Aera

I was thinking about calling Hanna once before going to bed. As I washed the dishes in the sink with Bach playing in the background, I had a clear mind and plenty of time to think things through. Exhaustion was not something that came naturally to me because I was very accustomed to it. Being a retired Army Officer, my stamina and stature where never compromised and I made sure of that.

The Parks had been a generous lot for giving me my own studio apartment in the outhouse of the villa otherwise I was afraid I was going to cling onto Eunwoo and his mom for the rest of my life. After losing my dad —who was the only family I had —in a military operation , Eunwoo, my high school buddy had asked me if I wanted company to stay with.

Primarily, I had thought he wanted to stay in my house which had too many rooms for my liking and was very lonely as I was the only one who lived there but much to my surprise his mom suggested, rather requested me, to come stay with them. She was quite a kind hearted lady who even fed the neighbourhood dogs and cats. And I was a human.

Although retiring from the military was never my intention when I had joined but....Never mind. I had not wanted to be burden on the mother and son no matter how much they loved and cared for me. When Mr. Park Sr. had proposed this job to me, I had been reluctant. After serving the country with all my diligence, I had never thought of falling into a job of a bodyguard to fill my stomach. Not like I was famished or was short of money. I had plenty of funds to sustain me but work ethic and being occupied rather sitting at home, I had managed to coax myself to the liking of this job.

Mr. Park Sr. was a gentleman who knew my father very well as they went back being buddies at school but due to my father's urging duty towards his country the two of them had separated at a very young age. I still remember him and his wife, the beautiful Mrs. Park, who had come to pay their condolences to my father on his funeral.

Somehow seeing Mr. Park Sr. , I was reminded of my dad and I had agreed on this job. Three years back when I had met Park Jimin and his sister Park Roseanne, I had never thought that they would have been so humble and down to earth. I had imagined them as rich bratty kids who were eager to strip their wealthy father of his money. I had them realised how quick I was in being judgmental and had reprimanded myself in private for being so hypothetical.

Nevertheless, the family was a great one and their head Grandma Lui was the epitome of the perfect bond that binded them together. She literally stuffed me with all the food that she had cooked for the first time when I had come to the mansion for accepting the proposal. She had mentioned how upset she was over his son for making me working under him but I had told her that I was more than happy to be his employee and I was willing.

I switched the tap off as I placed the last of the washed dishes neatly on their proper racks. Wiping off the water dripping from my hands, I sauntered over the music system to shut it before crashing into my bed which I had terribly missed for the last three months.

"Ohh!!" I stretched out my tensed limbs , groaning in the process before grabbing my phone from the side table when it the screen blinked to life.

Message Alert:
Emergency in the backyard.

I frowned at that as I grabbed my pistol that was lying beside my phone and dashed outside.

"Ma'am , there has been a problem." Max exclaimed as I came to him in the security room.

"We don't know who did this but this appears to be a scam of some sort." He said as he motioned for me to watch the CCTV footage that the surveillance team had prepared for me to watch.

It showed the usual. The backyard where the lawn was free from everything then suddenly there was smoke everywhere. It appeared as if it started building out of nowhere. What the hell...
I asked them to rewind the footage to mark anything out of the ordinary that would catch my attention and surely it did.

"Wait. Pause the video two seconds prior." I said.

And there I saw a hand in a waving motion protruding from behind the boundary wall as if it had thrown something inside. I felt my skin near my jaw tighten as I clenched my teeth. This wasn't a scam, it's a sick joke to provoke us.

To provoke me.

I rushed out of the room as I made inside the mansion only to find the Park siblings sitting on couch. I approached them but before I could speak Rose dashed towards me.

"Aera!!  Somebody is trying to kill us!!" She shrieked. Her brother, although was tensed, managed to smile at his sister's silliness.

"Miss Park. Calm down. Nobody will kill you unless....I am dead." I said as I made her sit down. I could see the sour face she pulled when I mentioned my death. That woman seriously had trouble with the word 'death' itself. I don't know for how many times in three years had I got scolded by her for saying the word much to the fact acting in a way where I was almost....well, dead.

"I think I have told you—"

"I won't die. Not so soon." I said as she sighed in defeat.

"Please I request both of you to stay here. I will just make a quick round of the backyard for security reasons. Max," I called as the said man walked over to me, " stay here." I said before swiftly walking over to the only door in the mansion that led to the backyard.

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