The Return

Chapter 18

"Wait... You're serious?"

She chuckled delicately. "I wouldn't say it if I wasn't."

I was speechless. She wanted to date me. Me of all people.

"We should start tonight!" she sounded excited.

"W-where do you want to go?"

She thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm... What about the holographic museum?" she said with a sparkle in her eyes.

"O-okay." I was still recovering from my state of shock.

"I'll go get ready then"

I squeezed her hands slightly, stopping her from leaving.

"You mean we're going as friends?" Why was I being so clueless?

"Does going on a date imply we're going as friends?" She placed her hands on either side of my face. "you're so silly sometimes. I'll meet you in your office when I'm ready!"

I also went to my apartment and washed up, got dressed into my nicest clothes. Not anything fancy, just nice and casual

I couldn't believe she just said we should date. She is always spontaneous when she sets her mind on something and I'm always caught off-guard. I'm not a spontaneous person, but she seems to bring that out of me.

I was about to enter my office when I saw the door was left open. I looked down the hall in the direction of the elevators and saw Yumi, turning the corner.

"Yumi?" I didn't get a response.

I entered my office thinking maybe she saw something.

I looked and saw nothing out of place except my computer screen was open.

I looked at the codes I was deciphering but saw that the last part had been solved.

I read through it. Finally, everything made sense. It took me a little too long for it to finally register.

This means...

Yumi!

I ran out of my office and headed towards the elevators. She had already gone onto one and it was heading towards the roof top.

I pressed the button urgently.

Please, Yumi don't do this...

She might have understood it wrong.

The elevator wasn't coming down fast enough. I looked towards the stairway and saw Hoseok standing there. I didn't have enough time to process that I was seeing him again.

"You better run" he said.

And with that I sprinted up the stairs. I was so thankful I was a cyborg or else this would have been impossible for me to do.

What is going on in her mind now that she knows about her brain. Her mind...

I finally made it to the rooftop door and burst through it.

There she was. Standing close to the edge of this tall building staring at the sky.

"Yumi!" I yelled out to her.

She turned to look at me. She was hysterically crying. It pained me to see her like this.

"I saw that you solved the mystery to your mind..." I tried to sound calm. I didn't want her to do anything radical.

She just collapsed to the floor still crying.

"I really thought I used to be human." She said through sobs.

I slowly walked closer to her. 

"But my mind is completely artificial. Nothing about me is human" she sounded like she was beginning to have a panic attack.

She might just be an artificial intelligence. But that doesn't mean she's not human in spirit.

"I'm just an A.I.... What if I've just been programmed to do this, to like what I like... To say the things I say... To feel the way I feel. How am I supposed to know what's real... I'm not even real..."

I crouched down next to her and held her in my arms.

She tried to stop me at first "What if I was made to make you care about me to keep you distracted from something else?" She finally gave in and cried some more. "What am I..."

I held her face in my hands forcing her to look at me.

"You're Yumi, and you're the first independent A.I. to exist."

Her tears were still forming and falling down Her face.

"How can you be so sure? Technically I'm just another computer program... I'm not real..."

"You are real. You're here. You think for yourself. And you feel. And I'm sure by your reaction to this. You wouldn't be questioning yourself like this if you weren't a perfect A.I." She seemed to be calming down a bit. Like if my words were grounding her.

"Can we do tests to be sure?" she clearly didn't trust her own mind this is a lot to take in. Honestly, I was having a hard time processing it myself. But if I believed anything it was that she was her own person, with free will.

"We can do that right now. Would that make you feel better?" She nodded her head trying to suppress her sobs.

I helped her up and supported her as we went to my lab. She seemed to be weak from the amount of distress her mind was in.

Following all the instructions I had decoded I was able to properly test her brain and access it to see if she was able to make her own decisions. After a few hours the results were amazing. I never thought I would see the mind of the perfect A.I. but here she is. Real and human in every way possible except, arguably, better.

She was calm now as she was giving herself time to allow her test results to sink in. She was in shock.

I brought her to her apartment and got her into her bed to make her comfortable. I know what this kind of shock feels like. To not be sure of who you are anymore. To question your own existence. But she's not going to go through it alone.

Almost like she snapped out of her own trance she looked at me with a sad expression.

"If you're not interested in me anymore... I understand." I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"You're still the same person Yumi..."

She was teary eyed again. Maybe how I feel about her might be the only thing that can get her through this speed bump. Knowing that someone is there for you and believes in you even when you don't believe in yourself can sometimes give you enough strength to fight through the mental pain.

"So... You still like me?"

I didn't know what more I could say for her to understand that I still love her...

I love her.

Huh... Hoseok was right about that.

She might be different and unique but the tests we just did prove that she's just like the rest of us, just enhanced.

I put my hand on the side of her neck and with my thumb I gently pushed her chin to face me.

This is the only way I can prove to her that my feelings wont change.

I kissed her gently.

"I still like you."