"I didn't notice earlier, but… Calin did well," someone murmured. "Still, compared to Yeri's speed and depth, she seems far more experienced."
"As expected of Shin Keir's fiancée."
"So this is why he chose her…"
"Who said she only had looks? As a programmer, I wouldn't even dare call her a beginner."
Just as quickly, faces changed. Those who had mocked Yeri earlier now looked as if the ground had tilted beneath them.
Their smiles stiffened and pride shrank into uncomfortable silence.
Calin's socialite friends fared the worst.
Moments ago, they had laughed the loudest. Now, they stood under the weight of knowing glances, their earlier words echoing back at them like a cruel joke.
Desperate to reclaim some dignity, they turned to Calin, urging her forward.
"Calin, why not accept her invitation and show them."
"Yeah, you're better than her. You can do it!"
Naturally, Bryce wouldn't allow it. He knew exactly where Calin stood in terms of skill, and more importantly, he had just finished boasting about her abilities. Letting her accept Yeri's challenge now would only expose everything.
Without missing a beat, he came up with an excuse, claiming that the official competition had already been delayed long enough.
Calin could barely maintain her smile.
The truth clawed at her composure.
It had taken her a long time just to memorize those lines of code from a prepared script. She had never been patient, nor hardworking, and the thought of actually coding on the spot, something she had no real understanding of, made her skin crawl.
In the end, she could only swallow the bitterness rising in her throat, along with the resentment she felt toward Yeri, and stand there with a stiff, hollow smile.
Just then, one of the organizers stepped forward and asked Yeri whether she intended to enter the official competition, as that had been the condition should she win.
Before Yeri could respond, the man in glasses appeared out of nowhere. Bowing slightly to Bryce, he insisted once again that the matter be investigated, adamant that Yeri had cheated.
However, having lost twice, his claims were no longer taken seriously.
Instead, he was met with mockery.
"Get off the stage!"
"Stop embarrassing yourself!"
His face flushed a deep red as he shouted back in anger, only to be met with a barrage of thrown objects from the crowd.
Bryce's patience finally thinned.
"That's enough. Calm down and go backstage," he ordered coldly.
But he refused to back down, pointing at Yeri, he shouted, "She must be a spy! She already knew our company's system, that's why she won so easily!"
Yeri smiled faintly and glanced at Bryce.
"You really do have a good eye for people," she said meaningfully, her tone light but laced with implication.
Bryce, already in a foul mood, didn't bother responding. He simply gestured for security to drag the person away.
At that moment, Saeki Jie and Zoren Lin stepped onto the stage.
"For such a prestigious event," Saeki began, his voice sharp with indignation, "you wouldn't degrade what my sister-in-law deserves to win, would you?"
Then, in an instant, his demeanor flipped as he turned to Yeri, eyes sparkling. "You're amazing! Why didn't you tell me you could hack?!"
Yeri blinked, momentarily caught off guard by their sudden appearance.
"How did you even know I was here?"
Zoren shrugged casually. "We were heading somewhere else, but we heard people talking about a 'good show' going on in here. Got curious and didn't expect the show to be you."
Saeki, still unwilling to let the matter go, continued arguing that Yeri deserved proper recognition. Though, truthfully, part of him simply didn't want Yeri to walk away without acknowledgment.
As for the competition itself, Yeri had little interest in joining.
"What do you mean?" Saeki pressed. "If you're worried about being bullied, don't be. We're here."
Bryce cut in smoothly, "I don't mind, actually. Since Miss Zhi defeated my representative… I assume you wouldn't mind replacing him for the team?"
Yeri stared at him, genuinely taken aback by his audacity.
"What did you just say?" Saeki snapped, irritation flashing across his face.
"This is a team competition," Bryce replied with a shrug. "Earlier was merely entertainment."
Saeki scoffed, glancing at the less-than-pleased expressions of Bryce's own team. "I don't think your people agree with you."
Yeri finally spoke, her tone calm but firm. She declined the offer, explaining that she had only stepped in to satisfy the audience's curiosity and had no intention of disrupting the competition further.
In the end, the situation was settled.
The man in glasses was forced to issue a public apology, though his expression made it seem as though he were doing so under duress.
The organizers, eager to smooth things over, presented Yeri with a brand-new laptop as a guest participation gift.
Yeri accepted without hesitation. A small reward, she thought. And honestly, the experience hadn't been unpleasant.
Before stepping off the stage, she turned to Calin and offered her a gentle smile.
"Thank you for the opportunity," she said politely. "If there are more events like this in the future, perhaps we can exchange knowledge in a friendly match."
Calin's hand clenched tightly at her side, her nails digging into her palm.
"Of course," she replied, her smile strained. "I'll make sure of it."
As Yeri walked away, calm and unhurried, something settled heavily in Calin's chest.
In that moment, she realized Yeri had seen through everything and perhaps no longer cared to pretend otherwise.
---
Meanwhile, in the room where Shin Keir remained, the discussion had just concluded.
People began checking their phones, and gradually, the atmosphere shifted.
Some glanced at Shin with complicated expressions. Others looked reluctant, guilty… even admiring.
Shin paid them no mind, assuming it was a lingering effect of the earlier incident.
It wasn't until Secretary Yun received a report that things changed.
He looked oddly excited, trying to restrain himself, he stepped closer. "Boss, you might want to check today's trending topics. Miss Zhi… she's gone viral again."
Shin's gaze flicked toward him. Without hesitation, he pulled out his phone. Anything related to Yeri always naturally drew his attention.
Clips from the competition had already flooded social media. Multiple angles, clear footage, the massive screen displaying every line of code she wrote in real time.
There was no ambiguity.
This time, Yeri trended not because of rumors or slander but because she won a hacking competition.
The shift was immediate and almost surreal.
The same crowd that had once criticized her now began to retreat, their voices drowned out by a new wave of admiration.
"I knew it! Someone like Shin Keir wouldn't fall for just a pretty face. She's a programming genius!"
"Wait, this is real? She's that good? Why didn't she say anything before and let people insult her like that?"
Replies flooded in:
"Even if she said it, you'd just accuse her of faking it."
"Yeah, you'd say she hired ghost programmers or bought a title to match him."
Of course, there were still skeptics. Some claimed the videos were edited. Others insisted it was all a calculated propaganda to clean up her image.
But those voices quickly lost ground because professionals began speaking up.
People in IT, experts and individuals who understood exactly what they were seeing.
"There's no way this is fake."
"Look at her speed, her logic, her transitions. That's not something you can stage."
"And the live projection? Impossible to manipulate in real time like that."
The narrative had flipped completely.
"Boss, Miss Zhi is really capable," Secretary Yun blurted out, unable to hold back. "I knew you didn't like her just because she's beautiful."
Shin: "…"
That wasn't it, not entirely.
A faint, unfamiliar bitterness settled in his chest. He had thought he understood her, or at least, enough. So why had she never mentioned this?
"CEO Keir, about earlier- it was all a misunderstanding," someone approached awkwardly. "I introduced my daughter purely for business purposes. Nothing else."
One after another, others followed with excuses and clarifications.
The information they had relied on had clearly been flawed. Shin Keir wasn't a man who could be swayed by superficial charm. And if his fiancée possessed this level of talent at such a young age, then she wasn't just impressive, she was exceptional.
"Where is Yeri now?" Shin asked once the crowd dispersed.
"She's with Young Master Jie and Young Master Lin," Secretary Yun replied. "At a nearby coffee shop."
In a private lounge of that very café, Saeki was already in full persuasion mode.
"You have to enter the entertainment industry," he insisted, practically glowing with enthusiasm. "With your image right now? You'd skyrocket to the top! There's no celebrity with your kind of programming background and even if there were, they wouldn't be as good as you!"
Zoren, lounging nearby, added thoughtfully, "I heard Calin is actually skilled. Supposedly, she even helped Bryce Gate develop one of their key projects."
Saeki tilted his head, unconvinced. "Maybe. But people want fresh faces, and with you being big brother's fiancée?" He grinned. "That's an instant bonus."
Yeri only smiled, shaking her head lightly, still refusing. Fame had never been attractive to her.
The door opened and Shin Keir stepped in.
Before he could say a word, Saeki practically sprang up, eyes blazing with excitement.
"Big brother! You should've seen it!" he launched into an animated retelling, complete with dramatic gestures and exaggerated details, as if narrating an epic battle instead of a coding competition.
Throughout the conversation, Shin barely spoke. While Saeki animatedly reenacted Yeri's "legendary cyber battle" and Zoren chimed in with amused commentary.
It wasn't until they returned to the penthouse that the atmosphere shifted.
Yeri, meanwhile, was already focused on her newly acquired prize, eyes bright with anticipation as she turned the laptop box over like a child about to unwrap something precious.
"Why didn't you tell me you know programming?" Shin's voice cut through the quiet.
Yeri paused, glancing up at him, clearly puzzled.
"…You didn't ask?"
Shin: "…"
That answer was reasonable yet somehow irritating.
Before she could react, Shin reached out, taking the box from her hands and lifting it slightly, as if weighing it against something unseen.
"What else don't I know about you?" he asked.
Yeri frowned, genuinely confused.
"I'm not a chatterbox," she replied. "Do you expect me to randomly announce things about myself out of nowhere?"