The days went by with Mark working at NCT and going home to Jeno’s house. By the way, he and Jeno already patched things up between them after Mark’s first day in his new work. Jeno even lent Mark a spare room where the latter can set up his workspace before he left to visit his parents abroad.

 

Mark’s work doesn’t really end in NCT’s three-story building. Even after going home, he still continues working, but not for his employer.

 

Chenle and Jisung’s team so far gives out a good atmosphere when working together. The members freely exchange opinions, provide constructive feedback, and even enjoying some time together outside of work. Well, all except for one person.

 

“Hey Mark, we’ll be going karaoke after work later. Wanna join us?” asked one of his team members.

 

Mark declined with his usual, “No. I’ll pass” response and goes back to what he’s working on.

 

Chenle and Jisung have been noticing this attitude of Mark and they decided to talk between them about how they can make the boy loosen up with the whole team.

 

“See, Chenle. I told you before this isn’t going to work. He only talks to the team when it’s work-related. He even dodges questions relating to his personal life.”

 

“Maybe he is just a very private person. He’s doing his job well anyway. He’s delivering his outputs on time, even earlier than the deadline. Isn’t that why we hired him in the first place?”

 

“Yes, but…. I just find him suspicious, Chenle. I feel like he is hiding something from us. What if he’s an undercover or ~”

 

“Cut the crap out Jisung! Leave the boy alone, okay. As long as he’s not doing anything that will jeopardize the project, then it’s none of our business whether he likes to be friends with the rest of the team or not.”

 

“You’re suspicious too Chenle. Since when did you become soft for someone?” Jisung thought.

 

 

 

Another workday has ended. The team members went their separate ways, some hanging out while others going home. Usually, Chenle and Jisung are the last ones to remain in the team office.

 

“Jisung, why are you in such a hurry?”

 

“I’ll catch up with you at dinner. I just have an urgent errand to attend to. Sorry.” And off Jisung went out of the room. Chenle found it odd but he tried to shake off the thought. He knows his best friend has other important matters not related to him. He knows he can’t always have Jisung by his side forever since both of them have lives of their own. He knows that it’s possible that they may still be hiding secrets from each other, despite them being best friends. He’s guilty for that as he never told Jisung about what happened between him and Lesa two decades ago.

 

Jisung arrived at a familiar neighborhood near his old university. He dialed a number on his phone and instructed the person on the other line, “I found where he lives. Set up the devices tomorrow as I instructed before. Make sure that no one sees you. I’ll text you the address after this call.”

 

“Mark Lee. Even after working with you now, I still don’t know who you really are.” After several minutes, Jisung walked away and headed to his best friend’s place for dinner.

 

 

Year 2034 @ Lesa’s house in Canada

 

“You built another robot, mom?” Asked the still curious 12-year old Mark.

 

“Do you like it?” The boy nodded with a smile. “Watch what it does,” the robot went to pick up Mark’s basketball and threw it to the ring.

 

“And he scores!” Mark cheered. Lesa smiled fondly at her son. “It’s a basketball robot. I programmed him to play basketball, just like you.”

 

“Can me and the robot play basketball together?”

 

“Of course, you two can. But let me warn you, it never misses a shot so you better practice your skills to win against him.” Mark grinned at his mother and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “Thanks, Mom. I love it already. I won’t lose to him. I promise. Just like how I won’t lose our future technology company to someone else.”

 

“That’s my boy. Thank you, darling.”