pure imagination || jing yuan, blade, & dan heng

seventeen

She managed to slowly tear her gaze away from Jing Yuan who was giving her a curious stare.

"Its nice to meet you Mr. Xian Mushoku, and it's.. nice to formally meet you Mr. Jing Yuan."

She bowed and the manager and then to Jing Yuan. Her palms immediately feeling sweaty as she tried to put her smile back onto her face, but it came more as a nervous grin than a happy smile to say the least.

"Xian."

"Yes, Mr. Jing Yuan?"

"I would like to interview miss l/n here personally, if you don't mind."

Xian was quick to stand and bow, "of course! Anything you want, Mr. Jing Yuan!"

What a kiss up...

And once y/n and Jing Yuan were alone, the man gave her a small smile, "I honestly didn't expect to see you here, you know," he decided to start with small talk and then ease into an interview. I mean, he was curious as to why she was here after all.

Y/n chuckled a little as she scratched the back of her head, "you're telling me! I didn't even know you owned this place."

"I guess we're both surprised to be seeing each other," Jing Yuan then gestured to the chair in front of the desk, "do, why don't you get comfortable?"

Y/n nodded as she settled down into the chair. The cushion feeling good on her back. Mannn, this thing is even better than my bed! I could sleep in this chair for crying out loud!

"So, may I ask why you want to work here?"

"You want the truth?"

He nodded.

And she took a deep breath before giving him a serious look, "its the money."

He placed a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing, "the money, you say?"

"Yes, I'm in dire need of it. Because, well, let's just say I ran into a debt problem recently that just wouldn't go away until yesterday night. And I got fired from my second job too...so, I'm just looking for another second job that could really rack in the cash."

Jing Yuan rested an elbow on the desktop, his chin resting in his palm.

"Seems to me you're always running into trouble."

"It definitely feels that way..."

Jing Yuan studied her for a moment. Took her in. His gaze looking up and down before settling onto her face. Their were dark circles resting under eyes, her (color) eyes a little downturned. She looked .. so tired.

"Honestly y/n, the life of a waitress doesn't really suit you in my opinion."

"H- huh?"

"Sure you can hold your own in a tailor shop, dealing with one customer at a time. But this isn't a business where you take one order and then work on it for a couple of days."

Her face grew hot, jeez. Wasnt this supposed to be an interview and not a let's see how much I can embarrass her??

"I- I know that!"

"Do you now? So you know what type of place this is, right? Tell me now, what makes you think a place such as this will hire someone as such as you?"

She clenched her jaw and found that she couldn't exactly look him in the eye.

"I'm.. I'm a hard worker..."

"You and about almost everyone else in Luofu can be hard workers. Tell me what makes you deserve to work here, to get paid and live a simple life?"

She let her gaze fall to the floor.

"Honestly, why do we even bother with you? What makes you think you get to have an easy life? A simple life?"

"I-," she shut her eyes tight before opening them again and looking right at him once more before giving him a sheepish smile, "I honestly can't tell you. I mean, its true... anyone can walk in here and claim they're a hardworker. And I'm not saying I'm deserving of anything, but .. whats so wrong with wanting a little extra cash so I don't find myself living in a damn box on the side of road? But .. I guess you're right. I don't think I'm suited for this either. Sorry for wasting your time."

She got up and gave a small bow, but Jing Yuan merely leaned back in the chair and gave her that same smile.

"I didn't say you could leave. Sit back down."

She froze on the spot, and almost mechanically she had found herself plopping back into the chair. Her senses on overdrive as she felt an air of danger around her. What is this feeling?

"You're undeserving of good things. You may have not said that directly, but that is definitely what that little speech of your's sounds like."

She felt embarrassment crawl through her whole body once more, but she didn't dare interrupt him.

"And it seems we're both in an agreement that this place just isn't a good fit for you."

He stood up from the chair and walked out from behind the desk. Her whole body tensed, the once comfortable chair she sat in felt more suffocating than anything else in the whole world.

He came to a stop in front of her and leaned back to sit on the desk, his arms crossing over his chest.

"So, how about I give you another job offer? One that you're more suited to?"

She kept her eyes away from his face. She couldn't look at him. She refused to meet his gaze.

"What- what job is that?"

He tilted his head to the side and gave a close-eyed smile, "become my assistant."