cryptic | Mark Lee

6

"Fuck." Mark curses under his breath. "Hyung you're gonna want to come in here!" he calls out.

Taeyong and Doyoung barge into the young leader's office only to be greeted with Mark staring at a blank computer screen.

"You called us up here to show that your computer died?" Doyoung asks with raised eyebrows.

"What, no? It just blacked out and then things were being typed out." as he spoke the computer began to display a message on the blacked out screen.

'seasons greetings'
-cryptic

"God damn it, he's back?" Taeyong huffs out.

A string of smaller mafias had been dealing with a hacker by the name of 'Cryptic' for a few years already. So far the demands have only been for money, or to release captives. However for NCT, Cryptic just seems to enjoy annoying the hell out of them.

From randomly hacking into their tv, to sending small messages every once in a while that sound vaguely like threats. Cryptic seemed to be in the holiday mood today.

"Maybe it's one of our allies playing a prank on us?" Mark asks.

They're friendly with a few other mafias. Maybe they thought it would be a funny thing to do.

"Well they're definitely doing a good job at annoying the fuck out of us." Taeyong walks out of the room agitated.

What kind of person would spend their time hacking someone only to do no harm?

-:-:-:-:-:-

"So by the looks on your faces I guess you remember me."

"You're the one who kept hacking our computers?" Mark asks standing up from his seat.

"It was years ago. I wasn't even in high school yet." she reminds him hoping to ease the tension in the room.

Her statement went over everyone's head however.

"You're the one who sent me a virus that did nothing but play Ring Ding Dong on my phone for a week." Johnny gasps.

A look of guilt flashes across her face. She did a lot of things while hacking. Some were harmless like the pranks she pulled on NCT while they were still establishing themselves, some were not as harmless.

"I knew you had an alliance with EXO, and I needed practice." she tries to explain. "I know that I caused some panic, but I never meant to cause any harm.

"She technically didn't do anything damaging to our systems." Jaehyun defends.

"She's also the only person who has ever been able to hack into our systems."  Yuta reminds everyone. "If you're not an official part of EXO that means you're also not a part of the alliance. How can we trust you?"

"I don't expect you to." her eyes focus on the ground. "Look, I retired two years ago. I'm not Cryptic the underground hacker anymore, i'm Zhang Aera a normal student who has nothing to do with mafias or any criminal activity."

"So we're just expected to let her go? To act as if one of the best hackers in the world doesn't go to the same school as the Dreamies?" Yuta asks incredulously.

"So what?" Aera asks now annoyed by Yuta's attitude. "You want me to join EXO? You want me to join the alliance huh? I retired. I'm never doing mafia work again."

They were now both on their feet face to face with each other. The other members could do nothing but watch as the two exchanged looks of spite.

"You can't just quit this life, it doesn't work like that." Yuta raises his voice at her.

"You don't know what happened, you don't get to say how I decide to live my life."

"Oh no, the princess got tired of hacking." he mocks. "What, did they not pay you enough? Did it get too difficult when you realized this is the real world huh?"

"They killed my best friend!"

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The seconds felt like hours. The atmosphere thick and full of negative energy.

"They thought he was Cryptic." she says barely above a whisper.

She recalls that day not going into detail for her own sake.

"They raided the house while I was on a mission. They killed him in cold blood. I didn't even get to say goodbye." tears threaten to stream down her face.

She remembers coming home to an empty house with no proof of life anywhere. It had been robbed thoroughly, blood splattered everywhere, and with a final message written on the door.

'cryptic'

"We were only 16." she looks up at Yuta. "So no, i'm not joining any alliance or any mafia. I'd rather join him than join you."

Her final words send a pang through the hearts of almost every member. She thought of them the same way as she thought of the killers, and even if none of them would admit it, it hurt.

"Aera, i'm not sure you have a choice." Kai sighs breaking the silence. "If they know, they can say we've broken the alliance by not giving up your information. Or they could come out and say you're Cryptic, bounties would go out for you."

"So what? I join EXO, I become an underground hacker again? What happens now?" she asks.

"Family meeting."