For a few days Yixing and Jongdae followed their routine. Yixing would come at Jongdae’s place at 9 am sharp. He’d make a breakfast then take it to Jongdae’s room. He’d knock and Jongdae would open the door, take the tray, and after a few minutes he’d hand it back not forgetting to thank Yixing for the meal. Then Yixing would do the dishes, and if he didn’t need to buy groceries, he’d spend the morning sitting on the sofa doing nothing. He quite liked doing nothing.

The afternoon he’d spend doing one of the things from the dream jar. Although most of the time this was quite challenging. On the day after the hug, he had to come up with a new type of bread. It turned out to be much more difficult than it seemed. He spent six hours in the kitchen trying to pick right ingredients only to find out that they had already been used by someone somewhere. Yixing nearly gave up before an idea came to him. He added to banana bread’s mix cherries and oranges. It turned out to be a some sort of a fruit salad-bread. Yixing was quite content. He actually enjoyed working in the bakery. He liked how quiet it was, how the mix took every shape he gave to it, how it smelled when it was baking. What was even better was realizing that he created something, and that it would make Jongdae happy. Just thinking that already made him happy. When he presented the bread to Jongdae, he handed him a fork because after spending so much time baking he had the right to see Jongdae’s face while eating. Jongdae took a bit from the piece of cake and his eyes became wide. He munched quickly, took another piece and with an open mouth told Yixing that it was very tasty. Yixing was beaming.

The next day he was looking for a puppy in the pet store. The android dogs grew up and behaved just like actual dogs would, except they were easier to look after and they didn’t need food or a walk in the park. Yixing bought a mini-poodle. It was white and wiggled its tale as soon as he saw Yixing. He was very cute. Yixing took the dog in his hands and paid with the money Kim Joonmyeon gave him at the start of his mission. He couldn’t keep his smile off his face when he handed Jongdae the puppy. Jongdae hugged the puppy close to his chest and didn’t say anything. Yixing asked about its name and Jongdae told him that he should choose, since he had bought him. After a small protest Yixing named him Snow, because of his color. Jongdae laughed then snuggled his face into the puppy and took him to his room not forgetting to give a quick hug to Yixing. Yixing thought his processor shut down for a few seconds. He couldn’t move. Sure they hugged a few days earlier, but it was to stop Jongdae from crying and not because Jongdae felt like hugging him. The evening Yixing spent with a smile on his face.

The next dream was spending the whole weekend snuggled on the bed. This one was the easiest; although Yixing felt nervousness as he explained to Jongdae why he wanted to enter the bedroom. Just how many emotions had Doctor Kim programmed in him? Wouldn’t it be better if he had none? The nervousness became even worse when for five minutes or so he didn’t get a reply from Jongdae. Jongdae was becoming more accepting to him and a lot nicer but maybe it was too early for this dream. He was already apologizing for daring to say that when the door opened. Jongdae looked as if he had been running. In fact he was speed-cleaning the room. Yixing went inside and lay on the bad. He signaled Jongdae to follow his lead. Jongdae lay down to his left side. At first they were both on their backs with only their sides touching. Then Yixing pulled Jongdae to his chest, so now Jongdae’s head was resting on his chest. Jongdae seemed not to be breathing for a moment before he relaxed. Yixing put his hands around Jongdae’s waist. The lay like that all day with occasional Snow jumping on them. Yixing thought it was the best day (or rather days, since they did that for two more days) he ever had.

Today was a bit different. He gave the breakfast to Jongdae and not only Jongdae took it, but he also smiled. Not the full-blown smile he had on his pictures, but a small, shy one. Yixing froze in his place from the unexpected sight. He awkwardly thanked Jongdae and went to sit in the living room. Sitting alone was very nice. Most of the time his mind was blank and he enjoyed staring at the walls of the living room. Other times he thought about Jongdae; did he eat the food? Was he getting better? Would he ever smile the way he smiled in those photos? He took the piece of paper he had put in his pocket beforehand and read it again: Make Dad go on a date with uncle Minseok. Yixing couldn’t keep his snicker to himself. He phoned Doctor Kim and after laughing for some time he said that if it would help Jongdae he would do it. He told Yixing to talk to Joonmyeon too, just to explain the situation. Yixing decided against calling Mr. Kim on the phone. He informed Jongdae that he was leaving the home, although he doubted Jongdae heard him since he was too busy teaching tricks to Snow. Jongdae hadn’t been locking his door for a week now.

Kim Joonmyeon’s house was huge. Of course it would be; he was one of the richest people in the city. This was a bit strange. How could Jongdae have such a rich dad and have financial problems? It didn’t make much sense.

Mr. Kim was a bit surprised to see him. Yxing calmly explained what he was doing and why it was important.

“So you spent all this time trying to make their dreams come true?” Mr. Kim sounded like he was simply thinking out loud, “Maybe this is really helping after all.”

Then as if remembering Yixing was there he asked.

“So what can I do for you, my boy?”

 “You can go on a date with Doctor Kim,” said Yixing in his most composed voice.

And that was really hard considering how the old man’s face was too funny not to laugh at.

“Come again,” said Mr. Kim blinking quickly.

“I said one of their dreams was to make Doctor Kim and You go on a date.”

Mr. Kim softly chuckled at that.

“Ah, those brats. Always messing with me,” said Mr. Kim with a smile.

He agreed and when Yixing wanted to leave, he seemed to have remembered something. He told him to wait and went to a different room. When he came back there was a small parcel in his hands. He gave it to Yixing.

“This is Jongdae’s present for Yixing.”

Yixing opened the parcel and saw a small silver flower in it. It was jasmine, his database supplied. His database also supplied that in flower language it meant eternal love. Yixing felt a sharp pain in his heart which made him wonder just how intense Doctor Kim made his emotions.

“It’s jasmine. It signifies eternal love,” that Yixing already knew; what he didn’t know was…, “Jongdae made this not long before the accident. He was really good at anything that required careful hands and wild imagination. It was his present for Yixing’s birthday, so he asked me to keep it so Yixing won’t find it before that.”

Yixing carefully examined the lavaliere. Even if it was hand-made, Yixing immediately could tell it was done with high level of mastery. The petals were simply gorgeous. They were done meticulously. The filaments and stigma were done so artfully they looked real.

“He spent a two months simply learning to work with silver and only after he was sure he could do it perfectly, he begun working on this. Overall, he spent 6 months trying to make this,” said Mr. Kim.

“He really loved Yixing, didn’t he,” said Yixing quietly.

Mr. Kim didn’t say anything. He simply stared at the photo hanging off the wall. Yixing looked at it and saw Jongdae, himself, Mr. Kim, Doctor Minseok and Luhan. Wait… Luhan?

“You know Luhan?”

“Of course. He was Yixing’s best friend. How do you know about him?,” asked Mr. Kim with barely hidden panic.

“I met him in the street. Jongdae told me what his name is. Why do You look so panicked?,” asked Yixing.

At that Mr. Kim composed himself.

“I was just surprised.”

Yixing went close to the photo to look at it closer. He and Jongdae… no, real Yixing and Jongdae were in the middle. Mr. Kim and Doctor Kim were by their sides. Luhan was standing behind Yixing with a yellow Labrador in his hold.

“When was this taken?”

“On Yixing’s 26^th birthday,” replied Mr. Kim coming to stand beside Yixing, “What a night that was! Yixing proposed to Jongdae, and it took us fifteen minutes just to calm him down. My poor son was crying so hard. He was so happy. To be honest, I was really happy that I turned out to be wrong.”

“About what?” asked Yixing facing Mr. Kim.

“About Yixing. I didn’t trust him at all when we met.”

When Mr. Kim noticed Yixing’s questioning look, he continued.

“Jongdae has always been too kindhearted. He always dragged damaged pets to Minseok’s and begged him to fix them. He would pet working androids and tell them that they were doing a great job and cry every time one of them broke down. He was too soft and I feared that people would take advantage of it. So imagine my state when one day Jongdae drags to my house a homeless boy and his dog. Yixing at that time was too skinny and too distrustful. Even if he followed Jongdae to our house, he refused to take any money from him and snapped at him every time Jongdae even dared to pity him. He was too prideful. I didn’t trust him. He left the impression of a person who had been through hell, and although I wanted to help him, I didn’t want him to have anything to do with my Jongdae. You see, I had Jongdae when I was 38 and after that his mother died. I was always overprotective of him.”

“What happened next?”

“I asked Minseok to look after him and for a year he stayed at Minseok’s. He helped Minseok to repair androids and look after the elderly in the Recreation house. Jongdae always sneaked off to give Yixing a lunch or simply to spend time with him. After some time I just gave up trying to reason him. Through time Yixing slowly changed. He begun smiling and talking to us. It was hard disliking the boy.  He was mature for his age, hard-working, cunning and very attentive when it came to Jongdae. I often visited Minseok just so we could watch them interact from afar. God, I sound like an old man, but it was what we did. I wanted to be sure Yixing was a good person, because ever since I saw Jongdae’s pleading eyes when he brought Yixing to our house, I knew my son was head over heels for him. Fortunately, Yixing seemed to be in similar state. He was always smiling around Jongdae and stealing glances. Jongdae was the only person whom he never scolded for being touchy with him. Once, he jokingly called Minseok an ‘old ’ when the latter tried to hug him on his birthday. You should have seen Min’s face.”

Mr. Kim laughed at that.

“He was really such a nice kid though. Over the time he opened up even to me. After that I treated him like my son. I couldn’t stay in their way (not that Jongdae would allow me that in the first place; he was always free-spirited), but I thought they’d make a good pair. Jongdae was affectionate and naïve, Yixing was careful and overprotective. His life made him that way.”

Mr. Kim looked gloomy.

“Did he have a difficult life?” the more Yixing heard about Yixing and Jongdae the more he felt sad for both of them.

“He was born with a weak heart. His parents bought a new one for him, but they couldn’t pay the debt so they left the boy when he was 8. I’m not sure if I can blame them. After that the poor boy lived in the orphanage. There he met Luhan. His parents had died from a car accident. They became close friends after that, soulmates even, as Yixing often said. Jongdae always got jealous hearing that, although he knew what Yixing meant. It was called an orphanage, but mostly it was a children’s work camp. They made the kids work for the robot-making companies. They had to fetch android parts from dumpsters and rivers. Yixing never went into details but you can imagine the things he and Luhan went through. They run away when they were 16 and spent a few years doing all kings of jobs. They got separated when Yixing was 22. Luhan had gotten in trouble with a powerful gambler and had to disappear from the town. He left a note saying that he’d come back when it’d be safer. Yixing then found a damaged dog - Gou and repaired her. She was all he had until he met Jongdae that evening.”

There were so many thoughts in his head at that time – about Yixing’s parents, about Jongdae, about Luhan, about the new family Yixing found and about his death. Life was unfair. Yixing had been through a lot and when he was actually happy he died in an explosion. No wonder Jongdae had been in such a terrible state. Jongdae felt what Yixing felt. Why couldn’t humans shut down their emotions like robots can?

Yixing thanked Mr. Kim for the lavaliere and for the information and headed to Jongdae’s house.