“You mean he left a week ago and hasn’t returned?”
“Yes, William.”
“If Didi went missing, you should have contacted me immediately!”
“William, you gave orders not to report anything related to Didi.”
Sophia’s reply hit William like a ton of bricks.
He had indeed given her that instruction, but there was a reason.
William had been staying at a hotel, intending to distance himself from Didi for a while.
Every night, Sophia would report unusual occurrences, which always included Didi’s every move.
Occasionally, reports of Didi skipping meals would be mixed in, and William would be too distracted to focus on work all day.
Fiddling with his smartphone every night, William eventually realized he was just waiting for Sophia’s calls.
At this rate, there was no point in staying at a hotel when he had a house.
Eventually, William himself told Sophia not to report anything about Didi anymore.
William sighed deeply, running a large hand over his face.
‘That foolish robot…’
He probably just went out for a bit, bored, but he hadn’t returned for a week.
He must have gotten lost outside.
William immediately checked the location tracking app.
However, Didi’s location on the screen showed him at home.
Didi had even left his smartphone behind.
Clutching his forehead and trying to make sense of the situation, William decided he needed to request a search from the police first.
“Sophia, call 911.”
“Yes.”
As soon as she answered, a dial tone rang, and then a strange man’s voice came from Sophia.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“A person… no, a robot is missing.”
He almost said “person” by mistake.
William immediately corrected himself.
“Is it a theft?”
Theft… William paused, choosing his words, then said, “He went out a week ago, and it seems he got lost outside.”
“In that case, please visit your nearest police station, and we’ll help you file a missing person’s report.”
“What? A missing person’s report?”
“Uh… is there a problem?”
“Of course! He’s not just a missing person! He’s more like…”
William’s voice grew agitated.
Realizing belatedly that he was raising his voice, he calmed his frayed emotions and spoke again.
“Can’t I file a missing person case?”
“Hmm… for a robot, you can only file a lost property report.”
“No, he’s not just a robot! He’s, ah, a human-bot!”
“Oh…”
The call center agent’s voice, relayed through Sophia, trailed off.
Just when he thought they were finally understanding…
“In that case, we can help you with a valuable lost item report.”
“Damn it! Sophia, hang up!”
William finally couldn’t suppress his anger and cursed.
He continued to seethe long after the call ended.
How dare they treat Didi as mere lost property?
His anger wouldn’t subside.
While Didi was a robot, he was special.
He was one of the few true human-bots left in the world, possessing complex emotions almost indistinguishable from a real person.
William slowly regained his composure.
He contacted his secretary, instructing him to prepare a search team, then collapsed onto the sofa.
He imagined Didi sitting there, waiting for him.
He’d thought Didi had just gone out for a walk because he was bored, but now, a possibility crossed his mind, Didi might have left to find him directly.
“…Damn it.”
Thinking of Didi, William cursed and stepped out of the house.
He couldn’t just sit there and wait for the search team to bring back news of Didi’s whereabouts.
He intended to find Didi himself.
But even after searching the streets late into the night, there was no sign of Didi.
He was sure Didi was crying near the house, looking for him, but there wasn’t even a trace, which was strange.
Could he have wandered off and run out of battery?
Or was he kidnapped by someone who realized he was a human-bot?
“Damn it!”
William grew increasingly desperate.
He scoured every place Didi might have gone throughout the night, but he couldn’t find Didi even by sunrise.
Then, his secretary called.
“Did you find him?”
“Not yet. I apologize.”
“Hah…”
“CCTV footage shows him leaving the house and heading towards the city. We’re still investigating further.”
Soon after, a video arrived showing Didi leaving.
The weather had gotten warmer with summer, but the temperature swings were drastic, making nights still chilly.
Yet, Didi in the video was wearing only thin clothes, carrying a small bag, trotting out.
Cars were lined up in the adjacent garage.
But Didi, who didn’t know how to drive, glanced at them once, then diligently walked in the direction of the city.
Ah, William’s stomach churned imagining Didi, defenselessly wandering the streets, getting kidnapped.
“Increase the search personnel and secure all CCTV footage to find out where he went. Focus the search around his last known location.”
“Yes, understood.”
William, exhausted from searching for Didi all night, returned home.
The house felt unusually quiet today.
Didi, who used to greet him with a smile, was gone, and it was as if his home had transformed into an unfamiliar space.
William asked Sophia, who was silently watching him from the entrance, “Where’s Didi?”
“He hasn’t returned yet.”
“Alright.”
William, dragging his tired body, was about to enter his room when he stopped, seeing Didi’s room.
He turned and headed there.
Entering Didi’s room and flopping onto the bed, he could faintly smell bath salts.
Had Didi taken a bubble bath before leaving?
The thought of Didi enjoying a warm bath, smiling brightly and happily, brought a faint smile to William’s usually stern face.
William lay on Didi’s bed without even washing, thinking of Didi.
This bed probably wasn’t even used by Didi, yet it seemed to carry a faint, pleasant scent, fitting for his room.
Exhausted from searching for Didi all night, William drifted off to sleep.
***
A few days later, the information the search team brought back hit William hard, like a blow to the back of the head.
He had firmly believed Didi had just gone for a short walk.
For several days, even while William was frantically searching for him, Didi had been steadily heading in the opposite direction from home.
At first, he thought this cute, old bot’s sense of direction was broken, but it didn’t take long to realize that wasn’t the case.
CCTV even captured a man approaching Didi on a dangerous night street, stealing his small, only bag, and running away.
After finding the pickpocket and retrieving the bag, William was able to check its contents.
A charger.
The only item in the plain, small bag was a charger.
Initially, William thought the robber was lying, claiming there was nothing else in the bag.
But looking at Didi heading away from home and the charger in the bag, anxiety began to sprout in William’s heart.
As Didi moved further out into the suburbs, it became even harder to pinpoint his location.
Even in this high-tech era, there were no CCTVs in forests with only trees, and no one even walked in such remote areas.
William, who had been relying on videos to confirm Didi’s safety, was now driven to madness, unable to even do that.
Two weeks had passed since Didi left home.
Every hour, every minute, every second was hell for William.
During the day, William would go near the last known location of Didi, searching for his traces.
At night, he would return home, drink alcohol, and then try to sleep in Didi’s bed, watching Didi’s last video.
At first, he thought this mere junk bot was just bothering him.
He believed he’d be fine without such a piece of junk.
But he soon found himself chasing Didi’s lingering traces even at home.
Realizing he couldn’t even sleep properly without Didi’s faintly scattered scent, he searched for Didi even more desperately.
William finally admitted it.
That mere junk had completely captivated the great William Spencer.
William Spencer had fallen deeply for a robot that couldn’t bleed when pricked and could only express pain with a cute face.
William Spencer could create a robot exactly like Didi.
Even if the law forbade it, if he decided to create one, what country could stop him?
He didn’t know the exact principles of a human-bot yet, but with enough time, nothing was impossible.
However, the bigger problem lay elsewhere.
No matter how much a robot made with William’s excellent skill resembled Didi, William had reached a point where it had to be the old, worn-out Didi and no other.
William regretted it.
Didi had stayed by his side for so long, yet the only trace of him was the house he had lived in.
There wasn’t even a single photograph.
The only way he could confirm Didi’s appearance was through blurry CCTV footage.
When at home, William practically lived in Didi’s room.
He would go into Didi’s dressing room, find clothes that still faintly held Didi’s scent, and spend time clutching them.
When the scent faded, he would go out and search for Didi.
But in the empty streets, Didi was nowhere to be found.