At the sound of his blaring alarm, Mark woke up with a start. Groaning as he stretched his arms, he made his way to the washroom.

Today was going to be a long day.

Just three days ago, his team had noticed that there had been an unauthorized access to the national database, yet 48 and a few more hours later, nothing else could be found out about the invasion. Since then, the team leader, Go Joonhyung had been on Team Zeta's about catching the culprit. After all, it was the national security at stake.

Team Zeta of the Cyber Security Department was known to be the best. That meant they had to withhold that reputation and be the very best. Chief Go gave them 3 days to find out who had accessed the database. Today was the third and the very last day— Mark was going to make sure that he found out who was playing them.

Throwing a bare, half-burnt toast into his mouth, Mark grabbed his keys and headed out of his apartment. His white collar shirt was untucked from his slacks and his silvery blonde hair was a mess.

Did he care?

Not really. Nothing mattered to Mark except for the sole goal of catching the guy who hacked into the database.

God, he just wanted a mothering promotion. Maybe 26 was too young to become a Senior Secret Agent in the National Intelligence Service— but Mark was beyond capable. He excelled in all the physical attributes required for a field agent, and he was one of the best strategists that the Cyber Security Department held. Call him overachieving and egoistic, but Mark liked to think he was work-driven.

Stepping on the accelerator, Mark allowed himself to swallow the bits of the toast that did not crumble off onto his shirt. He glanced at his watch— 07:50.

, Jaebum was going to be pissed.

As if Jaebum had read his mind, Mark's phone began ringing, and he lazily tapped the touch screen to accept the call.

"Where are you?" His partner asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice, and Mark grumbled.

Jaebum had not been the happiest lately with the recent disappearance of his little sister. Mark swore that Jaebum was being too overprotective of the poor girl, but Jaebum claimed that his sister never went a day without messaging Jaebum— and it had been a week.

"I'm almost there, I swear," Mark mumbled through his toast in his mouth and stepped harder on the accelerator.

"God, Chief Go is going to kill us," Jaebum answered, and Mark could hear the impatient tapping of his dress shoes. "He ing lashed out at Bam last night because he couldn't break through the hacker's firewall. As if he was doing anything to help us."

"Give the man a break, Jaebum," Mark stifled a laugh as he pulled up beside the café where Jaebum was standing outside of. "He's been busy with all the meeting with the superiors— I'd be stressed too if the Director of Cyber Security was chewing down on my about the progress of the case."

Jaebum only hummed a response as he dropped the two coffees into the cup holders and adjusted his seatbelt. Jaebum sported a plain black t-shirt with black slacks and a leather jacket, and his long black hair was put down. Even when he was distressed about the case and his sister, Jaebum managed to look nice. Mark couldn't relate.

"You look like you're going to a funeral," Mark poked fun at Jaebum who was glancing at his phone, hoping for his sister to text him back.

"Have you ever met anyone wearing a leather jacket to a funeral?" Jaebum asked, shooting Mark a glare. "Besides, I am going to a funeral— our funeral if we don't find that mothering hacker by tonight."

"We'll get him," Mark reassured Jaebum, but there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

Whether he wanted to admit it or not, the hacker was good. Not just "awe that's cute" kind of good, but the job done by whoever it was made Mark's guts turn in nervousness. The hacker had made sure to use a proxy server and put up billions of firewalls that even their greatest offensive strategist, Bambam, couldn't get through.

Pulling up to his designated spot in the underground parking lot, Mark reversed into his spot swiftly and Jaebum whistled.

"Now that's y."

Mark threw him a disgusted look as they both exited the car, iced coffees in hand. Clicking their ID on the scanner, the two men waited for the glass door to slide open, then waited again for another metal door to split open. Once in the elevator, Mark leaned on the wall after jabbing the button that read 17.

If they were under normal circumstances, Jaebum would be clinging on to Mark's arm by now— as they passed the 6th floor, whining about how he didn't want to spend his youthful days in front of dark, scary computer screen. But Mark only shifted uncomfortably in the silence as the uneasy Jaebum continued to glower at his phone screen, as if staring at the poor screen would result in a faster response from his sister.

With the ding of the elevator, Jaebum and Mark made their way on to the 17th floor where half of the Cyber Security department was located. Heading towards their team area, the pair braced themselves for their leader's harsh words for being tardy. Instead, they were greeted with warm smiles from everyone on their team— Chief Go, Bam, and Bam's partner Sooah.

"Today is going to be a good day," Chief Go announced, and Mark and Jaebum exchanged looks.

Chief Go was a naturally cheerful man, but they did not expect the sunshine from him today of all days. They were working on a deadline, and Chief Go seemed a little to happy despite the fact that Team Zeta made virtually no progress with the case. They had no information on what the hacker had done once they accessed the database and they weren't even an inch closer to finding out their identity.

"Let's get to work, people!"

Mark sat down in his seat, the desk closest to the Chief's, and Jaebum took his seat next to Mark. Bambam, the poor Thai boy sitting across from Mark's space looked as if he was going to pass out. Dark circles took over half of the boy's face, and he chewed on his lips nervously as his fingers tapped away on the keyboard at the speed of light.

"Any process, Bam?" Jaebum asked with no hint of his usual playful grin yet Bam still flashed him a small smile.

"Nope, not even close," Bam said hopelessly. "Whoever hacked in knew what they were doing. They were prepared."

"God, I can't believe I let this happen," Sooah, the 24 year old desk agent murmured. "My defense systems failed. The hacker got through it so ing easily."

"It's not your fault," Bam voiced, shooting Sooah a reassuring smile. "You're the best defense mechanist on our team— the hacker would've had an easier time if it had been any of our works."

Mark only nodded in agreeance. No one could outwit Sooah with digital defense mechanisms. Had it been any of the other team members' systems, the hacker would have gotten through it like a breeze.

By the time lunch came around, Mark was getting frustrated at himself. He had been in the department for what, 3 years?— and he couldn't even catch a glimpse of the hacker on the system. It's as if he was continually running into a 404 error. Every time Mark found a fault in the codes, it would lead him to a dead end where the trace of the hacker disappeared, blocked by a heavy firewall. Pursuing a lead in the software seemed impossible, with the loads of encryptions and security measures the hacker had taken to hack in.

"Motherer," Jaebum whispered, and Mark's eyes glanced up to meet his.

"What?" Mark asked, rolling his chair to Jaebum's side.

"She's gone," Jaebum answered, pulling his dark bangs back with his hands. "Her profile is gone."

"What do you mean?" Mark questioned, narrowing his eyes as he saw the dark look in his partner's eyes.

Jaebum got up from his seat, his jaws clenched and before Mark could even blink, Jaebum kicked his chair away from him and punched his desk. Bam and Sooah looked up from their screens nervously and Chief Go eyed Jaebum cautiously.

"Mark," Jaebum whispered, and Mark could hear the slight vulnerability in his voice. "Jaein's profile is gone. It's as if she never existed. There's no trace that her profile was even there in the first place."

Mark gulped, slowly moving his eyes over to his partner's screen. Jaebum had pulled out the database and searched his sister's name up, in hopes that he could get an update on his sister's location or card transactions. But to his dismay, the name Im Jaein only pulled out profiles of women with the same name, but not Jaebum's sister.

"What the ," Mark muttered under his breath, tapping on the keyboard to look fu