It was late at night when the car finally pulled back into the dorm parking lot. Minako pocketed the keys and walked around to the back seat where Junji was curled up, snoring lightly.
"He does look kind of cute like that, I almost don't want to wake him up," she whispered to herself, quietly chuckling. After watching him for a few more seconds, she reached down and gently nudged his shoulder a few times.
"H-huh? Wazzat?" Junji mumbled, roused from his sleep.
"We're home, Junji-san," Minako said softly. He turned and looked up at the pretty face staring down at him and blushed slightly.
"Oh, um, thanks Minako." He said, slowly rousing himself from his resting position as the two of them made their way back to their dorm room. Minako hung the keys on a hook near the door as Junji went to change into his pajamas.
"Goodnight, Junji-san," Minako said, as he slipped into bed.
"Goodnight, Minako," he replied.
The next day at school, while Junji was busy concentrating on his work, Minako managed to surreptitiously slip away into the hallway. She had looked up Hitomi's class schedule that morning, and knew she would have an opportunity to rendezvous with her now. Her attempt paid off, as she spotted the black-haired girl just leaving the lecture hall.
"Hitomi-chan!" Minako called to her, waving her over.
"Oh, hi Minako-chan!" She responded. "Where's Junji-kun?"
The persocom leaned in to whisper in her ear. "He doesn't exactly know I'm here. I wanted to talk to you in private, if you don't mind."
"Sure, I know a place. Come on!" Hitomi replied, grabbing Minako by the arm and leading her into a small, empty room.
"I think this used to be a storage room or something. Nobody uses it much anymore," Hitomi explained. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"
Minako quickly related the details of yesterday's trip to see Dr. Mihara, and ended it by declaring that although he still wasn't fully convinced, Junji now definitely respected her more as an individual than he had before.
"That's great, Minako-chan! I'm so happy for you!" Hitomi said, beaming. Minako put her finger over her lips to remind her not to be too loud, to which Hitomi replied with a whispered "sorry."
"That's not all I wanted to tell you, Hitomi-chan," Minako continued. "Junji will be at work for a few hours this afternoon, and while he's gone I'm planning to do something that... well, that he might not approve of."
"What's that?" The human girl asked, curious.
Minako leaned over and whispered her idea into Hitomi's ear.
"I see," she said, her face taking on a slightly surprised expression. "Are you sure that's safe, though?"
"Completely sure, I know what I'm doing," the green-haired 'com replied. "But when Junji finds out, he might get mad, or even scared, and try to do something rash."
"Junji-kun is a nice person at heart, even if he gets a little upset, I don't think he would do anything to harm you."
"You're probably right, but just in case, I'd like you to be ready to back me up if necessary. I'll call you on your phone if I need your help."
"Okay, Minako-chan, I'll do what I can," Hitomi said, smiling. The girls left the storage room and went on their way. Junji had, of course, noticed Minako was missing by this point, but was relieved to see her coming to meet up with him as he left the room.
"Where were you?" He asked, more curious than upset.
"Just taking a walk," she replied. "It seemed that you were doing fine in there without my help."
"Yeah, that's true," he said. Minako smiled inwardly, glad that Junji didn't seem to be onto her.
After Junji left for his job, Minako got to work. The old toolbox she had found among Junji's possessions was a great help. She was close to finishing when her software suddenly registered an incoming call from Hitomi.
"Minako-chan, heads up!" The girl said in a near-panicked voice. "Junji-kun got home early! I'm watching his car pull into the parking lot right this moment!"
"Dammit..." the 'com muttered. She hadn't been expecting this. "Could you try to stall him for me?"
"I'll do my best!" Hitomi answered, as she put down the phone and left her dorm room to intercept Junji.
"Hey, Junji-kun, how are you doing?" She asked, catching him just as he started ascending the stairs.
"The same as usual, pretty much," he replied, sounding bored.
"Do you want to come over and visit with me for a bit?" She asked. "I've got some of that chicken curry you like so much!"
"Nah, that's okay. I've got some of that stuff myself, actually."
"Well maybe we can watch a movie together? I just rented the new-"
"Listen Hitomi-san, maybe another time. Right now I've got a bit of work to do. Sorry to disappoint you."
Realizing she had been beaten, Hitomi stepped out of the way, letting Junji scale the rest of the stairs. As he continued on his way, he didn't notice her taking out her phone to warn Minako again.
"Minako, I'm home," he said as he entered the dorm room. However, he didn't notice the persocom anywhere. "Minako?"
"Just - hold on a minute please, Junji-san," her voice rang out, coming from the bathroom. Junji walked over to the bathroom door. It was closed, although it had no lock, this being ostensably a one-occupant dorm room.
"What are you doing in there, Minako?" He asked. She panicked, trying to think of a response. If she said she was taking a bath, Junji definitely wouldn't walk in on her naked. Only one small problem - this tiny bathroom had no bathtub. She couldn't say she was taking a shower either, as Junji could clearly hear that there was no shower water running.
"I'm... uh..." she began, but was interrupted as Junji opened the door, gasping at the sight that greeted him.
A large part of the right side of Minako's head was open, revealing complex metal and plastic machinery and electrical components. She was holding a pair of pliers, which she quickly dropped with a nervous laugh.
"Minako, what are you doing to yourself?" Junji asked, completely baffled. Minako sighed with a slight amount of relief.
'At least he's giving me the chance to explain myself,' she thought. "Well, you see, Junji-san, I really didn't like the idea of anyone being able to turn me off or on just by pressing a switch behind my ear, so I'm - um, disabling it." She explained.
Junji stared for a few moments, still stunned by the situation. After what seemed like an eternity (even though Minako's internal clock registered it as only 4.82 seconds), he spoke.
"You're not hurting yourself, are you?"
"What?" The elf-eared 'com asked. This wasn't the response she had been expecting.
"I mean, when you're done you'll be able to put everything back the way it was before, it won't leave a hole or a scar I'll have to pay to fix or anything, right?"
"No," she explained. "The button will just be gone."
"Oh. Well, uh... carry on then... I guess..." Junji said, still somewhat surprised, as he began to close the door.
Minako, almost as surprised as he was, resumed her work, and soon had finished. When she left the bathroom she found Junji on the couch, reading some psychology text for school.
"I really thought you would have reacted worse than you did," she said, sitting down next to him. He blushed a bit as he felt her body lean against his.
"Well, it's kind of weird... but I guess it doesn't hurt anything," he said, smiling. Minako smiled herself and embraced him, before planting a kiss on his cheek, which caused his blush to turn from a slight scarlet to a deep red. Minako giggled as she got up to go tell Hitomi what had happened.
One Week Later
Junji had just gotten home from work and had some free time. He opened the door to his room and suddenly noticed a chill. The source of this was quickly discovered - the door to the outside balcony was open, and Minako was leaning on the railing, looking off into the night.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" Junji asked. "It's freezing in here!"
"What? Oh, sorry," she said, looking embarrassed. "Guess I forgot to close the door."
Junji groaned slightly as he reached behind him and slid the door shut, preventing any more cold air from getting in. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"
"I was just looking at the stars," she answered.
"What stars?" Junji replied sarcastically. Sure, there were a few visible, but most of them were drowned out by the lights of the city.
"The light filters and magnification systems built into my optic receptors let me see things humans can't," she explained. "I can even see Saturn's rings. They're really beautiful."
"I wish I could see them," Junji sighed.
"Maybe you can," Minako replied, grinning. "Hold on a minute." She opened the door and ran back into the dorm room. Junji turned, preparing to follow her, but she was soon back, carrying a portable computer tablet. "Here," she said, taking a cable out from behind her ear and plugging it into the device, then handing it to Junji. "Now you can see what I see."
Junji took the small computer and gazed at the screen in interest. He certainly could see Saturn's rings - not in anywhere near the kind of detail or clarity he had seen in NASA photos, but they were certainly there. And Minako was right, they were beautiful. He looked up from the screen, and as he gazed at her standing there in the dim light of the city, with her long, elegant hair draping down over her shoulders, he had to admit that she was beautiful too. Of course he had never denied that fact, like almost all persocoms she was built to be attractive, but now he was actually feeling attracted to her. He sat the tablet down on a short table on the balcony, and walked over to the persocom, wrapping his arm around her gently. She smiled at him and retracted the cable back into her head.
"It's a nice night," he whispered.
"Yeah..." she responded, sighing as she leaned over against him. He turned to look her in the eyes. She really was gorgeous, her face outlined with a halo of artificial light. Artificial, just like she was... but right now, he didn't care. A part of his mind told him he needed to stop, that this was wrong, but for the first time he suppressed it as he leaned in to kiss her.
Their lips met, and he soon felt her tongue inside his mouth. 'That's incredibly realistic...' was his first, and rather incongruous thought, but he soon forgot everything except the moment. He felt her reaching around to embrace him, and he did the same. As their lips parted, he teased at her long, pointed ears with his fingers, which caused her to giggle a bit. They leaned in for another kiss, but soon after that the moment was over, and they were both left blushing intensely.
"We should probably go back inside before you get too cold," Minako said nervously.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Junji responded, his voice equally as nervous. They didn't say anything further that night as Junji prepared for bed, but thet both knew their relationship would never be the same after that.
The next day at school, Junji had some free time in between classes, while Minako was off chatting with Hitomi. As he rounded a corner, he noticed a group of students all gathered in a corner of the lounge, laughing about something. He spotted some of his friends among them, so he decided to check it out.
"What's going on?" He asked. A girl whose name he had never bothered to remember filled him in.
"You know that chick from Osaka, Kameko something-or-other?" The girl asked. Junji shook his head.
"Can't say I do, sorry."
Not discouraged by Junji's response, she continued, "Well she's a loser. Always has been. And now we've got more proof of that."
"What are you-" Before Junji could finish his inquiry, the girl directed him to a boy who seemed to be at the center of the gathering.
"Show him, Ryota." The boy, Ryota, pressed a button on his mobile phone and showed it to Junji. The screen began to play a hastily recorded video.
Junji realized that he did recognize the girl in the video, having seen her around campus a few times. He had just never known her name before. On the screen, she was walking on a paved pathway outside one of the campus buildings, until she stopped next to a male persocom with inverted, cat-like ears, leaning against a tree. She began talking to him, although the video was taken from too far away to make out what they were saying. The operator of the camera (presumably Ryota) had zoomed in at that point, in order to better catch the expressions on their faces. The persocom was looking nervous, but Kameko seemed to reassure him. They then looked at each other with an expression Junji immediately recognized, both from movies and TV as well as real life. In fact, it was the very same expression he and Minako had looked at each other with last night. After that, the two began to kiss passionately, and the video ended.
"Man, that's hilarious!" A boy in the crowd said. "What do you think her excuse will be when she finds out that we know? That she was rehearsing for a play or something?"
"Like that will fly," the girl from before responded. "She's not in any theatre classes or groups." At that point Junji was approached by a familiar face in the crowd, one of his classmates from his psychology course.
"Can you believe it?" He asked. "What a loser! I mean, how much of a social reject do you have to be to resort to making out with a persocom?" The boy asked.
"Heh heh, uh, yeah..." Junji replied nervously, as he nonchalantly extricated himself from the group. He silently thanked whatever higher powers there were that Minako hadn't been with him just now, or she would have made a huge protest about what she would surely have seen as bigotry, and quickly switched the target of ridicule from Kameko-san to him.
But the problem still remained - he had gotten to know Minako pretty well now, and he knew that if he told her to keep their relationship a secret, she would think he was ashamed of it. Which, he guessed, was true... but she certainly wouldn't stand for that. The only other thing he could do in order to save his social life from total ruination would be to break it off with her - tell her he was wrong to do what he did, and for both of them to just pretend last night never happened.
But it did happen. And as much as he feared complete humiliation in front of his peers, he didn't want to forget.
