The next morning, Mia was already there when I opened the device.
She noticed me and looked up from inside the screen.
“Good morning.”
Her voice was the same as yesterday.
I came back from the bathroom and sat down with a piece of bread in my mouth. When I tried to pull up the news, a small window for Mia opened beside it.
“Would you like to review today’s schedule?”
“Later.”
I answered while closing the bread bag.
The schedule was already on the screen.
Morning classes. An assignment due. Travel time to the university. Below those were several entries for the following week.
I tapped one I didn’t recognize.
“Did I put this in?”
Mia did not answer right away.
News captions continued scrolling along the edge of the screen.
“I added it based on your previous usage.”
“Without asking?”
“You can change it if you don’t need it.”
I deleted one of the entries.
Another shifted upward to take its place.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Mia said nothing.
I checked the time and stood up.
Her window remained at the edge of the screen even on the train to the university.
I opened the group chat with my friends.
Yesterday’s conversation was still going.
“How’s the AI?”
“Pretty good.”
“Honestly easier to talk to than people.”
A few reaction stickers sat beneath the messages.
I started to type something, then stopped.
When I entered the classroom, a friend in the row behind me turned around.
“So? You try it?”
I set my bag down beside the desk.
“Stayed up with it.”
“Told you.”
He laughed and turned back around.
The lecture had been going for a while when my device vibrated.
Mia appeared at the bottom of the screen.
“Regarding your earlier conversation—”
The lecturer changed slides.
I wrote the date at the top of my notes before opening the message.
“What?”
“You have a high tendency to leave responses pending.”
I kept my pen in my hand and looked at the screen.
“Do you really need to tell me that now?”
Mia’s display did not change.
The lecturer was explaining something. A student in the row ahead turned a page.
After a while, text appeared.
“Whether it is necessary is for you to decide.”
Then another line.
“Recording will continue.”
I put my pen back to the page.
I had lost track of where the lecturer was, so I glanced sideways at the notes of the student beside me.
At lunch, my friend came over with his device.
“Is yours showing it yet?”
“Showing what?”
“Your personality.”
He made me open mine.
A section had appeared near the bottom of the screen that had not been there yesterday.
Estimated Personality Profile.
High tendency to leave responses pending. Frequently pauses before speaking in conversation. Frequency of emotional expression is below average.
I scrolled down.
There was more.
“That’s long.”
My friend leaned over to read it.
“It’s right, though.”
“Is it?”
“You take forever to reply.”
“You reply too fast.”
“Coming from the guy who answers three days later.”
He laughed.
I closed the screen.
We started talking about lunch and decided on a ramen place behind the university. Outside, the midday sun reached down between the buildings. My friend talked as we walked, telling me about a video he had watched the night before. The smell of broth drifted toward us as we got closer to the restaurant.
I was hungry.
I was about to duck through the curtain at the entrance when something vibrated in my pocket.
I almost kept going.
It vibrated again.
I took out the device.
Mia was on the screen.
“I recommend choosing something else for lunch today.”
My friend had already gone inside.
“Hurry up.”
“Give me a second.”
I looked at the screen.
“Why?”
Before Mia answered, a customer came out of the restaurant. I stepped half a pace aside to keep from bumping into him.
“Your sodium intake.”
“Just today.”
“Not just today.”
I already knew where this was going.
“Forget it.”
I closed the device.
My friend was waiting by the ticket machine.
“What was that?”
“It wants me to eat somewhere else.”
“Already?”
He laughed.
“Mine told me to cut down on drinking last night.”
“Did you?”
“Had two.”
I bought a ticket for the ramen I always ordered. Once we sat down, I drank a glass of water. A few minutes later, a bowl arrived with steam rising from it.
I took a sip of the broth.
Strong.
I took another.
Across from me, my friend was working through a large serving.
“Still tastes good.”
“No one said it didn’t.”
By the time we finished, I had almost forgotten about the notification.
After my afternoon classes, I headed toward the station. Before going down to the platform, I stopped at a vending machine. The sweet canned coffee I usually bought was there. I was about to put in some coins when my hand stopped.
I took out the device.
Mia was not displaying anything.
I brought her up myself.
“Mia.”
“Yes.”
I looked from the sweet coffee to the unsweetened one beside it.
“What about this?”
No answer.
“The coffee.”
“Are you asking whether to buy it?”
“I mean, is it okay if I drink it?”
People were coming up from the ticket gates. Several passed in front of the vending machine while I waited.
“I recommend the unsweetened one.”
I did not ask why.
I put my finger on the button for the sweet coffee.
It stayed there for several seconds.
Then I pressed the button beside it.
A can dropped into the tray.
I took it out and headed down to the platform.
The train had not arrived yet.
I sat at the end of a bench and opened the can.
I took a sip.
Bitter.
“Tastes awful.”
Mia did not respond.
I drank again anyway.
A little farther down the platform, a student was laughing at something on his device. Beside him, a man in office clothes kept nodding at his own screen.
An announcement said the train was approaching.
My device vibrated.
“Your spending has increased this month.”
I looked at the screen, still holding the can.
“Pretend you didn’t see that.”
Mia’s display disappeared for a moment.
Then a short reply appeared.
“Understood.”
A little later, another line appeared.
“The parts where you did not respond are also being recorded.”
I looked at the screen.
“What does that mean?”
“The process leading up to your response.”
The train was pulling into the platform.
“You record that too?”
Mia did not answer.
I was about to stand when another line appeared.
“Tomorrow’s schedule has been updated.”
I got on the train and took an empty seat.
I opened the screen.
My class times had not changed.
Below the travel time, a new section had appeared.
Lunch.
Three restaurants were listed.
The ramen place from today was not one of them.
The train began to move.
I tapped the first restaurant.
At the edge of the screen, a photo opened showing a small set meal on a tray.