cherry bomb › nct

06 | play pawn

NEO CULTURE TECHNOLOGY
MAD CITY BASE
2:03 AM, TUESDAY

KIM DOYOUNG'S VIEW。

"What the hell..." I gawked at the man next to me, my eyes going wide. "She's not even–"

I stopped, "You know what? I'm not even going to say anything." I grunted and crossed my arms, harshly leaning back onto my seat.

"Let's just threaten her, kill her, or something." Mark boringly mutters and twirls the knife he had in between his fingers.

"If you want her so bad, why not just kidnap her?" Youngho jokes and I facepalmed for his idiotic suggestion. That would certainly give Taeyong more ideas, though I don't really know why he's holding back. If he actually did want her, why not just kidnap her?

"Then that would make everything harder for us, wouldn't it?" Taeyong scoffs, "If we gain her trust, she'd start relying on them more, we would gain an upper hand into knowing more about her."

"Once we do, that's where the tricksters come in." he nods his head towards Donghyuck and Hendery.

"Luring her in the base." Taeyong shrugs.

I have no idea why he wanted to do this, is he this crazy that he wanted to randomly capture some head bartender?

"Doyoung-ah." I flinched upon his guttural voice calling for my name. Hesitating a bit, I gave him a side glance, gritting my teeth as I spat, "What?"

"Trust me on this." he said casually, "You're doubting me again aren't you?"

Jaw and fists clenched, I scoffed, "Why wouldn't I? So what if she's connected to Hansuke?"

Taeyong raised a brow, rubbing his jaw with his finger, "Hmm, you think I'm only doing this because she might be connected to Hansuke?" he chuckles.

"Hansuke is an associate, a loyal one at that, but don't forget how much debt he has, and also—"

"Don't even." I cut him off before he could say anything that would trigger something.

He smiles, despite how fake it looked, he utters, "I haven't played in awhile, wouldn't it be fun to gamble with life?"

Crazy. He's a mad man. That's all I could say whenever he's in his mafia mode on. Everyone has their sides in the mafia, and Taeyong has one of the worst ones.

"A gamble? For what!?" Jaehyun stands up.

"For everything."

"Everything!?" Jaehyun's eyes went wide, his movement was fast, grabbing a pocket knife and pulling Taeyong close, the knife dangerously close to Taeyong's throat.

By that sudden movement, everyone flashed out their weapons, pointing it directly at Jaehyun. I bit my lip, my fingers around the cold metallic gun as I aimed it for his head.

We are all friends and family, but we, too, have rules.

Protect the Boss.

Taeyong looked calm, when he shouldn't even be calm! His eyes boring onto Jaehyun's angry ones, his body forcefully pulled up as he stared soullessly into Jaehyun.

"Yoonoh, we're friends aren't we?" Taeyong suddenly questioned and Jaehyun sneered, "We already lost Hansol due to this gamble for life you did."

The Boss plainly laughed, from a small chortle turning into a loud fit of villainous laughter, "It wasn't my fault, though?" he said shamelessly, turning his head towards Youngho, "He's the gambler, I was only giving commands."

His gaze was locked onto Youngho while the latter avoided any eye contact as possible. "Youngho didn't follow my commands, that's why Hansol got killed."

"Stop this!" Jisung yelled and slammed his hands onto the meeting table.

This meeting is turning into a fucking mess, and it's all because of Taeyong's interest in some useless bartender.

"Put down your weapons," Jisung softly utters, from here I saw how shaken he was. "We are a family, aren't we?" he bit his lip, "Let's just listen to what Taeyong-hyung has to say, please."

Jisung's still a softie. I sighed and dropped my gun, sitting back down. I, too, didn't want to kill Jaehyun, he is family.

Everyone started dropping their weapons, taking a seat again.

Jaehyun took a deep breath and released Taeyong, letting him fall backwards onto his seat. Taeyong grinned and fixed his coat, "Thank you, Jisung."

Those two have a different kind of connection, Taeyong needs Jisung more than he thought.

"I promise you, we won't back down this time." Taeyong crosses his arms, the once playful aura around him dispersed, now replaced by a menacing one. "I'll be the pawn."

Forehead creasing, brows furrowing, I shot Taeyong a worried look. It's been a long time since Taeyong has become the pawn. He's always the player, the leader, the commander, the boss. I have no idea what has struck into his mind, but I didn't want to question it either.
Not right now, at least.

"Youngho." he calls, the said boy looking up to him.

"I'll let you be in command for this, after all, you're the gambler."

Youngho gulps hardly, "Are you sure?"

"Just don't mess up this time. It's either my life or the girl's." Taeyong said with a faint smile.

"You're crazy," Jaehyun shuts his eyes tight, leaning back onto his chair, "if we lose y—"

"You won't lose me." Taeyong cuts him off sharply, "After all, this is the mafia I started."

"Keiko, you're going to kill her?" Jungwoo questions.

Taeyong shakes his head, "No. Well, maybe not yet."

"Then what do you want from her?"

"Her everything."

"You mean–"

"Her whole life, yes. If I have it, she'll be under NCT." he rests picks up the deck of cards, "Like I said, it's either her life, or mine."

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