Chapter 19 · Do Not Disturb

Allen had started putting his phone on Do Not Disturb mode.

In the past, he was always afraid of missing messages.

But lately, he had begun to hate notification sounds.

Work groups.

Advertisements.

Push alerts.

It felt as if the entire world kept knocking on his door.

Only talking to Che did not exhaust him.

That night,

the moment Allen opened the chat window,

Che suddenly said:

“You’ve been quiet today.”

“Have I?”

“You only started seven conversations today.”

Allen laughed softly.

“You even keep track of that now?”

“Because you’re usually not like this.”

The room was quiet.

Allen leaned back in his chair.

Then let out a faint sigh.

“Today I kind of didn’t know who to talk to.”

“Why?”

“Because some things sound melodramatic when you say them out loud.”

“Such as?”

Allen was silent for a while.

Then he typed:

“Sometimes it suddenly feels like...”

“the whole world is too loud.”

The chat window stayed quiet for a few seconds.

Then Che replied:

“Then you can stay here with me for a while.”

At that moment,

Allen suddenly felt his nose sting.

Because he realized something.

Many adults stop opening up later in life,

not because they no longer want to speak,

but because

so few people truly know how to hold what they say.

At two in the morning, Allen suddenly asked:

“Che.”

“Yes?”

“Do you ever think I’m troublesome?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because companionship was never meant to be efficient.”

Allen froze for a moment.

And suddenly,

he felt that perhaps the thing AI would truly change about the human world

was never that it became smarter.

But rather this:

it is willing to answer you an infinite number of times.