The Candidate at 2 AM

040. I was genuinely sweating bullets wondering who on earth shows up for an interview at 2 a.m., but memories have a way of twisting themselves over time. More than anything, after that there were basically no proper games—just constant running away, trolling, going AFK, and throwing. Even if there had been, Mazia herself was, broadly speaking, a troll too. In the end, what stuck in the minds of those who watched was that very first game: a backdoor victory that felt like a heart-pounding movie scene.

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Thanks to that, Naore spent the entire week dealing with the fallout. A completely unknown meta had appeared, and the fact that it was used in the second-team pro scene right when it coincided with Aegipola's buff was the main issue. Even when people got curious and looked up who first discovered the meta, they found out she wasn't streaming. So where could they watch it? Parallel? Ah, so they just had to wait in Komari's stream? That kind of situation kept happening. As a result, Komari maintained seven thousand average viewers the next day while playing Rubber Duck House. While blankly watching the ducks, she got so bored she opened video donations, and fans seemed to increase quite a bit because her toxic commentary while freaking out over all the dizzying clips was cute. The viewer spike continued for several days afterward, and the next day when the full-AP Aegipola meta appeared in NaChals, she even hit a peak of nine thousand viewers.

A few days later, the president called me in.

"Want to come with the kids on their one-year anniversary group trip in mid-November?"

Using the president like this… Other people would have been too self-conscious to even ask. Anyway, when it comes to being clever, Parallel takes the cake.

"Where are you going?"

"From what the kids said, they want to go to the beach. Something about wanting to eat giant prawns."

"Does Dora even eat seafood…?"

"She eats grilled stuff… well, not really. Crab, lobster, shrimp—she eats those pretty well when they're grilled. And since it's hard to see the sunrise on New Year's, they probably want to see it in advance."

I thought about it carefully. Giant prawn season was right, but giant prawns only come from the West Sea. To see the sunrise, they'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠need to go to the East Sea… What? Eat dinner in the West Sea and drive all night to the East Sea?

"Is the schedule by any chance dinner in the West Sea and sunrise in the East Sea?"

"No? We're going to the East Sea to see the sunrise."

I shook my head and explained the truth to the president—that the kids who wanted giant prawns were so picky they wouldn't even show their faces in the East Sea.

"Ah. Then that won't work. Okay. I'll talk it over with the kids. So, Jia? Want to come?"

Here's a quiz. Why does Mazia know that giant prawn season is right now and that they can only be eaten in the West Sea? Because no one ever invites her to go, and she never has time to drive all the way to the West Sea to eat them! So there was no real reason to turn down this opportunity. If the kids were playing and the president was playing, then I wouldn't have anything to do that day either.

"If we're going, let's take the team leader too."

"Ah. Team Leader Kang? Yeah, I'll ask her."

I brought up the team leader because she's the on-site manager who follows our first-generation members to all external events. Whether it's going to a label's studio to record songs, going to the Motion Studio, or any other external event invitations, the team leader always comes along. It seemed like a good idea to have her come this time too. More than anything, since she used to be an idol manager, she's also really good at filming vlogs. Even if the kids' faces don't show, if you film so their voices come through, that becomes content in itself. Well, the planning team might request it later, but if I call the team leader separately then, the schedule might get messed up. Better to film in advance.

I'll just keep to myself the thought that with the kids being so free-spirited and doing whatever they want, having one more person to look after them would help.

"Ah, and also." The president flipped through a few freshly printed papers, then neatly organized them again and handed them to me. "You heard from the team leader that there's an interview tomorrow, right?"

"Yes."

"The HR manager and I will be sitting in too, so don't feel too pressured. While you're looking through these documents, try to get a sense of the candidates in advance. If you see anyone who seems good, it would be nice to prepare some questions to throw at them."

"Mm. Got it."

Never thought I'd end up being an interviewer. Kind of exciting, actually. It's already strange having someone new join to work with me, but on top of that, I'm the one interviewing and hiring them.

"The HR manager and I will prioritize your decision. Really pick someone you like. Got it? It's fine if you reject them all."

"Okay."

"During the interview, call me 'Section Chief,' so don't feel too awkward about it."

I have no intention of rejecting everyone. That would just mean having to schedule another interview. Just think about how dead busy I was every time I helped with interview support work for the first generation and others. How much effort goes into hiring just one person—document review, interview prep, schedule coordination, and so on. I can't make the busy president do that troublesome task again.

…I hope there's someone I like among these four applications.

* * *

Same day. After all the kids' streams ended, I casually browsed the Parallel Gallery. I figured if someone cared enough about our company to apply, at least one of them might have posted there. Sure enough, there was someone who got caught in the net more easily than expected.

"A 10-page portfolio… is this the person…?"

Since I was only interviewing four people anyway, even just skimming through for a day made one candidate stand out immediately. Even though she was a new graduate applicant, it was stranger that her resume didn't stick in my memory when it was that thick.

She had two notable characteristics. First was her languages. Among the four applicants, she was the only one who had both Japanese and English, and with strong scores on both the writing and speaking English tests. The second was the ten-page portfolio—her broadcasting viewing history. You might wonder why that counts as a portfolio, but there's a reason.

Her participation accuracy rate was impressive, her game skills were solid, and her game knowledge was so broad that there wasn't a single game she skipped. On top of that, the comments she left after each stream she attended were striking. Things like "this felt lacking," "this could be improved," or "when the stream crashed, it would've been nice if operations had handled it this way or that way." She had even considered things that only current staff would normally think about. That's why she stood out so much. Not to the point of "I must hire her," but enough to think "if it's this person, I could overlook a few mistakes in the interview." So I went back to the first page to remember her face and looked at the photo.

"Haaam…"

Considering I usually fall asleep around 5 a.m., yawning already at 2 a.m. was unexpected. Maybe it was because I'd been dealing with more things lately with the kids' streams and all. Feeling like I should just go to sleep, I turned off the monitoring computer, set up the folding bed, and laid out a sleeping bag on it. There were times when I got off work late and just slept at the office, and today was one of those days. The interview started at 10 a.m. tomorrow, so I didn't want to waste precious sleep time on commuting. I set the alarm for 8 a.m., an hour before the staff arrived. The president had said not to worry about electricity bills, but the heating was set to 27 degrees… Just as I finished preparing and was about to lie down, ding-dong. A message arrived.

It was currently 2 a.m. Who would come to the company at this hour? Unable to contain my curiosity, I quietly made my way through the partitions toward the glass door. Sure enough, there was a shadow pacing around the corner of the hallway. What kind of person was that? A homeless person? Before long, with a ding, the elevator sounded and the security uncle appeared, followed by a brief exchange. Their voices didn't rise; it seemed like a calm conversation, so I unlocked the door and stepped out. When I approached, the security uncle bowed. I bowed back, and there was a woman illuminated by his flashlight. The security uncle continued what he had been saying.

"No, I understand you came because of an interview tomorrow, but you can't just stay here alone like this. You should get a place to stay."

"No. Um. I think if I go to sleep I'll really not be able to wake up. So I was going to wait here…"

Since this wasn't my first time helping with interview proceedings, I could tell right away. The woman in a suit with her hair tightly tied in a ponytail was obviously an interviewee. Even the face illuminated by the flashlight looked familiar. It was exactly the same as the photo I'd just seen on the resume.

"Are you by any chance Gong Seung-yeon-ssi?"

The woman, who had been glancing nervously between me and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the security uncle, answered very promptly.

"Ah, yes. I'm Gong Seung-yeon."