This is a story of a man and a woman, not a real human though, I mean, the woman.

This is a story of humanity, death, and Love.

Kwon Jiyoung turned 26 years old this year. Year 2467. He is young, charming, attractive, wealthy, smart and the most important thing is… he is a loyal man. A kind of man that this world rarely has these days.

He loved only one woman in his life, his childhood friend, his best friend, his lover and his wife.

Park Sandara was her name.

And then she died, car accident. Not a car that you ride on the ground. But a car that flies in the sky, wandering around the top of the buildings, going fast in their own tracks. The police said she was drunk and crashed a school building and she died, falling from the 10^th floor, down to a parking yard.

Jiyoung still remembers well why his wife was drunk and caused her to death.

They were fighting really hard that night, and she walked away. He did not even once think of chasing after her. He let her go, he let his anger surrounded his mind and heart. He made a mistake and then all of sudden his wife died.

The guilt and the pain is barely bearable.

Jiyoung is a man of belief. He, in his entire life never once be fascinated by the technology the world is showing off. He doesn’t like the idea of cloning before.

But after his wife’s death, he changed his mind. He missed her so bad. He can’t live without her. So then, last night Kwon Jiyoung made a biggest decision in his life. He wants to clone his wife, to have her in his arms again, to fix his mistakes, and promise to change, and live with her till eternity.

***

Seoul Hope for Better World

Jiyong’s heart rate keeps increasing as he enters the doors. When the guard leaves him in a room and tells him not to be so nervous, he becomes even more nervous. All he thinks about is, if he is sure of what he is doing.

He looks out the wall made of glass, he still has an opportunity to get away from this place. But then, a tall and skinny woman appears behind him, smiling at him. He smiles awkwardly with his eyes watching over her wrinkles all over her pale skin.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Kwon.” She greets politely with a weird Northern accent.

Jiyong just nods his head and tries to relax by leaning back on the black leather chair, crossing his fingers and looks straight to the woman.

“So… what’s your reason, Mr. Kwon?”

“I’m sorry?”

She smiles. She knows what’s happening to Jiyong. She can tell in a second when someone is nervous or unsure. Jiyoung is obviously nervous and unsure about everything he is planning.

“Your reason, to create a copy of your wife.” She says gently.

“Oh…” He straightens his body, “I… uh, I miss her, and I just want to be with her again.”

“Simple, but true.” The woman smiles again.

“You just need to fill this paper registration, and this yellow form for signature and then, you can choose cash or banking?”

Jiyong starts reading the form and weirdly becomes encouraged. He signs the form in a blink and fills the registration calmly, like he is doing a business with his colleagues.

“Cash.” He says as he put down the metal suitcase he has been carrying all over here on the table. The look of the suitcase, especially contain of it draws a slight greedy smile on the woman’s face. She is satisfied. She is always satisfied and pleased to serve a rich gentleman like Kwon Jiyong.

“Is it enough?” Jiyong asks for the last time.

She nods, “Yes, Mr. Kwon. It’s enough.”

“So how long should I wait till it’s done?”

“2 weeks. Exactly two weeks. We will inform you as soon as the product is ready.”

“Product?” Jiyong narrows his eyes firmly.

“Sorry, I mean, the clone of your wife.” She corrects herself.

“Okay, thank you for your help, Mrs.??”

“Mrs. Darcy.” She answers.

“Yes, thank you Mrs. Darcy.” Jiyong says as he shakes his hand with the older woman.

Jiyong leaves the place and heads to his office. He is driving a regular car, he has been having nightmare about flying car crash and he is already planning on selling his flying cars. Traffic is the consequences of driving a regular car.

He stops as the red light is on. People are crossing the road in front of him. He his lips with his forefinger, looking at those people, noticing a clone girl links arm with a boy.

He wonders how could he live watching his wife’s body planted by tracker around her wrist for identification. It’s just the same as knowing that his wife is not a genuine one.

He slightly smiles when he thinks of the day of him reuniting with his ‘new wife’.

“Hello?” he picks up the phone when it rang and he knew just by looking at the number, government code. It’s time, time to meet Mrs. Kwon again.

“Mr. Kwon, this is Mrs. Darcy. You remember me right?”

“Yes. Yes I remember. How can I forget?” he starts to sound excited and without he realizing it, his forehead and his palms are sweating of nervousness.

“We want to inform you that… there has been a mistake.”

His eyes are widened and his heart is like stopping for a second as he heard that. “Wh… what are you saying, Mrs. Darcy?”

He hears a slight sigh from the woman across there.

“You’re asked to come here to the office and we will tell you what’s going on in detail.”

“O… okay, but, uhm, my wife, she is okay, right?”

“Mr. Kwon, please, you should come here first and we will explain to you.”

Jiyong grabs his jacket, abandoning his breakfast and quickly get into his flying car because it’s faster. He turns on the engine and goes up to the sky, go to the required track and flies away to the Seoul Hope for Better World office building.

As he gets there, the guards lead him in. Everything becomes scary for him. He is afraid, afraid of anything that would happen.

He arrives in front of an elevator door made of glass. The door slides open and he gets in, followed by the guards.

“Good morning, Mr. Kwon.” Mrs. Darcy appears with her bitter face as Jiyong steps out of the elevator.

“What’s happening?” he asks all of sudden.

“Wait, calm down, Mr. Kwon, let me introduce you first with… our best scientist, “John 23.”

Jiyong widens his eyes, “He is a clone?” he asks with lower voice. Mrs. Darcy nods. “The best clone.” She says as she glances at the tall guy standing beside her. He smiles back and offers to have handshake with the client, Jiyong.

“I don’t know a clone can work at place like this.”

“Well, he is different. He was created to work at place like this. All his DNA, everything in him is taken out from the best scientists DNA so you can’t imagine how smart he is.”

Jiyong his head, “Well, that’s amazing.” He says honestly.

“So, what is it you want to tell me about? What did you mean by mistake?” Jiyong finally asks.

Mrs. Darcy steps back and John 23 steps forward. “I’m really sorry to tell you this, Mr. Kwon. But… technology is not always successful in proceed something. You know. It’s created by human. Human does have flaw, everybody makes mistake.”

“Please just straight to the point.” Jiyong starts to change his voice.

“We had succeed in copying the DNA Mrs. Kwon had and we had placed them into the machine that would create the new body of your wife, that would look exactly the same as the original one but…”

“But?” Jiyong starts to find it hard to breathe.

John 23 hardly looks at Jiyong.

“Turns out that our employee made a fatal mistake. They accidentally mixed the DNA with another DNA…”

“So then what happens? My wife’s DNA is still there right, so?”

Mrs. Darcy steps forward means to soften the tension, “Mr. Kwon, I think you’d prefer looking directly to the result than…”

“Tell me… I want to know… I don’t want to just look, I want to listen.” Jiyong yells.

John 23 looks up at Jiyong with all bravery he gets, “I’m afraid Mrs. Kwon won’t look exactly the same as she did. She looks like someone else, someone who owned the DNA that was mixed.”

“What????” Jiyong grabs John 23 collar.

“Mr. Kwon, please calm down.” Mrs. Darcy says.

“What the are you talking about? I paid big amount of money for this. I was desperate. I wanted my wife!”

“Mr. Kwon…”

Jiyong loses his control and punches John 23’s face really hard till he collapses to the ground.

The guards come to hold Jiyong from doing further violence.

“Mr. Kwon, we still are going to show you the clone we created for you.” Mrs. Darcy says as she points her finger to one of the worker, giving an instruction.

“What clone? I want my wife! Not some random es you ing mixed with my wife’s DNA! Give her DNA back! I want you to make another one, the right one!” Jiyong keeps yelling and the guards have to hold on him tight so he won’t go away and do something bad and dangerous.

John 23 gets up wiping the blood around his lips, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kwon, you know the policy, even if we are willing to help you creating another one, rule is still rule, we can’t break it. This is a very strict country, Mr. Kwon, you’re an educated man, you know what would happen if we rebel.” He says still in a polite way.

“I can’t…. I can’t accept this.” Jiyong mutters.

“Mr. Kwon, this is… this is the clone you own right now.” Mrs. Darcy says as an iron door behind her slides to two sides and there’s a big rectangular box made of glass covered by dew and smokes. It’s frozen inside.

As the smoke fades away, a human body appears blurry through the thick glass. It has long red hair, nice jaw, nice s, nice legs, nice arms, nice chest, and flat tummy. She looks more like a mannequin inside the box than a new human being.

“That’s… that’s not my wife.” Jiyong says desperately, ignoring the true beauty inside there and still crying over the unsatisfying truth.

“That creature inside there is yours now, Mr. Kwon. Parts of your wife are in there.” John 23 says sadly.

Mrs. Darcy approaches the box and glances at Jiyong, “We’re going to wake her up now.” She says and starts pressing a button on the right side of the box.

“NO!!” Jiyong screams.

“No. No. Don’t!”

“Mr. Kwon, you have to live with it.”

“No… not now.” Jiyong gets up and rubs his face. Everybody is waiting for his decision.

“Tomorrow, I’ll come back tomorrow. I need time now.”

“Sorry, sir, we have a celebration tomorrow, it’s the country’s birthday, remember? The office will have a big party so anything to do with work is not going to be available tomorrow.”

“I say tomorrow… or not at all. You know I have power, I might not be able to break the rule but I can sue you.” Jiyong aims his finger in front of John 23’s face.

“You’re a clone, you don’t have any power.” He murmurs.

John 23 nods, “Okay, Sir. I’ll be here tomorrow preparing….” He pauses and glances at the woman inside the box.

“What do you want to call her?” He asks suddenly.

“Whatever…”

“Alfa 13. It’s the number of the box. It would make you easier to find her, Sir.” Mrs. Darcy says.

“No need, Mrs. Darcy, I will accompany Mr. Kwon tomorrow until everything is done.”

Jiyong doesn’t give a about the conversation. He quickly steps in the elevator to go down and leave the place that can only make him sick.

He cries in silence. He doesn't even cared being watched by the guards that lead his way out. All he wants is his wife to be alive again but now everything gets complicated. He is required to live, to take care of someone he doesn’t even know.

***