1 Profound Sadness
"I'm sorry, but you are not qualified to work inside our company. We need people who are at least college graduates. And someone like you who isn't even a high school graduate will never find a decent job in the current society, where skills and background is a must have." The mocking tone from that voice was very apparent.
A thin man with above average looking face who was also in his late twenties and was wearing shabby clothes stood up from his seat and smiled weakly at the fat interviewer in front of him.
As he was about to go out of the room, he heard the same mocking voice reverberate coldly inside the room. "What a trash! Does he really think that our company would accept a beggar like him? One with no skills and was barely at high school level at that!? What an idiot!"
The thin man closed the door slowly and sighed the moment he left the room. A look of sorrow and dejection can be seen on his face.
"I don't even know how many times I failed in an interview for this month. I could not even get the lowest position. Even being a cleaner requires someone to be at least high school graduate."
He bitterly shook his head and strode out of the building.
He glanced at the evening sky with desolation and he could not help but produce a stream of hot tears that slowly slid down his face and towards his jaw.
The stack of papers on his hands had long become crumpled when he unconsciously clenched his fists. The crumpled papers dropped to the ground as he lost his grasp towards it. The strong night winds blew the papers far away from him.
He suddenly laughed like a madman as he stared at the stack of papers drifting away ever so cruelly far from him.
His tears never stopped from flowing as he laughed in extreme loneliness.
"Twenty nine years of life. Twenty nine years of misery. Did I truly live? Or is this.." The man suddenly laughed before he could even finish the words he was about to say.
He knelt down on the cold pavement while clutching his head tightly. His remorseful laughter resounded along the busy street making the pedestrians move far away from him.
No one consoled him. No one even bothered to ask him what was wrong. No one cared.
The man was in that position for more than two hours.
He suddenly felt cold droplets of water pouring slowly on his fragile body. He stared at the sky with a weak smile hanging on his face.
The heavens seemed to have heard or felt the man's deep and profound sadness and it gave him the rain to mask the tears on his face.
The loud rumbling of thunder sounded from time to time as the seemingly endless rain dropped ever so coldly towards the man, drenching his fragile body with cold rainwater.
But even after another two hours passed by, the man was still there, kneeling on the ground. He can no longer emit a sound of despair as his throat had gone dry from his continuous laughter from earlier. He can only release weak and hoarse whimpering sounds.
The heavy rain became lighter and lighter until it was gone. It was again replaced by the same gloomy night sky, only the puddles of water were left on the ground which indicated that a heavy rain passed by moments earlier.
Seconds, minutes and hours went by, but it felt like years for the thin man.
The light was slowly escaping from his eyes and his tears had long gone dry from the unending breeze of the cold winds.
After another few hours, several rays of bright light shone down towards the street.
A body of a man can be seen on the cold pavement, lifeless with no more light on his eyes. And the forlorn expression was still present on his face.
He died after twenty nine years of misery, but before he died, he felt a sudden trace of serendipity.
'For the first time in twenty nine years, I can finally be free!' That was what his last thoughts were, before his vision was enveloped by total darkness.
