House Of Cards || NCT Mafia

Chapter eighty-two : A friend in need is a friend indeed

"Take care of the body."

The low voice echoed through the walls surrounding the secluded area, separating it from the street. The man wasn't worried about anyone interrupting them during business, or even witnessing the crime he had just committed, the part of town they were in was abandoned, and no one dared to come that far away from the center.

The man that stayed in the shadows and observed the scene came out of his hideout to get rid of the evidence, while Park got in his car, completely unbothered by what just happened.

"To Kang's," he told his driver, who immediately started the car.

In less than fifteen minutes, the fancy car stopped in front of the gates of the large house, and Park knocked at the door.

"I did as you advised," Kang began as soon as he saw Park walk in his office. "The police spent the entire night looking for clues that don't exist and obviously found nothing."

Park could sense the tiredness in the man's voice, and he had dark circles under his eyes.

"Good, then it's time for phase two," Park spoke while taking a seat in front of him.

"Phase two?" Kang raised his head that was hidden in his hands. "I didn't know there were phases."

"If you want to attack people as powerful as NCT, you don't just walk into the lion's den. I got this," he threw Iseul's phone on the desk separating them, and Kang's eyes widened when he recognized the object.

"That's my daughter's phone!" he exclaimed.

Park scoffed and mentally slapped himself. What a genius that man was, he thought sarcastically. "It is."

"How did you get it?"

"I have my ways. What's important is that now, we have evidence we can manipulate to lead the police towards NCT."

"Did you get into their house?" Kang asked, ignoring the last part.

"Well the phone didn't find its way to my hands on its own, so yes."

"B-But," Iseul's father stuttered. "If you were in their house, why the hell didn't you get my daughter instead of her stupid phone?"

Park let out a sigh. "Because taking the phone was already hard enough in itself. Do you think you can just come in and out of their territory like it's a hotel?" His tone was filled with annoyance. How could someone be that stupid?

"But that means you know where they live, and where my daughter is?"

"Yes, of course. Their location isn't that secret for the ones who have connections in this world, which happens to be my case. There's not a single information I can't get about anyone."

"Then why the hell didn't you say so before?" Kang yelled.

"Because unlike you, I think before acting. If you want to simply barge into their headquarters with your men, go and give it a try, but I can assure you that it will end up in a bloodbath, and that it'll be yours, not theirs." His voice was so threatening that it shut the man up.

"I know NCT better than anyone," Park continued, his eyes now expressing his anger, "and you do not want to underestimate them. I thought you'd know that by now, especially after what they did to your entire building a few weeks ago. They were simply looking for a USB key and look how far they went to get it. Now imagine what would happen if you were to attack them directly."

Kang's face went pale at the thought.

"Right, so now we stick to my plan. No crazy spontaneous move, am I clear?"

The older man nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"We're going to use the phone to put fake evidence that could lead the police to them. Can your hackers do that?"

"Yes, they're skilled, they can do pretty much anything."

Park smirked, satisfied with the talk and left Kang alone in his office, observing his daughter's phone.

In Jeno and Donghyuck's room, the Dreamies were enjoying their unplanned day off to have fun and play games together. Iseul was sitting a bit away from them as she had lost, and Jisung went to sit down next to her once he was also eliminated.

They stayed silent for a moment, simply observing the others play and accusing each other of cheating, but the youngest soon noticed Iseul's bad mood.

"Noona?" he asked her, his voice as quiet as a whisper.

She looked at him. "What happened with Taeyong-hyung?"

Call it bad luck if you will, but right as Jisung spoke, the entire room fell silent, and everyone looked at them.

"Jisung!" Chenle scolded.

"What? I'm just curious, don't tell me you guys aren't...."

Mark was about to speak but Iseul cut him off, "It's fine, guys."

"You don't have to tell us..." Jaemin said gently.

"It's okay, you guys are my friends."

She took a deep breath, trying to get rid of the image of Taeyong's strong stare in her mind, "My father reported me as a missing person to the police," she wasn't even done speaking that the others, except for Jeno and Chenle, let out a gasp. "Taeyong accused me of being a snitch and when I said he just had to check my phone if he didn't believe me, we realized that it was gone. Taeyong was really mad, and now things are back to the way they were...he hates me."

"That's not fair!" Jisung suddenly said. "Hyung always lashes out on you."

It was rare to see the boy angry, let alone at his own leader, but just like the others, it seemed he had enough of it.

"Jisung's right..." Chenle mumbled.

"Guys," Mark spoke, "let's not start criticizing each other. No, what Taeyong-hyung did was not okay, and yes, he should stop picking on Iseul, but right now, that's not our priority. We should try to find out what happened. Hyung won't be looking at it closely, because, well, he's clearly convinced that Iseul's guilty..."

He shot her an apologetic smile. "But we know it's not true, so we need to find out who took the phone, obviously, there's gotta be a reason."

The rest of Dream nodded frantically, motivated to understand what happened, and to see them like this, not even doubting her for just a second, Iseul felt warm inside, glad to see she could count on them.