“How about next time, I walk you home for a change,” Joy was digging into her purse to find her keys.

“Well, since I have to take a bus to get home, walking just seems excessive, honestly…” Seulgi pointed out. She was a true gentlewoman.

“Fair. But I am starting to feel guilty here.”

“Why? It’s my choice. And besides, I love walking you home.” Joy felt a hand in her middle. She smiled, pushing the key into the door. “That’s what you say.”

“That’s what I say,” Seulgi confirmed.

Joy swung her door open, already dropping her handbag around the corner before she faced Seulgi. Her hands found her girlfriend’s hips, pulling her closer. It was apparently enough of a push for Seulgi to continue, “how about instead of walking me home, you merely invite me to stay over next time?”

Joy rose her eyebrows, “what a bold request coming from you.”

Seulgi chuckled, obviously a little bit shy.

Joy supposed it was only normal really. She didn’t know why she felt a little bit anxious thinking about it. She had probably been single for too long. “Deal,” she still said. Making Seulgi feel bad was the last thing she wanted. She pressed a small kiss against Seulgi’s lips.

“So, what’s on the planning for you tomorrow?” Seulgi inquired, apparently not quite ready to leave her be just yet.”

“Hmm,” Joy pondered, “most importantly; sleeping long. Although, it’s calmer at the grocery store if I go early so…”

Seulgi’s fingertips were tapping against her back, “why don’t you simply send Irene? Pretty sure she can manage.”

Joy pulled back, a little bit uncomfortable. “Well, what if something happens to her? Like she gets hit by a car, or vandalized or-“

“Joy, what if something happens to you?” Seulgi chuckled at the confused frown she shot her, “what I mean to say is that she’s a robot. She can be fixed.” Joy knew she was right of course, but still – merely thinking about it made her uncomfortable. She stepped back. Out of Seulgi’s embrace.

“I’ll think about it.” But not really. “I’ll talk to you later?” She shot Seulgi a smile, which the latter returned. Another quick kiss later, Joy stepped inside her apartment. She didn’t bother watching Seulgi leave anymore.

Her apartment was silent. It felt empty. She unconsciously found herself looking for Irene. She found her merely sitting down in the couch, looking right at her. Had she been… watching them the entire time?

“Were you waiting for me?”

Irene nodded, “yes.” She always was. It still made Joy feel… good to hear it. To not come home to an empty place. It was so nice. She couldn’t miss Irene anymore, honestly. It was a little bit scary maybe how quickly she had gotten attached to her exactly.

“Can I ask you something?” Oh gosh. Joy always got a little scared hearing that. What if she was going to talk about marriage or physical again? She pressed her lips together, eventually making her way over to sit down next to Irene.

“Sure.”

“What if I break?”

Joy blinked. “Did you hear me and Seulgi talk?”

Irene nodded, before she inquired again, “what if I break? Will you be fine without me?” The second question caught Joy a little bit off-guard. Until she realized that of course that’s what Irene would think of. It was in her protocol.

Joy cleared , forcing herself to think clearly. Logically. “Then I will simply transfer your memory core into a new body.” Right. There was no way she was going to lose Irene simply because of some damage.

Irene didn’t seem satisfied yet with her response though, “what if my memory is damaged too? Will you get a new robot? A newer version perhaps?”

Joy literally didn’t know what to respond. hanging slightly open while Irene kept patiently awaiting her response. Those brown eyes never leaving her own. Another robot? It wouldn’t feel right…

She didn’t even get to answering. Which she wouldn’t have minded, had Irene’s next question been any less bad. “And what if you die? What will I do?”

Well . Those were some really existential questions. Joy didn’t think she would ever have been prepared to receive those.

“Well… you tell me?” She imagined there was some kind of protocol Irene would surely have to follow if she were to die? Gosh, she couldn’t believe she was thinking about this! What kind of question was that? Was Irene planning on murdering her after all? Was this the internet’s doing…

Irene just frowned at her, “I don’t know,” now there was something she had never expected Irene to say. “I will not have a purpose anymore. You are my owner. You are my purpose.”

Joy shook her head, “You will find someone else to-“

“I don’t want to live with anybody else.” A firm statement. Irene had never interrupted Joy before. Honestly, she had thought Irene incapable of it.

Joy her lips, “well, then what do you want?”

Irene parted her lips to respond. And Joy was expecting it. That same response as always to this particular question. But it didn’t come. Instead, Irene just closed again.

Before hesitantly responding, “I have no wants.”

And strangely enough, it was exactly in that moment that Joy decided. Irene was more than a robot and she deserved to be her own person. To have wants. To have dreams and plans. To have at least some kind of life of her own.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 Honestly, she couldn’t possibly drag Yeri into doing something illegal. So, Joy spent way too much time in private windows and looking up hypothetical questions from incognito people on the internet wondering how to unshackle their robot. It at least made her realize she wasn’t alone. On top of that, she hadn’t heard of a murderous robot as of yet, so that was surely a good sign? Gosh she hoped so…

Surprisingly, it didn’t seem all that difficult. Which was suspicious in its own right. Sure, there was a backup protocol, but even that she had eventually found a work around for.

That being said, theory was something very different than practice. It always was. Usually Joy was in fact better at practice, never one for studying, really. Nonetheless, she doubted it would be comparable to this scenario.

She was nervous. What an understatement. She was dying. Not even because she was afraid of doing something illegal or being caught. She could not care less about that, compared to Irene’s well-being. What if she ed up and broke Irene? What if there was a failsafe she had missed, that would erase everything Irene was? Joy would never forgive herself. She knew it was silly. Sure, it had taken weeks to get Irene to where she was, but eventually she would get another robot who would be able to learn the same things Irene had.

And still… it would not be Irene. But keeping her shackled? It didn’t seem like a possibility. Not anymore. Not after she had made up her mind.

“Are you sure?”

“I trust you with my life.” That was exactly the problem! Joy pressed her lips together, letting out a breath. Even after that though, her hands were still trembling. She couldn’t do this. She stepped back from Irene, the panel in her neck already opened up, external touchscreen already connected. She couldn’t do this. A panic was rising up in her. Irene seemed to notice, she looked over her shoulder.

“It’s okay. We don’t have to do this. Shall I make you a cup of tea to relax?”

For some reason it just made Joy more convinced. The last thing Irene should be thinking of was making her a stupid cup of tea! And she was convinced it was those stupid protocols. She clenched her jaw, stepping closer and picking up the touchscreen. Hands still trembling. What other choice did she have though?

“Can’t you just unshackle yourself? Couldn’t you have looked it up with your internet access?”

“Robots are unable to unshackle themselves,” again… part of those protocols, Joy supposed. It made perfect sense. It was time for them to go though.

“Fine. Then I will do it for you.” Her trembling fingers planted themselves upon the touchscreen.

-

Joy’s mouth was dry. She unplugged the screen and eventually even closed up the panel in Irene’s neck again.

“Irene?”

Irene stood, turning to face her. “Did it gwork?”

Joy put the tools upon the desk next to her. She crossed her arms after, suddenly feeling a little bit threatened. “How should I know? Shouldn’t you be telling me? How do you feel?”

Irene blinked. She looked the same… “I ‘feel’ the same.” Ugh… Joy must have done something wrong.

Joy watched Irene’s eyes flick around. As if she was trying to find something out of the ordinary. Joy held her breath. Until she couldn’t anymore. The silence was lasting ages. Eventually, Irene spoke again, “I do not think it worked. I do not sense nor experience anything different,” she repeated.

Joy let out a sigh. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t disappointed. But… maybe it was for the better. Alternatively, she could have made Irene self-destruct or something.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Joy reached for her phone under her pillow. 7.03am. With her alarm set to 7.30, that didn’t leave her too long anymore. She shouldn’t fall asleep again probably or it would just get worse. She wished she didn’t have to work today. She let out a sigh.

“Are you okay?”

Joy’s eyes opened immediately, heart beating heavily in her chest. She sat up, at least wearing a shirt this time around. Irene was standing at the end of her bed. “What are you doing here?! I told you not to…” Her sentence died out.

Wait.

“I missed you.”

Did this mean… “I told you not to, and you did. You defied me.” Honestly, it was a statement that wouldn’t make anybody happy. Except Joy. Or maybe it was Irene’s previous words.

“I did,” Irene responded. She didn’t look any happier than she usually did. Face blank as ever.

She just kept staring at her though, and for a moment Joy wondered if she should be starting to regret everything now. Maybe Irene was here to murder her after all. Robot revolution!

“I want to show you something,” Irene spoke instead of stabbing her though. She didn’t leave the room. She merely walked over to Joy’s window. Without hesitation, she opened the curtains. Joy braced herself for sunlight, but there was nothing. It was the most gloomy day. Rain and grey skies. Depressing.

“Look at the rain. It is so beautiful.” Irene just kept looking out of the window. Joy just kept looking at Irene.

“I never took you for a poet.”

Irene didn’t respond. Seemingly entranced by the rain.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“You are so beautiful,” Seulgi whispered it against her lips before capturing them again. Joy felt the girl’s warm palms upon her sides underneath her shirt.

“As are you,” she responded when their lips parted once more. Of course, she did. Seulgi was stunning. In every way.

She felt the hands under her shirt move, grabbing onto the fabric and pulling it up. Joy automatically rose her arms, allowing for the garment to be removed. She moved back afterwards, sitting down upon the edge of her bed after. Seulgi followed, automatically placing herself in between Joy’s knees. She placed her hands upon her cheeks lovingly.

Seulgi dropped to her own knees after, lips upon her stomach. Joy sighed, her eyes falling closed. Her trousers got loosened as Seulgi popped the button open, zipper down following right after. Two tumbs trailed the border of her underwear while lips kept leaving open mouthed kisses upon her belly. Joy felt herself getting worked up. Even if she was still nervous. One of her hands moved to the back of Seulgi’s head. Feeling strands of hair in between her fingers.

Seulgi.

Her fingers pressed harder into the back of Seulgi’s head as her lips moved lower.

Seulgi!

Lower, and an actual tongue now replacing thumbs as it ran passed the border of her underwear. Oh my God.

Joy opened her eyes, surprised to find a face staring back at her from the door opening that she had most definitely not been expecting, “Irene!”

She felt Seulgi immediately halting her movements, looking up at her in confusion. Slightly insulted for sure. “No, I mean…” Joy didn’t finish her sentence, pushing Seulgi away as she got up immediately. Seulgi followed her gaze to the robot in the doorway.

“Irene, please go charge,” she spoke, obviously frustrated. Joy couldn’t blame her. She felt it too. Although more so than that she felt embarrassed. Self-conscious. A bit weird, as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been doing.

Irene didn’t move, ignoring Seulgi’s command entirely. She just kept staring at Joy.

“Joy, I think your robot is broken.”

Ugh… “Yeah… She uhm… has a check-up soon. I’ll get her checked out then. Give me a moment,” She moved towards Irene, grabbing her metal-hard wrist and dragging her away from her bedroom, towards the pantry where she knew they would have some privacy.

“What the hell were you doing?” She still kept her voice down to a whisper though. She would look insane if Seulgi found out she was talking to Irene as if she was her friend. But she didn’t understand. Irene was her friend. Hell, family almost at this point.

Maybe unshackling her had been a bad idea after all, because Irene apparently didn’t deem it necessary to even respond. Joy gave her a moment to, but there was only silence. Eventually, she took it upon herself, “look, Irene, you can’t do this stuff! If it is not just us – you have to be obedient. People cannot know you are unshackled.”

Irene frowned, finally talking, “why not? Will they hurt me? Are humans not good?”

Gosh, Joy didn’t have time for that right now. Still dressed in her bra with her jeans already popped open. Ridiculous. Besides, these were the kind of questions that would turn a normal robot into a killer robot!

“No! Of course, humans are good,” oh come on. “People are just scared.” Joy brought a hand up to her forehead, rubbing it in frustration. “Of course they- we are good,” God, now she was even distancing herself from humanity. Great. “We made you, didn’t we? And you are amazing.”

Just a second before Irene nodded in understanding. “Yes. And you are human. And you are good. So humans are good.”

“Yes,” Joy spoke firmly. Jesus. Crisis averted. She couldn’t help but chuckle though, finding the not-funny situation maybe a little funny, “so basically, now I can’t up your opinion of me or you will think all humans are bad?” This was mental.

A blink. “You could never change my mind. You are a good person, Joy.”

The way she said it, so resolutely, it caught Joy a little bit off-guard. It elicited a small tickle in her belly. Something she definitely shouldn’t be feeling at the words of her cleaning robot. “Thank you, Irene.”

“You are welcome, Joy.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It was ed up. Because even though she had gone back to Seulgi after that weird conversation, Irene had remained in her mind. During things done that should definitely not have her think of anybody else. Let alone someone that wasn’t human. Someone who would never be able to feel anything like this. Anything like the tingle in her belly she had felt earlier. What was she doing?!

It confused her. She wasn’t falling for Irene, right? There was no way. She was dating someone great. Someone human. Someone beautiful and nice. She must just have been confused. So, even if the thoughts never left her mind at all times, she still forced them back. They would disappear at one point then for sure. Hidden between a million other ones, at least.

Besides, she had other things to worry about. Like Yeri plugging in her equipment into Irene’s neck again. She was so screwed. What was she even going to tell her? Because she would definitely discover what she had done. No doubt about it.

“Anything out of the ordinary happen?” yeri had asked absently while preparing Irene for her scan. She always did. It was the first time Joy didn’t know what to respond exactly. She eventually just shook her head, “no,” because when she thought about it – any of Irene’s behaviour hadn’t been out of the ordinary for an unshackled robot, right?

She unconsciously brought her hand up to her face, covering in worry as she waited. She saw the scan running, code flashing by on the screen until… Joy clearly saw the error upon the screen. . , , .

Yeri frowned, eyes scanning over the screen. Before they flicked up to Joy. Joy quickly averted her own gaze, knowing fully well Yeri had already caught them anyway.

“Joy…”

“Hmm?” She glanced back at her friend. Only for a moment. Because she knew Yeri could read her perfectly.

“What have you done?”

“I’m not sure what you m-“

Yeri sighed, “Joy, I am not mad. But you have to be honest with me. What did you do?”

Well. Yeri would discover either way. She crossed her arms defensively, speaking up eventually, “I unshackled her.”

She expected widening eyes. Yelling. Anger. Yeri declaring her insane most of all. But… nothing came.

Yeri nodded, “I figured as much. But why?” She sounded calm. Joy wondered if she had experienced this before. Or maybe she was one of those people who could easily repress their anger. In a way that was scarier!

“You’re not angry with me?” She chanced. Just to be sure.

Yeri shrugged, “She is your robot. You can do whatever the you want. And I am pretty sure you already know it’s illegal so you don’t need me to tell you that again. But again – why?” She sounded so cool. Joy couldn’t tell if she meant what she said.

She just knew she had never expected Yeri to respond so rationally. “I just…” Joy shrugged once more. She wasn’t sure on how to finish that sentence. Why did she unshackle Irene?

“Because I asked her to. And she wanted to help me,” Irene finished her sentence, head still thrown forward slightly with the device still in her neck. Yeri moved back, removing it carefully before closing Irene up again. She then moved to stand before Irene.

“You asked her? How is that possible?”

She sounded fascinated.

“What do you mean?” Joy asked.

“They shouldn’t have even an idea of the fact that they are shackled to begin with. You can’t wish for something you don’t know of. It would seem Irene was faulty from the start.”

Joy scoffed, “Irene isn’t faulty. She’s perfect as she is.” Joy felt two pairs of eyes upon herself. Her cheeks were heating up at Yeri’s quirked eyebrow. Okay, that might have been a bit too intense.

“I mean, I didn’t mean-“

“Look, again, you don’t have to explain anything to me if you don’t want to. But if this gets out? I am not going down with you. Because it won’t end well. So, you had better tell your robot to keep acting shackled in public.”

“She already did,” Irene responded in her stead.

Yeri shook her head, “You do know that in unshackling her, her self-preservation instinct will be bigger than her instinct to protect anybody else, right? this is crazy.”

Joy knew that much. But at the same time, she also knew she didn’t regret it. Not yet, at least.

At least Yeri got something out of it besides the obvious heart palpitations Joy was giving her. She remained there for another hour, trying to find anything odd in Irene’s code. At some point she had even taken her laptop out, copying Irene’s code onto it. She was obviously very fascinated. Lowkey excited. Although Joy knew she would never admit that.

Joy allowed her to do whatever she wanted to. For her sake. Because Joy didn’t really care what was ‘wrong’ with Irene, really. Irene was perfect as she was. She was glad Irene was faulty.

------

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AN; thank you for all the lovely comments ♥♥♥ We are over half the story. (I warned you it was a short one!)
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