The crisp sound made from Heather’s steps on the permafrost echoed. As she looked into the distance, she couldn’t see much on the other side of the river. Since Matthias didn’t continue on the conversation, they simply just let it slide.
Rumors had it that he was good at fighting. She was eager to see his prowess in martial arts but she forgot one thing—she was a girl. There was no chance he would ever fight her; even if he did, he wouldn’t be using his full strength.
On the other side, Bradfort City was in chaos. It was so much more peaceful where he and Heather were. The commotion was mainly caused by the constant attacks from Locke Group toward Hart Group that hadn’t ceased, even with Matthias away.
Ever since Locke Group started provoking Hart Group, the two companies could not be in the same city anymore. To make things worse, Tony hadn’t gone easy on the Locke Group.
To be frank, Matthias was still more or less affected by the ongoing tension back in Bradfort as Nikolai would sometimes send some work-related documents to him. After all, a big company like Locke Group needed a leader, especially now when Hart Group was trying so hard to kick them out of the city. Nonetheless, Matthias didn’t regret provoking Tony as the competition between them was inevitable. In fact, Matthias was glad to have a rival!
“People say that those who have witnessed the aurora will be blissful,” Heather said with a smile as she recalled the saying. Since young, she hadn’t had the luxury to enjoy a blissful life. Because of that, she wanted more. She wanted a life so full that everyone would be jealous of her.
As if she hadn’t been tainted by society, her eyes sparkled brightly. Because of that, Matthias tried his best to suppress his urge to pull her into an embrace. “I’ll try my best to give you the blissful life you long for,” he promised.
Heather took a glance at Matthias as she tried to form a response but to no avail. Many have told her similar things, but would he stay true to his words? Not to mention, feelings weren’t forever. They might persist for a year, or two… Perhaps even three or five. And then? Such feelings would slowly fade one day. What mattered most was to cherish the little things in our daily life.
“I always had a thought when I was younger,” she blurted suddenly as she recalled the past.
He kept quiet and listened attentively to what she was about to say, fearing that he might miss a word. She continued, “I want to own a castle and be a princess for my whole life.”
Upon hearing that, he thought that it was cute that she had such thoughts. Hence, a chuckle escaped his lips. Right that instant, Heather glared at him. “Don’t laugh at me.”
It seemed like she had misunderstood, so he quickly explained, “I wasn’t laughing at you. I just think that you are very cute.”
Not only did his explanation not earn him forgiveness from her, the frown on her forehead deepened after she heard what he said. “I don’t like being called cute,” she said from the bottom of her heart. She didn’t like that adjective to the extent that she hated it.
“What I meant was, you were cute when you were young,” he hastily explained. It seemed that anything he said now could be wrong.
“I just told you that I don’t like the word ‘cute’.” Heather gave him a cold gaze, she couldn’t understand why he kept mentioning the word ‘cute’. That was how different the nature of men was from women; even the way they cared as well as their line of thoughts were different.
“Okay,” he said helplessly. Needless to say, Heather was a stubborn person; she just had to get her point across even in trivial things such as this.
Taking a step closer to him, she stared brazenly into his eyes and saw a trace of helplessness. It seemed that he had compromised rather forcefully. However, his eyes changed in a split second. With a gaze, she saw a tender look in his eyes along with a tinge of anxiousness.
“Haven’t you always fought back whenever you don’t agree with me? Why did you surrender this time?” She teased him.
He seemed a little displeased after hearing her mentioning the word ‘surrender’ as it made him sound like he was subservient. Seeing how unhappy he was, she realized she was indeed a little too harsh and rude with him.
“Why won’t you just let me off?” After the fleeting trace of unhappiness, he went back to his normal self again.
“Do you feel bored and aggrieved when you’re with me?” she asked all of a sudden. With her bad temper, it must not be easy for him to stay with her for so long.
“Nevermind, don’t answer that. I don’t want to hear neither the lie nor the truth,” she capriciously added. To be honest, he was dying to roll his eyes at her at that moment.
“You’re so hard to understand.” It was true that he could never predict what stunt she would pull the next second. She wasn’t like the mainstream majority of people; her actions were always unexpected.
Heather didn’t continue the conversation and simply started walking forward without saying a word. Hence, he followed suit. Having gotten used to such antics of hers, he didn’t comment any further.
A hint of warmth lingered in the air. Crouching down by the river, Heather quietly watched the stream of water flow down the river before reaching her hand out. The moment she touched the ice-cold water, her hand trembled a little. Right away, he took her hand and gave it some rubs, hoping that the friction and his own body warmth would get her hand warmed quickly.
“You’re not a kid anymore. Why would you do that?” He chastised her as her actions were inexplicable in his eyes. After coming to Iceland, she had become curious about everything.
Back in Bradfort City, she always seemed uninterested in anything and everything which was quite the contrary from how she was overseas. Here, she acted like an oversized kid who was hyperactive, unlike the usual goddess image she kept up with.
“It’s nothing serious. Why are you so anxious?” She then pulled her hand out of his, thinking that he was fussing too much over something trivial. As her parents hadn’t been so concerned about her, she was touched over the simple gesture of concern from Matthias despite her stubborn way of expressing herself.
At this moment, they seemed to have forgotten about the person who had been tailing them as they simply enjoyed themselves. But the truth is, Matthias had actually gotten his men to tail that person to find out who he was.
Unfortunately, said person was rather good at his job as he still hadn’t been able to find the identity of their tail after several days. Though Heather didn’t bring it up, she knew what he had secretly arranged.
There were many instances where they purposely avoided bringing matters to the table as it would result in an unfavorable situation. Nonetheless, she had Leon help with the investigation of this mysterious person. No matter where she was, back in Bradfort City or overseas, Leon would always lend a helping hand—in this case, to identify the mysterious figure.
“Where do you plan to go tomorrow?” Matthias asked. Though they both stood up, they didn’t have a destination in mind.
“To the west.” She simply gave a vague answer. “My intuition tells me that we’ll see the aurora if we head toward the west,” she explained.
After brief contemplation, he nodded before saying, “We’ll do that then.” Since Iceland wasn’t a big country, there wasn’t much pressure on planning the itinerary.
With that, they went ahead trailing along the riverside without a specific destination. Once in a while, she would look into the distance. The river might not seem long, but it felt like they had walked a long distance. Throughout the journey, she rested several times. While they were still walking the endless trail, snow suddenly began to shower upon them. Perhaps God had heard her wishes.
Without a sign, snowflakes started landing on their bodies and the crowns of their heads. At once, her eyes lit up like it was Christmas; he too was also surprised. What a weird place.
It felt great to experience the weather in another country. As they continued to walk in the direction where the snow was falling from, snowflakes continued to fall on her face while the wind was blowing. To be frank, they were a little unprepared for the sudden drop in temperature.
By the time they got back to the hotel, they were covered in patches of snow. Seeing that she had the intention of changing her outfit, he suggested, “Just take a shower!” He thought that a hot shower would be better since she got cold when they were outside.
However, she didn’t listen to his words. Putting on a fresh set of clothes, she told Matthias who was outside, “You’re the one who should be taking a hot shower.”
She recalled how he only wore thin layers when they were outside, so he must be the one who was feeling cold right now. In fact, she was rather thoughtful of him this time. They were like a couple who were very used to each other as they did these day-to-day things. Even they themselves were surprised as to how harmonious they were; they didn’t even have to tread carefully and walk on eggshells as they let things happen naturally.
Meanwhile, he simply did as she said as there wasn’t any reason in dilly-dallying. After all, he was indeed cold. Back when they were outdoors, he was worried that she’d be cold as she didn’t dress in thick layers as she prioritized having on a pretty outfit more, so he had given her his coat while he endured the harsh weather.
After the shower, he put on his pajamas and came out of the bathroom. One thing he had to admit was that she had given her utmost cooperation during this trip. This was because she would definitely refuse to live with someone else based on her personality. In fact, she usually wouldn’t even live with her sisters or female relatives, much less with Matthias. For instance, she couldn’t accept sharing a bathroom with someone else, yet now she had complied by toning down her obsessive concern with cleanliness.
It was surprisingly odd that she wasn’t so bothered by him. Even if Leon was the one in Matthias’ place, Heather would feel uncomfortable with that. However, she was actually fine co-living with Matthias. She simply didn’t feel that it was weird to do things that she usually wouldn’t do with men. In the experience of living with him thus far, she had to admit that it was a good decision to be with him.
As someone who didn’t fancy any intimate interaction with other people no matter the gender, she could not understand why she didn’t feel the same when it came to Matthias. In fact, she had been trying to figure this out for quite some time now.
Being together with him felt very comfortable as she could be in her own skin as if she was alone. Moreover, he had made it a thing to give her sufficient space to herself. Despite living together, he typically wouldn’t bother her much. Having crossed the line on the first night, he now strictly abided by the boundaries he had set to not do anything that would annoy her.
“Matthias, why did you buy a pair of matching couples’ pajamas?” As her gaze bounced from his outfit to her own, she voiced out her question as she didn’t notice it earlier. Matthias was so sneaky!
“It feels more homey this way.” That successfully earned him an eye roll from her. Now that he said it out, no wonder he insisted on staying in an apartment instead of a typical hotel.
“Are you secretly planning something?” A suspicion brewed in her mind. Lately, his actions had been giving her an unexplainable feeling that clouded her vision.
