The Warrior Ice Prince

Chapter 73 : Accompanied To Work

Your POV:

It was a Tuesday and much to my surprise after more then a week without Minwoo, he shows up with a single rose and a smile on his face.

"Nooooooona!!! I missed you so much!" He called when I happened to pass by the front gate at lunch.

He ran over and took me in his arms as if he had been gone for years. 

I giggled at his silliness.

"I missed you too. Why are you suddenly coming to see me? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Haha...yeah, but...it's lunch for me too! And I really wanted to come see you. I'm sorry I've haven't seen you for a long time." He pouted adorably.

"It's okay, Minnie. Want to share my lunch Oppa made for me?" I asked.

"Okay! Oh and this is for you." Minwoo held out the single rose.

I accepted it and appreciated it's beauty. "Thank you, but there was no need."

"I wanted to." He smiled.

"Of course you would say that. I should've known." I shook my head in amusement. "We can go eat over there. I think Luna is with Sungjong today so we won't see either of them."

With swift movements, Minwoo took my bag and lunch and carried them both for me.
"Are they dating? They're always together." Minwoo stated his observations.

"Not yet, but I think it's just a matter of time." I put a finger to my lips and winked.

We both laughed.

Minwoo and I reached the spot where I ate lunch and settled onto the bench. 

Usually, I would sit on the grass, but since it was still winter, it was too cold and I sat at one of the picnic tables nearby instead.

"Mmm, this looks good. Does Hyung always make a lunch box for you?" 

"Yeah, he said it helps him watch my diet or something. He doesn't want me to eat any fast food." I puffed out my cheeks thinking of him.

"This stuff is better anyways." I handed Minwoo a pair of chopsticks.

"Yeah, it is. Oppa, I'll eat it well~" I said to the sky as if he would magically get my message.

Minwoo smiled at me and pinched my cheek.

"Aigoo, my girlfriend is so cute." He cooed.

He held out a piece of kimchi and fed it to me.

I comically chomped on it causing the two of us to laugh.

Nearby, Yoseob was watching the cute little interactions between the couple.

Jealousy flared inside of him and he wished that it was him that was sitting beside _____.

At the same time, he felt stupid for letting her break through his barrier once again, but he felt even stupider because he knew she was and he wasn't doing anything about it.

Kicking a stone in anger (and jealousy), he turned away and forced himself not to watch any longer.

He walked in the opposite direction and put distance between him and them, but still what he saw forever replayed in his mind.

Unconsciously he vowed to do something about it.

After that surprise visit from Minwoo that afternoon, things started to return to normal.

Yoseob seemed to keep a certain distance away and Minwoo was back to being around for most of his free time.

It was much better then it was before though, because at some times Minwoo would leave to hang out with his friends or to practice their dances.

When I pestered him to do his homework, he usually said that he had already done it or he had none.

He had improved a lot ever since I brought him to his friends that day and I was proud of him that he was doing things for himself again.

There were less dates, but other then that everything seemed to be going on normally.

It was Friday again and today after school I would be going to work to hand out flyers for my piano lessons.

So far, my only students were Sungwoong's sister, Eunji, and his mom's friend's son who I would meet today for the first time.

I had to say I was shocked when Yoseob came up to me in his car and offered me a ride to work.

Since I was sort of running late, I accepted it and told him the directions.

"Once you turn down that street, it will be right there." I explained to him.

He nodded and signalled onto the turning lane.

"Also...why did you want to give me a ride to work?" I asked, already predicting that his answer would be silence.

"Because I wanted to." He said as if he did this everyday.

"O...kay." I said as if it were a question. 

Remind me not to ask those sort of things again.

In less then ten minutes, we arrived and Yoseob parked on the street.

I was about to open the door when it suddenly locked on me.

"Wait." 

I blinked at Yoseob as he shoved his hands into his pockets seemingly searching for something.

He pulls out a warm, folded five dollar bill and hands it to me.

I look at him questioningly wondering what the random money was for.

"Last time." He said. "I was supposed to treat you to coffee, but you paid for it. This is your money from last time." 

"Oh. I don't need it, you can keep it. But, uh, thanks for the ride..." I looked at him weirdly and manually unlocked my door.

"Also." Yoseob said again.

I was already half out and I wondered what he wanted again.

"I want to come to work with you." 

"No. Thank you for driving me, but I have things to do." I smoothly rejected him and shut the door.

Yoseob quickly hopped out with me and caught up in seconds. 

"I promise I won't get in the way. I have nothing better to do." He tried.

I sighed, but said nothing so he kept following.

The bell at the top of the door rung and I announced to Omonim who I knew would be here that I had arrived for work.

"_____! It's nice to see you. You can put your stuff down and the flyers are in the back on top of the counter. You should see them, they actually look really nice!" She said cheerfully.

"Annyeonghaseyo, I'm _____'s friend. Is it okay if I watch her work for today?" Yoseob bowed properly as I went to the backroom.

"Of course! It's very nice to meet you. She's been doing such a great job so far. It's wonderful." I heard her praise me.

I smiled and went back out with the flyers.

"Did you see them? Aren't they just beautiful?" Sungwoong's mom took one and admired it.

"Yeah, I really like them." I agreed.

"Our little Sungwoong-ah made them. He did such a great job." 

"Sungwoong made these? All by himself?" I asked. 

"Oh yes, he's such a good son." She fawned over him.

He happened to walk in with his sister just as she said it.

"_____ie Unnie~!" Eunji ran over excitedly and hugged my legs.

"Annyeong, Eunji-ah. How are you today?" I bent down to her height and smiled brightly at her.

"Good!" 

"What was that about me being a good son?" Sungwoong walked in holding onto Eunji's pink backpack and greeted his mother.

"We were just talking about your flyers for _____'s piano lessons. It was so nice for you to make them for her." His umma said.

"Yeah, thank you, Sungwoong. You made them really pretty." I added.

Sungwoong smiled shyly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's nothing. No need to thank me." 

Yoseob was in between somewhere he didn't really fit.

It was fine until that Sunwoong kid walked in.

From the moment he arrived, Yoseob hated him.

A big part of it was because _____ had praised him.

"Who is this?" Sungwoong asked, pointing to Yoseob.

I stood back up to my full height and cleared my throat.

"This is, ahem, Yoseob. He's a year older then I am and we go to the same university." I said as if I hadn't told him that information already.

"Oh." He caught on right away.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Kim Sungwoong, _____ Noona's friend and co-worker. This is my mom and sister, Eunji." 

"Annyeonghaseyo." Yoseob bowed again.

"He insisted on coming to work with me today so yeah, I'll make sure he doesn't get into any trouble." I shot him a glare.

"All right, well, you better get to handing those out while there is still a lot of people out." Omonim said and I nodded.

I went back out to the front and shivered a little at the cold air.

I began to hand out the flyers to the passersby.

Yoseob naturally followed _____ out, wanting to be away to the new guy who he already despised.

He stood a metre away and let her do her job.

At first he watched as people passed by and the cars that drove along the busy street, but his attention soon turned to her and he couldn't help watching.

Even though it was so cold that her breath could be seen, she still kept a smile on her face and spoke to everyone cheerfully even when they declined the piece of paper.

Most people just ignored her and it made Yoseob angry.

Why couldn't accept one little piece of paper?

He seethed quietly to himself for the first half an hour, but now there were only one or two who would acknowledge her among a whole group.

With still half of the stack left, he calculated that it would take her another couple of hours to get rid of it all.

She would be standing out here for a while.

Unable to just stand there and do nothing any longer, Yoseob stormed over to her and snatched the flyers from her hands.

"Hey! What are you doing? I need those!" She exclaimed.

He just took them away without speaking a word and went into the crowd giving them to whoever was there.

He just shoved them into their hands so they were forced to take them.

After repeating: "Please consider this.", "She's really good." and "You won't find a better piano teacher." a few times, he finally gave away them all.

He came out of the crowd with empty hands.

"What did you do to the flyers?" I asked Yoseob when he returned without them.

"I gave them all away already. If I didn't do that just now, you would be standing out here in the cold for another two hours." He answered simply and began to lead me back into the store.

The much warmer air brought the feeling back to my hands.

"Are you saying that you were caring about me?" I smiled wide and taunted him.

"No. I was out there with you if you forgot. I would've froze too." Yoseob rolled his eyes and walked to the counter.

"Tch. I never told you to come with me to work...and you could've just stayed inside..." I muttered under my breath and frowned, but trailed after him.

"Done already?" Sungwoong appeared from the back wiping his hands on his pants.

"Yeah. Your hands are all black. Are you fixing something?" I smiled again and gazed at the black marks.

"There was something wrong with the heater so it might be cold for a while, sorry." He said apologetically.

"It's okay. Just don't break it or else it will always be cold!" I giggled.

"Haha, yeah don't worry about me. You must be cold from being outside. I'll get you a blanket." Sungwoong went off to retrieve it from somewhere.

"Wait, Sungwoong, your hands." I called before he forgot.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'll go wash them first." He smiled embarrassingly and left.

I took a seat behind the counter and rubbed my hands together to warm them up.

Meanwhile, Yoseob sat on the piano bench and watched me.

"What now? Please tell me it's something we don't have to do outside." He said.

"You don't have to follow me around everywhere." I told him. "And I have piano to teach to Eunji, then wait for my other new student. After that...I'm not sure. I might stay to watch the store for a bit before I go home." I was half talking to myself as I organized the rest of my day.

"Another kid? Man, I'm always surround by dongsaengs."

"Not my fault." I snorted.

I checked my phone for any missed calls or texts then stuffed my hands that were still thawing completely into my sleeves.

"What's this key?" Yoseob asked out of the blue.

I looked over to the one he was pointing at.

"That one is E."

"What about this one?"

"F."

"This one?"

"G."

"Then let me guess, the next one is H."

"There isn't an H note."

"Then what is it?"

"An A."

"Does it just go from A to G then?"

"Sure. If you're bored you are free to go home." I was starting to think that he was worse then the kids with his questions.

"How do you play Row Row Row Your Boat?"

I gave him an 'Are You Serious?' look, but got up.

"It's really simple. Very elementary." I flexed my stiff fingers and sat beside him. I played the simple song for him.

"See? It's this key, this key, then that key then these two." I did it again.

"Like this?" He copied the first four notes perfectly.

"Yeah, that's good. Okay then it's this and this..."

"I got your blanke—" Sungwoong was about to walk in on her mini piano lesson, but stopped in his tracks.

He watched the two's interactions and observed all of the little details.

"Psh, this song is to easy for me." Yoseob played the melody perfectly over and over.

"Don't be so cocky. This is something five year-olds learn!" _____ smacked his arm.

"Yah! Your hands are so cold that they could freeze the whole earth." He jumped away.

"Then you should warm them up so that doesn't happen." She put her hand inside of his shirt and placed it on his .

"AISH. WHY ARE YOU SO COLD. PUT THEM ON YOUR BACK AND SEE HOW IT FEELS." Yoseob quickly grabbed both of her wrists and tried to force her to touch her own back.

"Andwae!" She shrieked and tried to fight him off.

Sungwoong smiled at them. 

They were laughing and playing around with each other with grins on their faces.

"Whatever you told me before, Noona, I don't understand. The person you described to me is nothing like the person in front of me right now."

Silently, he stepped back and went elsewhere to give the two some privacy.