Hacker

Chapter 18 - MY Mission

I woke up the next morning feeling empty. Hayley had already left. My class was only at 4 pm that day. Cleaning myself, I turned on the laptop and put on my earpiece once the program was opened.

"Kill me..." Zack said weakly.

"Not until you tell me what her secret is." Ed replied, followed by punch noises.

My eyes closed. I controlled my breathing, trying to absorb just any information they stored for me.

Zack coughed and inhaled as much air as he could after the hits stopped. I could feel he's controlling himself too. The sound of chain every time he fell on the ground gave me chills of how cruel the person I once loved could be.

I put one of the earpieces off, reaching for my phone instead.

Ed's ringtone was heard from the other side. "Princess calls." He stated. "Now excuse me." I heard he stepped away from Zack and closed the door. The call's picked up. "Hello?"

I'm telling you, his voice was smooth as if he wasn't just tortured a person one second ago. "Hey, Ed." I kept my voice cheery.

The sound of Zack tryna kept himself together was still heard from my right ear. It's distracting. I put off the earpiece completely and closed the program.

"Are you busy right now?" I asked with a hint of hope.

"Not really. Why?" He asked fake curiously when I'm pretty sure he knew exactly why.

"Can we meet somewhere?"

"Sure." He already sounded happy. "I'll pick you up."

"Okay."

Then the call ended.

I dressed up just a lil bit and met him in front of the college once he arrived. My face light up as I saw him, my body language was controlled very carefully when I stepped in his car.

"Hey." I gave my sweetest smile.

"Hey." He replied breathily.

I smiled shyly. "Sorry to bothered you this morning, but I really couldn't wait to share this,"

Ed just watched me, as if appreciating my happy mood. He didn't need to ask or act dumb about it. As someone who's supposedly saved me and my secret, he should know what I was about to share already.

I wet my lips. "Ed?"

He raised his brows and hummed.

"Thank you." I sounded as sincere as I could.

His eyes seemed relax. A genuine smile curved on his lips. "I'd do anything for you," He confessed. "To make things right again, for us."

I kept the appreciation look for a moment, before looking down and started to seem fragile. "So... you've known my secret." I assumed.

He silenced for a bit before replying, "No." he answered honestly, which I did not expect.

I looked back up to him, my brows furrowed. "Then how did you...?" I made a dramatic pause. "Wait, what am I thinking?" I chuckled. "It's Ed, after all. Of course you can do almost everything with techno." I said jokingly.

He let out a chuckle. "It's a no big deal."

I swear he probably thought I was naive back then, but little did he knew...

"So," I trailed off. "I guess you've proven how much you want this." He just responded with a humble smile. "I guess it's a yes then, for us to start over."

He beamed at the expected decision. "You sure about this?" He needed a reassurement.

"I've never been more sure in my life, Ed." I replied.

He chuckled a bit before looking into my eyes again. "But seriously, I have many enemies because of my business. I don't know if it's worth it to risk you -"

"Shh," I put one finger near his lips without touching it. He seemed a bit taken aback but that's the point. "I owe you my life. Don't worry about it, okay? We'll face it together." I curved another sweet smile.

The different is that this enemy is someone you trust. Although it honestly broke my heart to actually do this.

Ed made an attractive half smile. "Okay." He said.

I looked back to the front of the car with a smile that slowly changed to a frown. My brows furrowed, I pretended to be thinking. "There's one thing I wonder, though."

Ed furrowed his brows as well. "What's it?"

"Where's Zack?" My eyes darted to him as I asked.

Being an Oscar-worth-of-an-actor he was, his expression was neutral. "Don't know. Why?"

I bit my lip, looking down with a hint of worry. "Nothing. Just scared if he had other plans."

"I don't think he'll have the gut again. As long as I'm here, you're safe, princess."

Princess. A nickname he always called me.

I smiled.

"Shall we go somewhere? Do you wanna eat something?" He quickly changed the topic.

I let it slide and followed he flow. "Sure."

Long story short, we ended up spending the whole day together. Yeah I skipped a class, but I was a brilliant student so there's nothing to worry about. The only reason I made the mistake - searched for the exam questions in the system - was because of my greed. It'd eaten me alive, making me did the unnecessary and eventually forcing me to face all these.

Plus, Zack's life worth more than just anything right now.