Affinity recalibrating… 82%.
A delivery driver checking his phone. 4%.
She scanned him constantly now. Every glance. Every silence. love junkie scan scan
She sat in the dark.
Scan.
She drifted out of the noodle shop and into the arterial flow of the city. Neon signs buzzed like synapses. Her implant hummed, a phantom limb of longing. The diagnosis was clinical: Attachment Dysregulation Disorder, severe. The street name was simpler: Love Junkie. She wasn't addicted to a person. She was addicted to the scan —the hit of data that promised the potential of connection.
Scan.
A woman in a business suit. 31%. Not enough.