Eliya
She didn’t mean to stay up until 2 a.m.
But there she was eyes blurry from lines of code, scrolling through new matches on the app. “HeartCode” was doing too well. The beta sign-ups tripled since the video.
She should be thrilled.
Instead, she was panicking.
Some matches looked off.
One pair showed 94% compatibility two students who hated each other in real life.
She stared at the numbers, her throat tightening.
Was the algorithm wrong? Or was she just wrong?
> “You're thinking emotionally,” she muttered.
“Calibrate. Re-focus.”
Her phone buzzed.
> Mina:
You up?
> Eliya:
Always. What’s up?
> Mina:
Devon asked what kind of music I like. Should I panic?
> Eliya:
Definitely panic. That’s code for ‘I want to impress you.’
> Mina:
No. I want to panic in peace, thanks.
> Eliya:
You like him.
> Mina:
Absolutely not.
> Eliya:
You typed that too fast.
Mina sent a row of exploding head emojis.
Eliya smiled, despite the weight in her chest.
Then another notification blinked — anonymous feedback through the app:
> Fake relationship. Viral. Gross.
Your app’s a joke.
You two are a joke.
No name. No ID. But Eliya could hear Ava’s voice in every period.
---
Ava
She didn’t even have to send the message herself. That was the beauty of subtle revenge.
The moment she showed the clip to Kayla, things took care of themselves. Screenshots, whispers, a TikTok remix. High school’s rumor mill handled the rest like clockwork.
“Don’t you think this is a little much?” Jade asked.
“They played people,” Ava said. “That kind of thing should hurt.”
“But you and Theo”
Ava cut her off. “We had history. I don’t care about the girl. I care that he forgot what we were.”
She flipped her hair and walked off.
What she wouldn’t admit: it wasn’t about Theo anymore.
It was about the loss of control.
And she wanted it back.
---
Theo
He kept thinking about what Eliya didn’t say that day. The silences. The way she had smiled with her eyes but not her mouth.
He was learning her rhythms.
> Theo:
If this gets too real… you can tell me.
But maybe… real isn’t that bad?
He didn’t expect her to respond.
When she did, it was honest. Unfiltered.
> Eliya:
What if I don’t know how to do real?
He stared at the message for a long time.
> Theo:
Then maybe we both figure it out.
One bug at a time.
---
Mina
She dropped her phone face down and screamed into her pillow.
Devon asking about music was not a declaration of love. It wasn’t anything. Probably.
But when he walked past her in Lit class today and said, “Hey, you have good taste in lyrics,” she nearly dropped her annotated copy of The Great Gatsby.
He wasn’t her type. Too chill. Too unreadable.
But maybe that’s why she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
She opened her DMs again.
Nothing from him.
Annoying.
She sent Eliya one more message.
> Mina:
Kill me now. Or better: delete Devon from the algorithm. I want peace.
> Eliya:
Nope. You’re in deep. Enjoy the codependency.
Mina groaned.
She was in trouble.
---
Zayn
Zayn could feel the group fracturing like a tower missing a brick. One tiny bump and everything might collapse.
Theo wasn’t saying much. Devon was texting someone and smiling like a fool. And Noah had been giving side-eyes to Mina for two days straight.
He pulled Theo aside after class.
“You good?”
Theo hesitated. “Yeah.”
“Try again. But without the lie.”
Theo shrugged. “Home sucks. Ava’s being Ava. Eliya’s either falling for me or ghosting me I can’t tell. And I think our entire lunch table is catching feelings like it’s airborne.”
Zayn smiled. “High school’s a disease. But hey, at least we all got infected together.”
Theo laughed, genuinely this time.
For a second, the pressure eased.
ESTÁS LEYENDO
The Love Algorithm
Romance"She coded the app that could predict love until it matched her with her worst rival." Eliya Park doesn't believe in love. She believes in logic, data, and coding especially when it comes to her senior project: LoveMatch, a matchmaking app that uses...
