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Well, it was going to be fun. Sort of.
Baekhyun swallowed hard, trying to think of what his acting teacher used to tip him to get rid of his nerves. And he was going to give the best acting of his life, he thought, as the sound of scissors cutting open cardboard surrounded him. He closed his eyes and prayed, for his life depended on this.
As soon as the light bathed his closed eyelids, he opened his eyes slowly and looked at who was his owner since that very moment. The serious but somehow soft face, the deep dark eyes, the attractive frown of his eyebrows and his ears; everything was even better than Baekhyun remembered.
‘You are awake?’ the deep voice was like music to his ears, and he had to give everything he had to control his face.
‘Yes,’ he answered simply, his poker face motionless even though the strands of pink hair were tickling his face..
‘Registration of data,’ the man started to speak, and Baekhyun started recording with the small device he had hidden in his pocket. ‘My name is Park Chanyeol, aged 29, blood type A, profession lawyer…’
As the man kept reciting all the details listed in the settings, Baekhyun tried to memorise as many as he can. It was going to be his work to know all sorts of information, so he better start memorising some. Not that it was exactly necessary in that era of advanced technology, but he liked to memorise things, something that he discovered when he was in the Theatre Club at high school. However, it wasn’t the time to daydream about the past, not when he desperately needed to cling to this opportunity.
‘Settings for device,’ he announced, and Baekhyun prepared himself mentally while the other man thought deeply, ‘randomize personality.’
He could have jumped on the spot from pure happiness; that would make things so much easier it was almost unbelievable.
‘Well, I think that’s everything,’ the man murmured to himself, scanning the pages of the manual rapidly. ‘Stand up.’
That was the first order Baekhyun had to obey as a robot and it was one easy to do. He stood up as commanded and looked at Park Chanyeol. God, he had changed so much.
‘What’s your name, robot 04?’ Baekhyun remembered the silver choker with the numbers zero and four engraved on it, and controlled the impulse of touching it.
‘My name is Baekhyun,’ he answered, half waiting for his cover to blow up like a bubble made from gum. But nothing happened.
‘That’s a pretty name,’ the man nodded, and Baekhyun felt himself smile happily.
‘Thank you!’
Park Chanyeol looked surprised, and for a split second, Baekhyun feared he had screw things up big time. But Chanyeol smiled back at him, with a cute smile that reached his eyes and made him look adorable. Baekhyun’s heart skipped a beat, and he had to remind himself that he couldn’t let his guard down.
‘Come with me, I’ll show you the house and tell you the chores I want you to do.’
Baekhyun tried to get out of the box he had come into, but somehow he calculated poorly and tripped. Fast and secure hands prevented him from kissing the floor, and when he looked up, the dark and pretty orbs of Chanyeol were looking back at his.
‘You really are warm, as if you were human,’ the taller one muttered. ‘Be careful, okay? I don’t want you to hurt yourself.’
Baekhyun nodded, trying to stop his heart from beating fast, and followed Chanyeol around his small flat. It had been decorated in a traditional way, which contrasted a lot with what Baekhyun had had in mind.
‘I need you to help me clean, I like to do it myself but some things I can’t do them alone, and sometimes I don’t have time. So you will help me with that,’ he started saying, pointing at several directions where tall bookcases and narrow windows could be seen. ‘I also want you to help me grocery shopping, do laundry… normal stuff, I guess,’ he scratched his chin, thinking, but Baekhyun silently agreed; it looked like pretty normal robot stuff. He was prepared for that, anyway. ‘Ah,’ the taller man seemed to remember something, ‘I also want you to come with me to work sometimes.’
‘Do I need to become a lawyer too?’
This time, Chanyeol burst into a loud laughter, which made Baekhyun smile timidly.
‘Is it a stupid idea?’ Baekhyun asked.
‘No, it was funny,’ Chanyeol shook his head, still smiling. ‘Sorry, I actually don’t want you to go through Law School; in fact, I don’t wish anyone would have to go there. No, I wat you to come with me and help me with paperwork and just to be my moral supporter. Does it makes sense?’
Baekhyun nodded vigorously and the smile came back to Chanyeol’s face bigger than before.
‘I’m happy I chose to randomize your personality,’ he confessed. ‘I doubt I could have chosen such funny features for you myself.’
‘Do you like it if I’m funny? Then I’ll be the funniest!’
Chanyeol chuckled, which made Baekhyun melt a bit inside, and motioned him to keep moving forward, because he was about to show him the bedroom. Damn, Chanyeol was even more handsome and charming than he remembered.
‘I feel I’m going to like having you around, Baekhyun,’ Chanyeol said right before opening what was going to be Baekhyun’s room.
With a bright smile on his face, and his heart beating happily, Baekhyun sincerely hoped so.
---
If he had to be completely honest with himself, Chanyeol had to admit that he never thought a robot could be as cute as Baekhyun was.
Facts were that he had stubbornly argued with his friends and colleagues that he didn’t need a robot in his life. He was doing more than fine on his own, and even thought he had been dumped only six months ago by his last girlfriend, the truth was that Chanyeol wasn’t searching for that kind of a companion from a robot.
No, when he finally agreed to what Sehun and Junmyeon were saying, it was mostly because he really did miss someone to talk to everyday and he felt lonely from time to time. He thought, or maybe his friends made him thought, that with a robot, he would feel less lonely.
Well, he had to give them the credit they deserved, he really felt a lot less lonely.
When he purchased the robot, he didn’t pay much attention. He looked for a male model, trying to think of it as a friend who was going to listen to him rant and complain, and who will probably help him whenever needed. What if he slipped and fell inside the shower at the gym? Even if it was a robot, Chanyeol wasn’t sure female models were allowed in the male dressing room. So, even though Sehun had rolled his eyes and claimed that he was losing brain cells just from listening to him, he stuck to his logic and bought a male robot. But as he had done with the personality traits when customizing him, when he went to the store, he just ordered a random model. So he didn’t know what to expect when he opened the box, but Chanyeol was sure of one thing: he didn’t expect him to be that pretty.
Baekhyun had innocent yet attractive features: cute droopy eyes which were a piercing blight blue, cute button nose and pretty lips embellished by a mole above the upper lip, right on the right corner of his mouth. His pastel pink hair looked soft and fluffy, and more often than not, Chanyeol had found himself petting it while both of them were watching a movie at night.
‘Good morning, Chanyeol!’ the energetic voice made him snap out of his daydream, and he looked at the robot smiling next to the side of the bed further from him.
‘Good morning, Baekhyun,’ he smiled back. ‘You seem as cheerful as always.’ Baekhyun chuckled and something warm spread inside Chanyeol’s chest, leaving him speechless for a second.
‘I made you breakfast! You should go eat it while it’s still warm.’
The robot waved and walked away, which gave Chanyeol time to breathe deeply while taking a hand to his heart. It was still beating a little bit faster than it should, and he knew well why.
It had started not long after Baekhyun came to his life. At first, it was only the shadow of a thought; the thought of how cute the robot looked when smiling. Then, he was amazed at how he sweated when they were rearranging his living room; with sweat glistering on top of the slightly-tanned skin of the robot. When his eyes met, Chanyeol had felt electricity running through his body as never before.
It also didn’t help that robots looked a lot like humans. They had advanced so much that they looked like actual humans. He had witnessed it beforehand thanks to Sehun and his own robot, Kyungsoo, but living with one made it even more amazing to witness. They ate real food, but processed it differently in order to get the energy they needed without having to be charged from a socket. They also went periodically to the bathroom and were programmed to blink; they had everything so they would seem like normal human beings. Except from the fact that they weren’t, obviously, and that instead of bleeding red, like humans did, purple blood emerged from their wounds.
For Chanyeol, it was obvious that Baekhyun was a robot because of his eyes. Piercing, sky blue eyes that were so intense that not even foreigners had them. They were borderline turquoise, and looked very artificial. Kyungsoo too, he thought from time to time, he was very gentle and sweet, but his bright green eyes stood out.
Nonetheless, when he was able to forget about the artificial eyes, Baekhyun was a cute man that lived with him, and that was dangerous in so, so many ways.
‘So what if you want to bang him?’ Sehun asked one day at the office, making Chanyeol almost spill his coffee. ‘They come prepared for that, too.’
‘I won’t ask you how you know because I probably know the answer already,’ Sehun raised his eyebrows and smirked, which indeed gave the taller man his answer, ‘but I never said I wanted to bang Baekhyun.’
‘You feel attracted to him, right?’ Sehun shrugged. ‘Then bang him.’
‘It’s funny, though,’ Junmyeon interrupted, barging in into his office as if it was the most natural thing to listen to other people’s conversations, ‘but weren’t you against trusting human-lookalike machines?’
Well, he had pinpointed some uncomfortable fact, Chanyeol thought, shifting on his chair.
Truth was that he didn’t like human-like robots until not so long ago. In fact, it was one of the reasons why it took him so much time to finally buy one; but he couldn’t say he regretted it. Actually, not that anyone cared or that anyone needed to know, but Chanyeol believed that changing his mind and getting Baekhyun was one of the best decisions he had ever made. Apart from deciding to not grow a beard, that is.
Baekhyun was like a source of happiness, a ball full of light that warmed him up when he most needed it. He made Chanyeol smile, he made him happy, and it was big trouble. Not because his friends were mocking him about that, it was a somewhat usual thing and he was used to it; but because he feel conflicted for having developed something too close to feelings for a robot. He didn’t want to, he really didn’t, but he couldn’t stop the way he felt, and the truth was that every time he looked at Baekhyun, his heart beat faster.
Chanyeol knew, even if it was ironic, that he liked Baekhyun.
‘You know, if they change the law as they want to, maybe in a year or so you could marry your robot,’ Sehun laughed at Junmyeon’s words before adding.
‘I still think everything would get solved if you fucked him hard.’
‘I’m impressed Kyungsoo hasn’t sent himself back to the factory just to stop hearing you.’
‘He could just disconnect his microphone and stop hearing me,’ Sehun replied with a satisfied smile.
Chanyeol rolled his eyes and took his jacket before going out of the office, leaving his two friends inside his office. He headed home, and as the moment where he would be home with Baekhyun became closer and closer, a big smile appeared and grew on his face.
It was undeniable at that point, he liked Baekhyun way too much of what was acceptable.
He was trying to think of a plan to keep his feelings under control, and he had it almost figured out in his head when he opened the door, but the moment he heard a loud scream, it vanished. Baekhyun’s cry came from the kitchen and Chanyeol ran there.
‘Baekhyun! Are you okay?’ the worry was almost tangible in his voice when he crossed the threshold and looked at Baekhyun.
The pink-haired robot looked at him with anguish in his artificial blue eyes. He had a kitchen towel pressed against his hand, and a sharp knife was lying on the floor. The lawyer entered the kitchen and took the robot’s hand on his own, even though the shorter one tried several times to avoid it.
‘It’s okay, I’m fine!’ he repeated.
‘Stop moving and let me see!’ he commanded, getting frustrated. ‘I just want to see what happened, why are you being so stubborn?’
Finally, the lawyer grabbed his hand and took away the towel. And in that second, he knew exactly why Baekhyun was being so stubborn.
Because from the nasty cut on his hand, bright, red blood was dripping.
---
This was bad, oh boy, this was so bad.
After seeing his very-red-and-definitely-not-purple blood, Chanyeol had said nothing. He simply but the towel back to pressing against his wound and took Baekhyun by the wrist, guiding him to his car and making him sit down on the passenger seat.
The drive to the hospital was very silent, neither of them spoke a work and he was too afraid to turn on the radio. When they arrived to ER, Baekhyun talked so softly that the nurse had to politely ask him several times to please repeat his data.
They were also silent in the waiting room, Baekhyun’s mind going haywire, thinking of all possible scenarios, and some impossible ones (like Chanyeol literally disappearing from his side, annoyed); but as plausible that was that Chanyeol would just scream at him on the waiting room, none of his wild imaginations came true. When the doctor called “Byun Baekhyun”, they both stood up and when into the doctor’s office so he could examine Baekhyun’s wound.
It turned out to be less severe than the blood had made it look. The doctor cleaned it up and used a clean bandage to cover it, although he advised Baekhyun to let it cure without the band once the blood stopped flowing. They then thanked the doctor and went out.
The ride back was as silent as the ride to the hospital, and Baekhyun started thinking that Chanyeol was going to kick his ass once they reached the door. He probably didn’t want to be seen leaving a person stranded in front of the hospital, it was too public. He was still thinking about that when they arrived at the garage. It was very dark, only the dim light of the streetlamps that could get through the small windows let them more or less figure where the light switch was. Chanyeol found it first, though, and started walking to the lift. Baekhyun stood there, unsure if he should follow him, but when the door dinged and opened, Chanyeol looked at him, perplexed.
‘Aren’t you coming?’ he asked the pink-haired man.
‘Aren’t… aren’t you going to kick me out?’ to his surprised, Chanyeol smiled softly.
‘Not today, at least. Come on.’
Baekhyun jumped in right before the doors closed, and landed too close to Chanyeol. When he looked up, he found the pretty dark eyes looking directly at his, and felt his cheeks go red. It crossed his mind that it was the first time that they stood that close with the knowledge that both of them were human, and somehow, that made Baekhyun nervous.
He partly thanked any greater being when the lift arrived, because now that Chanyeol knew he was human, it was kind of embarrassing to be around him.
The same silence that had been accompanying them was present when they entered the house and sat on the living room sofa. Baekhyun looked at his hands, resting intertwined on his lap, and waited.
‘So,’ Chanyeol started after a short while, ‘Byun Baekhyun.’ Baekhyun lifted his head and looked at him. ‘I have the feeling that those are not your eyes.’
‘Ah,’ Baekhyun gasped, remembering the contact lenses, ‘no, they aren’t.’
‘Can you take them off?’
Baekhyun did so, taking them out and leaving them on a tissue he found in one of his pockets. He didn’t dare went looking for their case. Chanyeol leaned in, his eyes scanning his face, as if looking for the effect that the lack of contact lenses did to him.
‘I like your normal eyes better,’ he murmured, maybe not meaning to be heard, but Baekhyun did anyway and he blushed profusely. ‘Now, would you care to explain everything to me?’
‘I didn’t want to lie to you,’ Baekhyun started, ‘but… I just wanted to get out.’
‘Out from where?’
‘From my parents’ house,’ he muttered. He licked his lips, unsure if he should keep going, but Chanyeol was still looking at him with all his attention, and maybe it was better if he wanted to get his message through. ‘My parents have a complicated relationship. They aren’t together because they want to, and they also didn’t had me because they wanted to. They fight, a lot. Since I was a kid, I’ve dreamt about finding a job so I could move out.’
‘And you decided to pose as an artificial intelligence?’ Chanyeol raised his eyebrows, but Baekhyun shook his head.
‘I was supposed to start working for the company that develops the robots. I had to manage the deliveries and such, and they trained me, but they changed their mind the last minute before offering me the job for real. I was devastated; I had made my mind that I was going to move out, but then, suddenly, it wasn’t happening again. So, I looked at the list of orders, and suddenly, I saw your name. I had met you during high school and I had a major crush on you, but I don’t think you ever noticed me. Maybe that’s why I decided to switch the actual robot they were going to send you with myself. I prepared some things, like the contact lenses, borrowed the robot’s clothes and poked some holes on the cardboard so I would not die from asphyxia.’
‘And you came here,’ Chanyeol finished the story, and Baekhyun just nodded. Chanyeol stared at him for a moment before opening his mouth again. ‘I have to say, I think I remember you from high school… You were a year or two younger than me, and remember you had a very loud friend?’
‘Jongdae,’ Baekhyun smiled timidly. ‘He’s working abroad now.’
‘Kim Jongdae, yes,’ Chanyeol clapped his hands together, satisfied, and closed the distance between him and Baekhyun, which made the latter’s heart beat fast. ‘So you had a major crush on me?’
Baekhyun blinked, not knowing exactly what to answer. He nodded lightly.
‘So you don’t have a crush on me anymore?’ Chanyeol asked again, which left Baekhyun even more confused. Chanyeol sighed. ‘Do you know why I’m taking this news so well?’
‘No,’ Baekhyun admitted. It was something remarkable, to be honest, but he had been so engrossed in possible scenarios that he hadn’t really noticed how well Chanyeol has handling the situation. The lawyer took his injured hand softly in his, caressing the covered wound, before looking directly into his now dark eyes.
‘Because I have a major crush on you, Byun Baekhyun; and there’s nothing that could have made me happier than the fact that you are human.’
Baekhyun gasped, opening his mouth without speaking at all, his heart beating like crazy. He closed his fingers around the ones from Chanyeol, too emotional to say something coherent. However, he should have done something, because the next moment, Chanyeol had taken him softly by his face and had closed the distance between them, making their lips meet.
It was the softest kiss Baekhyun had ever received. There was so much care and love in it that It was almost surreal, and made Baekhyun feel as if he wanted to cry. Because it was not pity, it was love and happiness what Chanyeol was conveying to him with his lips moving softly against Baekhyun’s; and it was something he had never even uttered to imagine.
And even though, it was happening, it was real.
They broke the kiss slowly and looked at each other again, almost as if it was the first time they did that; and Chanyeol smiled.
‘You’re so much handsome without the contact lenses,’ the honesty of his words made Baekhyun blush.
‘Thank you,’ he muttered, and Chanyeol pecked him on the lips again.
‘You’re cute too,’ he smiled, but suddenly, his face changed. ‘Wait, does this mean I paid for a very expensive robot to get you instead?’
‘I’m afraid yes,’ Baekhyun replied cautiously. ‘Why?’
‘Then, you were a bargain,’ Chanyeol winked charmingly.
Baekhyun blushed profusely and tried to hit him, but the taller man caught his arm, claiming he was going to hurt himself again, and kissed the pink-haired man to shut him up. Baekhyun returned the kiss, forgetting what he was going to complain about.
‘I think I love you,’ Chanyeol whispered against his lips, making Baekhyun so incredibly happy that he giggled.
‘I think I love you too,’ he whispered back; and leaned in to kiss Chanyeol again.
Because maybe his cover had blown up, and maybe his life was going to be way more difficult as a human being than as a robot.
But if he was going to live it with Chanyeol, then he was sure every moment of it would be worth living.
--THE END--