The Name of Bond
The night was deep, and the inside of the factory was quiet. Infection rate: 20%. The number itself hadn't changed, but its meaning had. I opened my eyes. The ceiling was dark, and the smell of concrete lingered in the air. Even that scent had become familiar now. My body still hadn't fully adapted. The muscle fibers had stabilized, but my nerves remained uneven. Still, it was manageable for now.
The warmth of my companions overlapped on top of me. We had fallen asleep naturally tangled together. At some point, it had become like this. It started as treatment, then turned into habit, and now it was a choice we made because we wanted to. …It wasn't just simple camaraderie, but no one had put it into words. The moment we acknowledged it and brought it to the surface, too many things would change. Survival came first, and none of us wanted to add more complications to worry about. That was probably what we all thought.
I drew a slow breath. Four heartbeats overlapped in my ears. Different pulses, different rhythms. Yet somehow, they never fell out of sync.
As dawn approached, the first to wake was Seorin. She opened her eyes quietly and stayed still for a moment. My arm was wrapped around her waist. Eventually, our eyes met. No words passed between us, but a subtle silence lingered.
"……Let go," she said softly, though her hand didn't move to push me away first.
I smiled and released my arm. She sat up and spoke.
"You didn't toss and turn much last night."
"That's good to hear."
"We need to be more careful after 20%." She was always realistic. Yet the moment she stood, she glanced at me again. Worry filled her eyes.
Yerin yawned the instant she woke.
"Aigoo. I can't even tell whose arm I'm sleeping on anymore." Even as she spoke, she naturally climbed onto my stomach. "Yesterday you stuck to me the longest, didn't you?"
"You're really keeping track?"
"Of course. Can't let myself lose out, can I?" She laughed, but her hands were already checking my condition.
Harin was the last to open her eyes. She moved the most carefully, as if trying not to wake anyone else. Her gaze turned to me.
"Yesterday…… your condition was worse than usual."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not." She was serious. She took my wrist and checked my pulse. The moment her hand touched me, a faint ripple of sensation stirred. Once she confirmed I was all right, she let out a sigh of relief. She still hadn't let go of her guilt.
And then there was Arin. She had her face buried against my back. She held me from behind so often it felt like her designated spot. She slowly lifted her head.
"How are you feeling today?"
"Thanks to you, much better."
She stared at me for a long moment before speaking.
"Let's change our names."
We all turned to look at her at once.
"I mean our codenames," she said slowly. "N221, NK365. It doesn't feel right to keep calling each other that anymore."
Seorin crossed her arms. "You're right about that. Those aren't names for people. Do you have any ideas?"
Arin looked at me. "You're the center. The one who binds us together."
Yerin chuckled. "Surprisingly sentimental, aren't you?"
"It's just the truth."
Harin nodded quietly. "We need proper names."
Names, huh. I thought for a moment.
"Chaerin."
It slipped out naturally. A quiet, resonant syllable. My companions repeated it after me.
Yerin smiled. "Sounds nice."
Arin nodded. "Then I'll be Arin."
Seorin blinked. "Starting with 'A' because you're conscious of Arka?"
"More because it ends with 'rin,' actually."
Yerin spoke with a slightly excited tone. "Then we're the Rin Party, huh."
Seorin, Harin, Yerin, Arin, Chaerin. Five names that overlapped yet somehow fit together perfectly.
Seorin said, "Good. From now on, codenames don't exist."
She looked at me. "Chaerin."
The pronunciation didn't sound awkward. I nodded.
"Arin."
Arin smiled. "Yeah."
In that moment, something had clearly changed.
That afternoon, there were no battles for once. With a bit of breathing room in our supplies—food and water included—we chose to rest. …Even while living as drifters, the fact that we had surplus supplies meant many people had died, or fled the city and abandoned everything. That was the reality.
I kept moving as part of my rehabilitation. Then I heard Seorin and Yerin's voices. The two combatants were maintaining their firearms.
"Honestly, I thought you'd leave right away. Now that you're being hunted by corporations, your situation's worse than before."
Seorin spoke. "Compared to when I was with the survivor group, yeah, it is."
"Why'd you stay?"
Yerin laughed. "Want me to be honest?"
"Go ahead."
"Chaerin is part of it, but…… your share is pretty big too."
Seorin didn't answer.
"Once you accept someone as a comrade, you don't abandon them. That's the feeling I got."
Maybe it was because she'd had to part ways with her former survivor comrades on uneasy terms. Yerin's words seemed to catch Seorin off guard—her breath wavered ever so slightly.
"……I don't like abandoning teammates."
"Yeah. That's what I liked about you."
Seorin, too, had probably been bothered by being the sole survivor of the research facility's security team. Surprisingly, the two of them seemed to mesh well.
Meanwhile, Harin was talking with Arin.
"I helped with your design too." Her tone was apologetic, as always. "I know how worried you get every time Chaerin fights. Watching that kid get hurt, suffer, yet never stop while trying to protect me…… I know you want to fight alongside her. Instead of some weakling like me hiding somewhere safe, you'd rather be the one protecting her."
Harin, always acting like a sinner. I wished she could shake off that guilt quickly, but it wouldn't be easy.
Arin gently took Harin's hands in both of hers, her expression soft.
"I like my role."
"Still, aren't you dissatisfied?"
"With what?"
"You…… didn't have a choice, did you?"
Born as a bio-roid, her role had been decided from the very beginning. And that still affected Arin's life now. Even if she and I tried to live as humans, our origins would always hold us back. Harin looked depressed.
Arin thought for a moment, then spoke.
"Now I do."
Her straightforward gaze met Harin's.
"Now, I chose this."
Harin's eyes trembled. Just meeting Arin's gaze without looking away was already a huge step forward.
"What did you choose?"
"Being together."
The words were simple, yet heavy. Harin, who had been staring blankly at Arin, gradually crumpled. Arin quietly pulled her into an embrace. A moment later, Harin began to sob.
I decided to stop listening out of respect for their moment.
"I'm really sorry…… and thank you."
Still, I was glad I hadn't missed those final words.
After lunch, another combination appeared. Seorin had called Harin aside.
"You're not staying just because of responsibility, are you?"
Harin looked up. "That's not it."
Seorin's eyes were direct. "We're not a team that survives on guilt."
Harin bit her lip. "……But I'm one of the people who caused this. I followed along even though I knew what was happening at that facility."
"If we're going by that logic, I'm an accomplice too. I had my suspicions. If I'd wanted to know, I could've found out long ago. But I deliberately ignored it because I didn't want to get dragged into trouble."
Seorin's voice was calm. She felt responsible too, after all.
"Even so, we're moving forward together now, aren't we? It's not just responsibility."
"You're a better person than you think you are."
At those firm words, Harin's eyes grew wet.
"I…… have to atone……"
"Do your atonement after you die."
Harin's eyes widened.
"Living and struggling together is harder."
Seorin lightly tapped Harin's shoulder.
"So don't run away."
Harin lowered her head, yet smiled faintly. "That tone…… did you catch it from Yerin?"
"Ugh…… I didn't even realize……"
Meanwhile, Yerin was talking with Arin.
"Hey, isn't your outfit a little too revealing?"
Arin tilted her head as if she didn't see the problem. "But it's highly efficient."
"Is that really the only reason?"
Arin thought for a moment. "……I was told it looks good."
Yerin grinned. "So that was part of the intention too. You know Chaerin's eyes keep landing on your body, right?"
Instead of answering, Arin smiled bashfully. A silent confirmation. Had I really been caught staring that often? It was a little embarrassing. At times like this, my greatly enhanced hearing was a curse. I could control it if I wanted to, but somehow…… I wanted to hear more. I was growing more interested in the conversations they had when I wasn't around.
"I didn't think you'd have those kinds of feelings, since you were created from the start."
"I do have them."
"Weren't you designed as a protective type?"
"Then aren't Yerin-nim's feelings also designed by circumstance and hormones?"
Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Yerin was at a loss for words. Arin quietly added,
"Being together feels warm. If that's an emotion, then for me, that's enough."
She took Yerin's hand.
"That warmth includes you too, Yerin-nim."
Yerin's eyes widened, then softened into a gentle curve.
"Well, well. I can't win against that honesty. If I add any unnecessary words, I'll just end up looking like the bad guy."
Even as she said that, Yerin didn't look particularly upset.
Time passed, and night fell.
The usual routine had become part of our daily life, and it played out again tonight. Five gazes met. This relationship…… wasn't ordinary affection. There was jealousy, competition, responsibility, and atonement. But no one ran away.
Seorin approached first.
"Chaerin."
She called my name. The pronunciation had grown a little softer.
Yerin sat on my lap. "I'm really feeling the 'Rin Party' thing now."
Arin hugged me from behind. "Because Chaerin is the center."
Harin carefully took my hand. "It's sudden, but…… I think it's a good name."
I drew a breath. The world at 20% was still sharp, but within this warmth, I could endure. We had each stayed for different reasons, and chosen to be together.
"What happens when it goes up to 30% next time?" Yerin asked.
I smiled. "We'll cross it together."
Seorin nodded. "There are five of us."
Arin whispered, "I don't want even one person missing."
Harin spoke in a warm tone. "It'll definitely be okay."
"If you can't hold on, I'll drag you down even if I have to bite you. Who knows? Maybe getting bitten by a human raises humanity instead of infection rate."
At Yerin's joke, we all laughed.
Eventually, the night deepened. The five of us tangled our bodies together once more. Skin against skin. Breath against breath. In this moment, there was no infection rate, no corporations, no Central AI. We were connected by the name "Rin." The five of us—Chaerin, Arin, Seorin, Harin, Yerin. At the center of it all, I closed my eyes.