Kicking a spherical mechanical object on the ground out of boredom, the boy glanced upward and saw no movement. He bounced the "ball" twice and was about to kick it harder when a pair of red electronic eyes lit up on it. With a strange mechanical sound, it said, "Haro, Haro, do not kick."
The boy pulled back his leg mid-kick, lost his balance, and fell backward. As his head was about to hit the uneven ground scattered with sharp parts, he planted his hands behind him and bent into an exaggerated arch. Using his whole body like a spring, he snapped back upright.
"Haro, are you itching for a beating?" he complained. "You stayed quiet earlier, and now you suddenly make noise. You're asking to be kicked, right?" Despite his words, he did not follow through, instead casually juggling the talking spherical robot with gentle taps.
"Haro, do not kick. Do not kick," the robot protested. After a few more taps, it seemed to have had enough, opened the panels on its sides, and hopped away to a spot the boy could not reach.
"I didn't do it on purpose. The lighting is terrible here. I thought it was just a spherical sensor," the boy said, laughing before he even finished his excuse. He took a few steps to corral Haro again, but at that moment the white-haired girl jumped down from the steel giant.
"Couldn't install it, right?" the boy rattled on. "I told you it was a small solar sail. There's absolutely no way it can start this big guy. Hey, didn't I pick up an escape pod before? Let's modify that one. If we're missing parts, I'll go find them. It's better than dying stuck here, right? Right? Hey, hey!" Faced with his chatter, the girl expressionlessly climbed onto the hover car and pressed the start button. As the vehicle rose, she looked at the boy standing frozen in place.
"You promised to modify the escape pod. If not, I'm not leaving," the boy said, crossing his arms in stubborn defiance. Silence fell between them, and in the vast space only the soft hum of the hover engine could be heard.
"Haro, Haro, are we going or not?" In the awkward quiet, Haro hopped back into view, bouncing in an S-shaped path as it reached the boy. It jumped onto the hover car and snapped into the round recess on the dashboard where the boy usually rested his feet, flashing its eyes twice before mocking him. "Haro, Haro, let's go. Don't bring him."
"You little…" The boy could no longer hold his ground. He slipped back into the car with practiced ease, glanced at Haro and then at the girl, and finally sat up straight instead of putting his feet on the dashboard. As the familiar push pressed him back into the seat, he asked a question he had already asked countless times.
"What's your name?"
"I don't know."
"What's my name?"
"You haven't chosen one."
"Where is this place?"
"Insufficient information. Unable to determine."
The hover car settled neatly in front of the building that still gave off light. Maybe because there were other people on board this time, the boy did not ignore the door as usual, but waited until the vehicle fully touched down. He picked up Haro first, then climbed out properly on foot.
Back inside, he kicked Haro into a corner with one foot. Under the lamp, he dug through scattered blueprints for a long time before finally pulling out a sheet that was not too stained. "This is the one, the structure diagram for the small pod. I already modified the interface for adding the solar sail. If you agree, it will take at most seven sleeps to finish."
With no sunlight and no timing devices, the boy could only describe time in rough terms like how many times they slept. The two people present seemed used to this way of counting, and it caused no trouble in their understanding. No one questioned it or asked for clarification.
Ignoring the boy's suggestion again, the white-haired girl pressed a hand to the chest of her tight suit. The fitted material released a soft intake sound, then slowly peeled away starting from the neck. The boy flushed under the dim light and quickly turned away toward another partition.
"Hey, at least warn me before you change clothes. I'm not a kid anymore, you know." He spoke while moving aside, his voice a bit too fast. Leaning against the wall, he stared at the ceiling and let his thoughts drift as the faint rubbing sounds continued outside.
"Eat." The girl's cool voice broke the silence, and the boy snapped back as if waking up. He stepped out from the partition.
"I already ate while looking for you. You eat." She nodded once to show she understood, then picked up an unopened can from the floor. With a hand-forged tool, she pried it open smoothly, but unlike the boy's rough eating style, she produced a pair of metal sticks from somewhere and began to eat slowly.
"Still using chopsticks, I really give up on you." After the usual comment, the boy noticed she had stopped eating and was pointing at him. "Hair, longer," she said, then lowered her head and quietly resumed her meal.
He touched his head in confusion and realized his tied hair had fallen past his shoulders. With a sigh, he returned to the partition, used the outside light, and dug through scraps to find a smooth metal plate. After more searching, he found a small grinding bar, a bit smaller than the can opener, and held it up against the plate.
"I'm telling you, it's just hair now, so this homemade knife barely works. Later I'll grow a beard too. I can't keep doing this forever. Shaving with a metal bar, what do you take me for." He kept muttering whether or not anyone was listening, while his hand moved without hesitation. A few strokes cut most of the long ponytail away, and after adjusting the angle, he seemed satisfied, blowing hair off the blade.
"By the way, how long has it been now? Since you lost my counting board, I stopped keeping track." After a short pause, a voice answered from outside.
"Three years, one month, and three days." The girl spoke softly, as if she had already finished eating.
"So how old am I now? I kind of look underage, don't I." He examined the metal plate used as a mirror, the reflection blurred by the material. He could still make out his ruby-red hair and blue eyes, so different from the girl outside, and his not-quite-grown features that oddly resembled hers despite the color difference.
"Hey, do you think this scar can be removed? It's the age of space colonization. Removing a scar should be easy, right. Then again, who knows what tech level we're at. Maybe everything went into military tech instead." His chatter did not stop, but no sound came from outside anymore.