Morning comes and Hongki immediately drags Jonghun off to who knows where, it’s nine in the morning, Jonghun usually doesn’t wake up past noon and they went clubbing the other night, he just wanted to sleep. They both step in a rather complex building and Hongki struts towards the secretary’s desk leaving Jonghun to drag himself to the couches to get some more shut-eye. But it proves futile to him when Hongki drags him to the elevator instead.

“Hongki it’s too early for this,” he whines while they’re in the elevator.

“How is nine in the morning early?”

He whines some more, shaking the latter’s arm. “Hongki,” he stresses the last syllable purposefully to make the other irritated, he loves making Hongki irritated.

“Just st—“

The elevator door opens, revealing a rather stoic looking man, and Jonghun quickly lets go of Hongki’s arm and coughs into his hand. Hongki flashes a smile at the man and nudges Jonghun in the stomach.

“I’m assuming you’re Lee Hongki,” the stoic man says.

Hongki nods, “yes, the one and only Lee Hongki.” He glances over at Jonghun, “hey can you let my buddy sit on your couch or something, he’s tired and needs to catch his z’s.” Hongki jabs his thumb at Jonghun who was nodding off, trying his best to keep awake.

The stoic man merely nods and allows the two into his office. Jonghun immediately drags himself to the black leather sofa and dozes off, not bothering to pay attention to the blabber the two were talking about. He was pretty sure they were the requirements, limitations and other contract mumbo jumbo the two were talking about. It’s usually the contract stuff, usually. He wasn’t actually keeping track of the conversation until a certain bit caught his attention.

“LED’s are not meant for ual use or affection,” the man in the suit starts calmly, “their hard drive cannot withstand emotions like that and will overheat resulting in memory loss or instability.”

Hongki scoffs but quickly smiles, feigning innocence. “Oh, I didn’t know that. I’ll be very careful,” Hongki says in the most innocent voice he could pull.

“It is imperative that you prevent yourself from anything that could possibly arouse the humanoid’s brain,” the man in the suit repeats, eyes narrowing at the red-head, “we are lending you one of our more older models.”

Hongki merely blinks, his rather charming smile now straining, “if it’s one of those super old models, why bother letting me rent one?”

Jonghun looks at the conversation with feigned disinterest, he wasn’t quite sure what they were talking about but it had something to do with and he didn’t want to join in. Why was the man even talking about , isn’t that unprofessional to speak about such things, unless his hearing was getting that bad. Or maybe his perceptiveness to his surroundings was just plain horrible, he was known for being perceptive in the strangest things at the weirdest times. Hongki turns and smiles brightly at Jonghun, giving him a thumbs up (is that a sign for something, he wasn’t really sure, he just wanted to go back to sleep), and walks towards the brunette, a small hop apparent every time he took a step.

“I now officially own a Live Entertainment Droid.”

Jonghun claps his hands with a tired, deadpanned expression, “congratulations, now what are you going to do with it?”

Hongki stares at Jonghun, “uh, sing?”

“Brilliant, sounds brilliant.”

“You sound so enthusiastic after gushing about how great the LED was.”

“Uh.”

The same stoic man comes in, but this time with the same dark-haired boy from yesterday night’s performance. He turns out to be taller than Jonghun expected and much to Hongki’s pleasure, slightly taller than him. Everything about him was exactly how Jonghun remembered, the mischievous glint in his eyes to the small curve of his lips, perfectly breathtaking.  He was dressed in a simple black hoodie and worn out skinny jeans with a pair of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. It was a contrast to the intricate and flashy costume he wore during the performance last night, but it suited him.

“Here’s your LED and you can introduce yourself,” he takes a glance at the three, “out of my office.”

The humanoid laughs. “You just don’t want us polluting your nice office with our stupidity,” he says in a mocking manner.

Jonghun and Hongki stare at the boy with large eyes. Hongki mouths, “did he just diss the big man?” and Jonghun mouths back an, “I don’t know”.  They continue to stare at the two, curious of what could occur next, they really didn’t expect this at all.

The stoic man looks taken aback and clears his throat, “now, if you may.”

The three are ushered out and once in the elevator the LED bursts out into loud laughter startling the two. “Your expressions were hilarious,” he grabs his stomach and leans against the elevator wall, still laughing, “god it’s like you were half expecting a robotic reply or something.”

Jonghun slightly feels offended, but he’s too distracted by the LED’s airy voice to show that he is offended, but Hongki displayed it on his face perfectly. “What the hell was that?!” he yells out, “I didn’t expect you to be such an .”

He shrugs, “what? You thought I was some angel with a pretty face that can sing?”

“No, I thought you were a robot with a pretty face that can sing.”

“Same difference,” he brushes the nonexistent dirt on his pants when the elevator opens with a faint ‘ding’ and flashes a smile at the two. “I’m Jaejin by the way, Lee Jaejin, model number JJ121791,” he extends a hand towards Hongki.

The red-head returns the smile, he still felt offended from the sudden outburst of laughter in the elevator, but quickly waves it off and grabs Jaejin’s hands without any hesitation, “Lee Hongki, didn’t know you guys had last names, but whatever. We’re gonna have a blast.”

Hongki glances at his friend who was still dazed and nudges him gently, “Jonghun, introduce yourself.”

Jonghun blinks and nervously laughs, he’s never felt like this. Butterflies bursted through his stomach, making him feel warm and fluttery in the inside, this would be considered love according to Hongki, but Jonghun didn’t want to believe it was love. How could he fall in love at first sight, especially someone that’s male, and even better, not even human. It just wasn’t him.

“Choi Jonghun, Hongki’s flat-mate,” the brunette manages to say with all those thoughts clashing against each other in his head. “And best friend,” he adds.

Jaejin laughs, “did you really have to add the best friend part? Are you hinting something?”

“I’m hinting that we’re not dating,” Jonghun says.

“We nearly dated once!” Hongki pipes up. “Remember that one night where you said you might like me in a romantic way and I was like ‘no way man, I only see us in a bromance way,’” he starts laughing and jabs at Jonghun’s stomach, “and you got so flustered, it was hilarious.”

Jonghun elbows Hongki’s stomach hard causing the other to double over. He gives Jaejin one of his infamous smiles, “don’t take what he said seriously, I honestly never confessed to him.”

“That is a big fat lie, Choi Jonghun.”

“Just shut up, Hongki.”

A boisterous laugh escapes Jaejin’s lips, he kind of looks like a walrus (a cute one), but Jonghun keeps that to himself. “You two are very interesting,” Jaejin says after a few more fits of giggles, “I think this will be one of my more enjoyable stays.”

“Good to know that you like us,” Hongki says happily before he latches onto Jaejin’s arm much to Jonghun’s pleasure, “now we should head home.”

--

The three arrive at the flat. Hongki is fiddling with his keys, trying to figure out which one is the one that actually opens the door. Jaejin looks around the building curiously, craning his neck here and there, absorbing his surrounding while Jonghun tries to look at anything and everything else that isn’t Lee Jaejin. He doesn’t know why, but he just feels anxious being this close to the humanoid. He didn’t think he’d react in such a way; actually he never reacts in such a way. Even if he had a very obvious crush on someone and that was way before he met Hongki.

“Our apartment is a bit of a mess, but hey we’re all men!” Hongki cheerfully yells out.

Jonghun rolls his eyes and scoffs, “on your side maybe, but not mine.”

Hongki leans in close to Jaejin. “He’s a bit of a neat freak by the way,” he whispers, giving suspicious glances over to Jonghun, “a real neat freak.”

“It’s not like I can’t hear you, Hongki,” Jonghun calls out. He could feel jealousy pull at his heart, or was it jealousy? He was not jealous, no, Choi Jonghun is never jealous and he’ll keep it that way. He wasn’t jealous over Hongki getting all close to Jaejin, he wasn’t jealous that the two hit off well while he and the humanoid still have an awkward air around them. He was not jealous.

The door swings open and there reveals the messy apartment that Hongki and Jonghun lives in. Empty ramen cups littered the floor, clothing (mainly Hongki’s) strewn everywhere from the floor to the couches even a pair of underwear on the TV (Jonghun is a bit relieved to know that wasn’t his), and miscellaneous instruments and items left abandoned on the floor and furniture. ‘A bit of a mess’ is an understatement, their apartment screamed unsanitary and neglect of cleaning the apartment from those who lived in it, and if Jonghun knew that the humanoid was actually coming today, he would’ve cleaned this mess ages ago.

“Feel free to venture around,” Hongki places Jaejin’s suitcase and guitar case carefully on the ground, next to a bag (presumably a bag that contained a moldy sandwich). He quickly flashes a charming smile, picks up the bag carefully by the edges and heads towards to kitchen to throw it out. Jonghun throws himself on the bright orange sofa as Hongki heads towards the kitchen, eyeing at the brown banana Hongki was heading towards, not even bothering to warn the red-head about it.

“Just watch your step, you could step on something gross like—“ Hongki pauses and looks down at his feet. He makes a face when he sees a rotten banana, or the remains of it, covering his left foot, “or you could step on something gross like this.”

Jaejin laughs and nods, “I’ll be careful then.” He begins to navigate carefully through the messy apartment, avoiding the empty Styrofoam cups, instruments and random articles of clothing, cringing a bit every time he encountered something disgusting. Once in a safe spot, he begins to map the apartment in his head, a kitchen (probably covered in mold and even more of a mess than the living room), a messy living area, one bathroom and two bedrooms. Only two bedrooms, where would be even sleep?

“There’s only two rooms,” he points out after looking around for a bit in his safe corner.

“You’re taking Jonghun’s room of course,” Hongki says in a matter-of-factly way from the kitchen. “You wouldn’t like my room, it’s, um, messy. Yeah.”

“Oh, is Jonghun-hyung okay with it?”

“We never discussed this,” Jonghun speaks up. “And please drop the hyung, Jaejin.”

Jaejin shrugs and decides to actually physically check on the kitchen, one bathroom and two bedrooms. Carefully he approaches one of the bedrooms and opens the door, grimacing immediately with just a quick glance of it, must be Hongki’s room, Jonghun thought. Only his room is that messy to make someone feel disgusted.

“Tsk tsk Jonghunnie,” Hongki shakes his head as he throws a blanket at Jonghun, “we did discuss it, this morning.”

“This morning? We never—“ A sudden realization hits Jonghun, they did discuss it, in his half-awake state. Of course Hongki would discuss about these issues with him, in the morning, where his mind was gone to Pluto and wasn’t going to come back at least until noon. “You are the worst friend ever.”

“You mean I’m the best, best friend you’ve ever had.”

“No the worst, where am I even going to sleep?”He asks. It was actually the least of his worries since Hongki would most likely give him the couch, so it wasn’t that bad. But what if Jaejin found the pile of stashed in his underwear drawer, what if he found all those embarrassing junior high school pictures? Scenarios ran through his head and he was itching to go into his room to clear of all the embarrassing materials it held.

“You have the couch, you’ll be fine, just deprived of your precious girlfriends for six months,” Hongki practically sings out.

Jaejin peeks out from a room. “Girlfriends?” the dark-haired humanoid asks, “are you—“

“They’re my guitars,” Jonghun quickly says, looking over at Jaejin from the sofa. He rubs the back of his neck, “I named them girlfriend one and onwards, my guitars.” Oh god, he must sound ridiculous right now, like really ridiculous, he mentally slaps himself, he really should stop embarrassing himself.

“Oh, that’s cool. I named my first guitar Chris.”

“Chris?” Hongki snorts, “you’re as bad as Jonghun.”

Jaejin shrugs, “it’s still better than naming it girlfriend.”

The red-head bursts out into laughter and Jonghun just looks offended. As Jaejin heads towards Jonghun’s room, Jonghun grabs Hongki’s arm. “Don’t you think it’s a bit weird that he’s a bit too human?” Jonghun asks quietly, just in case Jaejin hears them.

“Must be programmed into him then,” Hongki replies back nonchalantly, “most of the idols are LED’s now, and they act pretty human too, most of the time.”  

“But he named his first guitar, and he talked back at the guy who let you rent him,” Jonghun says.

“Stop worrying over the small details, Jonghun.” Hongki ruffles his friend’s hair, “he’s only going to be here for half a year, why bother over it?”

“But still, half a year is a long time.”

Jonghun gets a shrug in return. He really wants answers, just why is Jaejin so human, his actions, his words, his personality, they’re all just too human. Humanoids weren’t supposed to be like this, were they? Honestly Jonghun hasn’t ever been anywhere close one, but he always assumed they were obedient little robots with an appearance of a human. That’s how they were advertised, not a person filled with flaws or named their first guitar, or even laughed and talked back to their superiors.

--

“So I’m sleeping in Jonghun’s room?” Jaejin asks once he was done looking around. He was sitting on the floor, looking up at both Jonghun and Hongki, holding onto a pillow that was on the ground.  

The three had changed into more comfortable clothing, Hongki wearing one of his big t-shirts with a skull imprinted on it and tacky, pink sweats, Jonghun wearing black t-shirt and grey sweatpants, and lastly Jaejin also wearing a black t-shirt with some shorts.  Jonghun had managed to clean the living area, just so it would be clean enough for him to sleep in, but the apartment was still messy other than that. A little bit cleaner, but not by much.

Hongki nods, “yeah, his room is obviously the cleanest.”

“How do you even sleep in your own room, Hongki?”

“I just deal with it,” Hongki shrugs. He glances over the click and stands up, stretching his arms, “well, time to hit the sack!” He walks towards his room, “you two better sleep too, unless humanoids don’t sleep.”

Jaejin looks over at Hongki. He shifts around a bit, looking a bit tense and uncomfortable, Jonghun doesn’t really like how the other looked so uncomfortable, but why does he even feel concerned? He’s never felt like this, not towards any of his male friends, or his previous girlfriends.

“We do sleep,” Jaejin starts slowly, “it gives us energy in the mornings to function properly.”

“Does it mean you also eat actual food?” Hongki asks, his hand is on the knob of his door.

Jaejin nods, “yeah.”

“That’s,” Hongki pauses and scratches his head lightly, “um, intriguing?”

The humanoid chuckles, “I guess? Oh well, night Hongki.”

Hongki opens the door and steps into his room, “night Jaejin,” he says cheerfully. He closes the door and a click echoes throughout the now silent apartment. 

Jonghun coughs and gives Jaejin a small smile, “why don’t you sleep too?”

“Are you sure you’ll be fine on the couch?” Jaejin asks.

Jonghun nods, he shouldn’t really care if Jaejin finds the stash of in his underwear drawer, it’s not like he’ll find it. Plus, there were other things occupying his mind. “Yeah, just take my room, I don’t really care.”

“Oh, okay.” Jaejin heads towards Jonghun’s room, “night, hyung.”

“Night, Jaejin.”

Jaejin closes the door and leaves Jonghun alone with his thoughts. Unanswered questions are still swimming through his head. Why is Jaejin so human? Were all humanoids like this, or was Jaejin just a special case? Why was he even concerned over Jaejin? He sighs and lies back on the sofa, shifting a bit so he could get into a comfortable position. Maybe sleep would answer his questions, sleep sounded very good right now. He pulls the blanket up higher and snuggles into it. Eventually fell into a deep sleep, letting all those questions slip from his mind.

---------------------

a/n: that took way too long to finish writing, like yeah. um, the chapter is a bit boring i guess but i hope this is good enough, it's a bit weird to type humanoid and all but eh. i hope this is good enough u______u