Chapter 1 Jobless

The vehicles are moving on the busy road. Cars, trucks, lorries, buses and motorcycles pass through the intersection. Riz has been standing on the crosswalk for quite some time now. The city is bustling with various activities. On the side of the road, a number of hawkers are selling various types of foods. The smell of food assaulted his nose, making his stomach growl. He didn't eat anything since this morning.

"This traffic light took forever to turn red", Riz complained as he pushed the crossing button again multiple times. He has been waiting there for nearly five minutes on this hot day. Riz has been sweating profusely for a while now. He narrows his eyes and looks up to the sky. The clouds are nowhere to be seen to block the sunlight.

He kicks the traffic light pole as his patient has reached the limit. There is no one else there so he is not afraid of getting reprimanded for vandalism.

Riz sighs, clearly an empty stomach has turned him into an idiot that couldn't do any rational judgment. He says to himself, "Time won't become faster no matter how hard I kick it."

He decided not to waste the little energy he has. While waiting at the crossroad, his eyes are wandering around, looking around trying to find anything random to read. He couldn't use his phone battery is dead.

His eyes fell on the billboard across the road.

Apparently, it is an advertisement from the government.

[Tuesday; September 20th 2022; More than 200,000 job opportunities have been created by the government last year].

Riz sneered when reading the statement written on it. It is a word spoken by a certain politician for his campaign.

He laughs, "Hahaha, how hilarious. He actually pasted his words on the billboard".

Sometimes he wonders how these people can lie with a straight face.

'It looks like the election is getting closer. Every politician seems to highlight their own achievement'.

It is the same pattern that happens every single time during election season and people were always fooled by them. They come and do some donations to the poor, showing to the media that they care for the people's life. They seem to lack creativity when promoting themselves to the public.

Riz sneered, 'Well...it's not like they are smart in the first place.'

The traffic lights turn red and he is finally able to cross the road.

As he is crossing the road, he recalled the interview result he received this morning. Riz begins to complain, 'If you're going to reject me, just sending me an email would do. There's no need to call me to the office just so you could reject me in the face.'

He sighs, 'What a joke, I failed to get the job again. How many times is this? ninth? tenth?'. He couldn't remember. He has stopped counting after being rejected repeatedly.

Like many other fresh graduates, he is currently in the job-hunting phase.

Unfortunately, things don't go so well for him.

"I wonder what am I lacking?", he grumbled.

He looked at his resume, trying to find any fault that he could possibly miss, yet he couldn't find anything.

He is not an excellent or poor student, just an average student when he graduated. His result is still pleasing for the eyes to see.

His lecturers often remind them that pointer is not everything but your technical skills are. Riz believes he has an advantage over his peers when it comes to skills. After all, he has been studying civil engineering since high school.

He is without a doubt a person with a strong engineering background.

Despite all of that, reality proves him wrong when he thinks that he could easily get a job.

Most of his peers studied various fields that are not engineering-related during their high school or pre-university stage.

Yet, they managed to get a job a month after finishing their studies.

"What kind of bullshit is this?", He was so irritated. He has been searching for a job for a year now and he got none.

'Where did I do wrong? Why can't I get the job despite studying for years? Maybe I am destined to not be working in this field?'

Riz questions himself again and he is slowly giving up searching for a job in the civil engineering-related field.

In his entire life, he has tried a lot of things. His teachers encourage their students to do so.

It's the best way to find which field you have talent in.

He tried various types of sports, art, music, literature, science and mathematics.

He works hard on every single one of them but all the results are mediocre at best.

Among all the things that he tried, he seems to excel in science and mathematics the most.

For someone that gets mediocre results every single time, discovering his talent is like seeing a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

He doesn't need to try so many things and failed so many times anymore. The experience of failing after giving all his effort is too much for his heart to take.

That's how he ends up choosing the engineering field.

He believes engineering is a combination of both science and math. Therefore, he should utilize them together since he is good at both of them.

However, learning and finding a job are two different matters.

'Maybe it is really hard to get a job in this field. After all, this country has a high number of civil engineering graduates and the demand is low.'

Riz is trying to find a logical reason for his failure. It is a natural thing for humans to do. Finding a reason so they can protect their self-esteem from being shattered to pieces.

While he is contemplating, his feet finally reach home.

"I'm home", said Riz.

"Did you get the job?", Rosana who was in the kitchen asked her son.

"No mom. I didn't get a job", Riz replied.

When his mother heard that, Riz could see a glimpse of disappointment on his mother's face.

"It's okay. You will get the job soon. Don't worry about it". Rosana smiled as she tried to assure her son.

'You should at least cover up the disappointment on your face.' He was already used to that gaze. No parent likes to see their children fail. After all, that failure will tarnish their name as well.

Riz slowly headed towards his room on the second floor. As soon as he entered, he went straight to the phone charger. A few hours without checking his phone make him feel as if he is in a jungle.

Disconnected from the world.

His family lives in an average two-storey house with three rooms. Nothing fancy about it.

The only one who works in the family is his father. His father works as a lab assistant at a prestigious university.

The salary is not big but able to support a family of six.

"Where's dad?", Riz asked. It is already 6 pm, usually, his father should be at home by now.

"Your father coming home late today. He's going to another province for work". Rosana told her son.

"I see." Riz feels relieved that he will probably not get any scolding from his father.

After taking a shower, Riz sat at the dining table to have dinner alone.

Since his teenage years, he has preferred to eat alone, perhaps being alone gives him some sense of comfort while peacefully enjoying his meal.

When he is eating with his family, he easily gets annoyed especially when his younger sisters are chattering instead of eating.

For him, one should keep quiet when eating and focus on enjoying the flavour of the food.

Soon, after finishing his dishes, Riz checked his phone as any normal person would do.

He hasn't checked his social media since this morning.

Looking at his friends sharing their stories regarding their jobs, jealousy grows in his heart again.

He soon closes his social media and starts reading the web novel.

That's one of his favourite things to do as it takes him to escape away from reality he is in into another world.

As he was so absorbed in his reading, he didn't notice how much time had passed.

The sound of his father's motorcycle outside takes him back to reality.

He checked the clock and it already showed 11.30 pm.