House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter eighty : One step forward, two steps back (1)

"The Devil."

Kun's words were sending shivers down her spine, and she held her breath for a second. That made so much sense. Of course, Taeyong was the Devil. What else could he be? A prince in shining armor?

"Who gave him his card?" Iseul asked, her eyes not leaving the dark lines of the drawing on the door.

"He gave it to himself."

Sadness ran through his words, as his voice became a whisper.

"Why?"

"That's how he sees himself."

Iseul felt her heart clench. No one deserved to see themselves as a monster. Was this really Taeyong's vision of himself? She knew the man had issues, but she didn't think it also damaged his own image.

"He's not that bad..." she whispered.

The hallway was empty, they were alone, but they kept their voices low for some reason. Perhaps because the subject was a bit intimate to be yelling about it, maybe because it both made them somehow uncomfortable....

"You don't know the things he did, Iseul," Kun spoke softly while putting a hand on her shoulder. "You have no idea what he's really been through, what he's currently going through. And you have no idea what he's inflicted to others either, or even what he's truly capable of..."

Kun's word made her confused. What was so bad about Taeyong?

"Come on," he shook her slightly, "let's go back before he's wondering what we're doing, or worse, before he accuses you of something terrible again," he laughed.

Soon, it was time for everyone to go to bed after a joyful dinner.

While they were all laughing and playing together, Iseul's dad was at the police station, signaling his daughter's disappearance.

"Mr. Kang," the police officer at the front desk bowed politely at the man who walked in. "Are you here to see the boss?"

"No, I'm not here for business, but on personal behalf."

The young officer nodded and sat back on his chair, waiting for Kang to explain himself.

"Someone took my daughter."

A couple hours before that, back when he was still in his living room with Park, they had come up with a detailed plan.

"How are we going to tell them that NCT's responsible?" he had asked the younger male. "We can't possibly tell them the truth about how we found out they took my daughter."

"No, we can't," Park admitted. "That's why we're going to have to help them a little bit."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, since we can't give them the evidence that we illegally found, we'll have to give them fake ones."

Park said he'd take care of it, leaving for Kang the task to go to the police. But before he left, Kang had received another text from Iseul, stating she was fine. Just to make sure, he had asked his skilled hackers to look into it, and they had confirmed his thoughts.

Iseul's phone wasn't located where she claimed she was. However, they had told him they weren't able to locate it precisely, as something seemed to be blocking the specific area.

NCT's hacker protecting their location, Kang had thought. But that still gave him confirmation about the fact that Iseul was lying, if that really was his daughter sending the texts and not one of NCT's members.

"Someone took your daughter, you say?" The police officer repeated.

"Yes. You see, I haven't seen her in more than a week, but I didn't worry because she had sent me a text saying she was away. But after a few days, I found weird that she didn't try to reach her mother and I and now I am convinced she has been kidnapped. Please, find my daughter."

The young police officer nodded professionally, "Don't worry, sir, we'll do our best."

"Doing your best isn't enough," Kang suddenly spat. "Do I need to remind you who I am? Do you know who paid for the building you're working at every day? Find my daughter," he threatened, "or else I'll make sure this is your last investigation as a police officer."

The man gulped, "Of course, sir. I'll send a few of my men to your house so we can begin the investigation right away."

Satisfied, Kang walked out of the police station, driving back home where his wife was nervously waiting.

During the entire night, the police tried to find anything that could give them a semblance of a lead, by examining the house and interrogating the parents.

The next day, Iseul woke up early to practice with Sicheng as he was the only one not going to class, and she bumped into Chenle in the hallway.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized.

"Chenle, come back here you rascal!" A voice yelled from behind.

"Sorry, gotta go, have a nice day noona!" the younger boy screamed as he ran away as fast as he could.

The girl chuckled, and then looked the other way, only to see a very exposed Jeno running after Chenle. As soon as he saw the girl, he quickly tried to cover himself with the nearest curtain, his face red from embarrassment.

"Oh, hum, hi Iseul."

The girl couldn't help but laugh out loud, looking away when she realized he was only wearing bowers.

"Hi," she replied, her eyes still not looking at him. "Any specific reason as to why you run through the house in underwear?"

"It's Chenle!" he retorted. "That scumbag stole my clothes while I was taking a shower!"

Iseul laughed, "I'll go get him for you."

"Chenle!" she yelled.

"Yes?" his little head appeared behind a door.

"Would you mind giving Jeno his clothes back? I'm pretty sure he's gonna need to dress in order to go to school."

The boy slowly got out of his hideout and nodded, "Alright."

Once Jeno was fully clothed, thay all made their way to the living room to have breakfast, Iseul and Chenle still laughing about the prank.

But as they walked in the common room, their laughter quickly died down. Everyone's attention was now on the large screen of the television, on the opposite side of the room, and the members all turned their head to them in sync.

The sudden attention made Iseul's face go red, and Jeno just looked at them, confusion written all over his face.

"What is going on?" he spoke.

No one answered, and the members all made way for Taeyong to walk to Iseul. The girl tried to decipher their facial expressions, but every time she tried to meet their eyes, they looked down or avoided her gaze. She then observed the leader, and she recognized an attitude she knew all too well. And she hated it.

The man was burning with rage, his fiery eyes looking straight at her, and Iseul had to manage all her efforts not to look away.

"Care to explain why the hell your face is on every media?"

He didn't yell, but he raised his voice enough to make her bones shake and palms sweat with nervousness. How she hated it when Taeyong was mad. She had never seen anyone as scary as him.

She looked at the screen, only to realize that her face really was on TV. Why the hell was her face on TV? She quickly read the headlines, "Famous company owner's daughter Kang Iseul, reported missing."