In the waiting area, Taeyeon noticed the other four candidates taking discreet glances at one another, sizing each other up while waiting for their turn in the interview room.  Taeyeon thought they all looked younger and more capable than herself, but that was probably just her anxiety talking.  Still, she kept her gaze pointed downward towards the resume folder in her lap.  Social acrobatics like these exhausted her.

Taeyeon thought she’d come slightly overdressed, but she supposed that was better than the other way around.  She’d spent an embarrassingly long time getting ready that morning, obsessing over her appearance before finally feeling satisfied enough to leave her apartment.  After years of working a government job, she'd finally decided to take a leap of faith and switch career paths.  She’d applied to many different private companies, but this was by far the most important interview out of them all: an interview for a position in the illustrious SM Advertising.

One by one, the candidates were called into the meeting room by a man Taeyeon assumed was the boss’s secretary.  She grew increasingly tense as every name was being called but hers, and eventually she realised she was going to be the last one.  Taeyeon never liked being the last in interviews, or in presentations, or anything.  She thought of herself as a rather bland person, and she was aware that her introverted nature didn't exactly capture people's attention the way it needed to be captured when they were already tired and bored from hours of work.  She was also just unnecessarily nervous sometimes, and now was one of those times.  Logically, she knew she didn't have to stress herself out over this one interview, especially since she already had plenty of years of work experience under her belt.  But getting this job would be nice…

Finally, after about 20 minutes of sitting by herself, the man signalled to Taeyeon to let her know it was her turn.  When Taeyeon stood up, a harsh tingling attacked her left foot, deep in her arteries, both ticklish and slightly painful.  Pins and needles.  She stumbled over to the door, trying to walk as normally as possible.  The man didn't seem to notice.

“Ms Jung is ready to see you,” he said.

The surname ‘Ju