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Chapter 6: The Breakup
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The Boyfriend App Chapter 7: Mr. Perfect
Kate would’ve brought her blue laptop to her bed and surfed the Net on her tummy till her elbows went numb. But this wasn’t one of those days when she’d be in the mood to swing her legs up behind her while listening to the beats. No, today was a time to be somber and reserved. Like when taking an exam whose questions were the exact opposite of what she had studied. So Kate continued to sit at her study table and stare at the laptop screen. She had decided she wasn’t going to think of anything remotely connected to Josh or boys in general. Maybe just check her email or look at some cute puppy pics. Kate had asked her ma plenty of times about keeping a dog but Mrs. Lapuz wouldn’t budge because, in her own words: “Puppies and dogs are two very different things. If you only love the puppy and not the dog, then you’re not ready to own either. Besides, I know I’ll end up taking care of it, not you. So, no.” Speaking of, her ma had already gone to the diner. She had the dinner shift but she
The Boyfriend App Chapter 8: The App
Kate thought the most interesting and touching part of Dion’s email was the fact that, for the first time ever, Dion had communicated with a personal tone. For the entire year they had worked together, often for long hours after school, he had never once sounded to her like anything except a very polite person. Kate just thought he was a genius because he would give her advice about high school and talk to her about cutting-edge gadgets and research that he had read about on the web. He treated her like a younger sister – at least that was how it felt. Whenever he asked her if she was hungry or tired, she had never made anything out of it other than the concern of an older brother. But now that she thought about it, she had probably been too focused on Josh that she failed to notice the times when Dion was actually being tender. Like that one time before she and Josh got together, Kate caught a cold and was sniffing and miserable in first period. When Dion found out, he bought all the
The Boyfriend App Chapter 9: The Seven Stages of a Broken Heart
Kate scrolled down to the screenshots below the app description and swiped her thumb to the left. The screenshots featured the same soft artwork and oil pastel colors: a park, a beach, sample chat exchanges, the guy’s bedroom, his wardrobe and a chart of various emoticons. The screenshots announced: | Create your very own customizable boyfriend! Enabled with empathic AI, Your Dream Boyfriend will listen intuitively to you! Travel around the world with him! Purchase upgrades for your stylish boyfriend makeover! | The most suspicious thing was the fact that there were no ratings yet. It just said “Unreleased. This app is in development. It may be unstable.” Kate read the maker’s name: Oishii Des Co. Ltd. {Sounds Japanese,} she thought. It appeared the same company was responsible for creating other apps such as the Personal Companion and Basic Counsellor, which both looked legit. Kate clicked the READ MORE link below the brief description. | Chat with him anytime anywhere.
The Boyfriend App Chapter 10: The Bestie
Over on Lor’s end, Kate could hear a constant background noise of auto rickshaws honking, dogs barking and kids shouting on the street. She imagined Lor could hear the same from her end. But at least Kate didn’t have younger siblings who fought all the time and were as loud as stray cats in heat. Those were the worst (the cats), screaming like Dragon Ball martial artists and running on rooftops in the dead of night. Lor screamed with the scandalous voice of a fish market vendor: “Leonard! Lisbeth! SHUT UP!” Then, Lor’s youngest sister, a 1.5-year-old named Lily, opened the bedroom door and toddled into view. “Awww,” Kate gushed. “Lily’s so cute! I just wanna pinch those rosy cheeks!” “I know, right?” Lor said as she picked up her sister and bounced her on her lap. Lily cooed and laughed and tried to reach Kate through the screen. “I wish teens like us retained their kissability and huggability from childhood.” “What do you mean? You’re still kissable and huggable.” “Oh yeah
The Boyfriend App Chapter 11: Introducing the Dream Boyfriend
Kate was doing exactly what Lor told her not to. She was stalking Josh on Fasebook. First, she thought she would do something productive like change her relationship status. She hesitated just the slightest bit when choosing between “Single” and “It’s Complicated”, but in the end she went with the more obvious of the two. A few seconds after she did, Dion clicked Like and that cheered her up a lot. It was preposterous but she had felt what teens always felt when posting something: the fear that not a single friend would care. Lor’s warning about revenge or rebound relationships gave her the strength to continue steering clear of Dion’s day-old PM. But then the dang mouse moseyed to the left and over the chat panel, which she had turned off. Like a roulette pointer it touched Josh’s darkened tab and a label sprung sideways before Kate could do anything. It read: | Joshua Guerrero Became friends with Bernadette Medina 4 mutual friends including Lorraine Maliksi and Dion A
The Boyfriend App Chapter 12: Build a Boyfriend
When the rhyme vanished, a small window appeared next to the oven. There were five tabs above it. The first tab had a hair icon, the second a face, the third a torso, the fourth a sun wearing shades and the fifth a shirt. Kate clicked the Hair tab and she was presented with a whole gamut of men’s hairstyles: undercut, curly, layered, wave, Harajuku matted style, asymmetrical emo, mohawk, crew cut, man bun, spiky, flat top, dreads, Elvis… Kate thought it was because the app-maker was Japanese or hair dyes were sold separately, but all the hairstyles were black. It was a good thing though because she was already having a hard time just picking the style. She settled on Layered after a great deal of toing and froing. Next, she clicked the Face tab and was presented with the close-up of a wireframe face spinning lazily. On the left edge of the window, additional tabs had appeared: Face shape, Eyebrows, Eyes, Nose, Lips and Ears. The character’s face would change instantly depending on
The Boyfriend App Chapter 13: Chatty Katey
He was much less effeminate than the title character. Kate thought it was because of the thinner lips and the green eyes, which looked slightly unsettling but contrasted well with the long eyelashes (uncustomizable). But like the title character, he was still slim, tall and white. Kate had been presented with only three shades of complexion: beige, chocolate and chocolight. And though she had considered it, she fought the temptation to give her digital boyfriend the body of Thor (This was pre-Endgame). In short, he was still the K / J-pop idol minus the dyed hair and the mascara. But now Kate noticed there were only two icons at the bottom of the screen: a keyboard and a mic. [Oh hello] A light blue chat balloon appeared from the digital guy, to his right. His picture itself was static and wouldn’t move its mouth or anything. [I was not expecting any guests. What is your name?] A small box popped up. It asked: | WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR DREAM BOYFRIEND TO CALL YOU? | Kate thoug
The Boyfriend App Chapter 14: The King of Weird
Kate finished talking about her tragic experience. It took about half an hour but it felt much longer. At first, she was hesitant to keep talking not because she was worried someone was listening in – not in the physical sense because she knew her pa was a heavy sleeper but in the electronic sense, through the app. But the truth of the matter was, Kate was more concerned about Ecto being a sham and there being absolutely no one, chatbot or whatever, listening on the other end. It helped that Ecto gave a lot of encouraging signals for her to continue, such as nodding and saying little things like “Uh-huh,” “I see,” “Please go on,” “Oh no” etc. His picture would freeze to a sympathetic listener’s face, complete with Mona Lisa eyes that appeared to be riveted on her. Like he said, he was a good listener, adding precise reactions to keep her talking and knowing when to respect her silence. When she burst into tears in the middle of her story, for instance, he waited for her to compose her
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