One of These Nights [Part II]
The VelvetA/N: Hey everyone! Thank you so much for your patience!!! I've mostly recovered physically from my incident, but am still very much recovering emotionally from it. My friend who was directly involved has been wanting me around more often since then, so a lot of my time is dedicated to her. It was a very traumatic experience, but what mattersis that I'm safe right now. I have quite the amount of family matters right now as well, so my time to write is just eaten up a lot. I'll respond to all of your wonderful comments! Thank you everyone for such a lovely response. I'll work hard to finish this up. In the works is a oneshot initially started by another wonderful writer. I hope to finish that first before writing the final part to this! I'll try not to leave you all hanging for too long! Anyway, please enjoy.
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Wendy locks the door after the three goons have left, leaving her alone with her flustered owner. She smiles sweetly at her, as if she wasn't just flirting aggressively with her. Her Master told her that she was designed to be a smooth talker, but she was also designed to make cringe worthy comments and be overly sweet. Wendy didn't understand the point of it at first, but was happy to see the reactions Irene had.
It was clear that Irene's friends are quite fond of teasing the older woman.
"May I have your permission to look throughout the apartment, Master Irene? If I am to do cleaning, cooking, and any kind of work around the place, then I would like your okay with it first," Wendy asks with a tight, polite smile that finally reminds Irene of an AI. But her eyes are wide and sparkling again, causing Irene to feel a little weak in the knees.
"Yes of course, I trust you won't mess up anything. And please, just call me Joohyun," Irene adds at first, wondering if she'll regret giving Wendy permission to call her by her real name, "Or well...I guess you can call me unnie too since I'm older than you."
"Yerim and Joy call you ancient sometimes, but they really were exaggerating," Wendy says sincerely, taking a strand of Irene's hair and tucking it behind her ear. She takes note in the change of Irene's heartbeat and breathing rate and frowns, "Unnie, are you okay?" Her face scrunches up in further concern, wondering what could possibly be happening to her new owner. Perhaps she could ask her creators later when they're over for dinner. She had learned quite a lot about Irene and the results of specific physical contact, but wanted more answers,
Irene feels her breathing stop as Wendy looks deeper into her eyes. Okay, maybe the unnie thing was a mistake. The tone of voice Wendy has feels so sincere, so sweet and lovely and Irene can't believe how captivated she is despite having just met 15 minutes ago.
She coughs into her hand and backs away, fixing her own hair and smiles nervously at Wendy who tilts her head in response. This really wasn't looking too good considering that they only met today and were supposed to spend the rest of their lives together.
"I'm alright, Seungwan, thank you. Let's check what I have in my fridge then go grocery shopping." She pauses and releases the breath she's been holding, feeling her composure return with the distance between herself and her new gift. "I'm fine, don't worry about it. Sometimes we humans just get flustered when our personal space gets...invaded by someone who's practically a stranger."
Wendy makes a face, clearly displeased by her wording, "I'm not a stranger though, I don't want unnie to think that way about me. We're...more than strangers, right?"
Irene sighs and shakes her head. Wendy genuinely sounds upset that she called her a stranger.
"Yeah, you're right, we are more than strangers," she hears a sigh of relief and can't help but smile, "I'm sorry, I guess I'm just not used to you yet," she lets out a nervous laugh before scratching the back of her head nervously.
"Well, I hope you get used to me soon," Wendy steps closer to her again and takes her hand. But she doesn't come any closer, only squeezes her hand, "Because I'm going to be by your side for a long time. I was even designed to age, you know?"
Irene's eye widen, impressed for the millionth time that day, "Wow, your masters really went all out with you. You really are a perfect AI."
Wendy blushes and Irene does her best not to swoon at the look in Wendy's eyes before she bashfully turns away. She was supposed to have almost all of the knowledge in the world being a computer and all, but her innocence and ignorance to how exactly emotions and human behaviours and relationships worked made Wendy even more precious.
"I don't think I'm anything special," she mumbles before squeezing Irene's hand again. "I mean, I am based off other models with just a few customizations here and there."
The older woman marvels at the warmth and humility emanating from a man-made creation. opens a little, words trying to find their way out of but she's mesmerized again.
"You shouldn't write yourself off like that, or your creators either," she wonders if she's hallucinating when she can practically hear Wendy's heartbeat speed up, matching her own. She didn't even know that she had a heart or if maybe her body was just created with something very similar. She feels like Wendy will just never cease to amaze her.
"You're special, Seungwan. Despite being one of many models, I don't think I'll ever meet another one like you."
Wendy's facial expression is breathtaking, as usual and Irene takes a moment to soak in the look in Wendy's eyes as she processes the words that Irene so sincerely said.
"You are not permitted to meet another model, ever," she's half joking and half jealous at the possibility.
She tucks away the idea that she's just an object and easily replaceable, she's had that discussion already and Yeri has on numerous occasions had to remind her of her individuality. She didn't mind the idea before, or being replaced by an even greater creation, as science always advances, as the times always change. But here, with her new master, a beautiful woman who makes her sensors overload with every movement, every touch, every word that comes out of , Wendy doesn't think she could ever handle being replaced. But she has nothing to worry about.
"I might take some time to open up and I'm sorry that I can be awkward sometimes," Irene voices honestly before attempting to let go of Wendy's hand. The grip is tight and she almost laughs at the AI's stubborness. "But I do like you so far and I don't think I'll ever want to replace you."
A moment of silence is shared amongst them, Wendy just gazing at her with unreadable eyes. They're so full of life and possibly adoration, but at the same time they're muddy with something else, uncertainty, doubt. Irene wants to make her eyes clear always, but it's too soon and she's too shy, despite Wendy's entire existence being dedicated to her.
"Come on, let's get going. Knowing my friends, they'll wanna drop by early and I hate being unprepared."
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The grocery trip happens quickly and painlessly. After figuring out exactly what she needed, Wendy knew exactly where to go and how many of each ingredient she needed to purchase. The AI would often pause to calculate numbers in her head quickly and Irene just watched in fascination each time. Plus, it was pretty entertaining how high up her eye brows went up each time and the strange, mumbling noises she made when counting.
Irene works as a free lance illustrator, occasionally going down to the studio she currently works at. She mostly works from home however and is working on her own personal projects on the side. Because she doesn't really need more than your typical necessities and art supplies, she has a lot of money saved up. She usually goes all out for special occasions like this, especially when all of her close friends are celebrating her birthday with her.
Even so, Wendy found a way to make sure they spend the least amount of money and Irene's surprised at the final total spent. She almost gawks at the number, surprised that it remains under the three digit mark. She usually stops looking at prices when shopping for special occasions and punches a hole into her wallet around birthdays, even her own. But this time, she thinks she has enough to ask Wendy to bake something extra for dessert.
"Seungwan, do you know how to make carrot cake?" Irene asks as they put the groceries into her car.
"Of course I do, I know how to make all of your favourite dishes. You want it with walnuts and extra cream cheese icing on top and in the middle, right?" Wendy's strength is impeccable as well as she easily carries the many boxes of pop from their cart into the vehicle.
"That's exactly right!" Irene chirps, a wide smile on her face. It's been a while since she's had a delicious carrot cake. None of her friends baked and her favourite bakery happened to be almost an hour away by car so she only went when she really craved the dish.
Wendy's face lights up at the sight of Irene's smile, her teeth shining brightly at her. Her pupils dilate as her internal camera takes several pictures of this smile to save forever. "Joohyun unnie, you look really beautiful when you smile like that. I do hope to see that more often, perhaps for the rest of my life," she comments before turning around to push the cart towards the store again. "I'll quickly grab the ingredients for the cake and we'll head home."
Irene's left alone again, staring at Wendy as she walks away with a deep blush on her face. And it's also in that moment that Irene realizes something else.
Joy wasn't joking. Even though Wendy was wearing almost childish looking overalls, her looked absolutely incredible.
She wonders when she'll have time to buy Wendy some shorts. After all, the weather was getting slightly warmer.
---
Everything smells amazing.
Irene doesn't realize how much she needed a break from cooking and cleaning around her apartment until Wendy does absolutely everything for her in record speed.
Despite being a fairly clean, organized person, when she had a lot of projects to do and many deadlines to meet, she had a tendency of putting off her cleaning or resorting to having take out. Joy had about growing a bit of a tummy and Seulgi didn't make it better when she told her that it was cute.
"Want to taste some of my japchae?" Wendy asks, a hot forkful of the dish already in her hands. "It's a little hot so please be cautious when eating."
Irene blows on the spoonful a little, a bit of drool threatening to escape simply from the delicious aroma coming from the dish. And despite it being a little too hot for her to handle, she gobbles up the entire bite easily.
"This is amazing!" She gushes, her hands clapping together happily, almost like a seal. "I can't wait to try everything else, bring on the rest of the food!"
Wendy laughs loudly at Irene's state of bliss, watching with amused eyes as her new master excitedly skips around the dining room table to the other prepared dishes. But before she grabs another forkful of something delicious, she looks at Wendy with wide eyes, taking in the AI's melodic laugh. One of her eyes is winking and her nose is scrunched up in a very adorable and endearing display.
How was Seungwan so real and artificial at the same time? How was it that this creation was so full of life?
The doorbell rings and a series of loud and obnoxious knocks follow, symbolizing the arrival of her best friends. Irene snaps back to reality and shakes the blush forming on her face.
"I'll go get that before my neighbours call the cops," she states with a sigh. Must her friends always be so rowdy? But she smiles nonetheless, excited to spend the rest of her birthday with the people that mean the most to her.
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