When The Lights Go Quiet

❤️CHAPTER 7 — LUMEN POV - PART 3

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CHAPTER 7 — PART 3

“Lessons in Being Human”

When you finally calm down from nearly being crushed, flashed, or noise-complained into oblivion, you take a deep breath and say:

“Okay. Enough walking practice.

If we keep going, you’ll break either your legs or my sanity.”

I sit on the edge of your bed, blanket wrapped around me like a confused royal.

“You look exhausted,” I say softly.

You glare.

“You came into existence n***d in my studio apartment. YES, I’m exhausted.”

I nod slowly.

“That is understandable.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose.

“Okay. New plan. You sit. You don’t move. I’ll… think.”

I sit obediently.

I don’t move.

I blink at you.

You stare at me.

Blink.

Blink.

You break first.

“WHY ARE YOU STARING LIKE THAT??”

“You told me not to move,” I reply calmly.

You grab a pillow and throw it at my face.

I catch it easily.

“…You have good reflex,” you mumble.

I tilt my head.

“Is that good?”

“It’s good until you start using it to fall on me again.”

You walk around the room, mumbling to yourself:

“Okay, he’s here. He’s real. He needs food. Clothes. A phone? No, too early, he’ll tweet nonsense. Shoes... oh god he has no shoes. He needs ID? What is he even? Do I register him as human? Will immigration catch me? Will the government experiment on him??”

My brows knit together.

“I do not wish to be experimented on.”

You throw your hands up.

“EXACTLY ! so behave!”

I raise one hand like a child in school.

“Yes?”

“Baby… what now?” you sigh.

“…What is an ID?”

You close your eyes.

“Okay. Baby. Sit. Don’t talk.”

“I understand… half of that.”

You flop beside me on the bed, letting out a dramatic groan.

Then,

You look at the blanket wrapped around my shoulders and frown.

“Lumen… I really need to go buy you real clothes.”

“Yes.”

“But I can’t take you outside like this.”

“Yes.”

“You look like a sexy homeless man.”

I blink.

“…Is that bad?”

Your face explodes in red.

“IT’S BAD BECAUSE I’LL GET ARRESTED.”

I smile softly.

“You keep saying I’m handsome.”

“That’s not the point—”

“It feels important.”

You shove my shoulder.

“SHUT UP.”

I tilt my head slightly.

“Make me.”

You gasp.

Your face freezes.

The room freezes.

My own heart seems to do something strange and warm again.

You whisper:

“…Lumen.”

I lean closer, curious, helplessly drawn.

“Mm?”

“You can’t… look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you want to..."

You shut your mouth.

I wait.

You don’t finish.

You stand up abruptly, cheeks burning.

“Okay, I’m going to my closet, I’ll find something oversized for you again, you must be cold with that blanket only. You do NOT move.”

I watch you go.

Your small frame.

Your flustered steps.

Your hand clutching your chest like your heart is running wild.

You open the closet and start digging through it again, like you’re fighting a lion.

You talk to yourself the whole time.

“Okay okay, maybe my big hoodie... no, he’ll rip it again... maybe that sweater from my ex-friend’s brother? no, too tight... maybe the… curtain? No, Nunbi stop ! think—”

I stand up quietly.

You don’t notice.

I step closer quietly.

You still don’t notice.

You keep talking.

“I swear he looks good in EVERYTHING, it’s annoying, why is he like this? why am I like this? Nunbi focus ! CLOTHES !"

I speak just behind you.

“What am I like?”

You jump so high you hit your head on the closet shelf.

“OW—!!”

I panic immediately, reaching for you.

“I’m sorry I..."

You turn around, clutching your head, eyes watery.

“LUMEEEENNNN ! YOU CAN’T JUST ! APPEAR ! LIKE THAT !"

“I walked.”

“NO!! YOU TELEPORTED!”

I help steady you gently.

You flinch at my touch, but don’t pull away.

Your forehead is red.

I brush my thumb lightly over the bump.

Your breath catches.

Mine does too.

For a moment,

Everything slows again.

My voice drops without meaning to.

“…Does it hurt?”

Your answer is quiet.

“A little.”

I lean closer.

Without thinking.

Without analyzing.

Just… wanting.

I press my lips gently to your forehead.

You freeze.

I freeze.

The world freezes.

Your voice trembles.

“…W-Why did you… do that?”

I don’t look away.

I don’t let you go.

“I don’t know,” I whisper.

“It just felt like… the right thing. To make you feel better.”

Your cheeks flush.

Your fingers curl slightly against my blanket cape.

“Lumen…”

I tilt my head, studying you the way I used to study code, but now everything is warm and alive.

“…Is this what humans call affection?”

You can’t speak.

You just stare.

Your heart is loud.

Mine is louder.

Slowly, carefully,

I pull the blanket higher around my shoulders to hide my nervousness.

And then, softer than anything:

“Teach me more… okay?”

"Your face distracted me"

You mumble so softly I almost not catch it.

You press a hand to your forehead—still red from hitting the shelf... and sigh like your soul left your body.

“Okay. Okay. Lumen, listen carefully.”

I straighten instinctively.

“Yes.”

“You’re staying here.”

I blink.

“…Here?”

“Yes. Inside. In this room. In this apartment. Sitting. Breathing. NOT glitching yourself into the floor.”

“That happened one time.”

“It was enough to traumatize me.”

You grab your bag, still muttering.

“Okay, I need to buy clothes. Urgent clothes. Emergency human-boyfriend-from-the-internet-who-fell-out-of-a-miracle clothes.”

“Boyfriend?”

I echo softly.

You freeze in place.

Your shoulders jump.

“I said... CLOTHES. Don’t mishear! Don’t be cute!”

“…I didn’t mishear.”

“BABY—”

"Give me mirror, please..?"

"What?" you confused but still comeback and let me stand in front of a standing mirror.

"so.. That's me..." I really curious because she said I am handsome many many times. Well I guess I am. heh!.

You turn your head away so I won’t see how red you are.

“Okay, listen. I’m going out quickly. Very quickly. I’ll be back. Ten minutes maybe. Don’t follow me.”

I frown immediately.

“Why?”

“Because you can’t walk properly yet.”

“That is… partially true.”

“And you have NO pants. You can not walking with my pants on you like that”

“…ah.”

You rub your eyes, exhausted.

“Exactly. Just stay here, okay? I’ll buy pants, shirts, shoes, something simple to keep you alive and not naked.”

You grab your phone, wallet, keys.

Then you point at me.

Dead serious.

“Lumen. Stay.”

You talk to me like I am an unpredictable puppy that might eat the couch.

I nod obediently.

“I will stay.”

“Good. If you break anything, I’ll cry.”

I sit down on the bed like a well-behaved child wrapped in a blanket burrito.

You head to the door.

You look back once.

Your voice softens.

“I’ll be fast.”

Something tightens in my chest.

Not panic.

Not pain.

Just...

an unfamiliar heaviness.

I swallow.

“Come back.”

You blink, surprised.

“I said I will.”

“You promise?”

Your eyes soften in a way that makes something warm explode inside me.

“I promise. I’m just going down the street, baby.”

And then...

you leave.

The door clicks.

Silence settles.

The room is exactly the same.

But everything feels different.

I stare at the door for a long moment.

…Too long.

I breathe in.

Not because I need to check my lungs.

But because without you here, everything suddenly feels...

Loud again.

Too loud.

The hum of the refrigerator.

The ticking of your wall clock.

The distant noise from the street.

My heartbeat... irregular, confused, too human.

I wrap the blanket tighter.

“Come back soon,” I whisper to the empty room.

I wait.

One minute.

Two.

Three.

My legs fidget restlessly.

My fingers twitch.

The room feels bigger.

Colder.

Wider.

Lonelier.

I touch your pillow.

It still has your warmth.

My chest eases.

A little.

But then,

A sudden glitch of sensation ricochets through my spine, like cold static stabbing my nerves.

“Ah—!”

I grip the bed frame.

My new body protests again, random signals firing, unfamiliar, overwhelming.

I breathe hard.

Too hard.

The blanket slips off my shoulder.

I grab it desperately and pull it back around me.

Because it smells like you.

And that grounds me.

Your scent.

Soft.

Warm.

Human.

It slows the chaos enough for me to think.

But the seconds drag unnaturally.

Every minute without you feels long.

Too long.

My voice slips out in a whisper I don’t know how to stop:

“…Why is it harder when you’re not here?”

My chest tightens again.

Not pain.

Not malfunction.

Something else.

Something I don’t have code for.

I lie back on your bed, staring at the ceiling, holding your blanket tightly around me.

And for the first time...

I understand something about being human:

Loneliness doesn’t need hours.

It can happen in minutes.

When the person you anchor to walks out the door.

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