Ephemeral [707 x MC]

Loop 1- Waiting Game

A/N: may or may not be canon compliant because my memory is iffy at best, but anyway enjoy :)

It's made clear within a few days that MC only has eyes for Zen. She always makes an appearance when Zen's in the chat room, flirting with him, telling him how handsome he is, with an admiring and almost reverential air. And Zen, for his part, plays along- though he's always enjoyed attention, an outlet for his narcissism, so it's too soon for Saeyoung to tell anything for sure.

But he can't help but think that it's a shame. 

MC is just his type after all, going along with all his jokes. When he convinces Yoosung that he has "Pass Out After Drinking Caffeine Syndrome" she plays along perfectly, even after Saeyoung leaves the chat room. When Jaehee tells Yoosung that he's not going to pass out, MC says that it's because "the clock stopped in this world", which makes Saeyoung snicker when he comes back later to read the chats he missed. 

And she seems to care about him.

She asks questions, about his work and about his health. And of course, he shuts her down immediately, but it's still nice to know someone cares. 

It's not a familiar feeling, not anymore. 

Saeyoung thought that there was a spark, some kind of potential. But he was wrong. He's a dangerous man anyway- it's better this way, safer. 

She could be much happier with the gorgeous actor than with the isolated, messed-up hacker.

It only made sense. 

And there was nothing between them, not really. So he tries to be happy for the new couple, and lets himself be pulled back into his work.

It's a couple days later that everything goes to hell. 

Saeyoung's in the middle of work as usual, scarfing down a bag of Honey Buddha chips for.. lunch? Is it lunch time? He doesn't care. He had pulled an all-nighter the previous night trying to wrap up one of his assignments, and he's so dead tired that when the glaring red warning sign pops up on his computer screen, it takes him a moment to register. 

"Damn it," he mutters. A system breach again, so soon after the first one? It's more than a little unnerving. There's no way it isn't related to the first one- nobody after him from Hackers Chasing Hackers is this smart. 

"V would probably tell me not to tell anyone about this," Saeyoung says to the empty room, as if urging some force, some person, to argue with him. To tell him to warn the RFA members. But there's nothing, so with a sigh he begins to restore the firewalls. 

And of course, Echo Girl chooses that evening to attack, to rip Zen's career to pieces. 

Saeyoung doesn't want to get involved- he's busy enough trying to protect the RFA from an attacker they don't even know about, as well as please the organization he works for enough to save his own ass. 

But even over the chat room, Zen sounds like the light in his life is dead- and Saeyoung can't just leave him like that. It reminds him too much of himself. 

And not when MC says in that worried tone he can almost hear, "Is there anything we can do?" Like they're a team. Working together. 

And he likes that.

And he has to admit that maybe he does have a slight soft spot for her. 

He doesn't like to look at the CCTV monitor, trying to give MC some privacy, but he glances at it for a moment. She's pacing, sitting down, fidgeting with her phone, then standing and pacing again. 

It's borderline anxiety-inducing just to watch, even for someone like Saeyoung. 

So he starts to form a plan. Use his resources, gather evidence, expose Echo Girl. If he can convince Jumin to fund this little project, it should be no problem. Or so he tells himself.

And thus 707, defender of justice... takes on more work. 

The next day goes fairly smoothly, so much so that he starts to get a false sense of security. The hacker is quiet and he manages to restore the RFA's digital security, as well as dig up some unimportant but possibly incriminating evidence against Echo Girl. He barely enters the chat room except to look for Jumin (who isn't there, of course) and ends up talking to MC instead. He does like talking to her, even if all she can talk about is Zen. Saeyoung supposes anyone would panic if their boyfriend said some vaguely suicidal things and then disappeared off the face of the earth, so he can't really blame her. 

It's late that night that everything crashes down again. 

Saeyoung wakes up with a start to a series of alarms coming from his computer, and quickly realizes he fell asleep while working. The red warning sign is flashing again, and Saeyoung lets out a string of curses. 

The hacker broke through again, this time targeting something else. The special security system.

The bomb. 

The fucking bomb. In Rika's apartment. 

The likelihood is very good now that if an intruder enters the apartment, they'll be safe- but if an RFA member enters, they'll be blown to pieces. And if MC tries to leave... what happens then?

She could die. At any moment, she could die, and it's all his fault, again, and everyone he loves suffers this same fate, they all-

Saeyoung forces himself to take a deep breath. He needs to focus on fixing this. He needs to tell MC not to move.

But how the hell is he supposed to tell her that she's been living with a bomb the entire time, and nobody so much as warned her? How is he supposed to tell Zen?

He feels like he's going to throw up.

With a shaky hand, he opens the RFA app.