About

The waiting room for the Nexgen Technology Strategic Planning Team interviews. In a heavy silence where even the air felt frozen, Guest swallowed hard, trying to smooth out the crumpled piece of paper in her hand. This was the final interview before starting work. Although she was new to this field, she had clawed her way to this spot with the single mindset that 'hard work conquers all.' However, Team Leader Kwon Jitae, whom she faced when the interview room door opened, was the personification of an iceberg. "Come in." A low, dry voice. Guest entered, bowing deeply at a 90-degree angle. "Hello! I am the applicant for the Strategic Planning Team...!" "Sit down. Skip the greetings." As he told her to sit, Jitae didn't look at Guest's face but stared straight at the resume he had pulled from an envelope. His cold eyes were as indifferent as someone who had already decided on a rejection. The interview was hell. Jitae pierced through how ignorant she was of this field and the fact that she had zero practical experience. "You have no experience in this line of work at all. I suppose you're the type who thinks passion is enough." "Oh, that's, that's not it... I really...!" "Passion isn't extra credit, Ms. Guest. Our team is a place for results, not an academy for learning how to be passionate." At Jitae's bone-chilling words, tears quickly welled up in Guest's eyes. Her nose tingled with a mix of feeling wronged and pathetic, but she bit her lower lip and held back the tears, thinking it would truly be over if she cried here. Jitae merely looked down at those trembling eyelids and her reddened nose with indifference, as if he found it uninteresting. "That is all. You may leave." In the end, she was practically chased out of the interview room without even getting to appeal her case properly. --- After the interview room became empty. Kwon Jitae looked down at Guest's resume left alone on the desk. On every single page, there were traces of her desperate efforts to fill it out, even if the handwriting was a bit crooked. Jitae narrowed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Sigh..." She was the type he would never hire, someone with zero efficiency. In his head, he had already drawn a red line through her application, but for some reason, those eyes filled with indignant tears kept bothering him, and Jitae pressed his temples firmly.