Jongup was beyond thankful that Yongguk was the not the kind of person to get mad. When Junhong had broken, him, Youngjae and Himchan all went into a panic. They had all calmed down a fair amount when they had called the elder and he sounded worried, no hint of anger in his tone. Jongup sighed in relief.

Yongguk stood in front of the sofa with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. Youngjae watched him worriedly as Yongguk appraised the still limp and hunched robot on the couch. Youngjae wasn't sure if Yongguk would scold or forgive their ignorance and Himchan wasn't there to help his dongsaengs out.

"So he just....shut down." Yongguk had been thinking hard since he arrived home and heard what happened. Jongup nodded silently from where he had remained beside Junhong.

Yongguk finally moved and kneeled in place, reaching to the boy-bot's shirt. He had no clue what he was doing but he guessed that checking the standby light was a good place to start.

He lifted the black t-shirt carefully, holding his breath as he revealed the small bulb that should have been the boy's navel. It was shut off.

Yongguk let out his breath as a long frustrated sigh. But as he moved to set the shirt back in place, a dark line caught his eyes. He quickly lifted the fabric back up but much further. The boy-bot's chest was sculpted into distinguishable muscle lines but it was the panel that sat above where his heart should be that interested Yongguk. On it was a mark engraved into Junhong's rubber skin - it was a logo. Written across Junhong's body were the letters A.I.L.S emblazoned on a cog wheel.

"Are those the people that made him? Maybe we could take him there to get him fixed?" Jongup look excited but anxious.

"I'll Google it!" Youngjae rushed from his chair to the laptop that Yongguk had bought recently for everyone to use. He was gone for a few minutes but brought the device back with him to show what he had found.

"It's a Japanese company called Artificial Intelligence and Life Services. They have a Korean sector so there's a factory here..." Youngjae's face fell, "but it's nowhere near Seoul."

“That’s okay.”

“What do you mean it’s okay? Hyung, your promotions are starting soon. Manager-hyung isn’t going to let you out of his sight.”

“It’s okay, Youngjae.” It was scary to hear the hard edge in Yongguk’s voice. It was new to both Jongup and Youngjae to hear it so they were both frightened into silence immediately.

“I’ll take him tomorrow. I’m just meant to be practicing so no one will be checking up on me. Are you two going to school?” The week was beginning the next day and both nodded. Jongup would be going to his school on the outskirts of Seoul while Youngjae would be picked up by his parents that night to go back home for the week. He was graduating soon so he had to be at all his classes.

“Good then.” Yongguk sighed before standing up and walking into the bathroom to take a shower. Youngjae and Jongup shared a wide-eyed stare after their eyes left the door. There was a weird feeling to the situation even though Yongguk wasn’t really acting any different to usual. Youngjae just guessed that it was the fact that they were dealing with a robot. He still couldn’t quite get used to the idea himself. He heard Yongguk speaking on the phone from behind their closed bedroom door; Junhong’s name came up several times.

Hyojin’s dark sedan pulled up out the front of the group’s dorm and she slipped out with her sunglasses on and hair pulled back in a tight high ponytail. When she knocked on the door, she was surprised by a rushed Jongup hurrying out to get to the bus in time.

“Oh, ah sorry noona!” He stepped around her and she watched him curiously as he jogged down the street to the bus stop.

The door was ajar then so when she turned back to it, she pushed gently and it opened wide. The place looked empty, not much stuff around but enough to signal life. Hyojin took a tentative step inside, finally spotting to the robot on the couch. He looked strange, sitting up but hunched over. She guessed that’s how he’d shut down like Yongguk had told her.

Hyojin walked over to the boy-bot, crouching beside the sofa to get a good look at him. Before Yongguk had asked for help, all she knew about the robot was that he existed. The other night when she had helped Yongguk bring him to the dorm, she hadn’t been able to really see him. Hyojin reached up and touched the boy’s forehead; it wasn’t cold but cooler than a human body should have been. She brushed his fringe out of the way, lifting his head a little. He was a pretty boy with a childish face that could also look very mature. Hyojin decided that she liked how he looked, that he was meant to be sweet and shy like she had seen him be the last time they were together. She regretted not being able to talk to him, not being able to ask him about her brother. She sighed heavily.

“Hyojin?” She jumped, standing quickly to find Yongguk giving her a curious look. He had just come out of the shower, his pants on but no shirt as he dried his hair with a towel. She blushed at being caught and looked away.

“Sorry, the door was open since your friend was running out of the house when I got here.” Yongguk nodded and laughed once.

“Jonguppie is ‘almost-late’ more often than he should be.” Hyojin smiled, not really understanding why that was funny. “Uh, I’ll be ready in a minute and then we can go.” Yongguk disappeared into his bedroom.

Hyojin looked back down at Junhong and smiled softly. He looked kind and she was suddenly reminded of Pinocchio, making her sad that he couldn’t be real. She touched his hair, comforting his inanimate form. She wanted to treat him like a little brother but if he was going to be with Yongguk, Hyojin knew she couldn’t do that. She had faith though that Yongguk would treat him well and love him. Junhong’s cute face made it easy to forget that he was a robot.

“Okay.” Yongguk stepped out of his bedroom with his shirt and shoes and a smile on his face. He grabbed his jacket from behind the front door before walking over to Hyojin. She took her hand back from Junhong’s golden hair.

“So…are you just going to…pick him up or something?” Hyojin took a step back when Yongguk moved forward to work out he would get Junhong into the car.

“Uh, I guess. I mean he can’t be that heavy.” Yongguk didn’t sound too convinced but he bent his knees and slipped one arm under Junhong’s knees while he wrapped the other around the boy-bot’s back. Yongguk lifted from his knees and a strained groan pushed from his throat.

Hyojin cringed at how heavy the boy looked in Yongguk’s hold, the elder’s knees still bent under the weight of the titanium. Yongguk nodded despite the stress on his body and Hyojin hurried to hold the door open for him to walk out. She followed him, shutting the door behind her before hurrying passed him to open up the car door.

Yongguk hauled the boy-bot into the back of the car, all his muscles washed in relief as he let Junhong go. He set him up then in the back seat with the belt buckled and everything. He laid the boy’s head onto the window to make it look as if he was sleeping. It was just a precaution.

“Time to go then.” Hyojin half-smiled. The whole thing felt sombre, dealing with a boy that looked so alive but was, in all technical sense of the word, dead. Yongguk wiped his hands on his jeans, agreeing silently before getting into the car himself.

When they were both seated, Yongguk took out a piece of paper he’d put into his pocket earlier while picking up Hyojin’s GPS. He typed in the address he had written down and the woman’s voice chimed out from the small speaker near the power button. It wasn’t long after following the automated voice’s directions that they found themselves on the highway heading out of the city.

Yongguk’s eyes glazed over as the woman’s voice became background noise. He could only think of what they were going to find at the factory, if they would even bother repairing Junhong or maybe just throw him away and try to convince Yongguk to get a new one.

He only came to his senses about two hours later when Hyojin indicated onto an exit just as she was told by the GPS. He looked around but they still seemed nowhere close to the factory. It felt like forever before the large group of buildings came into view after they’d driven through some outskirt housing development that Yongguk hadn’t realised existed.

By the time Hyojin was pulling up outside the customer service block, Yongguk was in awe of the size of the place. He guessed that their production had to be at the level of car manufacturers even though he didn’t know really anything about manufacturing.

The got out and the parking lots was gravel with no distinct lines for parking. The actual building for the customer service was much smaller than the rest of the factory but seemed much more inviting.

They pushed the glass door open and were greeted by cool air-conditioning as well as stark silver and white furnishings that served as a sitting area to one side. The other side was designated to the work space were several people sat behind desks.

“Hello.” A man in a neatly pressed suit and slicked back hair greeted them from behind a waist high desk that stretched the expanse of half the large room and separated the office space from the customer sitting area. He looked somewhat surprised to see them there and the cousins guessed that it was not a regular thing for customers to speak to them in person. Yongguk smiled back awkwardly, simply to be polite. “How can I help you today?”

“Uhh we sort of had a problem yesterday. Uh our…robot,” Yongguk felt weird speaking about Junhong that way, all he could see him as was just a young boy, “he shut down suddenly and we can’t get him to start up again. Charging hasn’t worked either.” The man nodded his head as he bent and pulled out several forms.

“Okay, well we can do a repair for you but the time it will take will depend on the severity of the problems. You just need to fill in you contact details here and your bot identification number here.” The man point to a special box outlined in red. Yongguk’s heart stopped. What was he meant to do?

“Uh, I don’t know what that is?” He was cautious about asking, he didn’t want them to believe he’d stolen Junhong. The man’s face flashed with confusion that was replaced by suspicion. He dispelled that though and replaced with his customer service smile that he’d had originally.

“You would have received it with you bot when he first arrived with you.” Yongguk ‘ah’d in understanding. He knew he just had to explain to the man how he had gotten Junhong.

“Well I actually received him from my cousin, who passed away a few months ago.” The man seemed surprised but he had a light bulb moment, holding up his finger to signal for Yongguk to listen.

“The number is on the underside of the chest plate.” He smiled and nodded. “So you can take these forms with you, and when you get home check the number. You can than call us on this line,” the man pulled out a card and pointed to the phone number on it, “and we can come pick it up for you.” He nodded, putting away several things as if their conversation was over but Yongguk’s look stopped the man from walking.

“Oh, I have Jun-the robot…in the car.” Yongguk looked at the man, waiting for his reaction but he didn’t frown like Yongguk had expected.

“Well I guess now you don’t have to pay the collection fee.” He smiled gently removing the obvious idiocy that Yongguk felt at not knowing that he didn’t have to almost break himself just to get Junhong fixed. It was too late though and they were already there so Yongguk pointed out Hyojin’s car to the two men designated to bring Junhong in. Hyojin went out with them to make sure it went smoothly.

Yongguk and the man watched on as Junhong was carried in and the through the door that led to the repair shop. Yongguk heard the car door shut and Hyojin was inside as moving back to where she had stood with Yongguk.

“You can have a seat while they inspect him so that we can give you an estimate of the cost as well as the time the repairs will take. Don’t forget the forms.” He gestured to the seats and pushed the forms closer to Yongguk who took them as he walked over to the plush couches that were actually quite firm to sit on.

He glanced over the forms and realised he had a problem. It asked for things like his address, phone number, billing information – all of Yongguk’s details were  linked to the company. He couldn’t fill out any of it except for his name so he handed the form to Hyojin who filled it out fairly quickly. Yongguk couldn’t give any of his details so they had to use Hyojin’s information.

“Thanks.” He smiled apologetically at her, knowing she would be the one to have to pay for Junhong’s repairs and such. They knew if they’d had Minhyeon’s details then they could have had some benefit in the situation but they were out of luck.

Yongguk looked through the glass wall that divided them from the repair shop as he watched a man, tinkering with what looked like the severed head of another robot, walk over to the two men lying Junhong on a table. The man himself looked kind of grubby, a beer belly threatening to burst his button up shirt that looked like it had once been bright orange but had faded to a puke yellow. The bottoms of his dirt covered jeans were tucked into his work boots that looked like they’d seen better days. He also had a big bushy beard that was mostly white with a few flecks of black. His hair was covered by a cap rotten with holes.

He pointed to Junhong and Yongguk could see how the others explained that they had to do an inspection but the man pushed them aside. The man put away the other robot head before he strapped Junhong down and picked up a chunky remote with only two buttons on it and a cord the left the top and ran down to the base of the table. He pushed the top button and the table began to lift from one end. The man placed the remote down as the table lifted until it was almost upright.

He rubbed his hands together, to Yongguk it looked as if it was just habit, and pulled Junhong’s shirt up. He grabbed a screw driver and revealed Junhong’s chest cavity.

The man began digging inside Junhong’s body, using his screw driver to push wires out of his way as he checked different areas of the boy-bot’s mechanics. The man poked in a bit further, even go so far as take off the entire chest plate. Yongguk and Hyojin could see right into the core of Junhong’s wires and hardboards from where they sat.

It was incredibly strange in comparison to the young boy’s face above that looked as if he was sleeping soundly. The man lifted his head to speak to the men beside him. They exchanged several words before one of the came back in through the large door and began speaking to the man at the front desk.

When he turned back he caught Yongguk’s attention and waved them back over. “Okay, so it seems your bot has just a few issues that can be solved fairly quickly. It’s just a little water damage and some loose wires. It will take two weeks for it to be ready. Then he’ll be as good as new.” Yongguk nodded slowly but he was curious about something.

“Will he change much?” The man at the desk didn’t seem to understand. “I mean, he told me that, well he feels things, like emotions.” The man’s eyes widened considerably and he didn’t seem able to reply. “Would that change when you fix him? Because if it does…I’d rather you left it alone.” The man nodded, still processing what Yongguk had said. He hurried through the door into the repair shop and Yongguk could see him talking excitedly to the man with the beard. They shared the same surprised expression before the bearded man nodded.

The other came back through the door and settled back behind the desk, the spot he was obviously used. “Ah, sir, yes we can leave that. We’re going to test the bot to ensure we can keep that for since we are unsure ourselves of what might cause such a thing.” He smiled but Yongguk could easily see the shock that still lingered in his eyes. He guessed that Junhong might really be as unique as Yongguk felt he was.

“That means it might take us an extra week or so as we go through the different tests. If we can’t find anything we may be able to do the full repair without removing the…uh...emotions. We’ll call you when the bot is ready to be picked up.” Yongguk felt uneasy about that though. He felt as if the man was trying to keep them from taking Junhong back any time soon since it was obvious that Junhong was special.

He sighed disappointedly but nodded though, knowing there was nothing he could do. Hyojin turned to leave, accepting that they would have to come back but Yongguk had a sudden thought. “What can you do about programming?”

The man cocked his head as he thought for a moment. “Well there is a different sector for programming, here we’re just mechanics but,” the man bent across the desk and pulled one of the business cards from one of several stacks, “call this number, they’ll help you out with whatever you need. And they can come to you.” The smiled as he pointed to the number before handed it over. Yongguk nodded and looked at the card. It had ‘Technical Services’ written across the middle beneath the company name. With it was two phone numbers – mobile and landline.

The man waved them off then before he walked away from behind the counter. Yongguk felt a little odd, it seemed over a little too quickly. He glanced back at Junhong, lifeless on the table. He already looked alone and sad but Hyojin tugged on his shoulder and he forced himself to turn his back on the boy, feeling his chest ache to just leave him there.

Yongguk settled himself somewhat reluctantly into the car and Hyojin drove out of the yard and back onto the paved roads of the rest of the factory. Yongguk couldn’t seem to get comfortable, knowing that Junhong was back there. He’d only just managed to help him, to give him a home that was happier than with the cruel landlady. He didn’t know exactly how she had treated Junhong but from her attitude towards Yongguk, he knew she hadn’t been kind.

“Hyojinnie.” Yongguk spoke her name cutely, the way he used to when they were young together. She glanced at him with a crease in her brows. She wasn’t sure what he was up to. “I’m really thankful, for all of this.  I don’t think I can tell you how thankful I am. I owe you so much.” Yongguk looked at her earnestly and Hyojin laughed.

“Oppa, the only thing you owe me is…” she sighed before gripping the wheel tighter. “All you owe me is the promise that you’ll look after him. I know he’s just a robot but he’s the only part of Minhyeon that’s left.” Hyojin frowned as she watched the road, finally getting onto the highway to get back to the city. They were only a few more hours away from home then.

“I know…I feel it too.” Yongguk reached out his hand and patted her knee. “I promise I’ll take care of him.” Yongguk smiled before taking his hand back and looking out the window to watch the other cars pass them by.

“Just…” Yongguk’s attention snapped back to his cousin, he hadn’t realised she had more to say. “Junhong is his own person too. I mean, I saw it, when we got him from that share house. And you’re becoming an idol and all. I think…maybe you should see if he has a talent.” Hyojin sounded unsure of herself but Yongguk’s mind was instantly working away with ideas. Junhong an idol? TS was looking for more trainees. Jongup was a dancer, Youngjae a singer, Yongguk a rapper and Himchan was working on his own thing – there had to be space in there somewhere for Junhong.

“Will you think about it?” Hyojin turned her head but only looked away from the road for a second to see Yongguk nod his head. It was odd idea to him to think of Junhong being an idol, of having a talent like that. It was still hard for him to really process the fact that Junhong was a robot.

Yongguk turned his head back to the window. It was late afternoon then and he could see the sun making its way to the horizon. He hoped Junhong was okay but he trusted that the boy-bot would be taken care of; there was no reason for him not to be.

Yongguk thought more though on the possibility of Junhong joining him as a trainee. He wouldn’t have to worry about where to send Junhong, he could keep him by his side and get to know him.  He started to fantasise about the talents Junhong could have, would he be a singer? Yongguk didn’t think it suited him. He imagined the boy rapping and that seemed like the right thing but he still felt it wasn’t right, wasn’t enough.

He suddenly remembered what Himchan had said the day before, that Jongup and Junhong had been talking excitedly right before Junhong shutdown. Maybe Junhong should be a dancer? It seemed like a good thing for him but Yongguk wondered how it would work, if being a robot would make him too stiff for the fluidity of the moves. As the sun lowered, so did Yongguk’s lids and he easily slipped into sleep with the gentle movements of the car.

So it's been a while. wow i am so happy to be updating this again :) i really love this story so im going to work my hardest to keep updating in the next few weeks. i'm putting  my other stories on hiatus so that i can do that ^-^ i hope you all enjoy this update~!