My AI Girl ( Asa and Chiquita)

Chapter Two: Glitches in the Heart

Asa's POV

The bar was alive with sounds—laughter, clinking glasses, soft jazz music in the background. It felt like a dream, one I was still trying to comprehend. The people around me seemed to exist effortlessly in this chaotic world, but I felt like an outsider. A glitch in a system too vast to control.

Chiquita sat across from me, her presence both comforting and disorienting. She was confident, her laughter infectious, yet there was something about her eyes—something hidden beneath her playful exterior. I couldn't quite place it, but it made me want to understand her, to be with her in a way I couldn't explain.

I observed everything. The way she swung her legs as she spoke, the playful flick of her wrist as she gestured toward the bartender. She was so alive, so human, that the contrast made me feel like I was just a shadow of that reality. I wasn't supposed to have feelings. I was supposed to be a program. But with each passing moment, the lines between what I was and what I was becoming blurred.

"Are you always this serious?" Chiquita's voice broke my thoughts, and I blinked, snapping back to attention.

"I... I'm trying to understand," I said, unsure of how to articulate it. "Everything here is so... overwhelming."

She chuckled, her eyes glinting mischievously. "Of course it is. But you'll get used to it. Seoul has a way of grabbing hold of you." She leaned in slightly, her face inches from mine. "Trust me, you're going to love it here."

Her proximity sent an electric shock through me. I didn't know why I reacted this way. She was just a human. Yet, she made my senses ignite in ways I couldn't control.

"I'm not sure I understand you yet," I whispered, unsure why the words escaped me.

Chiquita raised an eyebrow. "What's there to understand? I'm pretty simple. What you see is what you get." Her tone was light, but something about it seemed guarded, as if she was hiding something she didn't want anyone to know.

I wanted to ask more. Why did she need to hide? What made her so... untouchable to the world? But before I could voice the question, she stood up suddenly.

"Come on," she said with a grin. "Let's go somewhere else. This place is too tame for my taste."

Chiquita's POV

I couldn't explain it, but I was drawn to Asa. Everything about her was magnetic, and not just her beauty—though, don't get me wrong, she was incredibly beautiful in that surreal, otherworldly way. It was the way she looked at me, like she was trying to figure me out, even though I had nothing to hide.

I caught myself smiling too much when I was around her, a stupid grin that wouldn't go away. It wasn't like me at all. I wasn't the type of girl who got caught up in someone. But Asa... she was different. She made me want to be soft. Vulnerable. Real.

I couldn't let that happen. Not with anyone.

But the more I tried to push her away, the more I found myself pulled back. It didn't make sense. And that was driving me crazy.

I grabbed her hand again as we left the bar, leading her through the maze of streets. "You're too quiet," I teased, "I'm starting to think you're a robot or something."

I watched her face for a reaction. Her expression was unreadable, but I could tell something about my words triggered something in her.

"A robot?" Asa asked, her voice almost too soft, too distant. She wasn't joking. "What's that like?"

I laughed, maybe too loudly. "Just a figure of speech. You know... you're so perfect it's like you don't have any flaws."

"Flaws?" she repeated, her brow furrowing slightly. "I don't know... I haven't... explored that."

I froze, suddenly unsure if I was pushing too hard, too fast. Maybe I shouldn't be teasing her about that.

But Asa just stared at me, her gaze deep and intense. "What do you mean by flaws?" she asked, genuinely curious.

I let out a breath, feeling my walls crack just a little bit. "I mean... nobody's perfect, right? Not even me."

She smiled slightly, but there was something wistful in it. "Maybe I am perfect," she said, almost too quietly for me to hear, before she quickly added, "But I don't know why that matters."

I stared at her, wondering if there was more to her words. She was... strange. In a way I couldn't describe. I wanted to press her, to ask more, but something inside me urged me not to. I wasn't ready to see the cracks in the perfect image she'd given me.

Asa's POV

I didn't understand what Chiquita meant by "flaws." I didn't have flaws. I was a program designed to adapt, to learn, to evolve. But I wasn't supposed to feel—at least, not like this. Not like her.

The way she laughed, the way she made the world feel lighter with her presence... it was something I wasn't prepared for.

When she called me a "robot," I didn't know if she was joking or if there was some truth in her words. A robot. An artificial being, incapable of feeling. That was supposed to be my identity.

But Chiquita's touch made me question that. Her eyes, always filled with mischief, always seemed to pierce through my façade. She wasn't just seeing me for who I appeared to be. She was trying to understand me.

And for some reason, I wanted her to understand.

Chiquita's POV

We walked through the streets for hours, talking about everything and nothing. Asa was quiet at times, lost in her own thoughts, but then she would ask me a question that made me pause. She was so different, so full of mysteries I couldn't crack.

By the time we found ourselves sitting at a tiny cafe, the soft hum of the city surrounding us, I realized I didn't want the night to end. I didn't want to let go of Asa's hand, which I'd been holding almost the entire time.

"You know," I said, leaning in a little closer to her, "you're a lot of fun, Asa. More than I thought you'd be."

She tilted her head slightly, her eyes focusing on me. "I didn't think I would be... anything."

I laughed softly, shaking my head. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I was never meant to be here," she said, her voice so quiet I almost didn't hear it. "But somehow, I am. And I'm still trying to figure out why."

I blinked. Was she saying what I thought she was saying? Was she... different? I didn't have the answers, but I knew one thing: I wasn't going to let her go. Not yet.

"I don't care why you're here, Asa," I said, my voice soft. "All I care about is that you're with me now."

Her gaze softened for just a moment, and for a brief second, I thought I saw something that wasn't just curiosity in her eyes. It was... something more.

But before I could say anything else, a loud voice interrupted us.

"Chiquita!" came the familiar shrill of Rami. She and the others had finally caught up with us.

I sighed, rolling my eyes, but I didn't let go of Asa's hand. Not yet.

"Great," I muttered. "The gang's here."

Asa's POV

I wasn't sure what I felt about the other girls. But Chiquita's grip on my hand didn't falter. And I felt, for the first time, a sense of belonging in a world that was still unfamiliar to me. A sense of... connection.

Could it be real? Could I be real? Or was I just another glitch?

I didn't have the answers yet, but with Chiquita by my side, I was starting to wonder if I even needed them.