Mirrored Match // ATEEZ ✔

= 9 =

The conditions of the contract in black and white loom over them, the eyes now bearing on them, only one person on their side while the rest are opposing them. Accusing them of neglect, as they should. Eyes trained on the marble surface of the table, their hands are curled into fists, hoping to lose the stares directed at them. But they have nowhere to run, and now they have to take responsibility. How did it happen when one moment she was right with them but the other it was as if she never existed?

"How on earth did this happen; you lost my daughter?! Does that even make sense?" Wonshik shouts at them, pointing his finger. "What, did she suddenly evaporate into thin air? My daughter who lives her life being trapped in her own home, has gone missing just when she decided to step out?"

"Mr. Bae-" Madam Seo comes to their defense, but even then she falls short of a reason. None of it makes sense; her boys were supposed to protect her, yet now she went missing even with the four of them having followed her out. This is their first job, yet they messed it up so bad she wonders whether attending this meeting being all defensive would even be worth it. Still, she wouldn't hesitate to defend her boys as far as she can go.

"There's no one else to blame but the four of you," Wooyoung jumps into the conversation, eyes looking like they've been spread with red after too much crying. "You followed her outside, you were supposed to keep an eye out for her, but now she's gone." He's about to mention about things going wrong ever since they were hired as her bodyguards, but didn't want to bring the spotlight to what happened that particular night her house was broken into. Her father have yet to know about the incident, and she'd want to keep it that way.

As usual, when it's related to the Reflectors, they couldn't find anything that can pinpoint them to the real culprits; there were no prints anywhere. Since they had the bad luck of running into Soyeon that night, they couldn't complete their job and nothing was taken, no message was left. One thing that bothered him and the rest was that there were no signs of the house being broken into, so the question comes to them again about whether it was true that she was paranoid; that it was only her hallucination. Or maybe, just maybe, they overlooked it.

There's too much bothering him but now the problem has just gotten bigger, the unanswered questions piling up with no searchable answers.

"We're- sorry-" San gets the words stuck in his throat, feeling like someone is crushing his windpipe as he struggles to get the pitiful words out. "Miss Bae wanted to go out because she said the house was getting a bit too stuffy for her. As she requested we followed her out of the district in another car, trailing her and Yeosang. We stopped over at the petrol station because she said she wanted to go to the toilet, and we kept a distance from the entrance but we could still see people coming in and out. She was taking too long so when we-"

Wooyoung scoffs, refusing to hear their ridiculous explanations. To him, nothing can change the fact that it was their mistake that his girlfriend is now missing. "So you're saying that the only day that she decided to step out of the comfort of her home, my girlfriend disappears. What's the use of four stupid bodyguards trailing her when you can't even fucking protect her?" Then he lowers his voice, sneering, "Do you even know how to do your job?"

"Call us stupid one more time and I swear-" Seonghwa advances, pushing his chair backwards before attempting to grab Wooyoung by the collar. Yunho pulls him back but he pushes him away, managing to grab Wooyoung by the collar before staring into his eyes. He grips his collar tighter, saying through gritted teeth, "Say that we don't know how to do our job again, I dare you."

"Park Seonghwa, that's enough!" Madam Seo barks, pulling an unwilling Seonghwa back by the shirt. Her command is enough to make him release his death grip on the billionaire, but he holds the stare to make sure he knows that he doesn't mean to take back whatever he spat out.