“Just five more blocks to go,” Meiying announced.

 At two p.m., the streets were teeming with pedestrians. The three ignored the curious stares of passersby. Well, three people with a large backpack and two shovels would look strange…

 As soon as they thought it was safe to cross the street, Meiying stepped off the curb. Suddenly, a taxicab screeched past her the same time Yun grabbed her arm and waist to hold her back.

 “I almost got run over!” she exclaimed. “Crazy driver…”

 “You okay?” Yang asked.

 Meiying nodded. “Yeah.”

She looked anything but. Her pale skin had turned to white, and she was breathing fast. She placed a hand over her heart, feeling it pound.

 “You sure?” Yun asked.

 Meiying swallowed, the shock fading. “Yeah…” Then she noticed that Yun was still holding her. She jerked away. “Hey, you didn’t have to linger…”

 Yun’s eyes widened. “Will you relax?! I wasn’t doing anything…”

 “Pervert…” Meiying mumbled as she led the way across the street.

 “Hey! I’m no pervert!” “Are, too!”

 “I am not! Why’d I go grabbing at you, anyway? You’re not that cute…”

 “Oh, grow up, Yun,” Meiying countered.

 “What the h*ll is your problem?” Yun demanded. “I was only trying to help you out! Women! You help them out, and they think we’re perverted…”

 “You’re so disgusting…Ever since you were little you were always so nasty…”

 “Now we’re going into when we were kids? Geez…you women never forget anything…” Yun smacked his forehead. “So I lifted your skirt up when we were little…I did it on a dare, okay?”

 “And what did you get out of it?” Meiying demanded.

 “Wong did my homework for a week.” Yun grinned mischievously. At Meiying’s glare, he pointed at his older brother. “Hey, it wasn’t just me! Yang wanted to see me do it, too!”

 Yang looked horrified. “I did not! That’s a lie!”

 Meiying narrowed her eyes at Yun. “Like I’d believe that…I’ve known you guys for a long time…if anyone would be so stupid to do that, it’d be you…”

 “I was ten years old!” Yun exclaimed.

 “No excuses. You make me nauseous at times,” Meiying declared.

 “Like I like hearing you yak and yak all the time…” Yun retorted.

 “Aww, don’t they make a cute couple?” a nearby teenage girl crooned to her best friend.

 Yun and Meiying’s eyes went as huge as saucers. Yang refrained from laughing.

 “Now that’s disgusting…” Yun said.

 “No kidding. Us?” Meiying grimaced.

 Yang smiled. To an outsider, the two seemed to act as a couple in a new relationship, but Yang knew better. Yun could be arrogant, stubborn, and childish. And Meiying found no problem talking back to him. After all, the three of them had grown up together. Gen had his market and Hop had his liquor store. The two men found it very beneficial to be having businesses next door to each other. Hop and Meiying would get discounts as the market, and Gen would get discounts on alcohol. Meiying had come to live with her uncle when her parents died in a car accident. She had been seven when the tragedy hit her, but she seemed to have adjusted well. So many of her adolescent and teen years were spent with Yun and Yang. It was difficult to see her in a way other than the girl next door.

 Not that it wasn’t possible. Yang glanced at her. She was in an animated debate with Yun. She was pretty…One had to be a fool not to notice that she had grown into an attractive young woman. But he suspected that Yun, as well, had forced himself to think of her as only the girl next door. A relationship past friendship would complicate everything. As well as bring a barrage of constant teasing from their grandfather…

Besides, it was good being just friends.

 “No, stupid, the plaza is that way!” Yun claimed.

 “Will you shut up? People are staring!”

 Yang grinned. He wouldn’t have it any other way…

 Soon enough, the three reached the plaza.

Yun rubbed his hands together greedily. “Okay…now where?”

 Yang held up the map. “We should find the lion head…”

 “How about we split up and look for the head?” Meiying suggested.

 “Don’t need to,” Yun announced.

 The other two looked up. Yun pointed to a statue in the distance, beyond several bushes.

 The three headed in the direction. Upon reaching the base of the statue, they gazed up. A lion, poised in a jump, roaring, was materialized from bronze.

 Yang studied the map again. He pointed. “This way…”

 “This map is so vague…How are we going to find this treasure?” Meiying asked.

 They came across another statue. It was of granite, depicting a merchant and his wife.

 “What’s this?” Yun asked.

 “I think he’s the man who started this park,” Meiying suggested, reading the inscription on the statue.

 Yang studied the statue. “A lot of work went into carving this…” His eyes traveled to the base, then to the ground. The statue was placed in the center of a white circle. The ground had white stones embedded into it, as well as a line of mauve pebbles that extended from each corner of the statue’s square base. “Meiying…go on the other side…check the pattern of the stones in the ground…”

 Meiying and Yun looked at Yang before following his gaze. Meiying quickly went to the other side. She spotted the same pattern. Meiying joined Yun and Yang, who were gazing at the statue from the side, a good six feet away.

 “X marks the spot…” Yun quipped.

 He was right. The pattern of mauve pebbles seemed to form an ‘X’ with the statue placed in the center of it.

 “Wow…” she breathed out.

 The three moved towards the statue. Yang glanced around to see if anyone was looking.

 “I wonder where it could be…” Yun searched the statue, his hands wandering.

 Meiying poked at a box formed by the granite. She attempted to lift the lid.

 “That would be too easy,” Yang declared softly.

 Meiying looked up the statue. It was at least eight feet tall. She caught sight of a basket backpack the wife was carrying. She glanced at Yang, who smiled. He stooped down, and she climbed on his shoulders.

Yun looked up. “Hey…what are you guys doing?”

 Yang stood to his full height, gripping her knees. “You okay?”

 Meiying nodded. “Yup. Slowly…”

 He inched towards the wife statue. Meiying reached inside. It was shallower than it appeared to be. She pulled out a small box that had been closed and wrapped with string.

“All right, you found it!” Yun exclaimed.

Meiying handed it to Yun so Yang could let her down.

 Yun pulled off the strings. He opened the leather box, finding a leather purse.

 “Someone went to a lot of trouble to cover this…” Meiying mused. Considering it was out in the elements, she could understand why.

 Yun untied the strings to the purse and pulled out a slip of paper. He flipped it open carefully and frowned.

 “What’s wrong?” Yang asked.

 Yun turned the paper around for his companions to see. “It’s another treasure map…a continuation of the first one…”

 Meiying and Yang studied the map carefully before glancing at Yun. Sure enough, a new map with a new X marked on it was displayed before them. Small characters in the upper right hand corner indicated that it was the second map of the elusive treasure the young people were trying to find.