never fall in love with a robot.
never fall in love with a robot.
t-ara. jiyeon/hwayoung. pg-13.
when you hit your ultimate low, friends will always be there to help you back up.
“This has to be the ultimate low for me; it has to be because if it isn’t…I don’t think I want to be around for the actual one.”
Jiyeon impatiently tapped her fingers against her desk, willing the loading bar on her computer screen to move past 80 percent and finish loading before her mother came up to make sure she left for school on time.
It had just beeped past 95 percent when her mother’s voice floated up to her room. “Park Jiyeon! If you don’t get down here right now and get to school I’ll come up there myself!”
Jiyeon swore before glancing back at her screen which still hadn’t finished. Swearing again, she got up, hurriedly getting her blazer and bag, looking toward the screen every few seconds. The buzzing sound that signaled download completion had only just started when the door to her room slid open, revealing her irate looking mother.
“You, downstairs, right now,” she demanded and Jiyeon didn’t even have time to protest before she was being pulled from the room and ushered down the stairs.
“Mom, I can’t. Just let me be late this once, huh? I’m downloading something important!” she insisted even as her shoes were forced on her feet and her blazer was forced on.
“This once, huh? You were late twice last week. Your father and I didn’t spring for an upgraded transporter if you weren’t going to use it,” she said, shoving her daughter inside said transporter.
“But mom!” Jiyeon’s pleas were cut off as her mother pressed the destination button and disappeared from view.
----------
As soon as the transporter stopped, Jiyeon stepped out, looking around with a disgruntled sigh when she realized she was, in fact, at school. She shouldered her bag and hurriedly left the transportation area, glaring at anyone who even dared to glance at her.
She’d been downloading her new robot for the past week, which was pretty fast compared to others, but she had also spent three weeks before that actually building it up into the image she wanted which was easier said than done since she’d wanted to look like a very particular someone.
“Jiyeon-ah! You’re here!”
Jiyeon felt a rush of air escape her chest even before she was embraced by her friend and the person she’d modeled her robot after, Hwayoung.
The taller girl pulled away, a bright smile on her face, and looked her over, frowning just slightly as she took in Jiyeon’s expression. “What’s with you? You seem upset?” she questioned, linking their arms together and starting in the direction of their classroom.
Jiyeon didn’t answer immediately, her heart was fluttering a little too quickly and she knew that if she spoke, she’d most likely sound like a stuttering mess. So, she just shook her head and let the other girl direct them towards their class.
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Lessons for the day were a dull affair, but they usually were so Jiyeon didn’t worry herself over actually paying attention to anything their instructor said. Instead, she spent their ample class time scribbling in her notebook and doodling drawings of things she liked. Which meant a notebook full of doodles featuring Hwayoung.
She glanced over at her friend who was at least trying to pay attention to the lesson and couldn’t keep the sappy smile from spreading onto her face. Hwayoung had cut her hair a few weeks ago and Jiyeon still couldn’t get over it. Today she had it in a carefully tousled bedhead sort of look and Jiyeon really wanted to figure out if her hair really looked like that after she woke up.
She was in the middle of imagining what it’d be like to wake up with the other girl (which was a distinct possibility considering what was in her room) when she turned her head, a sneaky smirk on her face.
The note landed on her desk a few seconds later.
Jiyeon quickly pulled it open, looking up to make sure the instructor didn’t notice before reading it, feeling her heart jump up in her throat at the words.
Do I have something on my face? You’ve been staring at me for a while.
She hurriedly looked back over to Hwayoung, who had an eyebrow lifted in question, and shook her head, shifting her gaze back to her desk.
Unlike the stories they read about, Jiyeon hasn’t been infatuated or in love with Hwayoung since the dawn of time. They’ve been friends for years, but it was only over the course of the summer that Jiyeon had started liking her as anything more. Hwayoung was the person that completed her, as cheesy as it sounded. Without her, Jiyeon would definitely be a lot less tolerant of her ignorant classmates and the general idiocy of the people around her and maybe even a little depressed. Hwayoung always new how to get her out of her funks. Which was why instead declaring her undying love for the other girl, Jiyeon just used her likeness to create a robot for herself.
Yeah, it was her ultimate low.
Yeah, you’ve got some pretty on your cheek.
Jiyeon quickly sent the note back over before she could register the absolute cheesiness of it and feel embarrassed. She sneaked a glance at Hwayoung as she read the note, waiting for her reaction. It took a moment, but the other girl laughed aloud, hurriedly covering her mouth and looking down at her desk when their instructor looked over. Jiyeon felt a rush of relief as her friend sent the note back, an unmistakable grin on her face.
You’re so cheesy. But I like it.
Jiyeon spent the rest of the class period in a daze.
----------
The rest of the day was uneventful; Jiyeon didn’t pay attention to lessons, didn’t pay attention to anyone who wasn’t Hwayoung, and even made a first year student cry after she yelled at them for bumping into Hwayoung on their way to lunch. All in all, quite uneventful.
Jiyeon was half listening to what Hwayoung was chattering about, more concerned with getting a transporter back home, but when the slightly older girl continued following her rather than get in a separate one, she paused.
“What are you doing?” she asked, standing with her back to the tube. Hwayoung just blinked down at her, already reaching for the keypad.
“Going with you so we can work on our assignment?” It was posed as a question, her head tilting cutely. Jiyeon forgot what she wanted to say.
“Wait! You can’t come over!” she said, pushing the taller girl back towards a separate transporter and stepping into one. Hwayoung frowned; looking put out, but didn’t move to join her.
“Why not? We only have a few days for the assignment; I thought you might want to get it out of the way now rather than wait.”
Jiyeon shook her head quickly. “No, no can’t do that. We’ll have to do it some other time. My…I’ve got something important to do,” she said, quickly programming the machine for her home.
The last thing she saw after hitting the destination button was Hwayoung’s pouting face.
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As soon as she got home, Jiyeon rushed up to her room, yelling out a brief greeting for her mother before slamming through the door and locking it after her.
She glanced around for any sign of her robot, heart beating quickly enough that she was starting to get a little dizzy when she saw it. Saw her. The robot didn’t seem to have moved after finishing its download, just stood on its pad waiting for her to return.
Jiyeon cleared her throat to get its attention. The robot wasn’t startled, but it did turn to look at her and Jiyeon let out an anticipating breath. She had designed it and programmed herself, only following the model when she wasn’t able to, but she was still surprised by how real it looked.
It was near identical to Hwayoung; it had the same height, same build, same features, but it wasn’t exactly identical. That was the main thing she’d read about when building it; you could create it in someone’s likeness, but it’d never be identical. She could live with that.
She approached it carefully, dumping her bag onto the floor and shedding her blazer with it. The robot didn’t move, just watched her with Hwayoung’s eyes.
“I’m Jiyeon and I created you,” she told it, receiving a nod in return.
“Hello. You have not given me a name yet. Would you like to?” The robot outstretched her arm, which was covered in the same school shirt Jiyeon was wearing.
“Of course. I already know what you’ll be named.” Jiyeon reached for her arm, pulling the sleeve up and revealing the same smooth skin she was used to seeing on Hwayoung.
She pulled her multi-purpose stylus from her pocket after sliding open the panel on the robot's forearm and started writing the characters of her name before freezing.
While it was acceptable to create robots in the likeness of others, though some people obviously had copyrights on their images, and the same went with names. It was taboo to make the name of your robot the same as the person you modeled it after; in fact, most people thought it was creepy.
Jiyeon hesitated but new that if she named it ‘Hwayoung’ it’d only cause problems for her later on, she was sure. So she went back and changed the first character.
“There, done,” she muttered, sliding the panel back into place.
The robot looked at her, finally smiling and Jiyeon felt heat rise to her cheeks.
“Hello Jiyeon, my name is Hyoyoung.”
----------
Her earlier intentions with Hyoyoung had been transparent. She had planned on doing all the things she wanted to do with Hwayoung with the robot since there was absolutely no way her friend would even consider her like that.
Jiyeon dreamed of sleeping with Hyoyoung and waking up curled together. She would watch her sleep until her alarm went off and she had to get ready for school, but Hyoyoung would too. She’d dress in the same uniform and Jiyeon could pretend it was Hwayoung transporting to school with her after spending the night together.
She imagined coming home to Hyoyoung spread out on the bed or the floor; buttons of her school shirt undone, skirt inched up to reveal her thighs, and her hair messy from having raked her hand through it. Jiyeon would shuck her own uniform off and spend the afternoon half-heartedly doing homework while she paid more attention to playing with the other girl’s hair or even just lazing about with her in the artificial light that filtered from her window.
But what Jiyeon hadn’t taken into consideration when building Hyoyoung was that no matter how much she looked like Hwayoung and how similar she had designed their personalities, Hyoyoung wasn’t Hwayoung. Hyoyoung wasn’t human and while she could fool Jiyeon on the surface, even that started to come away.
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It was a few weeks after she’d created Hyoyoung when Jiyeon finally had her pressed against her bed, their legs tangled in the bedcovers, and their bodies pressed flush together. Hyoyoung had kissed her awake that morning like she’d been doing for the past few days and Jiyeon had finally let it get to her.
The first time it had happened, Jiyeon hadn’t been able to say more than a greeting to Hwayoung at school. The next few times had had her on cloud nine and she taken it as a sign that she could explore more with Hyoyoung that she’d been holding off on.
This is how she came to be one step from completely devouring Hyoyoung on her bed. Jiyeon had slipped her hand down the band of Hyoyoung’s pajama bottoms (the same kind Hwayoung wore) and had her other hand buried in her (slightly too long) hair.
Hyoyoung didn’t respond much, she could press their lips together, but unless Jiyeon directed her, she was usually quite still. Jiyeon could feel her hands resting limply against her waist, and pulled away, leaning far enough away that she could take in the blank look on Hyoyoung’s face with dissatisfaction.
She wished she could see a pretty pink flush decorate her cheeks, or see her lips turn red from being pressed against Jiyeon's, or even just hear her gasp shortly as she tried to regain her breath, but Hyoyoung didn’t do those things.
“Touch me. What I do to you, do the same to me,” Jiyeon ordered, locking eyes with Hyoyoung. “When I kiss you, you have to kiss me too, ok?” Hyoyoung nodded in understanding and Jiyeon let out a short breath.
“Hwayoung.”
The hand that had been sliding up her shirt stopped, pulling out just as easily as it had slid in and Jiyeon frowned, pulling away from where she’d had her buried in Hyoyoung’s shoulder.
“What, what are you doing?” She questioned, feeling irritation bubble inside of her.
“Hwayoung-”
“Identification error: Incorrect name. Try again.” As soon as the words slipped from her mouth, Jiyeon jerked away, rolling off the girl, the robot, and stumbling to her feet.
She hadn’t heard Hyoyoung speak like that since she finished downloading and had all but forgotten the cold, detached, and slightly eerie sound of her digitized voice speaking rather than the soft tones she’d programmed her with.
Jiyeon brought her hand to her mouth, wiping at her lips, before looking around her room. Faster than she thought possible she pulled out random clothes from her drawer and got dressed, ignoring Hyoyoung who was still lying on her bed limply.
“Where are you going?”
Jiyeon turned to look at the robot, taking in her bedhead and disheveled clothes, and shook her head. “Don’t…don’t worry about it. Just, just stay here, ok?” She slid the door to her room open before leaving, rushing down the stairs and towards the transporter.
She heard her mother call her name, but ignored it as she programmed in her destination, her home disappearing from her eyes in a matter of moments.
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Jiyeon and Hwayoung had been friends since they were young. They lived in the same district which meant they not only went to the same school, but since they were also the same age, they’ve been in the same class for the past five years. A part from the past few weeks, they even spent their days off together at the same places. So when Jiyeon stepped out from the transporter at the shooting range, she shouldn’t have been so surprised to see Hwayoung there.
“Oh, Jiyeon-ah.” Hwayoung saw her and instinctively moved towards her, but stopped herself, fidgeting slightly on her feet.
“What are you doing here?” she asked instead, curling her fingers together.
Jiyeon shrugged, not answering, but not moving away from the transporter tube either. She was stuck between a rock and hard place. If she went home, she’d have to see Hyoyoung and if she stayed, she’d have to see Hwayoung, and she was sure her emotions wouldn’t be able to handle being so close to the other girl now.
Hwayoung flicked her bangs from her eyes, looking around. Jiyeon knew she was making this awkward, had been making their friendship awkward for a while, but didn’t really know what to do about it.
“I haven’t seen you outside of school in a while.” Hwayoung spoke up first; she’d never been able to handle these kinds of silences. “What have you been up to?”
Jiyeon scoffed, if only Hwayoung knew what she’d been up to. “Nothing, just busy with some stuff,” she answered with a half shrug. Busy making out with a robot I downloaded to look and act just like you, went unsaid.
“Busy, huh? Too busy to talk to your best friend?” Jiyeon looked up, finally catching Hwayoung’s gaze and was surprised to see actual hurt on her eyes.
Just then, she felt like the biggest jerk in the entire world. She’d been so consumed with her stupid robot that she’d forgotten about the actual person she’d modeled it after. Jiyeon knew that what she’d been doing had been wrong and if Hwayoung ever found out…well, she might just lose her best friend. So, she straightened her shoulders and walked over to her, standing in front of the other girl with a determined look on her face.
“Hwayoung, I’m sorry. I’ve been ignoring you and I've been blowing off plans we’d made because of my own, selfish reasons.” Hwayoung blinked, looking at her with slight confusion, but Jiyeon continued on. “I was just so concerned with myself and Hyoyoung that I totally forgot I had an awesome best friend who had feelings that I was hurting. So, so, I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”
Jiyeon knew her heart was beating fast, she could hear it pounding in her ears, feel it thrum against her chest and everywhere else. Hwayoung could probably hear it; the other people around them could probably hear it too.
Hwayoung didn’t say anything for a long moment, long enough that Jiyeon started to think she wouldn’t be forgiven at all, when she finally spoke.
“Park Jiyeon, if you ever ignore me again like this, it’ll take more than an apology to make me forgive you, understand?” Hwayoung brought her hands up to rest on Jiyeon’s shoulders, shaking her just slightly.
“And, if you ever get a girlfriend without telling me again, I’ll be really upset,” she said and Jiyeon looked up at her, surprised.
“Eh?! Girlfriend? What girlfriend?”
Hwayoung frowned, taken aback by her exclamation. “Your girlfriend, Hyoyoung? You mentioned her just now when you were apologizing…?” Hwayoung hedged, sounding unsure of herself.
Jiyeon’s mouth dropped open and she hurriedly shook her head. “No, no, I don’t have a girlfriend at all!” she implored, suddenly angry with herself for her slip of the tongue. The last thing she needed was for Hwayoung to find out about Hyoyoung now that they'd made up, which meant she had to deactivate her as soon as possible.
“I…, it’s nothing. There’s no Hyoyoung, I misspoke,” she said, pleading with her eyes for Hwayoung to drop it and, thankfully, she did.
“Okay then. Well, you’re forgiven, but seriously, if there’s something going on….you can tell me, you know? That’s why we’re friends, so we can help each other out,” she said, a smile finally appearing on her face.
Jiyeon nodded, relief flooding her body for the first time in what seemed like ages. She leant forward, grabbing her friend around the waist and hugging her tightly, grinning when she felt Hwayoung’s arms tighten around her shoulders.
In the moment before they pulled away, Jiyeon felt herself come to a conclusion. The reason this whole mess had started was because of that stupid robot and her inability to grow a backbone and confess to Hwayoung that she liked her as more than a friend. Jiyeon knew she had a 50/50 chance and figured the endorphins from them making up might sway the odds on her favor, so she was going to do it.
“Hwayoung, there’s actually something I need to tell you,” she started after pulling away from the hug, already missing the warmth of the other girl.
Hwayoung raised her eyebrows, urging her to go on, even as she linked their arms together and started in the direction of the registration desk.
“I…I don’t have a girlfriend, but I do have someone I like,” she admitted, pulling back so they weren’t walking anymore. “A girl that I’ve liked for a while, but never had the guts to confess to.”
Hwayoung didn’t say anything for a moment and Jiyeon had the horrifying thought that she had completely misread the situation when her friend spoke up.
“Oh…do I know her?” Hwayoung questioned, her voice quiet.
Jiyeon nodded her head slowly. “Yeah, sort of. She’s in our year, our class even. She’s even here now,” she told her, a smirk coming onto her face when Hwayoung frowned, turning her head this way and that to look around them and see if any of their classmates were around.
“I don’t see anyone,” she said, finally turning back to Jiyeon to see the other girl looking at her with a heated look, smirk still firmly planted on her face.
“Jiyeon-ah, what are you doing?” Hwayoung just managed to get the question out before Jiyeon’s lips were against hers.
Jiyeon slid her hand though Hwayoung’s hair, tilting her head so that their mouths were pressed together at the right angle. Her other hand was on her hip, fingering the edge of her shirt slightly. She could feel Hwayoung’s hands on her shoulders, wrinkling the fabric of her own shirt between her clenched fingers.
Jiyeon pulled away after a short moment, aware that they were in public, and studied the other girls face to gauge her reaction.
Hwayoung’s lips were still parted, a pink flush on her cheeks to match the stain on her lips, and Jiyeon felt a thrill run up her spine. That’s what she had wanted to see for so long.
“Well?” She urged after a long, quiet moment.
Hwayoung blinked owlishly before a bright smile bloomed on her face. “You like me?” she questioned in disbelief, as if liking her was the oddest thing to happen.
Jiyeon nodded. “Yeah, for a while and…I guess you like me too, then?” Hwayoung rolled her eyes before tugging Jiyeon back towards her and claiming her lips in another kiss, this one deeper than the first.
“Does that clear things up for you?” she questioned after pulling away.
It took Jiyeon a moment to catch her breath, but when she did, she nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, that clears things right up.”
Hwayoung smiled and angled her head towards the registration desk, “You still want to go shoot things?”
Jiyeon just laughed, nodding her head, and followed her towards the desk. She could always deactivate Hyoyoung when she got home.