Chapter Text
Smoke dances in the dusty air as Jiung solders a microchip onto the circuit board. The shop bell rings.
“One sec!” He yells through his mask.
Once the last wire is fixed and protected with shrink wrap, Jiung puts the iron down. He kicks his stool away from the electrical bench, rolling all the way to the door. He gets up and starts pulling his gloves off, stuffing them into his apron as he pushes the door open with his shoulder.
“How can I help you?” He greets the customer while wiping sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
The teenage girl who walks up to the counter isn’t one of his regulars, he’d remember someone with that bright of a hair color. She pushes her long bangs away from the left side of her face to reveal a gap in it, the space where her eye should be, empty instead. Jiung is unphased. He leans across the counter, pulling his goggles down to hang around his neck. He can see a faint blinking behind a torn wire.
“Model?”
“Ximm E25,” the girl replies. “Version 3.” She doesn’t have a voice modifier, it’s refreshing to see on someone as high-tech as she seems to be.
“Fancy for someone visiting a Sector 5 mechanic,” he comments. He takes out a tool from his apron and waits for the girl to nod before he inserts it in the eye socket, checking the numbers that show up on his desk’s smart screen. “How’d you lose it?”
“Ripped out by some asshole at the rally.”
Jiung scoffs, opening the computer under the counter and looking for the replacement parts he needs. “The cyber-pet rally?”
The girl looks at him with deadpan eyes – or, well, eye. “Do I look like a kid to you? The high-speed street racing rally.”
She does look like a kid to him, but he knows better than to trust such an instinct in this day and age. Jiung cuts the small talk short. “4,360 credits for part and installation. 3,960 if your nerves are off or you can take it without moving or crying.”
“The latter,” the girl replies. She pulls her glove off to reveal a fully cybernetic hand. A thing of beauty, probably recently out of the box, too. “You have Nabi State Protection, right?”
Jiung arches a brow. “Do I look like an amateur to you?”
That makes her smirk and she brings her hand to the payment pad. It takes a second, then the pad lights up in green and the parts slide down the chute behind him. Jiung grabs them, putting them on the cart he slides from under the counter with his foot, then opens the gate separating the front from the workshop. “This way.”
The girl follows. She might not be a regular at his shop, but now that he can see her legs too, it’s clear that she’s a regular to mechanics in general. They’re pieced together from a bunch of different models, but the gears roll and steer smoothly together. It’s a passion project, he does not doubt it. Jiung guides her to his client station, letting her get settled on the chair while he fetches the right tools. He fetches his stool and sits down, pushing the chair’s back so the girl is lying down, face under the light. He pulls his mask and safety glasses back on and starts working.
It’s a pretty simple routine for Jiung, work. If people come in with broken or missing pieces of their mechanical improvements, he fixes them. If people come in wanting to order factory-built parts, he redirects them to the store across the street. If they come trying to rob him, he looks them up and down, and goes back to work while they try – and fail – to breach his protective field. Once in a while, he’ll get custom improvement orders, and those are the most fun as he gets to show off his engineering skills.
Then there are androids, too. Jiung doesn’t fuck with those too much because he can’t be bothered with all the laws and regulations on them. He’ll do easy fixes for cash or rare part trade if the owner is willing, but even with Nabi State Protection, he’d rather not enter androids into his system.
Although every rule has an exception, and this one has an exception called Intak – or H-W4N9, his original model serial code, but Jiung doesn’t think much of the original is left on Intak aside from the core, code and power generator.
Intak is an AI-implemented android, he’s state-of-the-art – looks human if you don’t know what to look for like Jiung does – and is only a few years out of manufacturing, and yet already an illegal android. But above all, he’s Jiung’s test subject.
Jiung met Intak a few years back. The latter had recently been illegally rebooted but had fallen to lower sectors when he refused to cooperate with whoever tried to own him. He’d walked onto Jiung’s doorstep with so many parts to fix and no money. Usually, Jiung would’ve kicked him out, refusing to deal with androids, but under the torn chest plate he had gotten a glimpse of Intak’s generator and immediately reconsidered.. So he had offered Intak a deal: he’d fix Intak up for free if he let Jiung use him and his insanely powerful generator to test his builds.
For a while, they could go months without Intak coming to Jiung for a fix-up or Jiung calling him over to test something. Nowadays though, Intak seems to be needing more and more fixing up.
It’s nearing one in the morning when Jiung finally decides to turn his light off and leave the workshop. When he opens the back door, he finds Intak leaning back against the wall across the narrow alley, a boyish smile on his lips.
“Hey hyung,” he greets, hands in the pockets of his worn out cargo pants.
“You were here ten days ago,” Jiung notes. “What the hell is it this time?”
“Am I not allowed to simply miss you?”
The mechanic raises a brow. Intak sighs in defeat and grabs his pant leg to raise it, revealing his ankle. The artificial skin and casing of his calf are ripped, revealing busted carbon-muscle. Jiung groans.
“That’s not an ass o’clock job, Intak.”
“I don’t decide when shit happens to me,” he shrugs.
Jiung rubs his tired eyes. “Please don’t tell me it was a cat again because I’m gonna start looking for whoever made those cyber-pets able to tear through fucking steel plating.”
“Listen—”
“Actually, don’t tell me anything, I don’t wanna know.” He backs up against the door to let Intak in. “Get in before I change my mind and leave you with open nerves on the street for the whole night.”
Intak gives him his signature winning smile and complies. By now, he knows the way through the shop in the dark – he’d even put that knowledge to use when his optic nerves had burnt out. He carefully pushes Jiung’s current project to the side and sits on the workbench, propping his injured leg on an anti-conductive mat. Jiung locks the door before going to his spare pieces stash and looking for appropriate parts.
“Did you finish the thing you mentioned last time?”
Jiung walks back to the bench, putting his gloves on. “Scrapped it.”
“Why? I had a good feeling about it.”
“Reasons. Turn the power off in your leg.” And as soon as that’s done, Jiung starts taking the unsalvageable pieces out. Wires, a piston, a couple of gears, and as unfortunately predicted, carbon fiber.
Carbon-muscle is one of the most expensive parts that goes into building prosthetics and androids, along with titanium bones. There are cheaper options, like for everything, and Jiung does have a few in his stash, but he opens a higher-quality pack from his cabinet nevertheless.
It’s when he takes the torn batch of muscle out that he sees what caused the damage. A bullet lodged right between the bone structure and front plating. He sighs and pulls it out. It’s not his first time pulling out a bullet, not even from Intak, but he’s never seen one like this before. As soon as the crushed ball of metal hits the bottom of the emesis basin, it starts blinking with a small red light.
“What the—”
“Down!” Intak shouts, launching himself at Jiung, making them both crash to the floor. The air is knocked out of Jiung’s lungs from the sudden tackle, and not even a second later, a shock wave renders him almost deaf, dizzying his mind.
Jiung blinks his eyes a few times, trying to come back to his senses. Intak above him doesn’t seem to fare much better, gasping and swaying. The room is dark for a moment before the backup bulbs turn on and shower the room in red light. Then, the android seems to shake himself awake and he scampers back up as best as he can with one less leg working, turning around to reach for something on the workbench. Jiung gets back on his feet clumsily, still off-balance, brushing the dust off his clothes.
“What was that?” He asks, coming closer.
On the bench, Intak has separated the bullet from the rest of the scraps. He’s frowning.
“That’s what—?”
“Yeah,” Intak answers before Jiung can finish his question. Then, almost in a whisper, he adds, “Shit, I didn't realize they were pounders…”
Jiung freezes. “You got that from a cop?”
Intak sighs.
“Intak what the hell?” Jiung pushes his shoulder to make Intak face him. “I told you to stay out of this Alliance bullshit!”
“I wasn't even doing anything wrong! I was just with my friends at the—”
“Your friends are a bunch of outlaws and careless gangsters.” This isn't a conversation Jiung wants to have again, especially not at this hour. “Get on the bench before you fall.”
Intak reluctantly obeys. “I'm an outlaw too in case you forgot, which by extension makes you one as well.”
“You're an unlicensed android and that doesn't make me anything more than a mechanic doing his job.”
Jiung doesn't look at Intak's face, instead going to turn the power back on. He doesn't want to see the hurt look he knows him to be wearing. Intak doesn't like it when Jiung reduces their relationship to work.
“Sure,” Intak mumbles sarcastically after a pause, once he understands that Jiung is putting a final period on the conversation. “And that's why all of my visits definitely get put down on the books.”
Jiung shuts Intak's moodiness out and focuses back on his leg. It's easy enough to shift back into his work mindset, fixing up Intak's leg like he would anyone’s, but his thoughts keep getting pulled towards the bullet. He’ll have to give it a closer look, study how exactly it could detonate this way, and what its effects would've been on them if not for Intak's reflexes.
The clock reads seven past two when Jiung finally wraps Intak's leg in a bandage meant to help the artificial skin regenerate faster.
Intak turns his leg back on, walks a few steps, shifts from side to side, bends and extends his ankle until he's satisfied with the results and gives Jiung a thumbs up.
“Now get out of my sight,” Jiung groans.
“Can I stay here tonight? I told the guys not to wait for me.”
“A bit too late to ask for permission to crash, don't you think?” But Jiung is too tired to argue. “As long as you're gone when I come back to open shop, the workshop couch is yours.”
“Ah, hyung, come on… I meant—”
“Couch or nothing,” Jiung deadpans.
“Oh wow, I love couches so much, good night hyung!”
Jiung lets the door slam behind him, waits for the locking sound, and takes the stairs to his studio down the alley.
He dreams of people running away, gunshots, a body in his arms.
Jiung wakes up to loud banging on his door. He groans. When he clicks the button next to the window above his bed and the blinds open to reveal a barely risen sunlight, he frowns. Who the hell would be at his door so early in the morning?
Whoever it is slams their fist against the door again. “New Seoul Police!” Jiung stills. “Citizen Choi Jiung, open the door!”
Jiung jumps out of bed, not bothering to put on a shirt, and opens his door to greet the officers with only his pajama pants on.
On his doorstep stand two police officers, a middle-aged human man and a rather modern-looking android police assistant.
“What can I do for you?” The mechanic says, clenching his jaw when the cold hits his skin.
“Follow us to your shop, Mr. Choi,” the man says.
“Alright, let me just–”
“Now, Mr Choi.”
Crap. Jiung has a bad feeling about this. It’s not the first time police have rang his doorbell, but they were usually Sector 5 patrol, or had questions on a client of his, whereas now it’s Sky City officers and Jiung thinks they believe him to be involved in something instead of simply a witness of it.
“Okay, okay.”
Jiung slips out of his apartment and barely gets time to lock the door before following the officers. He just hopes Intak has broken camp already. To give him the benefit of the doubt, Jiung avoids the backdoor and takes the cops around the block.
“Please unlock the door, citizen,” the android instructs when they reach the shop’s front door.
Jiung complies, pushing in the key and typing his code on the padlock. The door clicks with a static-y tone and the bell jingles when Jiung pushes it open. The officers follow him inside.
“I have to cross the protective field alone, and I can open it for you from the counter,” he informs them.
“Make it quick,” the human officer grunts.
“May I know the reason for your visit?” Jiung asks, crossing the field.
“Warranted Inspection,” is all he gets in reply as the android assistant projects said warrant in the air.
Jiung does just like he said, he opens the gate for them. As soon as it’s down, the officers walk through and towards the workshop.
“For what reason? I have a right to kn–”
“I know the law,” the human officer retorts, but luckily for Jiung the android is programmed for this sort of thing and as they make their way inside the workshop, Jiung tailing them, it replies.
“Today at 0119 hours, a bullet-beacon sent a signal. Said bullet was shot by a Sector Peace Control officer yesterday at 2319 hours toward a Disturbance Group individual. We are following up on the case, looking to locate the individual.”
Jesus, Intak, Jiung thinks, what are you getting yourself into?
“May I ask why the signal was received with a two-hour delay?”
The man glares at him. “Classified.”
Fucking Sky City and their crooked techniques.
“Either way,” Jiung says as casually as he can, “No one was here at 0119 hours. I close shop at eleven and went home at one.”
“Your input is not requested,” the android replies. Humans lie, why would it care about what Jiung says? Then, it scans the room, which takes a short moment and then it turns to address the other officer. “No bullet-beacon shell detected. The room is clear of signal-charge residue.”
That surprises Jiung, but he guesses Intak cleaned it up. Which means it’s not Intak’s first time dealing with that type of bullet. Jiung’s jaw clenches.
The human officer stops looking around the room to give Jiung a look. At least, cops know they’re disliked in lower sectors, so Jiung’s expression doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. Jiung complied without protest, he has nothing to be reproached for.
“We’re done here, then?”
The officers agree and Jiung walks them out. He locks behind them. He locks the backdoor when he goes back to his studio. He locks his studio door behind him. He calls Intak. The tone rings twice before he picks up.
“Moshi moshi?” Intak greets on the other side.
“The cops showed up at my door, Intak.”
“Shit, I’m sorr—”
“Your ‘friends’. They’re P1H aren’t they?”
Intak is silent. It’s answer enough for Jiung.
“I told you to stay away from that bullshit! Was joining the Alliance not enough? They’re attracting more trouble than necessary.”
He hears Intak scoff. “Just because you don’t believe in their cause doesn’t mean I shouldn’t, hyung.”
“Do they even know that you’re—”
“An android? Yeah, they know.”
“Then they’re using you, they know that whatever progress they might make is not advantageous to you in any way.”
“You’re right. But I’m not doing this for me. And just because who I am, what I am, is useful to them doesn’t mean I’m being used. Also, they don’t treat me like I’m a fucking robot.”
“You know that’s not what I—”
“I’m sorry I didn’t pull the bullet out before coming to you. I’ll repay you next time by letting you use me to test whatever shit you’re making.”
“Intak—”
But Intak hangs up. Jiung groans, throwing the phone onto his bed and running a hand over his face with frustration.
The radio plays while Jiung works on fixing his client’s faulty prosthetic leg.
Usually, Jiung would have it set to a music station, if he’s not playing his own playlist, but lately, he’s been listening to the news while he works. Every time the host announces breaking news, he tenses.
“Water restrictions get stricter in Sector 7, now only at ten liters a day per household.”
Jiung’s client sighs but Jiung himself breathes a little easier. As long as it’s not about Intak, he doesn’t care that much. It sucks, but he has work to do.
“Meanwhile, Sky City citizens waste thousands in their stupid garden fountains,” his client scorns. Jiung hums in half-hearted agreement.
He’s working with Jongseob when listening to the news turns out to be useful. Jongseob is some genius coder kid he met when the younger walked up to his shop, a broken-down cyber-cat in his arms and tears in his eyes. As it turns out, Jongseob had programmed the cat himself, but he wasn’t as great at the building part. From this collaborative work was born a mutual respect, good work symbiosis, and frankly Jiung’s only friendship, aside from Intak. Jiung isn’t sure he can call either of them his friend, so he never does, not out loud at least.
Jongseob is frowning at his screen, trying to find the mistake in his code, when Jiung makes him almost jump out of his skin by suddenly turning the radio volume up.
“—exploded in Sector 4, the act suspected to have been carried out by criminal group P1H in protest against allegedly unfair citizenship laws. There were no casualties and only a few injured—”
“Since when do you care about P1H,” Jongseob says, staring at Jiung’s focused expression.
“Shh!”
“—still have not caught a single of those individuals—”
Jiung lets out a relieved breath, turning to start working again, when he catches Jongseob’s eyes on him.
“What?”
“You know one of them.”
Jiung frowns.
“You know someone in P1H. You’ve been looking out for them, that’s why you’ve been carrying that stupid stone-age radio everywhere, haven’t you?”
“That stone-age radio works perfectly.”
Jongseob rolls his chair to face Jiung. “Hyung, do you really?”
“Maybe.” He tries to focus on the drone Jongseob and he have been working on.
“Who?”
“I’m not telling you that! What are you, a cop?”
Jongseob rolls his eyes. “I literally hack police information as a hobby.” When Jiung doesn’t respond, he adds: “It’s Intak, isn’t it?”
Jiung sighs, putting his screwdriver down. “Why are you such a smartass?”
“You literally don’t talk to anyone else other than me.”
“... Touché.”
Jongseob thinks for a moment, biting his cheek in a way Jiung knows to mean it’s something serious.
“Actually, I… I’ve been helping them, too.”
“You what?”
“I’m not– I’m not part of them, but I’ve been sharing info with them, anonymously – or at least under my hacker alias. Stuff that could be useful. Stuff that protects them from the government. They’re more careful and organized than you think. You should trust Intak with this.”
Jiung cards fingers through his hair. “I trust him. I just– I don’t–”
Jongseob looks at him knowingly. Maybe even a little too knowing.
It takes almost a month before Intak meets Jiung again. He hasn’t made contact since Jiung’s phone call. Jiung almost called him a few times but thought better of it.
Unfortunately, they don’t meet in the greatest of conditions.
“Your friend is drunk out of his mind,” the guy on the phone said, waking Jiung at an ungodly hour to request he come get Intak from the bar the latter decided to get wasted in.
“He kept rambling about you,” the barmaid says as she helps Jiung get Intak on his feet. “A lot of it is probably not my place to tell but if I were you I’d sit him down to talk once he’s sobered up.”
Jiung doesn’t want a stranger’s advice, but he doesn’t say anything, appreciative of the assistance she’s giving him to sit Intak on Jiung’s bike.
“Thanks for not throwing him to the street,” Jiung says, starting the engine.
“Thanks for covering his tab,” she replies with a playful smile. Jiung chuckles, then leaves.
The ride to Intak’s place is easy, the streets not too busy this late in the night. Intak holds on too loosely around Jiung’s middle but he’s fully leaning against his back, cheek smooshed against his shoulder. He’s still ranting incoherently, not that even if what he said made sense Jiung could hear any of it with the wind blowing past them, but he feels it reverberating through his back.
Intak lives on the edge separating Sector 5 from Sector 6 in a small apartment a dozen floors above the street. It’s nothing impressive per se, but he has a nice view over Sector 5’s commercial zone. When Jiung helped him move in, Intak spent hours on end watching the ad screens and neon lights blink and move at night.
After shouldering Intak up the elevator and entering the studio, Jiung tries the light switch next to his door, but nothing happens so only the city nightlife lights the apartment as he drags Intak to his bed. He drops the android, who lets out a childish whine, and sighs.
“Just because your body is able to feel the effects of alcohol doesn’t mean you should get intoxicated beyond normal motor functions,” he mutters, removing Intak’s shoes.
“But i’s’fun,” Intak slurs, kicking his feet to make Jiung’s job harder.
“Not for the people around you.”
“People ‘round me,” Intak repeats. “You?”
Jiung hums, finally done with the shoes, which he throws towards the entrance. Intak’s place is always a mess, so it doesn’t make much of a difference. He sits at the edge of the bed – well, it’s really just a mattress on the floor.
“‘Round me… Pretty.”
Jiung glances up, Intak turning to look outside at the same time. “If not real, why so pretty,” Intak continues to himself. “‘S’not fair.” He seems to be brewing thoughts too big to handle with a drunken mind. Jiung stands to get him a glass of cold water, hoping that freshening up his core will make him sober up quicker. Intak eyes it with a pout, like the glass of water offended him but he can’t do anything about it, though still drinks it when Jiung scoots closer and brings it to his lips.
Once the glass is empty, Jiung puts it down on the floor and sighs.
“You gonna tell me what the reason for this was?”
“Nuh-uh~” Intak sing-songs with a smile.
“Alright, guess I’ll ask again tomorrow. Go to sleep now.”
“Nuh-uh!” Intak repeats with a frown this time.
“Intak, come on,” Jiung tries to push Intak down to lie down, but Intak keeps sitting back up like a spring. “Aren’t you tired?”
Intak shakes his head, but he yawns. Jiung pushes down one more time, and instead of sitting up this time, Intak grabs him and pulls him down instead. Jiung doesn’t expect it, falling to Intak’s side. The latter uses his confusion to shuffle closer, wrapping his arm around Jiung’s waist and putting his head on Jiung’s chest.
Jiung sighs. He’s trapped now, Intak’s inhuman strength holding him down. But it’s not a big deal, Jiung doesn’t really need to get up. If he wants to talk with Intak, he actually has better chances if he stays until morning, until Intak has sobered up, instead of going back home just to sleep a few hours in his own bed. Intak’s mattress isn’t even uncomfortable, it’s just… Intak is warm against his side, his breathing steady on top of him, his hand tucked under Jiung’s other side, his knee hooked over Jiung’s legs.
Jiung closes his eyes, ready to give in to comfort, but they open wide again when Intak – who he thought was already fast asleep judging from his silence – speaks. “Du-geun, du-geun, du-geun,” he mimics Jiung’s too-quick heartbeat. “So real,” he continues, moving his hand to flatten his palm over Jiung’s chest. “You sound so real, little heart. Hyung has a good heart, so advanced it even sounds real.”
Does he think I’m someone else? Jiung thinks. A little heart is what heart-like cores are commonly called. Did he go drinking with an android he met?
Intak keeps blabbering but Jiung’s heart rate eventually slows back down, lulling Intak until he finally falls asleep. Jiung follows not far behind.