Slowly, Donghae sees the changes.

Hyukjae doesn’t speak as monotonously anymore.

But even so, Donghae thinks to himself - Hyukjae is merely a prototype, a robot. He will never truly be able to think on his own. How much can he truly change him and programme him to become like a human?

-

“Donghae!” Donghae looks up at the man suddenly bursting through the door. “What are those white things outside?”

“What white things?” Donghae frowns, placing down his pencil.

“Those white things that are falling from the sky! I was outside and it suddenly fell on me, and I got scared, so I came in to find Donghae!” Hyukjae pouts and Donghae holds back a chuckle.

White things? Falling from the sky?

Ah. Snow.

“Come on, Hyukjae. Let’s go outside together.”

“Wah, Donghae! They’re so fluffy and soft!” Hyukjae prances around, letting the white crystals fall onto his fingertips.

“Look, it disappeared! Dong-”

“Donghae? Are you okay?” Hyukjae mumbles worriedly as he looks at the other who is shaking due to the cold.

“I-I’m fine, Hyukjae. It’s just too cold. Aren’t you cold?” Donghae says, teeth chattering as he hugs himself tighter.

Hyukjae pauses for awhile, but replies confidently. “I don’t feel anything, Donghae!”

As Donghae continues to shake, his nose red as the snow continues to fall, Hyukjae hurries over to his side.

“I’ll help you, Donghae!”

“W-What? How are you going to help me?” Donghae looks up, confused.

But his eyes suddenly open wide as he feels another pair of arms wrapping around his own.

He tries to pull away but Hyukjae merely holds on even more tightly and he lets himself fall into the strangely warm embrace.

“How… How are you this warm?” Donghae mumbles, but Hyukjae only stares back at him wordlessly, tenderly gazing at him. Hyukjae’s smile is so pure and Donghae feels his heart melting.

“Let’s go back in.” Donghae says, his mind in a blur at what he just felt.

Even as they walk back in side by side, Donghae can still feel the warmth of Hyukjae’s arms from earlier on.

-

“So, Lee Donghae.” The head scientist peers at him, questioning him at the first monthly assessment ever since Donghae had received the assignment.

“How is the work with 150486 going?”

“You mean Hyukjae, sir.” Donghae finds himself defiantly saying and he immediately takes a step back as the older man’s eyes gaze piercingly into his.

“150486,” The older man repeats. “How is he responding?”

“Everything is going as I planned,” Donghae replies. “He responds well to most of the things I programme into him. But I’m having difficulty replicating his behaviour to be exactly that of ours.”

“Well, yes, Lee. It is impossible to programme him to be exactly like us,” The head scientist leans in, a strange gleam in his eyes. “But at the end of the day, what we are trying to create are these beings to be even more powerful than us humans.”

Donghae looks up at that, feeling an uneasy feeling ripping through him.

“What do you mean?” The head scientist laughs, leaning forward.

“You’re not the only trainee here, Lee Donghae,” The man begins. “And therefore that also means that 150486 is not the only prototype.”

Donghae looks at him, confusion and uncertainty grappling him.

“Don’t you get it, Lee Donghae? At the end of the day, we will combine the research and results of all the prototypes to create a new model, stronger than any human on this earth.”

“Why?” Donghae utters, looking at the almost crazed man in front of him.

“Why? Can you imagine the amount of money we can earn? The amount of people who will want to buy this product? These beings act like humans but will never truly be one.”

“Imagine the things that we could make them do, in the place of humans. Imagine what these things could help with in the drug trafficking industry. They could be possible scapegoats for so many more things.”

“You’re mad,” Donghae spits. “I’ll never do anything to help you!”

“Oh, but you already have.” The man grins wickedly at him. “The contract is signed. Can you afford to pay me back whatever losses we incur if you leave?”

Donghae bites his lips so hard he can feel the blood trickling out.

And suddenly, he remembers something else.

“What will happen to the prototypes?” Donghae asks, feeling his heart racing faster.

“Every war needs a sacrifice,” The man turns around on his chair to face the window. The sun is setting, casting an eerie shadow over the office. “And in this war we are fighting, they are our sacrifices.”

“What do you mean?” Donghae leans closer, gripping onto the other man’s collar. The man merely slaps his hand away, gripping onto Donghae’s neck firmly instead.

“They will all be destroyed,” He finishes, letting his grip slacken. “That is why I gave you a deadline.”

“You can’t just destroy them like that! They have feelings too, we programme it into them!” Donghae screams, hot tears threatening to flow out.

“Do they, really?” The man stands up, moving so near Donghae that he can smell his cigarette-laden breath. “Do they really have feelings? You programme it into him after all.”

“What we need aren’t feelings, humans already have too much of that. In fact, the colder the better. Imagine how efficiently things can be done otherwise.”

“And don’t worry, I bet you they won’t feel anything when they get destroyed.”

Donghae wants to argue, to say that he wants to leave, but he realises that he’s already signed his soul to the association. To leave, it would mean paying back millions. He didn’t have anything to his name.

And so he turns to leave, angry tears finally flowing down his cheeks.

-

Donghae lies deep in thought that night, thinking about everything that the head scientist had said.

He is startled when there is a sudden noise and a movement near his bed. He is ready to attack when he sees that it is only Hyukjae.

He had forgotten to programme Hyukjae to sleep today, being lost in his deep thoughts.

“Donghae, can I sleep here?” Hyukjae looks so lost, staring at him uncertainly. Donghae thinks that he looks like a child.

He wants to disagree at first, but he figures that missing one day of programming wouldn’t hurt.

He shifts over and lets Hyukjae climb into his small mattress for the very first time. He doesn’t even have a proper bed, being a trainee, and the mattress is usually already too small for himself alone. But as Hyukjae lies right next to him, so close he can feel his breath down his neck, he strangely finds that he doesn’t mind it at all.

He’s almost drifting off to sleep when he feels the man shifting next to him, and he feels his heartbeat quicken when the other places his head right atop his chest.

“Donghae, what is this sound?” Donghae frowns, wondering what the other is referring to, but he feels his heart sink when he realises what he is talking about.

“It’s a heartbeat, Hyukjae.”

“Where does it come from?” Hyukjae sounds so pure, so innocent. Just like a child.

“It comes from my heart, Hyukjae.” Donghae smiles softly as the other’s eyes widen.

“Do I have a heart, Donghae?” Donghae freezes at that.

“No… No, you don’t have one, Hyukjae.” Hyukjae’s face falls and Donghae finds himself wanting only to see the innocent, pure smile on the other’s face.

“But it’s all right, Hyukjae. You have more heart than any of us humans.” Donghae mumbles, letting his head fall onto the other’s chest, and he feels the other wrapping his arms around him naturally.

He leans into the other’s chest, but no matter how hard he tries, there isn’t the steady sound of a heartbeat. But he finds it so soothing to lie on the other’s chest like this.

“I wish you could hear my heartbeat too, Donghae.” Hyukjae suddenly mutters in the silence.

“It’s fine, Hyukjae.”

“But I want you to.” Hyukjae whines, and Donghae feels his heart breaking into pieces.

“It’s all right, Hyukjae. It really is.” Donghae mumbles, burrowing his face into Hyukjae’s chest, willing the tears away.

“Donghae, why don’t I have a heart? Why can’t I be a human?”

And at that moment, Donghae’s heart breaks. Was it fair to Hyukjae? To create him and to programme him into thinking and behaving like a human, to make him believe he is one and yet forcing him to see that he can never truly be one?

Was it fair, that at the end of the day, Hyukjae was going to be destroyed, merely part of a larger experiment to develop robots that could replace humans?

Hyukjae was merely a small pawn in the larger scheme of things. He was a pure soul in a world filled with greedy humans. Hyukjae wasn’t a human, but he was better and kinder than most.

It wasn’t fair… Not at all.

But before he can say anything, Donghae finds himself falling asleep with how comfortable Hyukjae’s embrace is.

And he does.

Soon after, Hyukjae falls asleep as well.