Wendy hated being a waitress. She went to college when she had to, she had worked hard but, despite her efforts, she ended up being a waitress in a weird café and restaurant that had been having quite the hype for the last five years. Obviously, she was overqualified for her job.

The café had a very detailed menu for the entire day, having over a hundred options in total, between breakfast or whole course meals or even drinks, both alcoholic or nonalcoholic, including deserts and the kids’ menu. Sometimes they would even change some items, including some seasonal dishes that would attract even more customers.

She still hated it, though.

What usually made the whole thing become more bearable was people-watching, something she involuntarily did all the time. It was kind of an escape route to Wendy’s irrational hate thinking and, believe it or not, it actually helped her to stay strong in her crappy job.

Someone that had gotten her eye and attention for the last days was a young customer. A woman, at least a few years younger than her, who would just come in the same time every day while wearing headphones and holding a MacBook, to order a cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits.

The curious thing is that she spent hours there, slowly drinking her beverage, even after it got cold and munching on the biscuits without stopping to type on her laptop, not even for a second. Ok, she would stop at least three times, taking breaks to go to the toilet. But, by all means, the woman seemed to be working nonstop.

Wendy was invested in finding out what was the woman’s occupation more than it was probably healthy for her to be. But the constant typing was something too telling to ignore, at least she just couldn’t ignore it and maybe the stranger was a successful writer on the verge of publishing another blockbuster for all that Wendy knew.

Everything was possible.

“Hey, are you ok?” The said stranger in question asked her. “I’ve just told you my order but you kept staring at me for thirty seconds now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. What was that? What can I get for you today?”

“The usual. Maybe add some whipped cream this time... Yeah, that would be great.”

“Right, what’s your name again, for the hot chocolate cup, you know?”

The stranger just stared at her, she had been there at least ten times before and no one had ever asked her name, not even once. They had waitresses working there that would take their order and bring them to table, for goodness sake. It felt awkward and Wendy was about to leave her table, but the woman decided to say something.

“Your attempt to flirting with me is very awkward, but my name’s Joy.”

Wendy opened but no sound came out, as a sudden heat burned her ears. Sure, Joy was pretty, tall, had some mysterious aura surrounding her that could be quite alluring, but that wasn’t the case. She wasn’t flirting at all, she was just curious (and she was interested, but not in that way).

Besides, it would be highly unprofessional of her if she did flirt and somehow she still cherished having a job, so she just her heels, writing the woman’s name in the paper cup using a sharpie. It wasn’t protocol, but she wasn’t lying about asking customers’ name, sometimes they did that, especially when the café was full.

She heard Joy chuckling, resuming to work. The woman seemed to find Wendy funny as she glanced at her a few times, giggling to herself, until the waitress put the woman’s order on the café’s small table. Joy seemed satisfied when she picked up the cup and saw Wendy’s perfect handwriting on it.

“Thanks, hm, Wendy.” Joy said, looking at Wendy’s small name tag on her apron. “And don’t worry, I was just joking around.”

Wendy smiled at her, one of her customer service smiles, but when she was ready to go back to her position, she accidentally took a look at the laptop’s screen, which was pitch black with some unfamiliar software running a few numbers on the screen. She had never seen that before.

“Are you a hacker?” Wendy gasped, her eyes shining in amusement. “No way!”

“I prefer the term security flaw detector, but I guess you could say that I am.”

“Perfect.”

After Wendy finished her shift, she decided to approach Joy once again. They had exchanged a few words before and Wendy gave her a quick overview of how she would like her services and, much to her delight, the woman was free to go to her place to take a look at her laptop.

She didn’t disclose the entirety of the heist plan, though. At least not until Joohyun approved her chosen hacker, because, by how she constantly observed the younger woman, she could tell that she knew exactly was she doing and was probably good at it.

They walked a few blocks, rubbing their arms in attempt to shield them from the cold, and chatted a bit while doing so. Joy told her that she was, in fact, very young and was considered a prodigy at her high school, and that made her gain one scholarship to Seoul’s University, where she studied and which was why she was a freelancer, something she proved by giving Wendy one of her personal business cards.

Wendy nodded along. Despite being a bit intimidating, the woman was actually very clever and nice, more than she had initially expected her to be, which was a great surprise and she definitely earned points with Wendy when she declared her love for coffee. She was a keeper.

Joohyun had went out to buy other magazines that would be covering the Awards and she would be home any time, and Seulgi had left too, probably because of work or something like that, and she wasn't coming back home any time soon, as Wendy could barely understand her text messages.

Joy made herself very comfortable in one of the couch’s cushions that she had thrown to a corner on the floor and proudly sat on it, going through Wendy’s laptop, while listening to something on her inseparable headphones. She was a pro.

As if in cue, Joohyun arrived, carrying a few bags that she carefully put in a corner while she took of her shoes. She was mumbling something before she saw the stranger going through Wendy’s laptop while bopping her head probably to a music she was hearing on her headphones.

“Wendy-ah, who’s that?” Irene mouthed, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.

Seungwan grabbed her hand and took her to the kitchen, away from Joy’s line of vision. Irene seemed a bit mad, but she didn’t say a word, still quietly questioning her while impatiently tapping her feet on the floor.

“Her name is Joy and she’s the hacker we were looking for.”

Joohyun stared at her blankly and Wendy feared her for a second, but just breathed deeply went the woman left her in the kitchen. Despite not liking surprises, Irene had a very soft spot for Wendy and her ideas, so obviously she was letting it pass. Then, they both went back to where Joy was working, still completely immersed in whatever she was doing before Irene cleared , gaining her attention.

“So, Joy, we do real names here. What’s yours?” Irene inquired.

“Joy.” Joy answered, uninterested.

“Are you kidding me?”

“You can call me Happiness too if you want, or my godly sent savior. You decide.”

Wendy stiffed a laugh and Irene looked back at her angrily. She mouthed “give her a chance” and the leader seemed to contemplate it for a while, because from all options they had seen up to that very moment, the woman did seem like their best bet.

“Your footprint is a mess, Wendy-unnie.” Joy interrupted their little moment.

“Her what?” Irene asked.

“Her footprint, you know, your search history.” Joy explained. “If you guys are planning to steal stuff, you definitely need to clean that up.”

Irene looked rather busted because that possibility hadn’t really crossed her mind before. Usually, she would use other people’s computers and phones, getting rid of the devices as soon as she could, but this time she obviously couldn’t do that.

Wendy just stared at both women while Joy kept on typing rhythmically on her laptop’s keyboard and Irene tried to figure out what the hacker was doing, still a bit surprised by her presence there. But she clearly felt more open to letting the hacker participate in their plan by every second.

“Haven’t you guys ever heard of shielding yourselves?” Joy asked.

“I’m sorry, what?” Wendy asked, clueless.

“You guys are super vulnerable; anyone who’s interested could access your search history and your entire house.”

“Look, we just hired one guy that installed some antivirus’ firewall that...” 

Wendy was cut off by Joy pressing one button on her laptop that made their lights flicker and then her automated curtains went down. Irene, being the jumpy person she was, squealed and gave Joy a death glare that made the hacker flinch a little. But the woman had a clear point that she had just proven it and that was convincing enough to Irene, who just nodded in understanding.

“Welcome to the team, Joy.”

Joy cheered and Wendy giggled when Irene rolled her eyes, going to the kitchen and leaving the other two alone in the living room. Wendy was maybe just as happy as Joy was, because they actually got along very well, from what she could feel for the past six hours, and she could sense that they would become fast friends.

“Oh, I wonder what this ‘secret’ folder has.” Joy teased and Wendy screamed. “Wait, what? Are these music videos? Do you sing, unnie?”

A homemade video of Wendy playing the guitar and singing a Jessie J song started playing and Joy was speechless so was Wendy, for a split second. Wendy was good, in a professional level of good that she couldn't believe, she wanted to hear more of it. But that didn't last long as the owner of that beautiful voice made a point in closing the video, hitting Joy's hands away from her laptop's keyboard. 

“Please, stop meddling in my stuff and stick to your job.” Wendy said, avoiding the question. “And please clean my footprint up!”

“Yes, ma’am!”