Chapter 5

"I'm not a pervert." Morel came up to her and looked at the woman flatly.

The woman snorted softly. "I saw you looking at my ass!" She exclaimed, her innocent little face without makeup making her demeanor look the opposite of her fierce cat-like appearance.

The woman gave Morel a resentful look. She had just walked out of her house and was warming up before running, but as she did so, Morel's gaze at her ass made her stop.

Morel stared at her expressionlessly. "I was just out." He gave a brief excuse. He had no intention of explaining himself at all.

"No way, you're looking at me." The woman named Marissa protested again.

Morel averted his eyes with a gaze that looked utterly uninterested. "Then you expect me to walk blindfolded?" Her flat voice made her sarcasm very striking.

Morel didn't care what the woman was doing there. Their eyes had only accidentally met, making him unlucky to be involved in this kind of thing in the morning.

The woman with wavy brown hair tied in a ponytail barked at him. "What's wrong with you?" She yelled because she didn't know what to answer.

Marissa was doing her usual routine, exercising by running around the neighborhood. Even today, he did.

The hand of the woman in the bright pink tight-fitting jacket that had a low slit on the chest pointed at the street floor where she was currently standing. "I always run around here, and I always stretch in this place. Why are you making a big deal out of it? You're the one who can't keep your eyes!" The woman's hand pointed at Morel's eyes with emotion. Making Morel, who was facing the woman's behavior, speechless.

But what she was doing wasn't a big deal. Her thin hand was just floating in the air without touching it in the slightest.

Morel turned his face towards the street. She nodded practically. "Then just continue your exercise, and stop accusing me." She pointed towards the street with a gesture of her eyes.

"You!" The woman jabbed him again, her eyes glaring with a grimace. She was at a loss for words to reply to Morel's striking remark.

Seeing Morel's expression annoyed him, and the fact that he had no opening to dispute Morel, yet he didn't want to just end their conversation. So she noticed Morel and felt unfamiliar with him.

The woman stared at Morel's flat face. "Hey, you." She raised her eyebrows as she addressed Morel impolitely. "I've never seen you before in this place." the woman's brow furrowed and looked hesitant.

Morel looked at her with a dark and flat look in his eyes. He didn't want to make introductions but felt disturbed by the woman's existence.

Staring at Morel, who seemed reluctant annoyed her, she stood up by blocking Morel's gaze and forced Morel to look only at her.

After Morel looked at her with his unchanged cold face from earlier, she asked, "Who are you? I've never seen you here." Marissa rose to look at her.

Morel lowered his head and dropped her gaze to look at Marissa. "Morel," Morel said unconcernedly. The expression on her face began to make it clear that she was getting bored.

Morel stared in another direction to control his emotions. He cast his gaze at the mansions that stood along the street.

The woman stared at Morel's hand flatly. She was still annoyed at Morel. 

Then she lifted her face and looked at Morel. "I don't want to know what your name is." The woman spoke curtly. "What I'm asking is how did you get here? Do you work here? Who do you work with?" She asked without pause.

Morel caught a glimpse of her with his cold gaze. "I don't work." He replied indifferently. "I live in that house." Morel pointed behind him, towards his house.

The woman stared in the direction Morel was pointing, then shifted her gaze back to Morel.

Before the woman had heard about the owner of the house, she knew that it was the only empty place in the elite residential area where they lived. However, just a few days ago, the house had taken out the old things and replaced them with new ones.

She thought the owner would be back in a few months, but it was sooner than that.

"Are you sure that's your house?" She asked incredulously while Morel only replied with a confident nod. The woman's eyebrows seemed to move when Morel claimed it was his house. She felt a little guilty for calling Morel a worker around the place. The woman moved a little awkwardly.

"Oh." He said as casually as possible to dispel her awkwardness, massaging Morel's unconcerned gaze and disturbing her even more.

That's why the look on his face turned cynical towards Morel. "But still, you can't be that impolite, sir." Her voice was slightly lowered, and the woman seemed to weaken her demeanor. 

Morel snorted. "I was just going out." He said it firmly because being criticized for it made very little sense to him.

She stared at Morel fixedly for a few moments, then turned her body towards the street. "Never mind, I don't have time to deal with you." after grunting, he simply left there.

Marissa went back to running. She left from there without caring what Morel said to her. But because her steps were unsteady on a section of different heights, Marissa lost her balance and fell.

Seeing that unintentionally, Morel reflexively approached her with his vast strides. He glanced at the woman with the corner of his eye.

Marissa was slightly annoyed by his stare, so she waved her hand as if nothing had happened and hid her embarrassment. But she paused and stared in annoyance because Morel was already standing there but did nothing. "What are you doing? You have no intention of helping me?"

Morel didn't flinch. He just stared at her indifferently. "So you need help?" he quipped.

The woman hissed in annoyance, then looked down at her leg. "Ouch, it hurts so much." She muttered under her breath. "Never mind, bitch." the woman glanced at Morel in annoyance.

Even though the woman reacted like that, Morel stayed there and looked at her without any change of expression at all.

The woman felt pain in her ankle. She snorted in annoyance at what she was experiencing, and before she could complain, her phone rang. She stood upright with difficulty, ignoring Morel who was trying to help her.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Miss Marissa, where are you?" The voice on the other end of the line sounded somewhat panicked. "You need to get to the office right now. I have an important, urgent matter."

The woman took a deep breath while staring at the street in front of her heavily. "Okay, fine, I'll be right there." She immediately switched off the call, sighing at the pain in her leg.

As she tried to get up from there, she almost fell again. Reflexively, the woman maneuvered her body towards Morel, holding on to the man so that she wouldn't end up losing.

The throbbing in her legs made it difficult for Marissa to walk. Unfortunately, there was no one she knew passing by who could help her. She glanced at Morel, the only person who was currently there.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?" She asked politely this time.

Morel helped her up and then let go of her. "What did I do that for?" she looked at Marissa reluctantly and prepared to leave.

But Marissa shouted, "Alright, alright... I'm sorry." Marissa put her hands together. She looked at Morel, who did not seem to care.  "Come on, I'm in an urgent situation. I have to go to the office right now. Please."

Morel gave her a bemused look. "Wait here." Morel then left from there.

Morel went in and took the car keys from Doris, and came out driving a different car than the one he used yesterday.

"Hurry up and get in." He told her in a very unfriendly voice and manner, but she ignored his attitude and went inside.

During the journey, they did not speak. The woman was busy checking her work on her smartphone. Her eyes kept busy while Morel seemed busy driving and watching the road. Occasionally, he glanced at the woman and looked at her, who seemed busy.

Marissa put the phone to her ear. "Please prepare my work clothes and pick me up downstairs." She said so just as the call connected, then quickly disconnected it.

When the vehicle stopped, the woman looked out the window and realized they had arrived. With her slightly sore leg, she slowly got out of the car.

"Do you need help with the outside too?" Morel replied indifferently. The woman shook her head.

"Thank you." The woman spoke in a low tone. She was a little uncomfortable. She had gotten out of the car.

Morel raised his gaze to look at the woman. He had not expected her to thank him. "Yes, no problem."

"I will repay your favor today. But I still won't give you my phone number." She spoke in a wrong manner. After she took a look at this guy, he was pretty handsome, and it made her feel bad.

Her words made Morel even more astonished. "I didn't ask for it at all." He frowned.

The woman seemed to open her mouth silently for a moment. "It could be that you're being nice because you want to get to know me. I often get that kind of treatment when strange men want my phone number." She raised her voice to cover her embarrassment.

Morel looked at her without a change of expression. "I don't want anything from you." he gave a stinging reply.

The woman pressed her lips together and stared in restrained annoyance at Morel. She then broke away from him. "Y-yes... that's it then." She pointed towards the building. "I have to go in now. Thank you anyway."

The woman left there with rather tricky steps, but someone seemed to approach her and help her.

Morel glanced at the woman. He left the building in the car he was driving. Morel returned home, and when he arrived at the fence of the Palace's residential entrance, someone in a security uniform blocked him from entering. Meanwhile, behind the security booth, another officer was watching.

"You need to report first before entering." The man looked at Morel through the open window glass and saw Morel's shabby-looking appearance despite using a luxury car.

Morel ignored the man's gaze, then he pointed inside. "I live there," he answered them.

He marked everyone who lived there, and none looked as tacky as Morel.

The officer smiled mockingly. "You live in this place?" He questioned Morel's words. Then he answered himself, "That's impossible."

Morel gave the man a sardonic look at the man and the other man who joined in his laughter.

"Because we don't know you."