"WAIT!!"
The woman watched hopelessly as her bus drove away without her. That day was her unluckiest to date. She'd missed her alarm and woke up late. As if that wasn't enough, she fell out of bed in her rush and, to top it all off, banged her little toe against some furniture.
At that point, she most likely would be late for her job interview. Jiwoo sighed, looking at the bus schedules, but to her greatest misfortune, the next one wasn't scheduled for another hour.
It could be said; that Kim Jiwoo wasn't the luckiest girl. If anything, the young woman was certain she'd been cursed at birth. And no lucky charm in the world could help her.
On top of that, Jiwoo happened to be one of the clumsiest woman on planet earth. To anyone that knew her, her still being alive was a true mystery. But she couldn't only be defined by her bad luck or clumsiness.
Jiwoo was an optimistic woman. Always there to brighten everyone's days with a big bright smile. Overall she was the type of person who wore her heart on her sleeves.
But don't be mistaken. Jiwoo was anything but naive, and could be really stubborn and didn't shy away from confrontation when called to it. That and her loyalty towards her friends.
But what she needed at the moment was a ride. She thought about all the possibilities and ended up calling a friend. She felt guilty for bothering Doyeon. The woman was enjoying her day off. But, as she was the closest to the area and owned a car, Jiwoo thought she was her best option.
Doyeon was one of her ex-co-workers; they'd quickly become friends after Jiwoo joined the coffee shop she used to work at. It was also thanks to her that she'd heard about the job offer to begin with.
A couple of minutes later, a car stopped in front of her. Jiwoo recognized her friend on the driver's side and quickly entered, thanking her friend profusely. "You don't know how you're saving me. "
"Yeah, yeah, if you say so. On the other hand, I just wasted an opportunity to sleep in. You better get this job, Jiwoo."
"I'll pay you back with lunch, promise." And so they went on their way to the interview. But as demonstrated above, that day really wasn't her day, as they got stuck in traffic the second they reached the main road.
Jiwoo finally arrived at the location they had agreed to, 15 minutes late. She was afraid the interviewer would already be gone by now. Looking around the room, she spotted a woman sitting alone by the window. She had a couple of documents in front of her and checked the clock every couple of seconds, seemingly waiting for someone to show up.
Jiwoo gathered her courage and walked to her. "Uhm, are you Mss. Jo?" She asked, with a nervous hint in her voice.
Hearing her name, the woman turned her gaze to Jiwoo. She looked, at first, confused before a look of recognition passed through her face. She then stood up and extended her hand to Jiwoo. "Yes, I'm Im Haneul. You must be Jiwoo?" She nodded, taking the older woman's hand in hers, and shook it vigorously.
"Thank you so much for seeing me. I'm sorry for being so late. I was stuck in traffic."
"Don't worry, to be honest, I just arrived and worried I missed you. So we could say; we were both late today." Haneul gave her a bright smile which Jiwoo responded in kind. She could already tell that she and Haneul would get along great. While she was a little shorter than Jiwoo, Haneul looked older than her and had her brown hair in a perfectly suited Bob haircut. Haneul narrowed her eyes, looking attentively at Jiwoo.
The younger woman started panicking, thinking there might be something wrong with her outfit. "Did we meet before? You look familiar." The younger just looked at her, confused. She couldn't recall ever meeting Haneul. The woman was so pleasant and charismatic that she would have remembered her.
Haneul read the confusion in her eyes and decided to let go of the subject. "Never mind. Perhaps we should start the interview." She directed Jiwoo to the seat facing her, and both women sat down. "Have you worked as a personal secretary in the past?" Jiwoo shook her head.
"Well, it's pretty self-explanatory; your task consists; in assisting someone. For example, you'll have to keep an eye on her schedule, arrange her appointments, and make sure she eats. Think babysitting, but at a much higher level. As quoted in the ad, you must be available day and night."
Again Jiwoo nodded. The job sounded tiring, but since it paid well and she desperately needed money, she was ready to go through it. It wasn't every day that you could find a post with such a high salary rate that didn't specify a degree. "So, I'd liked to know why you applied for the position?"
"Money!". Jiwoo blurted out, covering her mouth directly after. She silently cursed out her candidness. Jiwoo tended to speak before thinking. A trait that put her in complicated situations on more than one occasion. Haneul was taken aback by her straightforwardness. Not that it was a bad thing, she actually liked her honesty.
Jiwoo chuckled nervously. "I mean," she cleared her throat. "I'm looking for more challenges and think that; this will be a perfect way to test myself. Besides, I would love to contribute to easing the workload and learning new skillsets." She hoped to have salvaged the situation well enough.
Haneul didn't seem persuaded by her answer but let it slide. "Hmm, I see. As you may know, you're not the only one applying for it." She leaned in and crossed her hands on the table. "What differentiate you from them?"
Jiwoo took her time to think this time. She didn't want to make another blunder. "I worked in multiple sectors before, so hard work isn't a problem. I can multitask and never give up before reaching my objective. I'm an extrovert and like to engage with people. I used to work for a telecom company, so making a phone call is not a problem. What else?"
Jiwoo thought hard for something else to say. "Oh, my friends often- always- say that I'm very talkative. I don't really know if it's a good thing, though." Haneul looked, for the most part, amused while Jiwo was dying on the inside. The young woman was the most interesting applicant she'd met so far.