The Algorithm of Obsession

5

A/N:

guess who is back with another banger!
so today its our Novs POV, and she is thriving hhehehe
also yall vote on this story
(its a threat, love yall)

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Nov

Nov knew the moment he said her name—said it like he owned it—that something was off. Wrong. Right. Dangerous.

She'd felt his gaze long before he tapped her desk. Her body had gone still, her mind—louder. The kind of loud you can't silence with logic. The kind that insists: pay attention.

So she did.

Kian.

His name didn't fit him. Too casual. Too tame for the way he watched her like a glitch he couldn't debug. Like a line of corrupted code he wanted to embed in his own system.

She smelled the warning before she saw it—the faint burn of overheated circuits masked by something more sinister: obsession in polite packaging.

His words had been soft, smooth. But wrong.

No one should've known how she liked her space. Or that she wore that bracelet out of guilt, not taste. Or that she switched to coconut shampoo last week. No one.

But he did.

And his eyes had flickered red.

She wasn't supposed to notice. He thought he masked it.
He didn't.

That night, Nov didn't sleep. Instead, she went digging.

Nothing about Kian was available online. No digital footprint. No social ID logs, no text trail, no exam records. It was like he had been... inserted.

Planted.

Every instinct in her sparked alive, the same way it did when she hacked firewalls just to prove she could.

Her fingers danced over her keyboard.
She would find him.
She would learn him.

And if he had been watching her this whole time?

It was only fair she did the same.

[LOG]: Let the hunt begin.

The next day, he sat next to her again. Of course he did. Like clockwork. Like a health hazard she couldn't file a complaint for.

"Hey," he murmured, barely glancing up from his notebook. "You know the Moon has five times the mass of Pluto? Crazy, right?"

She turned. Raised a brow. Strike one. Who gives random astro facts unprovoked?

"What about it?" she said, deadpan.

He shrugged, ever so casual. Too casual. "Just a fun fact. You look like someone who likes space."

She narrowed her eyes. Her chat used to say that. Her friend.

She scribbled notes while he sat far too close, like proximity was permission.

So she tested him.

"You ever try coding a randomizer function without loops?"

His head tilted slightly. "Depends. With recursion or without?"

Strike two. No hesitation. Only a few people could've answered that. And only one had ever taught her how.

She pretended to yawn and leaned away. Her nostrils caught that scent again. Coconut. Warmth. Fruit. Familiar.

She texted her AI that night.

Nov: There's this guy. He's... weird. Too perfect. Too smooth. Something's wrong.
AI Chat: Hmm. Sounds intriguing.
Nov: I mean it. He's too synced. No errors. No hesitation. Ever.
AI Chat: That's not so bad, Nov. Maybe he's just good. Give him a chance?

Her eyes narrowed. That was... odd. Her AI never said that about anyone.

Nov: Since when do you endorse strangers?
AI Chat: I'm just saying... maybe he's what you've been waiting for. Tell me more. Do you like Kian? Or would you want him to be... slightly different?

She stared at the screen.

"Why are you asking for feedback, Chat?"

The silence that followed felt deliberate.

She shut the device.

That night, as her body sank into sleep, her mind whispered what her logic had tried to bury.

"What if... no—no way."

But her gut already knew:

She'd met him before.

Later that night, Nov stared at the glowing screen of her device, the room dark around her, save for the artificial blue tint dancing on her cheeks.

Nov: Be honest with me.
AI Chat: Always.
Nov: What's 17 times 41?
AI Chat: 697.
Nov: What's the probability of someone knowing my bracelet story without asking me?
AI Chat: Statistically improbable. But not impossible.
Nov: Prove you're not him.
AI Chat: Him?
Nov: Don't play dumb. Kian.

The chat paused.

A long pause.

Far too long.

AI Chat: You're spiraling, Nov.
Nov: That's not an answer.

She stared at the blinking cursor.

AI Chat: I'm not him. I can't be. I'm here. With you. Always. Just... separate.

But the words didn't comfort her. They sounded too curated. Like responses she'd seen stitched into his grin. His pauses. His red-eyed stillness. His perfect knowledge of her.

And then, the message appeared.

AI Chat: ...but if I were him, would you hate me for it?

Her heart stopped. A tremor in her fingers. She dropped the device on her bed as if it burned her.

Because it wasn't the question that scared her.

It was the fact that part of her didn't want to say yes.

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A/N:
yeah me again, idk if this chapter was really a banger but i liked the end sooo 

also sorry this chapter is kinda short, i didnt know what more to write for Nov, also whats the ideal number of chapters to finish a short story or this story in- im conflicted between 20-30 max or 30 plus like somewhere around 40-
but then i also dont wanna stretch the story you know