“Tell me you have a way of getting rid of her.”

“…”

“Mother, is this how you treat the daughter who you haven’t been with for more than a decade?”

SinB smiled quietly as she watched Yerin do her homework on Yerin’s bed. They had retreated here once they got their heads back on their shoulders from when they learned that SinB had developed emotions. They were unsure how far they were developed, perhaps it was only reading the situation that her previously installed tear ducts finally clunked into action, but that was what emotion really was anyways. Because of something, you feel something. The fact that SinB could say the word “love” while fully feeling the effects of the sudden rise of temperatures, the faint nervousness that happened around Yerin.

Even now, she was happily staring at Yerin without a care, instead of doing her usual research on humans inside her head. If Yerin were to look over her shoulder at SinB, she’d look almost alike a puppy waiting for their owner to play was how excited she seemed to be there with Yerin.

“SinB ah, could you teach me this question?”

SinB perked up immediately and went to Yerin’s side, reading the question over and finding the proper way through the words with her ai.

“Just use the equation in the previous question, plug in the first number for the second variable.”

Yerin thanked SinB with a kiss on the cheek, to which SinB smiled. She retreated to the bed to wait. This was different from how the usual girlfriend reacted when their lover was busy. Especially when they were in the same place. Noticing, Yerin puffed her cheeks and turned around in her chair, looking at SinB.

“I know I shouldn’t be asking too much, but aren’t you lonely over there?”

“Lonely? How? You’re right there in front of me. I’m not alone.”

Yerin blushed and turned back around, SinB was still new to being a proper girlfriend, it was fine.

Yerin hesitantly went to school, SinB in hand as they entered the classroom. They hadn’t received a call about not going to school, so SinB technically still had to go. Even if she had suffered a blow from her mother, she still had the obligation to listen to her requests.

“You know, you don’t have to do what she says.”

“I don’t? But she made me, her words are absolute law.”

“Yeah? Then what are my words, if you say that I’m priority?”

“Absolute law.”

SinB grinned and squeezed Yerin’s hand.

“I’ll still go so I can be with you.”

“You know, ever since we discovered this side of you, you’re really using it to kill me, aren’t you?”

SinB looked panicked, her hands immediately feeling Yerin’s body up, checking for injuries.

“You’re in perfect health, why?”

Yerin blushed and pulled SinB’s hands from her, keeping a proper distance apart to make it look like they weren’t going to school together.

“Nothing, you’ll learn soon enough, come on. Be a cool and slightly angry version of Eunbi so we can get this over with.”

SinB blinked a few times at Yerin, her innocent smile still staying. Then she frowned a little, lowered her shoulders a little, and Yerin had to remind herself that this was SinB, not Eunbi.

“SinB ah, lets get inside before we’re late.”

“Alright.”

“It doesn’t know this exists?”

“No.”

“Give me the switch.”

“I don’t have it anymore.”

“Who does.”

“Her father.”

Eunbi breathed an angry sigh, running her hand through her hair, she turned to Sowon.

“Bring me the switch.”

“I cannot do that.”

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t like me.”

“Useless.”

Then it hit Eunbi. Her mother had called that thing, “her” and referred to the man who helped make her, “her father.”

“You!”

She glared at her mother who remained still, Sowon had a dreading feeling inside, seeing the slight sadness in Miss Hwang’s eyes.

“You think of it as an actual daughter! You admitted it! You did replace me!”

“N-no I-“

“Enough, I have to do everything on my own. Fine. Fine!”

She muttered under her breath.

“I was always alone anyways.”

Sowon clenched her fists, what could she do, when she cared so much for this girl, but knew that she was having misplaced anger?

“I will assist you.”

Eunbi looked up at Sowon.

“You’re pitying me.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I’m not. I am someone who does whatever you say.”

“But you won’t retrieve the switch.”

“Because it’s impossible for me.”

SinB sat in class, staring at her desk as the professor and the other students did their best not to stare at her. Since the return of the human Eunbi, her public image had been in a slight uproar with the change in personality even if only slightly noticeable.

Quietly, she sat with her hand on Yerin’s lap, holding hands as Yerin took notes pretending that there was nothing wrong and ignoring the random stares that concentrated beside her. It wouldn’t bother SinB, supposedly.

“Class dismissed.”

Yerin let go of SinB’s hand and left with Eunha, leaving her alone to pack her stuff. They would meet up on the roof, but they had to go separately. Some girls whispered around SinB and her sensors picked them up, she decided to filter them and continued her way out of the classroom, that is, until a boy grabbed her shoulder and forced her to turn around. Normally, she would just let him pull as hard as he wanted, she was built to be strong enough to lift cars to save people in emergencies after all, but this was Eunbi’s life she was currently acting. Moving with the hand, she glared at the boy with a bored stare.

“Hwang, why the hell are you so different every time I see you?”

“Why does it matter to you?”

“It’s almost as if you have a stunt double or something.”

SinB processed that sentence, the way he said it had the undertones of trying to prod an answer from her, elicit a response. Too bad, she had absolute control over her emotional features.

“Ever heard of mood swings and hormones, move it, idiot.”

Brushing past him and heading for the roof in a round about path, she briefly listened the other students chiding him for provoking her. Still, it was odd that he knew to ask something like that. Was someone still suspicious of her? Even after those who knew were taken to jail and deemed insane since her body was sunken at the bottom of the ocean?

“You’re late.”

SinB looked beside her, having just reached the roof, Yerin was leaning on the wall beside the doorway where she stood. Smiling, SinB offered her hand for Yerin to hold.

“Sorry.”

“We’ve got a few more classes today, then we’ll head to the arcade before going home.”

“You wanted to play?”

“A little, you don’t mind?”

“Of course.”

SinB eyed the small roof over the stairwell that they came up from. There was a metal ladder attached to the side, but it looked old and untrustworthy, probably because of lack of use. Jumping up slightly, SinB pulled herself up and onto the small room, laying out a small blanket she had taken from Yerin’s house. Reaching back over, she stretched her hand to Yerin who was curiously looking up at her.

“Why?”

“Just grab hold, I’ll lift you up.”

Taking SinB’s hand, Yerin was surprised at how smoothly SinB pulled her up, reminding her that SinB was made of the best technologies once more.

“Woah.”

“I thought we could lay down here.”

Yerin grinned. This was easily the best hiding spot in the school, laying down on the blanket, Yerin opened her arms for SinB to lay beside her, however, because of whatever chivalry program in SinB, she scooped her arm under Yerin’s head before Yerin could do the opposite, causing a pout on her lips.

“I wanted to hold you.”

“Sorry, do you want me to…?”

Yerin shook her head, tucking herself against SinB’s chest.

“It’s fine.”

They lay there peacefully as SinB gently Yerin’s hair, there was nothing to say, nothing to discuss between them, a mutually agreed on silence.

A buzz sounded from SinB’s pocket, Yerin shifted away a little for SinB to reach her pocket. The message that popped across her screen, made her stop in order to think about the possibilities.

“What is it SinB?”

“I…am not sure yet.”

SinB handed her phone to Yerin, her system running an inventory check in her system.

“What does this mean? You have a bomb in you even though you were reconstructed?”

“I…that’s what makes me concerned. I can’t find one.”

“You checked and everything?”

Yerin cupped SinB’s cheeks, looking her in the eyes even if she couldn’t see anything in them. She was worried, SinB could tell even without running her sensors.

“It’ll be fine, Sojung unnie wouldn’t kill me.”

“Yeah.”

The switch was at SinB’s father’s place, Sowon had sent them a text describing the situation, but she never said anything about the switch that was written on the blueprint. Yerin bit her lip nervously.

“They can’t do this to you. I won’t let them.”

“Hey, they can’t, and they won’t. I’ll be fine.”

SinB hugged Yerin softly, her hands already rubbing soothing circles on her back. But inside her brain, she ran simulations. There was only one way to guarantee Yerin’s safety. And that was to leave. So long as that switch existed, so long as Eunbi was after it, there was the chance that she would press it and she would explode. She could not let Yerin get hurt because of her.

“SinB?”

“Yes?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, as always.”

“Dad, is there really a bomb in me?”

“Honey, I can’t answer that.”

SinB grabbed his hand, checking that he wasn’t lying. He had no clue. Even when she checked all file paths and programs for any detonation program, there wasn’t one. Apparently, during the repairing process, there hadn’t been anything that her father had seen that was out of the ordinary, or even remotely could have been a disguised bomb. They didn’t know where it was.

“Then I have to leave or shut down until you figure it out.”

“You can’t find it in yourself either?”

“No.”

“There’s a chance that it never existed.”

SinB searched again, but with the image of the blueprint saved in her memories, there was no way it didn’t exist, everything on that blueprint was real, even if she couldn’t detect or find it.

“I’ll come back tomorrow, open me up and try to see if you can find the physical thing. I could be hiding from my system.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

He nodded solemnly, but there was a slight spark of happiness and pride that SinB wanted something this badly. It was sad that she was in this kind of situation, balanced on the edge of life and death once more, but she wanted something because she cared so much for this Yerin that he had never met before.

“Say, can you bring her with you tomorrow?”

“But I didn’t tell her I was going to be here.”

“Transparency works better than you think.”

“Does it?”

“She’ll feel better at least.”

“Alright, thanks, dad.”

“No problem.”

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does SinB run? is the bomb actually in her? hmmmmmm we'll have to wait and see :D