All morning Yixing was in great mood. Jongdae actually ate his dish. Even if he had eaten only the half of it, it was still better than nothing. In the same day Yixing managed to get him to talk and to eat. He was making a progress. These thoughts made him giddy. He was really grateful he could actually feel this emotion. Most androids didn’t have emotions – just consciousness. It was all they needed for the work androids were designed to do. Not to mention the money and the diligent work it required to create artificial emotions. Not many scientist would have bothered that much. They usually made quite cheap and quite simple androids for simple tasks, but Doctor Kim was different and so was K2. He could feel things. Not with the same intensity as humans but he knew what sadness or happiness meant and he had felt them before. He knew he felt sadness when he heard about Yixing’s story, and he knew he felt happiness when he saw the half-empty plate. His emotions were simpler and clearer than the human’s but he was glad he had them. It made his job enjoyable. Not many androids had that privilege.

Yixing was thinking about this while he was making breakfast. He hoped Jongdae would eat this too. He noticed that he had gotten better at cooking and was happy that in near future he would be able to make much tastier and much more complicated dishes for Jongdae.  But would he be around long enough for it? Just how quickly would Jongdae recover and get rid of him? Yixing shook his head. He was an android; of course humans used them and then tossed them aside – that’s his job. He hoped after that Doctor Kim would take him back and maybe use him in the Recreation center. He enjoyed helping humans and he really enjoyed Doctor Kim’s company.

The breakfast looked great and the smell was even better. He put the tray in front of the bedroom door before saying;

“Thank you for eating my cooking. Please eat this one too.”

He bowed to the closed door and headed towards the small living room. Or tried to before he heard Jongdae’s voice.

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“About the rabbit thing. I doubt my dad or uncle Minseok told you, since only the two of us knew about it.”

“I found your dream jar,” answered Yixing.

When he didn’t hear anything else, he begun worrying.

“I’m sorry for intruding. I shouldn’t have…”

“It’s alright,” added Jongdae bitterly, “You need to know a thing or two about real Yixing, if you are going to pretend to be him.”

“Pretending to be him is not my goal,” said Yixing calmly.

“Then what is your goal?” said Jongdae half interested half annoyed.

“To help you.”

Jongdae went silent after that. Yixing really wished there wasn’t a door between them so he could at least know whether their conversation ended or not.

“You can’t help me,” barely whispered Jongdae.

“How can you know that?”

“I just know.”

“It's not a valid argument Kim Jongdae.”

Jongdae snorted.

“You know it was the most Zhang Yixing thing you could have said. Doctor Kim made a perfect copy of him,” Jongdae didn’t sound too thrilled with his discovery.

“Is it good or bad?” Humans were confusing, but Kim Jongdae was the most confusing one.

“I don’t know either,” added Jongdae before heading towards his bed.

Yixing took the hint and went away.

After a few hours Yixing was finally done cleaning the house. He sat in the living room for some time just staring at the walls, before deciding that he needed to make lunch for Jongdae. Apparently he needed to buy groceries, so he went to Jongdae’s room to inform him of leaving the house. The tray was on the floor, but there was a note on it. It simply read ‘thank you’. Yixing was beaming.

xxx

Yixing was on his way back home around 6 pm. The weather was nice. The late evening sun was shining in all its maroon glory. Yixing was passing a very unusual street when a woman in very revealing cloths approached him asking if he wanted to have fun. Yixing made a mental note to avoid that street next time he went home. He told the woman that he was not interested and went straight ahead. He was passing by a bar when he saw someone from the corner of his eye. The man looked at him, looked ahead, and then again looked at him before approaching. The man came very close and Yixing looked at him carefully. The man, or rather the boy, as he seemed to be in his late 20’s, was handsome although very short. He had very gentle features and shiny eyes, which made him look like an innocent child. Something in his eyes made Yixing think the boy wasn't that innocent. The boy was smiling when he said;

“Yixing, long time no see. How have you been?”

Oh, so it was real Yixing’s acquaintance or maybe friend. The boy seemed friendly enough. Yixing didn’t know what to say. Should he tell him that he was not the real one? The boy sounded so cheerful he didn’t want to be the person(the android) telling him that Yixing was dead. The boy’s smile was too pretty to ruin. He simply stared back.

The boy put his hand around Yixing’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry you guys had a fight before the accident,” said the boy a bit more seriously.

Did he refer to the airplane accident? Did Yixing and Jongdae have a fight? Why did he never hear about it before?

Yixing wanted to ask the smiley guy what he knew, but two huge men came running after him. They were shouting something about tearing the boy apart. The boy sprinted and before he would disappear from Yixing’s sight he said;

“I’ll catch you later, Xing.”

The two men were running after him. Yixing sincerely hoped those men wouldn’t catch him.

xxx

Yixing got home twenty minutes later. He put the groceries in the refrigerator and begun cooking. He wanted to make something new today so he begun looking up recipes. He found a recipe from Italian cuisine, so he begun making that. The recipe seemed challenging but cooking turned out easier than it looked. It took an hour but it was worth it. He put it on the tray and went to knock on Jongdae’s door. He put the tray and begun talking.

“Hey, Jongdae. I came back. I made lasagna today. Hope you’ll like it. Also thank you for eating my cooking,” then Yixing continued, “By the way, do you know Yixing’s friends?”

The question caught Jongdae off guard.

“Of course, why are you asking?”

“I met someone today. He asked me how I was and then said he was sorry you had a fight before the accident.”

“What did he look like?,” Jongdae sounded intrigued.

“He was very handsome. He was very short. He had shiny yes and small frame.” 

“Oh, just as I thought. It was Luhan. He is Yixing’s childhood friend. They were inseparable.”

“How about the fight? He said something about you guys fighting,” Yixing hoped Jongdae would actually explain it to him.

Jongdae took a deep breath before starting.

“We had a huge fight. Right before the airplane explosion. We were having money problems for a while. The bakery was quite profitable, but keeping the flower shop coasted far more than we could afford. The money it brought was barely enough to buy new material. Yixing hated depending on other people so when my dad suggested helping us he refused to take money from him. Three days before that damn flight, he put the bakery for sale. I was beyond pissed. Bakery was Yixingi'’s. He loved working there. He made it from the scratch. Thinking that he made such huge decision without me pissed me off. I couldn’t live with the fact that he sold his dream to keep mine. He went through so much. Ever since I met him I promised myself to give him everything he deserved and needed, but he kept on making sacrifices for me and I couldn’t bear it. We had a huge fight. He told me he hated feeling that he would never be good enough for me. I told him I hated his attitude. He stormed off. We didn’t talk the next day. He didn’t even come home; maybe he was at Luhan’s. His biological father died the next day and he was required to attend the funeral. He had to fly to Changsha. We went to see him off. I thought maybe we would resolve things on the way to the airport. But we kept on fighting. If only I kept my mouth shut… if only…” Jongdae’s voice sounded like he was crying.

Yixing couldn’t stop the sharp pain in his heart. He pressed himself against the door, as if he could comfort Jongdae in some way.

“It wasn’t your fault the airplane exploded. It would have exploded either way. It’s not your fault Jongdae,” tried to convince Yixing.

“But it was me who said I don’t need him. I told him to go to Hell. I ing told him that,” Jongdae was sobbing loudly.

Yixing didn’t know what to say.

“The very last words I ever told him were ‘I don’t need you. Get lost’. I’m such a goddamn idiot. He died thinking I don’t need him, even if he was the only thing I ever needed.”

Jongdae was already hiccupping from crying so hard. Yixing hated hearing his sad voice. Yixing wanted to help, but how? What was he supposed to do in this type of situation? He quickly looked trough the net and found that the best way to help a crying person was hugging. Yixing had never done it before and although he was a bit hesitating because what if he didn’t do it the right way and made the things worse, but he couldn’t bear hearing Jongdae’s sobs.

“Jongdae, can you please open the door?”

“W-why?”

“I need to hug you to stop you from crying,” said Yixing in a way as if it was the most obvious thing on the Earth.

Jongdae froze for a few seconds before be unlocked the door. It was the second time Yixing saw Jongdae. This time he had a huge gray blanket covering almost all of his body. He was wearing a simple white shirt and black sweatpants. His cheeks were red and tear-strained. One of his hands was drying his tears and snot, while the other was tightly keeping the blanket in it’s place. Overall, he was a sobbing mess.

He looked at Yixing with expectant eyes and Yixing realized that it was his time to move. He came close until his body was pressed against Jongdae’s and carefully wrapped his hands around him. Jongdae did the same and Yixing relaxed realizing that he didn’t screw it up. Hugging was nice. Amazing even. He was  a bit taller than Jongdae. Jongdae pressed his face against Yixin'g chest, while Yixing rested his chin on Jongdae’s shoulder. He could smell Jongdae’s hair. It didn’t smell good (maybe the boy didn’t feel like showering) and his chest was becoming wet from the tears, and yet Yixing thought hugging was the most pleasurable thing he had done.  Did humans hug all the time? Now more than ever he envied humans who could and did hug other humans. An android like him might have never discovered the pleasure coming from hugging a warm human body had it not been Jongdae’s sadness. He wondered if Jongdae would let him hug him again? He would really like that.

Jongdae’s sobs soon quieted down. They just stood on the threshold of Jongdae’s bedroom just hugging each other and feeling the warmth coming from the other’s body. One real, the other artificial.