"Well, well, well," the woman droned, advancing towards Hoseok simultaneously. "What a pleasant surprise! Out of all the places in the world— I gotta say, a police station never really struck me as a place to meet your old acquaintances."

"Uhm, sure." There was a whiff of uncertainty in Hoseok's response, which the female was— quite unanticipatedly— extremely deft in ascertaining.

"And I thought us running into each other here was the craziest thing to happen today." She caviled, her face twisting in an ephemeral disgruntlement. "Did you seriously banish me from your memory this soon?"

Hoseok still could not get the essence of what she had been insinuating, and yet decided to proceed with a hospitable smile nonetheless. That was obviously nowhere along the lines of his most perspicacious judgements, but outright disregarding the relevance of that gesture at the same time would be underplaying it. For as was gradually becoming ostensible, it did help in attenuating the disrelish that had been seemingly brewing within the female. 

"Spare me that friendly smile, it's of no use if you no longer remember me." However, as soon as she expressed her opinion out in the open, Hoseok wondered if maybe his heart-shaped simper had finally lost its riveting aura.

Because back in the day, that particular attribute had successfully projected him as irresistible as the Super Junior boys. Hoseok had always been humble when it came to accepting such overwhelming flattery, but little was he aware that one day, when all that charisma of his would dissipate into thin air unannounced, the already-perpetual void in his heart would tend to thrive on that plaintive loss— as if his life was not tragic enough.

"Yeah, that's enough overthinking for today." He murmured to himself, garnering attention from the other three figures in vicinity.

"Mind telling me why are you so keen on ruining your future? What's a teenager got to do in a police station? What did you do this time? And don't you dare try to outsmart me, be honest." The woman addressed Hoseok's culprit, strangely akin to rendering the role of a guardian. 

"The fact that it's becoming harder for you to prefer trusting me over someone else doesn't actually upset me anymore, Mirae." Kangmin exhaled, rolling his eyes in exasperation. 

The name ricocheted against Hoseok's eardrums like a familiar but distant melody, like one on the tip of his tongue. The connotation attached to it, however, was something that he could not quite make head or tail of at one go. Its first occurrence traced back to when for the first time, Hoseok had felt indebted to someone for swelling his heart with sheer delight in many long years. Although corresponding it was also this prodding wistfulness that had always cajoled him into contemplating his precarious firmness.

Had his will-power not been so fickle, would things have turned out differently for him?

Due to the foundation of his choices being laid on a decrepit plane, Hoseok's relationship trajectory with the concept of dance altogether had been progressively taking up a love-hate bend. Everything worthwhile and adverse to his existence was apparently because of dance.

It was like a reminder of a failed first love; beautiful yet tormenting at the same time.

"This whole thing is simply exaggerated. All I did was fulfill a dare given by my friends, I had no idea what trouble I was unknowingly asking for in the process! I've already apologized for my behavior a number of times. But it's not even like I stole something insanely expensive to begin with!"

"Good job there owning up to your error," Mirae deadpanned, refocusing her gaze at Hoseok as she continued, "that's the closest to an apology you're gonna receive from his side. Consider today an exceptionally favorable one for you, I mean it."

"Am I supposed to feel thankful about that?" Hoseok raised an objective query, his eyes squinting under the spell of confusion.

"You expect a lot for someone who has trouble remembering people's names. Maybe fix that first and then I'll mull over whether what I implied was apathetic of me?" Mirae countered, and although the riposte did not precisely fall in line with the current core of the argument, it had Hoseok zipped up for almost a whole minute.

Now that was one achievement to act vainglorious about.

Hoseok gaped at Mirae in an unforeseen incredulity, a smidgen of distaste prevailing on his face. The female was quick to recognize the expression, for an indifferent what got blurted out by her in reflex.

Hoseok subtly swayed his head in disappointment, eyes still fixated at the persistently catty woman, "Why are you giving me hell for something that's not under my control? A person can forget names... and people— Well, not literally, but it's very much likely to not being able to connect the dots. That's what's happening here."

"Good Lord, it's like everyone's talking in circles here today. No action will be taken against anyone. Now get out from the precinct the three of you, right this instant!" The detective in-charge yelled at once, his growl propelling them out from the structure as had been demanded by his own self just now.

With jaws hanging low and a visage acutely warped in dismay, Hoseok, Mirae and Kangmin showed themselves out, though still nowhere close to conciliating on any of their differences. It was a spectacle how Hoseok was at the middle of both the controversies, both figuratively and literally. With none of them having an inkling regarding them being absentmindedly coordinating their strides all along, a genuine display of incognizance slowly unfurled for them to locate on each other's faces.

Mirae was the first to suspend their indeliberate dabble in that dense silence, helplessly waddling across it as she stated.

"Meeting under extraordinary circumstances is our thing then, I guess."

Hoseok felt conflicted as to how to appropriately reciprocate the sentiment, since the female's one-liners had never truly learnt to distinguish between being unambiguous and paradoxical— spending that pair of days two years back with her, along with the present day itself, stood testimony to his claim. He could not have temporized the entire day nevertheless, thus subsequently opting to push himself into trudging down the path whichever way he liked.

"It appears so," he answered curtly, clearing his throat soon after. "What have you been doing these days, though? A lot must have changed for you over these past two years? Did you get to represent your team again? You know, after the accident."

"A lot has changed, yes." She blew a shallow puff, tucking her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she stared at the blurring horizon in front of her. "I work at an entertainment agency. The pay's decent, I'm always just a wall away from my interests before the accident, so it's more or less the kind of job that I would've sought once I had retired from the crew."

"I feel like there's a but coming—"

"But—"

"Looks like my hunch was just about right." Hoseok released a soft chuckle, the reflection of the setting sun glimmering in his crescent eyes.

"You bet it was." Mirae jested too, her lips stretching into a wholesome smile. Though the elation was fleeting, for her eyes had soon assumed the form of two perfect circles. "Speaking of which, where did Kangmin go? Wasn't he walking beside us just now?"

"He took his leave from us right after we had exited the police station. Didn't you hear him?"

"I'm quite smart, you know? I can catch on to lies pretty effortlessly. And I can tell right now that you're just trying to save his sneaky ass— I mean to say that he's not that sincere to be informing me of his whereabouts. He belongs to the rebellious kind." Mirae's clarification somehow ended up becoming a source of amusement for Hoseok.

"He's just a teenager, will get better with time." He laughed the accusation away, redirecting her towards the issue left unaddressed. "That but never got to see the light of the day, though. Mind picking up from there for me?"

Mirae's brows furrowed in hilarity, possibly impressed by Hoseok's conversational skills. "That accident, you see, left a keepsake for me to take care of." Suddenly lifting her leg up, she kneed the air— as if gesturing that her narration ahead had something to do with that bone joint of hers.

"My knee's a goner now, it isn't strong enough to let me keep dancing for as long as I like. I had to abruptly give up on dance after that incident." A glum mood clouded her sharp features once she finished.

"I'm so sorry to hear— No dancer should have to face that. It's traumatic as fuck." Hoseok attempted to console, of which he was very well aware that it was futile from the get-go.

"It's alright. I'm past the grieving period anyway," Mirae exhibited an obliged smile, waving her hand in dismissal as she resumed, "What about you, though? How has it been for you?"

"Well, for starters, I have a broken something too. It's my wallet." Hoseok's glazed eyes had aptly contributed to his dramatic confession, though him bursting into a fit of giggles right the next second spoiled the effect with an identical competence too. Mirae gawked at him in perplexity, unable to wrap her head around the situation.

"The joke became too complex for you to understand, I assume. I meant that I'm broke these days, by that. Two years have passed and the story doesn't seem like changing. Now that's one consistency I'd like to get rid of, I'm serious."

Mirae's apprehension pertaining to the mood turning pensive soon kicked in, battling which she somehow rose to articulate, "I... If you want, you can visit me at the agency at any hour of the day. Now needless to say, during the work-hours only— and that's a no-brainer, I know. And don't you bother worrying about my inconvenience, that's the least I can do for you after how you had saved us that day. Even with you being selectively frank about your hardships, I can tell that whatever you're being made to go through right now, it's partly because of me. So please, come over whenever you feel like it's a good day to jog down your memory lane."

"That's not necessary, really. You've taken my compensation jokes at their face value, it seems." Hoseok emitted a feigned chortle. "It's one nice offer though, I gotta give you that, but are you sure you won't be rueful about this spontaneous urge of yours even in the long run? Because not gonna lie, I feel tempted already. You have to do something about this now."

"Relax, I don't go back on my word. And that's another complementary promise from my side. Actually, you know what?" Mirae's redolent undertone proved to be far more easily discernible than how she must have expected it to be, her rummage for a specific item being carried out concurrently in the background.

"Take this," she handed over a business card to Hoseok, "this is your key to the vault. Show this to the guards at the entrance— after having notified me of your arrival first, okay— and they'll let you in without any followup questions. You're then good to go. Also, do me this one favor if you do decide to drop by someday. Evaluate Kangmin's performance for me? He's enrolled as a trainee there but I don't really see the progress anymore. It's like he has reached a plateau."

"You couldn't have been more lenient with your orders. It's a deal." Hoseok grinned ear to ear, evoking the same to flit on Mirae's lips too.

"Deal."

✧

a/n

i have a news for my tpc readers! (yeah that's the phoenix complex in short for you💀) you may not have gotten to know about it but your author got shortlisted for the wattys way back in mid-oct! yeah, that's about it lmao i just wanna share🥲 i hope you're having a good time reading this piece as well. vote and comment and lemme know your opinion! thank you for reading💗