0. What is love?!

Author's note: Thank you all so much for giving this a chance to read! I have always wanted to exercise a little bit of romcom writing and comedic dialogue, it is never as easy as one might think! This competition is providing me a good motivation for me to try my best and see how things go! We all are curious to see which stories do end up winning but whatever happens I want you all to enjoy yourselves! If this story can achieve anything, I want it to be able to at least bring a smile to your face! This entire concept is very goofy so please do have as much fun as you want with it! Thank you for reading!

It was the year 2XXX...(worldbuilding at its peak)… We are currently now facing the craziest epidemic of all time.... the disaster of this earth is more destructive than anything we could have ever faced in the history of humanity's existence... it was...

"Dating!!" Barked out Kenzo, his arms in the air as he woke up, his body shivering from the cold dream he just experienced. The true horror of what his day entailed dawned onto him.

"Oh hell no! It cannot be today already?!" Kenzo leaped out of his bed and rushed to his calendar, making sure he understood the current predicament he was in well.

It was unfortunately, the day.

The day when the LifeHelper (the device that is forever attached to one's wrist since birth, that is to help automate and choose the best life options for the wearer throughout all their different life phases.) decides now that the wearer's are now entering final year of high school, that they are given the name of the person they will have the best compatibility with dating.

Of course it was not like a mandate where they had to pick the person the device tells them to, some people decide to choose others and some people even decide not to date at all. The point is to make sure that the citizens are all aware of the person they should be with, and what partner would constitute for the best life to be with, moving forward. However, almost always does going against the system to go with your whims leads to a bad life in the community, well as far as Kenzo was aware, so most people don't put any effort into thinking about that. Besides, they all have been told since young that the government knows best.

"Please let her be cute!" Kenzo mumbled as he was flicking through the wrist watch, trying to see the notifications and if he has been assigned a person.

Kenzo himself was not dramatically bothered with the dark implications of a society run this way, he himself believed that he was living in a grand happy utopia (and had zero intentions of being a hero for a dystopian teen drama a la Hunger games). What he was bothered with was who was going to be the love of his life.

"Crap, no new messages..." Kenzo sighed as he saw that there was nothing out of the ordinary on his device. The device was still humming along, no indication of anything different. 

"Clearly I am a protagonist so there has to be some dramatic flair to my love life" Kenzo coped, as he decided to dress himself up, eat his breakfast and make his way to school. (Kenzo thought he would spend some time with his family like any regular person would try to, but he knows that for an exciting story development, he should skip meeting his family to save them for a cooler moment, also because he did not want to admit he had not gotten a date first thing in the morning.)

As he trudged his way to school, he noticed how people were coming into school...in pairs?! What?! It was literally just early morning how did people find each other so fast?!

And as the day was going by, the more people he saw either pair up or happily chime up that they have been given a date to be with. And as Kenzo dramatically sighed and looked out the classroom door from his desk, (he wished he got the protagonist window seat for the dramatic flair but since it was already taken he was relegated to do that exact move facing the entrance to his classroom),  Kenzo came to realise that he was not going to get that notification that he wanted. He was going to be one of those rare cases he only heard of in rumours...the unlovable ones.

Not that that was the official name or anything, it just was what people would call those who would not get a date. He would deflect whenever any of his classmates went ahead to ask him about his situation, but he always deflected and talked about the new show that was airing, and that was usually enough to distract them.

"Am I just...not good enough? Why can't I get a date..?" Kenzo had this thought bounce through his head throughout the entire day. The fear of being isolated, of being made fun of the next day, of being the odd one out. His social life and his future seems to be on the brink of disappearing into nothingness. It would be like all the effort and friend (singular) he made would all disappear.

What is even love? He asked himself as he slowly walked through the emptying school hallways as the day was nearing its end, people happily running back home, holding hands. Some of them were already deciding to go on their first dates to the nearby café, arcade or karaoke.

Kenzo was having an out of body experience as he walked his way through the hall, he was dissociating, not wanting to be part of this undesirable human. No matter what he could think of as a reason for the delay, he ultimately knew that maybe some part of him is just unfixable, and that he could never understand or find the true meaning of love. He wanted to just walk to his home, break the news to his family and then drown himself with some gaming sessions to forget the pain of today.

He needed a convenient plot moment to change his trajectory, to snap out of his sad moment, and he was granted this. he crashed into a mop and a bucket, the janitor nowhere in sight as he cried and fell onto the school floor with a thud.

"Just my luck..." he muttered as he brushed himself off and stood up, his face now facing the wall where his eyes caught a few club posters on them. One of them was a clear request for students who were interested in starting clubs, to come to the principals office and register before leaving for the day.

Kenzo saw this and an idea was planted in his head. He went to his watch and opened sound settings and made sure it played an audible ding, as he now had a brilliant idea to play with.

"Principal!" Kenzo roared as he stormed into the office, the head miss and Principal of the school jumped back from the force Kenzo barging into the room.

"Holy please do not even think of harming the students here, I will call the cops!"

"What?! No Miss. P my name is Kenzo I am a student here!

"It is Miss Ami to you young man, and just because you are a student does not give you an excuse to trash my office."

"Sorry...the door was just too weak and I have been working out recently." Kenzo started flexing his biceps, much to the disappointment of the principal, her face an angry glare in his direction. He then decided to stop joking around and get straight to the point.

"Mrs, I wish to open up a club!"

"Well...just tell me the name and purpose and I will give you what you need..."

Kenzo beamed as he told her his wish.

"It will be called The Electric Heart Club, a place where people can get their dating issues resolved, where people can find love and where people can find safe if they need refuge there! Its purpose is to provide a sense of security to the students here and to help them focus on their studies! (Also so I don't feel lonely and can at least be ahead of the curve before the bullying starts!)" Kenzo thought the last bit to himself.

"yeah yea yeah..." Muttered the principal. "Great start and a good idea and all, but you would need at least 5 other members for this club to be registered."

"Oh shit..."

"If you do not have that number at this point, you have a week, until the deadline passes."

With that the principal ushered him out and slapped the door shut in front of him.

"And next time knock!"

Kenzo was now left alone with his thoughts in the middle of the hall.

Kenzo now realised that he needed to change his entire lifestyle from an introverted loner with only one friend, to an extroverted social butterfly if he wanted to invite that many people around in such a small time and bring this club to life.

"Well like they say..."

No famous quotes could reassure him from the mammoth task he was just presented with.

"Damn."