#080
How long had he slept? His body, fatigued and tense for so long, craved sleep. Though he felt he should wake up soon, his body kept sinking.
At some point, Popo came and worriedly tapped his face before leaving. Yeon Tae-soo had been by his side continuously, never leaving.
The voice calling “Seong-woo” was sweet. Among the hands touching him, there was no prosthetic. Only soft palms with body heat checked his forehead and touched his shoulders.
“You have a fever, Seong-woo.”
I see. No wonder he kept feeling chilly even while sleeping.
Was fever and drowsiness also among android malfunction symptoms? Since his deterioration was unusual, it wouldn’t be strange if he had symptoms beyond the commonly known headaches and memory loss.
It was during one of those moments, drifting between sleep and wakefulness while suffering from a low-grade fever.
When he finally regained consciousness and opened his eyes, Yeon Tae-soo was holding his hand. Holding it with both hands, as if cradling something precious, he rested his forehead on them.
The posture once again looked like he was praying. How strange. I’ve made you my religion, yet why does it look like you’re the one begging me?
“…If you’re going to sleep, go lie down comfortably… Why are you like this?”
When he asked in a hoarse voice, Yeon Tae-soo raised his face. A smile appeared on his normally unadorned, expressionless face.
“I enjoy watching you.”
“…What’s there to watch… Really.”
He grumbled and averted his gaze, but couldn’t hide his reddening face.
“You’re so cute, I have to watch. When your lover is cute, it’s fun just looking at them. Haven’t you ever been in love before?”
“It’s good to find joy in small things. I envy that.”
He hadn’t particularly meant to be sarcastic, but somehow it came out that way. But he was half-sincere. What was there about his face worth watching?
Of course, he knew objectively that he had a handsome appearance. His face was designed to be appealing to people of all ages and genders, so he couldn’t even jokingly call himself ugly.
Rather, because of that, he vaguely suspected that Yeon Tae-soo might get tired of looking at him. Wasn’t a face that was so typically “pleasant to look at” likely to become boring quickly?
Or perhaps not. Maybe because of the large scar across his nose bridge, he now just looked unsightly. He always found himself anxious about what part of him might become a flaw in Yeon Tae-soo’s eyes.
“Don’t you enjoy looking at my face?”
He laughed incredulously. Yeon Tae-soo brought his face right up close.
“Hmm? I’d be hurt if you said you felt nothing. It’s your lover’s face, isn’t it?”
His face, smiling with twisted lips, looked as innocent as a boy’s. Yoo Seong-woo cautiously activated his emotion identification function. He wasn’t sure if it would work properly after so long, but…
[Anxiety]
It seemed this function was malfunctioning too. Just as he was deciding to turn it off for good, several words appeared simultaneously.
[Desire]
[Affection]
[Possessiveness]
Seeing these emotions filling the screen as if in demonstration, his face heated up again. So it wasn’t malfunctioning after all.
“Still, my face and dick are pretty decent. Don’t you think?”
[Anxiety]
[Worry]
So the king of Eden, this man rumored to change partners every night, was worried that his face might not be good enough for him? Yoo Seong-woo couldn’t help but laugh.
“Pfft…”
Yeon Tae-soo’s face hardened.
“Hey, are you laughing at me? That’s mean. I’m hurt.”
“No, no. It’s not that…”
Instead of saying “it’s unexpected,” he blurted out a phrase that suddenly came from his database.
“It’s because you’re cute.”
Yeon Tae-soo’s face hardened even more at the words spoken with lingering laughter. Seeing that expression, which momentarily looked cold, Yoo Seong-woo belatedly realized his mistake. Did he dislike it? Well, there probably aren’t many adult men who enjoy being called cute.
He was about to explain that he didn’t mean it that way, that it was just an expression of affection, when Yeon Tae-soo brought his face even closer. Their noses were almost touching.
“You think I’m cute?”
There was no longer any coldness in Yeon Tae-soo’s face as he asked so close up. No, he now realized that he had mistaken a surprised expression for coldness.
“Ah… well…”
“Cute?”
“Move aside a bit…”
“Move aside? Are you going to speak informally now? I must be at least eighteen years older than you.”
With his much larger build, the way he kept pressing in was like a giant robot dog.
“Y-you’re heavy!”
Only when Yoo Seong-woo, unable to push him away and just gasping for breath, yelled that it was difficult did Yeon Tae-soo slightly lift his upper body. Even then, his intense gaze remained fixed on him.
Deliberately avoiding that gaze, Yoo Seong-woo moved his lips for a long time before finally speaking.
“…This is the first time I’ve thought an adult man was cute.”
“Same here.”
Yeon Tae-soo immediately retorted. His response was light, but his expression had suddenly become serious.
His hand gently stroked Yoo Seong-woo’s cheek. Humans can put emotion even in their fingertips. It felt like witnessing one miracle after another whenever he was with him.
“It’s my first time too. Thinking someone is cute.”
After spending nights with so many people, he hadn’t found any of them cute? It was somewhat hard to believe, but he was telling the truth. Though he had no function to determine truth, his gaze was so straightforward that it was obvious.
Now, his intense gaze was no longer burdensome. There was no reason to avoid his eyes. He was still aware that Yeon Tae-soo despised his kind, and his body was like a time bomb that could break down in front of him at any moment, but at this moment, he wasn’t afraid.
He thought he understood why humans believe in magic. Because moments like these are difficult to express in other words.
As they maintained eye contact in a comfortable silence, Yeon Tae-soo’s hand suddenly rose to his face and touched his forehead.
“Your fever has gone down.”
The touch on his forehead each time he woke up was incredibly sweet. Like this warmth he felt now. Yoo Seong-woo closed his eyes comfortably.
“You were groaning in your sleep. Aren’t you in pain?”
“I was groaning?”
Surprised, he opened his eyes again. He didn’t remember groaning.
“Yes, and you were talking in your sleep too.”
His heart sank.
“…What… did I say?”
“That you like Yeon Tae-soo.”
It took about two seconds before he realized that he was joking. Suppressing a sigh of relief that was about to burst out, he instead lightly punched his stomach, not hard enough to hurt.
“But Seong-woo, have you really never been in love before? Am I your first? Hmm?”
As he suddenly pounced on him, tickling his sides, Yoo Seong-woo, who had been about to get up, lay back down and was helplessly pinned.
“Ah, no…”
“No? You mean you haven’t? I’m your first lover? Really?”
Worried that his inexperience would be exposed if he said it was his first time, he kept his mouth shut and avoided Yeon Tae-soo’s gaze, but he couldn’t help but recognize this as another form of affirmation. Suddenly taking a deep breath, Yeon Tae-soo exhaled with a “haah.”
“Ah, fuck… I almost came without even putting it in.”
Yoo Seong-woo was startled by the foreign sensation and moisture between his bare legs. Isn’t this… already ejaculation?
“Let’s just roll around together all day today. Don’t do anything, just give me your cold.”
Yeon Tae-soo seemed to have guessed that fever and continued sleep were symptoms of a cold. Yoo Seong-woo nodded, pretending not to notice his heated body.
The black eyes meeting his gaze were like bottomless abysses. It felt like he could confess everything in front of them.
But couldn’t he be lazy, just a little? Couldn’t even a broken machine be happy for a moment? Especially if he was going to die anyway.
Somehow feeling something hot rising in his throat, he closed his eyes. Yeon Tae-soo pulled up the blanket to cover his shoulders.
“Sleep more. Don’t think about anything.”
That single phrase worked like a command, draining the strength from Yoo Seong-woo’s body. Despite having slept so much already, drowsiness quickly overtook him. With his eyes closed, Yoo Seong-woo slowly drifted off to sleep in the warmth of his body.
Hoping that his body wouldn’t betray him while he slept.
***
Only after confirming that Yoo Seong-woo was completely asleep did Yeon Tae-soo leave the room.
He stood naked in the living room, but didn’t feel cold at all due to the strong heating. Rather, the air in the house was so warm it made him sweat.
Despite the heating being set so high, Yoo Seong-woo’s body was cold.
Earlier, he had a fever, so Yeon Tae-soo had undressed him and wiped his body with a wet towel. When the fever still wouldn’t subside, he was considering waking him up to give him some fever reducer when he woke up on his own.
And as soon as he awoke, his body cooled rapidly. His body temperature changed at an unnaturally fast rate, but he himself didn’t seem to notice.
Having put on pants, Yeon Tae-soo stood by the window with a cigarette in his mouth. Beyond the window, through which the outside couldn’t be seen from the inside, a dry, unsightly winter stretched out.
Contemplating whether to light the cigarette while rolling the lighter in his hand, he ended up spitting out the cigarette and tossing it away carelessly.
Running his prosthetic hand over his face in a dry washing motion, the cold sensation refreshed his face like water. Yet his thoughts remained jumbled.
‘Sir?’
‘Are you alright?’
The moment he opened the door, he saw Yoo Seong-woo collapsing.
Yeon Tae-soo pushed aside the startled men and rushed to embrace the fallen Yoo Seong-woo with his entire body. Yeon Tae-soo’s upper body shielded Yoo Seong-woo’s head.
‘…Call a doctor. Now.’
After sending the men away with instructions to call a doctor, Yeon Tae-soo checked his breathing. Both his heart rate and breathing were normal.
Steadying his rough breathing, Yeon Tae-soo reached out and felt the forehead of Yoo Seong-woo cradled in his arms.
His hand trembled as he closed the still-open eyelids of the unconscious man.
Yoo Seong-woo’s body in his arms was unnaturally stiff.
Yeon Tae-soo had seen these symptoms before.
They were identical to what his android adoptive mother had shown before being disposed of.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
