Grey, Sungjong thought, grey splattering the earth- that's what it is. It's always the same. It was raining outside his apartment, a steady pitter-patter of grey explosions of color. Every droplet a small spark of grey. That's what he saw. 

He supposed it could be considered strange, but the colors and senses seemed to be a part of him now. Certain words ignited a color or feelings of lightness or heaviness. Some words were sharp or wicked in feeling, others such as Family seemed to radiate a warm amber light mixed with a hint of nostaligia when spoken from peoples' mouths. Numbers he was even more sensitive to. Primes were inky black and left the faintest trace of licorice on his tongue. Evens were sweet and soft, and negatives a muted monotone ash. 

Just like this rain, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. 

Sungjong stood up from his couch and grabbed the bag filled with electronics that was on his coffee table. He began to shove on his shoes and absentmindedly search for an umbrella that would be able to keep him and the tech he brought with him dry. After fumbling around for a few minutes, he was on his way out the door to the cafe down the corner. 

Coffee was one of his favorite words. Not just due to the feeling it brought of warmth or the burst of lovely browns he felt, but the magical chemical of caffeine that kept him running like a machine. Long nights filled with papers and studying made him become close with the drink and word, a hint of nostaliga would always be ingrained upon it as well. 

Eventually plopping himself down into a plush booth at the back of the cafe, Sungjong began to tinker with a laptop he took out of his bag- trying to coax the stubborn tech piece into functioning. Tinkering, the word was grey but had a slight bluish tint undertone and carried with it a coolness one would experience as if on a mint. Sungjong gave a slight grimace. Along with the word came the whispers of teenagers, "Have a tech problem? Why don't you ask Tinker Bell, I'm sure he could fix it up for you." 

Can't get funnier nickname than that, Sungjong thought bitterly recalling the memory and glanced up from the laptop he was currently working on. Suddenly the screen flashed black with the words, "DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME? WE HOPE YOU STAY TO PLAY"

"What the hell?" Sungjong muttered as his eye brows furrowed and he started trying to regain control of the device again. But something was wrong, there was no color or feel. It was as if it was dead from the message. And it frightened him. 

Never before has something felt dead. Everything was alive with a sound, a taste, a feel- something. 

Sungjong felt blind. As if a limb had been cut or a memory had been stolen, he felt frozen in time and helpless. And then he heard the news.

"Breaking News: Cyber Terrorism or Secret Recruitment? This just in, circulating the web, INFINITIZE:100609 has been making appearances on various forms of technology and appearing on high security accounts of government officials, as well as top colleges and research institutes across the world all at exactly 11:09:01 p.m exactly. The message proposes a 'puzzle of knowledge' that the anonymous creators have put together. As of now, government officials have no explanation on the subject and are currently investigating how this 'puzzle' could have invaded the cyber security of millions through a bug-like system all at the same exact time. The puzzle is eerie in design, only asking if the person wants to 'play a game' and sign off with hoping the person will join as an Infinity logo is left as a backdrop. More information to come later with the cyber crime expert from NIS later-"

The small TV in the corner of the cafe peaked everyone's curiousity, causing them to immediately look at their phones or laptops they held with them at the time. From the looks of it, Sungjong could make out maybe 2 college professors that received the message and stood wide eyed while looking at the screen. 

Were we the lucky chosen ones? To become what?

And then another message writes itself on the laptop in front of his and he jerks his head up to see the professors still with the original message, no evidence of any new writing on their screen.

"WE HOPE YOU'LL JOIN OUR GAME SUNGJONG, YOU'RE OUR FAVORITE. CARE TO PLAY?"

And he feels as if the air was out of him because:

A) This was not even his laptop 

And B) The second message did have a sense and a feeling. Blood and the beginning of War. 

So I started a new fic (I'm sorry pls don't kill me for not finishing my other one) but I really wanted to try a hacker AU!

Also if it was confusing about all the sensing and feeling and colors with words and you couldn't tell, Sungjong has Synesthesia which has people associate words with colors or emotions. I discovered this interesting neurological phenomenon and wanted to incorporate it in a fic somehow and thought ti'd be interesting to see how he could use it to his advantage when dealing with technology or number sequences due to to association of some types of Synesthesia to numbers and numerical patterns that may be harder to see without it.

Please tell me your feedback! Comment! 

Psst and if you can guess the significance behind the time 11:09:01 I'll include you as a minor character, just comment your name or what you want your name to be in the comments!