“Hello.” A clear voice, deep and almost nasal sounding, rung through the room. The boy-bot sat back, pulling itself out of the man’s grasp to look at him with wide, cool eyes that looked all-knowing but so uncomprehending of reality. His single word made that pang in the man’s heart grow. It wasn’t the sound of a friend’s greeting, or the salutation of a long missed family member. That simple hello was cold and rehearsed. The man couldn’t have expected more from a machine but his heart still beckoned for that sense of something else. He forced that something else out from his mind though, the little addition of his imagination, and it filled his heart just enough to stifle the emotions that made him sick.

“Hey there.” The man spoke softly to the newly woken boy despite tenderness being unnecessary. The boy just smiled, something he’d been programmed to do. It made the man sigh discontentedly which caught the robot’s attention.

“Sir, what’s wrong?” Worry was etched on his face, his fake face. It was made of synthetic material that felt and looked like skin but was made of some ugly sounding rubber substance. It stretched smoothly across the manufactured cheekbones and jawline of this robot boy, hiding the harsh looking technology underneath. The eyes were the part that was strangest to the man. They could be filled so wholly with human emotion but each time the man looked into them he could see the ever so slight movement of the lens inside, focusing and refocusing on his movements.

“I told you not to call me that Junhong.” The boy-bot pouted and the man’s head swayed. It was something his little sister had done when she wanted something. This robot was slowly breaking his heart.