Look at the Sky

"These photographs are useless," the director told him as he checked the portfolio.

"Director, can you be more specific on what you want? This is already my third attempt for this project and I'm getting a little worried because...," Jaehan kept silent as the director stood up, left his payment for the coffee on the table, took his coat, and left.

Rather than being worried about losing his job, Jaehan felt that maybe he wasn't a good photographer. On other occasions, it had been difficult for his director to accept a photograph from his portfolio without first mentioning why all the others were useless.

As Jaehan listened to negative comment after negative comment, he didn't understand why he was getting that result if he followed exactly what the director listed. For a moment he thought that some of the comments were very subjective, but finally he doubted and said to himself "I must work harder until I achieve it". However, when the goal is not clear, it is impossible to know how to get there.

Jaehan left the cafe and looked at the sky, it was grey, would it rain later or not? Anyway, he felt like not doing the shopping, but going to his apartment. There, he took out a sheet of paper and wrote two columns, the pros and cons of keeping his current job. After all the pros: payment of the apartment, electricity, gas, and water; experience; possible participation in larger projects; probable growth in the company and perhaps even carrying out his own projects... he did not dare to write any "cons", his mind was blocked.

I should be more grateful. Also, I worked so hard to get into the company that it would be a waste of time to quit now. And my parents, what am I supposed to tell them? I don't want to think about anything, I'll just sleep and tomorrow I'll check the portfolio.

The next day, he grabbed his umbrella and headed to the office.

Jaehan sat looking at the photographs, considering the mistakes his director had pointed out to him and determining how to fix them. Then he had to call the restaurant to advise about the need to make some shots of the products again. He knew the owner would be angry, the first time had to have been enough, Jaehan thought so too, what was the need to start from scratch like the director had advised, why couldn't he just work with the shots he had made?, so bad was his job?

The owner refused to see him for two days, Jaehan had no choice even though in that case he would only have one day to finish assembling the portfolio. If this time the director rejected his work, he would give the project to someone else.

Discouraged, he was about to try to do something with the photos he had when the sound of constant notifications on his cell phone caught his attention.

"Hello!"

"What do you do in the afternoon?"

"Shall we go to the coffee shop?"

"I invite."

"Shall we go?"

Then his friend kept repeating "shall we go?" several times until he noticed Jaehan online.

"I don't feel like going out," replied Jaehan.

"But I don't always come here and I really want to see you, can I be selfish this time? Can we hang out?"

"Ah, okay, but only for a little while."

"See you then!"

Seulki was his closest friend and although he traveled frequently due to his work, he occasionally made time to go out together. Their hometown was not so far away, but they had decided to live together in the capital with the hope of having more job opportunities. Jaehan was really happy for Seulki when he got into the company he wanted and hoped that in time he would feel the same way in his current job.