Jayjay, as it turned out, was none other than Bunny91. His given name was Zeng Fangxi. Truth be told,  he was a better snitch than a bodyguard. Secrets like a gushing river flowed out of his mouth unfiltered as he begged for his life. I was glad to have made his acquaintance for once- for the first time in roughly two years that I had known him.

I was a little surprised when I saw that The Reach had only sent a single minion to receive us. However, when Jayjay confessed that he was the first of the enhanced humans (a very unoriginal title, if you ask me) from the Catalyst project, I could see why he was chosen.

At the moment, though, none of it mattered. Right now, we had to save Junjun's family and Ai-Jiejie, who were being held captive by The Reach somewhere underground on the reserve's premises.

Looking at Junjun's vial of blood hungrily, Jayjay had revealed that The Reach was an organization started by Haoyu's ancestors to protect the supernatural creatures that had survived the purge more than two thousand years ago. The shifters were the strongest among them. When unbound-blood, their blood could heal wounds and lengthen the lives of their supernatural counterparts.

Inopportunely, though, as a consequence of procreating with unmutated humans for almost two millennia, the once unique gene diluted, and now, hardly any of their original abilities remained.

Thus, The Reach lost its reason for existence and was shut down by Elder Huang, Junjun's great-grandfather. Unfortunately, some did not agree with the man. They worked in secret and started tracking down those they thought would react positively to their inhuman, immoral trials. However, with the elder backing out, there was no one they could rely on for shifter blood that made the creation of serum possible.

With only two families with pure shifter genes remaining, one of them being the all-powerful and influential Huang family and the other being the Jins, The Reach turned their attention to the latter.

Now working independently, The Reach contacted the Jins, only to be refused. What they couldn't have by request, The Reach took by force. They kidnapped their young son and sabotaged their car, causing it to crash, killing Mr. and Mrs. Jin on the spot, leaving their young daughter to pick up the pieces of their once happy family.

The young girl was none other than Ai-Jiejiei, who was betrothed to Haoyu then. Fearing that the accident was actually a well-planned attack on the ancient family, the Jin girl was given a new name and was kept away from the Huangs.

Her younger brother was presumed dead, but that was far from true. For years, The Reach used the boy's blood as the base ingredient to power the medicines invented by The Cure before moving on and trying their hand at creating enhanced humans who could do their bidding and replace Jin Cheng, Xueai's brother.

Slowly, bribing and scaring his way into the government, Zeng Liqin had made sure that none of his doings were exposed, and with the young man, who they rechristened as Alpha1, under his control, the future of The Reach was secure, or so they thought till he escaped.

Without their main ingredient, The Reach turned to the enhanced humans they had created to fill the requirement of their run-away missing ingredient: blood.

Alas, things didn't pan out as expected. The enhanced humans created using substituted blood turned out to be mindless monsters who sought nothing but blood, ripping out the throats of anyone they saw in front of them when the dormant mutant gene in them activated.

They killed and maimed their victims, leaving the mess to be cleaned up by The Reach.

Seeing as they had no way out, they decided to trap Junjun, who had left home years ago. They planned everything right to the T. Unfortunately, my arrival and Junjun's departure with me threw a wrench in their plans.

So basically, they had fucked up.

Desperate, The Reach decided to forgo waiting till the idol's twenty-first birthday and injected him with a maturity drug they used to quicken 'the shift' while creating their enhanced humans.

However, their plans backfired again when Junjun had, instead of turning after a few hours, reacted to the drug immediately and rushed out before The Reach could get its filthy hands on him.

Jayjay also admitted that tailing us was something he had done for The Reach and had nothing to do with Haoyu, who was still unaware of his subordinate's involvement in Junjun's kidnapping conspiracy.

Jayjay continued to tell us how failing to realize their goal the fourth time around, The Reach had thrown caution to the wind and abducted Haoyu and his family. Unfortunately, Jiejie had fallen captive as well.

Apparently, Haoyu and Jiejie had bonded when they were still kids, rendering both useless in Zeng Liqin's eyes, for only the blood of a shifter who was yet to bond could be used by The Cure pharmaceutical to make miraculous drugs.

Needless to say, after Jayjay's word vomit, I still had a fuck ton of questions, but those could wait till Junjun's family was safe from the man who had held the Huangs captive: Zeng Liqin.

In his quest to earn my favor, Jayjay let slip that The Reach technically still belonged to the Huangs; thus, exposing its activities without first getting hold of undeniable proof that could prove the innocence of the Huang Family was not an option. I needed to be careful, for my one wrong move could destroy the family that had nothing but good intentions.
As promised, I fed Junjun's blood to Jayjay, who was grateful for a few moments before unexpectedly dying on us.

Strange. Maybe the healing thing Jayjay or should I say, Fangxi, had told me about the shifter blood having magical healing properties was a fucking lie. Luckily the poor fucker had given us what we needed before retiring from the world.

Half an hour later, we were back at the pit where I had found Junjun butt naked the day before. There were no signs of death and decay there at the moment.

"It has been cleared." I observed, and Junjun agreed, "They probably burnt the bodies to get rid of the evidence." he supplied and kept walking till we were standing in front of a large rock.
Together, we searched for the lever Jayjay had mentioned and found it hidden at the edge of the pit covered by shrubs. According to Jayjay, this was the safest way to enter the headquarters without alerting Liqin, who controlled The Reach.

With Junjun carrying enough firepower to subdue a small mutiny, we entered the headquarters and walked towards the holding cell.

Smoke invaded my lungs instantly, and my eyes watered. "I reckon they are preparing a feast for us." I joked, trying to lighten the mood. It fell flat.

Junjun, who seemed unaffected, glared at me disapprovingly. Ever since he had woken up after 'going through the shift' his attitude had changed. Things that made him laugh earlier made him frown now. It was like he was turning into the kind of person Haoyu wanted him to play, the one he had described in the file he had handed to me. Nonetheless, I could sense that Junjun was still the same on the inside.

With adrenaline coursing through our veins, we felt ready to take on the world. Nonetheless, when we finally arrived, someone had already beat us to it.

"Gege?" My charge called just as my eyes landed on my boss, sitting on the floor with an arm around Ai-Jiejie.

As the brothers united, I went to my landlady's side only to hear a growl leave Junjun's chest.

I threw him a disgusted look and took the unconscious woman in my arms. "What's wrong with her?"

"She is fine, just exhausted. The smoke isn't helping either." Haoyu sighed and removed the woman from my arms, much to my chagrin.

"What happened? Where are mom and dad?" Junjun asked, taking in the cramped surroundings.

"We were rescued, obviously." Haoyu's smile was sweet and mysterious. I had never seen him like that before. It was like he was free now: to smile and love.

"Who rescued you?" Junjun's tone betrayed his disappointment at not getting to play the hero, making his brother laugh and me chuckle.

"It was Cheng, Xueai's brother. He sensed our presence and released us before setting fire to the facility. Mom and dad have gone with him to release the captives."

"Captives?"

"Yes, Ah-Zan. The Reach was tracking down the descendants of the supernatural fraternity and capturing those who refused to accept the serum."

"Gege, why would they want to do that?"

Before the boss-man could reply, I guessed, "Because that way they would be able to control the enhanced humans and make them do The Reach's dirty work. Jayjay didn't know the complete story, did he?"

Haoyu sighed, "The Reach, as you may have already found out, is the main stakeholder of The Cure. Shifter blood is used in all their life-saving drugs. Unfortunately, only unbonded shifter blood can be used to create them. This holds true for the Catalyst project as well."

Junjun, who I had asked to stay hidden in my car till I made sure that it was safe for him to step out, had not heard most of what Jayjay had received. His mouth fell open at his brother's statement. His eyes darted between Jiejie and his brother, "You were already bonded to each other. That's why they came after me!"

"I am afraid so." Haoyu pursed his lips. "Cheng was captured for this very reason. Luckily he made it out." said my boss, looking behind us.

Junjun's face brightened not a moment later. He ran towards the distinguished-looking couple walking out of the slowly retreating smoke and threw his arms around them.
The couple mimicked his actions, holding on to their younger son as if their life depended on it.

Glad that we didn't have to use the grenades we had packed for the mission, I almost let my guard down when a humongous beast, the same one I had seen the day before, appeared behind the unsuspecting family. Instinctively, I ran towards my charge and stood like a shield with my gun aimed at its head.

"You can't have him, fucker. He is mine!" I growled before it could and took a step towards it. "I know you can understand me. So just fu-"

"Lower your weapon, Ah-Zan; that's Cheng, my brother-in-law. As much as Xueai loves you, she won't forgive you if you hurt her brother." My boss's amused voice reached me, followed by everyone present laughing their ass off.

***

I can't believe three months have flown by; my embarrassment- of serving as the laughing stock of the entire supernatural community at the underground headquarters of The Reach- remains fresh; I don't think I will ever be able to move on. The only things keeping me from sulking into oblivion are Junjun and his beautiful, always eager junior, whose sole aim is to make it a point to fuck me into a different, more pleasant kind of oblivion every day.

I can tell you from experience that holding the love of your life in your arms as you turn in for the night is perhaps the best feeling our mortal life can offer. That's something even Bastard agrees on.

After returning to my pad, Junjun had told me how he was drawn to me the first time he laid eyes on me. Obviously, he had chosen to ignore the pull, fearing my rejection. 'The shift' seemed to have played the matchmaker in our awkward-as-fuck love story. It was only later that I realized that the first time Junjun kissed me, he owned me by my soul; thinking back, it was probably my fear of him being taken away that had brought on my fainting spell.

All of that was in the past now.
We, as in Junjun (or Zhelan, as he is lovingly addressed by his fans) and I, have shifted base to South Korea since then. To be totally honest, I am loving it here. It's much more chill- attitude-wise, of course- than Ysichuan.

And, in case you might be wondering, the part about shifter blood healing wounds caused by silver in the bloodstream was absolutely true.

Technically, FungXi- aka Jayjay, should have survived after getting injected with Junjun's blood. Unfortunately for him, though, by the time it had entered his bloodstream, the blood had already lost its magical healing touch. For Junjun had already bonded with me.

As for Zeng Liqin: the main villain, he had unexpectedly shot himself in the head with a police officer's gun while being escorted to the police station after his deeds were exposed by the last person, who he thought would be in a position to do so: Cheng.

According to Haoyu, with Junjun bonded and Cheng already out of his control, Zeng Liqin knew that The Reach had no future. Thus, instead of receiving his punishment, the proud asshole had opted to end his life on his terms.

All said and done, wasn't it funny that not only had the job I was reluctant to take on saved tens, if not hundreds, of lives but had also found me a life partner?

Now, the question was whether I was happy being a part-time bodyguard and full-time boyfriend?

Yes. Of course.

Also, it didn't matter how Junjun's fans felt about me as his life partner as long as my presence in his life didn't lose him the love and admiration of his genuine fans.

Miraculously, his popularity had only soared after the news of him being gay had surfaced.

What more could I ask for? I had always secretly desired to have someone to call mine, and as luck would have it, that special someone had chosen me, making me his, unreluctantly his.

The End
❤

That's all folks!
Hope you had as much fun reading as I had writing it.
If not, my apologies. 😅
I will try to do better next time.

[Chapter word count: 2362;
Final word count: 32591]