Chapter 2

The Rich Ahjumma

Sakura stood in front of a large tree with a smug look on her face. She failed spending the night with her girlfriend, yet again. She looked tired and disgruntled as she traced the surface of the tree with her right hand as if she was looking for something on it. And then she pressed on the wood, causing it to move aside, revealing a silver plate with numbers on it. She entered a secret passcode, and suddenly a door knob appeared on the tree. She turned the door knob and soon she disappeared into the tree.

The Tree is KkuYenMin's Secret Hideout, where the gang will gather to plot their next mission and distribute their stolen stash. As soon as Sakura entered the tree, there was a pink kiddie slide that took her to their secret room.

When she gets inside, her friends, Duckie Yena and Minguri Minjoo were already there in their retro-themed hideout room. The room was spacious and bright, like a set from a 70s sitcom. Minjoo was busy in front of the computer while Yena was busy throwing her bouncing yellow duck ball on the wall for no clear reason.

"Hmm, someone said that she'll be occupied all night," said Yena with a smirk.

Sakura glared at her.

"Shut up."

"I knew it's not going to happen," added Yena.

She threw the ball to the wall without looking, causing it to bounce to Minjoo's desk and hit the youngest’s face.

"UNNIE STOP IT!" Minjoo shouted, angry. Her face was just being hit by a smiling duck, but she ain't smiling.

"Sorry," said Yena as she reached her duck bag and grabbed another duck.

Sakura sighed as she walked straight to Minjoo.

"Did you check the news? What did they say about us?" she asked tapping her back.

Minjoo looked at the leader and shrugged.

"Nothing new. The cops still thinks we're the criminals."

Sakura crossed her arms and scoffed.

"Cops. They are incompetent and they know nothing, yet they act all cool and hot and y... as if that makes them look smarter. I have muscles too but I don't go showing off-

She paused when she noticed the gang staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Cool, hot and y cop? What are you talking about?" asked Yena, an eyebrow raised.

Sakura cleared nervously.

"Uhh, not-nothing. It's just that it irks me when they think of us as criminals, when the real criminal is the victim, Jang Wonyoung who's been silently taking the money from her own family charity for short people to spend on height supplements."

Yena nodded vigorously, "Uh, that spoiled chaebol girl. How can they not wonder why Wonyoung is that tall? She’s not even 18 yet and she’s as tall as a telephone pole."

Minjoo stood up from her chair.

"Okay, since we're all here, let's see how much we're going to donate to the charity tomorrow!" she said, excited.


The gang gathered in front of a large, yellow round table, each with their duffel bags.

"Okay Cherry, leader first!" said Yena.

Cherry, which is short for Cherry Blossom aka Sakura nodded and put her bag on the table. All eyes were on her as she took out the content of her bag. It was cash, cold hard cash. There were stacks and stacks of money, approximately about 50 thousand dollars.

"Wow, the orphans, the homeless, and the short people are gonna be rich!" said Minjoo with tears in her eyes.

"Are these the money she took from the charity?" asked Yena.

"She actually embezzled 70 thousand, but I guess she already spent some of it on calcium supplements," replied Sakura, shaking her head.

"Now Minguri, show us your stash!" said Yena, pointing at the youngest.

Minjoo smiled widely as she turned her duffel bag upside down, resulting in a bunch of jewelry to fall on the table. There were various types of necklaces, rings and bracelets that are worth thousands of dollars.

"This will definitely make up for the lost 20 thousand. Great job Minguri," said Sakura patting the youngest arm as she smiled proudly.

"Okay, so it's enough. We don't need my bag then," said Yena.

They both looked at Yena, serious.

"What's in your bag?" asked Sakura.

"What bag?" she shrugged.

"Duckie, show us your bag, NOW." ordered Sakura in her leader tone.

Yena gulped and sighed.

"Fine."

She grabbed her bag from the floor and tried to lift it up to the table but it was too heavy. She had the help from Minjoo to finally put it on the table.

"It is so heavy! I wonder what's in there? Gold?" asked Minjoo.

Sakura looked at Yena, impressed.

"Gold? Wow, you finally did something good, Duckie."

But Yena didn't seem to be proud of the compliment given to her. Sakura took the bag and opened it impatiently, wondering what the heavy content was. And then she gasped.

She took out two unopened bags of 5 kg rice.

"Seriously?" asked Sakura in disbelief.

Sakura's shoulders slumped while Minjoo only managed to shook her head. Yena grinned as if there was nothing wrong about stealing rice from other people's house.

"We can donate the rice to the poor!" she said.

And then Sakura took out another object from the bag.

"I can't believe you..." muttered Sakura.

She put the stolen duck lamp on the table and stared at Yena.

"I'VE TOLD YOU NOT TO TAKE THE FREAKING LAMP!" shouted Sakura, pissed.

"But it's a cool duck lamp," mumbled Yena, without a bit feeling sorry.

"IT'S JUST A LAMP!"

"A cool duck lamp."

"Okay unnies, stop it. Yena unnie took the lamp and there's nothing we can do about it. We need to distribute these to the needy fast, so who's gonna go to the town charity office tomorrow?" asked Minjoo, quickly ending the dispute between her two unnies.

"Yena, you go," said Sakura immediately.

Yena looked at her in disbelief.

"Now you're just bullying me because of the cool lamp,"

Sakura shook her head, "What? No. It's just because I can't go, I have a company meeting tomorrow morning and Minjoo has her… pretty girls club weekly meeting."

Minjoo seemed surprised.

"I do?"

"Yes you do," said Sakura in threatening tone.

Minjoo gulped.

"Yes, of course! We're going to discuss about our pretty faces and all that…"

Yena raised her eyebrow, “What kind of club is that-

"So, you go there tomorrow and wear rich ahjumma disguise," Sakura cuts in, with a smirk.

"But I hate wearing disguises in public, especially the rich ahjumma disguise!" said Yena, sadly.


**

The next morning, Sakura and Minjoo sat together in a cafe for breakfast. They both lied about meetings and pretty girls club in order to let Yena do the job. She deserved it after stealing rice and lamp after breaking into a millionaire's house where there might be bars of gold lying around.

"Here unnie, the file on code Penguin as you requested," said Minjoo, pushing over a clear file with cartoon characters on it to Sakura.

Sakura took the file and roughly checked through the contents.

"Nako, short, cute but extremely dangerous?" asked Sakura.

Minjoo nodded.

"She's been deceiving a lot of people over the years