Start-Up

Ransomware

In-jae and Ji-pyeong sat with their arms crossed over their chest, staring stonily at Do-san across the table.

"Hey, what is this?" Dal-mi said nervously, "You said this was a double date."

"It is," In-jae said coolly as she eyed Do-san, "We just want to get to know Do-san better."

"Yeah, like what his intentions are for you," Ji-pyeong said, looking Do-san in the eye.

"But In-jae, why is Mr. Han--"

She silenced Dal-mi with a look. "As the boyfriend of your older sister, he is your older brother."

Ji-pyeong almost smiled upon hearing that, but focused instead on looking at Do-san. He was surprised that unlike three years ago, Do-san now looked him in the eye too. He carried himself differently now. Gone was the Do-san who was always hunched over with his head down. The man sitting in front of him was confident and sat with his head held high.

But before Do-san could answer Ji-pyeong's question, his phone rang. "Sorry," he mumbled as he reached for his phone. "Hey, Chul-san, what--" Do-san shot a panicked look at Dal-mi. "We'll be right there," he said and hung up quickly. "We're under a ransomware attack. We have to get back to Sandbox."

They all stood up in haste, and Dal-mi shot a look at her sister. "Go," In-jae said, "We'll be right behind you." Do-san and Dal-mi left quickly as Ji-pyeong went to settle the bill and In-jae asked a waiter to wrap up their food. It would be good to have the food waiting for everyone once the worst was over.

Soon, Ji-pyeong and In-jae rushed into Cheong Myeong Company's office to find the three boys already hard at work at their computers. Ji-pyeong and In-jae watched as Do-san commanded the room. "Dal-mi, keep track of how much time we have left. Sa-ha, you can start making an incident report for the police. Gather all the facts, like what time we received the threat and all that."

Ji-pyeong stepped behind him and watched as Do-san typed furiously at the keyboard. "This strain keeps popping up and it looks so familiar," he muttered. "What do you mean?" Ji-pyeong asked him. "I feel like I've seen this before, during the ransomware attack I helped Chul-san with so many years ago," Do-san replied absentmindedly. Ji-pyeong grabbed a pen and paper, "Dictate it to me," he said, and Do-san read off a string of numbers and letters.

"What is it?" In-jae asked Ji-pyeong as he wrote the numbers and letters down on their whiteboard.

"I read before how ransomware coders are really vain, so they tend to leave their signatures in their work," Ji-pyeong explained, "If Do-san thinks he's seen this before--"

"--Then this could be their signature," In-jae finished, grabbing a marker and standing beside him at the whiteboard.

Together, Ji-pyeong and In-jae set to work deriving anagrams out of the jumble of letters. It could have been fun, working at this word puzzle together, if only the stakes weren't so high.

"We don't have much time," Dal-mi announced worriedly.

"Almost there, Dal-mi. Tell them you're getting the money together. Buy us some time," Do-san ordered as he squinted at his computer screen.

The room was abuzz with nervous energy until finally, Do-san let out a whoop. "Done!" he said, throwing his hands up and getting up from his chair. "We've regained control of our servers."

Yong-san and Chul-san also looked up from their computers. "We've also beefed up the security so they won't be able to try that again," they said, high-fiving each other.

Meanwhile, Ji-pyeong and In-jae looked at the words they had written on the board, then looked at each other. "Do the words Artemis Apollon mean anything to anyone?" Ji-pyeong asked the room.

The three boys stopped their celebration and looked at him. "Those are the usernames of Shin Hyeon and Shin Jeong," Yong-san said slowly, "I saw it in the files they left behind."

In-jae looked at them, everything clicking into place now. "They handed in their resignation the day that you guys joined Cheong Myeong Company. They said they refused to work with their rivals. I didn't really think anything of it because they really didn't like you ever since the Hackathon," she said to them.

Dal-mi suddenly snapped her fingers, "You know, I also saw them a few days after that, they were talking to your stepbrother, In-jae."

She closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. "I should have known my stepfather would have something to do with this," she said.

Do-san stepped in front of In-jae and said, "Don't worry. Whatever technology they've decided to give him will be useless. We'll overhaul all the tech stuff they've touched in your company, and it will be better than anything they made." The other two guys nodded their assent.

In-jae and Ji-pyeong looked at the three guys now and saw what three years at 2STO had done to them. They were now truly confident in their abilities, and even displayed a certain arrogance that In-jae liked. She liked it when her people were competitive and had fire in their belly, and she could see that in the three guys now. Gone were the Samsan Tech boys who only seemed like they wanted to play. These guys were ready to work.

"Okay," In-jae nodded, "The worst is over tonight. You guys can rest--"

She was surprised when Dal-mi shook her head. "No. Now that we know that Shin Hyeon and Shin Jeong are behind this, we need to report them right away, while this incident is still fresh. Do-san, Chul-san, Yong-san, you guys gather all of the tech evidence we need against them. Sa-ha and I will continue working on the incident report. Let's finish this tonight. They won't get away with this," she set her jaw determinedly, and In-jae had never felt more proud of her sister.

In-jae looked up at Ji-pyeong, who shrugged at her. "Okay then," she said, "There's food on the table for when you guys get hungry. I guess we'll leave you to it."

"Okay bye, In-jae," Dal-mi said absentmindedly as she and Sa-ha focused on the computer screen.

In-jae and Ji-pyeong let themselves out of the office and walked down the empty halls of Sandbox. "So that double date didn't go as planned," Ji-pyeong remarked wryly as he pushed the button for the elevator.

"Yeah, but I think we got our answers anyway," In-jae looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

Ji-pyeong nodded, "Yes. He seems different now. More sure of himself."

In-jae nodded too as they entered the elevator, "And that's a good thing, because Dal-mi's changed too. So I guess it's good that they've grown into themselves these past few years."

Ji-pyeong smiled at her and tucked her hair behind her ear. "You've changed too, you know," he said, and she looked up at him questioningly. "I think in the past, you would be in that room right now with them. But now you trust that she can handle it. You have more faith in people now."

She thought about it and smiled, realizing he was right. "Well, you smile more often now," she retorted, and it made him laugh.

"And I wonder whose fault is that?" he teased, making her laugh too.

As they got in the car, Ji-pyeong said, "Hey, we never really did get to eat. Do you want to grab a bite before we head home?"

In-jae nodded happily at him, "At our usual place?" Ji-pyeong smiled wider, "You know it!"

And as Ji-pyeong drove into the night, In-jae sat back and thought of how grateful she was that her life had been changed for the better, all because of this man who loved her.