IMMORTAL CYBORG || LEE HONGBIN

CHAPTER 1

"Eommaaa" Heeyoung whined from the upstairs with a towel on her head and ran downstairs while looking for something. Minseo, her mom peeked from the kitchen before she brought out the breakfast and put it on the dining table.

"waee (why) you misplaced something again? Hey what time is it now? Go get ready you have class in a while. What are you doing still in the pajama, Eunwoo has been waiting for you like half an hour already" She shook her head and went back to the kitchen.

Heeyoung whined "I lost my stationary settt, oh, wait, you said Eun- yah!" She turned back to see Eunwoo stuffed an egg roll into his mouth and smiled at her. She frowned and sat in front of him before she picked a chopstick. "neo wae yeogiseo? Achim buteo.. (why are you here in the morning?). aisshh you running out of rice or what huh?"

Eunwoo rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Yah, my rice is too much that I can donate to our school. I know in winter you always get ready late to class, so I want to make sure you do not this time. Look, even the stationary set is missing, you don't prepare it last night?" He shook his head when she stick out her tongue and fed her with a side dish. "ppalli meogeo. (eat quickly) but don't choke yourself"

"eommmaaa did satang (candy in korean *her dog's name) played with the set or what? I put it at the balcony because I need to get it dry." Minseo packed a lunch box for both of them and joined them for breakfast. "oh, did appa go to work already? Its still early for him."

"Aigoo i-gijibe (this girl), stop accusing satang every time you misplaced something. Go check at the back of the kitchen, I did clean the balcony yesterday maybe I put it there." Eunwoo chuckled at her carelessness. "Your dad has a meeting, he said maybe he will go to a business trip, and he wants you and me to follow as well." Heeyoung just nodded and finished her breakfast before she got ready to go to class.

"Thank you for coming early this morning Eunwoo-yah, you really know how to take care of Heeyoung. Here I packed some lunch for you guys so make sure to eat okay?" Minseo thanked him while they waited for Heeyoung. After a while, Heeyoung went downstairs and wore her sneakers. He noticed something when she was ready to go.

"yah, where's your winter coat? Its freezing out there how can you forgot your own coat haish, you make troubles at the beginning of the day, Jang Heeyoung." She looked at her reflection on the glass window and slapped her forehead.

"I was busy putting all the stationary because I don't want to get punished for not bringing the whole set..aishh" She turned around and Eunwoo has already held her coat and helped her to wear it. He then switched the bag where he asked her to bring the lunch bags while he brought both of their school bags since they always bring a lot of art stuff.

"Next time, you need to check your drink if there's any ant in it. Neo mae-nal kameo-geosseo (you always forgot something)" Eunwoo joked but spoke with a concern tone while she rolled her eyes.

"Eunwoo-yah I will work this weekend because its a festive day, so the manager said there will be an extra pay." She hugged herself while they were waiting for the subway because its the coldest day as what the weather broadcasting informed last night.

"This week will be so cold, why bother to work? And you also said to work only when there's semester break. Yah Heeyoung-ah, just stay at home in front of the heater, you're not strong when the weather's under 0 degree." He looked at her with worried expression and handed her his extra hot pack when she's already turned pale. "Look, even now you look sick even though we are at the basement. No, you can't go to work unless there's no one work that day, I will join you."

She bit her lips and stomped her feet lightly to get the cold away. "You're like a grandmother, nagging too much" She pulled Eunwoo closer to her and buried her face into his chest, they are comfortable since they knew each other since they were kids, so its not a big problem for them to hug in public. Eunwoo hugged her back since he knew that she can't bear with extreme weather. "yah, you have a car, next time let's just go to the college by car. What's the point of having a nice car if it's not moving." Heeyoung mumbled and he chuckled.

"In winter a lot of people using cars, we will get stuck in traffic jam, silly."

"Whatever."

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Hongbin woke up from his nap. He always worked until late night and ended up sleeping at the work table. He went to the bathroom to wash his face and opened the balcony door to take a fresh air but ended up closing it back since it was too cold.

"I need to restart them again." He looked at the calendar as it's almost near to new year. Which means he needs to reset all the machines so they can work as a new one every single year. This time he needed to make some upgrade before the due date so that's why he was working hard.

"Lee Hongbin." A voice from the outside of his room made him walked towards the door and opened it. Its his mother. "Your breakfast has prepared." He nodded and followed his mom to the kitchen. His father was there as well but he said nothing.

They took their breakfast silently and Hongbin suddenly cleared his throat. "Eomma, I will be out as usual after this. Don't wait for me. When its night just go to sleep. And make sure that you look after them as well because its time to restart soon." He smiled at his mom and she did the same.

"Okay."

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"Class dismissed, you can go now." The prof smiled and left the room. All the students let out a sigh and cleaned up their things. The assignment this time was quite hard, any art assignment is hard but since its winter and almost the festive day, they just don't have the mood to complete the assignment.

"Yah, why must she gave the assignment now? At least give it after the festive, I want to work tho." Heeyoung pouted and Eunwoo shook his head.

"I told you not to work that day, there's a reason see? Let's just hang out at my place and complete the assignment, okay?" Heeyoung nodded and they left the room to go for lunch "Let's eat the lunch that your mom packed, I'm hungryyy" Eunwoo put his hand on her shoulder and walked together.

"You looked so eager to work that day? Why huh?" Eunwoo stuffed his mouth with rice and squinted his eyes. He then swallowed it and sighed. "Don't tell me-"

"Bingo, I want to see Hongbin sunbae. I mean it has been a few weeks or even months that we didn't meet each other, I want to know if he's doing well, he must be waiting for me everyday at the cafe." She played with the rice and pouted.

"Aigoo..can you just not be too serious about that gir-" Eunwoo's words got cut off when she got a call from her mother.

"Eo eomma? Yes I don't think I will go to work.. yeah..okay..ahhh Sweden? Okay we'll talk later at home. Byebye." She put the phone back in her bag and Eunwoo asked.

"Whats with Sweden?"

"We're going there in a few more weeks for appa's business trip. Its right during winter break so I think its fine for me to follow right?" Eunwoo nodded but then she continued "But I rarely heard of Sweden except for when our high school seniors represented Korea where they brought the human-size robot. Ah, the one where Hongbin sunbae became the leader and his other friends where we used to call them VIXX, the hottest students in high school at that time." She suddenly smiled and imagined that time where the girls were all crazy of them.

"wah, you're like those sasaeng (fanatic fan) who knows each seconds of their daily life." Eunwoo sighed and continued to finish his lunch.

"But don't you feel weird that we didn't heard any news about them after they graduated from the school? I mean at least one or two of them must be pursuing in the science and technology course. And they won at Sweden so they must have like a contract with a tech company or something that we will surely know about. But they just disappeared with no news." Heeyoung took a sip of her tea. "Weird right?"

Eunwoo listened to her silently and did not respond. He knew something that she didn't.

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