After some time the two siblings began to do their respective tasks, Min-ho meanwhile also asked the hospital staff to provide him with a convertible bed so he could sleep near Ara's bed at night, ensuring she would not feel alone.
On the other side of town, Jin-woo arrived at Gleam Tower following his meeting with Tae-jun. After parking his car in the basement, he headed directly to Eun-soo's floor at the top of the building.
Jin-woo stepped out of the elevator and approached Eun-soo's penthouse. He raised his hand to ring the bell but hesitated, remembering his conversation with Tae-jun. Taking a deep breath, he finally pressed the bell. As he waited, his mind drifted back to that evening at Tae-jun's home.
Earlier that evening at Tae-jun's home...
After a period of silence following their introductions, Cha Tae-jun started the conversation.
"I heard about you from my sister," Tae-jun began. "Plus, I personally looked at your work at Jeju Island. I have to say, I am impressed."
Jin-woo nodded. "Thank you for the compliment, but it was the Jeju management team's idea to have that show. We just executed it."
"I know, but executing a fire show so exquisitely is still impressive," Tae-jun replied. "It shows that your AI systems are mature enough."
"Actually, those kinds of shows do not particularly require a complex AI system," Jin-woo explained. "Most of the laser movements were deterministic; we just used AI to calibrate the predefined movements."
Tae-jun nodded, appreciating an honest person who didn't deliberately try to make their products look better than they were.
"I see, but you don't need to be so modest," Tae-jun said. "Well, let's set that aside and talk about your AI agent product—the one that helps companies automate customer care. Can you tell me more about it?"
Seeing that Tae-jun was shifting to professional matters, Jin-woo became serious. "Regarding our AI agents, I can tell you we have some of the most advanced models. We use AGI models that are more sophisticated than normal LLM-based agents."
Tae-jun became interested. "Tell me more."
"Well, we don't just provide an LLM with a vector database of your hotel information," Jin-woo said. "We also have a separate layer in our model that learns directly from chats and trains new parameters. For example, in the beginning, our AI agents learn from your customer service personnel. Slowly, they learn how specific tickets are resolved and add those solutions to their memory. This means the agent eventually learns the engineering side as well; if a similar issue arises next time, it can answer directly. This reduces the time taken to forward calls and assign engineers, which ultimately increases customer satisfaction."
Tae-jun was increasingly impressed by how these agents could cut down response times. He then asked, "This solves the online issues, but what about the problems at the reception desk?"
Jin-woo thought for a moment before answering. "Although I am the founder of an AI company, I want to share something honestly with you, if you'll allow me."
"Go on, I'm listening," Tae-jun encouraged.
"While I have solutions for reception-side problems as well, I personally believe that having a human at the actual point of contact is more psychologically helpful to customers than an agent. For online issues like payment cancellations, customers just want a quick solution. But when they visit a hotel, they want an experience. A smiling receptionist saying, 'Yes ma'am, what can I do for you?' is much more favorable in that situation."
Tae-jun nodded in agreement. "You're right. AI systems, while helpful, are not the ultimate solution for everything."
Then two continued to discuss specific products and how quickly they could be incorporated into hotel services. The more they talked, the more impressed Tae-jun became, and eventually, the conversation turned friendly.
"Where were you before this?" Tae-jun asked. "I never knew someone could be this professional yet so easy to talk to. I can see why your company is one of the most promising AI firms today."
"Thank you for your praise, but we are still learning," Jin-woo replied.
Tae-jun sighed. "I like you, but I have to say, you are too polite and humble. You should have more confidence in yourself."
Jin-woo nodded. He knew this was a habit of his, and it would take time to correct.
"Have you had dinner?" Tae-jun asked. "If not, let's eat together."
"Sure, why not," Jin-woo agreed.
Tae-jun stood up and instructed a maid, "Please prepare food in the dining hall. Mr. Jin-woo will be joining us for dinner today."
The maid bowed. "Sure, sir."
They walked to the dining hall, located just past the living room in front of an open kitchen. There, guests could enjoy their food while watching professional chefs at work. As they sat down, the staff began serving various cuisines.
As Jin-woo was eating, Tae-jun suddenly looked at him and asked, "Jin-woo, after this talk, can we consider each other friends?"
Jin-woo nodded. "Sure, why not."
"Then I want to ask you," Tae-jun continued. "Do you like Eun-soo?"
Jin-woo, who was mid-bite, suddenly choked and began to cough. A maid quickly offered him a glass of water. Tapping his chest lightly, he asked, "Why do you think so?"
Tae-jun looked surprised. "Do you not like her? Does Eun-soo love you one-sidedly?"
Jin-woo was stunned. "Doesn't Eun-soo have a boyfriend? How can you say such things?"
Tae-jun was now the confused one. "Since when does Eun-soo have a boyfriend?"
"Is Kang Min-ho not Eun-soo's boyfriend?" Jin-woo asked.
"Where did you hear that?" Tae-jun laughed. "Kang Min-ho is just someone my parents want to match her with. She has no boyfriend. Don't speak nonsense about my sister."
"I'm sorry," Jin-woo said quickly. "I didn't know. I thought he was her boyfriend."
"It's alright," Tae-jun replied. "Even if you thought so, maybe they really are a match. But let's not talk about that—you tell me, what do you think about Eun-soo? Do you like her?"
Present day at the penthouse...
Just as Jin-woo's memory reached that point, Eun-soo's door opened. Seeing Jin-woo, she smiled and said, "You're here."
Jin-woo looked at her, and suddenly—without knowing why—he blurted out, "Do you like me?"
Eun-soo froze. Her eyes went wide, and her face turned a deep, bright red.