“What are you doing?” I asked as Leo stood in the kitchen, midway through washing the dishes that he insisted he do to feel more at home after being away so long. He remained unmoving, holding a dishcloth in one hand and a plate in the other, his eyes unfocused.

It made me frown and I approached him, tapping his shoulder. “Leo?”

He moved all too quickly then, the plate dropping to the ground in a shatter and his body contorted as he attempted to understand where he was and what had happened. Leo’s eyes fell to my foot and he gasped, picking me up and carrying me quickly to the sofa. “You’re bleeding. I hurt you!”

“It was an accident, you zoned out, don’t stress.” I glanced at the small cut on the top of my foot where my slipper didn’t cover and smiled. “It’s so tiny, Leo.”

“Stay there,” he commanded all the same, rushing to the bathroom and returning with the first aid kit, sitting down on the coffee table and then expertly dressed my wound. He then stared at it for some time, sighing a little now and then. I wasn’t worried about my foot at all, but I was about him.

“Leo?”

“Huh?” He blinked several times, his eyes finally focusing on mine. He looked so exhausted.

“Maybe you need to take a break in your schedule, you’re really tired.”

“I’m tired?” he enquired, looking over himself and then shaking his head. “My battery is at ninety-seven percent.”

“Then why do you seem so exhausted?”

“I don’t know,” he answered slowly, sitting down on the couch and lifting my legs so they were now resting in his lap. Smiling as he gently ran his hands up and down them; he then rested his head on the back of the couch and stared at me. “I missed you.”

“It’s weird that you’re busier when you’re in the same city as me,” I admitted and he sighed.

“We’re launching a new aspect to all Kboys soon and it’s been keeping me rather preoccupied.”

I nodded. “Our call center has been pretty hectic of late too.”

“Business is good,” he mentioned as he closed his eyes, nodding once. And then he was out to it again. I smiled, leaning over to wave my hand in his face before getting up quietly.

“So much for a full battery, you little liar. Rest up well, you need it.”

At first, I continued to believe it was exhaustion, as further shutdowns happened over the next week. Most were innocent but there were awkward ones too, like when he fell asleep on the elevator at work with a bunch of co-workers around us. Or when we were walking home from work and he just stopped moving. It had taken fifteen minutes to rouse him enough to get home. Even forcing him to stand on his charge station did nothing, because he kept saying his battery levels were reading at max power. It was odd, but nothing seemed more serious than being midway through and everything suddenly halting just as I was close to ing.

“You’re freaking kidding me!” I breathlessly cried out and slapped at his chest. The man beneath me did nothing in response and I groaned heavily, slumping down into the bed beside him and glared up at the roof. There had to be an answer for why this kept happening and if he wasn’t going to be bothered by it, I would make sure to address it myself.

The next day, I followed Gunhee and Leo up into their department, dragging Leo by his hand into Doctor Jung’s office. The older man was surprised by our visit, especially since I was hardly invited here for assessments anymore. Leo had grown some independence in exchange for his home being permanently at my apartment.

“This is a pleasant surprise,” the doctor mentioned, and Leo glowered at me. “To what do I owe such a visit?”

“There’s something wrong with him.”

“Honestly Yerin, you’re being dramatic,” Leo stated darkly and I ignored him, pleading the doctor with my eyes to take my concerns seriously.

He nodded at me to continue and directed Leo to silently sit up on the examination chair. The dark haired man huffed but did as he was told and started to his shirt a little for the access Doctor Jung would require. “He’s been freezing. Or glitching. Going offline. Whatever it is, it’s increasing in the amounts it’s been happening and I’m worried.”

“What are your battery levels, Leo?” Doctor Jung requested.

Leo kept his focus on mine, tilting his head in annoyance. “Ninety-nine percent.”

“He shouldn’t be going offline then Miss Choi. Are you sure he’s not in deep thought?”

Last night’s incident almost made me scoff as I shook my head. “He never remembers what has happened; he’s unresponsive, sometimes up to fifteen minutes.”

The flash of panic in the doctor’s eyes was immediate and my mood swiftly changed. I had expected it to be a small problem, but with how he was reacting, instructing Leo with haste to prepare for his examination and buzzing a button on the wall that brought in Gunhee and the rest of his team, I became dizzy and confused. Why was there such a fuss? Maybe his battery was broken? Was that such a big deal? I was certain I had ordered a new battery for a Choi Minho model in the past month. It was all too overwhelming and I backed up slowly as the team encircled the now offline Leo.

There was a flurry of action, and a lot of voices with terms I couldn’t understand. But their tone told me enough.

This was serious.

I started to regret letting this carry on for over a week. Could I have helped him earlier so it wouldn’t get to whatever point it was at? My body began to shake as I feared the worst. I stood there convincing myself that these were trained scientists who made and repaired robots every day. Like doctors who healed humans, they were equipped with the knowledge to fix Leo.

He would be fine. He had to be.

After what felt like forever, Doctor Jung emerged out of the bustle, his eyes bleak. I didn’t like that look and I was transported to the day where he told me he would be taking Leo from me. Was this another challenge? I was tired of fighting to keep the man I loved at my side through his little games.

“Yerin,” he called. I knew he only used my name when serious. It made my knees buckle and I grasped onto whatever was beside me for support. “You need to come over here.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” I heard myself say but it didn’t sound right. It sounded too broken, too weak. He guided me over to the side where he had been working.

Although I knew what was under the lifelike skin of a Kboy all too well, it was surreal to see the machinery of Leo up close. It was intricate and beautiful and for a moment I was mesmerised. I travelled over the side of his head and all its little details until I saw what was sticking out. I didn’t need to be a doctor to see the damage.

“Yerin that is Leo’s main motherboard. It’s where his memory chip sits, and where all of his thought process happens. Essentially this small circuit is what makes him from our point of view exceptional.” Doctor Jung picked up one of his tools to gently scrape at the blackened surface. “This damage I don’t know what caused it. I’m guessing the perfectionist in Leo has created a monster in his thought process. One that isn’t allowing him to shut off when he needs to. Essentially, he’s burned out this section of the motherboard by thinking too much.”

“It can be repaired, right? Put a new one in.”

“We can do that Yerin, but there’s a big risk,” Gunhee said, my gaze turning to my best friend. He looked as destroyed as I felt. “Where the damage has happened is right near his memory bank. If we so much as make an error in the repair, he could be wiped for good.”

“Wiped as in how?” I knew the answer, but I couldn’t listen to my own thoughts. I needed the reassurance they would do everything to make sure Leo was coming home.

“Thankfully we store all of his data in our backups. And Leo has a smaller chip that he requested be put in his brain when he felt like there was not enough room and he needed to expand his thought space. I don’t know what is on it, he keeps that area private. But I do know is that we run the risk of losing him the longer we wait to repair everything,” Doctor Jung mentioned, glancing at me and then his team. “I know he belongs to us but we’ve come to respect Leo as one of our own. I know he’d respect us further if we ask his uh, next of kin to allow us to proceed, knowing all the risks.”

I blinked several times; the information was all too much to bear. But knowing any delay could cause problems for Leo spurred me to nod my head as the tears began to fall. I grabbed at his hand tightly before being steered out of the room by Gunhee, Jinyoung waiting for me on the outside. When the door shut I collapsed to the ground, my emotions flooding out of me.

Leo couldn’t leave me now.