= 2 =
The woman stands in front of the multiple screens which overlook almost every nook and cranny of the building of their headquarters, spotting the familiar faces of the ones she had sent out on an errand. She cackles evilly when he sees two out of the four almost stumbling to get into the building, knowing that they're being chased by the timer that she has set for them. She looks for the sign of the items she had ordered, slightly frowning when she spots nothing that could look like the bars of dark chocolate she had requested.
She waits anyway and trails their movements through the panels, enjoying as she looks at them fumbling to enter the elevator to rise up to the twentieth floor, where the head of the security company's office and meeting rooms are. Only when they are running to arrive to Meeting Room #8 does the woman step out of the control room, intending to be the last person to arrive there.
Buttoning her pink suit jacket she nods slightly as she enters the meeting room, where all of them with Seonghwa being the last, stand up to greet her properly. Despite crossing 40 and putting up with a position that warrants stress to her everyday, her face bears no wrinkles and the two-time divorcee is clearly still in her prime years. She makes men and women alike, younger or older to be focusing their attention on her, both due to her demeanour and physical appearance.
She's not someone stingy of smiles, but at the same time she's not someone you'd want to be on bad terms with. She has been with the company for over 20 years, having been experiencing different levels of positions until her final one; their beloved head of the company, only a step down from the actual owner. In short, she's the one who runs the whole show, overlooking every single staff the company has recruited, trained and sent out.
She is what you call a hardworking person who knows no meaning of exhaustion, who also happens to have an immense love for pink. And dark chocolate.
"Madam," Seonghwa addresses her first, with the rest taking a second longer to bow down their heads before they take a seat around the meeting table. Yunho and San sit closest to her, and she questioningly looks at the four of them, waiting for any to produce the items she has ordered.
There is a beat of silence before Jongho exclaims, "Ah, right. Dark chocolate." He turns around to fish something out of his backpack, proudly producing two bars of dark chocolate, slightly melted and bearing the logo of her favourite chocolate company. "We went to ten different convenience stores looking for this specific kind." He makes a point to tap on the company's logo on the packaging before sliding them over to their boss. "Madam, your taste is exquisite but that only makes our job ten times harder."
Her eyes temporary light up as she spots the familiar typography of Beryz Chocolate before she swipes them over to herself, taking a glance to make sure that they had taken the correct 99% dark chocolate. When she confirms it she turns to look at them again, smiling, "And that is why I'm paying all of you gold. Although you're still considered trainees the four of you are my favourite sons. I assumed you went on a rampage at a funfair, managing to bring back that... penguin and teddy bear."
"Ah yes!" San says before excitedly showing her the teddy bear, making a point to hold its head and turn it from side to side. "Jongho helped us to claim both the plushies. And Madam, you won't believe what we have finally heard from someone. Someone actually think we look scary."
She scoffs. "All four of you, who look like a bunch of cinnamon rolls that would probably become the target first instead of scaring people away has someone saying that they look scary? Please, if you want to bluff your way through make it into something believable."
"You always say that our expressions need a lot of work because if we were to become a part of security personnel or become bodyguards, people would not be deterred by our faces-" Yunho adds.
"Because you look like people who would help the robbers to get inside the house instead of beating their asses out of it," Madam Seo finishes.
"-but someone actually said otherwise-" Yunho interjects.
"-and we have proof of that," Seonghwa pulls out his phone and immediately clicks on the recorded file. The attendant's shaky and defeated voice fills the room, bringing their boss to a short-term look of disbelief before it transitions to an impressed feat.
But she takes a glance at the plush toys before a smirk comes up to her lips. "And in what context was this said to you?"
"The context of course," Jongho swoops in, "does not matter a bit. What matters is that Madam, we're ready for our first jobs. Well, for the three of us anyway." He glances at Seonghwa.
Seonghwa shifts in his seat, looking down at his fingers and spotting the band on his fourth on the left. Then he looks up to find the rest of them, including his boss to be staring at him. "What?" he questions, putting down his hands under the table in reflex. "Why are you looking at me like I have committed the biggest sin?"
"Your biggest sin is being too handsome," San says out of the blue, earning a snort from Yunho and a smirk from Jongho. "Madam Seo asked you a question and it seemed like you were out of it."
"Ah... What was the question?"
"I was asking, Park Seonghwa," she clasps her hands on the table, "whether you're ready to take this job after so long. With them, first-timers. You're the only experienced one in this group, and this job is very important. Not something to be taken lightly of- well, none of the jobs are to be, but you get my point."
"Of course, I've been on hiatus for quite a while and to return to the field is quite a challenge. But I don't mind if it's with them," Seonghwa gives his agreement.
When she sees that Seonghwa has agreed, she continues, "We're talking about the prime minister candidate's daughter, whom we have no idea of how she looks like. All the information, conditions, contract will only be done face to face, so once you get your agreements in... it's a matter of time before you're known as Bae Soyeon's bodyguards."
"Bae Soyeon..." Jongho trails off, but the name gives no spark to him. "Absolutely no details about her?"
"Good question, which brings me to this." Madam Seo stands up before moving over to the projector screen, switching it on. She dims the light, projecting the little information she has of their prospective client. "She is about to be your client," but she's only pointing towards the screen which bears text and no pictures, "no pictures of her as of yet. But what we were given was her basic details. She's currently 22 years old, who just recently graduated with a Degree in Creative and Visual Arts from Aurelia University. Currently unemployed but judging from her father's wealth, she won't be working for the money, but for the sake of it. And apparently so, part of the fact that her identity is very well hidden despite her father being a public figure is that she's not a heavy user of social media. Even if she does use them, she never post pictures of herself." Madam Seo clicks to the next part but there's only one so the presentation ends. "That, and we suspect that Bae Wonshik pays a hefty amount to reporters who manage to get their pictures on her, so that they'll not release them to the public until he tells them to do so. Maybe he'll reveal her daughter once he does become prime minister. I mean, come to think of it you'll probably understand his sentiment. If he happens to lose the election, he won't have to worry about bringing attention to his daughter. Only once he secures his position does he let them see his life."
"But why us?" Yunho speaks up. "You did say that we need more... work with our expressions and you're not letting us go before we manage to look like the demon ourselves. This is not a simple job, and if we mess this up, the company's image can be ruined."
Madam Seo's eyes slightly dart before she purses her lips. Then guilty, she says, "Well, that's because we currently have no available staff to be dispatched to the prime minister, because we've been receiving a high demand for bodyguards. I have no choice but to mobilize the trainees and out of all that we have, four of you are the only ones I can trust for now. The rest still need a lot of work in every aspect. All four of you just needed work in your expressions. That's a small matter as compared to what you're really capable of-" She creases her forehead when she sees San looking down to the floor, his hair slightly curtaining his face as he dabs something at the corner of his eyes. "Choi San, are you actually crying at this moment?"
"I just-" San looks up, fresh tears formed in his eyes. "Madam, I never thought there would come a day where I would hear you saying that to us." He wipes the tears, and it doesn't seem like he's exaggerating. He's really touched as he moves over to the long table behind and pulls out a tissue. He dabs the tears away. "Madam, you're praising us, this is something worthy of a celebration."
She rolls her eyes, waiting for his dramatic reaction to end but it doesn't seem it will soon. She sighs, "Sit down and dry those tears up. You're making me sound like I'm mean to you-"
"To be fair, you are, Madam," Jongho interjects.
"Maybe not every day but every other day," Yunho tries to straighten out the situation.
Her face falls. "Are all of you done? Because I'd love to have some dark chocolate right now, or hit every single one of you with the chocolate, your choice."
"That just proves our point," Seonghwa shrugs as he leans backwards.
"My point is," she emphasizes, "I trust all four of you to be taking this job more than the other trainees. I can trust you would put your life in protecting the candidate's daughter. Like Yunho said, this is our company's image. Plus," she takes the seat next to Yunho, "Reflectors have been rampant as of late. So even though this is only my guess, Bae Wonshik is also worried about this issue, so he put out orders to have his daughter protected. He asked for the best four bodyguards of Siren Company and your names came up immediately in my mind."
"Because we actually have no working staff available and you don't want to miss the opportunity of associating Siren with the best prime minister candidate," Yunho corrects her.
Madam Seo presses her mouth into thin lines, partly annoyed, partly proud that these were the trainees she has raised. "All of you have such smart mouths I don't know whether I should be happy that you're shaping into exactly what I'm envisioning you to be, or to be sad that you're going against your elder."
"Only at times like this you would want to be called elder," Jongho smirks. "Otherwise you'd fight the life out of someone if they call you that."
"Reflectors," San changes the topic. "How brave are they becoming?"
Madam Seo sticks out her lower lip, pulling out another file on the screen, which only bears the infamous logo of 'Reflectors'. "Before all of you meet Bae Soyeon for the first time tomorrow, this is my work for you today. Read all that you can, find relevant news and articles about the Reflectors. Try to wrap your head around this... group... individual or whatever. To fight the enemy, you must understand them. Personal information on them is never available but you can always make your own judgement based on what you know. So," she knocks a fist against the podium, "first impression?"
"Good guys," all four say in unison, without missing a beat.
"I knew that all of you would say that, and I agree. Reflectors to the public are heralded as heroes, but to these people they have been targeting, they are the worst enemies. So for the sake of it, we have to treat Reflectors as our enemy, despite our own beliefs. We are right now on Bae Wonshik's side. And Reflectors are targeting people like him."
"Embed in our minds that Reflectors are bad, despite our own beliefs that they are actually the heroes. Got it," Yunho clicks his tongue.
"I know that I can trust all of you, and wear your crispest suit tomorrow. Come to the company sharp at 7 in the morning tomorrow, we'll be moving and arrive there at exactly 7.30. Got it?"
"Yes, Madam."
"Oh yes, I love the enthusiasm," she says sarcastically but with a good-natured smile at the end of her sentence. She leaves the room with her dark chocolate, accompanied by a comment about wanting to finish them up in one sitting.
San receives a call on his phone, and after seeing the caller he immediately hangs it up without any ounce of hesitation. Yunho notices this and knows exactly who he is avoiding. "How far can you run away? It's just a matter of time before they catch up to you again."
"Right, and before that time comes I'll hide myself in Bae Wonshik's majestic mansion," San says with little to no hint of enthusiasm. "We need to find details about the Reflectors as much as we can." He changes the topic again, to which the other two agree, except for Seonghwa; he mentions in passing about wanting to go to the bathroom and they let him go.
Without waiting for the eldest to return, Jongho starts feeding them information about Reflectors right off the bat, reading off information gathered from places that range from trustworthy news outlets to dodgy websites which seem to be all for the 'Reflectors Revolution'. Reflectors have started their activities some two years back, where they would break into houses - specifically rich people's - houses, rob them of money and anything of worth before apparently, distributing their loot to the poor. When a day comes and the Reflectors have broken into a house, the next day, someone needy around the country would receive the stolen items as 'donation from Reflectors'.
Up to date, despite advanced technology used in tracking them down, they have yet to be able to catch the Reflectors. Whether they're only an individual or a group of people, no one could tell. What they could deduce is that they are masters of technology, stealth, and deception with a dash of empathy for the poor. They are known as the modern day heroic outlaws, the public in general have been very supportive of this movement, judging from the polls some have posted online about this. The reason they're highly supportive of this is because they are not the only ones being targeted; it's the rich people who are known to flout the law and continue to walk free.
"So even though they've been helping the poor, we're still unsure of their exact motive. Real empathy for the poor, or only to have that label of a modern day Robin Hood?" Yunho breathes in and out as he rests his chin on the penguin's tummy.
"Fighting those who break the law by breaking the law themselves," San adds. "Controversial... but interesting. We don't even know whether they're only one person or a group of individuals."
"But they don't hurt people." Seonghwa comes into the room while sipping on bottled water. He caps the water bottle before resting his elbow on the table and pushing his cheek with his right palm and plopping onto the seat next to San. "They break into houses, steal their riches- which in fact, is not even much as compared to their whole wealth, then they leave a little message on any of the mirrors in the house."
"Reflect on yourself and see beyond the mirror," Jongho supplements. "That's the message they would leave on any of the mirrors in the house. They only use the typical markers you can find anywhere, even in convenience stores. So to narrow it done on that alone is making people having wild guesses on who they could be. This is also why they're known as Reflectors. They have never left any traces behind except for the message."
"So usually, the targets would only notice the message first before realizing that they've been robbed by the Reflectors," San concludes then shrugs. "Sounds like a harmless movement to me, considering the fact that they don't hurt anyone."
"Technically, they do sometimes," Jongho quickly adds. "When someone realizes they are there and they're about to get caught, they'd put up a fight. But never killing anyone, only knocking them unconscious. Still, their intentions may be good but it doesn't cancel the fact that they're going against the law."
"Seonghwa," Yunho turns to the eldest, snapping his attention to him. "You've worked as a bodyguard before, have you ever came across them?"
"No," he shakes his head. "Reflectors were only starting when I first became a bodyguard. They weren't that famous back then, but now it's as if they've become household names that some fear." He looks down at his fingers again, his mind drifting off and tuning out the others' voices.
How he wishes he has that answer, the answer on who the Reflectors could be.
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