11^th February 2017, 10.30PM

Da Vinci Café was closed early that night. Although the sign outside showed that it was close, the lights were still on, causing people to look at it curiously when they passed by. When they looked inside the café, they noticed that there were a few people who gathered there, most probably to discuss something.

Well, what they were assuming were right.

Luhan and Yoona sat next to each other as they waited for the rest of the graduates to arrive. The only ones who had arrived were Kai (since he worked here), Taeyeon, Kris (he lived here), Krystal and the two of them. Other than the six of them, Victoria was also there as she could be of help to them.

Initially, they wanted to meet up the day before but Sooyoung had snapped at them that the day before was her birthday and there was no way she wanted to be reminded of this Mirror thing during her birthday so they decided to meet up today instead. They had five more days before Mirror wanted to collect the answer from them and they had to decide what they were about to do.

Luhan nudged Yoona’s arm with his own gently. The young woman turned to look at him quizzically and he gave her a small smile. She returned the smile before she looked down, fiddling with the zip of her bag. Luhan smiled softly at the sight of it. Well, that had always been Yoona’s habit when she was nervous.

“Don’t be nervous,” he whispered to her. He took her hand and squeezed it to give her some comfort and it looked like it worked. Yoona smiled at him genuinely before she looked at their intertwined hands.

“May I ask you something?” the young woman asked him almost sadly. Her eyes were unreadable and Luhan wanted to know what was on her mind. He nodded in response and waited patiently as Yoona mustered up the courage to ask him the question that was playing on her mind. “Do you still love me?” she asked, the hesitation was crystal clear in her voice.

Luhan was a little bit taken aback when she asked him that question. When the question was asked, he could still feel the love he felt for her. He did not know how he could still be in love with Yoona even after ten years. Maybe it was true that feelings could never fade.

To be completely honest, for the past nine years since they last saw each other, he had missed her so much. The pain of missing her was so huge but as time passed, he found himself being able to let go slowly. However, as soon as he saw her again, the feelings just resurfaced by itself.

“I shouldn’t have asked that,” Yoona said quietly, mistaking his silence as a no.

Luhan chuckled fondly at her and squeezed her hand again. “I am still in love with you, Yoona-ah,” he replied softly. He gave her a wide smile and nudged her again. “What about you? Do you still love me?”

The young nurse froze at the question before letting out a sigh. The smile on Luhan’s face was immediately wiped off. “I do but…” she trailed off as she took out her phone from her bag and seemed to be looking for something in her phone. Luhan waited patiently as the young woman continued to tap her phone with her fingers furiously.

Then, she showed him a text message that was sent to her and Luhan scrolled down. He curled his fist and gritted his teeth as soon as he read the text message. How dare this Mirror person threatened Yoona? How dare she threatened Yoona not to get back together with him or he or she would end up just like Hyoyeon and Jonghyun?

His temper flared and he badly wanted to punch this Mirror person although she was a woman. Well, he did not hit women but Mirror was asking for it. He bit his lips hard and looked into the young woman’s doe eyes.

“Let’s date secretly like before,” he suggested quietly so that only she could hear.

Yoona’s eyes widened at that and she hesitated. “I don’t want to end up like the past, Luhan-ah,” she replied softly. “I don’t want to sneak around like we used to. I don’t want to risk either of our lives because of this.”

“We’ll be careful,” Luhan pleaded. “I won’t let anyone find out, especially not Mirror. We’ll just have to sneak around until this Mirror thing is over. After that, you and I can be free to date each other. Do you know how crazy I’ve been when you’re not here? I miss you so badly, Yoona-ah. I miss the feel of your lips on mine, the way your body seemed to just curl up perfectly next to mine when we were hugging. Don’t you miss me too?”

Yoona hesitated. Luhan was able to detect the fear in her eyes and he badly wanted to reassure her that they would be very careful and that they would not get caught. He wanted to tell her that this Mirror thing would end very soon and they would be together at last.

Just like the way it should have been ten years ago if not for Kwon Yuri.

“Let me think about it first, okay?” Yoona responded at last after a moment of thinking. “Last time, our risk was getting expelled but this time, our risk is ending up dead. I don’t want that to happen.”

Luhan wondered if it was possible to love Yoona even more after hearing her sentence. Ah, sweet Yoona, thinking of their safety first. “We’ve grown up, Yoona-ah. We’ll definitely be more careful.” He squeezed her hand one last time before letting go of it, missing her warmth immediately after that. “I’ll wait for your answer, Yoona-ah.”

He hoped that she would say yes.

11^th February 2017, 11.00PM

The rest of the graduates had finally arrived and all of them had gathered upstairs where Victoria usually held her fortune-telling business. Sulli remembered the room from a few days ago when she had come here to know why she had been getting the same dream every night.

When she had come here to seek advice, she had never expected for things to turn out this complicated. She badly wanted to figure out who Mirror was and what she wanted from all of them. She just wanted to get this thing over with before going on with her normal life.

All the ten graduates sat in a circle with Victoria joining them for the night. All of them had a nervous look on their faces and Sulli was sure that all of them had found out something new. She hoped that it would help with their investigation.

“So what have you all found out?” Taeyeon asked, taking the role of their leader. Sulli never knew why all of them did not say anything about it. Maybe it was because of the authoritative way she talked or maybe it was because she was the oldest among all of them. Sulli was not sure, though. What she was sure of was that she was glad that she took that role because she honestly could not imagine anyone else taking the role.

“I’ll start first,” Yoona stated voluntarily. Everyone’s eyes were on her now, even Sulli’s. They held their breath as they waited for her to tell them what truly happened when Sunny had come to the mortuary to retrieve Kim Hyoyeon’s dead body for an autopsy.

The young nurse took in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “It was around eight forty-five at night when Sunny unnie entered the mortuary. She went over to the bed that held Hyoyeon’s body and she uncovered the sheets that were hiding the body underneath. As soon as she uncovered it, Kim Hyoyeon suddenly sat up and there was a gaping hole right at where her heart was supposed to be,” she told them like it was a story-telling session.

Gasps could be heard throughout the room and all of them exchanged glances in disbelief. “I think Mirror had cursed her,” Victoria voiced out her opinion calmly unlike the others who were far too shocked to even say anything.

“But does that mean Mirror has another nine people who are helping her other than Do Kyungsoo and Seo Joohyun?” Taemin inquired, tilting his head to the side slightly.

“Yes, definitely,” Victoria affirmed. “For a ritual to happen, it needs twelve people to be present and the people who are helping her are everywhere around all of you. Don’t trust anyone.”

“But where is Kim Hyoyeon now?” Kai wondered out loud and the rest of them just shrugged in response.

“There’s another thing, though,” Yoona spoke up, interrupting everyone from their own thoughts. She looked at Taeyeon directly. “Sunny unnie told me that she had told your leader, Officer Hwang Tiffany about this.”

“What?” Taeyeon exclaimed in disbelief. An unreadable look crossed over her face before it disappeared completely. “I guess I’ll talk to her about this.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Sulli pursed her lips as her thoughts were racing in her mind, analyzing the information that she had just obtained. Why did Hwang Tiffany hide this information from her other team members? Was it because she did not believe Sunny’s unbelievable story? Or did she have a hidden agenda? If so, what kind of hidden agenda did she have?

“Who will share what they’ve found out next?” Taeyeon asked, interrupting her line of thought.

Sulli noticed the look that Kai and Sooyoung exchanged. The two of them nodded at each other before saying simultaneously, “We will.” Then, Sooyoung took out a box from her bag and placed it in the middle of the room. “Open it,” she ordered no one in particular.

“Is that the box which we placed Kwon Yuri’s heart in?” Baekhyun whispered, sounding almost awed but at the same time terrified. Kai nodded in affirmation.

Sulli felt fear gripped her heart and she held her breath. There was a heart in there. Not just any heart but Kwon Yuri’s heart. It was the heart that she had dug out with her own hands. Tears of regret filled her eyes and she tore her eyes away from the box. She felt like a monster for doing what she had done ten years ago.

Maybe the one who truly was heartless was her instead of Yuri.

Sulli wished that she had not known all of this. As people said, ignorance was bliss. She wished that she had lost her memory again and would not remember any of this anymore. She never expected herself to be a monster. What else had she done in the past that was so horrible that even she was disgusted with herself?

She remembered the photo of her, Yuri and the girl with the exact same face as her. Where was that girl now? Why didn’t her parents mention anything about that girl at all? Was she the cause of the girl’s disappearance? More questions began to appear in her head but none of them were answered.

Sulli immediately snapped back to reality as soon as a click sounded, indicating that the box had been opened. She looked at it and let out a gasp as soon as she saw it was empty. She realized that she was not the only one, though. The others had a surprise look on their faces and some were even gaping.

The box was empty except for a piece of paper inside of it. Sulli snatched the paper and read out loud, “Sorry, you guys, but I will always be a step ahead.” All of them looked at one another in alarm. “Mirror,” Sulli continued.

“Damn,” Krystal swore out loud. The young woman stood up suddenly and began to pace back and forth. “I really, really abhor Mirror,” she spat out with venom in her voice. The sharpness of her tone was so evident that everyone visibly flinched. “I swear I will kill this Mirror person. I will make sure that I will end her life and make sure that she’ll burn in hell for every misery she has caused me and all of you.”

Krystal’s hands were shaking with anger as she continued to pace to and fro, trying to calm her down. “I’ll hunt her down and kill her and her damn followers,” she said with determination clear in her tone. A maniacal smile etched itself on her lips. “Maybe I should start with Do Kyungsoo and Seo Joohyun.”

As soon as she said that, Taemin immediately grabbed Krystal and forced her to sit down next to him. “Don’t do anything stupid, Jung Krystal,” the idol hissed at her warningly. It was the first time Sulli had ever seen him so angry. He was usually all smiles. But then, it was the first time she had ever seen Krystal so out of control too. She wondered what made the young woman to turn out this way.

“I will kill her,” Krystal vowed and everyone exchanged worried looks. Then, the young woman smiled darkly. “Don’t try to stop me. The deserves it.”

“If you want to do that, you have to find Mirror first, Jung Krystal,” Yoona piped up. “So you’d better get your s together and focus on that first.”

“Oh, I will, don’t worry, unnie,” the younger woman replied sweetly. But the sweetness was far too sickly to be considered as sweet.

Sulli did not know whether she should feel afraid of herself or Krystal more. One thing was for sure, though. All of them had the same objective. All of them wanted to kill Mirror and end this once and for all.

11^th February 2017, 11.30PM

Kris had been quiet throughout the discussion. Honestly, he did not know what to say. The information that they had received was shocking, all right, but he just did not know how to react to it. Truth to be told, he did not care about the fact that everyone here wanted to kill Mirror. He just wanted his heart back.

Call him selfish or whatever but he really wanted his heart back. He hated the emptiness that he was feeling in his chest. He did not like that feeling at all. He did not like not hearing his own heartbeat. Maybe it was karma for this was what he had done to Yuri ten years ago.

Well, he would not have done this to her if only that had not been so irritating. It was not exactly his fault, was it? Maybe he should have endured it a bit longer but one could only have much patience. His patience was running thin. He had been facing the torture for three years. Of course he would jump at every opportunity to get rid of her.

“I’ll share what I’ve found next,” Baekhyun spoke up quietly. He passed some papers around and Kris realised that it was a printed copy of Do Kyungsoo’s and Kwon Yuri’s conversation on the website. Kris read it quietly. He wondered who Yuri’s friend that had contacted Kyungsoo five years ago was.

“We definitely should pressure him into opening up to us,” Luhan commented. The rest of them nodded in agreement. “Anyway, Park Luna told me that she and Yuri were childhood friends and Yuri hated the ten of us and Kim Hyoyeon to the core for some reason. She also told me that her older brother, Park Leeteuk was the one who did the death sentence for her.”

“We should also interrogate Leeteuk then,” Sooyoung replied.

Everyone just hummed in response. Kris wondered briefly if he should tell the others that he had been cursed too, just like Hyoyeon and Jonghyun. He felt guilty for keeping it from them but he was sure if he told them, they would be afraid of him. He let out a sigh. He needed to contact Mirror by himself if he wanted to get his heart back but the question was, how would he be able to contact her?

He gritted his teeth in anger. He would not be in this mess if only he did not take up Mirror’s offer to get rid of Kwon Yuri. But then again, Yuri was to blame for everything. She was the one who had crossed the line. If she had not gone over the limits, nobody would be in this mess right now.

Kris let out a small sigh. Everything was screwed up now.

The only thing that they could do was to clear up this mess.

11^th February 2017, 11.45PM

“I’ll share what I’ve found next,” Krystal offered. The others just nodded. Most of them were getting sleepy as it was already late at night but they forced themselves to stay awake. It was the sake of their freedom, after all.

“I didn’t find out much from Jessica unnie,” she told them. “But I found something interesting.” She took out two photographs from her handbag and placed them in the middle of the room. Everyone leaned closer to get a better look at it and when they realised that they were the photographs of Kim Hyoyeon’s and Kim Jonghyun’s body, they winced.

Krystal let out a sigh as soon as she saw their reactions. She took one of the photos and pointed at the X scar on the arm of Hyoyeon’s body. “My sister has a tattoo of this scar on her shoulder,” she announced, causing everyone to exchange glances.

“Are you saying that your sister might be involved in this?” Taemin asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

The social worker shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s possible,” she replied. “Seo Joohyun and Do Kyungsoo were Yuri’s friends and they are involved. It’s a possibility that Jessica unnie is involved with this too.”

“What a nice sister you are,” Baekhyun remarked sarcastically causing everyone to look at him in surprise.

Krystal shifted uncomfortably as soon as her ex-best friend spoke up. She bit her lips and looked away. “She told me that she got this tattoo with her friend named Jiyong in America,” she continued, ignoring the comment. Although she was able to ignore the comment, the pain inside her heart was difficult to ignore. It felt like someone had stabbed her with a knife and twisted it around.

It hurt because Baekhyun knew. He knew about the feud between the Jung sisters and he had always been by her side. It pained her so badly because she knew that she was the cause of his sudden change of attitude. She dug her blunt nails into her palm in order to calm herself down.

“Who is Jiyong?” Yoona asked, distracting her for awhile from the pain inside her heart.

“Beats me,” she muttered in response.

“I think I know who,” Sulli spoke up. Krystal raised her eyebrow at her good friend. “I think the Jiyong you’re talking about is Yuri’s older brother, Kwon Jiyong. Boa unnie told me that he had just got back from America too.”

Krystal’s eyes immediately lit up as soon as Sulli told all of them that piece of information. She took out a paper and wrote down the list of names that were probably helping Mirror.

Seo Joohyun

Do Kyungsoo

Jung Jessica

Kwon Jiyong

Park Luna

“Are there more names?” Krystal asked as she placed the paper right in the middle of the room for everyone to see.

“Add Hwang Tiffany to the list too,” Taeyeon called out from her seat and Krystal added the policewoman’s team leader’s name to the list. She observed the policewoman carefully. Taeyeon was pretending to be calm and stoic but Krystal could see through her façade straight away. She knew that the policewoman was feeling guilty for doing that.

Hwang Tiffany was her best friend, after all, but best friends or not, anybody who was suspicious had to be added to the list no matter what.

“So, one of these people is Mirror?” Sooyoung inquired.

At that, Victoria immediately shook her head. “You can’t assume just like that, Sooyoung-sshi,” she chided gently. “You have to wait until you’ve got the twelve names that are involved in this Mirror thing before you’re able to narrow down your suspects on who Mirror is.”

Krystal let out a small groan. That would be a long way to go. How were they supposed to find out, anyway? Suddenly, someone snatched the photograph of Hyoyeon that she was holding away from her. Surprised, she looked up and saw that it was Taemin who did that.

The idol flipped the photograph and everyone turned their attention towards him. Shocked gasps could be heard and Krystal paled.

.

Everyone was staring at her with a surprised expression on their faces except for Sulli whom Krystal had told her about it before but only one pair of eyes caught her attention.

Baekhyun and Krystal looked into each other’s eyes intensely. The tension between them was rising and it was apparent to everyone in the room. Krystal looked away from Baekhyun’s piercing gaze and her eyes landed on the writing at the back of the paragraph.

Date Byun Baekhyun and either you or he will suffer the same fate as them. –Mirror