EXO FICS.

BaekYeol. Absolute Chanyeol

And I'm so grateful to you
I'd have lived my whole life through
Empty as the sky
Never knowing why
Lost forever
If I never knew you

Pocahontas soundtrack - "If I Never Knew You"

In the kitchen of his lonely apartment Byun Baekhyun, 19, stares helplessly down at the catalog on the counter. He had found the catalog in his mailbox that morning, staring at him amidst a sea of bills and letters from home. The catalog is of average size, though a little on the thin side, with bright colors proclaiming the great uses and amazing reviews of the products it sells.

Baekhyun hasn’t even purchased anything yet and this is already a mistake. He should know better than to trust his neighbor, Huang Zi Tao. That kid is always getting into things. Byun Baekhyun cares nothing for fads so what the hell is he doing with a catalog of potential robotic boyfriends?

Only Tao could've passed this on to Baekhyun. It makes sense considering Tao has a robot boyfriend already. Kris is tall and broad; he’s the kind of robot one would think had the power to take over the world one day. Baekhyun’s a little intimidated by Kris but this feeling has almost nothing to do with his tall stature and commanding voice. Kris is pretty life-like for a robot and possesses enough “human” intelligence he can easily be mistaken for human if it weren’t for the eerie, artificial light shining in his eyes.

Baekhyun constantly forgets Kris isn’t as human as he seems. All things considered, Baekhyun doesn’t know why he’s even entertaining this idea of a robotic partner. It’s true he doesn’t have much success in that department with school and work taking up large chunks of his life but he knows there’s no reason to rush things. If he wants a boyfriend, he would actively seek one and not take the punk way out, buying his own.

Still, a robotic boyfriend does have a certain appeal. It's mostly for curiousity's sake that he opens the catalog and looks through it.

Staying clear away from the “sexbots” on the last page, Baekhyun lets his eyes roam the first two pages: they detail the many possible “cute” boyfriends eligible for purchase. Purchase. His parents will never know of this. He doesn’t know what they personally think of this new “robot” fad but he’s seen newspaper articles about the older Korean generations being terribly confused, frightened and disgusted by their youths shacking it up with tin cans.

“It’s only a matter of time before they enslave us!” a very frantic reporter said on the television just last night.

Baekhyun doesn’t buy into all the hype. He’s seen those robots in action and he doesn’t think they’re capable of staging their own uprising when they don’t know what “hot” or “cold” are. Kris can tell Tao what temperatures are considered “hot” and which are “cold” but when asked to describe what they feel like, he draws a blank. A very handsome blank, for his face is shaped like that of a movie star’s, but it’s a mental blank nonetheless.

Baekhyun’s never lived with another person, much less a robotic one. Flipping through the catalog, he sees they apparently don’t need much to survive: just basic human interaction, some mental stimulation and “love.”

All the robots here are advertisied as “boyfriends” but Baekhyun just wants a companion, a roommate of sorts. He doesn’t really know how Tao does it. Kissing a robotic boyfriend, no matter how “in love” one is with it would be like kissing one’s own computer, right? Or kissing a doll? Or kissing a doll that had a computer inside of it? How lifelike can they be?

Baekhyun should just close this catalog and forget all about robotic boyfriends and all that nonsense. He’s a good-looking guy (…kinda), he’ll find a real boyfriend on his own.

It’s only after fifteen minutes of flipping through the booklet and landing on the same page that he realizes his eyes are drawn to one figure and one figure only. The CH model: One hundred and eight two centimeters (Tall); brown, curled hair (cute) and has the ability to…fall in love? What the hell does that mean? It’s a computer; what does it know of love.

Against his better judgment, Baekhyun is drawn to that sweet face. The model is one of the cheaper ones and Baekhyun knows it’s foolish of him to be thankful when “cheap” means almost nothing to a university student. He’s going to be swimming in debt when he graduates medical school but this…this toy, wouldn’t it be interesting to have?

Even if Baekhyun can only stand playing with it for a little while, he would like to personally experience what the big deal is about. He’d like to judge for himself just how “life changing” (according to the catalog) having a robotic boyfriend/roommate/ is.

And, anyway, if things turn out too badly, he can always blame Tao for this.

Tao was the one who gave him such a catalog after all.  














A few weeks later, Baekhyun comes home to a gigantic box in front of his door. The box is almost bigger than his apartment door itself and he stares, dumbfounded, at the giant, sparkly sticker (“The Boyfriend Store~!”) in front of the box. His shame is the only thing that gets him moving and pulling the box inside, carefully laying it down in his living room and then stepping back.

After spending the better part of two hours trying to get the box open, the lid finally pops open with a loud gush of air.

Baekhyun falls back, not expecting the lid to suddenly come alive on its own, and stares as a very tall, very naked man stands up in the box. He thinks a part of his brain fizzles up and dies because from this angle, he is getting very intimately acquainted with his doll and that was not the purpose of all this. He stands, palms wet with sweat.

The thing shakes its head and yawns, stretching upward. Baekhyun gets an eyeful of cool, smooth white skin breaking out into goose pimples as the AC of the apartment hits him. Is this supposed to happen? Baekhyun thought they didn’t feel.

“H-Hello?"

It opens its large eyes, blinking sleepily at him. “Oh,” it says in deep voice Baekhyun would not have associated with such a cute face. “Hello.”

When it laughs and its face gives a large twitch, Baekhyun knows why this model was significantly cheaper than all the rest. It's defective. They mailed him a broken doll. However, he paid for this so he won’t let himself get too worked up about it.

He disappears into his room and comes back with some clothes, telling it to clothe itself. It does so easily, smiling. “My name is—“

“You have a name?” Baekhyun’s voice sounds stupid to his own ears.

“Of course,” it smiles. “Don’t you?” A little twitch causes one of its eyes to close; Baekhyun thinks he looks like an overexcited puppy.

“Yeah, but I’m—“ Baekhyun stops, eyes wide as the thing takes one of his shirts and pulls it over his head, hair flying all over the place when its head emerges.

“You’re--?”

It really is life-like. Baekhyun can’t take his eyes away from the very human looking pallor of its skin and how, after it licks its dry lips, there seems to be a small amount of moisture passed from tongue to lips.

“What’s your name?” Baekhyun tries to see if it’s on the box, but underneath the sticker, there is only a serial number.

“Chanyeol,” it…Chanyeol says, smiling. There’s that eye twitch again. “And you are?”

“Baekhyun,” he replies, standing up straighter. Chanyeol’s height is a bit intimidating, especially when Baekhyun pants are still in his hands and not on his body.

“Um,” Baekhyun says awkwardly, averting his eyes. “Pants please.”

“Pants?” Chanyeol asks, holding up said article of clothing. “Oh! Oh, right! I’m supposed to wear these, right? Humans don’t like walking around naked, hehe. Sorry!”

Baekhyun nods, apology accepted. It’s hard to stay mad at robot Chanyeol when he even flushes a pretty pink in embarrassment at his blunder. I hope this guy doesn’t end up taking over my entire life, Baekhyun thinks with some dismay.

Chanyeol trips as he steps out of his box and Baekhyun flails, worried about his new investment injuring itself before he’s had enough time to interact with it.

“Sorry!” Chanyeol turns a darker red, rubbing the back of his head. Already, he’s more life-like than Kris ever is but maybe that’s because Baekhyun has never seen Kris express negative emotions. It had been foolish of Baekhyun to think that just because Chanyeol was robotic that he was meant to be smart.

After tripping over everything from his own feet to air, Baekhyun makes Chanyeol sit down for the rest of the evening. He’s expensive and Baekhyun hasn’t looked into robot insurance yet.  

















Chanyeol arrives on a Sunday afternoon so, the next morning, when Baekhyun wakes up for school, he opens his eyes to see eyes staring him down. He yelps and swings without thought, catching Chanyeol right in the cheek.

Chanyeol gasps but feels no pain; Baekhyun’s hand throbs so hard it’s hard for him to pull on his clothes later. Chanyeol apologizes for startling him and tries to explain he’s never lived with a real human before so he was just curious and Baekhyun looked so peaceful sleeping that—

“Did you watch me all night or something?” Baekhyu grumbles, messily brushing his teeth with his good hand. It’s also the hand he has the least coordination with.

“Was I not supposed to?” Chanyeol asks.

Baekhyun look at him in the mirror, a vein throbbing in his forehead; Chanyeol tries to shrink into the doorway. “

Don’t you…need to sleep too?” Baekhyun asks after his vein has calmed down. “Um, I don't 'sleep.' I just recharge my batteries and that's every three days,” Chanyeol admits, passing Baekhyun a towel to dry his face with.

Baekhyun takes it, face still sour. “Thanks…I’m going to school now so—“

“Can I come? I’ve never been a human school before!”

Baekhyun winces, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Please?” Chanyeol’s smile is a bit hesitant, cheeks still stained with a small flush. The eerie light behind his eyes all robots have only makes him look more eager to Baekhyun, who is already having trouble resisting someone who looks so cute and relatively harmless.

Though still a little traumatized by Chanyeol watching him sleep, he agrees to let Chanyeol come along, under the condition he speak to no one, even if they address him first.

From their walk to his university alone, Baekhyun notices Chanyeol really isn’t as intelligent as he thought he would be. This isn’t to say Chanyeol is dumb, no, but after the third time Baekhyun has to grab him and pull him back before he’s run over, it’s official Chanyeol is more than a little oblivious. He apologizes over and over, flushed bright red, and Baekhyun hates himself for finding Chanyeol’s color so endearing. Chanyeol seems genuinely remorseful every time he causes Baekhyun mental anguish, though it doesn’t stop him from attempting to cross more streets without looking both ways first.

But Chanyeol is cute and he smiles at stupid things like a bee flying overhead so he attracts the attention of a small female population the moment he steps foot on campus. He’s amazed by literally little things and squats to watch a trail of ants march their way into the grass.

“So cool,” Chanyeol says when a fly buzzes by his ear and he tries to catch it, stretching up and pouting when it flies right out of his grasp.

Right then and there, though he doesn’t know it yet, Baekhyun loses a small part of himself to that pout.

“It flew away,” Chanyeol explains when he notices Baekhyun’s eyes on his face. “I just wanted to see it up close! It probably thought I was going to shmush it or something.”

Shmush.

Baekhyun predicts a very cute and fluffy death for himself.

Maybe he’s the one who’s going to walk into traffic one day when Chanyeol smiles at him like that.

Already, Chanyeol’s smiled so much his twitch is barely noticeable to Baekhyun. Chanyeol isn’t the perfect robot but that’s okay with Baekhyun because he is anything but the perfect human. It’s not his place to demand perfection if he can’t present it himself.

He learns a lot more than he ever would about himself in that first walk to the university with Chanyeol. Since he’s not facing Chanyeol during the walk, he can’t see the eerie glow of Chanyeol’s eyes. He can delude himself into thinking he’s just strolling around with a…friend? Roommate? Person, then. A person with a very young mental age; Baekhyun is sure there are eight year olds out there who aren’t as distracted by insects and shadows as Chanyeol is.

“You’ve never seen any of this?”

“Oh, I have,” Chanyeol smiles, stretching his hand up to touch the tree he’s leaning against. “But not in real life. I have a lot of images in my head of what everything is supposed to be and feel like but this is the first time I’ve ever really seen or felt them. I can’t feel them entirely, not like you can.”

Left over rain water rains down on Chanyeol when he shakes the branches of his tree. Baekhyun steps away, wiping away the moisture on his shoulder. Chanyeol stands beneath it all, waterproof and “eager to feel”, as Baekhyun would put it.

“Do you think I’ll ever be able to feel all the things that you do?” Chanyeol asks when Baekhyun has stepped back to him.

“I don’t know, maybe.” The Baekhyun yesterday would have told Chanyeol no outright. He's a robot and he isn't meant to feel human things but after spending such little time with him, Baekhyun doesn’t feel any urge to take away Chanyeol’s bright smile.

For all he knows, Chanyeol has the potential to feel more than Baekhyun ever does so Baekhyun shouldn’t count him out.  














Baekhyun and Chanyeol meet Tao and Kris at lunchtime. Baekhyun cannot escape the self-satisfied look Tao throws him over his udon and he cowers a bit under Kris’ judging glare.

“What model are you?” Kris asks Chanyeol.

With a small smile, Chanyeol turns to Baekhyun. Baekhyun stares at him for a long minute before he understands. Oh, right, the orders he had given Chanyeol in the morning.

“Answer him,” Baekhyun says.

Tao’s eyebrows rise, “You have such a tight grip on him already, hyung. Loosen up.”

Baekhyun ignores him, choosing to pick at his food. After Chanyeol responds to Kris, all smiles and eye twitches and everything, Kris says something to Tao in Chinese that sounds very… judgmental to Baekhyun. His Chinese is pretty amateur at best but it’s very hard to hide condescending tones, no matter what the language is.

Baekhyun does his best to ignore the entire thing, thinking he might be a bit self conscious and overprotective of stupid, smiley Chanyeol, whose attention has now turned to the open window.

“Didn’t pay a lot for him, huh?” Tao asks when Baekhyun is sure Chanyeol is distracted.

Baekhyun shrugs, “Does it matter?”

“Careful, hyung,” Tao says, suddenly somber. “Kris tells me robots built like yours don’t last long. You might not want to get too attached.”

“Built like mine? Why?” Baekhyun sets his chopsticks down, hands lowering to clench in his lap. “What’s wrong with him?”

“You cannot tell me you have not noticed,” Kris drawls. He looks lazily to Baekhyun and his eyes shine with something that looks much like pity; Baekhyun hates it. “The way his eyes move, his lack of attention span, that facial twitch…I will give him one hundred days at best. I think it is better if you return him to the company right away and demand an upgraded—“

“No,” Baekhyun shakes his head. “I can’t. I don’t have any money left. It’s either him or nothing.”

“I would take the nothing if I were you,” Tao says cautiously. “Money is nothing—“

“Easy for you to say,” Baekhyun bites.

Tao has the decency to look offended, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tao isn’t exactly strapped for cash like Baekhyun is. It’s petty for Baekhyun to throw something like that in Tao’s face when Tao doesn’t flaunt his money as much as he could but the bitterness still fills Baekhyun’s mouth. He’s not attached to Chanyeol yet but the thought of sending him back…it already upsets Baekhyun. He doesn’t care if Chanyeol isn’t perfect like Kris or about his facial twitches or any of that stuff. Chanyeol is the one who was sent to Baekhyun. Though he doesn’t believe in all that fate mumbo jumbo, there must be some reason why Chanyeol, of all CH models, was sent to him.

While he thinks, he feels Kris’ hard stare on the side of his face.

To his other side, Chanyeol makes small “oh~” noises as he stares out at the world, laughing to himself. “I’ll remember what you’ve told me,” Baekhyun says politely. “But I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”

“Suit yourself,” Kris says but the look in his eyes say, ‘You will regret this.’

Baekhyun hopes he won’t.  















A few nights later, Baekhyun comes back from the shower to see his calculus problem set has been finished without his knowledge. Sighing, he calls out a strangled “Chanyeol!” and jumps when Chanyeol bounds down the hallway toward him, almost galloping.

“Yeah?” His smile is so wide it takes up the better half of his face.

“Did you do my homework for me? Again?”

Chanyeol’s smile dims, “Was I…not supposed to?”

Baekhyun face palms, “No. Never. Please never do my homework for me ever again, okay? I need to learn this without your help.”

“But I just wanted to—“

“No,” Baekhyun says sternly. “Stop. Don’t touch my homework. I’m forbidding you from going near it.”

Now chastised, Chanyeol looks down at his hands in the perfect submissive posture. “Okay, I’m sorry,” he says easily, nodding. “I won’t do it ever again. Chanyeol won’t touch Baekhyun’s books ever again.” He only speaks like this when he’s trying hard to nail something in his head, like he did after Baekhyun told him to memorize his cellphone number in case something happened while Baekhyun was out.

Baekhyun has trouble being seriously angry with Chanyeol who, again, always “wants to help” whenever he sticks his foot in Baekhyun’s life.

With a sigh and a small “it’s okay”, Baekhyun lays his hand ontop of Chanyeol’s. This is the first time they’ve touched. Baekhyun is surprised to feel some heat coming from Chanyeol and lets Chanyeol take up his hand and examine it to his liking. He holds Baekhyun’s hand to the light and then pulls on every one of his fingers, testing out the bones beneath his flesh.

When Chanyeol accidentally brushes along Baekhyun’s wrist and Baekhyun flinches, trying to pull his hand back, Chanyeol looks up. “What is it? Does it hurt?”

“No, it…it tickles.” Baekhyun clears his throat, suddenly embarrassed.

“Tickles?” Chanyeol repeats. “Does something feel good when it tickles?”

“N-Not really,” Baekhyun tries to pull his hand back again when Chanyeol experimentally brushes his thumb along the veins of his wrist. “It feels uncomfortable and it makes me want to laugh.”

“But doesn’t laughing mean you’re happy?” Chanyeol smiles, “Does tickling make you happy?”

“Maybe it does to other people but not to me.” Chanyeol lets him take his hand back, face drawn in concentration. “Tickling is…okay,” Baekhyun sighs. “The nerves under the skin become excited when touched a certain way. It makes a lot of people laugh but it makes me…nervous. I don’t like people touching me.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol’s eyes are wide. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—“

“No, no, it’s okay,” Baekhyun says, holding his hands up. “Let’s stop talking about this now, you’ve apologized enough today already.”

It gets harder and harder to explain the natural bodily processes Baekhyun takes for granted. Chanyeol knows what happiness is and what the symptoms of happiness are but he has trouble with other, more complicated emotions, such as fear or anxiety. Baekhyun can rattle off as many facts as he can about emotions and what their physical consequences are but Chanyeol only shakes his head, not quite understanding why humans feel the certain things that they do.

“I want to be human,” he confesses one day. Baekhyun looks up from his history notes, closing his book. It’s late and Chanyeol is next to him on the couch, hand fiddling with a Rubix’s cube Baekhyun found in his closet.

“You do?”

“Everyone where I come from does.” Chanyeol’s voice is hushed. It always is during the night. Baekhyun hasn’t tried to get him to speak louder; he thinks Chanyeol believes he will disturb the peace of the night if he talks louder.

“I know Kris wants to be human too,” Chanyeol continues. “He’s better at hiding it than anyone else I know. Being human is… I don’t really understand why I was made, Baekhyunnie. Sometimes, I look at myself and I look at you and I think we don’t look too different so why were you born human and I wasn’t? I feel chills when you leave the window open but I never feel cold. I feel bad, really bad, when you yell at me, but I’m not scared of you or ‘nervous’ the next time I see you. I just want you to be happy and I want to be happy too. Being happy is the only thing I really…understand about being human. Is that sad?”

“No,” Baekhyun rubs his chin, deep in thought. “It’s not sad. We humans try to gather and retain happiness our entire lives. If you can do it so easily, then obviously we have a lot to learn from you too.”

“But is my happiness…real?” Chanyeol’s eyes are low. “I know my happiness isn’t….it’s not human happiness so when I’m happy, do I feel it with the same intensity you do?”

Baekhyun is at a loss for words. Of course, he had thought of these questions himself to some extent but he never once entertained the idea Chanyeol was plagued by the same things.

When Chanyeol looks up, the artificial light behind his eyes seems a bit dimmer than usual. Baekhyun suggests he charge himself before he runs out of power and Chanyeol agrees, stumbling away from the couch and into the box Baekhyun has propped up in the corner of his bed room. Baekhyun follows him quietly, watching as Chanyeol steps into the box and shuts the makeshift door. A soft glow radiates from the box as Chanyeol charges, accompanied by a low humming sound that lulls Baekhyun into a peaceful sleep.

After Chanyeol has charged, he usually sits on the edge of Baekhyun’s bed, facing the window until morning. Baekhyun has asked Chanyeol if he would like a futon to rest on but Chanyeol declined, saying he preferred the “heat” of Baekhyun’s bed and the view from his apartment window.

On many mornings, Baekhyun has woken up slowly and turned himself to watch Chanyeol. The sunlight plays beautifully in his brown hair. Chanyeol really is like a doll sometimes, especially when he thinks Baekhyun isn’t looking. It’s still a mystery what Chanyeol thinks about when he watches the sunrise.

He’s painfully oblivious about certain things but he’s not by any means stupid, no matter what Kris or Tao try to tell Baekhyun. He finds Chanyeol’s interest in the smallest forms of life endearing and also cute. But then again, there aren’t many things about Chanyeol Baekhyun doesn’t find cute. He is one of the “cuter” models after all. Even his little facial twitches, that are apparently supposed to be the most obvious signs of his defective structure, are only cute to Baekhyun and a part of him looks forward to seeing Chanyeol smiles just for those little movements.

Chanyeol may have watched Baekhyun on the first night but it is Baekhyun who watches him for many nights after.

He feels a strange tightening in his chest when Chanyeol curls up at the foot of his bed and tries to “sleep.” He tries very hard to sleep. He says it’s one of those things “real” beings are capable of doing and he’s a bit frustrated that he can’t.

It breaks Baekhyun’s heart and he doesn’t know why.    
















One day, almost in a trance, Baekhyun gets lost in his university library looking for “humanity.” He understands very little about what scientists consider a “human” and he wishes to understand a bit more so he can compare it to Chanyeol and everything Chanyeol is.

The task itself sounds complicated but it’s only after collecting twenty different psychology, sociology, anthropology and literature books that it dawns on him how unreal the task he has given himself is. Right away, he discards all the books having to deal with human evolution since Chanyeol is already modeled after a Homo sapien.

“I think therefore I am,” says Descartes.

“Our world is not the ‘real’ one,” says Plato. “What we see isn’t real. We must attain a higher level of understanding to surpass what we are taught is reality.”

Through Plato, Baekhyun starts his journey into the study of human nature and it is here that his forehead meets the book.

It’s too much.

His species has been debating its own existence and purpose for thousands of years. There's no way he’ll understand everything in one night. Not to mention the small fact that his books are translated translations of a translation and everything hurts by the time he even thinks about picking up Rousseau.

At the end of the night, right before the library closes, he tries to put everything together.

There's no mistaking it. If Plato is right and ‘reality’ itself isn’t real then Chanyeol is just as real as Baekhyun is. Chanyeol thinks for himself, he has feelings and he knows what he is…do other animals know what they are? Do the little bugs Chanyeol likes to play with know they are bugs and he isn’t? Thinking isn’t only a human thing, since Chanyeol does it, but does thinking alone make him human enough?

The fifth time he collapses on his books, a librarian walks over to check if he’s still breathing.

Baekhyun, to his own dismay, still is.

He walks away with nothing learned.   













Chanyeol is always there when Baekhyun comes home from school. He’s quiet and makes himself scarce while Baekhyun does his homework. It doesn’t help much: Baekhyun is still distracted by thoughts of what Chanyeol could be getting himself into. Chanyeol has a habit of collecting bugs from outside and bringing them in, if only to watch how they interact when faced with his probing fingers.

One day, he asks Baekhyun if animals feel pain.

“Some of them do,” Baekhyun nods. "Animals with complex nervous systems feel pain but I know some insects don’t because they’re so primitive.”

“Am I like an insect then?” Chanyeol asks, lifting his finger to show the tiny moth clinging to his fingertip.

“No, you’re not an insect. Insects can’t feel a lot of the feelings you can. You’re different.” He hopes this reassures Chanyeol but he can’t be too sure. Chanyeol must’ve been practicing his facial expressions in the mirror again because he gives nothing away as he continues to play with his moth.

Living with Chanyeol has gotten better this past month.

Chanyeol now “sleeps” in Baekhyun’s bed with him at night and, many a time, Baekhyun has woken up with his face pressed into Chanyeol’s chest. It unnerves him and he can’t explain what compels his body to pull him closer in the middle of the night. He hopes Chanyeol just notes this under Weird Things Humans Do and allows him to live with his own embarrassment. But he doesn’t. He had been bought from a “boyfriend” store after all. Chanyeol was programmed to go through all these motions of holding someone. Still, Baekhyun is uncomfortable with more than friendly touching and he’s always the first to pull away from Chanyeol’s tepid embrace.

“You don’t like me, do you?”

Baekhyun looks up from making lunch, frowning. “What? Of course, I like you. You wouldn’t live here with me if I didn’t like you.”

“No, that’s…that’s not…I’m not your boyfriend.”

“Well, no—“

“But I’m…I’m supposed to be your boyfriend, right? That’s why I was made, to be someone’s boyfriend and since you bought me—“

Baekhyun turns on the rice cooker and steps away from the stove, fidgeting with his hands. “This…it’s not that there’s anything wrong with you, Chanyeol, I just, I don’t see you like that.”

Chanyeol nods but Baekhyun knows he doesn’t understand. “Why did you buy me then? Just to be your friend? They had friendbots back home, I…”

“You?” Baekhyun presses.

“Before they put me in the box…they said I would wake up with someone who…loved me. You were promised a robot to do whatever with, but I was promised a…boyfriend so…so I’m sorry if it’s hard for me to just accept this how it is.”

Once again, Baekhyun is left speechless. In this past month, he has grown closer to Chanyeol than he ever has to anyone before. Tao has even stopped dropping in unexpectedly because all Baekhyun talks about now is Chanyeol. No, it’s not love. It’s not even a crush. It’s not infatuation.

Baekhyun is just curious and utterly fascinated by the little Chanyeol understands of human interactions. It pains him to see someone usually so happy go lucky frown and apologize for feeling a certain way.

The fact that anything is hard for Chanyeol alone is its own feat. Baekhyun doesn’t want him to continue feeling like this.

Swallowing his nerves, he takes Chanyeol’s hands in his and pulls him in for a hug. He has properly hugged anyone in a few years but Chanyeol is a bit warm, his natural core processor temperature, and the whirling of his “heart” is comforting to Baekhyun, who has heard this noise for the past thirty days without pause.

Chanyeol envelops him easily and Baekhyun is reminded once again Chanyeol was created for this very purpose. He was made to bring someone happiness through a stable, loving relationship. Baekhyun’s a bit sorry he currently can’t be the one to give Chanyeol all that he needs but he wouldn’t send him back for the world, not now.

“I’m sorry,” he says, speaking into Chanyeol’s clothed chest.

“Don’t be,” Chanyeol replies. “Can I…Can I kiss you?”

Baekhyun shivers, head swimming. This is a bad idea. This has bad idea written all over it in large, very obvious font. This is getting attached. This is letting Chanyeol become attached to him. This isn’t supposed to happen because Baekhyun had warned about this but this is Chanyeol’s purpose and Baekhyun would be a fool to deny someone their true nature. He would also be a fool if he forced himself to believe he doesn’t want it.

Chanyeol’s lips look soft and if anything…if anything, Baekhyun can always later make himself believe the kiss was for experiment’s sake. He has been meaning to see if these robo-boyfriends are just as warm and pliant as human ones. He’s kissed an ex girlfriend before so he thinks he remembers what a kiss is supposed to feel like but nothing prepares him for the way Chanyeol tips his face up, eyes dark.

Baekhyun feels his throat close up at the sight; Chanyeol really was made for these types of things, huh? His eyes are still open wide when their lips touch.

Luckily for him, Chanyeol makes no move to further deepen the kiss. That would only land Baekhyun in more hot water with his own logic-filled conscious. He still hasn't forgotten Kris’ one hundred days warning.

As crazy as it sounds, there would be no straining effort on Baekhyun’s part to fall for Chanyeol. He knows this and understands his feelings well. He’s purposely holding himself back for many reasons, a few of which disappear from his mind when Chanyeol pulls him back, lips brushing over his forehead.

Boyfriendbots are apparently really, really good at what they do, Baekhyun observes.

When Chanyeol disappears into the bedroom for a quick charging, Baekhyun remains rooted in the same spot, mouth open. His rice burns and his heart races painfully in his chest; how could he be falling for a robot?

Every argument against this relationship in his head is attacked by memories of living with Chanyeol and his adorable smile. Chanyeol is real. He’s not human but he’s capable of some feelings and for Baekhyun to want to emotionally stay away from him because he isn’t “real” is cruel. He knows just how much Chanyeol wants to be human. Baekhyun’s lived through enough of Chanyeol’s tossing and turning to know he’s not any closer to reaching “sleep” today than he was three weeks ago, and he hates it.

It’s hard to believe not too long ago, Baekhyun was staring at a catalog in his kitchen and cursing Tao for putting these ideas in his head. Now he’s still in the kitchen, but there’s a robotic man in his bedroom and there’s an anxious feeling in his chest that hadn’t been there before.

He looks to the calendar, reaching out to flip two months away. The one-hundredth day with Chanyeol is lightly circled with a red pen.

There’s still enough time. Kris can always be wrong. He’s a machine and they aren’t always perfect. Everything alive has to make mistakes.

Right?