.genesis.

05

ｃｌｏｔｈｅｓ /ｋｌəʊ(ð)ｚ/ ｇａｒｍｅｎｔｓ ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ ｂｏｄｙ; ａｒｔｉｃｌｅｓ ｏｆ ｄｒｅｓｓ; ｗｅａｒｉｎｇ ａｐｐａｒｅｌ.
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Bee held up a grey pair of boxes in front of me.

“This?” she said, pushing the garment in my face. I shook my head, and plucked the item from her dainty hands.

“No…” I repeated. “Um, here.”

I led her to the female’s department and pointed to the area full of dresses, skirts, and singlets in different sizes and shades of colors.

I wanted to buy her clothes that were meant for her, but she had never been exposed to these kinds of clothes since she only knew, and saw, what I wore.
I looked around the department in hopes of seeing someone that could help us in the situation.

I looked back at Bee, whose attention seemed to be directed to a pair of bright pink underwear. She ran her finger over the lacey bit, and picked it up with both her hands.

She held it up for me to see. “Eric buy this for Bee?”

I couldn’t help myself. I blushed. “I don’t know. Do you want me to?” I mumbled.

She’s not buying it for me, I thought to myself. Stop being such a damn pervert.

Bee looked up at the ceiling for a moment, pondering, and then placed the garment back on the rack.

“Another,” she said, and went off to roam near the skirt’s section. I didn’t know if I was suddenly glad or disappointed.

I followed after her, still keeping a steady lookout for any sales representatives. The store wasn’t very crowded today. I only witnessed families and people with robots alongside with them, shopping. Like me, but Bee stood out amongst them all. I glanced at her. She didn't even resemble a robot. The trait that distinguished them between humans were their ears, curved, bell-shaped almost. Hers were small and normal-looking. But if one was to look at the nape of her neck...

“Eric,” Bee called out my name, tugging me from my train of thought. I glanced up at her, and saw her waving at me in the furthest corner of the department.

I went up to her, and ogled the long, yellow dress with a petticoat she was holding up.

“This,” she said, smiling. “Bee wants this.”

I touched the garment sewed underneath the dress. “Well, why don’t you try in on?”

Bee looked at me for a second, and then seemed to understand. But not in the way that I had hoped. Without hesitation, she reached to the waistband of her pants and proceeded to slide them off.

I made a choking sound and stopped her from stripping in the middle of the store. A few heads turned in our direction.

“Bee!” I gasped, my face tomato red, “I meant to say try it on in the changing rooms!”

“Beeeeee,” Bee uttered with an annoyed look on her face, “Bee wants to try.”

“Try in the changing rooms, then!”

After I had the chance to see Bee in the dress, I quickly brought it for her, along with more clothing and a couple of pairs of underwear, socks, and other essentials that she picked out. When Bee emerged from the changing room, I was entranced by how well the yellow material suited Bee’s skin and hair.

Bee did a little twirl in front of me and grinned. “Eric like?”

I nodded, half-smiling. “You look pretty, Bee!”

More than pretty. Beautiful.

Bee clasped both her hands to her chest and gave a little sigh. She turned to face the full-view mirror and gazed at herself.

I got up from my seat and went to stand behind her. She almost looked human for a minute...

Bee looked at her figure in the mirror, and then gazed over her shoulder to me.

“Happy,” she said once. Her eyes grew soft, and all of a sudden, she leaned on me. I patted her head, my hand lingering. A strange feeling shot through my stomach.

I laughed it off. “If you like the dress so much, then I’ll definitely buy it for you.”

Bee rubbed her face in my chest in reply. Her hands encircled my waist, almost to a point where she was squeezing me too hard.

"Ah-hum, Bee?"

Bee didn't seem to notice. "Hmmm...."
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Bee spun around in the living room, her laughter echoing through the house to the kitchen where I was preparing dinner. Bee was wearing the dress I got for her, and she seemed to like it more than I had originally thought she did. Nevertheless, I was happy that she didn’t have to wear my old clothes. They were simply too big for someone as small and petite as her.

I chopped up a piece of vegetable on the cutting board, then, a knock on the door made me pause.

“Eric!” someone said. There was the sound of a doorknob turning, followed by a door opening and closing.

“Wow!”

I stepped out of the kitchen with a knife, holding it close to my body. I gulped. Who was that?

When I jumped out from behind the couch, I was suddenly staring at my friend, Peter, in the middle of the living room with a rather smug look on his face. He wasn't looking at me, but...

Bee was sitting on the floor in front of him, her eyes wide with curiosity.

Peter regarded me shrewdly. “Well, Mr. Ikona, I was never informed that you were seeing someone.”

“T-that’s not the case!” I said, shaking the knife at him. Shit. He's seen her.

Peter crossed his arms. “What isn’t?”

“I-I mean, look closely!” I pointed to Bee’s head, my finger bringing his attention to the small, white hairclips perched on either side of her bangs. “She’s a robot!”

Peter blinked, and then stepped closer to Bee, who still remained on the floor.

“Oh, you’re right. I didn’t notice,” Peter commented, examining her. He got down on his knees in front of Bee and chuckled.

“I see… This is a really cute robot, Eric,” he said, gingerly patting her head. “No wonder you were hiding here that day.”

I nearly choked. “Wha…”

Peter turned to give me a smirk over his shoulder. “I thought you were hiding something when I came over to ask you about homework."

“Oh, well, um…” Damn it. Guiltily, I placed the knife back on the table.

“You didn’t have to hide her, y’know.”

“You’re right. I didn’t have to… I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

Peter laughed. “Not at all. But, I thought you didn’t own a robot?”

“Oh, that’s because…”

Then I explained everything to Peter. What happened that night when I was walking home, where I found Bee, how I managed to carry her all the way to my apartment, and how I spent nearly three hours trying to locate her ‘ON’ button. Peter listened with astonishment.

Bee remained silent throughout the whole explanation. Her eyes flickered back and forth between our faces.

“To find a robot like this for free…” Peter started to say as I was ending my story, “I have to say you’re nothing but lucky.”

“You think so?” I said. Peter nodded.

“Yeah, I wish I had found one too, since they’re so damn expensive nowadays.”

He sighed, and gazed back at Bee longingly. “And to top it all off, you got a really cute one.”

I smiled slightly. “Well, I think that part is lucky. But I haven’t been able to do much with her…”

Peter frowned. “Is that so?”

I nodded.

“Well, what do you want to do?”

I scratched my head. “I wanted to browse the web, among other things…”

Peter reached up to tap the robot's hairclips. “To gain access to the web, I'm assuming you connect the required cords here..."

“Bee!” Bee uttered, flinching a little bit from his touch.

I focused my attention on her face. “When I found her, all she could say was ‘Bee’ but I managed to teach some new words to her…”

“Hmmm… if she had pre-existing software already installed, you wouldn’t need to worry about that.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I thought she was broken at first.”

Peter looked back at Bee, who was watching me. She blinked slowly twice.

“Could I borrow your TV?” Peter then asked, pointing to it.

“Of course.”

Upon receiving my permission, Peter reached for Bee’s hairclips again, and then did something I didn’t think was possible. He tugged at the clip with his thumb and forefinger, and with a small clicking sound, they popped open, revealing three cables. Red, blue and yellow.

I had a basic understanding of robots, but I didn’t think that her hairclips could be opened like that. I had seen robots with their cables inside their ears, but never inside a hair accessory. I thought they were put their for appearance...

Peter pulled the cable out of the clips, and went to the TV. He got the red cable and connected it to an input at the front, and did the same to the blue and the yellow.

“Okay, now the display will show the default specs, the OS version, and the CPU clock speed when I do this,” he said.

When he turned the TV on, the words ‘/:NO DATA’ came up on the screen.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. No data? That would mean…

Peter brought his hand to his chin, stroking it in thought. “Data has either been lost, or it hasn’t been installed yet. I don’t understand.”

He fiddled around with the cables connected to the TV. “What does this mean? She shouldn’t be able to move without an OS.”

The three cables were then slid back into Bee’s hairclips after a while of inspecting, and Peter closed them.

He was mumbling to himself. “Robots need an OS, or else they are just mannequins, unless you actually install it yourself…”

I hung my head. “Peter. Does this mean I will have to buy the software?”

I really couldn’t afford that right now. I looked over to Bee, who had her eyes locked onto the blue television screen. But, I didn't want to lose her.

Peter nodded his head. “I’m afraid so. But which kind?”

Bee eyes suddenly misted over. There was a glassiness to them that wasn't there before, making the ember of her irises quiver slightly. Could she? Did she? Understand?

“Hey,” Peter titled his head, “Can I play around with her? I would have to do this manually.”

I frowned. “Play-play around? Where?”

Then, without warning, or an answer from myself, Peter suddenly pulled up Bee's dress, revealing her bare chest.

“Now, what brand is she?”

Bee didn't seem to mind at all, as if he was merely commenting on the weather. Next to him, I was slowly falling apart. My face felt like it would burst into flames. He knew what he was doing, he was more experienced than me. I stuck to that thought. My eyes went to the ceiling, and stayed there.

“If she’s PCN, her model number would be here…”

I couldn’t stand it. He was so casual. Just when I was about to say something, I made the mistake of looking down, and then had the pleasure of seeing Peter groping her left breast, and mumbling on about something else.

Meanwhile, Bee remained completely and utterly obedient in the current situation. In my perplexity, she caught my gaze, and had the nerve to smile sweetly at me. Before I could do anything further, Peter shot upwards and held her ankles, pulling them so that her the tips of her toes were facing the sky. I was hyperventilating. Everything could be seen!

“Let’s see, if I remember…”

I had had enough. In my flustered and crazed state, I decided to grab Peter in a tight headlock and swear at him at the top of my lungs.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted, feeling my heart thudding like I had run a marathon. My nostrils flared.

Peter squirmed underneath my arms. “I’m looking for the model number!” he yelled. “Let go of me!”

I did, eventually, and collapsed on the ground, gasping. God. I felt my face burning.

Peter coughed into his hand. “Hey, are you alright? It doesn’t seem like you can handle a robot.”

“W-what are you talking about?” I said, talking to the ground. “She’s just a robot…”

"Beeeeee-"

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Of course I’ll be all right!”

Peter sighed, and I felt him get up off from the floor “All right, don’t get your panties in a twist. I won’t be checking her anymore.”

“Huh?” I looked up.

He looked over at Bee, who was still lying down on the ground. Her hair fanned out underneath her, her hands outstretched. She had a bewildered look on her face. If I wasn’t so embarrassed, I would’ve laughed.

“I’ve never seen this type of model…” he started to say, then he turned to face me, serious.

“Eric, do you really want to know where she came from?”

I didn’t have to think of my answer. I nodded, still slightly flustered.

“Okay, then. If you want, I’ll email the address of a friend who knows a lot more about robots than me. He might be able to tell you where your robot was made, and by whom."

“Thank you,” I said, biting my lip. “For everything.”

He pouted, fixing his hair. “It’s no problem. Although I could’ve lived without you attacking me like that…”

I laughed it off. “Sorry, I’m just getting used to…”

Peter smiled a bit, and waved his hands in front of his as if to say no big deal.

“If you asked me, I would have to conclude she was custom-made.”

Then, with a final goodbye, he was gone.

I stared at the door closing. Custom-made? You could actually make these robots?

I grew confused. The amount of time and effort… I shook my head, and crawled over to Bee, who still remained on the ground. She had her eyes closed, and seemed to be sleeping. She looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to bother her. After what had happened, I understood that she was tired.

I went to get a blanket from the other room, and draped her curled up body with it. She sighed in her sleep, touching it.

My lips curved up in a smile, and I reached out to smooth her soft hair. Wherever she came from, I was very glad to have found her. It was only a matter of time before I truly knew why.
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