cherry bomb › nct

68 | keiko's hometown

TOKYO, JAPAN
1:27 AM, THURSDAY

"Wow you brought me back to my hometown, very much appreciated." The girl sarcastically stated, a smug grin plastered on her face as she sat opposite from Taeyong's father.

Taehui chuckled, resting his jaw on the palm of his hand as he dawned on her, "Suggest you give me a lovely tour then, Cerise."

"How about I stir you up a drink instead? Oh don't worry, I'm totally not going to drug it or anything." Keiko offered, glancing beside her to find Reiji sniggering.

"Or, or! We could play Russian Roulette." She wiggled her eyebrows teasingly, "With that gun of yours."

Taehui's gaze faltered onto his side where his handgun holster strapped around him. Scoffing in amusement, he rose an eyebrow, "I think drinks would be fine, Cerise."

Reiji leaned closer to Keiko's ear, though hushed, he made sure it was audible for their opponent to hear. "Russian Roulette with the shots then."

"Sounds like a plan." Keiko replied, eyes still glaring at Taehui.

"You won't be able to trick me, Keiko. I've been there- done that."

"I'm not tricking you," Keiko shook her head, "I'm just informing you about our plans in plotting your death. I mean- you must trust a lot of people here, Mr. Lee." Her eyes traveled around the room they settled them in, a few workers here and there, unfamiliar faces and unknown places.

"Of course, this is my empire after all."

"But do they trust you?" Keiko hummed, catching the businessman off-guard for a split second. The sly expression that he wore rubbed off immediately, clearing his throat he crossed his legs, "Of course they do. I protect them. They are my people. They—"

"What are you going to say next? Hmm let's see- perhaps that you treat them like family or something?" She cuts him off, "As far as I remember... they seemed more scared than comfortable with you."

Taehui narrowed down at her, shaking his head as he stood up, "I think our conversation ends here, Keiko."

"What? You're scared now?" She taunted, eyeing him up in disbelief. When he ignored her question and started walking towards the door, she scoffed, "Wow, at least entertain us or something? Jeez, you're boring."

Reiji laughed out, "Keiko, you might piss him off."

Keiko snorted, nodding towards her friend, "Yeah that's exactly what I'm trying to do."

"So? How about we go take a walk, maybe check out the Skytree? We could also go to Harajuku- I know a lot of good bars there! Or, or, I could go take you to Disneyland to see Mickey- I think you'd love to see—"

Bang!

A loud gunshot rang, a few shrill wails coming from nearby workers out of shock – even Reiji screamed from fear. Keiko remained stoic, despite the overwhelming response her body was giving her she tried not to make it obvious.

She glance back, over her shoulder, to see the bullet mark on the wall, just a few inches beside her head. "Did you know I did the same thing to Mark about a month ago or so?"

Taehui hissed, reloading his gun before shaking his head. "What do you want Keiko? If this is one of your tricks to annoy me or trick me or something, I'm not buying it."

"Well, you are, in fact, already annoyed so I'm guessing you had already bought it." She retorted, shrugging her shoulders innocently.

Taehui rolled his eyes, storing back his gun in his holster. "What do you want?"

"Exactly. What do you want from me, Lee Taehui? You already won over the Mikami's, you have a son who is in control of one of Korea's infamous underground mafias– who, again, won over the Mikami's." Keiko listed, her eyes boring into Taehui's irked ones.

"Or maybe you just can't accept the fact that Taeyo—"

Taehui sauntered over to Keiko, placing the tip of the gun's barrel against her temple. With cold eyes and a stern tone he uttered out, "Dare to say anything now?"

A smile pricked on her lips, as she leaned closer, "How about I dare you to pull that trigger instead?"

Reiji's eyes widened at her bold response, lightly kicking her foot, "Yah! What are you thinking!?"

Keiko shrugged, "I mean, I don't really see the point of capturing us when the party is still being held in Tokyo. If you're using us as bait...either way you'll cross paths with NCT and the Mikami's." She recoiled, pressing her back against the seat's backrest.

"How about I kill your friend? Will that make you shut up?" Taehui cocked up the gun towards Reiji who's eyes flashed imminent panic in a split second.

Reiji chuckled nervously, jerking back in his seat as he  eyed up the businessman. "Dude, why kill someone as innocent and young as me?"

"Young?" Keiko shot him a look and Reiji nodded.

"I'm young, I mean... it's already in my name." He joked making Taehui scoff and Keiko laugh.

Taehui looked at both of them in annoyance, "You two really have the guys to joke around at a serious time like this."

"We're just living life, sir." Reiji wiggled his eyebrows, "I mean, if you're going to kill us, why not?"

"Masochists." Taehui spat out, storing his gun back into his holster.

"Back at you, sadist." Keiko and Reiji smiled at him.

Taehui tilts his head a bit to side, one of his eyebrows arched up as he feigned a smile towards them, "Unless you two want to be tortured then you better keep those mouths shut."

"Till then," he looks over at the door as it pushes open, revealing someone who they've been waiting to arrive at the bar ever since. "I'll have my best boy Daniel here take care of you two."

Keiko wasn't impressed to see him, especially when they were tied up against their will. Her heart lurched upon seeing her apprentice – well, former apprentice that is. Whilst Reiji, on the other hand, had pique setting ablaze inside of him.

Daniel had his gaze set down on the floor, the nerves slowly crawling inside him, bothering him in any possible way as he couldn't just stand in front of his friends – if they even considered him as friends after what he had done.

Taehui smirked, noticing at how silent they have become upon Daniel's arrival. He chuckled bitterly, walking out of the room with his hands tucked into his pants pocket, "Silent now are we?"

—

bruh you didn't have to pull the trigger 💀
keiko just wants to tour you around her hometown