To Find Something True

※ seven

Mr. Lee sighed as he drank a small bit of beer. The stall's silence caused him to consider how he may arrange words before speaking them. "You're my only child. I'm not prepared to see you go through what I'm going through."

"I'm twenty-seven years old. Maybe you should quit spoiling me. It isn't good."

"You are my only child –"

"And I'm a grown-up now, not a child," Jiah drawled, looking at her father ruefully.

Mr. Lee remained silent.

Jiah patted her father's back with her arm stretched over his shoulder. "So do not be worried." With the other hand, she patted her chest as she swallowed the food in her mouth. "You have a strong daughter."

Her remarks didn't reassure him. He lost his appetite at that point, and all he could do was watch his daughter devour the spicy rice cakes and fish cakes.

Her daughter resembled his wife a lot, much that he couldn't help but wonder where she had been.

**********

The next day, Jiah was allowed to leave home. But not without a fuss. Her father tried to give her money again. Fortunately, Grandpa Ji went to the barbershop and witnessed the entire event. He whacked Mr. Lee's buttocks with his cane when he wasn't looking, scolding him for being stubborn. On the other hand, Jiah took the chance to flee from the scene as fast as she could with a laugh.

That day, the girl did her hair in a different style. She secured a large clip in the middle of the back of her head, where her hair was loosely bundled. She was dressed comfortably in jeans shorts with a white short-sleeved shirt tucked inside. Her ice-blue sneakers were her go-to footwear.

She started looking for work in places she had never been before. She went to cosmetics and apparel stores, despite her qualms that the stores would not accept her with her nursing degree.

It was, nevertheless, satisfying to be able to send her curriculum vitae to the stores she went to. She had always believed that there was no harm in trying. Trying isn't necessarily often a negative thing; we have to push above our limits every day to understand what we're capable of and what we're not.

She came upon a notice stuck to a boutique's window while on her journey to find additional shops at random. Behind the notice, three mannequins were wearing a unisex outfit.

Written on the notice were:

Hiring for a personal assistant.
Salary: 800,000WON - 1,000,000WON
Urgent!

She recognized the crumpled lines visible on the paper as if it had been pulled off the glass, meaning to discard it in the trash can but get it back and stick it there again. Then, Jiah became unsure. She was questioning what made it urgent to have a personal assistant. Still, she came to a quick conclusion that the boss might have their reasons.

The salary was huge. The payment would be roughly USD1000 if she computed the amount in US dollars.

"Woah!" She mumbled to herself, mentally noting that she would be able to pay off her father's debt as quickly as possible and that she would look for her mother, who had gone to New York to take an entrepreneur course.

"Hi, there!" A high pitch tone from a female peeking through the boutique's door with her friend jolted her out of her thoughts. Her straight, brown hair waved down when it dropped from her shoulders. Her bangs were slanted to the side as she imitated her friend.

Greeting, she bowed, "hello!"

"How can we... help you?" With a long grin plastered on her face, the girl with brown hair said.

"The notice –"

"Oh yes!" said the one with bangs. "Come, come!" She walked out the door and put out her arm to pull Jiah inside.

Jiah stared blankly at the woman with black, straight hair, her mind racing. She had an unplanned moment of doubting her memory.

The cool breeze from the air conditioner sank into her skin as soon as she walked in. It helped to alleviate the summer's sweltering heat. Not to mention the boutique's silence, although she heard what sounded like lads bickering somewhere for a brief while.

The black-haired girl shifted her focus. "Wheein's going to take you to the interview room. Inside, there will be two men," she said, two fingers from her left hand were raised. "One with Pacific Ocean shoulders and another is a black ramen head."

Jiah had a moment wondering how had she ended up there. Regardless, she said, "Oooh. Okay."

"Have you got your CV ready?"

Jiah nodded, saying, "yeah."

"Alright. You're going in."

Jiah, who was about the same height as Wheein, noticed her smiling warmly and guiding her to the interview room with her thumb.

She marveled at the sophisticated interior designs as she strolled along the well-lit and narrow corridor. The pathway was tiled, and on her left was a glassed-in passageway with labels on the doors that read Meeting Room, Jung Jiwoo's, Jung Hoseok's, and a storage room. In the storage room, there were piles of boxes, which she assumed were storing the fashion things and additional arrival goods. The garments were hung on a long, silver metal rod with both ends affixed to the concrete wall behind it.

As Wheein knocked on the glass wall of another room, she sensed a halt. The room was not identified this time. Only two men sat at the large white table in the center of the room, with a red stool in the middle.

For both guys in the room, the girl pointed to Jiah. Both of them possessed distinctive characteristics, which matched Wheein's friend's description. Jiah believed they had a very close relationship and friendship based on how the girl described them.

The man with curly black hair motioned with his index finger for both of them to enter, while the one with short black hair and broad shoulders sat upright in the leather office chair, evidently groaning. Jiah heard the chair squeak once when Wheein pushed the door open.

"Hello," Jiah said modestly. The one with the broad shoulders beamed at her. The other man nodded. Her heart raced against her chest as the tension in the room reminded her of when she was taking an oral test.

"Do you need something before I leave?" Wheein asked both of the men.

"Please get me some coffee. Sugar, one teaspoon. You want coffee, hyung?" The man with slanted eyes asked. His nose was tall and it seemed like it asked for a boop.

"Milk coffee for me. Buy me caramel candy too, please," the broad-shouldered man said to Wheein.

"Money?" Wheein goofily asked with an open palm.

The man sighed, "ask Jisoo. I'll pay her back, tell her."

"Okay!" And with that, Wheein left.

When they chatted, Jiah noticed a striking resemblance between the broad-shouldered man and the girl who had left her with Wheein. Her keen observation of the scenario led her to the conclusion that the girl's name was Jisoo. Jisoo could, perhaps, have been his sister.

The metal that held the door to the ground and the hinges made a wincing noise. Later, the sound of shoe soles slapping on the tiled floor. The broad-shouldered man cleared his throat as the sound and figure of Wheein faded into the other area.

"Nice to meet you," he said, smiling at her later. "Your CV, please."

Jiah smiled back, passing her curricular vitae to him.

Bright welcomes did not appear to appeal to the curly-haired gentleman. "Tell us about yourself," he said, shooting a stare with both hands attached to form a ball that landed on the table.

The other man glared. "She has a CV, you dumb!"

Nonchalantly, the intimidating man said, "I want to see and hear if she has the potential to be Hoseok's assistant."

"How many people are you going to have that kind of interview with?"

The man ignored the question as he awaited Jiah's response.