I’m really interested to experience it myself, maybe I can call this company as my family too rather than just a place that I go to work and meet my colleague.”

Seulgi: “Hmm…once again, interesting.”

Wendy: “It might not be the ideal answer for an interview but I rather be honest rather than giving you a beautiful paragraph on why I want to work here but it’s not the whole truth.”

Seulgi: (Smiling) “Hmm…”

Wendy: “…………”

Seulgi: “First of all, I want to apologize to you.”

Wendy: “Ah I know it already…”

Seulgi: “I want to apologize to you because starting from tomorrow, you will probably the center of unwanted attention inside and outside of this company.”

Wendy: “Thank you for the oppor…..huh…..?”

Seulgi: “I also want to apologize to you because starting from tomorrow you will probably go home late for a lot of reasons. Congratulations, for the first time in 3 years, you will be the first person to be accepted into our company as an employee and not because we have to accept you to fill the gap here, but because we need you to work with us.”

Wendy: “Eeehhhh? Are you being serious? Bu…but why?”

Seulgi: “I notice something different from you that I don’t sense from the other applicants here. The first thing is honesty. You are honest with your answers, I can see from your facial expression and the way you talk that you are not lying with your words. Second, the reason you want to work here is because you want to feel the good atmosphere of employees working in a company and you are looking to make this place your second home. I can feel that you want some kind of sense of belonging in the place that you work at, you don’t want to be a robot minded employee that work in this place on day time and go home and repeat the same thing the next day. You want to be comfortable, you want to meet the people here and get acquainted with them, and you want to feel that you are appreciated as an employee and as a colleague. Am I right, Wendy?”

Wendy: “Ho…how? How on earth are you able to understand what I have been thinking in my mind?”

Seulgi: “It’s mind reading ability that I have.”

Wendy: “Eehh?”

Seulgi: “Hahahha….of course not, I’ve been interviewing so many people that maybe I have some experience already in this interviewing thing hahaha….”

Wendy: “Ah I see, haha….thank you really…..I am honored with this opportunity to work in this company.”

Seulgi: “Now, as I said before, the media will smell of your acceptance sooner or later. Rather than you got people gossiping and talking behind your back and see your name in the media, how about tomorrow morning I will introduce you in a way that you won’t be talked about so much in the media?”

Wendy: “But…isn’t it too much just to call a press conference because of me?”

Seulgi: “Do you even know what your position in this company? I haven’t mention anything about it just yet.”

Wendy: “That’s true….so what is my position going to be?”

Seulgi: “As of today, I will create a new position in this company, you will be my personal assistant. If I create a new role in this company I’m pretty sure you will have an easy time with your fellow colleague and with the media, since it is quite acceptable for anyone to be accepted. Also tomorrow’s press conference is not only about you, there are other things that I want to speak to the media in general, so just relax and welcome to SME, Wendy.”

Wendy: “Thank you unnie….ah I mean Seulgi-ssi! Thank you for the opportunity! I am really happy!! Thank you!!”

Seulgi: “No need to be formal with me, just call be by name. Also please toward the receptionist, she will tell you everything that you need to know about the day-to-day routine of this company and also other privileges that comes as an employee of the company. Please come to work at 7 AM tomorrow morning, just for the press conference, your normal working hour is 8 AM until whatever time I finish with my work, do you understand?”

Wendy: “Yes I understand! I will come at 7 AM tomorrow!”

Seulgi: “Good, now please head over to the receptionist, I will let her know that you are our newest employee in this company. Also please try to keep your expression in check because there are still more people in the waiting room. I don’t want them to be upset right now and be discouraged in their interview if they find out that you are accepted, got it?”

Wendy: “Yes of course, I will try to be calm. Thank you. Really, really thank you.”

Seulgi: “Bye Wendy, I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Just dress normally like someone that work in an office, I don’t have any rules or preference for my assistant’s clothes.”

Wendy: “Okay, thank you. Bye!”

As she walks happily exiting the interview room and on to the receptionist area. Seulgi flashes a smile on her face as she walks out of the room. Before calling in the next person, she grabs the phone to speak with someone that seems to be of importance with the company,

Seulgi: “Are you awake unnie?”

Woman: “Yes, what’s wrong? Is there any disturbance again?”

Seulgi: “No, just want to let you know that I accepted someone as my personal assistant today.”

Woman: “Well, that is certainly weirder than our usual disturbance, what’s so special about her?”

Seulgi: “I’m not sure, but I have this feeling if I get closer to her, I might just be able to rediscover some of that passion again.”

Woman: “Do you even want to rediscover it?”

Seulgi: “Not sure, I’m happy with what I do currently as my job, but I guess I need to freshen things up once in a while.”

Woman: “I think I can understand, just don’t forget. We have bigger things to achieve, never lose our way no matter what happen.”

Seulgi: “I understand unnie, thanks for your advice, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Woman: “Okay sure bye.”

Seulgi: “Bye.”

4:30 PM, Bunny Bakery

The owner of the bakery, a young beautiful woman that goes by name of Bae Joohyun. Her friends called her Irene and that is the name that sticks until now. Her bakery is one of the famous bakery in the city. It’s located just across the Valenti building where SME resides. A lot of employees from the building usually buy bread early in the morning or usually before they went home. Wendy visited this place after she sorted everything out with the receptionist and whenever there are a lot of job applicants, she usually found a lot of rejected applicants with sad face and somber mood but she noticed something different about Wendy and she quickly talks about it with her most trusted employee, Park Sooyoung that goes by the name of Joy,

Irene: “Ya, you see that girl right? She said that she is one of the applicants today yet she seemed so calm and happy when we asked her.”

Joy: “Yeah unnie I find it weird as well. Perhaps she got the job?”

Irene: “Hmm…could be.”

Joy: “I still don’t know until know why you are so interested about that company. You never told me anything about it.”

Irene: “I have nothing against that company.”

Joy: “Really? But every time a rejected applicants come here you would give them the freshest smile I ever seen and told them that there are a lot of companies that are better out there and asked them not to apply to SME again.”

Irene: “I was just trying to cheer them up, really.”

Joy: “Hmmm.”

Irene: “If you keep asking me about this how about I reject your request to have a day off this Saturday huh?”

Joy: “Oh wow, playing that card already. Okay fine unnie I won’t ask anymore…but on a serious note, if there’s something that you wish to share with me, I’m all ears unnie. I’ve been here since the store opened and you are like my own sister already.”

Irene: “I know Sooyoungie….my Joyie…you are like my own sister as well. If there’s anything that I really want to talk about of course I will talk it out with you.”

Joy: “Okay unnie! So what are you doing after you close the shop later? You have any plans? Any date?”

Irene: “If your definition of date is sitting in front of a TV with a cup noodle, then yeah I have a date with my couch.”

Joy: “You know there are countless men….and sometimes women that really attracted to you almost every single day yet whenever they are trying to talk or trying to ask for your number you quickly shut them down.”

Irene: “Dating is not currently my immediate concern at the moment, but what about you? Are you going to a date this Saturday? You know it can be really busy on Saturday but my best staff leave me short-handed this week.”

Joy: “If I am going on a date, I wouldn’t pick the day where we are the busiest unnie, hehe. I can tolerate that much about my schedule but this Saturday my cousin asked me to accompany her.”

Irene: “Your cousin? Yeri is it?”

Joy: “Yes, she asked me to accompany her to do some vlog.”

Irene: “Vlog? That’s weird. Is she like, famous on the internet or something?”

Joy: “Yeah she is actually.”

Irene: “Really? I want to try watching some of her videos then.”

Joy: “I’ll give you link to the youtube and twitch account of hers. I never know that you like to watch vlogs.”

Irene: “Well it depends, what is she usually the main topic of her vlog?”

Joy: “It is a mixed between beauty, fashion and food. I don’t know whether you’ll like it or not.”

Irene: “I’ll give it a try since I have a date with my couch after all tonight.”

Joy: “Haha true….”

Then they hear the door to the bakery opened and they see a young woman entered the shop. They never saw her before so they both rather curious since they recognize most of the people that walked into the shop. They immediately stop chatting and Joy greets the customer immediately,

Joy: “Hi! Welcome to Bunny Bakery!”

Woman: “Hi, do you have any tuna bread? Do you also sell cookies here?”

Joy: “Ah yes, let me get you tuna bread from the shelf, how many if I may ask?”

Woman: “Just one please.”

Joy: “Okay sure, we also sell cookies here, I’ll grab them for you.”

Woman: “Thank you.”

Irene, out of curiosity decided to engage in a conversation with her,

Irene: “Do you work in an office near here? I never saw you around my shop before.”

Woman: “Ah not really, I’m just visiting friends here. I’ve heard a lot about your shop from the social media so I decided to come here and taste it myself.”

Irene: “I see, so what’s your name?”

Seohyun: “My name is Seo Ju Hyun, but my friends usually call me Seohyun.”

Irene: “Wow, we literally have the same name haha….I am Joohyun too but my friends usually call me Irene.”

Seohyun: “Wow, what a coincidence indeed! Haha….”

Irene: “I know right?”

Joy: “Here’s the tuna bread and the cookies that you wanted.”

Seohyun: “Thanks!”

She pays her order and exit the shop immediately. Irene then talk to Joy about that woman who has the same name as her as they continue chatting with each other once again. Outside the bakery, Seohyun is enjoying her tuna bread as she is walking across the street toward the Valenti building and there she sees her friend is already done with the business there,

Seohyun: “Unnie, you’re done?”

Yuri: “Yeah, let’s go back.”

Seohyun: “Everything ok?”

Yuri: “You already know what kind of face I make if everything is not ok, stop teasing me

Seohyun: “Where are we going now?”

Yuri: “Back to the office, there are some details that I need to explain to you guys.”

Seohyun: “Sure thing.”

8:45 PM, Yeri’s Apartment

The girl that Joy mentioned earlier, Kim Yerim. She is currently still a student but she has been really well known on the internet due to her videos and livestream sessions. She is living on her own in an apartment but her parents live really nearby and usually her mother would sleep with her almost every single day to help her out with her recording activities. She usually use the apartment as her ‘studio’ for her recording activities so she is kind of living in an apartment on her own but most of her stuffs still back in her parents’ house. She started like around 2 years ago just posting random videos of her doing mukbang and some beauty tips then her friends at school start sharing around her videos and right now she already has 620.000 subscribers on youtube and her twitch livestream also has a lot of audience.

She is making steady income from this side activities but the only reason that her parents are supporting her for this is because she promised them that she would at least finish high school and if she wants to make this her permanent job, she still needs to take online course in a university, basically her parents support her as long as she doesn’t abandon her education. At first she argues a lot with her parents about this but seeing how sincere her parents in supporting her, she is going to respect her parents’ wish to keep continuing her education.

Being famous on the internet of course has its ups and downs, mostly with the netizen of the internet. At first she wasn’t really able to handle hate comments really well and often broke down in tears while talking about it with her mother or her friends. She doesn’t really get why she would get hate comments as the contents in her videos are not even offending anyone but as time grows, she learns that there will always be haters no matter whether you are doing the right thing or the wrong thing so she learned to ignore it. There are a lot of people asking her out too, either her fans or her friends at school but she doesn’t want to date anyone just yet. Today she is preparing to record a video about fashion tips. She bought several clothes earlier after she finished school today and she is going to record a video about those clothes. Her mother is currently cooking food for her and she is currently arranging the clothes nicely to take a picture of it, her phone is ringing. She looks at the caller and it is none other than the COO of SMT, Seulgi. She hesitates for a while before finally picking up the call,

Yeri: “Hi unnie, sorry I am not able to reply to your e-mails just yet.”

Seulgi: “I know that you need some time to think about it, I just want to make sure that you understand the terms of the proposal.”

Yeri: “I understand and I already asked my parents as well to read it so I fully understand the proposal.”

Seulgi: “So maybe I can get an answer now?”

Yeri: “Listen unnie, even though I am honored that a big company like SMT offering me a job where you are rejecting basically everyone that walked into a job interview there, I still don’t know what to think of this. I still find it really weird that your company decided to open a new department and now you are hiring me out of many other internet personalities out there that have more subscribers and followers than me.”

Seulgi: “Well I am just doing the order from my boss, she might have better explanation for you if you really want to understand the direction that our company has taken with this new department creation.”

Yeri: “Hmm…I’m really sorry I know that you are a really big company but forgive me if I don’t have my full belief about this proposal that you gave me just yet.”

Seulgi: “Totally understandable. What if we meet somewhere out of our office and discuss about this? I understand that you are still in school, what about we meet on Friday evening? Pick a café or a restaurant or something and I’ll bring my boss with me and we can have discussion about this.”

Yeri: “What if I still not convinced? Is it okay for me to even refuse a big company like SMT?”

Seulgi: “Of course its fine, do you think we are some sort of evil company?”

Yeri: “I don’t mean that your company is evil, it’s just that you guys are really a big company, while I am just a girl trying to do my own thing and people happened to like it. Why are you interested in me?”

Seulgi: “Because I think the boss see the potential in you. Also in my personal opinion, even though you are just doing your own thing, you can be a positive influence indirectly. When your followers grow larger, you can influence them to do a lot of positive things like staying away from drugs and alcohol.”

Yeri: “Well, I never think about it that far.”

Seulgi: “Listen Yeri, you can accept or reject our offer, it is totally up to you but at least you have to let us explain our project to you. My boss can explain to you and if you still not convinced then feel free to reject us.”

Yeri: “Hmmm….okay….I think that’s fair enough. Seulgi unnie can pick the place on Friday, I’ll be there.”

Seulgi: “Okay sure, let me talk to my boss and then I’ll call you again. Thanks for listening to me Yeri.”

Yeri: “Thank you also for the opportunity. I’ll see you on Friday.”

Seulgi: “No problem. Bye.”

Yeri: “Bye.”

Yeri puts her phone down and her mom asked her who called her and she explains the meeting on Friday to her mom. Her mom told her that it is up to her whether she is going to the meeting or not and she will accompany her if she wants to. She then tells Yeri that the food is ready and she is going back to the house for a while to see what her younger sisters are up to. She nods at her and she is going toward the dining table to eat her dinner. She can smell the fresh home-cooked dinner and she can hears her stomach growl already. Before she even manage to sit down on the chair she suddenly feels her right hand trembles badly. The food that seconds ago was making her stomach growl suddenly makes her feel like vomiting. She drops down on her knees as sweat pouring down from her forehead. She doesn’t look surprised but rather annoyed because this isn’t the first time that this is happening to her. She reaches out to a medication on her pants pocket and she quickly gulps down one pill. She can feels that trembling is fading away and she manages to gain composure again.

This condition started after Yeri involved in a bus accident 3 years ago. Physically she only suffers minor bruises but the doctor mentioned that there could be side effect mentally because she is really traumatic about the accident. This is the side effect that is happening to her after the accident and the frequency of it is really random. Sometimes it can be once a month, or twice a day, she never knows when this “attack” will come so she always brings her medicine everywhere she goes. She visited several doctors to ask about her condition but most of them dismissed this as a ‘panic attack’ and they all gave her the prescription needed to tackle her condition. The medicine worked but only temporarily as it only calms her when the attack happened but the lingering feeling of unease keep residing inside her whenever this thing start to happened.

After she finally feels much better she sits down on the chair and she just try to ignore it since it’s happening too often already. Her parents of course knew about this and they are really concerned but she always told them that she is fine with it even though she honestly worried and hope that it never comes back. What is bothering her the most from this condition is the fact that she isn’t feeling like her usual self whenever this happen. It’s something that she can’t really describe and at the moment she feels like she wants to cry, because this will never happen if she wasn’t inside the bus back then. Despite the feeling or regret and sadness, she hold back the tears and trying to think of positive things like the video that she is going to record and the meeting with SMT for their new project. She then proceed on with her dinner and trying to ignore what just happened.

Wendy’s Apartment, 10:20 PM

It has been a long day for Wendy but she is really happy about how her day goes. As soon as she goes home she immediately tells all of her family members about the job acceptance at SMT and her family really thrilled to hear the news from her. She just finished choosing the clothes that she is going to wear to work tomorrow and currently she is just browsing the internet using her laptop. She is searching on what task usually a personal assistant would do in a company like SMT so that she will have a rough idea on what task will be given to her tomorrow. When she is checking her social media feed, there is a breaking news that honesty she doesn’t really pay attention to even though this news have been quite a hot topic for several weeks already. There is another vigilante sighting on the street of Seoul today and this time there are one person suspected of arson and robbery caught on the site. This vigilante is a woman and why she is famous is because no one knows her true motive on doing this and the police never catches her in action. It’s just like watching Batman movies where the person shows up in the middle of the night, strike down his enemies and then vanishing without notice, only leaving the bad guys tied with a rope along with a note that explained their ‘sins’. Wendy is quite intrigued with the story so she decided to find out more about it and she has this odd feeling when she sees a blurred pictures of the vigilante taken by someone on the street. She can’t help but feeling that she saw the vigilante before but she couldn’t quite figure it out where and when. She can’t find more pictures of the vigilante aside from the blurred one and after 30 minutes of browsing articles about this, she decided to turn off the laptop and head straight to bed.

She lies down on her bed and she grab the staff ID that given to her today. It has her picture, her name and the company that she’s working in. She stares at it for a while before flashing a smile on her face,

Wendy: “I never even know that I will be accepted today. It has been a really strange day for me because I didn’t even really know that I will start working on a big company like SMT starting tomorrow. It’s surreal for me. I’m also glad that my parents and my sister are really happy for me, I can see the happiness in their face during the video call with them separately. I guess tomorrow is pretty big for me since I need to face media for the first time ever. I think I need to get used to it because I’m working in a very well-known company and being a personal assistant to the COO will put me in the spotlight as well. I hope everything goes well tomorrow. I can’t wait to start working at SMT, I feel that my life is heading to a better direction….hopefully my feelings are correct.”