REPLICA (BOOK 2)

Processing Data

Seonghwa's regular alarm went off at 6 am for him to get up for work. He completely forgot to call Wooyoung and tell him to play CEO for a day.

"Good morning." Hongjoong smiled, already wide awake.

"Morning." Seonghwa yawned, then his eyes shot open. "Holy shit, it wasn't a dream."

"I already took out Ace for a walk. He peed on the floor, but I made Jisung clean it."

"Did you wake him up?"

"Yeah, because I didn't wanna wake you, but I also didn't wanna do it."

Seonghwa took note of how much better he was speaking compared to yesterday. He couldn't recall the last time he'd ever seen Hongjoong so full of life.

"What do you wanna do today?"

"Don't you have work?"

"I was gonna take off for the week to spend time with you."

"Can I come?"

"To work with me?"

"Yeah!" He beamed, already excited. "Can Ace come too?"

"Alright." Seonghwa sighed. "Just let me know if you get bored though."

"Okay!" Hongjoong rushed out of bed and ran into the closet.

Seonghwa grabbed his phone and called his assistant. He figured a head's up would be necessary.

"Hey, relay this message to Hyunjin too." He whispered.

"Got it." Wooyoung replied.

"He's coming to the office. Whatever you do, be very nice to him and don't be nosy."

"Understood."

"Thank you. I'll see you in a few."

When Seonghwa got off the phone, Wooyoung gasped.

"Sannie, wake up!" He shouted, shaking his husband obnoxiously. "Hongjoong is coming to the office."

"Wooyoungie, let me sleep." San groaned, pulling a pillow over his head to drown out his shouting.

"I need to call Hyunjin, oh my god."

He went to his best friend's contact number at the speed of light, heavily anticipating what was to come.

"Why?" Hyunjin whined, hating that he was woken up so early. Technically, this is the time he should be waking up. But he usually waits until the last minute out of pure laziness.

"Hongjoong is coming to the office today."

"The clone?"

"Yes, there's technically only one Hongjoong now. But he said we need to be super nice."

"From what Jisung told Felix last night, he doesn't think Hongjoong knows he's a clone. So far, it just seems like temporary amnesia."

"What is he gonna do once he finds out Seonghwa is the one that killed him?"

"Felix asked Jisung that yesterday, but he had a great point. Hongjoong most likely kept going back to Cyber Industries to give the brain an update. So that entire mission is most likely not in his memories because he never had the time to go back."

"That's true. But I still think this situation was doomed from the start. You heard Seonghwa. Hongjoong was never a good person."

"Jisung said he seems like a child right now."

"Trouble is coming, I can feel it."

"Me too."

Unable to contain their excitement, Wooyoung and Hyunjin showed up to work a half hour early. The picture Jisung sent didn't do it justice. They needed to see the clone with their own eyes.