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The blond man on the other side of the interview table stared at Touya, clearly unconvinced – and Touya hadn't even started speaking. It wasn't like the other guy looked like much himself: his hair looked like a bird's nest and if he shaved off his sad excuse of a goatee, he'd probably look twelve. Hardly the embodiment of professionalism.
The checkered shirt did suit him well, as behoved any staff member of a reputable lumberjack establishment, Touya supposed.
Takami, he'd said his name was. Takami was staring at Touya's thin arms very judgmentally.
Enough dilly-dallying. Touya pushed the stack of papers he'd brought with him across the table.
"What's this?"
"My resume."
Takami lifted the corner of the pages, flipping through the sheets quickly. "This doesn't look like a resume."
"Read it," Touya stated confidently. "This shows my experience."
Eyes narrowed, Takami studied him before shrugging with a 'meh' and pulling the stack closer.
"The Lumberjack Photoshoot Incident," he read aloud.
"You don't have to read it aloud," Touya said quickly. "It'll go faster if you don't."
Amused, Keigo grinned at him before going back to reading, thankfully in silence.
Sitting straight in his suit, Touya did his best to remain composed, like a good employee. He'd taken out his favourite tie for this interview, the one with little axes and trees. He had to ace this. Somewhere Touya couldn't see, a clock ticked loudly. With every echoing minute, the buzzing of the air conditioning system seemed to grow louder. The air felt stifling.
Still, Takami kept reading, unbothered. His sharp eyes jumped quickly through the lines, and he hummed or smiled at the right moments.
Eventually, he reached the end. His final "hmm" was difficult to decipher, his expression unreadable. Takami assembled the stack of sheets back together, looking thoughtful.
"This is certainly very creative," he offered.
"It's not," Touya immediately countered. "I did a lot of research into the logging industry while drafting this story."
"We were looking for someone more on the... tree cutting side of the experience."
"It's important to know the business."
He knew this might look like grasping at straws. But understanding the field was important! He could learn the rest on the job.
Again, Takami observed in silence, clearly calculating something under his ridiculously floppy hair.
Then he started asking business questions, with a specific slant on lumberjack enterprises.
Was he taking Touya for a fool? He had read what Touya had just handed him, right? Touya aced the questions, using them as a springboard to show that he also understood the difficulties currently facing the logging industry in the country.
Eventually, Keigo leaned back into his chair, grinning.
"Maybe we could hire you into one of the open administrative positions to start with, if that's something you're interested in."
You bet.
Later that morning, Touya left the building, ink still fresh on his new employment contract. His woody dream, finally come true.
Two years later, Touya had the company execute a brilliant plan to bolster hiring, as well as make the industry in general and their company in particular more appealing to young candidates: a calendar, freely distributed at university career fairs.
More specifically, a calendar with lumberjack Keigo around trees, sometimes standing next to beautiful tall cedars in a forest, other times beside logs and lumber at various stages of the process. The admin side was of course well represented as well, mostly featuring Touya since he'd been elected prettiest bachelor in the office during his first year. He only lost the second time due to starting to date Keigo right before voting started. Sometimes he really regretted the timing, but alas. Sacrifices had to be made. His past as the prettiest bachelor would never die.
His plans to improve the image of their industry and secure more business for their company didn't stop there either. He also started dragging Keigo and a few of the other charismatic loggers to industry fairs, when only salespeople had ever been allowed to go before. Meeting the people actually doing the work tremendously helped with building trust – and of course, their company's salespeople were still right there to smooth things up and help to seal the deals.
Over the years, their business continued to prosper, and Touya and Keigo lived happily ever after, growing a great many trees together in their spare time.