CHAPTER 24

Wu Prime, Beijing, China

Kris placed down his cup of coffee on the glass surface of the meeting room's long table. His back turned to the people sitting, waiting for his word; his assistant stood awkwardly by the door, her eyes fixated on her boss's back as he faced the view of the city through the large glass panel.

Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound of pen pressing repeatedly on the folder was heard, his aunt glanced at the rest of the heads of the different departments and saw that they too were waiting for the chairman to speak.

Today was an important day.

Today was the day for the final reviews for the planned fashion summit and ever since eight o'clock had hit the mark this morning, Kris was already in the meeting room, waiting, judging, accepting and rejecting proposals. Now, it has come to the time where he was going to give them his thoughts.

“Yi Fan...” his aunt finally called out to him, her patience had ran low and she had to get a word out of him, otherwise she might explode “Aren't you gonna say something?”

He doesn't answer but just keeps staring out into the open.

Sigh. “People in this room have other work to do, if you don't have anything else to sa --”

“People in this room are free to leave...” the heads exchange glances “But are not free to come back whenever they please” an almost deafening silence falls upon the room. Most people shrank in their seats.

The chairman finally turns around and takes his seat; his face showed calmness yet his eyes were begging to differ. The room just suddenly felt colder than the usual but could they really complain? Ever since he came in, even the warmest offices with the heater high became cold.

“The fashion summit is two days from now; Wu Enterprise Seoul is the host of this year's event. Regarding your designs, I really don't want to say anything... we're all professionals here, I'm sure you know what you're doing” he glances at his aunt “Now, some of the major fashion investors will be there... since Wu Enterprise is also involved, it doubles the chance of investment”

He grabbed his cup and took a quick sip before continuing further “But...” everyone stiffened “Whoever doesn't get an investment, their designs go straight to the trash”

Slam! “That's absurd!” his aunt rises from her seat, looking at him with great disagreement “Do you know how many people worked hard to put all of these together?”

“Ofcourse, I do” he rolls his eyes at her sudden outburst. “Then what do you expect to show for this year's Spring fashion line?”

Kris falls quiet for a moment. His eyes fixated back to his aunt's own pair; he was not amused at all. He got up from his chair as he took a deep breath and started for the door “Make a new one... is that so complicated?”

Meifen opens the door for him and exits after him;

Quietly, they walk to the elevator. Meifen didn't know what to say, what to think and all she did was quietly follow him until such time that they entered the compartment. Budump. Budump. Budump. She presses a hand to her heart, pleading for it to calm down because at the rate that it was going, she was afraid that he might hear.

Damn it. Calm down! She shut her eyes.

“Ms. Peng”

“S-sir?” her eyes shot open and met his back. His tall stature was what she first noticed. “You have a passport, right?” “Y-Yes, sir... ofcourse, w-why?”

Ding. The doors opened to his office floor and he walks out as she follows “Because you're coming with me to the fashion summit...” Her world seemed to have stopped turning for a moment as she heard those words and absent mindedly her cheeks turned a deep shade of pink. Gulp. “M-me?”

Meifen... did you just hear that? He indirectly asked you to come with him. “I need my assistant there, my schedule will be packed so I need you to keep track of them”

Screech. Crash. Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red, ashamed that such thoughts had even come across her mind. Get a grip, he has a girlfriend! “O-ofcourse, sir”

Kris grabs the handle of the door and opens it, steeping inside while she stopped where she stood “Good. Book up an early flight for yourself and I'll see you in Jeju”

He closes the door on her.

“Yes, sir...” Sigh. That's wrong, Meifen. Wrong.

MONDAY.

Jeju Island, South Korea

“Aish, this is really... tsk” Chanyeol puffs out another heavy, dismayed sigh.

“Ah, so this is the feeling of winning” Lay stretches his arms over his head as he waited for Chanyeol to hand him the keys to his Presidential Suite.

Two months. That was what Lay said, that Kai could move on in just two months or less and his victory was sealed when they noticed that Kai had been avoiding Hana during the past month. Whenever she was near, he didn't even give the slightest care and when she talked to him, he would respond with the usual casanovic smiles, as if she was just another woman in his life that he didn't give a single about.

It was convincing enough to be deemed as: moved on.

“Where's Hana?” Kyungsoo asks Suho. The CEO takes off his glasses and hangs it on the neck of his shirt “She said she'll catch up... have the keys been distributed?” Kyungsoo raises his to answer Suho's question before Baekhyun & Luhan grabs his arm and pulls him towards the hotel's cafe to get some coffee.

The hotel doors open and everyone turns their head. The atmosphere suddenly gets tensed and the group of guys could feel their spines grow cold as a certain –once again blonde- wearing shades over his eyes and a creamy fedora hat enters the lobby and everything just grows silent.

Lay awkwardly moves behind Sehun and the youngest rolled his eyes. If only Lay trusted his words, he wouldn't have faced such a wrath.

“What's with him?” Xiumin nudges Chen and asks as he points his thumb at Lay. The latter shrugs his shoulders and shook his head “I don't know...”

Clueless to the current aura, a brave soul who owned the name Kim Jongin walks up to the fashion head and reached out his hand, the room's card key dangling as the chain was entwined in Kai's fingers “You're room key” he smiles.

“Thanks...” Tao mumbles, taking the key.

Unanimous quiet sighs of relief escaped the group's mouths. Luhan, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo return to the group and together they occupied three of the elevators to go up to their respective rooms. “Presidential Suite, Presidential Suite, Presidential Suite ~” Lay chants on the way up in an excited tone.

Baekhyun parts his lips from the straw of his iced coffee “Lay, did you really have to spend so much for a four night stay?”

“I didn't pay for it” he says after he stops his chant and mini dance of excitement. Baekhyun turns his head to look at the taller guy over his shoulder “Eh?”

“Chanyeol paid for it” he smiles brightly, glancing at the said guy –who was standing just beside him. Baekhyun's eyes turned to tantalizing slits as he peered at Chanyeol. He takes a sip of his iced coffee; he clearly remembered the guy throwing him a rant about how everything is so expensive these days when he asked him to treat him for some meat.

Yet he goes around spending millions on a single room! “What?” Chanyeol asks as he meets the piercing gaze. Baekhyun took another sip of his drink “You treat him to a presidential suite and can't even buy me meat? Some friend you are” he whips his head away, giving Chanyeol the cold shoulder.

“Aish! I told you, we made a bet!”

“Aigo” Luhan breathes out as he shook his head at the two of them “That's why I never make bets”

Baekhyun eyes him for a moment before breaking his mouth open to speak “A pair of AJ1 OGs say that Kris and Hana will not have ”

Luhan almost spat out his coffee but instead swallows it, his eyes widening as he points at Baekhyun “You're on!” and the latter rolls his eyes “And you said that you didn't make bets... idiot” Ding. The elevator doors opened and they all stepped out except for Lay –whose floor was on top of theirs- he waves at the trio as the doors close in on him and Chanyeol rolls his eyes.

Losing . Tsk.

The three walk down the quiet hall and stop at specific doors “Hey Baek...” Luhan calls out to him, his room was right next to his while Chanyeol's was across theirs. “Hm?” Baekhyun slides the card key, a quick beep was heard and the small light turned from red to green. “You were serious about the bet, right? Because I really want those”

“Tch. Ofcourse not, I was just testing you... besides, the only person I know who owns a pair within reach is Kris and let's face it, it's a stupid bet. Ofcourse you'd win, those two's hormones are raging for all I know” he grabs the door handle, turns and pushes it open.

“Speaking of those two...” Chanyeol speaks out “Are they gonna share a room or?”

“Ofcourse they'll share a room” Luhan snorts to the side, pushing his own door open. Chanyeol pushes his door open aswell “Wanna bet on it?” he grins at Luhan as he then exchanges looks with Baekhyun.

“Yeeee –No” Baekhyun shuts his door. Another slam follows and as Chanyeol turns his head, he realizes that Luhan did the same. Sigh. “Chickens” he mumbles before closing his own door.

Hana.

Late.

The sole reason why I am still not in Jeju at nine in the morning thanks to my phone alarm that I forgot to set last night. Stupid. It's a good thing that there's no scheduled event today, otherwise I'm subject for a good hour in a boiling pot of oil for not being there to inform my boss of what's next and stuff.

So here I was, waiting for the next flight which is... atleast forty minutes from now. Sigh.

Ring. Ring. “Hello?”

“Good morning, beautiful” I would squirm and scream but I guess the only thing my body can manage to do right now is shiver while my cheeks burned. “I think you have the wrong number, sir” I playfully told him, sipping on my cup of green apple tea.

Yes, such a drink does exist. “Did I? Hm... then if this is not Kim Hana, who is this?”

I'm the one who will take of you from now on, Wu Yi Fan. “This is Mr. Kim Joonmyeon's EPA, how may I help you?” he gives me a sigh on the other line “Oh, sorry, can you tell Mr. Kim Joonmyeon that I'm going to exchange EPAs with him?”

Have I ever said that the oh-so-powerful Kris Wu has a very affectionate side to him? No? Well, he does. Quite frankly, the past two weeks has been full of complaints from him. I was packed with work within those two weeks, thus I sometimes missed his calls both on Skype and mobile. Other times, I just forget to reply to his messages.

He complained and complained about how I was working too hard and ignoring him, saying that he was hurt and that he felt like crying whenever I missed his calls and texts. It was quite funny, actually.

“I'm sorry, sir but I don't think that's possible”

“Hey ~ do you really not want to work for me again? I wasn't that bad when I was your boss, was I?” a light laugh dances off my lips and I lean back in my seat. “You were scary” I pout. “Was not” he disagrees. Ofcourse he would disagree. Taking a deep breath, I shook my head at him and change the topic “Are you at the airport?”

“As a matter of fact, I am”

I pick up my cup and take a sip of my drink then suddenly, something soft lands on my right cheek; I quickly whip my head to the side, surprised and shocked by the sudden contact but what surprises me more is that a tall, blonde guy, eyes covered with a pair of aviators stood before me.

“Omona!” I quickly place down my drink and got up from my chair; wrapping my arms around his waist. Kris chuckles “Surprised?” he asks after I broke away; I nod my head with a bright, surprised smile.

Just as I was about to speak, he leans forward and plants a quick kiss on my lips; Gasp. Smack! “Ow!” he yelps, taken aback by the slap that my hand gave to his forehead. I clasp my hands over my lips and look around; people didn't seem to give a care whatsoever but still! This is public! I felt my cheeks going numb and possibly going red too.

“What was that for?” he asks, brows knitting together as he rubs the spot. “W-we're in public”

He raises a brow at me before his hands s around my waist and pulled me closer, obviously not giving a single thought about the people around us. “So?” As expected. “Let them see and be curious”

I roll my eyes and he responds with a chuckle.

“Flight 11365 bound for Jeju Island, please proceed to Gate B. Flight 11365 bound for Jeju Island, please proceed to Gate B, thank you” I broke myself away from his grasp and grabbed my handbag from the opposite chair “That's my flight --”

“How coincidental, that's my flight too” a smirk tugs on the corner of his lips and I eye him suspiciously. Somewhere in the pit of my stomach, I knew something was fishy when Xiumin told me that he already took care of my ticket –it was even more suspicious when he called me earlier and said that he scheduled an alternative flight for me hence my tardiness. “You didn't give orders to Xiumin, did you?”

He pushed up his aviators “No, this is pure coincidence... now, come on or we're gonna be late” he grabs my hand and pulls me along. Still, it's a nice surprise.

Meifen looks around the rather exquisite lobby of the hotel as she enters along with other members of Wu Prime, most of them being from the fashion department. It's the first time that she's ever gone on a trip, let alone stay in such a luxurious place. Wow... so pretty.

“Looks like we're room mates” her friend said, cutting her out of her thoughts. She puts on a smile as she sees the card key held up in her friend's hand. From the corner of her eyes, she caught a glimpse of two –overly attractive- men exiting the elevators.

The executive assistant of Wu Prime's fashion department, immediately bows upon seeing the two and the rest follows. “Who are they?” Meifen whispers in question at her friend “Company owners... Mr. Zhang Yixing and Mr. Lu Han” her friend answers.

Giving acknowledging nods, the two walk past their group, disappearing through the next hall. It was only then that Meifen concluded: Wu Prime, group of companies, is run by Adonis-like men. Mr. Wu Yi Fan is the very first proof.

“Come on, I'm tired... we only have one day to enjoy relaxing here, tomorrow is the opening” her friends tugs her along to the elevators. As they arrived at their floor, they walked down the hall with their other work mates, trying to find their rooms aswell. “By the way...” her friend calls for her attention as she pushes the door open and goes inside with Meifen following “You're Mr. Wu's PA so...” Meifen settles down her luggage and slumps down on one of the beds “aren't you supposed to fly in with him?”

“He already booked a ticket for himself...” she puffs out a breath, staring at the ceiling for a moment before closing her eyes. Seconds later, she felt the bed and when she opened her eyes, her friend was beside her, elbows propped up and hands cupping her face that had a grin plastered on it. “Do you like Mr. Wu?”

Meifen blinks her eyes for a moment before sitting up “I told you, I don't” she gets out of bed and hauls her bag up, opening the closet and threw it inside, grumbling as she closes it “He has a girlfriend...”

“So? It doesn't mean that you can't like him. You just can't have him”

“Really, what are you trying to do? You tell me he's off-limits and now you sound like you're coaxing me to like him”

“No I'm not, I'm just saying that it's not like you're not allowed to like him, you can but you just can't have him because he has a girlfriend”

Rolling her eyes, she dives back on the bed “That's why it's a very good idea not to like him... I'm curious though, I wonder what he's like with his girlfriend” her friend shrugs her shoulders and gets off the bed “Probably blunt too... he doesn't seem like the lovey-dovey type”

“His girlfriend is the EPA of Wu Enterprise's CEO, right? Is she coming here too?”

Meifen's been very curious about the certain Kim Hana lately. She pictured her to be someone tall, like a supermodel, long hair, pretty face, someone who could match Kris Wu's god-like features.

“I think so... Mr. Wu brought you along so I think Mr. Kim is bringing his own PA, aswell”

Reasonable enough. “Have you seen her?” she asks her friend, batting her eyes in curiosity. To her dismay though, the other female shook her head “No... but she's probably someone who looks like a supermodel” letting out a sigh, Meifen rolls off the bed and heads for the bathroom, announcing that she was going to take a shower before closing the door.

Kai.

Afternoon settles down and the majestic poolside of the hotel glimmers.

I wipe off the sweat from my eyebrows, letting out a breath of relief seeing that the runway stage has finally been set up and the look of approval on Tao's face. Clapping my hands together, I call for everyone's attention “Alright guys, good job... let's take a ten minute break and finish it up”

I walked towards one of the tents and sat on the chair next to Tao, grabbing one of the untouched cups of iced chocolate and took a sip; he puffs out a sigh and leans back “The stage is really awesome, Kai... thank you”

“You're welcome; Chanyeol got someone to take care of some other special technology stuff, he'll probably be here tomorrow morning” he gives another thankful sigh and leans back on his chair, completely looking like he has relaxed. He's been working his off for the event and even turned into some kind of Bride-zilla along the way.

“By the way...” he says; I turn to him, parting the straw from my lips “Hm?” “Congratulations on officially stopping your drinking habit” he smiles for the first time today in awhile. Sigh. No one's mentioned that to me and I actually only noticed just now. “Have you moved on?”

“What?” I raise a brow at his question and he only gives me a smile, knowing that I knew exactly what he meant. I chuckle and shook my head at him “I don't think about her anymore, does that count?”

He shrugs his shoulders “I guess so”

Now I know why people complain about moving on. It's ing hard and not only that but the process aswell, suddenly I'm reminded why I never had strings attached in the first place.

But I have to be honest, liking her wasn't half bad either... I can't blame her, it's not like she seduced me anyway, like some girls. Oh no, ladies and gentlemen, I single handedly brought myself to like her. I stayed in one train far too long without a thought and missed my stop but like Kyungsoo said... there's always a cab.

I'm glad I can just... breathe again.

I got up from my chair “I think I left my phone in my room... I'll be right back” I excused myself, picking up the cup and walked away. I quietly entered the hotel once again, absent mindedly wandering towards the elevator then all of a sudden. SPLASH. “Woh!”

I looked down at my once white shirt which was now splashed with the brown color, cold chocolate dripping down my fingers and onto the floor. My brows knit together as I looked at the person who gasped, catching her horror filled eyes as she looked at my damp shirt.

“Aish. This was my favorite shirt” I grumbled, shaking off the liquid from my hand. The girl bowed frantically, babbling another language, perhaps asking for forgiveness.

Another girl, with equally horrified eyes, appeared beside her and bowed as well “Please forgive her, Mr. Kim! Oh my gosh, why didn't you look where you were going?” she diverts to another language at the last sentence, turning to the culprit. I assume that she's the friend.

“We're very sorry, Mr. Kim” the two of them bow. A heavy sigh escapes my lips. I don't have time for this... assuming that she knows me, they probably work for the company. I catch a glimpse of the red chords that held their IDs. Wu Prime... China... definitely.

“Tss. Watch where you're going next time” I stalk off. Idiots. Tsk.