Two weeks had passed since my master didn’t return home.
My master kept staying at a hotel and never showed his face at home.
Now, even when I called, he didn’t pick up, and texts went unanswered.
Only Sophia and I remained in the large house.
Even Eve, who said her check-up would be done in three days, had been out of touch for a long time.
“Sophia, did Master say anything today?”
“No, he didn’t.”
I curled up on the sofa, hugging my knees.
As my master didn’t return for a long time, anxiety began to rear its head deep within me.
I was scared as faint memories of being abandoned by my previous master seemed to resurface.
I shook my head vigorously.
No, my master wouldn’t abandon me.
He was just too busy with the new product launch.
After all, the last time I saw him, he was clearly kind to me.
His warm gaze and the gentle voice calling my name were still vivid.
So… I had to trust my master.
To quell my anxiety, I habitually looked down at the picture taken with my master.
It was my way of passing the boring afternoon.
Looking at the photo with my master, my anxious heart felt a little calmer.
Perhaps it was because I had been alone for too long, but the unusually quiet living room started to bother me.
I turned on the TV to break the silence. Just then, news about my master was playing.
Hoping to hear news of him, I watched the broadcast with a fluttering heart.
“News has it that Spanic Chairman, William Spencer, has a new lover.”
The TV announcer said in a clear voice.
Oh, that story again.
How long ago was my master’s and my scandal?
I squirmed, seeing people still buzzing about my master and me as if it were news.
I quietly chuckled, waiting for my master and me to appear.
Soon, a photo of two people walking intimately appeared on screen.
“Huh…?”
I watched the screen with a pleasant smile, then suddenly noticed something strange.
At first, I thought it was my master and me walking intimately.
But… my dressing room didn’t have clothes like that.
The news photo soon changed to another scene.
This time, it was a video. T
he person walking beside my master turned their head and smiled, but it wasn’t me.
They had a similar physique and short black hair.
At a glance, they looked like me, but they were clearly someone else.
I froze.
No words, no thoughts came to mind.
I was so shocked that I felt numb, as if I had forgotten how to breathe.
‘What do I do? I don’t date robots.’
Why did my master’s words suddenly come to mind, when he refused my confession saying, “I don’t date robots”?
I weakly dropped my head, then belatedly realized.
Now that I thought about it, my master had never once said he loved me.
“Ah….”
That’s right.
My master had no intention of taking my feelings seriously from the start.
He just suggested having a scandal.
But I fell into a misunderstanding just because my master treated me a little kindly.
Only then did the articles analyzing my master’s and my scandal as a mere publicity stunt truly sink in.
Those people were right.
I was just a means to promote a new humanoid.
Thinking about it now, there was no reason for my master to keep me, who was useless.
Yet, he was kind to me because he found a new use for me.
But I didn’t even know that… I fell into a misunderstanding and believed it was love.
“If that was the case… he should have given me a heads-up beforehand….”
Then I wouldn’t have had to pointlessly hope, nor would my hurt heart ache like this.
I stared blankly at the video of someone walking intimately with my master, then slowly raised my hand.
Fleshy skin, tiny wrinkles, precise movements… At first glance, it looked no different from a human hand, but it wasn’t actual skin, and what flowed beneath the skin wasn’t blood but electricity.
No matter how much I felt emotions and how well-made I was, I was ultimately a robot.
My master, knowing this, naturally chose a human over me, a robot.
My chest grew cold.
The circuits slowed down, chilling me as if my heart had frozen.
“Didi, are you in pain? You don’t look well.”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
I was lost in thought, and before I knew it, Sophia, who had come out of her room as it was evening, spoke to me.
I hadn’t even noticed her approaching and was startled, quickly composing my expression.
Lying that I was fine, I hastily turned off the TV and went up to my room. I closed the door and slumped down.
I brought my knees together and buried my face deep between them.
It was something to celebrate that my beloved master had a lover, but I, who had fallen in love with my master again, grieved without being able to bless them.
Tears flowed down.
My chest ached as if it were breaking into pieces.
The pain I believed I would never feel again had found me once more.
Perhaps I had vaguely sensed that master had a new lover.
Because for a while now, master, who used to share a warm bed with me every day, stopped looking for me and rarely came home.
Just like before I was abandoned by my old master.
Would a warm bath make me feel better?
To soothe my heavily sinking heart, I filled the tub with warm water.
I poured in bath salts and immersed myself in the bubbles, but the gloomy feeling hardly improved.
Night fell.
Today, master didn’t come home again.
Is he with that person I saw on TV?
Will he hug them warmly and whisper sweet words, just like he did to me?
I lay down on the bed in my room, which I hadn’t used for a long time.
It had been a while since I covered myself with a blanket, but Sophia had managed it well, so it wasn’t dusty or musty, but fluffy.
However, it was so cold, proving no one had used it for a long time.
Feeling the chill, I curled my body up small.
A tear trickled down, then it began to pour ceaselessly.
“Hmph…!”
I sobbed softly.
My chest ached. It hurt so much, tears kept flowing.
This time, I thought I wouldn’t be abandoned.
There was no reason to think that, but just, somehow, I felt it would be so.
But that was just my wish.
I anticipated the future.
Like last time, I would be powered off again.
If that’s what’s going to happen… wouldn’t it be better to just turn off the power myself?
If it was going to happen anyway, I wanted to choose to return to my old master’s mansion and fall asleep by myself in the glass case where I first awoke.
***
I spent my last night in the house that had been my new home.
With swollen red eyes, I roughly washed my face as soon as I woke up in the morning and went to didi’s room.
Knock, knock.
I knocked softly, but there was still no answer.
I no longer expected a reply, so I wasn’t disappointed.
“Master, I’m coming in.”
I opened the door, but sure enough, the room was empty.
It hadn’t changed from how it’s been, so it seemed he hadn’t returned yesterday either.
I stared at the empty room, remembering the decision I made last night.
To leave this house and return to the old mansion to fall asleep by myself in the glass case.
It was frightening to fall into eternal sleep without seeing master again, but I wanted to end this heartbreaking pain quickly.
If I turned off the power here, didi, who was already busy, would probably find the cleanup troublesome.
So I thought it was right to erase my traces and return to that empty glass case where I first opened my eyes.
I quietly returned to my room and found a small bag from the dresser.
The first thing I packed was my charger.
I could last a few days without charging, but if I moved constantly day and night, the battery would drain quickly.
I had no money and didn’t know how to use public transportation, so I would have to keep walking, meaning the battery would drain even faster.
I packed the battery and looked around to pack something else.
“Nothing…”
There was nothing else to pack.
I felt my mood sink further and lowered my gaze.
I was a robot, so I didn’t need to eat food.
I would feel extreme hunger, but it wouldn’t kill me.
So I didn’t need money either; all I needed was my useless body and a charger.
Why am I a robot and not human?
The words didi often said, ‘Just a robot,’ seemed to echo in my ears.