A suitable Form

Zunleon's Log: Earth Day 1.

'The humans call this sector Illinois. It has since been renamed Sector 34, though that information is considered classified. The air here on earth is heavier with pollutants than I anticipated.'

He crouched in an alley behind a crumbling warehouse, his four blue arms pressed into his thighs. Above him, a holographic billboard blazed against the sky, illuminating the dark streets. The flickering advertisement featured a human male, his dark hair slicked back, wearing a shimmering suit. His voice was smooth, melodic, and the young women on the streets below stared up at him in awe.

Zunleon's third eye blinked, observing the human behavior through the data streams filtering through his ocular implants.

'This figure seems to elicit a strong response in Earth females,' his inner log recorded. The billboard flashed a string of glowing characters: Jin-Kai, K-Pop Global Idol, "Heartbreaker" Tour.

Zunleon studied the face, smooth and pale, perfectly symmetrical. 'Earthlings seemed easily influenced by appearance. Noted. Adaptation initiated.' He stepped into the shadows and initiated his transformation. Muscles contracted and shifted, blue skin paling to a cream-like hue. His four arms merged into two. His once hulking, seven-foot form shrank to a more "acceptable" six feet three. His long, white alien hair retracted into a shoulder-length, black cascade—neat, voluminous and shining like the idol's on the billboard. His eyes, once glowing with three golden pupils, now dimmed into a human shade of light brown. 'Now…what to wear.' His ship's AI database flickered, and he selected a wardrobe reminiscent of the idol's performance—sharp, clean lines, an air of sophistication.

'Acquisition of a human spouse is imminent,' Zunleon noted.

His planet's mission was simple: secure intel on Earth's vulnerabilities by blending into the population. Alien life was still a secret, a fact preserved by the Earth's 1%—and a few outliers. His only way to remain legally on the planet long enough to execute the takeover? Marriage. The irony of the situation was not lost on him.

Zunleon observed human interactions through the neural uplink implanted in his wrist, scanning Earth's public data streams—conversations, media, social networks. His neural interface pulled up an interesting result: dating sites. In his species, mating was a formalized ritual, pre-arranged and carefully structured. Here? It was chaos, a free-for-all, with humans desperately seeking connection through small, glowing devices.

Primitive. Yet, it would serve his mission.

He began creating a profile. The artificial intelligence of the site "Couple O' Hearts" suggested that a personal biography would increase matches. Zunleon stared at the screen.

"I am… new in town," he typed, pulling a common phrase from his linguistic database. "Looking for connection with a special someone."

His image was next. He uploaded a single photograph of himself as "Bryan Lee," the now K-pop-inspired version of his alien self. The result was stunning. Too stunning. Several users flagged his profile as a scam before he even began conversations.

Strange, Zunleon noted in his log. Earth females seem wary of a superior form.

He calculated his next move carefully, selecting women who, by their public profiles, seemed lonely or hesitant. Perfect candidates for his mission. He sent dozens of messages: short, to the point. He tailored each one to the user's interests based on their posts and interactions. No one responded. 'Humans were even harder to manipulate than anticipated.'

That is, until Natasha…

"Honestly, girl, it's been two years. It's time to put yourself out there." Natasha's friend Sienna's voice echoed from Natasha's phone. "I set up the profile for you, did all the hard work. So just try it, It's not gonna kill you—just, you know? Browse when you're bored."

Natasha huffed, resting her head back against her pillow. She'd been avoiding the app for a week, but Sienna was relentless. "Fine," she muttered. She wasn't looking for love. Honestly, she hadn't been looking for anything romantic in years. Her life was filled with work—mostly her comic, which she poured herself into day and night. She didn't have time for the drama or heartache of relationships. And the last thing she wanted was to deal with awkward small talk or bad dates.

Still, the loneliness was real, wasn't it?

Opening the app, she flicked through profile after profile, rolling her eyes at every cliché. Until she saw him: Bryan Lee.

His photo was… weirdly perfect. A tall, black-haired guy with smooth skin and a sharp jawline, the kind of good looks that you didn't see on a dating app. Or anywhere, really. 'No way this guy's real', she thought. He was either a model or some scammer in a dingy basement.

Her phone buzzed with a message:

Bryan Lee: "Hello, Natasha. I'm interested in getting to know you. I admire your work ethic."

She raised an eyebrow. "Huh," she muttered. "Creepy, but oddly polite."

Her first instinct was to block him. She had enough sense to know when someone was too good to be true, but… there was something about the message. Maybe it was the fact that he'd mentioned her work, something about her profile description instead of sending a dick picture or dry "hey" And, if she was being honest with herself, she was curious. This wasn't about romance. This was about killing time, right?

And after Sienna's consistent nagging, wasn't it worth some kind of distraction?

Still, she wasn't convinced. Guys like him didn't just randomly message women like her. She wasn't blind to how she looked—curvy, cute, sure, but nothing close to the glamorous, Instagram-ready women she saw on these apps. Bryan was a solid 10, and she was… maybe a 7, on a good day.

She tapped her fingers against her phone, debating. The logical part of her brain told her to ignore it, that this was probably just some scam or catfish waiting to pull her into some weird scheme. But the part of her that was tired of being alone, of staying in her apartment day after day with only her drawings for company… well, that part of her wanted to reply.

So, with a shrug, she typed back a short response. "Yeah, been doing comics for a while. What about you? You are new in town right? So What brings you here?"

She sent the message and tossed the phone aside, fully expecting the conversation to fizzle out. It was just a distraction, a way to kill time.

But she couldn't help the tiny flutter of curiosity that lingered in the back of her mind.

Natasha kept her conversations with "Bryan" light, short, and cautious. She didn't trust him, not for a second. Guys who looked like that didn't pop up on dating sites randomly, and if they did, they were probably fishing for something.

Still, their chats became a nightly thing. She kept things surface-level, joking with him, sometimes throwing in sarcasm to see if he'd pick up on it. She didn't expect much, but she had to admit: Bryan (if that was even his real name) was attentive in a way most guys weren't.

'I'll just keep playing along', she told herself. 'What's the worst that could happen?'

When he finally asked her to meet, she hesitated for a moment, but then agreed. Not because she expected him to be real. No, she was pretty sure she'd show up at the café and find some 50-year-old scammer sitting there, laughing his head off. But honestly? It was nice to have something to do.

Plus, Sienna would lose her mind when she heard about this.

She shrugged as she pulled out her best dress. At least she could dress up for the occasion, even if it was all a joke.