Chapter Text
“Did you manage to get anything done?” Saebyeok asked as Gihun hurried into the room and practically threw himself at the desk beside hers. “You look like shit.”
“I haven’t slept,” Gihun mumbled, brushing his hands through his hair. “Someone hacked me.”
“Hacked you? I don’t believe there’s anyone out there who cares enough about you to get into your emails or whatever,” she remarked, but Gihun didn’t have the energy to get offended by whatever she was saying.
“Funny. No, my school account,” he corrected, unzipping his bag to try and find the book he needed. “They did all my homework.”
Gihun had actually managed to get some peace the night before. The house was quiet, for what felt like the first time in forever, and he decided to maybe be responsible and get caught up on some work.
When he logged onto his school laptop and decided to start working, his homework was already done. Every single thing. Everything that was overdue had been completed, and anything that was due within the next week. All of it was done, and it was all done correctly.
That was why Gihun couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t think of any reason someone would even want to hack a school account. Presumably, they had their own work to do, probably the exact same work, so he couldn’t imagine anyone would want to do it twice. But then that just left the only choice being some random person, which made even less sense.
“I think you’re hallucinating. You need to sleep more,” Saebyeok said blankly, blinking once before turning to the front of the room.
Gihun wished he was hallucinating, that would make much more sense than whatever was really going on. There was only one other person that he could think would do something like this - Inho.
So, whilst he was on a break, he hid around the quiet side of the school building, beside the science block. Inho was a school year older than him, he’d already done this work before, and he was probably one of the few people who knew enough about Gihun to guess his password.
gihun: have u hacked my school account
inho: pls. why would i do that. i have hobbies and things i don’t even like u that much
gihun: someone hacked my school account and did all my homework
gihun: was it u
inho: how sad do u think i am
inho: i didn’t do it
inho: i wouldn’t be complaining if someone did my work for me
gihun: u mean like how u got junho to make like three presentations for u
inho: ugh whatever go away
Inho was probably a little more melodramatic with Gihun than everyone else, but he got the message. It wasn’t him. He had to think around his other friends, to try and work out who it could’ve been.
Obviously not Saebyeok, she barely cared enough about doing her own work on time. He was fairly certain that Jungbae didn’t know his own password, so he wouldn’t be able to work out Gihun’s. Ali, Daeho, and Junhee wouldn’t care enough to do something like that, and none of them would torment him in that way.
It wouldn’t have been Gyeongseok, he was busy enough in his own life that he wouldn’t take extra time out to do hours of work that wasn’t even his. It only left one person - Sangwoo, which made no sense.
Sangwoo was so incredibly focused on getting into university, Gihun couldn’t imagine that he’d do his own work and then decide to go ahead and do Gihun’s just because he was bored. As much as Sangwoo studied and enjoyed working, there was still a line he wouldn’t push himself over.
He did bring it up to Sangwoo on their way home. They lived close enough together that they walked home every day - it was nice to spend some time together as well. They’d been friends for so long, but as they grew up they’d split off and made their own friends, and it seemed the only real mutual friend they shared was Ali. So, to make sure they didn’t drift apart, they walked home together.
“Someone hacked my school account,” Gihun sighed, staring down at the pavement as they walked along.
“You make it sound like that’s a bad thing for you,” Sangwoo chuckled, gently nudging Gihun with his elbow.
“It’s not, I guess. It’s driving me insane, though. You know what the worst thing is?”
“I’m sure you’re gonna tell me either way.”
“They got everything right. I’ve never done that. It’s going to look suspicious,” he worried. Gihun wasn’t a bad student by any means, and he’d definitely gotten better as he got older, but he wasn’t good enough to constantly get 100%. He had friends that were like that, and Sangwoo was one of them.
That wasn’t enough to accuse him of anything, especially since Saebyeok was also a perfect student, even if she did leave her work until the last minute. Daeho and Junhee were also similar to the two of them - but again, he couldn’t imagine they’d care enough to do something like this.
“I’d take it,” Sangwoo shrugged.
“You don’t need to, you get marks like that anyway.”
“Which is exactly why I’d take it. You know how mad I’d be if someone hacked me and ruined my grades? That’s some bullshit Minyeo would pull,” Sangwoo mumbled, rolling his eyes.
Minyeo was another student in their year, she’d had a massive crush on Sangwoo when they were younger, and since then, she’d glued herself to him and Sangwoo didn’t care enough about getting into fights to tell her to leave him alone. Apparently, she was harmless. However, that judgement came from Saebyeok, and he wasn’t sure how much he trusted her on that.
“You don’t think it was one of her friends?” Gihun asked, stopping where he was and raising his eyebrows as if he’d had some kind of epiphany. Sangwoo reluctantly stopped walking too and resisted rolling his eyes, which Gihun appreciated.
“No. I don’t think it was,” Sangwoo said firmly. “None of them could get grades like that, and the ones that could wouldn’t hack into someone’s account to help them.”
“You think someone did this to help me?”
“Seems like it. I can’t see why someone would do it other than that,” he shrugged before starting to walk off again. It took Gihun a few seconds to follow after him, trying to splutter out some kind of question. “You’re stressed enough that people ask me and Ali if you’re okay. No shit someone wants to help you out. You and Gyeongseok are both losing your minds, I wouldn’t be shocked if someone’s done it for him as well.”
The first thing Gihun did when he got home was throw himself down on the sofa and get his phone out to message Gyeongseok. He was normally terrible at replying, but there was a small window of about an hour that if you could catch him, he would reply at a somewhat reasonable pace.
gihun: GYEONGSEOK
gihun: something so important to ask u
gihun: reply pls i’m going insane
gyeongseok: what’s new?
gihun: hahaha. anyway has anyone hacked ur school account
gyeongseok: idk let me check
gyeongseok: i’m busy atm but i’ll reply tonight
gihun: awesome
Gihun had only very recently become friends with Gyeongseok, within the last few months. They were both teen parents, and Gyeongseok had come to him to talk about it, and they stayed friends.
It was why they were both so busy - when they were out of school, they spent a lot of time looking after their daughters. He couldn’t speak on Gyeongseok’s situation, it wasn’t something he spoke about often. From what Gihun could understand, he was the one to look after his daughter and the mother wasn’t really in the picture.
Gihun’s situation was a little different. His daughter’s mother was still in the picture, but the current arrangement was that their daughter stayed with him. The mother, Eunji, was always more focused on her grades and in Gihun’s opinion, she had better hope for a future, and Gihun didn’t want her to be distracted.
Gyeongseok didn’t reply until that evening when the house was already quiet and Gihun’s daughter was sleeping in her cot in the corner of his room. She was starting to get too big for it now, and he wasn’t too sure what to do when she outgrew it, but it was something he didn’t try to think about an awful lot.
gyeongseok: just checked
gyeongseok: yeah someone hacked me haha crazy
gyeongseok: thank god they’re smart
gihun: sangwoo said to ask u idk. apparently we seem stressed or smth so someone might’ve done the work for us
gyeongseok: woah. no way. us???? stressed?????
gihun: ikr… crazy thing to say
gyeongseok: well. if u figure out who it is don’t tell me. i want to live in ignorance and let someone else do this for me
gihun: ur not dramatic enough about this
gyeongseok: nope!!! soz!
–
“Do you think we’re just stressing them out even more?” Sangwoo asked, lowering his voice. It had been a few days since Gihun’s hacking incident, and he still hadn’t let it go.
Really, Sangwoo wasn’t solely to blame for it. He might’ve suggested it, but it was Hyunju who said it would be a good idea. Plus, Sangwoo knew the login override. He’d stayed behind after a history lesson once to ask a teacher something about an assignment, and he saw the override login he used to get into his account.
He didn’t think it would work on anyone else’s, but when he got home, he tried it out on Gihun’s and it worked. When that happened, he decided to drop it and leave it. What Gihun did with his own schoolwork was none of his business. Even if he was months behind on certain things.
Gihun knew the material, that much was obvious from the study sessions they had with Ali and Daeho (and Jungbae if he could be bothered to appear). He knew the answers to the questions that got thrown out, he just didn’t have the time to complete any of the work to prove it.
Hyunju had been speaking to Sangwoo during a break once, talking about how Gyeongseok was obviously stressed. They’d been friends for a little while, and she’d started picking up on him falling behind. That was when Sangwoo suggested doing their work for them.
Hyunju didn’t understand at first. Both Gihun and Gyeongseok would rather not do the work at all than have someone else do it for them. But Sangwoo still had the override password memorised. It didn’t matter if they didn’t know it was them.
Maybe he wouldn’t have done it if Hyunju wasn’t so enthusiastic. So, that night, Sangwoo logged into Gihun’s account and did his work for him. It was late in the evening, he knew that Gihun would be exhausted from looking after his daughter all afternoon. So, he decided to help him out.
To give Gihun some credit, a lot of the work had been half-completed. All he had to do was fix a few answers that weren’t exactly what he knew the system would look for, fill in a few others, and submit it. It seemed like Hyunju had a harder job than him, having to complete entire tests for Gyeongseok.
Did Sangwoo feel a little guilty about it? Maybe. A little bit. If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t have done it.
“Who’re you two stressing out? Is it Gihun? He’s bothering me,” a voice said from behind the two of them. When they spun around, Minyeo was standing there with her hands on her hips, mid eye roll.
“Leave him alone,” Sangwoo said, waving a hand about.
“He’s bothering me!” She repeated, angrily sitting beside him and crossing her arms. “He thinks I’ve hacked him. Why would I hack him? I don’t care about him.”
“So you’d hack someone you cared about?” Hyunju asked, raising her eyebrows.
“I’d want to know if they talk about me. Anyway, Gihun said he was hacked, and it was something that I would do. Apparently, he thinks I’m your weird friend.”
“You are our weird friend,” Sangwoo said blankly, and Minyeo grinned brightly. “That’s not a compliment.”
“It is! But, would it be one of my friends? My other ‘weird’ friends?” Minyeo mumbled to herself. “It could be. Byeonggi would know how to do that.”
“Good for him!” Hyunju said and smacked a hand against the table, trying to move the conversation on as quickly as she could. “Sangwoo, you said th-”
“You two are so boring!” Minyeo complained, throwing her head back dramatically before standing up. “Where’s Yongsik?”
“Fuck knows, but leave him alone” Sangwoo shrugged, but Minyeo didn’t wait for an answer. “She’s crazy.”
“Hilarious,” Hyunju corrected, waiting until Minyeo was definitely gone until she started speaking again. “Look, this whole thing was your idea. Don’t do it again if you hate it so much. You don’t need me to tell you that.”
“I don’t think it was worth driving Gihun insane. And Gyeongseok doesn’t even care.”
“I didn’t expect him to,” Hyunju shrugged. “If you’re worried about him now, just don’t do it again.”
Sangwoo could’ve just left it where it was, leaving Gihun to hopefully forget it ever happened so that he could move on and get back to normal without obsessing over what happened. That evening, Sangwoo couldn’t sleep, half because he felt so guilty, half because he wanted to keep helping Gihun, and he wasn’t sure what to do.
On their school site, there was an option to leave messages for yourself to remind you to do something again later. So, before he could finally force himself to go to sleep, he grabbed his laptop and opened it, logging back into Gihun’s account before leaving a message for him.
‘I’m just trying to help you out - don’t keep making a fuss if you want me to help you out. I might even tell you who I am.’
Sangwoo cringed to himself and rewrote it about five times before he finally submitted it, thinking he sounded too much like an over-the-top cartoon villain, but he didn’t want to speak himself out of it. He closed his laptop before he could think too much, finally able to fall asleep.