the friendship code

\Culprit identified/

Lee's POV:

Spending time with my family has helped me handle my anxiety. Even though it was a few weeks ago, the fear of being attacked remains. In the first few days after we returned, my anxiety attacks were especially bad. Sometimes to the point where I didn't want to leave my room. At those times I didn't want to see or have anyone near me. Only Jojo I tolerated at my side. So in difficult moments, he became the messenger between me and my family. Be it bringing me food or medicine or getting me out to walk him. What was difficult for me in the beginning. However, as time went on, my condition began to get better, so I was able to start working again after a few days. The regular sessions with my therapist also helped.

In the meantime, when my health was not so good, my loving colleagues already started to detect the hacker. One thing is for sure. He is not an amateur. That is why the search for the culprit will be complicated. First of all, we need to find the IP address of the computer from which the attack was launched. Only then will we know more. If only the damn VPN service provider would play along. Accordingly, this does not make the whole thing any easier.

After a long time of detailed work, we had an address. According to the provider's information, the address belongs to a connection near us. From this point on, this is a case for the police. Luckily I still have good contacts with some of the officers. Within a few days, I got a call with the info that they have it. But more importantly, I was invited to attend the interrogation, since I was the one who first dealt with this issue. In addition, until a few months ago, I worked in the field of cybercrime for the police. In the course of that, I still have the credentials to conduct interrogations.

As it turned out, a couple of teenagers were having fun launching a few hacking attacks on random targets without realizing the consequences. Unfortunately, most of such perpetrators feel too safe and think that they can't be caught. Too bad. In the meantime, technology has come so far that for every encryption you can find a suitable program for decryption. It is only a question of how well the respective service is technically set up. As a result, it didn't take much to charge them with computer sabotage. However, what makes me most angry is the fact that they all come from my former school. This, of course, hurts the reputation considerably. Although I experienced often not good experiences with my school time there, however, it is close to my heart. And this loss hurts.

I can still remember the boys' faces when I left class together with the principal. It was just hilarious. Their faces spoke tapes. None of them had any idea what was coming. Hehe. After quite some time, a grin crept unnoticed onto my face.

Insecure, they looked at each other as they entered the secretary's office. One by one, each of them entered what from their point of view was hell. Alternately, the principal and I asked questions of the poor boys, who were visibly getting smaller and smaller as they sat in their chairs. Too bad, that was just a taste of what was to come in the interrogations and hearings. It feels so good to give these boys a dam good election for their lives.

In the meantime, the amount of nasty comments on social media has also lessened. One could almost think that the whole thing has been forgotten. That's fine with me. The whole hullabaloo about my person didn't do me any good anyway. In short. We are back to the old ways. But why do I still have the feeling that the whole thing is not over yet? Will there still come something? And yes then what?

Ahn and Yash have also slowly returned to their daily routine. Everyone focuses on his or her passion. However, they both check in regularly to see how I'm doing and if I'm getting any hostility or threats. Recently I found out that Yashua is nominated for an award for the first time. I am proud of him. Because he has worked hard to achieve this for so long that he finally got the recognition that he deserves. When he told me, we both got quite emotional.