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MINGZHU was on her way back home and her mind was full with thoughts about the 'gifts' sent and Hoseok's reaction. She felt bad for dragging him into her situation that didn't really concern him.
It seemed as if Hoseok was more stressed about this than Mingzhu herself. He wouldn't stop checking up on her and was constantly worrying so he forced her to tell the company about the letters.
"Mingzhu!" she hears when walking alongside the road and assumes it's a fan but after turning, she sees an old store owner waving at her.
"I can't believe it's you! I haven't seen you in so long! You've grown." the owner of the sweet shop exclaims.
Mingzhu remembers her as the sweet and kind old lady who would always gave her free sweets or a cup of tea during her trainee days.
"Mrs Kim." she greets, bowing respectfully as the lady glances outside and towards the sky before motioning for Mingzhu to come inside.
"You must be so cold. Come in. I'll give you some warm tea." she smiles warmly.
However, Mingzhu wanted to get home as soon as possible for her own safety and because Hoseok had warned her to so she didn't know whether to leave or stay.
She thought that it would be rude if she denied so she agreed and sat on one of the wooden chairs, looking around the shop. It hadn't changed since the last time she had came.
"How's life as an idol?" the old lady asks with a soft smile whilst pouring hot water into the mug.
Mingzhu was glad that someone like Mrs Kim was still looking after her, even if Mingzhu wasn't exactly the nicest to interact with.
"It's okay." she simply replies and fiddles with her sleeves whilst shrugging. Mrs Kim glances at her with a frown. She sits opposite Mingzhu and hands her the cup of tea.
"Is that it? You trained for years, just for your debut to be okay? What's going on?" she asks. Mingzhu coughs and looks down.
"I'd rather not talk about it if that's okay." she mumbles and Mrs Kim nods her head, respecting her wishes and drinks some of her own tea.
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She waves goodbye and starts walking home, biting her lip in thought. It was too dark.
Sighing, she looks down at the pavement and fiddles with her sleeves again. Her heart practically stopped when she heard the sound of twigs snap behind her.
She pauses in her tracks and turns around with clenched fists. I don't want to die yet she thinks to herself but then soon comes to acceptance with it and shrugs, loosening her shoulders. If I'm going to die, at least die looking cool.
A cat then comes strolling out from the darkness of the trees and purrs softly, brushing against her legs. She exhales, realising that she was too paranoid and on edge so she tries to relax.
When reaching home, she walks inside and takes off her bag, sitting on the couch. She lets out a sigh of relief when realising that the members are still at the gym.
Knock, knock, knock.
She looks over at the door and walks towards it, checking through the peep hole before opening it to see another brown parcel at the front step.
She felt her blood boil and picks up the parcel, closing the door shut and running up to her bedroom. She closes the curtains and opens the parcel to see a note inside, as always.
"Dear Mingzhu, it's so amusing to see you get scared by every little sound. Don't worry, it was just a cat. I'm not here to hurt you. Here's another gift for you. Love from..."
She places the note down and picks the picture up. Of course it was another of herself but she notices something different.
It was now from a different angle. Before, the pictures were from outside her window but now... now it was different.
Her eyes widen when realising something. She glances over at her teddy bear that sat on her dresser and overlooked her whole bedroom.
She slowly picks it up and brings it closer to her eyes. Her eyebrows scrunch in confusion when she sees the difference between the left eye and the right.
The right eye was deep black but the left eye had a small circle in the middle. A camera.
