Warning: Has not been beta'd. Introduction to homoual characters. You have been warned！

Kris Wu has one best friend and her name is Amber Liu.

Unlike Kris, Amber is not into the whole law ordeal. As a matter of fact, Amber is currently a fashion magazine editor and spent a majority of her college career studying fashion design and art history.

Not that it should be any surprise, really, but Kris was her first muse after they met in their later years of high school.

He still remembers, to this day, the exact words Amber used to describe him not too long after they met, when she wanted to convince him to be her model.

“Broad shoulders, long legs, and a face that could only be crafted with the world’s finest clay; of course, I’m not saying that you’re stiff and expressionless, as most would define clay, but you know what I mean… right?”

Right.

And honestly, she made Kris feel awkward and confused most of the time but that doesn’t mean he didn’t like her company. Amber was different from other girls and Kris appreciated that.

In the least, she didn’t gravel over his looks and family background.

“Did you know that powerful and wealthy businessmen are the most likely to cheat on their wives with beautiful, mostly unknown models?” Amber had asked him one day.

Kris doesn’t quite know how to respond.

“Of course you do.” Amber then states matter of factly.”You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Paris… they’re always at the top of the fashion spectrum, you see, and I’d love to experience it just once in my life. Obviously I’m not at all thinking about the beautiful men and women there, haha.”

Right.

That was nearly six years ago, now that he thinks about it. In fact, that was the very summer that he decided to take Amber to France on a whim. That was the year he first met Victoria, almost seventeen years old, young and fresh and so carefree.

Sometimes, Kris thinks that there are too many strings of fate that tie him and Victoria together, yet, none of them are strong enough to withstand the harsh tests of time and maturity.

Before Kris and Amber arrived in Paris, he knew he was going to be staying with a close family friend; that year, Victoria was nineteen and had already moved out of her aunt’s house. One day, very early in the morning, Victoria arrived at the residence and walked in through the front door as though she had never left before.

The moment their eyes met, Kris became speechless.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know aunty had guests,” she had apologized in accented Chinese.

Her aunt came singing to the living toom and smiled widely when she saw Victoria. “Victoria! I haven’t seen you in so long!”

Almost instantly, Victoria averted her gaze from Kris to her aunt with no hesitation whatsoever and her eyes softened from ice to cotton candy. Sweetness emitted from every inch of her body when her aunt embraced her, her smile brightening like a blossoming flower under the summer sun.

A young man entered the house momentarily after with bags stuffed in his hands. “You could have at least carried one bag for me,” he teased Victoria.

Victoria’s aunt laughed and pressed a kiss to the young man’s cheek. “Aiden, you haven’t changed the least bit! Is Victoria still bossing you around?”

“Aunty!” The young girl pouted.

The young man named Aiden grinned and s an arm around Victoria’s waist, pulling her in for a quick peck to her cherry shaped lips. “We’re just kidding.”

Something in Kris’s chest soured at the sight.

For the rest of the day that Victoria had spent at her aunt’s, she didn’t seem to take any initiative to become friendlier with Kris. Even when Amber awoke and joined him in their company, Victoria would only smile at them politely and ask a few socializing questions to break the awkwardness before her attention was stolen away by other matters.

“They make a ridiculously good looking couple,” Amber had whispered into his ear. “I told you Paris was different.”

Kris could only smile a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Ah, you’re studying fashion design?” Victoria suddenly asked Amber.

Alerted, Amber straightens her back and grinned childishly at Victoria. “Yes!”

Victoria slapped Aiden’s thigh and he pursed his lips, pouting at his girlfriend. “What did I do?”

“There’s a fashion event at your venue this weekend, right? The Chanel one,” Victoria said, “didn’t you say you had a few extra tickets? Why don’t you give them to the kids?”

Kids, Kris scoffed. She’s at most only a few years older.

Aiden smiled, “Sure, it’s not as though I have any other use for them. I’ll have them sent here tomorrow.”

“Oh, no need! We can come get them from you,” Amber exclaimed, after Victoria explained in broken Chinese, “We haven’t done enough travelling anyways.”

However, Aiden seems a little worried about Amber’s suggestion. “It’s quite a complicated travel and this is your first time here in Paris…”

“Victoria, why don’t you come pick them up?” Her aunty suggested. “Didn’t you say that Mr. Jung has given you a weeklong vacation?”

“Sure,” Victoria agrees, “Aiden will be out of town for his intern tomorrow anyways, I could use some company. I’ll show the two of you around Paris.”

They leave before the skies darken and after they’re gone Amber drags Kris out to nearby shops in the area. Night view in Paris is breathtaking, even Kris admits, and when Amber is smiling like a child who’s holding the world in her hands, Kris can’t help but smile too.

“Even the stars seem shinier here,” Amber laughed.

Kris reached over to ruffle her hair, her fringes falling over her glimmering eyes.

They say that Paris is the city of romance; they say that French is of the most romantic languages of all. Perhaps it’s not so much of a lie as most would think of it.

Tao asks Victoria, “Jiejie, have you ever thought about not wanting me?”

And because she is so honest, she replies, “yes.”

Upset, Tao thins his lips into a line and frowns. “Why?”

She doesn’t glance away from the monitor of her laptop as she answers, “because I don’t know you very well and I didn’t know how to interact with you or how you would treat me in turn.”

“I didn’t know if I could love you, after what happened to me as a child.”

“Also, I only just lost the most important person to me and I didn’t know if I could bring myself to accept another person in my life, even if you’re blood related to me.”

After hearing her words, Tao feels a pinch in his chest and the feeling extends to the pit of his stomach. He asks, “The most important person? Are they even more important than your mom and our dad?”

“Your dad,” Victoria corrects him. “If he heard you refer to me as his daughter, he might be angry enough to pop out of his grave and scowl at you as though he were alive.”

Tao is rather disturbed by her response. “How could you say something like that?”

Finally, she glances at him, the light of the monitor reflecting in her eyes, and, very softly, she says, “Because I’ve seen him stare at me in hatred, glower at me in anger, and blame me for things that my four year old self could not control.”

“I never expected him to feel sorry, I never asked for him to apologize and I never once anticipated for him to accept me again,” Victoria continues, “because all I wanted from the moment I left Beijing was a life where the people around me would see me as a blessing and not a curse.”

She may not have understood what was happening to her when she was four but over the years, as time and space transformed her from a child into an adult, Victoria learned of all the consequences she suffered despite how unfair it had been to her.

Such realities pained her, the older she grew, until her heart numbed every time she remembers the man she used to call her father.

Surprised, Tao tears his eyes away from his sister and bites down on his lips.

Victoria had spoken with such peace in her voice, as though what she was saying didn’t even touch the tips of fury or resentment, yet, every word is filled with passive venom. She then returns to her work, seeing that her brother no longer has anything to say to her, and sighs a sigh of relief when her phone actually rings a vibration into the silence.

It’s a Paris number calling. “Bonjour.”

“The Beijing airport is the worst maze I have ever seen in all twenty two years of my life. Where the hell can I halt a taxi?”

“…”

“Victoria Song, I don’t have time to play the silent game with you right now. Either you call me a taxi or you come pick me up yourself.”

A smile finally grapples at Victoria and she shakes her head helplessly. “I thought you were in New Zealand for a show.”

“I got back to Paris yesterday night,” her friend answers over the phone, “I wanted to surprise you.”

“What a surprise,” Victoria humors, “And you even flew directly here to Beijing to see me. Where are you staying?”

Irritated, her friend clicks his tongue. “With you, if you don’t get me a ride to my hotel and make me miss my check in. I haven’t slept in almost forty eight hours because of you; I need a shower.”

“You’re Chinese, Luhan. Why don’t you utilize your Chinese skills?” She teases playfully.

“Are you coming or not?” Luhan chides.

She laughs. “I’ll see you in half an hour.”

Unexpectedly, Luhan does end up having to stay with Victoria for the night because traffic had been so horrible that Luhan wouldn’t have made it in time for check in unless he flew to his hotel.

When Kris returns home from his intern, he hears a series of laughs and cackles coming from the direction of Victoria’s room.

“Oh, you’re home,” Sehun comments casually, running his long fingers through his hair and yawning as he walks past his brother. “Chanyeol said he might be visiting later this month. If he’s coming, I’m taking Tao to Shandong for vacation.”

“Who’s that?” Kris asks, ignoring what Sehun was saying about their other brother.

Sehun perks an eyebrow. “Who?”

“The person with Victoria,” Kris elaborates, “that doesn’t sound like Tao’s voice.”

“Oh,” Sehun drawls again, stretching his arms over his head, “I heard it’s her friend from Paris but I didn’t really get to speak with him much. He’s a pretty boy and his clothes are ridiculously flashy.”

Kris hums in response and hangs his coat on the coat rack before heading inside. Moments later, Victoria comes rushing down the flight of stairs from the second floor, a young man following closely behind her.

“Oh, hi, welcome home,” Victoria greets him. She then glances back at Luhan, who purses his lips and stares emptily back at her, and clears . “Kris, this is Luhan. Luhan, this is Kris. I hope you don’t mind; we didn’t make it to Luhan’s hotel before check in and so he has nowhere else to go…”

“It’s okay,” Kris shrugs, “we have plenty of rooms.”

Luhan suppresses a smirk. Already trying to show ownership, huh? “Hotels have plenty of rooms, too. I was actually planning on having you stay with me at my hotel since I’ll be here for a while and we could both use each other’s company.”

The light in Luhan’s eyes annoys Kris a little. Even though he doesn’t entirely understand what Luhan is saying, he can pretty much read it in his tone and body language.

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Victoria exclaims. She then turns to Kris and Sehun, smiling, as she says, “It will be more convenient for me to stay with Luhan and then when he returns to Paris I’ll go with him.”

Out of nowhere, Tao’s voice intercepts them. “You’re going back to Paris?”

“I do have some things to settle back in France,” Victoria nods.

Luhan, stepping forward and throwing an arm over Victoria’s shoulder, laughs. He may not speak their language very well but he can understand a majority of more commonly used terms. With pronunciation that could use a bit more practice, he says, “of course she’s returning to Paris. Where else would Vic go?”

No one really has an answer for that.

Sensing the awkward silence, Victoria links her arm around Luhan’s and drags him towards the kitchen. “Didn’t you say you were thirsty? How do you still talk so much with a dry throat? Seriously…”

The young man rolls his eyes. “This is the talent of a professional catwalk organizer and fashion trend public relations management specialist.”

“Just wait until I see Xiumin,” Victoria threatens, “I’ll make sure your whole world is turned upside down.”

He doesn’t seem to care very much about her menacing warning. “Speaking of Xiumin, I heard he signed a new model the last time he was here in Beijing; her training should be complete by now. You want to go check her out with me? They say she’s pretty phenomenal. Then you can help us look over a few of our accounting mismatches and trace the error in our records.”

“That ic workaholic side of Xiumin is really getting to you,” Victoria grimaces. “How old is she? Fifteen or sixteen?”

“Wow,” Luhan laughs, “are you psychic? She just turned fifteen not too long ago I hear.”

Victoria feigns a gag. “I just know the two of you way too well; plus, anything below fifteen will definitely make it to the court and anything older than sixteen just doesn’t seem like it would appeal to him. Why else would he be dating you, the eternal baby-faced chatter mouth? When are you going to go see her?”

“You have time tomorrow?” Luhan asks, glaring.

Her round eyes blink cutely a few times before she nods. “As long as it’s after noon, I’ll have time.”

“I’ll meet you at the agency at one sharp then.”

“What brand are you organizing for this time?” Victoria asks him.

Luhan puffs out his cheek. “It’s one of those collaborations between a local rising designer and Guess. You know how the Beijing branch of Guess really likes playing the national support card. They’re using quite a few of Xiumin’s models so Xiumin thought it was fitting to recommend me as the event organizer as gratitude.”

“No wonder,” Victoria chuckles. “Aside from Xiumin, no one can really get you back onto Beijing soil. True love is truly generous.”

“Don’t even bring that up,” Luhan groans.

She smiles. “You haven’t visited your parents yet?”

“I don’t plan on sending them to their grave anytime soon, they’ll just get angry if they see me,” Luhan replies.

Victoria takes a long drink of water. “Maybe they’ve let go and are ready to accept you.”

“Chances are slimmer than slim,” Luhan scoffs, “but I don’t blame them. Who would want to flaunt a homoual son and disgrace the family name?”

“You’re not a disgrace, Luhan,” Victoria sighs. “Stop wallowing in self-pity.”

Luhan laughs. “The one thing I’m grateful for in life, aside from Xiumin, is meeting you through Aiden.”

“Are you drunk already?” Victoria clicks her tongue. “You haven’t even touched alcohol.”

He shakes his head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought him up.”

Silence creeps upon them.

“But it’s not wrong to miss him,” Luhan mumbles under his breath to her, “Xiumin and I miss Aiden too.”

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A/N: How is everyone doing? I really miss Victoria ;____; Really want to see her soon! I must be going crazy missing Victoria because I'm writing three stories at the same time... >__>;;; So, I'm sorry for the slow updates but I'm bouncing back and forth between the three stories and it's delaying all of them a bit :( And don't ask me why I chose Luhan and Xiumin to be the gay couple because I don't know either. lol. They just... fit the roles well. ♥Xue