7

Charles looked at his white shirt that was a strain with coffee by a certain silver-haired teenager who looked scared as a cat. There was no way Charles was going to make fuzz over that as it wasn't the teenager's fault anyway. Charles looked at that the kid hiding behind his mother who collided with the teenager.

Kira almost screamed at the scene that unfolded in front of her eyes. The arrogant Charles Zimin was splashed with coffee (exaggeration), but that wasn't the most important thing. She couldn't believe the plot of her favourite bl genre was unfolding in front of her. A devilish CEO (?) Top and an angelic-looking bottom perfect fit. Mr Petrov signalled her but she couldn't conceal her fangirl expression.

"Are you alright?" The silver-haired teenager looked worried at seeing the strain on Charles shirt. The youngster looked apologetic, so the kid, his mother and..... an Asian

"We are sorry." The mother said with a genuine expression on her face while giving an angry look to the kid, he was going to get a lecture at home. Seeing her apologizing Charles felt uncomfortable.

"It okay, it not a big deal." Charles left the place instantly after that as he needed to leave for a meeting and having people apologising was just straight out uncomfortable. He started his car while recalling the incident in the coffee shop, didn't he meet the guy with dyed hair before in the restaurant? Charles questioned himself as it was easy to remember an uncommon hair colour and with that face.

(Don't ask me I also don't know what kind of face?)

"Do you think the strain got lighter?" Chase asked Obi who was deep in thought. Both of them were standing outside the washroom.

"What might be Charles Zimin doing here?" Obi raised a question not answering Chase at all. He could feel the murderous glare from Nicolas though he was thousands of kilometres away from him if anything were to happen to Chase.

"Drinking coffee with general Petrov and a woman in nerdy clothes. Maybe he is having an affair with general Petrov, let him live his life." Chase said without much thought as he looked more concerned and annoyed at the coffee strain. He really hated kids.

Obi looked concerned at the mention of general Petrov meeting Charles Zimin who once was after Z. He didn't care from where Chase knew about general Petrov due to the youngster's photogenic memory. He could have just seen him in some interviews. But was that the case?

"Don't overthink about unnecessary things, next thing in the schedule was a vlog right." Chase left the corridor while scrolling on his phone. Obi didn't like Chase's overconfidence. He wasn't particularly annoyed at what Chase said as it was the truth he was overthinking but it wasn't unnecessary. He was working for Nicolas and Chase was just a task for him, completing it held the utmost importance and he didn't want to make any mistakes. Chase didn't particularly have any enemies who would directly harm him but Z had tons of them.

Obi call one of his colleagues and left after instructing him something.

Apartment -

The sky had already turned dark, Chase had finished editing all the vlog that he and Obi shot today. And was scrolling his phone. Though Chase didn't have many close friends be still used social media, it was simply a gen Z behaviour of his but it never got him into any kind of trouble. But posting anything was strictly due to profession, as it was already a bad idea for a hacker to leave digital prints when his identity was out to pen (as Chase Xavier everybody knew his face).

"I edited the video, take look at it." Chase passed the laptop to Obi. Technically, it was Obi's job but both of them didn't seem to care about it. Either way, Chase was good with editing, it was given to his skills with the computer.

Chase made his debut in hacking long before being named Z. It was simply because of curiosity and boredom but it quickly became his passion that didn't fade with time like his other hobbies.

In the early days, Chase only hacked small networks and wandered in the deep web. Curiosity kills the cats, the same curiosity landed Chase in the deepest part of the web known as The web. the dark wasn't that leaves you alone if you enter once and Chase entered it willingly. From the start, Chase never considered the world as paradise but the dark web showed him how worse it could get! This thing helps in shaping Z and the hacker forum that supervised the hackers around the world. In less than a year, Z not only became a force e to that could stop all the hackers from running in cyberspace became the enemy of several powerful figures.

As the result, government organisations around the world were behind him only the thing stopping them was the fact they didn't know his identity. And it was to find him as he was the top hacker right now, in the upcoming year there might be someone who could overthrow him. But it was still in future.

There were many contradictory beliefs about Z. Some considered him a criminal while some praised him as a hero. On the other hand, the government organisations end portrayed him as a person who didn't understand the consequences of his behaviour.

"I think you should cut this part." Obi gave Chase the last improvements in the video before receiving a call. Chase checked the vlog once again when it was done. One of the things about Chase's music career was that he had never got many scandals unlike in his other identity as Z which was all based on scandals. This thing was really surprising in the entertainment industry these days. The only scandals he had was when netizens questioned his sexuality due to his wardrobe choices that were mostly feminine (not really, it depends on where he feels like). But it wasn't considered a scandal as most of the haters were bashed on the internet for invading personal space.

While the second scandal mostly revolved around his educational qualifications. Chase was mostly homeschooled until three years ago. Why it became a scandal he doesn't know? But one thing was clear in the last two years he had two scandals meaning one scandal per year he was looking forward to this year's scandal.

"Director James (JJ's name) called telling about the recording room," Obi explained the call to Chase. In short director, JJ was letting him use a friend's recording room.

"And who is this friend?" Obi thought for a moment, before answering."Um, I also don't know. Don't worry about unnecessary things." After that Obi left for the kitchen like, it was nothing much concerning.

Chase opened his mouth to say something but he knew what to say.