___________ had to admit that it was nice to not have to speed to work for once.

 

Even if she had to wake up almost an hour earlier.

 

___________ tapped a simple rhythm on the steering wheel as she drove through the third green light. She found it a bit weird to drive in peace without the usual traffic chaos. Maybe waking up at 7:45 in the morning would be a thing.  Five minutes later, she pulled into the parking lot of her workplace.  Working for a local production company had its perks, though the short deadlines on projects nearly drove her mad. She couldn't complain, though.  Working three days out of the week allowed her a bit of extra time to relax.  And if she needed to, she could work on assignments while wearing her comfortable footed pajamas. However, the recent commission they received had her in the office every day for the past couple of weeks. __________'s sure she found a couple of gray hairs in her brush because of it.

 

The small clacking of her flats echoed in the hallway as she reached her department's office door. She took a couple deep breaths to ready herself for another busy day full of editing video clips and correcting sound distortion.  __________ placed her hand on the doorknob and mentally counted to three.  The door opened with a slight creak and she stepped in with a bright smile.

 

"Good morning!"

 

She was met with mumbled greetings, groans, scoffs and a couple of eye rolls.  Dang, today must be really bad.

 

"Super cheery today huh, __________?"  Her coworker, Kevin, deadpanned while typing away at his pc.  A ghost of a smile on his face told her that he wasn't serious.   She let out a breathy laugh.

 

"Not really. But I figured I could at least pretend."  She pulled out her work badge and scanned it.  The machine beeped.  "Here's to the next eight hours." __________ breathed as she waved her badge a bit before putting the lanyard around her neck.

 

"Here, here!" Kevin mirrored her action with his badge before letting it fall back onto his chest.

 

The young woman ambled past his desk and went toward her office. She passed a few more colleagues who were just as frazzled as Kevin. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that this project was definitely taking a toll on everyone. A new cyborg company in the United States was preparing to release its first line of bots. To keep up with the South Korean market, Universal was pulling out all the stops in order to get more people interested in their product. It was just another "Samsung vs. Apple" thing that just so happened to get her company involved. Not only was Excellence in Production, well, excellent, but their rates were affordable. That’s why they were scrambling to get ten poster designs, four thirty second commercials, five radio ads, and two billboard projects done by 30th of the month.

 

And it was already the 15th.

 

__________ sent up a quick prayer and asked God for all the strength she could get.

 

She approached her office door and stared at the empty desk where Mark's secretary usually sits.

 

"Looking for someone?"  Mark jokingly called out to her.

 

"Uh...Kind of. Where's Jess?"

 

She heard a few more seconds of typing sounds before Mark appeared in his doorway.

 

"Jessica is out for the week. She's at the Care Center. If all goes well, she'll be back on Monday."

 

"Monday...? Out...? Whuh?"  _________'s brain never starts functioning correctly until about ten in the morning.

 

Her supervisor chuckled a bit and took a sip from his Starbuck's cup.  "Forget your tea this morning?"

 

"Uh no," she stammered. "Sorry. It's just...Jessica is never out. Not even for a vacation.  I hope she's alright. Wait...did you say Care Center?"

 

This time, Mark burst out laughing.

 

"Yeah, I did. You didn't know?" he looked at her incredulously. Didn't know what? Was she missing something?

 

Then it dawned on her. The look on her face resembled a gaping fish after it being taken out of water.

 

Mark was laughing again.

 

"Ah, __________. Don't ever change. I needed that laugh. But yes, Jessica is a SNSDbot. That's why she's never out, never takes a vacation, and quite obviously, never takes a lunch break."

 

"Oh." she replied shortly.

 

"You are adorable,” he sighed.  ___________ shifted from one foot to the other out of slight embarrassment. He continued on as if she didn't make a giant dork out of herself.  "By the way, the deadline of the portion of your commercial assignment has been extended for another week and a half. So there's some good news." he beamed.  She couldn't really bring herself to bounce for joy as her mind was going through all of the conversations she had with Jessica. She just thought she was a regular person.

 

They really did make those things way too lifelike.

 

"...could possibly take the rest of the day off."  __________ was snapped out of her thoughts.

 

"I'm sorry. I'm still not quite awake," she laughed a bit. "What were you saying?"  Mark sent her a playful glare.

 

"Honestly! I've been your supervisor for a year and you still don't take me seriously!" he lightly scolded. His tone softened a bit.

 

 

"I said, you've been doing well with keeping up with all of this work. You’re ahead of everyone else and if you'd like, you can work until noon and possibly take the rest of the day off."

 

 

She contemplated it.  It would be nice, but...

 

 

"I could stay. It's no big deal!" she said with a wave of her hand. 

 

 

Mark rolled his eyes and lightly threw his head back until he made contact with the door frame. He massaged the back of his head.  ________ snickered.

 

 

"Ow. And I wish you'd stop that. You're a hard worker. You do good work. I need you to relax."

 

 

"But-"

 

 

"No buts. You are to leave by 2:30.  Understand?"  He used that rare tone of voice where he really meant business.

 

"Fine." she answered, defeated.  She opened her office door with a pout and nearly stomped inside. Her door shut with a soft click.  Mark shook his head and went back and finished playing Minecraft while simultaneously sending emails.

---------------

The work day progressed quickly. Though she nearly threw her pc through the window when it refused to play back the footage with her added corrections. Being a video editor was maddening work. Before she knew it, she had worked straight through lunch and it was 2:15.  __________ was still typing furiously when Mark poked his head in her doorway.

“Time’s almost up! You should be getting ready to go.”

“Okay!” she chirped. Her eyes never left the monitor.

“_________. I’m serious this time. Start wrapping things up. Go home and get some rest or you’ll end up like Jessica. Except you'll be in the hospital.” Mark chided.

That caught her attention.  She glanced up and saw a slight pained expression on his face. Without saying a word, she began saving her work and shutting the computer down.  She gathered her purse and her untouched lunch bag and stood up.

“You brought your lunch?” he asked, a little surprised.  ___________ looked down at the bag and nodded sheepishly. She’d wondered how Hakyeon would react. 

 

“You never bring your lunch.” He said in mild disbelief.

 

“Yeah,” she drawled.  “My…uh…bot m-made it for me.” Her voice trailed off and she wanted to hide under a rock right then and there.

 

“You have a bot?!” Mark exclaimed, completely in shock. 

 

“He was a birthday gift…”

 

“Oh, wow. What brand?” 

 

“VixxBot.”

 

“Wow.  I heard Jellyfish had an exceptional line... I'm just kind of speechless. You don't seem the type to own one."  __________ cringed at the word "own". Hakyeon isn't a slave!

 

But he is a fully functional computer with-

 

She quickly squashed that thought before she could finish it. 

 

"Trust me, I've tried to give him back." she sighed.  "I'm stuck with him." 

 

Mark offered her another small smile, but it was tinged with a bit of sadness. "It's cool. I mean, they are great to have around... Just don't let your bot overwork himself. Please." Oh.  Oh. 

 

Jessica was his.