The morning of Luhans first public appearance as CEO of Affluent Hotels he was ushered into a small waiting room off the main hall, thankfully none of the bodyguards followed him inside in an effort to give him some time to collect himself.

With his back pressed against the closed door his eyes were drawn to the counter situated under a huge mirror directly across from him. Two packages had been placed on the surface, a longer rectangular box sat with the top askew while the smaller square one was still tied prettily with ribbon.

Upon closer inspection there were notes attached to each one, the first read: Happy Belated Birthday Xiumin! Put them to good use ya? Luhan instantly did a double take at the shaky Korean sprawled across the piece of paper. He tipped the top back out of curiosity but the indents for two long thin objects were void of their occupants.

Preoccupied by the lack of information about this gift and its recipient he turned his attention to the smaller unopened package that’d been left to the side. In what he recognized as his Uncles handwriting a much neater note was left for him in Mandarin: Lu Han, Happy Early Birthday! I most likely won’t see you on the actual day so I thought ten days early was better than late! I love you dearly you know that right? Albinia picked it out so make sure to wear it okay!? At the bottom of the note HAPPY BIRTHDAY! had been scribbled in English with badly drawn hearts sprinkled around it.

Luhans lips curved into a smile despite how distracted he was about the ordeal he would face in a few minutes time. Lightly pulling at the ribbon easily caused the bow to fall open; he lifted the hinged top to reveal a diamond studded leather band, the material was stiff enough to hold its circular shape even while draped against his collarbones. It certainly was unique, and knowing his Uncle the diamonds his fingers ran against were all flawless, perfect and exceedingly expensive.

Looking up into the mirror he ruffled his newly lightened hair and straightened the diamond studded black lapels of his grey suit jacket. He absently touched the three diamond cluster at each lapel point then the diamonds circling his neck, he’d moved up in the world, if only temporarily.

A knock at the door broke his trance from the sparkling gems hold, a none committed noise from the back of his throat had the bodyguard outside opening the door and gesturing for him to exit his last place of refuge. He had briefly met the man’s eyes through the mirror but he’d quickly dropped his gaze to where it caught on the longer wooden box laid before him. Running his fingers over the lacquered wood he tried to get his suddenly wild heart under control by breathing in and out evenly. After only allowing himself a last few moments he spun himself away from the mystery box and the open ended thoughts about its owner to walk as confidently as he could manage to the door.

His fingers itched to touch the power symbol around his neck but he steadfastly refused to look nervous or overwhelmed so he casually tucked his shaking hands into his pockets as he left the waiting room, without looking back as he so desperately wanted to.

The short walk to the main hall was uneventful up until they reached the side door leading to the stage he would make his first public speech on, even from this distance the sound cluttered the area making it difficult to pick out any one thing. His heart picked up another notch at the noise; he tried to dry his sweaty palms against the inside of his pockets without drawing too much attention to the act.

The next few minutes became a blur to Luhan, the door was opened, he walked up the stairs to the podium at center stage, peered out into the shifting mass below him and nearly passed out. All manner of people had gathered to see the successor to the position of most influential businessman in all of Singapore, family members, reporters, other influential people, business representatives and CEOs alike had all turned out to try and gain his attention. Along the edges of the room employees from the flag ship hotel, the current venue, The China Hotel, were all watching to learn who their proverbial new master was.

Under the gaze of literally over a thousand people Luhan stalled momentarily before resolutely addressing the crowd as he had been trained over the past two and a half months to. He was NOT going to mess this up, his face was pale and nervous sweat was running down his back but he delivered his speech confidently through sheer power of will. His fingers started to ache from the tight grip he had on the podium but he never once gave any outward sign that he was out of place. He could almost feel Albinia gripping his arm with her fast expanding belly pressed against his hand.

While he was speaking his gaze roamed the room, lingering here and there on faces he recognized before landing on someone’s back. Out of all the peoples rapt attention only one man wasn’t even facing him. Luhans eyes traveled down the man’s body taking in the white suit jacket draped over slender shoulders to what looked like wooden sticks hanging from the man’s slim hips.

Thankfully his mouth continued even while his brain totally derailed, those sticks seemed to be made from the same material as the box in his waiting room and looked to fit the size and shape of the indents within it.

His thoughts scattered in a million different directions until his attention was drawn to the man’s upper body shifting. Trying to keep up with his movements Luhan glanced up his body only to see him step forward to place himself between Luhans place on stage and an unknown man in the front row that had started to rise.

Things seemed to slow down; Luhan was nearing the end of his speech, the stranger was moving oddly, putting his hand into his suit jacket, and wooden sword guy was very calmly drawing his arm back to squarely punch the man in the face.

The realization that something was going on rippled through the crowd causing mass hysteria and panic as everyone seemed torn between trying to get closer to see what was going on and running away in case something was actually going on that could endanger their important selves. Luhan managed to stumble over the last few words of his speech before falling silent with his mouth hanging open.

The man stood a good half foot taller than his ‘knight in shining armor/suit’ but was still sent flying backwards into the seats behind him causing him to drop whatever it was he’d been reaching for. All thoughts of stopping the unprovoked fight flew from Luhans head when his eyes followed the metallic glint to where it’s bouncing had delivered it directly in front of him. A gun lay seemingly innocent against the stage’s short wall until his eyes popped back up to see the larger man disentangling himself from chairs and struggling to stand with blood streaming down his face, his otherwise handsome face which wore the most ugly and contorted expression of anger that Luhan had ever seen.

It didn’t seem like the murderous gaze even fazed Mr. Knight because he just cocked his arm back and punch the guy square in the face, again. This time the would be shooter didn’t get back up and Luhan let go of a breath be hadn’t known he’d been holding. Glancing around the enormous room he realized that almost every single one of his guests had fled and not a single one of his black garbed body guards had lifted a finger while this whole fiasco went down. They had instead left his side and were presumably searching the guests that had fled for any accomplices amongst the crowd, leaving Luhan completely in the hands of a single man.

Said single man had turned from the knocked out guy on the flood after checking to see if he was dead/definitely unconscious to make his way to Luhan who was glued to the spot behind his podium. He picked up the gun, checked if it was loaded, and pocketed the thing before swinging himself up onto the stage and settling himself on one knee before Luhan.

“I’m Xiumin, you’re personal bodyguard,” Mandarin obviously wasn’t his main language because he immediately switched to Korean after the greeting, which he wasn’t even sure that Luhan would understand, “You’re safe now, I’m sorry we had to meet this way.”

Even though he had another man’s blood splattered across his knuckles Luhan found him extremely…. attractive. His voice was slightly lower than Luhan had expected coming from his small frame, the sound hit something in him that sent shivers down his spine.

When Luhan responded in Korean he watched his new body guards’ shoulders tense in surprise but he stopped himself from look up at Luhan. Luhan supposed he was trying to be respectful but all it did was make him want to touch the soft hair presented to him, which he didn’t, that would have been weird and he definitely didn’t want this adorably deadly creature to think anything negative of him.