Hands Off The Ice King novel Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Hope’s POV

“You’re really not going to tell me?” Harley asked for the hundredth time that night.

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We were on our way to Thousand Islands, our hometown. It was around sixteen hours by bus, and we were only on our eighth hour. It would already be morning by the time we arrived at the house.

Fortunately, there was an available bus that transported us directly there, and we managed to snag the last seats at the very back. But it wasn’t the most comfortable ride, as we felt every nook and cranny of the road.

Every bump rattled through the entire bus, making the windows vibrate and the overhead compartments creak.

The old couple in front of us suddenly pulled out a phone and began watching something.

Old people and their love of watching videos without earphones in public.

I recognized the video right away.

It was the winning goal of Levi against the Pucks.

My chest tightened before I could stop it.

Speaking of Levi, he had tried calling me around the afternoon, but I didn’t respond to his call. I couldn’t. I stared at his name flashing across my screen until it disappeared, then waited for it to ring again.

It did.

Again.

And again.

In the end, I had to block his number because I didn’t trust myself not to run to him the moment I heard his voice.

One hello.

That was probably all it would take.

“This young man is really something else, huh?” the old man asked. “Almost as good and handsome as me when I was young, right?”

The old woman scoffed.

“You could only wish. You did not play any sport back then, Gerald.”

“Call me a sportsman with how I chased you,” he said as he proudly patted his chest.

The old woman rolled her eyes, but I could tell she was flattered. The corners of her lips twitched despite her best efforts to hide it.

The old man then peeled an orange for her despite his trembling fingers, carefully removing every bit of the peel before handing it to her like it was the most precious thing in the world.

She accepted it without a word.

Years together, and they still knew exactly how to love each other.

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Thu, Jul 16

Chapter 114

Crap.

My emotions were coming back to wreck me.

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I sniffed and wiped the tears gathering at the corners of my eyes. However, I stopped when I suddenly felt something cold against my cheek.

“Stop that, Lee,” I glared at him.

The cheeky kid had placed his ice-cold coffee against my skin without warning.

“I’m not sorry,” he said, taking a sip. “You weren’t answering my question.”

I sighed and turned to him.

“You won’t even believe it if I told you the reason, so just settle with the fact that I had a conflict with my boss, and I had no choice but to resign, okay?”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Try me. Why would I not believe you? You’re my sister.”

For a brief second, I actually considered telling him everything.

Maybe it would feel nice to let someone else carry even a tiny piece of this burden.

I pursed my lips and looked seriously into his eyes.

/

“I have something going on with Levi Reeve, and the owner of the franchise threatened me to leave in exchange for his protection.”

He was silent for a moment.

But just as expected, he burst into hysterical laughter, earning a few annoyed looks from the passengers inside the bus.

I pursed my lips and jabbed his side hard with my elbow, making him yelp and, fortunately, stop laughing.

“Damn,” he said between chuckles. “You said that so seriously that I actually thought you were being serious.”

I knew he wouldn’t believe me.

Who would?

Even I probably wouldn’t have believed it if someone else had told me.

“Fine, fine. It’s your shitty boss,” he said, finally calming down. “I’m sure Mom and Dad would understand.”

I forced a small smile.

“If only it were that simple.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

I turned toward the window before he could ask another question.

Outside, cities slowly gave way to open roads. The towering buildings disappeared one by one, replaced by fields and scattered trees.

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17:15 Thu, Jul 16 D d )

Chapter 114

The farther we got from Manhattan, the farther I got from Levi.

Yet somehow, he only felt closer.

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The moment we arrived at our neighborhood, the sun was already high in the sky.

The air smelled fresher than Manhattan.

Birds chirped somewhere in the distance, and children laughed from a nearby street.

Although sadness still filled my heart, there came a quiet comfort from going back to your hometown.

Some places simply remembered you.

I stood outside our house, and despite not being here for a long time-the latest being Christmas last year-it still looked exactly the same to me.

Home was a place that could only be recognized by the eyes of the occupant and not a stranger, and that was what made it so special.

Still, I felt a little ashamed.

I came back here after always insisting that I would prove myself to my parents.

That I would make it on my own.

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