Everyone had a father. Some became fathers. Youngjae was just waiting to be.

            He was stuck in a void. He was also a creation, an android made to look human but he couldn’t live. He didn’t need to breathe, he didn’t need to eat and he didn’t need to feel. He was meant to take over, to be a part of an army so vast and indestructible that nothing would stand in their way once they were released.

            But the thing was, Youngjae had a glitch. He could feel. If this strange pang in his heart whenever he looked out from his gel was yearning, that was what he felt. He wanted to see, to know what the place he was going to conquer was a part of.

            Right now, however, he was still in the making. He hasn’t been equipped with his super powers, and so he was going through the void where he was still part human. But even as part human, he wasn’t supposed to have those complex thoughts running through his head. He was supposed to have one line thoughts, one for each computed command that was installed with him. He was going through a new set of recoding that would turn him from more human into the humanoid he was supposed to be.

            Every day, it was the same cycle of getting tested, of leaving his vial and going into the white performance stage room. The performance room was just a stage with spotlights in the center and a glass separating him and his maker. His maker along with his team would type in controls and see how he reacted.

            It was simple. All Youngjae had to do was compute what was going on and perform the actions. Everything clicked so easily for him. He moved smoothly, while he knew that the other androids were a little more difficult to control. One of the reasons why he was so easy was because his feelings allowed him to move.

            He knew he should move better, and always reacted a second or two before the command was fully computed. “Youngjae will be our best,” his maker often touted.

            But he wouldn’t, and the reason was because he simply was not easy to be controlled. It was both exhilarating and scary, but Youngjae has realized that he held the power in the relationship. Like humans, he could control whether to do what he wanted to and whether to obey or not. And right now, because of lack of reason otherwise, he did whatever was asked of him.

            The hatch to his vial was being undone and he was carefully removed from the wires and braces that kept him in place. The handler smiled at him as she carefully swept the hair off his forehead. “Our Youngjae looks so handsome today. It’ll be easy for you to infiltrate society.”

            He kept a blank face. Androids weren’t supposed to react to whatever the humans said, only to what they typed in but inside, he felt a sick twist in the pit of his abdominal area. He didn’t want to infiltrate.     

            She led him to the white room and stepped out from the cut out door and now she was on the other side. His maker stared at him and sat down. His fingers flew and in the retinal space, Youngjae saw the code. Immediately, he began to move. A little hesitance came into his actions and immediately, the creator noticed.

            Youngjae forced himself not to think. He had to turn off; he had to be one hundred percent robot. He again answered each order with the accuracy that he normally did. “Must have been a tiny glitch. Oil him down and run a systems check,” the maker ordered and Youngjae was shipped to the repair room.

            There, his batteries were taken out and he was finally free of his thoughts. When he was rebooted and started up again later, it took a few moments for his human thoughts to catch up to his consciousness. It was disorienting but as he was marched back to his cubicle, he passed the other humanoids. They were all staring glassily in front of him and he knew that none of them had any thoughts going through their heads right now.

            He copied their blank look, something he had perfected but was surprisingly losing, before he continued walking. When Youngjae was shackled back into his vial again, he settled in and tried to shut down his mind again.

            His mistake was allowing his human thoughts to consume. It happened too regularly and it prevented him from being able to focus on the commands. When he hesitated or didn’t do a certain step or two, he attracted attention.

            This time when his maker asked for another checkup, they found out that the human parts of him hasn’t been deleted completely. “In fact, some of the robotic parts are starting to not be connected because human thought is taking over some of the reactors.

            Youngjae was shut down and put through a grueling test. He had his entire database erased and he had to relearn commands. When he opened his eyes again, there was only a darkness. He stared blankly out of his glass confinement and when he was taken out to be tested, there was nothing that stopped him from completely every task as they were computed.

this is for Himeka12

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