House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter forty-four : The walls have ears

Kun was making his way to the kitchen to get Iseul her hot chocolate when he almost bumped into Taeyong.

"Oh, hello, hyung," he greeted, grabbing a cup.

"Hello," Taeyong replied, observing Kun. "What are you doing? You usually have coffee in the morning," he noted.

"Oh, yeah it's for Iseul..." Kun trailed off. "I know you already gave her food for breakfast, but I wanted to know if she wanted anything else," he explained.

Taeyong frowned. He hadn't given her anything until last night. Where was that food coming from? He didn't say a word, promising himself he'd look into it later.

"Funny," he snarled. "I don't recall turning this house into a hotel. Everyone seems to forget how we normally treat captives here."

Kun put back the cacao powder on the table and breathed out, closing his eyes.

"For the last time, hyung, that's probably because she's not an enemy. You should really stop seeing her as one. You said it yourself, the only way to get to Kang is to get her to turn on him. She needs to be on our side, and it's not by treating her like a rival that we're going to do it. Besides, she's just a girl," he said.

"Yeah," Donghyuck scoffed, entering the room without even greeting the others. "A 'girl' that kicked Jeno's ass in front of thirty students."

"Wait, what?" Kun asked, looking at the leader who also seemed surprised.

Haechan laughed. "Ah, Jeno didn't tell you I'm guessing. He must have been too embarrassed to admit that a 'sweet girl' could have put him to the ground in less than ten seconds. Anyways, be careful who you call 'innocent', hyung, because I'm not sure that's the word I'd use to describe her."

Without another word, he left after grabbing an apple on his way out.

"Why do you do this?" a voice asked.

Jeno was leaning against the wall, eyeing Donghyuck with a disappointed look on his face.

"Why do I do what?" the latter replied.

"Why do you keep hating on Iseul? She has never done anything to you! It's already hard for her to be trapped here, she's confused more than ever and probably scared. She doesn't need you to give Taeyong-hyung more excuses to mess with her even more."

"Damn, she got to you too, huh?" Haechan spat. "You and Jaemin are lost causes, I see. You guys are so attached to her you don't even realize how much of a danger she could be to us. For all we know, this could all be an act!"

"Why would she put on an act? What would Kang want from us that he doesn't already have?" Jeno yelled. 

"Oh, I don't know! Maybe he'd want our location, so he can pay us a visit, or maybe he'd like every single detail about us! Since when does he need a reason to destroy people's lives anyways?" Donghyuck snapped, his face red with anger. "It's easy for you to ignore the fact that she's his freaking daughter, you've never been one of his targets! My family trusted Kang, and they payed their mistake with their lives! So excuse me if I'm not that eager to become her friend!"

The loud voices had alerted a few other members, as Johnny was now trying to get Haechan to calm down. Jeno hadn't moved, frozen by his brother's words. How could he be so insensitive? He knew Donghyuck had suffered a lot because of Kang, he couldn't expect him to welcome Iseul with open arms.

Haechan shook off Johnny's hand from his shoulder and ran out of the house, into the woods.

Iseul was still in the annex when she heard the sound of hurried footsteps walking on leaves.

"Haechan, don't," a voice called. Iseul recognized it as Kun's.

"I'm not going to hurt her, I just want to talk," the youngest said in a dry tone.

"In that emotional state? I don't think so." Kun walked closer to the boy. "Look, no one said it was easy for you. It's your right to be upset, but Iseul hasn't done anything, alright? You need to remember who your real enemies are, Hyuck, or else you'll drown and hurt people who don't deserve it."

Haechan looked down, his clenched fists hitting the wall of the annex, making Iseul jump a little. She could hear every word that was being said, the walls weren't that thick after all.

"But I'm so mad...," the boy cried. "I feel this anger inside of me all the time because of Kang, and there's nothing I can do about it!" He fell to the ground.

"Everyone seems to be on her side and forget where she comes from. Her father has destroyed so many lives, so many of us, why are you nice to her?" He hit the back of his head against the hard surface in frustration.

Kun sat down next to him.

"Because, even though I hate her father as much as everyone else, I know Iseul did nothing wrong. Her only mistake was to be born in the wrong family, I guess. Now no one's expecting you to do anything, alright. Just take your time but remember that if you want to get to Kang, we need her on our side."

Donghyuck took a deep breath, holding back his tears of anger from running down his face and nodded. He got up and started to walk back to the house, drying his tears with his sweater sleeves.

Kun opened the door of the annex, and found Iseul curled up in the corner of the room, where she had slept.

"Here's your hot chocolate," he smiled. "Well, actually it's not that hot anymore so it's just... chocolate? Sorry" he apologized.

Iseul didn't take the cup he was handing her and got up to face him.

"Is it true?" she asked, looking at him in the eye.

The man frowned, "Is what true?"

"What you said," she explained. "Did my father really ruin lives?"

Understanding she wouldn't take the cup, he put in of one of the chairs.

"Yes," he answered with honesty. "Taeyong and Ten might have been harsh, but they said the truth last night. Your father really is a horrible person."

He was expecting her to cry, to yell, or to fall on her knees, desperate. But instead, he noticed a change in her eyes.

"What did he do, exactly?"

Kun looked away, "It's not up to me to tell you about our members' personal lives, especially their pasts. But let's just say that he destroyed a lot of people, both mentally and, well... physically."

Iseul clenched her fists in anger. "I'm sorry," she firmly said, her eyes softening. "For whatever my father did to you and your members, really. And if you meant it when you said the only way for you to get revenge was to use me, then do it."

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I'm trying to get every member some sort of focus at some point so there's none left out, is it good or should I focus on one member only?