"C’mon. Try it. I'm telling you, you won't regret it!", said my best friend, Yuko.

"Hell no! I'll definitely regret it!" I reply to this guy who's trying to force a pair of glasses on my face.

Let me make the introductions. I am Rota Kigand and this person in front of me is Yuko Romi, both in sophomore years of high school. To be blunt, he's a genius. And not just the kind of academic genius to ace all his tests, but the kind of intellectual genius to build a fully functional maid robot at the age of 11 after watching too many Japanese animes. And as for me, I'm this guy's only friend....I must be amazing to be friends with such a genius, you say? Not even close. I am the very epitome of a side character.

"You don't wanna find out if she likes you?"

"Of course, I do! But..."

"Then wear it and go talk to her.", he said while pushing me towards a certain girl.

Right now, we're in class and its lunch break. The above talk was regarding Pauli Chroma, the girl of my dreams. She's sitting three desks away from where we are and eating her lunch alone.

"Even so.. What do I say?"

"Just say whatever. Like 'would you like to a watch a romantic movie with me?'"

"As if I could say that, idiot! Haaaah.... I'll just think of something."

I walk towards her while feeling nervous and once I get close enough, I ask-

"Umm.. Pauli, could I talk to you for a moment?"

She gave me a glance and just nodded once. She looks like the smart type with her glasses on and short hair reaching to her shoulders. I wouldn't say she has a shy nature, but I’ve rarely seen her talk to other people. Well, maybe she likes books. She does have one of the highest test scores in class, second to only Yuko. And right now, I can see a '4' floating over her well-endowed chest.

"What? Is there something on my clothes?" saying that, she looks down and up again, at my face, "Do you normally wear glasses? I never noticed?"

"Yeah.. Its..."

I took at quick glance at Yuko. He's showing me the thumps up.

"hmm?"

Pauli noticed my gaze.

"Don't tell me. Its another one of HIS inventions?" she asked me with narrow eyes.

"Yeah.. I just..."

"What does it do?", she says without letting me finish.

The number on her changes to 6. Looks like she's interested. By the way, this is a 'positivity gauge meter' but I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. Yuko said 'It detects the signals emitted by the neurochemicals of the target and converts it into digital data represented on a scale -10 to +10. -10 would mean absolute hatred and +10 would be like complete satisfaction.'

(So I guess if her 'satisfaction' is high enough while talking to me, it must mean she likes me? Hopefully.)

"umm... This.. "

(Ugh! Why is this so hard!? Couldn't that bloody genius have made a more convenient device? What's up with "It won’t work unless you're in a 1 m radius of her. Also, you won't be able to see any changes unless you go and interact with her"?)

"........"

(Shit! She's staring at me! What do I do? What do I say? I cannot tell her that I was trying to find out how she feels about me using this! What do I do!?)

"It.. allows you to.. see though clothing."

(NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! That’s not what I wanted to say!!!!!! But why did I even say that? Did I subconsciously hope to have such a great item like that? Hmmm.. Maybe I’ll ask Yuko to build something like that next time. Wait! It’s not the time to think about that!)

"No.. Pauli.. I mean.."

While I was racking my brain for something to say, the number changed to 7 and my eyes were inadvertently drawn to the number displayed on her chest. Well, the number is not the only thing there. As much as I don’t want to admit it, there's an apparent negative sign before it. But looking down after saying that was a huge mistake.