Henry sat, attentive to his surroundings, he noticed a bug crawling over the shoe of one of the other passengers. It was oblivious to its location. It could have been a tree outside in the park for all it knew or the outside of a building, yet there it was. He looked up at the man’s face. Older. It remained buried in his phone. Was he consciously trying to avoid Henry's gaze or did he just not care?

  Henry returned to the bug, it was slowly making its way towards the door before... “SCREEEECH!!!!” The tannoy whirred, almost deafening everyone and breaking Henry's concentration. A monotone AI voice announced nearing the next stop. Henry's stop. He climbed out of his seat and shook out the rust. He noticed the bug had been crushed in the stampede. He knew that feeling, as he joined the crowd.

  The door opened and everyone lurched out like a herd of cattle. Henry almost last, placing his feet on the platform, as if landing on the moon. One small step, but for what? This was not an achievement, just another day.

  He followed in behind. Just one of many, thinking nothing in particular. Everyday, he passed a flickering advertisement board, taking the time to stop and face it directly, its blinking almost a polite smile. Millions of data points, yet the district AI cannot send out a crew to fix you. So sad. He had forgotten when had first noticed it, which was odd, his implants seemed to stimulate his brain into remembering everything, why was this different? Had it been before his implants? Is that how long he had been here? That would be almost 30 years ago. Nah it couldn’t have been. The question gnawed at him, even as he headed on towards the office.

  Same day. Same as yesterday. Tomorrow, he could guess, but would likely be the same again.

  He pushed the button for the elevator. One or two people milled about. The elevator arrived and people appeared from everywhere, like cockroaches escaping the light. They all crammed in, weight limit be damned. When it came to Henry’s floor, a wrestling match ensued, but somehow he managed to get out and take a breath.

  Henry made his way to his cubicle and put his bag down at his cubicle entrance. He noticed Mara had her earphones on, humming along to a quick, upbeat tempo. She was hunched over the keyboard, fingers pawing quickly and confidently. Her brow furrowed with intense concentration, head nodding as each entry flashed across the screen, as oblivious to the world as the bug on the train.

  . . .

  It took about thirty minutes for Henry to settle into his workflow, before Mara noticed him.

  “Oh, you’re here. Why didn’t you say something?” she said, pulling out one earbud.

  Henry smiled, not looking up. “You looked so happy and busy. Why would I want to ruin that?”

  Mara's eyes narrowed "Do not play with me, smartass. Besides, I have a favour to ask." She watched as Henry opened a shell and started with SQL commands. “You know that you can use the AI, it’s quicker.”

  Here we go again.

  "I know but I like to keep my hand in. Old habits. What happened to the last favour I gave you?" Henry asked, feigning innocence.

  Mara brushed it off with the wave of her hand "Hmph, SQL Ninja. Yeah, I’ll pay you back. Someday. Anyway, there’s a hackathon tonight, wanna go?"

  Henry tried to hide his reluctance. "Not really."

  Mara leaned in, undeterred. "Oh come on, it’ll be fun, you know you love those things just as much as me."

  "It is not going to be fun, is it?” Henry deadpanned. “Tell you what… I’ll speak to Yosh at lunch and see what she thinks."

  Mara pumped her fist, grinning. She knew that Yoshimi would be up for it.

  Henry’s eyes glazed over the code, the gentle hum of the computer filling the silence. Meanwhile, his subconscious and implant worked together and submitted his latest work.

  He felt a prod from behind that jolted him awake.

  Mara looked over his shoulder at the computer screen.

  “I was saying it is almost lunch and you need to speak to Yoshi. Ha. You really screwed up that submission.”

  Henry blinked at the screen, struggling to recall what he’d just submitted. He still felt groggy

  “Yeah. I can see District sending it back asking what the... am I playing at?”

  At that moment, a green box flashed across the screen, “Submission Accepted.” Even Henry was surprised.

  Mara’s jaw dropped as stared at him in disbelief “You have got to be joking. You are really just cheating or showing off now.”

  Henry shrugged, locked his computer, and stood up to pick up his coat.

  “I am just that good. Do you want to join us, I’m sure Yosh won’t mind?”

  Returning to her workstation, Mara said “Nah, I’m gonna stay on and finish this one.”

  Before leaving Henry leaned on the cubicle. “Can I get you anything?”

  Mara already settling into her work. “Nah, really, I’m good.”

  Henry bid her goodbye and slipped into the elevator. Back into the sea of bodies, feeling the familiar press of the crowd. Everybody had the same idea, at the same time: now was a good time to get lunch. If only people co-ordinated better, the rush could be avoided. A city swimming in data, yet people still followed the crowds.

  The usual combat ensued. People who would normally never even consider bodily contact, now gently nudged each other for space. When the elevator hit the ground floor, the sea emptied. Thankfully no fighting to get out this time.

  . . .

  Henry meandered into the cafeteria, which was not as busy as usual.

  He scanned the room and found Yoshimi, head down, tucking into her lunch. He smiled, simply standing and watching. He enjoyed the simple pleasure of watching her, even if from afar.

  She looked up, saw him, and started waving enthusiastically.

  A look of puzzlement came over her face, as if to say “why is he not coming over?”

  She smiled as he began walking to her seat.

  “Are you alright?” she asked, putting down her cutlery.

  “Fine, why?” Henry replied.

  She stroked his hand gently, with slight worry. “You didn’t come over when I waved. I was surprised.”

  Henry smiled at the gesture, “Nothing wrong, I enjoyed watching you, that was all.” He kissed her head and gently smelt the soft, delicate scent of apple blossom with a faint hint of something else, something Yoshimi had named, but he no longer remembered. He felt her recoil slightly but allowed the contact. It had been over a year, yet she still felt awkward with physical contact in public.

  “Won’t be a minute, just going to get something to eat.” She nodded then returned to her meal.

  He joined the queue, glanced briefly at the food on display. He would always get the same thing, cottage pie or pot pie and chips. Always with chips. In 30 years, he would always hope that one day, they would serve steak pie, but it never happened. It was one of the few things he missed being outside the UK, but we all have our cross to bear.

  He paid and returned to Yoshimi, who had already finished and was now frantically writing in her journal.

  As he sat down with his tray, she looked up and smiled.

  Henry poured salt onto his food. Yoshimi still found this unusual but never said anything, instead he saw her eyes flitting back and forth between him, his food, and the serving counter.

  “Would you like some?” Henry asked, pushing his plate towards her.

  She bowed slightly and said, “No, thank you”

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  Henry’s eyes narrowed. “Except you do want something?”

  She sighed. “Yes, I would like a slice of cake but… I don’t want to be greedy or get fat.”

  Henry chuckled at her restraint, before devouring some of his meal. “While you getting fat wouldn’t bother me, it might worry some of your other boyfriends. If you want cake, have some cake or do you want me to get it?”

  Her eyes widened in mock outrage at the mention of other men, but Henry thought he caught a flicker of relief as she realised she had his approval.

  “No, it is fine, I can get it,” she said, getting up to leave, with a small nod.

  He looked up and noticed her journal was open. Brushing his mouth with the napkin and his fingers, he slid the journal towards him and began reading:

  “Date – XX/XX/XXXX

  It has been 18 months and my English seems to be stagnating. I had a conversation over the telephone with a client and although I was able to express myself, it felt awkward, as though they were not really getting what I was saying.

  I am so frustrated and feel so stupid. Henry is being nice. He always makes a joke that makes me feel better, but I wish this could be easier.

  I need to be more [Henry recognised that Kanji had replaced the rest of the phrase]. I cannot continue leaning on him it is not fair.”

  He felt pangs of guilt. Here she was making every effort to learn English, struggling, persevering and being down on herself, yet he was not making the same effort to learn about her language or culture.

  He had become so engrossed, he had not noticed Yoshimi had returned until her plate clattered onto the table.

  “You’re reading my journal. Rude!” She was clearly flustered.

  “Rude!” Henry repeated.

  “Yes, rude. How would you feel if I invaded your privates?”

  “If you did it, I would feel pretty good.”

  She put her hands to her face to hide her embarrassment, looking away, realising what she had said, “That… that… is not what I meant.”

  Henry smiled, “I know, it is just fun to see you blush.”

  They quietly finished their meal.

  Henry broke the silence, “It is just you are working hard to get better at English and I am not doing the same. I thought it might be easier if I was to learn Japanese with you?”

  Yoshimi was difficult to read. She seemed both appreciative and frustrated, but looked away fiddling with the spoon. “No, I do not want you to learn out of obligation. If you want to learn because you are curious, fine, but do not think you have to do it.”

  “Moushiwake arimasen,” Henry said, genuinely feeling bad about having read her journal.

  Yoshimi was surprised at the preciseness of his pronunciation, showing he had been listening to her intently. She reached across and held his hand. “Arigato.”

  Henry smiled, leaning back in his chair, “OK, change of topic. Mara has asked me to go to a hackathon tonight. Would you like to come?”

  Yoshimi shook her fists with excitement. “Yeah, it sounds like fun. I have heard about them, but what do you do?”

  He thought for a moment. Jeez, how to explain a hackathon? “Hmm, well… It is where programmers get together and come up with ideas for tech or software then build a prototype. They are usually done over days, but this must be a sprint version.”

  She nodded. “Sure, Let’s do it.”

  Despite his usual reserve, Henry was actually beginning to share Yoshimi’s enthusiasm “It is not nearly as exciting as I make it sound, but that is OK. Meet here about five then we can head up and get something to eat?”

  Yoshimi agreed and made her way for the stairs. Henry headed back into the elevator sea, a seemingly never ending wrestling match.

  . . .

  It was the end of the work day. Mara and Henry finished up and made their way to the lobby. They saw Yoshimi standing with three others, obviously work colleagues.

  As they approached, Yoshimi made introductions.

  “This is my boss, Mr. Forrest, and these are my colleagues, Jillian and Kevin.”

  Mr. Forrest extended a handshake, “So formal, Yoshimi, it’s Albert. So, how do you all know each other?” The others introducing themselves in turn.

  “We’re in the same department,” Henry replied, glancing at Mara. Then looking at Yoshimi, he added, “And Yoshimi and I are seeing each other.”

  Mr. Forrest smiled. “That’s really nice to hear. Any fun plans for the evening?”

  “We’re heading to a hackathon,” Mara replied.

  “As long as it is not my bank,” laughed Mr. Forrest.

  “Sounds interesting. Well, have a good time,” Jillian said as they excused themselves.

  Mara couldn’t resist a jab. “Yoshi’s been here over a year and already has more friends than you do.”

  Henry tried to hide how much the comment stung. “I have you, that’s more than enough.”

  Sensing she’d gone a bit far, Mara softened “Yeah, but even we hardly hang out much these days.”

  Yoshimi suppressed a slight laugh, clearly amused at the exchange.

  It was still light as they left for the event. Neon signs flickered along the busy streets, people rushing past in every direction. Across from the event hall, the warm aroma of broth and spices filled a little noodle bar as they shared bowls, chatting about nothing in particular.

  . . .

  “Right, let’s get this show on the road,” Mara said as they entered the hall.

  Mara approached the organiser. “Hey Jeff, here for the hackathon.” Mara said casually.

  Jeff, fumbling with the projector, glanced over. “Well, you’re a week early then.”

  “What do you mean? It’s tonight.” Mara insisted, though her uncertainty crept in.

  “Nope, tonight’s the CTF (Capture The Flag). Hackathon’s next Saturday.” Jeff finally turned to face her. “You’ll need a couple more people for this one.”

  Mara sighed and pointed to Henry and Yoshimi. “I guess these two will have to do.”

  “You got your laptops?” asked Jeff.

  Mara nodded in resignation. Henry tapped his bag.

  Jeff looked at Yoshimi. “What about you?”

  “Oh I didn’t know I needed one,” she admitted.

  Mara grinned. “She can be our cheerleader.”

  Jeff chuckled and pointed to an empty desk “then you’re good to go, grab a seat over there.“

  As Mara and Yoshimi went to sit down, Mara explained quietly, “So, the CTF is different from a hackathon. It’s more about solving cybersecurity challenges than building projects.”

  Henry turned to Jeff. “Do we get the brief now or when the event starts?”

  Jeff smiled. “You been to one of these things before?”

  Henry nodded “yeah, but it’s been a while.”

  “Brief will be available once you connect to our network and the event officially starts.”

  Henry nodded again, “Cheers”

  “No probs and good luck,” Jeff said.

  Henry sat next to Mara and carefully unpacked his laptop, while Yoshimi settled behind them, quietly taking in the scene. After a couple of minutes, Henry connected with the event network and ran a system diagnostic. The connection was a bit slow, not unusual for these kind of events with so many participants sharing bandwidth. Still, he’d seen much, much worse.

  After a while, the event was about to start. The other organiser came out and gave a spiel, along with some pomp, which Henry, and the rest of the crowd, could not help but be entertained by. Clearly Jeff was the tech expert. This guy was the salesman.

  Mara caught Henry’s smile and couldn’t resist.

  “See? I told you you’d have fun,” she said, a teasing glint in her eyes.

  Henry shot her a mock glare but couldn’t hide his grin. “Don’t get used to it.” He looked back and saw Yoshimi, wide-eyed, clapping along.

  As it reached its crescendo, the salesman ended with “Let’s. Get. Started.”

  With that, some sat talking, strategising, most jumped to their computers and started typing furiously. Henry watched as Mara completely disregarded teamwork and was already in her element.

  Henry instead opened the brief and started reading, jotting down a handful of notes in Notepad. On accessing the competition site, he saw it was a standard website set up for a jeopardy-style CTF: a web application with categorized challenges, flag submission, and a scoreboard.

  Knowing these platforms usually run a database in the background, he started his reconnaissance, browsing the site, noting the links, the overall structure, and, most importantly, every option for user input.

  Although he was immersed, he heard Yoshimi say from behind him, “Everyone is really busy, yet you are just reading and browsing.”

  She sounded genuinely puzzled rather than critical, her eyes flicking between Henry and the others.

  “Patience, grasshopper.” Henry retorted, almost sounding zen-like.

  She was really getting into the atmosphere, “oh what about that pretty red one, is that a flag?” He appreciated her enthusiasm. She may not have been able to provide much technical help, but she was a calming presence for him and that was enough.

  Recon over, Henry started running through each page, typing various initial payloads into the user input sections. ‘or 1=1; in the login form returning the SQL error. Exactly what he was looking for. He ran a more targeted payload: ‘ or 1=1; -- -. Flag 1 down, a quick win.

  Henry entered into the search box. The alert popped up, proof of XSS. A message appeared below: flag{reflected_xss_found}. Another quick win.

  As Henry scanned the leaderboard, he saw he was the only one with points.

  His confidence brimming, he jumped straight to the five hardest challenges. These would require careful thought, time, and patience.

  For the next two hours, Henry would methodically, piecing together clues, testing theories, and refining his approach.

  One by one, the flags fell, each submission pushed him towards victory.

  When the last flag was in, the scoreboard confirmed it: game over.

  These top five flags were no walk in the park, designed to push even the best intermediate players over a full day. But Henry’s decades of experience, especially with database and systems, gave him an edge.

  A buzzer sounded, taking the air out of the room. Henry began feeling a little guilty.

  Mara piped up, “F--- me, What did I say SQL Ninja?”

  The salesman jumped up, trying to re-energise the room but the bubble had been burst. He laid out the options: People could say and complete the rest of the challenges, or they could just go.

  Some stayed, but others started milling out, the energy deflating. Some came up to congratulate Henry and ask for tips.

  Henry turned to Mara. “you staying, Mara?”

  Mara said deflated. “Nah, I am calling it quits. Hey, at least I got to be on the winning team.”

  Henry was a bit shocked, “I was going to apologise about raining on your parade, but you left us out to dry.”

  Mara shot him a look. “Don’t cheapen this.”

  Henry asked Mara, “You want us to wait for you?”

  Despite what she said, Mara was still at her computer, “Nah, I’ll leave in a minute anyway, you guys go ahead, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Henry packed up, asking Yoshimi. “This kinda puts us at a loose end. You want to do something or just go back to the apartment?”

  Yoshimi shrugged. They said their goodbyes to Mara, who stayed behind a little longer, soaking in the last moments. Jeff approached Henry.

  “Henry, we’re always looking for people to set challenges and that was an impressive win. Would you be up for that?”

  Henry glanced at Yoshimi, who gave an encouraging nod. “Yeah, that would be alright,” He reached into his pocket and passed Jeff his number. “Cool, I’ll keep your number and get you the details soon,” Jeff said.

  As they made their way back to Henry’s apartment, he abruptly asked “Does it worry you that your boyfriend is the antisocial weirdo?”

  Yoshimi stopped him and they faced each other. “Of course, I would like you to do more, but I like you very much for who you are.”

  Henry, uncertain, hesitated before answering. “It’s just… I worry that people might think less of you or it might close doors because I am not… Wait, did you say you like me very much. Not love?”

  Her beaming smile gave him his answer as he read between the lines. “I do worry, but I made my choice, and I want to see where this goes.”