Chapter 1
My best friend had been going on about this app called Shared Pulse. She said we could upload our boyfriends, trade experiences, and somehow make our relationships better.
It sounded crazy, and yeah, a little exciting. I wasn't sure about it at first. I hesitated. But in the end, I gave in.
Then I opened her shared profile. The second the screen lit up, my whole body went cold. I knew that face on it. There was no way I could be wrong.
It was Christian, my first love, the one who had died in a car accident three years ago.
A sharp notification sound cut through the silence. [User Hannah has shared her partner, Christian, with you. Intimacy Level: S-Class. Matching in progress. Welcome to your lover's wardrobe.]
*****
The air conditioning was blasting in the coffee shop that afternoon, but my fingertips still felt cold. Hannah sat across from me and shoved her phone right up to my face. Her bright nails flashed as she tapped quickly on the screen.
"Bianca, you have to try this app, Shared Pulse. It's seriously the best thing ever," she said.
Her voice was so loud and excited that people at the next table turned to look. "You just upload your boyfriend's personality, his voice, and even little details about your time together. Then the AI builds a perfect virtual version of him.
"And the best part? You can share him with your friends. We can all take turns. It's way more fun than a real relationship."
My stomach tightened into a knot. Something about it made me feel sick. My throat went dry.
I let out a weak laugh and gently pushed her phone away. "Hannah, that's messed up. Sharing a boyfriend? How can you even think like that?"
"Oh, come on. It's just data, not a real person," Hannah said. She refused to drop it. She grabbed my sleeve and gave it a playful shake. "I just uploaded a really good one. He's so sweet, and his voice is amazing. I've been in his world for days.
"I swear, I'm starting to fall for him. Just try it with me, okay? Please? Download it. I want to see what kind of guys you like."
In the end, I gave in. Maybe part of me was curious, in a quiet, guilty way. Or maybe I just wanted something—anything—to distract me from the sadness that never really left.
The app's icon was a cracked red heart, beating slowly. I downloaded, installed, and signed up. With each step, my heart pounded harder, as if it were knocking against my ribs.
I opened Hannah's shared page. The moment I saw the blurry outline of a man, my breath caught. The nickname was Christian.
"Christian?" I whispered. My palms started to sweat. That was my boyfriend's name, the one who had died.
"Yeah, nice name, right? I made him super romantic," Hannah said, completely unaware of what was happening to me. She pointed at the loading bar. "Hurry, I'm giving you access. You can jump straight into his first mission."
My finger trembled as I tapped "Accept Share."
The screen went black. Then a dark blue glow spread across it. When the loading page appeared, it felt like all the blood had drained from my body. It was as if an invisible hand had grabbed my heart and was squeezing it tightly.
That face, the one I saw in my dreams every night, the one that made me cry every morning, was right there on the screen.
It was Christian.
Even the tiny mole under his right eye was there. Everything was exactly the same.
A cold, mechanical voice spoke in my ear, flat and empty. [New user detected. User Hannah has shared lover Christian with you. Intimacy Level: S-Class. Matching instance. Welcome to your lover's wardrobe.]
My head started to spin. The noise of the coffee shop faded away, swallowed by a heavy, suffocating silence.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in a bedroom. Sunlight slipped through half-closed beige curtains, catching dust in the air.
Everything in the room made my eyes sting. There were the messy building plans on the desk and the old lamp on the nightstand that we had never replaced. Even the faint minty smell in the air, like grass after rain, was familiar.
It was all exactly the same as Christian's room before he died.
"Bianca? Bianca, can you hear me?" Hannah's voice suddenly came out of nowhere, slightly distorted, like a bad connection. I knew she was watching everything I was seeing.