Love in the Limelight (Astrid and Elio)

Astrid raised an eyebrow, her fingers rapidly dancing across the keyboard.

To the untrained eye, the code on her screen seemed like an intricate spell of digital wizardry.

Suddenly, a message popped up on her computer screen, "Stop digging, or you'll regret it." Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

With a smirk playing on her lips, Astrid shot back a reply, "Acting like trash? That's no way to talk to your old man, kiddo."

The audience watching her live stream burst into laughter. [Astrid's badassery is breaking through the screen!]

[Dude, I'm falling for Astrid hard. What color burlap sack do you fancy?]

[Are you crazy, trying to bag Astrid like she's some kind of prize? Can I, uh, join you?]

[Marry me! Marry me! Marry me! Got to say it thrice for emphasis!]

[Someone pinch the dreamer above, will ya? Diabetics, stay clear!]

The chat was in hysterics when the challenger responded to Astrid, "Don't think your little hacking tricks are anything special. I'll teach you a lesson today. Crack my firewall in one hour, and I'll introduce you to the hacking legend Aster. But if you fail, I'm leaking your dirty secrets."

Introduce her to Aster? She was Aster! Did she really need an introduction to herself?

But this person's words suggested a familiar connection.

Astrid typed, "Who are you to know Aster?"

The challenger replied, "My name is not for you to know yet."

"Please." Astrid scoffed and got to work.

The live chat grew even more boisterous. [Who dares to challenge our Astrid?]

[But who is this Aster? Sounds as mysterious as Astrid herself. Could they be the same?]

[Let me enlighten some of you. Aster was last year's international hacking competition co-champion.]

[Wait, if that's the case, Astrid can't lose this one, right?]

[Don't jinx it! Astrid can't lose!]

[An hour? It's barely been three minutes...]

As the last comment floated by, Astrid's fingers slammed down on the Enter key, activating the challenger's webcam.

On screen appeared a guy in bright red boxers, sporting a bedhead, slurping ramen and humming, "Live it up, we've got all the time in the world!" Everyone was like, "My eyes!"

Astrid studied the man on screen, who bore a resemblance to a certain Chad.

The guy, blissfully unaware his webcam was on, kept on enjoying his noodles. After a few bites, he noticed something was off — his webcam light was on. The noodle, hanging from his mouth, dropped back into the bowl.

He then yelled, "Dude, your firewall's been breached! In just three minutes!"

"You swindler, you charged me a grand for this firewall, claiming it was unbreakable for an hour, and it's gone in three minutes!"

"Who can break my firewall in three minutes?" a familiar voice called out, followed by another man in matching red boxers.

Astrid raised an eyebrow, a chill in her voice as she turned on her mic: "Aaron, got a death wish?"

At the sound of her voice, Chad froze, his knees turning to jelly, "BOSS!!"

His clueless brother had bragged about landing a big deal on a firewall sale that day, not mentioning its purpose. Chad had been busy gaming with Hank all evening and missed the live stream. Little did he know, his brother had used the firewall to go after his boss, Astrid.

Now, they were in a world of trouble.