cherry bomb › nct

02 | cerise?

NEO CULTURE TECHNOLOGY
MAD CITY BASE
11:30 PM, SATURDAY

3RD PERSONS VIEW。

"What do you mean her name is Cerise?" the light-pink headed questioned as he sat in front of his executives and a few members.

The consigliere, Kim Doyoung, scrunched his nose, grabbing the folder he got from one of the younger ones, "This is all Dream could find about her." he tosses the yellow folder towards their leader.

"Cerise?" their leader hums as he read the title of the folder.

"Taeyong—"

"She's the head bartender and owner of a bar named Pandora's Box?" the said person raised a brow in amusement as he kept looking through the files.

"From what we found, she's born 1999 and has been working at that bar for around four years now... and it was also said that the former owner was her uncle." a boy from the Dream unit, Lee Jeno, informed as he pushed up his spectacles.

"Her real name is Yun Keiko, she goes by Cerise which from our research, is Cherry in French." another Dream unit boy stated, named Chenle.

One of the older boy's ears perked up at the mention of her name, "Her name sounds familiar."

"What do you mean, Yuta?" a sub-advisor, Seo Youngho, shot a look at the Japanese mechanic.

"I've heard it somewhere, but it can't be the same Keiko, right?" Yuta shrugs it off and proceeds to listen to the meeting.

"Cerise is known for her unique drinks and easy going behavior at the bar, we also dug up that she won a bartending competition at Japan a few years ago."

"Practically a lot of bars here in South Korea wants to have her as their bartender." Jeno stated.

"Yet, she chose to lie low and work somewhere private, huh?" the second-in-command, Jung Jaehyun, chuckles as he remembers how hard it was for them to find Pandora's Box.

"Pandora's Box is kind of like a speakeasy, it's famous, but the bar is very well hidden. It's like a surprise waiting for you." the main hacker, Park Jisung, told them and typed something into his laptop and the big screen they were all looking at changed.

A picture of the bar in daylight.

"As you can see, no one would suspect that it is a bar unless they check, the reasons why it was kept hidden isn't really stated." Jisung said sheepishly before pressing a button and it slides to another picture.

A girl popped out, she has paled skin with tattoos imprinted on her arms, has long grayish blonde hair topped with a black barrette pairing the black bartender uniform she wore. Her hand slightly tilted as she held the cocktail glass between her fingers which were also imprinted with tattoos. One of her eyes were closed as the corner of her mouth tugged up into a toothy smirk, showing off her clear braces.

The boys studied her looks, some smirked, some chuckled, and some were amazed. "She looks more like a gangster than most of us." Youngho commented as soon as he noticed her tattoos.

"Damn, her tattoos make her look hotter." the trickster, Lee Donghyuck, utters. With this statement, he earned himself a smack from the boy beside him, Huang Renjun.

"What? She's only a year older." the boy grins and eyed her picture. His gaze fell onto the boy beside her and he instantly growled, "Who the fuck is he? I didn't notice him at the bar last night."

An executive, Kim Jungwoo, scoffed, "Probably because you were too busy admiring the girl."

"Information on the guy?" Taeyong asked Jisung.

Chenle nudged the distracted boy and Jisung flinched at this, immediately pressing on the guy's face as the program scanned him. Information about the guy soon started popping beside his picture.

"He is one of Cerise's friends and co-workers. Name is Reginald Young, or what he goes by, Reiji Young." Jisung points out.

"Oh wait, I remember him!"

"You do, Mark?" Youngho raises a brow.

"Yeah! He was like escorting the customers outside since he said they were about to close. He's a liar." the youngest executive, Mark Lee, chuckles, "I guess they know what happens when mafia gang's meet up each other."

Jungwoo hums, "Dasom did say that Cerise practically saved her from getting drugged."

Taeyong laced his fingers in amusement as he stared at the projected screen.

"Taeyong?" Doyoung called for their boss, but no respond. He grunts and stares openly at Taeyong, trying to guess what was on the guy's mind. He then gasps upon realizing, "Fuck, Taeyong! Don't even—"

"Keep an eye on her." the said guy commanded sternly, cutting off Doyoung.

The intelligence unit, mainly consisted of the hackers, looked at each other before nodding. "If you need more information, you know who to call." Jeno chuckles and removes his glasses, stuffing it into his blazer's pocket.

"Let's go," Taeyong stood up and went out of the meeting room, Doyoung trailing behind him in a hurry.

"What the hell Taeyong?" Doyoung nearly yelled as they walked down the halls of their manor.

"What?" Taeyong hums, despite knowing what Doyoung was on about.

The advisor grumbles, "Why do you want to keep an eye on that bartender? It's not like she's anyone important!"

"We don't know that yet."

"What do you even mean by that! For all we know, she's not someone who's going to turn us in the cops!"

"Exactly," Taeyong spins around to face Doyoung, "she's going to help us."

"What the fuck?" Doyoung furrows his brows, not knowing his boss's true intentions. "Do you even know her?"

Taeyong chuckles dryly as he shook his head, "I don't know her, but I've definitely seen that face somewhere."

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