Mirrored Match // ATEEZ ✔

= 37 =

Madam Seo watches as Seonghwa sighs, the heavy breath he released sounding full of defeat. She interlaces her fingers, half-expecting him to lunge at her, cursing and exacting his revenge over her silence all this while. Instead, he only calmly brushes back his hair, raking his fingers through the strands as his lips form a smile.

"Bae Soyeon was a part of that team, huh?" he utters. "And again how cruel is this so-called destiny?" he turns to Danbi before locking his eyes with hers. "Now you know why I said I don't believe in destinies."

"How can I fix this?" Danbi asks as she's asking no one in particular, but focusing more on Madam Seo and Seonghwa.

"There's nothing you can fix," he says, but there's a noticeable reduction in his strained voice. "It's not your fault."

"It's all mine," Madam Seo announces.

Seonghwa chuckles. "For things to happen this way, for me to become a bodyguard for Bae Soyeon after knowing that she was a part of my wife's team when she passed away, did you know? Did you plan all of this?"

"I told you that Bae Wonshik picked the four of you, with the reason that all of you are closer to her age. I had nothing to do with the selection."

Seonghwa throws up his hands. "Fine, then. Let's say this is some cruel destiny again. Why are you so interested in the case between Bae Soyeon and Danbi? Is it really a matter of you worried about Soyeon acting out of line being a member of the Reflectors?"

Madam Seo's jaw flexes and for the first time, they see something that they've never seen on her: sadness. To others they might be exaggerating but they truly have never seen this woman giving a cause for others to worry about her. Even Seonghwa who has been adamant in going against her is starting to feel that he has touched a sensitive topic; something that she has hidden deep in her heart with the key thrown away.

"22 years ago," Madam Seo starts, and even with the short sentence Danbi can feel her heart speeding up; that's her current age. "I was a young, poor woman desperate for money, and I was tired of working minimum wage jobs every day. My father was in need of treatments, yet I couldn't provide enough money. Then I was given an offer; some rich woman approached me, saying that she can offer me money in exchange for something that she can't do. She can't hold a pregnancy of her own so she begged me to carry her child for her. It was simple they said; I just had to allow myself to get injected with the fertilized egg, carry the pregnancy for 9 months and after I've given birth I won't have to do anything but give the child to her."

Madam Seo takes a deep breath before attempting to wipe off some tears that came out and continuing her story.

"In exchange for that I'll get an amount of money that I couldn't even imagine getting in a million years if I were to work nonstop. But in the process the doctor attempted to play God; they decided to experiment. Have you heard of people trying to clone humans?"

The rest are too stunned to even give a response but Yunho and Jongho have been listening attentively as they shake their heads vigorously.

"Cloning humans have never been so successful so far, apparently. They managed to, and I didn't even know that they implanted not one but two ball of cells in my body. Before I knew it, I was carrying two fully identical humans and I gave birth to both of them. The woman came back to me, as equally surprised as I am to know that she now bore induced twins. But she only wanted one; she said she would only take one while the other one would be left with me. She was ecstatic; she said that one child would fix her relationship with her husband. I was in a bind, I couldn't afford to take care of a child; I could barely take care of my own. The woman ran away with that one child, reminding me to not contact her in any way again. She didn't pay me, I was left with the child while I was struggling on my own. The doctors didn't want to take responsibility because they knew that whatever procedure they did was illegal. I had no choice but to leave the child at an orphanage because I couldn't afford to take care of her."