“What did you people do this time?”

“We’re planning to catch a psychopath that has been wanted for years with the nickname King. Does that ring any bell to you?” one of the police officer asked, staring at Bree as the young lady shook her head in reply. Never in her whole hacking career that she had heard of a man with such nickname, the government never really open his case to the public or share his identity – why? Because no one really knows him, all they have was a nickname and the crimes he had committed. Whoever this person is, he must be one hell of a mad genius. 

“No, I just found out about him now,” Bree shrugged, following the officer in front of her who was leading her to the chief’s office. The room was actually quite spacious and it was neat, except for different files from different cases spread around the chief’s desk. The furniture was polished, the windows are shut but there is an air conditioner to keep the room cool. Bree furrowed her eyebrows as she recognized the smell of the office – it was similar to a hospital’s smell but she didn’t really mind it.

The officer who had guided her to the chief’s office sighed as he felt exhausted just thinking about the work ahead of him. No one knew, but Bree had once hacked into the police systems and found out that there had been an explosion of various crimes, such as robbery, murder, drugs, and others. The crimes in Korea had surely increased and it’s no wonder why the police looks extremely tired. Just what had caused this mass explosion of crimes anyway?

“Okay, Chief said you can sit on the couch but don’t touch anything until he comes back. He’ll be here as soon as he finished his meeting. Have a good day,” The officer gave her a forced smile and closed the door. Bree snickered to herself; are they serious or what? She’s the world’s top hacker, why does she need to peek into the chief’s files to know what happened if she can easily hack into their systems? 

Bree graciously sat at one of the couch near the desk, examining her surroundings as she memorized every inch of it. This had been a habit of hers to remember every detail of what she sees because you don’t know when that may come in handy. She waited for a few minutes more until the door swung open, revealing the chief itself named Kim Junmyeon. The man was quite tall and his black hair was slicked back. His skin is as white as snow and he was quite handsome, even with the exhausted expression plastered all over his stern face. Bree immediately got up as Junmyeon offered his hand for a handshake.

“Pleasure to finally meet you, Ms. Park,” he said with a polite smile as he shook her hand. Junmyeon, or rather known as Chief Kim, is a man with a lot of reputations. He had been a chief for years and was known for his great leadership, making Korea to choose him as their person to call Bree to Korea themselves. Korea isn’t the only place where Bree lives, in fact, she almost had her own house around the world because life as a hacker isn’t easy, she has to constantly change her location to keep herself safe and away from reach.

“The pleasure is mine,” Bree let go of his hand as she sat back down to her seat. Junmyeon went to his desk that was placed in front of Bree as he searched for some files that was scattered all over his desk. She studied his feature even more and memorized every little thing about his body that she could see, she don’t know why but something feels off.  As Bree was busy studying him, the said man lifted his eyes into hers with a small unnoticeable smirk playing in the corner of his lips.

Junmyeon threw a file towards her gently with the word ‘KING’ in front of it, all capitals and bold. She eyed the file and gently opened through the papers inside, founding various pictures of crimes the man had committed and also some notes written in it. From what she read, these police officers still hasn’t gotten any clue that could lead them closer to finding King. These people were convinced that King is a man because of his nickname, although no one was alive to tell the man’s appearance themselves. Picture one was taken in one of the victim’s bathroom, where the victim  - a man around his 30s – had his head cut off and he was put in the bathtub with water full of blood. Picture two was taken in an ordinary house, the girl was killed as her body was set on fire along with the girl’s home. Picture three was taken in a fancy bedroom, and Bree recognized the face of the man that became the victim immediately, for she had met him in New Zealand and befriend him afterwards. He was killed with his body cut in half, his organs scattering all over the room and Bree felt sorry for the man. He was nice, but that wasn’t the point at this moment. 

“When was this taken?” Bree asked, pointing at picture number three.

“About a month ago, when you were also still in New Zealand,” Junmyeon shrugged as he sat down. “That is probably his latest case at the moment.”

Bree furrowed her eyebrows, lifting her head once again. “I came so close with the killer didn’t I,” she ruffled her hair in stress. “I wish I would’ve noticed and saved him,”
“It’s not your fault,”

“I know, and I have no intention of making it mine,” 

Junmyeon watched in amusement at Bree’s reply. He waited for her until she closed the file with a quiet sigh escaping her lips, putting the file back into his desk. Her expression looks as if she wasn’t interested with any of this and wants to go home immediately. Bree sat back and crossed her arms across her chest, waiting for the chief to say something but he only stared back.

“What? Do you want me to do something?” Bree asked, hoping the chief would at least enlighten her about what’s happening with all the crimes in Korea. 

“Yes, of course,” Junmyeon replied as if it was obvious, and Bree only thought she was here because they wanted to show a picture of her old New Zealand friend and ask her what she knows about the victim, but apparently not. “As we all know, you are the world’s top hacker-“

“Just get to the point,” Bree cut. She heard it almost everyday and it would just be a waste of time to repeat it all over again.

Junmyeon gave her a look before he decided to continue. “As I was saying, we wanted to recruit you in a case we’ve been working for years. It was the case that you had read earlier,” he nodded, referring to the King’s case. “We had tried to capture him over the last few years but somehow he always managed to escape without a single trace. Your ability would be very helpful in this case as we already decided to completely focus on his case, since he was causing quite a trouble.”

Bree pushed a strand of her hair back before she thought this over. Who is this so-called King? Is it even possible for a man to do all of that work alone? The thought actually kind of creeps her out, because after checking his records thoroughly, there’s a chance that King may be the worst psychopath out there. She wanted to think this through carefully, because she doesn’t want to get involved in something as dangerous as this; it may cost her life if King really is a psychopath. But Junmyeon tapped his fingers impatiently as he was staring daggers into her eyes, as if saying, “Well?”

“Sorry, but I had to reject the offer.” 

Bree is already fine with her current life. She have a lot of time for herself now, and was able to hack into whatever she wants to hack. Bree hacked into the systems secretly to find out the secrets the government has been hiding from its people, it wasn’t anything serious such as changing the data or password so people can’t put her to prison as they thought what she did wasn’t dangerous at all. When in reality, she knew everything but decided to keep it to herself. Who knows what could’ve happen anyway, you can’t really trust people nowadays.

Junmyeon calmly nodded his head as if he was fine but his expression says otherwise. “I understand,” he  said in a forced tone. “But please rethink about this. It would mean a lot to Korea and no harm will come to you,”

“Do you know what kind of person this King is?” Bree snorted. “How can you guarantee my safety when you don’t even have a clue what he’s like? If he’s an assassin or whatever, people’s life are in risk. Especially when he’s not working alone.”

“How do you know he’s not working alone?” Junmyeon raised a brow.

“I don’t care how genius he may seem, but it’s impossible to do a massive attack this big all over Korea alone. The crime on Busan was done on September 23rd, and the victim called the police at 8 o’clock while hiding in one of the bathroom stall. According to her, at that exact time she heard someone coming into the restaurant and the sound of shotguns outside the bathroom. She was then killed in the middle of a conversation with the police. A minute later, the police got another crime report from Seoul, and different crimes started to break out each minute while the police station was flooded with calls from all over Korea. This King left his signature sign all over the place of the crimes, which mean he did all of those. But it’s impossible to go from one town to another in less than a minute and commit crimes, especially since these places have high securities. This means they are working in a group and was assigned to different places, they were waiting for their orders the whole time and blended in so they wouldn’t look suspicious. They have planned this all along,” Bree explained. She lifted her head to see a surprised Junmyeon who was about to open his mouth, but another voice cut him off.

“I told you we needed her,” 

Bree immediately turn her head towards the door in the back and found a young man standing with one of his hand inside his pocket, while the other are holding a cup of coffee. He has blonde disheveled hair and was wearing a bright blue suit, looking different from the others but in a good way. He made his way towards Junmyeon’s side and lightly pat his tensed shoulder a bit as if to tell him to relax. All these works must’ve taken a toll on the police, especially Junmyeon. Although it was supposed to encourage Junmyeon and made him relax, the blonde man was staring daggers right into Junmyeon’s head and she noticed how the atmosphere around them had changed.

There was a moment of silence as the unknown man slowly lifted his gaze to meet Bree’s questioning eyes, and the corner of his lips tugged upwards without an effort from him to stop it. This small action made her feel very uncomfortable, because he was acting as if they were long lost friends while she even have no idea what his name is.

“Pardon, that was very rude of me to interrupt your conversation,” He said politely, and put the glass on the other side of the desk, away from Junmyeon’s files. 

“It’s okay, I was about to leave anyway,” Bree forced a stiff smile as she glared at Junmyeon who stayed quiet as if nothing had happened. Isn’t he going to say something about this? 

“Oh, I insist you stay,” he said hurriedly before Bree had a chance to grab her bag from the couch. “I overheard your conversation and it seems interesting. You might just be the person we needed anyway,” the man extended a hand. “My name is Byun Baekhyun.”

“Park Bree,” she shook his hand that was covered in warmth and it actually felt quite nice, considering Junmyeon’s office was full of air conditioner and she felt a bit cold. Eventually they pulled their hands back, Bree feeling awkward by each second that pass while Baekhyun was trying to study her feature in his head. Feeling his intense gaze, Bree cleared and let out an apologetic smile as she took her bag away before Baekhyun or anyone else could stop her from leaving. Again. “Well, this has been an excellent day and all but I really should get going,”

“Do you have to go somewhere?” Junmyeon asked, and Bree mentally wanted to slap Junmyeon in the face because it sounds as if he was siding with Baekhyun or whoever that man is.

“Yes, I need to go to my bed.” Bree replied lazily.

“This isn’t the time to joke around,”

“And who said I was joking around?” Bree returned the cold stare Junmyeon was giving her, while Baekhyun was standing next to him who looks as if he was ready to grab a popcorn and watch the whole show goes down. “You people literally told me to fly to Korea which took 14 hours itself and I didn’t have any chance to rest because I was supposed to come here as soon as I landed.”

“Then just say yes and you can go back to your house,” Junmyeon exhaled impatiently.

“I made it clear, I don’t want to get involved in your bussiness.” Bree grunted as she lifted herself from the couch and went towards the door. Junmyeon was about to say something, but the girl had already slammed the door infront of their faces.

 

■■■

Bree spent the whole day in her house at Korea. Aside frrom being a genius hacker, she was also an architect and an extremely wealthy person, explaining the reason why her house design is different than other ordinary houses. It has a spacious underground place, mostly full of her tools and building designs actually. The living room has a table that could move itself like a robot and serve people what they wished. She has no pets whatsoever and lives alone in her big palace, although sometimes it feels lonely, she was getting used to it now. 

Of course, she knew it would be boring to stay in her house for the next day, so Bree decided to go outside to take a walk while wearing a black shorts and t shirt. She doesn’t really know where she’s heading, but she was here to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. She walked towards a kids playground and pulled out her camera to snap some shots of the kids playing happily. Their smiles were innoncent and genuine, and it’s not everyday you can see this kind of smile while living in a generation like this. Bree wouldn’t call herself a professional photographer, although her teachers often praised her for her photography skills, but she like to think of it just as a hobby. 

When Bree was on the way back to her home, her phone vibrated inside her jeans pocket and she accepted the call without looking at the ID. While munching on some chips she had bought on the market, she lazily said, “Hello?”

“Good afternoon, Bree. I’m glad you accepted this call,” the all-too-familiar voice said on the other line of the phone. Bree grunted loudly and wanted to hung up the call. “Wait don’t hung up!”

“What is it Junmyeon,” Bree asked in annoyance as she head back to her house since it was getting pretty dark. She doesn’t have any time for his stupid game, whatever he’s playing with her right now. “Does police doesn’t understand the meaning of no?”

“They don’t,” Junmyeon joked dryly, earning an eyeroll from Bree. “Have you thought about it? We really need you in this case, Bree. This could save thousands of innoncent lives, please, I beg you.”

Bree sighed. “If I could help thousands of lives then I would. But you don’t even know what kind of person this group is, how can you guarantee the safety of the others? Let’s face it, it’s like we’re chasing someone while wearing blindfolds, and it’s stupid,” she unlocked the door and stepped inside her comfort zone, locking back the door behind her and took of her sport shoes. She doesn’t even this she was out for anything useful – she only took a few pictures of children playing around for 5 minutes and spent 5 hours eating in different kinds of places. What kind of useless life is she living in?

“Hold on,” Junmyeon said, and Bree took the time to put her bag in its place and throw herself in bed. “I just got something from Baekhyun, come to my office tomorrow morning, 7 o’clock. Don’t be late,”

“Who is that Baekhyun anyway?” Bree asked.

“He’s a detective here, I recruited him just a few days ago. Plus we’ve known each other since elementary,” he answered.

“Oh,”

“7 o’clock. Don’t be late,” Junmyeon repeated, and then hung up.