❝ ＩＣＥ ＩＣＥ ＧＵＭＭＹ ❞

The morning of the day had just begun. Gummy was peacefully in deep slumber on his soft, comfy bed, the blanket lazily thrown on top of his sleeping body.

The sound of his alarm clock rang through the room, awakening him from his sleep.

Gummy slightly opened his eyes, his alarm clock placed on the side table coming into view.

As soon as he fully opened his eyes, he felt the freezing cold air suddenly hit him as he sleepily pushed the thin, red-checkered blanket from his body.

He raised his body up, swinging his legs over the side of the mattress, preparing to drop his feet onto the floor and begin the new day.

However, as Gummy's bare feet collided with the wooden floor, they slid along the ground, sending Gummy spinning across his bedroom and landing with a thud just before he reached the window.

He slowly slid along the strangely cold floor flat on his butt, shivering in response to the freezing air.

That's when he shifted his attention down to the ground below him, realising that it was indeed coated in a thick layer of cloudy white ice.

Gummy's expression became confusion and slight worry, examining the frozen floor.

He attempted to steadily return to his feet, but with many failed attempts, he resorted to sliding out of the door flat on his backside.

~

Gummy uneasily sat on one of his ice cold stools surrounding his frozen kitchen table and counters, grasping the tops of his arms with the opposite hands. He rubbed his hands up and down his arms in an attempt to send warmth running through his body.

A few minutes later, Harry entered through the open front door.

"Good morning, Gum-"

Gummy interrupted to alert Harry to the ice that covered the floor.

"Harry watch out! The floor-"

Gummy was cut off by Harry's feet being captured by the icy ground, pushing him left and right across it. He eventually plopped onto his butt beside Gummy's stool.

"-is slippery..." Gummy finished his sentence, although Harry had already noticed.

"Yikes! It's freezing in here!" Harry shivered, lifting his knees towards his chest and wrapping his arms around them to keep warm.

"Are Kala and (Y/n) up yet?" He asked.

Coincidently, Kala and (Y/n) wandered through the door at that very moment, not knowing what was about to happen as their feet touched the floor.

Gummy's expression changed from a frown to a smile as he saw (Y/n) enter his apartment, but quickly returned to a worried frown as she began to step onto the ice.

"Watch out! The floor is-" Harry began, but he was too late.

The sisters slipped across the floor and smashed into each other, colliding against the wall and toppling onto each other.

"-slippery..."

Gummy chucked. "You guys OK?" He called from his stool, too nervous to let his feet touch the ice again in fear of slipping.

"Yeah we're good..." (Y/n) replied, trying to find her feet without collapsing onto the frozen floor again.

Kala stayed on the icy ground, rubbing her butt and whining in pain.

"Thanks Harry..." She groaned in an ungrateful tone, making Harry gulp nervously.

~

"OK I'll admit we seem to have a minor heating challenge..." Harry said, grasping his arms with his hands to warm himself up.

Gummy glared at Harry from behind the kitchen table as Kala and (Y/n) groaned at him from the stools beside him, also gripping their arms to obtain heat.

"Alright a major heating challenge!" He responded to his friends' discomfort with a change to his original statement. "Either way, step one is to identify the problem, and fortunately I have!" He continued proudly.

"So have I!" Kala said in a stern, competitive tone.

"A broken furnace!" Harry shouted.

"Global warming!" Kala argued.

"Just a cold day?" (Y/n) guessed.

Gummy rolled his eyes and smiled at his friends' silliness.

"I agree with (Y/n). Maybe we should check outside first to see if the problem is the same everywhere?"

(Y/n) smiled, feeling almost proud with her idea because Gummy agreed with it.

"OMG... what if it's worse out there!?" Harry cried in panic, slamming his hands against the frozen surface in front of him.

"Look, before we start panicking, let's just try and figure out why Gummy's place is freezing!" (Y/n) tried to reassure her friends, earning a warm smile from her crush, making her blush a little.

Gummy turned his attention back to the ice coating his living room floor - and everything else in his apartment.

"True, but while doing that, you've gotta admit it is pretty cool to have our very own indoor winter wonderland in here!"

Gummy slid along the icy floor, out into the living room. He swirled across the room as if he was ice skating. (Y/n) smiled and giggled at his silliness, causing Gummy's attention to shift towards her. He admired her cute smile, distracting him from his skating along the frozen floor, causing him to slip over landing flat on his front. He span around across the floor a few times, making him slightly dizzy.

"You OK Gummy!?" (Y/n) shouted from the other side of the room.

"I'm fine..." Gummy replied, slightly embarrassed. He jumped back on his feet, trying not to slip over across the shiny ice.

~

Harry proudly stood in front of his blackboard, which was filled with calculations in thick, white chalk.

Gummy, Kala and (Y/n) sat at the stools surrounding the kitchen table, patiently waiting for him to begin his explanation of why he thought the apartment had become the North Pole.

"OK, I've taken the liberty of making a few simple calculations..." Harry pointed to his blackboard covered in said simple calculations, turning towards the board with a piece of chalk and adding some more in the small spaces available.

"Simple calculations?" Gummy asked, confused by the numbers and symbols decorating the blackboard in front of him.

"Look guys, I really think we should first check outside..." he started.

"Haven't you been listening, Gummy?" Harry turned from his blackboard, pointing towards Gummy with his chunk of chalk. "It could be worse out there!" He stamped his foot against the glacial floor in frustration.

"Maybe even worse than worse!"

Gummy rolled his big blue eyes as Kala and Harry began to argue about how much worse the weather could be outside compared to the frozen temperature inside.

He chuckled, noticing (Y/n) also rolling her (e/c) eyes, sighing while placing her head on top of her folded arms against the cold table.

Gummy turned his attention back to Kala and Harry, sliding off his stool and heading towards the kitchen counters.

"OK, if you two are so determined to argue, at least I can keep you a bit warmer while you do!" Gummy smiled, hopefully to pass his positivity onto his bickering friends.

He turned towards the long row of cupboards and counters within the kitchen behind him, taking a plate from the stack in front of (Y/n) on the table as he did so.

(Y/n) opened her eyes, filled with curiosity, propping her head against her arms on the table to watch.

Kala and Harry looked across at each other with confusion as Gummy threw a few fresh slices of bread into the toaster, patiently waiting for them to shoot out from the top.

Within a few minutes, the bread slices popped out from the toaster's thin but long holes along the top. Gummy took the now warm slices of toast and quickly moved the plate into the microwave.

(Y/n) watched in interest, as after a few seconds Gummy opened the small microwave door and took the now very warm toast slices, managing to run across to the kitchen table to place the plate in front of his confused friends.

Gummy took about 3 slices of steaming hot toast, sticking them and spreading them across his body. (Y/n) laughed as the toast stuck against Gummy's butt perfectly.

Kala, Harry and (Y/n) took more slices each, holding them against their chests to let the heat spread around their bodies in the frozen air that surrounded them.

~

Harry returned to his blackboard, adding more notes to his overflowing collection of calculations. Kala browsed the web on her phone for information about global warming to add to the argument. (Y/n) sighed, placing her arm onto the table and her head in her hand.

Meanwhile, Gummy skated across the icy ground, his eyes gently closed as he daydreamed about becoming a famous and successful ice skater. (Y/n) turned towards the living room to see him and smiled. He always put a positive spin on any situation.

Gummy opened his eyes after finishing his skating routine, turning to notice Kala and Harry in a serious argument and (Y/n) with her head in her hands back in the kitchen.

He rolled his eyes and shrugged, slowly walking back over to his bickering friends. (Y/n) watched from the kitchen stools as Gummy sneaked behind his friends, forming a 'time out' signal with his hands. They didn't notice him, as they were so wrapped up in their argument.

Gummy grew more frustrated by the second as his friends continued to argue. He wasn't sure it was even about the frozen apartment anymore.

"HEEEYY!!!" He suddenly screamed, causing Kala and Harry to snap out of their argument and move their focus to Gummy.

"The key to keeping warm while we try and figure this out, is to keep active right? So, if you've absolutely gotta argue, at least do it to a beat!" He said happily.

Gummy began to dance around the living room, beatboxing and rapping about the ice and how Kala and Harry were bickering about where it could possibly have come from, making (Y/n) laugh.

His performance came to an end after a couple minutes of entertainment. (Y/n) applauded as Gummy bowed, while Kala and Harry continued to argue as if nothing happened.

~

After a few more minutes of pure stress and arguments, Gummy had just quite had enough. He came storming towards Kala and Harry with a little whistle in his mouth, aggressively blowing his angry breath into it once he was close enough to them.

"The best way for everybody to keep warm is... pretend that the cold just doesn't exist!" He stated, trying to spread his positivity.

(Y/n) admired his attempt, sliding off of her kitchen stool and slowly heading to join them, trying not to slip across the ice.

Within a few minutes, Gummy pulled out four deckchairs from the doorway towards his bedroom, carefully laying them out across the living room.

Harry, Kala and (Y/n) watched in pure curiosity at what Gummy was planning to do.

(Y/n) headed over to lay down onto one of the deckchairs to support Gummy's positive idea. Kala and Harry slowly followed, still unsure of what Gummy was planning to prove to them.

Gummy returned from his bedroom back into the living room, smiling that his friends had accepted his idea and were using the deckchairs.

~

After a while of pretending that they were surrounded by smooth, golden sand and a crystal blue sea, with a bright white sunshine looking down onto them, Gummy's friends realised that their daydream wouldn't become a reality.

"If it's such a wonderful warm day at the beach..." Kala started, in a relaxed position with her eyes gently closed. "WHY ARE WE FREEZING OUR BUTTS OFF!!??" she screamed, opening her eyes and returning to a stressed position.

Gummy sighed, realising no matter what he tried to do, his friends would always remain stressed at the current situation.

"Hey, I realise things aren't perfect, but sometimes life is a question of making the best out of what you're given!" Gummy said, trying to reassure his friends. (Y/n) happily sighed, admiring Gummy's positivity.

"Either way, I still really think we should check outside to see if the problem is everywhere or not." He continued, trying to convince his friends they should look outside the window before doing anything else.

Harry sighed. "Alright, alright, but just to turn off the broken record..." He headed towards the window, with Kala, Gummy and (Y/n) not far behind.

Harry tugged the string to pull open the blinds...

...revealing a beautifully sunny and warm mid-summer day!

Gummy and his friends gasped in unison and shock.

"It wasn't a broken furnace..." Harry whispered to himself.

"It wasn't global warming!" Kala said in pure shock.

"It wasn't just a cold day..." (Y/n) said to herself.

~

Gummy walked back towards his living room, leaving his friends in shock outside on his balcony. He scratched his head in thought, before pulling out his detective hat to convert his mood to begin solving the mystery, a confused frown on his face.

Gummy gently placed his detective hat on top of his head, as Harry, Kala and (Y/n) came back from the balcony towards the living room.

Harry walked towards Gummy, taking a magnifying glass from behind his back to participate in trying to locate the reason why the apartment was completely frozen.

"If you eliminate the impossible, then what's left must be true no matter how improbable!" Harry said, turning towards Gummy, who was daydreaming as he watched (Y/n) walking back from the balcony.

"Right Gummy...?"

"Huh? Oh... I mean, absolutely!" Gummy replied nervously, shifting his attention back towards Harry.

Suddenly, the memory of the previous night entered Gummy's thoughts. He gasped.

"I just remembered something!" He cried.

Harry, Kala and (Y/n) came towards him in interest, curious about what he had to tell them next.

Gummy continued to explain about his dream the night before, and how he may have gotten out of bed to sleepwalk across the room. He embarrassingly explained how he probably switched the heating all the way down while sleepwalking across his living room. That's why he woke up to a frozen floor, ice cold air, and a glacial atmosphere.

He chuckled nervously as Kala and Harry glared towards him, staring angrily. Kala growled while her sister walked up to her, rolling her eyes and sighing.

"Hey, leave Gummy alone! This isn't his fault!" (Y/n) crossed her arms towards her sister. Gummy smiled, watching (Y/n) as she backed him up.

He then slowly walked towards the heating switch against the wall, turning it back up to let the warm air spread across the apartment to slowly cause the freezing ice along the floor to melt.

"Maybe we should all head out while we're waiting for my place to heat back up?" Gummy asked his friends.

(Y/n) sighed happily, heading towards Gummy and resting her head on his shoulder. "Sounds like a plan..." She said. Gummy smiled, looking down at (Y/n) resting on his shoulder.

Harry and Kala attempted to walk towards the front door to leave to head out, but their feet slid against the slippery, chilled ground.

"Careful! That floor still might be-" Gummy began, watching Kala and Harry collapse against each other towards the frozen ground with a thud.

"-slippery..." Gummy continued.

He laughed with (Y/n), resting his head against hers, sliding his hand towards hers and intertwining their fingers.

(Y/n) slowly looked down, seeing Gummy's hand wrapped around hers. She smiled.

Maybe he did like her back...