Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 47: Affection

chapter 47: affection

sun jack ended the call and turned to see aa holding out a glass of water for him with both hands.

"what a bunch of nonsense," sun jack muttered, shaking his head as he tried to shove four ai's words out of his mind.

but every time he glanced at aa's face, the earlier conversation crept back into his head, sticking like a brain worm he couldn't shake off. "could it be... aa doesn't like men?"

sun jack knew that unless he asked directly, this question would continue to nag at him. it was better to just clarify things outright—it wasn’t that big of a deal, after all.

"hey, aa, can i ask you something? it's kind of personal, so feel free not to answer if you don't want to."

"sure! ask me anything!" aa said eagerly, straightening up on the couch.

sun jack hesitated, resting his chin on his hand as he thought about how to phrase it. "so, uh... what kind of people do you like?"

"what?" aa tilted her head, looking confused. clearly, she didn’t catch his drift.

"i mean, what’s your preference? do you like men? or women?"

aa immediately shook her head vigorously. "neither. i don’t like either."

"oh, really?" tapai, who had been charging against the wall, perked up and hopped over to sit obediently beside sun jack. "this is gonna be interesting!"

"so, what do you like?" sun jack pressed.

aa stood up, spinning around to show off her petite frame in her oversized t-shirt. "look, jack! isn’t this cute little girl so soft and sweet to hug? isn’t it just the best?"

"uh..." sun jack’s brain short-circuited at the sight. "and then what?"

"then... i like it too!" aa said matter-of-factly.

sun jack was baffled. "wait—what does 'you like it too' even mean? i thought you didn’t like girls?"

"well..." aa hesitated, glancing around before running to the bedroom and returning with a mirror. she gazed deeply into her reflection, her eyes filled with adoration, and then leaned in to give herself a gentle kiss.

he had no idea how long he slept before waking up, bladder uncomfortably full. when he opened his door, he jumped—only to remember that aa was sleeping on his couch.

finishing in the bathroom, he was about to return to bed when a strange rumbling sound from the living room caught his attention.

"aa? was that your stomach growling?" he asked.

aa, wrapped in a thin blanket, sat up bashfully.

"hungry?" now that she mentioned it, sun jack realized he was starving too. apart from the bowl of beef noodles in the morning, he hadn’t eaten all day.

stress from the mission had kept him too tense to notice, but now that things had calmed down, his hunger hit him hard.

"i’ll order us a couple bowls of noodles," he suggested.

"no, no, no! that’s too extravagant. i can’t keep mooching off you—i’d feel terrible," aa protested.

it was just a bowl of noodles, but aa was so insistent that sun jack gave up.

"alright. i think i’ve got something in the fridge," he said, pulling out leftovers from ke-style cuisine he’d packed two nights ago. he reheated it and set it on the coffee table.

ke-style cuisine was disgusting to begin with, and reheating it only made it worse. the random mishmash of dishes piled together was almost too much to look at.

but aa didn’t seem to care. she grabbed a piece of tentacle with her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth, her eyes lighting up. "wow! what is this? it’s amazing!"

watching aa eat only made sun jack hungrier. thankfully, he had a solution. using his neural system, he overlaid the food with pixelation and swapped it with images of various gourmet dishes he found online. eating it became much more tolerable—technology really did make life better.

"jack, did i do a good job today?" aa asked between bites.

"you did great. i just needed you to be bait, but you even brought a tracker ball!"

aa lowered her head shyly. "i didn’t buy it—i made it myself. sometimes i scavenge for useful stuff in the junk mountains outside the metropolis."

"you can do that? impressive," sun jack said, genuinely surprised. today, he felt like he was seeing aa in a whole new light.