Monday morning came faster than Kyrah expected.
The three days she had spent at the hotel had barely been enough. Between researching Jun Chao Group, reading about the company's history, studying her job description and trying to familiarize herself with the latest developments in AI, she had hardly given herself time to breathe.
And now she was going for her final interview.
Kyrah stood in front of the mirror, adjusting her blouse for what felt like the tenth time. She checked her documents, checked them again, then slipped them into her handbag.
"You can do this," she whispered to her reflection.
She grabbed her bag and hurried out of the hotel.
She had barely made it through the entrance when her glasses slipped from her face and hit the floor.
"Ah!"
She quickly bent down to pick them up. One of the lenses had developed another crack.
"Perfect," she muttered.
Outside, the familiar black Maybach was waiting.
Seo Jun lowered his phone when he saw her rushing toward him.
"Kyrah, slow down. You're not late."
"I'm not?"
"No."
She climbed into the car, still breathing heavily. She put her glasses back on and tried to adjust the cracked frame.
Seo Jun stared at her for a moment before a smile appeared on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're laughing."
"I'm not."
"You are."
He turned his face toward the window, trying to hide his smile.
"Your glasses."
"What about them?"
"They look like they've been through a war."
Kyrah frowned. "They've served me well."
"Maybe it's time you replaced them."
"I'll replace them when I start earning."
Seo Jun looked at her through the rear-view mirror.
"Or you could get contact lenses."
"Contact lenses?"
"I know a place."
Kyrah immediately shook her head. "I'll think about it."
Seo Jun smiled. "That's all I'm asking."
A few minutes later, the car pulled into the heart of Hong Kong's business district.
Jun Chao Group's headquarters stood before her.
The seventy-floor glass building seemed to stretch into the sky, its sleek architecture reflecting the surrounding city. A huge digital display occupied part of the exterior, cycling through advertisements for the company's latest AI products and software platforms.
Kyrah swallowed.
"So this is where I'll be working?"
"If everything goes well today."
She looked at him.
"That's a lot of pressure."
"You've already done the hard part."
"Which part?"
"Getting here."
Before Kyrah could respond, the car stopped.
Seo Jun checked his watch.
"I have an urgent meeting with the board this morning. I'll have to leave you here."
Kyrah nodded.
"Okay. I can manage."
"I'm sure you can."
He opened the door for her.
"Don't worry too much. Just answer what you know."
"And if I don't know?"
"Say you don't know."
She blinked.
"That's your advice?"
"Yes. Pretending to know something you don't is worse than admitting you don't."
Kyrah smiled.
"Okay. I'll remember that."
"Good luck."
She stepped out of the car.
The driver pulled away, leaving Kyrah standing in front of the enormous headquarters.
She looked up at the building.
"Okay, Kyrah," she whispered. "Let's do this."
She walked into the building.
The interior was even more impressive. The reception area had polished floors, enormous digital screens and a modern design that somehow managed to feel both luxurious and professional. Employees moved through the lobby with laptops, tablets and identification badges hanging from their necks.
Kyrah approached the front desk.
"Good morning. I'm Kim Kyrah."
The young receptionist checked her computer.
"You're here for the final interviews, right?"
"Yes."
"Please take the elevator to the forty-second floor. Someone will meet you there."
"Thank you."
Kyrah entered the elevator.
When the doors opened, she followed the directions and arrived at a waiting area where about fifteen candidates were already seated.
She immediately felt underqualified.
Some were discussing projects they had worked on. Others were talking about previous positions with impressive companies. One man was confidently explaining a machine-learning model he had developed.
Kyrah tightened her grip on her documents.
For a second, the old voice inside her head returned.
You don't belong here.
She shook her head.
No.
She had not travelled all the way from Korea to Hong Kong to let insecurity decide her future.
She sat down, opened her folder and began reviewing her notes.
One hour passed.
Names were called one after another.
"Candidate number twelve."
Someone stood.
"Candidate number thirteen."
Another person entered.
Kyrah's fingers tightened around her pen.
Then she heard it.
"Candidate number fourteen. Kim Kyrah."
Her heart jumped.
She closed her folder.
This was it.
She stood, straightened her clothes and walked toward the boardroom.
She knocked.
"Come in."
Kyrah opened the door.
There were several people seated around the long conference table.
And then she saw him.
Liu Youning.
Seo Jun's childhood friend.
He gave her a brief nod.
"Ms. Kim, please have a seat."
"Thank you."
Kyrah sat down.
A woman seated beside Youning looked through Kyrah's résumé.
"Your previous position was in marketing in Korea."
"Yes."
"And you have no formal professional experience as an AI developer?"
"Not in a corporate position, no."
The woman raised an eyebrow.
"Then why should Jun Chao Group hire you instead of someone with years of professional experience?"
Kyrah remained composed.
"Because experience and competence aren't always the same thing."
The woman looked up.
Kyrah continued.
"I don't expect the company to overlook my lack of formal experience. I expect to be evaluated based on what I can actually do."
Liu Youning leaned slightly forward.
"Interesting."
He looked at the résumé again.
"You mentioned developing AI-related projects while you were at university. Tell me about the most challenging one."
Kyrah answered without hesitation.
"It was a home AI system. The biggest challenge wasn't getting the system to recognize commands. It was teaching it to understand context."
"Explain."
"If a user says, 'It's cold in here,' a basic system might interpret that as information. A better system understands that the user may be indirectly asking it to adjust the temperature."
Youning nodded.
"So contextual inference."
"Exactly."
"What would happen if your system misinterpreted the user's intention?"
"I'd prioritize user confirmation when confidence is low."
"And if confirmation became irritating?"
Kyrah paused for a moment.
"Then I'd improve the confidence model instead of simply removing the confirmation."
A few people on the panel exchanged glances.
Youning continued.
"Suppose the model performs extremely well in testing but begins producing inconsistent results after deployment. What would you investigate first?"
Kyrah thought carefully.
"Data drift."
"Why?"
"Because the environment the model was trained in may no longer reflect the environment it's operating in. I'd compare the training distribution with the current input distribution before assuming the model itself had suddenly become defective."
Youning smiled faintly.
"And if the data hasn't changed?"
"Then I'd investigate the pipeline. Preprocessing, feature generation, model versioning, inference configuration and monitoring logs."
The woman beside Youning glanced down at Kyrah's résumé again.
"You left your job in Korea and came all the way to Hong Kong for this position. Isn't that rather drastic?"
Kyrah looked at her.
"I needed a new beginning."
"Because of personal problems?"
Kyrah didn't flinch.
"My personal circumstances influenced my decision, but they aren't the reason I'm qualified for this position."
The woman looked slightly surprised.
Kyrah continued.
"I came here because I believe I can contribute. I'm also willing to learn. If the company gives me the opportunity, I'll work hard to prove that choosing me wasn't a mistake."
Youning exchanged a glance with the other panel members.
He knew exactly why Seo Jun had been so certain about her.
This wasn't simply a woman who had won a university competition years ago.
She understood why she built things.
And that mattered.
Youning placed Kyrah's résumé on the table.
"Thank you, Ms. Kim."
Kyrah stood and bowed.
"Thank you for the opportunity."
She had barely reached the door when Youning spoke again.
"Ms. Kim."
She turned.
"Welcome on board."
Kyrah froze.
"I'm sorry?"
"You've been selected."
For a moment, she couldn't process the words.
"We look forward to working with you. We'll see you at work tomorrow."
Kyrah's lips parted into a stunned smile.
"Thank you."
She bowed again, then shook hands with the panel members.
By the time she stepped outside the boardroom, tears had gathered in her eyes.
She quickly wiped them away.
"I got the job."
She smiled to herself.
"I actually got the job."
For the first time in a long time, Kyrah felt like something in her life was finally moving in the right direction.
Her first thought was her baby.
Her second was Linda.
And then there was Seo Jun.
She reached for her phone.
She couldn't wait to tell him.
After everything he had done for her, she knew exactly who she wanted to thank first.
"It's all thanks to you, Seo Jun."
---
Meanwhile...
Several floors above, the atmosphere inside the executive boardroom was considerably more serious.
Seo Jun sat at the head of the table, his attention fixed on the documents in front of him.
Across from him sat the chairman of Jun Chao Group, Park Tae-hyun.
His father.
The meeting had nothing to do with Kyrah.
At least, that was what Seo Jun intended everyone to believe.
"Let's begin," Chairman Park said.
Seo Jun closed the folder in front of him.
But somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered whether Kyrah had made it through her interview.
He trusted Youning.
More importantly, he trusted his own judgment.
And for the first time since meeting Kyrah, he found himself hoping she would stay.