When she went up, Beatrice's eye twitched upon seeing Rafael standing beside Lianne. Sam gave him 'the look' and Rafael shrugged.

"She's good," he said simply, unabashed.

Beatrice rolled her eyes, a habit she developed after getting together with the Dante twins. She told them, "Ms. Kay's in a meeting right now, so you can wait for her in the room if you want."

"Okay," Lianne replied and headed to the door.

As her hand touched the doorknob, she turned towards Rafael and said, "Thank you for accompanying and protecting me, Rafael."

He smiled, "Anytime."

Lianne gave him a small wave and walked inside, closing the door behind her.

Once inside, she decided that the best place to spend her time would be in the resting room. That way, at least, she would not be in the way. She didn't know when Kay would be back, or whether Kay would be seeing more people - be it her employees or those who came to discuss business.

Before that, however, she explored the place.

She went to the bookshelf and saw a few books on finance and management amongst the files and some basic decoration. She then wondered why it would be there. To show off, perhaps? That didn't make sense because Mama wasn't the pretentious kind.

The books wouldn't be something Mama would need to read up since she's the CEO. From what Mama said as well, she could retain any information she read or saw.

On a hunch, Lianne took one book to flip through it.

Upon opening it, however, she found that it wasn't a book, but one of those secret hiding places. Unlike what she had seen before (online, that is), it wasn't just a simple hollowed-out space within the book, but it actually had a vault in it.

Lianne was curious, but not *that* curious, so she put it back. It wasn't like she could open it anyway.

Mama really did have so many 'spy spy' stuff.

Lianne, on the other hand, preferred to look at it from the sidelines. Nice to look at but not to actually go through it.

Too troublesome.

She preferred a quiet life, really.

No drama, nothing unpredictable, and more importantly, no boys.

Well, not now at least.

All the boys she knew were such babies that she could not be bothered with them. Though, the boys were far better than girls, really, who tended to get all drama and talk about Kpop or whatnot.

Lianne's taste in music and interests were different from theirs, so she didn't mix very well. Thus, it added to her self-imposed isolation even more.

It wasn't so bad, really, but there were times that she felt awkward or left out, and she tried hard not to get too bothered by it. It was getting better, really.

Just as she was lost in thought, the door opened.

Lianne sighed.

She had taken too dilly-dallied too long and now, Kay was back. She couldn't suddenly go to the room now, could she?

Lianne turned to greet Kay, then was surprised to see that there was a couple of guys following behind Kay.

One adult and one kid.

Lianne's eyebrow raised a little bit upon seeing him, all dressed up like some mini-adult.

Kai, on the other hand, was so surprised to see her in there that he almost stumbled. He quickly caught himself, but this small gesture was already caught by Zongshu.

His eyes narrowed as he then turned to look at the girl that caused the little one to forget himself, even if it was just for a second.

Lianne, noticing this, narrowed her own eyes as well.

What was his problem?

✿ Author only posts on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l. ✿

Joseph flung the controller onto the bed, exasperated.

After Kay and Lianne had left, he couldn't concentrate on the game at all.

No, that wasn't right.

He couldn't concentrate the moment he had seen Kay.

He flopped himself onto the bed, face down, and screamed soundlessly into the mattress. After getting that out of his system, he turned over and covered his eyes with his arm.

"What is wrong with me?" he hissed.

He wasn't really asking what was wrong with him because he knew perfectly why he couldn't concentrate. He was actually asking himself what wrong with him to even have these growing feelings.

He started hitting his forehead with his fist, then decided that enough was enough.

He went to the closet and changed his clothes. Flinging the door open, he headed towards the gym.

Two hours later, Joseph sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with sweat pouring down his face and all over. Together with the sweat, however, were tears.

He was confused, so confused.

No matter how hard he worked out, no matter what he did … her image would invade his thoughts. He had already told himself that it was not possible, so why wasn't he listening to himself??

He asked himself for the umpteenth time.

What's wrong with him?!

He let the tears flow down, not stopping them as he gathered his thoughts.

After what seemed like ages, Joseph finally got calm.

He wiped his face with the bottom of his shirt and sighed, looking at the wet stains on it.

He had spent the first hour trying to forget Kay, as if exerting himself would magically make her go away.

He then spent the second hour just trying to sort out his feelings.

Right now, Joseph was convinced that his feelings that were growing, were just a misplaced need for love. He knew that no matter how strongly he was feeling for Kay right now, it was only temporary.

He just needed to tide over this present time.

He had said that before, but he just had to say it again now. He was a really stubborn guy, after all.

Joseph scoffed at himself, but he was truly feeling better now after making his decision.