"happy birthday, jinyoung!" his friends cheer as they rush him to make a wish.

jinyoung contemplates for a moment before blowing out the candles. he feels a tinge of pain  - it's been a year, and he didn't feel like opening up a closed wound.

but really, was it even closed in the first place? jinyoung misses the blonde andriod every single day.

this birthday, i wish daehwi was human. 

---

"seongwoo, we can't do that." daniel sighs as he puts his drink down on the table. "don't you remember what happened last year?" 

"babe, our sales have been dropping. if we don't do something, we're gonna be broke." the said boy argues. 

"there's gotta be some other way to bring them up.." 

"we've done so much research, we've done so much trial and error. no other robot is like daehwi. he could feel, daniel. remember when he was feeling anger and jealousy that time he fell out with jinyoung?" seongwoo says, raising his voice a little. "we didn't even know how that happened. i need to look into daehwi's programming." 

daniel shakes his head.

"babe, please?" seongwoo reaches out for his boyfriend's hand.

"fine." 

on their way to the office from the café, all daniel can think about is jinyoung.

 

"guys, jinyoung's not coming," sungwoon says, plopping down on the sofa. "he says he doesn't wanna leave the house. the 8 other boys are silent. they knew jinyoung had been sad for a while - but his problem seemed to be growing more and more severe.

"ongniel, can't you guys build a robot for jinyoung?" woojin suggests, and the said couple 's eyes widen.

"yeah, i know you guys make boyfriend robots, but this one can keep him company. jinyoung doesn't know about your company, anyway." guanlin states. "ongniel is science, after all." 

the couple and their friends were so invested into creating daehwi ; programming him to make sure he was all jinyoung needed. they wanted to make him perfect - they didn't consider what to say to jinyoung if daehwi ever malfunctioned or shut down one day.

 

"i think we can introduce daehwi to him already. he posted an ad saying he's renting out his apartment." seongwoo tells daniel, and the pink-haired boy nods.

the next day, they catch jinyoung at the library.

 

if daniel knew daehwi's mechanism would go faulty and cause him to shut down permanently - he would never have built him for jinyoung.

---

seongwoo groans as he takes daehwi out from the storage. he now had to carry him all the way upstairs to his work room, where daniel was waiting.

"need help? wait, hyung, what are you doing?" jihoon starts, but his caring tone was washed away by shock when he sees seongwoo carrying daehwi. eyes shut, pale, just like how he was the day his system broke, along with jinyoung's heart.

"sales are dropping, i'm not doing any weird , don't worry. i'm just trying to see what's in his code." seongwoo explains.

"but hyung, isn't his code the same as everyone else's?" jihoon tilts his head to the side, confusion filling his perfect features. he reaches out to offer a bit of support to seongwoo as they walk up the stairs, daehwi in their hands.

"there's just something about him, jihoon. he could feel things our other robots can't. he got worried,angry and hurt when jinyoung came home late, take seonho for instance, all he did was yell at minhyun and jaehwan for not bringing home any food after going out." seongwoo chuckles a little. "he didn't even care about minhyun and jaehwan coming home late. he just wanted food." 

jihoon stops in his tracks. "why the did a married couple buy a robot boyfriend?" 

"seonho's the youngest one we have. they said they wanted to know what it's like to raise an angsty kid." 

 

seongwoo lays daehwi down on the desk with the help of jihoon, connecting him to a cable. he loads up data on the computer, skimming through it.

he heaves a heavy sigh and throws his hands up in the air. "i don't ing get it, guys. his code is the exact same as the rest of our robots." daniel and jihoon peer over his shoulder to take a good look.

daniel whips out his phone and calls minhyun. "hyung? bring your angsty, hungry son here. now. bring jaehwan if you want to." 

 

seongwoo immediately manhandles seonho once he walks through the door with jaehwan and minhyun - he sits him down next to daehwi and connects him to another cable, loading all of his data up onto another computer.

"you see, it's the ing same!" seongwoo yells in frustration. "why is daehwi so different?" 

daniel pats his shoulder, trying to comfort him. "don't be so stressed, i know we can find an answer somehow," 

at that moment, the fire alarm in the office goes off and seonho winces at the ear-piercing noise. "hyungs! i'm sorry! it's nothing big!" woojin's voice booms over the PA system. minhyun facepalms and seongwoo rolls his eyes. 

"we'll go help him. you can stay here to work if you want to, hyung." jihoon pats his back, and the rest of the boys rush to woojin's work room.

seonho unplugs himself and he walks over to daehwi.

"seonho? what are you doing?" seongwoo asks, carefully looking at the code on the screen. 

"hyung, if you want answers to why he's different and even the numbers and script can't tell you why, there's only one way to find out." he stares at seongwoo blankly as he shoos him away from the computer, typing away. he lifts daehwi's shirt up, carefully pressing into his side.

"seonho, what the do you think you're doi-" 

"seongwoo hyung? who's this? why am i here? don't i live with jinyoungie?" daehwi sits up immediately, carefully eyeing seonho up and down before turning to face seongwoo.

seongwoo's eyes widen in shock.

.

"i'm seonho, i'm a robot too! i'm 15, and my parents are jaehwan and minhyun-" seonho offers a hand to daehwi.

"you remember?" seongwoo breathlessly cuts seonho off, earning a glare from the youngest robot. "oh my gosh..." 

"hyung? where is jinyoungie? daehwi wants to see jinyoungie!" daehwi stomps.

"no, no, daehwi, you're not going back to jinyoung. i need you to answer a few questions." 

"daehwi wants jinyoungie!" daehwi frowns.

"daehwi, please, help hyung out-" 

"if you won't let me see jinyoung, i guess i'll have to find him. myself." with that, daehwi hops off the table, heading for the exit. seongwoo grabs him, trying to hold him back. "daehwi, you can't!" 

daehwi pushes him off, causing the older male to stumble a little as he runs out of the building.

"seonho, you're a ing prick." seongwoo mutters under his breath.

"no, i'm a robot."

"SHUT THE UP." 

---

jinyoung curses as he heads to the door. whoever's there has been ringing the doorbell non-stop. "stop it before you ing spoil my doorbell, ," he shuffles, still groggy from his nap.

he swings the door open and nearly collapses on the floor.

"jinyoungie," is all daehwi can say before he throws himself into jinyoung's arms.

"daehwi? what are you doing here?" jinyoung squeaks, tears trickling down his cheeks. it's been a year since that fateful incident, and jinyoung's been failing to get the blonde, cheerful boy out of his mind. he was still in love with him. at some point in time, jinyoung wanted to move out of his apartment - even every nook and cranny of the house reminded him of daehwi. 

"hyung, i missed you." daehwi buries his face into the crook of jinyoung's neck.

"hyung missed you more." jinyoung places his right hand on daehwi's head. the shorter of the two looks up at him. 

jinyoung doesn't hesitate to close the gap between their lips.

---

"everyone, i hope woojin's up isn't that bad, please gather in the meeting room, no not please, you all better be in the meeting room in 5 minutes, minhyun and jaehwan's mess of a kid ed up- you, seonho!" seongwoo announces into the microphone, feeling seonho smack his hand in response. he's satisfied when he hears his voice echo around the office.

 

seongwoo sits down at the head of the table. "we have a problem. a serious problem." 

"so, this little here," seongwoo begins, shooting daggers at seonho. "i was trying to go through daehwi's code, to find out why he can feel. and then, this demon child decided to fix daehwi's script, and daehwi woke up." 

everyone's jaw drops.

seonho clears his throat. "well, he woke up and was asking for the jinyoung dude you guys keep talking about. seongwoo-hyung tried to question him, but he ran out of the office saying he's looking for jinyoung." 

"he remembers? after their system breaks down, robots aren't supposed to remember anything!" daniel exclaims, and seongwoo swears he can see question marks floating around his boyfriend's head.

"why does daehwi feel? and why can he remember?" jisung buries his face in his hands. "where is he now, anyway?"

"i'll call jinyoung." jihoon pipes up, dialling his best friend's number. "hello, baejin? is daehwi with you?" the others hear a muffled "yup" from the other line. "can you bring him in tomorrow?" 

 

jinyoung hangs up and sets his phone down next to him on the couch, daehwi's hair. "what brings you here, daehwi? i thought you .... left me." 

"just now, i woke up on seongwoo hyung's workspace? and like, some robot kid called seonho was with him. ong wanted me to answer some questions? but he refused to let me see you. so i ran out of the office." daehwi says, leaning on jinyoung's chest. "hyung, you know right? you know i'm..."

"not human?"

daehwi nods, and jinyoung feels insecurity pool in his stomach. he tries to push it away.

"hyung, what's wrong?" daehwi looks up at jinyoung, and jinyoung just shakes his head. "by the way, jihoon wants to meet you at the office tomorrow." 

daehwi knows something is wrong, but decides to not question jinyoung for now. instead, he melts into jinyoung's embrace, and he falls asleep.

---

"daehwi. so what did you do yesterday?" daniel asks, taking a seat next to seongwoo on the couch. 

"i ran home, talked to jinyoung hyung. and then i fell asleep."

seonho spits out his drink, and minhyun screams. 

"yo daehwi-hyung, robots don't sleep!" 

"jaehwan! he got his gross-ness from you," minhyun nags as he leaves to get paper towels. seongwoo's mouth is still wide open. "i swear, i slept! i really did. i woke up at 10am this morning." daehwi defends.

"daehwi, how do you feel all of this?" sungwoon asks. "you're a robot, aren't you? you can't feel. you were programmed to love, but you can't feel. are you sure you love jinyoung?" he only stops when jisung hushes him, mumbling something about being too harsh.

daehwi bursts into tears, a sight that makes daniel fall off the couch.

"he's crying?"

"woah! he has more emotion than guanlin and woojin combined-"

" off, seonho!"

"why is he showing such human-like characteristics?"

"robots can't cry! what the actual -"

"why won't you all let me love jinyoung-hyung?" daehwi sobs, interrupting the chatter, and jisung scoops him up into his arms. "seongwoo hyung, what is this? my chest hurts," 

seongwoo slaps himself to make sure he's not dreaming. "daehwi, robots can't feel pain. robots can't cry!"

jihoon rushes over to daehwi, placing two fingers on the thumb side of the latter's wrist. his mouth gapes open, and he nearly chokes on his own words.

"daehwi has a pulse."

 

woojin wants to quit @nationsdarkpast

EVERY1 AT THE OFFICE IS ING LOSING THEIR I'M SCARED

ong @gagking

WHAT IS THIS MAD SCIENCE IM CRYING

seonho @babychick

LMAO everyone is freaking out including my parents this is hilarious yall 

ong @gagking 

@babychick OFF HAVENT U CAUSED ENOUGH ALREADY

seonho @babychick

@gagking is this what old people r like ??? thank god i dont age 

ong @gagking

@babychick U BRAT I REGRET CREATING U SMH

hwang minhyun @optimushwang

@babychick @gagking You're grounded.

ong @gagking

@optimushwang What the do not bring bring me into ur disciplinary actions??

hwang minhyun @optimushwang

@gagking BOTH of you are grounded.

 

daehwi steps into jinyoung's apartment, looking around for him.

"hyung, i know. okay? i know he's a boyfriend robot from ong and daniel's company. i know. i'm just ... i love him so much, but he's programmed to love me. no one in the right mind would love me. daehwi has no heartbeat. he has no heart... you know that. he's not human." he hears jinyoung say to someone else on the line, whom he assumes is jaehwan based on the weird noises he can faintly hear. he walks into jinyoung's room, and the two lock eyes. "hyung, i got to go now. call you back later." 

"jinyoungie?" the crack in daehwi's voice broke jinyoung. 

"yes?" 

"of course i love you." daehwi takes a few step forward, tears running down his face. "hyung, why don't you believe me?" jinyoung's back hits the wall before he opens his mouth to speak.

"daehwi, you're my first love. i want you to be my last, too. i want to believe you, but this whole robot-human relationship thing, i-" daehwi cuts him off, placing the older boy's hand on the left side of his chest. jinyoung's fingers jump in an irregular rhythm when he feels each thump in daehwi's chest, eyebrows raising a notch.

"hyung," daehwi chokes out, in between sobs.  "do you believe me now?"

 

a/n idk if i'll write another chapter so ye to clear up, ong and daniel own one of those robot boyfriend company things yeah HAHA basically u customise ur boyfriend and stuff. all the wanna one boys (except for daehwi and jinyoung) work there with them, and ongniel kept the whole thing a secret from jinyoung obv lmao until jy found out in the previous chapter

this social media aspect of the story was inspired by @/leedaehwi on ao3, the story was inspired by the drama series absolute boyfriend! 

 yayyyyyy 

btw it took me like 4 hours to write this bc i kept slacking off lmao 

let me know what you think ~

also !!! i set up a tumblr blog yay it's a sideblog

@soybeansoyul !! will be writing there and yeah just to let you know you can always hmu if you have a request!! i only know how to write about same- relationships tho HAHA sorry

my wattpad : @jinhwis

my ao3 and aff : @eunchaes

my tumblr : @soybeansoyul

thank you for reading!!