Ep 1: Concrete Forest and Suffocating Waiting Room

At 5:30 in the morning, even before the alarm went off, 24-year-old Seo Yuna suddenly opened her eyes. In a 3-pyeong semi-basement studio room on a hillside in Bongcheon-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, with only half of the window sticking out to the ground, the smell of damp mold and cold early morning air were mixed. When I turned on the fluorescent light switch, a dull white light filled the room along with a crackling noise. On the wall hanger was a bright yellow, forsythia-colored two-piece interview suit that had been ironed the night before, hanging neatly. On the day of my college graduation, at Seoho Market in Tongyeong, my mother, who had dedicated her life wearing an apron with a fishy smell, gave me 200,000 won in ssamjit money and told me to buy it, saying, 'Don't be discouraged and shine the brightest in Seoul.'

The yellow jacket I chose to give a lively impression in a job filled with dull black and navy suits. However, every time I opened the closet door and faced it, these clothes also felt like a heavy debt that tightened my heart. Yuna washed her face with cold water in front of the sink mirror and played a one-minute self-introduction recorded on her smartphone voice memo through earphones.

“Hello, I am Seo Yuna, an applicant who is the engine of logistics innovation that has her finger on the pulse of the field….”

A voice that has become hoarse after repeating it hundreds of times over the past three days. Yuna applied lipstick to her lips and put on the black enamel high heels with a 7-cm heel that she bought for 39,000 won at a discount stall in Gangnam Station's underground shopping mall last night. The store clerk praised the shoes to the point that my mouth was watering, saying, "The elasticity is so good that you can stand on them all day and it's comfortable enough to fly away." However, from the moment I put my foot in, the toe of the shoe mercilessly pressed down on the bone joint of my big toe. The leather covering the heel was as stiff as a piece of iron. ‘It’s okay, you just have to hold out until the interview. Today is the tenth. 'I must finish it this time.'

Yuna packed her bag with a letter from her mother and an old wallet containing three 10,000 won bills and left the house. The hell train on the way to work from Bongcheon Station on Subway Line 2 through Sindorim to Sadang and Gangnam Station was like a huge human crusher. The corners of the tightly packed passengers' briefcases and thick backpacks were putting relentless pressure on my ribs, and the damp smell of alcohol disinfectant and the heat of chronic fatigue in the poorly ventilated carriage made me suffocate. Every time the train swayed around a curved section, Yuna's weight was shifted onto the pointed heel of her 7cm high heels. "oh……."

Pain, as if the skin was being torn apart, surged like lightning along with tingling friction heat from the heel of my right foot. The stiff patent leather was cutting into the raw flesh through the thin, flesh-colored stockings. Every time I took a step, the pain of breaking my bones went up my spine and up to the nape of my neck. Cold sweat ran down my temples. At 8:40 a.m., when she finally left Exit 2 of Gangnam Station, the skyscraper forest of Tehran Road, like a fortress of giants, spread out intimidatingly before Yuna's eyes. The 60-story Seil Global Tower soars into the sky.

The huge tempered glass façade with a blue tint reflected the dazzling morning sunlight and showed off its proud majesty. Office workers entering and leaving the revolving door had stylish employee ID cards hanging around their necks, and they were holding branded coffee tumblers in one hand. In front of their proud backs as they walked across the marble floor without a moment of hesitation, Yuna felt as if she was a small grain of sand that had been accidentally caught in a huge mechanical device. I presented my ID at the information desk in the lobby on the first floor and received an access card to the interview waiting room on the 45th floor.

“You’re number 104, Seo Yuna, right? This is Hall C of the conference room on the 45th floor. If you are late, you will be automatically disqualified, so hurry.”

I left the information staff's business-like voice behind and got into the high-speed elevator. In the mirror of the elevator, which was rising vertically at a deafening speed, stood a shabby twenty-four-year-old woman wearing a bright yellow suit with a pale face. As I entered the hallway on the 45th floor, I was met with suffocating silence accompanied by icy air-conditioning air. Inside the waiting room, more than twenty applicants were already sitting in a row of iron chairs in an even posture. Most of them were dressed neatly in dark, high-quality tailored suits, and in their hands were holding colorful English portfolios bound in leather binders.

Yuna sat quietly in seat number 104 in the corner against the wall. The heels inside my shoes were already soaked with sticky blood. Even the slightest movement of the foot caused a scream as the wound was torn apart. At that time, the male applicant number 103 sitting next to her looked up and down at Yuna's yellow jacket and bruised ankles, then cleared his throat and let out a subtle sneer.

“Hey, applicant number 104. Your outfit is so… bright. This is a global logistics strategic planning interview, but you didn’t mistake it for a kindergarten teacher recruitment site, right?” On number 103’s chest, a badge from the prestigious S University’s Department of Business Administration was flashing. Applicants 101 and 102 sitting across from him also burst into laughter at his provocative sarcasm. Yuna's heart sank, but she clenched her fists and tried to calmly accept it.

“I think the key to logistics is communication and warmth with the field, so I wore bright clothes. Rather than just clothes, I want to show my sincerity and experience.”

“Are you serious? Haha, you’re naive. This is a place that transports trillions of cargo per year. It’s not a place to rub in sentimentality.”

Number 103 shook his head and skillfully manipulated the overseas logistics terminal simulation program on his tablet PC. Faced with that arrogant attitude, Yuna could not add anything. The high wall of standards and specifications demanded by the world was suffocating Yuna mercilessly. “Numbers 101 to 105, applicants from Group 3, please enter the interview room!”

The staff's loud call split the waiting room. Yuna took a deep breath and stood up. The moment my heel touched the floor, my eyes widened with pain as if an awl was digging into my bone. But Yuna thought that if she stumbled here, everything would be over, so she bit the flesh inside her lip until it bled and straightened her back. When the interview room door opened, a cool breeze hit my face. Behind the huge wooden table in the front, five interviewers were sitting with solemn expressions and a stack of documents in front of them. The managing director of human resources in his late fifties, sitting in the middle, raised his magnifying glasses and carefully scanned the applicants.

"Please take your seats in your turn. Due to time constraints, we will skip the formal self-introduction. Let's get straight to the core job questions. Please answer 101 in about 1 minute about the logistics risks that may arise in the construction of automated fulfillment centers in three Southeast Asian countries that we, Seil Global, are pursuing, and data-based countermeasures against them." Applicant 101 gave a thorough briefing on Singapore port transshipment data and machine learning demand forecasting models, using fluent business English. Applicant number 102 explained the blockchain logistics tracking case he experienced during his European internship without any hesitation, like a diagram.

Applicant number 103 also clearly outlined financial risks and hedging strategies for exchange rate fluctuations, as expected from an S University graduate. Satisfied smiles spread across the interviewers' faces, and the tips of their pens continued to leave checkmarks in the highest-grade boxes. And finally it was Yuna's turn. The HR director's sharp gaze stopped at the bottom of Yuna's resume.

"Applicant number 104, Seo Yu-na. Her resume is very unique. Graduated from a local university with a Korean language and literature department, TOEIC score of 820, and no professional qualifications related to logistics. But what is written in the experience section is... 6 months of part-time work at the Okcheon Logistics Center at night and 4 months of sorting work at a local courier agency. Do you know what kind of simple loading and unloading labor our company is hiring? With this miscellaneous work experience, we are planning a strategy to optimize global cargo worth trillions of won per year. Are you going to do it?" The managing director's tone was full of blatant contempt. The other interviewers also smiled and looked at Yuna pitifully.

The person sitting next to me, number 103, raised his chin and looked intoxicated with victory. Yuna’s heart was pounding wildly. The blood seeping from the wound inside the shoe soaked the stockings and hardened into sticky material, but Yuna straightened her back with both fists firmly placed on her knees and looked directly into the Sangmu's eyes.

“As the managing director said, I do not have a degree from a prestigious overseas university or the coding skills to create complex algorithms. However, what I learned while receiving 8,000 boxes with my own hands every night at the Okcheon Logistics Center in the bitter cold of minus 15 degrees was the living, breathing ‘pulse of the field’ that exists beyond the data. When the road marked as the optimal route according to the system was paralyzed by heavy snow, it was a sophisticated skill that held the hands of early morning delivery drivers by manually entering torn barcodes. It was not AI, but the sweat and dedication of field workers.

A logistics strategy that fails to account for on-site variables that cannot be converted into numbers and the hardships of labor is nothing more than a sandcastle on a desk. “I am confident that my ability to empathize and understand the language of blood and sweat flowing from the lowest places is the most powerful weapon that will bring true warmth to Seil Global’s system.” Yuna's voice resonated throughout the interview room. It was a cry from the soul that came out without a single word of obstruction. At that moment, all the air in the interview room was frozen and there was silence. However, the corner of the HR manager's mouth twitched and a cold dagger flew at him.

“I listened to the grand oratory. But this is not an evening of literature steeped in sentimentality. A company is a merciless battlefield where a delay of one second or an error of one won can divide tens of billions of dollars in profits and losses. Will applicant No. 104’s emotional sweat drop shorten our company’s logistics delivery date by even 0.1 second? You should write about romance in your diary. Next, applicant No. 105.”

“Director, just listen to me for a moment…!”

“That’s it. I haven’t given you the right to speak. Please say number 105.” The managing director's fingers mercilessly covered Yuna's documents. Yuna's breathing caught in her throat. Any further protest was a violation of the rules and grounds for disqualification. For the next 20 minutes, Yuna was completely erased. The interviewers treated Yuna as invisible and focused only on conversations with other applicants. Yuna, wearing a bright yellow jacket, was isolated like a defective part that was judged defective and discarded on the huge conveyor belt of a huge skyscraper. “This concludes the Group 3 interview. Thank you for your hard work.”

After the interviewers’ mechanical greetings, the door opened. Applicants from numbers 101 to 105 got up and walked towards the door. The moment Yuna stood up, the hardened crust was torn off along with the stockings, and a fierce pain as if the flesh was being squeezed hit her heels. I desperately tried to stop myself from moaning and walked out the door with a limping step. With the heavy sound of the door closing, the tenth challenge of twenty-four youth was torn to pieces and scattered across the cool floor of the gray building.