Warming a Frozen Heart

Illusion

CHAPTER 2
Illusion

-JC-
My alarm rang, waking me up and cutting me off from my nightmares. I opened my eyes and stretched my feet. When I came to, I realized I was holding something, so when I looked to check, I saw that I was holding somebody's hand. I turned over to see if it belonged to someone and not severed off somebody's body.

I felt awake all of a sudden.

I saw the Asian guy sleeping at my bedside and my hand was holding his, not the other way around as I wished. A surge of nausea from holding his hand ran through my whole body as I let go of it swiftly. I vaguely remember the fact that I grabbed his hand myself last night, which led to this. I felt both guilty and stupid for him: guilty because I made him sleep beside me while sitting on the floor (it could've been really hard and might have caused him stiffed neck); stupid because I totally forgot that the hand belonged to my male roommate. I also felt like I owed him for this. I've acted horribly around him for the past few days and yet, here he is, hand intertwined with mine in effort to stop my crying last night.

The sudden movement from my hand probably woke him up, because he yawned. I snapped my one of my eyes shut, pretending to be asleep while the other watched him rub his neck and stand up for breakfast. After he disappeared into the bathroom for a bath I scooted over to the cupboards to make some breakfast for us, thinking it could be a nice payback. The problem was, the pancake mix I thought was still there was gone. I sighed theatrically in frustration and slumped on my chair. I don't know how to cook anything except for that, so Chinese here makes everything for the both of us. I heard the shower door open and Chinese went to the kitchen wearing nothing except the pants that was part of his uniform and a short towel on his hair. He must've been thinking I was still asleep to be bold enough to not wear his shirt, so when he realized I was there on the table, he gasped in shock. "O-oh hey. M-morning..." he said nervously.

I felt heat creeping up my cheeks as I stole a glance at his body. Why did he look so hot and handsome all of a sudden? Considering he had a boyish look when-- stop thinking like this, JC! I turned away after realizing I was staring hard and chose to face the cupboards instead. He didn't see why I turned away and drifted to the counter for food. I suddenly wanted to snap at him, but I thought I should be nicer since he's the first person who has managed to stop my uncontrollable crying during nighttime. I mustered up some courage and said, "P-put..."

"Hmm?" He gave me a curious look. "Was that your voice just now?"

I didn't answer his question. Damn that hot accent. He spoke perfect English save for a few mistakes between syllables with -r and -l. Instead of making him sound like he had a lisp the accent made him so unbelievably adorable. Should I glance at his body again, then? To forget about his voice. No, wait! Why do I sound like a pervert here? Crap. "Put... put on a s-shirt, will you?"

I heard his quiet chuckle as he moved out of the kitchen and into the desk beside his bed. I covered my face with my hands, trying to stop my blushing and maybe prevent me from peeking a little, but my face even got redder the more I tried to cover it up. Sheesh, why is that Asian suddenly so... alluring? My eyes are like magnets right now, attracted to his... whatever.

He returned to the kitchen wearing the shirt he wears under his uniform and looked at me. "Why are you talking to me all of a sudden?" he asked, a smile carefully weaving itself onto his face.

"T-thank... thank you... for... um..." I couldn't spit my statement out because my pride hindered it. Okay, JC, you can do this. "Thank you... for comforting me last night."

He put on a grin and turned to the refrigirator. "Phew, I thought you were gonna insult me again."

"And sorry... for probably hurting your feelings these past few days," I added shakily. Another wave of heat swept across my face.