House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter thirty-four : To divide and conquer (1)

Lee Jeno.

The name kept ringing in Iseul's mind like an alarm bell.

"Iseul?" her mother asked gently. "Do you know that boy?"

The girl didn't know what to reply. She was torn apart. Should she tell her parents about Jeno? Or wait so she could talk to him first? But what if he's dangerous? She wondered.

"I'm not sure..." Iseul began. "There are a lot of people on campus, you know, it's hard to know everyone... But why? Is he dangerous?"

Fortunately, her parents took her questions as a sign that she was scared. Which was half true, of course, but she still couldn't believe Jeno would be a gang member. That couldn't be true.

Her father nodded.

"He is, honey. That boy and his members have done a lot of bad things..." he explained as if he was talking to a child. "But don't worry, Park Min-Seok will do his job and get rid of him so you'll stay safe."

Iseul's heartbeat fastened at her father's words. What did he mean by "getting rid" of Jeno? She really needed to talk to him, right now.

She got up, almost knocking her chair over, and quickly excused herself to go to her room. Her parents just assumed she was too stunned by the news. Which she was.

As soon as she reached her bed, though, Iseul picked up her phone from the bedside table. Her hands kept shaking under the stress she was feeling, but it didn't take her long to press Jeno's contact name.

The sound of ringing added to her current tensed state.

"Come on, Jeno, pick up please," she pleaded, biting her nails. When the robotic sound of the voicemail reached her ears, Iseul furiously hung up, already writing a text.

Jeno, on his side, was getting out of the State's headquarters with Taeyong, Ten and Johnny. The Council had rapidly accepted Taeyong's request about Iseul after they found out who her parents were. The Kang business was famous for being one of the only weapons sellers in this industry. They offered their services to a lot of people, including data and information about other gangs. That's why they had a lot of enemies, but also a lot of allies.

NCT had never reached out to them, however, but the Kang family had been hired multiple times to strike against them.

As the four started to walk back to the car, Jeno checked his phone only to find out he had three missed calls from Iseul, and a couple messages.

"Meet me at the gym as soon as you get this text, it's an emergency," he read.

Jeno frowned. It was Saturday, they didn't have school. Why would Iseul want to see him there and why was it an emergency?

"Um, Johnny-hyung?" he called. The man looked at him through the rear-view mirror. "Can you drop me off at uni, please?"

The three men looked at the youngest, a confused expression on their faces.

"And why would you want to go to school on a Saturday, Jeno?" Taeyong asked, a inquisitive look in his eyes.

The boy debated with himself, but remembered he was supposed to get close to Iseul anyways.

"Iseul texted me," he admitted. "It seems urgent."

Taeyong gave a nod to Johnny, who took a sharp turn on the right to get on the right road to Jeno's university.

The boy stumbled out of the car and ran to the gymnasium, where Iseul was already waiting for him, sitting on a bench.

"Hi," he breathed out, putting a hand through his hair.

The girl got up, but was still a lot shorter than him. She took her time observing him, looking him in the eye as if she was trying to read his soul. Iseul had beautiful eyes, he had to admit, but he didn't get why she was looking at him with such intensity.

"You said it was an emergency?"

Iseul shook her head, coming back to her senses, and most importantly, to the reason why she called him here.

"What I'm about to tell you is probably going to sound crazy," she warned him. "But I want you to listen to me carefully, and don't interrupt me until I'm done, alright?"

Jeno frowned, baffled by the girl's words. Was she trying to confess? Jeno already had had a lot of girls confessing to him, but none looked as serious as Iseul was right now. He wasn't even sure if he'd turn her down like he did with all of the others... But then the sight of the bracelet on her wrist acted as a slap in the face and he remembered she was the daughter of a monster as he quickly got rid of those thoughts.

Jeno nodded, waiting for Iseul to continue.

"Um...," she stammered, unsure of how to start. "I don't really know how to ask you this... so I'm gonna start by asking you what Dream means to you."

Jeno raised his eyebrows at the mention of his unit. He knew the students on campus also called them that, so he assumed that's what she meant, but it was still weird for him to hear her say those words.

"That's the name given to my brothers and I," he shyly chuckled. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm aware it is, yes," Iseul replied. "But you see I've been told it was also the name of a gang..."

As she said those words, Jeno's hand flew to her mouth to cover it. He frantically looked around, to make sure no one had heard what the girl said. He then realized they were on the deserted campus on a cloudy Saturday afternoon. They were completely alone.

He took off his hand with a sheepish smile.

"What the hell was that?" Iseul exclaimed.

"I should be the one asking you that," Jeno defended.

"You're the one who tried to shut me up!" She fought back.

"Well why the hell were you talking about gangs?"

"Because my father told me you were part of one!" She yelled.

Iseul raised a hand to her mouth realizing what she had just said. Way to do things with tact, she scolded herself.