He was frustrated.

  More than just frustrated, he was downright annoyed.

  This woman who was her but not her. This woman who was his ticket in but could also be his train out. 

  He sat staring at the stupid grin on her face, pushing his spectacles up his nose one more time. Her hair was being held up in these ridiculous pigtails that made him wrinkle his nose every time he looked at them for too long. The room was an assault of pink and white and her white flowy dress was like a bag on her. What in the world were they trying to do?

  Youngjae thought back to the day he first stepped into the lab the month before. Kerino was the most prestigious lab in the country and they had called him up personally to work on a private project for them. Apparently they were dangerously close to perfecting the formula for the perfect clone. For years they had been three floors below the condominium of the lab's main sponsor, trying and trying to clone a human and bring the world one step closer to a reality that many feared; one where a person was literally expendable. Youngjae never really had this fear though he could see where it could come from. He found the entire expedition and interesting one and an adventure that he wanted to be a part of. His mind was constantly urging him to push at the conventions set by the world at large. Cloning was something he had wanted to try from the first time he saw it on one of his childhood cartoons. The idea of there being another Yoo Youngjae in the world was just too tantalizing for him not to explore the possibility further.

  Now decorated with more scientific accolades than he cared to count, he was a bit more than just disappointed that this is what he had come to--babysitting a woman with the psyche of an adolescent. Filling her favourite fish cup with milk and giving her her white swan bendy straw, then going over various mental exercises with her before she lost interest and fussed until he let her take a nap...this had become his daily routine. What cut even deeper under his skin was the fact that her face, her nervous habits, the very way she carried herself was exactly the way she did.

   "KLARA," he snapped when he caught her picking at the scabs from an accident with her pencil.

   She straightened immediately, eyes wide in surprise. "Ne, Mr. Yoo?"  His mood fell even further at that and her eyes lowered. "A-ani, I mean.....Youngjae."

   He slammed his clipboard onto the table causing her to jump back. "I can't do this."

  Storming from the room, he didn't catch her rising quickly to grab his arm. Once the door was kicked shut behind him, he tossed his notes at the man in charge of overseeing his interaction with KLARA.

Jinwoon was staring at him from behind the myriad of connected computer screens and various other beeping equipment, his expression full of confusion. "Yah, Youngjae! What the hell are you doing?"

   He merely shook his head. "She's so immature. I thought you guys said she's been fully grown for a few years now. Why is she still so freaking juvenile?"

  Jinwoon frowned, clicking through his system at the question. Youngjae went over to his side, taking the free seat as he ran a stiff hand through his hair

   "That's what you're here for, whiz kid." Youngjae checked the statistics on the screen that confirmed his handler's claim once it was turned for him to see. "She's been steady on this path for the past 5 years. We can't seem to get into her head to break her out of it. But you...." his voice trailed off.

  Scanning the graph and margined comments, the young scientist scowled. He knew exactly why Kerino had called on him--he was the most emotionally involved with the person who's DNA KLARA was created from. 

  Shim Hyerin.

  Even thinking her name made something sharp prickle in his chest.

  They had been in love. Not the kind where you just felt fluttering butterflies in your belly and giggled when you thought about the other, but the I-would-stop-time-to-be-at-your-side-forever, I-literally-can't-imagine-life-without-you kind of love. So when she died the very same day she broke up with him, Youngjae discovered what depression was. He then really understood what it meant to have a mental breakdown. No one could get through to him. He was downing anti-depressants like M&Ms just for the hell of it. The scientific community were sure that they had lost one of the best minds of his time and they very nearly did. He had already calculated how he would kill himself with enough plans to pick, choose and refuse from; it would've been as easy as falling asleep. But then Hyerin's little sister Jira brought him the letter she had wrote addressed to him the day before she died. It was the only thing that brought him back from the abyss.

  So now to see this......this parody of the girl he loved more than life itself and be charged with the task of jump starting her maturity--it was pushing him back toward that precipice. It ate him up on the inside to have to look at her everyday. To see her do the things she did wearing his beloved's face. He'd had enough.

  On his way out for the day, Youngjae stopped at the office of the head scientist, placing his nametag on the man's desk wordlessly. The responding quirked eyebrow of the old nearly made him lose his resolve but the thought of having to deal with what he had left behind brought his chin up.

  Dr Han looked no less than unimpressed with the production his junior was putting on. Donning a pristine white coat and thick turtle glasses, he appeared every bit the part of an unfeeling intellectual and from the rumors that floated around above ground, the assessment wasn't very far off the mark. 

   "What is this?" he asked simply.

  "I can't do this anymore. I thought I could tolerate it; that I could bear to deal with someone else wearing Hyerin's face, but I can't." The young scientist bent his body in half as he bowed a complete 90 degrees. "My apologies, sir. I know you had recommended me for this position an I am very sorry if I am disappointing you."

   Dr Han's expression hadn't changed. "What is it that you have issues with?"

   "Her," he hissed. "I refuse to continue to try to get a 10 year old to grow up."

   "Is that your main issue? That you cannot get through to her? Are you saying that this experiment was a failure and should be terminated?"

   Youngjae blinked at the sudden change of pace. "What do you mean, sir?"

  "Well," he began, leaning back in his chair, "you were brought here under the assumption that you would be able to get past this block that has erected itself to hinder our progress. If that is impossible then H-49--or what you would call, KLARA--is of no use to us and there is no need to keep a failed experiment. The confidentiality of this project demands that the subject be eliminated and disposed of properly."

 This was not what he had been expecting to hear. It was difficult for him to do his job so they would kill her? He had worked in cloning before, yes, but it was simple duplication--replicating a cell, cloning a tomato plant....nothing as monumental as a whole person. He thought that with all the seemingly failed experiments he saw holed up in rooms labeled with almost random letter and number combinations that took up corridors and corridors of the underground facility (he'd never forget the man with no eyes who looked suspiciously like Jinwoon), KLARA would be further studied as well and kept in the pampered conditions she had grown so accustomed to. She would crumble otherwise.

  When he met the doctor's eyes again, he knew that the man knew exactly what he was doing to him. And enjoyed the result he got.

  Sitting forward, he steepled his fingers, resting his mouth against his thumb. "Shim Hyerin's DNA was offered by her father of his own free will to see if we cold restore his daughter to a state that he could appreciate. He has funded this program as a silent partner for years and we will do our best to help him. I will grant you a holiday so you can....collect your thoughts," Han stated, pushing the nametag in his junior's direction. "You hold on to this as I expect to see you in two weeks time, Mr Yoo. If not, H-49 is terminated and we try again." He had the nerve to shrug. "Its as simple as that."

 What was disturbing was that, it really was that simple for him to make that decision and end the life of a human...

 Was she human?

 She was a clone of one....

  But did her chromosome count confirm her stake as a member of mankind?

 A shiver ran down Youngjae's spine the second he touched his nametag again, his thoughts still running. Whether it was a bad omen or not, he needed answers. But to find them he needed to leave.....Now.

  So he did. He spent his leave trying his best to find a solution to his inner debacle. 

  If Han destroyed KLARA, Youngjae would label him a monster A murderer, his own voice declared.

 But she's just a clone, the other side of his brain argued. Wouldn't that make you a monster too? How many of your experiments have had to be terminated?

  But they were never human.

   Is she even a real human? Or is she yet another man made object created to mirror the way we look and live to give us a sense of being as superior as the one who created us?

 It was quite the conundrum. His soul searching had taken up his entire apartment, notes taped or tacked to any surface that would accept the uncalled for addition. He was hopped up on coffee. He couldn't remember the last time he slept a full night. He wandered his home like a crazy man, breaking out into a verbal argument with himself every time his eyes caught one of his questions that had yet to be answered.....which was often and inevitable given the state of his abode.

  His rut had only been broken when his phone rang unexpectedly in the momentary silence of the apartment.

   He shuffled over to it and answered on the third or fourth ring; it wasn't as if he had wanted to answer at all. "Hello?"

   "Youngjae?" Jinwoon's voice came through the line, a familiar rumble in Youngjae's ear.

  "What is it? My leave isn't up yet."

  "That's not what I'm calling for," he replied. "But if you needed any encouragement to give KLARA another shot, I could give you some."

   The young scientist rolled his eyes, not wanted to hear any of it. Unless they say she sprouted wings and learned to fly, he doubted that he would be impressed.

    "I don't think that you can--"

    "She tossed her fish cup." At first Youngjae had no idea why this would be important until Jinwoon went on in a voice full of wonder. "She tossed the cup, tossed the straw. She demanded that we rearrange her room, insisting that we redecorate to 'a more mature palate of colors'. She drinks tea every morning with her continental or traditional breakfast and reads books that even I find snore worthy. Youngjae....she's changed."

 He didn't know when he had gotten over to his couch, but Youngae was there, his mouth unhinged and covered in awe. What had come over her all of a sudden? He couldn't imagine what they must have done to encourage this change. Just when he was about to get over his apprehension and ask, Jinwoon began again taking his silence for the awed one it was.

  "She's asking questions like 'What are the atmospheric conditions on Mars?' and 'Can I plant a garden in my room?'. Aside from asking for you every day, she's making such intellectual inquiries that it took me a while to stop being scared to talk to her. I mean, I slipped her some Mills & Boon to add to her library to help her out in that aspect. I mean, if she's gonna be knowledgeable about everything else, why leave her in the dark about that, right?" The man on the receiving end hadn't the will to scold him on that one, which he took as a good sign. "What I'm trying to say is KLARA is doing her best to be what you want--what Dr Han told her you expected of her. And, dammit, I must say, you leaving was the best thing that ever happened to her. She can't wait to see you again."

  And frankly, now, neither could Youngjae.