Title: Something is Lost
Characters: Luhan, Son Naeun, Kim Jongin (Kai) [ KaiHanEun ]
Written: July 12, 2013
Words: 2,681
Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
Inspired by: Something is Lost - Kashiwa Daisuke
Requested by:  ZahraAlvirahma_KPop
Author's Note: Okay, I got too excited to wait to post it xD I got inspired by Kashiwa Daisuke's piano music again so I went with this song! I honestly don't know the meaning or lyrics to it, but I tried to match the feel with the story. ^^ 5 more requests until the third batch opens O: Look out for it! I should probably work on Shielding You OTL I hope you guys enjoy it! ^^ It's way longer than the past one shots xD

☁☁☁

I am the girlfriend of a professor of a secret laboratory.

His name is Luhan and each and every day he works for hours and he even stays up for two whole days. It’s a project he and his friends are working on. Whenever he comes home, he’d tell me how far they have done in their project. He promised me, “I’ll show you the final product of our project. The project will be our test and if it works out, then we can continue on with producing more!”

For some reason, I can imagine how this project will turn out—a beautiful mess. Whenever he talks about this project, it seems too good to be true. I tried sketching out what the project would look like and—it just looks too perfect. It’s perfect—but perfection comes with flaws.

“I’m done! It’s done!” Luhan shouts as he opens the door widely, running towards me as he hugs me tightly. He laughs in relief and closes his eyes, “The project is finally done!” I couldn’t help but laugh as well, hugging him back just as tight. Finally, he can go to rest and we can spend our time together.

“Do you want to see it?” He asks as he looks at me with widened eyes, pleading for me to accept. I nod as he immediately takes my hand, leading me downstairs to his own laboratory.

“Meet Kai940127, but Kai will just work,” He announces as a human-like male is lying down on the table, his eyes closed. He looks tanner than a Korean as Luhan described, but his body structure definitely looks human.

Luhan walks towards the male who is actually a robot, “Kai is just like any other human. Once he wakes up he’ll try to adapt to surroundings and he’ll also have regular communication skills. However, we’re still working on his emotions and feelings.”

I walk closer and bend my body forward slightly to get a better glimpse of his features. He looks so much better than what I drew. Suddenly, Luhan’s cell phone rings and he excuses himself to go upstairs in the main room. Honestly, I’m quite scared being in the room alone with this—robot. Was he really human-like? Does he really possess human-like qualities? Out of my own curiosity, my finger lightly pokes his cheek and the male’s eyes widen abruptly.

Stepping back, he sits up and turns his head left and right. “Where am I?” His deep voice travels throughout the room. I’m in complete utter shock that I don’t think I have the ability to speak or move right now. “You,” He looks straight at me and I immediately hit my back against the wall, my hands pressed against it. “Did you wake me up?” He asks as he slowly gets off the table, his balance shaky for a few moments until he walks straight towards me.

“I—uh—‘” I mutter as he stops in front of me, bending down to look at my features. His face was so close and I could feel his breath hitting against my face. “Are you—a girl?” He blinks as I nod hesitantly, gulping a huge lump down my throat.

“Ah, he’s up,” Luhan grins as he walks downstairs, the robot standing upright and walking towards him. “Hi, I’m Luhan,” He introduces as he holds his hand out. The robot stares at the hand before shaking it gently, “I’m—Kai.” He knows his name? He can introduce himself properly? Luhan definitely did a good job.

Luhan smiles in relief as it seems like everything is going as planned. “Do you know where you live?” He asks as Kai points up to the second floor, “I believe I live up this floor. I live with—‘” He blinks and snaps his fingers, “You and—Naeun?”

“He knows my name?” I whisper as Luhan glances at him, nodding. “I programmed Kai so he’s already familiar with us,” He replies as he walks towards me, wrapping an arm around my waist, “Don’t worry. He won’t cause any harm.”  He clears his throat and leads us towards Kai, “You’re correct, Kai. Naeun is my girlfriend.”

Kai looks at me and nods slowly, “Naeun. You’re the one who woke me up.” I looked up at him in a daze, not believing that this is happening right this second. He honestly looks handsome—but there’s something off about him. He seems like a perfect robot—but it just doesn’t seem right. I can’t get it out of my mouth.

It took me at least a month to get used to Kai’s presence in the apartment. He’s tremendously learned a lot within that time span. His vocabulary grew, his senses were more in contact, and his appearance has been getting healthier. “I’ll have to go to a short meeting today. I’ll be back by dinner,” Luhan says as he fixes his tie, kissing my lips gently. I nod and smiles brightly, patting his back, “Be safe, alright? I’ll have dinner up by then.”

As he exits the door, Kai stares at me. Whenever Luhan and I expressed our affections to each other, I’d sometimes find Kai standing at a distance, staring at both of us. “That’s a kiss, right?” He tilts his head and stares at me with a straight face. I could feel the blood rushing up my cheeks, “Um, yeah…That’s right.”

“What happens during a kiss?” He asks as he walks towards the couch, sitting down while looking at me attentively. “Well,” I scratch the side of my head, pursing my lips. “It’s hard to explain,” I whisper as I sit down on the chair next to the couch, “It’s technically two lips touch and—a spark happens.”

He stares at me and leans towards me, his lips almost in front of mines. Is he trying to kiss me? I always stay frozen whenever he approaches me. He can’t kiss me though, no! He raises an eyebrow, “Why are your cheeks red?” I immediately pull my head back and cover my cheek with one hand, “I-I just feel embarrassed…That’s all.”

“Embarrassed. Feel?” He sits back down and furrows his eyebrows, “What is—feel?” That’s when it clicked me. My eyes widen as I stare at him. Through all this time, I’ve been finding what flaws he had and he had nothing wrong. However, that flaw just arrived. Kai has no feelings—no emotion. Now that I notice it, he’s never even cracked a smile within that one month of being here.

How can you live without feelings?! How can you live without smiling, laughing, crying? During our spent time together, I’ve taught him different feelings. I taught him what happens when you’re sad, happy, angry, disappointed, excited—I taught him as much emotions as I can.

Little did I know, my teachings have helped him greatly. I’ve seen him progress into a happier and content person. When Luhan went out to buy equipment, Kai finally cracked his first smile. “I feel happy today,” He smiles brightly as he takes a breath of fresh air. His teeth shine brightly and his eyes turn into small crescents—it was breathtaking.

Kai looks out the wide window and sees a small forest, his eyes transfixed. “I want to go there one day,” He announces as he points to the forest. I stand beside him and smile, “Maybe one day we can all go.” I look up at the weather and notice gray clouds starting to form. It seems like it’ll be a long rainy night.

As weeks passed, Kai and I surprisingly grew close. We laughed and helped each other out on housework while Luhan was working out of the house. I have to admit—this has got to be Luhan’s best works yet.

Tonight, Luhan finally comes home and closes the door behind him. “I’m home,” His voice echoes as I walk out of the small kitchen. “Welcome home,” I smile warmly as I kiss him on the lips softly. He smiles against my lips and wraps an arm around my waist and continues the kiss. We haven’t had much quality time together and I have to say—I really miss his voice and his touch.

Suddenly, pots drop and we break away, our heads turning towards the source. Kai’s head is hanging down as his teeth grits, heavy breathing escaping his lips. “Kai?” I whisper as I try to approach him. However, he runs out of the house.

“Kai!” Luhan shouts as he tries to trail behind him; however, Kai was quick. His agility performance goes off the roof. Luhan programmed him that way. I jog towards the window and take a deep breath, wondering where he could be off to. “The forest…” I mutter and quickly run out of the house, finding Luhan in the middle of the road.

“Luhan! Check the forest! He might be there!” Running towards him, I grab his hand, “Let’s go.”

He shakes his head and holds onto my shoulders, “You stay here, okay? I’ll go get him.”

- - -

What is this feeling that I’m possessing right now? When I saw Luhan and Naeun kiss—something inside me fired up and I felt angry.

“Anger is when you just feel riled up. Like, if I didn’t get something I really wanted, I’d be angry,” Naeun explained as she scrunched her face up and crossed her arms. She was cute and she looked at me as a regular person.

That is probably what I feel, but it doesn’t feel like pure anger. It feels like sadness and anger are mixed together and I can’t come up with a word for that.

My feet travel towards the dark forest. My ears sense many new things. When my feet take another step, I heard leaves crunching. The leaves on the trees sway, creating a wind that’s whistling before me.

“Kai!” A familiar voice shouts as I turn around, seeing Luhan catching up to me. For some reason, I feel mad at Luhan—my own creator. I couldn’t help but growl at him and stood in place, my head turned back to glare at him.

Luhan stares at him and slowly approaches me, “Kai, what’s wrong? Explain to me what’s going on.”

I hang my head down and clench my fists, “Can you explain what I feel? I don’t know what this is called…” He stands in front of me soon and places a hand on my upper arm; however, I slap his hand away and look up at him. “Kai—‘” He starts.

“When I saw you and Naeun kiss—I felt mad and sad at the same time. Why is that?” I blink and clench my jaw. “Mad and sad?” He mutters to himself as he rubs his chin, “I know! Maybe you need a companion.”

A companion? “What’s that?” I question as I stand across from him. “It’s someone you can spend the rest of your life with. Someone you love.”

“Love? What’s love?” Naeun never explained what love was to me. Is that a good or bad feeling?

The male chuckles, “It’s like what Naeun and I are. We’re in love. We like each other because we have an attraction towards each other.” That’s it! That’s what I’m feeling!

“I-I’m mad and sad because you and Naeun are in love, that’s what it is,” I announce firmly as the male stares at him, his mouth slightly open. “T-That means—‘” His shakes his head and glares at me, “You can’t be in love with Naeun!”

It finally clicked me! “I’m in love with Naeun,” I state as Luhan continues to look at me. “You can’t! That’s wrong!” He shouts as the wind grows stronger. “But—I love her,” I whisper as he takes a step towards me.

- - -

“What…” A soft voice echoes as the two look at the source, seeing Naeun standing behind Kai. “Naeun,” Luhan lets out a soft chuckle and points at Kai, “Kai is in love with you! That can’t be true!”

She couldn’t believe it. Naeun’s face turns amazed as she stares at both of them. Looking back at all the memories Kai and Naeun shared in so little time—it could be true. “I’m sorry…” Naeun whispers as she hangs her head down, “It may be true…”

Luhan takes a deep breath and suddenly grabs Kai’s collar, glaring at him with anger, “You weren’t programmed to fall in love! You’re not even supposed to have feelings!”

Naeun’s eyes widen as she covers , looking at both of them. “Oh my gosh…” Water starts to form in her eyes as she rushes towards the both of them, “Luhan, stop!” She tears him away from Kai and places both of her hands on his chest, “I-I taught him about feelings…”

“What?!” Luhan shouts as he stares at Kai, who is looking at them with fear and innocence. “But—‘” He stares at Naeun firmly and takes a deep breath, “I’m going to shut him down.”

He starts walking towards Kai and holds his shoulder, “I’m sorry, Kai.”

“No, don’t!” Naeun cries as she races and stands in front of Kai, “Why would you shut him down? He’s starting to become like a real human!”

“I created a monster!” He shouts as he squeezes Kai’s shoulder, “I created a monster that will take away my own girlfriend!” Kai growls as he hears, “Monster? You’ve created life!” Luhan laughs dryly and instead grabs Naeun’s wrist, “Naeun, you can’t like this guy, right?”

Did she really? Did she have feelings for this robot? Her heart keeps beating rapidly as she wanted to keep Kai alive. Tears fall as she nods her head slowly, “Luhan—I think I like him back…”

Kai couldn’t help but let a smile form across his lips. “No,” Luhan protests as Naeun falls on her knees. “I’m sorry, Luhan…” She covers her eyes and continues crying.

“I’m going to shut him down tomorrow and that’s final…” The creator whispers as he walks out of the forest, “Go ahead and—have your moment or whatever.”

Naeun stays on her knees, wiping her endless tears. Kai looks at her and blinks, bending down to gently wrap his arms around her waist from behind, “Naeun…” The female continues to cry in his embrace, turning around to hide her face in the crook of his neck, “I’m sorry, Kai…You don’t have to do this.”

“I’ll follow his instructions,” He replies as he squeezes her waist, “But please remember me. I do love you and I thank you for teaching me these emotions.” Naeun looks up at him face to face, her tears drying due to the wind that is still blowing. Gently, Kai leans in and places his lips on hers, a spark creating. This is what a kiss is supposed to feel like? He thinks as he closes his eyes, both of them melting into the innocent and bittersweet kiss.

The next morning, Kai did get shut down. Naeun cries as she hugs Luhan tight, staining his shirt as she watches Kai being taken apart from the assistants. It was all too much for her to bear and she hides her face. Luhan looks down and hugs her back just as tight, laying his forehead on the top of her head. He felt guilty for shutting Kai down, but he loves Naeun so much that he doesn’t want to lose her. Naeun, of course, still loves Luhan—but she admits she also loved Kai at the same time. She felt just as guilty, but Luhan forgiven her and they slowly went on with their normal days.

However, at some points of the day, Naeun would sit down on the couch by herself, reminiscing about Kai. It’s like she could feel his presence in the house still. She closes her eyes and tries to hold in her tears, “I miss you…” She looks out the window and sees the forest, shaking her head.

I feel lost without you sometimes…