House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter seventy-one : A triggering past (2)

Iseul was pretty sure that the sound was the one of glass hitting the ground, and she quietly made her way to the door. At this hour, everyone was asleep, or so she thought, and the house was deadly quiet. She tried to listen by pressing her ear on the wooden material, and another crashing sound came from the office, followed by Taeyong's muffled voice cursing.

She hesitated, not really knowing what to do in this situation. She finally knocked gently on the door, and suddenly the other side of the room became silent. Iseul was having mixed feelings; she didn't know if she should get in to see what was going on or just ignore what she heard and go to bed like nothing happened.

Another sound reached her ears and she made up her mind, even though she was pretty sure she'd regret it later. Slowly putting a hand on the doorknob, she carefully pushed the door open. She stood in the doorframe for a few seconds, unsure of what to do now. She couldn't see much, the only source of light being the small desk lamp, and it spread its dim light around. The office seemed empty, so where was the noise she heard coming from?

"T-Taeyong?" Iseul spoke softly, not wanting to wake the other members up.

No response. She suddenly shivered, a cold breeze hitting her skin and creating goosebumps on her arms. She looked up and realize that one of the windows behind the desk was open. Iseul looked around, not seeing anyone in the dim light. She was only able to make out the shapes of the furniture in the room, and she made her way to the window to close it. When she turned around, she was on the other side of the desk, where Taeyong was usually seated. It was weird to see things from his perspective for once, and she unconsciously let her eyes travel on the desk.

She had never liked people who didn't respect other people's privacy, and she didn't want to be one of them, but when her eyes met the picture frame on the desk, she couldn't help herself. Her small hand reached for the picture to look at it closely.

It was a boy and a girl. The girl was really pretty, but she had no idea who she was, and Iseul frowned looking at the boy. She almost didn't recognize Taeyong. It's not the fact that he was way younger on the picture, but rather the fact that he was smiling that confused her. She had never seen him smile that widely. Or smile at all for that matter.

Without realizing, she smiled at the picture too, but she didn't have time to look at it longer as it was suddenly violently snatched away from her hand.

Iseul gasped at the man that was right behind her.

"Don't touch that," he spoke in a husky voice, immediately putting the picture back to its place on the desk.

"Sorry," she mumbled, aware of her mistake.

Taeyong was still behind her, his breath tickling her nape, and a strong scent suddenly filled the air. Was that alcohol?

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Iseul turned around to face him and only then did she realize how close he actually was. She looked up, unable to find his eyes. The darkness of the room didn't really help either.

What she could see, however, was a whole mess. His shirt was buttoned wrong, he had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was a total mess too. When she finally found his eyes, he looked away. But Iseul could clearly see they were glassy, absent.

"I said," he spoke, dangerously getting closer, "what are you doing in my office?"

"I- I heard some noise from the corridor, and I wanted to see if everything was alright..." she stuttered while taking a step back, hitting the edge of the desk.

Taeyong's sudden laugh took her aback. What did she say that was so funny? It was a creepy laugh, though, and Iseul got goosebumps.

"If everything's alright?" Taeyong snickered.

Iseul had never seen him like this, and she didn't know what to feel. It's like her mind was trying to understand what was going on. Looking on her right, she noticed an open door, probably where Taeyong suddenly came from. The dim light of the desk lamp was still enough for her to notice the small pieces of what seemed like glass on the ground.

"Are you drunk?" Iseul asked.

Taeyong looked at her straight in the eye this time, taking his time while observing her. To say that she felt uncomfortable was an understatement, and yet she didn't say a word.

"Unfortunately," he spoke with a low voice, "not anymore."

He ran a shaky hand through his messy hair, and that's when Iseul noticed the stain of red on his skin.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at his hand.

Taeyong frowned and observed his hand, putting it right in front of his face. "It's ketchup," he said sarcastically. "What do you think it is, sweetheart?"

"You shouldn't drink that much," Iseul sighed. "You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself too badly."

Taeyong let out a loud laugh again, "Well I'm dying anyways," he mumbled as he distanced himself from her to face the windows behind him.

"What?" Iseul whispered, not sure she heard correctly.

Taeyong didn't answer, his back being the only she could see of him. She couldn't look at his face, and he was grateful. He had never looked so bad, so desperate, so miserable.

"Who's the girl on the picture?" she asked softly.

Clearly the subject was sensitive, because she barely had time to speak that Taeyong had her pinned to the desk, his hands firmly gripping her wrists. The pression he was putting on her was painful, and she winced in pain.

"Don't ever talk about her again," he threatened, his face so close she could feel the smell of alcohol surrounding her.

But her physical pain seemed to be nothing compared to Taeyong's agonizing eyes.

—-
Hi it's 3am and I love writing about Taeyong so much I got inspired, but the writing's probably not that good I need sleep aha
I'm kinda proud of this chapter though, (I bet I'll hate it when I'll read it again in the morning after some sleep but oh well!) hope you like it too!