House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter forty-two : The best player is the one who can adapt to the game

Taeil was sitting in front of his computers, drinking his coffee when he heard the electronic sound of his door, signaling that someone had typed the code to get in.

Every sensitive room had a digital door lock to protect its contents from possible attacks, Taeil's control room as well. Only a few people had access to those codes, limiting the risk of it ending up in the wrong hands.

Taeyong got in and sat on the chair next to the eldest member, letting out a sigh.

"Rough day?" Taeil asked, still reading the digits on his screen.

"I've seen worse," the leader replied. "I have two questions."

"Ask away."

"First, can you make sure none of the Dreamies get out of their room tonight? I'm afraid they would go see the girl in the woods, and I don't want that to happen," he requested.

"Why not? I thought you wanted her on our side? The best way to do that would be to let the boys be close to her, like they were before, don't you think?"

"Not yet. I want to mess with a bit before we do that," Taeyong said. "It's been a while since I've had fun, and I think she could be a good entertainment."

Taeil gave him a disapproving look. As much as he cared for Taeyong, he didn't always approve of his methods, especially when it involved innocents. Taeil had never met Iseul, but he still didn't like the idea of Taeyong playing with her, because every time he played, he won. Always leaving the other player in the dirt.

"What?" Taeyong retorted. "When I'll be done, I'll let the Dreamies do what they want with her, but if I mess with her mind enough, it'll be easier for them to convince her to stay," he explained.

"She's not some toy, Taeyong..." Taeil sighed. "The poor girl didn't ask for any of it, and you're going to give her hell."

"Not my problem," he shrugged, unbothered. "So, can you please watch the video surveillance in front of the boys' rooms to make sure none of them get out tonight?"

Taeil nodded, "It's not like I can say no to you, you're still my boss," he reluctantly admitted. "What was the second thing?"

"Jeno. Kang has identified him, and I'm guessing he did thanks to the data they stole from us," Taeyong said, his tone filled with anger. "Which means they have our files. They started to decode our profiles. How long do you think it's going to take them to do it?"

"I don't know," the eldest said. "It depends on their hacker and how many of them are working on it. But at this rate, maybe... two weeks in the worst scenario?"

Taeyong clenched his fists, visibly not happy with the news.

"It's short. Which means we have to act and do something before it's too late. I'll think about it, thanks, hyung."

Taeil went back to the screens in front of him, selecting the Dreamies' rooms.

"Babysitting through video," he mumbled, "not exactly how I imagined spending my night..."

After Taeil, Taeyong went to see Mark, who sat on his bed, doing his homework. A part of him had missed doing things as simple as that.

"Can I help you, hyung?" he asked after letting his leader in.

"We need to talk about your operation at university. It might get dangerous for you soon," Taeyong said.

"What do you mean?"

"Kang has identified Jeno as one of the Dream members. It's not going to be long until he identifies the rest, and makes the connection with you. Park is at school to track you down, and he might already be on it as we speak. Kang must have told him for Jeno, he's going to look through his friends there, so you need to lay low."

"Jeno has been exposed?" Mark asked, his eyes wide.

"Yes. You and Dream are the only ones whose identities are still a secret to other gangs. We need to keep it that way. Kang is going to grow power out of this. We have a lot of enemies who'd be ready to kill to obtain this kind of information on us. Or in this case, pay Kang a lot of money. Needless to say, that would put us in a really bad position."

Mark nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation.

"So what's the plan?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, I think the other boys are gonna have to lay low as well, and try to distance themselves from Jeno."

"Yeah..." Marks began, nervously putting a hand to the back of his neck. "I'm afraid it's not gonna be that easy... You see, the boys are quite popular at school, if they were to split up overnight, people would talk, and it's going to draw attention more than anything."

Taeyong let out a frustrated groan. "I thought I told them to always keep to themselves."

"It's not really their fault, you know," Mark defended his brothers. "They don't ask for it, it just happens. Problem is, it's not going to be easy to keep them away from Park's investigation. I'm still new, so I could stay back without much trouble, but I'm not sure that they can."

Taeyong paced around Mark's room, trying to find a solution. The boy suddenly snapped his fingers, signaling he had an idea.

"What if," he started, gaining Taeyong's attention. "We make it seem like they had a fight. Like a public one."

"Mark, you're not listening to me," Taeyong groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Causing a scene in front of the entire school is the exact opposite of what we want. The whole point is to avoid attention," he explained, emphasizing the word 'avoid'.

"No, no, no wait, let me finish. If we can manage to make it public, like at the cafeteria, for example, it would make their sudden break-up more credible to the students," he explained. "Then, we find a way to isolate them with Park somewhere no one will hear, and we make it seem as if Jaemin, Renjun and Donghyuck just found out about Jeno being part of a gang, that way Park would directly eliminate them from the list of suspects."

Taeyong seemed to think about it for a minute.

"That could actually work, yes," he affirmed. "Good job, Mark. You should go to sleep, now, your song can wait..." he said, noticing the papers covered in lyrics that Mark had been working on.

The boy's face turned red, as he quickly hid the sheets behind his back. Taeyong let out a genuine chuckle, quite a rare thing to see, before leaving Mark alone.