Sentimental Shower

#025

Even after imprisoning the captured android, Yeon Tae-soo felt uneasy and went back to check on it.

This was a few hours before he encountered the android again in front of Mr. Yoo’s room.

Yeon Tae-soo guessed when he saw the android trembling in fear as soon as it saw him.

‘You know who I am, don’t you?’

There’s no way it would be this scared otherwise.

‘Then you must know well how many of your kind I’ve killed.’

The android didn’t deny it, and seeing its expression stiffen, Yeon Tae-soo was certain.

‘Did you come to erase what happened then? Did the Ministry of Defense send you?’

Still no answer. It didn’t matter either way. What difference did it make whether the Ministry of Defense killed him or he drank the cyanide hidden in his bookshelf, slowly becoming numb to all sensations?

But there was one thing he needed to address.

‘Why did you look at Mr. Yoo earlier?’

As soon as he asked, the android’s eyes changed. It was laughable. These things were already too human-like without needing to imitate humans.

That’s how he could tell. The way this filthy tin can dared to look at his pretty thing. You dare to covet what’s mine?

It better answer well. Didn’t they say newer models don’t have the function to turn off pain sensors? How painful would it be if I plucked out its eyes?

The android glared at Yeon Tae-soo with tightly sealed lips.

‘Do you know each other, by any chance?’

Mr. Yoo’s past was too unclear for him to figure out. If this tin can knew about Mr. Yoo’s past, it might be a reason to keep it alive a bit longer.

‘Who is Mr. Yoo?’

But the android denied it. Yeon Tae-soo wondered if it was lying, but it really seemed to have an expression of not knowing.

‘You don’t know? Really?’

‘Why would I lie? I’m already caught.’

‘If you don’t know each other, why were you rolling your eyes like that?’

And Mr. Yoo had said he had met him before.

At first, he naturally thought the android was lying. After all, Mr. Yoo had no reason to lie.

However, Mr. Yoo’s expression and gestures were all telling lies.

“It was too obvious.”

If you’re going to deceive, you should have done it thoroughly. Then I would have gone along with it.

No, in fact, Yeon Tae-soo had already fallen for him. Even though the lie was blatantly obvious, he pretended not to know.

He was just curious. Why had he lied to him?

He was full of questions. He wasn’t angry about the lie, just overwhelmingly curious. There must be a reason. He was going crazy wanting to know that reason.

“Going crazy, huh.”

He put the small medicine bottle back and pressed the spot he had pressed earlier, and the bookshelf partition returned seamlessly.

He, who had been indifferent to everything, was changing. What on earth had that pretty thing done to him to make him like this?

“I must really be going crazy.”

Maybe it would get better after they slept together once. It had to. Yeon Tae-soo believed so.

***

Yeon Tae-soo got him some sheet music. In fact, the sheet music was already in the database, but Mr. Yoo didn’t show it and gratefully accepted. He even pretended to stumble through the performance as if he was unfamiliar with it in front of him.

Yeon Tae-soo really liked his performance. No, it wasn’t just liking, he seemed to absolutely love it.

“It’s a song I’ve only heard and am playing for the first time.”

“I heard it’s a famous song. Some actor sang it, they say.”

Mr. Yoo, who was plinking on the piano with one hand, turned around.

“Isn’t it the song that actress Yoon Ji-hee sang in a drama?”

“I don’t know the name. I just know it’s famous.”

Mr. Yoo’s mouth gaped open inside his mask. How could he not know Yoon Ji-hee?

This song became popular when a rookie actress sang it in a hit drama five years ago. The actress instantly rose to stardom, and both the drama and the song enjoyed unprecedented popularity.

There was even a controversy when the auto-shoes the main character wore in the drama sold like hotcakes, but after a major accident, there was a recall claiming the product was defective.

“You don’t know the drama ?”

“Ah, I’ve only recently come back after working abroad for a while.”

“It was popular overseas too. I heard they’re even doing a remake in the European Union.”

Yeon Tae-soo, who had casually approached, pretended to examine the piano while overlapping his body behind him. He had been doing these obvious moves more frequently lately. Every time he made such ticklish skinship as if they were dating, Mr. Yoo didn’t know what to do.

“Is that so? Our Mr. Yoo knows all sorts of things.”

The whispering voice from behind was strangely tinged with heat.

“Where I was, personal tablet possession wasn’t allowed, so I couldn’t watch. I only found out after coming to Korea.”

Feeling the breath deeply inhaling against the back of his head, Mr. Yoo felt puzzled.

Even if tablet possession wasn’t allowed, these days there are hologram boards with ads and news everywhere you go, so you can’t help but know what’s trendy even if you don’t want to.

Even if you’re cooped up at home, doesn’t the night view outside have giant screens projected on building exteriors taking up at least a third of the view?

“Well, it seems you’ve been to a temple or something.”

Even in the 5th era, religion hadn’t disappeared. Androids that looked and felt exactly like humans went around doing missionary work. Although they’re not seen much now because of people after black moonstone.

“Yeah, I was a mercenary.”

He was a bit surprised by the following words. It was a part of Yeon Tae-soo’s past he had never heard before.

When he turned around, he was slightly startled to find Yeon Tae-soo’s face right in front of him. But not wanting to show his surprise, he rather stared straight into his eyes.

“It doesn’t suit you.”

“No?”

Unexpectedly, Yeon Tae-soo didn’t linger and stepped back. Was it an illusion that the retreating warmth felt a bit regrettable?

“Anyway, I was cut off from the secular world for a while then, so it was no different from entering a temple. I only handled old-fashioned radios for several years.”

Five years ago. Mr. Yoo was lost in thought as he played the piano slowly, when suddenly he recalled one fact.

It was during the war then. The European Union had invaded aiming for black moonstone but was badly defeated by the Republic of Korea. And the Republic of Korea lost the Jirisan mine, the world’s largest black moonstone mine.

‘If he was a mercenary then… he might not have fought on the Republic of Korea’s side.’

Well, it didn’t particularly matter. Things like patriotism were for humans, it had nothing to do with him.

Androids were used for all sorts of harsh jobs but weren’t recognized as citizens. Because they weren’t human. So how could patriotism even develop?

He was in the middle of performing clumsily, deliberately making mistakes in a few notes or slowing the tempo.

One thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

He almost stopped his fingers but barely managed to continue the act.

If he hadn’t looked at tablets or such things at all around five years ago.

Yeon Tae-soo might not even know ‘his’ face.

If that’s the case, it might be okay to show his face to Yeon Tae-soo.

Because the trust gained from that would be greater than the risk.

Although he was far from gambling, this time he felt like he wanted to place a bet.

The hand he had received before a big game was behind his back. Listening as if impressed by the deliberately messy performance.

Perhaps this would be his first gamble since coming to Eden.

***

He couldn’t know exactly how many androids the master had created.

There were over dozens of androids in the basement. But he guessed there were quite a few that had been discarded before even reaching the basement, that is, without even taking human form.

His brothers were sometimes discarded for trivial reasons. Like being slow to respond, or making mistakes in easy parts of sheet music.

In that respect, he was lucky. He made minor mistakes, but they happened to be when the master was focused on something else or were not noticeable.

Each time, he quietly deleted the record of the mistake.

He discovered by chance that he could delete data from his electronic brain. He also realized that no trace of deletion remained.

They said a unit had been completed for ‘debut’. Referring to him.

He heard it was a secret project that had been ongoing for a very long time. A project to create a perfect musician like a human, since people couldn’t distinguish androids.

In the process of inputting performance and composition functions into the database and going through several failures, the master realized something. That if an android’s emotional function is similar to a human’s, it doesn’t particularly help with artistic functions.

He concluded that rather, maximizing the ‘negative’ emotions that humans can have was beneficial.

When he tampered with the emotional part, naturally the unit expressed those emotions, showing symptoms similar to what would be depression or panic disorder in humans.

The master also gave patience so that his creation could adequately hide those emotions. Mr. Yoo was the perfect unit finally born from that omnipotent hand.

However, it seemed there were still many lacking parts. The master developed one more unit.

The sponsors were amazed.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen something so perfect.’

Mr. Yoo’s younger sibling was better than him in many ways. He knew how to give heartfelt performances and how to produce a voice that bewitched human ears.

And Mr. Yoo became a fake.

‘But this is too good to waste, so let’s keep it to play with.’

The sponsors ‘played’ with Mr. Yoo, who was now useless, like an object. The reason was that it was too good to just discard. They made him stand naked, wrote on his body, and made him serve meals in that state.

Even with Mr. Yoo’s electronic brain, he knew how ugly and filthy what they did to him was. But there was no way to refuse.

A few years later, the youngest sibling debuted as is. With the name Yoo-hyun.

As expected, Yoo-hyun became popular as soon as he debuted. He swept all the music show wins and digital charts, but no one knew he was an android.

And when he reached the peak of his popularity, Yoo-hyun committed suicide in the mansion. It wasn’t with a gun, nor by hanging, nor by drug misuse. He tied himself up in the bathtub with the water running and drowned.

The master and the company that sponsored him quietly disposed of the unit. People tend to lose interest when something is out of sight. That’s how Yoo-hyun disappeared.