A/N: I'm just trying to see how long I can drag this pizza lust out for? How many of you are getting hungry by now? Also, note that the Arabic was Google Translated, so it makes very little sense but should mean "This is a security system designed to combat Vanderwood created by Agent 707. This is the password."
Ciphertext – Chapter 33: Home Security
It was 8:15am by the time they arrived at Luciel's place, and the sun had already completely filled the sky. Slowly manoeuvring his Spyder into the underground car parking area, Luciel slipped his phone out of his pocket and threw it casually onto Eun-ji's lap. She jolted as she felt the impact of the phone making contact with her legs.
"You want to enter the password to get into the house?" he asked, giving her a coy smile.
"It's password protected?"
"Yup. I mean with a job as dangerous as mine, I've got to keep things super secure."
"I suppose so. What's the password?"
"Take a guess …" teased Luciel.
"Your … birthday?" Then, realising she was missing a vital piece of information. "Hey, when is your birthday anyway?"
Luciel hesitated. "Ah, it's um … October 15th" It had been so long since someone asked that he almost forgot what it was. Then there was the fact that he just didn't like to focus too hard on insignificant numbers and dates in the first place. "But no … do you really think I'd use my birthday as a password? I'm not taking those kinds of risks."
"No way!" yelled Eun-ji, accidentally squeezing his phone between her hands as she squealed with joy.
"Hmm?"
"We share the same birthday!"
"We do?"
"Yeah, what are the chances of that? Seriously!"
"Statistically speaking actually not that unlikely."
Eun-ji pretended to look upset by his stoic comment. "Oh? You could have just gone along with it!"
"So … we don't share the same birthday?"
"Mm-hmm. I was only kidding, but wouldn't that be great?"
Luciel looked a bit relieved and smiled back at her. "Would it? But then … we would be like twins!"
Then, realising something, Eun-ji posed a new question. "Saeyoung, don't you have any siblings?"
"Nope. I'm an only child. Well, no that's not true. Actually, I technically had an older sister but …" He paused.
"You had a sister?" Eun-ji pondered this for a moment. "D-did she-?"
"She didn't die when she was a child or anything if that's what you're wondering."
It felt like she had touched a nerve. "Oh no, I wasn't insinuating-" Eun-ji said, waving her hands around to prove otherwise. Of course that had been the first thought that popped into her head.
Luciel let out a mildly frustrated huff. "It's fine. Everyone assumes that's the way things went when I leave my sentences unfinished like that." It was almost like he was fed up of having to tell the same story to so many different people.
"So … what happened to her?" Eun-ji was a little reluctant to ask, but she needed to know everything now that her own personal secret was out.
"My parents sold her."
Eun-ji couldn't believe what she was hearing. "WH-WHAT!? They SOLD her?"
"Yeah … to the sex industry. My father used to be a well-known politician for the Democratic Party – maybe you've heard of him, Woo-jin Choi. Eight years ago he was exposed by a journalist from the Seoul Times for having an affair with his political opponent – a female candidate, and then stealing money from his peers to fund the gifts he was buying her. After that, my parents became financially and emotionally unstable; they needed income but nobody would take my father on for work, not even at the local McDonalds. My mother became clinically depressed after my father arranged to have my sister, Su-bin, sent to work for a brothel for rich oil tycoons in the Middle East.
I know it sounds too ridiculous to be true, but this shit really happened. My parents were so consumed with selfishness and greed that they couldn't see beyond the materialistic. It was an awful time and I wanted more than anything to get away from that home. I wanted to earn money so I could set out and rescue her. She was my only sibling; I knew I'd do anything to keep her safe. So I learned a new skill by becoming a hacker, getting short-term experience here and there. V was the one who helped me to get my first job when I was only fifteen. I guess I should at least be grateful to him for that, putting aside his recent history."
Eun-ji covered her mouth in horror. Her chest felt heavy. "Oh my God, th-that's crazy! She was sent to a brothel by her own parents? It's just like something from a TV drama. But I don't understand. How could that kind of thing even happen in this day and age?"
Luciel continued with his story. "I learned how to hack and got accepted to work on my first government contract and although I had tried to keep it a secret, my mother found out about it. She bitterly opposed my decision. She wanted to see me become a valuable member of society, someone who would take on a profession which reflected values of kindness and fairness. The condescending bitch!" Those last words pointed to the fact that he didn't think fondly of his mother at all.
"But you are such a kind guy, Saeyoung." Eun-ji asserted, taking his hand. "Deep down, you must know that. It doesn't matter what kind of work you do if you're already a nice person. Plus, you make a really decent salary, so it's a win-win situation isn't it?"
On the surface, Luciel smiled her reassuring words. Inside, however, he knew the opposite was true and he wasn't going to deny it. "All the good intentions and money in the world couldn't change what happened to Su-bin. No. You have no idea what I've been through to try and save her in the past. I even tried to hack into the Saudi government mainframe once. That backfired, even though I was so close to finding the information I needed to obtain her location. But it wasn't enough. I didn't try hard enough. I failed."
Eun-ji felt her heart sink. "Why would you blame yourself for trying?" She understood that his reasons for becoming a hacker were legitimate, even if they were fuelled by a personal sense of vengeance.
"It was hard for me to recognise the effort I had put in until recently. At the time, my skills were lacking precision and there were gaps in my knowledge, so there wasn't anything I could do." He let go of Eun-ji's hand and gripped the steering wheel tightly. "It was too early to make my move."
"Then why aren't you trying now? Surely your work must have afforded you the opportunity to access the information to infiltrate the brothel?"
Luciel stared directly ahead through the windscreen at the grey wall before them. "She … was murdered by one of the owners, two years ago. That's when I could finally give up on trying to reach her." His voice was a mildly broken stutter. "After all those years of torture."
"Saeyoung …" She said, unbuckling her seatbelt and wrapping her slender arms around his waist at a rather awkward angle. "Nothing I can say will take away the pain you've experienced. That much I know. But thank you for sharing this with me, because now I really understand that you deserve so, so much more than that."
Dredging up that feeling of bitter resentment was the last thing he had wanted to do in front of Eun-ji. He had never intended to bring up the past. But having her there comforted him somewhat. "I-I don't know how long I've been repressing those emotions but … but it feels so good to be able to get them out of my conscience." His eyes stung as he tried to hold back the tears. He pushed the bridge of his glasses further onto his face in an attempt to disguise it and clenched his teeth.
"Stop trying so hard to be a hero Saeyoung. I won't think you're weak if you start crying right now. When you cry, your tears will cleanse you on the inside. Think about it that way." Eun-ji looked down at her lap. "At least, that's what I told myself on all those sleepless nights. Crying … isn't weak."
Luciel let nothing more than a single tear fall down his cheek as he calmly embraced Eun-ji's shoulders, bringing her body in closer. "That's really sweet. I won't forget that."
"I can think of one thing that will help," said Eun-ji staring up at him with a hopeful expression, her eyes seemingly begging for something.
"Um … isn't it a little … early for that kind of thing?" Luciel's face suddenly flushed a light shade of red.
"It is NEVER too early for pizza!"
Heh. I should have known she was talking about the pizza! It's been on our minds for the past two days after all …
Luciel brushed away the unsavoury ideas that had sprung into his mind. "M-my thoughts exactly! Come on, let's get in the house. Try and deactivate the security system. Listen carefully, this is my password. He took a deep breath.
هذا هو النظام الأمني لمكافحة Vanderwood صممه وكيل 707. هذا هو كلمة السر
His pronunciation seemed flawless but Eun-ji didn't understand these strange foreign words at all and responded with a confused expression.
"Wh-what language is that?"
"It's Arabic."
"I thought you only spoke Korean?"
"I don't speak English, but I had to learn Arabic when I was hacking the Saudi government's system. They speak English widely, but that didn't help me at all.
"So why did you set your home security password to Arabic?"
"It's supposed to be my Vanderwood deterrent system. No way the guy could repeat those words, and in my exact vocal tone."
"Vanderwood? Is that somebody you work with?"
"Well, yeah although as things stand right now, I "used to work with" him."
Eun-ji giggled. "Obviously you don't like him all that much."
"Aha. I guess I've never exactly hated the guy. He has done a lot for me in the past even under Tom's watchful eye."
"So why the extra layer of security?"
"Who knows? I just like to be petty sometimes."
"Honestly. What are we going to do with you?" said Eun-ji pouting cutely.
Luciel grinned back at her boyishly.
"Anyway, we're stalling. Let's get inside. Can't keep that pizza waiting any longer."