Hongbin bumps into Hakyeon's bot on the way back from the bathroom.

"Ah -- Taekwoon!" Hongbin greets, remembering the name Hakyeon gave him. "Is it safe to go back now?"

There's an oddly removed expression on Taekwoon's face. "Yes. They seem to be done talking."

He peers around the corner to see Wonshik and Hakyeon wrapped up in each other's embrace. "Not again," he groans, spinning around again. "They always do this, you know? Something about having known each other since young."

He gives an awkward laugh, but Taekwoon is stiff.

An entirely ludicrous thought crosses Hongbin's mind. He hesitates, then asks, "Are you -- are you jealous?"

"He doesn't let me do this for him," Taekwoon says softly, eyes still fixed on the dining table.

"He doesn't let a lot of people do this for him," Hongbin says honestly. "Only Wonshik." Taekwoon's eyes flash and Hongbin backs up hurriedly. "Chill, dude -- what they have is entirely platonic. Or I would have gotten on Wonshik's case for it long ago."

Taekwoon crosses his arms and doesn't answer.

Hongbin stares at him, at a loss. How do you deal with a jealous robot? "Hakyeon -- Hakyeon is special," he tries. "He's been through a tough period -- "

"I know," Taekwoon says unexpectedly.

Flabbergasted, he asks, "He -- told you?"

"Sanghyuk told me." Taekwoon blows out an irritated breath. "Hakyeon doesn't tell me things like these."

"Hakyeon -- " Hongbin stops. "He doesn't share things like this easily. The only person he really trusts is Wonshik. And he's just come from a very bad break-up. I'm sure you can understand that he doesn't want to go through that again so soon."

"But I would never betray him. I love him." Taekwoon's eyes are earnest.

Hongbin sighs. Of all the things he expected to spend his Saturday evening doing, counselling Hakyeon's bot certainly wasn't on the list. "Taekwoon, I'm sure you think you love him -- "

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Taekwoon demands, frustrated. "I know how I feel about him."

Hongbin laughs, a choked sound. "If you've been telling Hakyeon things like this, it's no wonder he doesn't dare to trust himself with you."

"I -- "

"Hakyeon loses his heart really easily," he says bluntly. "He feels too much. There are people who can share their bodies or their emotions without losing themselves, but Hakyeon isn't one of them." He pauses. "He's afraid he'll lose his heart to you."

"Would that be so bad?" Taekwoon whispers. "I can take care of him for life."

"It would be, since he can never know for sure that you love him." He raises a stalling hand and Taekwoon falls silent, whatever arguments he was about to make fading away. "Hear me out. I'm in no place to tell you whether your feelings are true or not. But Hakyeon thinks of himself as so utterly unlovable that the only way someone can be with him is if they're obligated to."

Taekwoon shuts his eyes. Hongbin isn't sure if he's signalling that he's tired of listening or busy processing what he's been told, but he presses on anyway. There are things that need to be said, for Hakyeon's sake.

"I'm sure you can see that you being a robot -- someone he's bought to be with him, further someone who's been made according to his specifications -- it just muddies this up even more. He doesn't trust himself with you. He's only going to feel that he's forcing you into something you don't want. No matter how much you might want it."

What a mess. Hongbin's head hurts. Taekwoon's expression doesn't change, but the droop of his shoulders tells Hongbin that he got to him. How did he end up here playing the bad guy?

Taekwoon asks, "What should I do, then?"

It's dark when Hakyeon returns from work. Which is odd, because Taekwoon always has the light on and dinner waiting for him when he gets back.

"Taekwoon?" he calls, putting his briefcase on the floor and loosening his tie. "Are you in the bathroom?"

But the bathroom light is switched off. Nothing's on, in fact. Hakyeon would have suspected a black-out except that the lights come on easily with the flick on the switch -- revealing the breakfast dishes still in the sink.

Now that's really odd. Taekwoon has never gone out for so long before. If anything, his urge to make sure Hakyeon was watered and fed overrode any other tendencies he might have had.

"Taekwoon?" The door to Taekwoon's room is closed. Hakyeon pushes it open. There's a dark figure slumped by the side of the bed, slightly bent and unmoving. "There you are -- "

But he's unresponsive, parked in the corner like he's forgotten how to move.

And Hakyeon screams.

~*~

It takes two hours for the mechanic to come. Two hours spent terrified, staring at Taekwoon's closed lids and immobile body, frozen mid-movement. Two hours wondering what could have happened.

When the doorbell finally rings, Hakyeon flings the front door open and pounces on the tall, slim man at his doorstep. The man is dressed in a white medical coat with a stethoscope around his neck, holding up a set of identification papers to Hakyeon.

"Good evening. I'm here for a CARE Bot 2.0 -- "

"Mechanic-ssi!" Hayeon seizes his arm and tries to drag him into the house. "This way please!"

"My name is Sungyeol," the mechanic says drily, dusting Hakyeon's grip off his arm. Hakyeon gets the feeling he's being admonished for his lack of manners, but he doesn't have time for all these pleasantries. However, Sungyeol apparently does. He tips his head pointedly at Hakyeon. "And you are?"

"Cha Hakyeon," he snaps impatiently, "you know this, I was the one who made the report -- "

"Mr Cha. First, I need you to calm down." It's his tone of voice that finally gets to Hakyeon. Not the embarrassment at having practically manhandled a guest, not the fact that his fear is so sharp it's taking over things like basic manners and his own sensibilities.

He nods miserably and tries to quash the wildly hammering instinct to have the mechanic look at Taekwoon now, immediately.

Sungyeol squints at him critically, then hums in approval. "Good. Now I need you to remember that bots are not like humans. When something goes wrong, it's either a system or a mechanical error. Hurrying will not help matters; it will only make them worse."

Satisfied that Hakyeon is properly chastised, the mechanic unfolds his glasses and sets them on his nose. "Now. Where's your bot?"

Hakyeon putters about anxiously as he examines Taekwoon. Sungyeol has to open up the back of the robot's head to hook up his portable computer to the CPU inside the robot.

He's reminded with a violent jolt how different Taekwoon is. Taekwoon will never be hurt by illness or disease, though a virus or bug can take down his entire system. He will never physically age or die. He will never feel pain. He will never feel, like Hakyeon does sometimes, as though his heart might pound out of his chest with the force of his emotions, feet cold and palms sweaty, as though there isn't enough air in the room when they're together --

The mechanic says something he doesn't register. Hakyeon jerks himself into awareness and has to ask him to repeat himself.

"What exactly have you been doing with your bot?" Sungyeol says sternly.

"I -- I'm not sure," he stammers, thrown by Sungyeol's sudden fierceness. His mind races. What could he have done to break Taekwoon like this? "Please -- what's happened to him?"

Sungyeol's expression is carefully blank. "This bot tried to do a reboot on its entire system."

"What?" Hakyeon chokes. "What does that mean?"

"Essentially, it tried to reset itself to its original state, wiping out every trace of learning it has ever done with you." He takes in Hakyeon's stricken expression. "That would wiped out, as well, any memories it has made with you in the past few months."

God. Almost afraid to ask, Hakyeon whispers, "Is he going to be okay? Can he -- can it be fixed?"

"Thankfully we have fail-safes in place so that the bots don't go about resetting themselves whenever they feel like it. It's not good for business. So all an attempted reboot does is immobilise them until we have a chance to see what's going on. Which is why," Sungyeol pushes his glasses up his nose and looks at Hakyeon archly, "I need to verify what's been going on with your bot, before I reactivate it."

Somehow, the blandness on the mechanic's face is more accusatory than ever. Hakyeon swallows.

Sungyeol whips out a clipboard and a pen. "In the past couple of weeks, have you expressed, in any way, displeasure or dissatisfaction with your robot's service to you?"

"I -- " Told him he couldn't possibly love me.

"Well?"

"Mister, isn't it true that robots can't develop feelings?" Hakyeon says in a rush. "Taekwoon -- this robot kept saying that he... loved me."

"Where did you hear that from?"

"My -- my friend. He's an engineer; he works with robots in his line of work -- "

Sungyeol snorts rudely. "Engineers! You've been listening to them? You haven't asked the mechanics who build and maintain these bots?" He waves his clipboard in agitation. "All engineers are good at is the theory. They believe it's impossible for a robot to develop feelings, personalities and preferences, so they conveniently explain it away. How can a bundle of metal and wire feel what flesh and blood can, they ask? It's impossible!"

"But how is it possible?" Hakyeon wrings his hands together in anguish.

"Mr Cha, what you have with you is a rare specimen, a robot who has developed his own feelings for you. The AI we developed -- we hoped, of course, that the CARE Bot would eventually be able to imitate life, to be a lifelong companion to the lonely or hurting or ill. We never dared to imagine we would be able to succeed to such an extent." Sungyeol watches Hakyeon intently. "The AI-7 is a self-developing intelligence system. The bot starts from a basic level of programmed intelligence, but then it learns from experiences. It learns emotions. It learns from its master, mostly. But to develop feelings of affection for someone -- this is complex and rare, though not unheard of."

Hakyeon hardly dares to believe what he's hearing. "So the feelings he's experiencing -- "

There's a slightly wistful expression on Sungyeol's face. "It's true that these aren't feelings the way humans understand or experience them, as a chemical reaction made known through a physiological change. What bots experience is relative to their own systems -- an electrical reaction that produces a correponding chemical and physiological change. It doesn't mean that what bots feel is anything less than what humans feel. They're just created differently. But the situations that give rise to these feelings -- the experiences that trigger them -- these are just as real for robots as for humans."

Sungyeol turns to where Taekwoon is still frozen motionless. Hakyeon follows his gaze but he can barely dare to look at Taekwoon. There's too much in his chest. He's terrified he might bubble over with fear and hope and guilt, so much guilt. It's hard to breathe.

"I can see why he would have tried the reboot," Sungyeol says softly, almost to himself. "He must have thought there was something wrong with him."

Hakyeon's voice is hushed. "He'll be okay, right? You'll be able to fix him?"

Sungyeol dusts his hands off and picks up his console. "Yes. It is easily done. Now that we've established that the decision to reboot wasn't trigger by neglect or deliberate abuse, I'll go ahead to repair him. I just need to reset some of his processes and he'll be back." Sungyeol quirks his lips upwards in a semblance of a smile. "It'll be like he never left."

"Thank you, Sungyeol-ssi," Hakyeon breathes reverently. A sudden thought strikes him. "But -- how did you know so much about him?"

Sungyeol smiles wider, an oddly mechanical sight. "Personal experience."

a/n: As usual, if you've enjoyed the fic, do spare a couple of seconds to upvote it <3 Thank you!

and thank you for everyone who's taken the time to leave such lovely comments ♡♡ you keep me going! :D