All of My Days

1

December 2018

Vancouver, Canada

The sounds of her heels clattering on the tile echoed through the corridor of the newly built college building. It still smelled a bit like paint and there were small pieces of tape on the new glass visible here and there. Yoon Seri has been working in this college for just over 3 years now and they just moved into their brand new offices. It was a long-anticipated move, but as it usually happens, they were not ready. The booking system in her department was still in the final stages of review, the room assignments not complete and they needed way more IT tech guys than they had before to make the entire system work. In short 4 weeks, the students would fill these halls and they had to make it all work. This is why she was at work at 8 am instead of 9, having been urgently called into a hiring committee meeting later this morning. She needed to prepare some materials she developed and send them over to the printing department first thing in the morning, so they have it done on time.

She sighed loudly, fumbling with the magnetic keys and letting herself into her office. Her coffee tumbler went on her desk, she hung her grey cashmere coat on the new stylish hanger and changed her boots for a more comfortable pair of kitten heels she wore around the office when she didn't have any external meetings. The only meeting today was the hiring committee, but that didn't count. She wasn't going there to impress anybody, she was the one to judge whoever came on such short notice.

"Why do I need to sub in again?" she asked her colleague as they walked down the hall together later that morning.

"Ashley is sick", the older woman answered, without looking up from the resume she was holding. "This guy seems good", she added.

Seri just noticed an Asian guy around his mid-thirties sitting on a leather couch in the lobby looking over some pamphlets, waiting to be called in.

"Looks like he's here already", - she noticed as they walked by him heading to the small meeting room.

The women sat at the table as their manager, Alex, briefed Seri on the past 3 candidates' interviews before their candidate got called in by the admin assistant.

"Please take a seat," Seri heard Alex say, "There is some water, please help yourself. We are going to introduce ourselves and go around the table asking questions and then at the end, you'll have a chance to ask us anything you'd like. Sounds good?"

Seri was looking at the guy's resume, unblinking.

What an odd coincidence, she thought to herself.

Lee Jeong Hyeok, the name on the resume stated.

So close, she pondered, a wave of memories of a similar name flooded her thoughts for a few seconds before she felt Shelley, her older colleague, nudge her elbow.

"Seri?"

"Oh", she looked up finally, emerging from her thoughts, and threw an apologizing look at her boss. "Yes," she had no idea what they said before, but if this interview was anything like any other she attended, it was the introductions time. "And I am Seri Yoon," her eyes finally landed on their candidate and her breath got stuck in her throat.

The man looked back at her with polite curiosity, his dark brown eyes looking attentively. He was wearing a black turtleneck under a well-fitted wool suit, his black hair parted on the side and styled. He sat comfortably in his chair, elbows at the table and fingers crossed in front of him as he waited for her to continue.

"I am," Seri stumbled, looking down at his resume again, "I am..."

It's amazing how familiar he looked too. Older, of course, and how would she know really, she's never even met him. But still...