human heart for bictory
Title: human heart
Recipient: bictory
Characters: taekwoon-centric
Rating: G
Wordcount: 2,164 words
Summary: when robot taekwoon met hongbin and jaehwan, he started changing.
Notes: I started off writing a cat au, but then I just cannot seem to get the inspiration for that, resulting in a robot!au. probably not what you wanted, sorry if it’s not up to your expectations but hope you enjoy it nevertheless
they wanted to make the world a better one, so they invented project '007', a secret project meant to be revealed to the world only after they could create the best robots the world had ever seen.
best robots, what did it even mean? to those inventors, it would probably meant a robot who could actually think on its own, looks like a human and could actually have feelings.
they are metals. metals that look like humans. artificial intelligence in its finest form.
"project '007' trial no. 68 experiment no. 2, reporting for check-up no. 5," but in their pursuit of perfection in robotics, they forgot what all these research entailed---money. their sponsors were sick of the lack of product and one by one, they were pulling out.
but they were so close to success. personalized to fit their inventors, created with humans in mind. the genius. the very essence of perfection, yet with one defect.
emotionless.
"this is no good. check-up no. 2 reporting, terminate trial 68, I repeat, terminate trial 68."
after all, they were just blocks of metal to respond to the beck and call of humans. nothing more.
dreams of companionship were wasted on these abdomities.
-----------------------------------
"we need to end this soon. trial 68 is a failure. we need to embark on a new one before all sponsors are gone and we are left with no resources," namjoon, a smart looking man and the leader of this project was persuading the rest of his team. sanghyuk looked the most reluctant as he glanced at the robots who were all standing in a row, waiting for a verdict. sanghyuk knew namjoon saw only mere experiments standing in front of him, but sanghyuk saw in them the potential to be humans. they might have no idea what emotions were and they might feel no hurt when they are destroyed, but they could think and their wired brains would probably know that they are no longer wanted.
before sanghyuk could even utter a word, murmurs of assents passed though the group and sanghyuk could only clench his fist when a smile appeared on namjoon's face, "trial 68, terminated."
-----------------------------------
"go and don't come back," sanghyuk had secretly sneaked in the laboratory at night and picked several robots that had more potential to become humans, helping them to escape their fate. sending all away would be a dumb act as namjoon would definitely notice the empty room, but three was a small enough number to escape the eyes of the inventors.
when the robots saw the outside environment, two of them immediately rushed into the darkness, happy to be free from the suffocating room they were placed in. one remained and sanghyuk looked at him curiously, "why are you not leaving?"
"I have nowhere to go," the face of the robot remained emotionless, but sanghyuk felt pity creeping up on him all the same. cursing under his breath, he took out his mobile and dialed the number of his best friend.
it took a few rings before the receiver picked up the call, "hello?"
"thank god. hakyeon hyung, I have a situation at hand..."
-----------------------------------
and that was how the robot ended up in hakyeon's two story bungalow and was stuck with the name taekwoon.
"wait so you're telling me that this hyung is a robot? but he looks human!" a little voice, squeaky at its best, whined. taekwoon didn't show any sign of registering the voice, until a small, grubby hand jabbed at his leg. "wow, he feels human too!"
"this is taekwoon hyung, beanie. be polite, please."
"taekwoon is boring, hyung," hakyeon's five-year-old nephew, hongbin, whined. "someone cool enough to be a robot should have a cool name! like leo!"
"no, bean. you don't go around messing with the name. taekwoon shall be called taekwoon."
"hyung..." hongbin pouted, his round eyes lost a little of its shine.
"I like leo better too," the robot, or now, taekwoon spoke up and the corner of his lips went up a little when he ruffled hongbin's hair.
"see, leo hyung likes the name too!"
"his name is taekwoon, bean."
"leo hyung," hongbin ignored his uncle as he jumped into taekwoon' arms, "want to see my toys?"
"toys?"
"mhmm. I have a robot toy that looks nothing like you, cuz you're wayyyyy cooler."
"hongbin," there was a warning in hakyeon's voice, asking hongbin to be more sensitive, but taekwoon did not understand emotions so he stood there looking a little puzzled when hongbin became slightly downcast.
taekwoon might not know what emotions was, but he knew hongbin should be happy, because hongbin was what his mind registered as 'cute', "where's that robot? I'll love to see it."
"in my room! let's go!" he scrambled out of taekwoon's embrace and ran towards a door, dragging taekwoon along with him.
-----------------------------------
it was surprisingly easy for him to adjust to this family. he was introduced to hongbin's friend, wonshik, a small little boy who had a mischievous glint in his eyes and hakyeon's sister, hayoung, a beautiful lady who's recently divorced, but the one that made him the most comfortable was hongbin's older brother lee jaehwan, a teenage boy with a wonderful smile.
when he first met jaehwan, jaehwan immediately established that taekwoon was made to be around the same age and invited him to come along to meet his friends, which taekwoon politely said no to. jaehwan, who refused to take no for an answer, repeatedly pestered him until taekwoon nodded his head to stop the whining. it turned out to be fun as they went to karaoke and found out that taekwoon was as good a singer as jaehwan.
from then on, jaehwan and taekwoon developed a pretty friendly relationship and today, they were supposed to go to somewhere jaehwan called an 'arcade', bringing the little cute hongbin along.
taekwoon looked forward to it and he wondered if this could be considered a feeling or was it just something in his mind that told him this experience would be fun? he was thinking of the ability to feel these days and the more he thought, the more confused he became. how exactly was he supposed to feel? he wasn't so different from humans on the outside, but sanghyuk had explained to him how he was created and his inability to feel. it made him frustrated because he wanted to feel and be like hongbin and jaehwan, but according to sanghyuk, there was nothing he could do about it, for he was just metal inside and out.
"taekwoon, we're leaving!" jaehwan's voice travelled from the first floor to taekwoon's room on the second level.
"coming!"
-----------------------------------
"oh my goodness. leo hyung." hongbin was lying tummy up on his bed, while taekwoon/leo sat still on the bottom of his bed, making sure that the frantically rolling poppet didn't accidentally roll off his bed and hurt himself. his hands jolted up as beanie hung off the side of his bed with his arms outstretched, just as his heart gave a painful lurch.
"hm, hongbin?"
"I don't get it. like, you're metal. then how do you feel so human?" the young boy looked serene. eyes closed, his breaths were coming out in even puffs, even as leo inhaled deeply, then stopped himself.
the action felt wrong. air was not a necessity, more like a commodity to him. but recently, he felt himself inhaling more and more, and for some reason, the action felt good.
it felt...
human.
-----------------------------------
"don't you find me odd? i'm incapable of feelings. i cannot feel sad, happy or angry. I just act on logic," taekwoon found the words a little awkward coming out from his mouth, but he needed to know.
jaehwan stared at him in surprise since taekwoon hardly starts a conversation. usually, jaehwan talked on and on and on unless a question was directed at taekwoon, to which he would reply only with one word answers. jaehwan was hesitant, wanting to be honest, yet not wanting taekwoon to close up on him. taekwoon waited patiently, knowing fully well the difficulty of the question he just posed.
"well..." jaehwan chose his words carefully. "beanie doesn't seem to think so."
"he thinks I feel human. i do not understand why."
"honestly, i may even believe that you're human if i was not told. you play with hongbin like you are happy to do so, you keep quiet when I fail my test like you could feel my sadness. sometimes, a logical response is enough to show feelings even if you don't actually feel them. do you get what I mean? am I even making sense? taekwoon?"
"thank you."
"no problem. it's my duty to reduce your logical mind to a mess."
-----------------------------------
sanghyuk sensed a different atmosphere when he stepped into the laboratory that day. he turned to his colleague, "what happened?"
with a frown on his face, his colleague replied, "you didn't hear? namjoon found two robots from trial 68 that were supposed to be terminated. he immediately terminated them and went to check the database. it turns out that there's still one more that escaped. a search party was sent and namjoon is in his office, regretting he didn't inject a tracking device like you asked him to."
sanghyuk turned pale. it was lucky that they did not question the robots, did not even think of them human enough to interrogate. however, once they found taekwoon, all would be out. hakyeon and sanghyuk would be in deep shit.
but not if he could deal with taekwoon first, "seokjin, help me take a leave, I realise I've an emergency to deal with."
taking his surprise as an okay, sanghyuk grabbed his car keys and rushed out of the door.
-----------------------------------
"he can't go!" jaehwan exclaimed, a protective hand stretched out to block taekwoon from sanghyuk. he paused for a moment before adding, "because we're a family."
"we're one big family!" hongbin echoed, slightly confused as to what was going on, but clutching taekwoon's hand tightly all the same. "leo hyung!"
his heart gave another lurch, and his other hand reached up to steady himself.
he wasn't supposed to react this way.
a foreign wave of... inexplicable foreign something... swept over him. clouded his head, unravelled his emotions and somehow, his eyesight... his perfect eyesight and all those processors located inside his body... they were functioning a normal but why does that inexplicable foreign something keep..
"Leo hyung!" hongbin called, tears starting to stream down his face. perhaps in that young mind of his, he could tell what was going on, but he still refused to believe it, desperately hoping his worst nightmare would not come true.
sanghyuk ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "he's just a robot. he has no feelings. and he must be returned to the laboratory before namjoon hunts him down and we all get sued for taking someone's private property as ours!"
the explicable foreign something was worse now. it was clouding his mind, and making his heart lurch in ways that he couldn't imagine... his breaths were becoming shorter, but he didn't need to breathe.
there must be something wrong. something dreadfully wrong. he needed a robot technician. he needed someone to right his processors and turn his internal machines back on track.
"I don't care of we get sued. taekwoon stays and I'll die before I let you take him," jaehwan's eyes were fierce and taekwoon felt something stirred in him. it was something he never felt before, but it was such a wonderful feeling that taekwoon never wanted to let go.
inexplicable foreign something.
something...
feeling?
the feeling strengthened when hongbin tugged at his sleeves and looked up at him with huge doe eyes. his eyes fell on sanghyuk's angry face and suddenly, taekwoon realised the seriousness of the situation---he was putting people he liked in danger.
sadness.
the logical response was to stay and protect himself, but all taekwoon wanted to do was to let himself be the sacrifice for the people he loved.
love.
he could finally feel, and he wanted to do something, anything, to protect the two of them from danger.
family.
-----------------------------------
"i'm ready."
"no goodbyes?"
"none," and taekwoon felt a stab in his chest, as if it physically hurts to leave the family who had gave him a home for a brief period of time.
"i shouldn't have let you free. they will hurt for the loss of you."
"thank you."
"for?"
"bringing me here. letting me feel what it's like to be part of a family. i am really happy."
sanghyuk paused, staring at taekwoon's emotionless face for a long period of time before he laughed, "you can't feel."
taekwoon shrugged (it did not really matter what sanghyuk thought of him) and turned to look at the place he called home for the last time.
bye beanie, bye jaehwan.
with both of you, i was happy.
Recipient: bictory
Characters: taekwoon-centric
Rating: G
Wordcount: 2,164 words
Summary: when robot taekwoon met hongbin and jaehwan, he started changing.
Notes: I started off writing a cat au, but then I just cannot seem to get the inspiration for that, resulting in a robot!au. probably not what you wanted, sorry if it’s not up to your expectations but hope you enjoy it nevertheless
they wanted to make the world a better one, so they invented project '007', a secret project meant to be revealed to the world only after they could create the best robots the world had ever seen.
best robots, what did it even mean? to those inventors, it would probably meant a robot who could actually think on its own, looks like a human and could actually have feelings.
they are metals. metals that look like humans. artificial intelligence in its finest form.
"project '007' trial no. 68 experiment no. 2, reporting for check-up no. 5," but in their pursuit of perfection in robotics, they forgot what all these research entailed---money. their sponsors were sick of the lack of product and one by one, they were pulling out.
but they were so close to success. personalized to fit their inventors, created with humans in mind. the genius. the very essence of perfection, yet with one defect.
emotionless.
"this is no good. check-up no. 2 reporting, terminate trial 68, I repeat, terminate trial 68."
after all, they were just blocks of metal to respond to the beck and call of humans. nothing more.
dreams of companionship were wasted on these abdomities.
-----------------------------------
"we need to end this soon. trial 68 is a failure. we need to embark on a new one before all sponsors are gone and we are left with no resources," namjoon, a smart looking man and the leader of this project was persuading the rest of his team. sanghyuk looked the most reluctant as he glanced at the robots who were all standing in a row, waiting for a verdict. sanghyuk knew namjoon saw only mere experiments standing in front of him, but sanghyuk saw in them the potential to be humans. they might have no idea what emotions were and they might feel no hurt when they are destroyed, but they could think and their wired brains would probably know that they are no longer wanted.
before sanghyuk could even utter a word, murmurs of assents passed though the group and sanghyuk could only clench his fist when a smile appeared on namjoon's face, "trial 68, terminated."
-----------------------------------
"go and don't come back," sanghyuk had secretly sneaked in the laboratory at night and picked several robots that had more potential to become humans, helping them to escape their fate. sending all away would be a dumb act as namjoon would definitely notice the empty room, but three was a small enough number to escape the eyes of the inventors.
when the robots saw the outside environment, two of them immediately rushed into the darkness, happy to be free from the suffocating room they were placed in. one remained and sanghyuk looked at him curiously, "why are you not leaving?"
"I have nowhere to go," the face of the robot remained emotionless, but sanghyuk felt pity creeping up on him all the same. cursing under his breath, he took out his mobile and dialed the number of his best friend.
it took a few rings before the receiver picked up the call, "hello?"
"thank god. hakyeon hyung, I have a situation at hand..."
-----------------------------------
and that was how the robot ended up in hakyeon's two story bungalow and was stuck with the name taekwoon.
"wait so you're telling me that this hyung is a robot? but he looks human!" a little voice, squeaky at its best, whined. taekwoon didn't show any sign of registering the voice, until a small, grubby hand jabbed at his leg. "wow, he feels human too!"
"this is taekwoon hyung, beanie. be polite, please."
"taekwoon is boring, hyung," hakyeon's five-year-old nephew, hongbin, whined. "someone cool enough to be a robot should have a cool name! like leo!"
"no, bean. you don't go around messing with the name. taekwoon shall be called taekwoon."
"hyung..." hongbin pouted, his round eyes lost a little of its shine.
"I like leo better too," the robot, or now, taekwoon spoke up and the corner of his lips went up a little when he ruffled hongbin's hair.
"see, leo hyung likes the name too!"
"his name is taekwoon, bean."
"leo hyung," hongbin ignored his uncle as he jumped into taekwoon' arms, "want to see my toys?"
"toys?"
"mhmm. I have a robot toy that looks nothing like you, cuz you're wayyyyy cooler."
"hongbin," there was a warning in hakyeon's voice, asking hongbin to be more sensitive, but taekwoon did not understand emotions so he stood there looking a little puzzled when hongbin became slightly downcast.
taekwoon might not know what emotions was, but he knew hongbin should be happy, because hongbin was what his mind registered as 'cute', "where's that robot? I'll love to see it."
"in my room! let's go!" he scrambled out of taekwoon's embrace and ran towards a door, dragging taekwoon along with him.
-----------------------------------
it was surprisingly easy for him to adjust to this family. he was introduced to hongbin's friend, wonshik, a small little boy who had a mischievous glint in his eyes and hakyeon's sister, hayoung, a beautiful lady who's recently divorced, but the one that made him the most comfortable was hongbin's older brother lee jaehwan, a teenage boy with a wonderful smile.
when he first met jaehwan, jaehwan immediately established that taekwoon was made to be around the same age and invited him to come along to meet his friends, which taekwoon politely said no to. jaehwan, who refused to take no for an answer, repeatedly pestered him until taekwoon nodded his head to stop the whining. it turned out to be fun as they went to karaoke and found out that taekwoon was as good a singer as jaehwan.
from then on, jaehwan and taekwoon developed a pretty friendly relationship and today, they were supposed to go to somewhere jaehwan called an 'arcade', bringing the little cute hongbin along.
taekwoon looked forward to it and he wondered if this could be considered a feeling or was it just something in his mind that told him this experience would be fun? he was thinking of the ability to feel these days and the more he thought, the more confused he became. how exactly was he supposed to feel? he wasn't so different from humans on the outside, but sanghyuk had explained to him how he was created and his inability to feel. it made him frustrated because he wanted to feel and be like hongbin and jaehwan, but according to sanghyuk, there was nothing he could do about it, for he was just metal inside and out.
"taekwoon, we're leaving!" jaehwan's voice travelled from the first floor to taekwoon's room on the second level.
"coming!"
-----------------------------------
"oh my goodness. leo hyung." hongbin was lying tummy up on his bed, while taekwoon/leo sat still on the bottom of his bed, making sure that the frantically rolling poppet didn't accidentally roll off his bed and hurt himself. his hands jolted up as beanie hung off the side of his bed with his arms outstretched, just as his heart gave a painful lurch.
"hm, hongbin?"
"I don't get it. like, you're metal. then how do you feel so human?" the young boy looked serene. eyes closed, his breaths were coming out in even puffs, even as leo inhaled deeply, then stopped himself.
the action felt wrong. air was not a necessity, more like a commodity to him. but recently, he felt himself inhaling more and more, and for some reason, the action felt good.
it felt...
human.
-----------------------------------
"don't you find me odd? i'm incapable of feelings. i cannot feel sad, happy or angry. I just act on logic," taekwoon found the words a little awkward coming out from his mouth, but he needed to know.
jaehwan stared at him in surprise since taekwoon hardly starts a conversation. usually, jaehwan talked on and on and on unless a question was directed at taekwoon, to which he would reply only with one word answers. jaehwan was hesitant, wanting to be honest, yet not wanting taekwoon to close up on him. taekwoon waited patiently, knowing fully well the difficulty of the question he just posed.
"well..." jaehwan chose his words carefully. "beanie doesn't seem to think so."
"he thinks I feel human. i do not understand why."
"honestly, i may even believe that you're human if i was not told. you play with hongbin like you are happy to do so, you keep quiet when I fail my test like you could feel my sadness. sometimes, a logical response is enough to show feelings even if you don't actually feel them. do you get what I mean? am I even making sense? taekwoon?"
"thank you."
"no problem. it's my duty to reduce your logical mind to a mess."
-----------------------------------
sanghyuk sensed a different atmosphere when he stepped into the laboratory that day. he turned to his colleague, "what happened?"
with a frown on his face, his colleague replied, "you didn't hear? namjoon found two robots from trial 68 that were supposed to be terminated. he immediately terminated them and went to check the database. it turns out that there's still one more that escaped. a search party was sent and namjoon is in his office, regretting he didn't inject a tracking device like you asked him to."
sanghyuk turned pale. it was lucky that they did not question the robots, did not even think of them human enough to interrogate. however, once they found taekwoon, all would be out. hakyeon and sanghyuk would be in deep shit.
but not if he could deal with taekwoon first, "seokjin, help me take a leave, I realise I've an emergency to deal with."
taking his surprise as an okay, sanghyuk grabbed his car keys and rushed out of the door.
-----------------------------------
"he can't go!" jaehwan exclaimed, a protective hand stretched out to block taekwoon from sanghyuk. he paused for a moment before adding, "because we're a family."
"we're one big family!" hongbin echoed, slightly confused as to what was going on, but clutching taekwoon's hand tightly all the same. "leo hyung!"
his heart gave another lurch, and his other hand reached up to steady himself.
he wasn't supposed to react this way.
a foreign wave of... inexplicable foreign something... swept over him. clouded his head, unravelled his emotions and somehow, his eyesight... his perfect eyesight and all those processors located inside his body... they were functioning a normal but why does that inexplicable foreign something keep..
"Leo hyung!" hongbin called, tears starting to stream down his face. perhaps in that young mind of his, he could tell what was going on, but he still refused to believe it, desperately hoping his worst nightmare would not come true.
sanghyuk ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "he's just a robot. he has no feelings. and he must be returned to the laboratory before namjoon hunts him down and we all get sued for taking someone's private property as ours!"
the explicable foreign something was worse now. it was clouding his mind, and making his heart lurch in ways that he couldn't imagine... his breaths were becoming shorter, but he didn't need to breathe.
there must be something wrong. something dreadfully wrong. he needed a robot technician. he needed someone to right his processors and turn his internal machines back on track.
"I don't care of we get sued. taekwoon stays and I'll die before I let you take him," jaehwan's eyes were fierce and taekwoon felt something stirred in him. it was something he never felt before, but it was such a wonderful feeling that taekwoon never wanted to let go.
inexplicable foreign something.
something...
feeling?
the feeling strengthened when hongbin tugged at his sleeves and looked up at him with huge doe eyes. his eyes fell on sanghyuk's angry face and suddenly, taekwoon realised the seriousness of the situation---he was putting people he liked in danger.
sadness.
the logical response was to stay and protect himself, but all taekwoon wanted to do was to let himself be the sacrifice for the people he loved.
love.
he could finally feel, and he wanted to do something, anything, to protect the two of them from danger.
family.
-----------------------------------
"i'm ready."
"no goodbyes?"
"none," and taekwoon felt a stab in his chest, as if it physically hurts to leave the family who had gave him a home for a brief period of time.
"i shouldn't have let you free. they will hurt for the loss of you."
"thank you."
"for?"
"bringing me here. letting me feel what it's like to be part of a family. i am really happy."
sanghyuk paused, staring at taekwoon's emotionless face for a long period of time before he laughed, "you can't feel."
taekwoon shrugged (it did not really matter what sanghyuk thought of him) and turned to look at the place he called home for the last time.
bye beanie, bye jaehwan.
with both of you, i was happy.