CHAPTER 44: VISITING MIA

"She really isn’t coming back?" Chloe asked Yohan, finding it difficult to believe.

Yohan sighed, "That’s what she said in her letter,"

"Did she give any reason why?"

"Nope," he shook his head, although he had a strong feeling why.

He sighed disappointed by the situation, who could have guessed Mia would actually go ahead and quit because of what he did.

"Maybe I might have actually done it this time," he mumbled.

Chloe still had a worried expression on her face as she suggested,

"I should go check up on her and try to see what the problem is"

"No, there’s no need for that, I’ll go instead. She probably just feels bad about what her boyfriend did, I’ll go see her after work and get her to come back," he replied,

he didn’t want Chloe to go see Mia, who knows what she would tell her. It was best he spoke to Mia himself and tried to fix things.

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea," she nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," it took a few seconds for him to remember that he already had a previous appointment for the evening

’Aunt Vivian is supposed to come in after work today... shit, I guess I’ll have to cancel’

The day went by quickly with only two customers and they were both males so he allowed Mia to attend to both of them.

He wasn’t in the mood to give a massage right now and it wasn’t like the men were complaining, by the amount they left as tips they were more than happy to have a pretty girl like Chloe massage them.

As soon as it was closing hours, they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

Yohan headed straight for Mia’s house.

’for some reason I’m a bit scared to face her’

He took deep breaths as he climbed up the stairs. He had only walked halfway up before he heard a loud scream.

"Mia?!" He immediately recognized her voice and sprinted up to her house.

There he found three men standing outside her front door, with one of them holding her hand as she struggled.

"No, let me go!" She screamed as she continued to struggle against the slightly muscular man.

"Why are you being so loud?" The man raised his hand to hit her...

"Stop!" Yohan charged at the man, sending him to the ground with a punch.

"Yohan!" She held him close

"Mia are you okay?" He asked, helping her to her feet.

"Who’s this punk, I thought her boyfriend was arrested?" One of the men asked,

"That’s not him," another one said.

The one that was on the floor got back up still holding his face, "who gives a shit if it’s him or not, let’s just fuck him up,"

All three of them came at him at the same time but even with their muscles, none of them was formidable enough to stand against Yohan, and with only a few punches he dropped them like they were flies.

Soon after two more men came out from inside the apartment,

"I knew I recognized that voice," the man in front said.

Seeing him Yohan also recognized the man, "You?"

"Yes me Yohan, it’s me Gunjoo,"

It was the loan shark his uncle had taken him to.

"What are you doing here?"

Gunjoo didn’t answer, taking a moment to observe his men sprawled out on the floor.

"Did you do this?" He looked at Yohan with a dark expression.

But Yohan wasn’t scared, if anything he was ready to add one more person to his list of victims.

"And what if I did?" He said angrily, "they were harassing my friend,"

"Oh... you know the girl?" The man’s expression softened, "good then maybe you can help her out,"

"What do you mean?" Yohan wondered.

Gunjoo pulled out a folded paper from his pocket and showed it to him.

"Here’s her signature as a guarantor for a loan collected by her boyfriend two months ago,"

Seeing the content of the paper, Yohan gave Mia a questioning look.

She was already sobbing, with streams of tears falling from her eyes "h-he told me he really needed the money"

Yohan face palmed himself, "how could you let this happen?"

"I thought he had paid it back, he told me he had," she sobbed.

Once again Yohan was left asking himself what exactly did she see in that guy?

The loan shark chuckled, "well too bad for you, I haven’t received my money and there’s nothing of value inside this house so you would have to pay me on his behalf,"

"But... but I don’t have that kind of money," Mia cried.

"Then you’ll have to work to pay it off, you are a very pretty girl. I’m sure if you work a few months at the bar you can pay it off,"

"I-I don’t want to do anything like that," she cried even more.

Gunjoo approached and grabbed her arm.

"Don’t worry pretty girl, I’ll put your sexy body to good use,"

Yohan held his arm and forced it of her, he couldn’t just stand by and let something like that happen to Mia,

"How much is it?"

"It has already been two months so I’ll have to add the interest and–"

"Just tell me how much?" he sighed.

"The total is about $30,000," the man said with a sly grin.

"$30k?!" Yohan shouted

"That’s a lot of money right?" The man chuckled.

One look at the scared Mia and he knew there was no other choice,

"Fine, I’ll get you the money,"

A wide grin appeared on the loan shark’s face, "Mr. Yohan, you are such a good friend,"

"I’ll give you $5,000 now then I’ll drop by your office so we can talk about the rest, there was something else I also wanted to discuss with you,"

Gunjoo continued to speak respectfully, "fine by me, I know a man that keeps his word when I see one,"

Yohan made the transfer and the loan shark left with his men. Although not all of them were happy, they could only murmur as they left. They could tell if they attacked Yohan again there wouldn’t be any difference, they would just end up back on the ground.