Jongdae likes to drink alcohol, despite the fact it has no effect on either his blood chemistry or his twitchy circuits. Technically, robotics are supposed to abstain – but when has that ever stopped either of them doing something? It’s just a little kick he gets out of something that’s so quintessentially human.

It’s not even that he really likes the taste of alcohol; it’s more about the fact that he can sit in a grungy downtown bar, mixing with people who are purely human and eye his robotic features with something that’s akin to distrust, but not quite. He still looks too normal; he’s not like the new ones – the new ones move sinuously, rapidly – and the general consensus is that they’re wrong.

He snorts – he could have told them that. People don’t want fake realities – they want heightened ones; it’s why he and Yixing still work so well. There are a few glitches here and there, but the newbies stop randomly in the streets – there have been a few cases where they’ve stopped in roads and been smashed into smithereens because the metal used is too soft.

No, Jongdae’s quite happy with his model. Happy enough to mingle with both humans and droids; to flash his pretty eyes at people for just a tiny discount off those jeans or that eyeliner. The bartender here is probably half droid; the way his arm keeps jerking up speaks of a loss of charge, but he looks just that tiny bit more human than Jongdae.

Not that the distrustful looks he gets bother him. There’s always some robo-ist too scared to get the surgery willing to buy him a drink, anyway. And seeing as they’re too poor to even charge themselves up properly – well, who’s he to turn down a free one?

What Yixing doesn’t know can’t hurt him.