Early Adopters S01E04 — The Influencer

Continued from previous episode s01e03: Amir hacked into the school system, found the answers to the upcoming tests, and sold these to his classmates. The following day, Jasmin is wrongfully accused by the school of being the hacker who stole the answers and gets suspended.

It had been four days since Jasmin’s suspension.

There were dark circles around Amir’s eyes. He had been sleepless since that day. He wanted to call Jasmin and tell her everything, that it was his fault and that he was sorry. But he didn’t have the strength to do it.

He walked to the sink to wash up. After splashing cold water onto his face, he stared into the mirror. He tilted his head as he heard more notifications from his phone, then lowered his head as he stretched his arms onto the sink to support his weight.

“Am I a bad person for having someone else pay for my actions?” he thought while peeking at his own image reflected in the mirror.

He then heard the school bell and returned to his classroom. He took his usual seat and opened his laptop, waiting for the lesson to start. But he was restless. Was it just him or things had become much quieter since Jasmin had been suspended?

Just then, he saw Mr. Lee pass by the hallway. He got up immediately causing some of his books to fall on the floor to the surprise of the classmate sitting next to him.

“What the heck man?!?”

Amir ignored him and rushed out the room following Mr. Lee.

“Why am I even following him?” Amir said in his mind as he slapped his forehead.

He was about to turn around and leave when a voice called out to him: “Amir?”

“H…Hey. Mr. Lee.” Amir greeted. He felt awkward at the sudden interaction, but he kept his expression plain.

“What a nice surprise! Would you like to come in?” Mr. Lee invited him in. His voice was warm and welcoming.

“Sure. But just for a quick look.” He could feel some sort of excitement.

“I wonder how his office looks like these days. He was probably promoted since he was my teacher years ago, so it should look pretty neat” Amir thought.

Mr. Lee stepped into his office and held the door for Amir. Then closed the door behind him and gestured to Amir to sit, before sitting in his own swivel chair. Amir’s eyes wandered at every corner of the office.

“Your office looks really nice,” Amir said. The walls had been recently painted white and the black accent pieces complimented these well.

“Oh, thank you! It took me a lot of hard work to get into a nice office like this one. But let’s talk about you. How have you been?” Mr. Lee asked with a smile that exposed his irregular teeth and revealed deep wrinkles around his eyes. Amir realized his former mentor had actually aged a lot since the last time they had talked to each other.

“Fine,” Amir replied.

“It’s been a while since I last spoke to you. Are you still into coding?”

“Yes.”

“How about those projects we used to work on? Have you completed them?”

“Yes… probably. But it’s been a while since I have played with these.”

Amir’s expression didn’t change. But secretly appreciated how Mr. Lee remembered their little coding projects.

“ I did a lot of programming back then so I’m not sure anymore.”

“How about the Big Eye program?”

There was a bit of awkwardness in the air. Amir paused at the question and turned to look at Mr. Lee.

“The Big Eye Program?” Amir asked cluelessly, but a sense of familiarity came about. “You mean, the prank program I used to work on to try and spy on my classmates?”

“Ah… Oh, yes! I guess…it was that one”

Amir sensed some hesitation in his voice.

“That program was a really good way of pranking your friends!” Mr. Lee continued while trying to compliment Amir more.

“Well… I think I actually never finished that one because…”

At the back of his mind, Amir tried to remember what had happened to that program. It was a project he and Mr. Lee had spent a lot of time on. It was buried beneath his memories of lame school life. What had happened to it?

“Ahh. Could it be because you felt a bit awkward to invade someone else’s privacy that you scrapped it?”

Amir couldn’t make sense of the conversation anymore and blandly replied, “it could be.”

Mr. Lee smiled. “Invasion of privacy is a crime. But, sometimes, it can also be a useful tool.”

Previous: s01e01, s01e02, s01e03

Next: s01e05, s01e06, s01e07, s01e08, s01e09, s01e10

Brought to you by Slash.

Written and created by Marc Gamet and Mianne Cudal.

Story-telling Consultant: Robin Narciso.

Drawing by Faisal Arief.