Epilogue: Part 2

(Flashback)

Mimi stood in a room down the hallway from her alcove.  Listening closely, she heard Zico send the men who had delivered the diamonds away.  She listened to their footsteps die away and slowly stepped from the room and headed back to the alcove.

“Mimi, you there?”

She leaned against the wall and folded her arms over her stomach as he grabbed the briefcase containing the diamonds.  “I really hope you know what you’re doing, Zico,” she said.  She was genuinely concerned about him, but more importantly, her own life was riding on his success as well.  She was so close to getting out of this wretched life. 

Zico, being his cocky self, turned to her and held his hands wide, one of them holding the handle of the case.  “Baby,” he said with a smirk.  “I’m the leader of Block B.  I always know what I’m doing.”

Mimi snorted and unfolded her arms but didn’t grace that retort with a comment. 

“I really wish you’d let us pay you for helping us this time,” Zico added, dropping his arms.

“Pissing PD Tran off Is enough of a payment,” Mimi said.  “We’ll all be glad when he’s gone.” Which would be sooner than Zico knew.

Zico surprised her by stepping forward and wrapping an arm around her waist.  He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek before she could say anything.  “You are the best, sweetheart.”

Without another word he took off down the hall.  Mimi watched him go with a hand pressed to her cheek.  “He’s going to get himself killed one of these days,” she said with a sigh.  “Leader of Block B, yeah right.” 

With a smile, she turned and picked up the phone.  She dialed a number and then looked up and down the hall to make sure she was alone.

“Yeah?” The feminine voice at the other end of the line was short. 

“Show is on the road,” Mimi said, and then hung up.  Still smiling, she began to hum to the music playing and set about organizing her supplies.  Her job was over and she wasn’t required to be anywhere for a while yet, so she decided to take her time.  She might miss her little alcove when she was in Korea.  She knew she would never want to come back, but this space was hers when so little else had been for as long as she could remember.  She sighed.

And then she stood when pounding footsteps approached.  The two suited men who had dropped off the diamonds had returned.  Something had gone wrong.

“Where’s the man that was just here?” the shorter man shouted at her in Vietnamese. 

Mimi shook her head and cowered a little.  “He just took off,” she answered, playing innocent.

The men cursed and then took off down the hall.  Mimi stepped out of the alcove and watched them until they had turned a corner far down the hall.  Once they were out of sight, she ran back to the phone to call Mai again.

“Something went wrong.”

“Did you find out how those guys knew something was up?”  Zico asked.  “I thought we had covered all our bases.”

“I thought you had too,” Mai admitted and sighed.  “But no, I didn’t figure out what clued them in.  It shall remain a mystery.”  And boy did that irritate both of them

Zico scowled and rubbed a hand over his face.  “Mimi wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on us,” he said, moving on.  “You had Hana working at Taeil’s shop too.”

Mai smiled.  “That wasn’t part of my plan, though it ended up being for the best.  Hana had all the paperwork together that we needed, and she didn’t really have anything else to do.  She was bored and bothering me so I sent her to check out the shop that Taeil had bought.  She decided to take it a step further and offered to work for him.”