It’s been a week and Eric was ready to throw in the towel.

Hyesung was a great help to some extent. It learned quickly, did its chores efficiently, and was (surprisingly) very obedient. If Eric told Hyesung that he was going to eat dinner at a later time and for Hyesung to just put his food in the microwave, Hyesung would oblige—even if it did grumble and rant for minutes after. If Eric told Hyesung that it made a mistake doing a chore and should re-do it, Hyesung would, while red in the face with supposed ‘embarrassment’, oblige with barely a word of complaint. Hyesung was great as a helper robot.

Hyesung, however, wasn’t so great as a companion.

Hyesung’s pre-programmed, irreversible personality (damn you, Dongwan) turned out to be a pain in the neck. If Hyesung were a person Eric had to share living accommodations with instead of a helper robot, Eric would have kicked him out onto the curb after the first day. Of course, while Hyesung’s personality wasn’t that inherently terrible, it was the kind of personality that Eric couldn’t work with. It was as if Dongwan tried to mesh the personalities of the people Eric was uncomfortable with into one single, working android. It was terrible.

Hyesung was volatile—increasingly so, even. One moment it would be doing Eric’s every bidding with nothing more than a “Yes, master Eric” then the next it would be hemming and hawing about every little task, even if it was something as simple as fetching him a glass of water. Hyesung was also unnecessarily proud for a robot, always insisting to do things he had minimal experience doing by himself. Once Hyesung insisted that it be the one to make Eric his morning mug of coffee (Eric always did it by himself—his stupid coffee machine was as temperamental as a pregnant woman and refused to brew most of the time. It was an antique, sadly, so Eric never had the heart to throw it out and buy a new one) and ended up breaking the machine. While Eric was only slightly sad about the broken machine because of its historical value, only slightly, he still scolded Hyesung all the same.

Though, bull-headedness aside, Eric can find some amusement in butting heads. Or perhaps that was merely his loneliness (not that he’d ever admit to being lonely) speaking for him—who knows. Eric wasn’t one to dwell on things for very long.

Especially if his deadline was rearing its ugly head again, just to remind Eric that he had responsibilities and things to do as a functional, working adult in society.

And that’s where he was—in his study and hyped up with tons of coffee courtesy of his wonderful new coffeemaker. Hyesung was thankfully able to understand that Eric wanted it out of his hair during the stressful period of deadline binging, and Eric barely saw head or hide of the android since morning.

But Eric, who felt like he was on the verge of collapse, couldn’t help but want to call out to the android to keep him company. Perhaps it’s the mounting stress and he needed some (any, actually) distraction from his work, or perhaps he actually missed having Hyesung dog him around the house and ask him obnoxious question after obnoxious question.

Either way, he didn’t stop himself from calling out a loud and clear: “Hyesung!”

True to his function, Hyesung’s knocks reverberated off the door mere seconds later. Followed by a soft but clear, “May I come in, master Eric?”

Eric yelled back an assent and the door opened to reveal Hyesung, clad in Eric’s second-hand sweatshirt and bright blue pajama pants. Hyesung dutifully closed the door and was by Eric’s side in seconds.

“What do you need from me?”

Hyesung was in one of its more tolerable moods, Eric could tell. Perhaps it was because Hyesung knew Eric’s on the verge of throwing his work out of the window, but either way Eric’s grateful. It made requesting Hyesung to accompany him for a while a less awkward endeavor.

“Sit on the floor and entertain me for a while,” Eric said, sighing, “I need a distraction.”

Hyesung stared at him for a while, before nodding and sitting, legs tucked in, on the floor. Eric supposed that with its humanoid appearance it merited some form of guilt inside of Eric, but Hyesung was an android. A robot. It was no better than his phone or coffeemaker.

“What do you wish for me to do, master?”

Eric pondered the question for a moment; what did he want Hyesung to do? He hadn’t thought that far ahead, he was just in desperate need for some distraction from his overbearing workload. Maintaining his hermit-like lifestyle wasn’t easy, after all.

“I don’t know,” Eric said, “What kind of functions do you have?”

“Functions?”

“Yeah, functions—whatever, something entertaining that Dongwan programmed into you. I don’t know. What can you do besides chores?”

Hyesung frowned, a bit bitterly if Eric allowed himself to think that. “Need I remind master that I am unable to do a thing without being taught firsthand?”

It was Eric’s turn to frown, “No, you don’t, but there must be something in that mechanical brain of yours. I know your creator, he’s full of surprises.”

“Then I’m afraid that he’s run out of surprises for you.”

And there was the backtalk Eric loathed. Usually Hyesung would be bouncing on its heels whenever the chance to do something new rolled by. But, if Eric was the one who suggested Hyesung do something new, all the stupid android does is talk back with the stubborn intensity of a mule. With a roll of his eyes, Eric clicked his tongue in reprimand.

“Should you talk back to your master?”

“If my master persists on being stubborn, yes.”

Irritating.

Eric, starting to regret calling for Hyesung in the first place, spun around on his chair and took notice of a bunch of papers lying haphazardly across his workspace. Sheet music, he realized when he caught sight of the notes scrawled on the paper.

That was when it hit him.

“Can you sing?”

Eric didn’t need to turn around to feel Hyesung’s deepened scowl. “I’ve told you I can’t—”

“Can’t or won’t?” asked Eric, “Come on, you’re always so gung-ho about doing things, I can’t see why you don’t want to.”

Hyesung’s eyes widened, in an attempt at bewilderment, maybe, and said, “I am not always so ‘gung-ho’ as you put it!”

Eric sighed. “Then are you doing it or not? It’s not an order, but I insist that you try at least.”

Hyesung was silent for a moment, before extending its hand in a silent order to hand over some sheet music.

“Can you even read sheet music?” Eric said, amused.

“…No.”

“Then log on to the Internet and find a random song. You can play the music in the background while you sing.”

Hyesung still looked reluctant as it seemingly logged onto the net and searched for a random song. Eric only hoped it didn’t choose something silly like children songs. He would’ve found it amusing some other time, but right then he genuinely wanted to hear Hyesung sing. He knew Kim Dongwan—he knew the man wouldn’t leave him barehanded. If there were anything Dongwan would’ve left him to find, it would be this.

Hyesung spared him a glance before music begun drifting out of unseen speakers and it opened its mouth.

Eric wasn’t too sure what he expected, but he didn’t expect the husky voice that left the android’s mouth. The song itself was a popular ballad that Eric heard a lot over the radio, and Hyesung’s voice complemented the song well. Eric wasn’t blown away per se, (the quality of the voice was good but the singing remained unpolished) but he was pretty impressed. He wasn’t sure where Dongwan got Hyesung’s voice bank but he didn’t care right then.

When the song ended, Eric gave Hyesung an applause, a bright smile upon his face.

“Not bad, not bad at all,” Eric said, “With a bit more polish you can start singing like a pro.”

Something akin to pride and happiness flashed in Hyesung’s eyes, but as quick as it appeared it disappears. Hyesung only nodded once, but Eric would bet his left leg that if Hyesung was human it’d be positively b with ego.

“Do you want to learn?”

Eric found himself saying those words. He looked at Hyesung, who was probably looking as confused as he was right then, before he found his voice to clarify the situation.

“Learn to sing, I mean,” Eric said sheepishly, “It’d be a waste if I don’t put your voice to its full use, Dongwan must’ve worked hard to find you a good voice donor. And besides, it’s a change of pace from all the chores you do.”

Eric looked to Hyesung, who was eerily silent. But Hyesung seemed to lit up at the question and nodded enthusiastically, “If master will have me.”

And for the first time since he got Hyesung, Eric could smile easily at his android.

A/N: Gotta keep telling myself that slow and steady wins the race.