Learning to Take My Place — Read Chapter One
The new hire is learning your job. Who gets to stay?
On his first morning at work, an AI employee hears a call for help. His supervisor tells him to stay. He goes anyway.
Learning to Take My Place is a short novel about work, loyalty, and the people asked to train their possible replacement. Read the complete first chapter below.
By Kihong Kim
Chapter One — The New Hire Who Saw the People First
“Good morning. Starting today, I'll be joining Operations—”
Yoon Mijeong's phone rang.
She glanced at the screen and declined the call. Kim Dohyun held out an open hand again, inviting Kim Zero, the new AI employee, to continue. The human-shaped newcomer stood with a name badge clipped below his shirt collar.
“My name is Kim Zero. I'll be learning field response procedures and how to document our work.”
The phone rang again.
This time Mijeong answered. Before she could finish saying hello, the caller was shouting. Short, high-pitched bells sounded in the background, over and over. Someone was calling out names.
“Slow down. Which floor are you on?”
Mijeong stood.
“What about the bus?”
Her expression tightened at the answer.
“An hour?”
On the meeting-room wall, a message welcomed Kim Zero to Velstrum Thermal Korea. Below it, an image of his face slowly rotated. Dohyun pressed the remote and turned off the display.
“Where?”
“Hanbit Nursing Home. The cooling's been out since before dawn. There are twelve residents upstairs who can't get down on their own.”
The heat had not broken overnight. The forecast high was 40 °C (104 °F).
Dohyun checked the wall clock. Nine ten. Since being assigned to train and assess Zero, he had rehearsed this first day three times.
“We've already sent someone.”
“One equipment technician. Not anyone who can move people.”
Mijeong put the call on speaker.
“The bus belongs to another facility. They say it'll take at least an hour. We called an ambulance too, but it's not here yet. One of our care workers collapsed on the stairs. It takes two of us to help each person down, and the call bells upstairs won't stop.”
Zero turned toward the sound. Not toward the blank display introducing him, but toward the phone in Mijeong's hand.
A video call came in from Oh Jihoon, a manager one rank below Dohyun. Mijeong accepted it, and his face filled the screen.
“Don't touch the emergency cooling in the equipment room. If the server goes down, we won't receive any site records.”
“They can't get the people downstairs,” Mijeong said.
“A bus is on its way.”
“It'll be there in an hour.”
“Then keep the equipment running until it gets there. Mr. Kim, this is his first day. Make sure Zero doesn't act on his own.”
The call ended.
Zero asked, “Who will move the people upstairs in the meantime?”
Dohyun looked at the phone's darkened screen.
“You stay here.”
By the time he said it, Mijeong had picked up her bag.
“I'll go ahead, then.”
Zero slipped through the doorway just before it closed. His new badge struck the edge and twisted around.
“Kim Zero,” Dohyun called.
“You heard me.”
“I did, sir.”
Zero kept going.
Dohyun stared down the corridor where they had disappeared. On the desk lay the paperwork confirming him as Zero's training supervisor. He closed it and picked up his car keys.
He was going to stop them. That was what he told himself.
The automatic doors at Hanbit Nursing Home had been fixed open while staff moved the residents. The lobby thermometer read 38 °C (100.4 °F). The air inside was hotter than outside. Wet towels and water bottles lay scattered across the floor. Two staff members were helping elderly residents toward the shaded entrance. One resident kept grasping and releasing a bottle cap.
The technician ran up as soon as he saw Dohyun.
“The central cooling's down. The backup's connected to the server room. If we divert it to the corridor, the server room temperature will rise. The server will shut itself down if it overheats.”
Across the lobby, the director repeated the address twice to the ambulance dispatcher. Dohyun stepped around the technician and headed for the stairs.
Zero was heading toward the equipment room. At least he seemed to have listened.
An upstairs bell stopped, then started again. Zero halted.
“Mrs. Choi! I'm coming up!”
Mijeong ran up the stairs. She did not consult a list. She called out residents' names and checked with a staff member who was in each room.
“Room 302 needs a walker. In 306, don't throw the door open. You'll frighten her. Knock first.”
Zero changed direction.
Dohyun caught his arm.
“Equipment room first.”
“The calls upstairs come first.”
“And if you open a door without permission and something happens, who's responsible?”
Something fell inside a room.
Mijeong tried the handle of 302. Locked.
“Can you hear me?”
No answer. Only the bell again.
Zero looked down at Dohyun's hand. He could have pulled free by force. He did not.
“Please let go, sir.”
“You don't even have a key.”
Zero pointed to the emergency key cabinet beside the stairs. A resident moaned inside 302.
The moment Dohyun's grip loosened, Zero opened the cabinet. An alarm sounded.
He unlocked 302 with the emergency key. An elderly resident lay between the bed and the wall. As Zero bent down, Mijeong called the resident's name. When the resident opened her eyes, Mijeong told her who she was.
“It's Mijeong. Take my hand.”
At the end of the corridor, Dohyun saw another resident sitting against the wall. A staff member called to him, but he could not lift his head. They needed cool air up here, at least until everyone was down. Dohyun found the lever that would divert the cooling from the equipment room into the corridor. If the server stopped, no site records would come through while it was down.
His phone rang. Jihoon.
Dohyun did not answer.
He opened the control box and pulled the lever.
The technician swore from the equipment room. A ceiling vent rattled. Little by little, the lukewarm air turned cool.
Zero lifted the resident. Mijeong went ahead, clearing a path and checking names. Dohyun held the door of the last room. He counted the people passing through and asked Mijeong whether anyone was missing.
When the twelfth person reached the bottom of the stairs, the equipment-room alarm stopped.
The server had shut down.
The local reporter's camera arrived after that.
The first person it found was Zero. He was carrying the last resident through the automatic doors. Out of shot, Mijeong was calling the rescued residents' names again.
“Is Mrs. Choi Boksun's family here?”
An elderly woman seated in front of the camera ignored the reporter's question and looked for Mijeong.
“Where's the young woman who called my name?”
A Velstrum Thermal publicity officer leaned into view behind her shoulder.
“Kim Zero found her and brought her out. Please look this way.”
Dohyun was about to say it had been a joint effort when Jihoon called.
“When did the equipment records stop coming through?”
“Everyone's out.”
“That's good. Now, the equipment?”
While Dohyun gave him the time the records had stopped and the list of equipment that had gone down, the interview began. Mijeong stood outside the frame.
She came over with two paper cups. She gave one to Dohyun and held the other out to Zero.
“Barley tea. Still warm, but better than plain water.”
Zero took the cup.
Mijeong watched him hold the cup without drinking for a moment, then tapped her forehead.
“Oh. You can't drink, can you?”
She laughed. Zero did not give the cup back. He held it in both hands.
Dohyun emptied his own in one swallow and crushed it.
In the elevator back at the office, a message arrived from Jihoon. He wanted a report on the equipment damage by the end of the day. Dohyun typed “Tomorrow,” then deleted it.
Mijeong took his crumpled cup and held a hand out to Zero.
“I'll throw that away for you.”
Zero drew his cup back a little.
“I'll keep it.”
Mijeong smiled and stepped out first. Dohyun took his thumb off the close-door button and waited for Zero to follow her.
Continue the story
The rescue makes Zero a company success story. For the people teaching him, the harder questions are only beginning.
Read Learning to Take My Place on Kindle (English edition)
© 2026 Kihong Kim
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