House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter twenty-eight : The bracelet

During lunch break, Iseul decided she was going to investigate this whole "Dream" mystery. How she was going to do that, however, she had no idea.

The fact that she had practice with Jeno right now, though, was already a good start. She left Chaewon and walked to the gym, where she was supposed to meet him. She liked having this new activity, even though she was pretty sure her shift at the store at the end of the day would be tiring.

"Hi, Jeno," she greeted the boy who was already waiting for her, his back against the building's wall. He already got changed, and the sun, high in the sky, perfectly highlighted his sharp features.

"Hi, Iseul," he forced a smile, hoping the girl wouldn't notice. But she did. Even though Jeno seemed quite prone to give the girl a chance about this whole situation, what Mark had told them the night before strongly disheartened him.

The fact that she had been seen talking to Park Min-Seok could be a coincidence, of course, as he was now the university president and she was a student, but in this case, too many coincidences happened. Jeno would be stupid not to take in consideration everything that went wrong around Iseul and therefore, the possibility of her actually being the enemy.

As much as he wanted to believe her (and Jaemin), he had to keep in mind this risk. The risk she could turn on him at any moment.

"Alright, let's go," he said, leading her to the front door. At this hour, no one was in the building, they had the entire gym for themselves.

"You have a key?" Iseul asked, surprised to see Jeno take out a set of keys from his bag before choosing one.

"Yeah, I'm the captain of the team and I participate in a lot of other physical activities. I mean, I'm in the sports course, after all," he answered.

"Ah, yes of course, I forgot for a second," she awkwardly smiled.

He held the door opened for the girl, letting her in first, and closed it behind him.

"I'll let you get changed while I go put everything in place, alright? You know the way," Jeno added.

Iseul nodded and made her way to the changing room. After a few minutes, she got out and was heading to the practice room when the entrance door opened. The sun blinded her for a few seconds, and when she could finally see who it was, her heart clenched.

Jaemin, however, didn't seem fazed at all. In reality, he knew that Jeno had practice right now, but he had no idea it would be with Iseul. He ignored the uneasy feeling that started to rise in him, and it took him all his will to ignore the girl.

Iseul didn't know how to feel. A part of her was sad, confused, even, but right now, it was anger that she felt boiling through her veins. He had no right to say those hurtful things to her, even if he really wanted to put an end to their friendship. Had she been wrong all these years? Thinking he was different than those bullies?

When Jaemin passed by her, in order to reach the practice room to go see his brother, his eyes met her body, and he noticed dark spots covering her skin. He didn't realize what he was doing, and out of reflex, he gently took her bruised arm.

"Wh-What happened to you?" he asked, genuine concern filling his voice.

It took Iseul a few seconds to start functioning again, the warm feeling of his hand spreading through her arm. She removed herself from his gentle grip, sending him a glare.

"Oh, because you care now?" she spat.

She was hurt, but a part of her wanted to take it out on him. He was responsible for this, after all. A part of her wanted to explain everything to him, like she would have done a few weeks ago, but another just wanted to hurt him like he hurt her.

Some people were broken hearted because of love, well broken friendships hurt just as much.

Jaemin was taken aback by her harsh response, but he quickly pulled out a poker face to cover his worried features.

"N-No," he stated, his voice still trembling. "I was just curious," he lied.

"Iseul, what's taking you so long- "

Jeno stopped himself when he noticed Jaemin standing next to the girl, his eyes going between the two, a suspicious frown on his face.

"Jaemin?" he asked.

The boy looked at his brother before taking out something from his bag.

"Here, you forgot that at lunch," he said, now completely ignoring Iseul. He handed Jeno a jacket, and walked back to leave the facility without looking back.

Jeno and Iseul practiced for an hour after that, but the girl couldn't find a way to bring the topic of Dream on the table without looking suspicious. They both went to get changed, and met in the lobby.

Even though Jeno had mixed feelings towards Iseul, he still had a task to complete. He needed to befriend her, that's why he had been kind to her the whole time.

Apart of him wasn't really acting, though. He did enjoy spending time with her, and she was quite funny to be around.

"Thanks for today's lesson, Jeno, I really appreciate it," she smiled.

"No problem," he answered, the corner of his lips forming a smile too.

As she made a move to open the door, placing her hand on the door handle, Jeno froze in place. He had just noticed the small bracelet around her thin wrist.

"Jeno?" Iseul asked, noticing the boy's face. "Are you alright?"

"What's that?" he asked, not looking away from the piece of jewelry. He pointed at it when Iseul looked at him with a confused frown, not understanding what he was talking about.

"Oh, this?" she said, holding her wrist closer to her face. Jeno nodded frantically. "Where did you get it?" he urged.

"Um, I don't know actually. It fell from my bag the other day...Oh, wait, is it yours? I didn't steal it, I swear, it was just in my bag- "

"You mean you don't know who put it there? No one gave it to you directly?"

His tone was filled with something Iseul couldn't really put her finger on. He seemed, almost scared?

"No, I don't, but why...?"

She couldn't finish her sentence as Jeno cut her in the middle of it, "No reason, I just...I gotta go, see you later!"

And with that he walked away as fast as he could, his pace suddenly slowing as he reached for his pocket to get his phone.

"Taeyong-hyung? There's something you need to know."