Chapter 482 - What Should I Do With You?

When they reached Cora's apartment, Ivan glanced at the back passenger seat where Cora was sleeping. Slowly, he turned his head back and his arm sprawled towards her; his hand hovered in front of her nose, checking if she was still breathing.

"What should I do with you?" Once again, a heavy sigh slipped past his lips as he leaned back at the driver's seat. 

Ivan didn't really stalk Cora or kept following her. It was just that coincidentally; she was in one of the bars he went to drink from the other night. From that point onwards, Ivan wondered where she could've been and what she was doing because he heard she quit her job after their last encounter.

Therefore, every night, Ivan would follow her to whichever bar she would choose to get drunk. Well, he could use the excuse that Zoey wanted to protect her friend. Also, it might sound he was a creep, but he was worried that one day, she would be in harm for drinking alone.

After all, Ivan knew Cora was a normal person who lacked the strength to protect herself. In comparison to Zoey, Ivan wouldn't even bat an eye if he heard that Zoey got intoxicated alone. Heck, she would castrate the person before they could take advantage of her.

On the other hand, Cora couldn't do that. Not that he was underestimating her, but he was basing his thoughts realistically. If Cora was as keen and capable as Zoey, she would have already known she was being carried somewhere by someone.

"I'm going crazy looking after this troublesome lady." Ivan clicked his tongue, annoyed at the situation. But most importantly, he was annoyed at himself for caring too much.

He didn't know, but after following her these previous nights, Ivan could not help but worry about her. He knew she had her reasons why she was choosing to escape reality, but he was more frustrated that he couldn't advise her that she was doing it entirely wrong. 

After all, he was an outsider in her life; he had no position to tell her how to live her life. Still, that thought was frustrating him even more.

Minutes later, Ivan decided to depart the car and carry her to her place before leaving without being noticed by her.Just as he did, he caught a figure not far away from them. Slowly, Ivan turned his head to the figure.

There, Zion was leaning on the side of his car. He seemed to be waiting for someone. Who could it be? It was obvious he was waiting for Cora.

"I'm getting more and more frustrated by this." Once again, Ivan snapped his tongue annoyingly. Perhaps Zion felt Ivan's gaze, and he slowly turned to his direction.

"Yo!" Surprisingly enough, Ivan raised his hand as a greeting. Seeing that Zion was just looking at his direction, Ivan scoffed mockingly as it seemed Zion wanted to just ignore him. "I really hate this guy." He mumbled, walking around the back passenger and opened it.

"Your knight in shining armor is here, lady. You should stop drinking if keeping your feelings hurts you." As Ivan pulled Cora out of the car in great difficulty, he uttered in distress. "You're frustrating me." he added, carrying her in his back as he managed Cora to sit up. 

Yet, he didn't head towards the stairs of the apartment to reach the floor she lives in. Instead, Ivan walked towards Zion's direction who was watching them approach. Once Ivan stopped with Cora on his back, he frowned because Zion's expression was puzzling.

Zion darted his eyes from Ivan and then to Cora who was sleeping soundlessly. She reeked of alcohol that Zion could smell her from his standpoint. Yet, he didn't say anything and remained silent.

"Why are you here?" Ivan asked, peering him from head to toe. Yet, Zion remained silent as he knew his action, like coming to meet Cora despite knowing she now has a lover, was crossing the boundaries of their relationship.

However, what else could he do? He arrived here even before he realized he was coming to see her. He should have expected that he would see Ivan with Cora -- although not the part where she was too drunk to go home herself.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother your girlfriend. I'm just here to talk about something." After a minute of silence, Zion made up an excuse why he was there, hoping Ivan wouldn't misunderstand.

"Tsk." Ivan clicked his tongue, scoffing at the lame excuse Zion cooked up as if he didn't even exert an effort to sound it believable. "Do you like her?" Since Cora's action was concerning her, Ivan couldn't take it anymore as it frustrated him with each passing day.

"..." Zion didn't say anything immediately as he stared at Ivan in the eyes. "Yes." After contemplating whether to answer the question, Zion finally admitted his feelings, which he knew were inappropriate. "But I don't plan on meddling with your relationship." He added, reassuring him there's no need to worry about him.

"You don't plan to?" Ivan raised his right brow, chuckling in ridicule as he could not believe the words he was hearing. "You being here, what's your plan then?" In a matter-of-fact tone, Ivan cast him a knowing look which shut Zion up.

"If you like something, you do something about it to have it. You just don't sit idly by and pray that everything would be served for you on a silver platter, Doctor Kwan." Using Zion's silence, Ivan spoke his thoughts once again.

Cora and Zion's personality and hurting themselves by hiding their feelings frustrated Ivan more than his hatred towards the entire Kwan household. Therefore, even though he wanted to punish Zion for his ignorance for not noticing how wicked Zachery Kwan was, he couldn't because Cora was the one who was hurting in this situation.

Indeed, one way or another, Ivan changed his perspective by watching over Cora. He didn't realize it, but he did as she was innocent in all these and didn't deserve the pain she was going through. Although in the first place, she's also at fault for being weak and keeping her feelings all to herself instead of facing the rejection she was so afraid about.

"Anyway, you know her apartment, right? Don't do anything silly to her or else, you won't like breaking my trust." With that being said, Ivan only stared at Zion dead in the eye as he magically gave his trust to him, which was a rare sight to see.

Meanwhile, Carter watched them from a distance. Although he made sure he would keep his distance, he could still faintly hear the conversation. His eyes fixed on Ivan's side profile. "What a noble thing to do…" He muttered, realizing that Ivan wasn't just a psychotic, annoying lad of Zoey.

He's still human with dignity and conscience. Above all, they weren't people who picked on people without any reason. If anything, they were just normal humans… unlucky human beings who were forced to take on life in the darker side of the world.

"I guess, this is what the master saw in her… in them…" Carter whispered, thinking that Matthew had figured that people like Zoey and Ivan, they were good people.. However, they were also the type of people one wouldn't take as an enemy.