Entering my apartment that evening came with happiness and then a sense of embarrassment. I followed the tall man in front of me into the living area and scratched at my neck awkwardly. “I uh, wasn’t exactly expecting you to be coming home today.”

“Home,” Leo repeated and turned around to smile at me. “I’m home.”

I became concerned at how long this would remain my home for with how much he was making my heart skip beats. My cheeks flared up again and I diverted my gaze from him, shifting to tidy a pile of papers that were strewn over my couch. Leo moved first, his hand gripping my lower arm gently and preventing my plan of action.

“What are you doing?” I asked and he merely stared at me. “What?”

“Why does your skin keep changing colour?”

I closed my eyes, biting my lip as the embarrassment continued. I wished he wasn’t so observant.

“You also keep biting your lips today. You should stop that.”

My eyes snapped open, confused at his sentence. He let go of me and then turned away, his own hand going up into his dark hair. I wondered if a robot could feel awkward too. His focus shifted to a piece of paper and he tilted his head as he read it. My own eyes followed to where he was reading and gasped, grabbing the paper and hid it behind my back.

It was fruitless, he had read enough. His eyes grew darker. “Was that a novel, Yerin-noona?”

“It’s nothing to concern yourself over.”

“You’re lying; I can tell your heartbeat has increased. Why are you lying to me?”

“Honestly, it’s old news.” I scrunched the police report up in my grip, starting to feel weak from all the change in atmosphere.

Leo was not convinced and quickly removed it from my hand, holding it up higher as I attempted to retrieve it back from him. He read it quietly again, moving around the room as I continued my efforts. His eyes then fell back to my face, his index finger pointing to the report. “Tell me this is a novel. A very horribly written story by a very horrible writer.”

I lowered my head and shook it softly. Silence enveloped us both for an immeasurable time. I finally glanced up, Leo’s eyes glassed over, his stance looking murderous. If that was even possible for a human loving cyborg.

I moved forward to him, placing a hand on his lower arm. He flinched for the first time, and both of us were surprised to see him do so.

“Leo,” I started, and then sighed. “You know the world isn’t always a nice place.”

“I hadn’t realised it had been this awful to you.” His voice was barely audible and I was shocked at how worked up he was getting. He glanced at me then, trying to see the events he had read of through me. “How much pain have you suffered from, my system doesn’t quite grasp it any further than my extensive search now on the internet over the term gang .”

A chill ran through me then, flashbacks of my nightmare hitting me with full force. Leo lurched forward and collided into me, though I was unaware of what he had seen within me for the sudden need to hold me. I gripped onto his shirt all the same, my emotions no longer being able to be contained, sobs soon filling the tiny apartment.

We sat in silence on the sofa together, my story now spoken of, the reason for returning to Korea and leaving my family behind in England. My pain from not seeing my parents in so long but being unable to return to that tarnished place keeping us apart. The strong desire to study the human mind myself, to understand why those school boys had chosen to do what they had to me that day, to rip away my sense of understanding of the world, much like they had my clothes. The fact that only two of the five had been sentenced to anything, Leo had heard it all.

And now we sat in the knowledge of why I had been so different from the others he had met. My past had held a stronger grip over my life than I had realised. Speaking it out loud for the first time in thirteen years came with a sense of relief, one that I wasn’t expecting to feel. I knew now I would be able to tell Gunhee, having wanted to at points in our years together.

Leo’s eyes were closed now and as I watched him, I was thankful for him listening to me, but concerned on the affect my history would have on his system. I had barely been able to convince Doctor Jung that the past week had been more than enough time to sort myself out. Now I had brought his prized bot home and thrown him into the complicated world of humans again.

“Leo?” I got no response and moved closer to the still boy, worry building up within me. I tapped him and gasped as his upper body fell towards me, his head landing in my lap heavily. I tried shaking him but to no avail. “Leo?!”

“I’m tired,” he murmured and I glanced to the Kboy charge station and then back at the boy now resting more deeply into my legs. “So very tired.”

“Let’s get you to your station then.” His head shook slowly. “But you need to be re-charged!”

“Let me do so here,” he asked and I frowned, the boy soon looking to be perfectly asleep. I hesitated for a moment before letting my hand fall to his loosely styled dark hair, much like the style of the VIXX LR promotions. I smiled as my hand moved through his hair, gently the black locks over and over, comfort washing over me.

My eyes slowly opened, and I realised it was the middle of the night; I was no longer on the sofa with Leo anymore. I blinked a couple of times, a set of dark eyes watching quietly next to me. I didn’t jump back in fright like I once had, instead I smiled.

“You were sleeping when I woke up,” he murmured and my lazy smile grew at him using the right term for once. He seemed to be aware of it too and returned the gesture. “I understand the reason for a bed now.”

“You do?”

He reached over for my face, delicately cupping the side of my cheek in his hand. “If sleeping next to you like this every night could happen, I would let my battery overwork like before all the time.”

“You scared me,” I told him and Leo’s eyes flashed with concern. “I thought I had broken you. I’m sorry for telling you it all in detail; it must have been too much for your system to handle.”

“No,” he replied, rubbing my cheek with his thumb in a small circle. “I’m glad you told me.”

“Then why did you crash?”

He coughed a little, confusing me as to how he even knew how to do such a thing.

“I was so angry that it took all my strength to not get up and find a way to punish those monsters. I came close to letting out some of my steam on the wall, but from my calculations, you would have a window from the living room to this bedroom, noona.”

I giggled and Leo pursed his lips together. Moving closer to him, I rested my head against his chest. I could hear the light purr of his system working underneath my ear and my smile dispersed, wishing to hear a heartbeat to accompany his inbuilt breathing mechanism. I pulled myself together again, slipping my arms around him and snuggling in deeper. He didn’t need to have a heartbeat to have captured my own.

“Can we sleep like this together from now on?” Leo asked gingerly a moment later, his body feeling tense against mine. I nodded and he let out a deep breath, his chest now less rigid. “Good, I like this.”

“Me too.”

“Noona.” He played with my hair again and I almost melted right there. “What will you do about the house rule number three? I think I’m using my boyfriend mode on you.”

“Some rules are made to be broken, Leo.”

“Can I break another then?” he requested and I lifted my head from his chest to look up at him. He smiled and brushed my hair away from my face. “You said not to ask personal questions.”

“What’s stopped you before?” I teased and then smiled. “What do you want to know?”

“Am I your type?” he whispered and waited expectantly for my response.

I took a deep breath, my lips inching closer to his. Finally, they pressed ever so lightly onto his mouth and I closed my eyes, feeling a wave of intense desire settle deeply into my now over beating heart. The kiss didn’t last long but it was enough to imprint his lips into my mind.

Leo smiled as he pulled away and cupped my face again. “I lied back then. You’ve always been beautiful to me.”

“You’re programmed to think of me that way,” I reminded and he shook his head.

“I’m designed to only think of my owner in that way.” He leaned down to peck my lips again before continuing. “From the first time I laid eyes on you, my opinion has been the same. Before you chose to save me.”

The idea enveloped me in a giddy sensation. Leo was right, he had no real owner. I had never done the initial owner setup since he had been online from the moment I met him. He was different from all the other robots. Just like I had chosen to help him, he had the choice to choose me or not.

And he had chosen me, not because he had to, but because he wanted to.