CHAPTER ELEVEN

“I’m sorry I’m late!” a female voice wrings through the restaurant and the gentlemen around the table look up to find Hana approaching them with an apologetic smile. Yixing immediately gets up from his seat and pulls the free chair for their female companion to sit on, she casts him a thankful smile then they all sit down.

 

Kyungsoo notices the rather pale look on Hana’s face which he found a little bothersome “are you alright, Hana?” he asks. Hana blinks her eyes seeming a little surprised at the question that was raised “I-I’m fine, Kyungsoo… why do you ask?”

 

“Because you look pale” Sehun deadpans.

 

Hana reaches up a hand to her face and notices the rather cold temperature, Yixing begins to see the paleness on her face and starts to worry aswell “You look like you’ve seen a ghost” he comments to which Sehun scoffs. The female pats her face lightly “I’m sorry, it must be the stress… my last meeting didn’t end so well”

 

“Who did you have it with?” Kyungsoo pries in curiosity and Hana sighs “Just someone named Cho Kyuhyun”

 

The three spray water out of their mouths and into each other, making one another grimace at the other. Luckily, none of the water got to Hana –which relieves her a lot because she still had a schedule to fulfill for the remainder of the day; however, she was quite curious as to why the three reacted in such a way after hearing the name because surely, Cho Kyuhyun is someone that they know.

 

Lay gets up from his seat, brushing off the microscopic droplets from his coat before rushing beside Hana and gently cups her face, he tilts her head side to side gently and looks at he with such concentration as if she was looking for something. After a while, he finally lets go and gives Kyungsoo a look of relief “She’s all clear” he says and sits back down, leaving Hana in a confused state.

 

What just happened? She blinks.

 

“Please…” Sehun breathes in hard, “Please tell me that you did not just say Cho. Kyu. Hyun.”

 

“But I d –”

 

“Oh god, ! Kyungsoo, what is this that I am hearing?!” he cries in desperation thus earning a smack from Kyungsoo in the back of his head, “You’re such a drama queen…”

 

Hana clears then which catches all of their attentions “Can someone please tell me what is the big deal about Cho Kyuhyun?”

 

Kyungsoo clears his throat and begins…

 

 

KRIS

 

So, the contract has ended unexpectedly –much to the remaining babysitters’ joys because the bastards say that they are not fit for the part; except for Luhan, who genuinely wanted to take care of the boy but as per punishment, I am obliged to look after Aiden for the remaining days here in Seoul.

 

“Boo ~” the young boy coos, picking up a blue crayon and scribbles all over the paper laid out on the floor as he sits on the space between my legs and I, behind him. I pick up the yellow crayon that was attempting to roll away and place it beside the green crayon close to Aiden’s left hand. I didn’t know what the heck he was trying to draw but I could sense some sort of creativity in his work atleast, I couldn’t help but crack a small smile and ruffle his hair, “Try the red, buddy…” I suggest as I reach over for the red and hand it over to him.

 

He takes the red from my hand with his free hand then jots it down onto the paper, he scribbles with both hands now, mixing the two colors. It almost makes my heart explode to know that he has inhabited more than just my good looks, “Good boy” I ruffle his hair again and this time he giggles, even I manage a small chuckle. Okay, I guess spending time with Aiden isn’t as bad as I initially thought it was.

 

PING!

 

My head turned at the sound of the laptop on the coffee table, I momentarily parted myself away from Aiden and walked over to the gadget, flopping myself down infront of it and opened a new e-mail that had just arrived on my inbox.

 

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Party RSVPs & General Notices

 

Good morning Mr. Wu,

The RSVPs for the 118^th Business Gala has arrived today at your office. Two seats have been reserved for you and Mrs. Wu as VIPs and the organizers have also added another seat just in case you would want to bring your son along.

Ms. Wei called in again today; she insists that you both meet each other once you get back. As of today, there are 13 files on your table that need to be signed.

That is all.

Have a good day, Mr. Wu.

 

Peng Meifen

PA

 

Tsk. Ms. Wei again? My face scrunches at the mentioned name, why the heck is she so persistent? It’s not like I’m running away from the debt. Geez. I close the e-mail and turn back to Aiden, deciding that I was not in the mood to respond to something that involved such a name, I’m just going to have to deal with her once I get back but not today… not while I’m still in Seoul.

 

“Baba!” came Aiden’s shout. I had stopped in my tracks when I saw him getting up to his feet and picks up the paper from the ground before turning around and presented me his artwork which mainly composed of exploding colors that made no sense at all.

 

His works are just like Picasso… and I am a proud father of this boy.

 

“Wow, that’s really awesome kiddo!” I exclaim in excitement as I bend down and hold out my arms to him, he comes running to me whilst laughing and leapt into an embrace. Gathering him in my arms, I got up to my feet and bring us both to the kitchen after realizing that it was already lunch time and at any given time, this guy could be wailing like a dying whale.

 

“Sit here for a minute, Baba’s just going to get your food” I tell him, setting him onto his high chair and walked over to the fridge to read the sticky note that Hana had left:

 

There are chicken & apple balls in the fridge, preheat them in the microwave.

P.S. I also cooked some extras for you, just order rice!

Love, Hana :)

 

I huff a breath and open the fridge where the said balls sat inside a container, as per instruction I placed it inside the microwave then ordered rice via room service while it heated. As I opened the fridge again to grab a bottle of water, I notice three lemons sitting aside and a sudden idea comes into my head.

 

It was originally Baekhyun’s suggestion but we had never gotten the chance to try it out… until now.

 

 

Tao enters the office with a scowl on his face at around 12:30.

 

The circles under his eyes were darker than usual and he looked as if all the stress had been poured onto his shoulders; he was clearly having it worse than Suho was –and the guy was the freaking CEO. Everyone hadn’t dared speak a word, afraid of the deadly aura that he was giving off as he passed so employees settled for clearing his path, when he reached the elevator everyone inside had emptied it for him, too afraid.

 

He was muttering words under his breath that no one could make out, they were mere silent whispers, as if he was chanting mantras to place a curse upon someone. If only he knew how to, he would’ve already gotten a doll, named it after a particular someone and stabbed him repeatedly with a knife.

 

DING. The elevator doors open and Luhan jumps back a bit in surprise, “Sweet mother of Jesus!” he exclaims, clasping a hand over his shocked heart and frowns at the person occupying the lift. Tao paid him no mind, it was as if Luhan wasn’t there, he just continuously glared down at the ground and kept muttering things under his breath.

 

“You look like , Zi Tao” the latter comments as he enters the lift and presses the designated button for Suho’s floor. Tao doesn’t spare him a glance, he just keeps doing as he did ever since he got here and it creeps out Luhan because the chances of his friend being possessed seemed to be likely at a high rate. He was far too young, too manly and certainly too beautiful to be killed inside an elevator by his possessed friend in such an unfashionable method. He planned to die a manly death, if Tao’s possessed self wouldn’t mind.

 

Luhan shrinks to one corner, keeping a watchful eye over his friend just incase the demon attacks. I swear I will kick you on the balls if you go ing paranormal on me, he thinks to himself as he presses the folders onto his chest.

 

“…Dae” says the man with the deadly aura.

 

Luhan raises a brow at him, “W-what?”

 

“Jong…” Tao hisses “…Dae”

 

What the . Luhan looks at him like he was a mad man, one who has been tortured so much that he went on a killing spree for revenge. Whatever the reason was that Tao was saying Jongdae’s name means that the little must be the one responsible for their friend’s demonic get up today. Joonmyeon is not going to be happy about this, Luhan is sure.

 

Poor CEO, the guy was so keen on implementing the friendship policy. Tsk.

 

Just then the elevator stops, the doors open and Tao raise his head with a look of determined vengeance. He steps out of the elevator with his hands enclosed in tight fists, “ing buttered my whole condo…”

 

DING. The doors close in on Luhan and the last thing he sees is Tao entering Jongdae’s office.

 

“…So that’s why he asked Kris for butter”

 

A little while later, Luhan exits the elevator aswell and marches up to a pair of double-doors where a gold plate was neatly stuck onto the left door with the name: KIM JOONMYEON engraved on it and underneath it was his title of CEO. Just before his fist could land on the hardwood, Luhan was startled by the sound of a muffled laugh on the other side of the door thus he raises a brow as he came to realize that the laughter belonged to Joonmyeon.

 

He decides not to knock and quietly opens the door to take a little peak inside as to what the CEO was fondly ogling at but to his dismay; the back of Joonmyeon’s chair was blocking whatever it was. Luhan creeps inside, silently shutting the door behind him and takes quiet steps closer to the CEO’s desk, as he comes closer he slowly gets the view of Joonmyeon’s phone and on the device was a video of something that was presumably funny. Curious, Luhan edges closer and his eyes widen before he breaks out in a guffaw of laughter that surprises Joonmyeon.

 

“Oh god! I did not just see that!” Luhan laughs, turning away to his side clasping his hands over the lower half of his face because he was very much aware of his ugly face whenever he laughed. Joonmyeon stops the video and place his phone aside, “You should’ve knocked.” He tells Luhan, all of a sudden, in a stern tone.

 

But the latter was far from finished, he continues to laugh and his face was slowly turning red because of the effort that his facial muscles were exerting.

 

“Eherm…” Joonmyeon clears his throat and Luhan takes a deep breath, wiping away a stray tear from his eye as he finished his fit. Like they say, make sure to laugh atleast a few minutes a day. “Oh god, that was cute…” he breathes “Can you send it to me, Suho? I have to show it off”

 

Joonmyeon sighs before he cracks a small smile and takes his phone again, “…he was pretty cute, wasn’t he?”

 

The two spend the next fifteen minutes in a bluetooth session of the certain video before they get down to business. Now, Luhan was sitting in content across the CEO and waits as the latter reviews the contents of the folders he brought.

 

“By the way…” Luhan says as he holds up his hand and inspects his fingernails “Chen buttered Tao’s whole apartment and the latter has gone into demon mode for the day”

 

Joonmyeon sighs and shakes his head, “why am I not surprised?”

 

“Because you saw it coming…?” Luhan remarks in a sarcastic tone and Suho replies with a scoff “Ofcourse… why else would Chen ask Kris for butter, right?”

 

Luhan chuckles and brings his hand down, he looks at Shuo for a moment before his eyes fall on a pair of red envelopes that were resting near the edge of the CEO’s desk. He cranes his neck forward a little to take a closer look but after no avail, he just decides to take the envelopes and plucks out the invitation card inside “Whoa… you already have your invites for the Gala?”

 

“Yes, didn’t you?” he asks Luhan, never taking his eyes away from the files.

 

Suho has developed the habit of double-checking documents and reading paragraphs because the last time that he failed to, he was given a notice by one of his employees as to how a file from Mr. Oh Sehun contained one page of a recipe for French crepes. It was a waste of good paper in his opinion.

 

“No” he pouts and tosses back the pair of envelopes back on the table.

 

Suho closes the folder with a smirk and hands it back to Luhan, who then swipes it out of his grasp. He waits for the doe-eyed man to stand up but Luhan never does and it only means that Joonmyeon was going to spend a few more minutes facing him “Yes, Luhan?” he sighs

 

“Are you going to talk with the Wei lady too?” he asks.

 

The CEO looks up and meets his friend’s eyes. Luhan had a blank stare on his face but despite this, Suho could clearly see the concern in the doe-eyed man’s eyes because even if Luhan doesn’t admit it, they both know that things were not currently as peaceful s they seem. Suho smiles and nods his head “I might aswell try”

 

“I guess…” Luhan shrugs and sighs as he turns around, “do me a favor and come back with good news”

 

Luhan closes the door behind him leaving Suho alone once again. The CEO pulls out his phone from his pocket, resuming to where he had left off before Luhan interrupted him, he presses play one more time and erupts in a wide smile. When the video ends, he goes back to the messenger app and types:

 

SUHO: Lol, so cute!

KRIS: Ikr? It’s funnier first hand

SUHO: Let’s try it again next time!

I’ll bring the lemons!

KRIS: Don’t spread the video.

SUHO: K. Btw, Chen used the butter you gave him.

KRIS: What, he made a huge cake?

SUHO: No. he buttered Tao’s condo and now

the said victim is on a mission for vengeance

according to Luhan.

KRIS: I had nothing to do with it.

SUHO: why’d you give him freaking butter?!

KRIS: The price for the favors I ask of him.

 

 

“Before Yifan’s parents got married, his mother was in a contracted relationship with Kyuhyun’s father and they were supposed to get married but somewhere inbetween she got pregnant so the wedding was pushed back and was decided to take place after she gives birth.

 

When Kyuhyun was born, his father began to have doubts towards their –Kyuhyun and Yifan’s- mother since her affection towards him had slowly faltered.”

 

“But it’s not like Mrs. Wu liked him in the first place; it was a contractual agreement” Sehun comments.

 

“It was then very dark for her; Kyuhyun’s dad has a serious case of jealous fits that he channeled through violence and given that she was living with him already at that time, she got beatings. It was an abusive relationship and it went on for months, but then she met Mr. Wu at one of those business parties that she and Mr. Cho always got invited to.

The two of them clicked really well with each other and the next thing you know, the wedding with the Cho’s get called off and three families sit inside a court room for many reasons. Mr. Cho sued her and Mr. Wu; Mrs. Wu sued Mr. Cho for abuse and was fighting for custody over Kyuhyun and Mr. Wu was there to help her.

In the end, Mrs. Wu prevailed with everything but one... she didn’t get the custody for Kyuhyun and one can only imagine how painful that is for a mother; Mr. Cho took Kyuhyun away and made sure that she was never to get in contact with him. A year later, she married Mr. Wu and Kris was born. Kris became the light to her world again that’s why she took very good care of him, always made sure that he came first before anything else.

When she and Mr. Wu got divorced, Kris was taken away and she fell into deep depression. According to Nana Dabin, Kyuhyun had appeared and met her after such a long time but contrary to what she expected as the light of hope for the woman, Kyuhyun made it worse. Mrs. Wu succumbed to her illness eventually and passed away.

And when Kris found out about everything, he just got even more upset with the world.”

 

Cho Kyuhyun, 27 years old, CEO of C&C and Kris Wu’s –

 

“I’m sorry…” Hana forces a chuckle “but did you just say half-brother?”

 

Kyungsoo nods his head and silence sets onto the table. It was as if a bomb had just been dropped followed by such a lethal aftermath, Hana collapses back onto her chair and stares blankly into space, her brain trying its very best to absorb the information that had just been laid out infront of her.

 

“But I thought Stephanie was the –”

 

“From his father’s side she is but not from his mother’s side” Kyungsoo cuts her off before she could finish. Hana shakes her head frantically, whisking away the thoughts of how and why “D-does Kris know?”

 

“Yes,” Lay answers “and he doesn’t plan on making any amends like he did with Stephanie”

 

 

The day had been long and all that Hana wanted to do was collapse onto the soft mattress of a bed and sleep to her heart’s content. Tomorrow would be their last day in Seoul and Suho had invited them all for a barbeque party tomorrow at his place; it’s a pretty good idea especially since it will be another long wait before the group would be able to get together plus it was a Sunday and what better way to spend it.

 

Hana opens the door to the unit and steps inside, her ears were met with awkward coos from a deep voice and a baby’s cute giggle which makes her up a brow, when she enters the dim bedroom she finds the bed a mess with all the pillows on the floor and on a corner was a fort of blankets with two silhouettes inside. Hana smiles and makes quiet steps towards the structure.

 

“…and little red riding hood said, oh grandmother what big eyes you have!” Kris’s pitched voice came as he then turned the page. Aiden sat inbetween his legs hugging his baby bottle as his eyes focused on the pictures on the book while his ears were listening attentively to his father. Kris continues with the story, both of them were too lost in the moment to notice the presence behind them but Hana didn’t mind, it was nice to see them bother like that from afar. She knew that the first days of fatherhood for Kris were not the best times, he often complained how difficult it was but never did she hear him say that he regrets anything because she knew that despite it all, Aiden had a special place in his heart; the only reason why he acted in such ways was because she knew that he was the kind of person who found it difficult to express his true feelings and Aiden was not an exception in that… not even her and it even took some time before he fully grew accustomed to their relationship.

 

So, why was she to judge him when she knew him very well?

 

“Then what happened?” she asked, no longer able to stay quiet and the two turn their heads with their eyes lighting up to see her as if she were the most precious woman –because she really was. Hana enters the small fort to join the both of them; she takes the book and finishes the story.

 

The night ended late though precious and three of them fell asleep under the confines of the small fort that Kris had built.

 

 

The next day…

 

“Seven” says Chanyeol pushing his sunglasses up.

 

“Eight” replies Baekhyun sipping on his glass of tropical fruit punch. The sizzle on the grill resonates in the air and so does the scent, “That’s underrated, I’d say a perfect ten” Yixing comments and sips on his fruit punch aswell hile flipping the patties.

 

A snort comes from the side, “Eleven” Sehun declares firmly and pops open a can of beer. Suddenly, the sharp bang of something heavy landing on the table startles the gentlemen and tears away their sunglass-covered eyes from what they were previously ogling at to Kyungsoo who looks at them with his soul-piercing eyes “Are you not ashamed of yourselves?” he asks in monotone still looking at them with such hard judgment.

 

Silence.

 

Sehun swallows the beer in his mouth “You’re right…” he sighs and hangs his head low in shame for a moment then raises it a second after “It’s a hundred because I’d still tap that ” he finishes off with a proud smirk which Kyungsoo responds with a hard flick on his forehead “Ow! Hyung!”

 

“Please tell me that you’re not talking about my wife’s … again” then comes a groggy sigh from Kris as he joins the gentlemen by the barbecue grill. Chanyeol purses his lips in a firm line and gives a nod, “Actually, yes.” He says, “Yes, we are –infact- talking about your wife… specifically her bossom”

 

“You should be proud” Baekhyun pats the chairman’s shoulder and Kris beams at him which causes him to flinch a bit. The gentlemen all turn their gazes back to the said woman and simultaneously sip on their drinks, “I guess… she does have a nice ” Kris speaks and the others nod in agreement.

 

“Amen” Says Lay as he flips another patty.

 

Hana lifts Aiden from the grassy ground and takes him back with her to her seat where she was conversing with some ladies –specifically Kyungsoo’s rumored girlfriend, Ling, Jongin’s sisters and other lady friends that the other guys have decided to take with them- where they adore the young boy and forget about the other men in the backyard.

 

A nice Sunday barbecue with great friends, great food and an adorable baby boy;

 

It was a nice way to spend the last day in Seoul.