“Hm?”

“Cleaning, putting you to bed, waiting on the sofa. I’ve completed all the instructions you gave.”

Come to think of it, she had said something like that before falling asleep. It felt vaguely like she had been bossing someone around first thing in the morning, and a twinge of guilt settled in.

“No, nothing else. Oh, actually, I saw PowerA in the fridge. Did you buy that? I’m pretty sure I was out of electrolyte drinks.”

“Yeah. I bought it.”

“How? You don’t know my door code.”

“I borrowed your phone case for a moment. There was an RFID tag sticker on it.”

After losing five door key cards, Yiseo had bought an RFID copier, copied a key card onto an RFID tag sticker, and stuck it to her phone to use instead. It was a method Jeong Taegyeom had shown her in her first year of university. In return, she had told him that drinking electrolyte drinks the morning after alcohol was good for hangovers.

“Right. Come to think of it, Senior was the one who told me about this.”

A warmth stirred in her chest for no particular reason. Not only did Jeong Taegyeom remember that, he had entered it into the android. He had always had a good memory, but it occurred to her that maybe the space she occupied in his mind was considerably larger than she had assumed.

Zing. Buzz.

The phone vibrating cut through the warm feeling. Yiseo pressed a hand to her throbbing head and checked the screen. Four characters read: Mom.

“Yeah, Mom. What is it.”

She answered and sat down next to the robot. She felt inexplicably flustered, like she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t, and rubbed the back of her neck with her palm. A gaze came from beside her. The android was staring at her. Gulp. His throat moved with a heavy bob.

[What are you up to, my princess.]

“Nothing much. Why.”

[You remember Hayoung, my friend’s daughter? The one who works at a bank. She’s getting married to a lawyer, apparently.]

“Oh, really? That’s wonderful news.”

[It got me wondering whether my daughter has any good news. You’re at the age where you should be thinking about marriage.]

A marriage-pressure call on a Saturday afternoon was bad timing. Yiseo’s parents had moved to Suwon, her father’s hometown, right after she graduated. It wasn’t far, being in the metropolitan area, but her parents were old-fashioned, and ever since she passed her mid-twenties they had occasionally brought up marriage. As luck would have it, all the people her mother knew who were getting married seemed to be concentrated in her mother’s circle, and her mother’s friends’ daughters had been getting married one after another recently.

Because of that, every time her mother called, there was inevitably a story about a friend’s daughter. She had heard so much about their love lives and weddings that she had developed an internal familiarity with them, as though they were her own friends.

“Mom, I’m still young. Not a single friend of mine is married. The world has changed, and it’s actually rare for people my age to get married.”

It felt like being yanked out of a dream more dreamlike than any dream and dropped back into reality in an instant. Yiseo spoke with a flat expression.

[Even so, you’re the first person I’ve ever seen who doesn’t even date, like you. Do you know how worried I am about you? Looking at the male celebrities you like, it doesn’t seem like you prefer women, but I do wonder if you’ve been staring at celebrities so long that your standards have gone up too high to meet anyone.]

She had been living with only Jeong Taegyeom in mind, so the reason was similar enough.

“No, Mom. It’s not like that……”

Her gaze landed on the android sitting beside her. The very cause of her inability to date was right in front of her face. Jeong Taegyeom. More precisely, the android built in his exact image.

Yiseo covered the phone with her palm for a moment and gestured for the android to come closer. The robot tilted its head toward her, and she whispered.

“Pretend to be my boyfriend on the phone with my mom.”

“……”

Having just woken up, the robot looked slightly dazed, as though it hadn’t fully booted up yet.

AI chatbots could handle something like this without difficulty. There was no way a Jeong Taegyeom robot supposedly loaded with every function Atlas Robotics had to offer couldn’t manage this much.

Yiseo picked the phone back up.

“Actually, I didn’t say anything because I thought you’d make a big deal of it, but I do have a boyfriend.”

[What? A boyfriend? What does he do? Where is he from, did he go to university? What do his parents do. It’s Saturday, aren’t you two on a date?]

Questions poured out from the other end. Already feeling drained, Yiseo answered with a tired face.

“We’re on a date right now.”

[You’re not lying to get out of this again, are you? You got caught last time too, pretending to have a boyfriend. Did you think I wouldn’t recognize a celebrity’s photo?]

“This time it’s real. I’ll put him on.”

Yiseo handed the phone to the android.

The robot rubbed its face as though its palms were sweating, then took the phone. It behaved exactly like a person caught off guard by an unexpected situation. A strange tension radiated from the robot holding the phone.

No matter how advanced androids had become, she hadn’t expected this level of nuanced emotional expression. Of course, being a sample Jeong Taegyeom had built himself, the quality was high, but when the robot was eventually released to the public, the fact that the company could produce a product of this caliber would certainly be a massive story on its own. This might be the moment Atlas Robotics established itself as a global powerhouse.

Following that thought, her admiration for Jeong Taegyeom deepened, and a company loyalty she had thought was nearly dead lifted its head.

Meanwhile, the android, with no way of knowing what she was thinking, opened its mouth with a thoroughly serious expression.

“I’ve taken the phone.”

[Oh my~ Hello. I’m Yiseo’s mom. Is this Yiseo’s boyfriend?]

“Yes. Hello, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Jeong Taegyeom, Yiseo’s boyfriend.”

The android opened and closed its fist, as though its palm were sweating.

[Taegyeom? What a lovely name. Ohoho. The day has finally come when Yiseo lets me hear her boyfriend’s voice. Please take good care of our Yiseo~.]

“You have nothing to worry about. I’ll take good care of Yiseo.”

[What a reassuring voice. So, Taegyeom, what do you like about our Yiseo?]

“Yiseo? Mm……”

The android looked at Yiseo.

The robot stared at her without moving, and Yiseo met the gaze with a puzzled look before a sudden rush of bad feeling hit her and she reached out to grab the phone back.

“Mom asked something weird, didn’t she. Give me the phone. I’ll handle it……”

“It was love at first sight.”

[Oh my.]

The robot’s answer came faster than Yiseo’s reach. He leaned back and smoothly dodged her outstretched hand.

“After that, everything about her just became something I liked. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to know where to start.”

The android said that and smiled. For a moment, even knowing the android’s behavior was nothing more than an algorithmic response, Yiseo felt her heart flutter as though he were actually her boyfriend.

[Oh~ That’s so lovely. Next time I come to Seoul, let’s all have a meal together.]

“Of course. If you let Yiseo know what you’d like to eat, I’ll find somewhere nice.”