“Did you hear about the cloning incident in the news today?”

“Yeah, I heard about that.  They cloned a dog.  That’s fu*king crazy!”

Lena politely stood up for an elderly man, who nodded in gratitude, and held onto a pole instead as she listened to the conversation.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they start cloning humans next.”

“Fu*k that’d be awesome!  Imagine cloning yourself and getting them to do all of the sh*t you don’t want to do while you slide through the rest of your life doing the easy stuff.  Man, I’d be set for life.”

Lena inwardly smiled to herself, her light colored eyes hidden behind her silver frames as she watched the college students converse in the corner of her eyes.

“I don’t know about that.  Becoming more technologically advanced is one thing.  Playing God is another.”  The first speaker paused, pushing the wide frames up his nose.  “Do you think He’s pissed off that we’re playing around with all of this cloning stuff?”  He wondered aloud, a thoughtful expression on his youthful face.

“Who said I believed in God?”  His friend smirked, nudging his friend in the side.

The other just weakly smiled, rubbing his ribs.

Lena felt the subway slow down and prepared to exit through the doors.  She watched the two students rush ahead of her, nearly bowling her over. 

Keeping a firm grip on her thin leather suitcase, she walked up the stairs and emerged into the bright sunny streets.  She numbly made her way through the hustle and bustle of the usual crowd of vendors and other people on their way to work.  Her heels made a steady sound on the pavement as she walked down two blocks and turned briskly into an impressively spacious office building.

She flashed her id towards the guards at the entrance who nodded in recognition.  She swiped her id into the slot and another set of guards nodded for her to walk through the metal detector.  Lena walked straight towards a set of elevators and patiently waited for one to open.

She immediately felt someone appear by her side.  Lena didn’t need to look to know who it was.  The familiar smell of aftershave and cologne was enough to identify him.

“Someone’s early today.”  A smooth velvet voice called out beside her.

A corner of her lips lifted in response as the sleek elevators opened with a small bell ring.  “Well, it’s not everyday that we get to see the project finally develop.”  She wryly replied, pressing level eight for her and top floor for him. 

He softly chuckled to himself.  “I think we should celebrate tonight then since this is your day to shine.”

Lena arched an eyebrow.  “I’m sure several of your fans would appreciate it more if you celebrated with them.”  She replied.  “This day is just as much everyone else on the team.”

Shin Hyun Joon chuckled, but the serious look in his eyes didn’t change.  “It would do you some good to spend some time with people instead of bent over your work, day in and day out, you know.”

Lena just raised her hand in a wave as she stepped off the elevators.

“I’ll be at the corner café a block from here.  Eight o’clock!”  He yelled after her, watching her back disappear down the hallway.

With an amused smile, Hyun Joon leaned back against the wall as the elevator doors closed.