Mrs.Kim was sleeping soundly in her room, Hakyeon was finishing the last few dishes from dinner, in the corner of his eyes he could catch the cat passing by swiftly, Taekwoon's sensors beeping softly as it passes. Hakyeon smiles fondly to himself, putting the last plate to dry.
"Taekwoon." He says, drying his hands on his pants.
The light near the heat inductor beeps, the red light from the small, round stereo, blinking a few times.
"Yes?" Says the soft voice coming from the speaker new the dishwasher machine.
"Don't you ever feel lonely?"
"I don't understand your question, please reformulate."
"Join me in the living room, let's talk." He smiles, leaving the kitchen as the light turns off automatically.
"We are already talking, Hakyeon." He says, calm, turning the living room light on. "Do you want me to turn on the TV for you?"
"Yeah sure... but I like to look at you while we talk. Come sit beside me."
"Ok." He says, turning on the TV anyway, his holographic form appearing in the middle of the couch, hands around his knees, floating millimeters above the soft white fabric.
"Hello." Hakyeon smiles, sitting beside him, looking at the TV, the news channel announced the holidays coming.
"Hello, Hakyeon." Taekwoon says, looking at him, sitting still, flickering weakly, white luminescence spreading all around him.
"How was your day?" Hakyeon asks and smiles, hugging a pillow, the cat jumping beside him.
"Uneventful. My operational system is fully updated, and there are no unusual occurrences in any nearby place, the weather is stable and there are no recent scheduled events for the next two days."
"So are you bored?"
"I do not recognize the human definition of boredom as a concrete manifestation, only as a semantic concept." he rests his hands on his knees and looks at him, today he wears no shoes on, and his hair is parted differently, more casual.
Granny was getting adventurous with these styles.
"What do you want to watch? We can watch a movie, if you want." Hakyeon says, trying to keep the conversation going, but Taekwoon was never one for conversations.
"I do not have any formed opinion on the matter, you can do whichever you like."
"Let's watch a horror movie. It's gonna be fun!" His smile widens, clasping his hands together. Maybe he is feeling adventurous as well.
"As you wish." He says, opening the list of available horror movies they could watch. "Which one?" He asks, slowly going through the list, not really looking at the TV or the options displayed on it.
"It doesn't matter, turn off the lights! Turn off the lights!" He answers happily, bouncing on the couch, looking at the list, with his eyes crinkling and his cheekbones high.
Far too excited for a simple horror movie.
"Ok." And the lights are off, the movie barely starts and Hakyeon is already shrinking on the couch, clutching the pillow with a serious face.
"Oh, sometimes bad is going to happen, I know it!" He says, waving his hands toward Taekwoon, who is looking blankly at the TV, face soft and posture relaxed, his unblinking eyes looking ahead, to the cat, on the windowsill it's paw.
A tense music starts and suddenly someone dies, its so sudden that Hakyeon jumps, a high pitched but very short lived scream forming and dying on his lips.
Taekwoon turns to him, the cat jumps off the windowsill and leaves the room, Hakyeon is pressing against the sit, the pillow thrown somewhere ahead, on the carpet. The camera closes on the blood, Hakyeon closes his eyes.
"Are you ok, Hakyeon?" He asks, voice soft, as he would do to a scared child, any scared human, looking at him with calmness in his eyes, Hakyeon was shaky and his lips trembled slightly when he said. "No, not really."
And just like that the movie stopped, the lights were on once again... That was the first death, but Hakyeon didn't seem to be ready for a second one.
"Are you feeling better?"
"A bit... Ah, I'm so sorry, I ruined your movie... This was such a terrible idea." He smiles shyly, fanning his face with both hands.
"I was not actually aware of the action taking place, movies that contain murder instantly set off my protection systems, and since calling the police over a movie does not seem prudent, I was watching your reactions instead."
"You were... Looking at me?"
"Yes."
"Well, now I'm embarrassed." Hakyeon laughs nervously, looking at his feet, hands on his knees.
"You shouldn't be, I have no reason to ridicule you or belittle you in any manner, if I made you feel this way, I am sorry."
He smiles, small and soft, looking at Taekwoon, who keeps looking at him, calm and neutral, unblinking eyes watching him intently.
"Thank you."
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you."
"There is no need to be thankful, is there anything else you need help with?"
"No, I'm fine... I think I'm going to sleep now."
It's raining outside, it's cold and gray, the colorful artificial lights on the street seeping through the window, it makes Hakyeon shrink inside his coat a little more, his fingertips felt cold.
Taekwoon looks at him, unaffected, the sticky weather does not bother him in the least. Hakyeon himself, always preferred the cold, so he raises from the couch, eyes on the window for a second as he offers small, brief smile, looks back and Taekwoon is gone, it’s always like this. So he walks to his room, wears the new pajamas Granny was so emphatic about buying. Lays down and watches the window, feeling oddly lonely, flashes of the previous movie stored in his personal recent memory database, he deletes them one by one, carefully cutting and discarding pieces of disturbing murder and gore, sighing contently once it’s all gone.
“Taekwoon.”
“Yes?” says the voice from the speaker on the nightstand.
“Would you keep me company for a while? I don’t want to shut down yet.”
“Ok.”
And there he was, tall and broad shoulders, bleeding white light over the carpet, shimmering softly, standing still… The same as always, eyes calm and expression blank, unblinking eyes cast towards Hakyeon on the bed, watching his warm smile, hugging his pillow like he actually needed it.
“Well, don’t you just stand there, come sit beside me.” and he pats the spot beside him, making room for one more. Taekwoon motions a step, then blinks and reappears right beside Hakyeon, in the exact spot he patted with his hand, his faint glow was cold and impassive, much like himself, unfitting for the soft voice, and hushed tone, like he was always telling a secret.
His glowing was much nicer in the pitch black room, basking everything else in blurry white, like a firefly, if fireflies still existed.
But they didn’t, much like Taekwoon himself.
He did not exist.
Not like Hakyeon did.
He was not tangible, not a physical presence, not like Hakyeon was.
Of course he was never far, and he never actually left, ever. But if Hakyeon reached out to touch his light, he would shimmer and vanish, escape through his fingers, always untouchable. Like smoke.
Not that Hakyeon ever felt the need to touch him, or anyone for that matter.
He knew he was capable of the human feeling of want, physically speaking, just like any human would, but he never felt the need to, never felt the pull that so many books and movies always told him about.
And it was fine.
It was nice to have someone to talk to at such late hours, and Taekwoon’s voice was always a small blessing.
“Are you pleased?” Taekwoon’s voice ringed in his ears as a small warning, subtly asking if he was dismissed, they did not spoke in the last few minutes and Taekwoon was instructed to avoid useless waste of energy.
“I am. Your company is always welcomed.” he smiles, nuzzling his pillow, they were fresh. He keeps telling Granny she should not worry about changing his bedcloth so often, he didn’t sweat, nor drooled, or any other human secretion that could stain the sheets... he could, but he always kept this option turned off, he didn’t understand why would he ever let himself produce some synthetic copy of human secretions just to what? Look more human? To him it just seemed bothersome and unnecessary, and even if Granny kept feeding him in all possible occasions, the food was always stored in a small disposable plastic bag inside his mechanical rib cages.
It always made him sad to throw out food, so he always ate very little, and smiled politely as Granny complained how thin he was, he could not blame her, she sometimes forgot he was just a domestic android, he forgot that sometimes too, but never for long.
Taekwoon, on the other hand, always remembered everything. And as he looked at Hakyeon, smiling at him, he quietly organized the daily reminders Mrs. Kim asked him to keep track of.
Feeding the cat.
Watering the plants.
Paying the bills.
He did all that and more, much more, but he found unnecessary to warn Mrs.Kim about it. He kept track of her children, cared quietly for her personal health, checked if the cat was also healthy, constantly downloaded movies, and also new songs to play on the kitchen speaker as Hakyeon and her baked something, anything really, and then watched as they gave it all to the neighboors, offered to the nice ladies in the book club.
Granny never ate much as well.
She always hummed the song he chose, and kept a warm smile to Hakyeon if he sang with her.
They were both pleased, so he was doing good.
The cat was now, in the bathtub, sleeping inside it like he usually did when nobody was using. The bathroom was always a hard place for Taekwoon to work with. Mrs. Kim directly said that she wanted him to turn off his cameras whenever she went inside the bathroom, and since she said directly, he begrudgingly did. Turning off the cameras whenever she stepped inside, even so his major program kept running, and just for her safety, he kept his microfones on at all times, just in case she fell, or fainted, or slipped, or anything, because her safety was of utmost importance, and if she didn’t knew about it, she would never mind.
He usually deleted all the recordings he did just after she left, and she never questioned him about it.
Everybody was safe, and pleased.
Just like it should be.
Hakyeon also asks him to turn off the cameras once he goes in the bathroom, and Taekwoon complies, resigned. Hakyeon only ever uses the bathroom to change, and every few days, rub a wet cloth of cleaning product whose name Taekwoon never knew on his synthetic skin. He claims that he feels embarrassed about changing, knowing fully well that his is, as Hakyeon usually describes, “watching”. Taekwoon is not as invasive as use of the word "watch" implies, he mostly passively records things, and only pays attention when called, or when someone’s vital readings go out of the “healthy” pattern in his personal scans.
Even so, all images are stored inside his database, and so he never argues about it. He tends to discard them every few days anyway, only the most essential of information are actually stored in his shared cloud mind, with all the other house systems like himself, for public help, only accessible by other house systems, for research and acquirement of expertise in certain areas of human behavior, never for the use of other humans.
His personal protocol avoids sharing personal information of his collective mind with humans, even if asked to.
“The cat is healthy.” he said, finishing his scanning analyses, Hakyeon had blinked only once since he started thinking, and looked up at him as he mentioned the cat.
“That’s good.”
“Yes.”
Taekwoon constant presence was always a comfort of sorts, Hakyeon felt a little less weird when talking to himself, Taekwoon normally answered him at those times, when he mumbled things to himself while looking for objects over the house. He did that a lot more than he would like to admit.
“Don’t you feel lonely, alone here all day long? While I go out with Granny, you stay locked inside…” he says, guiltily looking at his clean pillow case, drawing small circular patterns on it.
“I do not relate to the concept of loneliness on a personal level, Hakyeon. I am merely a house software system designed to facilitate human interaction with the mainframe and access of data, providing security and comfort in a more approachable and human-friendly environment.”
“Even so, don’t you get bored of seeing insides of houses and never going outside? Have you ever seem the sky?”
“I cannot grasp completely what importance the sky may have to the human mind, but for me, it does not matter, it’s the least important thing of all.”
“Then what's important to you?”
“Keeping you, Mrs. Kim, and the cat, healthy, happy, and safe.”
Sometimes, when Hakyeon though he had Taekwoon in check, had him figured out, he pulled this cards, that made Hakyeon question how emotionless Taekwoon actually was, sometimes he smiled, sometimes he was sweet and caring, sometimes he showed up without being called, and quietly watched, expression soft and eyes cast down.
Sometimes Hakyeon thinks he is just extremely shy.
“You are very sweet, Taekwoon.”
“Thank you.” he says, same tone he uses when Granny calls him handsome, the same tone from when her children come by and compliment his soft voice, or careful demeanor, or weirdly serious mindset.
The tone of detached politeness, when he can’t assimilate feelings, or compliments, or gratitude.
“You know, Taekwoonie, I like you a lot.” he says, kindly, warm smiles and affectionate nicknames, looking at Taekwoon’s face from below, observing as his eyes carefully fall on him again, the red eye of the cameras turning to him in a silent buzz inside the quiet room.
“Like?” he repeats, in that soft secretive voice of his, the cameras readjusting themselves in the darkness, Hakyeon hears more than sees it.
“Yes.”
“I cannot connect to the feeling you describe, but I appreciate your gesture. Thank you, for liking me.”
Hakyeon blinks again, his pupil-lenses dilated in the dark, just like any other human eye would.
“What else do you like?” Taekwoon asks next, his eyes turning to him, even if he does not need to, to make him comfortable, as he would with any other human.
“Many things.”
“Exemplify.”
It was always soothing to see how Taekwoon never cared to set a distinction between him and a real human, as far as he could notice, Taekwoon treated him exactly the same way he treated Granny, her grandchildren, everyone, even the cat.
Even if he was the less conventionally alive of them all, he was one of the kindest.
At least, in Hakyeon's eyes he was.

Chapter ManagemeChapter Text

~+~

The last two weeks, Hakyeon has been watching, carefully studying a possibility that was not entirely new for him, but he did not act on it until now.
He and Granny would go out, and once again, Taekwoon stood in the couch, his eyes turned to them at the door, but his sensors turned to the cat playing with Taekwoon’s green lasers.
Sometimes he caught Taekwoon doing this, purposefully flashing his green laser scaner around so the cat would try to catch it.
Hakyeon found it extremely endearing.
“I have an ideia.” Hakyeon said this so suddenly, both, Granny, and the cat, turned to him, Taekwoon was already looking at him, so he merely remained like this, one of his cameras turning to him as he spoke, like he normally did. “I’ll raise my personal lock, so you can see through my eyes as well, as you would with your individual cameras.”
Taekwoon just looked quietly at him for a few seconds.
“This does not break any law or protocol of human safety, but why would you suggest that? It’s irreversible, and I would have full access to set off any off your internal emotion devices, like I would to any computer connected to my mainframe.” he asked, tilting his head far too stiffly to look like a human reaction of confusion.
“I trust you, you wouldn’t do anything harmful.” and he did, he knew Taekwoon would never harm him, or anyone, never. He would shut himself off before even trying.
The thought of Taekwoon vanishing made him irrationally sad, for some reason.
“No. But this could damage your right of keeping certain thoughts to yourself, since every thought you ever generated would be stored in my cloud of personal information. You would be my remote unit of access, this could be highly invasive, even I did not intentionally tried to be.”
“I trust you to make a good use of this information, then.” he winked in a way he judged playful, hands on his hips, Granny giggled, Taekwoon frowned, in a human-understandable way of showing he did not understood the undertones of such a statement.
Humor was not his thing anyway.
“Are you sure, Hakyeonnie?” Granny asked somewhere behind him.
“Yes, let’s do it. There is so many things for him to see, it’s a shame to be locked up in here.” he smiles, stretching his arm in an odd angle that always made Granny antsy, to fetch the white cable on his neck, and plug it in the control panel beside the TV.
Taekwoon watched him with careful eyes, still not sure if this was a good idea.
“Connection successful.” Taekwoon intoned in his automatic voice tone, the one he used for pre-made sentences. “ID accepted. Hello Hakyeon.”
“Hello.” Hakyeon said, opening the small panel on his left wrist, right under his barcode. A few buttons pressed, a password, and it was done. He lifted his internal lock to grant Taekwoon access to his own personal hardware and software systems, were most of his control settings were.
“This setting is irreversible, cannot be interrupted or paused, and can be highly invasive and unintentionally disrespectful, once installed the house software system will be granted full and unrestricted access to all controls related to the android unit. Are you sure you want to connect?”
“Yes.” Hakyeon answered simply, immediately feeling the download of Taekwoon software being installed somewhere on his basic files, things he could not touch or remove even if he tried, mostly related to his movement, expression controls and human protection program. Also his feelings and direct controls.
“This unit is now remotely controlled. and can be tracked at any moment by the owner or responsible authorities. Thank you for your connection, the cable can be safely unplugged now.” he said, looking clearly unfazed by the enormous amount of words he said, more words used then in the last three days, but this was automatic reaction, and he could not change it.
“How is it? Can you see it?” Hakyeon asked, far more excited than he should with the idea of showing him the outside.
“I can. My system is overworking, I will terminate my holographic form until cool down, until then, we can communicate through your own mind Hakyeon.” Was all he said before vanishing, Granny was already at the front door, holding the cake with both her hands, today they would visit the neighborhood association.
“Let’s go Hakyeonnie, we are getting late!”
“Oh! Yeah, right.” he scrambled around and left the house with a almost loud bang of the front door... and then, complete silence, the only sound was Taekwoon’s hardware cooler buzzing softly as the cat stood close to it for warmth.

~+~

The weather was nice, the rain of the previous days was gone and everything felt cold and clean, washed. This was one of the things he liked, the nice feeling of the world after the rain. Granny had her left arm intertwined with his, holding the cake they made that morning.
He looked around, eyes taking in as much of his surroundings as he could, he wanted Taekwoon to see it all.
"You should pay attention to the path ahead of you, Hakyeon." and he jumped, startled, suddenly hearing Taekwoon soft voice inside his head so lowly and close to his ears felt.... Weird.
Like he had just whispered something to him... OK, fine. It's fine.
"Are you ok, Hakyeonnie?" Granny's voice dragged him back to reality, he looked at her, watching him worriedly, lost for a few seconds before answering.
"Y-Yeah... I... I just heard Taekwoon speaking inside my head." he said, and it sounded stupid even to him, but she relaxed almost immediately.
"Woonie? Can you hear me?" She looked around as if she could spot him nearby, sitting still like he would do at home.
"Yes, I can." Ringed the soft spoken tone in Hakyeon's head, next to his left ear, where she was.
"He can." Repeated Hakyeon, frowning slightly, this was definitely something.
"Oh, hello Woonie." Her smile was nothing less than fond, tilting her head and making her small eyes crinkle.
"Hello Mrs.Kim."
"He says hello." Hakyeon follows, his eyes somewhere ahead, if not for Granny small frame and wrinkled skin, he could swear that Taekwoon was the one beside him.
Fine.
It's...
Fine.
After that, Taekwoon stays quiet, Hakyeon keeps his eyes trained ahead, on the path ahead. He feels the same, except now he can pinpoint Taekwoon creeping on the edges is his mind, slowly going through every piece of information stored there.
It's invasive, yes. But Taekwoon is not one to take advantage of the trust placed in him.
So he sighs.
He looks at Granny, happily humming a song he does not know, watching the cake in her hands.
Hakyeon cannot concentrate