Kyrah walked out of the meeting room feeling strangely optimistic. She had barely taken three steps toward her desk when Zuma called after her.
"Kyrah."
She turned around. Zuma was standing at the entrance of the meeting room, his arms folded across his chest.
"Yes?"
"Do you actually know what you just volunteered for?"
Kyrah frowned. "The Haneul Technologies project?"
"Yes. Haneul." He emphasized the name as though it were a warning.
Kyrah glanced at the files in her hands. "It's a collaboration project. I know that much."
Zuma sighed and followed her to her desk. "Haneul Technologies has been one of our most difficult partners for years. Their expectations are ridiculous, their response time is worse, and they have a habit of rejecting proposals without giving proper explanations."
"Oh."
"Exactly. Oh."
Kyrah looked at him for a moment before smiling. "Then I guess I'll just have to make a proposal they can't reject."
Zuma stared at her.
"You're either very confident," he said, "or you haven't realized what you've gotten yourself into."
"Maybe both."
He laughed despite himself and returned to his desk.
Kyrah sat down and opened the files.
Within the first hour, her confidence began to disappear.
She went through previous collaboration reports, rejected proposals, meeting notes, and feedback from Haneul Technologies. The deeper she went, the more she understood why everyone had looked at her strangely when she volunteered.
Most of the previous proposals had been technically impressive. The problem was that they were built around what Haneul wanted to sell rather than what their customers actually needed.
Kyrah leaned back in her chair and stared at the screen.
"What exactly are you trying to achieve?" she muttered.
She began again.
This time, she wasn't looking at Haneul as a difficult company. She was looking at them as a business with a problem.
By the time most of the office had emptied, Kyrah was still typing.
She worked through the evening, barely noticing the time. She built the proposal around an AI-powered smart-home ecosystem that could learn a user's routines, energy consumption, and security preferences while allowing the system to adapt without requiring constant manual commands.
But she didn't stop there.
She added a section on accessibility.
The system could recognize different user profiles and adjust lighting, temperature, and household functions based on individual needs. She proposed that the two companies develop a pilot program before attempting a full-scale launch.
It was nearly midnight when she finally leaned back.
Her eyes burned.
Her stomach growled.
She ignored both.
Her phone vibrated.
Seo Jun: Hey, Tripper. How's your first big day going? I'm sure you're crushing it.
Kyrah stared at the message and laughed.
She replied with a tired-face emoji.
Kyrah: It's more like I've gotten myself into some deep shit.
A few seconds later, his reply came.
Seo Jun: That doesn't sound like someone who's crushing it.
Kyrah looked at the piles of documents around her.
Kyrah: Haneul Technologies.
There was a pause.
Seo Jun: Don't tell me you're in charge of the Haneul project.
Kyrah's eyebrows rose.
Kyrah: How did you know?
Seo Jun: Because I'm an executive here, remember?
She rolled her eyes.
Kyrah: Right. Mr. Big Executive.
Another message appeared.
Seo Jun: Are you still at work?
Kyrah looked at the clock.
11:47 p.m.
Kyrah: Yes. I have to pull an all-nighter. I feel like I've taken on something most people wouldn't dare touch.
The typing indicator appeared almost immediately.
Seo Jun: Stay there.
Kyrah frowned.
Kyrah: Why?
Seo Jun: I'll come downstairs.
She sat upright.
Kyrah: Absolutely not.
Seo Jun: Why?
Kyrah: I can't possibly let you come down here and do my research for me.
Seo Jun: Who said anything about doing it for you?
Before she could respond, another message appeared.
Seo Jun: I was working overtime too. I'll come down and help you look through some of the previous files.
Kyrah hesitated.
Then his final message arrived.
Seo Jun: Besides, I'm your cheat key in this company. You should use me properly.
Kyrah burst out laughing.
Kyrah: You're unbelievable.
Seo Jun: I'll be downstairs in five minutes.
True to his word, Seo Jun appeared a few minutes later carrying his laptop.
Kyrah looked up from her desk.
"You actually came."
"You sounded desperate."
"I did not sound desperate."
"You used the words 'deep shit.'"
Kyrah covered her face.
"Please forget that."
"I'll consider it."
He pulled a chair beside her and looked at her screen.
"So, show me what you've got."
For the next few minutes, Seo Jun said nothing. He read through the proposal carefully, occasionally scrolling back to earlier sections.
Finally, he nodded.
"This is good."
Kyrah looked at him suspiciously.
"Good?"
"Very good, actually."
Her shoulders relaxed.
"But…"
"There it is."
He smiled.
"You have three problems."
Kyrah turned her chair toward him. "I'm listening."
"First, your proposal is too focused on the technology. Haneul already knows what the technology can do. You're trying to convince them to collaborate with you, so you need to show them why the collaboration makes commercial sense."
He pointed to one section.
"You've mentioned projected efficiency, but where's your projected return on investment?"
Kyrah quickly opened another document.
"I haven't calculated it yet."
"Do it."
She nodded and began typing.
"Second," he continued, "your pilot program is good, but you've made it too broad. If you ask Haneul to test everything at once, they'll see it as expensive and risky."
"So I narrow the pilot."
"Exactly. Pick three functions. Make those three almost impossible to reject."
Kyrah deleted several paragraphs.
"And the third?"
Seo Jun looked at her.
"Confidence."
Kyrah blinked.
"Confidence?"
"You keep writing things like 'we believe,' 'we hope,' and 'we intend.'"
He highlighted one sentence.
"Don't write that."
"Why?"
"Because you're not begging them to work with you."
He leaned back.
"You're presenting a solution."
Kyrah stared at the screen.
Then she slowly deleted the words.
We believe this collaboration could potentially...
She replaced them with:
This collaboration will allow both companies to...
She looked at Seo Jun.
"Better?"
"Much better."
They continued.
Seo Jun never took control of her keyboard or rewrote the proposal himself. Whenever he noticed a weakness, he pointed it out and made her think through the solution.
At one point, Kyrah looked at him.
"You know, you're actually a good teacher."
"Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to maintain."
She laughed.
The clock moved past midnight before they finally stopped.
Seo Jun closed his laptop.
"That's enough for tonight."
Kyrah looked at her presentation.
"But I still have—"
"You've worked enough."
"I need to finish it."
"You need sleep."
Kyrah sighed.
"I just hope Xiumin accepts it tomorrow. I really don't want to start all over again."
Seo Jun stood and reached for her jacket.
"Believe in yourself, Kyrah."
She looked at him.
"You've already done the difficult part. Now let the work speak for itself."
He held out her jacket.
"Come on. I'll take you to the company lodge."
Kyrah took it from him.
"Thank you."
As they walked toward the elevator, she smiled.
"You've helped me a lot since I came here."
Seo Jun pressed the elevator button.
"You're welcome."
"You really don't expect anything in return?"
He glanced at her.
"Not everything has to be a transaction."
The elevator doors opened.
Kyrah didn't know why that simple sentence stayed with her.
They reached the parking lot, and Seo Jun drove her to the company lodge. By the time they arrived, Kyrah was already thinking about the presentation again.
She grabbed her laptop bag and files and stepped out.
"Goodnight, Seo Jun."
"Goodnight. And be careful."
She nodded and turned toward the entrance.
After taking a few steps, she realized something was missing.
Her coat.
Before she could turn around, Seo Jun had already stepped out of the car with it.
"You forgot this."
"Oh."
He placed the coat over her shoulders.
"Be more careful. Don't catch a cold."
Then he added, almost casually,
"Both of you."
Kyrah smiled.
There it was again.
He never spoke about her as though she were alone anymore.
It was always both of them.
She touched her stomach instinctively.
"Goodnight, Seo Jun."
"Goodnight, Tripper."
She watched his car disappear before walking inside.
Once in her room, Kyrah placed the proposal on the table and stared at it.
Something still bothered her.
She picked up her laptop and began reading through the presentation again.
Then she reached the section about the smart-home system.
She thought about her own day.
How tired she was.
How she had worked for hours and still had to manually adjust everything around her.
An idea suddenly came to her.
She grabbed her notebook.
"What if…"
She began writing.
A home AI system that could recognize when a user was exhausted and automatically adjust the environment accordingly—lowering the lights, adjusting the temperature, preparing a preferred setting, and even reminding the user to rest.
Kyrah's eyes widened.
She quickly opened the presentation.
She added the idea.
Then another.
And another.
By the time she finished, she was smiling.
This wasn't just a project anymore.
It was something she could see herself using.
Kyrah saved the file and closed her laptop.
Tomorrow would be her first real test.
She looked at the proposal one last time.
"I can do this."
Then she finally went to bed.