CHAPTER 156: CHAPTER 155 – “WHEN CIRCUITS MISFIRE”

MIT’s campus buzzed with energy and intellect, but few buzzed louder than Hinako Kamishiro, now 21 and already causing controlled chaos wherever she stepped.

On the steps of the engineering lab, her personal robot pet "Pachi" chased a squirrel up a tree after malfunctioning its empathy drive again.She held a toolbox in one hand and a half-eaten croissant in the other, wearing goggles on her head like a crown.

"I swear I’ll fix it next time," she muttered, kicking a vending machine that refused to accept her student card. "Or replace this thing with a replicator."

"That’s not how currency works," said a quiet voice beside her.

She turned.

He had messy dark hair, square glasses, and wore a lab coat two sizes too big. His name tag read:"Dr. Sora Amamiya – Quantum AI Research Fellow."

"Who asked you?" she huffed, brushing croissant crumbs off her sweater.

"No one," he replied, unbothered. "But you talk to robots, so I figured human conversation might be refreshing."

She blinked, stunned by the bluntness.

"You just insulted me... and intrigued me."

The Lab Partner from Hell Heaven

Somehow, they were paired on a cross-department research grant to build adaptive learning AIs that could mimic emotion for education systems.

Hina was chaos.

Sora was precision.

They argued constantly:

"No, if you loop it that way the neural branch will fry."

"Only if you build it like a coward."

But when it worked, it was magic.

One night, while running tests late in the lab, a small flare burst from a circuit board.

"Duck!"

Sora instinctively tackled her to the ground as sparks flew past them.

When the dust settled, Hina looked up at him—his face inches from hers.

"Thanks..."

"We should wear helmets next time."

"Yeah," she mumbled, cheeks pink. "Or just keep falling like that."

They stared a moment too long.Then Hina jumped up, flustered.

"Right! Need to fix the capacitor!"

Sora looked dazed.

"I think I just got electrocuted by more than just the circuit."

Telling the Family

Later that year, back in Japan for winter break, Hina found herself sitting between her calm mother and overprotective father.

"So... there’s a guy."

Ren put down his wrench mid-polish.

"Define ’guy.’"

"He’s a nerd. Not as cool as me. Wears socks with sandals."

Aoi smirked.

"Sounds adorable."

"He saved me from a robot explosion."

Ren raised a brow.

"Did he cause the robot explosion?"

"Technically, yes. But I might’ve dared him to override the safety."

Aoi covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.

Ren sighed and sat back.

"Bring him here. I want to see what kind of man is crazy enough to date my daughter."

"You married mom."

"Exactly. My point stands."