Kris groggily tried to keep his head balanced on his palm as his other hand stirred the milk and cereal in the bowl in front of him. He suddenly flinched when his head slipped from his palm. He opened his eyes for a few seconds before drowning back into his half conscious and unconscious sleep.

Ever since that phone call that he had decided to answer on Friday night, three nights ago, he had not gotten a decent amount of sleep. The person on the other end of the phone kept on calling and calling. When Kris didn’t pick up, the person started sending loads of text messages.

“What’s wrong Fan’er? You look more tired than you usually do.” Kris’ mother asked as she pinched two sausages with her chopsticks and placed them into Wenxin’s plate with the eggs she had cooked minutes ago.

He rubbed his eyes as he sat up straight when he heard his mother’s voice. She never liked it when people did not represent themselves well when they were eating at the dining table. His mother often slapped his hand with her chopsticks whenever he would not use the table manners that she had taught him when he was younger.

Kris placed his hands on his lower back as he arched his back to pop his backbone. Releasing a sigh, he stretched his arms vertically then horizontally before grabbing the phone from his pant pocket and placing it onto the dining table.

“Endless phone calls.” He mumbled as he scooped a spoon of cereal into his mouth wearily.

“Ah~ just like me when I was young.” Kris’ father proudly stated.

Kris looked at his father as he sat down. He shifted his attention to his mother when she changed directions in going to the kitchen and walked over to his father slapping him behind his head before walking off to the kitchen to place the pan that she had just cooked sausages in into the sink. Kris and Wenxin tried so hard not to laugh but failed miserably due to their father’s late reaction.

“Those days ended the day you tried to pursue me.”

He gave his wife a sheepish smile as she walked back over and sat on the chair that was to his left of the table. Wenxin sat on his father’s right across from his mother and Kris sat at the other end of the table, across from his father.

“No one told you to be such a hot nerd. It’s hard for jocks to resist you know.”

“You we’re sizzling yourself.”

Kris scrunched his nose, fully awake now, in disgust as he blocked his ears with his hands. His parents really had no shame when it came to talking about inappropriate content to him. At this point Wenxin was too young to even understand anything about love and relationships. So it never bothered them whenever he was present.

“Remember that time in the bathroom when we —”

“Ew~ gross... Stop. You’re making my ears bleed.” Kris said cutting off his father as he pressed his hands harder against his ears. “I don’t need you two to give me advice on how to get a girl. So far I’m doing pretty well.”

Kris’ parents give each other a cheesy smile earning a glare from their son. They turned away from each other and looked at him with one eyebrow raised curious as to what he meant by his last sentence.

“Are you saying that you are currently pursuing someone?”

Kris looked at his father, who was wiggling his eyebrows up and down at him, and pressed his forehead against his fingers while his elbow was propped up on the table. “Great~ just great. Now my parents know. Good job Wu Yifan.”

“So… who’s this girl that you’re trying to get to be our daughter-in-law?” His mother asked as she took a bite  out of her sausage.

“Mom~” Kris whined. “Don’t you think it’s a little too early to be calling her your daughter-in-law?” Kris looked away from his parents and to his cereal bow as he stirred it with the spoon deep in thought.

Wenxin furrowed his eyebrows confused about what his brother had just said to his mother. When they were at the S.M. Entertainment building a couple of days ago, Kris had addressed Yoonnae as sister-in-law to him. He didn’t understand how his mother calling Yoonnae daughter-in-law was any different.

He waved his hand at his father to come closer to him. His father leaned over to his side and Wenxin cupped his father’s ear before whispering. “Baba… tell mama that Yifan-ge asked me if I wanted her as a sister-in-law.”

His father gave Wenxin a toothy grin as he nodded. He leaned over to his wife’s side and motioned for her to come closer. He brought his hand to cover his mouth and whispered to her exactly what Wenxin had whispered to him. Her face gleamed as she gave him a soft look.

Kris’ mother was always happy whenever a girl is ever mentioned in their conversation. She was a mother that loved her kids dearly and would do anything for them as long as it was within her power. She knew that Kris was never really famous in high school among girls and that hurt his pride as a man. Not a single girl in his high school days even bothered to pay him any attention. At the most, all he got was a ‘hi’ or a smile accompanied with a weak wave.

High school, in his parent’s perspective, was the years that teenagers should start experiencing love. The kind of love that made them learn and understand what it feels like to receive love, protect someone, be left behind, cry, mend broken hearts, recover from pain, and finally let go with time as a medicine. But Kris never got his fair share of experiencing love.

“Then how do you want me to address her sweetie?”

“Call her—” Kris stopped when he realized what was happening; his mother was trying to trick him. “Wait a minute... Don’t think that I’ll fall for that trick twice mom!”

“It’s okay son. You don’t have to tell us right now as there is a probability that you might fail to make her yours.” Kris’ father said receiving a groaned from his son and a slap on his upper arm from his wife.

“Honey~ don’t you think that’s a little too harsh?” She asked as she turned around not waiting for his answer. “Anyways, did you finish the application for Wenxin?”

“No. I’ll be filling it out today during—”

‘(Wae) Wae~ (Wae) Sarangeul geureohge swipge nwa beorineun neoreul, (Wae) Nugunga geokjeonghal georan, Saenggageun haebwatna, (Wae) Niga nwa beoringe neoneun mwonji, (Wae) Ajig moreuneun geosgata, (Wae) Geudaero meomulleo nareul jikyeobwa, Yeah~’

Kris pushed his cereal bowl towards the center of the dining table and rested one of his forearms, palm facing down, on the table and rested his forehead on it. He reached his other hand over to the phone and tapped the end call without looking at the screen. He had had enough practiced of tapping the red button on the screen for the past few days.

“When did you get a new phone case?” his father asked as his eyes squinted at the phone on the table remembering that his son had a white phone case and not a red one.

“I didn’t dad. This isn’t my phone.”

“Oh… then why do you have it?”

“Wenxin stole it.” Kris lazily brought his arm up and pointed a finger in his little brother’s direction. “Ask him.”

Kris’ eyes widen a couple of seconds later when it hit him. Why had he not asked Wenxin three mornings ago about how, when and where he had gotten the phone and who he took it from? Kris stood up from his seat and walked over to Wenxin and lifted him from his chair. He put him over his shoulder and grabbed the phone on the table and started walking up the stairs.

“Mama! Baba! Help me!” Wenxin yelled out desperately, but his parents only have him a smile as they knew that what Kris was doing was right.

Kris opened the door to his room and kicked it close after he got inside. He sat Wenxin down on his bed and got on his knees to allow him to be on the same eye level with Wenxin. He leaned his body on the side of the bed with his arms propped up on top of the bed and cupped his cheeks with his hands.

“Bachi. Where did you get this phone from?” Kris asked as he waved the phone in front of Wenxin’s face.

Wenxin furrowed his eyebrows as he scratched his temple with his hand trying to remember how he had obtained the phone. “Oh!” he yelled out as he pointed his index finger into the air. “I got it from the ground.”

“No… that’s not what… argh…” Kris ran a hand through his hair in frustration when he realized that Wenxin’s answer did answer the where question. “Never mind that. Okay. So you got it from the ground. Where is this ground that you got the phone from?”

Wenxin made a kissing face as he allowed himself to fall back on the bed. He stared at the ceiling hard while making several funny faces. Kris strolled over to the other side of the bed and got on it. He lay on his side next to Wenxin.

“Um… I think I got it from the room with the handsome guy.” Wenxin around and looked at Kris, who only gave him an uncertain look.

“O…k…a…y… so who’s this handsome guy?” Kris propped his elbow on the bed and rested his jawline on his palm.

“I don’t know his name. But sister-in-law was on top of handsome guy.”

Kris leaned his head closer to Wenxin’s face and studied his eyes. They were stagnant and gazed straight back into his. He saw no irregular eye motion that would make him assume that Wenxin was lying about Yoonnae getting on top of a man.

But Kris was curious; so curious that he was going to get to the bottom of this. What was she doing that she got on top of a guy? And how did Wenxin even know about this? What was he doing and where did he go to have seen such a scene?

“Where did sister-in-law get on top of…” Kris stopped and tsk not wanting to mention the handsome guy, but for Wenxin to understand he had to. “Of… handsome guy?” he said with much force and venom.

“In the big house that I always go with you to.”

“S.M. Entertainment?” Kris sat up and walked over to his black duffle bag on the ground near his closet. “Come on. Let’s go. It’s almost six.” He put the strap on one shoulder and extended his hand out to Wenxin who hopped off the bed and ran over to him placing his palm into his brother’s. “When we get to the big house, show me who this handsome guy is okay?” Wenxin nodded his head while happily looking up at Kris.

***

Chanyeol sat nervously at the meeting table as he fidgeted with his hands under the table. Today was his first day back at S.M. Entertainment and it scared him. The call that he received last night seemed very urgent as the vice president, Hyunshik, called him himself and not his secretary. He was instructed to come here before nine in the morning to discuss about his future debut.

Before he had left to Japan for his internship, he had overheard Sooman and Hyunshik talking about putting him into a three member group after coming out of the restroom. He hid himself behind a corner and eavesdropped on their conversion. From what he remembered, the other two members were male and spoke Korean and Chinese quiet well.

At least they knew Korean. That way it wouldn’t be hard to communicate. Chanyeol’s Chinese wasn’t all that good. Sure he knew a few important statements and questions, but they were only enough to get him around China.

“I wonder when I’m going to start training with them.”

Chanyeol turned his head to the side when he heard the door knob turn. The door opened and Hyunshik walked through with some employees trailing behind. Chanyeol bowed to them a couple of times and they nodded back as acknowledgement. They made their way over to the meeting table and pulled out a chair for themselves before sitting down.

“Today we will get to the bottom of your debut which will not be a guarantee depending on how well you progress during the training that we are about to explain to you.” Hyunshik said as he leaned forward and enlacing his fingers on the table.

“We have come up with a new training system and have decided with Sooman that you will be a part of that experiment.” Chanyeol looked a Hyunshik as he exhaled slowly while noddin