1 Chapter 1: The Gene Test

There are two kinds of people in my world. Matched and Unmatched. In the place I live, people are matched for perfect offsprings. Or so I have been told. Everyone has to undergo Gene Matching after they turn eighteen. This said is said to be perfect because it never failed. Of course, it never failed. People are forced to have children. And that's why there are few truly loving families but many satisfied families and also very few unsatisfied ones. The people who remain unmatched till they are twenty five years old will have to join the remaining Unmatched as the members of Public Security team.

There is a secret of mine which would be unexpected to my friends and family. I hated this Matching system and I longed to become one of the Unmatched. My parents are one of the loving families. So my future would be expected to be the same. I didn't believe in this kind of matching for life stuff. For this reason, I started researching on how to become Unmatched in my upcoming test.

This proved to be harder than I thought. No one knew why a person becomes Unmatched. No one knew how the test judged people. So I decided to sabotage my test.

So I spent my remaining time searching for information. Because the test would be done after the school graduation ceremony. So basically I had a total of seven days after the school tests end. I spent all my time in the library looking for records and articles. They mostly introduced how the Gene Test matched the samples in its database. But no data on what the Gene Test collected from the samples.

Because of my frequent stay in Gene Test section, the main librarian was alarmed. She was a very sweet lady in her late eighties. And I found myself facing a plate of cookies in her homely office.

The furnishings were something I had never seen before. She even had a little bookshelf with books. All the books I knew were in virtual screens.

"Eat it. This craft is practically lost now," she smiled.

I picked one and ate it with relish. I hadn't known how delicious these cookies tasted. If I could, I would definitely like to make them.

"You should be reading for your school tests. But you are not, right?"

I nodded. There was no point in lying anyway. I was reckless and got caught.

"There are some things you don't know now or rather you shouldn't know. I'm sure you will be satisfied with your result, time will tell you so."

She smiled and got up and left. I was all alone to ponder her last words in the magnificent old style office.

I didn't know how I reached my room. I was still thinking way past my bedtime. This had never happened before. If I could believe her words, then I would get Unmatched as my result. That was the best thing to happen to me.

So I relaxed and waited for the say to arrive. In my trepidation and nervous excitement, I finally sat waiting for my turn. All my classmates were sitting quietly in the sea of students. The event was held in the City Hall. Kia, who was beside me, was nervously wringing her hands. Personally I hoped that she would be matched. With a good guy. A great girl like her should be happy. When it was her turn, she was a wreck. I gave her a soothing look and whispered some encouraging words. She left and I sat there waiting. It took more two hours for my turn. I waited six hours in the hall when they finally called me.

The robots responsible for this were from the Science department. They were shiny blue and looked very cold. I followed the robot to a room with many screens.

I sat in the resting chair and the robot came forward with a syringe. He waited for my movement and I waited for his explanation.

"Blood sample, please."

I nodded and put my arm forward. After collecting my blood, he put the vial in a slot and scanned it. There was some kind of code scrolling which I couldn't understand. I stopped paying attention to that screen and focused on the main screen. There was a questionnaire I had to answer. The questions were mostly silly so I gave even sillier answers.

What do you expect the most from your match?

Self knowledge

When will you marry your match?

My 25 birthday

And there was one question with only one possible answer that I didn't want to write.

Will you fall in love with your match before you marry? After marriage, it is a prerequisite.

Maybe.

I wanted to answer maybe never but considering this test will be on my permanent record , I wrote some half inspired answers. Because almost ninety nine percent people are brainwashed to have a loving family these last fifty years. In the records I read, in the last six hundred years, this agenda was out forward. So, many force themselves and accept the reality. They are also happy, I guess. But they weren't given the choice. If they could, maybe some would have chosen to fall in love themselves, and then maybe have a family. This kind of thing is like a shortcut, but the way you travel to meet the end is what life is all about. This shortcut may take you to the end point but still it makes life incomplete.

And last, it was the final part, the Matching Test. The genes are matched with the ones in database to find a perfect fit or maybe eighty percent fit. But what kind of information is used to find he fit is a secret. When the robot turned the function on, the main screen started scanning the database for my match. It took a long time. I was happy because there were no matches in the current database. I was happy too early and forgot to consider that the scan would also check the previous five years database too. Maybe, because it never happened that a Match could be found from previous databases. So I subconsciously ignored that minute possiblity. And that's how I found myself Matched.

With a guy two years older than me.