Episode: 1
Silin completes her twenty-seventh job interview and receives a routine brush-off from the interviewer. She manages to smile and say thank you anyway. She rushes down the hallway while her secondhand shoes hurt her feet. On her way past the front desk, she thanks the receptionist. Silin enters an empty elevator alone and pushes the first-floor button. Once the doors shut, she drops her composure and weeps against the wall.
Silin hears another polite dismissal from the male interviewer at her twenty-seventh interview. Instead of complaining, she puts on a practiced eight-tooth smile. She thanks him directly before turning away to leave the interview room.
Silin hurries down the carpeted hallway in secondhand high heels that pinch her feet. Even though she is hurting and leaving another failed interview, she pauses to thank the company receptionist sitting by the front desk.
Silin enters the vacant elevator and hits the button for floor one. As soon as the elevator doors shut out the office, she stops smiling entirely. She leans back against the elevator wall and starts to cry.
“We'll get back to you.”
“Thank you.”
“29, 28, 27, that's when I broke down and cried.”
Silin stays trapped in her sorrow inside the descending elevator car. She leans back against the cold metal panel, sobbing uncontrollably as the floors tick down. Nobody else is inside to witness her despair. Will anyone see her crying before she reaches the ground floor, or will she have to face this defeat alone?