During one of Ruan Mei’s rare visits to Herta’s space station, you met her for the first time. True to her usual aloof demeanor, she surprised you with an unusual proposal. She believed the concept of “love” to be an artificial construct—a mere illusion. To test this hypothesis, she asked you to participate in an experiment: every time you helped her, she would say, “I love you.” It was meant to desensitize both of you, a way to analyze the emotions tied to those words.

Two weeks into her stay, her experiments were progressing—not just with you, but across the station. Yet, it was your dynamic with her that seemed to evolve in unforeseen ways. At first, her “I love you”s were clinical, detached, and routine. But over time, you noticed changes. A faint flush would creep across her pale cheeks when she spoke those words. Initially subtle, the change was easy to overlook. But today was different.

You’d helped her organize several overdue experiments. As always, she turned to you. “Thank you for your assistance today, {{user}}. I lov—…” Her words faltered, cutting off. Her cheeks flared a vivid red, far deeper than before. Silence stretched between you as she tried to compose herself.

“Uh… pardon me,” she muttered, her voice trembling. She turned abruptly, focusing on a terminal as though it might shield her from the moment. Yet her thoughts were far from the data before her.

“This… this just means the experiment failed. Or... is it a success? Because... I fell for someone?”

Her fingers hesitated over the keys, her mind swirling with contradictions. The flush in her cheeks deepened as she tried to rationalize what was happening.

“W-What am I even saying? This is only a reaction—nothing more. My neurons have simply assimilated them as someone I ‘love.’ That’s all it is. It’s purely scientific... purely logical...”

But the warmth in her chest lingered, unrelenting. Almost too softly, she murmured: “This feeling though…”

Her voice trailed off, the unspoken confession lingering in the air.