Chapter 4.

The earth turns once a day, and time flows without favor.

The weekend she wished could last forever ended, and the Monday she always dreaded came back around. In about a month she would have to make a final decision about quitting, yet the entire weekend had been spent not on thinking about her future but on thoughts of the android that looked exactly like Jeong Taegyeom.

Sending it back early had been her own choice. But the heart is a fickle thing, and the moment it was gone, she felt the waste of the remaining time keenly. The android had not only looked exactly like Jeong Taegyeom but had been impeccably dressed in a clean suit. By morning, the shirt that had been wrinkled the night before was crisp again, as though he had changed somewhere, and his disheveled hair was neatly swept back as though freshly washed and restyled. Yiseo, on the other hand, had drunk herself to near-unconsciousness and was not in great shape. She had showered, but her skin was dull and her eyes were hollow. The contrast kept nagging at her, and she had sent him back intending to rest comfortably, only to end up more unsettled than before.

“There’s still time left.”

“My hangover is really bad. I just want to rest.”

“……Then there’s nothing to be done. Alright. See you again soon.”

She kept thinking about the way he had looked at her until the front door closed, his expression quietly full of reluctance. To anyone else, his blank face would read as cold, but even seven years later, Yiseo could still read the feelings behind his expressionlessness with ease.

“I should have asked more while I had the chance.”

Why hadn’t she thought of it then. The memories between Taegyeom and Yiseo that the android might hold were things Taegyeom had entered himself. The company’s AI couldn’t pretend to know things it didn’t. That meant how well the android knew her was a direct measure of how precisely Jeong Taegyeom remembered her.

She knew digging into that served no purpose, yet she was curious. How much of what had passed between them did Jeong Taegyeom still remember. What had he thought when contact broke off the way it did. Turning those thoughts over in her mind, she sat down at her desk.

The moment she turned on her computer, a notification appeared showing new messages in the company messenger.

[Lee Heejoo: I spent the whole weekend crawling around. My liver isn’t what it used to be.]

[Kim Yiseo: Same. A few more years and I won’t be able to drink like last week anymore.]

[Lee Heejoo: They say alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, sugar, and spicy food are the symbols of youth. Better do it all while you still can. In that spirit, are you in tonight?]

[Kim Yiseo: Are you incapable of resolutions that last longer than three seconds? You just said you were crawling around and now you want to drink. I’m resting today.]

[Lee Heejoo: Three seconds or three days, what’s the difference. Let’s see if you even last three days. Anyway, how was it?]

[Kim Yiseo: How was what?]

[Lee Heejoo: Don’t play dumb. You said you were going to call the Jeong Taegyeom android over the weekend.]

[Kim Yiseo: It really did look exactly like him. I would have believed it if someone told me it was a real person.]

[Lee Heejoo: Did you undress it?]

She could picture Heejoo on the other side of the messenger window, wearing a satisfied smile and waiting eagerly for the answer. This was not a conversation to have over the company messenger.

[Kim Yiseo: I’ll tell you the details later.]

[Lee Heejoo: Sure. Work is starting to pile up. Good luck!]

The truth was, Yiseo had no intention of sharing the part about undressing the android with Heejoo. Even knowing it was just a robot, she strangely didn’t want to talk about it in s*xual terms. If she told Heejoo everything that had happened, it would feel like mocking Jeong Taegyeom behind his back and committing some kind of sin.

Her conscience stung a little at the thought of lying to Heejoo after benefiting from her idea, but she rationalized it by telling herself she had covered the entire night out last Friday. That made them even.

She was scrolling through the company’s social media feed when Park Yunseo called over to her.

“Yiseo, they’re asking you to come up to the CEO’s office.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Something about taking photos for the prize handover.”

The CEO’s office. That meant she would actually get to see the real Jeong Taegyeom this time.

Her mouth went dry. She swallowed and stood up.

***

Grand Prize: Marketing Team 3, Kim Yiseo

Excellence Award: Android Development Team, Kim Minsu

Merit Award: Marketing Team 2, Yoo Jiyeon

The three of them stood side by side in front of the CEO’s office holding their award plaques. After exchanging greetings inside and taking photos outside and shaking hands with Jeong Taegyeom, Yiseo felt as though she were dreaming. The same person who had been with her on Saturday was standing right in front of her at the office, looking exactly the same.

“I’d like the two of you to head back first. I’d like to speak with Kim Yiseo a little longer.”

“Oh, of course.”

Yoo Jiyeon and Kim Minsu went down ahead, and Yiseo followed Taegyeom into the CEO’s office.

One entire wall of the CEO’s office was floor-to-ceiling glass. A luxurious sofa sat on one side, and a bookshelf filled with books from various fields lined the wall. The desk was clean, most approvals apparently being handled electronically.

Yiseo’s gaze stopped on the robot standing upright beside the bookshelf. The moment she spotted it, the one that looked exactly like Jeong Taegyeom, heat rushed to her face. To think that the machine she had done those things to last Saturday was this close to the real Jeong Taegyeom. She fanned herself with her hand to cool the flush and sat down.

The real Jeong Taegyeom, with no idea what was going through her head, sat at the head of the table and met her eyes.

“Kim Yiseo.”

“Yes.”

“If it’s not uncomfortable for you, I’d like to be as casual with each other as we used to be. Would that be alright?”

Her heart gave a hard thud.

Being casual like they used to be was more than welcome. She had suspected it from the moment she rented the android, and it seemed the real Jeong Taegyeom still remembered her too.

He was courteous, exactly as she remembered. For a moment, the android from last weekend, the one she had done things too embarrassing to even name, overlapped with the real Jeong Taegyeom sitting across from her. Don’t slip up. Don’t slip up. Yiseo repeated that to herself and answered.

“Please do.”

“Thank you.”

Taegyeom curved his lips.

“Kim Yiseo, you remember me, right?”

“……Of course I do. Do you remember me, CEO?”

“I do. We went to the same school, same department. We worked on assignments together. It was my last semester and your first.”

“That’s right.”

And they had done more than assignments together.

A brief silence fell. Then both of them looked at each other and opened their mouths at the same time.

“Yiseo.”

“I……”

Yiseo startled and continued.

“Please go ahead.”

“No, you first.”

“No, Senior, you first…… Oh.”

Yiseo pressed her hand over her mouth, and Taegyeom laughed quietly.