The Hidden Card || NCT MAFIA

Chapter sixty-five: Like mother, like daughter

The barrel of Taeyong's gun still cold against his skin, Park stopped moving.

The voice had paralyzed him. Something passed in his only visible eye, but it was so quick to disappear that Iseul couldn't grasp it.

The man was still standing in front of her, dangerously close. He was blocking her from the rest of the room, absorbing everything in her field of vision. He was the only thing she could see, so she focused on that.

Iseul detailed his face, analyzing everything she could see. The way his brows furrowed ever so slightly, before relaxing just as fast -as if he were careful not to drop his mask of indifference for too long, or even the way he pinched his lips together, expressing his frustration.

From up close, the damage she had done to his eyes was even worse than what she had first thought.

He looked as though he had just come out of a horror movie, with his bloody face and missing eye. There was something about him that still felt powerful, though. Almost like his now freshly scarred features had only been enhanced by the cuts inflicted to him. There still was that magnetic charisma surrounding him.

At least now, he really does look like the villain, Iseul thought.

Her heart was beating fast in her chest -not because of the gruesome sight, which she noted, didn't repulse her as much as it should- but because although Park's frame hid the rest of the room, she had recognized that voice, too.

"I advise you step away from my daughter."

Kang Min-Ju stood in the doorway, a gun in hand. Iseul's legs were shaking, and the girl didn't know if it was out of fear, relief, joy or even just exhaustion.

The only thing she knew for sure was that she wouldn't be able to keep standing for long; her legs would end up giving way.

Taeyong seemed to be as surprised as his brother, and quickly darted his gaze from Iseul's mother to Park.

"You too, Taeyong," she demanded without even looking at him.

Her eyes were still fixed on Park, or rather, on the small frame she could make out behind him. She was looking for her daughter.

The tension in the room was thick, and Iseul suddenly came to the realization that things could either go really smoothly or incredibly wrong. In a matter of seconds, she could be in Taeyong's arms, or witnessing a bloodbath.

Iseul did not even know if she was happy to see her mother.

She had always been a clever woman, -almost too clever- and Iseul often felt like her mother always had a bigger plan in mind.

She was the kind of woman to quietly observe from the corner of the room, in the shadows, analyzing and scheming while her husband was in the spotlight. She was the kind of woman whose delicate smile hid a manipulative mastermind.

Iseul had always been admirative of her mother. She was one of the very few people to really know what Kang Min-Ju was truly capable of. But with time, Iseul had also grown wary of her. That admiration soon became mixed with a feeling of insecurity that she couldn't get rid of.

Would she ever come close to becoming the woman her mother was?

When Iseul had killed her father, her first instinct had been to call her mother.

She didn't know how she would react, but Iseul never doubted that she would find comfort in her mother's tight embrace.

Except Iseul never got to meet her mother after that day. She never responded to any of her countless phone calls, or messages. She had simply disappeared. A ghost from Iseul's messed up family. A memory in her mind.

And for the first time in her life, Iseul had doubted her mother. Doubted she would ever come back. Doubted she would ever see her again.

Iseul knew her mother. She knew how dangerous she truly was and how manipulative. But she had never doubted her love. That changed after her disappearance.

She hated the feeling.

Regardless of what the woman stated, she had left her daughter behind.

"I said step away from Iseul. Both of you."

Her firm voice brought Iseul back to reality.

In the couple of months she was gone, she had not changed the slightest. Her shiny black hair was still neatly tied in a classy bun at the back of her head, her eyes still as dark as charcoal.

There was this look in them, the kind that made people uneasy whenever they dared meeting her gaze.

Kang Min-Ju always looked like she knew so much more than what she pretended.
Now Iseul knew it was because she did.

Her mother had always been one step ahead.

"No."

The word snapped like a whip through the air.

Taeyong was still holding his brother at gunpoint, but his resolute gaze was now on Kang.

"What tells me I can trust you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

She laughed humorlessly.

"I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm ordering you to step away from my daughter."

When Taeyong didn't budge, she sighed.

"You can trust I won't hurt her."

That still didn't seem to convince Taeyong, who sticked to his guns. His determined reaction amused Kang, whose lips curled in the hint of a cold smile.

"Think, brother," Park suddenly spoke, rolling his eyes. "Who do you think tipped you of?"

Taeyong froze, his mind going back to the text he had received earlier that day.

"You led me here?" he asked, confusion spreading over his features.

"Oh, no, I have nothing to do with this," Park said, glaring at Kang. "She contacted you."

Iseul's mother simply smiled in response, her eyes devoid of any warmth.

"No offense, brother," Park added, turning to Taeyong, "but I wasn't eager to see you."

He pointed at the gun Taeyong was still holding to his forehead.

"If you knew I contacted him," Kang spoke, "then how come you didn't try to stop me?"

Park let out a humorless laugh, "Because I didn't know you had until I saw him in here," he replied, talking about Taeyong. "And besides," he added, his voice laced with poison, "your little daughter here kept me quite busy."

Iseul's breathing hitched at his scathing tone, but she surprised herself when she realized she did not feel any remorse.

"I suppose being a bitch runs in the family," Park hissed, spiteful. "Like mother, like daughter."