Chapter 67: Special Chapter 1

"Good." A velvet but husky voice was heard from the receiver.

*Good?* A tall man was leaning on a huge executive chair as he repeated his mind. He rotated his chair and the entire city, through a glass wall, came into his full view. The glass wall overlooking the city is plain humongous, which made sense as the building where it was located was one of the tallest building in the whole Europe.

"..but my Mother?" The tall man replied as he played with a golden pen in his hand. The pen has a simple but sleek design. It is his favorite as his mother gave it to him during his last birthday.

"Your mom is perfect." The other line stated.

The tall man chuckled. People used to say, "Anything a beautiful person does becomes beautiful". That phrase is perfect to describe this tall man as a small chuckle from him lighted up the whole room.

"Are you sure?" This beautiful man already knew his mother is perfect. However, this was not what he was referring to when he asked that question. Of course, he also knew that his father was the smitten, crazy world's number one love sick fool who wanted to monopolized the full attention of his mother.

"Lilly is never upset. Just do whatever you want to do." The other line replied in a nonchalant voice.

"You don't want me to come over for your graduation?" The beautiful man chuckled again.

His parent's graduation is next week. However, a problem in one of the hotels suddenly occurred which required his immediate attention. That was why, he called his mother's phone to tell her that he might be late for the occasion. Of course, he was not planning on missing the whole celebration.

However, as he expected, it was his father who answered his call. This made him suspect that his father diverted his calls from his mother's phone to his phone.

"....I'm taking Lilly to travel right after graduation. You are welcome to join if you want to know how and where we will be making your siblings." There was a long pause before the other line replied.

The golden pen almost fell to the ground if not for the beautiful man's super-fast reflex. "Thank you for the offer, father. But my mother will not appreciate that." He replied while imagining the smirk on his father's face.

"Good. I'm hanging up. Don't call your mother for the next three months." The other line stated before the phone was hang up. The beautiful man had no choice but to involuntarily chuckle again.

*Now I have to continue working.* The beautiful man thought as he opened the lid of his laptop.

Suddenly, a notification popped up on the side.

"E- Should I take my dog to poopsie on the park today?" The message stated which earned another chuckle from the beautiful man.

*This girl still thinks I'm an automated assistant.* He smirked while searching on his phone whether it would rain today.

**End of Book I **

**Book II**

**E - Simply Love Story**

**Elliot's Story**

Chapter 1 - A Perfect Man

*Description of a perfect man*

Iris Rose typed each letter with precaution as she was afraid one of her roommates might see. People might think she was overreacting. But what do they know? One couldn't be *extra very overly cautious* when it involved her whole life and reputation, wasn't it?

Thus, aside from sneakily putting her back on the wall (to prevent anyone from looking over her laptop screen), she also spread out some work-related tally sheets on the side of her desk. Along with the phone on her ear, and her pen on her fingers, this created a perfect image of a diligent girl working at home during the weekends. This impression, of course, was what Iris was aiming for.

She *wanted* to look perfect. There was nothing in this world that she aspired for other than *being perfect*.

Back when she was in school, Iris would stay up the whole night studying just so she could have perfect scores on her exams. In the morning, she would spend hours in the mirror just to look perfect. Not a hair out of place, she would then walk in the classroom with a worried look while pitifully saying "I fell asleep last night so I wasn't able to study. I hope I can remember the lessons".

During her speech for their graduation where she took the highest honor, she portrayed a great image of an excellent, beautiful and inspiring youth while talking about the "dreams and aspirations of the youth; how can they contribute to our society". Inside her mind, however, she was secretly thinking *"Ha! I BEAT you. You are now the forever 2nd honor. In your face, Oscar!"*

During her first day of work when her new office mates asked her about her hobbies, she answered "I play the piano and read books during weekends". However, the truth was, saturdays and sundays were manga days and unless absolutely necessary for her carefully crafted image, no one and nothing could bring her away from her manga collection.

People saw her as a beautiful, educated, talented and elegant lady.

Men wanted to pursue her. Women dreamed of being like her.

Yes, Iris Rose was perfect.

*Perfect in being pretentious.*

Which lead to the current situation. You see, her grandma just gave her a call asking whether she would visit home on the coming holiday.

*I don't want to visit home on the holiday*. Iris Rose thought as she thought of a perfect excuse.

"Grandma, I would love to return and see you. But... I'm sorry. I have previous engagements." She sweetly replied.

"But my dear..I miss you." Was the only reply of her grandma. Naturally, she was the loving granddaughter in her grandma's heart. A loving granddaughter would always place her family first.

*I miss you and your cookies too, grandma! But it gets too tiring whenever I return. I would need to act perfect 24/7 and my annoying cousins would be there to judge my every move.* Iris Rose thought.

"You know I really miss you too, grandma." She said softly. "But my previous engagement, my... my ...boyfriend will be hurt if I suddenly cancel it." She added.

"So that's why. How's your boyfriend, my dear?" Grandma's gentle voice said.

Her grandma knew about her boyfriend, of course. A perfect girl needed a perfect man. So, to add on the list of her pretenses, Iris Rose also created "stories" about her "boyfriend".

"He's really sweet, Grandma." She said. "He's bringing me somewhere on the holiday. I'm also clueless where."

"That's really sweet, dear." Iris Rose could feel her grandma's smile as she said that. "Do you think he will pop the question?" Her grandma chuckled.

Question? Grandma.. you're not thinking I'll marry my imaginary perfect boyfriend, right?

"Grandma.. we just started dating.." Iris pretended to stutter like a shy teenager.

"He was pursuing you for a year and you are together for seven months. That's not 'just started dating'. Your cousin, Mika, is already engaged! Her fiance went on his knees and asked her the question last night in front of the 'Goddess' statue. I heard it was romantic." Her grandma gushed.

What?! That b*tch is engaged? And she was engaged before me?!

Mika Howell was Iris' cousin and number one competitor/enemy. The number of times they competed in the past cannot be counted anymore. Ofcourse, Iris mostly won. Thus, it was completely unacceptable for Iris to let Micka win.. especially in terms of getting married first!! Who knew she found a man so fast? She totally let her guard down!

"Micka is... getting married?" Iris asked her grandma in a sweet voice while her eyes flickered in an abnormal manner.

"Yes. She is. They had been dating for four months when Liam popped the question. So you see my dear.. dating for seven months is totally not too short especially if the guy's heart was captured...." *She is dating that Liam? The son of the governor who is also a prominent lawyer? Liam.. my childhood crush?!* "..so you see, my dear. You should learn from your cousin and capture the heart of your boyfriend." Her grandma continued.

*Me learning from Micka? Unacceptable!*

"Grandma.. now that you talk like this.. actually.. I got something to tell you.." Iris started while her competitive mind was clearly clouded by a strong desire to be superior.

"It's like this.. I hope you won't be mad.. Grandma... actually.. I'm also engaged. My boyfriend.. he wanted us to get married but I always think that we should meet the family first." Iris nervously said while thinking *Oh no.. I really said it.*