Ice: Thaw the Frozen Heart [EDITING]

Chapter 11

The warmth of the sunrays accompanied by the cold autumn breeze softly kissing his skin interrupted his dreamless slumber. His eyes twitched at the light that tried to enter his closed lids. Feeling annoyed, Kris grumbled as he pulled the cover even more to envelope his body. But suddenly a bell rang inside his head reminding him where – or rather with whom - he was sleeping. He abruptly sat up with eyes wide opened as if he just had a nightmare. He then looked to his side and found no one there.

Last night

When he entered the room, Yeojin was already asleep with her back facing the door. Kris slowly sat down on the bed making sure not to wake her up. When he finally lay down, he couldn't sleep at all. The guilt was eating him out and lying beside her didn't help at all. He tossed and turned on the bed and finally decided that it was better to sleep on the couch; however, an arm suddenly wrapped around his waist.

"Dad...," Yeojin mumbled as she snuggled closer to him. Surprised by this, Kris raised his arm a bit. Her forehead was wrinkled as her eyebrows met in the middle. "Please don't leave me, Dad...," she sleep-talked again but this time with a sniff.

"Y-ya...," Kris wasn't sure what to do. "Yeojin...," he poked her shoulder before trying to remove her arm from his waist. But Yeojin only hugged his waist tighter.

After a few failed attempts, Kris gave up.

/"She's just a highschool girl."/

He remembered Grandpa's words.

/" You have been married only for two years, but you've been best friends for all your - okay maybe her - life before the marriage. Are you going to throw that just like that?"/

He sighed and unsurely rested his arm around her body. It just made it harder for him to sleep. He kept on thinking of what Grandpa said to him.

What Grandpa said was right. They were the best of friends. And, he would be lying if he said all the times he spent with her then was not memorable. He began thinking that he indeed had been way too rude and cold towards her after all she had to go through and after all that they had been through together. Yes. Grandpa was right. But there was something he was wrong about. Their marriage wasn't the first reason he distanced himself from her. It was something else. Something that he had been trying to cover with his cold act towards her. Something he believed was not there anymore.

After hearing his and her steady breath for a few minutes, Kris finally fell asleep too.

He heard someone talking outside on the balcony. One of the doors to the balcony was opened allowing the sunrays and breeze that woke him up to pass through. The curtain lightly fluttered as the wind blows from time to time. He finally got off the bed, stood up and walked towards the balcony. He peeked outside and saw Yeojin leaning forward against the rail with her back facing him. She was tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. A phone was pressed to one of her ears. He heard her softly giggled and wondered whom she was talking to.

.

.

"I'm so going to kill her for telling you!" Yeojin growled.

["Hey hey! She was just trying to help cheer you up!"] The person on the other end chuckled.

"By telling you?"

["Well... It worked didn't it? I'm successful in cheering you up, right?]

"Yeah yeah. Whatever." Yeojin rolled her eyes as another chuckle was heard from the other hand.