Gaze Detection | Jikook |

Chapter 7: My Biggest Fear

     "You know I'm incapable of getting a job... not with this anxiety constantly affecting my daily life. I'm just glad my father pays for this place just to keep me somewhere other than slouching around at home and doing nothing. I can do it here now without anyone nagging me except for you..."

      "This is why you need to break out of those fears, Jimin. You need a job, friends, and even a lover when you need some company. You can't dwell on the pain or else you will never grow from it! I will slip a note under the door to that house to invite Jungkook over. I won't be here just to let you two talk and get to know each other, any other day, I will come over and maybe then I will scan him."

      "This is ridiculous..." Jimin muttered and watched Taehyung stand up to approach a small desk that was pressed against the wall. "What are you doing?"

      "I'm going to write the note, then, I will go and it will be all up to you."

       "Why do you have to throw me into this so soon? I'm going to get nervous around him again. He's tall... and his height is going to make me feel so small."

      "Oh, Jimin, you're already small! My height doesn't bother you, does it? No, it doesn't. You have nothing to be afraid of."

      Taehyung's words were assuring, but not enough to ease the rapid beating of Jimin's heart. He didn't know what to say to Jungkook, let alone, face him without wanting to run off. At that very moment Jimin began to fear many possibilities; what if Jungkook wasn't a nice creation at all? What if he was too kind and Jimin can't help but to fall for this android at the very end? But who couldn't forget the last question that overthrew the rest, what if Jungkook was to leave him when Jimin least expected it?

    The young man continued to look at the direction of the window as the sounds of Taehyung writing quickly began to bite through the silence that filled the room right after. Jimin didn't want to just stay in his head every day and almost wanted things to turn out well, however, his hands fixed onto his phone as he brought it up to his face. Pressing the button on the side and having his eyes meet with the lock screen of the beach right on his phone.

    Precious memories and precious thoughts longed to haunt him, but he quickly placed the phone down and returned to looking out the window; staring as if Jungkook was right outside, sitting on the snow like before.

      "Fine... I'll do it. But if I don't want to stay friends with him, promise me you won't force the idea onto me again."

      "You have my word, Jimin. If this doesn't work out, you will always have Namjoon and me! Of course, you will need to talk to him more but other than that, I'm sure Jungkook is a great android. If he wasn't, he would have been deactivated by now. All bad Androids or Androids that end up ruining themselves, always get deactivated."

       "You're right..." Jimin closed off the conversation with a soft whisper as he tried to ease his own mind by thinking up words to silence the endless waves of fear crashing onto his train of thought. "There's no way Jungkook would have bad intentions, it's not possible at all. If an android ever acts on bad behavior, they will get deactivated in seconds. I will be safe... right?"

       Eventually, Taehyung left the house, which also meant that he was going to deliver the note and be on his way. During this moment, Jimin laid on the couch, carefully thinking of the many words he could say to the young robot or even many conversations they could have. Jimin anxiously planned on what to say and even considered the things Jungkook might not be able to talk about since Taehyung wasn't able to as well.

       Jimin continued to count the seconds passing him by and even imagined the first conversation playing out perfectly when in reality, he was just too scared to mess up in front of someone new.

       "I'm so scared... I feel like I'm going to throw up..." Jimin thought in his head as the silence around him only soothed his thoughts for now. "I don't want to do this. I can do this tomorrow, I can send Jungkook home or just not answer the door. He will understand when I explain later. I can tell him I was feeling sick or I can tell him I was sleeping by the time he was coming over," Jimin thought and looked over to the orange sunlight beaming onto the ground and noticed that he had been waiting for quite some time by now. "Or... he just won't show up and I wouldn't have to see him at all. Taehyung left a while ago, Jungkook must have gotten the note by now and-"

     Abruptly, there was a knock at the door. In seconds, Jimin's noisy mind went silent as his eyes widened. Instantly, his heart raced as if he just ran a mile, his blood went cold and his hands began to shake. Was he truly planning on passing up this opportunity to make a friend with the robot next door? Jimin was tempted, but the side of him that no longer wanted to feel so empty without another comforting him just the way he had it before, caused him to stand up and approach the floor.

    His feet sunk into the ground like quicksand the more the android knocked in between pauses. This was it. This was the moment Jimin was either going to regret or treasure completely. The second Jimin reached the door, he looked through the peephole just to lock his eye onto the charming android; patiently waiting for Jimin to answer him.

      "I got this..." Jimin managed to calm himself down and counted seconds to steady his uneasy breathing. When he was ready, he tossed away any sense of doubt and finally answered the door. Within seconds, he pulled the door open and locked eyes with the charming robot before him. Meeting with his gaze without saying another word as if this was the special language they somehow developed out of nothing.

      "Hello, Jimin..." Jungkook said with a gentle smile and began to take note of what Jimin wore. The oversized white hoodie Jimin had on was in contrast to the black colors Jungkook wore. The way his words perfectly rolled off his tongue at the pronunciation of Jimin's name, left the human staring at awe and not even daring to look away even once. The android awaited Jimin's response but noticed how silent Jimin became right in front of him. "Jimin... are you okay?"

      "Uh... yes... yes I am..." Jimin whispered and quickly stepped aside to let Jungkook in. He pried his brown eyes off of the robot so suddenly and looked down. Feeling embarrassed about staring longer than he already should. "Please, come in."