The conditions of the contract in black and white loom over them, the eyes now bearing on them, only one person on their side while the rest are opposing them. Accusing them of neglect, as they should. Eyes trained on the marble surface of the table, their hands are curled into fists, hoping to lose the stares directed at them. But they have nowhere to run, and now they have to take responsibility. How did it happen when one moment she was right with them but the other it was as if she never existed?

"How on earth did this happen; you lost my daughter?! Does that even make sense?" Wonshik shouts at them, pointing his finger. "What, did she suddenly evaporate into thin air? My daughter who lives her life being trapped in her own home, has gone missing just when she decided to step out?"

"Mr. Bae-" Madam Seo comes to their defense, but even then she falls short of a reason. None of it makes sense; her boys were supposed to protect her, yet now she went missing even with the four of them having followed her out. This is their first job, yet they messed it up so bad she wonders whether attending this meeting being all defensive would even be worth it. Still, she wouldn't hesitate to defend her boys as far as she can go.

"There's no one else to blame but the four of you," Wooyoung jumps into the conversation, eyes looking like they've been spread with red after too much crying. "You followed her outside, you were supposed to keep an eye out for her, but now she's gone." He's about to mention about things going wrong ever since they were hired as her bodyguards, but didn't want to bring the spotlight to what happened that particular night her house was broken into. Her father have yet to know about the incident, and she'd want to keep it that way.

As usual, when it's related to the Reflectors, they couldn't find anything that can pinpoint them to the real culprits; there were no prints anywhere. Since they had the bad luck of running into Soyeon that night, they couldn't complete their job and nothing was taken, no message was left. One thing that bothered him and the rest was that there were no signs of the house being broken into, so the question comes to them again about whether it was true that she was paranoid; that it was only her hallucination. Or maybe, just maybe, they overlooked it.

There's too much bothering him but now the problem has just gotten bigger, the unanswered questions piling up with no searchable answers.

"We're- sorry-" San gets the words stuck in his throat, feeling like someone is crushing his windpipe as he struggles to get the pitiful words out. "Miss Bae wanted to go out because she said the house was getting a bit too stuffy for her. As she requested we followed her out of the district in another car, trailing her and Yeosang. We stopped over at the petrol station because she said she wanted to go to the toilet, and we kept a distance from the entrance but we could still see people coming in and out. She was taking too long so when we-"

Wooyoung scoffs, refusing to hear their ridiculous explanations. To him, nothing can change the fact that it was their mistake that his girlfriend is now missing. "So you're saying that the only day that she decided to step out of the comfort of her home, my girlfriend disappears. What's the use of four stupid bodyguards trailing her when you can't even fucking protect her?" Then he lowers his voice, sneering, "Do you even know how to do your job?"

"Call us stupid one more time and I swear-" Seonghwa advances, pushing his chair backwards before attempting to grab Wooyoung by the collar. Yunho pulls him back but he pushes him away, managing to grab Wooyoung by the collar before staring into his eyes. He grips his collar tighter, saying through gritted teeth, "Say that we don't know how to do our job again, I dare you."

"Park Seonghwa, that's enough!" Madam Seo barks, pulling an unwilling Seonghwa back by the shirt. Her command is enough to make him release his death grip on the billionaire, but he holds the stare to make sure he knows that he doesn't mean to take back whatever he spat out.

"You insolent man, how dare you show that attitude of yours in my house!" Wonshik shouts, this time his finger directed right at Seonghwa's chest. He's the next to stand up as he wrestles his way past Wooyoung before jabbing his finger at Seonghwa. "Madam Seo, is this how you train your boys? To become rude pricks who don't even know how to do their jobs properly?"

Seonghwa's chest puffs up and down from all the words thrown at them, but he balls his fist as he restrains himself, helped by Jongho who shakes his head, frowning.

"The four of you," Madam Seo tries to straighten things out, "You need to realize that what they're saying is right. It was your sole job to look over Bae Soyeon, but now she's missing while she's with you. You need to take responsibility-"

"How?" Wooyoung snickers, the sadness clouding his face just moments ago completely replaced by pure anger. "Tracking her down? You can't even do a simple thing yet now you want to become detectives?"

Madam Seo chuckles, and they're taken aback by her reaction. "Young man, you may be a billionaire but I don't like that attitude of yours. Don't cut me off when I'm talking, or you'll regret it. My first husband does the same to me and look where he is now," she crinkles her nose, "in the old folks home, crippled from the waist down." She doesn't provide anymore context, merely having this smile when she knows that she has managed to make people speechless. "Now since I believe you won't interrupt me again, let me say this. I do believe that it's my boys fault."

San, Yunho and Jongho collective have their shoulders slump, while Seonghwa has trudged over to take his seat, void of any more words.

"I'm trying to find a solution for their mistake, but if you want to..." Her gaze falls upon Wonshik, "be my guest and report your daughter's disappearance to the police. Fire my boys and we'll be well on our way, since you don't want anything to do with my boys anymore."

The four of them look back to their boss, confused on where she's bringing the conversation to; they can't catch her plan even as she has this slight curl at the corner of her lips.

"She could be kidnapped..." Madam Seo trails as her forefinger taps her temple, "but she's also a woman capable of making her own decisions..."

"Are you saying my girlfriend purposely disappeared? That she ran away on her own?" Wooyoung is starting to pick up her point, and at the same time his anger is reigniting. "You're accusing her of purposely running away? For what, and why now?! She has everything! Her house is her safe place."

"Oh does she?" She looks at Wooyoung, challenging him through her stare. "You... think so?"

Wooyoung gulps, feeling somewhat nervous all of a sudden. The woman with the soft pink lipstick looks like she knows something about them, as if she could unearth their every secret and kick them onto the dirt, stripping them of their valiance. She looks to be someone who's capable of playing with your emotions, making you turn yourself in without even realizing.

"Of course." Wooyoung holds his chin out, trying not to appear nervous. The thoughts of the conversation they had that night when her house was broken into suddenly come to him, and he starts to question it. She can't be running away because of what he said... could she?

"You're proposing for your boys to go and search for her?" He stops his question there, but he sounds like he's about to say more.

"Exactly what I'm saying, unless you want to have the police involved..." she trails off, still with the smile on her face. The discussion is going the way she's bringing it too, and she almost laughs at how she controls it even under someone else's roof. "It's too bad isn't it, your daughter disappearing when the elections are so near? Let's see..." she leans forward, "the news would be really interesting, isn't it? How would the public perceive this news? We have a lot of unlicensed critics on the net and this could bring your ratings up," she points a finger upwards before abruptly turning it downwards, "or down. Your choice."

Wonshik puts his palm against his forehead, feeling conflicted. "You're threatening me with my position."

She shrugs, "I'm only presenting you a choice, Mr. Bae. Sure, my boys did break the contract and you have all the rights to penalize us and the company. But you didn't even consider the fact that your daughter might've run away on her own will. So far, no calls for ransom were made and the more we're sitting around... fighting... the more we're wasting time. Your daughter could be in danger but all you're doing is shouting at my boys' faces," she presses her lips together and hisses, "and mine."

"Sir..." Wooyoung trails off as he looks at Wonshik; the latter is currently staring down at the table, his mind devising his next plan.

Wonshik weighs all the choices that he has and none of what Madam Seo has been saying is false. Too much focus is on him now and bringing more unnecessary attention with the news of his daughter, whom he has yet to reveal to the public, is not imperative. He has been building his way up to this point and having this, no matter how much he loves his daughter, in the way is not something you'd want to have.

"Sir," Wooyoung repeats, this time his voice firmer, although there's a hint of surrender woven together. "Perhaps you're not thinking of-"

"Wooyoung, it's too much of a risk," he sighs.

"But sir!" His volume starts to rise just as he stands up again, his eyes begging. "She's your daughter, you can't possibly let these-" he gestures towards her bodyguards, but without describing them as what he would've liked. He notices Seonghwa looking at him with the face that tells him that another word of them and he'll be losing his cool. "-Soyeon is gone and you don't want to open up a case-"

"Then tell me, is there not a possibility of her running away from home?"

"Sir," Wooyoung says again, as if that's the only thing he's capable of now.

Wooyoung's shoulders are slumped; it's them against him now. He couldn't be the only one thinking how ridiculous this proposal is? He sweeps his vision to see the expressions of the others in the room. Madam Seo has on this smile that rubs him the wrong way, while the bodyguards are all looking guilty, except for that Park Seonghwa; he still looks like he's about to murder him. As he turns to Wonshik, Wooyoung knows that he has lost in trying to convince otherwise.

"She's your daughter and you're only about to keep this a secret in order to... maintain your image. There's not even a guarantee that they will even find your daughter."

"Wooyoung," Wonshik's face is weathered; gone is the smiling face they see being printed on those posters. He's a father worried about two important things in his life, and right now he has to sacrifice one thing for the other. "I'm not abandoning my daughter; I'm trying to pick up what's more crucial right now. Having this out into the world is only going to mess things up; people can say whatever they want about this. Even now, without knowing how my daughter looks like or who she is, there are already a lot of rumours about her. What more if they know about her missing?"

Wooyoung almost laughs in incredulity, running his tongue across his bottom teeth as he shakes his head. "So this is how you view your daughter; someone you would put behind just because of the election that you're not even sure you'll win. There's no surprise she didn't want anything to do with you. All that getting angry at them when they lost your daughter, was it all an act? You don't care about your daughter, you're only worried about your reputation. Why, worried that they'll label you as an incompetent-"

Wooyoung doesn't get to finish his sentence as a slap lands on his cheek, almost making him tumble to the floor, but Jongho immediately puts out his arms to right himself up. The air in the room becomes still; even Madam Seo can't hide the shock in her face. This time, he doesn't hold back because like a maniac, he laughs. He laughs and laughs, until tears come to his eyes before he thumps his fist on the marble table, sounding as if he's about to break it down.

He says gravely, "If anything happens to my girlfriend, if she's hurt in any way, I'll make sure it's not only your reputation that gets destroyed. I'll make sure that your whole life knows no peace. For you to remember that you made this choice." Then with a defeated smile, with a hand to his cheek, he leaves the room, closing the door slowly.

With Wonshik left dumbfounded at what he had done and with all the people watching, he tries to bring back things on track. His demeanour is different as he knows that the people with him; Madam Seo and his daughter's bodyguards have lost their respect for him.

To them, he's only a selfish man who'd put his daughter behind to keep his image as the candidate who people trust. Still, that won't change what decision he's about to make. Going to the police to report his daughter missing was never a choice to him; he was thinking of dealing with this quietly but for Madam Seo to be offering it to him... he won't lose anything.

He clears this throat. "I know-" he tries to compose himself, "that must've shocked all of you. I hope that you can only keep that to yourselves. I just-" he starts to fumble with his words, "I've never had an altercation with Wooyoung; he's always been very polite and composed. So to hear him say all those things made me shocked that I lost control myself."

"I understand what he's saying," Yunho speaks up. "He's worried about his girlfriend, someone whom he has been with since high school like you said. And she went missing right under our noses, it's not his fault for lashing out. But," he takes a deep breath, "I also understand where you're coming from, Sir."

Something lights up in the tired eyes of the candidate, before he looks at Seonghwa before saying, "My apologies for calling you insolent." He runs a hand through his greying hair, "So much is happening right now and if she indeed ran away on her own will, it feels too out of character for herself."

"Give us time to look into this," San's lips part to say this, his mind whirring with all theories he could get. "Give us a chance to redeem ourselves, and we'll do our best. We'll make sure to not mess things up again."

As Wonshik looks at them one by one, he senses their sincerity and the feeling of wanting to make things right. It wasn't an act, he did feel angry upon hearing the news that his daughter is currently missing. But he knows where his priorities lie when the first thing he worries about is the face he's about to show to the public if they know who his daughter is and now that she's disappeared. As much as he wants to save his daughter, his priority is his own face.

It has always been that way.

But surely, he doesn't show it so no one will be able to use it against him. Heartless? Almost. What more can he prove when he's given all the money to Soyeon yet she won't be the daughter he can be proud of? If her being gone is what she really wants, then be it.

See how far the person who has never worked in her whole life try to survive on her own.

Even so, there's a possibility that she was kidnapped. But why didn't I feel as devastated as I would have expected?

Was it truly an act? Did I really not love her as much as I thought I did?

Then he corrects himself. Why should I, when she's not even mine in the first place?

He fixes his expression, then looks at them before nodding. "Please, do your best to find her."

"Of course my boys will, put your trust in them for this time." Madam Seo squeezes the two nearest to her - Seonghwa and Jongho's - shoulders, and as they look up at her she nods. "And you boys better not mess it up or the exit will be waiting for you."

"Yes Madam."

All the while Yeosang is standing outside the room where they're gathered, looking unsure of why he's there anyway. Everyone is focusing on the mistake of the bodyguards it's like they're downplaying the fact that he, too, was right there with her when she disappeared.

When Wooyoung went out of the room while closing the door, the former only smiled weakly before walking away, presumably looking to leave the house. Wooyoung didn't even stop to ask about Soyeon to Yeosang; it's as if they know that he has nothing to do with her disappearance. Not one to blame, because he's a friend who has been with her since they're little.

But isn't that more the reason to direct all questions to him?

Yet it's not like he'll give them the answer they're looking for, because he knows no better than them. Or maybe, just slightly better than them. He takes out his phone, knowing that they have been trying to call her yet she's not answering. Then he shrugs before keeping back his phone before walking back to the opposite house. The house that will probably be empty for a while... unless...

Until then, his lips will remain tightly shut.