House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter nineteen : A friendship ended with a lie

"Sir, can we change partners?" he asked, surprising everyone around.

Na Jaemin had never asked to change partners before, even when he had to work with the most annoying student in class.

So, needless to say, Iseul was hurt by his reaction. She looked up at him, trying to get his attention, a reaction from him, anything. But he didn't even look at her, his gaze still on the professor who was quick to react at the sudden question, "No. Unless you have a valid reason that could justify your request, you have to stick with the student I assigned you with, Jaemin."

For a second, the boy seemed to be lost in thought, debating with himself on what he should do. If he didn't come up with a solid lie in the next five seconds, he would have to work with Iseul until break. Jaemin dragged himself out of the group of students still surrounding the board, and made his way towards the front desk.

"Sir, I understand you assigned the students yourself so we would focus on our work and not on having fun with our friends, but, you see, I don't think Iseul and I can properly work together-..."

"Jaemin," the teacher said, looking at him, "I didn't put you in pairs myself because I thought the students wouldn't be able to work if they chose their own partner, I did it to help you. Each pair I made was well thought out. I put students that I know, from what I've observed in class, would help and teach each other out. You and Iseul have been friends for a long time and you always do great work together based on the previous tasks I gave you. And you can both learn from the other: she knows her formulas better than you do, but you are better at manipulating substances. I have no doubt you and Iseul will do a perfect job, like always."

The professor was done talking, and clearly done with the conversation at all. Jaemin took a deep breath before reluctantly walking to his place, where Iseul was already getting the experience ready.

When Jaemin took a seat next to her, she felt herself tense up noticing he pushed his stool closer to the edge of their shared table, physically distancing himself from her.

"So," she started, "have you read the instructions yet?"

Iseul tried to act as normal as possible, ignoring the heavy feeling in her chest. It only got worse when Jaemin didn't even bother to answer and just nodded, reaching for the right equipment to use.

The girl tried to start an actual conversation for a while, only to be completely ignored by her partner. He wouldn't even look at her, and when he had to reach for something that was near her, he made it extra obvious to avoid her the best he could. After about half an hour, she had enough of it and decided to address the issue directly.

"Jaemin?" she asked. As expected, she got no reaction from the boy. "Did I do something to you? Something that hurt or upset you, I don't know...? Because if so, I'm sorry."

Hearing her blaming herself for something that wasn't even her fault broke his heart, and he had to fight the urge to give her a hug to tell her everything was fine. That he wasn't mad at her, but rather at his leader, who ordered him to stay away from his friend just because she was born in the wrong family. Judging her without even knowing her.

But he stayed silent.

"You know," she insisted, "at first, I just thought your day had started badly, or that something happened outside of school to make you grumpy. But I saw you with your friends before class, and you were acting completely normal and fine with them, so this is clearly personal, isn't it?"

Jaemin knew he couldn't keep ignoring her like this. At some point, he'd have to tell her something. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be what he personally wanted to tell her, but rather what NCT wanted him to say. Something that would keep her away. Something that would hurt her.

Oh, how he wished things could have been different. But they weren't, and Jaemin didn't have a choice.

"Look," he said while looking at her in the eye for the first time of the day, "you're right, this is personal. You want me to be honest with you Iseul?"

But what he was about to say was far from being honest. "You've been annoying me a lot these days. I just want a break and you to back off a bit. Do you think you can do that?"

His voice was harsh, but that was his words that hurt Iseul the most.

"I-I don't understand..." she mumbled. "Did I do something?"

"You mean apart from being annoying as hell with your stupid smile and your fake kindness? Come on Iseul, drop the acting, will you?"

There was so much poison in his voice that it made Iseul's eyes watery.
She had never seen him like that.

"But...j-just yesterday we were still laughing," she noted.

Jaemin knew she was right, nothing he said made any sense. But what was he supposed to do?

"Then that means I was the one acting, I guess," he answered while looking away, not baring to see her with teary eyes because of his own words. "I'm just tired of our fake friendship."

It broke his heart as much as hers, but it had to be done. Iseul hated drawing attention to her, but she couldn't take Jaemin's accusations and harsh words anymore, so she raised her hand asking to be excused, pretending not to feel well. Which she wasn't really lying about, actually. As soon as the teacher nodded his head, allowing her to leave the room, she ran out of class to the bathroom where she let her tears fall.

She had known Jaemin for years, why would he suddenly say such things?

Outside, on the roof of the building facing the one they had class in, Ten was observing the scene with binoculars, making sure Iseul wouldn't get close to the Dreamies.

When he saw Jaemin seat next to her, he waited a few minutes before grabbing his phone, ready to warn Taeyong.

"Seriously, Jaemin," he scolded, "you had to fucking talk to her, didn't you..." he cursed. Ten didn't want to get him in trouble by telling Taeyong, but he had no choice. He too, had orders.
But, checking the classroom one last time before sending the text, he noticed the girl running out, and Jaemin's broken expression as soon as Iseul couldn't see him anymore.

He sighed, guessing what had happened before deleting the text he was supposed to send.