10.

“What's your name?”

“You already know this. Kim Kyra.”

Chen leans back slightly as Kyra drinks her coffee. “How old are you?”

“Twenty six.” She says, answering him with a trace of sadness in her voice.

“What is Angel?”

“What?” She asks, confused.

“I mean, she says that she’s a program but-”

She puts a hand up. “I got it. She’s technically an AI, but she doesn’t like that name.”

“Why?”

Kyra shrugs. “It means artificial intelligence because, although I programmed her and she works for me, she has a grasp of emotions and is able to make decisions for herself. I think it makes her feel like a machine, which she doesn’t like. Because, unlike other AI’s, Angel can actually feel the emotions, not just analyze and project them.”

He pauses, thinking, before asking another question. “Why is your name K?”

She smiles. “K was my brother’s first word.”

“Who's your brother?”

She is quiet for a moment before she shakes her head. “Kim Seokjin.”

“The hacker in BTS?” Chen asks. Kyra nods.

“Well then why don't you work with them? Are you on good terms?”

She shakes her head. “Not on good terms.”

“Why? Didn't you choose your boyfriend over us? What happened with your brother?” He says accusingly.

She sighs and runs a hand through her black hair. “I didn’t-”

“You think you chose us? Was murdering three of us a side effect of the choice?” He asks, disgust ending his voice.

“I did choose him.” She reluctantly says. “But, in the end, I got no one.”

“Explain.” He says, leaning forward slightly.

“Just so you know, Chen, I've never told this story.” She says quietly. “When I was eight and my brother was six, I think, our parents were murdered by the Crows. It was the gang that me and Suho had to kill to become the new top gang, to give EXO the position that they have now. I couldn’t save them, but I ran off with my brother.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He says quietly.

“Not your fault.” She shrugs. “I had to find a job at eight. It was rough, even harder to try to keep Seokjin alive. Until I was ten, we had to live on the streets. I had to teach him how to fight, and how to hack. Our father was an engineer, so he passed on all his skills to me, which is how I could make Angel. When I was ten, I made a deal with some underground people for a place to live if I worked for them.”

“At ten?”

She nods. “Wasn’t hard. They wanted me young. They didn’t ask me questions and I didn’t ask them questions. We both got what we wanted. I worked for them for seven years, until I was seventeen.”

“What type of stuff did you do?” He asks curiously.

She chuckles. “Really? It was just odd jobs like protecting people or delivering things or taking people out.”

He coughs. “Right. Continue.”

She pauses, considering what to say. “Well, I met Suho at fifteen. I was having money trouble and was trying to steal from a grocery store. Just enough food to give my brother.” She continues, smiling slightly. “He was a cashier and caught me. But, he didn’t report me. Instead, he paid for the food and bought me dinner. Eventually, we began to meet almost every night.”

“He told me that he was like me, an orphan, and that he was making a family for others like us. He wanted me to join. I did. I was the second member of EXO. We went out and found others like us that were struggling. But, you probably remember this, I never moved in with you.”

“Why?”

“My brother.” She runs a hand through her hair. “I had a nice set-up for him that kept him safe. I was training him to survive but I didn’t want him to be put into this world anytime soon.”

She breaks off and sighs, speaking with a hard tone. “When I was seventeen, the people that I was working for were murdered and we had to move onto the street again. That was when I decided to make Angel stronger.”

“Wait.”

“What?” She sighs and looks at him, annoyed.

“Angel was around then?”

Kyra nods. “I had constructed my own computer when I was fourteen and immediately created an AI to help me keep it safe. But, on the run, I couldn’t just open up a computer to ask if people were near me. So, I was trying to get her centered on an earpiece. That way, she could be in everything: chips, databases, cars, or cameras.”

She sighs. “But, it took a lot of time. I had to give her strong enough firewalls and protection from anything that could infect her and build a small, compact earpiece that people wouldn’t immediately notice. Did you ever notice that I had an earpiece when EXO had me captive?”

His eyes widen. “You had it then?”

“See? It works.” She smirks slightly before continuing her story. “Where was I?”

“You just moved back onto the street.”

“Right. Well, it was hard to keep in contact with you guys while moving constantly with my brother. I tried but Suho noticed. He grew distant and, I think, thought that I was cheating on him. One night, he followed me to meet my brother and confronted me about him. And, let me tell you, he was pissed. The fact that I had a brother meant that I wasn’t alone, which was one of the things that we bonded over. It also explained a lot of things