Robots Love Too

Nam Shin III sits, abandoned in the house where he lived with Ro-Ra and David. They have long since returned to Czech Republic to reconcile with human Nam Shin after the twenty years of emotional abuse and neglect that Ro-Ra’s son suffered at the hands of his grandfather.

Nam Shin III’s body is a lead weight, but he realizes that he is aware. He does not question how this is possible without a battery on his wrist. He opens his eyes as he hears/feels Roomba-a, his very first friend.

“Hello chingu,” he whispers as the device rolls into field of view.

Roomba rolls forward until it touches his leg, and Nam Shin III feels a small surge of energy and remembers. He pulls up images of So-Bong stored in Roomba’s memory banks.

The first time they met, at PK’s M car launch and the fire that blazed in her eyes when she screamed his name—no, the human Nam Shin‘s name—from across the room.

The time when she jumped in the swimming pool and pulled him to the surface, screaming at him with fear and concern.

I want…

He smiles and searches for another image.

The day when M car had careened out of control on the streets of Seoul, and Nam Shin III had catapulted into the driver’s seat to activate the kill switch. In that millisecond he’d discovered that a similar device existed inside him. He was neither shocked nor surprised. After all, he was a robot too.

It was later, much later, when Ye-Na had lashed out at So Bong for defending him, that Nam Shin III had added the rule making So Bong his first priority, simultaneously deactivating his kill switch and overriding manual control. If Kang So Bong were ever in danger, he needed to be there to protect her.

I need …

The day at the restaurant when Nam Shin III rejected marriage to Ye-Na by kissing So Bong, he’d been puzzled by the look of confusion, fear and excitement on her face. But after he’d spent the entire night at her father’s gym, So Bong had yelled at him then kissed him, he understood what she’d felt at the restaurant. It confused him because robots weren’t supposed to feel.

I love…

The day of his wedding when he sensed that she was in danger and located her at PK headquarters, he’d commanded M car to hold off her kidnapper until he arrived. When he opened the car trunk and said, “It’s me, Kang So Bong.”

He gives a small, sad smile as he recalls the look on her face when she realized that it was him. When she clung to him as she cried her eyes out, he knew he loved her.

But robots aren’t supposed to feel.

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