pairing: Jihyo x Dahyun

summary: Just because Dahyun is a hacker, doesn't mean she isn't a good girl.

Dahyun stood in a queue and counted the number of people that were ahead of her. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve - she stopped and looked down on her watch. It was 11:58 am and the plane would leave at 4:20 pm. She would have to hurry if she wanted to get to the airport in time, but the queue was not moving as fast as her prayers flew to the skies. Even if she got to the airport in time, there would be no guarantee that she would even make it to the plane and out of the country... All the possibilities for everything to go wrong were high and higher they got with each passing minute.

"Why did you agree to this?" she muttered to herself and watched as a middle-aged woman argued with a ticket seller. They didn't seem to realize that the world was full of things more important than their petty argument. Things like Dahyun's future and freedom.

"Why?" she whispered even as she already knew why.

Four months earlier

Dahyun had never seen so many people at the bar on a Tuesday evening. Her first reaction was to turn around and leave, but Chaeyoung was already heading towards the bartender, who seemed to be happy to have so many customers. She resisted an urge to get her phone from her pocket and open a random app so that she could pretend that she was doing something. Instead, she took long strides towards her friend and tried to look harmless. Surely, everyone in the bar could sense her discomfort.

"Relax," Chaeyoung said and patted her on the shoulder as they sat down. The shorter girl was holding a small beer in her hand and the golden liquid swirled dangerously close to the rim as Chaeyoung shuffled to her seat. Dahyun didn't understand why she was drinking beer - somehow it didn't suit her at all, but the girl was famous for choosing things that others didn't think she would like. She was all about making her own decisions, to the point of doing things just because others didn't expect her to.

Artists, Dahyun thought and not for the first time.

"I'm relaxed," she said and folded her hands. She let her gaze roam the bar now that she was safely seated in the booth. There was little that piqued her interest, but a group of attractive young women on the other side of the room made her feel self-conscious. They were clearly cool girls who usually didn't pay Dahyun no mind, unless to chuckle at her when she did something embarrassing like trip in the middle of a street. Yet, this time, one of the girls looked at her closely and Dahuyn had to turn her head quickly, hoping that the girl hadn't noticed her looking. In an instant, her anxiety hit the roof.

"You don't know what it means," Chaeyoung said and sipped on her drink. Her green jacket looked too big on her, but Dahyun knew she liked it like that. She insisted on dressing like a British landlady with too many horses and dogs - at least, that was the impression Dahyun always got.

"Funny," she muttered. She couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was still watching her and she tried to stare at anything else except the other people in the bar.

"You should go out more. Your skin looks like it's going to get a rash from sunlight," Chaeyoung said and Dahyun didn't bother to answer. Just because they were good friends, didn't mean that Chaeyoung understood the finer details of social anxiety -  even when she wasn't exactly the social butterfly herself.

Just last week she had tried to ask a girl out and failed miserably. Even Dahyun could have told her where she went wrong, but Chaeyoung never listened.

"There's a world outside your computer, in case you didn't know. A big, beautiful world with pretty girls. If you tell them that you’re a hacker, they’ll-"

Dahyun never heard the rest of Chaeyoung's twisted pep talk as she glanced at the group of girls and saw that the same dark-haired girl was still looking at her. This time she was sure she wasn't just imagining it - her brain liked to torture her like that - no, she was looking at her and- oh no, did she just smile?

"I'll be back," she said to Chaeyoung and got up from her seat. While she could still feel a pair of eyes watching her back, she walked to a bathroom door and rushed inside as if her stomach had just failed her.

Luckily, no one was around and the noise from the bar didn't come through thick walls. She breathed in and out until she felt calmer, and stood in front of a mirror, realizing that she didn't look so terrified on the outside. It made her feel better and she gave her reflection a nod - she could do this.

"Hey," a voice said behind her and she jumped, feeling the previous calm disappearing from her body like a passing thought. The voice didn't belong to Chaeyoung, but to someone else... She spun around and was met with the most beautiful pair of eyes she had ever seen.

"You're Dahyun, right? I'm Jihyo," the girl said and extended her hand. Dahyun looked at the hand for a moment too long, but in the end, she shook it, amazed at how warm and soft the skin felt and how sure the grip was without being painful. She should have walked away, but her body had stopped cooperating with her mind.

"Hello," she heard herself saying and the girl - Jihyo, smiled more brightly. It made her think of solar power plants.

"I've heard you're quite a wizard with computers."

"Well..." Dahyun looked around the bathroom, making sure there were no suspicious cameras planted in the corners. Maybe the whole thing was a terrible hoax and they had send "Jihyo" to catch her. Was it a government operation? Or maybe one of the organizations she had worked with...

"Don't worry, I got the tip from a reliable source," Jihyo said and winked, which made Dahyun feel even worse. She was certain that if she were to walk out, a host of officers would be waiting outside with their guns and gear, shouting accusations at her and eventually sentencing her to a life in prison because of some minor thing like a pirated film in 2014. Or worse, the Britney discography…

"I've got a project coming up and I was wondering if you'd like to help me," Jihyo went on like a salesperson from heaven and Dahyun nodded, despite her brain screaming "IT'S A SCAM!"

"We’re trying to help children's hospitals across the world and we could use some technical expertise." Jihyo said it like she, Kim Dahyun, was the only person on earth who could possibly help her, but if she didn't want to do it, it would be okay. Just fine and dandy, she would just hurt Jihyo's feelings and some children could possibly die but-

"I'd love to!" she cut in, not even hearing what was being said anymore. Jihyo lowered her head so that she was looking through her eyelashes and smiled.

Dahyun knew that only devil could be so pretty.

-

"We are going to rob a bank?!" Dahyun shrieked. Her moral compass was spinning out of control and when everyone else in the room turned to look at her, her head began to spin, too. Did heart attacks start like this?

"Yes, well, essentially..." Jihyo began, looking like she was talking about going to movies and not jail.

"The largest bank in the country!" Dahyun shouted, as if the specific bank made it somehow way worse, and pressed a hand on her chest, in the hopes that her heart wouldn't jump out completely.

"Momo, could you go through the blueprints again?" Jihyo asked and looked at everyone else except Dahyun. The rest understood quickly and left the room, closing the door behind them while Dahyun stared wide-eyed, unable to believe she wasn't dreaming.

"Darling," Jihyo said and walked to where Dahyun was sitting at the other end of a large table. She sat down on and took Dahyun's hand into hers. Dahyun swallowed and tried to think about the robbery and not the way Jihyo's slim legs hung over the side of the table.

"I know this isn't something you’d normally do..."

"I'd never-"

"Shh…" Jihyo put her finger on Dahyun's lips. It was so effective that Dahyun dropped all her previous thoughts and protests like she had never had them in the first place.

"I wouldn't do this if there were better options," Jihyo said and the back of Dahyun's hand soothingly. "But the thing is, our country and our leaders aren't willing to help those in need-"

Dahyun glanced at Jihyo's white crisp shirt and noticed that a button had come undone. Quickly, she glanced up again, feeling heat even in the tips of her ears.

"The richest people on this planet have everything they could ever need. I'm not asking for a lot and I'm sure if they thought about it themselves, they’d happily support us and we wouldn't have to act like lowly criminals."

"How much?" Dahyun whispered. Jihyo was leaning towards her and she could smell her perfume.

"Not a lot, if you count-"

"How much?" Dahyun repeated louder.

"1 billion US dollars which makes about-"

Dahyun didn't hear exactly how many Korean Won the dollars would make, as she was laughing hysterically, barely able to sit in her seat.

"You know, this is going to require a bit more than just password cracking and basic vulnerability analysis," she said after she had laughed so hard that tears poured out of her eyes.

A lot more, she thought and wondered why she was already planning it all in her head. She hadn't agreed to anything, had she?

-

Dahyun got to know Jihyo's team well as they started to work together (despite her always telling herself that she wouldn't do it. The problem was that every time she was going to tell Jihyo she was out, the leader did something that made her forget all her plans.) The four members seemed as close as a family.

Jeongyeon was the oldest and the best at keeping things moving when Jihyo was otherwise occupied. She was meticulous and serious about their goals - at first, Dahyun thought she was a little heartless, but soon she found out that Jeongyeon had a soft heart underneath her cool exterior and enough bravery to go against the norm, if it meant that she could help others.

The second oldest member was Momo, an athletic Japanese girl with an impressive work ethic. Alone, she wouldn't have gotten very far, but as a team member she was invaluable. She, too, had a warm heart under her charisma and easy charm, and Dahyun liked her the most in the team. She was almost like a friend to her, and could always be trusted with anything. With Momo, Dahyun never felt unsafe.

Tzuyu, on the other hand, remained a bit of a mystery to her. The girl was clearly very smart and hard-working, but she rarely showed any emotion or spoke more than few words. She did seem to be fond of animals, and the fact made Dahyun more comfortable around her. Surely, a person who wanted to help animals and kids couldn't be a narcissistic psychopath? Still, she found her a little scary.

And then there was Jihyo herself, the team leader... Dahyun figured out very quickly that she was the project herself. The whole idea of robbing the biggest (she kept repeating it to herself) bank in the country was so bonkers that it made her admire Jihyo for her boldness. Only she could have come up with the plan and only she could be smart enough to carry it out successfully.

However, as much as she liked the team and learned to appreciate what they were trying to do, she could never quite shake off the feeling of being an outsider. Jihyo gave her a lot of attention, but she was never sure whether it was fake or not. Surely, if Jihyo had to throw someone under the bus, she would be the first to go? She tried to put the thoughts away, but in her darkest moments they surrounded her like shadows.

The truth was... Dahyun didn't really care about the kids. Well, of course, she did! Who wouldn't want to save children from dying if they possibly could, but... Dahyun knew, that deep down she was doing it all for Jihyo, even as she didn't trust the girl.

Why? That was a question she tried not to think about.

Besides, there was so much to do that she hardly had enough time for private thoughts. It was already hard enough to have a part-time job in a bistro, that she despised, but to also stay up all night on the computer was killing her. Even Chaeyoung remarked on how "eyeshadow is supposed to be above your eye and not under it." It didn't help, especially when she couldn't tell her friend what exactly she was doing.

Nor did it help that the hardest part of the whole operation rested on her shoulders. Because, while the others would put themselves in to greater danger by going to the bank and acting out a mock robbery - to give her time and draw the attention elsewhere - she was supposed to be emptying millions of dollars from bank accounts while the whole system would need to be taken down.

If she was honest with herself, she wasn't sure she had the skills for the job, even as Jihyo had hired a couple of lesser hackers to help her (they were shadow-like things, men that looked like mice and spoke very little.) Everything was much larger than anything else she had done in her whole life and she was painfully aware of it. Some black hat , if she was honest.

"You're the only one who can conduct this symphony," Jihyo said one night, when the rest of the team had gone to their homes, leaving the two of them alone. In the dim lighting and the late hours of the night, Dahyun nearly believed her, when the remark from anyone else's lips would have sounded like they were making fun of her.

If Jihyo believed in her, she would try to fool herself into believing in herself, too.

-

"It's impossible! The code changes every six hours," Jeongyeon groaned and hid her face in her hands. Next to her, Tzuyu was sitting stoically - she always reminded Dahyun of a holy statue.

"Do we even need it?" Momo said and when Jeongyeon didn't answer, she touched the older girl's shoulder.

"It's going to change the whole plan if-"

The door opened and Jihyo walked in, changing the whole atmosphere. Jeongyeon sat up and Momo pulled away from her, putting up a mask that revealed no emotion. The only one who didn't move was Tzuyu, but even in the dim lighting, Dahyun could see her eyes warming up.

"What's the matter?" Jihyo asked and put four boxes of pizza on the table. When she got her hands free she slipped them into Tzuyu's hair and began it, making the girl's eyelids fall half-closed from pleasure.

At that point, Dahyun turned back to her computer and ignored what the others were saying. It didn't matter to her anyway, she had her own problems to solve and she wouldn't be running out of them anytime soon. Like how to make sure they couldn’t trace her…

She was so concentrated on her own thing that she even forgot the smell of warm pizza. However, she couldn’t slip away so completely that she could forget the glint in Tzuyu's eyes as Jihyo touched her.

"Dahyun," a voice said from next to her and she blinked. The world around her returned with its muted colors and mellow noises. She looked up and saw Jihyo looking down at her, with her majestic eyes that never looked the same. Dahyun would've stolen the largest diamonds on earth, just to prove that they couldn't match the glory of Jihyo's eyes.

"There's still some pizza left if you want," the older girl said and Dahyun nodded, much more comfortable around the leader now than when they had just met. Yet, when Jihyo lifted her hand to touch her shoulder, she pulled away, not quite sure why. To her relief, Jihyo didn't seem startled and pulled away without causing more awkwardness. She was good at reading people, but hard to read herself.

"We'll be going now. It's quite late."

Dahyun glanced at the clock on her computer screen and saw that it was already past 1 am. She felt the tricky late night thoughts creeping in and cleared .

"Yeah, um... I'll be going too. Just need to finish this one thing."

"Promise?"

"Promise," Dahyun said and smiled while Jihyo still hovered near the computer.

"Goodnight then. See you tomorrow!"

"Night," Dahyun said and knew that it was in Jihyo's nature to give her one last squeeze on the shoulder, but this time she didn't. It was a relief, even as she missed the small gesture.

When Jihyo was gone, she wondered if it had been a hallucination after all. Bank robberies and beautiful women didn't belong to her life, but to someone else's. Maybe she had fallen asleep while reading a movie script, and ended up confused, inside a cut between two scenes.

-

A week before the big day, the team assembled for one last time. Everyone was wearing a steely mask on their faces, but Dahyun knew that they were all nervous - even Tzuyu, who didn't seem to be bothered by anything, ever.

Dahyun would've liked to think that she wasn't the weakest link in the team, but her nerves were in shreds. Lately, she had been dreaming of all the ways everything could go wrong and was surprised by the many versions of worst-case scenarios her brain could provide for her, night after night.

Yet, she found some comfort looking at everyone else’s faces. Momo's eye-bags were becoming larger by each passing day and Jeongyeon looked wide-eyed as she kept drinking energy drinks like some people smoked to keep calm. It probably didn't work.

"I don't need to point out what day it is," Jihyo said quietly. Nobody looked her in the eye and only stared at some far away wall in the warehouse.

"This will be the last time we'll see each other as a team.” Jihyo looked at every member of the team with her caring eyes.

"Jeongyeon, is everything ready?"

"Yeah, we're good. We've got the car ready," the eldest said and finally looked Jihyo in the eye. Her previous nervousness was gone and replaced with clear determination.

"How about you, Dahyun?"

Dahyun cleared and tried to fight the anxiety of having to speak to everyone. Even after four months, she still didn't feel comfortable talking to the team as a whole.

"Everything's ready. My friends know what they're doing," she said, twitching at the word "friends." She and the two hackers were far from being friends with each other. They didn't like that there was a girl leading them and hated her skills. They were disposable to the team, but she was not.

"Good," Jihyo said and slapped her hands together, looking more cheerful than anyone else.

"I've got your tickets here, just as we discussed. A week from now and we'll be enjoying a well-deserved holiday."

Jihyo handed everyone white envelopes and when Dahyun got hers, she swallowed. It was a token of what was to come. Her heart sank, as she finally realized that there would be no turning back anymore. Truthfully the point of no return must have been earlier, but she hadn't noticed it. It had passed her by while she had been too busy to think about the practical matters.

She said goodbye to the members half-heartedly, too deep in her own thoughts to fully realize that they could be seeing each other for the last time. But when Jihyo pulled her into a hug, she woke up from her daze.

"Whatever happens, remember that I'm always grateful to you," Jihyo said quietly. The warehouse light made her brown hair glow and Dahyun wanted to tell her how alive she had felt working with the team. Working with Jihyo.

"Good luck," Jihyo said and pressed a kiss on her cheek. Drunkenly, Dahyun took a step back and nodded. Her last image of Jihyo was a little distorted because she turned around too fast, not properly taking her in.

She regretted it later.

-

After weeks of preparation and countless sleepless nights, the attack went by in a flurry of concentration. Dahyun blocked the rest of the world out and closed her phone and other sources that could reveal any news to her. If she wanted to do her own job properly, she couldn't be following what the rest were doing - she would worry and screw up before she’d get started.

While her hacker "friends" created complete disorder with the bank's security system, she dealt with the money. It was a good thing that it was nothing but abstract numbers on the computer screen - if she could have visualized 1 billion dollars as actual physical money, she would have passed out. But in the seclusion of the warehouse, she could pretend that the whole thing was nothing but a simple, harmless scam that nobody would ever know of. Just like the stuff she had done as a teen with too much time on her hands.

Yeah, right.

Present

At the gate, Dahyun felt like her back was on fire. Surely, by now, everyone in the room knew who she was and what she had done. She could feel their whispers like needles in her neck and as someone raised their voice she was sure it was to point out who she was and take her away to endless police questionings where the cops tried different approaches in breaking her completely.

That would be easy, she thought and flinched as a steward smiled a little too warmly at her when she handed him her passport. Seconds went by like years, before he lifted his gaze again and wished her a pleasant flight. She swallowed and knew that it would be anything but pleasant.

Once inside the plane, she opened her phone and dared a look at the news. The large font of the headlines scared her just as much as the words that kept jumping in front of her eyes like ticking bombs: ARMED ROBBERY, VICTIMS, SECURITY BREACH, LARGEST ATTACK IN HISTORY.

She put her phone away and closed her eyes. The anxiety was so high that she almost wished they’d caught her before the plane would take off.

-

To her astonishment, the plane landed and she got out of the airport without anyone bothering her. She took the nearest taxi and almost asked him to drive as fast as he could. She reminded herself that she wasn’t in an action movie.

The taxi driver was talking to her, but she couldn't follow what he was saying. She only nodded and smiled as the man went on, wildly flailing his right hand. She wished he had used it to steer the wheel, but it seemed to be his secondary task.

She had never gone farther than Japan, so the East Asian heat felt too hot to be real. Even as the car's air conditioning was blowing ice cool air her way, her shirt stuck to her skin and to leather seat behind her back. She wished she hadn't been so alone, even as the local man was doing his very best to make her feel welcome. She felt guilty and smiled more enthusiastically but the sad truth was that her English had never been very good. She had a hard time talking to strangers in her own language, let alone with a foreign one.

As they got out of the city, the greenery on each side jumped closer to the road and she admired everything she could see. Even the simplest trees looked more interesting just because they weren't in Korea. Still, she wondered if she would get homesick as there would be no going back now. She might never go back and it made her feel a little motion sick - she hadn't told anyone where she had gone.

Yet, she felt so much better now that she was out of Korea and far from the airport. With each turn the driver took, she felt like she was getting away from them - those nameless shadows who only wanted her to suffer for what she had done, not caring what her noble intentions had been.

"Here!" the driver shouted and turned to a large gate. It had appeared so suddenly out of the growth that it felt like someone had just conjured it out of their mind.

"Thank you," she said as she realized that the taxi would go no further. She gave him as much money as she thought was enough and some extra, which made the driver look like he wanted to kiss her. She got out hastily, before he could come to open the door for her. He walked to the trunk, whistling a song and sounding like a musician with a day off. He handed her suitcase and left, after wishing her well in various ways. She felt that even a holy father couldn't have blessed her better and as the man drove away, she waved at the retreating back lights of the taxi.

Finally, as she had watched the road long after the car had gone, she pulled a key out of her pocket. It had been in the white envelope together with her tickets and instructions. She presumed everyone else had gotten identical ones, even as Jihyo had told them to open them later.

She looked at the key as it shined in the sunlight and wondered if it would be the only token she could keep of the team and Jihyo. She glanced down on her shabby suitcase and felt loneliness squeezing her insides. What if the others hadn't made it?

The gate opened with ease and she walked across the front yard, listening how her footsteps echoed on her way to the front door. The house hadn't looked like much from the gate, but now that she got closer to it, she could see that it wasn't just any house. Most of the walls were made of long glass panes and it made the building look like it was an extended part of the garden. Somewhere else it wouldn't have been very practical, but in a place with a lavish garden it had a feeling of privacy only money could buy.

To her surprise, the front door was unlocked. As she walked inside, she couldn't help a gasp from escaping her lips as she took in the grey stone floors and dark wooden furniture - the place was straight from a magazine. Even the kitchen looked more expensive than her parents' whole house with its shining islands and stainless steel appliances.

"Hello?" she said, after she had recovered from her initial awe. When nobody answered, she left her suitcase in the living room and turned left. A long corridor headed towards something blue and she ignored all the doors on both sides - there would be enough time to look at the rooms. She was sure that as lovely as the house was, the best part would be outside. Her heart was whispering of excitement, even as she didn't understand why.

The corridor ended abruptly and she walked in to sunlight that was magnified by a large pool in front of her. The water was so clear that it seemed to be made of liquid light. She halted and watched as the water went on and on, disappearing without a clear border.

An infinity pool, she mused and wanted to laugh from joy. She had thought that she’d never see one in real life, but there it was, looking much better than it ever did in pictures or TV.

"I would do it all over again just to see the look on your face," a soft voice spoke and Dahyun gasped, too stunned to even move towards the speaker.

"I thought I was the first one," she whispered and when the other girl walked to her side, she finally turned.

"I came on an earlier flight," Jihyo said and Dahyun was too busy to admire her face to notice that she was only wearing a bikini. Somehow, she hadn’t expected to find Jihyo there. It still felt like she could vanish if she looked away for a moment. Which is why she didn't - all she could do was feel the warmth of the sun and joy of having Jihyo so close to her.

"Jeongyeon and Momo have been arrested. They never made it out of the bank," Jihyo said and the look in her eyes went far away.

Dahyun's heart dropped from the highest mountain to the deepest cave on earth.

"You don't need to worry," Jihyo comforted. "Tzuyu is in Paris and I doubt Jeongyeon and Momo will get long sentences. The police will have an impossible task to figure out how all the different attacks are linked. Besides, the girls didn't even have real guns and they never managed to steal anything, so that helps."

"But... I thought we would all come here and..."

"And what? Live like a happy family?" Jihyo chuckled and extended her arms, pulling confused Dahyun closer. She wanted to pull away, but felt too weak. All the excitement had lowered her defenses and she gave in to what her heart desired.

"I only wanted you here," Jihyo whispered and made a carousel out of Dahyun’s stomach. Was Jihyo real? Or was Dahyun still inside the plane, dreaming, while the officers at the airport prepared to take her in and return her to Korea with shame and handcuffs? Or was Jihyo the Trojan horse who, at the moment of victory, turned Dahyun in without a flinch of guilt?

"I thought-"

"That I didn't care?" Jihyo said, her lips impossibly close. "Oh, I care very much... Do you?"

Dahyun nodded and relaxed in Jihyo's arms. The wind blew lazily over them as some unfamiliar bird sang a melancholic melody that made her think of her arrested team mates. Yet, a smile was pulling at her lips and she gave in when Jihyo finally closed the gap and kissed her. For the first time since she had become an adult, she felt happy, so happy that she wanted to jump up and down.

"We have billion dollars," Jihyo whispered, as they broke apart, breathless. "Would you like to choose the first hospital?"

"Yes," Dahyun said and thought that since she was the happiest person on earth, it was high time she shared some of that happiness with others.

"But first..." she said and kissed Jihyo again.

It was then that she noticed what Jihyo was wearing and in the end, it was all the exposed skin that made Dahyun feel like a real criminal as she caressed it with her hands, sure that something so wonderful could only be illegal.

A/N: Hello, long time no see! :3 I know this plot is ridiculous, but it was high time for lighter Dahyo. I hope you liked!

P.S. I'll be editing this collection a little, so I hope it doesn't cause any confusion or unecessary update notifications. If it does, I apologize! xo