Episode I: Home Coming

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EPISODE I

     I stepped onto the wet gravel and felt the light mist of rain falling across my face. I tipped the driver, before facing the great house standing before me. A small silhouette of a girl stood waiting for me by the entrance.
     "Welcome home, Mr Jeon," the small figure, dressed in a modest lab coat bowed to me. I heard her, but my mind was occupied by other thoughts.
     Mother's funeral, it was only yesterday that I saw the lifeless body of my mother. I was never close to her and the last time I ever saw her, we left on bitter terms. If only I had known that that would be the last I'd ever see of her. The disappointment on her face that night still haunts me in my dreams.
Some how seeing her  in her casket was serene and somewhat relieving. For the first time in my life, I saw my mother's usually stern face relaxed and somewhat mother like, not the business woman that I grew up with.
     Even after years of despising my mother, everything seemed so sudden; the death, the funeral, it all seemed...fake.
     While all the other men got to go home to their families and significant others, I received a bad news as soon as I was discharged from the military. I was told to attend my mother's funeral; I didn't even know she had passed away. Cancer, they said. That's what killed her. Ever since the funeral I've been trying to recall that day I last saw her to try to remember if she showed any signs of being ill. But everything from that night seemed hazy.
     Last night after the ceremony I couldn't go home and found myself wandering the brightly lit streets of Seoul; I couldn't help but find this whole situation laughable. I worked hard in the military for two years and I return to nothing but news of my mother's death, nobody to comfort me or to tell me they've missed me. What a sad man I've grown to be.
     "Sir?" I heard the same girl say and this time I managed to escape my thoughts. "Are you alright, sir?"
     "Who are you?" If I was correct, she was the same girl from the funeral and the same girl described in the letter by my mother.
     "Ah Li-Na," she bowed again.
     I took a closer look at her. She definitely matched my mother's description. She was small with dark wavy hair that stopped at her shoulders and wore red wide-framed glasses that seemed too big for anybody's face. Definitely someone who could be a lab assistant.
     "Would you like me to help you bring your luggage inside?" She pressed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.
     "That won't be necessary, I'll get the butler to do it," I disregarded her and focused more on the door behind her. I took the hand sanitizer from my pocket and disinfected my hands before reaching for the handle to enter.
     Stepping inside, I took in the familiar sent of sweet ivory that brought back memories and feelings of loneliness. Except this time I really was alone. I had an entire mansion with servants in it, but they were only here because they were paid to be there. Otherwise they would've left me and now with one less person in my life to deal with, my world felt emptier.
     "Mother didn't change anything around here," I stretched and welcomed myself home.
     I made my way around the house; a process which consisted of walking down hallways, checking random kitchen cabinets, opening and closing doors to empty rooms, all while Li-Nah followed silently followed not too far behind me. I did this for a few minutes before stopping at an all too familiar door. The basement door that lead straight to my mother's laboratory. A place where I was forbidden to enter all my life.
     I quickly took out my handkerchief but before I could reach the door, Li-Nah blocked me.
     "Surely you must be tired, Mr Jeon. You should rest," she said with a straight face.
     I smirked, of course my mother trained her little pet to guard her most prized possession; even after death. "So you're the infamous lab assistant that was so near and dear to mother."
     She didn't say anything. She didn't move a muscle. Her plain expression never wavered as I approached her. I scanned her face like an artist would their sculpture. A sculpture was what she was. An imperfect-less marble carving of a girl. How did someone like her manage to accomplish something in just a few years that I couldn't do over a life time? What did my mother see in her that she didn't in me, what made her trust her with all her secrets? Who are you, Ah Li-Na?
     "I'd appreciate it if you could take a few steps back," she said coldly.
     I purposefully stepped closer to her, before walking away from her and the basement door. I didn't need to look back to know that she was following me.
     I run up the grand staircase up to my study. When I entered, I was met with a wave of warm familiarity. Everything was left untouched and where I had them before enlisting.  I walked over to my desk and sat down on my leather bounded office chair. I sighed out in comfort. I opened my eyes to see Lina standing patiently in front of my me with nothing but my desk separating us.
     "Sit down," I motioned her towards a seat near me. She pulled out a chair and took a seat across from me, before slipping her hands into the pockets of her wrinkled coat. "Starting today, you'll no longer  be a lab assistant. Instead you'll be working as my personal assistant and I'll be making you in charge of everything and everyone in this house. I guess you could say you'll be my sergeant and I'll be your commander. When I'm not here I expect you to keep things in check." I smiled cheekily.
     She nodded and her glasses slid down her nose.
     "As my assistant you must obey all of my commands without any questions and you must stay with me at all times, unless otherwise dismissed by me. Your loyalties lie with me and me only and you are to only follow my orders. It does not matter if what I say makes you upset or not, your number one priority should be to serve me; this is what it means to work in for the Jeon. Am I being clear?"
     "I understand that you just spent two years being trained as a soldier, but aren't you being too... military like, sir?" she pressed her glasses back up.
     "I just need to make sure that whoever I bring into my house won't end up doing me wrong, I've had too many people disappoint me in the past. So, do you understand what your responsibilities are?"
     "Yes, Mr-"
     "Master, as soon as you sign the contract, you'll only call me by Master, understood?" I watched as something in her still expression shifted. She was good at masking her emotions, I'll give her that, just not good enough to hide from me. I saw right through her, as the corner of her lips turned up. I pulled a paper out of my desk and slid her the contract, "So what do you say, will you be willing to give everything up to be a Jeon servant?" I said, holding up a pen.
     She took a minute before looking up, once more, "I, Ah Li-Na, shall fully serve you." She took the pen from me and signed on the dotted lines.
     I smirked. I opened up my desk drawer once more and placed a large envelope next to her signed contracted. Inside was my entire medical history and vital information that, if ever got out, could be used against me. This is my way of testing just how loyal she can be. By handing over these documents, I was handing her my life.
     Everything in the room seemed to stand still as I passed her that envelope. "We'll see where your loyalties lie."

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A/N:
There's the first chapter. I know Jungkook seems like a cold character right now and everything seems overall black and white, but I promise I plan to have some warmer chapters later on in the story.
For now, thank you for reading and make sure to come back for more :)
*Lena*

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