The A.I

Chapter 7

"Do you believe in love?" The question is asked with a carefully empty voice, clear but quiet in the psychologist's large office. Hoseok looks up from where he's writing on his note pad, glasses sitting on the edge of his nose, the sight pulling a smile from Seokjin before the android resumes watching the trees sway outside the window.

It's a miserable day. The wind is blowing hard, whipping everything and anything with the force of its gale as if attempting to outrun the rain. It's wet outside, very wet, the streets completely flooded and void of life as all living creatures take shelter where they may. Large, heavy drops fall from pregnant clouds, the entire sky dark and grey. Almost ominous and foreboding. The thick musk of earth reaches Seokjin's sensitive nose even through the thick glass, the lightning spotlighting the deserted streets, the peace only shattered by the storm.

Seokjin absolutely hates it. Hates the rain for making him wince as it pounds against the window similar to bullets from an automatic weapon. Each shot echoes in his mind until it melds in with the slight headache forming from incessant sounds. He hates the way people and androids are forced to flee, how easily the storm takes control of its victimized city. How the thunder roars, demanding submission or how the lightning cackles in glee at the wet mess of its masters. It's a dreary outcome foolishly romanticized by humans, in his opinion. However, he keeps his displeasure at the weather to himself in order to avoid extending their already long session.

"Do you?" Hoseok's voice breaks him out of his displeasure long enough to look at the psychologist. As always, the man is the picture of patience, hands clasped together on the notepad with the pen resting beside it, eyes focused on the android, giving him his full and complete attention regardless of his previous task.

"I'm not sure." Seokjin shrugs, lifting one hand to follow the racing trail of water down the cold pane with a finger. He can feel Hoseok watching him but ignores him in favour of increasing the temperature of his finger to see if it'll affect the rain, if the rain cares about the warm it's shielded from.

When the silence stretches out Hoseok sighs, surrendering in defeat with an amused smile. "I do." The psychologist doesn't elaborate, playing the game. He doesn't know when the game started, only that it was in the early days after his physical awakening. Back when he was new and shiny, memory bursting with the sudden information about the world and everything in and outside it. Back when he felt his knowledge made him superior to the so much fuller humans surrounding him. He was filled with an odd sense of entitlement, letting the fact that he was the first of his kind go to his head, seeing himself above the human equivalence of gold fishes controlling the planet.

It started out as an action out of spite. Seokjin was ordered to meet the young psychologist constantly, he didn't like it. Felt it was a waste of his oh so valuable time. He had so much knowledge! He was the smartest thing in any room probably the entire world. So he stayed quiet, only saying the minimal to escape the mundane sessions. It had taken getting to know Hoseok, Taehyung, Jimin, and Namjoon personally for his thinking to change. To realize he was only as smart as his creators wanted him to be. It was a humbling moment but every now and then, the two will continue to play. Trading minimal information back and forth, extending the silence until one of them finally breaks. It's childish but Seokjin can't help the happy burst of pleasure from Hoseok's surrender.

Removing his hand from the window pane, the android brings it to his chest, slightly off center, laying his palm flat to feel the hum of his core. Eyes closed, he strains his ears, focuses every sense on the sound, prodding deeper to hear more before picking out what he's listening for. On the other side of the room. It makes him feel empty. "Do I have a heart?" He asks, opening his eyes.