Toxic Innocence

THIRTY

Chris raises his hand in mock surrender as Ji-hyun used a towel to cleanse the hydration. Pulling on a grey hoodie she zipped it well spotting Chris as he momentarily gazed at her cleavage.

All mens are same.

True.

"I am sorry for leaving you like that. I know he is your brother- but he still is my responsibility. I had to go find him alone and wasn't thinking of if I should have asked you too" Ji-hyun listens- rather calmly than intently.

She was an independent woman. But prior to that she had been a girl who had faced calamities and hurdles alone, raising herself to be a person she is today. She hadn't reacted to the spur of moment when Chris had told her that he didn't know where U was as of then.

She had been practical about the happenings, dealing with it with her intelligence unlike Chris who had left her in a new country with nothing but the useless information of whereabouts.

She had lost her patience at the recklessness of the man more than the disappearance of U.

Chris had found them later in a camp.

Good.

He had texted her and went MIA with U for the days to come.

Mistake.

Her only way to contact him was to wait in his mansion with his younger brother who seem to have severe problem of not being able to wear a shirt and not being able to stop frowning.

"Do you see me complaining Doctor?" Chris could write a document on what she could throw tantrums in regards to. It was written on her face in multiple languages.

"I mean you can complain if you want to" Chris decided to let her screw him, with words. It was early morning and he was ready for this as he had meditated alone in a hotel room last night to cope up with his life in general.

Ji-hyun probed her hands by her waist and arced a sassy brow at him. It was an exchange similar to Althea and U's except for the gender reversal.

"I have lived a longer life than you. I have delt with people more coward than you. I think I have pretty much got this part covered"

This was major blow to Chris's alter ego as he soundlessly gawked.

"Literal age doesn't define a person's maturity" he debates.

Ji-Hyun had never learned to surrender to any agreement unless it was on her orientation. She shook her head with a smirk and walked out with Chris storming out with her- following her to the kitchen where she took a seat on bar stool and peeled an orange for herself.

"What's with that smug look huh?" He tugs at her shoulder but drops his hold when Ji-Hyun narrowed her eyes at him.

She then folds her hands by her chest and looks up.

"Tell me you did not had your bags packed and loaded by the trunk of your car to flee the country with your fake passport if it backfires?"

For that Chris had the response of a virtually flushed cheek.

"I do-don't have a fake passport" he finally spills as Ji-Hyun compressedly tries to maintain the stature as she held in the smile.

Chris could feel her judging his every move and he wanted to be anywhere but near her. So he took the exit out as he strides to his room.

His room wasn't in the same condition as he had left as it harbored a still shirtless Chadler. On his bed he sat causally with the heel of his palms holding his weight. And all Chris could say was-

"Is that a new tattoo on your arm?"

It was. And it was something Chris was against since the very beginning. But right then wasn't the time to discuss the matter involving inked skin. Chadler was gladly sensible enough to point that out.

"I think you mean to ask what my excuse of a brother had been up to?"

Chris burped the aroma of his breakfast and morning coffee with a hand to his plane chest. To make his appearance churn in nonchalance Chris soundlessly thought the why's? to it.

Althea had told him that she was friends with chadler and in pretty much the who city chadler somehow was friends with Althea Davies. But why? She wasn't like his other friends and as Althea had introduced U as her boyfriend. Chris could only line up the lie with a sprinkle more of it.

"I know what you are thinking. It's about Miss Davies and how I know her and why she acted in such a way" he breathed heftily, now as a professional liar he weaved in "Althea Davies had crashed her car with a fellow citizen. But she didn't know that the driver of the car she crashed with was of my friend U. He had been hopelessly in love with her since the moment he saw her. As Althea and U had to meet again for the insurance related issue- I played the role of a fake lawyer. Later I was her wingman too as we soon became friends but somehow kept my friendship with U still a secret to her. She took wrong notion of it that night and caused a scene. It's all fine now. They are back together"

Chadler heard him.

And when it ended he wasn't quite clear of what he heard.

Neither were the readers of this book who may read the former paragraph twice or more to make a picture of it.

Yes Chadlers questions were answered with genuine lies. It made sense and yet it didn't. Chris smiled but when Chadler stiffly got up and asked him something- there was an itch of missing puzzle that demanded Chris to notice it.

"So- Althea and U are back together?"

Slowly the more Chris inspected the lines of concern on Chadlers face the more his smile faltered to dead. He doesn't need to enquire for it was obvious, but he did it anyway.

"Wait.....The girl you've been talking about. Is that...is she...-oh Shit"