Chapter Text
The nightmares were getting worse. The fear of losing someone he loved so dearly kept creeping upon him. Kun tossed and turned in his sheets, images of his brother falling into a doomed mess flickering. Neo Culture Technology was on fire, burning and blazing in flame. Startled, Kun jerked awake.
It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the dark. His chest moving up and down while he gasped for air. He tried to remind himself it was only a nightmare. The clicking of his door opening caused him to jump again. Yang Yang's eyes were neon green, scanning.
"Another nightmare?" He sighed.
"I'm okay. I'm sorry for worrying you! You should go back to your room." He waved him away.
Yang Yang retreated slowly from his bedroom. His footsteps fading away from the door. Kun exhaled, falling back to stare at the ceiling. His solitude was short-lived, the door opening again.
"Another nightmare?" Chenle sighed.
"Go back to bed."
He felt the sheets move aside. When cold feet met him it jolted him wide awake. His younger brother's head met his shoulder. His hair smelled clean, a comforting scent to his nose. Kun wrapped an arm around him, still staring at the ceiling.
"Maybe Ten should move back in. He always knew what to do."
"That wasn't part of the deal, Chenle. He stayed until Yang Yang felt comfortable. Ten has a nice apartment-"
"They seem more like luxurious bachelor pads to me."
"Ew. No. Bachelor pads are often sleazy. The point is that Ten is back home where he should be. Comfortable and-"
"Whatever. You know he'll be back soon. I'm worried about you having these dreams so often. Ever since I said I would have my apprenticeship you've been this way."
Kun couldn't argue with him when he was telling the truth. It was becoming difficult for him to move forward. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, one he couldn't quite shake. Instead of answering, he rubbed circles in Chenle's back. The younger didn't protest, probably still too weighed down with sleep to argue. When he eventually returned to slumber, Kun thought back to the dreams. The true fear didn't lie in NCT burning down. The fear was deeper than that.
Part of Kun wanted to see it in ash.
Ten would have smashed his computer screen into fragments with his fists if it wouldn't leave him with scars. How the hell did the company manage to give them months of lazy work only to drown them in nothing but complicated information?
Due to NCT's new goal to launch four androids within a year, everyone had to learn as much as they could about all four upcoming AI. None of the trainers knew who they would be paired with! Now, with four completely different informational packets thrown at him, Ten felt he was losing control. Jaehyun kept pushing his hair back, glaring at his own set of info every few minutes. Lucas whimpered about having too much content to consume. Ten was convinced Renjun's eyesight had decreased due to work, his squinting becoming more frequent. Even Jungwoo who exercised the most patience out of all of them was pulling at his hair and sighing.
"This is bullshit!" Ten threw a packet behind him on the ground.
"I don't even know what I'm reading anymore." Lucas whispered.
"I think I need my glasses to be stronger cuz I'm in agony." Renjun groaned.
“There are multiple moments where I have been annoyed working here. I think this is the first time I’ve ever really wanted to quit.” Jaehyun slumped into his seat.
“I want to go home! I love my home.” Jungwoo pouted.
“The home you only get to live in because you work here?” Ten snorted.
“I like to pretend I don’t live in the building directly behind my workplace.” Jungwoo snapped.
“This just seems ridiculous. Does anyone really need a specific android to do these things? N025 is supposed to be specialized in cleaning. An android maid. Who needs that? Isn’t that something a person can realistically instruct any android to do?” Lucas rolled his eyes.
“Did you read N013.2’s file? They are supposed to be the ideal partner like Jaemin except they wanted to rewire some of the functions and change the physical appearance to allow for the public to have a diverse choice. Can you believe that?” Ten scoffed.
“The LT3 is apparently designed to be a craftsman. They’ll be the best option for home repairs around their owner’s property.” Jungwoo shoved aside his notebook.
“It will be convenient when you don’t want to pay someone to redo your porch, though.” Jaehyun hummed.
“I feel the sorriest for the NV2.” Lucas pouted.
“Why?” Ten yawned.
“The NV2 is going to be put under a lot of pressure. Since Yang Yang failed to meet expectation as the NV1, I won’t be surprised if there have been a lot of pressure and focus on making the NV2 flawless. They won’t feel the same drive to succeed like the others.”
“Either way, this is pathetic. It’s almost like they are trying to come up with a specific purpose for models that are domestic and harmless. All of these models may specialize in an area, but realistically Mark, Jaemin, or Taeyong could do these things with high accuracy.” Jungwoo pushed away from the desk to walk around the room.
“If our stuff is driving us mad, I wonder what maintenance looks like now!” Jaehyun rubbed his eyes.
Below them on the eighth floor, a similar conversation was brewing. Doyoung started chugging coffee early in the morning, using the caffeine to push him through the work. Haechan openly complained nonstop, sometimes abandoning his station just to get away from the menacing blue light. Jeno’s mind couldn’t keep up with the complexity of the language in the informational files.
“This isn’t work, this is torture!” Haechan muttered closing his eyes.
“I have stared at the same line at least nine times and I still don’t know what I’m reading.” Jeno blinked at the screen, a small pout forming.
“I wish I could hit delete and call it a day.” Doyoung focused on the emptiness of his mug.
“Are you going into a caffeinated depression right now?” Haechan questioned.
“I think so. The hype has died down and now I just feel more tired.”
“Why are they making such domestic androids? I don’t get it. If I asked Jaemin to clean the house, he would complain about it but he would do it!” Jeno exited out of the N025 file.
“I understand why having a craftsman android is appealing. They would be versatile enough to get home repairs done.”
There was a knock on the door and the sound of the badge scanner allowing the person entry. Doyoung whirled around in his chair as Taeil came in waving a bag of food around.
“Humans gotta eat.” He smiled.
“Taeil! My hero of life! Thank you!” Haechan shot out of his chair and practically ran up to him.
“How badly do you each want to yank your hair out and cry?” He pulled up a chair.
“Truthfully?” Doyoung raised an eyebrow.
“Lay it on me.”
“I want to delete it all. If I don’t see it then it does not exist.” Doyoung admitted.
“I just don’t want to do it.” Haechan answered.
“I don’t understand what I’m reading and that makes me feel small.” Jeno tried to curl up in his chair.
“I hear you and I understand all of your complaints. I’ll try to help you as much as I can with comprehending everything. I do have some good news! We’ve hired a new maintenance worker!” He cheered.
Taeil didn’t receive any reaction.
“We’ve had too many workstations in this room anyway. We should fill them.” Doyoung sighed.
“Wow. You guys really are exhausted. Alright, we should all eat together first. Then, I’ll try to help you in as many ways as I can, okay?”
“Thank you.” Haechan reached for his hand.
“When does the new guy start?”
“Two days from now!” Taeil started passing around the food.
“I wonder what Renjun thinks of all this.” Jeno sighed.
“Ask him when you get home?” Haechan snorted.
“I feel a bit bad for Jaemin. Both of us have been so tired that he’s taking care of us both and we’re not giving him nearly as much attention as usual. I’m grateful, but I feel sorry.”
Jaemin didn’t demand a lot of attention, mainly because he instantly got it from both Renjun and Jeno, but he did feel quite lonely from time to time. It was difficult to sit by and watch the people he cared about work themselves into the ground. His whole purpose was to make people happy so when he failed in being able to lighten the workload it made Jaemin feel disappointed in himself. Renjun and Jeno were coming home more tired, less hungry, and less talkative.
“I’m sure if Jaemin felt hurt he would tell Mark and Mark would have told me. Then I would have told Renjun and Renjun would have told you and then you would have to talk to Jaemin and then you’d all sit with Renjun to speak about it and-”
“Haechan, the combination of you and my excessive coffee is not a pleasant one.” Doyoung groaned.
Taeil could only look on with fond eyes at the bickering young men. He knew they had been working hard and he knew they were tired. He only hoped adding a new maintenance employee would ease the tension. Especially when a lot of things were about to change.