Clock In

Part 1

"What do you know about me?" he asked, voice calm, hands folded neatly on the desk, chin resting lightly on top. There was no urgency behind the question. Just curiosity. Like he already knew the answer but wanted to see how Fourth would handle it.

Fourth blinked. His mind blanked completely. Gone was every carefully memorized phrase and bullet point. He had done the prep for the interview. The mission statement, the market trends, the company values, all locked in. He even spent hours reading through employee reviews, trying to understand the culture, picking apart every line like it might be a test question.

But he hadn't looked into the man sitting right in front of him.

Not even once.

"Fine," the man chuckled. "Do you at least know my name?"

Fourth's eyes went wide and his lips parted slightly, like he was about to speak but had nothing to give. He didn't move, didn't even try to pretend. He looked frozen, stuck in the space between realization and recovery. A few seconds passed in silence that felt louder than anything else.

The man leaned forward just a little, subtle enough to keep things casual, but intentional enough to pull Fourth back into the moment.

"I'm the future successor of this company," he said, a faint smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. "If you're hoping to be a part of it, you should probably know who's going to be running it."

He said it smoothly, with a touch of humor. There was no judgment in his tone. No threat. Just quiet amusement. It felt like he found Fourth's reaction more interesting than disappointing. Like he had expected it, or maybe even preferred it to a rehearsed answer.

Fourth didn't respond. The words stayed lodged somewhere inside, and the moment moved forward without him.

The man finally nodded, before reaching for the file in front of him. "No further questions from my end," he said, flipping the folder open without another glance.

The rest of the interview passed like background noise. Fourth answered what he needed to, kept his posture straight, nodded at the right moments, but the earlier exchange clung to him. It lingered in his thoughts even as the conversation drifted away from it.

When it was finally over, Fourth stood. He smoothed down the front of his pants, mostly to give his hands something to do. They were still slightly unsteady. He glanced at the man again, who was still flipping through papers, then looked toward the other interviewers.

"Thank you for the opportunity," Fourth said, giving a small bow. "And thank you for taking the time to speak with me."

The man looked up. He was the only one who answered back. "Thank you," he said, voice steady and warm. "We'll be in touch soon."

//

Fourth stepped out of the building and took a slow, careful look at it. He let out a disappointed sigh, feeling like he'd just flunked the interview. Pulling out his phone, he typed in "heir of GMM" and hit search. The results popped up within seconds.

"Norawit Tit-Carorak? Tita-Caronrak?" he mumbled quietly, scanning the screen. He scrolled down and read more carefully. Fourth skimmed through the brief bio, Norawit, also known as Gemini, had finished his commerce degree and master's in business management at Cambridge. He had returned to Thailand just two years ago and was now expected to take the lead at GMM soon.

Fourth closed his eyes tightly, replaying the moments from the interview, especially the way Gemini had completely shattered the confidence he'd held onto throughout the session. "I'll probably get rejected," he whispered to himself, sliding the phone back into his pocket before heading toward the nearest bus station.