CHAPTER 43

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hana quietly sat across the lady, a calm expression on her face despite the question wandering to and fro inside her mind. Why was she here, how did she get the contact number, what does she want… a lot of questions. The lady clears , sending off the waiter to get the orders –that of which was a bottle of wine and some Italian steak; once alone, she finally meets Hana’s eyes but to her surprise, the latter doesn’t look away.

 

 

This Hana seemed much more solid compared to the one that she had first been introduced to: timid and of weak backbone.

 

 

“I didn’t expect you to accept my invitation” she says, an attempt to start a conversation. Hana smiles a little “I didn’t know it was you, ma’am… I expected it to be someone else”

 

 

I was expecting Kris’ grandmother, not you. “What did you want to see me for, ma’am?” she asks, erasing the smile and replacing it with a firm line. Lady Wu leans forward, propping her elbows on the table and gracefully tangles her fingers together, and she takes a deep breath before meeting the young girl’s eyes once more “I heard about your miscarriage”

 

 

Hana’s face falters a little but she quickly gathers herself, quietly taking a deep breath as she tells herself to keep calm and keep it together “I see… but I don’t know how that concerns you, ma’am”

 

 

The lady swallows hard, now she was not sure of how to proceed.

 

 

Silence falls upon them again. Hana looks down on her hands on the table, noticing how they had balled up unconsciously and frowned; she heaves a deep breath and decides that maybe, just maybe, it’s best to speak out her thoughts now because this may be the only chance she gets.

 

 

“Listen, madame Wu” Please don’t make me regret this later. She mumbles to her subconscious and the latter chuckles, responding: Don’t worry, I won’t. “You and I both know the truth about what really happened and I would be lying if I say that I’m not angry but I can’t put the whole blame on you because we both didn’t know what was there. With all due respect, I have a lot on my mind right now so if you don’t have anything else to say, I’ll be taking my leave”

 

 

She gets up from her seat and so does the lady; she grabs the younger lady’s arm, stopping her from leaving.

 

 

“I’m sorry”

 

 

Hana doesn’t say anything; she feels the grip on her arm loosening and the next thing she knows, the lady was on her knees. The few people around them began to stare and she was thrown into panic, her eyes widened into saucers “M-Madame!” she drops her bag and tries to pull the lady up by the shoulders “Please don’t do that, p-please get up”

 

 

. . . She mentally curses, she didn’t expect the lady to go this far.

 

 

“Please forgive all the wrong that I have done towards you and Yi Fan”

 

 

Hana presses her lips in a thin line and lets out a sigh; she bends down to the lady’s level, grabbing hold of the sides of her arms and guides her to stand up with her. Once her knees had left the floor and she was on her feet again, Hana retreated her hands and gave the lady a polite bow then a small smile “One apology was enough, ma’am”

 

 

She grabs her bag from the floor “Good night, ma’am” and leaves.

 

 

The lady watches as the girl walks off and disappears through the doors; for some reason, she finds herself feeling light as if a huge boulder has been lifted off of her shoulders. Kim Hana reminded her of someone and she painfully smiles to herself as she remembers that the person this girl reminded her of was herself; the way she had fought for life, for happiness, for love and the only difference between them being that she gave up whereas Kim Hana was still trying.

 

 

Despite the odds, she continued to try.

 

 

“Aren’t you an interesting bird, Kim Hana?” the lady smiles to herself.

 

 

Hana.

 

 

Sigh.

 

 

I lean forward, resting my head against the steering wheel as I wait for the red light to turn green; Hana… what are you gonna do? I groan before pulling myself away from the wheel and caught sight of the envelope peeking out of my bag –the one that Tao had given me earlier; I haven’t gotten the chance to open it. He said it could help me decide.

 

 

Growing curious, I reach a hand forward and take the item. I carefully tear the top open and take out the content; I unfold the piece of paper inside and read only to have my eyes widen in surprise:

 

 

APPROVAL FOR TRANSFER

 

 

And not only that but attached with the piece of paper was a plane ticket to China. I couldn’t believe it, the application was approved, the board approved of it, Tao approved the transfer and Suho signed the last word on it! I was immediately cut off my thoughts when a loud honk came about and only then do I realize that the light had turned green.

 

 

Quickly putting away the paper and envelope inside my bag, I drove off.

 

 

I didn’t know where I was going but all I know was that my mind was too clouded to go home; I didn’t want to go home, I couldn’t think straight there, I had to get away for awhile so I drove to my heart’s content. A lot was happening at the moment and try as I may to be okay, I couldn’t hold it up forever.

 

 

You’re human, Hana. I sometimes forget that; how idiotic.

 

 

Eventually, I parked the car onto the side of the road but made no move to get out. I just sat there, going over the options that I had, going every what if and possible consequences that came with them; “Hana ~” I whine to myself, pulling on my hair as I leaned my head back and closed my eyes “You’re over thinking again!”

 

 

Ah, I’m going crazy talking to myself!

 

 

I open my eyes, about to cry when I happened to look up and instead I found myself staring. This is all too familiar and if only the situation was different, I would’ve laughed because here I was, sitting inside my car, staring back at a billboard of Wu Prime’s chairman: Kris Wu.

 

 

“What would you do, Kris?”

 

 

My subconscious laughs out loud; You know what he would do, idiot.

 

 

---

 

 

She rang the door bell a couple of times and waited, fidgeting with the straps of her bag in hand. Her heart was pounding hard, her palms were sweating and her heels were killing her but that was the least of her concerns right now. She rang the door bell once more and this time the door opens, she puts on a smile “Good evening” and bows

 

 

“Hana” Yixing blinks his eyes in surprise, Xiumin appearing behind him with a glass of brandy in hand. He was as equally surprised to see the female standing outside his friend’s unit at an hour that she’s usually home already “What are you doing here?” Xiumin asks

 

 

“Sorry, I needed someone to talk to”

 

 

The two lads exchange looks for a moment; Xiumin gives a nod and walks ahead to the living room whereas Lay moves aside and invites her in.

 

 

Kris.

 

 

RING. RING. RING.

 

 

I found myself frowning as I saw the unknown number but answered it anyway, fully knowing who it was that was calling me. I slide my thumb across the screen and press the device onto my ear “Hello?”

 

 

“How is my favorite grandchild?” as much as I like hearing from her, I’m pissed off at the moment. No, I feel like I’ve been turned against on. Betrayed as you all would call it. “Why did you do it?” I ignored her question and raised one of my own; she laughs on the other line in a way that I would categorize as a tease but perhaps mocking is a more fitted word for it “Why did you do it?” I repeat

 

 

“I saw that coming” she sighs “You know why I’m doing this, Yi Fan”

 

 

“Well I don’t need it” I growl but knowing her, I know she only brushed off the menacing tone in my voice. I will always be nothing but a mere little boy in her eyes and it irritates me but maybe it’s where I got my strong attitude from.

 

 

“You don’t but your girlfriend does. Yi Fan, you and I know how harsh the world we live in is; she can’t turn a blind eye to it forever. I am doing you both a favor here”

 

 

“A favor?” I ask, incredulously “It’s an option; it’s an easy way out”

 

 

Sigh. I ran a hand through my hair, my eyes falling on the document laid out neatly on my desk. A copy of the approval for her transfer here in China; signed by all the board members. “Look, Yi Fan, I am just lying out an offer and to accept it or not is going to be her choice. I will respect it; I give you my word for that” I slump down on the leather chair, tired and exhausted from today’s work and over thinking.

 

 

Yeah, I fully knew why she was doing this and I knew this was a move properly thought about. It was my selfishness and arrogance that was the problem. I’ve gotten used to getting what I want all these years that when I gave Hana a special spot in my life, I knew I had to change whether I like it or not because I wanted to keep her.

 

 

“Hana is a one of a kind girl, Yi Fan…”

 

 

“I can’t lose her, grandma”

 

 

“You’re not; whatever decision she makes she will not love you any less… it’s just work, Yi Fan”

 

 

I feel defeated. She laughs on the other line making me frown “What?” “I have never seen you so head over heels for a woman, what has Kim Hana done to my cold hearted grandson?” I roll my eyes at the comment “That’s because I’ve never been”

 

 

There was silence for a moment and for that short while I got a little lost in my thoughts. Wondering what was going on in Seoul at the moment but I was pulled back when the old lady on the other line spoke “She has three more days to think about the offer and give me a response”

 

 

“You gave her a deadline?”

 

 

“My offer can’t stand forever for Hana alone, young man. You know how many people are unemployed?” I roll my eyes “Tch, yeah, you forgot to mention to me that you bought Cube”

 

 

“Oh hush. The least you could do is thank your grandmother for erasing a threat on your list”

 

 

“How do you thank someone who’s luring your girlfriend away from you?!”

 

 

“Wu Yi Fan, did you just yell at your grandmother? I swear young man, when I see you I will grip your ears so hard you will cry!”

 

 

And cue myself slapping my palm onto my face.

 

 

---

 

 

 

I am exhausted.

 

 

I flop down onto my bed, lazily kicking off my shoes and pulled myself onto the center laying eagle spread on the soft mattress as I closed my eyes and breathed out a long sigh of relief that I am finally inside my room. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone home to my condo unit and I figured it’s best to stay here for the night instead of the Wu residence. No one will disturb me here.

 

 

Opening my eyes again, I stare at the ceiling for awhile and ask myself am I really this selfish? And I find myself chuckling because the last I felt this frustrated was when I was trying to sort out what I really thought about Hana –before she became my girlfriend. The denial and confusion stage, as Chanyeol would call it.

 

 

Ugh. I roll to my side, reaching out a hand and grabbed the stuffed alpaca resting by the pillows “Ace ~” I whine aloud and place him atop my stomach;

 

 

Look at this guy, always smiling without a care in the world. Hmph.

 

 

“Papa’s not selfish, right?” I ask him but he merely just keeps smiling at me. I’ll take that as a no, you aren’t. “Papa is the best, right?” Silence means yes “Papa just wants Mama here, I just want her near is that so wrong?”

 

 

 

 

A snigger makes Kris’ eyes widen; he quickly sits up and sees Luhan leaning against the doorway of his bedroom, arms crossed and looking at him. The chairman quickly hides the stuffed animal behind him and glares at the doe eyed businessman “Papa?” Luhan snorts.

 

 

“What are you doing here and how did you get in?” he hisses.

 

 

Luhan laughs “Take a chill pill. You left your door open, idiot and to answer the first question I was bored at home so I thought we could hang around; do you always talk to stuffed animals or –” Kris sends daggers at him and he holds his hands up in surrender “Alright then”

 

 

BEEP. Kris fishes his phone out of his pocket and sees a text but not one from someone he was expecting

 

 

Hana’s drunk as .

 

- Xiumin

 

 

What the -- Kris doesn’t even finish his thoughts and puts Minseok’s number on speed dial as Luhan observes his hasty moves “What’s wrong?” something was up judging by the way his friend’s face suddenly turned from pissed off and embarrassed to worry and frustration “Hana” he answers with a name as he waits for the line to be connected to the other side

 

 

“Xiumin” finally “What happened? Where is she?”

 

 

“Hey, hey, relax” “How am I supposed to re –-” but Minseok cuts him off by beginning to explain everything that happened, he kept going and going not giving Kris a chance to in. When he was done he took a deep breath “So calm down because she’s safe”

 

 

Kris ran a hand through his hair, hunching forward as he covered his face with his palm. Luhan was beginning to get worried himself “Alright then” the chairman says before ending the call and hops out of his bed.

 

 

“Kris, what happened?” but he doesn’t get any answer.

 

 

Kris quietly walks to and fro in the room and Luhan’s eyes follow him. He grabs something from the drawer on his bedside table then turns to his colleague “Luhan”

 

 

“Yeah?”

 

 

“Do me a favor…”

 

 

Swallowing hard, Luhan nods his head “Alright, what do you need me to do?” and Kris smiles a little because he knew he could count on him.

 

 

---

 

 

 

“Yah! Hana, no! Stop!” Lay scolds, attempting to take away the glass from her but she blocked him with her arm and downed the alcohol up to the last drop.

 

 

Xiumin’s shoulders deflate as he watches the female slowly get wasted by the drinks; she drank half a bottle of vodka he thinks to himself as he takes the now empty bottle and tips it upside down, not a drop wasted. “Aish! That’s it, we’re taking you home!” Lay roars, shooting up from the couch and yanks on her arm but she refuses to get up and whines childishly “NO! Yixing please ~ I don’t wanna go home yet ~”

 

 

“Hana, you’re drunk” Xiumin informs her but she merely laughs at him and waves a dismissive hand “Nonsense! I never get drunk” she slurs. Xiumin turns to Lay “Yeah, she’s definitely drunk”

 

 

“Yeah, I noticed” Lay says sarcastically before rolling his eyes and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He looks down at Hana as she had slumped back on the seat and was pouting, hugging a pillow. Lay didn’t expect it at all, all he thought was that she needed someone to talk to so he was expecting her to talk as soon as she sat down but she took the two of them by surprise when she suddenly grabbed the bottle of vodka that he and Kai had been sharing before she came and drank up.

 

 

To think that it’s the first time they’ve seen her like this: problematic and drunk. A bad combination Xiumin concludes to himself.

 

 

The doorbell rings and Xiumin gets up “I’ll get it… that must be Kyungsoo –she seems to listen to him” he leaves to get the door. Lay huffs, he turns back to Hana and quickly snags away the bottle of whiskey that she was reaching for “No!” he points a finger, holding the bottle away and she pouts at him “Hmph… meanie!”

 

 

Xiumin reappears with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol following behind him. “Oh my god! Hana!” Chanyeol rushes towards her, grabbing her by the shoulders and shakes her “Are you okay? What the hell happened to you?!”

 

 

SMACK! “Ow!”

 

 

Everyone’s eyes widened as Chanyeol falls back on the couch, his hand clasping over his forehead as Hana had hit him. She was pouting and if only she wasn’t drunk, she would have been cute in their eyes “Don’t shake me!” she slurs “You’re making me dizzy, idiot ~”

 

 

“That hurt Hana!” Chanyeol whines, rubbing his reddening forehead with a childish pout.

 

 

Xiumin puffs out a sigh, palming himself in the face. The female gets up to her feet and grabs her bag “Aigo ~ I’ll just head home now, Yixing-ah!” she turns to Lay with a grin, wobbling side to side as she flashes a drunken smile at him “Thanks for the drinks ~” she takes the first step and Chanyeol immediately springs to his feet, catching the girl in his arms before she could hit the hard floor.

 

 

Hana passed out.

 

 

“Maybe, its best if she stays the night… who knows what she’ll do if we leave her in her condo alone” Kyungsoo suggests leaving Yixing with no choice but to nod; he excuses himself from the group “I’ll go get the guest room ready”

 

 

Chanyeol places her to lie down on the couch while Kyungsoo takes her bag and sets it aside. “She must be having a hard time” Xiumin mumbles, pocketing his hands as he watches the passed out girl; he has never imagined Hana getting drunk since she’s always been so happy go lucky but then again, he guesses that maybe she needed to escape the situation for awhile. She was only human too, afterall.

 

 

Limited. He thinks.

 

 

Yixing reappears in the living room and announces that the room was ready. Kyungsoo turns to Chanyeol “Carry her” he commands in a calm voice, Chanyeol gives him an incredulous look “Eh, why me?!” “What are you freeting so much for? You’re just gonna carry her” Lay states, crossing his arms but Chanyeol flashes them a cross sign with his arms “No!”

 

 

“Aish, Chanyeol get over it and just carry her” Xiumin tells him, annoyed by his childish refusal to carry the drunken girl to the room “No! Did you see what she did to me earlier?!” he points at his still red forehead.

 

 

Xiumin sighs and shakes his head before deciding to do it himself while Kyungsoo flicks the giant’s forehead much to Chanyeol’s pain. Don’t judge, he had a sensitive forehead and the fact amuses Yixing because he always thought that Chanyeol had a thick skull.

 

 

As Xiumin finally settles her in bed, Kyungsoo adjusts everything from the pillows to the blankets, making sure to cover her well so as that she would not get cold.

 

 

“Thank god she didn’t take off her clothes” Chanyeol breathes and Lay does so too because he really didn’t want to see his friend’s girlfriend . It was wrong on so many levels. “I’ll go ahead outside” Xiumin says and heads out of the guest room as Chanyeol and Lay follow; Kyungsoo stays for awhile wanting to make sure that she was comfortable or dead beat asleep, atleast.

 

 

Sigh. What’s gotten into you, Hana? He clicks his tongue, sitting on the edge of the bed just beside her sleeping figure. What she did was stupid but then he asks himself if he was really in the place to judge, he’s never been faced with a situation like Hana’s and they were different in many ways so he shook his head and concludes to himself that judging her by what she did was wrong.

 

 

But it still was stupid.

 

 

“Kris…” he hears her groan and looks at her sleeping face; she groans again “Yi Fan…”

 

 

Kyungsoo sighs and shakes his head, lightly patting her head “You know what you want, Hana…” he says despite knowing that she wasn’t hearing him out anyway. He pulls the blanket up a little more before getting up and leaving the room, shutting the lights.

 

 

Lay.

 

 

It was somewhere around finishing the last bottle of Jack Daniel’s; Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Minseok and I decided to sit down and talk because it’s been awhile anyway and chances like these were rare with everything around the office always hectic and busy. I didn’t know what time it was already but I was sure that these three had no plans of going home and I’m not complaining at all; I never do anyway.

 

 

A time spent with friends, is time not wasted.

 

 

“Well, that was certainly crazy” Chanyeol comments with a laugh at a crazy meeting story that Xiumin was scary; I chuckled, sipping on my drink and finished it off deciding that it was going to be the last.

 

 

We all let out heavy breaths. One cannot simply ignore that there was someone else in this household and I am getting worried over Hana. It’s not like her at all to lose it just like that.

 

 

BUZZ. BUZZ. “I’ll get it” Kyungsoo volunteers; setting down his glass on the table and gets up to answer the door. Chanyeol was sharing a joke and we were laughing not because it was funny but because it when all of a sudden Xiumin stops, his face falling blank and eyes wide in shock, Chanyeol does the same and I turn my head as well.

 

 

Hana.

 

 

Ugh. My head hurts.

 

 

I could feel my brain throbbing, my eyelids felt heavy, my throat was dry, my whole body felt heavy and I feel like I’m about to throw up. Ugh, what happened anyway? I bring a hand to my eyes, rubbing the sleep away and slowly as my systems acted again, I felt a weight on my waist making my eyes shoot up wide open.

 

 

I was gonna shoot out of bed but the grip tightened and pulled me down not even halfway into my escape; Oompf! My side hits the mattress once more “Yah –-” I was about to yell at whoever was holding me down, I squirmed until I managed to turn to face the person and everything: my body, my brain, my heart, time, everything just froze up.

 

 

“Good morning, beautiful” he smiles

 

 

Kris.

 

---

 

 

Author’s Note

 

            Hello everyone, I’m just here to leave a note to all of you. First of all, THANK YOU for all the upvotes and comments and PMs and wall posts and LINE messages that you’ve been sending, I am forever grateful to each and every one of you /le hugs you even if you don’t want to/ and second of all, we all know the shenanigans happening in the fandom but please, please, please if you want to rant out your opinion about what you feel and think about the so-called issue don’t do it here because this comment box is not some open forum and you will sound like an to others –-sorry if it sounds rude but seriously, don’t post your rant about the issue on the comment box… I’ll just delete it anyway so that no hunger games in this comment box starts.

 

            Eherm, anyway, again thank you guys! Reviews are very much welcome just post them on the comment box! And yeah, the end is near ~ KEKEKEKE

 

Yehet.