“Lord Wu Fan, it’s time to wake up.”

 

 

A deep voice stirred Wu Fan from his slumber, the morning sunlight seeping in to his room at the same time. Wu Fan squint his eyes; slowly opening them as his eyes adjusts from the sunlight.

He sits up and sees a tall, young man opening the curtains inside his room before making his way towards the door to bring in a cart tray of today’s breakfast.

“A poached salmon with mint salad has been prepared for breakfast. Toasts, scones and French pastries have been prepared as an accompaniment. Which of them will best suit your taste today?” the young man asked as he pours the tea at the cup.

“The scones.” Wu Fan hoarsely replied, taking the cup of tea from the young man before putting it under his nose to take in the scent.

“Earl Gray tea?” he mumbles.

“Yes my lord, the Earl Gray complements the taste of today’s breakfast. Therefore, it is best to prepare this kind of tea instead of the other ones.” The young man replied.

 

 “As of today, your only activity will be a dinner with Lady Roane of the Carle family. The rest of the time before that will be a free time.” Wu Fan looked at the young man in front of him and nodded subtly.

“If you need anything else, just call me sire. I shall then take my leave.” he bowed at him before making his way to the door.

 

“Finnian,”

 

“Yes sire?”

 

“Tell Lady Roane that I wouldn’t be able to come and meet her tonight, I have much more important things to do than seeing her cosmetic infested face.” Wu Fan grunted, taking in a scone into his mouth and eyeing his butler who smiled knowingly at his master.

 

“Yes, my lord.”

 

---

“Senior Wu Fan, Mr. Finnian Earl, what a surprise! What’s the purpose of thy visit?” Madam Angela Durless asks in pure delight, gesturing Wu Fan and his butler inside the Royalty Theater.

“Nothing much Madam,” Wu Fan chuckles, “I was just here to see how things are going well inside the theater. It’s been 3 months since I’ve last visited after my latest performance.”

The middle aged woman nodded in understanding as they enter the backstage where a man in his 50s was almost shouting at the top of his lungs, obviously reprimanding the scriptwriters who were bowing down and deeply apologizing in response.

“My, my, what’s the shouting all about?” Wu Fan interrupts, and the old man’s loud voice immediately falters.

“Senior Wu Fan!” a complete 360 degree turn was seen at the old man’s expression as he jogs towards the tall man to give him a hug.

“It’s been a while my boy,” The old man says in delight, patting the young man’s shoulder. “I thought you aren’t going to come back.”

Wu Fan chuckled, “What made you think of that Senior Charles? Of course I would never leave the theater. This had been my home for the past 8 years! I couldn’t just forget this place.”

Senior Charles Durless smiled at his response and let out a hearty chuckle.

“I’m very touched indeed, my lord.”

 

“Anyway, what’s with the shouting at the scriptwriters Senior? Is there something that they have done wrong?” Wu Fan asks in curiosity, looking back at the scriptwriters who were still in place they were before he interrupts the reprimanding session, still bowing their heads and not moving.

An immediate change of facial expression and a small twitch of the eyebrow were seen at the old man’s face as he turns back his head to glance back at the scriptwriters and back to Wu Fan again.

“Nothing much, they deserve a shout for being irresponsible writers for not translating our newest opera play well.”

“A new opera play? But I thought that the theater’s on hiatus for a month?” he asks, surprised.

“Well my son, it actually was. Until a week ago, I received a telegram from France that a comrade of Senior Georges Bizet wants us to promote Senior Georges’ new opera, Carmen here in London.” Madam Angela interrupts; a second after, her eyes slightly widened as if she realized something.

“My lord, since you’ve came back from a long rest, would you like to have the honor of taking the role of the male lead, Don Jose? The script isn’t well prepared yet, but we can already assign someone for the roles.”

“I certainly agree on that!  Eureka!  Don Jose’s character do fit you well Senior Wu Fan, please don’t hesitate. I want you to take it!” Senior Charles spoke; a firm tone in his voice tells that he really wants Wu Fan to take it.

Wu Fan glances at Finnian who nods his head in agreement, gesturing his master to respond to the old man’s request. He sighed before looking at the couple, and smiled.

“Alright, I’ll take the role.”

 

 

 

 

 

“How is he?” EXO-M’s manager asks frantically. Jongdae and Tao were behind him, all ears on what the doctor has to say.

“Well as of now, his condition is stable but the confusing thing was, there’s nothing wrong with him.” The doctor says, looking down at the clipboard he was holding.

“Nothing wrong? What do you mean?”

“Manager gege!” Minseok calls as he, Lu Han, and Yixing made their way towards them.

“What happened?” Yixing asked, looking at their manager.

“Kris ge fainted” Tao answers for them, looking through the glass that separates them from their dear leader.

“I have conducted a few tests earlier but all the results were showing no signs of illness.

But then again, we will continue to observe his state and look out for signs of any illness that might come out. As of now, as long as he hasn’t opened his eyes yet, he will be rendered in the Intensive Care Unit for observations. I guess I need to go for a while, I have more patients to attend to.” The doctor looked at them through his thick glasses.

“Thank you doctor” their manager nods a bit before bowing 45 degrees, the 5 others doing the same.

 

“What do we do now manager ge?” Minseok looks at their manager when the doctor has finally left. Their manager sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose as he gets his phone with his other free hand.

“Since we have no idea when will Kris wake up, I guess I have to cancel your schedules for the next two weeks” he said, tapping numbers on his phone before putting it over his ear.

“Excuse me for a while.” He added, clearing his throat before walking away from them.

 

“I just don’t get it. What could’ve happened to Kris? He was very cheerful this morning even after sending his mom to the airport yesterday.” Lu Han wonders, his eyes trailing over the old notebook in Jongdae’s hand.

“What’s that?” he asks, making everyone look at the singer.

“Oh this? I actually have no idea either but this was the last thing duizhang was holding before he suddenly collapsed.” Jongdae explained in broken Chinese, examining the notebook’s cover. He was about to open it when their manager called them out.

“Lu Han, Yixing, Xiumin! I need you guys to come with me.”

The five of them looked at each other, “But—“

“It’s alright Lu Han ge. Chen ge and I will stay here to look after duizhang.” Tao reassured, giving them a small smile. The older member could only sigh and nod his head, well if the manager needs us.

“Let’s go.” Yixing speaks and went to their manager first with Lu Han following moments after.

Minseok looks at the notebook in Jongdae’s hand intently, eyebrows furrowed at the same time.

“Hyung? What’s wrong?” Jongdae asks in Korean, titling his head to the side. Minseok seemed to be snapped out from his little trance and looked up, meeting Jongdae’s questioning eyes.

“N-nothing. I— we should go now.” He said, taking a look at the notebook for the last time.

“By the way, Chen?”

“Neh, hyung?”

“….take care of that notebook. That is very important to Kris, just saying.”

Minseok grins at him before jogging his way towards the other two members and their manager who had been waiting for him, leaving a confused Jongdae and curios Tao.

 

“What does Xiumin ge meant by that?” Tao asks as the both of them sat down by the chair outside the ICU room.

“Why would you ask me? How the heck should I know?” Jongdae groans as he sat comfortably in the chair.

“Chen ge, let’s open the notebook! Let’s see what’s inside!” the panda maknae mused, jumping up and down from his seat.

“But, the things inside might be private….or maybe we can take a little peek and see what’s inside.” The singer chuckled darkly as the two of them shared the same little evil looks— or maybe a little more evil on Jongdae’s part.

Hurriedly with wide grins, the older opened the front page of the notebook, the younger leaning on him so he too can see what’s inside. Jongdae turned the next page, and the next page, and the next page and the next page—

“What the hell? There’s nothing inside!” Tao exclaimed, huffing in annoyance.

“Yah, watch your mouth maknae” Jongdae chides, looking at him.

“Sorry gege~” mehrong.

“I can’t help but wonder though,” Jongdae says, lifting up the notebook in the air before shaking it as if something will happen if he did so.

“ Minseok hyung just said that this thing is very important to duizhang but why there’s nothing written in— woah!” he suddenly gaps at the open notebook in his hands.

“Why? What’s the matte— wow” Tao blinks at the notebook in wonder, as the both of them stare with mouths agape; writings started to appear in the page where Jongdae was currently in, like someone is writing on it….in a magical way.

“What does it say?” Jongdae nudges Tao; he couldn’t understand Pinyin yet for the love of China.

“Well…” the younger squints his eyes at the writings as he started to read them out loud.

 

31st of October 1875

Dear Journal,

      The Heavens must love me for giving me another chance to have one of the main roles for the Royal Theater’s new play once again. The role was a heavy one indeed, even if the scripts are yet to be released, I can feel that this one will be a challenge to me even with my years of experience. Senior Charles had informed me a while ago that almost all of the cast for the play are already casted. The only one that is missing is the female lead for this play. Ah, the female lead, my leading lady. I must help them as well so we can soon have the complete cast, so I can finally have, my Carmen…

 

 

---

Hi everyone! It's been a long long while and I'm truly sorry to keep the first subscibers in this story waiting. To be honest I thought I have posted the first chapter a long time ago but I didn't. OMG I'm getting old aren't I? Nah, just kidding.

Sorry for updating just now, the last year of my highschool life was a bit busier than expected but anyway, I finally graduated 3 weeks ago and I'm finally going to college. YEAH~! 

And I hope I could update this one every once a week. Seems cool? *fist bump*

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and I'm sorry if it was boring or smth. 

 

Annyeong! ^-^