1.2 | The Prince of Thieves

Chapter 54

A/N: I have unpublished TYB for editing. Edited chapters will be up soon.

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Make friends with Mina, huh? I wonder how that will work out after I chased her away yesterday.

She had greeted Mina cheerfully but it was met by a cold stare and a haughty sniff before she flounced away on some errand. Hana shrugged a nonchalant shoulder and returned to wiping down her table.

So much for being friendly. Even Kimiko was laughing at her attempt.

'Forget it,' she chided her as she refilled the table snacks. The nuts and dried fruits clattered noisily into the plastic bowls. 'She's still sore about how you chased her away yesterday.'

Then Kimiko sidled up to her and nudged her meaningfully in the shoulder.

'What do you think?' she teased. 'That guy gave you a huge tip.'

Hana made a face. Leon had taken a wad of bills from his wallet yesterday and stuffed it into the back pocket of her shorts. If he had intended it for appearances sake, then she wasn't amused. Did he always do that? Just shove money into the back pockets of girls who sat with him? But she was going to keep it anyway.

'He must be crazy,' she mumbled under her breath. 'Just throwing money around like that.'

Throughout the rest of the night, she tried to be extra helpful, even going so far as to pop by Mina's table to ask if she needed anything. Jin Ling had cast her a quick glance before offering her a discreet shake of her head. Mina was ignoring her and her attempts at peace.

Well, Hana could live with it. Besides, wasn't Leon the one who didn't want Mina hanging onto him?

Pushing the girl's animosity from her mind, she headed to the store room on the errand that Sachi had sent her.

Help me refill the almonds, Sachi had said with desperation in her tone. The previous guests had swallowed the whole lot up and they hadn't time to run refills.

She desperately scanned the shelves in the dimly lit room trying to look for any packaging that contained almonds. For a place that seemed to be doing well, she thought they would have found a way to organise their storage. A cardboard box lay in the middle of the floor, messily ripped open as if someone had been in a rush and neglected to return it to its shelf.

Large sacks of unidentifiable content leant against the wall at the furthest end of the small space and a musty smell hung in the air. She wrinkled her nose, then startled when she thought something small scuttled at her feet. A search for almonds had never been so terrifying.

Taking her courage into her hands, she gingerly shifted a few packets of dried cranberries aside, hoping that nothing untoward would hop out. How difficult was it to just find a bag of almonds? Did the appearance of a bag of pistachios meant that she was getting closer? Who stuffed pistachios here anyway?

When she shifted the pistachios aside, she noticed a sprinkling of fine powder on the shelf. Her hands paused in their search.

No wonder this place was filled with pests.

Behind the pistachios was a black plastic bag. She poked it experimentally. A frown creased her brow as she felt other smaller bags within.

What is this?

'What are you doing?'

A gasp left her as she straightened and turned to the intruder with a bright smile hastily plastered onto her face. Her heart pounded nineteen to the dozen when she came face to face with Damian.