The rain fall continued for the fourth day in a row, though Suho had no recollection of what day it was anymore. With his battery nearing zero, the robot was doing everything he could to stay awake, to keep an eye on someone who could take him home. No one would want him though, not in his condition. His leg had come off when he had fell out of the garbage truck, and he reeked of the wreckage he had once found himself laying amongst. This was the closest thing to pain he would ever feel. It was almost as if he could actually feel the stinging and stabbing pain from where his right leg had been ripped off, and he almost thought he could feel the ghost of his left hand. As days had passed and the rain continued, Suho knew that rust was starting to formulate on areas where pseudo-skin no longer covered the ugly machine that he truly was.

That was the beauty of the EX0KM line, their lack of technology. The robots seemed almost human. Although, after the dilemma with the original EX0KM, each new model had been fitted with an initial and was heavily monitored code wise. The appeal to the robots though was how SM Corporation managed to hide the machinery. While lacking emotions and senses, the EX0KM line was the most realistic piece of machinery ever put into production. With customizable features, the robots became their own people, with traits and features of their own that made them unique for each customer’s pleasure. It was fact. That was knowledge that had been stored in high hard drive since his assemblage. Suho wanted to know more about the original EX0KM machine, she was fascinating in the sense that she had managed to create her own ghost code without knowing it. She taught herself to love, to feel and touch even though it was impossible. Suho was interested, but he did not want to experience anything like that. It was clear to him already that humans were nothing but betraying monsters.

Until recently, he had been part of a house hold. Once before he had been part of an actual family, a unit that required him to continue. It all fell apart. As he quietly watched everything fall to shambles, Suho had been classified as unnecessary. He had been thrown out with the trash, and had been thrown into a garbage truck on its way to a metal processing plant, where he would have been melted down and recycled after having been disassembled. He couldn’t say that he felt either way about it. Not that he was supposed to. Even as the family had dissolved in front of him, he couldn’t say a word because he didn’t really have anything to say on the matter. He was there for a human’s convenience. He had to remind himself of that every day, remind himself that he never wanted to be like the original. Having been corrupted by her own sense of security, her own feelings of humanity, she ruined it for herself. Mind you, even his own method of survival didn’t work out for him. His roboticism was what ultimately lead to his demise.

The faint beeping in his head was the only sound besides the consistent splatter of rain. A little red light went off and his vision changed to red before his eyes started to forcefully close. It was a force shut down; he was completely out of battery.

“Whoa there, hey!” It was the sound of a woman’s voice, though he couldn’t see her. “Hey, are you out of batt—” The sound of her voice disappeared as he completely lost power, falling limp into the woman’s arms. Suho couldn’t help but want to apologize, he was not an easy robot to carry. The impressive machinery inside him was very heavy, and it would be a feat if she could carry him by herself.

When he came to, he found himself lying in a room. It was a slow start up, and admittedly, his system had no clue where he was anymore. He was off the grid, no longer monitored by SM Corporation. EX0KM-JM was unable to reconnect to headquarters. There was no need to be able to connect, but in order to get automatic upgrades and monitored code it was a necessity. Placing his two hands on the table… placing his two hands on the table?! His brown eyes shot open as he sat up; looking at his hands that had managed to support his weight. Next, he looked down to his leg. Sure, they weren’t covered in skin anymore, but he had a hand and a leg!

“Hey! Look at that, you’re all juiced up again!” It was the same voice! His eyes scanned the room until he found her. She was unlike any human he had ever seen before, symmetrically almost perfect. Distinct from anyone else he had ever come across; she was mathematically closest to perfectly symmetrical, which definitely meant that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes on. “You’re all juiced up! How are your hand and leg feeling?”

Frowning, he didn’t seem to care for her half-hearted attempt at humour. Mainly because he did not like humour due to his inability to process it. “I am a robot and thus unable to feel anything.” He reminded her, as if she’d need reminding though because the evidence around the room pointed to her as the person who had fixed him up. First, there were dishes everywhere, and if she had been living with someone there would be more of a reason to clean up after oneself. Furthermore, she had a bra draped over her chair at her work bench, which suggested that she took it off while she was working. Understandable, people on the internet claimed that bras were very uncomfortable, not that he would ever truly comprehend what it felt like to wear a bra.

“Nonsense, you do, you just don’t know it yet!” She smiled brightly, and it was oddly nice to see someone look so genuinely happy while talking to him. “I’m _______, nice to meet you JM-ssi.” You said, holding your arm out in front of you two shake hands with him.

“Suho,” He said, taking his hand into yours and pausing as he felt the warmth from your hand pass into his. That never happened before! His system didn’t know what to do! In a panic, he ripped his hand from yours, staring at it in awe and confusion as he tried to piece together exactly what had just happened. How had he ever been able to actually feel the heat from your hand?

“Ahh, I changed some of your circuitry, I figured it’d be nice to give feelings a try, right Mr. Serious?” You cooed as you walked out of the workplace in your home to the kitchen. The only reason you had left the kitchen at all was because you had heard the metal hunk start to move, but you were in the middle of dinner. That was obviously more important.

After a moment of contemplation, though Suho was really only just running a series of yes and no questions and checking his coding to see what his next action would be, the bionic man got up and followed you into the other room. “Do you need me to do anything miss?”

A slight frown contorted her pretty lips into a frown and Suho found himself not enjoying that she was upset. There were no words to describe the feeling of tightening in his chest. Looking down, his hands grabbed his shirt where a human’s heart would have been, his brows furrowed ever so slightly as a wave of confusion threw him into the sea. Things he had never experienced before were overtaking him. What had this stranger done to his coding?!

In all actuality, while he had been powered down, you had taken out his coding and changed it to make him a little more human. Tireless nights had been spent in front of a computer, system checking and typing until the wee hours of the morning, only to crash at your computer until you realized that your sleeping position wasn’t comfortable. Contorted and bent over the desk, you tended to fall asleep with your head in your keys, leaving little red indents on the skin. It would be worth it for you though, a benefit really. You were not a fan of overly robotic machines running everything and tending to humans, it wasn’t right. For your own comfort, you changed his Suho’s coding so that he would react more humanly to situations, unlike before. It took you about a month to complete the new emotion codes, so what had seemed like a few hours of being powered down was considerably longer. Maybe this way, he’d seem a little more human and realize that being robotic is a lot less helpful in maintaining one’s survival.

The rest of the night was spent explaining to the robot what exactly had happened, and what was going to happen from here. You told him you’d keep him around, help him break in his new arm and leg, and then he could decide what was next for him if that was what he wanted. Suho seemed confused yet contented with this decision. It was his to make, it was his life from now on. You were his angel. You had saved him from being destroyed and bestowed to him a life brand new. He wanted to repay you for it, and believed he was indebted to you for what you had done. If this meant that he would be spending his life with you until your final days, so be it if it meant protecting your smile. Within five minutes of being awake, Suho had yet to realize he had fallen in love with a human’s smile.

The passing days had worn away Suho’s robotic exterior. Albeit awkward and stiff the first few days, your influence had turned the robot to man. It was most noticeable for you one night when you had been doing the dishes. As per usual, you listened to music, dancing along to it as you cleaned up. It was an easier way to make the time pass. You found dishes tedious and boring, but you didn’t want to make Suho do it or you would get used to being doted on. Having sneaked up behind you, Suho snickered and wrapped his arms around your waist, moving along with you. Smiling, you kept on moving as you leaned against his shoulder. “I can do that for you.” He pointed out, resting his head on your shoulder. You shook your head and continued your duty, taking your time just like you did before you found Suho.

Suho found himself really enjoying your company. At night, he was allowed to share a bed with you as he plugged in recharged his battery. He’d hold you in his arms and he could feel his fan speeding up in order to make sure he didn’t overheat. His favourite thing to do was watch your mannerisms as the day passed. How you furrowed your brows when you worked, how you were constantly tripping and bumping into things. Everything about you made him want to hold you tightly in his arms and never let you go. His fervent hope was to stay by your side until you were old and brittle, and when you died he would allow his battery to drain without leaving your side. That was the thing: he never wanted to leave your side. Despite knowing that each and every emotion was a calculated algorithm programmed into his hard drive, he was trying to convince himself it was real. He wanted to believe he was really related to the EX0KM original model, he wanted to feel what she felt. Suho had found someone just as important to him as her owner had been to her. You were the light of his life.

The next morning a knock came on the door and as per usual, Suho answered it. A large burly man looked him over, pushed the robot aside and walked in. “______! Where are you!?” He called out. Immediately getting protective, Suho blocked him off, glaring at the man intently. There were no strangers in this household, not on his watch. “You’re a fine piece of work, her finest to date. I’ll get you for a good price, but first I should pay off the mechanic, no?”

The words took extra time to process. Piece of work? Who was a piece of work? Surely it was not Suho, he was here to stay. You let him sleep in her bed, although it was the only bed you had, you could have always made him sleep on the sofa. Not after all the work she had put into him, you wouldn’t sell him. That was cruel and unusual punishment. As you walked down the stairs, your demeanour had changed. Avoiding eye contact, hard and stern as you accepted the money the other man had given you. It was true, you were selling him like an item, a good instead of like a person you had taught him to be. With the confusion evident on Suho’s face, the strange man chuckled and looked at him. “What, did you think she was serious? Kid, you’re really stupid. You’re a robot, there’s no such thing as feelings in things like you. _______ doesn’t even like robots, she does this to ever one of you.”

Suho’s gears grinded slowly, an ache building in his chest. How could you? “______? Why?!” He demanded loudly. Unfortunately, his outburst warranted the idea that he would not go willingly, and his new owner was preparing to make sure that there was no fuss in getting his merchandise. “I love you! How could you do this to me?!” The gears inside him raced and everything started to feel weak. He wanted to hurl. Or at least, his program was telling him he wanted to hurl. Suho didn’t even know what hurling was. Everything was going white though, the surge of emotions was too strong for his system to process. He wanted to go back to being emotionless, to being a real robot. If this was the pain that EX0KM felt, he wanted none of it.A shock ran through his system, forcing him to his knees and his eyes to shut. It was over. The sale had finished and he was on his way to a new owner. The memory of his angel still deep in his hard drive, with the only wish that it would be cleared one day.