The Dating System Glitched Me

For three years, I played the part of the perfect, devoted partner to Sebastian Adams. We shared a bed, shared our secrets, and lived a life that looked like love in every wayexcept for one. He refused to acknowledge me in public. To the world, I didn't exist.

Then, the Systemthe cosmic glitch that had been guiding my "mission" to win him oversuddenly piped up with a casual, "Oops."

"My bad, June. Totally botched the data. The girl Sebastian was supposed to fall for is Jane, not June. Different spelling, different girl. Honest mistake!"

I looked down at the cashmere scarf I had spent weeks knitting for his birthday, then looked at my phone. I sent a single text: Were done.

I didn't expect a reply. Sebastian usually took six hours to ignore me. But an hour later, at our high school reunion, he cornered me in a private lounge, his breath hot against my ear, his teeth grazing my lip as he snarled, "You call this 'not knowing each other'? Hmm?"

I was three years deep into the "Sebastian Adams Project" when the System informed me it had committed the ultimate clerical error.

"I misheard the name, okay? I thought it said June. It definitely said Jane," the voice buzzed in my head, sounding entirely too breezy for someone who had just wasted three years of my life.

"Jane is showing up at the reunion tomorrow. So, June, you can officially clock out. You don't need to try with Sebastian anymore. Let Jane take over from here."

I stood in my kitchen for a long time, the silence of the apartment pressing against my eardrums. "Okay," I finally whispered.

It was for the best. Sebastian never loved me anyway. This messy, nameless thing we had was a house of cards waiting for a breeze. The Systems confession was just the wind.

I had just finished the last row of the scarf when the "Oops" happened. It was supposed to be his big birthday surprise. My phone screen still showed the last text Id sent him: Hey, Seb. Guess what I made for your birthday this year? Youre going to love it.

The message sat there, unread. A stone dropped into the middle of the Atlantic. Sebastian never gave me the courtesy of a quick reply. He was far too busy being the brilliant, untouchable architect of his own ego.

"Look, don't take it personally," the System continued its chatter. "You and Jane have such similar names, and you both went to the same prep school. I just saw 'Zhou' on the file and ran with it. Honestly, its a good thing you never actually got him to commit. If youd succeeded and then found out it was the wrong guy... well, Id be out of a job."

It paused, then added with a hint of a sneer, "Im not saying youre bad, June. Its just... Janes profile says shes a literal genius, a former model, the kind of woman men actually want to show off. This 'Love Optimization System' usually picks people with actual chemistry. When its the wrong person, well, you can't force a spark where theres just... damp wood."

"I get it," I said, my voice steady. "You don't have to explain."

Everything finally clicked. Thats why, despite the intimacy we shared behind closed doors, he never introduced me as his girlfriend. Thats why no matter how much of my soul I poured into him, I remained a ghost in his life.

Sebastian hated "simple" things. He hated mediocrity. And to him, I was the human equivalent of a participation trophy.

I decided to go to his place one last time to pack up the bits of my life scattered across his penthouse. Jane was arriving tomorrow, and I refused to be the pathetic squatter in the middle of their destined romance.

I didn't expect Jane to already be on his radar.

Standing outside the iron gate of his terrace, I saw him. Sebastian was sitting in a rattan chair, a sketchpad on his lap, his phone on speaker.

Janes voice, melodic and bright, drifted through the air. "So, are you excited to see me tomorrow, Seb?"

"Mmm," Sebastian hummed, that long, drawling tone he used when he was intrigued. "Its been a while. Im looking forward to the whole group being back together."

"Oh, stop. Don't act like Im just 'one of the group.' Ive got a birthday present for you, but you have to earn it. Think youre smart enough for a little game?"

"What kind of game?"

"A riddle. A complex, beautiful logic puzzle I designed just for you. If you solve it by the end of the reunion dinner, Ill tell you a secret. Dont be late, genius."

I heard Sebastian chuckle. A real, genuine sound. He put down his charcoal pencil and picked up the phone. "Consider me challenged."

Sebastian never answered my calls when he was sketching. Never.

Even though I knew the truth now, seeing the effortless way she captured his attention made my throat tight. I turned and walked away before he could see me.

My phone buzzed. A text from Sebastian. Finally.

Two words, cold as a mid-winter morning: Sounds boring.

He was right. I was boring. My birthday present was a handmade scarfan act of "cheap labor," as hed probably call it. I couldn't give him logic puzzles or intellectual thrills. I didn't even understand the math he lived by.

I walked home slowly, the weight of a decade-long crush finally starting to dissolve. I had loved him since high school. Back then, I was just "Specs"the quiet girl with the thick frames who sat in the back of the AP classes. Our families were old friends, but in Sebastians orbit, I was invisible.

The only reason he even knew my name was because I used to hand-deliver love letters to him from other girls. Hed take them with a smirk and say, "Still playing messenger? Youre such a ditz, June."

Ditz. That was his label for me. I did it just to have five seconds of his time.

I never expected a miracle until that summer after freshman year of college when the System appeared. It told me we were "meant to be" and that I just needed to "optimize the romance" to win a massive payout and a happily ever after.

Meant to be.

That phrase had been my fuel for three years. When he broke his leg playing pickup basketball, I used the Systems prompt as an excuse to show up at his door.

"Here to nurse me back to health?" hed asked, leaning against the doorframe, eyes tracing my face with a lazy, mocking light. "Whats the catch? What do you want in exchange?"

I looked him in the eye. "I want you."

He laughed. "You really are a glutton for punishment, aren't you?"

But he let me in.

That summer was an endless cycle of me running errands in the heat, cooking for him, and being his shadow. One day, the AC died. He couldn't climb the ladder with his cast, so I did it. I slipped, fell right into his lap, and we tumbled onto the hardwood floor.

It was July. We were barely wearing anything. I felt his body react, my face flaming as I tried to pull away, but he pinned my wrists above my head.

"I thought you said you wanted me," he whispered, his dark eyes fixed on my trembling lips. "Why are you backing down now?"

"I..."

"If you want it," he said, his voice dropping an octave, "then lets see if you can handle it."

We "handled it" for three years. But "girlfriend" was a title he guarded like a state secret.

"Is a label really that important?" hed say whenever I worked up the courage to ask. "You have me. Youre in my bed. Why ruin it with some clingy, suburban expectation of a 'relationship'?"

I didn't have the words to argue with him. I just convinced myself the System couldn't be wrong. He was just "afraid of commitment." Hed come around.

But now, the System was telling me the whole foundation was a lie.

I got home, sat on my sofa for four hours in the dark, and finally picked up my phone.

Were done. Don't contact me again.

The next day, I arrived early at the reunion. Sebastian wasn't there yet, but Jane was. She was the sun, and everyone else was a planet trapped in her gravity.

"Oh look, Specs is here!" someone shouted.

In our class, there were two J-names. Jane was "Jane." I was "Specs." Even now, years after Id traded the glasses for contacts and started dressing better, the nickname stuck.

Jane turned to me, her eyes doing a quick, clinical scan of my outfit. "Oh, guys, don't call her that. Shes not wearing glasses anymore. Lets be grown-ups."

She smiled, the kind of perfect, practiced smile of a woman who knew she was the lead actress in every room. I remembered it was her who started the nickname in the first place, back in tenth grade, because she "couldn't keep us straight."

"True," a guy named Nathan piped up. "June looks great without them. Actually, she looks incredible."

"June, you got a boyfriend? Or are you still"

"Nathan, Chris," Jane interrupted smoothly, "weren't you asking me about my MBA program? Ive got a few minutes before the main event starts."

The guys drifted back to her instantly. I moved to the edge of the room.

"Im late. My apologies."

The voice was cool, cultured, and sent a familiar shiver down my spine. Sebastian had arrived. The room practically vibrated with the collective need to impress him.

"Sebastian! The man of the hour!"

I stepped further back into the shadows.

"Seb, sit here!" Jane said, patting the empty chair beside her.

Sebastians gaze flickered around the room, landing on me for a fraction of a second. "Whats the topic of conversation? You all look very intense."

"We were just saying how much 'Specs' has glowed up," one of the guys joked.

"Her?" Sebastian tossed his blazer onto a chair near me, his eyes raking over me with total indifference. I didn't look at him. The second he sat down, I grabbed my clutch and walked to the furthest table in the back of the room.

Sebastians expression darkened instantly.

"When did you lose your eyesight, Chris?" Sebastians voice carried across the room, followed by a burst of cruel laughter.

The "inner circle" huddled around him and Jane. My table was practically empty, save for a few people who had never been part of the elite crowd.

"Im so over this," a girl named Lindsay muttered next to me. "Its been years and they still act like theres a hierarchy. The 'Gifted and Talented' kids are still just a bunch of snobs."

"Who cares?" someone else said. "Let them have their little cult. Well have our own fun."

"Actually," Lindsay said, looking at the guy next to me, "Nathans doing better than all of them. He won that tech innovation award last year and started his own robotics firm. Right, Nathan?"

I looked at the man sitting beside me. "Youre Nathan? You lost... a lot of weight."

In high school, hed been the "Big Nate" to my "Specs." Another casualty of the social ladder.

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking a bit shy. "Yeah. Spent that summer after senior year in the gym and the lab. Its good to see you, June."

He had become genuinely handsomerugged, grounded, and kind. He was a "boss" now, but he didn't carry the arrogance Sebastian did. He raised his glass. "To the back table. We might not have been the top of the curve, but were doing okay. How about after this, I take everyone here for a real drink? My treat."

"Hell yeah! Nathans the man!"

I caught the infectious energy and laughed along. Suddenly, a piece of glazed salmon appeared on my plate.

Nathan cleared his throat. "I remember you used to wait in the long line for the salmon on Fridays in the cafeteria."

I blinked. "You remember that?"

His face went slightly pink. "I was usually standing three people behind you."

"Thats... wow. So, tell me about these robots. Are we talking AI takeover or the ones that do the TikTok dances?"

Nathan grinned. "If you want them to dance, I can make them dance."

"June! Specs!"

The shout came from the main table. It was one of Sebastians friends.

"Sebastians being tight-lipped as usual, but your families are close. You have to know the tea."

I looked over. Sebastian was leaning in close to Jane, whispering something that made her giggle into her hand.

"What tea?" I asked flatly.

"Does he have a girlfriend or what? Weve all been trying to figure out who the mystery woman is."

Sebastian didn't even look up, but I could see his jaw tighten.

"I wouldn't know," I said, my voice devoid of emotion. "We aren't close."

The movement at the main table stopped. Sebastian looked up, his eyes like two black holes, fixed on me. I didn't blink. I turned back to Nathan and cracked a joke.

I was laughing so hard I accidentally bit into a hidden habanero pepper. I started coughing violently.

"Whoa, you okay?" Nathan was instantly on his feet, handing me a glass of water.

"I'm fine, just... spicy," I wheezed, my face turning beet red. "Im going to the restroom."

I splashed cold water on my face in the bathroom, trying to get my heart rate down. As I walked back, passing an empty hallway, a hand shot out and yanked me into a dark alcove.

"You call this 'not close'? Hmm?"

His teeth clamped down on my bottom liphard. The pain snapped me into focus. I shoved him with everything I had.

"Are you insane?"

He stumbled back, caught off guard by the force. His face was a mask of cold fury.

"I should be asking you that, June. What the hell has been wrong with you since yesterday? What kind of game are you playing?"

I wiped my mouth, my lip stinging. "No game. I meant what I said in the text."

"Were done."

"Hah." He let out a sharp, mocking breath. He shoved a bottle of yogurt into my hands.

"I saw you coughing and went to the bar to get you this. This is how you thank me?"

I looked down at the cold bottle.

"If you're mad at me, fine. But don't go eating peppers like an idiot just to get attention. You know you have a sensitive stomach. Are you trying to make me jealous by flirting with Nathan? Is this your new strategy to force me into a 'public' relationship?"

I stared at him, genuinely bewildered. "What are you even talking about?"

"Am I wrong? You send a breakup text, then show up here and act like Im a stranger. Youre trying to squeeze a commitment out of me by showing me how 'in demand' you are. Its pathetic, June."

Suddenly, I felt a wave of exhaustion so heavy it felt like lead.

"And if it were?" I asked, looking him dead in the eye. "If everything you said was truethat I did all this just to be your 'official' girlfriendwould you do it? Would you walk out there right now and tell everyone weve been together for three years?"

The silence was deafening. He didn't say a word.

I shoved the yogurt back against his chest.

"What was I to you these last three years, Sebastian? You knew I loved you, so you let me hang around like a stray dog. You enjoyed the ego boost of having me beg for scraps of your time. Did it make you feel powerful?"

His brows knitted together. "We had an arrangement. It was mutual. Don't act like youre some victim. I told you from day one: I don't do 'clinging'."

"Right. It was mutual when I thought you cared. Now I don't care, and I want out. Its that simple."

He grabbed my arm, his grip tightening. "Say that again. I dare you."

"Are you deaf?" I snapped. "Im done with you."

He stared at me for a long beat, then a slow, cruel smirk spread across his face.

"Fine."

He threw my arm back.

"Were done. But don't you dare come crawling back when you realize how small your life is without me."