Early in the morning, Matthias and Heather started traveling. A journey to the west was what she had decided for them. It had been snowing nonstop throughout the night. Hence, she could only see a huge pile of snow when she looked out the window.
As it just stopped snowing in the morning, they were set to head out. After hours of snow, the weather was rather cold so she had covered herself in a thick fleece jacket. Initially, she refused to as she wasn’t a fan of fleece jackets. However, he persistently insisted that she should wear it out. Thinking that he might have to take off his jacket for her again, she complied.
With the fleece jacket on, she looked young and adorable. As someone who was petite and slim, she looked a little chubbier in the fleece jacket. While Matthias liked her outfit, she—on the other hand—couldn’t understand his taste in fashion.
“You look like a bear when you’re wearing a fleece jacket.” Though she gave him a scornful stare, a smile crept up her lips as she said that.
Hearing that, he took a look at his outfit and thought that he was still quite fit and thin even with the jacket on. So why would she say that he looked like a bear?
“That means that I have a strong build,” he said, taking it as a compliment.
At the same time, she zipped up her winterwear without replying to him. She didn’t have much to say to him anyway. If she knew she couldn’t run away from the fate of wearing a fleece jacket, she would’ve picked one out at the mall. Instead, she now had to wear the ones that he bought. Who would’ve known that he would pick two fleece jackets that were so thick?
The thick fleece jacket made her feel like a penguin. Together, they resembled a polar bear and a penguin. Entertained by her own thoughts, she smiled to herself. Seeing this, Matthias placed his palm on the crown of her head.
“What are you thinking about?” He was getting so close that his face was going to touch hers. Hence, she pushed his face away with her palm.
“Don’t get so close to me!” Whenever there was a chance, he’d pull something like that. No matter how many times she warned him, he would simply comply for a while and repeat it again later.
“You blank out a lot these days. I’m curious about what’s going on in your mind.” He tried his best to suppress his smile as he said that. Obviously, she was not going to tell him the truth. All she did was give him a glance and stay silent.
“It’s very hard to communicate with you.” Unwillingly, he pulled away to create some distance between them. Since she wasn’t exactly happy that he got close, he was not going to continue doing that and annoy her.
The way they argued resembled that of the ones you see between two kids as you can feel them bonding as they gazed at each other. Since she wasn’t in the mood to face him, she turned away. There were just so many instances that they weren’t on the same frequency.
In the car, she kept her head straight while he would occasionally take glances at her. The roads in Iceland weren’t exactly smooth; there were times where the roads were a little rugged. Therefore, they were already used to going through numerous bumps. Fortunately, they were driving a Jeep as things would be difficult with any other car.
Noticing her hands were slightly red, he guessed that it must be due to the exposure to the cold when they were outside earlier. It seemed that she was rather vulnerable to the cold. Meanwhile, she noticed him taking glances at her hands from time to time, so she looked down at her own hands. However, she didn’t think anything was wrong.
“Are you freezing?” He couldn’t hold back his thought as he asked.
Giving him a weird look, she was confused as to why he would say that since she didn’t feel cold at all. “You should just focus on driving.” She couldn’t understand why he would worry about her when he should be concerned about the route ahead instead.
As she had gotten bored en route, she started playing some mobile games. Because of that, Matthias was taken aback, since he didn’t think that she would like to play mobile games. Out of curiosity, he leaned in to take a look. It was a role-playing type of game with fancy-looking characters. One thing he noted was how different she looked from others who played games too.
Typical gamers would be fully immersed when they were playing with no regard to what was going on. On the other hand, she didn’t pay full attention to the game as she would still take a look at her surroundings from time to time.
Suspecting that she might be playing just to kill time, he snuck a peek at her level in the game and came to a conclusion––she had been playing the game for quite some time now. Hence, that begged the question of how he hadn’t noticed it before.
“Are you interested in my game?” she asked him with a serious look.
“Yes, I’d like to register an account too. Master, can you please guide me?” he said in a joking manner.
“No. I don’t like to guide others,” she directly rejected. “I only play games to kill time when I’m bored,” she admitted.
“You must have spent some time on the game since you’re already at level 50.” He thought the games weren’t just a means of killing time as she was usually a busy person. If she had reached level 50 under such circumstances, she must’ve put in some effort.
“Hm? So?” She couldn’t understand why he would want to say everything out in such detail. Surprisingly, he was right. It was true that she had invested some effort. She even had expectations for this game; otherwise, she wouldn’t have spent so much time on it.
“Are you really not willing to guide me?” Since he wanted to do something together, gaming was a good choice. He was actually stoked to try having the same hobby as her.
“I don’t like to be in a guild in games.” Once again, she rejected him. In fact, she truly hadn’t joined any groupings in the game. As stubborn as she could be, she didn’t mind that she failed to complete the daily tasks in the game because of that.
“It’s not considered a guild if it’s just the two of us.” Being the stubborn person he was, he persisted in changing her thoughts.
Looking at him helplessly, she was beginning to be irked. She didn’t like how he would coerce her into doing things she didn’t like again and again.
Seeing that she wasn’t keen on entertaining him, he realized how serious the issue was. If he continued to pester her, her face would turn even gloomier.
At this moment, Matthias decided to stay silent. Prior to this, she had never thought that he was a nosy person, but things had changed after she started being around him. He was almost the same as Leon. These two nosy men were both the most important people in her life. Heather started patting her head, trying to get some sense into her brain as she thought that it was such a painful fate.
Nonetheless, she had never thought of why things were the way they were. It was simple: she wasn’t much of a talker, so the other person had to do the talking when they were together.
After all, relationships were built based on communication. Matthias usually didn’t have this much to say whenever he was with someone else. However, she didn’t appreciate him opening himself up to her, so it was giving him a headache. If he didn’t find a topic or initiate a conversation, she would definitely stay quiet throughout the journey. Alongside her exquisite features, she was almost like a gorgeous porcelain doll.
When they got out of the car, she tugged her clothes closer to herself. It was legit cold outside. This was the kind of weather that others would not come out to play in.
Passing a pair of gloves to her, he nagged, “Don’t get frostbites. It’s very cold.” As she didn’t want to continue hearing his nag, she simply took the gloves from him without saying a word.
After putting on the pair of gloves, she felt so much warmer. Though the items he bought might be a little ugly, aesthetically speaking, they were pretty useful. In addition, she looked even cuddly. After brief contemplation, he pulled out a winter hat for her to wear.
Even her ears were well-covered. How considerate of him. She couldn’t help but smile. However, having dressed her like a plush toy while he himself didn’t have any hat on made her slightly indignant.
“Why did you only buy mine?” Once again, she didn’t understand him. Why didn’t he get himself a hat too?
“I don’t need it.” He then said in a macho voice, “Fully-grown men don’t need things like these.”
Upon hearing that, she was even more baffled. “Are you saying that I’m a little girl?” Sensing his egoistic manly side, she thought that she had to correct him as soon as possible.
“Women are like delicate flowers that should be taken care of,” he said. In his eyes, Heather was but a young girl.
“I’ve been to Antarctica with a research team once. That was the real definition of cold. So, I don’t need any special care,” she took off the gloves as she spoke, followed by the hat.
At times, he would think that she was a bit of a feminist. She’d be bothered even by such trivial matters. Wasn’t it normal for a man to take care of a woman? Why would she be so appalled by the idea of that? He couldn’t even express himself well because of that.
She didn’t need any special care as men and women are equal. Hence, she didn’t think that it was right to say that men should take care of women.
“Are you not cold?” he asked as he side-eyed her. It seemed that this thing between them was getting heated.
“Are you cold?” As she looked up at him with a stubborn look, the only thought that crossed Matthias’ mind was that she was such a hard person to deal with.
“I am.” Mimicking her ways, he didn’t do what he usually would. “Later when we pass by a store, I’ll go get myself gloves and a hat too. So can you put them on first now?” Even asking her to keep herself warm was a challenge.
“Are you sure?” Giving him a suspicious look, she had a hunch that he was just coaxing her.
“I’m sure. It’s actually very cold and I can’t take it, unlike you who went to Antarctica before,” he said helplessly. It was better to go soft on her at times like these.
As predicted, she didn’t seem as tense upon hearing what he said. After thinking for a brief second, she put the gloves and hat back on. Since Matthias had compromised, she thought it was only fair to comply.
There had been a lot of small conflicts after they got together. Most of the time, it was resolved with Matthias taking a step back. The problem was, he didn’t know what to do that would make her satisfied.
“Heather, why are you so different from other women?” he asked as he stared into her eyes with a serious expression.
“So you think that women like me are not likable?” she asked in a casual tone.
Waving his hand, he was baffled by her conclusion. He would never dislike her. It was just that there had been just too many difficulties when he was spending time with her, and this ended up knocking down his confidence.
“I know that my personality isn’t likable. I also know that people who can stand me are really rare. Thus, I don’t have too high of expectations in life,” she said meaningfully. In fact, she didn’t have much expectations in romantic relationships either, as she had never believed in true love.
