House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter sixty : Out in the woods (1)

Iseul stared at the boy, baffled.

"Uh, Jaemin, what are you thinking of doing exactly?" she asked, not really sure about what her friend had in mind.

"Taeyong-hyung and the others are gone on a mission," he said, "how about we go enjoy some fresh air?" he winked.

Iseul frantically shook her head no.

"Are you crazy?" she whispered-yelled.

Jaemin seemed to seriously think about it for a second, "Maybe," he admitted before shooting her a large smile. "Come on, let's go," he grabbed her wrist.

"Wait, but what if someone finds out? What if Taeyong finds out? He's gonna kill us!"

Now that she said it out loud, she was pretty sure the man could actually violently put an end to their lives. It sent shivers down her back.

"Come on Iseul," Jaemin tempted. "Whenever we're on campus, you spend your time outside, I know you're tired of staying inside... We're not doing anything wrong; we'll just walk for a bit and then come back before anyone noticed we were even gone! No one will ever find out..."

Iseul bit her lip. It's true that the idea of going for a night walk tempted her, but she also pictured Taeyong's face if he found out.

"No one will know... just ten minutes..."

"Ten minutes?" she asked, a part of her already agreeing.

"Ten minutes," he replied.

"Just a quick walk and no one will know, right?"

"I promise," he said.

Just a couple minutes outside can't be that bad... Iseul tried to convince herself. After a few seconds debating with herself, she finally took Jaemin's hand and he smiled at her.

"This is such a terrible idea..." she murmured.

"Nonsense!" Jaemin exclaimed. "I only ever have great ideas!"

They made sure to be as quiet as possible, because a few members were still home. He led her down the stairs, and took her through a few corridors, in a part of the house Iseul didn't know. They finally reached a door, in a dark area of the mansion.

"The back door," Jaemin explained. "It leads to the backyard and the woods behind the house, you see, we're not even leaving the property," he tried to reassure her.

As soon as he opened the door with a key he took out of his pocket, Iseul could feel the fresh air hit her face. He held the door for her, "After you."

She smiled at him before stepping forward. When she finally put a foot on the ground, she realized she didn't even put on her shoes and that she was barefoot. But it didn't bother her, quite the opposite, actually. She enjoyed the fresh feeling of grass under her skin, and the bit of wind on her face.

Jaemin looked at her with a smile, glad to see the girl feel better. They started to head to the woods, walking through the trees. They didn't speak, enjoying the silence of the night. Iseul was looking at the stars when the sound of Jaemin's phone reached her ears.

He gave her an apologetic smile before picking up.

"What is it, Renjun?" she heard him say.

"Where the hell are you?" his brother asked.

"Uhm, I'm taking a walk," Jaemin replied, looking at Iseul who was busy collecting wildflowers.

"And where's Iseul..." Renjun's voice trailed off, suspicious. "Because you see, she's not in her room." 

"Oh, really?" Jaemin faked being surprised.

"Yeah," Renjun said, not believing a word of what Jaemin was saying, "Chenle and Jisung wanted to play with her, but when they went to her room, she was gone... you wouldn't happen to know where she went, by any chance...?"

Jaemin was so busy trying to come up with an excuse that he didn't notice Iseul slowly getting away from him. She was following the trail of flowers, picking them up one by one, creating a small bouquet in her hand. She didn't mean to walk away from Jaemin, especially not in dark woods, but she was too absorbed by the pretty flowers she eventually disappeared from his sight.

She loved those flowers; they were her grandmother's favorites. Before she passed away, Iseul used to pick a lot of them so she could bring them to her, but the sweet memory soon faded away when she heard the sounds of heavy footsteps in front of her.

"Oh, Jaemin, look what I got," she began, quickly stopping herself when she raised her head, only to realize that none of the two men in front of her was her classmate.

"Look at that..." the one on the right spoke. "Doesn't she look familiar?" he asked his friend, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Isn't she... Kang's daughter?" the other one replied.

In the darkness of the night, Iseul couldn't clearly see their faces, but the little she could see wasn't really reassuring.

"A pretty flower like yourself shouldn't be out in those woods at this hour.... Especially not alone," one of them commented, slowly getting closer to her.

Instinctively, Iseul stepped back every time he took a step forward, but the hard feeling in her back signaled her she was now trapped against a tree.

"You know, we've been trying to get to you for a while, now," the tallest spoke, "but you always had your dad's bodyguards to protect you."

Iseul frowned, she had never had any bodyguard. Well, not that she knew of anyways.

"Funny, I don't see anyone, now."

"You know, your father has done some terrible things to us, and we've been wanting to make him pay for a while... I think now's our chance, don't you think?"

The man took out something from his pocket, and Iseul's blood turned cold when the glow of the moon reflected on the small object. A knife.

"Wait," his partner held him back as he was starting to approach her. "We're on NCT's territory," he smiled.

The other seemed to get the hint.

"Tell me, pretty girl, do you happen to know NCT?"

Iseul didn't move, not knowing what to answer.

"Because you see, they also did us dirty, and something tells me that if you're walking on their ground, you must be close to them somehow. It's not like they let anyone in."

"Yeah," the other man added, staring at her with menacing eyes. "Maybe we can come to an agreement," he smiled.

A bit further away, Jaemin was still on the phone with Renjun, the two yelling at each other because Jaemin had admitted to have let Iseul get out.

"How could you be so reckless?" Renjun groaned. "Do you know what Taeyong-hyung is going to do to you?"

"It's fine, Renjun, we're just in the woods, we're coming back," Jaemin sighed, tired of his brother's behavior. It wasn't that bad, they just went out to enjoy a bit of fresh air, nobody died.

"Iseul, come on let's go back- "Jaemin turned around to see the girl gone.

"Jaemin?" Renjun asked, still on the line. "Why are you not talking anymore?"

"Iseul?" Jaemin yelled, starting to get scared. "Come on, it's not funny come out, we have to go now!"

"Jaemin, I swear to god if she escaped, I'm going to skin you alive before Taeyong-hyung gets to kill you."

"Shut up, Renjun, I don't need that right now," Jaemin spat back. "Iseul, where are you?"

He started to walk, looking around for the girl, but she was nowhere to be seen. His blood was starting to boil, and his heartbeat sped up.

Where the hell was she?

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I think it might be my favorite chapter so far, hope you like it too