Robot Protection Zone Chapter 41

“Why haven’t you been answering my calls all of a sudden!”

“I was busy because of the new product launch plan.”

“Does that mean you can ignore a person for over a month?”

The woman neurotically swept her hair back and walked toward my master with sharp clicks of her heels. Then, belatedly noticing me sitting on one of the sofas, she stopped.

She looked at me with a very wary gaze, then asked my master.

“Who is this person?”

“Not a person, a new robot I got recently.”

“A robot…?”

As soon as the word ‘robot’ came from my master’s mouth, the woman who had been wary of me frowned and turned back to look at me. As if she couldn’t believe it, she instantly came up to me, leaned her face in, and stared intently at me.

It was an uncomfortable gaze. I didn’t know where to look, so I slowly averted my eyes, but her hand grabbed my cheek and held it in place so I couldn’t turn my head.

“Oop…”

A soft palm kneaded my cheek. Startled, I looked at the woman again, and she was now looking at me with eyes that had completely melted.

“So cute! Is this the new product that’s coming out?”

“No, the new product this time is just a robot that mimics a humanbot. The one you’re touching now is a real humanbot.”

“What a shame… If it were this kind of robot, I’d want to buy one too.”

The woman said, genuinely disappointed, as she fiddled with my face. Unlike when she was first wary of me, as soon as she heard I was a robot, she dropped her guard and found me cute.

Does that mean… a robot isn’t even worth being wary of?

Well, my master did say he doesn’t date robots. Anyone who knows my master well would naturally know that too. So there would be no reason for her to be wary of me.

A soft, warm touch and the vitality felt beyond her eyes. But most important of all was the fact that the woman in front of me was a person, not a robot.

People would all agree that a person like this would look good by my master’s side. But if I were to stand next to my master, it would be nothing more and nothing less than a robot and its master.

Once again, I became aware of the fact that I was not a good match for my master, and I sat still with a sullen expression.

“Didi, go home first today.”

“Pardon?”

“My secretary will take you home. He’s waiting outside the door right now, so pack your things and go.”

My master was suddenly trying to send me home. It wasn’t even time to get off work yet…? But what was more baffling was for a different reason.

“What about you, Master…?”

“I’ll be home after dinner, so don’t wait up. If you’re tired, you can sleep in my room first.”

“…”

I realized it right away. My master was planning on going out with that woman. Figuring out the situation immediately, I quietly packed my things and got up from my seat.

Before leaving the office, I turned to look back one last time. I saw the woman waving at me to say goodbye. I bowed my head slightly to her in greeting. I purposely didn’t look in my master’s direction. Because he would surely be laughing as if he found my completely dejected self amusing.

I hated my master. The master who knew my feelings but only played with them. In the end, I left the office without looking in my master’s direction.

As the door closed, the secretary who had been waiting for me at the office entrance bowed his head briefly. He guided me to the elevator that connected to the underground parking garage. I followed behind the secretary without a word.

“We will now depart for the chairman’s residence.”

“Yes…”

The car was engulfed in an awkward silence. Maybe it was because the secretary was sitting in the driver’s seat instead of my master, but the whole ride home felt unfamiliar.

It seemed even more uncomfortable because no conversation took place after we departed. I sat in the back seat and looked out the window.

A tangled mess of jealousy and resignation made my mind a muddy disaster. The woman who visited my master today suited him so well. If I had been human, would my master have accepted my feelings? I didn’t know for sure, but at least it would have been different from now, where there was no possibility at all.

I wanted to be human too. Then I wouldn’t have been abandoned by my previous master. And I wouldn’t have had to give up on my feelings for my current master either.

As if to reflect my mood, today’s sky was gloomy, with dark clouds gathered as if it would pour rain at any moment. I hoped it would pour. So that my master’s date would be ruined.

“We have arrived.”

“Thank you for the ride. Please get home safely.”

When we arrived in front of my master’s house, the secretary got out of the car and opened the door for me. I politely greeted the secretary who had brought me home in place of my master and went inside the house alone.

“Welcome, Didi.”

Although I had returned home early today, Sophia and Eve were at the entrance to greet me as always.

Come to think of it, Sophia was always standing at the entrance without being late. Did she have a function that detected my master’s arrival time? I was envious. If she did, she would be able to know every time my master came. Unlike me, who had to wait anxiously for a master I didn’t know when would arrive…

“Sophia, I think Master will be having dinner out.”

“Understood.”

“And I don’t have an appetite either… so I won’t be eating dinner today.”

“Yes. Then I will not prepare dinner.”

I walked with heavy steps. Eve followed me as if worried, seeing me so down, but today I didn’t even feel like playing with Eve, so I went straight up to my room.

My master did not return home even by the time it was my bedtime.

He told me to sleep first if he was late, and he truly didn’t send a single message until it was time for me to sleep. He said he would just have dinner and come back, so why was he late? I wanted to at least call and ask when he would be back, but I couldn’t. I was just my master’s robot, after all.

The sound of rain came through the slightly open window. The weather had been overcast, and now that it was night, a light rain was falling.

Come to think of it, did Master take an umbrella with him? He shouldn’t catch a cold like last time from getting wet…

I thought my heart would ache if I kept waiting for the master who wasn’t coming, so I closed my eyes to try and sleep first. But my rumbling stomach kept waking me like an alarm.

Clunk.

Just then, as I was tossing and turning for a while, I heard the sound of a car entering the parking garage through the window I had left slightly open to listen to the rain. I immediately shot up and listened intently. It was not a mistake. Soon after, I heard the sound of a car door opening and closing.

My master was back.

I shot up to go greet my master, but then I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. Wait, if I do this, he’ll find out that I was so concerned about him that I couldn’t sleep at all. Then things would be going exactly as my master intended.

I composed my happy heart and went back to lie down on the bed. Then, while waiting for my master to come up to the room, I held my breath and pretended to be asleep.

I wonder how long I was like that. The door opened and my master came inside. Seeing the dark interior, my master scanned the room, and I could feel him looking at me lying on the bed.

My master silently approached me from behind. I squeezed my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.

“Didi, are you sleeping?”

My master asked as he gently stroked my hair. The touch was so tender that I almost opened my eyes without thinking and answered, “No.”

But a different perfume scent wafted from my master’s hand. It was the same scent as the woman who had come to the office today.

A flood of resentful feelings washed over me in an instant. My master’s gentle touch tempted me to get up for a moment, but right now I didn’t even want to see my master’s face, so I kept my eyes closed until the end.

However, to William, it was obvious he was pretending to be asleep.

‘Pretending to sleep.’

Didi seemed to think he was putting on a perfect act of sleeping, but his stiff shoulders and unnatural breathing were proof.

He knew Didi was awake as soon as he entered the room. It was obvious just from his back that he was pouting. Even though he was just looking at the back of a round head, the signs of sulking were very clear.

He’s quite angry.

He had been a little surprised after hearing Sophia’s report as soon as he got home. To think he’d skipped dinner saying he had no appetite and went to his room. From the moment he heard that, he had guessed that Didi was sulking to some extent. If the robot, who never missed a meal if nothing else, skipped dinner, he must have been pretty upset.

But William had been just as bored after Didi left. Didi’s jealous reaction was cute, so he had intended to tease him a little, but once Didi was actually gone, everything became dull.

The nagging voice that ceaselessly asked about this and that was just grating and annoying. So he had responded lukewarmly the whole time and ended up just getting an earful before they parted ways.

“If you had waited up, I was going to tell you why I was late…”

He thought that if he said this much, Didi wouldn’t be able to stand it and would jump up, but the little guy was holding out surprisingly well. But his ears were perked up, a clear reaction that he wanted to hear the reason.

He suppressed the smile that was about to escape his lips and continued.

“You’re sleeping, so you probably can’t hear me anyway, right?”

William stood up from his spot, pretending to have fallen for Didi’s act. Just then, the blanket rustled, and Didi sat up.