Manager-nim

Chapter 2 - Interview

As you opened the door to the interview room, you were met by a man who looked to be in his early 40s. He gave you a smile before gesturing for you to sit in the chair in front of him. You gave him a slight bow before dropping your backpack in a corner of the room and took a seat in the office chair.

"Welcome, Mr. Lee Eunwoo." The interviewer began. "I hope I didn't make you wait for too long."

"Nah, it's all good. You didn't make me wait long." You smiled, obscuring the irritation that was on your face.

"Good. Then let's begin the interview." 

I'm gonna bold the text to make it easier to read, with you being the normal text and the interviewer being the bolded text.

"Alright Mr. Eunwoo. Let's see here, born January 18th, 2000. Height, 180cm (roughly 5'11). Weight, 88kg (roughly 195 pounds)."

He scanned your résumé briefly, making faces when he read about all the accomplishments you had written down.

"So, according to your absolutely stacked résumé that I'm reading here, you seemed more than qualified for this job."

"Wow, I did not expect that. Thank you very much." You smiled to the interviewer.

"I mean, as I'm reading here correctly, you took cooking classes and ended with an A, and while I would assume the class was easy, I guess you cook. That's good. You also worked in a PC bang, so you've definitely know how to cook simple stuff. I see here that you claim that you are a nutritionist, and you have a license to prove it. That's a point given to you."

"While being on the topic of school, I decided to personally go to your old school and check with myself. I asked around, and the teachers said that you were a near top student, which means that you show a high level of learning. Although you weren't the top, that's still really good."

"But what perplexes is me is this. You claim to know multiple forms of martial arts. You were a youth champion in taekwondo in the U.S., which is good. Since you were born in the U.S., that means you know some English, right?"

"Yeah, I know English. I was born there, as you said."

"Yeah, which is even better for you. You know English, which can help with translations if needed. Not only that, you took two years of Japanese in a KOREAN high school. You know two languages fluently, as I assume you can speak English fluently, and you know a bit of Japanese, which is extremely good."

"But going back to the martial arts, you also are a black belt in Karate. That's insane. You could act as a form of defense for the girls, which is very good. But it doesn't even end here, you also know Judo? Although it's not in your résumé, when I was touring your school, I saw a picture of you participating in a Judo tournament. I asked, and even if you weren't a champion, getting knocked out in the semi finals isn't the absolute worst."

"So in short, even though you're only 20, you're already more accomplished and have do so much more than I have, even though I'm double your age." The interviewer sheepishly smiled.

"Ay, don't degrade yourself man. There's probably some things that you can do so much better than I can." You tried to comfort the interviewer, even though you couldn't hide the big smile on your face.

"Aigoooo~, it's fine son. Once again, you seem more than qualified for this job. You're a cook, nutritionist, bodyguard, and linguist all in one."

idk how to translate aigoo lol

"However, that's not the end of the interview. I still have one more question for you."

You braced yourself for the question. 

"What do you think is a major flaw about yourself?"

wooosh we're going into Eunwoo/Y/N's thoughts now

A flaw about myself? 

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Might as well tell him.

ok back to 2nd person

"I think a flaw that effects me a lot is... my asocial tendencies." You began.

"For most of my life, I didn't really try to make friends. I was bullied. I learned martial arts as a way to defend myself from all the bullies. Yeah I excelled at school and stuff, but I had like maybe one or two friends. I'm very cold to people who I don't know, and I like to stay in my little bubble."

"Well, why is that?"

"Well... um..."

You sat there. You didn't want to bring back the memories. All those memories. Those fucking memories. You suppressed them for a reason. Was it worth risking all that pain that you felt? 

The room filled with an awkward silence as you broke off eye contact, choosing to look at your shoes rather than the eyes of the waiting interviewer. 

"Hmm. Seems that I struck a chord here."

"Yeah... sorry but I don't want to talk about it. It's too... painful to remember..."

"It's alright. But I lied. I have one more question for you."

You raised your head, awaiting for the final question that could potentially decide if you were going to get this job. 

"Why do you want this job?"

"Well, the main reason why I applied for this job is to, um, fix my problems. I think that, since I'm going to manage a popular girl group like IZ*ONE, I'll meet a lot of new people and hopefully make new friends. I don't want this cold persona around me. I want to get out of my little shell, and make new friends that I'd never imagine I'd be friends with. And also, my step-sister is in IZ*ONE. What better of a surprise would that be to Chaeyeon when she learns that her step-brother is her new manager?"

"Wow. Okay. I like to hear that. Let me tell you this. I supervised the last 47 applicants, and while I didn't interview them myself, I didn't feel as if they were the perfect person for the job. Sure, some were qualified, and others had experience, but their responses didn't feel as passionate as you were."

"Do you know why you were the last applicant to go in? Because your résumé was the most accomplished. And so, I felt like you were going to be the most qualified for the job. And my intuition seemed right, with my interview with you showing that."

"So, expect a call tomorrow. You are the most likely candidate for this position, and so I hope you will accept this position."

The interviewer stood up and brought his hand out for a handshake. You gladly took his hand and shook it, feeling great that you were going to get a job. Managing IZ*ONE too. It felt somewhat surreal as well. You were going to manage the businesses of your step-sister, and her friends too. But at least, you were going to get a stable job. That's all you needed at the moment.

With a big smile, you gave the interview a thank you, before grabbing your backpack and exiting the room. You gave your mom a call, telling her that you were able to get the job. She celebrated through the phone, even though she had no idea what job you just got.

Although it was only 5 PM, you had felt blissful. The high that you got from hearing those words made you feel, invincible, sort of. And so, the perfect way to end the day was to drink.

For three hours you cracked back shot, after shot, after shot of soju. The table was filled with soju bottles once you were finished, and you sheepishly paid the waiter. You walked back to your house and collapsed onto your bed, giving you one of the best sleeps you've had in a while.

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FUCK man this played out a lot better in my head. this chapter is booty cheeks :-(

hopefully there's no repeating words in this, that'd be quite unfortunate