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Being in Time[A/N]: Chapter Update 4/7; I highly advise to bookmark the last chapter you read since it might get confusing with the multiple updates I will be making.
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“I’m not gonna get a pay cut for this, right?” Yookyung asked, raising an eyebrow at Chorong since she suddenly decided not to open the club for the night. The two of them were the only ones left inside.
“Yep,” Chorong replied, popping the ‘p’ sound. “So just go ahead and have fun tonight. I’ll be the one to lock the door.”
“Okay.” Yookyung opened her umbrella by the door. “See you tomorrow then.”
Chorong dialed a number on her phone. “Make sure you go through the back door.”
“You’ve told me this plenty of times already, unnie. I’m coming.” Namjoo ended the call.
Hayoung was the first one to come inside the club. “How many are we?” she asked the redhead.
“Only five,” Chorong replied, gesturing for Hayoung to sit down beside the large round table in the middle of the club. “Is that enough?”
“I guess so. It’s not like we can readily ask anyone to participate.”
The next one to enter was the eye-smiling woman. “Where’s Namjoo?” Eunji asked while looking around.
“She’s coming,” Chorong answered.
“How?” Eunji asked.
“You forgot about the backdoor, didn’t you?” Chorong smirked.
“Oh yeah!” Eunji snapped her fingers.
“Seems like you guys are close enough to know about this secret door,” Hayoung teased.
Chorong masked an awkward smile in reply.
“Sorry guys I’m late!” Bomi made her loud entry. “I dropped Minah at my parents’ house.”
“Take a seat, Bbom-ah,” Chorong said smilingly, patting the seat beside her.
“Is she your girlfriend?” Hayoung whispered, the redhead nodded shyly in reply.
“You scared me! Where did you come from?!” Bomi pointed her finger at Namjoo who suddenly appeared. “How did you even-”
“Calm down.” Chorong giggled. “My house and the club are secretly connected at the back.”
“Not-so-secret anymore, I guess,” Eunji remarked laughingly.
“Well… so this is everyone,” Bomi stated.
“I’m really sorry for causing this trouble.” Namjoo bowed to everyone, expressing her sincerest apology.
“Yah. Don’t do that,” Eunji said. “You’re not the one who’s supposed to be sorry.”
“She’s right.” Chorong patted her sister on the back. “You did nothing wrong.”
Namjoo sat in between her sister and the tall woman with her head down. “Still…”
“Are you guys ready?” Hayoung asked, earning a firm nod from the rest. She rolled out a large piece of paper that almost covered the table; written on it was the hierarchy inside the company. The CEO was at the top of the pyramid, followed by the president, then the office employees, and lastly, the contractual workers at the bottom. “Our goal is to obtain the list of transactions the company made with their victims in their database.”
“To start, Hayoung and I are programmers, and she happens to specialize in security software,” Chorong said. “Hayoung and I tried to hack into their database, but I couldn’t,” she explained. “How about you, Hayoung-ah?”
“There’s a part of their database that I cannot enter no matter how hard I try,” Hayoung replied. “It needs to be accessed in a specific computer within the company, although I can do something about it. Recently, I’m interested in hardwares involved in security and this is what I’ve created.” Hayoung brought out seemingly small, black flash drives. “I call these slips.”
Bomi picked up one of the slips and studied it. “It doesn’t seem like it can do much.”
“When one of these slips is plugged into a computer, I will gain remote access to its core contents while using my own computer even if I’m not in the office,” Hayoung explained. “Since we can’t find the list directly in the office, we have to put these babies on all of the computers so we’ll know which one of them have the list we are looking for.”
“So what you’re saying is that we have to infiltrate the company to plug these things in all of their computers?” Eunji asked in concern.
“Yes,” Hayoung answered. “However, these are just prototypes. I don’t think I can produce a proper version until next month.”
“So?” Bomi raised an eyebrow.
“Since these are just prototypes, I need to be within a certain distance for these to work,” Hayoung explained.
“Like how close do you need to be?” Namjoo asked.
“Err… like just beside the building?” Hayoung laughed awkwardly. “I was thinking of renting a van so I could hide the equipment I’ll be using.”
“I can help you with that,” Bomi said. “My friend owns a van renting shop. If I asked them, they can lend one to me for free.”
“Alright. One down,” Hayoung said excitedly. “Now the problem is… how do we get inside the company?”
All of them turned around when they suddenly heard the front door creak open.
“Why are you all staring at me like that?” Naeun shook her umbrella and placed it beside the wall. “What are you all doing here?” It was odd seeing the people she did not know knew other sharing a table.
“I texted everyone that the club’s closed tonight,” Chorong said. “You didn’t receive it?”
“I left my wallet in my locker yesterday and I’m now running out of cash,” Naeun explained, biting her tongue in a playfully. “My bad.” She stared at Eunji then at Hayoung, confused. “What are you guys doing?” She approached their table.
“Planning how we’ll end Namjoo’s massive debt caused by an evil company,” Bomi said unconsciously, receiving piercing daggers from everyone. “Oops.”
“AG Linings Incorporated,” Naeun read the writings on the paper. “I know someone who works there. I think I can help.”
“Eh?!” Everyone shared the same surprised reaction.
“One of my previous patrons still call me every now and then,” Naeun explained. “Kinda annoying actually.”
“Huh?! I didn’t know about that,” Eunji said in a heightened tone.
“It’s not like I was entertaining the calls.”
“Even so, why didn’t you tell me?!”
“Stop it,” said Hayoung in a stern voice. “Naeun unnie, who is this person you’re referring to?” Naeun pointed out the word ‘CEO’ on the paper. “W-what?” Hayoung was extremely baffled. “T-the CEO?”
“Yeah,” Naeun replied.
“Isn’t he married already?” Hayoung asked.
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