Hey Neighbor PT 10
WC:1.3k~
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Toji
“So what exactly are you wanting me to do, sir?” the lanky male asks Toji. The computer opened and reflected in his oversized glasses.
“I am curious myself,” Shiu sits with his ankle over his knee, staring at Toji from across the kitchen table. “Your text from last night was quite unexpected”
Toji is seated with his forearms braced on the table, a slight frown on his face and a tiredness in his eyes. Which was to be expected since he hadn’t slept a wink the previous night. His mind spun from thoughts of you and this mysterious guy that had interrupted his owning up everything to you. He battled back and forth with his mind–should he really try to find out who this was or should he allow you to live your life and make your own choices? As the sun peaked over the horizon, he came to the middle ground, sorta. He’d find out who this guy was, but that was it! No background checks, no sending out people to his house, and definitely not wiping him off the planet and out of your life. Just a normal hacking of a phone.
“I need to see messages on y/n phone.” Toji answers.
Shiu’s eyes widen, taken back for a moment. Then, his face turns to one of joy. “Ah, already? The agreement must’ve been–”
“This isn’t about the agreement,” Toji interrupts, brusquely. He turns towards the hacker. “Just tell me you can do it.”
The hacker wrings his hands over his keyboard, clearly nervous in the presence of the infamous Toji Fushiguro. “Uhm, I can put spyware on it? Do you have the phone?”
“No, do it remotely. She uses an Apple phone and computer. I’m sure she has messages coming through her computer on the messaging app.” He demands.
“If we are in the range of her wifi, I can crack through her password, and then the software can gather all her credentials–logins and passwords. Then, we just enter those into the messaging app.” The hacker spoke quickly, clearly excited to show off his abilities.
“Do it,” he orders.
~
A day off work was never really a day off. Being so busy with work and honestly being lazy, the house chores had fallen behind. Though you have been living here for a few months now, the house still screams “Grandmother’s house.” You just hadn’t had the heart or the mental strength to get rid of things. Grief made you hang on to it as much as possible Until the smell of her house was replaced with your soft vanilla and lavender smell. You started in the bedroom, packing away old clothes to take to donation centers and replacing the bed sheets with ones that were more you—A soft purple comforter and an overabundance of pillows.
After folding the new bath towels and placing them in the upstairs hallway closet, you look up at the ceiling and the hatch to the attic ladder. You had been dreading going up there for a few reasons. Spiders, dust, dirt, mold, and the wild idea that someone might be up there living for all you knew. Another reason was what you DID know was up there. Pictures, memories of people you would never see again, and memories of moments you’ll never experience. But, today was the day. It had to be done.
Straightening your shoulder, you pull the string and allow the ladder to unfold to the floor. Surprisingly, no dead bodies tumbled down and no clouds of dust poured. You climbed the stairs, holding your phone as a flashlight. Once at the top, you notice it’s not the crypt you expected. It could be a spare room, the floors barely showed signs of neglect, neat stacks of books in the corner, and enough room to stand. Another string hung from the rafters to a light that still worked.
Getting to work, you pull dusty boxes from the corners, carry them to the floor below, gather the books to sort through and sweep the floor. Once satisfied with your cleaning, you gather your supplies and turn off the light. You switch all the supplies to one hand as you shuffle to the ladder.
The canister of furniture polish slips from your arm and rolls to the side of the attic. You chase after it, using your phone light again in the dark. The light bounced off the can and another glint of metal on the wall you hadn’t noticed.
Upon further inspection, you see a small gap in the wall, metal peaking out behind it. Using your phone light, a two-foot by two-foot section of the wall seems to be cut into the wall. YOu dig your finger into the exposed groove and gift it a sideways push. After getting stuck a few times, the panel recedes into the wall at the right, and the content behind it is revealed.
A silver safe about the size of a mini fridge sits behind the wall, a thin layer of dust coating it. A keypad blinks in the upper corner. You take a chance and attempt to pull the handle, hoping it would open—another part of you hoped it wouldn’t. Scared to see what was in it.
After 3 more tugs of the handle, you give up. It clearly needs a passcode. You try a few—1234, 11111, 2222 —-- before again giving up in case it had a system that locked it completely for an undetermined amount of time.
Finally, you climb back down the ladder, Confused, which seems to be your everyday emotion these days. You might as well have a giant question mark above your head
What the fuck is going on?
Toji
“I was able to hack into her cloud and find her contacts. I reverse-searched the number of the last message she received. It comes back to a Connor J. Falco but it appears he’s gone by a multitude of aliases. Here are some of the text messages I was able to—”
“I’m not going to read her messages, just give me what info you have on the guy,” Toji interrupts, slightly closing the laptop that the hacker had rotated around for him to see.
“Isn’t your concern that she is…involved with this man? Romantically?” Shiu chimes in from the living room where he is sitting on the floor with Megumi, playing with action figures. “ I believe I’d want to know what they were discussing, hmmm?”
“That’s—her business,” Toji replies, knowing how ridiculous it sounds.
“Doesn’t hacking into her phone inadvertently—”
“Just give me info on the guy,” Toji says to the hacker. He knows it doesn’t make sense. He tries to ease the guilt of spying by telling himself it’s only half spying. And it’s not spying on you, you were just the obstacle to get to the real prey. He wouldn’t read any of your messages or look through your photos and social media. That’s where he drew the line—the very thin one.
“Connor J Falco is an independent contractor, though I can’t find anything about what exactly he is contracted to do. Small online presence, just moved to town from overseas. No criminal records, no past traffic infractions.”
“See? An upstanding citizen.” Shiu laughs. “Completely harmless.”
“However,” the hacker clears his throat. “That’s just for Connor.”
“What do you mean?” Shiu stands behind the laptop.
“His other alias,” Toji answers. He knew this was what would happen. Whatever persona this guy was showing y/n was no doubt clean. It was his other personas that worried him.
“Correct. And Dmitri Sokolov?” The hacker nods and turns the laptop around for Toji to see. “He has quite a disturbing criminal history.”
Toji slides the laptop closer, clicking through the pages of court records and mugshots both international and domestic. From white-collar to violent crimes. His heart hammers in his chest. These weren’t petty crimes, this guy has experience.
“Shit.”