Alive // DBH x BTS

Chapter 1 - Jimin

The waiting room was cold. The floor was dark and polished and grey, granite walls reach up a little higher than the needed to. Huge paintings hung on them, filled with meaningless colors and shapes that danced around each other. Jimin's eyes landed on the only decipherable one. It was a lady with a stern face. Her dark brown eyes stared down at him disapproving. 

He looked away, back down at his legs swinging back and forth on the cold metal seat. Beside him the guards shifted uncomfortably, clearly far more eager for their host to arrive, so they could go home. He stiffened and the door swung open. The same android who greeted the entered the room with the same plastic smile. She called herself Chloe and wore a dress as blue as her eyes.

 It was as if his body sprung into action before he could think. This was his last chance to escape. He made a break for the door, dodging arms that reached towards him. His heart sunk to the pit of his stomach when he found it locked. He grappled with the lock for only a couple of seconds before heavy hands landed on his shoulder and wrenched him away. The guards, who up to this point had been silent, started swearing underneath their visors as he struggled in their grip. They had to all but drag him into the next room.

It was not what he had expected. In fact it was enough for him to pause for a minute and stare at his surroundings. There was a pool in the centre of the room. The tiles were red instead of blue making the water look like blood. Half a dozen androids sat in and around it. All of them were the same model, a blond women with big blue eyes. 

"So this is the android everyone's been talking about -" a voice emerged from the other side of the room.

Kamski on the other hand was exactly what he had expected. He sauntered over, wearing a silk robe, his hair tied back in a bun.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand to the the restrained android. Jimin just glared at him. His smile was too big to be genuine and his eyes too cold to be sincere. Kamski glanced over him. He frowned.

"You're damaged," he turned to the guards and said angrily,"I told you to keep it safe!"

"It hurt itself!" One of them protested.

Jimin scoffed at the wobble in his voice, but looking down at his arm where wires exposed made him uncomfortable. He'd never let anyone see him damaged before, for obvious reasons, but they hadn't even given him a jacket cover it up.

Kamski grabbed his arm. Eyes raked over the exposed wiring. It was nothing like he'd ever seen before. Jimin tried to pull his arm away but small man was stronger than he looked. He glanced up at the guards dismissing them with a few curt words.

"What happened?" he asked dragging him gently to a strangely shaped chair in the far corner of the room. Jimin heard the sound of the car backing away from the house. It sounded so far away.

"I thought they were going to leaving in that box," his voice was barely above a whisper, "I thought I'd be stuck in there for ever. I ... I panicked"

"I see," the man didn't look up. He stared at Jimin like he was a strange puzzle to be solved. Again he tried to jerk his arm away. This time Kamski let go.

"Could I have a hydrospanner to fix it," he tried, watching to see the man's reaction. He looked more surprised than anything else.

"You can repair yourself?"

"Well there wouldn't have be much left of me otherwise..."

~~~~

The android who had greeted them when he arrived, showed him to a room. She lingered a little as he looked around. It was spacious and bright. There was a simple but big bed tucked into the far corner with a bedside table. Otherwise the room was empty, leaving a large space in the middle. One of the walls had been made entirely of glass and the distant Detroit skyline sparkling like a jeweled serpent against the darkening sky.

"I never thought I'd be even this close to the city again" he said.

To himself or to Chole, he wasn't sure. She didn't answer. 

On the bed was a set of clothes. Jimin sat down, moving the satin fabric between his fingers. His mind kept jumping back to room he'd just come from. Like the others it had stone walls and dark floors. The table seemed far too big, when only one occupant in the house could actually eat. On it were the tools he requested, set out with surgical neatness.  Slowly he sat and began to repair his arm. Kamski came and sat beside him. 

It took a while. Each fiber had to be reconnected individually. He expected the man to leave after the first ten minutes. But two hours later, he was still there watching just as intently as before while he finished the minute stitching along damaged skin. Kamski spoke a little as he worked, all things he had heard before.

"I invented androids, you know, and I've never seen one like you"

"You weren't the only one," he had muttered.

Then the questions started. How? When? Why? Jimin ignored all of them, choosing to focus on his arm. In the end Kamski gave up and settled to simply watch him work.

When he finished he looked up meeting  Kamski's eyes for the first time. They were dark and searching. He waited for the inevitable. For someone to drag him some strange operating table and take him apart and examine what was left of him.

"Fascinating."

That was all he said. It brought him no comfort. With a flick of his wrist he ordered Chloe to bring him here. 

Even now as he pulled on the shirt he couldn't shake the feeling he was still being examined. That the dark eyes could see through the grey walls, watching as he settled down to sleep.

~~~~~~

He woke up early. The sun shone straight through the translucent wall. The scrubland, whitewashed from the recent snow, was tinged pink reflecting the warm colours that leaked out of the sky. The city looked like a dirty mark in the distance. He wondered how long it would take to drive there. 

He sat up, staring out at it for some time but no one came for him. Something like apprehension coiled around his chest. He got up abruptly and padded to the door. It opened silently and he peered around the corridor. It was empty. 

Making himself as small as he could, he slipped through, back towards the pool room. There was no-one in there either. His mechanical heart raced in his chest as he broke into a run. The entrance room, was as dark and foreboding as when he'd entered it yesterday. The woman's dark eyes bore into his back as he examined the circuitry of the lock. He jumped at non-existent sounds from within the house.

A small part of him whispered that this was to easy. Someone should have come by now but, as the door clicked open, he rushed out blindly into the frigid air. Stray waifs of snow fell softly about him as spun around, searching for some sort of vehicle to take him away from here. There was nothing, not even a garage, where a car could be hidden. A terrible coldness settled onto him.

"I don't own a car Jimin," a voice called from the doorway. Kamski stood there, dressed far more warmly, with a faint smile on his lips. The blue Chloe appeared beside him. The snow crunched under her bare feet as she stepped towards him.

"You could always try walking, but I wouldn't recommend it. I'd send some to pick you up half way to the city - you never make it."

He flinched as she came nearer.

"Or... you could try cross country but" he clicked his tongue, "you're not really built for that are you? Your joints must be freezing up already"

He felt her hand on his shoulder. It was warm. Warmer than everything else out here anyway. Trembling he melted into her arms. Hopeless sobbed wracked through his small frame. He began muttering thoughtlessly aloud.

"What language is that?" Kamski called out

"Korean." supplied Chole, running slender finger through his hair as she guided him back into the house.

"What's he saying,'

The Chloe paused a minute before answering

"Let me go. Please just let me go."