Word Count: 804

After two days of reading through the thousands of pages of code, Baekhyun finally finished. “Hey, Jong—Soo,” Baekhyun said, inwardly cursing for almost saying Jongdae. “Can you proof this for me?” He hoped that Kyungsoo didn't notice that Baekhyun had almost called him Jongdae.

“Sure,” he said, smiling. He pretended not to notice that Baekhyun had called him by someone else’s name. In a matter of minutes, Kyungsoo had scanned through all of the code that it had taken Baekhyun days to proof, but then again, Kyungsoo had a higher processing speed than Baekhyun did as a mecha.

“It all looks good to me,” he replied brightly.

“So this should take all night to download, right?”

“Most likely,” Kyungsoo agreed.

“I’ll call Kyuhyun and tell him that Sungmin is almost ready and that he should come tomorrow then?”

“Sure.”

Before calling Kyuhyun, Baekhyun connected his computer to Sungmin to begin the download of the program. A soft and low whirring sound filled the quiet room as the data began to flow. Baekhyun nodded with satisfaction before he dialled the number.

--

“Hello? Mr. Cho? I just wanted to call to tell you that we’ve finished and that you can come by tomorrow to pick him up.”

“…”

“Hello? Are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here. Thank you for notifying me. I’ll be there tomorrow at eleven.” For some reason, Kyuhyun sounded more subdued, although Baekhyun couldn’t tell whether it was from happiness or from something else.

“Okay. I’ll see you then.”

--

The next day, when Kyuhyun came by, he looked happy. It was a strange thing to see, as he looked rather pinched and uptight the last time Baekhyun and Kyungsoo had seen him. When they walked Sungmin out to greet Kyuhyun, he practically cried with joy, hugging the mecha tightly.

“He’s so life-like. It’s almost like he never left…” Kyuhyun said.

“Um. As you probably know, we need a blood sample from you, for the life-binder,” Baekhyun said timidly. He didn’t know quite what might set the man off and it was rather intimidating.

“Yes, yes,” he said impatiently, no longer sounding subdued. He held out his left hand and Kyungsoo quickly completed the task.

“So I owe you €32,500, right?” Kyuhyun asked handing Baekhyun his card.

“No. It took a shorter amount of time so it’s only €27,500,” Baekhyun replied.

“Well I’m going to give you a €5,000 tip, so just charge €32,500.” Baekhyun looked at him with a surprised expression.

“O-okay. Thank you so much,” Baekhyun bowed before handing Kyungsoo the card to charge the purchase to.

“No, I should be the one thanking you,” Kyuhyun said in that eerily grateful voice.

“Um. So if you want any work done on him to change his appearance for him to look like he’s aging or anything else, you can just call or stop by or something…” Kyungsoo handed Kyuhyun back his card once he was done processing it.

“Just one more thing, Mr. Cho. He’s not real. This Sungmin isn’t real. That is probably the most crucial thing to remember about mecha. Don’t forget that he is a mecha. It’s especially important to remember when one resembles so close an actual person. Don’t go mad from it. Promise me that you won’t forget that he’s just a mecha…”

“How could I possibly forget he isn’t a mecha? I know Sungmin can’t come back. I know this is just a replacement for him who is similar in almost every way. Even so, I can do something as simple as remembering that he isn’t my Sungmin.”

Baekhyun blinked in surprise. “You’re a lot better than many other people I’ve warned about this.”

“They obviously didn’t know what they were getting into then,” he scoffed.

“You really can’t blame them for it… It’s a rather human reaction,” Kyungsoo replied uncertainly.

“Have you ever missed someone so much you deluded yourself into thinking that a mecha was human?” he asked Kyungsoo.

“Well, no…”

“See. It’s almost illogical.”

“Um. This isn’t really all that important. I just wanted to warn you, but you seem to have a decent handle on the situation,” Baekhyun put in.

“Well whatever. Thank you for this.” He smiled genuinely. Baekhyun hoped that Sungmin might make this Kyuhyun person a better person, mayhaps a little less rude and condescending. Kyuhyun exited with his arm draped over Sungmin’s shoulders and Sungmin leaning into his chest.

Baekhyun had been trying to ignore the fact that his mecha were looking sickeningly human again, but looking at Sungmin and then at Kyungsoo, he realised that they really were getting more human. Looking at Kyungsoo, it dawned on him that Kyuhyun thought that the mecha was human, which was all the more worrying. Would Baekhyun stop being able to remind himself that Kyungsoo was indeed a mecha?

A/N: More bratty Kyu. I didn't really feel like tacking this onto the previous chapter so it's kind of short. Beginning of the new sub-set called "Thank You".