Chapter 1
I, Persephone Carver, was twenty-five years old and had never been in a relationship.
It wasn't that no one had ever asked me out. I just had a huge secret.
I could see the "Heart's Compass" floating above every man's head.
And trust me, it wasn't a blessing.
******
It all started on my eighteenth birthday.
I woke up, rubbed my eyes, and shuffled into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
When I looked up, there it was, a fluorescent green progress bar floating right above my dad's head.
It said: "Guilt Level for Wife: 87%"
I nearly stabbed my throat with my toothbrush.
My mom yelled from the living room, "Reginald! Are you hiding money again?"
My dad's expression changed instantly. "No! Absolutely not!"
I watched as the Heart's Compass above his head jumped straight to 94%. I rinsed my mouth in silence.
From that day on, I realized, guys just weren't worth a second glance.
Over the next seven years, I finally figured out how this ability works.
First, every guy had a Heart's Compass floating above his head.
Second, the Heart's Compass showed how much he liked the woman he was crushing on at that moment.
Third, the number changed; it went up when he was having a meal with her, when he texted her back, and dropped when he checked out other girls.
Fourth, and most importantly, when it hit 100%, the Heart's Compass turned gold and burst into a golden firework, showering petals onto the girl he was crushing on.
That was when he was completely smitten.
I had witnessed those golden fireworks more times than I could count, but never once above my own head.
My coworker, Clara Bellemore, sits right across from me.
One day, when her boyfriend came to pick her up after work, I saw it happen.
The golden firework exploded above his head, and petals rained down all over Clara.
Clara didn't feel a thing.
She just complained, "What took you so long? I've been waiting for eight minutes."
The guy scratched his head and gave her a goofy smile.
I sat at my desk with a half-eaten barley bun in my hand, wondering.
Why was it always her?
Why was he so obsessed with her, and she still got annoyed just because he had made her wait eight minutes?
It was just not fair. Love had always been unfair; one side always knew more than the other.
But the real kicker? It was my own Heart's Compass.
Guess what showed up on his Heart's Compass whenever I caught feelings for someone?
20%? 30%?
No.
0%。
To be precise, the Heart's Compass had said: "No object of affection detected."
It meant that he didn't have feelings for any girl.
And it wasn't even that he wasn't into me. It was that he hadn't even noticed I existed.
In his eyes, I didn't even register as a woman.
I was just some random extra, gender: who knew.
Back in freshman year, during military training, I had a crush on Lucian Draven from next door the moment I saw him.
He stood right at the front of the line, his uniform collar a bit loose, squinting in the sunlight, like a big, laid-back pup.
My heart was pounding.
I glanced up at his Heart's Compass.
It displayed: "No object of affection detected. Progress: 0%."
It was fine, it was only the start of the semester, I reassured myself.
By the second week of military training, we ended up in the same squad, and he was always diagonally in front of me.
Every day, I'd find myself staring at that glaring 0% floating above the back of his head, feeling like some kind of creepy stalker.
One day, during a break, Lucian actually walked over to me.
My heart was racing, felt like it was about to hit 180 beats per minute, I thought.
He stopped right in front of me, looking down.
He was so tall that I had to tilt my head way back just to meet his eyes.
Then he finally spoke, "Hey, do you have a tissue?"
I handed him the entire pack, my hands trembling like crazy.
He took one, wiped the sweat from his forehead, gave the pack back to me, thanked me, and walked off.
The whole time, the Heart's Compass above his head didn't budge; it stayed at 0%.
He didn't even spare me a second glance, not even a single look.
After that, I just gave up.
It wasn't that Lucian was a bad guy or anything.
It was just that I kept obsessively checking his Heart's Compass every single day.
And then I discovered something that totally wrecked me inside.
One day, after military training, he went to the convenience store to grab some water.
A girl in line at the register accidentally knocked over a whole crate of milk, sending cartons tumbling everywhere.
She crouched down, flustered, scrambling to pick them up.
Lucian crouched down to help her.
When he handed her the last carton, she looked up and thanked him, her ponytail flicking behind her as sunlight caught her face just right.
Lucian was momentarily stunned.
The Heart's Compass above his head, which had been stuck at 0%, suddenly jumped to 3%。
Three! Freaking! Percent!