glitch mode°nct dream

thirty-eight: mirror

  "Good job, Kiu! I can already see it; your name in shining lights!" Little Kiu's mother squealed as her husband nodded with agreement and smug content.

A creak of the door behind them captured their attention but the adults quickly turned their heads back to their golden little one.

However, the latter retained his gaze on the other who carried the same expression as him; wide-eyed, curious yet...empty. It was like looking into a mirror.

The fact that they were twins wasn't even relevant because even without it, little Kiu could tell that they were the same.

Kiu and Gyungmin, the human mirrors of each other.

"Kiu, honey, what do you want for your birthday this time? Hm? Something bigger and better than last year would be nice, hm?" Mother asked with rushed, hushed whispers- clearly, she was trying to pull his son's focus away from his twin that peeks behind the door.

Kiu submitted to his mother and smiled. "I'd like anything."

Kiu and Gyungmin were once treated the same- until Kiu started getting better grades and Gyungmin became invisible.

And that was in kindergarten.

"You're twins?" Donghyuck asks, agitated and confused while shifting his scrutinizing gaze between Kiu and Gyungmin.

His voice pulls away Kiu from the flashback of his childhood and he meets the gaze of his sibling who's forced onto his knees with wrists restrained by Jeno.

  "So you've been letting a non-officer enter the work premises? Letting him use your ID pass and your identity as a whole?" Jaemin interrogates and Kiu shamefully nods, not meeting his eyes.
"...Why? Just what was the purpose of it all?"

  For a moment, Kiu remains silent, reticent. "Because...he wanted to."

  "Kiu-yah, this girl in the picture with you...who is she?" Gyungmin asked after seeing the photo of his brother and Dasom together.

  Kiu peeked his head from the kitchen and headed over after closing the fridge. "Ah, Dasom. My colleague."

  "Woah, you work together?? She's my neighbour! We've only talked once, I don't think she even remembers me but she was the sweetest- like an angel! I fell for her at first sight," Gyungmin dreamily described and his brother's gaze examined him.

  Kiu discreetly pulled his phone back. "So, what are your plans for today?"

  "Can I come to your work once?" Min completely ignored his question. "I wanna be friends with Dasom too. I want to see her, talk with her, even just once! That's fine, right?"

  Kiu hesitated. He wanted to reject, he really did but...

  He has nothing, and I have everything.

  That line played in Kiu's head.

  "...Just once."

  But things got out of hand.

  "So, you admit that you're the one who permitted him. What the fuxk was going through your head when you let him?" Donghyuck hisses with clenched fists.

  Kiu regretfully shook his head and goes onto his knees with palms pressed on the tiles and eyes lowered from from their gazes. "I'm sorry, I really am. You can do anything you want with me, I'll accept anything."

  Jaemin clicks his tongue as he glares at the kneeling figure. "Gyungmin, open this door."

  Ignorance. Complete and utter ignorance from the said lad as he intentionally refuses to meet their eyes.

  "Ah—!" He yelps when a hand roughly yanks him by the jaw with slim, crushing fingers and he's forced to meet the daunting dark eyes of Jaemin.

  "I have been trying my best to hold myself back but if you dont open this door by the next second—" he quickly stops himself by inhaling a sharp, long breath through his nose before glaring at the other once more. His pupils tremble with overflowing wrath at risk of exploding. "Just open the fuxking door. Now."

  And so, Gyungmin finally did.