Yi Seul is dumbfounded by what the principal had just said.

"sorry? I don't understand-"

 

The man cuts her off and argues.

"Are you responsible for stealing 5 million dollars from our school bank account?"

Yi seul gulps and furrows her eyebrows slightly.

 

"I see, you don't know the context yet. i was overly furious about what happened yesterday so i called the bank to see if anything happened to our money and what i get told of is that someone stole a good amount of bucks. nobody else could've stole our money at the time because you, choi yi seul, had the account in control. Right?"

 

Yi seul stays in silence and she can feel the droplets of sweat going down her neck. yi seul certainly wasn't the one who stole the money, in fact, she kept it safe from other users!

 

 

so in this dangerous situation...

 

run.

 

The scared girl leaps out from the office and out to the hallways. She can hear the principal yelling at the police to catch her, yi seul can barely process everything. confused people are looking at her, just standing along the lines of lockers.

 

She finally finds the fire exit and pushes the door far away, searching for sung min who's waiting with his car. 

 

"Sung min! Start the car, damnit!"

the 20 year-old catches on as yi seul takes a seat, freaking out.

"let's go! police is chasing after me!"

"What?!"

"GO!"

 

He steps on the accelerator and immediately takes yi seul to a foreign route.

"Where are we going, min?!"

"You'll see. check if they're still on our tails."

 

yi seul looks behind her and sighs in worry as she is filled with police cars in her sight.

"they're right behind but we have a good gap to not be caught."

 

"Okay. open the compartment, there are masks and caps in there, wear those. although you'll still be identified, we have to keep hidden from people who don't know us. pass me 'em."

yi seul gives a mask and a cap to sung min and wears the items herself.

 

the sound of sirens is still audible so the male speeds up even more. yi seul can see rotten buildings around her now. the modern city is gone from her surroundings and she feels a slight chill trickling down her body.

 

"i swear if you're taking me into a gang hideout or whatever, i'm gonna kill you!"

"i won't! i just need them to lose us! we're going to my hideout!"

 

police cars are still chasing after them but as sung min takes a sudden different route, they are only left with no leads.

 

"damn!"

one of the officers curse.

 

sung min drove into an alleyway although it was too narrow. he didn't mind getting scratches on his car which costed hundred thousands of dollars. the sky started to get cloudy and a few minutes later it rained.

 

yi seul broke the silence. she choked out a few words.

"someone is framing me."

 

"we'll talk about this later, seul."

"I protected the account!"

"Yi seul!"

 

the girl put her face into her hands and wished that life could be over.

"right now you need to rest. You've been through a lot and i know you can't process anything. just let me drive and we'll arrive soon."

 

"will you be okay?"

"yes. thank you. now sleep. lower your seat."

 

she sinks her back with the seat attached to her and closes her eyes. winter comes by so fast.

 

 

 

As yi seul wakes up, she is in a new room, lying on a comfrotable bed. it doesn't look dark but briight instead. vintage wallpapers are decorated along with flowers and she feels welcomed. in a corner, she could see a two screen computer.

 

Is this sung min's room? the girl thought.

 

just as she thinks of her best friend's name, he comes in with a tray of food on his left hand.

"Good afternoon. I thought that you would've been woken up by now so i brought some lovely food mom had made."

 

"Mom's here?"

although yi seul isn't sung min's sibling, she liked calling his parents like her own. when they talked to her about getting adopted, she said that it was fine because she already felt like family with them.

 

"duh. we're at headquarters."

"really?!

 

the girl can't believe it. she always wanted to go to headquarters. where the best hackers meet and make the best hacks out of korea. remeber that sung min's parents had a group thing going on? this is where they work. why she never went there? Sung min's parents were afraid of her safety because it's also where things can go wrong.

 

sung min chuckled and nodded.

"you eat first. then we'll meet some people to see what happened at your school."

 

while yi seul ate, she kept asking quick questions about the headquarters with food still in , spitting some fried rice everywhere. sung min sure has a lot to clean up. finally, the girl finishes her meal and jumps out of the bed, anticipating the thrill of seeing the headquarters.

 

sung min opens the door but yi seul only sees an elevator in front of her.

"what."

the elevator was unexpected but looked classy inside. there were marble walls and a shiny mirror on the back wall.

"hop in."

 

yi seul steps in and feels a breeze of cool air. she looks at sung min in disbelief.

"There's an air conditioner in here?"

"of course. sometimes the workers feel stressed so we just need to fan them a little."

 

He sends her a little smile. the doors close and sung min presses -5 floor. the whole headquarters is underground. heck, sung min's room is on the -10 floor.

 

"why does your door open to an elevator, isn't there supposed to be a whole workplace?"

"no. that room is for me too sleep at when i stay here for work. nobody else gets it - that sounds really selfish - so yeah."

"oh."

"but i sometimes lend people to stay there. i'm okay, really."

 

the two are silent for a while. yi seul can't help but to ask another question,

"by the way, what's the real name of this place? we always call it headquarters."

"yes, i forgot to tell you that. this place is called ' invictus ACE'"

"why?"

"dunno. maybe we're undefeatable aces at hacking?"
"eh."

 

After a few more seconds, the elevator comes to a halt and opens to what looks like heaven. there were too many classy things going on. yi seul steps out with sung min and grinned with a cheshire cat smile.

"whoa!"

 

hackers were roaming around the workplace, they looked cool with the stylish clothing and gelled hair. women hackers were captivating with some of their combat boots and bold appearances.

 

"welcome to the main level."

 

yi seul walked on the icy marble tiles and watched hackers work at their individual desks. it wasn't just every working place in the same area, they were scattered everywhere. yi seul wonders how the workplace still looks neat.

"come on. i'll introduce you to some good guys."

 

sung min leads the way. a lot of workers greeted the male casually and even yi seul too. seems like everyone is so friendly. they arrive in front of a glass covered room.

 

when will this classiness ever end? the teen hacker thought.

 

she can see 2 men in there, sitting at a big table. sung min knocks on the glass door, he gains attention from a young looking man. he had dark hair and a fringe that slightly covered his eyes. he wore a black plain hoodie with black skinny jeans and adidas sneakers. the man waves at him and at yi seul too. she feels like a person who everybody already met although she did not.

 

the man opens the door and smiles at yi seul.

"hi! we were expecting you, please come in."

yi seul went into the room and whispered at sung min.

"he knows me?"

sung min whispers back.

"no, i just said someone was coming over."

 

yi seul nods. the man gestures her to sit.

"please, take a seat. oh, would you like a cup of tea?"

"no, thank you. I've had my meal recently."

 

despite his appearance, his choice of words were rather formal.

"that's alright. sung min, would you want a cup of tea?"

"nah, I'm fine. Thanks chul."

 

he smiles again. sung min starts introducing right away.

"alright. this guy here is kim chul."

the guy waves at yi seul warmly. yi seul waves back.

 

sung min turns his head towards another young male.

"that guy is alex. from canada by the way but born here."

the canadian waves at her as well. sung min doesn't waste any time and went straight into the problem.

 

"so. here's what we've gotta do. this girl - i can't tell you her name - is framed by another hacker i'm guessing. so basically she hacked into a school bank account and totally banned it from getting used by other users. but today, she found out that somebody else... um, what did they do?"

"they stole 5 million dollars from the bank account."

"what?! uh, sorry. yes, and they're framing her. and police knows that she has the account in her hands, kind of."

 

yi seul sighs and speaks up.

"i need to know who did it."

 

chul answered the girl.

"i think we can do that. it'll take just 5 minutes."

 

 

 

"I'm so screwed! What are we gonna do with this?!"
yi seul panicked. apparently the framer had a very thick firewall and it was covered with stupid pop-ups.

alex scratched his head out of annoyance.
"this guy is certainly not an amateur."
chul nodded his head, aggreeing.

"Relax, I've got on idea."
sung min added to the conversation. everybody looked at him.

"What?"

"We need to build a team and we'll try to figure out how to get rid of it."
yi seul groaned while her head down. she looked up at her best friend again.

"This? There's billions of every single hacking tricks we used! Even the one's that you used for your work!"

"No, we're building a team out of the best ones hidden here in South Korea! here in headquarters!"
chul and alex furrowed their eyebrows.
"are you talking about the ones on level-"
chul got cut off by a doubting Yi seul.

"Best of what?"

"Best of the underground members."

 

a/n: whoop. there it is. oh the show is starting to unfold~