After careful selection, Elise chose a pinhole camera that looked like a tiny screw and installed it on the lower right frame of her monitor.
Once it was installed, she carried on as usual, keeping her expression calm and unbothered.
The entire morning, Elise sat at her desk like a fisherman waiting for a catch, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.
But then she reminded herself, if a thief were obvious, she wouldn't need a hidden camera in the first place.
Evelyn sat down in the empty seat beside her, inspecting the tiny screw. Such a small thing, yet a fully functional pinhole camera—it was impressive how far technology had come.
"Are you sure this will catch someone?" Elise glanced sideways at Evelyn, whispering conspiratorially.
Evelyn nodded. "It's probably the only way to catch anyone."
"I still don't get what they want with my USB drive. It only has script files, and they're all for our company's games. Could someone really use that to copy us?" Elise rested her head on her desk, completely baffled, unable to figure out who the culprit might be.
"Definitely. For example, games always have periodic updates, right? Things like costume designs or event changes can be copied. Haven't you noticed how companies often mirror each other's games? In dress-up games, they're always claiming the same outfits, stuff like that."
"True, but I just don't see how my script would be worth copying. It's not like it's a TV drama…" Elise frowned, still not seeing her script as something worth stealing.
"But the more I think about it, we might need to set out something more sensitive to catch them." Evelyn leaned close to her ear. "Before you leave for the day, place the swapped USB on your desk and see if anyone takes it. If they're after you specifically, they'll come back for more."
"Good idea, I didn't even think of that." Elise nodded enthusiastically, plugging the USB drive into her device.
"Then just throw in a few random files, like this..." Evelyn placed her hand on the mouse, casually grabbed a few unrelated online documents, dropped them into Word, hit save, and created several files in a row before ejecting the flash drive.
"You've thought this through. Do you do this kind of thing often?" Elise giggled, unable to resist teasing her.
"Please, me? Plagiarize?" Evelyn rolled her eyes. She prided herself on creating character designs from scratch.
"I mean, have you been plagiarized before? You seem to know a bit too well how to prevent it." Elise stifled a laugh, lowering her voice just in case anyone was listening.
Evelyn examined the flash drive carefully. "Let's just wait and see. We'll get our answer soon enough."
At six that evening, Elise placed the flash drive on her desk, waiting for the bait to be taken. She and Evelyn pretended to leave the office, but in reality, they were sitting in a nearby park, monitoring the security footage from a distance.
When Elise saw that the culprit was Killian, she couldn't believe her eyes. They hadn't even crossed paths much—why would something like this happen?
Evelyn, however, wasn't surprised. She'd always found Killian's recklessness off-putting, so this behavior seemed par for the course.
"It's actually Killian? But why would she do this?" Elise stared at the footage on her phone, unable to fathom her motive.
"I doubt she's acting alone," Evelyn reasoned, crossing her arms. "She's too new here to have any personal grudge against you. Someone else must be pulling the strings."
"Someone else? Who would want to use her like that?" Elise couldn't make sense of it.
Killian had only been at H Corporation for a short while. Who would want to manipulate her like this?
Elise thought for a while but couldn't recall any incidents where she'd clashed with Killian, except for Baden's broken phone and the time Killian spilled her drink a few days ago.
Could it be that her apology cake wasn't accepted, so now she's resorting to stealing files?
"Why don't we hand the footage over to Zayne and let him handle it? What do you think?" Evelyn suggested. "But honestly, I don't think she's the mastermind. She has no reason to be."
"That's probably the best we can do for now. Now that we know who the culprit is, we can head home." Elise had just finished speaking when Ruth arrived.
"Your sister-in-law is so thoughtful, picking you up every day," Evelyn said with a hint of envy.
"Yup, I'm off. You be safe on your way home too," Elise replied with a bright smile. "Nothing!" Elise looked at him with a mischievous smile.
Evelyn waved goodbye, then headed off in the opposite direction to catch a cab.
Ruth walked up to Elise, speaking in a low voice. "Any leads today? You know, on that flash drive thing we talked about yesterday."
"Yeah, turns out the culprit is a newbie screenwriter." Elise sighed, still surprised that it had been Killian.
Ruth tilted her head. "So what's the plan? Are you going to tell the boss, or…?"
"My colleague and I both think we should inform the boss first, then… let him decide what to do next," Elise considered thoughtfully. "I just don't get why she'd want to steal my script. If she's going to swipe something, wouldn't Jakob's songs be more valuable?"
Ruth looked completely puzzled, glancing at her with a frown. "Jakob? Is he someone from your company?"
"Yeah, he's our company's development manager, one of the senior executives in charge of game creation and design. I'm pretty sure you've seen him before. Remember the day Braden changed his number? You and he came to pick me up—that guy next to me was Jakob." Elise explained simply.
Ruth shook her head. "I don't remember. I was too busy planning to tease my brother for changing his number because of Mylee."
"Don't you like doing handwritten quotes and short phrases? I remember you're into writing lyrics, too. Maybe one day you could share ideas with him. He's really easy to get along with." Elise hinted subtly, wondering if Ruth would catch on.
"Enough about that. I'm starving!" Ruth patted her grumbling stomach. "Let's hurry home so I can eat."
Elise chuckled. Was food really all Ruth cared about? Though, admittedly, both of them had always been foodies.
"My mom said she cooked a bunch of dishes today, so you're in for a feast. She said it was all prepared especially for you." Elise added a special emphasis. "And there's a big tub of your favorite pudding."
"Pudding!" Ruth's eyes lit up instantly. "Let's go home right now—I need that pudding!"
