Sometimes Zelo likes to contemplate the life that is beyond numbers and facts.


‘Zelo’s a happy boy,’ or so Zelo likes to perceive himself as. However, there’s just one too many things off with that simple statement. For one, Zelo isn’t a boy, he’s a robot. Secondly, how can he be sure those feelings of content aren’t just something else. To someone who has never experienced emotions of any type, how can you distinguish sadness from anger, or happiness. From what Zelo understands, happiness is something you can feel deep in your stomach, everywhere, in fact. Yet, the same could be said for despair: it does not stay contained in only one location, but disperses, to the point where it’s like its running through your veins, too.

These are the thoughts that Zelo has, sometimes. And he has this urge to voice out these questions, from what he understands though, no one knows the definite answers to his inquiries, either. Zelo wonders what good being a supercomputer has when he needs a mood ring to tell him what he truly feels (and not even a mood ring can do that; body heat and all that jazz).

“Noona, how do you feel about Yongguk hyung?” It’s not a huge question, it’s not like it’ll contribute to quantum physics or tell him the speed of light (which is actually 299,792,458 m/s), but he feels that it’s worth asking. Perhaps it would help him in some way.

“He’s the bane of my existence,” his noona replies without so much of a second thought while she checks her texts messages.

Zelo furrows his brows, simulating confusion on his silicon features, “Then why have we been waiting at the bus stop for an hour?”

“Cause your hyung has no concept of time, whatsoever. God forbid he can read a bus schedule, properly.” Although it’s unintended, Zelo’s processor jumps straight to the average literacy rates present in each country, and from there he can’t help but list them all by alphabetical order, as well.

Zelo is left to ponder the reason why Puerto Rico is still considered a U.S territory and not a state.

The android halts his thinking to observe his noona, taking in the light frown gracing her lips and the listlessness  that, ironically, dances in her eyes. “Greenland’s national flower is the Epilobium, more widely known as the Willow Herb.” Zelo absentmindedly states. “The name Willow Herb refers to the willow-like form of the leaves.”

The girl looks up from the screen of her phone and just stares at the robot for the briefest of seconds before returning back to her phone with a shake of her head and a smile.

A few minutes later a bus arrives at the large parking lot filled with families and friends picking up their little geniuses. The bus is a huge mass of metal that clutters and dominates the once empty noise with sounds of wheels and internal engines combusting. There’s this new found smell of oil and it makes the girl scrunch her nose up from the foul scent.

A stream of teenagers trickle out of the bus’ doors after it comes to a complete stop.  Zelo and her search the crowed for a familiar gummy smile with a shock of blond hair. They’re left analyzing the students up until the very last one, when he finally appears. Yongguk’s arms are bundled up full of items that seem of no use or correlation to one another, but Zelo understands them.

“Hey!” Yongguk shouts to them happily in his husky, deep voice, waddling his way over with the gigantic weights in his arms. “I come bearing gifts!”

“Wow! Hyung is so cool!” Zelo says as he makes a grab for one of the generous presents (which, honestly, is just a bunch of scrap parts), but is held back by a hand on his shoulder. The android looks up at his noona with a curious look, or at least what he supposes substituted for the expression. A furrow of the brows was the accepted face, he supposes.

“Where’d these gifts come from, Yongguk?” The girl asks as she eyes the man with a sceptical look.  

“From the depths of my heart.” Yongguk replies without hesitation as he shoves some kind of hunk of steel towards her direction. The object was round with a few ridges here and there, looked possibly like a gear. It was the size of her head and there was still a thin coating of grease and oil on it. She almost toppled over from the bulkiness of it if Zelo had not tried to help her.

“You know it’s customary to, ya know, give chocolates.” She wipes her dirty hands onto her own jeans.

“In some countries, you give a chicken.” Zelo pipes up giving in his input. He receives a warm pat on the head.  

“Yeah, that would have been acceptable, too.”

“Would you brats be quiet? I’m trying to be nice, and all you guys want is a chicken.” The older male sighs as he drops all the things in his arms haphazardly onto the ground, nearly hitting their feet. The clamour of it all drew the attention of the parents picking up their kids, but Yongguk didn’t care about the extra sets of eyes watching them. He continued to shout, “It’s nice to know that I’m appreciated! All I do is stove over a hot lab table, day in and day out, and you... AHHH.”

Zelo blinks a couple of times rapidly, as if trying to comprehend the situation at hand faster. From what Zelo could conclude, he should join in in screaming with his hyung.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

His noona stares at them both silently. He sees her fingers notably twitching. Zelo thinks there’s something like a murderous intent in her eyes. She doesn’t say anything though, and lets the two continue on in their bonding (?) and public disturbance.

When Yongguk finishes his shouts and accusations of ungratefulness, he clears his throat with a cough. “So yeah, I’m making something really cool. You’ll need to keep Zelo for a few more days.”

“Why can’t he go back to your place and help you as a lab assistant?” She asks, a snippy tone leiden in her voice. Zelo looks down at the ground.

Yongguk wags his finger at her, “All my projects are a solo kind of thing, little lady. You know that, better than anyone.”

She rolls her eyes, “You know he’ll distract you, right?”

“Bingo.” Yongguk nods, “Now all of you guys come and help me carry these things home.”

“Zelo can carry the majority home.”

“Uh oh. Sorry. Shutdown.”

His noona sighs as she stares down at the lifeless body by her feet, “I blame you for this. He’s been doing this every time I ask him to do something remotely hard.” While attempting to get Zelo’s arm over her shoulder, she fumbles slightly and grunts.

Yongguk laughs and gathers up all the spare parts and they begin to head back to his family’s bakery.

“So what are you making anyway?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Is it another toaster?”

“Nope.” He says almost proudly.

She leaves the conversation off at that. Yongguk never explicitly talks about any of his experiments unless it was just for the sake of gloating. “Well, what you do for the rest of camp? Did the kids still treat you like a leper?”

Yongguk scowls, “Those geeks just don’t understand my humor. Oooooh, so I’m radioactive or whatever. Big deal, those . It’s as if they never heard about Spiderman.”

“You’re still bitter, huh.” She grins as she continues to drag Zelo’s body over the sidewalks.

The sun was beginning to waver in the sky, turning the blue into a shade of orange, or perhaps it was closer to pink.  

The two (or three) of them made their journey back fairly safely. A squirrel tried to play with Zelo’s body, but nothing too serious happened. By the time they made it back to Yongguk’s bakery the sun was down.

His family’s shop was bustling with teens and adults, coming and going. He shared a brief hugs with his parents before they went over to sit at a table by the corner. His parents wondered why she was carrying a sleeping boy, but chose to ignore it.

“Okay, Yongguk. I need you to tell me this honestly now. Zelo’s been hogging all my textbooks and been reading them from cover to cover. Tell me the password to get him off the information lockdown.” She stared into his eyes with the utmost seriousness.

“Hmmmm...” Yongguk hummed, looking at the ceiling while thinking. “I actually don’t remember.”

“No, no, no, no. You don’t understand, Yongguk.” She shook her head, “You need to remember.”

He simply shrugged his shoulders and stared at Zelo laying motionless in his chair. “I’m sure you’ll figure out the password.”

“You’re a bastard.”

“Have fun.”

About ing time I updated. Sorry to all my subs who have been waiting for an update. I've been busy with school, which isn't really a lie or the truth though because it's not like I was working day in and day out. I apologize for my lack of dedication. I'm hoping that I can get an update out maybe once every two weeks. I've realized that writing this fic flows more easily than opposed to writing about my otps. Sorry if this wasn't the spectacular update you guys were all looking for. I expect to lose quite a few subs, but that is my own fault. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter nonetheless. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BTW.