“Zhou Mi.”

Kui Xian’s voice in my ear made me jump, and I almost hit my head on him. That would’ve been painful because Kui Xian was made of very hard metal under his soft white skin texture. I turned and my eyes caught his.

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering. Why do you keep calling me Kui Xian? My name is Cho Kyu Hyun.”

I smiled. Kui Xian was in this world for a year and a half now, and he was becoming more and more like a human being. Being curious, asking questions, reading books when I couldn’t answer his questions. But, the most important were his reactions. He was starting to act like a human. He had finally learned how and when to smile - though his eyes didn’t smile, his mouth did - and he asked me to include something in him so he could have tears. He had never used it though, because he still didn’t feel anything and he was only acting as he did, but I was happy he had asked for it himself.

“Zhou Mi.”

Still got lost in my own thoughts.

“Sorry Kui Xian. What did you want to know already?”

“Why do you call me Kui Xian instead of Cho Kyu Hyun?”

“Because I have difficulties saying your name correctly, and I think Kui Xian is cuter. Kind of a nickname.”

I watched as he seemed absent for a moment. He was searching for data about “nicknames” in his codes and programs.

“Nicknames are short names you use when you’re with a friend”, he finally said. “Does this mean I am your friend?”

“Of course you are, Kui Xian. I told you already, I like you a lot.”

He seemed thoughtful again, before tilting his head to the side, nodding and going back to play Starcraft. I wondered why he had come to me only to ask this, but ended shrugging and continuing working. After a while, Kui Xian’s voice made me jump again.

“Mimi.”

“Wh-what?”

“Mimi.”

“Kui Xian, why do you…”

“You don’t use my name, so I thought I could ‘nickname’ you too.”

“But…”

“Or maybe you prefer when I call you ‘Zhou Mi’.”

I finally shook my head.

“No! No, I like it when you call me ‘Mimi’. I like it a lot. I was just surprised, I didn’t think you would call me that…”

He smiled, and I smiled too. Of course his eyes weren’t smiling, but he was so handsome even with just his mouth smiling.

“Then I shall call you ‘Mimi’. Mimi.”

“Yeah?”

“Nothing. I just like saying it. Mimi.”

I smiled more and watched as he went back to “his” computer, repeating my nickname again and again until he finally got used to saying it.

Meanwhile, I received a mail from a scientist I helped creating his own robot. He was more into musician robots though, and it was difficult for me to help him, but I still did a good job helping him figuring out the codes he had to use. I carefully read his mail. He wanted to meet me tonight at some place to show me the prototype of his violinist robot. A first version of what he wanted to really create. I replied, saying I would go. I loved seeing other people’s work. It was always good to keep learning.

But I would go without Kui Xian. I didn’t want to reveal him to other people yet. Not before I had given him a heart.

“Kui Xian. I have to go out tonight. I’ll lock the door just in case. Don’t go anywhere okay? Please.”

“Okay.”

A few hours later, I was outside, reaching that place the other scientist - Henry Lau - had told me about. It was a quiet place, where nobody would see the robot without being very close from us. I arrived a few minutes before him and his robot, and smiled when I recognized that scientist I had met one or two times before.

“Henry. It’s nice to see you”, I said in Mandarin.

“Nice to see you too, Zhou Mi!” he replied, also in Mandarin. “This is my violinist robot. The prototype, of course.”

He removed the big cloak he had put on his robot - which had followed him here - to hide it, and I nodded, appreciating the articulations of the robot. It didn’t look much like a human right now, so I had no problem using “it” instead of “him”

“It’s very good. Very, very good.”

“Of course, it’s still not really looking like a human being, but I was able to make it play songs after hearing them once. Want to hear it play?”

“Yeah, of course!”

He handed the robot a violin he had brought with him, and the robot took it and the bow. Henry said the title of a song - I didn’t know it, but I supposed it was some kind of great partition or something - and the robot started to play. Henry hadn’t chosen this song randomly. It was very fast, very difficult, and I was pretty sure even good violinists would have difficulty playing it. But the robot was playing it easily, and I applauded when it finished.

“This… Henry, this is amazing!”

He smiled, and I wondered why we hadn’t seen each other more often. He was very cute and always happy. And he was the only scientist I helped that would sometimes ask me to go to some place to show me something. He was the only human being I really talked to.

“You think so? I’m so glad! I thought maybe you wouldn’t like it because it still doesn’t look like a human…”

“Of course I’d like it! The code is more important than the appearance. You can always give it a beautiful physical body in which you’ll put its program after coding it correctly.”

“Yeah… thanks, Zhou Mi.”

He seemed quite sad though as he took back the violin and the bow from his robot.

“Henry. Why do you seem so sad?”

He sighed.

“Because I’m not good at making the physical body. And nobody wants to help me doing that.”

“I can help you.”

He smiled. But his smile seemed dangerous. His tiny eyes turned to see me, and I felt shivers down my spine as he whispered:

“Of course you can help me. Robot. Torture him.”

My eyes became huge as his robot walked in my direction. Had he given it a code to do that too…?

“Henry… Henry! Why…?”

“You’ll tell me where your robot is. And I’ll use his body with my program.”

“No! Kui Xian is my robot! He’s… he’s my friend!”

“Your robot is your friend? Stupid. Of course a robot can’t be your friend. A robot is a mechanical thing you use to do something you can’t do yourself. A robot can’t think. It’s not even alive.”

His words made me angry as I was still walking backwards, trying to escape the robot coming in my direction.

“What kind of person are you? Of course robots are alive! I talk to Kui Xian, and he replies! He hugs me, and he even tried to cook for me! He found a job to help me when I didn’t have much money after his birthday, and he’s becoming more and more like a human being! You can’t talk about robots like that!”

Yeah, I know. This sounds kind of cliché, right? The guy trying to escape while trying to explain something. But yeah, the robot wasn’t very fast, so I had time to say this. I couldn’t run, though. I knew Henry liked sports more than me. And I knew he could catch me if I started running. So I preferred trying to escape his robot.

“You’re pathetic.”

. The wall in my back. I couldn’t go any further. I closed my eyes. I wouldn’t say anything. I would never say anything about where Kui Xian was. Nobody knew where I lived, and it was perfect like that. Kui Xian would be safe.

DONK! CRASH! PSSSTH!

I opened my eyes. The robot wasn’t chasing me anymore. It was on the ground, its head - and its program - destroyed, a silhouette standing on it. I recognized it right away.

“Kui Xian?!”

He didn’t react but started walking in Henry’s direction. He whispered in the wind of the night, and his velvety voice sounded like a curse:

“You are so dead.”

I couldn’t move. Only my eyes went from the destroyed robot, to Kui Xian, to Henry, to the robot, to Kui Xian, to Henry. To Kui Xian. He was already facing Henry, who couldn’t move either. Kui Xian’s hand reached for Henry’s neck, and he gripped it before lifting Henry like he weighted nothing.

I finally snapped out of it and yelled, as Henry started turning red.

“Kui Xian! Stop it!”

He didn’t react and tightened his grip. I ran to him and gripped his arm while trying to meet his eyes. When I met them, I got surprised and scared. They were red, burning with something I recognized easily: anger. Burning, raging, devastating anger.

“Kui Xian! Stop it right now!”

He finally obeyed and let go of Henry. I would’ve helped the poor boy if he hadn’t tried to make his robot torture me. So instead of helping him I took Kui Xian’s hand and ran away from this place. Back to my place, I opened the door Kui Xian had locked one way or another, and went directly to my work chair. Letting myself fall into it, I stayed silent for a moment before starting to cry. Emotions. Too many of them for tonight.

“Mimi.”

I saw Kui Xian through my tears. He was staring at me, his eyes back to normal. I tried to ask for a hug, and could only cry more. But Kui Xian knew me. He walked in my direction and hugged me tight as I cried in his arms. I calmed down after a while, but he didn’t let go of me. I didn’t want him to let go of me anyways.

“Kui Xian…”

“I’m sorry. I understand you didn’t want to me to do that.”

“No, you were right to be angry. He tried to torture me to know where you were. I didn’t want him to find you… and use you for his own projects.”

I stayed silent for a while before continuing.

“Kui Xian. You got angry. You felt something. Your eyes couldn’t lie. You were very, very angry.”

“Then, I felt ‘anger’?”

“You did.”

“I felt like I was going to overheat. And I really wanted to destroy that human because he wanted to do something bad to you. Mimi.”

“Yeah?”

“Does that mean I’m starting to have a ‘heart’?”

“I guess it does…”