Black Diamond

4. Chapter 4

Taeyong finally arrived at the House of Cards at 10 pm with Johnny, Taeil, and Doyoung in tow. The four older members of NCT were escorted to another private room by a pretty waitress with diamond card suit earrings.

They had asked Kun to join them, but he had told them in no uncertain terms that he wanted no part in whatever they were doing at the norebang that night. Yuta was busy with other plans that night, so he stayed behind too.

“So what exactly does that card thing do again?” Doyoung asked curiously, grabbing a chip from the bowl in front of him. According to the waitress, Diamond had already ordered an array of foods for their group. There were snacks of all types sitting on the coffee table in front of them, and of course, bottles of soju.

“Diamond-noona said that this card grants me one wish every time I visit.” Taeyong replied, rolling the plastic card between his fingers. He grabbed a chip and turned to find Johnny grinning at him mischievously.

“And the wish can be anything, right? Like if you wanted to bang-” Johnny's cheeky words were cut off by an annoyed Taeil, who tsked loudly.

“Johnny-ssi, seriously? Don’t finish that sentence,” Taeil scoffed, rolling his eyes as he reached around Doyoung for a piece of boneless fried chicken from the platter on the table. “Taeyong-ah’s not like you; he wouldn’t ask her for something like that.”

"I was going to say 'bang drums'!"

The room fell into a roar of laughter, except for Taeyong, who’s hands had gone completely still as Johnny’s words brought more than a few ideas to his mind. Doyoung was the first to notice his silence.

“Are you sure he’s not like that, Hyung? I can see the steam coming from his ears!” Doyoung chortled, making the other two guys beside him laugh too. Taeyong ignored the three of them, pulling his phone out of his pocket to glance at the time.

Should he have called her when they arrived in the room? He had sent her a text to let her know he had left the company, but would the waitress let her know he was here?

As if summoned by his thoughts, a knock at the door signaled Diamond and Susie’s entrance. The two women looked absolutely stunning, glancing over the group with a warm smile.

Taeyong’s heart skipped a beat in his chest when Diamond’s gaze finally met his. Neither of them looked away from each other.

“Welcome back,” Diamond said to the group, though her gaze was focused wholly on Taeyong.

“Look who’s back,” Susie teased, waving at the group cheerfully, “You guys missed us this much?”

“Now that Taeyong-ah has an Ace card, you should expect to see us more often,” Johnny replied smartly, moving over to make room for the two ladies on the couch.

Susie smirked, putting her hand on her hip, “He has an Ace card, not you, Johnny-ah.”

Johnny lifted an eyebrow, a haughty look crossing his face, “You looked us up?”

Susie exchanged glances with Diamond, who walked right over to Taeyong, holding out her hand.

"Of course I looked you up! It's my duty to know all about my clients," Susie replied, giving a silly victory pose.

Taeyong took Diamond's hand and followed her lead, allowing her to take him out of the room, not even saying goodbye to his friends. Susie stayed behind with the others.

“You’re always whisking me off somewhere,” Taeyong commented in a bemused tone.

Diamond smiled slightly, ushering him into a small karaoke room, much like the one they had been in the night before, “That’s because I want you all to myself.” She told him smoothly, though the truth was, the new room they were in didn’t have a hidden camera in it.

Taeyong was oblivious to her ulterior motives though. He was too busy reeling from the warm feeling in his stomach, that made his heart race whenever she was so direct with him. Taeyong sat down on the loveseat, and Diamond delicately sat down beside him.

“Taeyong-ah,” Diamond began to say, and that’s when he noticed; she actually had a worried expression on her face. He grasped both of her hands, his own expression mirroring hers.

“Noona, what’s the matter?”

Diamond took a deep breath, and fixed Taeyong with a serious expression, “Taeyong-ah, listen to me closely, ok?” When Taeyong nodded, she continued, “Don’t ever come here when I’m not working. And always, always text me or call me before you come.”

“Ok…” Taeyong’s look of confusion was something Diamond expected, but she pressed on.

“Earlier, the waitress who served you is one of my people. You’ll know because they’ll all have a diamond icon on them somewhere. Make sure that you only accept food or drinks from our people. No one else.”

Her words were worrying him, “Noona, what’s going on? Is there something I should know about?”

Diamond shook her head adamantly, “The less you know, Taeyong-ah, the better for us both. But please, follow my instructions.”

It would be hard for him to stop asking questions, but one look at the no-nonsense look on Diamond’s beautiful face told him that now was not the time to ask. Wisely, he simply nodded, taking her words directly to heart.

At his nod, Diamond pitched forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, to Taeyong’s surprise. She emitted a soft sigh of relief when he circled his arms around her, returning the hug.

Truthfully, she had been in panic mode after seeing Dealer, and only felt some relief when she saw that Taeyong was physically safe and sound. Taeyong had no idea what was going on with Diamond, but he could only hope he was offering some comfort to the woman in his arms.

When he patted her back soothingly, Diamond giggled, “I’m sorry, you didn’t come all this way to hear ominous warnings.”

She moved away, and Taeyong found that he missed her warmth almost instantly. He chose to keep that confession to himself.

“So now that you’ve come to see me again, Taeyong-ah, tell me: what’s your wish this time?”

Throughout most of the day, Taeyong had thought about what he would use his Ace card for. Johnny’s earlier suggestion came to mind, and he immediately pushed it away.

Maybe if he was drunk, he could ask for something like that, but right now, he was completely sober. He thought about ways he could get to know Diamond, without prying too deeply, and instantly thought of the many interviews he had in the past.

“Noona, I wish for you to play a game with me.”

Diamond lifted an eyebrow, intrigued, “Do I get to know what game it is before I agree to it?”

Shaking his head, Taeyong grinned mischievously, holding out his card instead, “That’s my wish for tonight.”

Chuckling, Diamond took the card and briefly kissed it, “Fine. I’m accepting your wish,” she said, returning the card back to its owner.

“The game is 21 Questions. I’ll ask, and you have to answer,” Taeyong explained, and Diamond held up her index finger as an idea came to mind.

“Let’s make it a little more interesting,” Reaching for the bottle of soju on the table, Diamond popped the lid and set down a single shot glass, “Any time you ask a question I don’t want to answer, you have to take a drink as punishment.”

“Why do you want me to take a drink?”

“Because you shouldn’t be asking me questions that I don’t want to answer. Hence, ‘punishment’, Taeyong-ah,” Diamond replied in a sing-song voice, her eyes glittering impishly. Taeyong nodded, unable to say no to her stipulation.

He started with simple questions, asking her about her family and hometown. He found out that she was an only child, and she didn’t have any parents or family members. She was raised by her grandmother in Minnesota, who died when she was 16 years old. She had moved across the country to attend college in Hawaii, where she met Susie, and another girl, Yeo Na.

“Yeo Na, Susie and I were the best of friends in college,” She told him quietly, an unreadable expression in her eyes.

“Is Yeo Na Korean?”

“Was... and yes.”

“Was?”

Diamond shook her head, pouring Taeyong a shot of soju in the glass, “Take a shot, because I’m not answering that.”

Taeyong nodded, accepting the glass Diamond had poured for him. He had only taken 3 shots so far, and he still had 10 questions left.

“Was Yeo Na the reason you came to South Korea?”

“Take another one…” Diamond replied softly, and he obediently took the fourth shot, “And here I thought you were going to ask me something scandalous. Instead, you’re giving me an interview,” Diamond teased, as he set the glass back down on the table.

“I could ask those types of questions if you want,” Taeyong bit his bottom lip, and Diamond crossed her legs, feeling a tad warmer than before.

“You can ask me whatever your heart desires, Taeyong-ah,” Diamond murmured lowly, staring intently at Taeyong as if willing him to do just that.

Taeyong his lips, swallowing the lump in his throat as he spoke, “If I'm yours, who do you belong to?”

Diamond was still looking directly into his eyes, “I belong to you, Taeyong-ah. We’re bound together until you end our contract.”

Heat rushed to his head, warming his cheeks. She said the words so simply, as if the answer were as obvious as the sky being blue, “Do you belong only to me, then?”

She nodded succinctly, “You’re the first and only person to hold my Ace card. No one else.”

For some reason, that information made the warmth in his body increase steadily, “Why did you choose me?”

Diamond’s impish smirk returned, and she poured him another glass of soju, “Have a shot, my Taeyong-ah. You can’t have everything so soon.”

He could feel the alcohol setting in just a bit, but her calling him “her Taeyong” so intimately was doing something to him.

“Are you actually going to give me that? Everything?” He asked steadily, his heart pounding in his ears while he waited for her answer.

“Is that what you want?” Diamond countered, and then she smiled cheekily, “Also, you just asked me two questions at once. You’re down to four.”

Taeyong bit his thumb in frustration; he hadn’t meant to ask her two questions at the same time.

“If I told you I wanted everything…?” He wondered out loud, not daring to finish his sentence.

“Your wish is my command.” Diamond gave a mock bow, complete with a sultry gaze that implied much more than she was saying. Taeyong wasn’t sure how long he could continue to think clearly.

“What do you like about me?” He asked lowly, pulling her in closely by her impossibly tiny waist. Diamond seemed unfazed by the gesture, instead making a show of racking her gaze over his form slowly, inch-by-inch, before taking her index finger and pressing it gently against his lips, “Your eyes and mouth.”

“Do you know what I like about you?”

She took that same finger and pressed it to her own, full lips, smiling at the indirect kiss, “My best features are also my eyes and mouth, so probably that.”

Taeyong looked at both of the features she mentioned, internally agreeing with her vehemently. He remembered the taste of those plush lips from the night before, and unknowingly, he was pressing closer to her, her intoxicating scent wafting around him, and filling his senses.

He had one question left, and he knew exactly what to ask her.

“Noona… Do you want to kiss me?” His voice was low and raspy, too irresistible for Diamond to deny.

All it took was a slight nod from Diamond, and Taeyong crashed his lips against hers, their game instantly forgotten. She wrapped her arms around his neck once again, eliminating the tiny bit of space that remained between them, trying to get as close to his warmth as possible. She had only known him for all of two days, and already, she was getting addicted to his kisses.

Later

When Taeyong and the others finally left for the night, Kamella downed the remainders of a bottle of soju, trying to calm down, while Olivia worked on cleaning-up the room that the guys had occupied earlier. Olivia had had a blast entertaining the other guys, and personally requested that they all return with Taeyong whenever they wanted.

She took one look at Kamella’s smudged lipstick and shook her head, “So y’all smashed in that tiny room?”

“We did not; shut up!” Kamella shouted, tossing a throw pillow from the couch at Olivia’s head. She roared with laughter while Kamella pouted, touching her fingers to her lips, “We only kissed.”

“Yeah, I can certainly tell. Look at your mouth, girl,” Olivia teased, and Kamella hide behind her hand, trying to hide the havoc Taeyong had wrecked on her lipstick. “Did you tell him then? About Dealer?”

“No,” At Olivia’s lifted brow, Kamella bristled, “Look, if we tell him everything that’ll put him at risk. I told him enough to keep him safe.”

“We’re lucky that Mi Na and the others had a big client today. What if they saw him again?”

“We just have to do our best to keep him hidden from everyone. I already told him not to come when I’m not around. Our staff will make sure Mi Na doesn’t touch him.”

“Mel, this is dangerous, girl. You’re doing all of this, and we don’t even know if we can trust him.”

Olivia took a seat on the couch beside her best friend, cracking her fingers while she stretched her arms over her head, “I’m sure he has a great personality, and I get that he’s y as hell, but we’ve been around hot men since we started this job.”

“I already gave him my Ace so it’s too late to take it back now,” Kamella commented, though in her mind, she was adamantly against the idea. She had only just found Taeyong, and after just a few days, she already didn’t want to let him go. She needed to see if he was worthy of the card he held.

Olivia nodded, sighing loudly. She knew there was really no point in trying to talk Kamella out of her decision. For now, she could only do her best to help the Queen of Diamonds keep her Ace safe -- that was her duty as Kamella’s Jack.

“Shall we go find some hole in the wall to have our early morning breakfast then? It looks like none of our other clients are coming by,” Olivia commented, scrolling through her work phone to find that none of their usuals had sent them a message.

“That sounds good to me; I’m starving,” Kamella replied, standing up from the couch. Just as she reached for her work phone, her personal cell phone buzzed on the table. She blinked curiously, picking up the device and taking a look at the text message. It was from Taeyong, “Oh, .”

Olivia set down the trash bag she was holding on the floor, “What’s up?”

“It’s from Taeyong. He said they never went home, and now they want to know if we’d like to go eat with them.”

“At 2 AM? With friggin’ K-Pop idols? Is he serious?” Olivia questioned, balking at the idea.

“Yeah. It sounds fun to me. Should we go?” Kamella turned a hopeful gaze towards Olivia, who rolled her eyes at her best friend’s expression.

“Oh my God, why are you prentending to be polite? You’re asking me if we should go, knowing damn well you want to. Fine. Let’s go! I’m really hungry. Plus, I’ll get to tease Johnny some more.”

Kamella cheered, running over to grab the trash bag for Olivia, “I’ll carry this for you, my wonderful best friend!”

Olivia laughed, doing a final sweep of the room, before turning the lights off and locking the door. She wasn’t sure why Kamella was so into this guy, but a part of her wanted to see how this thing between them would pan out. She’d be sure to ask Taeyong some tough questions at breakfast.

End Chapter 4