diff --git a/src/tools/data/MaplePacketLittleEndianWriter.java b/src/tools/data/MaplePacketLittleEndianWriter.java
index cd4de33..4b7399f 100644
--- a/src/tools/data/MaplePacketLittleEndianWriter.java
+++ b/src/tools/data/MaplePacketLittleEndianWriter.java
@@ -102,10 +102,9 @@ public class MaplePacketLittleEndianWriter {
         this.writeAsciiString(s);
     }
 
-    public final void writeUTF8(final String s) {
+    public final void writeUTF8(String s) {
         if (s == null ||s.isEmpty()){
-            this.writeShort(0);
-            return;
+            s = "0";
         }
         this.writeShort((int) (short)s.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length);
         this.write(s.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));