“You have to go back to the lab,” Minho walked beside Taemin on his way to class.

The robot sighed. “I know. You still work there, right?” He’d miss the friends he had the privilege to meet in his few months in the real world, especially the girl who sat diagonal from him in Microeconomics. He wanted to go on a date with her, but apparently that was never meant to be.

“No. After I graduate here I’m going to Germany to earn my doctorate,” the human gave a weak smile of apology.

“Don’t you still have another month or so in Korea?”

“More like two weeks,”

“I won’t be able to keep in touch with any of them,” Taemin spoke, referring to his friends.

Minho nodded again in sympathy. The android couldn’t even write to them. Everyone was under the impression that he was going back to the States to continue his education in some remote part of the Midwest after the end of this semester. His last final was that afternoon.

“I don’t want to go,” The robot sniffled, and the poor intern didn’t know what to do. It was easy to forget the robot wasn’t a real person.

“I’m sorry,” Minho squeezed the bot’s shoulder in an awkward half-hug when they reached the class. “Do well on this test,”

“You know I will,” a half-hearted smile, and the android pushed open the door to see his friends for the last time.

**********

“He looks so sad,” Key watched the robot as he laid on his stomach, petting Comme Des and Garcon idly.

“We got him another week of the lab, and Minho has visited almost every day. There’s not much more we can do,” Jonghyun pitied the robot. They had made him too human, and he was doomed to a life of labs and experiments. Maybe someday they’d take him to the World Expo, but it was unlikely that the robot would ever be allowed to function in normal society alone.

“I don’t want to send him back,” Kibum bit his lip. “It seems inhumane,”

“He’s not human, it can’t be inhumane,”

“You know what I mean,”

“I know. I don’t want to send him back either.”

An awkward silence passed between the creators. Taemin had fallen into sleep mode. All he did was stare out the window or sleep, it was like he was suffering from depression. His brain was a computer, it didn’t make sense for chemical levels to be imbalanced.

Taemin’s cellphone buzzed. The robot hadn’t bothered to check his messages in days. Key picked up the device and checked it.

“Nakhun. He says he’ll be visiting the States next winter, if he and Tae can meet up again,” the programmer read the message out loud.

“Don’t respond,” Jonghyun sighed. Yesterday, Henry had invited Taemin out for lunch with James, Lim and Jaedyn. The android didn’t reply then, and didn’t want to leave the house for lunch.

“I hate seeing him like this,” Kibum sighed one more time.

**********

Taemin stared up at the familiar laboratory skylight. His whitewashed room looked duller than it had before, and the furniture was a little dusty from disuse now. Life seemed to be gray, metaphorically, for the robot. Every day was just routine. Wake up. Get dressed. Eat. Tests. Lunch. Free time. Tests. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. It was cyclic. The android seldom spoke, and only to answer questions. Minho still visited as often as he could, but his staff pass expired in a few days and he’d be on a plane to Germany in a week.

“What’s wrong, Tae?” Kibum was the most concerned for the robot’s mental health.

“I’m bored,” the android spent his free time staring at the ceiling now. Before he would at least talk to his creators or the intern, even read a little. It was depressing just to watch the robot.

“Do you want to watch TV?” Key would offer movies, books, games, anything to stop the perpetual nothingness. He even brought Comme Des to work, to no avail.

“Why bother?” Taemin’s go to answer. It seemed to be his only response these days.

**********

“We have to do something about him,” Even Jonghyun was worried now. “He’s sick. Literally sick, and he refuses to get better.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Kibum threw his programming books around the apartment, stomping around and throwing a tantrum. “The board won’t let us take him out. At all! He barely eats, sleeps all the time, does nothing. He’s supposed to be alive but he’s not living!” the man screeched his frustration into a pillow before continuing to pace around.

“ the board,” both doctor and programmer looked with shock at the intern who had been staying with them more often as his departure date drew nearer and Taemin’s condition worsened. They had never heard any profanity spew from the kid’s lips before. “Let’s run away from the board,”

“What?” Jonghyun looked at the kid in disbelief. “How?”

“I’ll take him to Germany with me,” Minho shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing. “You and Kibum come too. We’ll start new lives, the Board won’t find us, and Taemin can live a normal life like you know he wants,”

“I don’t speak a word of German,” Jonghyun looked terrified of the thought.

“Me either. But Taemin can. And Kibum is fluent in English, we can get by,” the intern gave a meaningful look to Key.

“It could work,” you could almost see the gears turning in Kibum’s head as he planned it out. “I’ll say I’m taking Taemin out to get measured for new clothes, since he’s lost so much weight and it’s starting to affect test results,”

“Joghyun could take a personal vacation day and we could all meet at the airport. They won’t know what happened until we’re halfway across Asia,” Minho looked pleased with himself.

“It could work,” Jonghyun repeated Key’s earlier words. For Taemin, they could make it work.

A/N: hello! did you miss me? tests are over but it took me a little longer to write, and this isn't the best update but i had to give you somethine. I think i'll wrap this story up in the next chapter or two. It was never supposed to be very long, but i have another, better developed idea in the works that i'm more excited for. i don't give anything away yet, but it's for a group i've written for before, though not very much or often. keep an eye out, okay? :D