BEYOND | Choi San

08

As soon as Chung-ho left the place, San's attention was undoubtedly on Celine, who immediately noticed the boy's excitement and the desire he had to scream and jump around the room. And he certainly would.

"San" she was forced to observe him with warning eyes, reminding him that they were still inside the Channel department and he had to maintain his professionalism. "I know you want to explode, but there are cameras."

San immediately glanced towards one corner of the room, observing the device on the ceiling and probably making indirect eye contact with the security guard. Celine covered her face with the palm of her hand and closed her eyes in denial.

"Poor man" she muttered, "if he was paying attention to the recording, you gave him the scare of his life" she took a deep breath and regained her composure. "San please act like a professional, not a psycho."

The boy turned back to her and bit his lower lip with a big smile. It was clear that Celine's words didn't reach him, they barely touched him, the excitement of being selected in his first job interview had created a protective shield around him and, judging by his increasingly anxious expression, he was a bomb running out of time.

"Okay, let's get out of here" the girl decided, taking San by his arm and starting to walk out of the place.

Without waiting any longer, Celine led them through the corridors to the exit of the building while the boy kept concentrated on reviewing what happened over and over again. He was stunned. Then, as the girl pulled them out of the building and released her hold, San jumped and let out a cry of happiness and excitement.
Celine just kept the distance with her eyes focused on him and crossed her arms; seeing him celebrate like that, she hardly believed that he was 21 years old, he looked like a child. But she understood it, she knew that he was only releasing all the tension that his body had built up since Chung-ho started named the selected ones.

He had been selected.

At that thought, a small smile appeared on her face. Even though a part of her had wanted to know if failure in the first round could be the reason that triggered his passion, she was happy for him.

When he stopped jumping, Celine approached him and raised an eyebrow:

"Are you done? Did you let it out?"

San turned to her with a big smile and nodded. Definitely his emotion was still there, but now he could control it... somehow. Celine kept her eyes on him seriously for a few seconds and then gave a little laugh.

"Well done, you made it."

His mentor's words made the urge to jump around the place invade him again, but San tried to control it by nodding frantically as he moved his hands in a victory dance. Celine rolled her eyes amused and sighed.

"Okay, so how was it?"

"It was just as we practiced" he answered with some disbelief, "it surprised me, for a moment I thought it was you testing me again. He asked me about teamwork, about my knowledge, about why-"

"Wait" Celine interrupted him as soon as she remembered a detail, "then why would Chung-ho laugh? I don't remember we practiced that..." she murmured thoughtfully "What did you say?"

San was ready to answer, but then closed his mouth the moment he remembered what had happened, hiding his embarrassment a bit.

"I ..." he tried to find a way to explain it, "Well- he -... Chung-ho said that he was surprised to know that it was my first interview, because I seemed to have experience in it."

Great, looking experienced could add points in advantage.

"So then I told him that it was because my mentor had helped me to prepare my interview" he continued, "but I told him that it didn't mean that I was lying in what I said, of course, of course not" he laughed as nervous as if he were living again that exact moment. "Then I told him that if it wasn't for you I might had been there talking about my favorite color and how bad I like sunsets and... and then he laughed and I thought it was okay, but then you told me it wasn't normal, but I got selected anyways and and and-"