My Robot Boyfriend (Yuanxuan)

Chapter 10

'Is it possible to feel emotions from the heart?' Zhenyuan typed in his internet search engine, and the results were exactly what he already knew: emotions come from the brain not the heart. He frowned to himself and stared at the screen full of thought.

The door opened and he wasn't surprised to see Yaxuan – Yaxuan who reminded him so much of his best friend.

"Hey how did it go?" Zhenyuan asked him. "With Dongyu," he added.

"It's fine, I think she likes me." Yaxuan replied and sat down on the other chair.

"And I hope you're at least getting to like her back. She's a great person."

He nodded. "That, and she's very pretty. But I just can't bring myself to love her Zhenyuan. I wish I could love her for your sake but...it's hard. But I'll pretend for as long as you want me to."

Zhenyuan slightly smiled.

"So," Yaxuan suddenly cleared his throat feeling a bit irritated, "Xuan huh?"

"What's up with Xuan?" Zhenyuan asked him, even though looking at Yaxuan was almost like looking at Xuan's replica.

"Who was he to you?"

"Are you jealous?" Zhenyuan laughed. He found it a bit funny for someone to feel so entitled to ask him that question like that when they weren't even dating. "Well if you have to know, he was my best friend."

"Just a friend?" Yaxuan continued to ask.

Zhenyuan nodded.

"Did he like you?"

"No!" Zhenyuan face palmed. "He was just a friend. And he looked a lot like you and really...really acted like you."

Yaxuan tatted and shook his head in pity. "He acted like me towards you?"

"Yes?" Zhenyuan answered unsurely, wanting to understand why Yaxuan seemed to be feeling disappointed in him after his statement.

"Look, I act like this because I like you. If your friend acted like me, it probably means he liked you too, but you were just too blind to see it."

The words were very shocking and unrealistic to Zhenyuan, he immediately shook his head. "You're wrong."

"It's mere logic." Yaxuan shrugged.

Zhenyuan thought about it, could it really be that Xuan liked him while he was alive? But sure enough, just like Yaxuan, Xuan loved to spend his time looking at Zhenyuan and helping him out whenever he needed it; he was that one friend Zhenyuan would call a ride-or-die. The only difference between Xuan and Yaxuan was that Xuan didn't tell Zhenyuan several times that he loved him. That would have been quite odd anyway, considering their friendship was purely platonic.

"Anyway," Zhenyuan changed the subject. "People don't feel emotions from the heart right?" he decided to ask Yaxuan, seeing that Yaxuan was a robot and probably had more knowledge, his brain was basically a database after all.

"Well," Yaxuan started, "I guess it's a common scientific fact that the brain is responsible for emotions, specifically the cerebrum. But come to think of it, when you're in emotional pain or distress, you feel a lot of pain in your heart and sometimes you die from it – Takatsubo Heart Syndrome."

Zhenyuan continued to listen, feeling a bit intrigued.

"While people think that it's the brain that causes the heart to feel pain when you're distressed, I really think that it's the other way round. The emotional pain makes your heart ache then your heart channels a message to the brain that you're feeling emotional pain."

Zhenyuan wondered where Yaxuan got that information from, it sounded a bit too emotionally charged, as if it was a human living in his creation's body.

"So you know how they say if you preserve someone's brain and maybe put it in another being's body the person would still have the same memories they did just in a different body. Do you think...if you took someone's heart and put it in another body, the person would still have the same emotions then?" he asked curiously.

He nodded. "That's what I think. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing." Zhenyuan answered quickly.

"I'll go help your mom with supper!" Yaxuan stood up and dashed out of the room. Zhenyuan was now deep in thought. Could it be that Yaxuan was acting so much like Xuan because he had Xuan's heart? Was it possible that what Yaxuan was saying was true? And if it was, could it mean that Xuan really had feelings for him before he died? Or was it simply because of how he programmed the robot?