Chapter Text
OF WHISKEY AND METAL
Floor 70. Doors Opening.
The dull thrum of the elevator doors opening in front of him rouses San from his thoughts. He’d been going over the case he’d been given, scanning through every detail methodically.
A hostage situation, involving a male deviant android and a young girl. Android is believed to be armed and dangerous.
San steps into the dim apartment. He is greeted by what he can assume are the screams of a distraught woman not long before she appears in his line of sight, followed by two officers leading her out. She looks to be about mid 30s, suggestions of wrinkles lining her face. This is the hostage's mother . San recognizes her from the file he’d been looking over. She looks as though she's been crying for hours, eyes red rimmed and gleaming with fresh tears as she runs towards San, borderline hysterical. She grips at his pressed coat tightly.
“Please, you’ve got to save my baby! She’s my little girl, please! You have to….”
The woman trails off. She backs up only slightly and stares at Sans uniform, a neatly ironed dark gray blazer with the words ‘UTOPIA INDUSTRIES. AZ1024’ printed in neat white font along the front. Next to it is a logo, an hourglass with a star on the top.
“You’re sending an android to save her? You..You can’t do that! You can’t!”
One of the soldiers steps forward to take the woman’s arm, dragging her away despite her protests. “Why aren’t you sending a real person ?” She screams at the men.
San watches her go with an impassive look on his face, straightening up his uniform. He may not be a real person, but he is certainly suited for the job. As he goes to continue further into the apartment, he notices a large fish tank lining the far wall. On the ground in front of it lies a clownfish, flopping around wildly. San bends down to pick it up and place it back in its tank, watching as it stares at him for a beat and then swims away in a hurry.
When he finally makes his way into the apartment, the first thing he does is locate the captain, Captain Kim Hongjoong. Thankfully, the captain is easy to spot, both due to his shorter stature and the way he is currently barking orders at surrounding men, commanding the room so easily. San steps over various shards of glass and makes his way through the soldiers rushing past, gaining a few odd looks from some. Nothing he isn’t used to, some humans still aren’t pleased with androids being a part of the workforce.
San greets captain Kim with a polite smile. “Captain Kim, my name is Choi San. I’m the android sent by Utopia Industries.” The captain barely acknowledges him, busy staring at the screen he has placed in front of him with a live feed of the situation. After a few moments of no response, San tries again. “Is there anything you can tell me about the situation?”
Kim finally relents, turning around to face San. He has to look down, just the slightest bit to meet his eyes. “Fuckin’ thing is shooting down anything that moves. Two of my men have already been shot dead. We could get to it no problem, but it has a young girl as its hostage and is standing on the ledge of the building. If it falls, so does the girl.”
San hums in acknowledgement. “Do we know its name?” The captain looks unimpressed. “Does it matter?” No, San supposes. It doesn’t. After this, he’ll probably never see this android again. With no further information given to him, San elects to scour the apartment for clues, hoping to further increase his chances of negotiating with the android. The flat really is quite nice, he supposes. The little girl—San learns her name is Emma—has a room fully decorated in items in varying shades of pink and purple. One of her walls is stacked nearly to the ceiling with stuffed animals. San finds her tablet lying on her bed, and notices there are multiple videos of her and the android. She seems happy; they both do. San continues further into the flat where he finds the body of the girl's father, crumpled over in a sickening display. His skin is pale, too pale for it to be healthy and San concludes he’s been shot several times from the empty shells on the floor. He too has a tablet, located on the floor a few feet away from him. San picks it up to see that the man had just put in an order for a new android.
San is able to reconstruct the scene in his head and get a vague idea of what happened, and when he deems it enough evidence San makes his way outside.
➢➢➢
Yeosang swears he’s going to kill his brother.
Okay, maybe not kill literally, but this has to be some kind of joke. A personal android? Didn’t he know that Yeosang enjoyed his solitude? Sure it was a little disheartening to return home to his too large condo with no one to greet him, but he was fine! He had his paints to distract entertain him.
(So what if he hasn’t painted anything in over a month? That’s nobody's business!)
Yeosang stared at the box labeled ‘UTOPIA INDUSTRIES: FRAGILE EQUIPMENT, DO NOT SHAKE’ scrutinizingly as he paced around his living room. He couldn’t send it back; The poor delivery man struggled to even get it up to his floor. And he couldn’t leave it here, it was taking up space in his living room. Fine. He guesses he’ll have to open it. At the very least, maybe he can get an assistant to help clean his paint room...
With a little struggle, Yeosang brings the box upright, and opens it carefully. Oh. Wow. Sure enough, there is an android inside. He’s about Yeosang’s height, maybe slightly shorter, and the android is beautiful. His skin is a nice warm tan, with a beauty mark under his left eye. His hair is dark as midnight and just this side of long, brushing his neck. He’s absolutely stunning. Close to his right temple, his LED glows a soft blue, reminding Yeosang that of course the man is perfect: he isn’t human.
Yeosang slowly reaches a nervous hand to brush the bot's cheekbone, and his skin feels so lifelike it’s alarming. Almost as if on cue, the androids eyes open, staring straight into Yeosangs. Yeosang gasps and flinches back so hard he trips over his coffee table, and the android reaches out to stabilize him. Even his hands feel real, and Yeosang pauses his freakout to marvel at them. Cyber technology really has come a long way.
“Are you alright?” The android asks. His voice is saccharine, and flows easily in Yeosangs ears. For a moment there is silence, only interrupted when the android frowns slightly and asks another question. “Um, hello?”
When Yeosangs brain comes back online and he remembers how to function, he stands up straight, and nods, not trusting himself to speak. Be normal Yeosang, you can do this. It’s just an android.
“Oh, good. I didn’t break you then. Hi there! My name is JW1126. My previous handler named me Jung Wooyoung. Would you like to keep that name, or register a new one for me?”
Yeosang can’t do this.
➢➢➢
San watches as the soldiers shoot the android repeatedly. Once along his cheekbone, twice along his sides. Emma screams loudly at the noise, and clings to Sans leg in fear. San finds it odd, her first instinct is to run to another android after being taken hostage by one. Still, San covers her ears to give whatever comfort he can, though he isn’t programmed for this so he cannot tell if it works or not. The deviant's body slumps forward, blue blood dripping from its wounds. For a moment, San thinks he sees the android raise its head to look at him with an emotion he can’t exactly read, but if he had to put a word to it, it’d be suffering. San looks away.
A soldier tries to gather Emma away, but she only clings to San harder, her sobs wracking her small body. The android stares down at her, LED blinking rapidly at being unsure of what to do. When Emma refuses a second time to leave his side, San decides to gently pry her hands from his leg and carry her. He’s a bit awkward, he isn’t a babysitting android, but Emma doesn’t complain. San walks back to the flat like that, with Emma cradled in his arms, trembling likely from more than just the cold.
Captain Kim gives him a dismissive look, but there is the slightest bit of respect in the way he nods when San walks by. San makes sure to shield Emma's eyes when they walk past her father; She’s seen too much already. By the time they reach the elevator Emma has calmed down enough to be put down, though still she holds Sans hand tightly as they leave the flat together.
Emma’s mother sobs for the nth time tonight when she sees Emma, relatively unharmed save for a few scratches on her legs. “Thank god, oh thank god you’re okay! My baby!”
It’s a heartwarming scene to witness, and San feels an almost satisfaction at watching them reunite.
Emma turns with a bright grin to thank San, bowing an almost full 90 degrees. “Thank you, sir! You’re my hero!”
A hero? San echoes in his mind.
He was just doing his job.
➢➢➢
Hongjoong heads back home as soon as he can, which proves to be not soon at all. The news reporters want an interview, and he has to report back to his chief what went down, as well as make sure his men were all attended to properly and inform their families. He opts to take a taxi home, far too tired to drive home safely, and the taxi stops just before the hill he has to walk up to reach his apartment.
Hongjoong briefly considers the risks of sleeping on the streets.
He trudges up to his building, and mentally curses whatever gods are out there because the elevator still isn’t fixed and it’s been three months already.
After a grueling trip up the stairs to his flat on the third floor and a struggle in his fatigue to remember which way his lock goes, he makes it in the door. He kicks his boots off by the door, and tosses his uniform jacket away somewhere in the darkness of his living room. He stands there for a minute, in the silence, wondering why he even does this job anymore.
He barely gets any sleep, and more often than not is the first line of defense in life threatening situations; hell, he only got this job because his brother was captain before him and heavily recommended him to anyone who would listen.
Before he can spiral any further, his phone vibrates in his pocket.
Kakao!
Hongjoong fishes for his phone in his pocket, wondering just who in their right mind is messaging him so late?
He gets his answer when a second notification follows the first almost immediately, and a familiar profile picture appears.
Kakao!
Ah. And there it is; his reason for working so hard all the time.
Hwa✰
Did you get home yet? 1:03 AM
Just heard from the chief everything went well! :D 1:03 AM
Park Seonghwa, the new operator at the precinct. He’s only been around a few months, but he’s great at his job. Hongjoong admires him, really. The calls they get are no joke, and Seonghwa has handled them all extremely well; he never lashes out, and he knows just what to say to calm someone down or talk them through something.
He’s also really pretty.
Hongjoong mistook him for a regular (really hot!!) civilian looking for assistance the first time Seonghwa walked in, and almost jumped at the opportunity to help him. Seonghwa had thankfully laughed at Hongjoongs mistake, and introduced himself as Park Seonghwa, the new operator hire. And man, was he the the prettiest (in Hongjoongs expert opinion,) operator he’d ever seen— Seonghwa had long black hair, and big eyes that looked at everything that surrounded him with wonder, and he was tall, and lean with just the slightest suggestion of muscled biceps that made Hongjoong swoon—So yeah, he’s really pretty.
And Hongjoong just had to get his number. And he did! Well, he got it from another officer under the guise of needing to discuss work with Seonghwa, but he still got it!
Hongjoong was criminally bad at texting though, almost intimidated at the thought of actually talking to Seonghwa about anything besides work. So their conversations remained short, much to Hongjoongs dismay. Checking in on eachother had only recently become a thing, initiated by Seonghwa himself when he suddenly asked after a particularly harsh day how Hongjoong was feeling.
Realizing he's just been staring at his phone the whole time, Hongjoong texts a quick response.
Joong☘︎
Just got home. Only a few casualties, and the girl was rescued, so yes, everything went well. 1:07 AM
Why are you awake? 1:07 AM
God, could Hongjoong be any worse at this?
Hwa✰
I couldn’t sleep without knowing how the assignment wenr! 1:10 AM
went** 1:10 AM
Joong☘︎
Well it went well, so don’t worry about it and get some rest. 1:12 AM
Can’t do your job if you’re falling asleep at the desk. 1:12 AM
The answer is no, no he could not be any worse at this.