• cards | nct 2018 •

seventeen || doubts

a/n: mysteries mysteries and more mysteries...what could be the truth? more mysteries after one has been solved.
also, hooray to the return of  'cards'! thank you for waiting :)

hye ji

looking up from my notebook that sat atop of my desk, i squint as i try to read the math formulas on the whiteboard.

i couldn't see very clearly and my vision was slightly blurry.

"hye ji? are you okay?" my seat mate speaks up, and i turn to him with a small nod.

"yeah, i'm fine." i send a tiny smile.

__________________________

as soon as i arrived in headquarters i was immediately summoned to taeil's office.

taeil sat, crossed-leg, on his black coloured leather sofa. once i entered the room, he gestured me to sit on the other sofa beside him.

"why did you call me over, taeil?" i spare no hesitation and cut to the chase.

"i heard of your little meeting with your brother." taeil decides to do the same.

i furrow my brows with a frown. "how...do you know that?"

"taeyong told me all about it."

"huh! he's suddenly getting all good with his enemies? what a joke..." i scoff. "how much lower can he get? being grandfather's puppet isn't enough?" i add with a mumble.

"he came to look for me as your brother, not as our enemy," taeil simply says. "he's genuinely worried about you."

"i highly doubt so." i snap.

"he would've gotten into trouble if joker's head found out." he says in a serious tone, and i couldn't reply.

"whatever. so why did you call me over? i believe it's not just informing me about taeyong's visit."

"that's right. i called you here to give you a word of advice, hye ji," he uncrosses his legs and looks at me dead in the eye. "i don't know why you're caring so much about mark lee, but you shouldn't go any further with him. he's not what you think he is."

i furrow my brows deeper and purse my lips into a straight line.

"i don't think i understand..."

taeil flashes a mysterious smile. "you will eventually, and so will he," he pauses.

"but, what i can tell you now is that getting near him is nowhere beneficial to you or your background."

_______________________

third person pov

hye ji closes the door behind her with a sigh as the cool air conditioner in ace's quarters started to make her feel cold.

she thought she was alone in the room since the other boys had extra lessons in school, well, until a voice spoke up.

"hye ji?" startled, she instinctively takes a step back.

but she soon realises that the voice had been mark. seems like he got discharged from the infirmary.

"you look like you're in deep thoughts?" mark asks with a questioning gaze.

"ah, well..."

she wasn't too sure whether to mention about the contents of her little meeting with taeil.

what did he mean by mark wasn't what hye ji thought he was?

she frantically tried to talk about another topic and her eyes fell onto that same photo frame that she had seen on the first day she came to ace.

that photo of donghyuk on his 17th birthday if she wasn't wrong.

it was placed on mark's desk right by his laptop.

"that photo of donghyuk...i heard you, jeno and donghyuk were related. is that true?" hye ji asks carefully. she had heard all sorts of information on ace before, but not all of them were very trustworthy.

"the three of us?" he notices that she was looking at that picture. "yeah, we're cousins. at least, that's what we were told we were."

"what do you mean?" i tried to probe him further to speak.

"hm...well, the last of our memories that we remember was two years ago. before this photo was taken, before ace was ever formed." mark explains, and hye ji's eyes widen in surprise.

"you mean, you don't remember your past?"

"i guess. i only remember the moment from when i woke up in a hospital and taeil told me about jeno and donghyuk. that was the start of ace," he further says. "the rest of my memory...i don't know, it's hazy. whatever happened before i met taeil was hazy."

hye ji nods. "memory loss...so even you don't know who you were." she mumbles to herself.

perhaps that was what taeil meant by she would eventually understand and so will he.

and maybe, whatever taeyong warned her has some credibility.

_________________________

a/n: in case y'all didn't know, it has been implied in chapter 2 that mark, jeno and donghyuk were related. mark was their 'guardian' when they got into trouble.