"Dressing Zico"

As it turned out, Zico knew Red and Jack very well. They had been security guards on his personal guard detail. Red was the mastermind because apparently Jack was as dumb as dirt but he was her brother and he would follow her orders. Her primary goal was to get Zico for herself. When he treated her like the rest of the staff and showed an interest in the new clothing stylist, Red became furious. She wanted revenge. She knew that I had gotten death threats so she came up with a plan to not only get revenge but to make some money out of the deal.
Marco barely remembered me knocking on the door that day but he woke up soon after and found my keycard in the door and he knew something was wrong. He called Zico who immediately had the hotel searched and the staff questioned. They finally got to Mya who told them that I had left with Red and Jack. She thought it was strange that they were in plain clothes and that Red had a blonde wig on but she figured we were going out on our day off. Being security guards, it had been easy for them to shut off the alarms and the cameras in the building and to move in and out of the people without notice.
The hotel received a ransom note that told Zico how much money they wanted, where and when to meet them, and what they would do to me if he didn’t do what he was told and if he didn’t come alone. I didn’t know if they had always planned to shoot me but it may have been because he wasn’t alone. I also didn’t know if they would still be alive if they had just left but what I did know was that Marco knew how to use that gun on his hip. He was a crack shot and he might be cute and sweet but he was also deadly.
The bullet had gone cleanly through me, just missing my right lung by a centimeter. If Zico hadn’t yelled when he realized what they were going to do, I wouldn’t have moved and I would most likely be dead.
Zico asked me repeatedly what Red had meant about her brother and he demanded I tell him exactly what he did to me. I told him that she was lying. I never plan to tell him about what really happened. I would rather tell a lie to Zico than for him to be haunted with the fact that Jack practically raped me. He didn’t need that. Jack was dead. It was over.
Everyone of Zico’s staff, along with the hotel staff had new background checks done. He even had them do another check on me. On me! Security guards were restricted to where they could go. The security office was off limits to everyone but a few guards.
There were still open death threats against me and Zico was taking no more chances. He barely let me out of his sight even though he had gone back to work. I even started drawing up some new outfits for his events. I was stuck in the bed with nothing else to do, so Zico said I might as well make myself useful. I guess I was the one who said work is a good distraction. And I was right. I got a lot done and he said it was some of my best work.
Even though Zico had just come out with “Blood of the Dragon”, he started writing three new songs. He said he had really been inspired by all of the things that had just happened. I was glad that something good was coming out of all of the sadness. I know one song was called “Vita”. He recorded some of it for me to hear. I didn’t know what to expect and I was really surprised when I heard it. It was a beautiful ballad and Zico thinks he can’t sing but he has such a melodic voice. Vita would have been so proud of him.

My door opened and in walked Zico. I no longer got mad when he just let himself in. The opposite actually. Every time I saw him, my heart beat faster and I couldn’t help but smile.
“How are you feeling today Tutti Frutti?” he asked as he sat on the end of the bed.
“I was good until you called me Tutti Frutti.” I smiled at him. “The doctor said I can get out of the bed now.”
“Does that mean I can put you back in it when I want to?”
I didn’t know what he meant at first. Then I got it. “Um, not yet I’m afraid. My activity is still limited.”
“Damn!” He leaned over and planted a kiss on my knee and then looked up at me with a devilish smile. “I’m getting pretty lonely.”
I ran my hand through his hair. Mya had told me that Zico never let anyone touch his hair. It was a big No No but I told her I did it all of the time and he didn’t say a word. She said, “Figures.” and rolled her eyes. I never figured out what that was supposed to mean.
He sat up and said, “I got a call from Master Pao today.”
“Really? Is that odd?” I asked.
“Sort of but he heard about what happened and he wants to see you.”
“Me? Why?”
“He said he can help you heal faster.” Zico laughed.
“And what do you think?” I asked.
“I don’t know. He knows every type of martial arts there is but beyond that, he’s usually full of crap.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
“Huh?”
“I wanna go. There has to be some reason he called. Let’s go see what he has.”
Zico just looked at me.
I looked back at him.
Standing up and taking his cell out of his pocket, he shook his head, pushed a couple of buttons and said into the phone, “Hey, pull my car around front.”

By the time we got to Master Pao’s little house, Marco looked sick. He hated riding with Zico. Everyone did. He got out first and held my door closed until he made sure I wasn’t in any danger and then he helped me out of the car. I was healing but I was still very sore.
Zico opened the door without knocking and just went in. That boy is never going to learn manners!
Master Pao came from a backroom with a curtain over the doorway. He ran softly with tiny steps and he wore the cutest little pointed slippers I had ever seen. He closed his eyes and bowed in front of us. We bowed back.
“Come with me.”
We followed him behind the curtain. He poured a yellow foamy liquid into a glass and handed it to me. “Drink,” he ordered.
Zico took it from me and smelled it. He winced. “What in the hell is this Master Pao?” he asked.
Master Pao jerked it out of his hands and gave it back to me. “Drink!” he said as he gave Zico an annoyed look.
I smelled it and it did smell noxious. It was definitely alcoholic. I took a sip and it burned my tongue. I looked at Master Pao and he just closed his eyes and nodded slowly so I took a drink and it took my breath away. It burned all the way down. I coughed but he just waited patiently for me to finish it so I downed the rest just to get rid of it. I thought I could feel fire spreading throughout my body.
Zico took the glass from me again and licked the few drops that were left. “Master Pao! What is this crap? What did she just drink?”
Master Pao squinted his eyes at Zico and said, “It’s ginger beer. I made it and it will help her with the pain.”
“I’ve had ginger beer and this is not ginger beer!” said Zico.
“Jiho! Do not question me!” I didn’t know such a big voice could come out of such a little man.
“I’m not trying to be disrespectful Master Pao. I’m just very protective.”
“Then why does she have a hole in her?” he asked.
Zico looked down and I got mad. I had already started to feel the effects of the alcohol. “Master Pao!” I slurred. “Zico did everything. I went out alone. It was my fault.” I started to feel dizzy and Zico took my hand.
“And what were you doing?” Master Pao asked Zico.
“He was sleeping,” I said.
“And what were you doing?” Master Pao asked Marco. Marco looked panicked.
“He was sleeping too.” I said.
“I see,” said the little man. “Don’t question me!” he said to Zico and pointed to a little bed, low to the ground and in the corner. “Lay her down there,” he said.
Zico looked defeated but he did as he was told. I laid down on my back which was good because I felt like I was going to fall. He was right about the pain though. I didn’t feel my bullet wound at all. My whole body felt floaty and I could hear a humming. Eventually I realized it was me. I was humming “Vita”.
When I looked at Master Pao, I saw three of him. He opened my shirt and tucked the sides into my bra straps. I saw Zico look at Marco and Marco turned around. Zico looked uncomfortable but he didn’t say anything. Master Pao began pushing on different spots on my chest and my shoulders and neck. I could barely feel it but Zico looked concerned. He still kept his mouth shut because he knew Master Pao would throw him out otherwise.
After a few minutes, the little man began massaging a red substance onto the stitches of my bullet hole. Zico smelled it too and then looked like he would throw up. I still heard humming.
Master Pao put a bandage over the site and taped it up. “Turn over,” he instructed. I did. Once again, he pulled my shirt down to uncover the bullet hole in my back. He poked around a bit and then put more of the red stuff on this wound and bandaged it. “Now you will heal,” he said getting up from his little chair.
He watched as Zico helped me to stand up and put my shirt back the way it was supposed to be.
“What was that stuff Master Pao?” Zico asked.
“It is a magic medicine I learned how to make from a two-hundred year old shaman. It heals everything.” He closed his eyes and nodded. Zico turned to me and rolled his eyes.
As we were leaving, Master Pao gave Zico two bottles of the “ginger beer” and said, “In the morning, she will have great pain. She must drink one of these bottles. In the evening, she will again feel great pain. She must drink the second bottle. The next morning, she will be almost completely healed and the pain will be gone. Next week, you will bring her to me and I will teach her Krav Maga. This will never happen to her again.” He closed his eyes and nodded then he turned and slammed the door.

On the way home, I was still feeling good and drunk. I kept leaning against Zico so that Marco couldn’t see and running my hand up his thigh. He would put my hand back in my lap and say, “Stop that.” I would do that again and he would do the same thing. I reached over and rubbed his crotch and he jumped and swerved. He pulled my hand away and put it back in my lap. “Marco, could you hold her arms down please before I wreck and kill us all?”
Marco didn’t want to but he did it because he was already afraid of Zico’s driving without the added distraction. Since I couldn’t play with Zico, I played with Marco. “Marco?”
“Polo.”
“Marco?”
“Polo.”
“Marco?”
“Polo.”
“O-Kay! That’s enough of that,” said Zico and he turned on the stereo.
“Boo! I hate this song. Boooooooo!” It was “Blood of the Dragon”.
“Marco, put your hand over her mouth,” said Zico. He did and I bit his hand.
“OW!” he yelled and let go.
“That’s what you get Marco!” I said a little too loud. “You are supposed to be mine. Not Zico’s!”
“ELIZABETH!” yelled Zico.
It startled me and I sat back in my seat.
“Hush and settle down until we get back to the hotel!” He was still yelling.
I just looked at him for a moment. Then I said in an almost whisper, “Or what?”
He gritted his teeth and sighed a long sigh. “Or I’m going to put you over my lap and spank your ass that’s what!”
I looked at him long and hard and decided he wasn’t kidding. I prodded him anyway. “Is that a threat or a promise?”
“Yes,” he said.
I was so drunk I didn’t know when I was in danger. “You wouldn’t dare,” I said.
“I wouldn’t huh?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“Keep it up and tomorrow you’ll need that beer more for your ass than your bullet hole,” he said.
I reached over and turned the stereo off. Zico calmly turned it back on. I waited a minute and turned it off again. He looked at me and smacked the button. A song I had never heard before came on. I started hitting all of the buttons.
“That’s it! Marco, hold her arms and if you let go you’re fired! And YOU are gonna get it when we get back to the hotel!”
I struggled against Marco but he didn’t let go.

At the hotel, Zico moved Marco away from my door and helped me out of the car. Before I could say a word, he wrapped his arm around my head and put his hand over my mouth. He walked me to my room like that and when anyone would stare at us he would just say, “Look away!” and they did. When we got to my room, he left Marco in the hallway. When he shut and locked the door, he turned and stared at me. It was a scary look. He began walking slowly toward me and I started backing away.
“I know that you are drunk so I’m going to give you one chance to apologize to me.”
“For what?” I kept backing up.
The corner of his mouth went up in frustration as he kept walking toward me.
“For taunting me in the car.”
I ran out of room. My back was now against the wall and I looked for a way to escape from either side. My body was still buzzing from the beer and I knew I was saying things because I was drunk but I couldn’t stop myself. This was a different kind of drunk than I had ever been. I knew I should stop pushing him but my mouth wouldn’t cooperate with my brain. I looked him in the eyes as he reached me and I said, “I’m not sorry.”
Before I knew what was happening, Zico had grabbed me, sat on the bed, and put me over his lap. Holding me down with one hand, he began to spank me with the other. He wasn’t kidding around. Each time his hand hit me, it felt like fire. I fought him but it was no use. I screamed, I begged, I yelled for Marco. All I heard through the door was, “Polo”.
When it was over, Zico was breathing hard and he just laid back on the bed. I laid across his lap and tried to bite his leg but I couldn’t reach it. Finally, he sat up and moved me. “Go to bed,” he said and left.
I didn’t even change my clothes. I took off my shoes and got under the covers and in seconds I was sound asleep.

That night I woke up with a horrible headache. Zico was sitting in a chair by my bed, leaned back against the wall, eating peanuts and watching a comedy that he apparently found hilarious. Seeing the peanuts made me think of something. “Zico?”
He looked over at me, still laughing and chewing. “Yeah?”
“What happened to Jong?”
He stopped laughing. “Why do you care? And why are you asking about him now? Did you dream about him? Do you miss him?”
“No, nothing like that. I just thought about it and he sort of disappeared,” I said. I sounded groggy.
“No he didn’t. He’s doing some work in China.” Zico went back to eating his peanuts and laughing.
“I see,” I said and turned over and away from him.
I heard Zico sit up in the chair and turn off the television. He nudged me over so that he could get into the bed. Bending himself around me, he wrapped an arm around my waist and laid his head against my back. He softly said, “What made you think of Jong?”
“The peanuts,” I said.
“The peanuts?”
“Yeah. That night we went to the play, I ran into you in the elevator and you were eating peanuts,” I said.
“I was?”
“Mm-hm. Can I ask you something else?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Who was that girl you were with?”
He laughed. “Did she bother you?”
“A little,” I said.
“Good,” he said.
“Zico! Who was she?”
“Okay. She’s a rapper friend of mine. She had been asking me out forever so I knew she would go. And she’s built like a brick…”
“I saw! You can stop now!”
He laughed again.
After a few minutes of quiet I asked what I had really wanted to know. “Did you sleep with her?”
“Did you sleep with Jong?”
“No. You know I didn’t,” I said.
“He says you did. He said you couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel so you went down on him in the car.”
I turned around to face him. I couldn’t believe it! “He did not say that!”
“Yep. He was very detailed about the whole thing. He said that you were all over him all night and that you couldn’t get enough. He also said that you swallow.”
I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. I was livid!
“That was when I sent his ass to China to work,” said Zico.
“He was lying Zico. You know that right?”
“I don’t know. You looked like you were going to have sex with him in the balcony.”
“I did that to bother you! On the way back to the hotel, I made the excuse that I was on my period. That’s when he tried to get me to … you know… and when I wouldn’t, he walked me to my room and that was it!”
“Why? Why would you tell him no? I know you liked him.”
“Not at that point. I had figured him out by then,” I said.
“Hmmm…” said Zico.
“You know he wasn’t here that night Zico. You came in and searched the room. Remember?”
“Yes. I remember that part of the night very well.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I got so fucked up that night that I don’t remember most of it. Me and Kyung and Jihoon went to every bar we could find. I think they carried me back to my room. The next thing I know, I’m getting a call that you were stopped from leaving the country and that they were putting you in protective custody. That’s when I came to get you. I was still pretty wasted at that point,” said Zico.
“I didn’t sleep with Jong. I never did. I spent the rest of the night sitting in the floor and wishing you would come back. When you didn’t, I felt like I couldn’t face you so I left.”
“I should have,” he said.
I didn’t understand. “Should have what?” I asked.
“Come back.”
Zico’s hands began moving over me. He pulled my body up close to his and he kissed me. It was a long sweet kiss. I loved his kisses. They were always deep and passionate and made me feel like he wanted to devour me. I put my head on his chest and he put his chin on top of my head.
“Did you know that Jong got me a phone at the same time you did?” I asked.
Zico laughed.
“I know. I returned both of them,” I said.
“He never got it,” said Zico.
“What? Why?”
“I got it first. When he got to China, he tried to call you.”
“Why did you get that phone? How did you get it?” I asked. I was confused.
“It was with mine at the front desk and I saw that one so I took it too.”
“Zico! You have to stop invading everyone else’s privacy! And how do you know he tried to call me from China?”
“It started ringing so I ripped it open and answered it,” he said.
“Oh my gosh. What did he say when you answered?”
“He was surprised but he asked for you. I told him you were in the shower,” he said.
“I guess he thought that was strange,” I said.
“He knew what I was saying. Especially when I told him he was right. You really do swallow.”
“What! I can’t believe you did that! Zico!”
His body was shaking with laughter.
We spent the rest of the night talking and kissing. Finally he fell asleep and I watched him for a long time before I fell asleep too.

Notes