The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

161 Be Frozen Like Ice

Emma’s disguise was actually neat, yet she still wasn’t confident in each of her own steps. In fact, as time goes on, it wasn’t that Emma didn’t realize that it was actually okay if her friends eventually found out that she was a strong girl who was good at fighting. Emma’s friends would accept her as she was and wouldn’t spill out her secret. But Emma never stopped doubting her friends and... herself.

Emma knew Marcel as well as his grandmother. She knew what kind of people they were. Emma was sure that a Marcel Douglas would not have the heart to harm a girl, especially his own friends.

“Find out something?” Levi snapped Emma out of her daydream.

“Huh?” She then turned to the man who was now staring with a faint smile at her. But suddenly, her cell phone rang. Emma immediately took it out of her jacket pocket and looked at it. It turned out was Jonas. She glanced at Levi, “I’ll pick this up a minute,”

Emma walked away from Levi before picking up Jonas’ phone, “Yes?”

“Hmm.. What kind of tone is that?” Jonas asked, realizing that Emma was in such a hurry that she didn’t have time to talk to him.

“I’m outside, Jonas. Why are you calling me at this hour?” Emma asked quickly. When she was at home, she was waiting for Jonas to call her but he didn’t. Actually, Emma could have called Jonas first, but she was afraid that what happened that time would happen again. She realized that Jonas also had a personal life. Therefore, Emma preferred Jonas to always contact her first.

“Hey, young girl. I called you on purpose at this hour thinking you’d be home after 10 pm. Why are you still hanging around outside?” The man asked.

Ah.. Emma patted her forehead softly while grimacing. She had completely forgotten where she was now. Of course, Jonas would scold her if he knew she was hanging around at this hour in the winter.

.....

“Hello.. Miss Emma? Are you still there?” Jonas exclaimed from the other side.

“Yes, yes.. I know, Jonas. I happened to be meeting with my friend to have a little talk. His house is quite far from here so we rarely see each other. I don’t feel good if I have to ask him to go home too soon.” Emma explained.

“A friend, huh? Hmm.. Looks like you’ve found my replacement, haven’t you?” Jonas guessed right on the target. Actually, he already felt that Emma didn’t talk too much about the problems she was facing lately.

“What do you mean?” Emma began to fidget, which indicated that what Jonas said was true.

“It was as I thought. One day, I will have to let you go into someone else’s hands.” He laughed. Was this the feeling of a father?

“What are you talking about?! We are not in a relationship.” Emma answered angrily.

Jonas immediately burst out laughing, “So it’s a special man, huh? You seem to be very interested in him.”

“That’s not true! Stop meddling in my business when you’re not here!” Emma mumbled as she turned her back.

Hearing Emma’s words, Jonas realized that she seemed to need someone. However, Jonas realized that sooner or later, he would not be able to always be Emma’s shoulder to lean on. The girl had grown into a woman. If she continued to depend on Jonas, her soul would continue to be a little princess. In fact, that was the reason for Jonas not to contact Emma too often. Apart from protecting her privacy, as a companion, of course, he wanted to see Emma grow up and be truly independent.

“Okay.. Alright.. No need to be mad like that. I won’t interfere in your business, as you ask. But remember, your father and I haven’t allowed you to bring men into the house. So stay together outside and don’t go home too late. We’ve taught you a lot about the dangers of the opposite sex. You must have understood it.” Jonas said.

“I know,” Emma answered before quickly hanging up the phone.

As soon as Emma turned around, she was quite surprised to find Levi standing a few steps behind her while watching her appraisingly.

“Do you think, because it’s a quiet place so you can yell like that?” Levi asked with his arms folded on his chest.

“Did you just eavesdropping me?” Emma squinted her eyes.

“I don’t think you’re that important that I have to worry about your phone conversation. And, without eavesdropping, everyone could actually hear your loud voice.” Levi answered by lowering his hand and stepping back onto the swing. “It’s getting late. You’d better go home.”

Emma glanced at Levi for a moment before returning to her seat, “I feel cramped at home. I think I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight.”

“A lot of trouble will make it hard for you to sleep. Was that the person you always talked about?” Levi asked.

“Hmm,” Emma nodded. “Maybe you heard a little. He is my guardian. Although he’s very annoying, I do love him. You are the only person who knows about this.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Levi replied.

Emma turned to him, “It doesn’t seem necessary and neither can you.”

“Would you like some ice cream?” Levi asked suddenly.

“Ice cream?” Emma repeated confused, “In this cold weather?”

Levi nodded and stood up, “You should have known there was a mini-market nearby.” he pointed towards the east of the park.

Emma followed Levi’s hand point. She could faintly see a bright white light covered in trees growing in the park. It looked like the mini market was across the street.

“Let’s go there,” Levi said by pulling the shoulder on Emma’s jacket so that she would stand up.

“Are you always this pushy?” Emma asked, stepping beside Levi.

Levi seemed to think for a moment then nodded, “I’d better be the one forcing people than me having to obey.”

“Hey, that’s selfish,” Emma complained.

“Sometimes, we have to be selfish to be in control of the situation. I learned that from someone. He was a great leader.” Levi said.

“Leader?” Emma frowned. Since getting involved with a lot of gangster group problems, she had become a bit sensitive to the ‘leader’ word.

Levi nodded and looked at Emma with a faint smile, “He is the president of country x.”

“Oh, of course,” Emma nodded with a small laugh. It seemed her mind was in such a complete mess that she focused everything on gangster matters.

Because they were walking while talking about light things, without realizing it, they had arrived in front of the mini-market. Levi opened the glass door and let Emma in first through under his hand.

“Hey,” Levi called out to Emma to follow him to the freezer storage that held a lot of ice cream.

With a leisurely pace, Emma walked over to Levi who had quickly arrived in front of three blue freezer boxes placed in a row. She saw one of the glass doors had been shifted open by him.

“You like to eat ice cream?” Emma asked by looking at Levi who was screening the pile of various flavours of ice creams with an enthusiastic face. She found it funny because it was rare to see Levi could display such a face and act. It turned out that in addition to ice skating, he would also release his childish soul when he met ice cream.

Levi didn’t answer Emma’s question, but took a matcha flavoured ice cream and handed it to her, “You can choose the flavour you like. But you have to try this one.”

Emma took the waffle ice cream sandwich given by Levi, “I’ll just eat this one.”

It seemed Levi really liked ice cream. He took quite a lot of them and brought them to the cashier then paid for everything.

“Thanks,” Emma said as she unwrapped the ice cream and then ate it, “It’s cold..” she said while covering her mouth with her palm when her tongue went numb from freezing.

Levi immediately laughed, “How does it taste? It’s good, isn’t it?” he asked as he ate his own.

Emma nodded lightly, “I do like green tea and matcha.”

“Yeah, that’s too. But I meant was, your feelings get better after eating something chill, isn’t it?”

Emma blinked in confusion and turned to Levi, “My feelings?”

“When you’re overthinking things, isn’t it better for you to be frozen like ice? So you don’t have to feel anything. You can do everything logically without caring about your feelings. That way, you’d feel better.” Levi explained.

“Have you ever done it?” Emma asked quietly.

Levi smiled, “Too often. And the cold air will help it to do its best.”

Emma let out a long sigh. Slowly, her smile broke into a sad smile, “Thank you, Levi. I was angry with you because you were so annoying when you forced me to come here. But now I know that you brought me here to cheer me up. And you did it.”

“I see the old me in you. When I heard your voice on the phone, I couldn’t help but show you how to deal with it, because when I was in the same situation I always wished someone would come to give me a little advice. However, I ended up having to solve it myself and when I was doing so, I made a lot of mistakes.” Levi explained. Then, he looked at Emma with a chuckle, “I was afraid you weren’t as strong as I am. And apparently, you aren’t.” he continued with a wink.

Emma squinted her eyes in annoyance, “Do you know how annoying you are?”

Levi nodded, “You always tell me that.”

“Hah.. I should go home now. You’re right. I feel much better now. Either because of this ice cream or I’ve found something or.. someone more annoying than my problem,” Emma sneered.

“Whatever it is, it’s all thanks to me,” Levi lifted his chin proudly.

Emma chuckled as she glanced at him sarcastically. Then she remembered something, “Ah.. You said you’ve fixed the car, didn’t you? How much did it cost? You can text the bill to me along with your account number.”

“No need,” Levi answered by stepping forward, leaving the front of the mini-market behind them.

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