When he closed the door behind _____________, Hakyeon let his smile disapear.  This was his new home.  Things would work out.  He tried to convince himself that _____________ wouldn't grow tired of having him around and send him back to the manufactuer to be reset and sold to a different home. He didn't know if he could dodge quality control again. Hakyeon pushed those thoughts aside and began doing chores around the apartment.  He grabbed the laundry basket that sat beside the couch then went to the closet that held the detergent and fabric softener.  After plopping both items on top of the basket, he grabbed the spare key and headed out  to the laundry room. 

The soft melody he hummed reverberated in the hallway. It was Young-Il's favorite lullaby, he noted.  Hakyeon then realized that some of those memories were good.  Maybe there would be more good times with _____________. He wanted to remain hopeful. He even tried to erase the bad memories himself, but he realized that without an active administator he could only perform a complete factory reset.

"Besides, it's not very human like to be able to erase your own memories." He thought to himself.

He arrived to the laundry room without a problem.  Shauna gave him a list of where everything was.  However, when his RAM failed to call back the ability to use an American washing machine, his blushing feature kicked in full force. He forgot to ask!

"Mommy! Mommy! Can I help this time?"  A bobbing crown of red curly hair came bouncing into the laundry room. 

"Sure, Alice. Be careful not to slip on this floor." A young woman called as she made her way in there with two small sized laundry baskets.

"I won't!" Alice chirped as her little white sandals click-clacked on the linolieum floor.

Hakyeon began to seperate the lights and the darks while discreetly watching how Alice's mom their washing machine.  

"Washing machine is button operated.  Turn dial clockwise for desired load, temperature, and speed. Add liquid detergent in slot provided..." The "learning" function in his CPU processed the information rapidly. Not even a minute later, he was loading the first batch of clothing into the washer.   

"Excuse me, what's your name?"

Hakyeon looked down to see Alice staring up at him with curious giant green eyes. His heart would've melted at the sight if it weren't artificial. He mentally scowled at that realization. He put a huge smile on his face stooped down to meet her. 

"Hi! I'm Hakyeon. And you are?"

She sported a huge grin showing her tiny white teeth.  "I'm Alice! I'm turning 5 tomorrow!"  

Hakyeon responded with a surprised look on his face. "Wow! Five! You're going to be a big girl!"

The little girl covered and giggled. "Yeah! I'm going to kindergarten!"  Hakyeon's smile never left his face.  He's really missed this. 

"Alice! Time to put the second load in!" Her mom called.

"Kay!"  She turned back to Hakyeon, still grinning. "Bye!"

He gave her a small wave.  "Have fun!" 

Alice bounded back over to her mom, almost slipping on the floor to her mom's chagrin. 

"Alice! Be careful!" Hakyeon couldn't help but chuckle at the scene before him.  Being around Alice helped recall more memories of taking care of Young-Il. He almost wanted to call his mother to see how he was doing.  But doing that meant he hadn't been properly refurbished and could end up with him being completely dismantled. 

He'd have to be more careful. 

Two loads and an embarrassing moment later (he realized that he looked strange washing women's underwear by hand in the separate tub), he hurred back to _____________'s apartment.  Hakyeon began putting clothes away wishing he could turn his embarassment feature off himself. Unfortunately, he needed an active administator for that too. The day seemed ot fly by quickly. He was in the kitchen starting dinner when his hearing detected the front door being unlocked. 

"Uh...H-Hakyeon?"  her voice called out hestiantly.  Hakyeon looked up from chopping vegetables and allowed a smile to break across his features. She finally remembered how to say his name and not refer to him as "that robot thing"! He's at least heard that four times since he arrived the day before. He stopped what he was doing to go greet her in the small hallway.

"__________! Welcome home. Do you need anything?" He inquired as he took her jacket from her and hung it up. ___________ was about to respond when he faced her with an inquisitive look on his features.

 "Aren't you here a bit early? It's only three o'clock."

____________ let out a huge sigh and finally sat her bag on the floor.

"My boss sent me home. He said I needed to take some time off."

"Why?" Hakyeon asked as he grabbed her bag then waited instructions on where to put it.

"Apparently I overwork myself. So, here I am."  She toed off her flats and padded into the living room.  Hakyeon slightly gaped at her. Where was her bag supposed to go?

"____________?" He projected as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Yeah?"

"Where does your bag go?" 

His biconic hearing picked up her grumbling about "that stupid robot and his need to do everything" and immediately his "offense" emotion software began running. 

"For the fifth time, I am NOT a robot and quite far from stupid!" He heard no movement after that.

"You...heard me?"  she dumurely called out.

"My hearing can reach as low as five decibels." he snapped. 

Hakyeon heard a mumbled "crap" and a deep breath.

"Just leave it out there. I'll get it."  The sound of footsteps increased and ___________ was in the hallway again. 

"Sorry. It's...it's been a long month and I'm just not used to having company," She slung her bag over her shoulder and glanced at the bot.  "Let alone company that does everything for me."  She let another sigh that morphed into a yawn.

"I'll be in my room. Just knock if you need anything." She turned to leave and stopped herself.

"By the way, thanks for helping out." With that  ___________  went into her room and shut the door with a soft click. 

Hakyeon disabled the "offense" emotion software and checked the locks on the door. He perfered the key-code locks from back home, noting that they were a lot more secure than the manual gear-shift ones prevalent in the United States.  He let out a sigh, an action not neccessary but learned, then headed back into the kitchen to finish making dinner.  ___________ might by hungry by the time she wakes up.  Natalia and Shauna never really expressed why ____________ needed him. Well, unless he counted the overheard conversation that occured at the Care Center when the two of them were signing his paperwork. 

"I really hope this works." Shauna said as she flipped through the seventeenth page of the "Rules & Regulations" packet. 

"Of course it will!" Natalia quipped. "Taekwoon was the best decision I ever made in my life. I couldn't imagine my life without him!"

Shauna rolled her eyes. "That's because you're you. We're talking about _________, here. Anti-social, boring, overworked, ____________."

"She'll adjust."  Natalia was typing away on her phone. "She'll thank us for this, trust me." 

Her friend groaned as she got to the ninteenth  page and realized it was another questionaire. She flexed out her fingers, one by one to try and ebb the pain.  "You mean she'll thank Taekwoon. He came up with this idea, after all." 

"I love that man."  Shauna rolled her eyes again.

At the time, Hakyeon was in the other room pretending to be in "sleep mode".  He realized that he heard of the name "Taekwoon" before. If he wasn't mistaken, Taekwoon was also apart of the VixxBot line and was his successor.  The next two bots after that in the line were Perfomance oriented. The last two after that were strickly for Romantic Companionship though they all had that add on available. Still, Hakyeon wondered if Natalia had a child. Otherwise, why would she need Taekwoon? Unless he had been in the same predictament.

His series of thoughts caused him to work in his default setting cooking settings. As he looked at table before him, he wondered if _________ would be willing to try Bulgogi...