Yerin brushed her bangs out of her eyes, fixing the way it sat on her forehead as she waited for Eunha at the gates, the younger had promised to meet her earlier, something about talking about something. Breathing on her hands, to warm them, Yerin shivered slightly when she saw something that made her colder, colder than her hands.

“I guess you don’t feel the cold either.”

“No, I do not.”

SinB gave her a small smile.

“The temperature is two degrees Celsius, water freezes at zero.”

Yerin nodded her head, sighing. Shoving her hands in her pockets to keep them from freezing off, she kept checking down the street for Eunha.

“What are you doing out here? Looking for someone?”

“Yes, and it’s none of your business, so go in already.”

“Then I suggest, you come in within ten minutes, lest you get a cold. Your clothes are not providing you enough warmth.”

With that, SinB marched into the university grounds. Yerin just shook her head to herself, she shouldn’t bother with SinB too much, all she had to do was keep other people from finding out about SinB being a robot.

“Yerin unnie!”

Smiling, Yerin waved as Eunha ran up to her, her cheeks red from the cold.

“Good morning, Eunha.”

“Morning to you too!”

Easily linking arms, Yerin smiled and walked them towards their class, slowly to let Eunha talk.

“You said you had something to say to me?”

“Unnie.”

Eunha pulled Yerin to stop in front of her, it had started to snow, but the trees kept the snowflakes from falling on their heads.

“Today is the first snow.”

“Ah, is that so? I didn’t realize it was the first.”

Eunha shuffled her feet, her hands behind her as she looked at the ground.

“And what do people do when it’s the first snow?”

“I don’t know?”

Eunha puffed her cheeks, making Yerin chuckle.

“What the dramas always say Yerin unnie!”

“What? Wasn’t it something like confessing on the first snow gives good luck or something like that?”

When Yerin felt lips on her own, she didn’t react at first, unsure of what was going on. Eunha was kissing her?

Eunha blushed as she pulled back, hiding in the collar of her jacket.

“I like you unnie.”

“Wh-at?”

Before Yerin could ask a question however, a loud squeal sounded a little way away. Angry that someone might be scorning Eunha or herself for what just happened, she looked in the direction of the squeal, only to find a huge crowd of both fangirls and fanboys surrounding SinB. Wasn’t she supposed to be inside already?

“Who are you bringing that jacket for!”

SinB offered a small smile, she tried to keep moving forwards, but the crowd seemed to keep her in place.

“Where did you get that choker?”

Yerin panicked and ran over, pushing aside the crowd, she blocked them from touching SinB anymore.

“Hey! Back up! She doesn’t appreciate you touching her!”

Clearing the crowd, she stopped when she felt SinB pressing the jacket she was holding to Yerin’s shoulders.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? My guard cannot catch a cold.”

Grumbling, Yerin pushed SinB until they made it inside.

“Don’t do that ever again.”

“Okay.”

“Stop smiling.”

“Okay.”

SinB stopped smiling and put her hands in her pockets, looking up at Yerin for further instructions. Yerin pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing.

“You don’t care for me or anyone else here.”

“Okay.”

“Now go to class, I have to- oh .”

“Is something wrong?”

“I’ll be at class late!”

Running off, Yerin sprinted her way outside, cursing under her breath when she found Eunha still standing under the tree from earlier, she hadn’t moved at all since.

“Eunha yah!”

Eunha looked up slowly, tears falling down her cheeks. Yerin came to a stop in front of her, panting as she calmed down.

“Eunha, let’s talk inside, please?”

Eunha nodded, walking in front of Yerin, not looking in her direction at all.

When they reached the small inside lounge, it was empty, save for them since class had technically started several minutes ago.

“Eunha, I’m sorry I ran like that.”

Eunha didn’t respond, her head was hung low, her hands gathered in front of her.

“Eunha, look at me please?”

Finally sparing Yerin a glance, Eunha pouted and rubbed her tears away quickly.

“Do I mean that little to you? What’s with you and that Hwang?”

“It’s nothing, I just happened to get picked to be her bodyguard of sorts. Something about me being helpful since before and happened to be her seat mate.”

Eunha punched Yerin’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry Eunha yah, but I never knew you felt that way. With you mentioning Sowon, I thought you had a crush on her. I never crossed my mind that you could ever like me.”

Eunha punched her shoulder again.

“I appreciate beauty the way I want to, but that’s different from liking someone.”

Yerin brushed Eunha’s hair behind her ear.

“I still care for you.”

“But you won’t love me.”

Yerin didn’t respond.

“What are you students doing out of class! Get!”

Herded out of the lounge, Eunha pushed Yerin back.

“I’m going home.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Eunha just sniffed and headed back out into the snow. Yerin sighed and ran her hand through her hair. Curse that robot, if she hadn’t caused trouble, the rejection could have been less painful for her best friend.

Yerin trudged out the classroom, drained from the day’s events, feeling her phone buzz, she pulled it out reluctantly.

[SinB needs a change of batteries, but I can’t make it today. If you go to my locker, there’s a replacement in there.]

Following the instructions, Yerin grumbled as she reached Sowon’s locker. Successfully opening the lock and grabbing the spare battery, she shut the door and put the battery in her pocket. The battery was designed to look like a choker, which was what the girls were squealing about in the courtyard earlier that morning. For some reason, SinB had forgotten her scarf to cover it.

“SinB.”

The robot turned, and the same small smile appeared.

“Yerin unnie.”

“Who let you call me that?”

“Since, we know each other, more than others, is it not formal to call you unnie?”

Yerin sighed and held out the choker to SinB who just smiled.

“Whatever, just hurry and put this on.”

SinB quickly removed her choker and was reaching to take the replacement, when someone bumped into Yerin’s back, knocking the choker out of her hands.

“Yerin unnie! Just as I thought! I shouldn’t just leave without making sure!”

Yerin looked at the floor appalled as SinB blinked slowly. Eunha held Yerin’s arm tightly, forcing her to look at her.

“Yerin unnie! Just tell me what I have to change to get you to like me. Or do you like her instead?”

“No! I don’t like SinB! Not now Eunha I have to-“

“Why are you brushing me off when I’m risking my heart on my sleeve like this unnie?”

“Eunha I-“

Yerin gasped when SinB’s eyes closed and her body leaned forwards, before crashing to the ground, out of power.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Yerin quickly pulled SinB to sit up, reaching for the charged choker on the ground, when Eunha gasped. Fastening the choker on SinB’s neck, Yerin looked up to see Eunha’s shocked face.

“Wh-what’s with her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why does she have a hole in her neck?!”

Yerin bit her lip as she cursed internally, Eunha must have seen SinB’s charging port where the choker connected to her. Grabbing her hand before Eunha could escape, she called Sowon’s number.

“We’re going to the hideout, and Eunha knows.”

“Fine.”

When SinB booted up finally, she looked around slowly, focusing on her surroundings. Spotting Yerin, her smile appeared.

“Yerin unnie.”

“Yah, this isn’t the time to be smiling okay? We need to take Eunha somewhere we can talk privately.”

“What’s going on!?”

Covering Eunha’s mouth, Yerin hoisted her onto SinB’s back and they made their escape quickly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Now do you see that I can’t possibly like SinB?”

Eunha nodded, her eyes soulless. When they explained that SinB was an AI made to replace the human Eunbi for a while, she didn’t believe them.

“But then why would you reject me?”

“Because I think of us as siblings.”

SinB watched them in the corner of the room, her unfaltering smile present.

“Can it not stare at us like that? It creeps me out.”

“SinB, give us some privacy please.”

SinB looked to Yerin, her smile disappeared for a second before returning. Walking out of the room, SinB closed the door behind her quietly.

Yerin closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“I’ve never, ever seen you as anything other than my precious little sister, Eunha yah.”

Eunha pouted. Yerin wanted to give her a hug, but she felt that it would be wrong.

“I don’t want to see you.”

“I’m sorry Eunha yah.”

“Don’t call me that ever again.”

“But-“

“Goodbye Yerin unnie, and no, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Will you come back to me when you’re feeling better.”

Eunha just walked past her coldly, not sparing her a glance. Yerin felt tears building up, it hurt to see Eunha getting hurt, even worse, because it was her doing. But there was nothing she could do, she didn’t love Eunha the way she wanted to be loved.

SinB walked into the room, looking at Eunha’s back.

“She left, are you done talking?”

SinB looked at Yerin before moving closer. Yerin took a step back, but SinB moved with her, wrapping her arms around her shoulders warmly.

“It’s a rule to hug someone when they’re crying.”

“If it makes you feel better, you may take it out on me, I do not feel emotions. It will not hurt me.”

“I don’t need to vent, it was nothing so serious. Well, not to you anyways.”

Yerin offered a thankful smile and patted SinB’s shoulder. SinB just smiled.

“Anyways, did you do your job? Find anything new on who attacked the human you?”

“Mm, I did. They’re a group of heirs that belong to families that have power second to my mother’s.”

Nodding, Yerin hummed. If these people were stuck at second, they would do anything to get first. Apparently, even getting their hands dirty was not taboo in their book.

“Do you think they even think about what they do?”

“Of course, a human must think in order to live.”

Rolling her eyes, Yerin just agreed. It was true, but it was annoying, that SinB would give a logical answer every time, if only she could give an opinion, that would be truly advanced technology.

“Well, I’m going to head home I guess.”

“Sure.”

SinB grabbed Yerin’s hand before she left, however.

“What?”

Winking, SinB stared at her before Yerin realized her mistake.

“Oh fine, I’m going to the arcade.”

“May I go with?”

Looking to SinB’s mother for help, she just shooed them off with a smile, wiping the human SinB’s sweating forehead with a towel.

When they reached outside, Yerin watched SinB from the corner of her eyes.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“Nothing really important.”

Dodging SinB’s grab, Yerin grinned.

“I’m serious, you don’t need to check every time whether I lie or not okay?”

SinB just looked forwards, heading to the arcade, leaving Yerin behind. Yerin just smiled and shook her head, following the stoic robot.

“Yah! Wait up!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they played, Yerin began to notice weird thoughts entering her brain. Was it because her emotions were screwed up by the day’s events, or was SinB looking like she was enjoying herself as well? Shaking her head, she reminded herself that SinB couldn’t feel emotions, whatever appeared was based on judgement and programming.

Scoring another plushie, she cheered and gathered whatever she had won to give back to the clerk to exchange for more credit towards playing more crane games. Since she had gotten the large penguin, she had no other large plushie to trade for that she wanted.

“Hey, metal head!”

SinB looked over.

“I’m not made of metal, I’m made of carbon nanotubes-“

“Whatever! Can you do DDR?”

“DDR?”

“Dance Dance Revolution! Just step on the arrows that appear on the screen when they reach the box at the top.”

SinB looked at the machine before her then looked at Yerin.

“Alright.”

Yerin grinned and swiped her card, but instead of picking the song by pressing the buttons on the machine, SinB stared forwards.

“What are you doing not picking a song?”

Then the screen started to move as if the buttons were being pressed, but they weren’t.

“Are you?”

“This machine is my friend now.”

“Huh?”

The screen flicked to a song that was in SinB’s phone, one that the human Eunbi liked to listen to. It was easy for her, input, output. A simple game. Yerin just sighed as she watched SinB ace every song in the machine, all without paying.

“This is no fun when you can do everything. Look at you even cheating the poor workers of their money.”

SinB looked down and looked back up. Yerin spared her a glance and waved her hand.

“Let’s just go, wanna go to the cafeteria here?”

“I don’t need to eat.”

“Ah, right. Well, you can watch me eat then.”

SinB smiled and followed Yerin around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Isn’t that her? The Hwang you said you poisoned?”

“Yes, miss I did hit her with the syringe you gave me.”

“Then WHY IS SHE STILL ALIVE?”

“I have no clue miss.”

“End her right now.”

“Right away.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yerin was happily skipping with a soda in one hand, a churro in the other, the sweet cinnamon covered treat was warm, probably fresh out of the frying oil. SinB watched her, intrigued.

“Hey, why do you like going out to places with more people?”

“I like to watch their reactions, I want to learn more about humans. What makes them happy, what makes them sad. What makes them cry.”

Nodding, Yerin just grinned when SinB held her hand.

“You, right now, seem carefree, but inside, you are still thinking about earlier.”

Yerin’s smile dimmed a little.

“Of course, I am, you could have been caught and dismantled, Eunha could hate me for life, I might not be able to talk with her anytime soon.”

“Hey, can you explain to me what it means to like someone? All I can understand is elevated levels of happiness, or serotonin and rushes of adrenaline. Meaning an increase in heartrate, though I believe that is all in the mind.”

Yerin sighed as she sat down on the bench outside, SinB stood to the side, watching Yerin’s expressions.

“Liking someone, I think, is when you aren’t with them, but want to be with them all the time. You can’t help but miss them whenever they’re gone, and you’re the happiest when you’re together. No matter what you do.”

“Is that so?”

Finishing off her churro, Yerin got up to throw her trash away, leaving SinB’s side for a second when bright lights filled her vision. Looking up, all she could think was, “the hell is a truck doing on the sidewalk coming this way?”

==========================

a little late oops 3/4 complete