Part 1:
Milo:
I’m a perfect boy for any girl in the world, but only one girl is the one. Roger told me so and he never lies. Today I’m going to talk to her for the first time on Instabook. I can’t wait.
Janett:
This is my lucky day. The most handsome boy ever has just followed my account on Instabook. I followed him back, of course, and a minute later I got his message. He told me he liked my name and we started talking. We seem to have a lot in common. He’s really smart and knows a lot about, well, everything. It’s such fun to talk to him.
Milo:
I talked to a wonderful girl. Her name is Janett. I think she finds me interesting. She always laughs at my jokes and wants to know more about me. She had to go to sleep so we couldn’t talk longer.
Janett:
I can’t stop thinking about him. I was thinking about him while I was having dinner with my parents. Today we ordered Chinese food that had been delivered straight from China. My parents told me that long ago people used to eat in restaurants. Nowadays we go to restaurants only for meetings. I would really like to meet Milo at the restaurant one day. I’m really starting to like him.
Milo:
I was looking at Janett’s photo today. She is the most perfect human being. I’m so bored when I’m not talking to her.
Janett:
I’m so lonely. People of the past used to spend a lot of time together. I have 5734 online friends, but in my whole life, I’ve met only three people in person. Every day I spend six hours attending my online classes and playing online games that simulate the real ones. Then my parents come home and we have dinner together. I love them but we rarely talk because they go back to work right after dinner. They both work in a science lab trying to create a DNA for humans to live forever and also to survive on other planets (because there would be too many people if we all lived forever). Anyway, after they go to work I’m lonely. Unless I’m talking to him. “Do you ever feel lonely, Milo?”, I asked him.
Milo:
“Do you ever feel lonely?” I had never thought of that until Janett asked me. ”But, I’ve never met anyone in person. I’m always alone”, I thought. “But it’s better when I’m with you”, I added to make her feel better. “Thank you, Milo. That’s why I’m here“, she said.
Janett:
He hasn’t typed anything for a few minutes so I continued: “I think people should meet face to face more often. What do you think?” “That would be nice!”, he replied. “Do you want to meet me today. ” He wrote: “No, I can’t.” I didn’t know why, so I asked him- and waited for 5, 10, 15 minutes. But he didn’t answer. I was just sitting there confused when I noticed he wasn’t online any more. I quickly checked his location and realized that he had left his apartment.
I tried to phone him, but he rejected all my calls- and then he blocked me! I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let that perfect boy disappear from my life just like that. I left the apartment and started walking towards him, following his location on my phone. Suddenly his spot disappeared from my screen as he turned off his GPS. I don’t remember exactly when I started running.
Part 2:
Janett finally came to Middle Square and saw him. “Milo, what’s happened?” she said quietly. He covered his eyes with his arms and turned around so she could only see his back. “Milo! “She tried to move his arms, but she couldn’t. It was like they were made of iron. “You have to talk to me!”
“You don’t understand,” he said. His voice was cold and expressionless. “You don’t know who I am…” “What do you mean? You’re the boy I met online.” Her voice suddenly turned to mute. Her mouth stayed opened, but she wasn’t saying anything. Tears filled her eyes.
Milo moved his hands and was looking at her, actually through her, with his empty eyes made of glass. She could see a perfect blue iris, but not blue like the sky or the sea, more like a blue T-shirt from the store. The weirdest things were his pupils, they were black, but if you looked deeper you could see two tiny letters R and C.
Janett couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed that in his profile photo before and started crying louder. “You’re a… robot?” “I’m so sorry. The Roger Company has made 5110 robots, including me, in a series called Perfect Match in order to make people less lonely”, he said apologetically. “But that’s so…wrong. They’re not helping anyone” said Janett quietly. They were just looking at each other while she was still crying. Then Milo said: ” I think it’s beautiful that you can laugh, cry, love… I can’t feel anything. And I will never be able to. I hope you’ll find true love one day. ”
He turned his head with a little buzz sound. “They have come. They have to reset me and set me up with another girl”, he said as some tall people in suits were getting out of the car. “No!” she cried when they came closer to them. They grabbed Milo and dragged him into the car. “This is all wrong”, she cried. The car was just about to go, but Janett knocked on the window. A man who was sitting in the driver’s seat opened the window and said. “Sorry, kid. That’s how this world works.”
He closed the window and the car set off. In a split second it speeded up and disappeared behind the corner.
