Close To Midnight

Chapter 4

"Jihyo and Nayeon." Jung-hoon nodded tersely at the pair of the young girls. "Here. Take this."

Jihyo accepted the huge lump of money without any protest. "Thank you Oppa." Nayeon didn't say a word. She was slouched on a chair, baseball hat covering her face leaving only long wavy hair visible.

"The next big assignment is not for a while." He lit his pipe, inhaled it and held the smoke in as he tapped a finger to his temple pensively. "The police is making enquiries about you two. Keep a low profile for sometime."

Jihyo nodded, bowed. Nayeon stood up. Kicked the chair back to a short distance. Swirled on her feet to leave the room.

The men in the room watched Jung-Hoo carefully. Nobody dared to behave this way, this arrogantly with the man whose name struck fear even in the hearts of the biggest players of the underworld. Nayeon seemed to get away with anything. "She reminds me of my younger self." He cackled almost fondly one day. "Cold, cunning, ruthless. A killer machine." He had said proudly.

"Jihyo, get this parcel delivered to the client." He signaled to one of his men who brought a small pouch towards Nayeon. "And make sure she doesn't spend all the money I gave smoking and drinking." He pointed a finger at Nayeon who stood in the middle of the room. Head hung low, eyes blocked from view, hands shoved in her pocket, a stance that shouldn't make fully grown men tremble, but the man approaching her with the diamonds was shaking visibly, sweat dripping down the side of his face.

"Nayeonnie." He bowed, extended the quivering hand towards her. A long index finger hooked around the straps of the pouch, retrieving it from his grasp. He bowed again and stumbled back to fall in line with the other men.

Jung-hoo's chest puffed with pride. The young girl hadn't looked up even once, but the men, all older than her, stood there looking at her terrified like they were standing in the presence of Satan himself.

—

Jihyo turned around every once in a while to make sure there weren't any cops in their vicinity. The shopping mall was crowded, it shouldn't be too hard to hand over the diamonds and make their getaway unnoticed.

A flash of dark hair caught her attention. The girl from a few nights ago leaned up on her toes, stretching her neck to take a good look in their direction. Her face lit up in a brilliant smile as her gaze landed on Nayeon.

Jihyo quickened her pace. Nayeon kept up with her stride with ease. Mina kept her stride too. When they rounded a corner, Nayeon muttered in a low voice, "Who's it?" looking straight ahead of her.

"Mina."

Nayeon hummed. Her stride which was steady came to an abrupt halt near a crowded McDonald's. "Get rid of the girl."

Obeying her order, Jihyo turned around. She was about to take few steps forward towards the younger girl, but paused when she saw her making her way through the crowd, her eyes trained on Nayeon. The girl seemed to have a death wish.

"Why are you following us?" She extended an arm blocking Mina from taking the last few steps to Nayeon.

"I wanted to say thanks." A small bashful smile graced her lips.

"Accepted." She blocked again when Mina tried to side step her to get to Nayeon. "Now shoot."

"Not until I tell her myself." Jihyo sighed.

Before she could block her again, Mina slid under her arm, laughing softly at the look of horror on her face.

She saw Nayeon's jaw clenching. This wasn't good. Nayeon tended to be in an exceptionally remorseless mode when she was on a job.

The expected came. Nayeon fists tightened, face flushed with fury as she took a sudden step to Mina who took a step towards her at the same time. "Don't follow us." She hissed in Mina's face emphasizing on each word.

And then came the unexpected. The glare that would make grown men cry and piss their pants, the glare that would send most people running and screaming for their lives did nothing at all. Mina cocked her head to a side, the soft smile on her face glowing more than before.

Jihyo watched in awe as she dared to lift a hand to tip Nayeon's baseball hat up to bring her face into view. "Thank you Nayeon-chan." She breathed in an affectionate tone. Like she was talking to a human sized plush toy, not someone most people thought of as their worst nightmare.

Then Mina turned around, walked past both of them, threw one last backward glance and a shy smile at Nayeon before she disappeared out of their view. 

"What the fuck!" Jihyo mumbled in disbelief. The stunned expression on Nayeon's face seemed to echo her sentiment.