Pandora's Hope

House of Cards

Friday, February 9, 10:45 pm
A small garage somewhere in Seoul

Acting on a tip from his most trusted junior, Leo arrives at their new temporary headquarters in an old garage they used to work out of in the early days. It almost makes him feel nostalgic thinking of where his organization started and how far it's come. But that feeling of nostalgia is quickly washed away when he remembers why he's there.

He steps inside to find V, one of his junior muscle men, on the ragged couch scrolling his phone. His co-leader and trusted brain of operations, D listening to music on the other end of the couch. And his loyal junior JK in the corner sparring with his punching bag. Seems the place gets emptier each day. Everyone has been getting arrested and now they're down to just the handful of them. Too bad Leo is here to bring that number down some more.

"Does anyone have any idea how the police had enough information about the karaoke bar to get a warrant and take ALL of our shit?" Leo asks stepping into the middle of the room.

No one responds. It only pisses him off even more. He grabs a bat from near JK's punching bag and strikes the couch with a powerful swing right between where V and D are sitting.

"How the fuck did the police know about the fucking karaoke bar?!" He shouts again. He points the bat at V nearly touching his nose. "You fucking ratted me out?!"

"What?" V says frozen in place.

"Are you a fucking rat?! Are you the reason why everyone else got locked up?! Did you fucking tell the police to come raid my shit?!"

"I didn't talk to the police," V says trying to plead his innocence.

"Oh really?" Leo asks pressing the bat to V's nose. "JK caught you talking to that Hoseok guy. Tell me what the fuck you're talking to him about when your only job was to just watch him!"

"I-"

"Do you have a death wish?!" He shouts raising the bat preparing to end the traitor once and for all.

V is unable to move. He may have height, but he's nowhere near as bulky and strong as Leo. He has no weapon on him to defend himself. He can only get his hands ready to catch the blow and hope he can slip away and run.

"You sold everyone out to the fucking police!!" Leo starts to swing the bat, aiming right for the center of V's head, but his swing is stopped right before he can make contact.

D is standing between them holding the bat that he just caught in his hands effectively saving V from what was about to be the worst headache of his life.

"It wasn't him," D says. He's the shortest one of the crew, and not at all bulky. But what he lacks in size he makes up in brains, planning, and overall smarts.

"What?" Leo asks confused.

"He didn't tell the police anything. I did."

D and Leo stumbled into this life together quickly becoming the heads of the organization. Everything that happens, every order that's given, goes through both of them. Leo has trusted him for years with everything. Even while he was in jail he felt he had nothing to worry about with D still running operations. But now D is telling him that he's the rat and Leo isn't sure what to think.

"You sold me out?" Leo asks in disbelief.

"It's over," D says managing to pull the bat from Leo's hands. "I'm not doing it anymore."

"You want out so you sell me and everyone else out? D what the fuck? I trusted you with so much!"

"You're a loose cannon and a liability, Leo. Shit has been going under for a long time now, but you're too greedy and power hungry to realize it! You say you care about the guys but you didn't give a shit when Fox crashed his bike running away from an assignment you sent him on because robbing one ATM wasn't enough for you. That's not even what we do! We started this as fucking bookies! Now you're green lighting hits on people and stalking your girlfriend's boyfriend. How the fuck did it even get to this?"