"Here we are." Jungkook welcomes Aurora into the facility. Entering the building Aurora was amazed by the scenery.
"Wow...it's really nice in here."
"This way, master." Jungkook points to the elevator.
Stepping behind him, Aurora looked at the walls. They were so sleek and smooth. Not one blemish or crack was in them. She could tell that whoever owned this building must have spent a buck ton of money to keep this facility together and clean.
Getting into the elevator with the AI, she stood idle next to him. Aurora was quite nervous about who Jungkook's boss was. She's never spoke face to face with an important person, and to now be in a situation where she has to, now—what was I thinking? Aurora thought.
The elevator stopped at the 5th floor. Aurora gulped.
Jungkook proceeded out, going straight down the hall. Aurora hurriedly followed behind, keeping pace with him.
"Jungkook!"
Aurora yelped, snapping her head in the direction of the voice.
Calmly, Jungkook turns to see one of the girls waving him down. "Hello, Ivory."
"You're here pretty early," Ivory smiles coming over. Seeing Aurora, she bent down a little towards her. "Who's this little cutie?"
"Little cutie? Wait a second—" Before Aurora could say anything, Jungkook covered her mouth and responded.
"This is my little sister."
LITTLE SISTER?! Aurora thought in confusion.
"Awwww!!! Really?! She's SO CUTE!!!" "You adopted her, cause you both look nothing alike!"
"Yes, she was adopted."
Ivory ruffled the poor tomboy's hair, earning a snarl from the girl. "Eh, she's a bit feisty, isn't she?"
"She hasn't eaten yet. But I'm going to buy her food in a bit."
"You didn't feed your sister?! How could you?!" Ivory gasped. Bending over to the shorter girl's height, she queried, "There's some snacks in the lounge. Would you like to come with me to get some?"
"...n-no thank you." Aurora muttered, turning to face Jungkook and hugged him.
"She's a bit shy. Don't mind her."
"I can tell," Ivory stood up straight, putting her hands on her waist. "Well, you're always welcomed here. What's your name, by the way?"
"...Aurora." The girl responded.
"How old are you?"
"I'm—"
"She's only sixteen."
Aurora snapped her head at Jungkook, infuriated. Why is he lying about everything about me?!
Trying to keep calm, Aurora just went with the flow.
"She's still pretty, nonetheless. Anyways, Boss is looking for ya. He wanted to talk to you about something."
"I'm actually on my way to see him now. Let's go, mas—" Jungkook caught himself. "Let's go." Jungkook quickly took Aurora's hand and hurried down to Allen's office.
Once Ivory was finally out of sight, Aurora yanked her hand from Jungkook's grip. "What the hell was that all about?"
Jungkook faced Aurora. "I thought you didn't want anyone to know I'm at AI."
"Well, yeah...but I'm not sixteen, Jungkook. I'm eighteen. I thought I told you this already?"
"You have." Jungkook agrees.
Sighing to herself, Aurora shook her head. "You shouldn't lie about certain things, Jungkook...remember? We want to leave our past."
"If I stop lying, we would still be homeless. I wouldn't be able to provide for you," Jungkook stopped and turned to her. "I wouldn't be able to buy you clothes or cook food for you."
"Well...that's true." Aurora mumbled pithily.
"Sometimes you have to lie in order to get what you need in life."
Aurora didn't respond to that comment.
Once they reached Allen's office, Jungkook encouraged Aurora to relax. "He's not a terrible person...maybe you'll like him."
"Didn't seem like that a few months ago when you didn't want me to see him." Aurora rebutted.
"I had my reasons."
"...yeah. I just hope they were the right ones."
Knocking on Allen's door briefly, he heard a man's voice saying to come in. Jungkook opens the door slowly and peeks inside. "Mr. DeChart."
"Jungkook, my boy. Come right on in."
"I brought someone for you to finally meet." Jungkook announced.
"Oh," Allen puts his papers down, giving the AI his undivided attention. "And who might that be?"
Pushing the door wider, Jungkook steps aside, introducing the girl. Aurora steps in, a bit nerved by the atmosphere.
Nervous, Aurora spoke up. "Hello."
"Is this who I think it is...?" Allen takes off his reading glasses to take a good look at the girl.
Aurora began to feel extremely uncomfortable. All she could have thought about was the news headlines a couple of months ago—a girl and a machine running loose after assaulting the police.
"You remind me of those famous people—they have a daughter, eh, what was their name?" Allen snaps his finger, closing his eyes to ponder harder.
Aurora's heart calmed down hearing that the man was talking about a totally different subject.
"The Roulettes!" Allen cried. He looks at Aurora. "Delilah? You look just like Delilah!"
Jungkook twitched hearing that name.
"I'm sorry, you just look so much like her! My son had dated the Roulette's little girl years back...well, that was short lived but—"
"Pardon?" Aurora blurted.
"You aren't Delilah, are you?" Allen questioned in doubt.
"My name is Aurora." Aurora says with conviction.
"And my name is Allen, Allen DeChart," Standing up, Aurora was intimidated by how tall this man actually was. He reached over his desk and reached his hand out. "Pleasure to finally meet the girl who is the master of this AI."
Aurora's eyes widened. Petrified, she snapped her head to Jungkook.
"Don't worry, I'm the only one here who knows Jungkook's little secret."
"But...but," Aurora looked at Allen. "Why?"
"Hear me out Ms.—what is your last name?" Allen queried.
"Just Aurora," The girl insisted.
Allen cleared his throat. "Hear me out, Jungkook here is very valuable to me. He is one of the best workers I've ever had, and everything he's done so far is perfect—phenomenal. I just had to know who raised him to be such an immaculate man. But when I had first met Jungkook, I saw him on the streets of Blackatman, looking for work. He was there every day of the week. From the morning on my way to work, to the nighttime when I'd leave work. When I finally examined him from a distance, he had the height, the looks, the body structure—I thought to myself, 'Why not invite this guy to my studio and see if he can be a model for my company?' So, I engaged in conversation with him one day, and he told me that his master—assumingly you—are homeless, and he needed a job immediately to take care of her. His story was quite moving, and something moved me to hire him on the spot. And I must say, he hasn't failed to meet my expectations since."
Jungkook bowed humbly. "Thank you, sir."
"My pleasure." Taking a seat, Allen invited Aurora to take a seat also.
Timid, Aurora nodded, taking the seat in front of his desk.
"And you too, Jungkook, please."
Once Jungkook sat down, Allen offered some goodies on his desk. "Feel free to take some."
"...thank you." Aurora said a bit skeptically. She's never been offered something by wealthy people, so this was new territory for her.
"So, Ms. Aurora—since you want me to call you that," Allen smiled. "Please, tell me a bit about yourself."
Aurora became anxious, feeling a knot tying in her stomach. "About...me?"
"Yes, of course!" Allen insisted. "Surely you must have had a great impact on my boy here. He's very dedicated to you and he's always working long shifts. It makes me wonder..." Allen's mind wandered off for a moment. "But nonetheless, please," Allen sits back in his seat waiting patiently.
Rubbing her arm dejectedly, Aurora glanced away. "Well, there's nothing really interesting about me, to be honest. Just a bunch of misery and depressing things in my life."
"Well that's interesting," Allen points out.
Baffled, Aurora glanced at him. "What?"
"Not everyone's life starts out rosy or the best. But it's what that person does with their life that makes their life the best. So, please, don't underestimate your experiences. They may very well go a long way for you in the near future."
"Well..." Aurora sighs. "For starters, I'm eighteen years old."
"Really? I thought you were younger."
"Yeah, I get that a lot." Aurora shrugs. "I've been an orphan since birth, so I don't know who my parents are, or if I even have any siblings, relatives, and so forth...I've moved out of the orphanage a few months ago, but I was homeless. I didn't have a job, and so I decided to live at the beach for some time before I've met..." Aurora realized she was saying to much and went silent.
"I'm guessing, before you met Jungkook?"
Aurora didn't respond.
"It must have been very hard for you, Ms. Aurora. I'm truly sorry. No child deserves to be abandoned like that. Though it's a blessing that you've made it this far in life. Not many can say the same, especially when they aren't raised by their family."
"Yeah...it was one hell of a ride—" Aurora covered her mouth. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Allen laughed. "It's not the first or last time one of my employees slipped out of character."
Aurora chuckled a little bit.
"Now, Ms. Aurora, you may have been wondering why on earth does your AI's boss want to meet you. Thinking about your current situation and getting a better feel of it now, I wanted to offer you a job here."
"W-What?" Aurora gawked.
"How would you like to be one of my models?"
Shocked by Allen's offer, Aurora's jaw remained ajar for a long time.
"I think you have potential to bring good to this company. Just like Jungkook here, we have a great support system, wonderful workers, beautiful models and great benefits and perks here. You can think of this as your home away from home. A second family."
"I...I don't know what to say..." Aurora replied in a daze. "I...I don't know...I mean—I never modeled before...I don't have any experience in that. I don't even think I'm cut to be a model."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try, now would it?" Allen questioned.
"I...I guess so," Aurora agreed somewhat. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try something new..." The tomboy looks up at Jungkook who was puzzled by what Allen asked her.
"Master—" Jungkook immediately turns to Aurora. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to."
"Let her decide that, Jungkook," Allen butts in. "She's a young adult now and should be given the opportunity to make a decision."
Jungkook's eyes grew sullen.
Aurora was saddened to see Jungkook like that. What's wrong with him? She wondered. Giving Allen her attention, she smiled shyly. "I'm sorry Mr. Allen...I think I may have to decline your offer this time around. It's not that I don't like the idea of the job or anything, but...I don't know. This is just so new for me. I'm actually quite scared, to be honest."
"If you need some time to think, then that's fine. No pressure." Allen excused. "Of course, I'd usually audition individuals who already have years of experience with modeling already. But I just wanted to give an opportunity to someone with little to no skill to get something what thousands of people have failed to get into."
Hearing that made Aurora feel horrible—as though she was ungrateful to receive a free opportunity to get something that many people dream of having.
"Nonetheless, Ms. Aurora, I do hope that you take out the time to think about this offer. Not too many of them are offered on a whim like this."
"Yeah...that's true."
"Even so," Allen gets up. "I'd still like to show you around my facility. Perhaps you may like what you see."
"Oh, uh—that'd be nice." Aurora says looking at Jungkook.
He still seemed to be a bit saddened.
"Alright, follow me."
The two young adults got up and followed Allen out of the room.
As Jungkook was preparing to shut the door behind him, he took one last glance at a photo that stuck to the back of his boss's computer.
Is that really who I think it is...?