I had thought that Yongguk and I were going to the Chinese restaurant. Instead, he told me to change into something a bit more formal, and drove me to a classy looking sports bar.  He led me to a booth in the back, and picked up the menu on the table.

“What are we doing here?” I asked, sliding off my jacket and glancing around. I understood now what Yongguk was in a dress shirt and tie, and I was in a dress. We would have stuck out and sore thumbs otherwise.

“This is the place, Ara,” he told me, glancing over the menu. “Should we get some onion rings and soju? Maybe some fries and -”

“How do you know him-the head of the triads?” I asked, interrupting him. I was not in the mood for food at the moment.

“I save his godson’s life,” Yongguk answered, not looking up.

“What?”

“The poor boy wants nothing to do with the business and probably doesn’t even know how to load a gun and hates blood and violence. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and almost got killed, so I saved his .”

“But why?”

“He’s dainty, Ara,” Yongguk replied with a pained expression on his face, as if that explained everything. “Like a little flower or butterfly or something.”

At that moment, a waitress approached, all smiles. “How can I help you two today?” she asked.

“I need to speak to the Master.”

At those words, the smile vanished from the waitresses’ face. She gave him a tight smile and a nod, before disappear off again. A moment later, she returned with a much less friendlier man, who was built and tattooed like a thug.

“It’s him,” the waitress said, nodded towards Yongguk. “He’s the one that asked for the Master.”

“I’m here to see Master Wu,” Yongguk repeated.

The burly man sneered, and bared his teeth. “And who the hell are you?” he asked.

“Tell Master Wu that Bang Yongguk wants to speak to him,” Yongguk replied. “Tell him that I came alone, except for my female companion here, and we only want to talk in peace.”

The thug gave a grunt of understanding a barked several harsh commands into a walkie-talkie. A few minutes later, he seemed to receive the okay.

“Follow me,” he said, starting further back into the bar.

We were led through the side of what seemed to be the kitchen area, and to a door that was marked “storage.” The man punched a code into a barely distinguishable pad next to it, and the door seemed to shift.

“Back here,” the guy called, leading us down a side hallway to a door at the end.

Inside, a man sat, lounging on a comfortable armchair and two others stood aggressively by this side like body guards.

“Master Wu,” Yongguk greeted, bowing politely to the old man in the chair.

The main seemed to be in his mid 50s, and he nodded back in acknowledgement. “Long time no see, Bang,” he replied, voice rough, probably from years of smoking in his past. His gaze flicked over to me, and he smiled. “Still up to your old tricks, I hear. Is this the girl?”

“So you were behind it?” Yongguk snapped, eyes suddenly on guard.

“Why, I am just the owner of a bar, Mr. Bang,” Master Wu replied, eyes twinkling sardonically. “There is no way that I can possibly be accountable for whatever it is you are thinking of.”

“Look, Master Wu, I’m not here today as Bang Yongguk, the cop, okay?” Yongguk said, raising his voice. “Everything is off record. The car accident and the break in – was it you?”

Master Wu was silenced for a moment and he considered whether or not to answer Yongguk before deciding to drop the act.

“We were offered a healthy sum for the elimination of Miss Yoon,” he admitted. “Of course, we didn’t know that you…ah…had ties to her.”

“She’s my girl,” Yongguk interrupted harshly, pulling me closer to him posessively. “Eliminating her is out of the question.”

There was a beat of silence as the two men stared at each other. Master Wu blinked first.

“Mrs. Yoon has already been more trouble than the job was worth. If she could kindly chip in to pay for the damages that you caused my men in her house, the job will be considered scratched.”

“What happened to the money you guys withdrew from the bank?” Yongguk asked. “Wasn’t that enough money?”

“Ah, it seems that Miss Yoon does know too much,” Master Wu replied, actually grinning a little. “That money was never ours. We passed it along after the Director was eliminated.”

“To whom?”

“You know I cannot reveal my clients or I’ll lose credibility,” Master Wu said,  a dangerous smile fixated on his face.

Yongguk sighed, and rubbed his temples. “I need to know who is after Ara,” he said.

“That would have been us, Mr. Bang,” Master Wu replied calmly.

“But who hired you?”

“The only thing I can tell you is that it was an inside job. While we did carry out the murder of Director Baek, it had been planned out perfectly for us. Door had been left open, alarms turned off. Someone on the inside was responsible for this.”

“Inside…” Yongguk repeated, thinking hard.

“As far as we are concerned, the contract involving Miss Yoon is finished. We will no longer be accepting further business from this source. However, as it appears that if my client believes that Miss Yoon knows too much, if she is continued to be deemed a threat, it is very likely that the client will contact someone else to take care her even if we refuse to take the job.”

“Let them try; they’ll have to get through me,” Yongguk replied, darkly.