Track 42. ROBBERS by The 1975 | ♩

“I’ve slept with that girl more than once, eons ago. I’ve greeted the sunrise with that face looking at me. I know Hyerin’s eyes. Her Miroir’s wearing contacts to match Hyerin’s original eye color.” He said. “And that was a wig, too. I know the specific shade of Hyerin’s jet black hair.” There was a pause, and maybe the slightest bit of smile. “I used to love it. It was so dark, like a void you could get into.” 

Good for Haoran, he was still adept with the features of his ex-lover. Meanwhile, Rara felt defeated over the fact that her mind was completely blank when it came to Baekhyun’s alter ego, and she was supposed to know her partner down to the last cell. 

“Anyway, now that Hyerin’s Miroir is in the picture, I think she gave you the painting to purposely mangle Baekhyun’s soul. I know she knows about the mirror. You see, you think the mirror’s perfect, but it’s not. One mistake, and it’ll put you under deep stress. I don’t know how Baekhyun got ahold of a piece of the Inferos sub Vitrum and actually used it, but I’m guessing Hyerin’s Miroir behind it.”

Rara’s fists tightened on the steering wheel upon hearing Haoran’s assumption. “It’s very likely. Baekhyun disappeared at her bookshop.” 

”What could be her motive, though?” Haoran thought out loud. “Anyway, since he is inside the mirror, you’re probably thinking: Good for Baekhyun—his imagination is brought to life by the mirror and he is experiencing possibilities that were just ‘what ifs’ in this world, and that could be true, if he knew how the mirror worked. Regardless of the world that him in, one fact remains: he is inside the mirror.” He said. “Seeing him absent, with a Miroir in his stead, leads me to believe that he doesn’t know how to get out.”

“So basically, he unconsciously got himself stuck in a different world.” 

“Yup.” 

As Haoran continued to explain, Rara kept her eyes on the road, and her ears open on this information that had been tucked away from her. “Of course, you would be worried, because you weren’t aware of the actual scope of the incident. The right thing to do was look in the mirror or just a piece of it and think of the same thing Baekhyun was thinking about that time he got in and the mirror will bring you to wherever he is, then you can take him back and go back home together.” Which I have no way of finding out…what in God’s name were you thinking about, Baek? Rara thought. And what kind of parallel universe did that dominant thought create for you? “When you urged the mirror to bring Baekhyun back to you, the mirror cursed you for your egocentricity—why are you asking for a person, who is inside the mirror, desiring to be in a different world, to be taken against their will, back to where they started?” He explained. “And as a form of punishment, while Baekhyun’s consciousness is in the mirror’s realm, it took out the worst parts of his soul, merged that rotten half in Baekhyun’s body—which is suspended in the Milieu—and then summoned it before you. And that’s what you call a Miroir, his alter ego.” So I have one whole of his physical body right here but only half of his soul, the bad half, specifically.

“If Hyerin’s Miroir is the mastermind behind all this, then that also means that the real Hyerin is also inside the mirror.” And which world did Hyerin go to? Goddamn...I only wanted to know where Baekhyun went and when I got the answer, well, a vague one, I’m suddenly slammed with even more questions. “I was the one who summoned Baekhyun’s Miroir unintentionally...but who could’ve summoned Hyerin’s while she was still in another world?” 

“That’s a good question.” Haoran stated. “But what really grinds my gears is that why isn’t Hyerin emerging out of the mirror? She knows how to. If she did, she’d immediately take the place of the Other Hyerin, making herself whole again. What’s taking her too long out there?”

“Yeah…I meant to ask—why do you know so much about this stuff? Hyerin told you about this before?”

“Yes, she mentioned a bunch of basic stuff, then I studied it thoroughly, and I also happened to summon the Miroir version of myself before, on my own accord. I asked Luhan to do the wishing once I was inside the mirror.” 

“Why would you do that?” Rara asked, chuckling at the audacity. “Why would you wanna have the worst version of yourself in this world?”

Haoran inhaled deeply, as if bracing himself for a huge impact. “Flashback to, um, when Haejung was trying to separate Mei and I. I, uh, couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t break up with her; the words just won’t come out of my mouth. Then I remembered the mirror, and I had a piece, thanks to