#115
Nikita was a bit surprised when she saw Yoo Seong-woo, but she didn’t show it. She introduced her wife and personally cut the cake they had brought to eat.
As Kim Ji-heon had said, Yeon Tae-soo looked precarious.
The contradictory point was that he appeared more at ease than ever before. Like a sick person who had put all affairs in order.
“Humanoid androids are incredibly complex entities. That’s why there are still many undiscovered errors.”
Nikita’s wife was a woman who knew how to speak kindly. As a doctor, she also knew about the human body and illnesses well. She judged that the reason for Yoo Seong-woo’s non-functioning emotional capabilities was complex.
“Even if there’s no discomfort right now, there will be times when you miss it as you go on. Moreover, since Yoo Seong-woo had art as a hobby, emptiness might come rushing in later.”
“Can that happen even without emotions?”
“Emptiness can come regardless of emotions. And… you might just feel like it’s not working, when in reality, your emotional function might still be operating.”
In other words, the function might be working, but it might not be manifesting in expression.
Yoo Seong-woo seemed to think this wasn’t logically correct, as he remained silent without agreeing, while Yeon Tae-soo thought it was meant as consolation.
“Of course, I’m not an engineer but… how should I put it… we’re of the same kind. I’m an android too.”
The old Yoo Seong-woo would have thanked her for those words, but this time he merely nodded indifferently to show agreement.
“I’ll go get some water.”
Sensing a hint of discomfort, Yoo Seong-woo excused himself with the empty water bottle and stood up. And when he was returning, his improved hearing function picked up the conversation between the three people from a distance.
“It’s crueler if he has memories. It’s a terrible thing to do to the boss.”
Even without a subject, it was obvious who they were talking about. He could also guess why such a conversation was taking place.
“Just break up. Break up and he’ll forget naturally. At this rate, the boss will die…”
Nikita spoke in a somewhat excited tone, and Yeon Tae-soo didn’t respond.
When Yoo Seong-woo deliberately made his presence known, the conversation between the three stopped.
While eating the cake Nikita had brought and having tea time, Yoo Seong-woo conversed naturally, pretending not to know. Even without emotions, he was familiar with human conversation patterns. He didn’t particularly want to build friendships with them, feel grateful, or feel intimacy.
Nevertheless, Yoo Seong-woo acted as naturally as possible, but without pretense. There was only one reason: he thought that’s what Yeon Tae-soo would want.
Now that his emotions were gone, Yeon Tae-soo’s feelings were no longer an important factor for him.
Since affection was gone, there was no particular reason to care how Tae-soo thought of him. Moreover, Yeon Tae-soo was not his owner.
Despite this, Yoo Seong-woo wanted to accommodate Yeon Tae-soo.
‘Is it because of memory?’
Memory influences judgment. It was true that there had been many times when gaining Yeon Tae-soo’s favor had been advantageous to him.
Yes, it must be simply due to statistics. Based on memory, Yeon Tae-soo had the power to bestow benefits upon him, so that must be it.
Nikita’s wife was an android created with technology no less complex than Yoo Seong-woo’s. He wondered if her appearance, almost indistinguishable from a human, was similar to his former self.
She looked happy. Though he could no longer feel the emotion of happiness, his memory clearly recorded when he had been happy.
The memories with Yeon Tae-soo stood out clearly. Though they were just simple data, that part seemed to shine as if surrounded by light. Though the data wasn’t stored as hardware, it was read as a visual element.
Those brilliant moments from that time had been stored by his past self in the deepest part of his memory. Like keeping the most precious object.
That moment no longer remained. It existed only as virtual data. He might never feel the emotions he felt then again.
Even as Nikita and her wife were talking, Yeon Tae-soo’s gaze was almost fixed on him. Yoo Seong-woo thought the warmth felt from that gaze resembled his memory. Again, an irrational thought.
The Nikita couple only had tea before getting up. They made the excuse that Nikita was looking for a new job and had come for an interview nearby, but even Yoo Seong-woo could tell it was a lie. They must have felt awkward with him.
Since it was an awkward time for dinner, Yeon Tae-soo suggested they go up to the room to work and order room service later.
Upon returning to the suite, Yoo Seong-woo didn’t follow Yeon Tae-soo into the living room but stood near the entrance for a moment. Yeon Tae-soo turned to look at him. Just then, the light at the entrance went out.
“Do you still feel affection for me, sir?”
On Yeon Tae-soo’s face, standing in the bright living room, was an expression not in his data.
Emotion identification impossible.
It was a message he had never seen before. Yoo Seong-woo guessed this wasn’t an error. Humans are beings with complex emotions, so among the emotions of this human, who was once his lover, there might be types he couldn’t identify. That would be the error humans possess.
Yoo Seong-woo approached closer. Yeon Tae-soo took a deep breath, which seemed almost like he was backing away.
Looking up at Yeon Tae-soo, who was taller than him, Yoo Seong-woo pulled out memories of their intimate acts. Without needing to select, many scenes flashed through his mind.
He approached the frozen Yeon Tae-soo and loosened his tie. Watching the black tie slide to the floor, he began unbuttoning one by one.
“Suddenly, why…”
Yeon Tae-soo’s hand stopped his. Looking down at Tae-soo’s chest revealed through the half-undone collar, Yoo Seong-woo said:
“If you still feel affection for me, and if you don’t feel repulsion due to my condition, I want to have sex.”
When he raised his head again, Yeon Tae-soo wore the same expression as before. An expression like a broken being.
“…I think it might help with the return of my emotions.”
He lied.
Yoo Seong-woo had no idea what would help his emotional function return. He had never even speculated about it.
Nevertheless, Yoo Seong-woo wanted this act. Yes, there was no more appropriate expression than “want.”
It was a strange error.
Yoo Seong-woo knew that Yeon Tae-soo had been observing him intently for the past few days. And that observation had been sending some kind of warning to him.
As a performance android, he could reflexively sense goodwill or danger directed at him. Even if it was difficult to explain logically what kind of warning Yeon Tae-soo’s recent behavior was, he could sense the ominousness.
The problem was that the ominousness wasn’t directed toward him.
Yeon Tae-soo seemed to be in danger.
It was the first time his function as a performance android had worked on someone else. Perhaps this wasn’t due to his function at all. It might just be that he had known Yeon Tae-soo for a long time and could sensitively perceive his changes.
In a mission carried out without naming or command, Yoo Seong-woo was confused. Humans often called something similar to this “worry.”
“If you don’t want to, I’ll stop…”
As he tried to slip his hand out, the grip on his wrist tightened again.
“How could I dislike you?”
This time, Yeon Tae-soo was smiling. Sadly. As if he might cry at any moment.
He came to kiss Yoo Seong-woo. The moment their lips met and breaths mingled, Yoo Seong-woo remembered how much he had liked this act.
Since emotion and sensation were separate domains, he could feel Yeon Tae-soo’s body heat, urgency, and scent, all of which transformed into sexual arousal.
When Yeon Tae-soo’s hand delved under his clothes and pressed firmly in the middle of his spine, his whole body startled as if having a convulsion. A moan escaped while they continued kissing. Had it always been this stimulating?
Yes, contact with him had always been like a wave of overwhelming sensations. Just the entangling of breaths and touching of flesh blocked all sensory inputs, leaving only him in existence, a wave in a quiet universe.
Although there was no yearning like wanting him or wanting more, his body easily responded to the familiar stimulation. Without realizing it, Yoo Seong-woo twisted his waist and pressed his lower body against him.
He hoped Yeon Tae-soo would open his body as before. He wanted to accept him with a completely open body. He wanted to do all the acts they had done before. With his heated body, he could only press against him helplessly.
Yeon Tae-soo embraced him tightly with one arm, stealing his breath and then returning it. Each of those movements was skillful and familiar to Yoo Seong-woo.
In that familiarity, Yoo Seong-woo clung to him. Something that had been submerged within him was carefully awakening. A forgotten sensation was gradually soaking him. He bit his lip as he felt a moan would burst out the moment their lips parted.
It was the moment when he was about to ask for more, solely out of necessity, thinking that the blocked sensation might open.
“I love you.”
He confessed while pulling Yoo Seong-woo’s body close with all his might.
“I love you, Seong-woo.”
Those words slowly blossomed inside the emotionless Yoo Seong-woo. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
