CHAPTER 2

“What are you doing here?”

The door closes. A lady wearing a scarlet dress and black heels, an expensive black Chanel bag in hand stands looking at the young Wu, who continuously scribbles down onto some papers, not once looking up to spare her a glance. Her eyes squint in disapproval before she walks to the visitor's chair and sat down.

She takes a deep breath “Is it bad to visit my nephew?”; Kris smirks and places down his pen, he finally lifts his head and looks at her with a sarcastic look on his face, he props up his elbow and rests his chin on the back of his hand “You're kidding me, right?”

“Yi Fan, do you think that badly of me?”

He doesn't answer but just gives a sigh. His aunt rolls her eyes at him, she leans back and drops her bag on to the floor on the side of the chair “You fired too many people already, keep that up and this branch is going down” she looks at him with an unpleasant expression painted on her face “As I've expected, you're careless about things. I don't know why your father appointed you as his successor, you clearly seem like you don't know what you're doing”

Tsk. I saw that one coming. He thinks to himself before he leans back on his own chair as well, crossing his legs, sitting in a relaxed manner “Do I?” his mocking smile fades out and gets replaced with a scornful expression “Then would you care to tell me why Wu Enterprise Seoul was much more efficient than Wu Prime?”

Kris pushes himself off the leather chair to stand up; he turns around to face another view: the city of Beijing. With his back facing her, she frowns. She speaks “Wu Enterprise Seoul is only a branch of Wu Prime”

“True” he raises a finger to the side and shook it “But we were more recognized, Wu Enterprise was deemed bigger and better than Wu Prime... I made it all happen with this carelessness that you call” he turns around and meets her eyes once again, leaning his arms on top of the backrest of his chair “In order to be the best, you need people who are also... the best; common sense”

She raises her chin and up one brow “And I suppose firing people is your method?”

“I fire the ones who are inefficient, useless, slacking off and give the company no benefit in order to make room for the efficient, the useful, the hard working and do the company good”

Silence. She swallows the lump in before letting out a sigh of defeat eventually after Kris intently looks at her as if he was belittling her, because he really was. She reaches for her bag and gets up “I'll be in my office; there's a fashion summit coming up that I have to prepare for, even though you're the chairman, don't forget that I am the main head for the fashion sector of all our branches”

“And why should you remind me of that?” he stands up straight. She turns on her heel and walks to the door “Because I want to point out that I also raised the Wu line to the top of the list in the fashion industry, so think twice if you want to fire me”

He shrugs off her venomous words and ran a hand through his blonde hair. Sigh. “So long as you're still of use, don't worry”

The door slams close, leaving Kris alone once more.

Hana.

It's different.

Wu Enterprise is so different without Kris and I thought I would get used to it by now but unfortunately, I'm not. I didn't move out from the apartment, for some reason it helps me at the end of the day because it actually eases the feeling of longing.

For the two months that Kris and I lived under the same roof, everything inside that vicinity was marked by him. From the bed to last plate in the kitchen, it always screamed Kris Wu and because of that, I feel less... lonely when I'm home. Only problem being that I find it hard to get up in the morning because... well, erm, the pillows smell like him and I just sometimes want to lay around and spoil myself with his invisible presence.

Sigh. It's already nearing lunch time and my stomach is beginning to growl at me. I take a final check on the schedules Suho had this afternoon, wanting to inform him before I go out.

“Let's see...” I mumble “meeting, meeting, coffee with colleagues...” I take note of it, scribbling it down on a sticky note before getting up from my seat and exit my office. I take the short walk to Suho's office and give the door two knocks before going inside “Sir”

Aigo. Sometimes, I feel sorry for Suho. Him behind towers of paperwork has been a common sight ever since Kris left but it's a little understandable since he is still –like all of us- adjusting to the new conditions here in the company.

He looks up and I give him a sympathetic smile “Oh, Hana... do you need something?” he asks. His hair was disheveled, his tie had disappeared and the first two buttons of his white shirt were ed. He was screaming: tired. Not literally ofcourse. I walk inside his office and stop just before his desk “I just came to remind you of your schedules this afternoon”

“Ah, I see... well, go on” he tells me. I clear my throat before looking down on the small note in my hands and read “You have a meeting with CNB Corporation at two o'clock and with LOEN at four-thirty; by six, you scheduled coffee with some old colleagues of yours and Mrs. Kim called, she wants you to have dinner at home tonight”

Suho lets out a breath “Ah, that's good to know. Can you tell mom that I'll be a little late though?” I nod m head with a smile and he smiles back at me. I check my watch “I'll be out for lunch, sir. Should I order some delivery for you?”

“That won't be necessary, Ms. Kim; Lay and Kyungsoo have taken care of it. Enjoy your lunch” he gives me an eye smile and in return I bow, exiting his office.

“So, how are you?” Victoria sits down across Hana inside the small restaurant just a few blocks away from their company building. It was small, simple and the food was cheap but delicious; she's been quite hungry for ordinary food again, rich people food had a different taste. “I'm fine” she puffs out a breath as they both sat straight and began to eat “Suho's been treating you well?” she smiles at Hana.

The girl nods. She takes some kimchi into “He's really stressed these days, you should've seen him in his office” Victoria chews on some meat “He'll get around, don't worry... have you talked to Kris?”

“Yeah, he called me this morning” Hana smiles making Victoria chuckle “Aigo, you must be having a good day then”

“I always have a good day even when it's bad”

Victoria doesn't know how the heck Hana manages her life; she juggles a lot of things in a single day yet she still manages to keep a smile on. Usually, most people can't even do so with so much to think about but she guesses that maybe it has become a habit of hers.

“Oh, have you heard?” Victoria pops up “A fashion summit is coming up and do you know what it means?”

“No” Hana shook her head as she swallows the food in and takes a sip of her drink in a glass. Victoria smiles “It means that your man is coming to Seoul” she said in a say-sing voice, raising a finger in the air and giggles. Hana laughs “My man? Aigo, that sounds so... awkward” she feels her cheeks numbing and fans herself with her hand.

They continue to laugh “But he is your man”

“Yeah but I don't like addressing him that way, it sounds...” she shudders “so awkward; anyway how come he's coming back? Isn't he suppose to be there when that happens?” her companion nods her head “Yes and it's taking place in Seoul so that means he is in fact, coming back; are you excited?”

Where does she get all these information? Aigo. “Aish, I'm not keeping my hopes up” She tells Victoria and the latter gives a sigh.

Hana.

Aish. What's that? It's so hard to read... tsk. Sigh.

Chinese Class. As enjoyable as it is –for me- to learn the language, tonight was just not my night. Placing my pen down, I take a deep breath and try to compose myself. Keep it together Hana. Keep it together.

“Ms. Kim, are you okay?” the teacher's voice cuts me off my thoughts. The other few people in the small room all turn to me and upon body mechanism, my cheeks burn. Gulp. “I-I'm fine, Mr. Zhou” I stammer as I tell him. He gives me a nod and turns back around on the board to scribble more characters, going on with the lesson.

Sigh. For Kris... remember that Hana. For Kris. Yeah.

I admit, it's hard. Very hard. Despite enjoying learning, Chinese is complicated to learn about and as much as I don't want to say, Kris's offer of me just going with him seems so much more ideal right now. Hana... what are you saying? Right. I am not one to take the easy way! As they say so, victory is sweeter when you work hard for it, right? Right. Fighting!

BRRRT. BRRRT. “Oh?” I look down on my lap and secretly fish my phone out of my pocket:

Incoming Call from KRIS

BRRRT. BRRRT. It continues to vibrate in my hand; Aigo, why now? Not now. Not now. Not now! I bit my lip as I hesitate to answer the call. I look at Mr. Zhou, he's still busy with writing things on the board and everyone else around me is also busy scribbling down notes.

Sigh. “Mr. Zhou?”

He turns around and looks at me “Yes, Ms. Kim?” Just get it over with, Hana. “Can I go to the rest room?” he blinks his eyes at me but then allows me and I hurriedly get out of the classroom.

Beep. “Hello?” I whisper as I walk down the hallway to go to the rest room as permitted “Are you busy?”

“I'm still in class”

“Ah, really? Am I disturbing you?”

“Well... Kris” I enter the rest room and close the door “I just missed you” and my heart just melts like ice. How can this guy have such a cold face yet such a sweet side to him? Sigh. You and your charms, Kris Wu. “No... you call just in perfect time, I was heading for the rest room” I smile.

I lean back on the wall “I miss you too” I felt my cheeks numbing when I said those words but I still smiled. It sounded rather funny to hear.

“I know you do” he chuckles “I'm at the hospital right now, going to visit dad”

“That's good...” I puff out a breath “I hope he recovers”

“Yeah, me too. Well, you better get back to your lessons... study hard, arasso?”

“Yes, sir” I smile as I do a salute and chuckle. I could only imagine the smile he had on the other line, that rare smile he gives to only a few chosen people. The call ends. Six months... breathe Hana. Just six months. “Right...” I tell myself, pumping a fist in the air and leave.

Kris.

The hallways were quiet as I walked; just a few sounds of doors opening and closing here and there, footsteps from nurses and doctors making rounds and voices talking in low volume so as not to disturb the peace. I never liked hospitals.

I walked passed many other doors and stop at a particular one. Without knocking, I turn the knob and enter the room; the walls were painted a nice tone of yellow, the floors were tiled and in a clean white color, there's a small living area as I enter, furnished with two white leather love seats, a sofa and a glass center table. On one side was the door leading to the bathroom, beside it was a wall-mounted closet and passed the arched entry way was where dad was.

“Yi Fan” Stephanie gets up from the seat beside the bed where dad laid down, sleeping. I glance at him; look at you old man. Sigh. You really let yourself go, huh? Tsk. Taking an inward breath, I walk towards the side of the bed opposite as where my sister was standing “How is he?”

“He was in pain so the doctor gave him morphine” she breathes out “Also, the doctor wanted to speak with you; Dad called for his lawyers tomorrow morning”

Lawyers? I look at the sleeping old man. What are you up to?