CHAPTER 99: CHAPTER 99- PRETTY CUTE

Morrison glanced at the phone that had just been hung up. He wasn’t too happy about it—he hadn’t even started talking yet. With a scowl, he picked it up again and dialed the landline to her office. No one answered.

Scratching his chin in frustration, Morrison finally grabbed Lilian’s phone from the desk and strode out of his office.

So she’s got a bit of a temper, huh? Does she want me to go and coax her?

The thought of having to lower himself to apologize made him feel even more annoyed. In his mind, he hadn’t done anything wrong. He was only forbidding her from getting involved with Bert for her own safety. Wasn’t that coming from a place of care?

The one who was in the wrong wasn’t him—it was her. She got all starry-eyed over a few fashion sketches and acted like she’d never seen a pretty dress before. If she liked clothes that much, he could buy her as many as she wanted—designer brands, top-tier labels. How could that no-name designer Bert possibly compare?

With that logic, he turned around and decided not to go after her.

But just as he reached his office again, another thought hit him. Precisely because she was so ridiculously wrong, he should go find her and have a proper talk—before she started ignoring him again and giving him the cold shoulder like earlier.

So, once more, he spun around and headed out.

Sean happened to be on his way to see him when he saw his boss walk out, turn back into the office, and then come out again. The whole scene left him thoroughly confused.

"Boss... are you... going somewhere?"

"I’m heading to the finance department," Morrison replied without missing a beat.

After casually tossing that reply to Sean, Morrison stepped into the elevator.

The moment he mentioned the words "finance department," Sean instantly knew who he was really going to see.

He strolled into Norton’s office like he was holding some kind of juicy secret and leaned in with a mysterious smile.

"Bro, I think something’s going on between the boss and Lilian. He just said he’s heading to the finance department."

Up until now, the boss and Lilian had been in a strange cold war—especially Morrison, who’d been acting all awkward and stiff. But now that he was taking the initiative to find the girl, that had to mean the ice was melting.

Without even looking up, Norton said flatly, "Lilian’s phone has been in the boss’s hand since this morning. What do you think?"

Sean’s jaw dropped.

"No way! That’s huge news—why didn’t you tell me earlier?!"

Norton didn’t bother replying. Did Sean think everyone was as nosy as him?

"If you’ve got nothing important, get out of my office," he said, clearly annoyed. His mood was already in the gutter today, and he had no desire to deal with anything beyond work.

But Sean didn’t budge. Still full of curiosity, he pressed on.

"So what really happened between you and Monna? Why’d you break up?"

It had been bothering Sean for a while. Norton and Monna had seemed perfectly fine together—what had gone wrong?

Norton wasn’t keen on opening that can of worms. But judging by Sean’s face, if he didn’t spill now, the guy would just keep pestering him forever. So, sighing, he finally set aside his work and looked Sean in the eye.

"She asked me to quit my job and go work for her. Told me to choose between her and the boss. I told her I wasn’t going to quit. So she broke up with me."

Sean’s mouth fell open into an O-shape.

"So what you’re saying is... when I get a girlfriend in the future, the first thing I should do is tell her straight up: ’I’m not quitting. I’m not leaving MOS Corp. I’m not leaving our boss.’"

"Women are scary as hell."

Sean looked like his worldview had just collapsed. But then he frowned thoughtfully.

"But honestly, Monna doesn’t seem like the type to ask something that petty."

That kind of question—so unreasonable, so dramatic—it just didn’t fit with Yuki’s image. She had built a career from the ground up, and that kind of success didn’t come from being a small-minded, jealous woman. Surely someone like her would be great at managing people—at managing emotions.

Someone that capable wouldn’t just blurt out something so foolish... right? Could it be true that when women fall in love, their IQ drops to zero?

Norton didn’t respond. He simply stood up, shoved Sean out of his office, and locked the door behind him for peace and quiet.

But when he sat back down, his brow furrowed. Annoying as Sean could be, he had made one good point—Yuki really didn’t seem like the type to ask that kind of question.

So... what the hell was that woman up to?

When Morrison arrived at the finance department, of course he didn’t just barge in and drag someone out—doing that would’ve caused an uproar.

He stuck to the usual routine: standing by the emergency stairwell and calling her to come out.

Lilian’s landline was strictly for work. She couldn’t just ignore every call that came in. The only reason she hadn’t answered earlier was because she’d guessed it was Morrison. But she couldn’t afford to ignore all calls—what if it was someone else?

So she picked up, only to hear Morrison’s voice on the other end:

"Same place."

Lilian: "..."

She opened her mouth to refuse, but he had already hung up. Furious, she stomped her foot under the desk.

He always pulled this trick on her. And it always worked—because she didn’t dare let anyone know about their relationship.

She remembered teasing him about it once, saying that this was the only move he knew.

He had grinned and said, "If it works, why bother with more?"

She’d been so mad her teeth ached.

Grumbling to herself, she finally got up and left her office, dragging her feet as she headed to the emergency stairwell.

No one really used the stairs—everyone took the elevator—so the area was quiet and deserted.

As soon as Lilian pushed the door open, she saw Morrison standing there, fiddling with her phone. Startled, she rushed over to snatch it back. Her LilianDesk account was still logged in! But then she remembered—he didn’t know her password. He couldn’t unlock it anyway.

Morrison took the chance to pull her into his arms, smiling as he lifted her phone in front of her.

"Didn’t you say you didn’t want your phone anymore?"

Lilian fired back quickly, "I did say that. But that doesn’t give you the right to snoop through it."

She had to tilt her head up to glare at him properly—there was quite a height difference between them when he held her like that.

Morrison gave a low chuckle.

"I don’t know your passcode, do I? Can’t snoop even if I wanted to."

The girl was very protective about her phone. He’d never once been allowed to unlock it. Unlike him—he’d given her his passcode openly and even told her she could check his phone anytime. No secrets, no shady messages.

She’d said something back then, hadn’t she?

"The more honest you act, the more guilty you must be."

Oof. That had stung.

"Give it back," Lilian demanded, not wanting to drag this out. She stood on tiptoe, trying to grab the phone so she could get back to work.

Morrison didn’t push it. He handed the phone back without a fuss, but threw in a comment:

"Your lock screen photo’s pretty cute."

Then he leaned in a little closer and murmured, "It even got me... a little worked up."

Lilian flushed bright red.