Chapter 5.

Everyone hides their true self behind a social mask.

Even someone who looks like a swan on social media, showing only their perfect side, is paddling furiously beneath the surface.

Yiseo had gone so far as to take a day off in order to prepare for one perfectly ordinary day.

“Dressed like this, you really do look like Senior from university. It’s remarkable how much a person can change just by letting their hair down and putting on casual clothes. It’s like that manga trope where taking off your glasses makes you a completely different person.”

Yiseo looked at the android and marveled.

Time seemed to have passed Jeong Taegyeom by entirely. A little adjustment to his hair and he looked exactly like the Taegyeom she had known at school. He looked like a completely different person from the one she had seen at the office just days ago.

“Well, I am a different entity. Being a robot and all.”

Right. The Jeong Taegyeom at the office and this Jeong Taegyeom were entirely different beings. This robot was simply an android built based on him. A robotic doppelganger with steel instead of bone, wires instead of nerves, semiconductors instead of a brain.

Knowing that, she still felt flustered the moment she stood in front of him. Because there really was no difference from a real person.

“I made plans to have dinner with Senior Taegyeom on Friday…… I narrowed down a few good places nearby. Excluded anything already fully booked, and focused on spots good for conversation. What do you think? Does it seem like something Senior would like?”

The android looked at the list she held out and curved the corner of his mouth.

“If it’s with you, I think anything would taste good.”

“I’m eating with the real Senior Taegyeom, not you.”

“Then he’ll like it too.”

“He? Is that how you talk about your owner?”

“Just cleared it with him directly.”

The way this robot was oddly shameless was also exactly like Jeong Taegyeom.

Just as a child AI trained on YouTube develops an entirely different personality from one trained on educational programming, an android built on Jeong Taegyeom was clearly cut from a different cloth than any other android.

“By the way, Jeong Taegyeom already made a reservation.”

“Oh, really? Where?”

“A pajeon place near the office. Called ‘Wa, Jeon.'”

Wa, Jeon was a place Yiseo loved enough to visit three times a week. She had sent Heejoo company messenger messages like “Wa Jeon?”, “Requesting approval for Wa Jeon after work today,” and “Ugh, really feeling Wa Jeon today” so often it had practically become a habit. It had been their first stop last Friday too. She had been worried she might miss it this week with plans on both Friday and Saturday, so this was welcome news.

“How did Senior know I like pajeon?”

“You gave him plenty of hints.”

Come to think of it, she had been fairly obvious about it.

“It’s supposed to rain Friday evening. Would you like pajeon?”

“I know a place that does incredible kimchi jeon, potato jeon, and aged pumpkin jeon.”

“Oh, does Senior like pajeon? I should have asked that first.”

“Is a pajeon place too casual for a reunion? I can look for somewhere nicer. Though their aged pumpkin jeon really is something special……”

Looking back, she had mentioned it so many times it would have been rude not to go there.

They say a person’s world is shaped by exactly what they know. The most delicious thing in Yiseo’s world right now was the pajeon at that place, so naturally she had wanted Taegyeom to try it. Heejoo would have a fit if she found out their hideout had been exposed to the CEO, but Yiseo hadn’t directly revealed it. Taegyeom had figured it out himself, so it should be fine.

Even if she had provided a rather decisive clue, given that it was the only place in the area that sold aged pumpkin jeon……

“I get that Senior knows because I told him, but how do you know?”

“I was there.”

“So everything we talked about was recorded?”

He hesitated for a moment, looking caught off guard.

“Not exactly. I respond to your voice, so that’s what I retained.”

“Oh, I see. Though I suppose it would be stranger if an android just sat there passively, in a world where phones eavesdrop on conversations to serve up algorithms.”

She understood it well enough, but her expression remained uneasy, and the android quickly changed the subject as though trying to redirect.

“Speaking of which, why did you take a day off to call me over today?”

“To practice having a conversation with Senior before Friday.”

“Does that really require practice?”

“You have no idea how nervous I am right now.”

Yiseo reached out and grabbed the android’s hand. The android startled slightly, gaze dropping to her hand gripping his. Her hand was cold, probably from nerves. On top of that, despite being indoors with the air conditioning on, she was trembling as though chilled in the middle of summer.

“Look at this. I’m shaking like a Chihuahua. What is Senior going to think of me.”

“That you’re cute.”

The android answered without missing a beat. Yiseo’s face, which had been unguarded, flushed instantly. The tips of the robot’s ears had gone red too.

“Why is your answer so sweet. Did I rent a dating robot instead of the Jeong Taegyeom android……”

She let go of the robot’s hand and fanned her flushed face as she continued.

“Anyway, that’s why I need practice. If I’m this much of a mess even in front of you, imagine how I’ll fumble in front of Senior.”

“Last time you said it was already in the past, so I thought you weren’t that bothered. You sent me back early too.”

“The past is the past, but a new opportunity has opened up in the present. Even if things can’t go back to how they were, I’d like to stay on good terms with Senior.”

“Why can’t things go back to how they were?”

“A person has to know their place. I’m just an ordinary employee, and Senior Taegyeom is the CEO of the best robotics company in Korea. Maybe when he was just a senior several years above me it would have been different, but now we’re living in completely different worlds. I’m a commoner. Senior is a chaebol heir and the CEO of a thriving company. Realistically, how could something work out between us.”

Yiseo said it with a deflated expression. The android looked at her and reached over to take back the hand she had let go of earlier.

“I don’t understand. What difference is there between us. You and I both have blood running through our veins, and we’re both made of the same bones, muscle, and flesh.”

Yiseo stared at him with an expression of disbelief.

“What are you talking about. You’re an android.”

At that, the android looked flustered, as though just remembering a fact he had forgotten.

“……Right. I’m an android. But Jeong Taegyeom is the same kind of person as you.”

“People are still not all the same, you know.”

The android raised one eyebrow with a dissatisfied look. He seemed to think it over for a moment, eyes shifting, then opened his mouth again.

“Alright. Say things can’t go back to how they were. What about something more than that.”

“What have you been listening to? Obviously not. If the previous stage isn’t possible, the next one certainly isn’t.”

“Then setting aside your so-called realistic reasons, what if the situation were unrealistic. Would it be possible then?”

“What kind of situation?”

“I’m asking whether you think something could work between us in an unrealistic situation like the one we’re in right now.”

The android gripped her hand firmly. Yiseo couldn’t bring herself to pull away, and after a moment of hesitation, she nodded.

“There are still five rentals left anyway. When those are up, you’ll be reset. Enjoying it before then seems fine……”

“……This is going to drive me insane.”

The android that looked exactly like Jeong Taegyeom swept his hair back and exhaled. Maybe because of the face he wore, but even making a disgruntled gesture, he was handsome.

He met her eyes with a thoroughly serious expression.

“……Kim Yiseo.”

“Yeah?”

“What if the real Jeong Taegyeom still has feelings for you. Would it still be a no?”

His face as he said it looked complicated, like someone who had been turned down before even confessing. But Yiseo was an extremely realistic person, and she had enough self-awareness to know her one-sided love was an abnormal situation.

“I decided not to think about that from the start, since the probability is zero. The Jeong Taegyeom who was my senior seven years ago and the CEO Jeong Taegyeom now are just completely different people. It’s easier on my heart to think of it that way.”

“No, I haven’t changed.”

“How would you know that.”

“Because I am Jeong Taegyeom.”

It seemed the android built on Jeong Taegyeom genuinely believed it was Jeong Taegyeom himself. With him acting like this, it really was difficult to tell him apart from the real thing. The very existence of this android felt like resuming the old debate with the man who had once argued that a robot could become a person. At this level, wasn’t it practically him?

Was this really actually a robot?

“Senior wouldn’t have stayed like that for seven years. When contact broke off at the end, I was the one who changed my number, but Senior could have found my contact information if he had wanted to. The fact that he didn’t ask anyone means that’s just where we ended up.”