After about twenty minutes of walking, we got to a cafe called “Pup of Coffee”. It looked like a regular, trendy coffee shop except for the nine dogs wandering around. There were three Huskies, a toy poodle, a little French bulldog, a Golden Retriever, two weiner dogs and a Pekingese. We ordered our drinks and found a seat by the window. Immediately one of the Huskies and the bulldog came over to us.

“I think this is a peek at what heaven looks like.” Sunmi laughed.

“Zelo was not kidding when he said you really like dogs.”

“They’re just so lovable.  How could I not love them? How about you?”

“Yeah. I really like dogs too. Me and Dae honey are thinking about getting a dog soon.”

Sunmi suddenly fell silent while she cradled her drink.

“Penny for your thoughts? I don’t have an actual penny but it looks like you have something on your mind.”

“Do you want to go to karaoke together after this?”, she asked with pleading eyes. How could I say no? It was obvious she didn’t want to be alone, thinking about tonight’s job.

“Sure. Korea’s karaoke bars are famous. I’ve been wanting to go to one of those too.”

‘Great! Maybe I can actually score higher than you. Dae honey has an amazing voice and goes all out even though it’s just us.”, she said with a grin.

“I’d say challenge accepted. But my singing is not the best.”

“Same here. Which means this will be even more fun.”, she said. We finished off our drinks and after petting the dogs goodbye we headed out. We sang our hearts out for three hours, mostly off key. But I was able to forget all my worries for a little while. We were just two girls singing old Big Bang songs. Eventually we had to get back to reality. Sunmi walked home with me. The walk back seemed too short. When we arrived, she had a solemn look on her face.

“Believe in Daehyun and his team.” , I said trying to comfort her.

“Thanks Jenny. For everything today.”

“Thanks for showing me around the neighborhood. I probably would have been stuck in the house all day otherwise.”
“Anytime. We should totally do this again soon!”

“Agreed. I had a lot of fun today.”, I admitted.

“Same. I’ll see you later.”

“Ok be careful.Text me when you get home.”

I went inside the house. The only one there to greet me was Mochi.

“Do you want to wait for Zelo with me, Mochi?” Mochi barked in response.

“Ok. Great. Let me change.” We waited on the couch downstairs for Zelo. I guess I was more tired than I thought. I ended up dozing off and dreaming of all the nights I waited for Ba. Sunny would always fall asleep before I did. The worry that he might not come back at all would help me fight off sleepiness. But on some nights, sleep would win and I would wake up in Ba’s arms as he carried me to bed. The feeling of relief and the familiar scent of peppermint tinged with something metallic would lull me back to sleep. As I grew older, I could tell he was getting older too.

The sound of the front door opening and closing woke me up. When I fully woke up Zelo had already made it up the stairs. I could see that the bathroom light was on. I peeked in and saw he was covered in blood. I did  a quick scan to see if he had any noticeable wounds. Besides a few scrapes here and there he looked fine. Even though he was a sniper it looked like he could still do well in regular combat. It looked like he was having trouble with some of the wounds. Wordlessly, I took the cloth from him and helped him clean up, disinfect and bandage his wounds. There were a few shallow knife cuts on his back criss crossed with old cuts and what looked like..whip marks?.

He let me work in silence and I was grateful for it. This was a reminder that  I definitely had to leave. It was a reminder about how ugly this life was and how everything could change in a blink of an eye. I finished tending his wounds and headed off to bed.

“The mafia life brings nothing but pain.”, I said without turning around. I left, not waiting for a response. I passed Mochi who was headed over to Zelo. Mochi poked his head into the bathroom and padded over to Zelo. Zelo reached out his hand and Mochi started to his bandages.