The moment she heard from Park Yunseo that morning that a new senior was coming, all the strength drained out of her body. A thought came to her. The time had finally come to take out the resignation letter she had been keeping tucked away inside her chest.

The pajeon they had ordered arrived. While Yiseo stabbed her chopsticks in and tore the pancake into pieces, Heejoo poured makgeolli into the empty glasses.

“Actually. I’ve been thinking about quitting soon too.”

“Out of nowhere, why? I thought the atmosphere on your team was fine.”

“The team atmosphere is fine. The salary isn’t bad either. Honestly, the benefits here are good too. I know it doesn’t make sense to quit under these circumstances, but I want to do something I actually want to do before I turn thirty.”

“Like what?”

“It’s funny how people’s hearts work. At first my goal was to make money through art, but after rolling around in commercial design, I started wanting to draw what I actually want, even if it means earning less. I’m thinking of taking a break and drawing all the things I’ve been wanting to draw, instead of whatever the company asks for. Do you have any plans for after you leave?”

The question made Yiseo’s hands go still over the pajeon.

Yiseo’s life had been planned out exactly up to getting a job. Everything after that had only ever been quitting and finding something new. She didn’t particularly want to do anything else. If anything, when she thought about work, she wanted to keep doing what she had been doing.

Yiseo poked at the pajeon with her chopsticks and answered.

“Not really. Honestly, even though quitting was something I’d always thought about, part of me wonders if it was a bit impulsive. That’s actually why I agreed to think it over. I can’t picture what comes after I leave here. I don’t know if it’s okay to quit this recklessly. Haa. Jobs are so hard to find these days. I should have lined something up before handing in my resignation.”

She let out a restless sigh.

Her heart still felt like it was twenty, but her body had already passed twenty-five by any measure. Just as she had become an adult overnight going from nineteen to twenty, she felt like she was supposed to become a proper grown-up going from twenty-nine to thirty. But the only thing that had changed in the first half of her twenties was a body that was slowly beginning to age.

“With your credentials you could transfer anywhere. Start sending out your resume now.”

“Well, do you remember Senior Junwoo?”

“Of course I do. He was famous in our club for being the best-looking guy.”

“Actually, he reached out recently saying his company is planning to hire a mid-level marketer and asked if I’d be interested.”

“No way. Isn’t he at IG Electronics now? The pay there is serious. Kim Yiseo. You need to apply immediately, what is there even to think about!”

“I was already planning to meet up with him next weekend to talk.”

“Perfect. Come to think of it, didn’t he have a thing for you? He’s a good guy. Use this as your chance.”

Yiseo shook her head with a tired look at Heejoo’s words.

“You’re telling me to transfer jobs and then start an office romance. You’re really determined to push me into a brand new fire.”

“That was out of line of me to say to a perfectly decent office worker. Let’s just drink.”

The aluminum makgeolli cups clinked together with a bright sound. The two of them drained their cups in one go and bit into the crispy pajeon.

“Ha, that’s the stuff. To the magnificent Kim Yiseo, grand prize winner of the in-company contest, itadakimasu.”

“It’s nothing. Tonight I’m covering the whole thing, second round, third round, fourth round, so keep your wallet buried at the bottom of your bag.”

“The grand prize winner really does have a different kind of generosity.”

Yiseo nodded firmly at that, and refilled the cups. Heejoo watched her, then seemed to remember something, her eyes lighting up.

“Right, speaking of which, isn’t the prize for this contest that thing?”

Yiseo set down the makgeolli and looked away with a guilty expression. She had been wondering when this would come up.

“The Jeong Taegyeom CEO android! Wow, you finally made your dream come true. You joined this company because of Jeong Taegyeom.”

Her voice rose with excitement, and Yiseo hushed her.

“Shh. Keep your voice down. We’re near the office. What if someone hears.”

Heejoo’s face was full of delight regardless.

Jeong Taegyeom. The time they had spent together was only a single semester, and even then it had been nothing more than scattered glimpses. They had never dated, but things had progressed, an ambiguous almost-relationship that hovered somewhere close to a situationship. And that was already seven years ago. The memories had worn thin with time, but Jeong Taegyeom had never left her mind for a single moment.

“The way to get over a man is with another man. Yiseo, let me set you up.”

Being forced into blind dates and going out with other men only made the symptoms worse. She kept seeing Jeong Taegyeom overlaid onto unfamiliar faces. His face, his body, the feel of him, his breath, his voice, the way he looked at her, all of it revived itself in real time inside her head. A few lines about Jeong Taegyeom she had read in an online article would circle through her mind and mock her as she sat across from a stranger, wasting time that meant nothing. Jeong Taegyeom was growing further away from her with every passing day, and she felt pathetic for throwing away hours on the street trying to meet someone while he kept rising. Someone had once said that a handsome man is a double-edged sword. Meet one and your standards go up so high that no one else can compare. It felt unfair, at this point. Yiseo had never even properly dated Jeong Taegyeom, yet she alone had to suffer this much over him. And this had already been going on for seven years.

Maybe the resignation letter was her way of finally swearing off this pathetic business.

“Hey, Kim Yiseo.”

Heejoo lowered her voice with a serious look.

“That robot is supposedly identical to him in every way, right? Word is that Taegyeom trained it himself, and it’s indistinguishable from a real person in behavior, speech patterns, and level of knowledge. Apparently even with everything off, you can’t tell who’s the real Jeong Taegyeom and who’s the robot. There’s even a rumor that the c*ck is exactly the same.”

“Down to that?”

“Yeah. Make sure you check.”

Yiseo’s face flushed red.

“……Is that allowed?”

“It’s yours during the rental period, so why wouldn’t it be. They say it’s the culmination of every robot Atlas Robotics has ever made. Wait, so that means…… that would also be possible?”

The two of them looked at each other from close range. Heejoo curved her lips into a smile.

“S*x.”

Life came back into Yiseo’s face, which had been completely drained of it. Her face went so red it almost looked like the dark circles had faded.

“Are you insane? There’s absolutely no way. Who puts that kind of function in a robot that looks exactly like themselves and then lends it out, not knowing who’s going to win first place. That’s s*xual harassment.”

“Yiseo, let’s not do this between us. Honestly, you’re tempted too.”

“Please, Lee Heejoo.”

“You’re quitting anyway. It’s not a real person, it’s a robot. A little robot s*xual harassment might be worth trying, don’t you think? Apparently as long as you don’t disassemble the robot during the rental period, the company has no way of knowing what you do.”

“……”

“You have the company app, right? You can use the rental voucher right now. Call it over this weekend and run your experiment. You need to work out seven years of one-sided love somehow, even if it’s like this. Leave it any longer and you’ll die a lovesick ghost without ever getting closure.”

Gulp.

Yiseo took out her phone and opened the company app. Just below the words “CEO Jeong Taegyeom Android,” a button showing the number of available uses blinked at her. 7. It had appeared three hours after the contest results were announced.

“……I’ll think about it. Let’s just drink for now.”

Yiseo answered while pouring makgeolli into the empty cup.

***

Everything was spinning.

After makgeolli at the first place, beer and soju mixed at the second, and whiskey at the third, the two of them had drunk so much they couldn’t remember how much it had been.

Heejoo got in a taxi and headed home. Yiseo staggered her way back to her apartment, staring at her phone screen through bleary eyes.

[Would you like to rent?]

[YES / NO]

“What’s there to ask. Obviously yes.”

Yiseo pressed YES and made her way home.

***

True to its identity as a robotics company expanding not just domestically but across the world, Atlas Robotics offered its employees a wide range of robot-related benefits.

Three free twenty-four-hour rental passes for company products were issued every month, and the employee store sold products at more than thirty percent below market price. The robot rental service handled both delivery and pickup, and within the metropolitan area, a rented robot could arrive within three hours of placing the order at the most. It was the first service of its kind among robotics companies, and it had contributed enormously to Atlas Robotics’ growth.