Noah yanked the hood back—
And immediately let go, stumbling a step backward as if he'd just grabbed a live wire.
The hacker—a girl—blinked up at him, her expression unreadable.
For a moment, there was only the rustling of the trees, the distant hum of campus life carrying on, oblivious to the chaos that had just unfolded here.
Then—
"Bro, please tell me you have a water bottle," Kelvin's voice cut through the silence, his footsteps crunching against the dirt as he finally caught up, panting like he'd run a marathon. "I swear—I just did, like, ten laps around this damn place."
Noah didn't answer.
Kelvin, still hunched over, reached into his pocket for something—then finally looked up.
And froze.
His eyes landed on the girl standing in front of them.
On the hacker.
"…A girl?!!"
His voice cracked on the last word, his exhausted brain short-circuiting.