Anyone who has owned a chou chou, aka a “comfort object” like a pillow or stuffed toy, will probably relate to this story.

Taiwanese YouTuber Baichi Princess (白痴公主), whose real name is Dai Ping Ya, recently experienced every chou chou owner’s worst nightmare when her beloved pillow A-Tien went missing from her hotel room while she was holidaying in Athens.

And this wasn’t just any pillow. A-Tien has been with her for 38 years and even has her own Instagram account, @atienpillow87.

In an Instagram video, Baichi Princess shared that A-Tien had been lying on her bed before she left her hotel room that day. But when she returned after housekeeping had cleaned the room, the pillow was nowhere to be found.

After turning the room upside down, she immediately contacted the front desk.

“It’s a 40-year-old pillow and she has an Instagram account,” she told the staff in English, leaving them visibly stumped.

“Now you know how important she is,” she quipped. 

Baichi Princess later corrected herself: A-Tien is actually 38.

Hotel staff told Baichi Princess that housekeeping had not seen the pillow and stressed that they would never steal a guest’s belongings.

She suspected A-Tien had accidentally been bundled up with the bedsheets and sent to an external laundry facility. As it was already late at night, she could only wait till the next morning for an update.

Unsurprisingly, she barely slept that night.

Unfortunately, the news the next morning wasn’t good.

The hotel manager told her the laundry company hadn’t found A-Tien, adding: “A pillow is so obvious. It should fall out when you shake the bedsheets!”

“I was completely devastated after hearing that and quietly shed two tears,” recalled Baichi Princess.

She started fearing the worst: Had A-Tien fallen out along the way? Been thrown into the trash? Or had the laundry company simply not searched thoroughly enough?

She was so desperate, she even contemplated heading down to the laundry facility to search for A-Tien herself.

After six hours of back-and-forth, there was finally good news: A-Tien had been found inside a bag of bedsheets sent over by the hotel.

But Baichi Princess had a flight early the next morning and the hotel didn’t offer a courier service. She was told A-Tien would only be sent back around midnight with the next batch of laundry.

Having just found her precious chou chou, she wasn’t about to risk losing her again.

So she hopped into a cab for a two-hour round trip to the laundry facility to personally pick A-Tien up.

The ride cost her €61 (S$88), but it was money well spent.

“I only have one [38-year-old] daughter!” she declared after being reunited with A-Tien.

And if you’re wondering, A-Tien didn’t get washed.

A-Tien even gained a new follower from the whole ordeal — the boss of the laundry facility.

Photos: 87acup/Instagram