A State of Future Existing

Prologue Part 4

It took three days, during which he emerged from his room only to sit for meals with his new family, and once, to play in the snow with Peony while Adri and Pearl were at the market. His metal limbs had frosted over with cold by the time they were done but coming inside to a pot of green tea and the flush of shared laughter had quickly warmed him back up.

Adri had not asked Hyunjin to take on any household chores again, and Hyunjin imagined it seemed a lost cause to his stepmother. He stayed hopeful though, as the jumble of android pieces gradually formed into something recognizable. A hollow plastic body atop wide treads, two skinny arms, a squat head with nothing but a cyclops sensor for a face. The sensor had given him the most trouble had he had to redo the wiring twice, triple-checking the diagram that had downloaded across his eyesight, before he felt confident, he'd gotten it right.

If it only worked. If only he could show it to Adri, and even Garan, that he wasn't a useless addition to their family after all. That he was grateful they'd taken him in when no one else would. That he wanted to belong to them.

He was sitting cross-legged on his bed with the window open behind him, allowing in a chilled but pleasant breeze, when he inserted the final touch. The small personality chip clicked into place and Hyunjin held his breath, half-expecting the android to perk up and swivel around and start talking to him, until he remembered that she would need to be charged before she could function.

Feeling his excitement wane from anticlimactic finale, Hyunjin released a slow breath and fell back onto his mattress, mentally exhausted.

A knock thunked against the door.

"Come in," he called, not bothering to move as the door created open.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to come watch-" Peony fell silent and Hyunjin managed to lift his head to see the girl gaping wide-eyed at the android. "Is that... Iko?"

Grinning, Hyunjin braced himself on his elbows. "She still needs to be charged, but I think she'll work."

Jaw still hanging open, Peony crept into the room. Though only nine years old, she was already well over a foot taller than the squat robot. "How... how? How did you fix it?"

"I had to borrow some tools from your dad." Hyunjin gestured to a pile of wrenches and screwdrivers in the corner. He didn't bother to mention that he hadn't been in his workshop behind the house when he'd gone to find them. It almost felt like theft and that thought terrified him, but it wasn't theft. He wasn't going to keep the tools, and he was sure Garan would be delighted when he saw he'd fixed the android. 

"That's not..." Peony shook her head and finally looked at Hyunjin. "You fixed her by yourself?"

Hyunjin shrugged, not sure if he should be proud or uncomfortable by the look of awe Peony was giving him. "It wasn't that hard," he said. "I had... I can download... information. Instructions. Into my head. And I figured out how to get the android's blueprint to go across my vision so I could..." He trailed off, realizing that what he'd been sure was a most useful skill was also one more strange eccentricity his body could claim. One more side effects of being cyborg.

But Peony's eyes were twinkling by the minute. "You're kidding," she said, picking up one of Iko's hands and wiggling it around. Hyunjin had been sure to thoroughly grease it so the joints wouldn't seize up. "What else can you do?"

"Um." Hyunjin hunched his shoulders, considering. "I can... make stuff louder. I mean, not really, but I can adjust my hearing, so it seems louder. Or quieter. I could probably mute my hearing if I wanted to."

Peony laughed. "That's brilliant! You'd never have to hear Mom when she's yelling! Awesome, I'm so jealous!" Beaming, she started to drag Iko toward the door. "Come on, there's a charging station in the hallway!"