Your mother had two creations she prided herself with.

First and foremost, there was you.

Her second was WONHO, a cyborg who was the sole succession in her short-lived life as an inventor.

A single mother struggling with the economy of the advancing, technology-filled "utopia" you would be born into, she had a feeling that she would not be capable of raising you as long and as well other mothers could with the little income she had.

They called her crazy for using that same income for the creation of Cyborg-93 instead of spending it on cribs and formulas like mothers typically would during their maternity stage. Rather than doing her research on parenting, she devoted herself to programming the artificial individual meant to care for you in her potential absence.

Naming him after a word defined as "protector" from one of the many languages that had been lost through the ages, your mother had finished WONHO's creation within her last month of pregnancy.

Admittedly, due to your mother's amateur programming, there were still quirks within his coding. Perhaps he was a little slow, maybe the way he executed tasks could have been more fulfilling, but she made sure WONHO had the qualities a mother would have. Strength and diligence were a major aspect, but although artificial beings weren't supposed to be capable of emotion, he was made to be kind and selfless.

These quirks were incapable of belittling his purpose, the mission he was assigned to the moment he was dubbed with his name.

Only during your entrance into life and your mother's departure did his mission truly begin, where the woman used her dying breath to whisper, "Take care of my child, WONHO. Your mission begins now."

Grasping his hand with an iron grip, your mother gave him one last hopeful look before she went limp in unison with the now-flat beeping of the monitor.

Maybe it was just an error in his coding, or maybe it was the fact that he could not bear to witness the life leave his creator's eyes. Either way, he carefully took you in his arms and cradled your tiny figure, a notion that was the start of his mission.

Your mother's death was enough for the government to grant WONHO pay that he managed in order to suit your living needs. He raised you in the house and lab your mother had once lived in, though by your toddler years it was less of a lab due to the removal of equipment and objects that the cyborg deemed hazardous for your safety.

Your toddler years were the simple times, where all he had to worry about was holding your hand, treating your "ouchies" by sealing your band-aids with a kiss, and the balanced meals he needed to create in order to keep you healthy.

When it was time for you to go to school, there were more things for WONHO to worry about. Though apparently he was not the only one.

"Other people think I'm odd," you would tell him when he would pick you up from school. "They ask me what it's like to be raised by a cyborg instead of parents."

But as you grew older, those words were replaced with tears as other children would ridicule you for that very reason.

"They tell me I'm a freak, that they feel sorry for me," you would sob as he clutched you close to his chest, embracing you tightly. "Because I have no family."

An artificial being was not supposed to get offended. They were not supposed to get upset. Maybe it was an error in his coding, or maybe he could not bear to see you cry like this.

The tears you shed at these times were unlike the tears you cried when you scraped your knees, broke a toy, or refused to eat the vegetables he tried to feed you.

Was it sadness he felt for you? Pity? Even in the depths of his being there seemed to be something that made his gears grind. Why couldn't he be considered as a family member?

The artificial intelligence within him managed to seal these notions away, at least long enough for you to enter your teenage years.

For that era, your tears were caused by the stress of education and the people you spent loving. WONHO spent ages updating his personal database in order to help guide you with your schoolwork and exams, and he listened to you vent if a significant other had fought with you or had even gone as far enough to break your heart.

You were more intelligent than you gave yourself credit for, and you were far more wonderful than your significant others thought you were. WONHO just struggled to express so verbally, and attempted to do so with awkward comfort.    

There was something he felt towards the individuals you would get into relationships with, though technically he was not supposed to feel anything in the first place.

WONHO didn't realize it was jealousy until your teen years blossomed into adulthood, and you came home one day claiming to have found the one.

"Congratulations, I am happy for you." He lied with a straight face, monotone as all cyborgs would.

Knowing that, you grinned, deeming his words as something sarcastic. Sincere, yet insincere, because cyborgs like him weren't supposed to feel emotion. "Right," you responded.

Wrong.

That was all it felt like to WONHO when it came to your wedding day. If he was supposed to feel anything, he should have been feeling happy for you. Such a milestone in your life could have been something that would make him cry tears of joy, but he wanted to cry for other reasons.

What he wouldn’t do to be up there instead of your fiancé, making those vows with you and kissing your lips. Instead, he remained in the very front as a witness to it all, nothing more than an “important individual” of your life. Clearly not important to be up there with you, because he was nothing more than a cyborg.

    If only he weren’t. Maybe then he would’ve mustered up the courage to express how he felt about you; you were literally his entire world. He cherished you and cared for you above all, regardless if it was what his coding told him to do. Maybe it was just an error in his coding, or maybe it was the fact that he undeniably felt something for you, he felt love. WONHO loved you, but the feeling apparently wasn’t mutual.

    So maybe it was time to distance himself from you at this stage of your life.

At least, that was what your life partner told WONHO. They didn’t seem particularly fond of him, and practically stole you away from the cyborg as he was left in the dust.

You had eventually moved in with them, distancing yourself from the cyborg emotionally and physically. That left him alone in the house you once lived in together. He lost his purpose, he was lost in his thoughts.

And what of his mission? The very mission your mother created him for. He didn’t know if it was completed - it didn’t seem like it - but WONHO sensed that it was not over.

The cyborg could only confirm it when he saw you again, both the first time he had seen you and had gone outside in ages.

But the reunion was nothing joyful or relieving. In fact, the dreaded opposite.

It seemed like WONHO was not the only faulty work of technology in your society, for a hovering vehicle’s autodrive feature went awry on the road. If only he could have gotten to you sooner, perhaps he could have taken the blow instead. If only he had been able to call out to you, say something at the least, but his attempted scream was soundless.

    All he could do at this point was rush towards your figure, scooping you up in his arms like he once did long ago, and take you to the nearby hospital.

He ran as if the entire world was collapsing around him, but no matter how fast he went his attempt was painfully futile.

“Stop,” you wheezed, almost inaudible. The impact left you with a fatal blow in your ribcage specifically, making almost impossible for you to speak. At this rate, it was increasingly more difficult for you to breathe. To function.

Maybe it was just an error in his coding, or maybe it was the sight of you in your dying moments that caused WONHO to stop, gently placing you on the surface of the cold ground with your head resting on his lap.

This was the moment he ultimately accepted the fact that he was unlike the average cyborg. This was the moment he wish he wasn’t.

He felt pain. Perhaps enough to compare to the pain you were currently experiencing, Wonho’s was an accumulation of everything he had felt in all the years of your life he had spent with you.

Was this it? This was the day you would meet your end? Would this be the moment he would finally speak what he needed to say?

The cyborg was about to lift you up once more, but you prevented him from doing so by seizing his wrist. Your hand trailed upwards, your fingers wove around his, and in that moment you squeezed his palm so tight it was as if it were your mother holding him instead.

Slowly, you tilted your head to meet the cyborg’s gaze. “This… is it,” you struggled to utter the words, yet you still managed.

It would have broken his heart if it had not been non-existent, to see his loved one near death. Something within him urged him to confess, to tell you how he felt and that he did in fact feel emotions. He felt them for you, towards you, and only now did he come to accept that. Even now his artificial intelligence was to no avail.

“I…” he began, though he stopped himself once he felt your grip faltering. “...was supposed to protect you.”

“I-it’s okay, WONHO… it’s…” the pain surging through your body was tremendous, almost unbearable. Still, you managed to complete your sentence. Your last. “It’s okay.”

And with that, you released your grip as you took one last breath.

It wasn’t okay. He couldn’t bare to see your lifeless figure, he couldn’t stand himself not being able to confess in the last chance he could. WONHO couldn’t believe he had left you, even if it wasn’t for long. He was supposed to protect you, that was his sole purpose, and he couldn’t.

Your mother had programmed him to take care of you, not to love you. With missions, cyborgs were supposed to succeed.

But WONHO was different. He had failed.