Ice: Thaw the Frozen Heart [EDITING]

Chapter 71

LONG CHAPTER ALERT!
And this chapter is rated [M] for the references in the conversation.
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Suho swore he would do anything for Kris. He owed his friend a lot! Kris might act cold, but he really had been the most loyal and generous friend to Suho. Kris could ask him anything, and he would do it right away.

Except that night's request.

"I swear if you're doing this just because you're bored, I'm gonna strangle you," Suho threatened right when he entered the small bar sandwiched between closed shops. His eyes still felt heavy from lack of sleep. He was finally able to sleep when he received a call from Kris beckoning him to come to this bar.

No one else was there except for his friend who was sitting alone at a round table for four. He then took a seat across Kris.

"Don't you know what time this is?" He complained before hollering for a beer to the bartender.

Kris only chugged down his beer. He was lightly dressed, Suho noted. He was only wearing sweatpants and a winter coat covering a grey sweater under it. Those were probably his sleepwear.

Seeing this, Suho sighed. "What is it now? Did you and Yeojin fight again?" He thanked the bartender who gave him his beer before turning his attention back to his friend.

Kris weakly shook his head. "We didn't." His finger tapped the glass of beer and he bit down his lip. "She cried though." He finished the remaining beer in his glass in one go.

"What?! What did you do this time?" Suho almost choked on his drink. "Did you hurt her again?"

A strangled groan escape Kris' lips as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. "I didn't. We were just— I was—" He groaned again and tousled his hair before ordering another glass of beer. "You know that feeling of almost? Like when you're making a deal with an investor and he already gave out signs of agreement, but he suddenly bail at the last minute?"

"Huh?"

"That's what I'm feeling right now." Kris chugged some of the new beer that the bartender just gave to him.

"What? What are you talking about? How is this related to Yeojin?"

"We were...." Kris looked like he was searching for a word before he continued, "Just opening up to each other, okay? Everything was going great, but right before—" He suddenly stopped himself with a groan and pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. "She just suddenly cried. And I-of course-stop for her sake. I can't bear seeing her cry. So I stopped. I don't know why she suddenly cry like I was about to murder her considering she was okay with everything at first. Anyway, I stopped. But it's stressing me out now!"

Suho blinked with mouth slightly agape. He couldn't believe this man of few words in front of him just ranted. He had seen Kris delivered long speeches in front of a crowd a lot of times. But this was something pretty new. His usually ice-coated words were full of emotions now. Frustrations, to be exact. He wondered if this was the effect of alcohol. Unfortunately, Suho didn't understand a single thing his friend was saying. What did he stop doing?

"Dude. Kris. What the hell are you talking about? How many glasses of beer have you drunk?" As far as Suho remembered, Kris had high tolerance for alcoholic drinks.

"I love her so much, but—god!—I'm tortured right now!" Kris mumbled more to himself.

"Hey. I was asking you—"

"Suho! Yifan!" A familiar voice greeted them.

"Oh, hey!" Suho waved back to the person but paused when he saw another person trailing behind. He then turned to Kris who was already staring at him with raised brow. "Luhan was sending me progress on the project when I was on the way here. So I thought of inviting him to join us. But I swear I didn't know he would be bringing his brother."