School was entirely different from what Kiibo had imagined. Of course, Saihara had told him not all schools were like this, and his own studies had matched up with that, but given the firsthand experience, Kiibo didn’t know any better.

It was still nice of Saihara to talk to him about these things. At first, he was nervous that students would laugh at him for asking things like that. (Well Ouma did, but Ouma laughed at everyone.) But Saihara was good. Saihara was very good. Kiibo knew that if anything were to come up, he could ask him. He had so much patience and kindness to accept a robot like him trying to learn these complicated things. He would even try to explain them all to Kiibo to help him understand.

At night, he would listen to Saihara’s lessons over and over again. At first, he listened to it just to study while everyone else slept.  It was a great way to get those extra hours of study in since he only needed to recharge, which he could do while listening. But as the days went by, Kiibo began to listen to more than just the lessons. He began to listen to the random conversations they had throughout the day. He would listen to Saihara talking about his own interest and self. Even if he was talking to someone else in the room, Kiibo would just listen to him.

Over time, Saihara had become something he wanted to know more about too. What did he like? What was he interested in? What kind of people did he find ‘cool’? Was Kiibo cool enough?

It was funny to Kiibo because he was almost sure he was programmed to study up human behaviors on a general level, but he had found one that he wanted to study more than anyone. Not to stalk him around or anything, Kiibo just wanted to know how to be a good friend to him.

What did people call this anyway? He wanted to ask Saihara, but when he thought about that, something else came up. He felt like he shouldn’t do that. Like it would be way too much. Was this was humans recognized as embarrassment? Kiibo had done nothing to cause this, so why did he feel like this? He pondered on the idea of asking Saihara again but got flustered again.

This… This was different. Normally he could think on topics for hours and study and research them for days, but suddenly thinking about what made Saihara different from humans was too much. He had never experienced this before.

Kiibo kept his general feelings to himself and would just continue to talk and listen to Saihara like any normal student. But at night, he could only listen to the recordings of Saihara’s voice and feel that same embarrassing guilt. What was wrong with him? Why was this topic making him feel like this? He almost wanted to cry out of confusion.

“I know it’s late but…” Kiibo looked down at the ground before gently knocking on a bedroom door.

Silence. Not even a sound.

“Ah, I guess he’s asleep. He is a human after a—“ The door opened up slowly while Kiibo was talking to himself.

Saihara stood rubbing his eyes with his pajamas on. “Hnn? Kiibo? Are you alright?” Saihara was a little surprised at Kiibo standing at his bedroom door at this hour, but at the same time he knew Kiibo probably didn’t sleep.

“Y-Y-Yeah! I’m fine!” Kiibo suddenly felt terrible. He woke Saihara up. “ Um, I’m sorry. You were sleeping and I should…”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Saihara waved off as usual. His usual kind and understanding self. “Do you want to come in and talk for a bit?”
Kiibo gently nodded while looking at the ground in shame.

Saihara opened the door and let Kiibo inside. It was a killing game, so being with someone at this hour probably came with risk, but Kiibo was different. Saihara knew Kiibo would never do such a thing. He just lacked that side of him. “What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”

Kiibo glowed red for a moment. He wanted to phrase it so Saihara couldn’t pick up it was about him, but he was really in need of some answers for his confusion, “S-Saihara! Can you help explain something to me? It’s about human things and I don’t quite get it.”
“Hnn? Sure, go ahead.” Saihara almost found it a little silly that Kiibo came to him in the middle of the night to ask about human things, but then again that was all part of Kiibo’s charm.

“Wh-What does it mean when you’re not comfortable studying something?” Kiibo asked.

“What?”

“You know…” Kiibo thought quickly, “What if there’s something you really want to look at and study, but when you finally get to it, you feel really bad about it?”

“……What are you studying, Kiibo?” Saihara remarked rather bluntly. He was curious but almost didn’t want to know for the fear of knowing what Kiibo studies at night.

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” Kiibo jumped, “But…ah… it’s just one thing so…”

“One thing? Like an object or a person or?” Saihara asked.

“It’s a person.” Kiibo answered quickly without realizing it. “I mean!”

“A person? You’re studying a person? Like a historical figure?” Saihara thought for a bit. What figure would Kiibo be looking into if it made him like this to think about?

“N-Not really. They’re still a part of the present. I would like for it to stay that way too.” Kiibo answered meekly.

“Stay that way?” Saihara looked at Kiibo fidgeting closely. Yes, he knew Kiibo was a robot, but there were many times where Saihara himself couldn’t tell the difference. Kiibo’s actions sometimes were so human like. He was just innocent in the way he was learning about the world. “Someone in the present, hm?” Saihara thought for a moment, “So you are studying someone that is around and unable to study once you actually sit down and try to?”

Kiibo nodded. So far so good. Saihara didn’t seem like he had caught on.

“Do you think… It could be…” Saihara was thinking. He was almost certain from the description alone that Kiibo had some kind of crush, but would that be possible? Can robots have a crush like that? Feel love? He thought on it more and realized that it was most possible for Kiibo. If there was a robot that could find a way to feel love, Kiibo would be the one. “I think you have a crush.”

“A…crush?” Kiibo repeated slowly. “No! No! I would never crush them! I want them to stay alive!”

“No, no! Not like that! A crush is…Hmmm…” Saihara thought for a bit. “A crush is like when you have someone that you really like. You like them and you think about them a lot.”

“Like them?” Kiibo repeated again. He had heard that word used before. Like the way he liked voltage to charge for himself or other mechanical parts. He… liked them. Did he see Saihara like that too? Did he ‘like’ Saihara?

“Yeah. It’s a normal human emotion.” Saihara explained. “I think you’re just nervous because it’s new, but don’t worry it’s nothing serious. You’re too nice of a person for any crush to reject you, Kiibo.”

Kiibo felt himself glowing from the praise. Saihara still didn’t realize it was him, right? “Ahhhhh!!” Kiibo jumped up quickly, “Ah, th-thank you, Saihara, but you should really be sleeping! Humans need at least 8 hours of sleep to function at best so you should sleep! Thank you very much for explaining though!” Kiibo ran out of the room in a flustered mess.

Saihara just stared at the door confused by the last reaction. He smiled a bit. “Kiibo.” he wasn’t sure who Kiibo was ‘studying’ but he was happy for him. Kiibo had come to highschool to learn how to be more human and it was certainly working, despite all odds of everything else happening here. I suppose every cloud did have its silver lining.