Recommending, 17 Missing Girls.

He kept staring at the empty chair next to me...

A day later,

"Ero, come back." I pleaded, "I won't do anything weird, I promise."

The Xero AI program, which had now taken the form of some girl I've never met before, stared back at me.

"You seem lonely, girl, you need some new besties." She shook her head, tucking brown hair behind her ears. 2 fuzzy buns sat on the top of her head, like Mickey Mouse. She's cute, bubbly, super welcoming energy. She wore an oversized purple hoodie that reads "Just Quit, Quit, Quit."

"Recommending new bestie near you~," she singsonged and dropped an IG profile to some local girl near me.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

5 profiles.

"I didn't ask for recommendations." I said...still opening the 5 girls' profiles, out of curiosity anyhow.

The first profile, belonged to some nurse student who liked porcupines and collecting an absurd amount of stickers...

Her last photo was taken of a pastry, posted in 2015. It's 2024 now. That's a little weird.

The account had been inactive for 9 years. Why would the Xero app recommend this to me?

I checked out the other 4 profiles...their last photos were also of a pastry. Checking the posting dates...all inactive since 2015-2018. That's weird. Before the accounts became inactive, they all were social media addicts, basically. They seemed to consistently post every other day.

Their last photo were always of a pastry.

My curiosity got me skimming through the comment sections of their latest posts,

"My condolences."

"Please call, mom is worried."

"Where did she go, does anyone know?"

"Hello? Checking in 2020, any updates on her?"

"If anyone has information, please contact us."

That's...weird.

"Are they all missing?" I asked the AI girl, "why did you send me these?"

She smiled and stared back at me.

It creeped me out. Who is the girl I'm talking to? I don't know her...but I feel like I've seen her somewhere.

I was about to exit the app, when she suddenly said "Recommending a bakery that you might like."

"What? I didn't ask—"

DING.

A link to a bakery dropped. I clicked on it...

And the address said "Permanently Closed" since 2016.

Um...what is wrong with the Xero app?

—------

The next day,

Same thing.

"Recommending besties near you."

"I didn't ask—"

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

It dropped 5 more profiles.

Same thing...Last posts were of some kind of pastry. Inactive since 2017-2019.