Chapter 3 - Destiny

Destiny

It must be the destiny, that brought me and you together

– Destiny (song) By Suntharaphon

On the 10th floor which is my destination, there is a big hall right outside of the elevator with several doors for the smaller room which has a golden nameplate on them. The sister on the reception counter noticed me, asking to see the pass I received from downstairs, before leading me to a room. Every step I take makes me feel like my heart might jump out and roll around on the floor at any second.

In my head, I keep repeating the script for job interviews which I have practiced so many times but still get heartbreaking results every time such as ‘What can you contribute to this company?’ or ‘How do you plan to achieve your career goals?’ or the climax question which I fear the worst ‘Why did you spend 8 years graduating?’ which I will never be able to give a satisfactory answer to.

The sound of high heels clicking on the floor link with the sound of my own heartbeat. Finally, the beautiful sister stops at the front of a door that seems to give out a specially dark aura, which is probably just me imagining things from my experiences of failing a job interview more than 10 times in a row. She knocks on the door, “Excuse me please.” before gesturing for me to enter.

I took a big gulp of my own saliva and prayed for this time to succeed.

The cold temperature of the A/C blows on every inch of my skin, making me feel like chattering my teeth from the cold. I quickly swept my gaze around the conference room, there were 3 men sitting behind the table, one of them invited me to the chair sitting opposite to them. “Please have a seat.”

“Good morning.” I sit down stiffly, trying to put on a smile that will look natural, but from my state of mind, I guess that it must come out more like a convulsing muscle. I can feel my hands holding the document folder shaking ever so slightly.

“Good morning, mister…?”

“Rattiphat.” I try to control the tremors in my voice. “Rattiphat Naiyapornsakun. [1] ”

I try to secretly observe the three of them, the first one is a man… or at least I think so, seeing his adam apple because this long-hair man in a suit who is sitting in front of me has such a beautiful face that makes me unsure about his real gender. Next to him is a tall man wearing a pair of glasses, notably, his neck has such a deep tanned skin contrasting to the white of his face. Even if I just take a quick look, I can confirm that he is a handsome man, moreover, he is the only one who gives me a friendly smile while the pretty-face man crosses his arm over his chest with an ill-tempered expression. The last man who looks to be a handsome-playboy keeps tapping away on his iPad without even taking a look at me.

…Does this company select people from their face-value?

“What is your date of birth and time of delivery?” Suddenly, the man who was engrossed in his iPad until a moment before looks up at me and spews out this sentence.

“…” I was shocked alright, but still answered the question obediently, though I am not quite sure about the time of my delivery, I think what I answered is not wrong. The handsome man who was dressed like a playboy keeps tapping on the iPad screen for several minutes before letting out a “Hmm..”

Hm… What ‘Hmm’!?

Don’t tell me that this rich young playboy in front of me is actually a fortune teller like the one they use in a certain big-name company in Thailand? Maybe this company is actually a subsidiary of that company? The initials’ name is also quite similar.

The man who seems the most friendly out of the three put something down on the table. The pictures of three men make me pause. In my mind, I start to imagine some kind of IQ test that I have heard some companies use. “Please match the people in these pictures with these three animals: monkey, bird, and snake.”

“What?”

I blink my eyes repeatedly while looking at the pictures in front of me. All of them are portraits similar to the picture for the employee ID cards. All of them look normal with non-distinctive features. I point at each picture by order “Snake, monkey, and bird…” I guessed.

When I look back up to the three in front of me, none of them show any reaction to my answer, and the same style of pictures is put down in front of me, only this time there are 10 of them. “This time, there are more choices: Monkey, bird, snake, and elephant.”

I point at each picture and bullshit through without any logic. Who knows what kind of test is this? This man has small eyes.. maybe a snake. This one is really chubby… monkey then. I keep guessing before pausing in the last photo. No matter how much I try to guess, I could not come up with the answer that feels right. “Um..”

“If you can’t think of a match, do you have any other animal in mind that is most similar?”

I observe the photo of the long afro hair man again before answering “…Lion.” His hair kind of looks like a mane.

“Hmm…” The handsome man in glasses lifts the corner of his mouth into a smile that I can’t decipher. “What is your last name again… ah, Naiyapornsakun [2] … you really have a pair of good eyes.”

I could only smile and blink some more with this strange compliment. Before straightening up after hearing the next sentence.

“Now, I am going to start asking you some questions.”

I straighten my back, preparing myself to face a brutal question.

“If you were to compare our company to something, what would it be, Mr. Rattiphat?”

…What!? Mr.Rattiphat is very confused right now. In university, I thought the High-performance Computing exam is already insane enough, but this is even more confusing. “Come again?”

This time, my face clearly shows an expression of a confused dog.jpg, thinking that if this is just a joke, they should already be throwing away the script and start laughing by now. However, Mr. handsome interviewer in glasses still continues to look at me with a small smile on his face as if waiting for my answer… I think they probably do not have any intention to accept me since the beginning and just called me here for an interview perfunctory.

“The forest,” I answer what came into my mind honestly. The smile of my interviewer broadened.

“What if you have to explain the three of us with colors, how would you describe each of us?”

I look at them one by one, feeling puzzled… What kind of answer are they looking for exactly?

Maybe because seeing me speechless for a long time, the handsome man in glasses adds with a smile. “You don’t have to worry too much, just follow your senses.”

“Uh… gold, green- no… pure white …and black,” I speak from the handsome playboy to the beautiful man, and then the man in glasses. These three colors completely come from my gut feeling which can’t be explained or proved by any scientific explanation… By this point, I don’t think I will get the job anymore. I look down at my shoes, noticing that the front sole is starting to detach from the shoe… I have been wearing these shoes since I graduated…

“Damn! What a mess!” The pretty-face man rose from his seat suddenly, making me flinch.

“Oh? Mr.Rut?”

“I need to go… dammit, so annoying!”

The me who was startled could only look at the expression on that pretty-face which clearly says ‘You can go die wherever you want, I don’t care.’ and feel even more dejected.

The handsome guy in glasses turns to smile at me “My apology. Lately, Mr. Rut’s chair has been heating up quite frequently.”

I blink some more while looking at the empty chair which the man has already left with confusion.

“Then, I’ll get going too.” The playboy who was holding his iPad the whole time also stood up. He raised his hand to give a wai to the glasses man, before glancing at me briefly without saying anything.

“Yes, Thank you so much.” The glasses man walked up to send out the other person, before coming back to collect the documents on the table neatly.

Uh… Can you notice me, sitting quietly right here?

After I try to send telepathic thoughts through my eyes at him for a while, the handsome man in glasses finally picks up a brown envelope and walks over to give it to me who accepts it bewilderedly. He holds his hand out for a handshake.

“Welcome to the company, Mr. Rattiphat. My name is Kritwarong, I’ll be your supervisor from today onward.”

Wha……

I came back to my tiny-ass apartment room half-awake with a dazed expression like a person having a concussion.

“Am I still dreaming?” I patted my own cheek once again, hugging the brown envelope that I received from Mr… Mr. Someone who wears glasses and is very handsome with the name starting with ‘K’. Yeah. I search for the key in the pocket of my pants with my other hand.

Creak… The sound of the next-door neighbor opening their front door sounds at the same time I am inserting the key into the lock. While I am going to turn and greet senior Jang, the next-door neighbor who I haven’t seen for a long time, I noticed that the person standing there is not Jang.

“…” I paused.

“…” The other person looked at me quietly, before bowing his head a little. His face is filled with a smile that seems so gentle and strangely familiar. I continue standing there, frozen, until the man has returned into his own room, I am still thinking.

………

…..

…

.

“Um.” A deep voice startled me out of my reverie. The face of my next-door neighbor appears again with a pot in his hand, which has milky Tom Yum soup [3] inside. “I made some leftovers, you can have them.”

I accepted the pot with a dazed thank you… and found myself continuing standing there until the young man next door came back with a convenient store back which made me even more confused. He stop in front of me, helps take the pot from my hand, opening my door, herding me into my room, put down the pot, picks up the strawberry-flavored milk from the convenient store’s bag before putting in the straw and sending them into me who start slurping it down very obediently. After that, he went out before coming back again with a plate of rice and a fried egg. “I have already heated them up, you can eat now.”

“Yeah” is the only word that slips out of my mouth. The long-ago empty box of milk is pried out of my hand gently. “There are snacks in the bag. You can eat them too.” Then he gave me a smile.

After he has left. I quietly turn to the rice with a fried egg and Tom Yum soup, before beginning to dig in. Hm.. delicious.

Until I clean up the plate, my consciousness finally comes back with my full stomach.

Thud! The sound of my head hitting the Japanese low table which I used as a dining table. Followed by the crackling sound of the plate and utensils bouncing and hitting each other.

Someone! Please bury me alive!

Before that, please hit my head with the hoe and the shovel and I would be very thankful!!

Last night, I had a one night stand with the person next door. End of the news. Bye Bye…

…………….

Bye…

It must be destiny, right!? Destiny!!

Footnotes:

[1] Name ‘Rattiphat’ consists of ‘Ratti’ for ‘night’ and ‘Phat’ for ‘good fortunes.’

Thai’s ‘formal’ name is usually in the Sanskrit and Pali language, which comes with the influence of Buddhism in Thailand, while Thais’ family name is often long because it is required to be unique to a family (so only blood relatives will possess the same surname). Most of the time, Thais converse on a Nickname basis and will use the first name for a formal affair. My full name is 9 syllables and is a mouthful even for myself.

[2] ‘Naiyapornsakun’ consists of ‘Naiyaporn’ which means ‘good eyes’ and ‘sakun’ which means family. The rough meaning is ‘the family with good eyes.’

[3] Tom Yum (picture) is a type of hot and sour Thai soup, usually cooked with shrimp (wiki). The difference between milky or ‘Nam Khon’ to the normal one is additional coconut milk.

Translator Note:

We have an extra chapter this week because my proofreader works super fast!! Please give her some cookies.

There is a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter (especially during the interview), which I could not put the footnote on because it will be a spoiler TuT. Hopefully, I won’t forget to explain them later when each certain plot is revealed. For now, I can only say that all of Phat’s answers are correct .

Also, there is actually a prologue before chapter 0, but NU couldn’t pull them up for some reason. If you haven’t seen that, please check it out >> here <<

In case anyone forgot, ‘wai’ is how Thais greet each other.