House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter twenty-one : Coming back from the dead

Finally done with her morning classes, Iseul quickly made her way to the cafeteria, where she was supposed to meet Chaewon for lunch. She didn't even have time to sit that her friend already started talking, "Are you alright? I saw you running out of class earlier, but when I asked if I could leave too to see how you were doing, the teacher didn't let me! Sorry, Iseul, are you feeling better?"

Her friend's worry warmed Iseul's heart, and she was quick to reassure her, "Don't worry, it's fine Chae. I'm feeling a bit better I guess..." she trailed off.

"So, what happened? You were fine before class started."

"It's Jaemin..." Iseul started telling her the whole story without crying, which surprised her, and she saw Chaewon's face turning red.

"That...asshole, seriously!" she yelled, making people stare at the two.

"Keep it down, will you? Let's take a walk outside before class starts again, the weather's good and I could really use some vitamin D right now."

Iseul stayed silent as Chaewon endlessly insulted Jaemin, without ever taking a second to breathe. The girl was surprised by the amount of vocabulary Chaewon had in the matter. When their language didn't have any more insults she could use, Chaewon started creating her own, which somehow, made Iseul laugh.

"Alright, alright, I think that's enough," she quietly laughed.

"Well," Chaewon sighed, "at least it made you smile."

Iseul grinned, enjoying the warm sun on her skin while walking around campus. As they were passing by a group of girls, Iseul heard them giggle like elementary-schoolers, and caught one of them whisper "Woah, he's so handsome I can't believe it!"
"Yeah, and he's so mysterious, I wonder what he's hiding behind his scarf..." said another one.

Not thinking much of it, she ignored them and continued her walk with Chaewon who was now complaining about how boring her last class had been. They both soon noticed other groups of students gathering around the noticeboard outside the entrance hall. Curious, both girls walked over to see what everyone was looking at.
Turns out it was a poster announcing the university president's replacement with a younger male whose picture was at the center of the paper.
The group of girls they passed by earlier were right: he was really good-looking. But that's not was Iseul noticed first. She knew that face, because she saw it not later than the night before in her very own living room.

"Park Min-Seok," Chaewon read out loud the name written right under the picture.

"Iseul? Are you alright? You seem a bit pale..."

"Miss Kang, hello," said a male's voice from behind them.

Everyone gasped as they realized who had just appeared and Iseul's face went even paler.

"Oh, hello sir," she answered when Chaewon nudged her with her elbow.

"Do you study here? What a coincidence!" the man exclaimed.

"Yes, what a coincidence," Iseul repeated, getting less convinced by the second. "Um, we should probably get back to class."

"Ah, yes of course! I wouldn't want you and your friend to be late because of me! I'll come by your class in the afternoon anyways, I have to introduce myself to the students," he smiled.

Every student around them watched in shock as the tall man slowly walked away, smiling at everyone. As soon as he was out of sight, they all turned around to ask the shy girl of the campus how she knew him, but she was already gone.

"What the hell was that about?" Chaewon asked her friend, out of breath.

Iseul had literally dragged her the farthest away from the crowd as possible, and they were now close to the sports field, where a few athletes were practicing.

"How do you know him anyways?"

"Because he's my parents' new associate."

"A businessman? Why would he take over our university's presidency?"

"That's what I was wondering..." Iseul answered. She hesitated to tell her friend about the rest of the story.

Should she tell her about all the weird "coincidences" that occurred over the past week involving that man? About how suspicious his phone call the night before had been? About how Iseul was sure she had met him before he ran into her on the street?

She was about to open her mouth when Chaewon took a quick glance at her phone, checking the time.

"Oh we really should head back to class now, we're gonna be late!"

The meeting room of NCT's headquarters was full, every member minus the Dreamies and Ten were seated around the large table. They were all talking with one another, mostly debating on the reason of the sudden gathering. Some were ready to bet on the issue that followed Kang's scam, and others thought about the several murders that had been happening lately, like the one Jaehyun and Lucas reported to Taeyong the day before.

All conversations abruptly ended, however, as soon as the large double doors opened, revealing their charismatic leader. The room was now deadly silent, all of them waiting for Taeyong to take his seat at the head of the table.

His aura was so strong that the members could feel it getting mixed to the now raising tension in the air.

"There has been a change of plans," he severely announced.

"Ten called me a few minutes ago, the situation might be more serious than expected. As most of you know, I've assigned him to follow Kang's daughter at all times to keep me updated on her whereabouts. Turns out she was seen speaking to Park Min-Seok on campus."

The members looked at each other in confusion. Did they really hear the same name?

Kun raised his hand, asking permission to speak, like a student. Taeyong just nodded, allowing him to do so.

"I'm sorry... but did you just say Park Min-Seok?" he asked, speaking out loud what everyone in the room was thinking.

The leader nodded in agreement, his eyes dark, as if a storm was happening behind them.

"But... wasn't he like... dead?" Mark asked awkwardly.

"I thought he was, like you, but clearly hell wasn't fun enough, so he decided to come back," Taeyong answered, his voice rumbling like thunder.

"So, what are we gonna do?"

This time, it was Taeil who joined the conversation. Taeyong suddenly smirked, sending chills to everyone. When he smiled like this, with a crazy look in his eyes, no one knew what could happen, but it was always a bad sign.

"We're gonna welcome him back, of course!" he exclaimed like a madman.

"It's time to let our strongest card join the game : let's put The Ace on the table."