BONUS CHAPTER: STRAWBERRIES.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something is weird.

 

 

Kris can feel it at the tips of his hair strands that something is up and it’s all thanks to the numerous bowls, jars and plastic containers of strawberries and dairy products stacked inside the fridge. He raises a brow at various pieces of sticky notes stuck on the milk bottles and bowls saying: DO NOT EAT, with a smiley face, scribbled rather neatly in her cute personal font. A sigh escapes his lips and he closes the fridge as he has decided to give up on a can of beer –guessing that she probably threw them out… again.

 

 

“We seriously need to talk…” he mumbles to himself.

 

 

He walks back to the living room and checks his phone if she had left him any calls or messages but found nothing. It was Saturday today and she had informed him yesterday that she was going to spend the day with his sister, explaining that she wanted a girls’ day out and so he let her. Hana only asked for so much, he wanted to fulfill her wants and wishes as best as he could and besides, it was Stephanie so there was nothing generally wrong with it.

 

 

On the other hand, Saturday meant rest day for him. He needed some time for himself too as much as he would love to spend it with his wife.

 

 

Ring. Ring. Kris whips his head to the side to look at the ringing phone and lowers the volume of the television as he gets up to answer it “Hello?”

 

 

“Oh, Kris?” It was Lay “Yixing,” Kris acknowledges “How are you?”

 

 

Lay laughs on the other line “Ah, I’m doing fine… what about you? Marriage life going well?” Kris rolls his eyes, quietly sighing “Yeah, life’s good” he says, leaving out the part that it was also strange and weird lately. On the other end of the line, Lay nods his head “That’s good to hear. Anyway, I was hoping to talk to Hana”

 

 

“She’s not home at the moment but… what for?” he pries, not that he was suspicious or anything that maybe she was having secret transactions with his friends. He was just genuinely curious “Oh,” he starts “I just wanted to ask her if she got the package I sent her”

 

 

Package? He felt a little suspicious now. Just a teeny-tiny bit suspicious “What was it?”

 

 

“Strawberries; she called me last week to ask if I could send her a batch… although I’m not quite sure why, have strawberry farms there been bad lately?” Kris’s brows knit together in pure wonder. She even wanted strawberries from Korea? It was beginning to get ridiculous “No, the strawberries here are fairly well… Yixing, did she tell you anything else?”

 

 

Lay hums in thought for a moment “Hm. No, it makes me wonder why she specifically asked for Korean strawberries…” he gasps “Is she experimenting on them or something?”

 

 

“Tch,” Kris scoffs “No, that’s downright bull Yixing… but it has been strange lately” he leans back on the wall, clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth as he thinks “Oh wait… doesn’t she love strawberries? That’s probably it”

 

 

For a moment, Kris considers the fact. Hana did possess such great love for the fruit, he could very well prove that by the glittering eyes she would flash him whenever he brought her home a fresh batch every now and then but then, for the past days it hasn’t been… normal. “She stacked up our fridge with strawberries; I can barely see any other food” he mutters. Lay hums again on the other line “Hm… have you talked to her about this?”

 

 

“No” he sighs “But I may have to”

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie looked completely astonished and perplexed as she watches her sister-in-law, sitting across her and happily stuffing her face with strawberries. That’s her seventh bowl… she quietly thinks as she mentally counts the empty bowls on the table and compares those to her plate of vegetable salad. Hana was oblivious to her surroundings, too engrossed in eating her all-time favorite fruit.

 

 

“Jie jie” Stephanie calls her attention, making her pause, look and leave her personal merry little strawberry world. Hana gulps down the mashed fruit in “Yes?”

 

 

“Are you okay?” she asks.

 

 

Hana blinks her eyes as she finds the question a little odd but then smiles and nods “Ofcourse I am; why wouldn’t, I be?” Stephanie glances at the bowl of strawberry before turning back to her “Aren’t you feeling sick?” “No” she shakes her head, popping another piece of strawberry into “Why do you ask?”

 

 

“Jie jie, that’s your seventh bowl of strawberries…” Stephanie points at the bowl but Hana doesn’t seem to grasp what her sister-in-law was trying to get at. A sigh escapes Stephanie’s lips and she shakes her head. Yi Fan was right… she thinks.

 

 

Her brother has brought up the matter involving Hana and strawberries. She remembers him babbling off his about his wife’s strange behavior lately and for every time that he did, she always told him that maybe it was just her way of coping with stress because she herself tended to do weird things whenever the pressure gets too much to handle. Now, she was seeing the great difference; Hana’s consumption of the said fruit was ridiculously great in amount and it seemed that her pattern was running at an abnormal rate.

 

 

Stephanie frowns and takes away the bowl of fruit before Hana could grab another piece. The latter gasps, her eyes going wide and her lower lip puckers out, pouting –it was as if she had been greatly offended by Stephanie’s act of taking away her favorite. The young Wu takes notice of her eyes also began to water up and she looked as if she was about to cry.

 

 

What the –Stephanie searches the other’s eyes and all she sees was pure innocence and hurt. It was only at the first drop of tear did she come to an assumption and probably, the most logical explanation yet…

 

 

 

 

 

3:08 PM

 

 

The door opens and Hana steps inside, she feels extra cautious of her surroundings. The house was quiet, the television was off, the lights were off; he’s probably napping, she assumes and breathes out a sigh of relief. Her eyes twinkled in excitement as she drops her bag on the couch and sprints off to the kitchen, a nice good bowl of strawbe –“You’re home… already?” she freezes by the kitchen doorway.

 

 

Kris sat down on one of the bar stools by the island counter with his arms crossed, the bowls and other containers of strawberries laid out to the brink of almost taking up all of the space and on the side was an open box, fresh from Korea containing the same fruits. My package!

 

 

It would’ve been such a heavenly sight, had it not been for the sullen look on her husband’s face. She gulps but decides to smile brightly as she waltzes towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind and presses a kiss on his cheek; however, it didn’t seem like an effective move as Kris had shown no affectionate reaction and instead tells her “Sit down, we need to talk”

 

 

And like an obedient wife, she does so.

 

 

“This is not normal, Hana” she lowers her head at his words, hands clutching on the fabric of her dress’s skirt and her teeth sinking down on her bottom lip. His brows knit together, eyes turning to slits to show his great disapproval. Has it really gone this bad? She wonders, obviously… it was really bad but in her defense, she had no clue whatsoever.

 

 

She doesn’t even know why nor has she noticed that she had been acting upon like this with the fruit. All she really knows is that, strawberries have become a daily need for her lately.

 

 

“Well?” he starts, disliking the lack of response he was getting “What do you have to say for yourself?”

 

 

Hana doesn’t even know where to begin or how to explain herself but she knows better than to keep quiet when he sounds like he demands for answers, so doing her best, she opens and speaks –or rather, mumbles “I just… really love them”

 

 

“Bull” she flinches at the word “Too many is bad for the health. You’ve been having these for the past few weeks already, breakfast, lunch and dinner, not to mention the midnight snacks” God, how can someone sound so angry without even raising their voice? Hana lowers her head some more. Kris was both pissed off and overwhelmed; she knows he was only worried about her but she could still not see how having to eat strawberries was such a big deal. Maybe she has been eating a lot more than the average but she couldn’t help it.

 

 

Her day didn’t seem to be complete if she couldn’t consume the fruit.

 

 

Kris huffs out an angry breath and picks up a fruit from the bowl before taking an angry bite, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by Hana; he takes another one and another one, failing to notice the wide-eyed look that his wife was giving him. She bit her lip as she continues to watch him eat as all traces of fear and worry leave her, getting replaced by something else.

 

 

“You haven’t had one meal that doesn’t involve strawberries” he blabbers, still pissed and continues to eat. Each bite and consumption makes her hands tighten into balls, the skirt of her dress. “You even made Lay send you ones from Korea, ridiculous!”

 

 

He eats and eats… and eats.

 

 

“From today until the next three weeks, you are not allowed to eat any of this” he says and her eye twitches as he eats another one “Do you hear me, Wu Hana? Not a single strawberry” he reaches a hand into the open box that Lay had sent and pulls out a piece of fruit “Seriously… I’m doing this for your own good” he eats it.

 

 

“If I catch you eating a piece of this in the next three weeks, I swear that you will never be able to eat another one for the whole ye—”

 

 

“Stop it”

 

 

Kris raises a brow and looks at her, only then noticing her clouded eyes “Pardon?” “I said… stop it”

 

 

He frowns “Wu Hana, what –” Hana shoots up to her feet, the bar stool falling back and crashes on the floor as her eyes darken, almost looking murderous. She slams her fists on the wooden island countertop and roars “STOP EATING MY ING STRAWBERRIES!”

 

 

Silence.

 

 

She… cussed. Kris blinks his eyes in surprise at her sudden outburst. Hana just cussed.

 

 

Kris.

 

 

Dinner wasn’t served tonight.

 

 

We both went to bed without a word and large space is in between us both at the moment. To say the least, I was surprised and taken aback; Hana just lashed out at me for eating her strawberries –that mind you, are still sitting at the island countertop up until now and haven’t been touched since she walked out on me earlier. Who even knew she was capable of such vocabulary?

 

 

I decide to take a peek at her over my shoulder. Sure enough, her back was turned to me, covers pulled up to her neck. She’s not that mad, is she? If anything, I should be the one pissed off here and other than that, she has a pretty pathetic reason.

 

 

Just because I ate a few numbers of strawberries, she’s giving me the cold treatment? Preposterous.

 

 

“Hmph” I pull the covers up to my neck aswell and mutter “Fine” before deciding to close my eyes and get myself to dreamland. Quietly hoping that it’ll all get better tomorrow… maybe we both just need a really nice sleep.

 

 

Hana.

 

 

How dare he eat my precious strawberries!

 

 

Honestly, how could he? Couldn’t he read the sticky notes I’ve posted on those bowls? Those were for my consumption only! To think he even laid his hands on my favorites from my home country of South Korea. Unacceptable.

 

 

I hear him huff and mutter something under his breath before feeling the covers moving a bit. I take a peek at him over my shoulder and saw his back onto me. He’s not even gonna apologize? Tch! Fine! “Two can play at this game” I don’t know why I’m like this because usually, don’t I just let things go? Maybe there is something wrong with me? Tsk, Hana… are you really gonna swallow your pride now? He ate your strawberries, remember?

 

 

My strawberries.

 

 

I huff an angry breath of my own, I shut my eyes and force myself to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poke. Poke. Groan.

 

 

“Ugh…” Kris’s brows knit together as he swats away whatever it was that was poking against his cheek. He was tired and he wanted to continue his relaxingly blank dreams. Poke. Poke. Poke. “Aish! What the ?!” he sits up and breaks his eyes open, pissed that his sleep was being disrupted. As he turns his head, he sees Hana sitting beside him with her eyes wide open, looking innocent.

 

 

However, the events of the night surges back through his memories in a snap and he glares at her “What?”

 

 

Cold. She thinks as she pouted her lips at him but he didn’t seem like he was gonna buy it anytime soon. Hana chews on her bottom lip for awhile and looks to the side “What?” Kris asks again, sounding more impatient this time.

 

 

“I want bubble tea” she mumbles.

 

 

He stares at her for a moment before scoffing to the side and lies back down in bed, hauling the covers over him “Go buy one then…”

 

 

Hana frowned feeling hurt by his response which is odd because she usually brushes it off, having been used to his coldness from experience of working for him before but perhaps it’s because of the different situation. Goodness, she was his wife now! What husband treats their wife like that? They clearly fought earlier but this seemed like a place to draw lines.

 

 

“Fine… I will” she says, getting off the bed and exits their bedroom making sure to slam the door. For a moment, Kris lays there with a million thoughts in his head; he felt rather stupid for treating her so coldly, even if she did pathetically lashed at him earlier, he knows he should’ve known and done better. Grunting, he pushes off the covers and gets out of bed “Hana!”

 

 

He exits the bedroom and walks down stairs into the dark living room but only to find her coat missing from the rack and aswell as a pair of her shoes. , she really did go out?!

 

 

Kris looks at the clock: 2:18 AM, it said. Where the does she expect to buy bubble tea at this hour?! He hurriedly slips on a random pair of sneakers and grabs his coat before rushing out of the house. He looks around the quiet neighborhood but found no signs of her. Damn, she’s fast. He wonders if she ran or something, whatever she did, she sure did disappear well in a span of fifteen minutes or so.

 

 

He begins to wander around and look for her, worry inching through his veins at every tick of the clock. Another fifteen minutes later, he decides to call her phone but only added more to his worries when he received no answer from the other line.

 

 

“” he cusses, heart beginning to go at a rapid pace as he was now really worried; however, he decides to calm himself and gather his thoughts. He opens up a map application on his phone and gets points to the nearest bubble tea shops, only then does he decide to give every shop a visit in hopes to find her at one of them atleast.

 

 

As he goes from one closed shop to the other and asking the few strangers he saw, Kris also takes the time to come up with a long apology speech. His worry had been the sole reason for the slap of reality to his face that he needed to swallow his pride and apologize even though he still strongly stands that he has had done nothing wrong –except maybe for acting so cold toward her earlier. It was the seventh bubble tea shop that he had left already and he was beginning to think of calling the police when at a distance, he sees a familiar figure sitting by the sidewalk under a lamp post.

 

 

“Hana” he breathes out visible air into the cold night.

 

 

He doesn’t waste another second more and runs up to her “Hana!” and sure enough, the person turns their head in attention, confirming his thoughts and relief flooding over him. Kris drops to his knees as soon as he reaches her and he wraps his arms around her in a warm embrace “Idiot, why did you run off? You had me worried” he frowns as he pulls her to arms length to look at her.

 

 

Hana sniffles; her nose was red and was beginning to get runny because of the cold “I wanted bubble tea”

 

 

“At two in the morning?” she nods and he sighs, feeling completely defeated by her. Kris Wu therefore concludes that he couldn’t stand being pissed off at his wife for a long time; he gets up and pulls her up to her feet aswell before grabbing her hand and pulling her along “We have to get home, we’ll get them tomorrow morning… okay?”

 

 

Hana sighs and nods her head obediently. Kris cracks a smile and pulls her close before draping his arm over her shoulders “Tch, you’re such a stubborn woman, Mrs. Wu” Hana cracks a smile aswell, feeling her chest lighten “Sorry… for earlier” she coughs to the side. Kris gives a quick peck on the side of her lips “Forget it, sorry too… for eating your strawberries” and she blushes because now, it really did sound like a pathetic reason to be angry about.

 

 

“W-was it really… erm… bad? The strawberries?” she cautiously asks. Kris snorts “Yeah, actually it was really bad”

 

 

The couple eventually reaches their house.

 

 

Hana kicks off her shoes and hangs up her coat. Kris was on the process of hanging up his coat as well when all of a sudden; she sprints off into the kitchen and hauls forward onto the sink. Panicked and worried by her sudden actions, Kris runs after her and finds her hunched forward by the sink, throwing up. She opens the tap and rinses off as he walks over and sends soothing rubs on her back “Ugh, it’s probably the strawberries acting up now”

 

 

“I told you not to eat too much” he clicks his tongue. Hana casts him an apologetic smile and he returns a pat on the crown of her head “Come on, let’s get to bed… its late”

 

 

Hana nods and they both walk up to their bedroom. Upon entering, Hana excuses herself to go to the bathroom to atleast gargle some mouthwash to get rid of the awful after taste; as she rummages through the drawers to look for a new bottle of mouthwash –since she found the current one was empty already- “Aha” she opens the new bottle and puts some of the minty liquid into then begins to gargle. Upon finishing, she re-opens the drawer to put back the bottle in but suddenly freezes when she sets her eyes on the unused tampons and all of a sudden goes into a frenzy of counting weeks.

 

 

And like a tidal wave it hits her.

 

 

“! Kris!” she shouts, rushing out of the bathroom and hastily crawls into bed, setting herself on top of him before pulling on his shoulders to sit him up “What the –”

 

 

He was suddenly cut off as she presses her lips against his and he swore he could feel the cold mint on her pair. Hana pulls away, cupping his face with an excited smile “You’re gonna be a daddy!” his eyes widen all of a sudden and if happiness could kill, he would’ve been dead by now.

 

 

So that explains the strange strawberry consumption and mood swing. He smirks at the thought.

 

 

Seoul

 

 

Luhan lets out a heavy sigh as he reads the message for the nth time since this morning then as if on cue, his door busts open and Chanyeol and Lay come waltzing in. Chanyeol looking irritated and Lay smiling triumphantly.

 

 

“Can you ing believe this guy? Geez” Chanyeol grunts, flopping himself down on the visitor’s chair before Luhan’s desk as the other does the same as well. Lay chuckles “Now, now, Chanyeol, no one likes sore losers” Chanyeol scoffs and turns to Luhan “Is it really true?”

 

 

Luhan clicks his tongue “Yeah, the doctor has confirmed it… geez” he opens his drawer and takes out a box containing a shiny pair of keys then tosses it to Lay, who smiles brightly at him and sings a thank you. Luhan mentally cries to himself, wondering why he even put his custom-made Ferrari on the line. Chanyeol sighs and pockets his phone before turning to Lay “Yah, take care of my yacht… you only have it for one week”

 

 

“Will do!” Lay salutes as he stands up and buttons his coat “It was nice doing business with you two”

 

 

And the two losers watch as the winner disappears. Luhan slumps back in his seat “I am never betting against Lay again” “If he hadn’t betted the helicopter he bought, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place” Chanyeol scoffs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nine months later…

 

 

It wasn’t the prettiest of experiences for him, really.

 

 

For the time span that the two of them had spent in the labor room along with the doctors and nurses, Kris saw, heard and felt the things that he never thought he would ever experience with Hana. He saw how she struggled to breathe and push with all her might as she begged the doctors to get the baby out; he heard the most colorful words slip out of , some directed to him –such as “KRIS ING WU, THIS IS ALL YOUR ING FAULT YOU FACE! IT ING HURTS LIKE HELL!” and another one being “I AM GOING TO CUT OFF YOUR ING ONCE THIS IS ALL OVER AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ING !”; and he felt the most painful of her grips as she had held his hand throughout the hours of painful labor, he swore that he almost felt his vessels getting blocked.

 

 

But everything was worth it when her pained expression turned to one of relief and a cry broke out of the atmosphere of that room. Maybe it wasn’t the prettiest of experiences but it sure was surely unforgettable. The sound of his son’s first cry, the sight of Hana’s smile as she held him and the feeling of pure joy that he felt when he kissed her forehead for a job well done and felt his son holding onto his finger.

 

 

The once quiet hospital corridor loses its peace when fast paced and numerous footsteps surfaced. Eleven men appear, all looking eager and excited as they then stop at a window. Tao holds up a piece of paper with a name to show the nurse on the other side and she nods before wheeling in a crib.

 

 

They all break into awes at the sight of the baby boy, bundles up in the softest of fabrics.

 

 

“Awe, he looks just like his faced daddy” Baekhyun says in adoration as he tilts his head to the side, looking affectionately at the baby. Suho smacks the back of his head and he glares at the CEO but decides to save the bickering as they were in a hospital and the last thing he wanted was to hear babies crying because of the noise he might cause –yes, Baekhyun was considerate of his surroundings especially around little bundles of joy.

 

 

“Let’s hope he grows up with Hana’s attitude” Lay says in a hopeful tone and everyone seemed to have agreed. Chen scoffs and comments “He’ll be a ladies’ man, that’s for sure. Look at him, Kris is probably proud of himself right now… handsome little devil”

 

 

“So pretty ~” Tao coos, eyes focused only on the baby as he ignores the rest. Luhan drapes an arm around Sehun’s shoulder and sniggers “Looks like you’ve found your match now, Sehun” the latter scoffs to the side “Oh please, I’m still the maknae among all of us… that baby is gonna grow eventually anyway”

 

 

“A handsome one though, you should be frightened” Suho says and chuckles as Sehun makes faces at him. Xiumin pushes through the crowd and gasps as he clasps his hands together, getting equally awed as Tao “Awe! Oh my god, he’s so fluffy! Hello there little one ~” Xiumin waves his hands at the baby “I’m your uncle Minseok ~ you’re so cute!”

 

 

Chanyeol pushes through the front aswell and waves at the baby, a goofy smile plastered on his face “Kyeopta ~ aigo, honestly… Kris and Hana have great gene combinations! Look at him!” he awes along with the other two. Kyungsoo on the other hand just quietly smiles as he stands beside Jongin, adoring the bundle of joy aswell. “He’s cute, isn’t he Kyungsoo?” the latter nods his head “Think you can beat that, Kai?” and his friend laughs before slickly running a hand through his hair “You seem to forget that I’m the epitome of y, Kyungsoo… not cute”

 

 

“Tch,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes “I think I’m gonna barf”

 

 

 

 

 

Hana’s eyes flutter open, body feeling exhausted but relaxed nonetheless. She turns her head to the side as she feels a light squeeze on her hand and sees Kris sitting on a chair beside her bed with a smile on his face.

 

 

“Good morning” he greets her and she responds with a smile.

 

 

The door opens and a nurse enters, pushing a wheeled baby wagon with her. She greets the couple a pleasant morning as Kris helps his wife sit up and the nurse hands her the baby boy before leaving. He couldn’t help but smile everytime her eyes twinkled in adoration at the boy in her arms; it was a pretty sight to see.

 

 

“You look just like daddy” she coos. Kris sits beside her and plays with the young one’s hand with his finger; smiling at his son.

 

 

“What time was he born?” she asks, handing the fragile baby to her husband’s arms. He was a little awkward at first but then got the hang of it “12:01 this morning” he answers mindlessly while Hana breaks into a smile and wraps her arms around his waist from the side, careful not to disrupt the baby boy in his arms.

 

 

“Happy anniversary, Mr. Wu” she whispers. His eyes widen; he then turns to her and returns the greeting with a quick peck on her forehead. It was a nice morning.

 

 

However, the peace didn’t stay for long as five minutes or so later, the door to Hana’s bedroom bursts open and the proudly acclaimed eleven uncles, march in with balloons and gifts, yielding congratulatory praises at the couple and adoring their new nephew.

 

 

“Welcome to the world, Aiden Wu” Hana smiles.