CHAPTER 8

The door opens.

Kai enters the meeting room.

“Thank God, you made it” Kyungsoo puffs out a great sigh of relief, leaning back on his chair. Suho slaps down his folders on the table as Kai takes his seat. Tao gives him a glance before turning to Suho an announces “Let's start”

Everyone shifts in their seat, seeking comfort. The door opens and Hana enters, Tao glances at Kai once again and sees him lift his head as Hana goes around and gives them respective folders containing the topics of the meeting. “Thank you” Luhan chimes as he takes the folder from her.

She soon reaches Kai and gives a brief smile like she did to the rest and moves on. He didn't say anything but just swallowed hard and looks down.

Hana gives one last bow and exits.

The meeting begins.

“Tao, a fashion summit is coming up in summer” Suho turns to the said person; closing the folder, Tao turns to him with a small smile “Plans are underway, since we're the host I was thinking we could hold it somewhere else other than Seoul” he clasps his hands together and looks at the others in the room.

Chanyeol takes a sip of his cup of iced mocha “Mm!” he gives a thumbs up “Let's! I'm getting tired of the city anyway”; Suho turns to the rest “Well, what do you guys think?”

Kai raises his hand “Question: it's a fashion thing so why do we need a say in this?”

Baekhyun props his elbows on the desk and smirks “Because the fashion line that Wu Enterprise presents is a variety of the different departments we have” he states as a matter of fact. Kai puffs out a breath and reads over the next page “Point taken”

“All the more, Sehun-ah” Suho calls out to the youngest in the room “Hm?” “Have you found a replacement for Hana?” What? Kai shoots his head up; everyone does excluding Suho, Sehun and Tao. “Replacement?” Lay raises the word as a question.

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up” Chen pushes himself forward, his palms on the table “Why are you replacing Hana? Does Kris know about this?”

“We all know about her deal with Kris, the six month deal?” Tao states. Suho continues “It's all just some sort of precaution, atleast we can train the EPA to fill in for her when she leaves” “Well, I found someone” Sehun announces, fixing his tie as he sits up straight and looks over at Luhan “Your assistant, Ling”

Luhan raises a brow as Sehun gives him a playful look; Xiumin takes a bite out of his sandwich and chews, looking up in the air for a moment as if in deep thought, after swallowing he turns to Sehun “But she just started to work as Luhan's assistant” “So? Hana-ssi got promoted within a week here” Sehun interjects

“But that was because we were in need of a new Head of Finance” Chanyeol chimes, his voice full of disagreement despite it being so blank. Suho leans back on his chair with a stolid look on his face; soon everyone turns to him “So, what do you think, hyung?” Sehun asks.

The CEO puffs out a breath and ran a hand through his hair; he looked pretty tired despite it being so early in the morning “Alright” he fixes the folders on the table “She starts training in three months; back on track, since we're the hosts of the upcoming summit, where should we hold it?”

The whole room falls quiet for a moment. Tao smiles “Jeju? It takes place in summer afterall” murmurs of agreement follow; Xiumin threw his hands up “All those who agree, raise your hand” and everyone does.

“Well, that seems to be all. Meeting adjourned” Seuho announces.

Everyone in the room starts getting up to leave except for Kai who looked to preoccupied in his thoughts.

Chanyeol's hand lands on his shoulder and he looks up “You okay, man?” Kai blinks his eyes and gives hima short nod with a small smile “Yeah, hang over” he whispered before getting up, taking the folders on the table and leaves. Lay walks over to Chanyeol and taps him on the shoulder; the tall guy with huge ears turns to him “Hm?” “Wanna bet?”

Chanyeol snorts a laugh “Are you serious?”

“Yah, come on this time, I know I'll win!” Lay insists, his usually sleepy eyes widening in the process. Tch. This guy. Chanyeol shook his head and takes a quick sip of his cup of iced mocha before turning to him “Alright” he breathes in “The bet and the price”

“Kai will get over Hana, give him two months”

“The price to pay?”

“The fashion summit, we all have to pay for our own rooms, right?”

Chanyeol chuckles “Alright, presidential suite then!” he held out his hand and Lay shook it with a firm grip. I will win this time! He thinks to himself, watching Chanyeol walk off.

Kai.

Sigh. I ran a hand through my hair. My head's throbbing.

I exit the meeting room and the only thing I want to do right now is get to my office and have someone give me freaking aspirin. The elevator seemed so far away and it only made the creases on my forehead worsen; Damn Kai, lay off the vodka. Just as I make my towards the compartment, someone appears, blocking my path.

All of a sudden my heart just seemed to have stopped, my temperature dropped and everything around me went mute. Hana... and she was smiling at me.

“Kai” her voice brings me back to earth. I blink my eyes and put on a small smile “Hey Hana, need something?”

As always, she looked prim and proper. Hair flowing gracefully behind her, black high heels, black pencil skirt and her white collared blouse. And who could ever not notice that bright smile? She pressed the folders onto her chest and speaks “Let's have coffee, my treat”

I didn't refuse, ofcourse.

We both sat down in the cafe of the building; admiring the view of the blooming rose bush just outside the panel windows as the clouds rolled by. It's a great day today. It's also been awhile since I have had coffee with Hana and it's not even four yet but whatever, I have a building headache and I don't really give a as to what else the rest of the day holds for me.

“I heard you've been drinking lately” Great. She knows. I take a sip of my coffee and force out a chuckle “It's nothing serious, Hana”

A sigh escaped her lips and she looks at me with a serious face “Kai, it won't solve any of your problems” “You think I don't know that?” I spat and later on give a frustrated sigh “Sorry Hana, I'm just... having a headache” instead of looking at me in a scared manner as I expected, she gave me an apologetic smile instead “Kai, I'm really sorry”

“No, don't be” I lean back on my chair “I needed some coffee, anyway --”

“Please stop these drinking habits, it's not doing you any good”

“Alright, who was it?”

She blinks her eyes at my question but my blank look doesn't falter. Someone is behind this, I just know it because why else would she give me this little lecture? For all I know, she's not one to just go about peoples' business anyway.

Hana looks down. I knew it.

“Kai --”

“Look Hana, I'm trying... okay?”

She purses her lips together. I get up from my seat and look at her; taking in every detail of her face and the painful fact hits me like a knife, this face, this girl will never be someone I can call mine. “I'm trying very hard” I tell her.

“But you're making it difficult”

She gives me a quizzical look, tilting her head slightly to the side. “W-what do I make difficult?”

Go on... tell her. My mind tells me but something else keeps me from doing so. I want to tell her so badly that she's making it difficult; everyday seeing her makes it difficult for me to just forget her. I want to let her know that. I really do.

But I can't... because something also tells me that I shouldn't.

I laugh and ruffle her hair “Tch. I said you're beautiful, have you gone deaf?” she flusters for a moment but then gives me a smile “Aigo, how does that relate to what we were just talking about?”

Letting out a sigh of defeat, I pocket my hands “I'll minimize my drinking because you said so, happy?”

Sigh. “Should be good enough” she breathes, sipping on her coffee “I'll drop some files in your office later, I need your signatures” she informs and I give a nod before turning around and walked off. Forget her. Forget her. Forget her.

my life.

Wu Prime's Head of Fashion Department enters the premises of her office.

Her brows immediately raise upon her entrance as she finds someone sitting on her chair; a bright smile painted on the visitor's face was painted. “Yookyung” she utters her daughter's name and the said girl –who happened to be the one sitting on the chair- stood up.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, striding over to her desk and drops her bag on top of it as the young female moves aside for her mother to take her seat. The single Mrs. Wu sits down.

“I just came here to say goodbye” Yookyung chimes quite happily and her mother frowns “Goodbye?”

Yookyung walks over to the front of her mother's desk, placing her palms on top of the expensive desk and smiles at the woman before her; she nods her head “I'm reassigned to Wu Enterprise Seoul”

The lady's eyes widen “What?! Who said so?!”

Yookyung covers her ears as her face scrunches; she takes a few steps back in a stumbling manner “Mother! Don't yell, it hurts my ears ~” she whines, pouting afterwards but the lady was least amused by her childish actions. With a sour look on the face of the elder Wu, she shot up from her seat “Wu Yookyung! Who re-assigned you?! Did you forget that you have a very important position under me as a fashion designer?!”

Her daughter flops herself down on the visitor's chair “Mom, I don't do anything here anymore and it's boring me...” she puffs out a breath “Kris already gave me a position at Wu Enterprise, so you don't have to worry about anything”

“Aist!” her mother sits back down, feeling her blood pressure rise “Mom, really... you're a control freak and you handle things here great on your own, maybe there I'll even find myself a boyfriend” she giggles but the glare she gets makes her stop.

“I'm so close to strangling your cousin”

“You're too bitter on Yi Fan, Mom... seriously, loosen up a bit on him, he's already pressured the way he is”

“Whose side are you on?”

“My side” she snorts a laugh. Her mother gets up from her seat once more and walked over to her, giving her a smack behind the head almost making her fall forward “Hey! Mama! That hurt” she animatedly cries as she rubbed the back of her head.

Taking a deep breath, the lady calms herself “Does your brother know about this?”

“Yup” Yookyung nods her head with a bright smile. The sound of a beep fills the air, she fishes her phone out of her pocket and reads for awhile before turning to her mother “Oops” she got up from her seat “I have to go, got some shopping to do” she pecks a cheek kiss on her mom before running off

“See you later, Mama!”

The lady ran a hand through her hair “This kid, really!”

Meanwhile, back in Seoul

Hana knocks on Xiumin's door before entering. “Oh, Hana” he chimes brightly upon her entrance, stopping his work for a moment and sets his laptop aside “Stephanie called me a day ago” she says, sitting down.

“Right!” Xiumin clasps his hands together “So, you're going?” he wiggles his brows.

She gives a nod.