"follow me."
changbin kept quiet and followed the woman who was next to the audition door.
inside his mind, he was scared.
with his shoulder stiffed and hands tightened together, he proceeded to walk behind her.
as she was leading the way, changbin thought about his dad.
he loved his dad, he was noble, kind, encouraging and someone whom he looked up to.
unfortunately, his dad was involved in an accident, resulting it as his death, 4 years ago.
the one thing he would never forget were his dad's last words.
'be strong and be happy.'
at the funeral, he didn't cry.
his heart was filled with sorrow that he wanted to cry it out but he didn't because of what his dad had said.
throughout the rest of the years until now, nobody had ever seen him cry.
they didn't know the reason behind it but they did know he had changed.
changbin didn't realise that they were already there when he heard the woman said in a low voice, "we're here."
he immediately snapped back into reality and nodded while smiling.
before she turned the other way to leave since she had already done her job, he politely bowed down and thanked her.
when he stood back up, he saw that she was doing the same thing as him.
"good luck," patting his shoulder softly, she gave him a quick, soft smile and left.
the older turned around to the door where behind it, was the real thing. he took a deep breath.
"you can do this changbin, hwaiting!" he quietly whispered to himself.
just the thought of sitting in front of the interviewer, scared him but he didn't hesitate to open the door.
the door sprung open revealing a man and a lady on one side of the couch; there was a table in the middle with a tea set and another couch on the other side which was empty.
they saw changbin entering the room and got up to greet him.
he greeted back.
"please sit down." the man suggested as he did.
the lady was holding a clipboard with god knows how many papers that were being clipped.
but he assumed that they were his qualification papers.
changbin watched as she was flipping through the papers.
it soon ended when she leaned over to the man and whispered something in his ears.
he wanted to know what she was whispering about but he remained silent until he was informed with something.
the man nodded and faced changbin, smiling.
"okay, you're number 1205 right? just making sure." changbin looked at his number one more time to confirm and nodded.
he proceeded to talk.
"this lady here is going to interview you, is that alright?" he didn't hesitate to answer. "tea?" the man gesturing to the tea set. changbin politely replied, "yes please."
he didn't know why but he immediately sat up straight.
as the man was pouring out the tea onto the cup, changbin looked over to the woman who was going to interview him.
she began to talk, "so...you're seo changbin, 19 years old, am i right?" changbin was going to talk neutral but all that came out was a stutter.
"y-yes." he quickly noticed that he was stuttering and began to curse inside his mind.
the man pushed the cup gently to changbin and sat back up to listen.
she didn't seem to care about his stuttering and resumed the interview.
"this is going to take long so i'll make it short, why did you choose to get a job here and do you think you have any qualifications to work here?" she leaned back onto the couch, waiting for his answer.
changbin sat there, thinking of what he was going to say.
he didn't know what to say since working here wasn't his first choice but a suggestion from minho and how he didn't know if he even had any qualifications to work there.
but what he did know was that he was desperate to get a job to earn money. enough to get through life and to help his mum.
he thought back to his mum when all of a sudden, his face changed.
bringing his face upwards and putting his hands on his lap, he began to speak.
"the reason why i decided to apply at this job was so that i can pay my mum back for what she had done for me when i couldn't help her and now that she's at the hospital, i decided that now is the time for me to give her the happiness that she once gave me so she can continue to live further and happily. i don't know if you can see here but i'm really determined to get this job, the jobs i went to wouldn't allow me to apply because i was still a student, i thought of giving up when i heard that your cafe allows students to apply as well. when i found out, i saw hope in me again that i could get this job to help my mum. i don't know if i have good enough qualification you are looking for but i can promise you that i'll do my very best to please you. please allow me to work here." he said, filled with passion.
all that was going through his head as he spoke was his mum.
the woman didn't show any changes to her face and said, "may i ask you something quickly before you leave?"
changbin determinedly nodded.
"do you mind telling me where your dad is?" hearing the word, caused him to feel mixed emotions inside.
however, he kept his feet up and softly spoke, "he's... no longer here."
the two caught up with what he was trying to say and showed a face of sympathy.
"oh, urm, i'm sorry for asking that. i didn't know it was a sensitive topic." changbin quickly shrugged it off as if it didn't matter much and smiled.
"no it's fine, i'll get going then." he said as he stood up.
the man had nearly forgotten to say something important but managed to remember so he quickly stopped changbin from going, "in a couple of weeks later, we will be emailing every participants whether or not they have passed, please make sure you check your email for the information." he said while smiling.
"sorry for wasting your time, you can go now." the lady joined in.
changbin bowed once again, "okay, i will do that. goodbye." and left.
as soon as he left, the lady spoke softly to the man. "poor boy, he's been going through a lot." he nodded in agreement.
changbin eventually made his way out of the building, trying his hardest to not break into tears at the thoughts of losing his dad.
minho stood outside, alone.
he raised his eyebrows when he saw minho by himself.
his friend looked up from his phone and quickly rushed over to changbin.
"hey, how was the interview?" he asked.
changbin quickly hid his feelings and pulled a neutral face, "i think i did good, i don't know tho." he looked around to see seungmin nowhere to be seen. "where's seungmin?"
"ah, he had to go home because his parents wouldn't let him stay outside late." he nodded.
"let's go." changbin said and smiled.
a/n: uwuu poor changbinnie~ new record! this is the longest chapter so far 😂