The moment after they opened the door was bittersweet. I peered inside and saw Leo sitting up, looking extremely like himself.

But it wasn’t good news. He had forgotten some of himself. Doctor Jung had taken me into his office and explained that it had been a success minus his memory error. He still knew who he was, what he worked for at Kboys and that he was a robot. He was able to function in the exact same way as he had before.

Except he had no idea who any of us were.

“I’ll slowly introduce his data into his head but it’ll take time Yerin. You’ll have to be patient with him, with us.”

“Taking the time will mean he’ll ease into the knowledge and remember me, right? I mean, I’ll be mixed all through that data!” I sounded more enthusiastic than I felt. Deep down I was scared.

“Yerin, I can’t make any promises, you know that. We all need to be patient with him.”

For Leo’s sake, they kept him at the office. He resumed light duties after a week of rest, and this seemed to excite him from what I could tell.

I hadn’t really been allowed near him. It was hard to go home to my apartment without his hand in mine, his laughter filling our home as we cooked dinner and how he claimed he would devour all the food he cooked if he could eat it. The nights were long and sleep was difficult when the bed was so cold. Even though he didn’t emit any obvious body heat, it was nicer than rolling into the empty side of his bed and finding nothing to nestle into. The weekends were the worst, miserable and lonesome.

It seemed so funny how I could revert to this behaviour when there were weeks over the several months together that he had been overseas and left me alone then too.

That was different. I knew he would come home then.

I attempted to grasp at all the hope I could muster. On the other side of despair was the determination to improve the situation. I couldn’t bring Leo home if he didn’t know who I was. And how would he learn if I wasn’t there every day? I begged Doctor Jung to let me in after I finished work for an hour every night.

On my first meeting, Leo was full of smiles and it made me believe it would be easy enough to entice his mind to remember me. Our conversations were light and fun and he welcomed me into his room with ease. I left feeling like it wouldn’t take long until he was uttering sweet nothings in my ear as we headed home together.

After a month of this though, Leo was less welcoming, and I was becoming depressed.

“I’m rather busy today, Yerin-noona,” he said as I sat down on his small sofa, his eyes barely focusing on me long enough before he turned back to his computer. “You don’t need to keep visiting me. It seems like it’s not fun for you anymore.”

“It is fun,” I mentioned softly, playing with my lips to distract my mood. “I like being in your company.”

“I’m starting to feel uncomfortable with your visits,” he admitted, his eyes barely looking in my direction.

The tears started to fall then. “I see.”

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate you, I just don’t understand why you visit me every day. What need do you have with me? I’ve asked the doctor. I know I lack some memories I once had and he’s not prepared to let me know until I start figuring them out myself. Because I don’t have enough information to believe there is a need for us to meet like this, I’d rather we don’t anymore. Besides, it gets dark easily these days, and I worry about the increase in crimes with women at night. I would hate for your visits to put you at any risk. So I would prefer them to end today.”

I didn’t respond, my emotions were too strong for my throat to do anything but choke on the sobs. I got up and left the room, walking right into Jinyoung in the hallway.

He always seemed to hover when I was in the lab, probably because he remembered our training session months ago. He had befriended me easily, and when I was visiting Leo before all of this, he would often joke around with me, or hang out with our group when we would find time to meet up. But lately I felt I was avoiding all that associated with those happier times, him included. Glancing up at him, I merely shook my head. Jinyoung hugged me and then pulled back, his hands resting on my upper arms supportively.

“He doesn’t mean it; he just doesn’t remember you yet noona. You just need to be patient.”

“What would you know, Jinyoung-ah?” Leo asked, coming out of his room and looking between us. His eyes narrowed at the hands on my arms, a dark look threatening from his eyes. I made note of the expression and stopped Jinyoung from shifting back, glancing at the brunette and then back at Leo.

“Can you help me out of the lab Jinyoungie, I let my emotions get the better of me.”

“Of course noona, anything I can help you with, I’ll do.” Jinyoung’s hand was on mine, but I soon slipped my hands up his arm, resting into his side and walking away from Leo. As we went to round the corner, I glanced back to see the steely expression still within his eyes.

I knew that look anywhere. He was jealous, he just didn’t know why. It made me realise it wasn’t over yet.

“Noona, you shouldn’t use me to make him jealous,” Jinyoung chided in my ear with a sigh and I glanced up at him apologetically. “I mean, it was a good plan, but you’ll only hurt him and yourself in the process. I have to work with him, what good will it be if he thinks I’m in love with you? He’ll only back off from you further.”

“At least he got jealous,” I mumbled and Jinyoung laughed lightly.

“He’s too clever to fall for any tricks we try. As much as I would like to play into that role with you-” He stopped to grin at me, his eyes crinkling up in delight momentarily. “-We best not be that naughty.”

He was right, and I didn’t want to hurt Jinyoung like I had in the past either. Nodding to myself, I thanked Jinyoung for his help and left the department in a daze.

It wasn’t until I was home that I remembered the stats about being out alone at night feeling like déjà vu at the time. Racking my brain, I connected it to the first night we walked outside together, when I had tripped over when he asked if it was a date. He had said it then too.

The rollercoaster of this journey had dropped me into despair and started the climb back up all in one night. I knew I was grasping at anything because I was desperate to have Leo back, and not once did I want to consider he was long gone.

Perhaps I should have, it would have saved me some heartache.

Three months passed by and everyone had moved on. The doctors were busy with the new additions to their AI interface, planning a huge event at the headquarters to celebrate the launch. Everyone that worked in the building was hyped about it, and the phones were ringing non-stop, Younha had even put Daniel on calls to help with the demand. Sohyun was busy assisting the events team after work, Doyoung joining her at the meetings that would go over everything they were planning for the launch. Gunhee and Jinyoung were working as a team on something too, and now that Jinyoung lived at Gunhee’s apartment, they were easily wrapped up in their own lab lingo on the rides home from work.

It was just me who had nothing to do. Of course, I was busy answering calls on my shifts, but there was nothing about my life that was different. I woke up, came to work, completed my shift and went home. Every day was the same, and everyone was too busy to notice.

At least, that was how it felt anyway.

I should have known better. They were aware of me nursing my shattered heart, my willpower dispersing the longer time travelled. They didn’t want to offend me with their own happiness, Daniel and Younha had adopted a cat to raise together, Doyoung had told Sohyun he loved her for the first time and meant it, and Gunhee was glad to have an easy connection with Jinyoung who would play games with him without growing bored at all. And I was happy for them too. They deserved to be living out the best days of their existences and I hoped one day, time will have travelled long enough that I could move on too.

I doubted I could actually believe in that, but I had to try.