1: Seungwan encounters the A.I. Holobox
Plugged InChapter 1: Seungwan encounters the A.I. Holobox
Buying the Artificial Intelligence Holobox using the money she owns wasn't really Seungwan's number one priority in her list. But who can't resist the item? Seungwan thinks she could. She might.
It can control your appliances, lights, TV, or provide music recommendations and play songs for you with just a single of command. But there is more to that. The Artificial Intelligence Holoboxes could also manage and alert you about your schedules and inform about the daily weather. Moreover serves a small conversation partner in any circumstances. In short, its purpose is very useful.
Seungwan is feeling tired and weary as she enters her apartment. She works as a car tuner for a car workshop. Seungwan could say and admit that the workshop does wonders with both her mind and body, but on the downside, can get really tiring.
The girl literally drags her body all the way from the door entrance to her bed, sliding her feet across the floor and fighting to keep her torso upright. Seungwan groans as she collapses on the fluffy bed. Inner peace came to her naturally and Seungwan sighs in bliss as she hugs her pillow tight.
Seungwan is full of dirt from head to toe, earned from working at the car workshop from day to night. But it doesn't really matter to her as of the moment. Right now, Seungwan feels like she could sleep for eternity. Sleep is the best.
Seungwan thinks the worst is over. She's already on the bed, right? Like what else could go wrong?
She's ready to sleep for real but when she tosses around the bed, she finds her next greatest enemy yet—
"URGH!"
Seungwan almost throws her favorite pillow to the blinding light. Who on earth left the lights on?! Seungwan asks bitterly as she squints at the very white light.
The brightness makes the sun feel like a little baby.
Seungwan suddenly remembers that she's the only person living at that very part of apartment so she reconsiders her question. Why didn't I turn the lights off while heading to bed?!
Seungwan tries her best to see through the light, and finds the position of the light switch in hopes of turning it off. Seungwan pales and curses her life when she finds it by the door-- very far from where she's currently lying down.
"MOM!!!" Seungwan complains and shakes her head like a pouting child. It is one of those times when a person realizes how much she misses being a kid. She wishes her mother's present to close the lights for her.
"But Seungwan sweetie, you're a grown woman..." that's probably what her parents will say.
"Argh...." Seungwan lets out a long groan. This is unbearable.
Turning the lights off means that Seungwan will have to climb the mountains, travel the seas and making miracles out there happen but Seungwan's not signing up for that. So instead, Seungwan spends the rest of her evening sleeping with a pillow covering her eyes.
The next morning, as expected, Seungwan had both a wonderful time of recovering from sleeping and at the same time still disturbed from the lights she never bothered to turn off. This time, Seungwan's ready as she'll ever be as she rises from her bed, faces the light switch and snaps it off shut.
"I win, evil mastermind." Seungwan whispers, a lopsided smirk forming on her lips.
Her phone suddenly goes buzzing. Seungwan picks it up from the bedside table and checks the text message sent by her friend.
Joy: arent u forgetting something...
Seungwan frowns. She's sure that she's doing just fine and not forgetting something but now that Joy mentioned it...
Seungwan: what? what is it??
Joy: its our planned hangout idiot! didnt u say we should meet at around 9
She's right. Seungwan slaps a hand to her forehead. How can she forget their meetup?
To save herself from getting more late, Seungwan quickly rushes to the shower, dresses up afterwards and goes to their meeting place with utmost speed.
Seungwan arrives at their meeting place, in a small restaurant, an hour later. She sees Joy and Seulgi sitting on a round table, chatting warmly and sipping from their cold lattes. When they recognized Seungwan coming in, they perk up and wave at their friend.
Seungwan waves back as she approaches.
Joy turns to Seulgi, "Hey Seulgi, I didn't know we have a zombie as a friend. Why didn't you tell me?"
Seulgi throws Joy a confused look and asks cluelessly "I thought those were just eyebags? They aren't eyebags?"
"Kang Seulgi..." Joy pinches the bridge of her nose. She's about to explain, but gives up in the end, "Yes... those are eyebags."
Seungwan rolls her eyes at her friends' banter as she sits on a chair across them, "Hey guys"
"Seriously Seungwan, what happened? You always look freshened up. What's with the eyebags? It scares me" asks Joy.
"The light" Seungwan needs to take a moment as she plays the unpleasant memory of last night and sighs, "I came back from work last night and I was so tired that I can't even make myself turn off the lights. So I stayed all night sleeping with the light on. It was hard." Seungwan inclines her head closer to her friends and narrows her eyes, "The light was evil."
"Did you work overtime again that's why you're so tired?" Seulgi asks as she dabs a tissue to the spilled wet drink spreading on the table..
Joy eyes the spot where the spilled latte is spreading and snickers. How come she spilled her drink when she's using a straw? Kang Seulgi is unbelievable... adorable but unbelievable.
"Yeah. We have to, since some people brought us sports cars so we have to be extra careful and spend more time tuning those." smile is growing on Seungwan's face "Those were some pretty sick rides..."
"Yeah yeah sick rides, the sickness is contagious, now it's starting to infect you. This is like the third time you had a rough time. I think the last time was the worst." Joy says, "What was it again?"
"Seungwan forgot that she left her baking oven on." Seulgi says, "She just remembered it hours later. Then it just suddenly stopped working altogether."
Seungwan sees the flashback of that one faithful day in front of her face in HD.
"I was so busy with my work that I forgot about it." Seungwan hungs her head low dejectedly.
"You cried about it for three days." Joy adds.
The scar appears again. Thanks, guys.
"Because baking is one of my passions of life." Seungwan points out. She remembers offering a small tribute to her broken oven by giving a minute of silence before it got dumped to the trash bin.
"Okay..." Joy finishes her drink before speaking again, "To avoid having more unfortunate scenarios in the future and because I don't want to see those eyebags again it's honestly bigger than my fist. I think you should be more careful and take note of things."
"If I were you Seungwan, I'll buy that talking tube so I could have a simple help at least. You guys heard about that right? It's pretty popular and oh! Oh! They are so beautiful!" Seulgi says enthusiastically.
Seungwan is so confused with this conversation, "I'm lost. How can you call a tube beautiful?"
Joy sighs.
"Seulgi, it's called a Holobox, with an Artificial Intelligence stored inside it." Seulgi forms an O with and Joy continues "Well, it's not as popular as smart phones or smart TVs or even laptops, but few handful of people own those stuff. But it's like the name and the item itself is more popular than the number of people who uses or owns it."
"It's still a bit blurry to me. What is that? Care to explain more?"
"See it yourself." Seulgi points to the TV situated far away from them and hanging up against the wall.
They turn their heads to watch the advertisement currently being shown.
"Tired after a long day of work?" the speaker booms. Seungwan winced, that hit her jackpot by first line.
"Sometimes forgetting to turn the appliances on or off?" A tiny pause, Seungwan feels so guilty and attacked with every word, "This state-of-the-art technology can help you with that— an Artificial Intelligence stored in a holobox!" the TV flashes an average sized box, and inside the box, a holographic person standing around.
"It also plays music for you!..." the A.I. holobox started playing while the holographic person danced back and forth, "Lets you know your schedule, reminds important things and works as an alarm clock!"
"All you have to do is just say what you want! Easy as one, two, three!" some flashy background music plays, "Go get your own A.I. holobox now!"
Seungwan averts her eyes from the TV and turns to look at her friends as soon as the commercial ends.
Joy raises an eyebrow at her. Both of her friends emit a knowing look.
"But I just didn't want to turn off the lights because I was so tired." Wendy huffs "I don't need that, trust me."
"You can buy that Seungwan." Seulgi says.
"Yeah." Joy nods at Wendy.
"The A.I.s are reallyyyy pretty." Seulgi adds again.
Joy chuckles, amused by how Seulgi's words are hitting right into Seungwan's softspot.
Seungwan's right eye twitches. Calm down, Son Seungwan.
"Nah. That's not for me. But I don't know, maybe I'll think about it." Seungwan says stubbornly. She orders a drink and settles for a change of topic to end the talk about getting an A.I. holobox.
Yet an hour later. Here she is... standing in front of the nearest gadget store, gazing at a poster bearing the A.I. holobox.
Seungwan tilts her head to the side, what's so special about this A.I. holobox?
Seungwan ponders whether she should go inside or not, but doing some survey about the features and specifications wouldn't hurt she guessed. She doesn't have work today either. Might as well do something. So she enters the store with hands in her pockets and searches for where they display the Artificial Intelligence Holobox while thinking, 'Do I really need it though?'
"Good day ma'am, looking for something?" a saleslady suddenly appears beside Seungwan. "I'm sure you'll be interested in our latest gadget releases!"
Seungwan's soul almost jumps out of her body. She's not expecting to be greeted by an over-energetic saleslady at her first step inside the store.
This means bringing in more danger... since talking with a saleslady risks her ego she built in front of her friends and means a higher percent chance of Seungwan being persuaded in buying the A.I. holobox by 85%, and Seungwan doesn't want that to happen. She got her money down for a new sports car she's been dreaming to buy, not the A.I. Holobox... So Seungwan has to act quick.
The saleslady clasped her hands cheerfully.
Seungwan hurriedly steps closer to the stranger beside her and tries to strike a conversation, "If I were you, I'll pick that one, that phone in all-glass case is too fragile and will instantly break into pieces. Do you want that to happen? Also that sapphire blue one is really pretty. Blue is the best color."
"Excuse me, do I know you?" the stranger responds.
"Uh, actually... no? I was just saying." Seungwan laughs awkwardly and glances at her back. The saleslady is still there, patiently standing and waiting as she stares at Seungwan with expectant eyes and undying smile on her face.
Seungwan sighs. She decides that she has to talk to the saleslady after all. She just has to resist the temptation. Plus, she's pretty curious too on what's so special about the Artificial Intelligence Holoboxes.
"Where's the Artificial Intelligence Holobox items displayed?" Seungwan asks the saleslady.
"It's over here, ma'am." The saleslady goes enthusiastic as she leads Seungwan the way.
Seungwan follows the saleslady to where the A.I. box is.
There it is... the talking tube. Seungwan mutters to herself.
"Interesting..." Seungwan examines the box carefully. It's probably at the size of a big waterjug. "Tell me more about this"
"Each of this box has a personalized holographic person, so no A.I. holoboxes is ever the same." the saleslady tells her. "Say hi to our customer!"
"Hey there!" the holographic guy waves at Seungwan.
Seungwan admits it's pretty cool how it's personalized for each owner.
"Is this battery powered?" Seungwan asks.
"You can just plug it in, ma'am. But don't worry about it overheating and such because it won't. It has a strength of an everyday refrigerator!" the saleslady informs her, "But in some cases like whenever electricity is down for a moment, you can plug in batteries."
Nice, Seungwan thinks.
"How much is it?"
"Estimated $2,700, ma'am"
"Oh." Seungwan gives it a thought.
"Here's another great thing ma'am, your personalized holographic person can transfer to your phone at your own will, all you have to do is to download our app..." the saleslady showed her. Seungwan cranes her neck to peek at the phone, "...and then press this then you just have to wait for it to transfer then you're done. Don't worry though, it can return to the holobox anytime you want too."
That's another cool thing, Seungwan admits.
Having the A.I. Holobox can save her money in some ways. For one, Seungwan doesn't need to worry about breaking any of her appliances anymore. It also saves electricity since turning the lights on or off happens at scheduled times. Seungwan mentally list down another reason of why she should really buy one. She's still attached and loves her current classic secondhand sports car, a 1967 Ford Mustang, that's for sure. Plus the price just takes 1/3 the amount of money she received from her parents when she first started living on her own. Seungwan could save more in buying this than another sports car.
Fair points, Seungwan agrees.
"Okay, I'll take one of those."
"Excellent! Any personalized request, ma'am?"
Seungwan shyly says, "I want the female one."
"Amazing!"
Seungwan coughs. "The prettiest you have in store"
"No worries! I'll get our favorite one for you."
After having a quick examination and check-up over the product, minutes later, Seungwan is already at the cashier, paying her personal A.I. Holobox. It feels like an intense battle when Seungwan hands over her credit card, since she doesn't want it be handed over that easily. Her grip is strong and firm.
The cashier gives Seungwan a smile.
Seungwan gives the cashier a nervous smile. Heh.
Bitterly, Seungwan finally lets her credit card go and releases her grip. She watches as the cashier swipes her card before returning to her.
I will see you again soon allowance, you will be missed. Seungwan sadly notes as the receipt is printed out. And you? I'm gonna treasure you, Seungwan pats the box.
Seungwan is excited to try out the A.I. Holobox once she gets home. Eagerly and carefully, Seungwan opens the package, sets the holobox in her bedside table and waits after plugging it in and turning it on. She kneels on the floor and peeks with curious eyes.
"Hey." Seungwan whispers.
No answer.
Nothing happened for the first few minutes since it's opened. Seungwan rubs the back of her neck, but it's already , why isn't it working?
"I have a request." Seungwan says, "I wanna have some fun right now. I wanna sing my heart out. Hey A.I., play some music for me"
Still, there was no answer.
Oh well, Seungwan thinks.
"If you won't play some music for me, then I'll sing on my own." Seungwan grabs her hair brush and begins to sing her heart out, accompanied by a little dance, "WHO DAT WHO DAT WHO DAT BOY—!"
"Good evening, Owner." the A.I. holobox suddenly speaks up. "Nice ."
Seungwan is so surprised that she slips and falls to the floor.
"Why do you have to sneak up on me like that?!" she rubs her .
"My system was still processing" a pause, "But now, my system has completely processed. Hello again."
"So you're not defective." Seungwan recovers and rushes to the holobox. She examines the holographic woman standing inside. Wow... she's cute. "And that explains why you didn't answer me when you were first opened. You can call me Seungwan."
"My name is Irene." the holographic person waves at her. "Nice to meet you, Seungwan."
"Okay, I'll say it again then." Seungwan says, "A.I. Irene— play some upbeat music for me!"
"Sure. Let's enjoy." A.I. Irene begins blasting an upbeat music as Seungwan sings. From that moment on, Seungwan knows she'll have a nice time having A.I. Irene around.
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