Third person's POV.
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After work, Lisa did not go home immediately but visits an antique shop. She lays out her porcelain fragments in front of the shop assistant and asks: “I wish to repair this, are you able do it?”
The shop assistant is flabbergasted. “This is the first time I see someone who views a bowl with cute-pixie print as an antique.”
“It is not that, I only hope that this bowl can be repaired.”
“Why don’t you simply buy another one?”
“It cannot be bought.”
“To speak the truth, it will be very expensive if we repair the bowl so it is really not worth spending the money. Besides, our repair specialists will likely not want to repair a cute-pixie printed bowl.”
“Er…. What I can do then? I am sorry as I am not very familiar with repairs. I only found out about your shop when I google it online.”
“You can turn right from the shop until you reach the end of the street. There is a shop selling handcrafted porcelain wares and you can try your luck there.”
Lisa thanks him and goes looking for the porcelain shop. To be frank, even she cannot understand her determination to get the ordinary bowl repaired, but when the second shop quotes her an acceptable price to piece back the bowl, Lisa agrees to it and leaves the bowl with them.
By the time she gets home, it is already near to 9 o’clock but she has no appetite despite not having eaten. After taking off her shoes and putting away her bag, she decides to relax first and play some computer games.
After turning on the power for her computer, she leaves to pour herself some water. By the time she is back, the computer is up and running and she spots a fly at the corner of her screen. It is crawling very slowly which gives her time to get a fly swatter and catches it right in the middle when she swats the screen gently. Just when she is about to wipe the fly away with a tissue, a miracle happened – the fly starts crawling again!
Are there really such hardy flies around? Lisa sticks out a curious finger to squash the fly but her finger only encounters the smooth surface of the screen, while the fly continues its leisurely crawl across the screen.
After peering closely at her screen, Lisa becomes sure that the fly is actually inside her screen. Funny, how did it get in? Although she does not know the internal structure of a computer, she knows someone who does although she is not ready to look for him just yet.
Since she bought the computer from Taobao.com, she logins to the website and contacts their friendly customer service.
Customer Service 002: Hello, good evening. How may I help you?
Lisa: Good evening.I have a fly inside my computer screen.
Customer Service 002: ……
Lisa: I like to ask how can I get it out?
Customer Service 002: Miss, our business is very brisk and I am very busy. Please pardon my inability to joke along with you.
Lisa:It is true, I am telling you the truth!
Customer Service 002: Miss, if you continue like this, we will have to end the chat.
Lisa: Please believe me…..
Lisa: Hello? Are you still there?
Lisa: Please listen to me.
But there is no further response from the customer service officer. Lisa looks at the fly again – it is still crawling along unperturbedly, even when she knocks the screen with a pen.
Leaving taobao.com, she next googles on ways to remove a fly from her computer. Suddenly from the corner of her eye, she spots another fly climbing upwards from the bottom left corner of the screen. Another one? She peers at her computer left, right and centre but fails to find the damned hole where flies can get in. Out of ideas, she calls the number of a nearby computer repair shop. This time, she has grown smarter and merely tells the guy that her computer is spoilt rather than a fly has gotten into her computer.
By the time the repair man reaches her house, the number of flies has doubled to 4. When Lisa points the repair guy to her screen, he blinks.Touching the screen, he says seriously. “Miss, I swear on my virginity that unless you dismantle the whole screen, there is no way a fly can get in. As for the ‘flies’, I think your computer has been infected with a virus.”
Lisa is unbelieving. “Please don’t take me for a nincompoop. I know there is this thing call computer viruses but they do not behave like this.It must this dratted female fly that give birth to a nest of baby flies in my computer.”
The repairman hits the print screen button on her computer. “See, since you can see the ‘flies’ on the printout which proves that they are not real. Once you off your PC, these ‘flies’ will disappear.”
Virus developers are a really hardworking lot these days, thinks Lisa to herself. “Oh dear, what shall I do? I cannot do without my computer forever.”
“You can try anti-virus software. Do you have any?”
“Yes.”
“Start killing then.”
Actually, the repairman can leave at this point, but as a special service for his beautiful customer he stays on to supervise the cleaning process. However, after running the anti-virus, the flies have multiplied to 8.
Looking at flies creeping on her screen, Lisa can feel her goose pimples rising and considers smashing the screen. Seeing that the antivirus is ineffective, the repair man next suggest that she reformat her hard disk.
Since there is nothing important in the machine anyway, Lisa agrees to his proposal.The repairman is an expert in this field and is done in no time. Seeing no more dratted flies, Lisa is very happy and pays the repairman without even bargaining on the price.
Unfortunately, the moment the repairman steps out of her door, she sees a fly again. This is driving her crazy!! She calls the repairman once more but this time, he claims that there is nothing more he can do. After a long day and an even more tiring night, Lisa has no more energy to deal with this problem so she turns off her computer and goes to bed.
The next day is a busy work day so she has completely forgotten about the virus by the time she reaches home. Once home, she orders some food delivery and turns on her computer per her habit and in the next instant, she sees that her whole screen is full of flies – crawling, moving, creepy-crawlies that cause nausea to rise up her throat. Reacting quickly, she pulls out the power plug and shouts. “Jungkook!!!”
Her voice echoes in the silent apartment, and for just a short moment, she can feel the oxygen draining from in her brain, then…. tok-tok-tok. Someone is knocking on her door and she hears Jungkook ’s voice. “Lisa, are you looking for me?”
He can actually hear her…… Lisa opens her door but keeps her head bent for she has no idea how to face him.
Jungkook : “Is anything the matter?”
“It is…. that…. can you help me look at my computer?”
“Ok.”
Lisa leads him to her computer and plugs on the power again. At the same time, she turns her head away as the scene is really too much for her to stomach. “My computer has been affected by some virus which cannot be removed by my anti-virus. I have also tried reformatting my hard disk but is not successful.”
“Hmm. Your virus in embedded in a protected document which is why your anti-virus software is unable to detect it. And though you have reformatted your hard disk, there are still several security loopholes. Once I have removed the virus, I’ll patch them for you.”
“My anti-virus software is supposed to be able to detect and patch holes as well.”
Jungkook stares at the screen. “I am better.”
…Such confidence!
And so confident-genius-JK hammers at her computer and for a while, ”You can turn your head over now.”
When Lisa turns and sees a clear screen, she can feel her energy returning and slaps him on the shoulder. “Well done!”
Jungkook looks at her hand and stills. Lisa is a little embarrassed and pulls back her hand to rub her face. “I, I shall get you some water.”
Jungkook turns back to the screen and continues working on her system loopholes. Lisa returns with a glass of water and when she passes him the water, he holds out his hand to take the glass at the same time and his hand ends up wrapping around her hand by accident.
Lisa feels a jolt in her heart and quickly moves back. She rubs the spot where their hands has touched while Jungkook hides a smile as he sips the water.
As he fixes her computer, he also tried to explain to her on this and that, but to Lisa, all of it is gibberish although he did score points for having a nice voice. After a while, Jungkook puts down his water and reboots the machine. “There, it is done.”
Lisa strokes her chin and looks curiously at him. l“I have another question.”
“What is it?”
“I am quite sure that the virus has been removed when I reformatted my disk the first time round. Why did it appear again?”
“Usually in such circumstances, it means that the virus has affected another part of your computer but in this case,” he lowers his head and refuses to look at her. “I am the one who sent the virus.”
“You…!” Lisa sticks her hands to her waist. Due to anger, her fingers has started to shake. “Are you sick?!”
“Yes.” Strictly speaking, he has yet to recover from his cold.
Lisa shakes her head and decides that the 2 of them cannot continue quarrelling like this.Taking a deep breath, she asks. “What do you want?”
Jungkook continues to face her with his scalp. “I am worried that you will not bother with me anymore.”
(◕︵◕)
*Kook pouts*
His cuteness dispelled much of Lisa’s anger and she pulls a stool over to sit beside him.“Lift your head.”
When he complies, she wonders if it is a trick of the light but his face looks a little pale. And this is only after 2 days since she last see him? She gentles her tone. “Am I the one ignoring you? You are the one who is obviously giving me the cold shoulder.”
Looking into her eyes, he says softly. “I am sorry.”
She pouts too. “Hng!”
He suddenly smiles – a gentle curve of the lips – and cajoles. “Lisa, let’s make up.”
She nods. “Ok.”
“Let’s not quarrel anymore.”
“Um.”
Jungkook is very happy and the energy returns back to his eyes.Looking at his smiling face, it becomes Lisa turn to feel a little embarrassed.Turning to her computer, she asks. “This virus that you sent me, how many flies are there altogether?”
“One thousand and twenty-four.”
“That is disgusting.” She pats her heart. “Is there anything worse than this?”
“There is another version with cockroaches. That also has one thousand and twenty-four.”
For a moment, Lisa can imagine a mass of cockroaches crawling, creeping… no, stop, the image is too revolting! Patting her heart once more, she raises both fists in a sign of respect. “Thank you!”
Jungkook does not understand. “What are you thanking me for?”
“Thank you Young Master, for sparing me the cockroach treatment.”
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