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Mark doesn’t get many customers coming into his shop this late at night, so it’s rather peaceful. Well— as peaceful as a city that never sleeps can be. Even with the sky dark and the moon shining bright in the sky, if he looked outside he would only see bright neon lights and the streets flooded with people.
It’s rather dark in his shop right now, one of the lights needs to be changed but he hasn’t quite gotten around to it. He squints his eyes as he tampers with his arm. His hand has been acting up, dropping things randomly, so he’s trying to figure out what’s wrong with it. Does he need to replace some wires? He feels like if he could see, he would know, but he’s sadly quite stubborn.
The door jingles, but Mark doesn’t look up. There’s only one person that would be coming into his shop in the dead of night.
“Did you forget to change the lightbulb?” Jaemin asks, amused as he looks around the dark shop. “Honestly, what would you do without me?” He tsks as he grabs a spare bulb that's sitting on the shelf. He easily climbs on top the counter, unscrewing the useless bulb and replacing it with the new one.
“Ohhhh,” Mark suddenly murmurs, spotting the problem right away as soon as the light turns on. “There’s a loose wire, no wonder I've been dropping stuff all day.” Mark makes sure it’s plugged in right and after testing his hand, clenching and unclenching it until he’s satisfied, he closes it.
“For an android, you’re pretty silly,” Jaemin giggles as he hops down thanks to the help of Mark and his now fixed robotic arm.
“We’ve been over this, I'm not an android,” Mark scolds. “It’s just my arm, dude.”
“Right, right,” Jaemin giggles. “So? How does it feel?” Jaemin gives his arm a poke.
“It’s fine now,” Mark shrugs. “Should be working like brand new.”
Jaemin grins, “That’s good. So, how have you and Jisungie been?”
“We’ve been good.”
“You’re lying.”
Mark frowns, “How can you tell I'm lying?”
“You avoid my eyes when you lie to me, Markie,” Jaemin pokes his nose.
Mark pouts, “Well, we haven't been bad I guess?”
“Mhm,” Jaemin encourages with a hum, “Go on.”
Mark sighs. “He still doesn’t understand—like when I try to tell him how I feel, he just—“ Mark makes a frustrated sound.
“It’ll take some time,” Jaemin says softly, hand running up Mark's cold arm until he reaches the back of his neck, where he rubs it soothingly. “You need to teach him.”
“What if it doesn’t work,” Mark mutters under his breath. “Maybe I'm just doing something wrong?”
“Now don’t give me that,” Jaemin playfully scolds. “You’re doing everything you can to show him how much you care, it’ll just take more time with Jisung. You know that.”
Of course you know that, you were the one that built him.
Jaemin doesn’t say it, but Mark knows that’s what he wants to say, reminding Mark that Mark gave him the ability to love and be loved. It’s programmed in Jisungs system. Mark just doesn’t understand why it’s not working. Or why it’s working so slowly. Mark doesn’t get it and he’s supposed to get it. Working with tech, with androids, always came easy with him. But for some reason he’s stuck.
“Time, right,” Mark closes his eyes with a sigh, “He just needs time.”
There’s a grin on Jaemins face when Mark opens them.
“That’s right baby,” Jaemin coos as he pinches his cheek. “Now go upstairs, I'll close up shop for you. I have some restocking to do anyway.”
Mark nods his head, letting Jaemin replace him behind the counter.
“Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do. Let Jisung know I said hi!”
Mark created Jisung with one purpose. Proving that androids can feel, that they can be programmed to have emotions. Mark didn’t exactly expect to fall in love with his android, but the feeling was welcomed. He loves Jisung, even if the android frustrates him to no end sometimes.
He and Donghyuck have tried multiple times to figure out what was wrong. In theory, Mark's code should have worked, Donghyuck believed it would work, and he never likes to admit Mark was right. But it didn’t work and it left them speechless.
Jaemin doesn’t believe in this code. He thinks Jisung can learn to love without it, and says that some dumb numbers won’t do anything. He needs to be taught, and needs to be shown what it’s like to be loved.
That’s what Mark is trying now, to show Jisung love.
Mark heads up the stairs to his small apartment that sits atop his shop. He opens the door, already hearing the sound of running water and the clatter of dishes from the kitchen. He doesn’t think much of it, walking into his living room and starting to tug off his shoes, but then he hears the sound of glass breaking.
He doesn’t think before he’s rushing to the kitchen to see what the problem is.
“Jisung, are you ok?” Mark asks, worry laced in his tone as he sees Jisung staring at the broken plate that’s scattered across the floor.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jisung says, voice calm as he bends down to pick up the shards.
“Wait!” Mark quickly runs forward to try and grab his wrist to stop him, but he’s too late. Jisung picks up a sharp piece and closes his fist around it. “Hey, come here,” Mark softly says, helping Jisung stand up again and gently holding his clenched fist. “You shouldn’t pick up glass without protection, you could get hurt.” Marks eyebrows are scrunched as he carefully unclenches Jisungs fist and surveys the damage.
Jisung watched him curiously as Mark runs a thumb over the small scratches on Jisungs hand. “You’re wrong.”
“Hm?” Mark hums, eyes still trained on Jisungs palm, trying to think of how he’s going to buffer out the new scratches.
“I can’t get hurt, hyung.”
Mark freezes for a second. “How about you go sit in my room while I clean up here, ok?” Mark grabs a hand towel so he can begin picking up the shards. “We’ll try to do something about those scratches.”
“Hyung, it would make more sense for me to—“
“Jisung, can you please go,” Mark says with a playful look as he points to his room. Jisung only sighs.
“I guess i’ll follow your orders—“
“They weren’t orders, I asked you.”
“Whatever you say, hyung.”
Mark cleans up as quickly as he can, making sure all the glass is picked up so nobody gets hurt in the future. Once he’s done, he heads into his room. He flicks on the light.
“You know you don’t have to sit in the dark, right?” Mark chuckles as he heads to his desk to grab his supplies.
“I could see just fine,” Jisung frowns.
“Right,” Mark laughs, grabbing his things and then sitting next to Jisung on the bed. “Let me see your hand.”
Jisung gives Mark his hand, palm facing up so Mark can get to work.
After a few moments, Jisung says, “I don’t see the point in this.”
“In what? Me taking care of you?” Mark chuckles as he continues working on smoothing out the scratches.
“You’re not supposed to take care of me, I take care of you, hyung.”
Mark sighs and stops what he’s doing so he can look at Jisung, but he doesn’t let go of his hand. Instead, he squeezes it. Jisung watches the action curiously, always curious.
“Sung, can’t you let me take care of you?”
“Why do you want to.”
Mark sighs for what feels like the millionth time, he feels like the only thing he does around Jisung is sigh. “Because I care about you, we’ve been over this.”
Jisung, being the curious android he is, asks, “But why do you care about me? I don’t understand.”
Mark tries to remember Jaemins words, give him time, teach him.
Mark finally lets go of Jisungs hand, slowly cupping his cheek instead. Jisung doesn’t react, let’s Mark touch him.
“I don’t need a reason to care for someone, but if you need a reason, I'll give you one.” Mark takes a deep breath, “I care about the people I love.”
Mark finally gets a reaction out of Jisung, although it’s rather small, just a slight widening of his eyes. “You love?”
“Yep, remember when we talked about this?”
Jisung nods, “Yeah, you explained to me what love was and told me who you loved.”
“And who do I love?”
Jisung looks adorable when he thinks, he puffs his cheeks out a bit as he tries to remember, Mark doesn’t remember programming that, but he’s glad Jisung does it.
“You said you love your friends. Jaeminnie hyung, Chenle, Jeno,” Jisung continues to list off the people Mark loves.
Mark smiles as Jisung gets to the end of his list. “You're missing one more name.”
Jisung points to himself. “And me?”
Mark nods, “Yes, you.”
Mark can tell Jisung is thinking, so Mark lets him, He gives him time. Jaemin would be so proud of him.
“So your reasoning for caring about me is because you love me?”
Mark nods, “Does that make sense to you?”
Jisung looks away, “I-I still don’t get it. Human emotions still confuse me.”
Mark brings his other hand up to cup both his cheeks. “Want me to show you?”
Jisungs eyes meet Marks. “How?” He whispers.
Mark doesn't respond, he just moves closer until his lips are hovering over Jisung’s. “Close your eyes.”
So Jisung closes his eyes.
Jisung’s lips are cold when Mark finally closes the distance. Jisung doesn’t react, Mark is the only one moving his lips, but Mark doesn’t mind.
He’s ok with teaching Jisung, no matter how long it takes.