Hong and Long embraced Mio with smiles on their faces. Both of them were bald and had tattoos. To an outsider, they seemed intimidating but to Mio, they were like big teddy bears.
" I missed you guys," she said and laughed.
" We missed you too young miss." Long with his small eyes and tall nose said.
" After you left, things just weren't the same" Hong hung his head that gleamed against the sun. Mio grabbed his head under her arm.
" Well, I'm here now".
Mio felt at ease with these two big guys around and they even left the villa and went into town to hang out.
They went window shopping and even went to the arcade.
" Young miss!" Hong shouted he came running over to her with a pink fluffy teddy bear.
He shoved it in her face and Mio smiled widely, she felt like she was a child again and gladly took the teddy bear.
It was around six when they decided to head back and Hong and Long carried toys and bags from the stuff they had won and bought.
" Ah I feel better," Mio said skipping ahead of them on the pavement.
Long looked happy at seeing Mio so carefree. It reminded him of when she was a child and he was glad that he had been able to make her feel better.
He and Hong both knew about the marriage and felt particularly anxious for her.
" Stop! Thief!" a woman screeched and Mio stopped dead in a track as a man came running towards her. She jumped out of the way but the man deciding she was an easy target made a grab at her bag as well.
Feeling the bag being ripped from her clutches Mio gave chase shouting.
" Hey, you thief give that back!"
" Miss!" Hong and Long exclaimed, their hands were full, so they couldn't catch up with her in time.
Mio was fast and followed the thief from behind. He was a short, skinny man with a red beanie and a broken denim jacket.
The thief looked behind him to see Mio red hot on his heels. He cursed and made a sharp right into an alley almost crashing into the wall. Mio twisted her body and ran after him, when he was in reach she tackled him to the ground.
The bags flew into the air and the thief crashed to the ground.
" Wrong move little man" he snickered and jumped to his feet whipping out a utility knife from his pocket.
Mio jumped back lowering her stance and staring at the man.
"You sure you know how to use that thing?" she said taunting him. The thief lunged forward swiping at her stomach but Mio easily caught his hand and disarmed him.
" Arrgh! Let go!" he screamed as she twisted his wrist.
She kneed him in the stomach and he fell to the floor and curled up into a ball, groaning.
Mio stood straight and huffed. It had been a while since she had been in an actual fight.
* Clap* * Clap* * Clap*
" Not bad," a deep voice said.
Mio whirled around looking for the source of the voice. There in the darkness under some of the stairs to the apartments, Mio saw the outline of a man.
From what she could make out, he was tall and had sharp features as his jawline was bearly visible under the scarce lighting.
" Who are you?" Mio lifted her fists ready for another attack. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up and she got the sense that this man was very dangerous.
" Oh please don't mind me. I was just passing through". The man said dangerously and Mio backed away.
She bent down picked up her bag and was ready to run. When the thief sprung up.
" Ah watch out," the man said rather unenergetically and Mio on reflex raised her leg up. Her leg swung backwards with her heel hitting the man in the face. The entire move was over in seconds but the man in the dark whistled in admiration.
" You've got some kick there boy"
The man stepped forward and Mio moved back.
" Don't come closer" she warned feeling like if he did she would be trapped.
The man laughed.
" Miss!" the voice of Hong appeared and Mio looked back and then at the dark space where the man was standing, to see that he was gone.
She ran out of the alley feeling uncomfortable and left the thief to the authorities to handle. When she returned home, she went straight to bed and skipped dinner.