0. Everything Starts Somewhere

Minkyung brushes at the invisible lint on her tie, takes in a deep breath. This might not be her first rodeo, having done numerous smaller short-term assignments guarding visiting celebrities, but it is her first big rodeo, her first assignment that does not have a projected end date.

Admittedly, the Zhou Family is not well known in Korea and this assignment should be ‘relatively sane and free of the usual other-family drama’, to quote her superior, but chaebol have always made her slightly nervous. She blames watching too many of those dramas in high school but still cannot shake the image of a spoiled brat demanding the unreasonable at five in the morning and her actually having to do it.

She has the code to enter the apartment on her own and yes, Miss Zhou is expecting her, but there is a difference between knocking the door and just appearing in the living room.

She hits the doorbell, looks up into the security camera, expects the intercom to buzz on and a groggy voice to say something along the lines of “It’s 7 in the morning go away”.

Instead the door swings open.

Zhou Jieqiong stands before her, hair half up in a messy bun, glasses halfway down her nose, a toothbrush in , toothpaste threatening to dribble out.

“Yes? How can I help you?”

Minkyung blinks - had this individual worth several hundreds of millions of dollars just casually swung the do