Chapter 159 - 159 The Passcode

159 The Passcode

For the whole week, ASD were absent from the public eye. As they informed everyone about their busy schedule, no one thought twice that ASD might be hiding something from them. Only a handful of people knew the truth.

As Chung-Ho already announced that Rencontre will not work with ASD for the whole week, Jae-Hwa too didn’t ask any questions. Nivritti realised that she knew the truth and Jae-Geun knew the truth but both of them hid the reality from Jae-Hwa. And the day she would get to know, she will definitely kill both of them.

ASD made sure that Nivritti was receiving regular updates. Every member kept updating her except Young-Chul. No matter how many messages she sent him, he never replied. She was a little hurt. Still, she knew that he was not big on connections. He avoided physical touch, he avoided emotional connection. If he would not have been living with other members, he would have avoided them like a plague.

But living together made him slightly open to other members. And he would definitely take time to open up to her. She just needed to be patient. So, she never lost hope. She would send him uplifting messages, jokes, memes, and wished every time for him to get better.

While Nivritti kept thinking about Young-Chul and his health, Dae kept thinking about her. He would try to find excuses to get behind her to find out how to open her phone. But she would always use her face to unlock the screen.

Once he made her search for the Rencontre site on her phone saying that the site looked different on the phone than it looked when opened on a computer. Her phone unlocked the moment it detected her face. His attempt failed.

Another time he lied that he lost the contacts of everyone in the script department as well as ASD’s. He saw her opening up her phone again with facial detection. He clenched his fists with frustration. She messaged him the whole contact list and he had to accept it with a smile.

No matter what he did, how much he tried he would fail, every single time. But he was determined. He had to find that video. He had to search her phone. He had to use that video to make everyone her enemy. If the video would be leaked everyone would think it was her work and will hate her and she will be fired. Little did he know that his efforts were futile.

On the last day of the week, he finally succeeded in his plan. While Jae-Hwa and Nivritti were in the bathroom, he picked up her phone and tried facial detection a few times till it started asking for the passcode to be filled.

.....

When Nivritti came back, he approached both Jae-Hwa and with puppy eyes looked at them.

“Is everything alright, Mr, Seong?” asked Nivritti.

“No, I need your help,” replied Dae.

“Tell us,” Jae-Hwa offered her help.

“Um… I need some money in my account. I will give you cash in return. Could you pay me the same amount online?” said Dae.

“Of course. How much do you want?” asked Nivritti.

He took four notes of 50000 won and gave two each to Jae-Hwa and Nivritti.

“I don’t have this much in my account. I can only transfer 50000,” sulked Jae-Hwa.

“I can send you the total amount if you want. No need to trouble Jae,” suggested Nivritti.

“You have this much money in your account?” Dae was shocked.

“Oh, you don’t know. She received another bonus for saving J…” Jae-Hwa immediately sealed her mouth. She cleared her throat and continued, “for saving me.”

Best

Nivritti shook her head in disbelief and looked at Jae-Hwa with her big fiery eyes. Jae-Hwa instantly mouthed, “sorry.”

“Really?” shouted Dae. His whole body burned with jealousy. He knew who she saved and why she received another bonus. He was already angry at her, hated her for getting the Rencontre bonus and now his hatred climbed up a notch after learning that she received another bonus, and he was oblivious to that fact.

He dug his nails into his palms and stared at both of them. He realised that his facial expression was different than the girls expected it to be. They thought he would be either happy or surprised, but he looked pissed off.

He immediately changed his expression and smiled, “wow! That’s nice. Such gestures must be rewarded.” Finally, Jae-Hwa and Nivritti smiled too.

Dae gave the cash to Nivritti, and she transferred the amount. No matter how much Dae was angry, his focus was on her phone. He kept his eyes on her screen and she typed the eight numbers of her passcode ‘20482048’. She showed him the amount that was deducted from her account, and he smiled at her.

Thanking her, he moved to his desk. Finally, he had her passcode, and it was a simple one to remember. Even then he opened his phone and saved a note that had her passcode on it. Now he needed a chance to check her phone in peace. All he had to do was to wait for another chance when she would leave her phone alone.

After the day was over, all said goodbye to each other and walked together to the lift. Dae again thanked Nivritti for all her help. And she humbly replied that it was her pleasure.

Nivritti reached her home, left her laptop bag and went to the supermarket. She needed food and drinks. She paid with the money that Dae gave her and brought two bags full of groceries. It would be enough for the whole week.

She received a message from Thae that Young-Chul was in his therapy session and was doing well. Speaking of therapy sessions, she pondered if her doctor sent her history to the new doctor. If he had sent it, why was Hei-Ran not giving her a call? Then she realised it was just days. She needed time to read her history and then find a slot to book appointments.

In the meantime, she was happy that Young-Chul was recuperating well. Still, she longed for a reply from him but he always would leave her message on read. She tried to cheer herself up by saying that at least he read her messages.

She cleaned the whole apartment, took a bath, cooked her food, ate it and went to her bed with her laptop. She worked for a bit on scripts. She was glad to see that plagiarism had almost stopped. Only the scripts that were already submitted before issuing a statement about plagiarism software were on the server.

She flagged those scripts so that the IT department could block that ID and she kept reading scripts. She knew she could work for long as the next day was a weekend. She had nowhere to go, no one to visit, so she could sleep in.

She left a message for Young-Chul and kept reading the scripts waiting for his reply. But he never replied. Kyung-Soo informed her that he had his medicine and was sleeping. She made a disappointed face and her concentration in reading the scripts was broken.

Disheartened, she shut down the laptop, placed it on the nightstand and after switching off the light, she went to sleep. The whole night she kept dreaming about Young-Chul who kept ignoring her even in her dream. She kept following him and he kept running away. The funny part was he kept running in the corridors of the hospital.

As she slept late, she was not ready to wake up early. Even after the sunlight kept seeping into the room, she covered her head with the blanket and went back to sleep. She finally woke up around 11 am when her stomach signalled that she was hungry.

She didn’t even bother to check her phone as she knew Young-Chul would not have returned her messages. Sighing, she went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat. She had her face in her palms and she kept sulking.

“Huh… he wanted to go on a date with me and now he keeps ignoring me. I hate him. I won’t message him again,” she sulked and flushed the toilet.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she came out. She quickly prepared breakfast and sat down to eat. She turned on the TV and kept shoving her face with pancakes. She chose to drink coffee today as she needed something strong, and she vowed never to drink alcohol.

She wasted quite some time watching TV and the plates and cup kept staring into her face. Her phone kept chiming with notifications, but she ignored them all. She knew one of the messages would be from a member of ASD giving her the update, but she knew the update would be that Young-Chul was doing fine.

“If he is doing fine, why can’t he reply to my messages? Are his fingers broken? If not, I will break them,” she snapped.

She was busy getting angry at Young-Chul when her doorbell rang. She looked at the clock, it was 1 pm.

“Who came at this time?” she pondered and stood up to open the door.