Chapter 8

• I watch as the lady clutched her purse tightly, gasping and staring at Master Jin with her coated red lips opening and closing like a breathless fish. She looks older, maybe not fully Korean and maybe in her late twenties or early thirties, with a model skinny shape and long legs that looks like that of the whores you see in strip clubs. Her high heels looks too high that I fear she might just trip over gravity if she decides to run to save her lover. And she did.
• "Sweetie, are you hurt? Ohmo, you have a nose bleed!"
• What?! A nose bleed? I shriek and fall back as my eyes catch the sight of blood on Master Jin's nose. How did I? What did I. . .
• I can't seem to find the courage to move my legs anymore. Master Jin continues moaning in pain as the woman put her arms around him, supporting his weight up. Something tells me he will curse himself tomorrow if he gets sober and remember showing this not so macho side of himself wailing over a girl's punch. He didn't focus on me again, but the woman shoots me a warning glare before she exits with him through a door to one of the many rooms.
• Aigoo, my thoughts are spiraling in unspeakable directions! I'm contemplating about the idea of ending myself honorably before those vile men standing outside the building with rifles make me die a painful death by pulling my tooth and fingernails. I've witnessed a lot of such scenarios in Mafia dramas before, to make me understand that my days on earth are finally over, even Vincenzo who seemed like a nice Mafia dude was merciless to his opponents.
• "How brazen!" A voice says, forcing me to jump up from one leg to another, looking up to see the mistress coming out of the room. "You're a maid for goodness sake how could you hit the Master?"
• And you're a mistress for goodness sake, how dare you act like the Master? I want to say that out loud but I find myself staring down at my feet. "It was an accident. And he was drunk." I mutter, trying to resist the urge to look at her angry face. She must be glaring at me like a psychopath.
• "Shut your mouth will you? If you have any intention to keep your head on your shoulder, you better run away before the Master wakes up!" Does a head sit on a shoulder or on a neck? Jeez, how lame and stupid of her. I can't picture any normal person having his head sitting on his shoulders unless he's suponjibobu (SpongeBob).
• But I think she just gave me a good idea, running away should be my next move, why am I still hooked to one position? I should run away. Even if I get caught in the process, I can just carry out seppuku (self disembowelment) the way those brave samurais in Japanese movies die a honorable death.
• Without waiting to finish listening to whatever she keeps blabbering about, I take off sprinting towards the opposite direction.
• "Ya! I'm not done talking! Ya! Ya!" Her voice keeps yelling behind me but I neither stop nor look back. I'm going to run away. I feel it in me, bad things will happen to me if I stay and do nothing.
• I pass the sitting room and open the door to the main entrance. The corridor is eerily silent as I run to the elevator and jump in. I press on the third floor which is where we were given one of the rooms to share with Mira and two younger girls I don't remember their names at the moment.
• As the elevator drops me, I compose myself to keep up a calm appearance as I pass by the bulky security men stationed in the corridor to keep an eye on us.
• Something falls hard on my wrist, yanking me back as I slam myself into the tall man. I shoot him a frown while he's smirking at me and muttering something in a language I suspect is Italian. I have no idea what he's saying to his other colleague who's grinning from one big ear to another.
• "Let go!" I say in defiance. "None of you is allowed to touch me, I work for Master Jin. And he'll shoot your brains out if he ever finds out that you're doing this behind his back." I'm not sure where my confidence stems from, but looks like it worked. Because the man coughed and slowly releases his grip around me until I'm free to walk away.
• I glare at the two of them before I turn away and head to room number seven.
• I find Mira sleeping at the bottom of one of the up and down beds. She looks so tired but I still feel like taking her with me on my risky adventure of running away from the Mafia. I'm about to try out the only stupid idea in my head. And if this stupid idea have a small chance of leading me to success, I want Mira to be part of it.
• "Mira ya." I call, shaking her slender body covered in a white duvet, but she doesn't move. I haven't taken my time to observe her delicate features due to all the panics and confusion. But now I think she's such a fragile beauty who does not fit in here. Those vile Italian men will defile her in ways I can't even imagine. If I'm protected because I serve Master Jin, Mira isn't protected and the men are free to take her. I don't think she's comfortable with the idea of being used as a call girl, she's just trying to live. Will she like the idea of running away with me tonight?
• "Mira ya wake up!" I call again and this time, I shake her much harder but she still doesn't move. I yank off the duvet and keep pushing Mira, her hands feel so unnaturally cold to the touch. As my eyes shifts to the bedside, I feel an internal cold dominating my body. There's an open bottle spilling out some tiny white pills onto a folded paper. I scream out for help and continue shaking Mira's body rapidly. An aura of dread and doom looming over me like my soul has just be sentenced to an eternal life in hell.
• Even after the two security men have rushed into the room asking me questions, I find myself unable to utter a word and unable to detach myself from the cold body of Mira. Did she choose this brutal ending for herself or did someone forcefully made her do this?