Work Text:
📂
"J.One?"
"Yes, Felix?"
"I'm in"
"Sweet, razzle-dazzle bitcheeeesss"
"This coding looks so weird dude"
"Tell me about it"
"My firewall's beeping, something wrong doesn't look right"
"It's your teeth"
"Fuck you too I guess"
"M’kay, security's down. Let's clean this shit right up"
Felix announced with his deep voice over the microphone, being received with just a tad of static on
'J.One’
s side but it was crystal clear on Changbin's side, his assigned FBI agent.
Now, you see, Changbin wasn't just there to watch over Felix, he watched over the data of countless intel every day but every once in a while, Felix and J.One would try to break into security and decode intel of major corporations. They broke down and flushed away data of the biggest drug smuggling gangs in their city, effectively sending the police anonymous locations of their HQs. Felix and J.One as much as they were hackers and technically doing the stuff they were doing illegally had helped the police a lot.
And by a lot, it meant a fuckton.
Changbin was responsible for always keeping an eye on all the stuff Felix had for data collecting - how he hadn't been discovered yet was a miracle - making sure no extra white dots passed by him, but of course they didn't, Felix never made a mistake. He always caught on way faster than any agent they had, and that is why they were keeping a close look on him - even though such doing was illegal of itself.
Changbin would wake up to notifications of Felix's fingers typing away codes and he would run to keep up and see what he was working on (most of the times, however, the boy was simply doing jobs for his web design part time job)
He imagined it was like how doctors tell new moms to take care of their babies, eat when they eat, sleep when they sleep, code when they code.
The only thing Changbin did not have access to was Felix's phone, which he thought it was okay anyway since whenever he worked on his phone he'd whine and complain about it being too slow to work on and then move on to his computer.
Of course, there were weeks when all Felix did was designs. He still had to watch his every step though, always wondering if he wasn't leaving any secret messages on his coding for other people - though Felix always did cute designs and Changbin thought it was perhaps impossible to hide life-threatening secret codes inside Bananya website themes.
There were some other weeks when Felix did absolutely nothing. These were the best ones. Changbin actually got some sleep then, he always ate well since the younger was not busy stuffing his mouth with food messily as his fingers flew across his beaten keyboard (eat when they eat, right?) On those weeks, Changbin usually got a work permit to make contact with him, luckily his disguise was awfully simple. He would make sure to pop in on some days he knew Felix was off at the gym he frequented, making sure to go some other days when he wasn't just in case his activity got too suspicious - although the thought was ridiculous if you considered he was literally an FBI agent.
Unbeknownst to anyone but himself, Changbin had been growing a small little crush on Felix. It was hard to not have it happen when the person you watched every single day for hours on end was Felix himself.
So, going to the same gym as him, and hoping and trying to find out if he had or not a thing for guys made him wake up those thirty minutes earlier to take a shower - making sure he was smelling as nice but regular as he could - dressing up in the fittest clothes he had and arriving there earlier so Felix would walk into the gym, greet the receptionist and be led to the working out equipment as Changbin was already working on his set.
Both were very smart guys you see.
To say Felix hadn't noticed Changbin's flirting stares or to say that Changbin hadn't noticed how Felix always smiled at him and played on was an understatement.
Did he feel bad for sneaking glances at him even though he was only there to try and gather info and maybe get his hands on Felix's phone for a few seconds so he could place a bug?
Yes,
terribly
.
Especially because Felix
was
a nice guy. He was funny, smart - incredibly and out of this world smart - handsome, and had that look to him that made him get absolute perfect boyfriend vibes. So yeah, maybe Felix was actually there and not in a relationship - which was great. But it was hard to not grow feelings for a guy you had been watching for
months
. Despite the fact they had basically never talked.
Kind of.
As in Changbin knew all of Felix's public info inside out, he also had gotten used to a lot of his habits and mannerisms. He knew he usually fist-bumped himself whenever he cracked some particular tough code, he also knew his nose scrunched up when he was concentrated and he also knew he had the habit to lean in his screen into a goblin-like form as he pulled all-nighters coding away.
He also knew Felix liked being around in a simple hoodie and shorts - sometimes he'd wear only boxers thinking he was safe at home not really knowing the blushes he was causing Changbin. He knew also his mother usually visited and cooked him homemade food (the boy
was
scrawny and maybe a bit too thin despite having a big appetite, he usually forgot to have his meals when he was far too caught up in a job). Felix also had a small habit of speaking to himself out loud, but to due to his loneliness, Changbin usually found himself replying out loud too as though he could hear him (the thought sat bitterly on his mouth, but he couldn’t help it) He also knew the younger liked dancing and he usually would stand in front of his mirror and practice new moves from girl groups songs, making Changbin want to secretly save the files for future teasing, the thought itself making him smile so he would not acknowledge the fact that if he did ever get to talk and get to know Felix, he would definitely be creeped out by knowing Changbin had been watching all this time.
Besides, his assignment was almost done if Felix and J.One's recent progress was any indication. They were tracking a smuggler that was quite new around their district but powerful enough to be their biggest fish yet, what they didn't know was the leader of the group was also wanted for being the possible murderer of a few connected but secret assassinations of rival gangs.
This gang, after they were almost caught by the police last time, had reinforced their online security. They were like ghosts and no one knew quite where they were or when they would strike, they didn't even have a name, nor a logo, nor a face. Which made tracking them that much harder. But fortunately, Felix had come across some info he 'took' (as in, hacked from the police) and connected cases that they all had thought were unrelated at first, finally giving them a clue. When they received the anonymous letter explaining the connection and how they were right with various emoji stickers to complement the look of the letter, they decided to try and track the web's Robin Hood duo and watch them carefully, trusting them to lead the police on but keeping an eye to see if they were themselves up to any evil - which was definitely not the case, but even after months of observation, his chief was not satisfied and assigned him to take care of the duo taking care of the case by himself. Kind of. They didn’t have any bugs on ‘J.One’ and weren’t watching him, but why? Changbin knew better than to ask.
It was odd and annoying, why did he have to keep watching Felix for such a long time if they
knew
he was a good guy? Felix had never done anything suspicious and as far as they knew he had never done anything illegal either. He was just being an anonymous helper to the police, kind of like Spiderman and Batman.
Which is why it surprises him when, in an odd afternoon, on his second cup of coffee, Changbin finally sees Felix do something quite out of his usual routine. He had even learned how the boy used to code, being familiar with the way he typed, the way he formatted and edited lines and more lines of coding, but this time something felt off.
Felix had suddenly started up his pc in frantic taps and every second of its turning on made him tap his desk more and more frantically,
“I think I know how to get through them” He announced to the air in his room. There was no one there but himself and Changbin always felt as though Felix was talking to him when he talked to himself,
“Alright,-” Changbin slurped loudly on the rim of his paper cup, swallowing the warm liquid and putting it aside, turning on his lousy position in his chair to better face his screens and watch Felix’s movements, “- show me what you got”
On the other side of the screen, Felix smirked as he typed away his password and opened up his programs, almost as though he could hear him.
Felix mumbled the lines of coding and the words in green that popped up in his screen, Changbin could recognize the server as the gang’s, they had gotten in a long time ago but they hadn’t been able to decipher nor crack the codes of any of their documents. Felix clicked away and eventually led them to a different page they had never seen, a white screen popping up and taking all of the space, this made Changbin a bit more alert, tapping his headphone set,
“Chief, we may be getting some development here” His boss came right away to his desk, leaning in on his chair and watching with careful eyes as Felix skimmed the information on the new white page, it seemed like a log but the info was encrypted,
“Where’s he?” He could almost feel the fast heartbeat of his boss against the leather of his chair,
“I have no idea, this-” Changbin made a gesture to the whole screen, “is new”
The boss nodded and squeezed his shoulder tight, “Keep three eyes on him, don’t let anything go by you Seo”
“You got it Bang” His boss went away for some reason, but he appreciated being left alone, he always worked better that way, “What is happening Felix?” He mumbled and crossed his arms, the boy was simply reading through the pages as though he could understand the info.
After a few minutes of scanning the page with his eyes, Felix pointed at a certain line, jumping from his seat and announcing with a big “A-ha!” he had found something.
You see, Changbin had yet to see Felix make a mistake, so when he got such a response from him his heart started racing with pre-built up adrenaline, had he cracked it?
“Now I got you” Felix went to the page’s settings and scrolled until he found the line he had pointed to, typing away codes near it and watching as the whole page started crumbling and re-encoding itself.
Changbin’s eyes went wide, he had just found the heart of the code and was destroying it. Soon the encrypted words started making sense, the random symbols became dates and hours, the words that didn’t make sense started re-arranging themselves,
“Chief?” Something didn’t feel right. The page was becoming a file, and the file looked awfully like something he typed onto every day, “I think Felix is too big a fish for us”
He didn’t even press the intercom, he just spoke out loud enough so the Chief could hear him, he came scurrying back and watched with pure horror in his face the now decrypted words in the white page,
“He is in…” The chief started, but who finished his sentence was Felix ,
“Onto your asses, fucktards” He spoke and laughed away as realization dawned upon their faces.
Changbin and Chief Bang could not form words, the document Felix was still and almost ending decrypting was his watching file.
The file in which Changbin typed away his observations and what Felix had been up to on certain days.
It was his watching log.
Felix was in the police’s watching system, and he knew he was being watched maybe all this time. He also, apparently, had some sort of feedback from their station,
“How?” Changbin half-whispered, not even worried the boy was reading every info they had collected of him, nor afraid of what he was capable of messing up with the police’s biggest intel for so long,
“I got my ways” He answered confirming all of their worries.
A sudden chill ran down Changbin’s spine. Felix had finished the cracking and was staring at the document, skimming the info, not really interested in reading about what he himself had done and they had observed so far. Changbin wondered if Felix also had heard all the times he had called him ‘cute’ out loud - which was almost every day now as his crush developed -, and if all this time Felix had indeed been talking to him out loud. He was not going to lie, this plot twist and Felix’s ability to not only keep himself hidden from all their coders and finding a way inside their data of himself was a new kind of attractive.
“I guess we overestimated you” The Chief sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, frustrated with the turn around of events,
“You sure did mate,” He chuckled and Changbin smiled, that confident and proud look on his face sat well on his features,
“Nice. But why now?” Changbin asked. They were close but not so close on catching that gang, and they needed Felix’s help,
“Well, first of all, you guys could have asked me to help, couldn’t you?” He snapped and looked with a raised eyebrow directly to his webcam, knowing they were watching him,
“His fault, not mine” Changbin pointed to the Chief, not really sure if Felix could see him back. His comment made the boy grin and chuckle again, placing his arms behind his back in a relaxed pose leaning back onto his squeaky chair,
“Now, I’ll help you guys and I’ll send all the info I get if you stop watching me, this is an invasion of privacy and we don’t really want me-” He pointed to himself, a smirk growing bigger on his face at each word, “-against you guys”
The Chief very audibly sighed, rolling his eyes. Felix was right, he was very dangerous and they were lucky Felix was not threatening to take the matters to court - where he would easily win anyways.
“What can we do for you?” The Chief asked, a vein popping on his forehead at clear irritation,
“I want for you guys to pay for Jis-” He coughed as his eyes widened, “I mean J.One’s college. He could use the help” The Chief sighed and nodded, paying for a boy’s college was not going to be such a big stretch on their budget after all,
“AND-” He leaned into his webcam, awfully close and Changbin even unconsciously leaned back on his, “I want you to give Mr. “Seo” some time off, like a week. No! Make it a month” His eyes sparkled with evil mischief and Changbin’s eyebrows shot up to hide under his bangs,
“Wait, me??” He pointed at himself, confusion was written all over his face as he could not imagine why Felix was making such a weird request when he could literally be burning their office down,
“Yeah! You’re cute, plus you’ve been watching me for a long time and seem nice albeit your job is a bit creepy” Felix squinted at his webcam and Changbin fought to not let a blush crawl its way over his cheeks, not really wanting to give Felix that satisfaction,
“That’s…” the Chief trailed off and stared at Changbin for a minute too long, “manageable” He didn’t ask if Felix had any more requests, the want to end this conversation and this whole situation as soon as possible was palpable in his tone of voice,
“Nice” Felix smiled and Changbin sent a tiny thankful smile back, maybe hoping he could meet him around and pay him a coffee to thank him. A month off sounded a bit too sweet after all these months of working and working and working.
“Then that will be it, we will now be cutting all connection with you Felix” The Chief leaned in the screen and sighed again,
“We are thankful for all the help you’ve provided”
Changbin mouthed a sorry behind his back, he felt it was inappropriate to not apologize to Felix after having watched him for so long, Felix seemed to see it and smiled softly in response,
“Fucking thanks!” He grinned and with a simple click all of Changbin’s screens turned blue then black after all the documents he had stored about Felix disappeared in front of his eyes.
They stared at the nothingness for a minute before the Chief’s phone ‘bing’-ed with a notification, and as he took it out of his pocket to take a look at it he was greeted with an email with ‘J.One’s college information followed by a bunch of fire and skulls emojis.
Changbin got up and stretched, the Chief’s eyes following his every movement, he looked a bit still in some kind of calm shock at all that had just happened,
“Thanks for the vacay boss” He squeezed the man’s shoulder a tad too hard and grabbed his belongings on his desk, deciding some time away was exactly what he had been needing.
📂
It’s a couple weeks later that Changbin finally crosses paths with Felix again, he was just walking out of the gym they both went to, he was wearing casual clothes - gray sweatpants and white dirty shoes, a black tank top hidden under a zip-up hoodie, his hair was still kind of damp, a few strands sticking to his face everywhere, and Changbin tried not to stare, the boy looked even more handsome than usual, especially after days of not having seen him. He almost had forgotten just how good-looking he was, but he might have stared for too long, as Felix looked up to meet eyes with him promptly sending Changbin’s brain into panic mode as he wanted to run away from the boy. But he smiled and waved to him, crossing the street quickly so he could catch up to Changbin and greet him properly,
“Hey,” He said and Changbin had almost forgotten how low and sharp his voice sounded as well,
“Hi” He greeted back and took a sip from the coffee he was holding to hide his fear and embarrassment behind the cup,
“Why do you look like I’ll kill you, chill dude” He punched his shoulder lightly and made Changbin nervous-chuckle, he was hoping to avoid interaction with Felix, he still felt bad for all that they had done to him,
“Sorry” His apology came out small and choked which made Felix roll his eyes,
“I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at your boss that made you do what you did” He confessed and watched with amusement as Changbin’s eyes widened,
“Wait, really? You don’t think I’m disgusting and creepy and weird?” He asked hands running cold with anticipation,
“Not really, I did feel very creeped out in the beginning, not gonna lie-” Changbin swallowed dry, “But then you’d always call me ‘cute’ when I did stupid stuff and you always spoke out loud to me like I could hear it” Changbin nodded, feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment now remembering the fact that for as long as Changbin had watched him, Felix had too, “-which I could , but you didn’t know that” He punched Changbin’s arms again, a bit harder this time, making him smile and breathe out in relief a breath he didn’t know he was holding,
“Anyways, I’m hungry, pay me a snack?” Felix tugged his arm and laced them together, “You owe me that much”
Changbin laughed, feeling a sweet wave of relief wash over him and nod at the weird behavior of Felix’s he had been missing,
“I guess I do”
📂