Mei Qi is the first to gather enough courage to break their routine. And Juyeon happily complies as if she had been waiting for the invite all this time.

Dayoung gives them an irritating grin that Mei Qi wants to so badly wipe off her face the second they step into the café.

“You must be the spectacularly winsome and mysterious Juyeon. Nice to finally meet you after like a thousand years.”

Juyeon smiles at the recognition, glancing at Mei Qi’s way only to find the redhead shyly avoiding her stare. Something within her flutters when she figures that Mei Qi’s been talking about her to her co-workers. 

“Not so sure about the accuracy of the description, but yeah, that’s my name,” Juyeon greets, gladly shaking Dayoung’s offering hand.

“Just what I’ve assumed from how this one over here talks about you.” Dayoung not-so-discretely nudges her head towards Mei Qi.

That earns her a slap on the arm and a sharp ‘Dayoung!’ whispered…not-so-discretely either, courtesy of a Mei Qi flushing as red as her hair.

Juyeon chuckles and Mei Qi retreats behind the counter to prepare a latte. That laugh has never failed to make her stomach flutter in all the walks she has spent with Juyeon. Somehow, it manages to fully encapsulate all her charm and charisma in one bright smile.

Or maybe Mei Qi has just spent too much thinking about it.

“I think the longer you talk to me, the less you’ll think so.”

“Give yourself some credit,” Dayoung drops her voice to a whisper as she smirks and leans closer to Juyeon, who gives her a raised eyebrow. “You’re the reason she comes in late everyday.”

Dayoung glances over her shoulder to Mei Qi and, much to her surprise, finds the girl pouring water into a cup of steaming espresso. “Are you making an Americano? I thought you were gonna serve her your signature latte.”

Dayoung’s voice breaks Mei Qi out of her daydream as she looks down at what she’s been doing. Letting out a gasp, she stops pouring and silently curses herself when she realizes that she has mistaken the hot water for milk. She huffs. So much for first impressions at work.

Dayoung snickers and turns to Juyeon. “See, you’ve even got her blundering with rookie mistakes she’d never usually make. You have her completely reeled in, huh?”

Just as Dayoung was about to make a ridiculous impersonation of a fisherman winding in the line of a big catch, a curt towel snap to the back has her wincing to the sound of Juyeon’s sweet laughter.

01100101

“I’m sorry you had to see me like that, Dayoung just doesn’t know when to shut up sometimes…”

Mei Qi gives her an apologetic look that is so familiar, Juyeon feels like she has already seen it thousands of times. It’d be cute, she would admit, if not for the always-lingering and always-depressing feeling of guilt and contrition that rains on it. Juyeon almost feels bad; Mei Qi really doesn’t need to apologize as often as she does.

“Don’t be sorry. She’s kind of funny.”

They momentarily glance into the café to catch Dayoung dancing her way to a table with a tray of mugs precariously balanced on the tips of her fingers.

“She is,” Mei Qi agrees, “if you think being weird is funny.”

Mei Qi ducks her head back. She had lead Juyeon to an outside table on the patio, choosing one that is strategically hidden behind a large potted plant sitting in front of the café window. This way, she’d at least be able to avoid Dayoung’s nosy stares and ill-timed remarks. 

She saw the younger girl as sort of a little sister – a complete package at that, with all the lovability and annoyance included, and even a touch of carelessness. Mei Qi adores Dayoung for all she is, even if she did wish came with a filter (and her brain with a sense of prudence). 

Nevertheless, Mei Qi will take all the friends she can consider as family as she could get. She needs it anyways.

“I love the flower. It’s pretty.”

Mei Qi can’t help the ridiculous grin spreading on her face. “You really think so?”

Juyeon nods at her as she takes a sip, delighting in the unexpected happiness she had triggered in the other girl.

She recalls an earlier conversation while Mei Qi was busy and out of earshot; ‘what’s so special about Mei Qi’s special lattes?’ Juyeon had asked Dayoung.

‘Absolutely nothing. But she makes flowers on top with the milk foam and they’re nothing impressive, but she’s always pretty proud of it. She won’t say anything about it, but she’ll make sure you see it. If you say something about it, I’m sure that’ll send her over the moon.’

Dayoung winked at her then, with a playful nudge and a ‘so you better say something about it’ thrown in like some wingwoman pep talk that Juyeon never asked for but appreciated nevertheless.

And Dayoung was right in everything she said. Juyeon noticed it all; the extra pauses and meticulousness that Mei Qi took in handling the cup of latte, the careful but deliberate placing of it on the table, the hopeful stares every time Juyeon glanced at it, and subtle mentions of how fussy she gets perfecting an order.

It’s endearing to see Mei Qi try so hard over getting her to notice a little milk rosette in foam and Juyeon can’t help the smile on her face seeing the joy in Mei Qi’s grin with one offhanded comment about how she likes her flower.

Juyeon her lips after a sip of the latte. “Tell me how you do it.”

“Hm?”

“The flower. How do you do it?”

The warm grin returns, much to Juyeon’s delight, as Mei Qi eagerly jumps in to a longwinded step-by-step of how she prepares lattes. Her rambling is a representation of her unorganized restlessness, one that Juyeon has already uncovered from their daily walks after noticing Mei Qi’s tendency to digress when she gets really excited talking about something.

Or maybe Juyeon has just spent too much time thinking about it.

“Are you into video games?” Juyeon asks out of the blue once she has made it halfway through her latte and has finished complimenting Mei Qi as much as she could. She was getting a kick out of seeing the girl’s cheeks turn the same shade as her hair.

Mei Qi blinks at the rather abrupt question, but shrugs in reply. “I’ve never really been much of a gamer, unless the phase I went through in high school playing Sims everyday counts…?”

Juyeon replies with an orchestrated chuckle to stray away from the risk of awkwardness. Her question had ulterior motives, but Juyeon reminds herself to approach with such questions more casually next time. It wouldn’t be too hard if she’s already enjoys talking to Mei Qi anyways.

“It’s just that I like spending my free time at arcades,” Juyeon says. “I’d love to take you to one someday.”

Juyeon makes a mental note to look for arcades in the Hyperreal world, hoping that the hidden gem of an arcade she frequents at exists here too. In the real world, classic arcades are few and far between with the revived advent of home-based gaming fostered by companies like Seong Industries.

But the old arcade tucked between buildings in a Sinchon alleyway is a lucky find, like a priceless antique in the attic. Juyeon makes sure to pay a visit at least once a week and give up a few coins for a whirl into a past she never lived in.

Mei Qi’s eyes light up (was that a proposition for a date? She wonders). “That sounds really fun!”

“It is! I’ll look for one. There must be plenty around here, but I’ll find a really good place.”

Although touched by Juyeon’s effort, something in her eyes made Mei Qi feel like she's been challenged. Much like a ‘come on, I’ve made my move, what have you go to offer?’ taunt. It’s cheeky with all the right levels of charm and it would’ve had Mei Qi smirking if not for the well-meaning innocent topic of conversation.

So she gets bold.

“In the meantime,” Mei Qi starts. “How about a picnic? We walk through Yeouido Park everyday but it's a lot prettier when admired sitting down.”

Juyeon wants to tell her that Yeouido Park’s not the only thing that’s prettier when admired sitting down, but she saves that quip for another day.

She smiles at her challenge being taken up. “I’m in. Any time you’re free.”

01100101

It’s quite a common thing for people to experience an aha! moment at the most inconvenient of times. Of course, the realization comes spontaneously, but while it may come to others as they’re trying to solve a problem, Jinsook attributes her light-bulb moments to when she’s not in front of a computer.

Jinsook has a strange superstition that her brain functions best while she’s eating. It explains her propensity to have full buffets near her computer while she’s working, though to others who don’t understand such an unfounded belief, they just think she’s using the “superstition” as an excuse to eat and work at the same time.

Since humans must eat to sustain, Jinsook considers it a blessed superstition since it means that she has ample opportunities to think and figure out solutions to problems while she’s eating.  

And while she believes it certainly helps when she’s slurping up jajangmyeon in front of the monitor, sometimes her brain just whirs and dings when she’s not supposed to be thinking of work.

For instance, during the very important Sunday evening family dinners at the Lee household.

“…and then he introduced himself as Jang Hodeung before lecturing us on how Pocheon is a wonderful place and he’s worked there nearly his whole life–“

Jinsook suddenly shoots up from her seat, eyes wide and chopsticks hanging out of . The scraping of her chair against the floor as she pushes it back and the clatter of plates when her hips hit the table halts the conversations around the table.

The abrupt disturbance she causes has the rest of her family glaring at her in surprise.

“What the hell, Jinsook…?” a cousin chirps.

“Are you okay??”

“Sit down!”

“What's up with you?”

“…Is she having a ?” her brother whispers.

Jinsook winces when her aunt slaps her on the arm with a ‘you fool, are you being disrespectful right now?’

She returns all of her relatives' stares like a deer in the headlights before bowing an apology.

“I’m sorry, but...what were you saying?” Jinsook timidly asks her cousin sitting at the end of the table.

“Um, I was just complaining about Herb Island. This Jang Hodeung guy must’ve been eavesdropping because he had the nerve to interrupt and talk to me as if I had just insulted his first born,” her cousin pauses with a derisive chuckle, “Why, what's wrong? Why did you jump up so suddenly?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have to go,” Jinsook tells them hastily.

She scurries out of the dining room, drowning out the confused murmurs of her family and the sound of her mother shouting for her to come back.

01100101

“Hello?”

“Come to the office now.”

“I’m in the middle of dinner, Jinsook,” she hears Jiyeon say on the other end of the call.

“I was too, but I just left for this.”

“Why...? Wait, what day is it? Sunday? Don’t you have a big family dinner tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Oh,” Jiyeon replies shortly, realizing what Jinsook has left just to make this call. “Okay, alright, I’m coming soon.”

“Pick up Yeonjung on the way. I need her too.”

01100101

‘The office’, as they have dubbed it, is nothing more than a modest rented apartment Jiyeon had furnished for them. She figured that they’d need a place to discuss amongst themselves and work peacefully in concentration.

Equipped with the latest technology (and a hefty stash of snacks in the kitchen at Jinsook’s request), it’s any homebody techie’s dream.

It’s a generous gift to her so-called team, despite their initial refusal. But well, if Jiyeon could afford to do it, then why not? Besides, they were all doing this because they want to; Jiyeon doesn’t pay them nor do they demand payment. It was the least she could do.

It could be considered a hobby perhaps, if not for the seriousness and covertness of it all.

“You just ran out on your family in the middle of an important Sunday dinner?”

Jinsook blinks at her. “Should I have told them that I was meeting up with Kim Jiyeon and oh yeah, we’ve got an evil corporation to take down?”

The older girl stares at her blankly before breaking into a chuckle. “Well you must’ve found something important enough to ditch Sunday dinner.”

There’s a sort of glimmer in Jinsook’s eyes that Jiyeon notices. “Hell yeah I did.”

The door slides open and in steps Yeonjung, looking fittingly grumpy considering she had just been abruptly dragged out of her place on a Sunday night.

“What’s so important that you needed me to come too?” she grumbles.

Jinsook jumps in front of one of the computers, talking over the sounds of her hasty typing. From the tone of her voice, Yeonjung and Jiyeon could sense her excitement from a mile away.

“Remember that contact list Sojung got us from Seong the other week?” Jinsook says as she clicks on a key, prompting a screen to descend from the ceiling. “I know you told me to look over it, but to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered. So I just quickly skimmed it.”

Jiyeon straightens her back as she glares at Jinsook, ready to fire her with accusations of half-assing her work, but then Jinsook spins to face her before she’s bombarded with misunderstood reprimand.

“Let me explain myself!” she exclaims hastily, “Listen, I really wasn’t expecting anything to come out of it. I’ve looked into hundreds of contact lists. When Sojung brought another one in, I honestly thought nothing would surprise me on it. And I was right! I skimmed it and all I saw were familiar names of managers and supervisors, addresses of places I’ve already looked into.”

“And so?”

“So I put the paper aside and that was that. But then!” Jinsook smirks as she sticks a finger in the air, “I had a eureka moment during dinner today. My cousin went to Pocheon recently and she was complaining about how outdated the place looked, as if it was stuck in 2020," Jinsook raises her eyebrows, "I rolled my eyes, by the way. Like duh of course it’d be old-fashioned, that’s the town’s whole gimmick! But I digress,” a cough to clear , “she mentioned a Jang Hodeung who told her he worked there. My mind clicked. I knew that name.”

Yeonjung and Jiyeon exchange glances.

“I checked that contact list again and sure enough, he was there. Jang Hodeung. Head physician. So I thought, why is a Seong executive working in such an arbitrary place like Pocheon?”

Jiyeon narrows her eyes. Pocheon does seem like a random place to have a Seong Industries branch location.

“That could just be a coincidence. It could be a different Jang Hodeung.”

Jinsook scoffs. “How many Jang Hodeungs could there possibly be?” she counters. “Besides, his personal number has a Gyeonggi-do area code. That’s where Pocheon is.”

“Wait, you’ve been looking at contact lists with people’s addresses and numbers on it?” Yeonjung interjects.

Jinsook looks at her incredulously, as if of course, if a contact list didn’t have that type of information, then what else?

Yeonjung glares at the both of them. “What the hell? Personal info isn’t for our eyes.”

“Look,” Jiyeon says with a sigh, “I know this type of thing isn’t up your alley, but it’s unavoidable, Yeonjung. Sometimes, we have no choice but to cross the lines. Think of our intentions here, will you? The end justifies the means–”

“You already know how I feel about this whole thing, Jiyeon.”

“Hey!” Jinsook interrupts just as Jiyeon was about to reply to Yeonjung. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound arrogant and inconsiderate, but right now, my discovery is much more important than whether you,” she points to Yeonjung, “find this ethical or not.”

Yeonjung stiffens. “I don’t know how much mud you’re willing to crawl through to get what you want, Jinsook, but I am not a criminal.”

Jinsook blinks at her. Yeonjung's always wanted to keep her hands as clean as possible. 

“Look at what we’re doing!” Jinsook exclaims almost hysterically as she throws her arms in the air and gestures to all the computers in the room. “It’s our task to search for things we’re not supposed to and dig our noses where they don’t belong. We have a mission, Yeonjung, and don’t forget you agreed to it!”

“Enough,” Jiyeon interjects before Jinsook could raise her voice any louder. “I know this whole project is stressing everyone, but please, keep in mind why we’re doing this. We won’t make progress if we don’t collaborate. You two are the most important people to this team and I trust you guys more than anyone else. You both trust me, don’t you?”

This quiets down the bickering of her two young friends as Jiyeon turns her attention to Jinsook, urging her to continue.

“As I was saying,” Jinsook murmurs, “Jang Hodeung’s main office is located in the main building in Seoul, just like the others on the list which is why I didn’t think much of him. Their personal numbers never concerned me since I never thought it'd have anything to do with their job. But then my cousin mentioned him working at Pocheon so I couldn’t help but wonder…what could he be doing there?”

“Maybe Seong have a testing site there? Or a manufacturing plant.”

“If they do, it wasn’t on the list and we’ve never heard of it... And why would they need a head physician? My cousin did say that he told her he’s been working there for years.”

Yeonjung sighs. “So? What do you need me here for?”

Jinsook swallows as she turns to Yeonjung. She rises from her chair. “I phished him earlier before you two came. Modified a previously delivered email from an IP address of a corporate office, obstructed an exchange, and had his reply redirected to me. So now I have an email from him. I need you to find out where it was sent from.”

 “Absolutely not,” Yeonjung replies promptly with a scoff. “You want me to track his corporate email and find out his location? No way. That’s borderline invasion of privacy. Do it yourself!”

“Please!” Jinsook begs, “this is out of my capabilities. I can do a lot of things, but I admit I never learned how to do this. Seong is up to something in Pocheon and we need to find out what. You can do this, I know you can! You’ve done it before!”

“And I vowed to never do it again.”

“Yeonjung, this could be our big break–“

“What this is is a hunch!”

“It’s a strong hunch, you have to trust me! I don’t have time to argue over this, we need to locate where he sent it from before they realize their email exchange has been intercepted.”

Yeonjung groans as she kneads her temples. Jinsook was right; she could do this. But she worried if she should.

She never liked being labeled a hacker, no matter the colour of the hat – black, white, or gray. Of course, it was white that made her feel at ease the most, but she knew it’d be a lie to call herself that considering what they’ve been doing.

The whole project had Yeonjung itching, but she constantly reminds herself of why she agreed to this in the first place. Why she returned to Jiyeon after initially walking out on her.

Their whole operation relied on hunches. And the most important hunch of them all – that Seong Industries was not what they seemed – fueled the zeal within her.

She vowed to do a lot of things, to never cross lines and to never second guess her values. But she also vowed to help her friends. And considering how deep they’re in it already, all the secrets and knowledge they share, Yeonjung would be lying to herself if she didn’t feel devoted to these girls.

Jiyeon turns to her after seeing Jinsook’s pleading eyes. She must really be on to something if she’s begging Yeonjung, of all people, for her help.

“Please, Yeonjung?”

Yeonjung sighs as she begrudgingly takes a seat in front of a computer.

01100101

“The firewall’s insane…”

What was supposed to be a quick track-and-locate job turned into hours of staring at a monitor, furious typing, and delving into the deep web for solutions.

“Must be a high security area,” Jiyeon muses out loud as she looks over their shoulders.

The rows of code and blinking words projected onto the screen made zero sense to her, but judging from Jinsook and Yeonjung’s increasing exasperation, she can comprehend enough of the situation.

“Why are the security measures in such a remote area so hard to bypass?” Jinsook murmurs as she furrows her eyebrows at the command screen. “It’s a tourist city and an outdated one at that. Not only is it fishy that they even have a nearly untrackable facility there, but in a place that’s barely up to Seoul’s level of technological advancement? How?”

"They must be harnessing all the energy. A place like that has technological resource and potential lying around, ignored and untouched," Yeonjung hums. "It's like a gold mine."

Jiyeon narrows her eyes. “Seong’s definitely up to something here…”

“See? I told you I was on to something!” Jinsook exclaims, but Jiyeon shoots her a look. This was not the time for I-told-you-so’s.

Suddenly, Yeonjung lets out a loud gasp.

“I found it!”

Jinsook wheels over to her side as Jiyeon turns her attention to Yeonjung’s screen.

“I found the source location of Jang Hodeung’s email,” Yeonjung says in surprise. 

“Plug it into a map.”

With a few taps of keys and a click of a mouse, the lights of the room automatically dim as a hologram of a satellite map materializes in the middle of the room.

The three girls spin from the monitors to face the projected map. Much to their surprise, the map does not zoom in to the populated areas of civilization and the concrete jungles of Gyeonggi-do.

Instead, the hologram moves northeastern of Pocheon, showing the green of forests as it zooms closer into the rugged mountainous areas.

And then it appears. A gray area of cleared-out land with one thin road leading out. It'd be trivial and easy to miss, considering the small size, if not for the large expanse of nothing around it that made it stick out like a sore thumb. The computer finishes it search as the zooming stops and the map stabilizes.

Jiyeon, Jinsook, and Yeonjung stand upon the map in silence as they exchange puzzled looks with each other.

Deep within the mountains, hidden away from the rest of civilization, sits a small facility. Seong Industries’ logo is just barely visible on the roof from the bird’s eye view. But it’s unmistakable.

“A top-secret facility in the mountains. Well,” Jinsook starts bluntly, slicing the tension that was settling, “that’s totally not weird and suspicious at all. Totally...not shady…”

“I don’t feel too good about this,” Yeonjung murmurs. She feels a knot at the pit of her stomach as she brings a hand to her belly.

Jiyeon crosses her arms, lips pursed and determination gleaming in her eyes. “We need to figure out exactly what’s going on there. This could be what we’ve been looking for the entire time.”

a/n: top secret facility in the middle of the mountains?! totally not shady. and yeonjung is also good at computers (bc irl yeonjung is good at everything)