Chapter 61

ICE: Thaw the Frozen Heart [EDITING]

Chapter 61

 

Their date started with having pancakes for lunch and turned into a driving lesson for Yeojin afterwards. After almost running the car into a pole twice, Kris decided that it was enough lesson for the day and suggested playing arcade games instead.

Having publicly exposed their status had not been making their life easier. Yeojin had told him how some of her schoolmates had become boot ers for her. As for Kris himself, he had heard few of his employees whispered about how his marriage was an underage marriage and how he was too young to be leading the company. However, there were some perks with people knowing the truth now. For one, he could enjoy having a date with Yeojin like this without having to look behind his back for stalkers.

They didn't have to hide anymore. Neither do their feelings.

"You just need a little more practice." Kris commented regarding the driving lesson and nudged her who sat beside him on the stairs overlooking the Han river while eating their burgers. The setting reminded him of their date on his birthday.

"Yeah, but you'll be busy again next week." Yeojin pouted a little.

Kris snorted and tousled her hair. "You're such a kid when you pout like that! I can teach you on weekend."

"Fine!" Yeojin looked away and couldn't help but to smile prompting Kris to smile along.

 

Zipping up his winter jacket, Kris wiped the remaining sweat on his forehead after playing a short game of basketball with a bunch of guys at the park's basketball field. "You're that happy?" Kris quirked a brow, glancing down at Yeojin who was walking beside him. It looked impossible to erase the smile on her face and it made him proud.

Yeojin nodded while briefly glancing up at him, and warmth instantly seeped into him.

"I'm glad then," he proudly declared as he took her hand and intertwined their fingers.

Looking unaffected by the gesture, Yeojin nudged his arm with her shoulder. "You look cool back there by the way. It's been long since the last time I saw you play basketball."

Kris laughed. "Looks like someone just got under my spell." He smirked and she rolled her eyes.

The winter breeze blew by and Yeojin shuffled closer to him while pulling on her beanie to cover her ears. "Would you have become a basketball player if we never got married?" She carefully asked.

He sighed before he answered, "Dad would totally be against that whether we're married or not."

"So you did want to become a basketball player then?" She sounded both surprised and hesitant asking it.

"Nah!" Kris shook his head then looked up at the sky turning dark. "I wanted to be a designer."

Yeojin snorted at that and Kris' head immediately snapped toward her with a raised brow. "You're bad at drawing, Kris! Like bad, don't-even-try-drawing-again bad!" She laughed.

"Ha-ha," Kris deadpanned with a roll of his eyes. "How supportive!" He sarcastically complimented her then lightly knocked her head with a fist of his free hand. "I admit I'm not good at drawing living things—"

"You're good at drawing corpse then?" Yeojin quipped earning a suffocating headlock from him.

"Why, you little—!" He playfully pressed his knuckled on top of her head. He released the laughing girl and proceeded to intertwining their hands again. "What I'm trying to say is I wanted to become a jewelry designer back then. I'm pretty good at drawing inanimate objects, you know?" Yeojin involuntarily let out a soft scoff to the side. "What, you don't believe me?" His eyes rounded looking offended.

"As far as I remember, your drawings were all egg-shaped."

"Ha!" Kris tilted his head back in mild annoyance. "I'm seriously good at drawing still life, I tell you! You can ask Areum if you don't believe me!" Kris immediately stopped himself when he realized what he had uttered.

He noticed Yeojin looking away and how her lips were pursed into a tight smile.

Kris cleared his throat. "I-I'm sorry. What I meant is—"

"It's okay." Yeojin stopped walking and gave his hand a squeeze. She looked up at him with a smile and said, "I'm glad someone at least know your passion when we weren't really on speaking terms. I thought you had always wanted to become a chairman like your dad. You used to gushed over him when we were kids. That's why I thought I was doing both your dad and you a favor by agreeing to marry you." She then sighed and lowered her gaze again. "Guess I was wrong."

"Hey." Kris tilted her chin up so he could look into her eyes. "Let's not ruin today's mood." He offered her a smile. "I like how today's been going. Doing all those stuffs with you."

He never thought he would feel so accomplished just by seeing her cheeks faintly blushing as she averted her gaze and tried to hide her smile, but he did.

"There's one thing I've been wanting to do with you that we haven't done though?"

Yeojin raised her brow. "And that is?"

"What we used to do back in the days. Running race!"

Bemused, Yeojin chuckled. "What?"

"Last one to the car have to do all the chores for one week! Two, one, go!" He declared before quickly dashing away.

"What—Hey!" Yeojin was still trying to process what he said when she realized he was stealing a start. "That's not fair!" She hollered while running after him.

Kris chuckled when he heard Yeojin's complaints behind him. With his long legs, he thought she wouldn't caught up. He had completely forgotten those gold medals she won for track & field until he felt her weight on his back. Somehow she had managed to climb up his back and cling onto him.

"You cheater!" Yeojin half-choked him by wrapping her arms quite tightly around his neck.

Kris coughed-laughed while trying to pry her arms off. "Ya! You're choking me. Hey, hey! Get down."

Yeojin finally slid down from his back, but she then grabbed his ear pulling him down. "Cheater!" She giggled while Kris yelped.

"Ya, ya! Let go!" Yeojin complied and Kris hissed rubbing his ear and his neck. "Savage!"

"What did you say?" He cowered at her threat to hit him. Much to her amusement, he realized. 

Her smirk faded when her phone rang. Fishing out the phone from her pocket, she momentarily froze reading the name flashing on her phone. Kris had a glimpse of the name too.

Ice Block 2

"Just pick it up." He ruffled her hair and smiled. "I'll go wait in the car, 'kay?"

Yeojin nodded; and when he walked away, he heard her mutter a greeting. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed a corner of her lips curling up as she talked to the phone. He couldn't deny that he was a little jealous, but he pushed away the feeling and reminded himself of his conversation with Sehun.

When she was done with the call and joined him in the car, she told him Sehun was offering to work on their final papers together on Monday. If it weren't for the current circumstances, Kris would be against it and would offer himself to help her. However, knowing how he himself would be busy with work, he gave his permission.

"It won't be just the two of us, I promise!" Yeojin quickly added. "I'll have Sunhee tag along. And we'll be doing it in the library where most of my other classmates will most likely be working on their papers in."

Kris chuckled. "Relax!" He patted her head. "I trust you."


Trust is one thing, but jealousy is another thing. Just because he trusted Yeojin didn't mean jealousy was absent. In fact, it was very much present inside him. It was like a poison spreading in his mind. Kris hoped Yeojin can sort out her feelings by being friends with Sehun. He hoped that way, there wouldn't be room left for thoughts of what-ifs. He hoped in the end she would still choose him.

Yet this toxic jealousy gave way to doubts.

Feigning a smile got harder with each passing day of her coming home with the biggest smile after spending time with Sehun. Yeojin always had a story to tell about Sehun, Sunhee, or Lin whenever she came home. But her stories were mostly about Sehun. He had to remind himself to be the bigger person and be more mature in viewing this. 

At least Sehun didn't seem to have made any move on her beyond friendship, he assured himself. 

"You're still up?" Kris asked one night when he just arrived home and spotted Yeojin in the living room hunched over her laptop at this late hour.

"Yeah. Finishing the paper," she answered without looking up. "Tomorrow's the submission day, and we'll have the thesis defense thing on Friday." She briefly glanced up to smile at him. "How's your day?"

"Nothing new." Kris took off his jacket.

"What about that project you told me?"

"We're working on it," he replied and was reminded of Luhan. He made a mental note to text Areum later about whether she had told Luhan about everything. He hoped she already did.

"Oh by the way—" Yeojin exclaimed stopping him in his steps to the bedroom—"I think I'm starting to get the hang of driving. You'll be proud!" 

Her grin was wide and she beamed that it somehow made him feel uneasy. His hunch made him think of Sehun for some reason.

"Sehun taught me a bit."

Damn that guy! "He what?" Kris could not restrain sounding disapproving. He could feel his own face muscles contorting to a slight frown. Yeojin didn't seem to notice the tension, though, as she focused back on her laptop.

"He taught me driving," she nonchalantly replied; eyes on the screen and fingers rapidly typing. "Just for a while." Kris folded his arms in front of his chest as she continued, "We get to finish some parts of the paper earlier than we planned, so I asked him to teach me a bit before dropping me off here." The clicking sound of the keyboard suddenly stopped.

Kris watched her face morphed into a look of horror. Confused by her sudden pause, he just quirked an eyebrow.

Her head snapped up. "I'm sorry! I swear it was just for a while. We-we're just friends! You're not jealous, are you?"

Despite the toxic feeling gnawing his heart, with gaze averted elsewhere, he softly answered, "No."

Yeojin let out a sigh of relief. "I just wanted to make you proud." She forced a grin looking like a child apologizing to her dad for eating the candies she shouldn't be eating at midnight. "You're really not jealous, right?" 

Heaving a breath, Kris made his way to sit beside her. He grabbed her hand and lowered his gaze to her hand in his. "You don't have to walk on eggshells around me, Jin. You're a grownup. Do what you want." When he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, she was already staring at him. "I trust you know what should and should not be done."

A look between a grimace and a grin was donned on her face causing a frown on his. "What's wrong?" She only rubbed her nape and bit down her lip in reply, so Kris repeated, "Jin, what's wrong?"

"Can I—" she sighed—"Is it okay—" Eyes squeezed shut and shoulders hunched, she rapidly continued, "Is it okay if I go watch a movie with Sehun tomorrow?"

It was as if something hard just knocked him out. For a moment, he couldn't really think. Kris opened and closed his mouth while Yeojin opened one eye to peep at him.

"What?" His question came out louder than he intended.

"Okay don't misunderstand. Hear me out." She shifted her body to face him. "So I've been wanting to watch Hobbit since it came out last month. But because of the sudden public announcement of our marriage and our vacation to China, I never got to watch it. And tomorrow I don't have any class at all. I just need to submit the paper and us seniors are free to go. So when Sehun brought up Hobbit, I thought why not and asked Sunhee, Jongdae, and Lin to come along with us, but Lin said she had two last exams and had to study, and Mother won't let her,; and Sunhee said she already had a planned date with Jongdae—and you remember what I told you about their situation, right? So it came down to just the two of us. But I swear I want to go not because of Sehun, but because it's Hobbit. Plus, I know you don't like that type of movie and even if you want to watch it with me, you're busy, so I have to wait for the weekend and I don't know if they will still be showing the movie by then. And it will take a long time to wait for the dvd version so—"

Kris grabbed her shoulders to stop her. "Yeojin, breathe!" When the girl followed his instruction and took a deep breath, he let go of her shoulder. "So you're watching with just Sehun?" He couldn't help but to frown.

"Yes?" She answered with uncertainty.

Kris groaned, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It's not going to be a date. Just a... hangout?" A hand touched his arm. "Are you mad?" He heard her ask with caution.

He finally looked at her with a tight smile and patted her hand. "Just do what you want," he told her the same thing he did before, but not as gentle as before. Then, he stood up from the couch and strode for the bedroom.

"You're mad, aren't you?" Her voice somehow sounded chirpier—a little more playful and amused—than before.

"No," he replied without turning around.

"Are you jealous?"

For some reason she sounded like she was taunting him.

He held back another groan and didn't stop walking. "No, I'm going to bed." He closed the bedroom door behind him and sighed.

"Are you made of gelatin?" came her holler from outside. He swore he heard muffled chuckles too. "Because I think you're jelly!"

She's definitely taunting him!

The movie date—or hangout as Yeojin would call it—couldn't be a joke though, he frustratedly thought.

Sehun was just too smooth in doing this.

Damn you, Sehun!

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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?