Chapter 141. An Assassin’s and Friend’s First Interview for a Job (1/8)

Today, I showed up to work early at 3:30 PM.

I watched two nervous people seated outside the managerial office at the back. One was tapping the ground with their right foot nervously, the other was clicking a pen in their hand.

Why were they so nervous? It’s just a convenience store position.

“Useless. Get out. Next!” A ruthless woman’s voice resounded from the back office. Some random guy I didn’t recognize ran out of the office with his eyes hidden behind his right elbow.

What? Seriously? His interview was so bad he was sent home crying in tears? Just how much did she pick him apart? What sort of questions did she ask for him to be left in such a pitiful state? Wasn’t she a bit too cruel? It was only a position at a convenience store.

I suddenly understood why the two outside appeared so nervous. If they’d seen such scenes play out before this, it made sense.

The person with the 3:30 appointment stood up from their seat and entered the room.

Honestly, I wanted to hear my merciless Owner’s interview questions, but I didn’t dare eavesdrop.

“Uhm… are you an employee here?” The handsome guy seated outside with the 3:15 PM interview asked me.

“Yeah. Did you have something you wanted to ask?”

“How are you able to work here with such a scary boss?”

“I hardly ever see her or have to interact with her. It’s been quite a while since I last saw her.”

“Really? So if I get hired I won’t have to constantly be on edge and I can relax?”

“Yeah. Pretty much. But if you go in that room thinking that, she’s going to rip you up into tiny pieces and throw you out.”

“I-I see. Maybe I should reconsider.”

“Reconsider? Do you have any other interviews or jobs lined up?”

“No… this was the only one I got a call back for. This is actually my first interview. It’s tough just getting an interview even for a simple convenience store like this.”

Certainly. Unless you have a connection or know the right people, it is definitely tough when you’re just starting out and trying to get your foot in through the door.

“Then, you should go in there if not just for the experience. Getting torn to pieces and having your confidence crushed isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It will prepare you for your next interview however far down the line that may be. Go in there with the expectation that you will be heartlessly rejected. Just think of it as though you’re confessing your feelings to a girl you like when you already know your feelings will go unrequited. If on some off chance she does reciprocate your feelings, then great.”

“Like I’m confessing to a girl I like?”

“Yes. Just be sincere. Don’t spit out the bland and boring answers to questions you probably researched beforehand. Forget whatever answer you prepared in advance and answer her questions as yourself, don’t give her those cheap dime-a-dozen standard formulaic responses that just about everyone and their mother give. Even if you struggle to answer her questions, at least show her you’re trying to think of how to respond on the fly. If you can do this, you’ll at least have a chance of being hired. Probably.”

Interviewers have time and time again heard just about every one of those recycled and reused responses to their questions. They don’t leave behind any sort of impression these days. Also, this sort of job requires you to be able to respond to customers on the fly, not to research the ideal response to respond to every little interaction with a customer. You need to be able to create such positive interactions in a natural manner.

You needed to know and understand what specific quality the interviewer was looking for and testing in the interview. Every interviewer had that one deal-breaker quality which was make-or-break. This was the quality the job demanded the most and exactly what the Owner was looking for.

The reason the person who ran out earlier was so emotional was likely because he’d worked hard to prepare for the questions he’d be asked today. When he suddenly hit a brick wall where his soulless answers didn’t evoke the responses he expected, he stumbled and wasn’t able to recover from the shock.

The moment you stepped in through that door, your fate was decided in an instant based upon your demeanor, how you carried yourself, your very first words, and the atmosphere around you. First impressions were hard to overcome. Everyone judged each other based upon that initial meeting. That was just how things worked when you were an adult.

The whole ‘don’t judge a book by its cover was for naive fools who didn’t understand how the world truly worked. The surface appearance greatly determined one’s rate of success.

Well, I was one of such naive fools who didn’t care much about what was on the surface. I found digging up what was beneath it and picking it apart one layer at a time until I reached the innermost core far more interesting. That was only a result of my awful personality though.

I’ve always enjoyed being alone so I tend to overanalyze everything since I have so much free time to think about things on my own. In my first life, I never did this with the people around me because I never found anyone particularly interesting. Instead, I only ever did it with the fictional characters I created inside my head. I never applied it to the real world.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? I always asked myself these critical questions and dug deeper and deeper until I arrived at an answer I was satisfied with. It was hard to stop myself at times with all my jumbled thoughts flying around wildly without restraint. Inside my head was a disorderly mess. I always asked myself these questions to bring about order within that chaos.

Fifteen minutes later the interviewee who entered at 3:30 PM exited the room. He looked dejected and defeated. It looked like he hadn’t done very well. But at least he didn’t get called useless and told to get out like the last person. That was his only saving grace.

The handsome guy I talked to just now nervously stood up when he was called into the office next. He composed himself by taking a deep breath and walked in with his back straight and his head high. Before the door shut behind him I saw his hand extend out over the desk.

He shook her hand firmly and introduced himself while looking her directly in the eye. Right before the door fully shut, I noticed the Owner’s eye when it momentarily shot toward me.

Ah. I’d been spotted.

I’d like to find somewhere to run and hide, but where would I even go? I worked here and she’d find me effortlessly if she wanted to when I started my shift.

Since I had nothing to do until my shift started, I figured I’d at least wait and see how this handsome guy’s interview went.

While I waited Yuna showed up.

“What are you doing?” She asked when she noticed me loitering outside the managerial office

“Shhh. There’s an interview going on.”

“Are you eavesdropping in secret?”

“No. I’m just wasting time until it’s time for our shift to start.”

“How unproductive. Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Well, now that you mention it, I guess I could read your stuff if you really want me to.”

“Would you?”

“I thought you’d be embarrassed if I brought it up. Why do you look like you actually want me to?”

“I-I don’t want you to or anything. It’s just that you promised before and all.”

“Right.”

“Also, don’t bring that up here of all places. Especially not when-” She stopped mid-sentence and pointed at the office.

“Certainly. If someone like her knew, it would be nothing but trouble.” With the Owner’s personality, Yuna would be teased endlessly about that Co-worker Observation Diary of hers.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Uhm, excuse me, is this where the interviews are being held?”

A familiar voice sounded out from the other side of the back room’s door. 

“Oh? That must be our cute customer, Alicia.” Yuna recognized the voice and immediately opened up the door to let her in.

“Is this another interviewer with you?”

“Uh, yes. Her name is Rosa. Her interview is right before mine. She’s a good friend of mine who also got an interview so we came together after school.”

“I see. It’s nice to meet you, Rosa.” Yuna stuck out her hand in a business-like fashion to shake Rosa’s. Rosa looked at it for a moment before she looked around the room and noticed me.

“Yuna, was it?” Rosa asked.

“Yes.”

“I see.” She shook her hand then followed up with a question, “Why are you putting up this sort of act?”

I was shocked when Rosa suddenly blurted that out of nowhere.

Yuna also froze up and sought clarification, “What do you mean by that?”

“Somehow… I just feel like you’re pretending to be friendly with me. Is it because of how I look? Because I look like a loose woman or something? I feel like you’re thinking something along the lines of, ‘how can such a good girl like Alicia have a bad-looking friend like her?’ Am I wrong?”

My lips twitched. So you are self-aware of how you appear to others. But, I was surprised that Rosa saw through Yuna’s flawless mask with a single glance on their very first encounter. I’d only just recently torn off the first layer beneath Yuna’s mask, and that was purely by chance after I stumbled across her story online.

What gave her away? Was it that incomprehensible woman's instinct at work again? That dreadful thing I still didn’t understand? How was it so accurate in detecting bullshit? How do I cultivate that sort of broken ability when I’m a man?

“Y-You’re overthinking things. I wouldn’t ever judge a book by its cover like that.”

Bullshit you wouldn’t. I’ve read what you said about the pitiful third-year business student who thought he got along well with you and our creepier customers. She didn’t mince her words.

She’d definitely labeled Rosa a slut or bitch the instant she saw her. Was Rosa actually pretty sharp about how girls perceived her? When I thought about it, it made sense with the way girls always kept their distance from her. She probably became adept in such matters because of that. Then the reason she likes Alicia so much is because of how pure-hearted she was? She didn’t sense for a second that Alicia thought of her that way, was that the reason?

Honestly, to begin with, how did these two even get so close? What was their first encounter like? I suddenly felt curious, but I didn’t feel like I could ask them about it. That was their little secret. If they told me about it one day, then great. If they didn’t, then oh well, it was my loss.

“By the way, Yuna, that gloomy-looking guy sitting behind you…” Rosa raised her arched index finger and pointed at me.

“What about him? Do you have a problem with my co-worker?”

“I belong to him. I’m his girlfriend and am completely loyal to only him. If I’m hired, I’ll be taking three of your shifts with him."