Deep

Lianne, satisfied at the look on Zero's face, now focused her attention on Kai.

Kai's face was blemish-free, despite the fact that she knew he had a black eye. Though it was healing, it would not have taken this fast for it to disappear. So it can only mean that he covered it up with make-up.

Zero was not happy about that.

When Lianne thought about it, she should have not been surprised.

Considering his face was one of his greatest weapon, he would surely know how to take care of it. That would also include hiding any flaws. She was now curious as to what he would really look like with a 'clean' face.

Was his skin as smooth as it appeared?

Lianne didn't think that such perfection could not be real. Or, if it was, that it required a lot of maintenance. Genes was one thing but if one did not take care of oneself, it would show.

Your body is your temple, after all.

People only see the result, but not the hard work and effort that it took to get it.

Kai was an example of that.

Lianne was also well aware of all the women he was associated with. However, despite the fact that the news seemed to paint him in a very unfavourable light, Lianne was more of the type that would believe what she saw rather than what she read.

However, it didn't mean that she would disregard what she read. She just wouldn't put her entire being into believing it wholeheartedly.

Still, the thought of him being surrounded by all those women, and that Kai was quite chummy with them didn't sit well with Lianne either.

Of course, she shouldn't be feeling this way since he's 'not hers', so to speak - and even if he was, that was before he got to know her.

Even then, she still didn't like it.

Lianne sighed to herself as these thoughts ran through her mind.

She was already acting and feeling this way, when she was telling herself to stay away from him. How bad would it be if she actually got together with him?

She pursed her lips a bit, pondering on that.

She chalked up another reason why she should stay away from Kai.

"I'm sorry for being late," Kai said as he came to them, "Did you wait long?"

He looked at his watch and noted that he wasn't late as it wasn't the agreed time yet. Well, that only meant that technically, he was not late. The reality was, since they arrived before him, it meant that (to him) he was late.

"No," Lianne replied, giving a soft smile that just pierced Kai's heart immediately.

He had thought, after months of not seeing her, he would be able to handle it better.

But nooooo …

It only got worse.

Once he knew who she was, he had entertained the idea of getting some people to trail her and take pictures of her.

Stalkerish, yes, but how else was he going to get any pictures of her?

Unfortunately, every single person was caught and the pictures they took got deleted.

The people weren't hurt, and Kai knew that this method was hopeless. It was good enough that he was not retaliated upon for invading her privacy like this.

He should have known better.

However, there was one good thing about this.

It made him realise just how precious Lianne was to Kyle. Kai felt that the only person who had the resources to protect Lianne like this was Kyle, thus, it only goes to follow that he would not be able to get anything about Lianne.

Of course, he didn't know that it was Lianne herself that had the resources as well now. Not only was she the de-facto leader of the MIB, she also had her own secret shadow guards. They were the ones responsible to ensure no one followed her and they had been utterly annoyed at the fact that they had to get rid of such small fries like this.

"Glad to see that you know how to cover-up the black eye," Lianne said with another small smile, "And your cut lip is healing well."

Kai just grinned, not disturbed at all as he said, "Zero has a mean right hook. Or was it left? Either way, it hurt."

Zero snorted.

Just then, Lily came back and her face was rather red as she approached Zero and said softly, "I'm so sorry."

Zero looked at her in bewilderment, "For what?"

"I - that … earlier," Lily stammered, not knowing how to say it out loud as it was just too embarrassing for her. She had screamed like there was some sort of bloody murder going on and it was just a spider. Then, she had clung onto Zero like they were lovers or something.

Just thinking about it made her face flush an even darker shade of red.

Zero was waiting patiently, then decided that it didn't matter what she was apologizing for. It seemed to be a big deal for her so he just gave a small smile and said, "Oh, that. It's no big deal. Don't worry about it."

Lily nodded, not daring to look up at Zero.

She focused her gaze on his chest instead and it was then that she realised there was a lipstick stain on his shirt. To be more accurate, it was her lip gloss. Luckily, she didn't wear such heavy make-up so it was just a slight pinkish smudge rather than a bright red one or there being some foundation on it.

Still, she looked at it in horror.

Without thinking, she ran over to him and started touching the stain. It was dry, and not oily. She was so engrossed with scrutinizing the stain that she did not realise that Zero was now frozen solid.

He didn't dare move.

She was so close and his senses were on overdrive.

He could imagine feeling her body warmth even though they weren't touching. Well, her hands were on his chest but her closeness made it seem like she was in his arms. Her hair that was just inches away from him gave off a slight smell of jasmine.

His brain took in what he was seeing right now to the memories of when he had held her in his arms earlier.

He had been too worried about her to truly register everything but right now, all that he had experienced then came back with a vengeance.

Lianne saw Zero's reaction to Lily's concern over the stain on his shirt and held back a smile.

Kai, in the meantime, was looking at the entire scene of Lianne's indifferent reaction to her boyfriend being close to another woman, in complete bafflement.

Why was it, when it came to Lianne, nothing seemed to make sense?

Still waters run deep indeed.