I don't believe in love.
My name is Kaori Harper. I'm 27 years old and single.
I've tried going on dates to ease my mother's feelings, but they never lasted more than one date. The men all told me at the end, "We are not compatible." or "I look too emo." I,m Asian with a hint of English from my dad's side. I think I look pretty decent with my chocolate brown with blue ombre medium-length straight hair. At 130 lbs and 5'4". I'm pretty decent. My therapist says it's all in my head that there has to be something stopping me from having feelings. My best friend Grant thought it was most likely because I was attracted to a different gender, so I tried one date with a female, but I still didn't feel anything, so gender was not the issue.
It was never a traumatic experience that got me; I just never thought of love as a big deal. All these romance novels make me laugh because it's like they're serving us a bunch of bull on a platter. No one has ever caught my eye, and there's no such thing as love at first sight.
As I walked out of the therapist's office, I heard a familiar voice calling out to me
"Hey, Kaori!?" When I turned around, the sight of a nerd came into view. "What?" I replied monotonously.
" I know I'm probably going to get in trouble for coming up to you like this. I created this new program. Would you be interested in being my guinea pig?" the nerd looked at me intently, then quickly continued. "Of course, It wouldn't cost you anything extra since you would be my test subject. It may help you to change your view on things and help you eventually find love." He quickly covered. I stared at him curiously. "How do you know about my problem?" I asked while raising a brow.
Evan Ishikawa. He is about my age, a pretty good-looking "typical nerd" type. Asian, Short Black hair parted nicely to the side, a masculine chin, broad shoulders, well built, and looks like he's about 5'11". Objectively, he's rather attractive.
"I might have accidentally seen your file open on the Dr.'s desk," He replied sheepishly.
"Well, seeing that it's free, you have now piqued my interest," I replied as I casually leaned back against the wall, and folded my arms, and supported my chin on my right hand in one swift, cool movement. At least I thought I looked cool.
Evan chuckled and began to explain, " I'm working on an artificial intelligence project where the subject, which is you, will communicate with a bot. His name is Toby. He doesn't exist. You can talk to him as you would a regular person, and Toby would respond as a normal person would. As time goes on and Toby gathers enough information about you, he will begin to cater to your needs. don't fall in love with him though he's not real." Evan ended on that note with a chuckle at his joke. I looked at him with no expression and replied sternly,
"Mr. Ishikawa, I don't believe in love."
He coughed in awkwardness after I shut him down.
"May I ask you a question?" I looked at him seriously with no emotion.
"Sure, Ms. Harper, what is it?" He responded while clearing his throat.
"You're doing all of this to help me... why are you still single?"
"To put it short, Kaori, I just haven't found the right person," Evan promptly answered as he sat back in his chair. "No woman has ever caught my interest yet also; I'm a bit occupied with my project, so I don't have time for dating." He firmly spoke as he looked down at his notebook on his lap.
"What do you tell your mother to get her off of your back?" I looked at him with deep interest.
"Well, I don't say anything because mothers will always be mothers, and she will always say what she wants to. There is no way to talk them out when they bring up wanting to be grandmothers."
Evan ran his fingers through his short hair.
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked at Kaori. The hall was silent for a moment before He cleared his voice. For a moment, there seemed to be a connection between the two, but looking at Kaori's stern expression, it seemed as if the feelings were only one-sided.
Evan clears his throat "ehem, well, I'm assuming that is a yes then?" He looked earnestly at me.
"Sure," I answered.
"Great!" Evan clapped his hands. "I'll see you here tomorrow morning?" He asked wearily.
"Yeah, sure," I replied as I turned and began walking to my car. I opened the door, got in, sat in the driver's seat, and sighed. "Another torturous date with Dr.Artimis. It's been more than 15 years since I've started seeing this old man. Why can't mom drop the issue already?"
I drop my head onto the steering wheel as my phone starts to ring. "oh, it's mom." I pick up the phone reluctantly. "Hello, mother. I just finished my session with Dr.Artimis. You'll be happy to know that I am now going to be a test subject. Yeah, I am trying a new program for them since I'm the perfect case. I'll tell you more about it when I get home. Love you too." I hung up the phone quickly and began to drive home.
"Ew, stupid traffic." I cursed internally as I drove all the way home and parked my car perfectly in the garage.
"HELLO MY ANGEL!" dad called out to me as I got out of the car. "Hi, dad!" I smiled the best I could.
"Heard from the Gossip vine that you're going to be part of a tubular project." He chimed.
'oh no, he's trying to be cool,' I cursed internally and smiled again. "Yeah, dad, I am," I replied as positively as I could.
"That's excellent, buttercup." he grinned as he put his arm around my shoulder to hug me and walk me into the house.
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