"We can't afford to have any more of this bullcrap, ______. We have to find that person as soon as possible." The principal stated every word loud and clear, and you can't help but feel the urge to shrink in your seat the longer she looks at you with those big cold eyes. She was obviously very pissed. Very, very pissed.

"Yes ma'am. I'll try my best."

"Don't just try." She slammed her hand on the desk. You felt like you just had a heart attack. "You've taken too long dealing with this matter, ______. And so far, I don't see you doing very well as the president of the student council."

Her tone hinted something like removing you from your position if you screw up in this any farther. Suddenly, you felt this surge of determination and confidence, and you stood up in your seat, looking at her straight in the eye.

"I will do my best, ma'am. I will get that hacker myself. I promise."

And you walked out of the office, ignoring the people's stares as you headed straight towards the council office. If the other officer's can't find a way to track that mothereffing's I.P adress, then maybe it's time for you to do things with your oen hands. After all, it's your honor already at stake, and this grade-manipulation has to end.

"President, I think we--"

"I don't need what you think," you growled at one of the officers you have assigned to the tracking. "I need you to know. I've given you weeks to do this, and you are a programming major for Christ's sake, and you can't even track someone in this same school?!!"

You fought the urge to slam his head against the keyboard as you grabbed him by the collar to take him off the computer. You walked to your desk and took out your laptop.

"Get out. I don't need you here anymore." You heard the closing of the door a few moments later. Did you care if he was hurt? No. He wasn't able to contribute anything to this case and yet, you were the one getting all the scolding from the principal. Like hell, who wouldn't get pissed of at that?!!

Just a few seconds later, you have reached the main server of the school where all the grades of students were stored, edited, and displayed. Only the higher officials of the school and you were given access to this, so you were definite that the hacker was a non-authorized person. You moved to the history log. Surely, the hacker has attacked yesterday again, but the last editing history was still from almost a month ago, when the submission of grades were held. So you have no idea whose grades are being changed and who will be next. The only way to know is by manually checking every student's profiles and add up the sub-grades all over again. Which would take forever.

So you had no choice but to go through the messy and tricky part of the program: The Matrix.

Naah just kidding. We just go inspect the elements.

And so you started looking over the string of commands that seemed to go on forever. So you typed -overlap-, one of the most basic but most useful commands of all. It shows the elements only slapped over the existing command, like painting over graffiti, since overlapping is the only way to "change" elements without the activity showing in the history log. Nah, just a little knowledge passed on by a friend.

Immediately, most of the texts turned grey, except for the few numbers that remained red.

92, 93, 94.

They were grades.

"Gotcha," you smiled proudly to youself, and listed the names of the students whose grades were changed. Unfortunately, you didn't personally know them, so research could be done later. You typed another magical command.

-root-
3 roots online.

"Three?" You mumbled. But there are only two computers allowed to reach the main server. Yours, and the principal's. Brows furrowing, you continued prying deeper.

-roots online-
01.08.11.05 LoSBA-1342747j

02.08.11.05 LoSBA-1342746j

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

There were only two I.P address. The hacker is surely the third one. And the bastard is online now.

-overlap-
92, 93, 94, 79.

There was a new grade added to the list. And look, the sneaky bastard was angry at someone.What an unlucky creature. It indeed was the hacker.

You quickly went back to the address list, panicking as to how you would be able to know the I.P before he goes offline again.

"He can't have a blank I.P address." You mumbled to yourself. It's true. He just can't. But how would you know what those blanks are? There's no command that you know of that could pry it out.

Unless it's already there.

The wise part of your brain suddenly whispered.

Maybe you just can't see it.

Suddenly, you felt this surge of adrenaline as you found another way. You remembered a command that your friend, Xiumin, taught you. Just a little more. A little more push, and the sneaky rotten rat would be exposed.

-phantom-

Immediately, all of the text disappeared from the screen, as if they haven't been there at all. Well, all except one.

L O L L I P O P   ;) ㅁㅁ

Lollipop?

WTF?

Is that seriously a freakin I.P address?

-overlap-
    -inverse-

not found.

It's a dead end.

"Shit!" You slammed your hand down the desk. Like who wouldn't get pissed in this situation? There was a winking face there like he was freaking pissing you off in purpose, knowing that you won't ever know who he is.

Who in the right mind would even use that as a code name? There could be other more cooler names to use!!

Lollipop?

Is he obsessed of lollipops or something? So gay!

There's one person obsessed with lollipops.

There goes the wise voice in your head again. You felt your blood stop flowing. You did know someone obsessed with lollipops.

But he doesn't seem like that type of person. He always gets high grades, so why would he even feel the need to check other people's grades? If it's not because of revenge, then what is?

You know, you better check on Xiumin now.

"Yeah yeah fine," you grumbled at your own brain and dashed out of the office. During lunch break, Xiumin is always staying at the rooftop where he could have his "alone time" without people giving him weird stares for always sucking on a lollipop like a freaking primary schooler. But hey, it's college now. People have the right to do whatever they want.

Including hacking.

After what felt like a million miles, you finally reached the rooftop. As soon as you opened the metal door, cool air brushed against your skin. As you stepped out, you saw Xiumin sitting there at one corner, lollipop in his mouth and his laptop on his lap.

"Oh, hey ______!" His face lightened up in recognition. "What brought you here to my hideout?"

You weren't sure if he was just joking, or there really was a subliminal message in there. You took a deep breath, knowing that what you were about to say might damage your long-time friendship forever. But what has to be done has to be done.

"Xiumin, are you the hacker?"

He looked shocked for a moment, and you silently wished that he would defend himself and say that he's not. Just a little no. It would be enough to make you walk away, and forget that he ever became a suspect.

But then an amused smile formed on his lips. He finished his lollipop, stood up and tucked his laptop into his backpack.

"I thought you'd never find out."

At that moment, you felt this feeling of betrayal, disbelief, shock, and anger. You wanted to scream at him but at the same time, you couldn't bring yourself to be mad at him.

"But... the codes... the phantom command... you were the one that taught me all of them..."

"Yes I did."

"Knowing that I could use them to figure you out?" He slightly nodded. "But... why?"

"It was you I wanted to figure it out. It took you quite a while, though."

"So this was all just a game to you?" You whispered, feeling your heart breaking into microscopic pieces. You have trusted him with all your heart. Heck, you even told him every single detail of your investigation of the hacker, and turns out, he was the hacker you have been stumbling upon.

"You pretended not to know anything while I ran around freaking out about this grade-tampering with the principal breathing fire all over me? You think this is amusing?"

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to be forced to lie." He became serious.

"And why would I be forced to lie? I would have taken you to the principal myself once I found out."

"I'm sure you wouldn't do that."

You narrowed your eyes. "And why not?"

"Because I know you, ______. Even if you are the president of the student council, and everyone is keeping an eye on your every move, you're still not afraid to fight for what's right."

"And so I will. Come with me to the principal right now. I'm taking you in."

"I knew you would do that." He smiled, and you fought the feeling of butterflies in your stomach, His smiles always made you feel all fluttery inside, but not this time. This is not the right time. "I'm not afraid to face the consequences of what I have done, but I just want you to know the reason why I did all that."

You crossed your arms, pretending to look pissed, but deep inside you were begging for him to say the most reasonable reason ever. You still didn't want Xiumin to be involved in trouble, even if he has already done so many questionable things. There was still this thing you called trust.

"Ok then. Why."

"The grading system here is rigged." He began. "The professors add or substract points however they wish, depending on how they feel on the students, if they hate them or worship them or just don't care at all. There are so many students here not getting the grades they deserved, and I didn't want to sit around eating lollipop watching people complain, so I decided to hack into the main server."

Everything still sounded so wrong, but you let him continue.

"Have you ever tried looking through the whole editing history? From the very beginning of the semester?"

"No. That's so much work."

"Well, I did." He grabbed a thick clearbook from his backpack and suddenly tossed it to you. "Those are the print outs of the history. After the formula inputs, the final grades are supposed to be there, but if you look closely, several professors manipulated a few points up or down."

You looked through every printout, and indeed, he was right.

"Of course no one would bother to look that closely into a sea of letters and numbers. You wouldn't see it with the overlap command as well because--"

"Because it was a direct editing and it wasn't overlapped." You continued, starting to understand the situation. Xiumin smiled, knowing that you were starting to be on his side.

"If I told you about this before I started, you would surely agree with me and decide not to reveal me to the student council. That would also have meant that you were lying to the principal if you told her that you didn't know who the hacker was. So I thought it would be best if I just don't tell you."

"Being scolded by the principal two hours a day feels worse than running a thousand kilometers, just so you know." He laughed, and you felt this annoying smile start to tug at the corner of your lips. You went to lean against a fence as the cool wind blew around you once again. Xiumin leaned on the fence just beside you, taking out a new lollipop to eat. He handed you one.

"I thought we were supposed to go to the principal?"

"I have no freakin idea what to do now." You sighed as you stuffed the sweet cola lollipop into your mouth. "I don't want to lose my presidency but at the same time, I don't want to lose you."

"Really?" Xiumin smiled playfully, and it took you a few seconds to realize how weird your statement actually sounded.

"I-I mean, lose you like--uhh--if the principal decides to expel you or something..." You fought the urge to face-palm or just cover your red cheeks in some way. Xiumin chuckled.

"I think you're the best student council president we've ever had."

You tried not to smile like an idiot at his compliment. "And why is that?"

"You perfectly balance everything. Firm but gentle, strict but sweet. You have this natural ability to make everyone like you."

"The principal doesn't like me."

"She's not part of the 'everyone.'" You laughed, and you couldn't help but notice how romantic the scene looked. You and Xiumin, standing side by side on the rooftop, eating lollipop together while just talking about things. This was the reason why you always liked to spend time with him. When you're together, it's like everything just fits.

"Why did you put the LOLLIPOP in the I.P address? Why did you still want me to figure it out if you planned not to tell me in the first place?"

"It was quite part of the excitement, I guess." He shrugged, eyes glinting in mischief. You scoffed and lightly punched him on the shoulder. "Another reason, was that I was testing if you would recognize it was me."

He was looking at you deep in the eye, and you suddenly wondered why you weren't able to look away. "You're the only person here obsessed with lollipops. Of course I'd recognize it was you."

"Are you sure that's the only reason?" You yelped when he suddenly grabbed the wires on your sides, so you were trapped in between his arms, having no other choice but look at him in such close proximity.

"W-well... what other reasons could there be?" You whispered, starting to find it difficult to breathe. Maybe it was because of the intoxicatingly sweet orange scent coming from his breath, or maybe it was because of the way he was gripping the wires behind you.

Or maybe it was because at that moment, everything about him seemed so sexy.

"Well, I could only think of one." Smiling seductively, he inched closer, and slowly pulled the lollipop out of your mouth. He slowly inched closer again, but just as he was just a few inches away, he stopped. "But I think I forgot. How about you? Can you think of another?"

Oh God. Kim Xiumin you are such a tease.

"I think I can help you remember." You said, before pulling on his tie to crash your lips against his. It was amusing how he seemed so surprised by your move, but by the way he immediately kissed back, you knew he also wanted to do the same. The wind blew once again, as if trying to help you make the moment feel more romantic. And it really did feel more romantic.

"Mmmm, you taste like cola," Xiumin licked his lips, and your heart did something similar to multiple cartwheels.

"You taste like orange." You laughed. He leaned in for a short peck on your lips, then on your nose, before pulling you into a tight hug.

"Thank you...," he mumbled into your hair, making you look up at him with furrowed brows.

"For what?"

He smiled softly, and once again, it made your stomach go all fluttery.

"For liking me back."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[A/N]: I apologize if the command codes all look like crap and sound like crap especially to those that actually know a thing or two about programming. I'm just another potato in programming but anyway Xiumin was hot in here so yeah~ ^^

Sehun will be up next. He will be the last one in this theme. T_____T