Mirrored Match // ATEEZ ✔

= 12 =

The black furry creature curls up in her arms, purring in contempt as her owner keeps on running her hand over her body even though her eyes are looking elsewhere.

Through the coiling metal of the gates, she tries to pretend as if she's only there to enjoy the afternoon sun while hugging her cat close to her chest and not look like she's on the watch for the gates of the house across. As soon as she spots what she's waiting for, she immediately releases the cat to the ground, waving her hands to ask the cat to go forward.

"Panther, go, go!" her mouth frantically says as she crouches, slowly pushing the cat's butt to guide her to where she should go. All the while, her eyes never leave the person who's coming through the front gates.

Panther looks back once to her owner before she squeezes through the opening between the gate and the wall, prancing and then breaking into full speed before jumping to the person who had just left the house for an evening jog. She then bumps into the legs of the person, where the latter instinctively crouches and picks the cat up.

"Panther, are you out for an evening jog too?" Yeosang lets the cat slither into his arms, slightly bowing as she hops onto his shoulder. "Do you want to be my jogging buddy?"

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" The owner of the cat lets the automatic gate open, enough to squeeze her body through, before skittering towards Yeosang and holding her hands out. "I told her so many times to not wander around too much but she seems to take a much better liking to your house."

The cat makes a face to show her owner that she's been falsely accused and is currently feeling betrayed.

Yeosang chuckles. "She can come over whenever she likes," he says before looking at the cat's owner, who's fixing her glasses while looking slightly sheepish. "Are you done with today's work," he pauses as he tries to make eye contact with her, "Anna?"

She lowers down her eyes to the ground, feeling the blush creeping up on her whenever he says her name with his deep voice and she clasps her fingers before nodding. "I managed to finish two sketches of the clothes I was thinking of sewing, and I was thinking that maybe Soyeon wouldn't mind being my model again. I called her but she's not picking up her phone."

Yeosang's face changes, but he doesn't find it weird how Anna has completely no idea what had happened to Soyeon despite her already being missing a few days ago. Bae Wonshik wanted to keep everything on the low so of course even the neighbours who barely talk to each other wouldn't know, and even the fact that Soyeon didn't pick up the phone is not something alarming to her somewhat-friend Anna Yoo. Soyeon is known to ignore calls when she's too deep in painting something, becoming a slave to her paintbrushes and canvas until she forgets that she's still breathing, having to live a life to keep going.

"You... must not have heard about it then," he says. "I'm about to go for a jog but if you want to hear about it-"

"I can go jogging with you!" she quickly swoops in, looking ashamed that she sounded too eager. "I mean, if you don't mind having a jogging buddy."

He eyes her up and down before chuckling once more, "Are you really sure Panther ran to me on her own just as I was going out for a jog?"

The cat meows, defending herself.

He continues, "You look like you're ready to go for a jog yourself. Were you really just waiting for me-"

"I was not!" she huffs. "Why would I waste my time to wait for Soyeon's driver to go on an evening jog every two days?"

"That's pretty specific for someone who doesn't wait for me," Yeosang smiles, cradling Panther like a baby as the cat bends her legs and looks at both humans with round, yellow eyes.