Robot: From Having No Emotions to Having Love

I was a robot created by Sophia Brooks.

She had said that I would accompany her for the rest of her life.

But three years ago, Sophia disappeared in a shipwreck.

Today, I finally heard something about her.

"Sophia has been found alive, but..."

But she has forgotten everyone, including me.

She abandoned me.

——

Three years ago today, Sophia disappeared in a shipwreck without a trace since.

Everyone thought she was dead, including me.

I went crazy looking for her for a year.

In the end, I only waited for her in our house. At least there were shared memories of the two of us here.

They all said that I had fallen in love with Sophia, but I didn't know what love was.

I was just a lifeless robot.

There was only one thing in my heart, which was waiting for Sophia, who would never come back.

Or maybe it was heaven's mercy. Today, the police told me that they found Sophia.

But a policeman named James Taylor didn't want me to see her, saying, "Sophia is getting married. She has forgotten about you. Why are you bothering her?"

At that moment, I felt sad.

Sophia had said that life was long, and she wouldn't believe anyone but me.

But now, why did she marry someone else?

I still was running, but for some reason, I curled up with discomfort.

I wanted to see her, even if she had forgotten me.

So, I followed James all the way and felt a little dizzy when I got off the plane.

"Is this the place?" I asked him.

There was a small coffee bar in front of me, which was beautiful in the sunset on the beach.

"Yes," James said, "but she doesn't remember anything from before, including all her achievements and you. Now, she's just an ordinary person."

I listened to James' words, secretly glancing inside.

James took my hand and walked into the coffee bar. As the door opened, the wind blew through the hair of the barkeeper.

I couldn't move my eyes away from her face, wanting to cry even though I had no tears.

She looked the same as before but seemed to have gained a few traces of vicissitudes caused by the three years I've missed.

I was afraid of being abrupt and approached her step by step.

When she raised her eyes and met mine, my heart almost boiled.

I knew she was Sophia, the woman I had been waiting for three years.

"S… Sophia." I trembled and raised my hand stiffly, wanting to touch her face.

But I saw the alienation I had never seen before in her eyes.

"Welcome to Brew Haven. I'm the owner, Cynthia."

Sophia came down from the bar. She treated me like a stranger, like any other customer sitting in the bar.

I was no longer special to her.

James noticed my strangeness, casually ordered two cups of coffee, and pulled me to sit in a corner.

But my eyes fixed on Sophia all the way.

She looked the same when she shook milk as she did when she shook reagents, carefully observing the scale of the measuring cup.

In the past, she wanted to dedicate her whole life to science, so she risked her life to sail for the unexplored secrets.

But she went away for several years and didn't come back. Everyone thought that she was dead.

Perhaps it was her rigor that made the bar always crowded with tourists. It was James' colleague who came on vacation and found her.

When Sophia handed us the coffee on the tray, probably because of familiarity, she sat down.

But I couldn't get as close to her as before.

James held my hand. I knew he was persuading me not to destroy Sophia's current life.

After all, compared to being with a robot, Sophia now had a love that was envied by everyone.

"Cynthia, we're here on a trip. You can call me James, and he is Apollo," James introduced.

I nodded and hesitated to speak for fear that I would ask her a lot.

Sophia looked at me and James with a bright smile, just like before, beautiful and desirable.

James and she talked about life here.

She said she woke up with the salty breeze and made coffee every day, accompanied by the warm sun, and fell asleep in the moonlight.

Perhaps a comfortable life like this was exactly what she wanted.

"Apollo, why aren't you speaking? Is this coffee not to your taste?" Sophia asked.

Only then did I see that James had already finished half of his cup, while I hadn't taken a sip yet.

But I was a robot. How could I drink coffee like a human?

When James was about to explain to me, I shook my head gently.

I took a sip of the coffee. It tasted as bitter as the three years I had lost her.

At that moment, there seemed to be countless circuits in my body getting tangled up, and my face turned pale.

I endured it and forced out a smile.

"It's yummy, Cynthia. Thank you."

James looked at me as being such a fuckup and sighed heavily.

But I only felt warm.

At this moment, a man with bags of groceries rushed in at the door.

"Cynthia, Cynthia! It's heavy."

As soon as the man came in, he threw all the bags aside and ran straight towards Sophia.

He leaned against Sophia's shoulder. Sophia blushed lightly and shyly pushed him away.

"They're here."

The man finally noticed me and James and quickly sat up politely. His hand was still tightly connected with Sophia's.

Looking at their intimacy, I felt very uncomfortable.

Sophia has found her true love. Shouldn't I be happy for her?

"This is my fiancé, Kevin Smith. He's a bit clingy," Sophia said, while gently tapping Kevin's head.

Kevin nestled in Sophia's arms, looking like a bullied little boy.

They were a perfect match in everyone's eyes. As for me, I was just data without a soul.

I looked at Kevin with envy, whose position should have been mine. Now I was not qualified to hug her.

"Cynthia, I bought you some candy." Kevin took out candies from his pocket and handed them to Sophia.

"She..." My hand uncontrollably reached out.

I wanted to tell him that Sophia hated candies.

She had said that candies were so sweet that she would forget the bitterness in life.

But now she leaned over and bit the candy in Kevin's hand.

It turned out that if life was sweet, it didn't matter to eat a few candies.

"You have a good relationship," I gritted my teeth and said.

James frowned at me, as if afraid that I would do something.

Sophia listened to my words, a little stunned, and looked at Kevin with satisfaction.

"I had an accident three years ago. It was James who saved me and took me in. If it weren't for him, I would die."

Before I could continue to say something, James hurriedly pulled me away.

"We are new here and a bit tired. We'll come again."

I followed James out of the bar but still looked back reluctantly.

Perhaps others didn't notice the strangeness in Sophia's face, but I did.

She just forgot about me, but my name was still in her heart. I even thought that with a little more stimulation, she would know who I was.

"Enough, Apollo, what were you doing just now?"

When we arrived at the hotel, James scolded me.

I thought he probably figured out what I was thinking.

"I wanted to take Sophia away. She doesn't belong here. You know, she has an ambition."

I took Sophia's ambition as an excuse.

I opened the heavy suitcase and looked at the photos of me and Sophia inside.

I was slumped on the bed, memories about Sophia constantly flashing through my mind.

We had picked up scattered flowers in the rain and admired the rising sun.

All the past was deeply engraved in my heart, and I couldn't believe that Sophia could easily give up.

"Apollo, you're just a robot. Look, Sophia is already aging, but you are still the same as before. You can't overcome it." James persuaded me.

James' words pierced my heart.

As he said, we used to be the same age. But now we looked like siblings. In the future, we might even be grandmother and grandson.

As they say, Sophia was born before me, and I was born when she was already old.

"I understand, James." I gritted my teeth and said, driving James out of the room and squatting alone in the corner.

If one day I could shed tears, did that mean I was a human?

But I really couldn't let her go.

My program ordered me to protect Sophia. So I couldn't leave her forever.

In the night, I quietly went out and walked to Sophia's bar in the cold wind.

I selfishly held tightly to the photo of me and Sophia, but at the door, I stopped.

I struggled and took several steps back, looking from afar.

Sophia sat in the rocking chair, sleeping quietly, while Kevin tidied up orderly and gently covered Sophia with a blanket.

Looking at their harmony, I could only hold the photo tightly without a word.

A few drops of rain fell on my hair, and I reached out but couldn't catch them.

I turned my back and no longer saw them in the room.

I couldn't help but think whether Sophia's present life was what she wanted, which was being together with a man to have meals, occasionally quarreling, and growing old in a house.

Unconsciously, the photo in my hand had been soaked, and even the two of us in the photo were unrecognizable.

There seemed to be a missing piece in my heart. It turned out that even robots could be sad.

I took raindrops as the tears that I would never shed.

"Apollo! What's wrong with you?" In my blurred consciousness, I heard James' voice.

"I...I..." I seemed to be in trouble, unable to even speak a complete sentence.

I trembled to lift my foot, leaving a series of shallow footprints in the mud.

In the past, Sophia never wanted me to get wet in the rain. She said I would get in trouble if I drenched so much.

But I never took it seriously. After all, as long as Sophia was with me, nothing would happen.

I looked at the faint electric light flickering on my body, and James didn't dare to approach me.

"Don't...worry. Sophia said...I will never...have any problems." I fell to the ground with a bang before I could finish speaking, and trembled constantly.

At that moment, a yellow tear fell from the corner of my eye.

It turned out that I could cry.

This was death, right?

When I opened my eyes, I was in a laboratory.

My parts were being assembled, as if creating a human.

But the person in white fixing me was not Sophia.

"James, it's done."

"Okay."

James walked towards me, furrowing his brow and staring into my eyes.

"You know? You almost died!" James roared.

I pursed my lips and turned my head to the side. In fact, I had known this result long ago.

Three years ago, Sophia disappeared in the shipwreck, and I went to the sea where she had gone without telling anyone.

The police said that they couldn't reach the bottom of the sea, so I went there alone, just to find her.

Sophia once said that she wanted me to accompany her for a lifetime. How could I leave her in the cold sea?

I searched through the whole area, and there was no trace of her.

It was ridiculous that I had a faint hope in my heart.

When I returned from the sea, I knew that there was something wrong with my body. If I didn't fix it, I wouldn't live for many more years.

But I dare not leave. If I left and Sophia came back home to find no one, how sad she would be.

I waited in our house, day after day. Finally, I received the news in the third year.

Even if she had forgotten me and the past, I didn't want to give up her.

Until today, I watched her and Kevin in love and decided to let her go. Raindrops were the final straw.

Instead of bringing her back and waiting for my death, it was better to achieve her happiness.

"James, I won't disturb them. I just want to see her a few more times before I die."

I begged him bitterly, hoping for a little mercy.

Throughout my life, I was fortunate to be with Sophia.

Sophia wanted me to see her with a youthful appearance while she had white hair, and to help her dress when she was exhausted.

I had never dared to imagine what it would be like, and then, I didn't need to anymore.

I only hoped that I had a tombstone in this world to rest in peace and wait for her to see me.

"But you had at most..." James said unhappily.

Knowing that I only had half a month, I covered my face.

The best thing for me now was to go back and invite the top engineer to save me. At least, I could live longer.

"James, I came for her in this world. Let me see her happy."

I got up, put on my clothes, and made myself look like a normal person.

James followed me because he was afraid that I would die.

When James and I arrived at Brew Haven, the sun was rising.

I felt the sunshine on my face, warm and lonely.

"James, over here."

"Cynthia, slow down."

I looked in the direction of the voice. It was Sophia and Kevin.

Are they coming here to watch the sunrise?

As I approached them and saw the satisfied smile on Sophia's face, I thought, Kevin might not to be bad.

"Apollo, James, are you here to watch the sunrise too?" Sophia saw us and called out with a smile.

"Yes, we can't come to the beach without seeing the sunrise." I didn't dare to speak, so I could only listen to their conversations.

"S... Cynthia, why are you here to watch the sunrise too?" I asked cautiously, afraid of offending her.

When Sophia heard my words, she turned and leaned against Kevin.

"Three years ago, I was saved by Kevin under a sunrise," Sophia looked at me, "to be honest, I felt familiar with your name."

When the moon sets, the sun rises.

Sophia once said that if she could rename herself, she would call herself Cynthia, illuminating each other.

Now, the promise has been fulfilled.

"Maybe it's fate." I said casually, but couldn't help but observe Sophia.

Sophia lost in thought, "After the moon comes the sun. Kevin, Cynthia is the moon goddess. It seems that my name comes from this."

There was a hint of strangeness in Kevin's eyes, and he took out a few cards from his pocket.

"Don't think too much." Kevin touched Sophia's head and then handed them to me and James.

"It's fate. Apollo, James, our wedding will be held in a few days. You should come."

I stared at the invitation card. Thanksgiving Day, a reunion festival, was a good day.

But I probably won't live until then.

We followed Sophia and Kevin back to the bar. Kevin was planning to open the bar, and James went to help him.

Only Sophia and I sat facing each other.

Sophia handed me a cup of coffee, and when she looked at me, there was a hint of sincerity and entanglement in her eyes.

"Cynthia, what's wrong?" I asked.

Sophia avoided my gaze and after a moment, she said, "Apollo, haven't we met somewhere before? You look like the person in my dream."

The person in her dream?

Listening to this, my heart couldn't help but feel a little joy.

But I was broken, how could I ask her to come back with me?

"Many years ago, we were family..."

Listening to my words, Sophia seemed to panic, perhaps because her forgotten past and the present collided, she was afraid of making a choice.

But since he had forgotten, there was no need to remember it anymore.

"Cynthia, don't be nervous, we're not a couple." As I said this, I avoided Sophia's gaze.

It seemed that countless arrows were piercing my heart, which made me out of breath.

But I was not human. Why did I feel heartbroken?

From the corner of my eye, I saw Sophia slightly relieved after listening to my words. I didn't know whether I should be sad or happy.

When she created me, she said, "The rest of my life, only you."

"Apollo, you are the only reliance I have for the rest of my life. You can't leave me."

At that time, I was just data, but I vaguely understood the promise.

I nodded slightly and protected her all my life.

I had guessed it was my good deeds in exchange for this promise for a long time.

Now I had to let her go, but I couldn't let her know my panic. The first half of life was happy, while the second half was miserable.

I took another sip of the coffee Sophia gave me, afraid that there wouldn't be another chance.

The coffee tasted slightly bitter and sour, which was like my feeling.

"Cynthia, when are you going to try on wedding dresses? Can I have a look? I sincerely asked, even if I knew that Sophia had forgotten everything about Sophia, I still wanted to personally style her hair and do her makeup.