FINAL
Ah, Love
FINAL
The clock strikes four-thirty marking the end of Hana’s long first day of work. Like her usual habit even back when she worked in Seoul, she walks up to her boss’s office, knocks and walks inside to say her goodbyes. The lady smiles as she sees her new assistant, getting ready to leave the office aswell.
“I’ll be going ahead, ma’am; I promised Kris dinner tonight so I have to get home now”
For a moment, her boss raises a brow but decides not to say anything against her words or whatever it is that her grandson had told her. Yifan is Yifan, he can be quite the unpredictable boy. Shaking her head, she smiles at Hana and gives her a nod “I see… well, I’m done here for today” she reaches a hand to turn off her desk lamp before walking around her table towards Hana “I’ll go down with you, dear”
Hana smiles and gives a brief nod. The two enter the elevator, Hana pressing the button for the ground floor.
“By the way,” Hana speaks, figuring that she should atleast make small talk “I’ve arranged all your schedules for tomorrow morning ma’am” “I see, thank you… I guess I can see why Mr. Kim favors you as a PA” her boss chuckles and Hana does so aswell “I’m just doing my job, ma’am –isn’t it what PAs are supposed to do?”
The lady nods in agreement with a smile. DING.
The two walk out of the lift, heading for the building’s front doors where a guard opens it up for them to exit. At the foot of the stairs, another guard was holding open the passenger door of a sleek black car for her boss. The lady turns to Hana “Would you like me to drop you off at your home?”
“O-oh, uhm…” she stumbles with words, a bit taken back by the offer “its okay, ma’am. I’ll just hail a cab; it’s not very far anyway”
Her boss doesn’t press on any further, she bids her young assistant a goodbye before entering the vehicle and the sleek black vehicle drives away. Hana takes a deep breath before walking down the steps and hail a cab by the side of the road.
Hana.
Different. That’s what exactly everything is right now, it’s all different.
Everything still feels like a vivid dream to me to be quite honest but deep inside I know this is all true, it’s all a reality that I’m no longer in Seoul and I doubt I’ll be back there anytime soon. Funny, I’ve been here for a week already and I still feel like bonking my head every morning on a wall to assure myself that I’m in a place that I thought I’d never be; that I’m in a place that’s so close to Kris again.
I lean my head back on my seat, taking another deep breath as my eyes wander out to the view outside of the window as the taxi sped through the streets of the city. My eyes flicker at a billboard up ahead and I smile to myself as I see the one and only Kris Wu; his image printed and sprawled on a large piece of plastic for everyone to see and admire. So different too, even my boyfriend is different in the views of so many people –he’s cold in the eyes of the general public but those who personally know him and hold a place in that arctic cold heart of his beg to differ. I know I would.
The cab finally comes to a stop. I pay the fare and exit the vehicle, greeting the guards and other staff at the lobby of the apartment –people that I’ve managed to be friends with in my first week here in China- before rushing to the elevator.
I have forty-five minutes to prepare before Kris picks me up for dinner.
DING. I rush out of the elevator, pressing the numbers of the codes on the security lock and successfully enter my condo. I flip on the lights, kicking off the heels –that have been killing me since this morning from running to and fro and tailing behind my boss until the afternoon- before dashing off to my bedroom, throwing my bag aside in hopes to rush getting myself prepared.
However, I stop on my tracks halfway to the bathroom as I spot something on my bed from the corner of my eyes. On top of my bed were two boxes with the brand GUCCI pressed printed on the lids in gold and I could only assume then who these were from –and the note on the bigger box confirms my guesses
Yes, it’s me. You know the drill, Hana
- Kyungsoo
I set aside the note and open up the boxes. Kris Wu, you are full of surprises. This is definitely not going to be an ordinary dinner and my heart is beginning to race in anticipation of what he had in store for tonight.
I therefore conclude that Do Kyungsoo’s taste in fashion is far more advanced compared to mine.
I take a deep breath and take one last look at the mirror, making sure that I looked prim and proper –which is ridiculous considering that I’ve never been like this before; you need to relax, Hana. I give myself a satisfied smile and in that moment, the door bell rang and my heart almost leapt out of my chest.
“Jesus, calm down” I swallow hard before picking up my purse and almost tripped on my way there. That would have been a mess. I set myself straight and open the door, picturing the dashingly tall and blonde man that I haven’t seen for weeks to be standing outside with a smile on his face and engulf me in a hug but no… that wasn’t it. Dashingly tall and blonde? Check… Kris Wu? No check.
Tao laughs –at what I assume was my perplexed expression, “Surprised?” I blink my eyes for a moment, completely dumbfounded by his presence infront of me instead of Kris’s “T-Tao, what are you doing here?”
“I figured you would ask that,” He sighs “Kris had to finish something back at the office so he asked me to pick you up” I glanced at the clock: 7:03 PM, it said –if there’s one thing everyone knows about Kris, he is never late. Atleast, he didn’t cancel.
I smiled at him “I see. Shall we go?”
He smiles at me before stepping aside from the doorway and lets me pass as I pull the door close behind me.
Tao took his time driving. He knew no one was in a hurry anyway… maybe except for Hana, she looked like she wanted to tell him to speed up incase Kris is already waiting but repeatedly decided against it inside. Kris was waiting, yes but Tao knew something else. He can wait… he waited this long, he can wait a little more. He breathes out, leaning himself back further into his seat as much as possible; he glances at the female sitting beside him, in the passenger seat, fiddling with her fingers and biting down on her lower lip –a habit that he has noticed since before whenever she was nervous. To put it simply, Hana looked exceptionally well tonight and he couldn’t help but feel a little proud because she seemed to have learned well from his advices about her fashion sense and make up. God knows just how many times he’s been critiquing the girl when she was still at Wu Enterprise.
“Hana” he calls for her attention; she turns her head and releases her lower lip from the wrath of her teeth “You shouldn’t bite your lip. I swear, one of these days you’re gonna make yourself bleed” “I can’t help it,” she huffs and shifts in her seat “I don’t know why I’m so nervous”
He ignores her statement and for a moment, they were in silence again.
“yì yán jì chū, sì mǎ nán zhuī” he says. Hana turns to him, a little too lost in her thoughts to catch the words that Tao was saying “Huh?” “A word spoken can never be taken back…”
Tao glances at her for a quick moment, flashing a smile before he focuses back on the road. Hana doesn’t seem to get his sudden choice of words so she raised a brow at him “What are you talking about, Tao?” “Nothing… just simply stating something” he says, shrugging his shoulders. She was unconvinced though, why would he suddenly tell me something like that for no apparent reason anyway? But her questioning thoughts were steered away when he drove into a driveway of a fairly large hotel.
Now, she was more than convinced that this was not going to be any ordinary dinner.
What are you up to, Kris Wu?
The door to her side opens, Tao’s hand held out and she takes it without much thought. He closes the door and tosses his keys to the valet before leading her inside the building. Now, Hana begun to wonder just how far he was going to be accompanying her. They’ve already arrived, she was sure that he was just going to drop her off.
“Um, Tao?” she pauses on her steps and he does so aswell, turning to her “Yes?” “Are you joining Kris and I for dinner?”
It was a stupid question, really. Heck, it was embarrassing to ask too; what if he gets offended by it? What if I came off rude? Stupid, stupid, stupid –Tao chuckles and takes her by the wrist then pulls her along with him “We should hurry, he’s waiting” he said. Hana follows him without any further arguments and judging by the term ‘we’ she was certain he would join them.
So much for one on one time... she thinks –not that she didn’t like Tao or anyone else joining them but it would have been nice to have some alone time after not seeing each other for so long. Oh well, there’s always after dinner.
As they walk down a hall, Hana begins to take notice of faint sounds of music and murmurs filling her ears. It was only when they stopped before two large open doors that Tao released her from his hold and it hits her like a ton of bricks that they were at a party.
It wasn’t just an ordinary party, it was a party hosted by Wu Prime. Even a dumb man could tell by the large logo on the backdrop of the stage. Her vision blurs for a moment and she pulls her head back a little after getting startled by Tao waving a hand infront of her face, snapping her back from her lost thought to reality. She was reminded of his presence again and like a tidal wave, questions begun to rack her mind once more.
“Come on, we should get to a table… the announcement is about to be given” he says, pulling her along with him.
A set up. Atleast, this was what it was in her point of view; technically, this was still dinner so Kris didn’t exactly lie but still, it felt very much like a set up nonetheless… then again, he’s Kris Wu. Heaven only knows how many ace cards he’s got under his sleeves. “Where’s Kris?” she asks, sitting down beside Tao; he pretends to look around, as if he were searching for the guy “He’s here somewhere”
The sound of a microphone getting tapped by a finger calls the attention of everyone in room. Tao mentally sighs in relief that Hana turns her head, her attention getting caught as well. A female stands in the podium, smiling before the guests –Hana assumes she was the emcee; “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Are you all having a good time, so far?” she pauses, smiling at the guests before continuing “I’m sure you all are. At this moment, let us welcome Mr. Kim Joonmyeon on stage”
“Suho’s here?” Hana asks more to herself than anyone else. She turns to ask Tao some questions but he wasn’t in his seat; her eyes wander around the room looking for him but she couldn’t see a trace of blonde anywhere. He left me here alone… you’ve got to be kidding me. Mental face palm.
She turns back to stage and sees the familiar face take his place on the podium. Suho saw her but pretended he didn’t, he smiled and broke his mouth open to speak, making sure to greet all the guests first and foremost before going on
“Wu Prime and its group of companies have had many achievements and over the years, it has kept its place and position in the business world as one of the biggest and most diversified companies ever created. A few months ago, the main head for the fashion department –Ms. Wu Wenfei- has resigned from her position after fifteen years of leading the Wu fashion line to great extents and making a mark in the fashion industry. It is not without sadness to hear but nevertheless we are thankful to Ms. Wenfei; however, every goodbye is a new hello” the smile returns to his face “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I present to you the successor and new head for Wu Prime’s fashion department as well as the new addition to the department, respectively: Ms. Wu Yookyung and Ms. Wu Stephanie”
The two females appear on stage, clad in off-white dresses and wearing smiles on their faces. Hana then realizes at that moment what this party was for: Stephanie and Yookyung’s welcoming party… but why couldn’t he just tell me? The two give their brief speeches composed of thanks and hopes before music resumes and mingling restarts.
“Good evening mademoiselle” a voice comes from behind her and she jumps on her two feet upon realizing who it was “Suho-ssi!”
The CEO chuckles, seeing how her eyes twinkled at the sight of him was rather amusing. She looked like a lost little girl in a playground for the big kids. For a moment, he takes in the image of her: pretty white dress, white heels, light make-up and her hair curled down to cascade on one side of her shoulder –and Suho concludes that Kris was lucky.
He better not mess this one up. He thinks to himself before complimenting her “You look beautiful tonight, Hana” “Ah…” she looks down on her dress before shyly looking up at him again “Kyungsoo-ssi got it for me” “He has taste” Suho laughs before directing his attention to the dance floor that was filled. Hana follows his gaze just as he then turns back to her and asks “Would you like to dance?”
“O-oh…” she blinks her eyes in surprise at the offer. Ofcourse, she was hesitant but then it beats sitting here alone anyway… she nods her head with a smile “Sure”
And like the gentleman that Joonmyeon was, he offers her a hand and leads her to the dance floor before placing his free hand behind her back, the other holding on to her hand while she places her free hand on one side of his shoulder. “Are you having a good time, so far?” he asks, starting a conversation with her was deemed best to keep things from becoming awkward “I’m sort of… a little confused actually”
“And why is that?” he asks, keeping himself from sniggering at the fact that things were going as planned. Hana looks around briefly “Kris didn’t say that by dinner, he meant a grand ball”
“I thought you would know by Kyungsoo’s gift. Doesn’t he only give you things to wear whenever there are parties?” he states it more than he questions. Hana seemed dumbstruck for a moment then hangs her head low “Ugh, you’re right. I should have known ~”
Suho chuckles as they then continue to slowly sway to the music playing.
“Do you believe in fate?” he asks, she looks at him in a funny way and repeats the last word in a questioning manner “Fate?” “Yes” Suho nods “Fate. Do you believe in it?” Hana thinks for a moment, asking herself mentally if it was a trick question but then he sounded innocent questioning it so she decides to answer “Yeah, I do… why though?”
He smiles “My mother once told me that our choices affect our fates… get ready to turn” “Huh?” the next thing she knows, he had raised his hand holding her own and twirls her to the side as another pair of arms catch her by the waist, holding her steady while her hands land on the person’s shoulders. Lay smiles down at her before they begin to dance “It’s nice to see you again, Hana”
Hana blinks her eyes, confused and flustered. In her defense, Lay looked exceptionally handsome tonight and she was a hundred percent sure than any girl would find herself getting face painted with different shades of red if he were to smile at them. Like Suho, he also gave her a compliment causing her to fluster once more. Lay notices the slight stiffness in her face and soothes it by starting a conversation “I wasn’t able to say goodbye when you left Wu Enterprise… so, goodbye” he chuckles and she does so too, finding his words a little silly but she silently thanks him for the effort of easing her nerves “Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a goodbye Yixing… wouldn’t you rather have it as a see you soon?” “Hm” he nods “I guess I’d prefer that one. Has Suho told you about how Ms. Lu is?”
“No but I bet he’s enjoying her presence” she laughs. She definitely forgot about teasing Suho earlier, ah, the night is young… I’ll get him later. “By the way, have you seen Kris?” she asks, seeing it as a chance to get an answer since Lay seemed like one to talk when necessary but contrary to her expectations, he didn’t say anything and rather changed the subject by asking “Can I ask you a question?”
“You already are” she states. Lay chuckles “Have you ever tasted Kris’s cooking?” “No” she laughs at the odd question and continues “I always cooked for the both of us; why?” “Just a warning,” he smiles “His omelets taste like ”
Hana laughs heartily and Lay twirls her, passing her onto the next person “Well, well, well, look who came into the wolves’ den” Baekhyun chuckles. Hana slowly notices how she was getting passed on and begins to wonder as to who was next “How are you, pretty girl?” he asks as they begin to dance.
“I’m getting more and more astonished by the passing moments, Mr. Byun” she teasingly addresses him knowing that he always scrunched his face at the address –he insists that it makes him sound like he’s fifty or something; as expected, he does scrunch his face “Ugh, honestly that makes me feel like my back is gonna hurt at any moment” “You’re young, don’t worry… but I doubt your back is gonna be fine if you keep getting hunched over by paper works” she chuckles. Baekhyun snorts to the side “Maybe you should tell your boyfriend to cut me some slack”
“I doubt he’ll listen to me” she says but Baekhyun doubts he won’t because at any time tonight, Kris was going to lose a degree –and he doesn’t mean one getting earned from school. They continue to dance for a while before Baekhyun leans to whisper in her ear “Congratulations” and twirls her to pass her onto the next guy whose name was Chanyeol.
He flashes her a grin as he catches her in his arms “Hey there pretty lady”
“Pleasant evening, Chanyeol” she greets him as courteously as possible and he laughs at her unchanging formal behavior. Still the same Kim Hana as back then, he thinks and they begin to sway along. Unlike the other three, he was basically taking her around the dance floor and she had to apologize at some people that he bumped into unintentionally.
He laughs as they finally reduced to just swaying along “You haven’t changed a bit, Hana” “And I didn’t know you were this hyper, I suggest you reduce sugar intake”
“Pft” he rolls his eyes and spots a familiar colleague approaching; he turns to her “By the way, remember: everyone eats and drinks, but only a few appreciate the taste” she swears she has read those somewhere before, it was a proverb if she was not mistaken. Chanyeol winks at her before finally twirling her to the next person.
Luhan. He courteously steps back for a moment and offers her a hand “May I have this dance?” Hana smiles and plays along with a bow before engaging into the recreation with him.
“I never thought I would ever get this opportunity without Kris biting off my neck” he laughs. Hana rolls her eyes at his –for her: exaggerated; statement but she guesses that it was reasonable of him considering how possessive the dragon could be. Honestly, she’s relieved that his possessiveness hasn’t been such a great issue in their relationship.
“You’ve come so far now” Luhan says, cutting her off of her thoughts as he smiles at her. Hana strains away from his gaze for a moment before turning back “It wasn’t an easy journey” “But you didn’t give up and I hope you don’t give up on the next one too”
“I’m always up for new challenges” she chuckles.
“Then get ready because the next one is probably the most challenging one yet” he smiles. They continue to dance to the music before a hand taps Luhan on the shoulder and he breaks away from Hana. Sehun smiles and casually pushes him aside and takes Hana then with a smug smile at Luhan, he says “I’ll take it from here, hyung”
Luhan rolls his eyes at Sehun and casts Hana one last smile before waltzing away. The youngest of the bosses takes her attention by taking lead of the dance.
“Congratulations, by the way” he says. Hana remembers Baekhyun’s same word and raises a brow suspiciously at it, what’s up with the congratulations? “Why?”
“Because you made it this far and because you’ve managed to tame the dragon that is Kris Wu” he bluntly states.
Sehun mentally sighs in relief as she takes his reasoning without any further questions. For a second, he thought that everything was going to get blown and Kris would be ripping his into two but thank the heavens for his gifted bluntness and reasoning –thank heavens for all the white lie training I did back in highschool, he refers to the moments that he played sick and other what not’s he told his teachers whenever he was too lazy to go to school.
“Thanks too…” he says.
“What for?”
“For not leaving him… I honestly thought he’d be growing old alone because of his arctic cold attitude” he laughs and so does Hana. He casts a gentle smile before finally twirling her and disappears.
Hana stands in the middle of the dance floor alone for a moment but just as she was about to walk away –deciding that it was the last dance; a pair of hands land on her shoulders and she turns around, a smile breaking through her face as she realizes that it was Xiumin. He doesn’t say anything but instead takes her close for a dance “Did you miss me, Hana?” he questions and she couldn’t help but feel awed over his adorableness.
“Are you sure you’re not seventeen or something, Xiumin?” she quips making Xiumin laugh “I’m pretty sure I blew the right number of candles on my last birthday but I’m glad you find me young”
They sway along to the music as Xiumin tells her of how things have been back at Wu Enterprise but when she asked about Kris, he only smiled before stopping the sways and engulfs her in a warm and friendly embrace “Always take care of yourself, it’s a wild jungle out there” by now, Hana was becoming more and more confused and aswell as anxious of their words. Like Sehun, Xiumin disappears in the next moment.
“I bet you’re looking for Kris” a voice from the side said. She turns and sees Chen, he bows rather gracefully before offering a dance and Hana accepts. “So, will you give me answers?” she asks him referring to his previous words and he laughs “Nope”
“Figured…” she sighs in defeat “But he is here, right?” he nods.
“He’s just a little busy at the moment” he smirks but Hana doesn’t catch on. She begins to get lost in the music and the people around her, it all felt so surreal. Chen notices her far look and reels her back “You know, I never thought I’d be friends with someone like you” “Huh?” he smiles at his success of catching her attention back and continues “I also didn’t expect you to be Kris’s significant other… I thought you’d end up with Kai to be honest”
Kai… she remembers seeing him just this morning. She shakes her head, a small smile getting plastered on her face “Anyone would be lucky with Kai” “So why didn’t you end up with him?” she was caught off-guard by the question and fell silent as she begins to ask herself: why didn’t I?
“Had Kris treated you otherwise… would you have given Kai a chance?” he presses another question. Hana purses her lips for a moment. Maybe but then… she looks at him after letting out a sigh “Kris pushed me away a lot of times and Kai had been there always but I guess fate has a strange way of putting things in place”
Chen laughs “Aigo, fate sounds so cheesy but eh,” he shrugs “I guess you have a point. It’s crazy, isn’t it? How you still ended up with an ” Hana shakes her head at the last word making Chen laugh some more. He looks over her shoulder and gestures with his chin “Look, there’s Kris” he releases her as she turns her head and sinks into the crowd, disappearing from sight.
“What the –” she realizes she had been when she turned back to him and he wasn’t there but instead, there stood Kyungsoo with a smile “I see the dress fits you well; can I have a dance?”
Hana sighs and nods her head, taking his hand and he pulls her close “Thank you for the dress, Kyungsoo” “Always glad to help” she chuckles and rests her head on his shoulder for a while before lifting it back and sighs; he gently gazes at her, awed by her face “Tired already?” he asks. She shakes her head “No… don’t worry about me”
Kyungsoo chuckles and leans forward; resting his chin on her shoulder “Can you promise me some things?” she turns her head slightly, catching scent of the minty scent of his hair “It depends on what those are”
“When in doubt, talk it out… promise?”
She wasn’t sure what he meant nor what he was referring to but it seemed like harmless requests “I promise” Kyungsoo smiles and continues “Don’t always hold it in, cry if you must… promise?” “Okay, promise”
Kyungsoo lifts his head off her shoulder to look at her “And lastly, follow your heart but listen to your mind” she gives him a strange look but nevertheless, utters the words “I promise” he seemed satisfied in her opinion. He stops swaying, ending their dance and gives the back of her hand a kiss before standing up straight “Thank you for the dance” then walks away leaving her a little dumbfounded. Tao appears with a grin on his face and without a word, takes her in his arms and begins dancing with her “Where have you been?”
“Sorry, had to do something” he reasons, still grinning “Are you having fun?”
Hana sighs before smiling and nodding her head “Yeah, I guess I am…” “Good”
From across the room, Kai stands sipping on his glass of white wine as he watches the lady of the evening dancing with Tao. On another side, someone was watching the same female as well –Meifen. Kai finishes off his drink and hands the empty glass to a passing waiter; at that moment, he feels a familiar presence walk up beside him, eyes focused on the same subject.
“Thanks…” Kris says. Kai takes a deep breath before turning to meet his friend’s eyes and smiles at him “I wouldn’t miss this for the world, hyung”
Kris smiles back at him, patting the younger guy’s shoulder before turning around to leave; however, before the dragon could disappear again he calls out to him making Kris turn “Yeah?” “Thanks too… for allowing me” Kris smirks at the gratitude he received “Idiot, I’m not some psychopathic obsessed boyfriend” “Yeah, sure” Kai rolls his eyes, chuckling. Kris turns back around and begins to walk away as Kai mumbles with a laugh “-faced dragon” “I heard that” Kris hollers making him laugh some more.
“Hey Hana” she turns to look at him “Yes?”
“The day after tomorrow, we’ll be flying back to Seoul… gege will be staying here like before; we won’t be around to watch over him so can you take care of him for us?” she bats her eyes at the request but then feels her heart warm up at the thoughtful request. He must really do care about Kris to request such a thing, heaven only knows the depth of their friendship and somehow she feels grateful that Kris had friends like them.
Despite –she admits; of his -like attitude and perhaps some misunderstandings and fights between their group, she knew they still had that unique bond. Even if the worst were to happen and they turn their backs on each other, she was sure that they would find their way back. They might get lost but they will.
“Sure, Tao”
Tao smiles “I’ll pass you on now, thank you again” he twirls her around and sure enough she lands in another pair of arms. She finds herself smiling at who it was and he smiles back at her saying a gentle “Hello”
Jongin. He places a hand on the small of her back and takes her other hand as he leads her along.
“You look handsome tonight, Mr. Kim” she compliments him. Kai chuckles “As do you look beautiful aswell, Ms. Kim… it’s an honor to dance with you” “You haven’t changed, Kai” she shakes her head at him and he could say the same for her.
It’s a bittersweet ending for him atleast but he knows that it was the best way to go. After months, he finally has convinced himself that she was not meant for him and that fate had other plans for him; however, it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t affected when in fact he felt remorseful for even wishing that somehow the tides turn in his favor. He takes a deep breath, relinquishing the amount of time that he was granted to hold her in his arms before returning her to the rightful ones that she wanted and truly belonged in.
“I remember the day you entered Wu Enterprise,” he whispers hiding the bitterness with a smile “you’re still as pretty as that day I first led you to your desk”
Hana couldn’t help but feel a little guilty at his words but she knew that he understood and if he didn’t then eventually he will. She smiles sadly as he continues to speak “I liked you ever since the day that I laid my eyes on you; how you had openly shown me sides of yourself and gave me a chance to get to know you… I actually thought I had a chance” he admits with a bitter chuckle.
“I’m sorry, Jongin” she apologizes, feeling resentful for him but she knows that things were better because of the choices she made, it was better than having to lie.
“Don’t be… I want to thank you for it because you showed me that the one thing, I never believed in, was possible… so thank you, Hana”
She smiles before wrapping her arms around him in an embrace and he quickly returns it “Thank you, Kai”
“I guess sometimes, loving means letting go… be happy okay? Because if you end up getting sad and regretful, I will regret this decision in the future”
He breaks off the hug and pats her head before walking away.
Everything suddenly seemed to have frozen when Kai disappeared from her sight and her eyes finally lay upon the person that she has been looking for all evening. He stood just six feet away from her in a black tuxedo, his hair dyed black and styled up in spikes, to top it all off, he had a gentle loving gaze with a small smile on his face as if silently telling her that he had been waiting all evening for her when on the contrary it was her that felt she had been waiting.
He approaches her and stops infront of her before asking politely if he could have a dance. Speechless, she smiles at him with a nod and takes his hand as he pulls her as close as possible.
“I thought you’d never show up” she mumbles, wrapping her arms around his neck. He smirks “Trust me, this is one event I would never miss out”
They continue to dance slowly to the music, all care vanishing into thin air as at that moment they felt like they were the only ones in the room. She completely forgot about the party, about the dinner, about everything in general because all that mattered was that she was in his arms and he was in hers.
It’s worth it. She concludes to herself, all the hardships that life threw my way… it was all worth it. Because despite the bitterness and rejection and every other bad thing she faced, life turned out to be okay. She was okay and the best part of it all was that she found someone to be okay with, that even though they have the worst fights and misunderstandings they still make it through the cold nights and get rewarded with warm mornings.
“Do you remember when you asked me when I would stop wanting you?” he asks.
Hana tilts her head to the side, giving him an amused smile “Yes, why?” she remembers that day, the very same day that she fully opened up the door of her world to him and declared her as his. He chuckles “Do you still remember what I said?”
“You said that maybe you will stop wanting me but then maybe you’ll feel something else…” she states, her heart leaping a little. Kris smiles “Then I told you I won’t let you walk away and that I’ll always want you”
She nods and warily asks “Do you not want me anymore?”
“Nah… I just want to rephrase my statement of that day, if you would allow me”
“Okay, permission to rephrase the statement granted…” she chuckles, adjusting her arms a little around his neck as they swayed along to the soft music filling the grand banquet hall. Kris clears his throat animatedly for a moment and takes a deep breath “If you walk away from me after this, I will let you…”
Her smile disappears and her expression becomes blank at his words
“But I will always love you” he smiles, ending his rephrased words. Hana swallows hard and remains quiet throughout as they continue to dance, she tightens her grasp around his neck, burying her head on the crook of it wishing that her heart would stop palpitating. A lot of things were running through her head as she tried to decipher the meaning of it.
Was that good or bad? She didn’t know.
“Hana” he calls and she pushes her head off the crook of his neck to meet his eyes, silently hoping that he heeds her overwhelmed eyes and brings an end to the anxiety she was starting to feel. He asks “Are you happy?”
And for a moment she is confused. She swallows hard and answers “Yes… I’ve always been happy”
“Before me?” wait… he has asked me these before. She vaguely remembers his late father’s birthday wherein he had asked the same thing as they danced.
“I was happy”
“What about now?”
“Very happy…” she says. She racked her thoughts for the last question but nothing was coming onto her mind, she was sure that she didn’t like the last question back then but what were they? Kris wipes the smile off his face and looks her in the eyes in the most serious manner that she’s ever seen him “I can’t promise you that everything after this will be rainbows and butterflies…”
For a moment, her world did stop.
“But I’ll try to give you the happiness that you need, want and deserve… if you will grant it” they stopped dancing. Kris gathers every bit of courage he had and knew that it was now or never at all, he waited long enough already and he deems now seems like the perfect time because maybe, just maybe, he should have heeded an advice he once gave Hana: what everyone else thinks.
He kept his grasp around her waist and looks her in the eyes
“Hana, marry me…”
She searches his eyes for a moment, seeing if she could find a twinkle of mischief or wittiness considering that he has asked her such a thing many times before but no, this wasn’t a joke. Heck, it didn’t even sound like a question and this made her heart pound. A tidal wave of unexplained emotions was washing over her.
“What?” she utters, it sounded dumb but she honestly didn’t know what to do or how to properly react to this, if there was even any proper reaction for it.
“Marry me…” he repeats, ignoring the crowd that had cleared the dance floor and whose eyes were solely focused on the two of them as they stood directly under the large crystal chandelier. Hana was too lost in his eyes to even notice all the stares and the music that had gone mute.
“Marry me, right here, right now.”
Her lips begin to quiver and she musters up the grain of control left over the butterflies in her stomach and tells him her decision
“Yes” she embraces him tightly as applause fill the room that had been momentarily quiet “Yes, I’ll marry you”
I woke up the next day with two rings on my finger: his mother’s ring and our wedding ring… and beside me was my husband that had once wished to wake up next to me every day as I did with him. Wish granted.
“Good morning, Mr. Wu”
“Good morning, Mrs. Wu”
And in that moment, everything was perfect.
END.
Finally ended! Yehet!
It has been such a great journey with Hana and Kris, even I’m a little sad but well… all stories have endings. Thank you all for the support and love that you have given to XOXO and Ah Love, thank you for the upvotes, the views, the comments, the subbies, everything! I’m thankful to have found new friends along the way and despite everything that has been going on you all still read this story. Let’s be on our way to better days!
I know I’m a few hours late, mianhe. I had to make sure this was good enough.
Thank you again Floating Cabbage Friends!
Carrot-nim, over and out.
Let's be chinggus!
| KKT & LINE: skittsoexo | INSTA: skittsohsum | TWITTER: KrisEffingWu |
Got a question? Don't be shy!
Comments