#044
When the machine shuts off, all operations cease immediately. Breathing stops, and all muscles stiffen with eyes wide open.
There are no biological responses whatsoever.
If it were a human, they wouldn’t be able to survive in that state, but the machines attached to the chest and brain, along with the black moonstone, maintained that condition.
The problem was Yeon Tae-soo.
He mustn’t find out.
He can’t discover that he’s an android right now.
“W-wait, stop.”
As he tried to get up, stuttering, Yeon Tae-soo pinned him down and checked his condition. Meanwhile, the percentage kept rising.
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 40% complete
It’s fast. How much longer can he hold out? Yoo Seong-woo struggled with all his might.
“Wait, let me go, just a moment.”
“Seong-woo, try to calm down.”
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 57% complete
Ironically, he was more worried about the betrayal Yeon Tae-soo would feel than being killed for discovering his identity.
He shouldn’t have given him so much of his heart. His function as an escort should have been weaker than expected. That way, Yeon Tae-soo would be less hurt by the betrayal.
“Let… me…”
“It’s okay. Look at me. Hm? What’s wrong? Did that bastard do something to you earlier?”
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 71% complete
“Stop, stop. I, uh, stop…!”
His language ability was the first to falter. The forgotten headache also rushed in. The member that had been filling him had already slipped out. He could feel the remaining semen dripping, but that didn’t matter now. He needed to get out of Yeon Tae-soo’s sight. Immediately.
He barely managed to get off the bed, flailing. However, his weakened body lost balance and crashed to the floor.
“Seong-woo!”
Yeon Tae-soo tried to grab him, but he shook him off.
“Get, get, get out, please, get, out, right now, please. I beg…”
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 88% complete
“Please…”
Tears streamed down his cheeks. His entire body trembled as if it would fall apart. Yoo Seong-woo looked up at him, sprawled like an object.
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 93% complete
Yeon Tae-soo’s face, obscured by the massive warning message, looked very complicated. The emotion recognition function wasn’t working. Yeon Tae-soo let out a small sigh and got up from the bed. His back, as he walked towards the door wearing only pants, looked heavy.
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 97% complete
Yeon Tae-soo looked back at him once more at the door, then left the room.
Warning: Emergency shutdown preparation… 99% complete
“…Rest. If it hurts, make sure to tell me.”
Click. As soon as the door closed, darkness engulfed his vision.
Emergency shutdown. All functions are temporarily restricted.
Clinging to his last bit of consciousness, he desperately wished. Please, hold on just a little longer.
He begged his broken body like that.
Chapter 5
Everything around was pitch black. Not a single ray of light.
Yoo Seong-woo thought he had his eyes closed, but that wasn’t the case. He was simply in a dark place.
He thought he could see a faint light somewhere. However, it was so dim that it was hard to perceive with his visual function, which was similar to that of a human.
Soon, he realized his body was floating. His white body was swimming in the black space.
Could this be water?
Was he dreaming of water?
The water dream that all androids supposedly have after HY0912 went missing?
Yoo Seong-woo tried moving his arms and legs. His body moved more smoothly than expected. He decided to swim around a bit more here. Right now… he wanted to rest. Just a little, just a little more rest would be fine, right?
It was a sense of peace he hadn’t felt in a long time. Hadn’t he been living on the run all this time? The darkness enveloping his body felt cozy.
That’s when it happened. Small lights slowly began to appear around him.
Tiny lights turned on one by one. And they filled the void. Some lights were gathered as if forming rivers.
Beautiful. He wanted to reach out and touch those lights.
As he was mesmerized by the grand spectacle of lights, he realized. This wasn’t underwater.
It was the black universe, dotted with stars.
“Huh…!”
He took a deep breath. His lungs, which had stopped functioning, heaved painfully.
Yoo Seong-woo quickly looked around. As his visual function gradually returned, he could see his surroundings.
It was exactly as he remembered the room right after Yeon Tae-soo left. His body was naked, and traces of their lovemaking had dried. This meant Yeon Tae-soo hadn’t looked in on him.
“Haa…”
He let out a sigh of relief. However, it was too early to completely relax. He fumbled to get up and picked up the remote next to the bed with his powerless hand. He had to press the buttons with both fingers overlapped because he couldn’t exert any strength.
The digital clock on the wall soon erased the time and showed the date. Fortunately, the date was the same. He roughly calculated the time in his foggy mind. It wasn’t certain, but… it seemed about four hours had passed since Yeon Tae-soo left.
“Ha.”
Only then did a real sigh of relief escape. As the tension dissipated, his body went limp. He collapsed onto the bed, which still bore explicit traces of their lovemaking.
As he slowly opened his eyes and turned to his side, he saw the same disheveled bed sheets and blanket as before. The intense lovemaking with Yeon Tae-soo seemed to have left its heat behind.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. Yeon Tae-soo’s scent was still mixed in the air.
‘How much longer can I hold out?’
Even in this state, he still wanted to live. If this wasn’t a malfunction, what was it? A machine endlessly craving survival.
He curled up his body. And slowly inhaled, then exhaled. As if confirming his own existence. As if just breathing like a human gave him a sense of relief.
***
Despite the Minister of National Defense having come and gone, Eden was still packed with people. Those addicted to gambling would probably guard their slot machines even if the President came, let alone a minister.
Yeon Tae-soo was already on his umpteenth consecutive cigarette. The office, now completely hazy, looked like an abandoned building with its originally bleak atmosphere enhanced by cigarette smoke.
As he glared at the screen displaying report files, he bit his cigarette and answered to a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
“He’s awake. He went to the animal hospital a little while ago.”
Referring to Yoo Seong-woo.
“His condition?”
“He looks a bit tired, but not in pain, they say.”
That’s a relief then. He gestured for the employee to leave and fixed his gaze back on the report, but he couldn’t concentrate at all. As the white spot on the Minister of Defense’s face came to mind, anger surged up.
Bang! With a loud noise, his prosthetic hand finally broke a part of the desk.
That damn minister had caught sight of Yoo Seong-woo. He must have seen his ridiculous appearance as he rushed to block the way, so he probably already knew that Yoo Seong-woo was the one he had been keeping close recently.
But at that moment, he couldn’t help but get excited. The moment he heard that the minister, his mortal enemy, was with Yoo Seong-woo, all reason seemed to evaporate.
Did he notice? That he’s a bit different from the others he’s kept around before.
He shouldn’t have. It would be better if he thought he was just someone to play with for a while and then discard, as per his usual promiscuous nature.
Thinking this, Yeon Tae-soo let out a hollow laugh. It felt like Yoo Seong-woo and he were nothing to each other.
At the same time, he felt unfamiliar with himself. Since when did he start giving his heart to those who offered their bodies?
However…
‘How can I turn away from those eyes?’
Those burning eyes that seemed to be screaming at the top of their lungs to live, to be saved, to be protected – how could he ignore them?
Perhaps it was because he himself couldn’t die easily that he felt more drawn to him.
And those sensations.
Whenever he was with Yoo Seong-woo, the dead sensations invariably awakened. Like blood flowing through a body that had long been a corpse, forgotten sensations came back to life one by one.
That’s why Yoo Seong-woo was a wondrous being to him.
Burying himself in the chair, he leisurely placed his prosthetic hand holding the cigarette on the armrest. The cigarette rolled slowly between his metal fingers.
Now that it had come to this, there was no choice but to confront it head-on.
***
‘A military officer named Major General Kim has colluded with the European Union and sold military information.’
It didn’t take long for the rumor circulating in Zones 2 and 1 to spread nationwide.
As the rumor spread across the country, the whole nation was thrown into turmoil. It had been only a few years since the war ended. Zone 2, which hadn’t been a battlefield, was relatively okay, but the Jirisan area and its surroundings, where soldiers had clashed, were still devastated.
While the war was recorded as a victory in history, individual deaths were piled up beneath that victory. No matter how much war reparations were received, it couldn’t bring back the dead. Nor could it heal the wounds of those who had lost their homes.
And now, a soldier, a high-ranking officer at that, had leaked military information. People were furious. They were excited, saying the traitor Major General Kim should be caught and beaten to death immediately.
Protests broke out, centered around Zone 13, the former South Gyeongsang region. The War Victims’ Association started simultaneous protests in various zones, demanding a thorough investigation of the military and perfect weeding out of spies, saying they didn’t know who else might have sold out the country besides the major general.
Amidst this chaos, Yeon Tae-soo, who claimed to have a “witness,” was summoned by the Republic of Korea Military Police. Yeon Tae-soo willingly complied with the summons.
On the day Yeon Tae-soo arrived at the Military Police building, all sorts of reporters rushed in, pointing cameras at Yeon Tae-soo, the informant. Drone cameras collided and broke as they tried to position themselves in the air.
Before entering the building, he turned towards the reporters and straightened his posture. The moment his handsome face was revealed, the reporters were certain. This man knew how to use his face.
