Repulsive? What an incredibly stupid supposition.
HIDDEN and ABSENT are not synonymous.
When my son was very little, we would play hide and seek in the house. When he was hiding, he was still present in the house, but he was hidden, concealed. Finding him only undid his hiding, but his presence was unchanged - he was not absent, he was hiding.
If I left the house and hid in a neighbor's house, my son would never find me. It would not matter how cleverly I hid in the neighbor's house because I would no longer be present in ours where we were playing, I would be absent.