Chapter Text
“That girl, Kyeo-ul…”
“I know what you mean.”
“She’s certainly cute, but…”
“Ugh, yeah…Until she does THAT.”
The blonde, bobbed girl turned to the co-workers openly gossiping about her with an offended expression, her hands and cheeks filled to the brim with yesterday-expired snacks they could not sell.
“Fut? I’m fill vewy cute. Can’ a gil ea‘n peaf?”
(Translation: What? I’m still very cute. Can’t a girl eat in peace?)
“She calls that eating, Jeno! Unbelievable!” Jaemin burst out laughing, slapping his best friend on his broad shoulder, nearly about to keel over onto the tiled floor.
Jeno shook his head with a look of exasperation and slight distaste while smoothly catching Jaemin’s slim waist so he wouldn’t fall. The manager of Port Of Soul Snacks (POSS) made it explicitly clear the first month that Kyeo-ul stared working there that he disapproved of her eating so many snacks, and especially the WAY that she devoured them, like a chocolate and salt craved beast.
She had a small, slim frame with a naturally fluffy, baby face and the bright, cheerful, sweet demeanor of a poodle. As long as she lived her whole life eating, she would have her pick and choosing of rich blokes around the world. Or ladies, if she preferred. Sometimes she was quite handsome, resembling the singer/actor Hwang Minhyun at certain angles.
“More like a black hole vacuuming up everything sweet and salty in sight like they’re meteorites and stars…Yah! Stop it already and go wash up in the bathroom before a customer comes in! You have chocolate all over your face.”
“Siroh! I’m not finished. Look the other way if you don’t like it, SIRS. Mehrong~”
“Eugh…” “Yuck!”
The two boys casually dressed in matching checkered button-up shirts visibly shook and gagged as the bob-haired blonde stuck her tongue out of her chocolate-spattered mouth, crushed up cookie bits floating on top.
A squeaky, airy giggle followed as the girl laughed, proud of herself at successfully grossing them out. It was one of her daily missions. Her life of part-time work and online college classes was too boring otherwise, so she came up with ways to amuse herself and make it more interesting. Eating the expired snacks and grossing out her co-workers were two of her long list.
Kyeo-ul was on her way from the bathroom, platform leather boots skid-marking the tile as she came to an abrupt halt.
“Ooh, la la…” she whispered with a naughty smirk.
Peeking around the corner of the wall, she observed with wider, more sparkly eyes than normal. Jeno and Jaemin were super close, leaning into each other at the counter, flirting and half-tickling, half-poking each other.
“Eek!” She barely suppressed a dolphin-like shriek with her hand as their chuckling faces slowly approached until they were pecking. She turned and tip-toed as quickly as possible, needing some cool air on her flushed face and thinking it was appropriate to give them privacy.
I knew they were more than friends. No wonder they are always wearing matching clothes and smiling like they share a secret. So, they are indeed a couple! They look splendid together. How precious. Jaemin and Jeno…Nomin, then?
“Where is MY soulmate, eh? The universe makes me this likable yet drops no-one decent and interesting enough to date. Ai, yaiy, yaiy, yaiy, hey~!”
The blonde shook off her frustration by singing her magical stress-relief chant which was a musical sort of shout, shaking her head and waving her arms by hear shoulders alternatively.
"Omo, omo! Mwo-ya, mwo-ya?!” The girl spat out in surprise, naturally speaking so fast and repeating words as if she were a rapper. She jumped back and almost slammed into the back door when she noticed someone sitting on the ground in the ally amongst the trash bags. She would have cursed had her mother taught her better, so she never got into the habit.
“Is she drunk? Or dead? No way, no way…”
Kyeo-ul rubbed her arms, feeling a cold shiver run through her body, raising up the peach hairs on her arms. She took cautious baby steps, going slowly as a turtle, craning her head to see well. She was easily frightened, so she desperately did not want to approach a possibly dead human in a darkened ally but she did, out of concern should it be a girl in need of help.
On closer inspection, it looked like a glamorous Korean-version of a Barbie doll. Its curvy body was in a bubble gum-pink dress with black trip. Its long, thick black hair was styled in soft waves and somehow looked smooth and glossy in despite of the humid weather. Kyoe-ul appreciated the touch of accessories (a black choker with a golden heart in the middle, heart shaped diamond dangling earrings, sparkly nails) and natural, expertly done make-up with pink tints which made it look absolutely flawless. It was like a Korean idol version of a Barbie doll, only she had never seen even idols with their team of expert stylists look quite this amazing. Those features with this sort of body were not humanly possible, honestly.
"Is it a doll? It's too beautiful to be human. Plus, those cat ears do not look like they’re attached to a headband. Unless there’s ear implant surgery now for animal lovers? With how Korea is with surgery, I wouldn’t even be surprised. It is big for a doll though, really big. It looks taller than me. Just what human possibly has insane proportions? I wonder where the legs begin even…"
Kyeo-ul squatted down by the doll-like thing planted amongst a pile of blue trash bags. She poked at one of the long, slender, pale legs while suspiciously eying the doll's tiny, egg-shaped, exotic featured face and long, glossy black waves. The thing did not budge an inch.
"Wah, the legs are ridiculously long. It makes me look like a hippo. Pfft, Kyeo-ul-ah. Suddenly, what’s with the self-diss? Woopsies, you pabo. Wait a moment. Excuse me, Miss Doll, I am just going to touch you so I can be sure you aren't a dead person..."
She curiously continued to gently poke up the leg which felt like cold, slightly rubbery human flesh, over the plaid mini-skirt, and gasped. There was an actual bump which felt like a hip bone and curved down to the pelvis. The doll was so incredibly anatomically correct, besides the ridiculous leg length. She examined the hair next by running it through her finger-tips. It felt like human hair that had been weekly treated with moisturizers. It was a smooth and soft as silk sheets. The slender arm she picked up felt quite heavier than most girls arms were in her experience, especially it was nothing like a doll should feel. Something inside the arms also felt a bit hard and sharp at points, like bones or a solid metal core instead of just stuffing as a doll should have. On the inside of the middle finger, there was a tattoo that looked like a serial number. It read in black, thin font: 20201117-K.
“Serial numbers? Like they have on electronic products? Wouldn’t dolls have a number only on a tag? The more I think of it, it doesn’t seem to be a doll…”
After a few minutes of scratching her head and humming as she did when the parts of her brain were swiveling about, Kyeo-ul raised her pointer finger with a look of a genius. “Aha! Could it be one of those programmable robots that are human-like? The ones that cost like fifteen or twenty Galaxy Z-flips worth? A…persaecom?"
Taking out her phone, she navered about persaecoms, specifically if they had serial numbers on their bodies. Indeed, they did have tattoo-like serial numbers on their fingers, but there was nothing coming up in her search for this particular version’s number.
Is it one of a kind then? Or an experimental failure? It being defaulted would explain more why it was dumped in a random ally which doesn’t have any IT companies anywhere nearby. What a waste of parts though. Do those people make so much money selling one that they can simply dispose without reusing the parts?
“Must be nice being a millionaire. I might be able to have a big enough flat to get a dog with the cost of one. Should I sell it? Or should I report it to the police? I don’t think the recycling company is going to take it and who knows what drunken weirdos will do if they see it laying here at night. It looks like a really pretty unconscious girl in a skimpy dress, after all. What if they defile it…”
Self-talking aloud was one of Kyeo-ul’s cute habits. It developed when she was young, living as an introverted, single-child used to playing alone. “What should I do with you, Miss K? It doesn’t seem right to leave you here, unprotected, cast out, covered in filth. Something this pretty and expensive deserves better than that. Humans are sure awful, aren’t they? Acting as if you’re something precious only to throw you out coldly for one tiny fault instead of making an effort to fix it. I see that all the time with furniture and toys…”
Rubbing the fluffy yet hard, clearly robotic ears resting on top of the persacom’s head, Kyeo-ul stared at the pretty, unmoving girl. She looked more human and pitiful by the second. It was surprising to her because she had always found the idea of persaecoms creepy. They seem alive and have characteristics of humans but they are a programmed machine and they also have an animalistic appearance with their stuck-up ears. As she knew, they were built like advanced AI with a learning program that recorded everything about their owner. You could even choose their tone of voice, personality, skills and interests to match your preferences. It was like being able to program your dream boyfriend or girlfriend, which she was certain that was what most people used it for. One would be able to have the semblance of a perfect relationship and the desired amount of company and activities as they wished, as long as they could pay out the nose for it.
It seemed like an expensive, futuristic invention for those with strange erotic fetishes and obsessions for people they couldn’t have. It was proof that humans approached technological territories they shouldn’t and crossed boundaries simply to prove that they could. She felt that it was an invention that was ingenious but also dangerous, unnecessary, and unnatural. She didn’t disapprove of robots, it was the personally designing one and making it look, feel and act as if it were human which she was uncomfortable with. Who knew why people bought them and what they planned to do with them? Surely, most people made them based off of people they obsessed over like celebrities and had no wholesome intentions.