It didn't matter what time of year it was. As soon as Roseanne wanted to do something with her day, the heavens opened up and dumped a foot of rain over Seoul.
Today was no different. She had risen from bed, done an hour of yoga, had her usual breakfast of yogurt and mixed berries, taken a shower, and dressed with the intention of leaving her apartment to enjoy the slivers of sunshine that had greeted her when she rolled out of bed. But by the time she opened her closet to search for the perfect outfit, rain was splattering against her window.
Any other day, she would have braved the downpour like a champ. Even a café in the rain was a pleasant experience if she had a book to read or a journal to put her thoughts down in while couples talked around her and baristas said hello to their favorite regulars. Occasionally, she would even convince one of her old school friends to join her.
But that was before Lisa Manoban became a permanent staple in her life.
She peered out the peephole of her front door. Sure enough, Lisa was out there, pacing up and down the hallway Roseanne shared with her sister Irene. Right now, Lisa's gaze was directed at her phone, but her posture was formidable, poised to pounce at any sign of trouble with her catlike reflexes.
As soon as Roseanne focused her eyes on her, Lisa turned her head toward the door.
Crap! She stepped back, her heart skipping. It was like Lisa had heard Roseanne staring at her.
One week of this, and Roseanne was already losing her mind.
One week of Lisa Manoban, the tough and sexy bodyguard who took her job so seriously that when she said 24-hour service, she meant it. When she wasn't standing outside Roseanne's door, she was tailing her to a follow-up doctor's appointment, a lunch with friends, and a day out with Jennie to the cat rescue her girlfriend Jisoo ran.
To top it off, Lisa had taken up residence in the family's guest apartment downstairs, right beneath Roseanne's. Her mother had given the apartment to the security team to use at their leisure, and Lisa had claimed the spacious master suite as her own so she could be close to Roseanne at all times.
She was just glad Lisa hadn't insisted on staying in her spare bedroom. Roseanne allowed Lisa to follow her around, but she drew the line at having a new roommate. Lisa would stay out of Roseanne's apartment unless they were going over the day's schedule. Or if there was an emergency, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
Did Roseanne resent Lisa's presence? No. Was she confused about a few things? Yes. She was confused about what had made her mother paranoid enough to overhaul the family's security, let alone why there was so much emphasis on Roseanne. It was one thing for her mother to be extra protective of her youngest. But it was another for Irene and Jennie to shrug their shoulders and act like they didn't know what was going on when Roseanne brought it up.
She was confused by one other thing, too. Namely, her irrefutable attraction to Lisa Manoban.
Roseanne had met her share of attractive women in her life. She was surrounded by them—at school, in her social circles. And they weren't limited to the girly femme types who dipped their toes in polish and bathed in perfume. There were quite a few androgynous and more butch women in her circles too, along with her sister Jennie's. That woman was a magnet for hot queer women, some of whom Roseanne had silently lusted after from a distance, because she was too young—and too nervous—to approach them.
Lisa was different from them all. Her clothes, cars, and business were expensive, but Roseanne could tell that her bodyguard came from more humble means. That only made her hotter. If Roseanne put her ultimate type on paper, it would be someone who wasn't anything like the people she was surrounded by. Someone who wasn't wrapped up in the pageantry of class and wealth, who didn't occupy themselves with what the media and gossip sites said about them.
