Town of Zariya

Life at the Zeros mansion started out normally enough. Since Jian Yu had been given his own suite of rooms-- the place was a lot more than he'd expected. 

The furnishings were plain and comfortable just the way he preferred. It hadn't taken long to get all his stuff unpacked and in order, considering he really didn't have that much in the way of belongings. He'd only brought a few sets of clothes and some books with him. 

Once he was done, he scouted the perimeter of the mansion, trying to memorize every layout of the mansion, not missing a single detail. He would have to do this a few more times to have it printed in his mind. 

He was on his way back to the Lady's studies when he bumped onto the head butler. Apologizing and some words were exchanged, They were about to head separated ways before the butler informed him. 

"Oh, by the way, the Lady wants to see you now," the butler added. "She's in her workroom. Do you remember the way?"

"Yes, thank you," Jian Yu answered, nodding slightly and muttered a quiet thanks to him. Jian Yu considered that maybe the butler wasn't so bad after all. 

He's friendly and informative. 

He had helped him around the mansion the first time he arrived. What was his name again? Scratching the back of his head, Jian Yu decided that maybe it's better if he started memorizing the name of the people working here instead of imagining them as faceless humans. 

XXX

Figured he should have expected this. The moment he knocked on the door of her study room, The Lady immediately hauled him in and had him do her assignment, helped her with groceries, accompanied her on shopping and all. He had come back to the mansion with a massive backache at night. 

It had been a month since he had started working as Lady Clement's bodyguard, and Jian Yu was finally beginning to settle into his new life. Unplanned as his temporary career change had been, he had found that it wasn't as terrible as he had thought it would be. A bodyguard not doing a bodyguard-ish work. There wasn't any other assassination attempt since that day. 

He was, however, busier than he had ever been in his life. 

"I'm done!" he announced, setting the last dish down on the table. 

The chefs of the mansion all crowded near him and inspected the food with a critical eye, before praising him about how he was good at everything he did even though he just learned it. Rei would definitely laugh his ass off if he ever saw him do this. An agent turning into a butler. Hilarious.

XXX

"Ah, this is tiring," Jian Yu yawned, loosening his tie. He stood outside, in the balcony of his room. He himself was shaken when he realized he had a balcony of his own. Damn rich people. 

His balcony stood to a height of about three meters. From above, he could definitely see the beautiful garden stretch across his vision. It was filled with various colors of roses, especially blue roses. He had heard that it was Lady Clement's favorite. Truth to be told, it was starting to become his favorite too. 

He would always stand at the edge of the railings of his balcony, leaning without the fear of falling, only to spectate the swaying roses below. He had grown fond of his balcony, it had become his oasis. 

Like today. 

Every time he had a spare break during the night, he would rush over to his room, open his balcony, and stand there, enjoying every breeze it sent. He would look up to the sky, and saw blankets of stars, dancing gleefully. And there, the pale moon shone bright like a diamond in the night sky. 

Jian Yu stretched his arm high above his head, trying to loosen all the cramped muscles after standing and working so much. 

It had been a month. 

But there wasn't anything suspicious, no movement from assassins at all, it was like everything ceased to exist. 

He had tried to give it a month before calling his adoptive father AKA the inspector AKA Han In Sik to check the file and contract correctly. But it had been more than a month now! 

He was actually getting used to doing housework instead of guarding like normal bodyguards. The only time he did, was when he had to accompany Lady Clement on her hangouts. And he had to admit, all her friends were jerks, arrogant, dipshit. 

They gossiped about almost everything, from gowns, dresses, makeups, jewels, alphas, and omegas they wanted or hated, luckily betas hadn't touched the topic, but still. They were the perfect epitome of toxic society. They judged, they ridiculed, they bragged. 

Everything.

Maybe right now he was judging them, but hey, he was being critical. They were so toxic that he had to bring earbuds to protect himself.

There was a time though. 

He heard them mention an Alpha. 

One that everyone liked but hated by Lady Clement herself. 

This said Alpha was from the family of Roderick.

Jian Yu had been living his whole life in this town, The Town of Zariya. There was more water than land in this town, so they had built a lot of bridges, overlapping each other. 

This town was always buzzing with people, the sounds of Smiths, the shouts of market people, the hushes of gossip ladies, it was consistent and dull pounding, but it allowed you to know that the town was alive. 

What Jian Yu loved the most about this town since he was a child, was the street lamps that lit up every nightfall. The yellow glow of the street lamps shone all over the town, giving off a warm vibe. 

He would always climb up the tallest tree and watched. The color of the town reminded him of Christmas glow, it wasn't too bright, wasn't too dark, nothing was sun-bleached, nothing scratched or chipped. It was vandalized perfection.

And where did these families stand?

Everyone knew of these two conglomerate families. The Zeros and The Rodericks, both families only produced alphas from generation to generation. Up till now, no omegas had been born from these families. Even if they did, who knows where they ended up in. 

The reason why Lady Clement hated said Alpha?

Firstly, these families were rivals. They had been at odds for generations, from education to business. In schools, their children would fight for the best. In business, their parents would fight for fame. In markets, Their madams would fight to brag.

And no one knew why or when, these two families decided to reconcile, they decided to combine their families, to expand their business, by marrying off their son and daughter, which happened to be Lady Clement and Zeke Roderick. 

Lady Clement's friends had teased her for being Romeo and Juliet. 

And it had irked her to no end.