The Hidden Card || NCT MAFIA

Chapter five: Honesty is the best policy

Taeyong grasped her wrist with so much force it hurt her, and she winced in pain under his touch, making him loosen his grip a little.

Jeno observed the scene with narrowed eyes, not liking the way his leader was acting. He thought Taeyong had changed the past few months, but clearly, what's bred in the bone comes out in the flesh, and his leader still had some issues he needed to work on. Hopefully he wouldn't take it out on the poor girl.

Taeyong dragged Iseul out of the basement to his office, and locked the door behind them to make sure no one would interrupt their conversation this time.

"What the hell was that about?" Iseul exclaimed, snatching her wrist away from his hand.

She massaged it to try and ease the pain, but the redness proved how hard Taeyong had put pressure on her skin.

"What the hell was that about?" Taeyong repeated as his back was facing her. "I could ask you the same thin-"

He suddenly stopped talking when he turned around, noticing her puffy eyes; his own instantly softening at the sight.

"Have you been crying...?" he asked, his tone much gentler now as he observed her face.

Iseul looked away, angry at herself for being so easy to read.

"You, hum, wanted to talk to me?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

Taeyong looked down, disappointed in himself for being so hard on her. Once again, he had let his feelings and anger get the best of him, when Iseul didn't do anything wrong. His heart clenched when he understood she didn't want to talk about it with him, sad she maybe didn't trust him enough to do so, and he promised himself to work on that. For now, he had bigger problems.

"Yeah, you might want to take a seat..." he trailed off.

He put a nervous hand on his nape, not really knowing how to address the topic.

"Do you know what happened to your mother?"

Iseul stayed still as her eyes widened. She really wasn't expecting the question.

"What do you mean, 'what happened to her'?" she asked, anxious.

Taeyong seemed to realize that might not have been the best way to put it and quickly shook his head.

"No, I mean, she's still alive, it's just... you haven't been speaking to her, have you?"

Iseul let out a sigh, relieved.

"No, of course not, why?"

"Well, she's now the new CEO of your family's company."

"Oh."

Iseul didn't know what to feel. She hadn't seen her mother in a while. She thought she had left her father before things went down, and that she was hiding. But she was actually taking over the company? And didn't even try reach her daughter?

Iseul had checked her phone after Taeyong gave it back to her. The only notifications she had were from Chaewon. So her mother had time to run a company but not try to find her?

"Iseul?"

Taeyong's soft voice made her shake her head to chase away those thoughts.

"You know your mother better than we do," he began, and Iseul mentally scoffed. She thought she knew her too, looks like she was wrong, after all. "I want you to be honest with me. Do you think she can become a threat to us? Do you think she'll take up where your father left off?"

"I don't know," she muttered. "I don't think so, at least not for now. She's smart, smarter than my father. If she wants to continue this business, she'll wait until things cool down."

Taeyong nodded and didn't add anything else. He saw how uncomfortable Iseul was with the topic, he didn't want to rush her.

"Alright," he spoke.

He paused for a second before continuing, "D-Did you want to talk about something else?"

Iseul seemed to be taken aback by the question, "Are you alright?"

This time, it was his turn to be surprised. He was referring to their relationship, but she seemed to be more worried about him personally.

"I noticed you haven't been eating a lot, these days..." she trailed off.

Even with her own problems, Iseul never stopped thinking about others. She was selfless, that's what Taeyong liked about her.

"I'm fine," he gave her a weak smile, but he didn't fool her. She knew he was lying, but she couldn't force him to open up to her, now, could she?

"What about you?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"I'm fine too," Iseul lied.

If he didn't want to open up to her, she wouldn't either. The last thing she wanted was to burden him with her dark thoughts, he probably had enough of his own.

But sometimes, keeping things to yourself wasn't the best option, and they would soon find it out.

After all, honesty is the best policy, right?