Mirrored Match // ATEEZ ✔

= 25 =

As soon as the evening party ended, Wonshik and Danbi return home in the same car, only for the sake of looking good to the others. But the journey throughout is silent between them; Bae Wonshik already having his schedule for the next day filled with all kinds of activities. He is talking on the phone, his secretary at the passenger seat in front feeding him information while he discusses something with the person on the other end.

Danbi has zoned out, uninterested in her father's affairs as she throws a look out the window. She watches as the moon follows them, smiling as she remembers how she used to argue with Hongjoong about how the moon knows where they are, while the older kept on insisting that the moon is stationary in its place. It would always end up in Hongjoong giving up, saying that she needed to read more books to understand the concept. When she looked sulky that her brother was underestimating her, he would quickly say sorry while they went out to play with the rest of the orphanage kids.

Hongjoong has always taken care of her, and that is why she would never trade him for anyone else. If there comes a time where she would have to protect him with her own body, she would.

Then she thinks back to her twin; if they were to meet, would they even be as close as she hoped they would be? Or would there be a barrier, them made strangers by the years they were apart that despite them looking the same, their personalities would make them clash and prevent them from living together peacefully?

When the car enters the compound, this time Danbi allowed to be using the front entrance since her existence was already known to the world, she looks back to see the car trailing them, with Seonghwa behind the wheel.

As she turns back, Jongho on the front passenger seat notices her looking at them as he does a slight wave and smiles. Then Jongho motions to the two in the back seat, calling them up in between the seats so that they can wave to her too. She smiles then chuckles, amused by how they look so happy after an evening full of food.

When she turns in front, eyes straight ahead, her father notices how she still has the smile on her face. As he ends the call, he can't help but point it out.

"You must be happy then, to be having someone of your age as your bodyguards. All of you seem like good friends now."

She's caught by surprise at how Wonshik's initiation of conversation starts just as they come to a stop in front of his mansion. She switches off the smile, feeling like she's done something wrong when in fact she's just happy that despite being in a new, foreign world, they are the people that make it bearable.

"Ah," she runs a hand up and down her arm. "It's just that... it's easy to talk to them. Makes it easier and faster to fit in."

"I'm glad it's that way," he looks at her from the corner of his eyes, sighing. "I'm sorry I wasn't the father you had expected me to be." Then he looks at the driver and his secretary, before asking them to get out of the car so that he can have a word with his daughter in private. "I know that I've been hard on you, but you have to understand-"

"I know," she quickly swoops in, "I have an image to maintain. Yours too; I have to know what I'm getting into. But really." She stares at him, "Are you seriously giving up on Soyeon?"

He sighs, eyes automatically reading his schedule on his phone as if the matter is not something that can be squeezed in anymore. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not the person you should apologize to, it's her. Is that all what you know how to do? Saying sorry whenever you fix a mistake? You're a prime minister now." She sounds heavily disappointed, before she turns to look at the other cars trailing them.

Her bodyguards are already rounding the corner where they would get to her house, while the car behind, with Yeosang driving alone, is following closely.