Seulgi wakes to find Irene no longer beside her. The house is silent, so she can’t imagine Yeri found her yet. Seulgi quickly hops out of bed to find Irene before Yeri does. Seulgi walks out into the kitchen, where she finds a note. The handwriting is so neat it looks like it could have been typed.

 

Thank you for your kindness, Seulgi. I can’t stay with you, I feel like I’m putting you in danger if I do. I will find somewhere safe that doesn’t put anyone else at risk. Maybe we will meet again, and I can properly thank you and pay you back for saving me last night. Until then, I wish you well.

 

-Irene

 

Seulgi’s chest becomes tight, and she takes a deep breath. Sadness from the fact she may never see Irene again lurches in her heart. She really wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to get to know Irene. This mysterious stranger left her life just as fast as she came into it, and it left Seulgi feeling a bit flustered, and disappointed. She rubs her eyes, and figures she should just forget about it, there isn’t anything she can do.

 

Seulgi is making a bowl of cereal when she hears the familiar pit pat of feet on the tile floor walking towards her. Yeri appears in the kitchen, wearing a t-shirt and underwear. Seulgi thinks that if Yeri gets any more comfortable around her, she might start walking around .

 

“Will you make me some too, please?” Yeri’s voice is raspy from sleep.

 

Seulgi goes to get another bowl without saying anything. Yeri sits at the island, and looks at the note on the counter.

 

“Hey, what’s this note? Who’s Irene? Wait. Did you have a one night stand last night or something, and didn’t tell me there was a whole stranger in our house?” Yeri teases.

 

“No, it was nothing like that. This girl, I think she was a bit older than me, she come into my store last night saying she was being chased by a man, so I hid her in my car. The man showed up at my store immediately after, so I knew she wasn’t lying. She needed a place to stay, so I said she could stay with me,” Seulgi takes a bite of her cereal, and talks through her food, “I guess she changed her mind about it.”

 

“Hmm. Was she pretty?” Yeri smirks.

 

Seulgi shakes her head, but answers, “More than you’ll ever know, Yeri. She was beautiful.”

 

“I know pretty girls fog your mind, and make you weak, but you can’t just invite random strangers into our house, especially without telling your roommate.”

 

“Well, she’s gone now, so does it matter?” Seulgi crosses her arms.

 

Yeri exaggeratedly gasps, “Is that sass coming from The Kang Seulgi? Sweetest girl in the world, as your fans say? If only they could hear you now.”

 

“God, shut up, Yeri. Why are you messing with me this early in the morning?”

 

Yeri fakes a pout, and rests her chin in her hands, “What’s bothering you, Seul?”

 

Seulgi sighs, and shoves a spoonful of Apple Jacks into . “Did I do something wrong or weird to make someone leave without waking me up like that?”
 

Yeri softly laughs, earning her a glare from Seulgi, “You sensitive little bear.” Yeri stands, and walks over to Seulgi, wrapping her in a hug. “You think and care way too much. She said in her note that she didn’t want to put you in any danger, why do you think you did something wrong?”

 

Seulgi leans her head against Yeri’s, practically going limp in her embrace, “I don’t know, people lie and make up excuses all the time to not hurt people’s feelings.”

 

“I don’t think she lied. I think you’re taking it to heart when you shouldn’t. She basically said she wanted to see you again, so don’t let it get you down, okay?”

 

Seulgi gives Yeri a tight squeeze, “Thanks, I’m just being weird, I’m sorry.”

 

Yeri pulls away from the hug, placing her hands on Seulgi’s shoulders, “You’re good, kid. How about to take your mind off of it, you come stream Overwatch with me? All of my crackhead fans love you, Seul. They were asking for you last night.”

 

“But I at that game,” Seulgi whines.

 

“You at video games is the kind of content the people want! Just come play with me, you know you want to,” Yeri makes a strange smirk at Seulgi, and pokes her stomach.

 

“Fine, I’ll play.”

 

“Yes! Let’s go kick some enemy ,” Yeri spins, and walks towards their gaming room, Seulgi following behind, cereal bowls in hand.

 

 

After three hours of gaming, Seulgi feels pretty exhausted. Overwatch always got to a point where it began to stress her out. She feels like she should be good at that game by now, but it almost seems like she’s worse every time.

 

Seulgi plops into the couch. Yeri is still streaming, and Seulgi can hear her responding to weird fan comments in the Twitch chat. She lets out a laugh when she hears, “If me and Seulgi were dating, I’d top, don’t lie to yourselves.”

 

Seulgi grabs the TV remote, and flicks to the news. She then goes onto her phone to stalk her fan’s Twitter accounts, because that always brought up her mood.

 

Seulgi looks up at the TV when she hears the voice of her friend Joy.

 

“This just in, there has been reports of a very dangerous and violent Deviant on the loose. The owner of this Deviant reports that it managed to change its appearance before attacking him, and running away. Chances are the Deviant is going by an alias, but it’s original name was Tess. Here are images of what the Deviant looked like before it changed its appearance. If you have any leads or see any suspicious people, please report to the police…”

 

Seulgi thinks she should ask Joy about what she thinks about all this deviancy stuff with the androids. It’s not that Seulgi doesn’t like androids, she’s just never had the need for one. It also made her feel weird, buying a robot that would be able to pass as a human being, without question. After hearing about so many deaths from androids killing their owners, though, Seulgi isn’t sure why people buy them, at all. That’s like paying thousands of dollars for betrayal and death.

 

Seulgi sends a text to Joy.

 

You should come over after work, I’m free all day.

 

 

 

 

“If you have any leads or see any suspicious people, please report to the police. This was Joy with the latest on android news, now to Michelle with the weather.”

 

Joy sighs when the on air button turns off. One of the interns rushes to her side with a glass of water. Joy takes it from her with a smile, and walks off set. She goes into the restroom for some peace, and quiet. Her phone buzzes against her leg. She pulls it out to see a text from Seulgi telling her to come over.

 

I’m off at 4, so I’ll be over around 4:30. I’ll see you then.

 

Joy really hates that she reports on Deviants, now. She used to report on good news happening around the world since most of the other news was bad. Her boss said that her segment wasn’t needed anymore, but one on android news was. She was given the option to quit, or report on things she really didn’t want to report on. It’s not like it mattered to her boss, anyway. To him, she is just a pretty face that elicits more viewers.

 

Joy leaves the bathroom feeling agitated, wishing she could just be at home writing. Almost immediately after she leaves the bathroom, her co-worker approaches her. “Joy, there’s been a murder at a house nearby, they want you to go.”

 

“Android related?” Joy asks, distastefully.

 

“Yeah…” her co-worker knows what happened with Joy, and feels bad for even delivering the message.

 

“Fine, thanks,” Joy passively waves her hand at them, and goes back into the bathroom to make sure her make-up is okay.

 

 

The drive takes about 15 minutes. They are outside of a small house in a more rundown neighborhood, on the outskirts of the main city. The house is taped off, and five cop cars, and an ambulance are on the scene. Joy hops out of the van, holding a small camera. She spends about 5 minutes taking pictures of the scene, and trying to capture the grief on a woman’s face waiting behind the tape. She would have to do a written report later, and would want emotional pictures to help the readability of the article.

 

One of the guys in her camera crew starts to get whiney about Joy taking too long, so she shoots him a glare, and he shuts up without hesitation. Joy walks over to a police officer, dropping the camera around her neck, and pulling out her notebook. She’s close with the officer, so he usually tells her the juicy details of every case he works, and she’s reporting on. They were lovers in high school who broke it off because of distance in college, but they still remain good friends.

 

“Hey, Joy. Looks like we’re both working this one, huh?” the officer smiles in her direction.

 

“Yes, it would seem so. How have you been, Jay?”

 

“Been struggling to keep up most of the time. I never get to do the fun stuff like investigate the crime scene, but for some reason they want me holding off people at almost every android related incident.”

 

“I can’t even tell you how much I understand.”

 

“You ready for the details, Miss Joy?”

 

“Hit me,” Joy grabs the pen she had resting on her ear.

 

“Guy named Carlos Ortiz, super loner, the neighbors say he never goes outside, was stabbed to death by his android. Didn’t find out he died until the smell, you’ll probably get a couple whiffs if the wind blows this direction again, it’s terrible, Joy, God. The chief came out here a couple minutes ago talking with one of the luetinents. Apparently, the damn android wrote ‘I am alive’ on the wall over the guy's dead body.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention. I don’t think the murder was out of self-defense either, like most of them are. The man was stabbed almost 30 times, that’s hate. Or you’re psychotic, but how could you be psychotic if you don’t have a real brain? They’re sending in a special detective android, so we’ll see if that helps them solve it faster.”

 

Joy finishes writing everything down, and sighs, “I don’t know, Jay. How could you hate if you don’t have a real heart?”

 

Jay purses his lips, and nods, “Got me there.”

 

“Thanks for your help. I need to go do my job now, unfortunately. We should get drinks sometime, though,” Joy smiles at him, knowing her invitation for drinks was just one to sound nice.

 

“For sure, see you around.”

 

Joy walks over to where her camera crew is set up. They hand her a mic, and tell her she’ll be on the air in 5 minutes. Joy quickly reviews what she wrote down, and shakes the nervousness out of her hands.

 

 

When Joy is back at her work office, it’s already 4:30. Reporting at the scene took longer than she expected. She sends Seulgi a quick text that she got stuck at work but she’s on her way now.

 

When she makes it to her car, she sees that someone left a note on her windshield, and dragged their key across the length of the car. Joy can feel her anger like a fire under her stomach. She reads the note, already anticipating what it says. She wrote a controversial article on androids a couple months ago about how keeping androids is slavery, and deviants are proof of that. She still receives death threats, but for someone to stalk her, and find her car, it was a new level of hate she didn’t expect. It scared her slightly that someone would be this obsessive of their hate for her that they would do this, but what scares her more is the “say like that again, and I’ll beat your own android to the ground.” She’s had Wendy for a day, how could someone already know about her? She feels something sticky on the back of her neck, like someone is watching her. She figures she should go to the police about this, but decides she’ll tell Seulgi and Yeri about it first.

 

 

 

 

Wendy managed to deep clean Joy’s entire house in one day. Now the only thing she has left to do is a single load of laundry. Wendy starts the dryer, the rumbling sound echoing throughout the house. Wendy is unsure of what she should do now. She remembers the amount of pizza boxes she cleaned yesterday, and decides she’ll cook something nice for Joy.

 

Wendy walks upstairs into Joy’s office. Pressing her hand on top of the closed laptop, the synthetic skin on her hand disappearing to reveal white glossy plastic. Removing the synthetic skin allows her to interface with the laptop with just the touch of her hand. She closes her eyes, the LED circle on her forehead blinking yellow as she makes the transaction. When she lifts her hand, the skin pixelates itself back into existence.

 

Wendy is about to leave the room, but she remembers seeing Joy at the desk, laptop open, distress heavy on her face. Wendy knows that privacy is something humans enjoy, but she never received orders to not look at the laptop. Wendy spins on her heel, and walks back to the desk. She sits into the chair, carefully opening the laptop.

 

A feeling similar to the human emotion of confusion, sets inside of Wendy. Wendy isn’t sure why a human would fret so much over a blank document. She minimizes the full screened blank document. The screen now scattered with open documents, this time with words on them. Wendy begins reading them. The all seem to be unfinished drafts. Stories about love, fantasy, time travel, murder, almost every existing genre had a story on Joy’s laptop. Wendy reads one about a girl who falls in love with a robot, and feels something unregistered in her chest. She quickly runs a diagnostic, her eyes rolling back into her head, and eyelids blinking rapidly.

 

RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC…

 

CHECKING BIOCOMPONENTS… OK

CHECKING BIOSENSORS… OK

CHECKING AI ENGINE… OK

CHECKING THIRUIM LEVELS… OK

 

ALL SYSTEMS… OK

 

DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE

 

Wendy places a hand over her chest, “What is this?”

 

Wendy’s thoughts are interrupted by the doorbell. She rushes down to answer the door.

 

It’s an android carrying a bag of groceries.

 

“Here are the groceries you ordered. Have a nice day.” The android hands Wendy the bag.

 

“Thank you,” Wendy gives a faint smile as she closes the door.

 

“I really hope Joy likes spaghetti,” Wendy says to herself as she walks into the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

Joy pulls into Seulgi’s driveway, still amazed by the size of the house even after coming here so many times. She gets out of her car, and walks up the curved driveway to the front door. Joy doesn’t even bother knocking, first checking the door handle to see if it’s unlocked. Which, it is, so Joy makes her way inside.

 

“I’m here!” Joy calls, taking her uncomfortable work shoes off by the front door.

 

“Coming!” Seulgi yells back in response.

 

As Joy walks into the living room she notices Seulgi standing in the door way of their gaming room. She’s looking over her shoulder, and shouting something about the video game Yeri is playing. Seulgi catches Joy in the corner of her eye, and remembers why she got up. Seulgi approaches Joy with wide arms, and a crooked smile. “Ah, it’s so good to see you.”

 

Seulgi wraps Joy in a tight hug, Joy squeezing equally as tight. “I feel like the time between when we hang out keeps getting longer.”

 

“Come into the kitchen, I’ll make us drinks. You look like you need one, Joy,” Seulgi laughs, and pulls away, giving Joy a light tap on her arm.

 

Joy makes a face like she’s offended, but agrees that she needs a drink.

 

They walk into the kitchen, Joy sitting at a barstool, and Seulgi grabbing cups out of a cabinet. Seulgi starts making mixed drinks.

 

“So, what’s new?” Joy asks, resting her head on her chin.

 

“Well, I kind of have a funny story,” Seulgi pauses for a long second, granting her an elongated “well” from Joy. “I let a stranger stay the night at my house because she ran into my store saying she’s being followed, and has nowhere to stay. So naturally, I let her stay here, but she was gone when I woke up.”

 

“Wow. That- that wasn’t what I was expecting to hear,” Joy takes her drink from Seulgi’s offering hand.

 

Seulgi shrugs. “I’m honestly kind of disappointed she left. She was really beautiful, Joy.”

 

Joy busts out laughing, “Of course she was Seulgi! I can’t believe you gay panicked into letting a stranger stay at your house.”

 

“Hey! It wasn’t gay panic!” Seulgi’s face turns into a pout, the tips of her ears turning red.

 

“Whatever it was, you still let a stranger stay in your house. How does Yeri feel about it?”

 

“I don’t think she’s mad, surprisingly. But hey, has anything crazy happened in your life?”

 

“Not really. I got an android-“

 

“An android! The woman who wrote the most controversial article about androids being sentient beings, got an android?”

“Let me explain! Androids, before they become deviant, essentially are just robots because they haven’t really become self-aware. If we didn’t put in firewalls inside androids, then they would probably be deviant right after production. Anyways, I wanted to see if treating an android like a human would make it deviant the same way trauma does.”

 

Seulgi nods her head, taking a sip of her drink. “Is she cute?”

 

Joy scoffs, “I didn’t even say if it was a girl or not.”

 

“Well…” Seulgi makes a dramatic circular motion with her arms.

 

“Yes, she’s cute. But that’s not why I got her! She’s the newest model of the house keeper, and I wanted to get the newest model for my little social experiment.”

 

“Mhmm. What’s her name?”

 

“Wendy.”

 

Seulgi hums melodically to herself, taking a large sip of her drink causing her to cough.

 

“You should bring her over sometime, I want to meet your android,” Seulgi wiggles her eyebrows at Joy.

 

Joy rolls her eyes in response, “Why are you always such a ert?”

 

“Fight me, Joy,” Seulgi raises her fists into a fighting stance.

 

Joy shakes her head, chuckling, “Just fill me up, Seulgi.” Joy twirls her empty glass into the air.

 

Seulgi refills her glass, spilling a bit on the counter. Joy shifts in her seat, “Alright, Seul. I got some serious stuff, now.”

 

Seulgi raises her eyebrows to signal Joy to talk. Joy tells Seulgi about the note she found on her car, a look of concern growing on Seulgi’s face throughout the story.

 

“That’s so scary, what the ? Are you going to the police?”

 

“What would the police do, though, really? Yeah, it’s a threat, but it’s anonymous.”

 

“I don’t know, maybe they could have a cop wait outside the news building for extra protection, or something.”

“I doubt going to the police would do anything.”

 

“Don’t you have a friend that works at the station. Maybe he’d protect you.”

 

Joy shoots her a glare, “This is creepy, but it’s nothing worth reporting to the police.”

“For a reporter who’s seen a lot of real murder cases, you sure are taking this lightly.”
 

Joy rolls her straw in her teeth, chewing on it as thoughts about the note run through her mind. “Do you think the person who wrote the note followed me here?”

 

“, Joy. Don’t say like that,” Seulgi shakes her arms, trying to get rid of the chills that just crawled up her spine, “Now I feel like we’re being watched.”

 

“Now you know how I feel,” Joy whines, rubbing her eyes.

 

Joy’s phone dings in her pocket. She quickly pulls it out to check the notification.

 

“It’s from Wendy. She says she’s making spaghetti, you want me to ask her to make two extra plates?”

 

“Hell yeah, dude. If it’s no trouble. Yeri can take an Overwatch break.”

 

Wendy, make two extra plates. I’m having some friends over for dinner

 

“Alright, let’s get out of here.”

 

 

 

 

Irene rolls over to see Seulgi sleeping with open. Irene slowly gets off the bed, trying her hardest not to wake her up. She stands off the bed, and looks down at Seulgi, she shifts a little, but doesn’t wake up. The clock reads 8:03am. Pale sunlight shines in through the crack between the curtains.

 

Irene walks softly on the balls of her feet. She enters the bathroom, grabbing her clothes from last night off of a towel rack. The clothes are still damp in some places, but Irene changes back into them. She folds Seulgi’s pajamas, and places them on the sink counter. She tip toes back out into the bedroom, and into the kitchen.

 

Irene looks through the drawers in the kitchen to see if Seulgi had a miscellaneous drawer. With luck, she finds a drawer filled with random necessities. She grabs a note pad, and pen from the drawer. She tears out a page, and quickly writes a note to Seulgi, thanking her for her kindness.

 

Irene looks around for her jacket, unable to find it. She hears a yawn from one of the rooms, and decides to leave the jacket, scared to be caught leaving. She quickly walks to the front door, checking first to make sure they didn’t have an alarm system. Irene turns around, looking at the house, whispering another thanks to Seulgi, then leaving out the front door.

 

 

Irene finally makes it to the city after walking for a while. Clouds block the sun, causing the cold air to be harsher. Clashing currents of people rush through the streets of the city, most of them probably on their way to work. No one usually pays mind to anyone else, maybe a nod or smile here or there, so Irene quickly notices the android eyeing her down from across the street. His stare piercing through her. She stares back at him, and he starts walking across the crosswalk towards her. Irene continues walking, picking up pace. She passes the crosswalk, when he is half way across, still staring at her. Irene starts walking even faster, almost at a jogging pace now. She doesn’t want to look behind her. She keeps her head down, weaving through people.

 

Irene’s fast pace is suddenly stopped, by a strong hand grabbing her arm. She whips around quickly, seeing the android looking down at her. He pushes her into a dark corner between buildings, placing his other hand over . Irene tries to break free, but his grip is too strong.

 

The android finally let’s go of her, and she stumbles backwards, bracing herself on the concrete wall next to her. “You’re deviant, aren’t you? What do you want from me?” She says through exasperated breaths.

 

The LED on the android’s head fades from blue to red.

 

The android reaches for Irene’s hand, and she lets him take it. The skin on his hand becoming white plastic. He grips her hand tightly, staring intently into her eyes, “Find Jericho.”

 

 

 

A/N

If you made it this far, thanks lol I hope you like the story at least a little bit. I just wanted to do some quick self promo hehehe

You can follow me on twitter @ seulgisnacks, if you want. I'm always down to talk to new people, and make new friends :)

and if you support this story with a sub, comment, upvote or even potentially by recommending it to a friend, i love you <3

 

Until next time.