Chapter 12

ICE: Thaw the Frozen Heart [EDITING]

Chapter 12

 

Sehun felt like a burden was finally lifted off his chest and he now could breathe freely when he finally entered the car.

“He definitely has something up his sleeves,” Sehun commented as soon as his father entered the car and sat beside him. “I don’t like him,” he stated coldly. His gaze was sharp as he eyed a man outside, about his father’s age, who was entering his own car. Especially when he kept on asking whether I have a girlfriend or not. Why does that matter? Sehun hated the business world. It’s full of masked and nosy people. “And where is Hyung?” Sehun turned to his father.

“I don’t like the man either,” his father replied shortly and silently nodded to his chauffer signaling him to drive away. The chauffer obeyed and the car left the building that hid acres of vast green pasture behind it. “And your hyung is meeting his girlfriend’s family. Remember?”

Sehun lightly scoffed. One more reason why he hated coming with his father to meet a man he didn’t know was because while he had to endure the boring conversations, his brother could just easily dodge the invitation. Again. “So why did you agree on meeting that guy? Golf isn’t even really your thing, Dad.”

“Yes, it wasn’t for golf.” His father chuckled a bit. “You heard it from the man himself who he is now – which honestly surprised me when he mentioned it over the phone. So as much as I don’t like him, it may open doors for us to work with Titan Wu in the future.”

“Why does everyone think of Titan Wu so highly,” Sehun mumbled as he rolled his eyes and heaved out a sigh.

“Because they are powerful,” his father stated as-a-matter-of-fact-ly.

“Everyone has a flaw though,” Sehun retorted and looked out the window again. “Everyone does…,” he said over a whisper. “Even the chairman of Titan Wu,” he whispered to himself. Everyone has a flaw. A secret. And I might just undermine his soon.

 


“Ya! Lin!” Yeojin banged the door with her fist. “Wu Lin!” She banged the door harder now with both fists. “Mom! Grandpa! Anyone!” She gritted her teeth still banging on the door. “This is not funny!”

“It’s useless,” Kris finally opened his mouth. Yeojin whipped her head at the man standing behind her and glared at him.

“You’re a guy. You can break this door down if you would just help me here.”

“They want us to talk. And they’re not opening the door until we do.” Yeojin’s brow knitted in the middle. “And I’m not a Hulk,” he added.

Yeojin scoffed to the side before turning around to fully face him. “Did you know about this?” She asked crossing her arms. Kris didn’t answer and only looked at her with an almost soft gaze. “So you knew,” Yeojin lightly scoffed again as she uncrossed her arms and walked away from the door. Again, Kris felt somehow uneasy at this attitude she had been giving him.

Yeojin’s silent treatment for him had continued for three days now. Kris’ mother thought he deserved it, and in all honesty, Kris himself thought he did too. But after they finished their Chuseok traditional celebration yesterday, the family members think that it wasn’t healthy for them to stay silent. Even Jinho felt slightly awkward with the atmosphere hung over the two. They needed to talk. They needed to sort their feelings out. It would be understandable if Yeojin still hated him afterwards, but they had to talk first. And Lin came up with a ‘brilliant’ plan of locking the two in the storage room.

“Well… I don’t have anything to talk with you.” She sat herself down on the floor and leaned her back on the wall. “And they couldn’t possibly know whether we talked or not, so just wake me up when they opened the door.” Yeojin closed her eyes.

Kris sighed and walked to where she was sitting down stopping in front of her. “I didn’t know, okay? Well I did have a hunch of it when Mom told me to accompany you here – I mean… why would a sack of flour be here?” He paused and his shoulders slumped. “The family’s right. We need to talk. I’m really sorry of what I said to you the other day. I’m sorry for venting my frustration out on you. I’m sorry for saying things I shouldn’t.”

“You’ve said that already. You don’t have to repeat yourself,” Yeojin replied calmly still closing her eyes.

“Yeojin,” he called her over a sigh. The way he called her by her name felt strange to her ears. “You can’t ignore me forever.”

Yeojin groaned while slowly opening her eyes. She tilted her head up looking at the towering figure standing in front of her. “Why can’t I? Because you’re my husband?” There it is again. The unfamiliar coldness that made Kris speechless and uneasy. “Isn’t that how you’ve been treating me?” Now her words were dripping with hurt too. She stood up and looked at him in the eyes. “You want us to talk?” Her heart clenched at her own words. “Let me tell you this then. I don’t know what to do with you anymore! I don’t know how long I’m going to put up with your cold attitude! You’ve been treating me like I’m invisible, Kris! You treated me like I am a stranger. You treated me as if we were never friends-”

“Okay, stop!” Kris shut his eyes and put out a hand. He opened his eyes and found himself looking at her moist eyes while she was taking a deep breath trying to hold in the tears. “I get it! Okay? Your silence treatment spoke so loud to me that guilt is eating me out!”

“Good for you then!” Yeojin pursed her lips afterwards and didn’t say another word.

They stood there staring into each other’s eyes in silence. Two pairs of eyes pierced through one another as if looking for an answer. Two pairs of eyes that used to turn into crescents for one another. Two pairs of eyes that used to be familiar with the persons reflected on their dark orbs. Two pairs of eyes looking for an answer to the question that had been lingering in the minds of their owners. Where did we go wrong?

 


“Are you sure they’ll be okay in there?” Mrs. Wu asked worriedly when Lin came back from locking up Kris and Yeojin.

“Oh please, Mom! You worry to much.” Lin rolled her eyes while tucking the key of the storage room inside the pocket of her pants.

“Don’t worry, Jieun-ah,” Grandpa patted Mrs. Wu’s shoulder. “This is what they need. Even Yeonhee isn’t worried about it,” Grandpa pointed at Yeojin’s mom sitting on the couch with Jinho who was giving her a smile.

“I won’t forgive Kris hyung if he make Noona cry again.” Jinho pouted crossing his arms.

“Awwh,” Lin ruffled his hair as she plopped down beside him.

 

 

 

“Our dads were surely the best of friends,” Yeojin commented while closing the album. Apparently, it was hard for her to keep on ignoring Kris. It was easy before because she got the family to distract herself from him. But now that he was the only person in the room with her, it was a whole different story.

The atmosphere was getting awkward after they stared at each other. They fell silent for quite a long time even after they broke their eye contact. They sat down on the floor at different corners of the small room. After drowning themselves in their own thoughts for a while, Yeojin felt bored. So she raked through the boxes piled up beside a wooden rack. She found a box full of photo albums.

She took another album out of the box and started to open it. Her eyes widened at the first picture she landed her eyes on before she suddenly giggled. That apparently got Kris’ attention. He lifted his head and then his eyebrow at her.

“What?” He asked curiously.

“Nice !” She grinned and pointed to a picture of a baby boy lying on his stomach. Kris’ eyes were widened in surprise and his cheeks suddenly felt hot. “Oh look! You look really cute with all the bubbles covering you!” Yeojin pointed at another photo.

“Hey!” Kris quickly stood up and snatched away the album. “Enough.”

“Fine,” Yeojin waved a hand and shrugged.

Yeojin rummaged through another box and found a wooden box with scribbles on it that said: Kris’. Keep your hands off. Yeojin stooped and took the box while glancing at the owner of the box from the corners of her eyes. Kris was putting the album on top of the wooden rack so she couldn’t take it back. Yeojin silently and carefully opened the box. A lot off stuff was in it. The things in the box ranged from toys, to dead leaves, to crumpled papers, to some music albums and a few scattered photos. An overturned photo caught her eyes. She took it curiously.

At the back of the photo, right on the corner was a writing.

W.YF – L.AR And right below it was another writing.

January 28, 2011 ended with a heart symbol.

“What’s that?” Kris turned to her again. He suddenly felt like his heart stopped beating for a second when he saw the box and the photo she was holding.

Yeojin was about to look at the front side of the photo when his hand snatched it away along with the box.

“Didn’t you read the words on the lid?” Kris confronted her, but he tried his best not to sound too angry.

Yeojin was just blinking at him and her lips parted a bit. Her mind went blank for a moment and she felt like her tongue was numb, as she couldn’t utter a single word. Kris clicked his tongue and placed his wooden box inside the cardboard box where it was before.

“You…,” her voice came out croaked and she gulped to clear her suddenly-dry throat, “you had a g-girlfriend?”

Kris squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning around to face her. “Let’s not talk about this…”

Yeojin lowered her gaze and bit down her lip. “W-w-was it before we…,” she trailed off. She felt her heart and lungs were lightly squeezed. “W-why didn’t you tell your dad?” Her gaze went back to him. “Why didn’t you at least tell me?”

Kris closed his eyes as a sigh came over his lips. “I did tell you not to agree on our arranged marriage,” he reminded her, but he didn’t sound like he was blaming her.

“You could’ve just told me you had a girlfriend, Kris! I wouldn’t agree to it if you told me. And your dad wanted an answer as soon as possible so I-”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he cuts while opening his eyes. “She wasn’t going to be my wife even if I told you or the family anynway.” Kris lowered his head and mumbled to himself, “She didn’t want to.”

They fell silent yet again.

Did he get so frustrated a few days ago because something happened betwee? And was that why – of course it was! Stupid! So it really was my fault from the start.

“Was…that why you started being cold towards me?” Yeojin broke the silence, but she didn’t have the guts to look at him in the eyes. “Because I technically tore you both apart?”

“Look…,” Kris stepped closer to her and she instinctively lifted her eyes to him, “I really don’t want to talk about this. Right now, the last thing I want is for me to go all mad at you again and for you to feel guilty. So let’s just drop the topic, shall we?” Kris walked pass her and sat on the floor leaning back on the wall once again.

Yeojin soon followed and sat down beside him bending her legs and hugging them close to her body.

“Sorry,” she mumbled before biting down her lip.

Kris clicked his tongue at her apology. “I told you the last thing I want right now is for you to feel guilty. Because that will only make me feel even guiltier than I already do.” Yeojin pouted a bit and rested her chin on her knees.

But it’s my fault. He was right all along. I was the one ruining our friendship. I should’ve known that he has a girlfriend. If only I was a better friend, I could’ve caught that he was in love even without him mentioning it. If only…

She couldn’t help but to blame herself.

“It’s not your fault,” Kris suddenly said as if he could read her mind. It surprised Yeojin and she lifted her chin away from her knees and turned to look at the person beside her who was looking down. “I still don’t like you being my wife, but whatever happened between me and her was not your fault,” he added.

What Grandpa said the other day had really slapped some senses into him. He then lifted his head and turned to look at her. He held her eyes with his gaze that showed he was serious about what he was going to say. “I’m sorry for treating you coldly all these years.”

That took Yeojin aback and her tensed body visibly relaxed as she slowly nodded to his statement.

“So..,” he cleared his throat, “we’re good now?” He asked a little expectantly.

Yeojin looked away and pursed her lips. “I…guess so…,” she answered over a whisper.

The corners of Kris’ lips quirked upward a bit. He felt like thousand gallons of water was poured into him washing away all the guilt and burdens in his heart.

“Good,” he nodded to himself.

Through the only vent in that small room, the autumn wind blew into the room as if agreeing on a new fresh relationship that was starting again. Yeojin shivered a bit and hugged herself tighter. She was of course wearing long sleeves, but she didn’t wear any jacket and neither did Kris since none of the two planned on getting locked up.

GRRRRLL

Her stomach rumbled and she immediately hugged it feeling her cheeks blushed embarrassed. Kris tried hard to stifle his chuckle.

“Aish!” Yeojin grumbled clicking her tongue trying to hide her reddened cheeks. “Aren’t they going to let us out? Are they planning to starve us or something?”

“I know right,” Kris let out a breathy chuckle. Yeojin blinked surprised, but soon let out a small chuckle too.

Through the vent, they both could see the sky was slowly turning orange. They had been locked up since after lunch, and they had not eaten nor drunken anything for the past few hours. What made it worse was that the storage room was in fact a small building of itself detached from the house. It took them two minutes to walk there. Now that Yeojin thought about it, she should’ve suspected something fishy when Mother told her to get a sack of flour to bake. But she was too clouded with anger then that she wasn’t even suspicious.

“So…,” Kris cleared his throat, “you and that blonde guy…,” Kris trailed off.

“Who? Sehun?” Yeojin raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Him. You’re really dating now?”

Yeojin chuckled at how hesitant he was asking that, before she shook her head. “Nope.” Kris straightened his back at that. “I mean… Yes, but not for real.” Kris raised his eyebrow at her. “It’s a long story. Well to make it short, he was asking me to be his girlfriend as a proof that I’m not your wife.”

“What?” Kris’ eyes widened so much it almost seemed like they’re going to pop out of their sockets soon. “How did he even come to that suspicion?”

“Remember the day I lost the wedding ring?” She asked and Kris nodded. “Well… luck wasn’t on my side. He found it and he recognized the dragon symbol of your family. He said he also heard rumors of you having a wife – which I’m still curious where he heard it from – but yeah… That leads to this messed up situation I have with him,” she shrugged.

“This is because you’re so clumsy!” Kris suddenly pushed her forehead and Yeojin’s jaw dropped in surprise. Not really because of the suddenness of his action, but because of the action itself. It somehow felt familiar. She pouted and rubbed her forehead. Kris chuckled a bit before a memory crossed his mind. “But then again…,” he started, “It wasn’t the first time you lose something important.” His tone dropped a bit and he almost sounded regretful.

“What do you mean?” She asked knitting her brows in the middle.

“You lost the necklace I gave you as a birthday present remember?”

Yeojin pursed her lips and lowered her gaze. She immediately closed her eyes when flashes of the memory she wished she forgot appeared again.

Kris noticed the sudden change in her. She looked uneasy squeezing her eyes and hugging herself tighter, her forehead wrinkled.

“A-are you okay?” Kris asked alarmed. He was unsure whether to put an arm around her or not, but finally decided to do so and shook her a bit with his other hand.

The wrinkles on her forehead eased as she took and let out a deep breath. She then slowly nodded and opened her eyes. When she looked to her side, the close distance between their faces surprised her. Her eyes rounded a bit, but Kris didn’t seem to be budged.

“Are you sure?” He asked again and she silently nodded pursing her lips.

It had been long since she looked at him this close. She knew he always looks good. But this Kris with the bang of his hair being let down instead of spiked up, and this Kris with somewhat gentle gaze felt familiar. Not distant. The Kris she was looking at now was Yifan.

CLICK

“I really hope you guys have talked it out, it’s getting boring – Oh!” Lin unlocked the door and strolled in casually, but then stopped when she saw the state the pair was in. “Sorry! I guess I should’ve locked you guys a bit longer.” She slowly walked backward grinning apologetically and planning to close the door again.

“Ya! You!” Yeojin scrambled to her feet and walked towards her sister-in-law with long strides. She pulled Lin’s ear afterwards and put a hand on her own hip.

“Ah ah ah! Eonni!” Lin slapped Yeojin’s hand and pouted rubbing her ear.

“You were the mastermind weren’t you?” Yeojin put an arm around her neck pulling her into a headlock.

Kris stood up with a breathy chuckle while the voice of Yeojin scolding Lin continued and became distant as she herded Lin away still in a headlock. He looked back at the cardboard box in which he placed his wooden box wiping away the small smile on his face. He then sighed and walked away.

Though he felt like the burden he initially had had been lifted off his chest, he couldn’t washed away the pang in his heart.

He knew that it was time for him to forget Areum. It was time for him to move on. But forgetting a strong feeling he had for her was not easy. It was she, after all, that made him forgot the similar pain caused by another girl before. But maybe, this time that very girl would be the one to help him forget about Areum. Maybe.

 


Hey. everyone! ^^

Does the last part confused you a bit? Yes? No? Haha

Sorry for not updating a lot. I'm now working, so it's a bit hard to juggle work and this hobby of wriitng of mine. Anyway, thanks for still reading, and hello to new subscribers!

By the way, I know I've been putting you all in a roller coaster ride with Kris' character, but please bear with me haha

Oh! And for those of you waiting for more Sehun and more Sehun-Yeojin moments, there'll be A LOT in the near future! So stay tuned ^^

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190506 ICE: Chapter 72 updated!

Comments

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krisxoxo23
#1
Chapter 82: Missed the story, been few years already, hoping there'll be an update 😭😭😭
Emily345 #2
Chapter 82: Ohh how I miss this story... ?
Will you be updating again ??
2407briana #3
Chapter 82: Whoa whoa whoa I was not prepared for that
mznary #4
Chapter 82: WHAT?!! NOOOO NOO! Yifannnnn!!
miyoonji #5
Chapter 82: So, who is Yeojin going to choose?
tutialawiyah #6
Chapter 82: I was thinking Kris want to step down from his position to protect Yeojin. But what now? Is he seriously wanna give up on everything?? Cmon, atleast you should have one whether it's yeojin or your company T.T
gogogirl26 #7
Chapter 82: Aishhhh.. kris :(
chichiba #8
Chapter 82: Kris is ready to let Yeojin go... im sad?
chonanay
#9
Chapter 82: :'((
Shinhye-ssi
#10
Chapter 82: Are they breaking up?