CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“This is a surprise,” Kris smirks confidently as the two brother meet eyes in a heated stare “I didn’t expect you to pay $30,000 for a ticket here”

 

Kyuhyun laughs in spite then rolls his eyes with a shake of his head, “If you should be informed I have received the invitation without the use of my money… I’m just as worthy to be here as you are, Kris” Ugh, Kris mentally grimaces as his name escapes the lips of Cho, can you not? The chairman puts on a blank smile “That’s funny coming from you” he mocks and feels his chest swell with pride when he catches the slight twitch in his rival’s eye. He was fully aware that Kyuhyun had issues when it came to people mocking him, as if being the son of one of the most scandalous businessmen in history weren’t enough and not to mention that the dispute between his father and their mother weren’t the prettiest of events in history.

 

Kris just knows where to hit the guy, if only he could land a punch or two then he’d be content. He deserves it and more, Kris thinks to himself. He feels a slight squeeze on his arm and remembers his wife’s presence, so does Kyuhyun as he voluntarily takes her hand and places a kiss on the diamond on her ring, “it’s nice to see you again, Hana. You look beautiful tonight as the first time I met you”

 

“T-thank you, Mr. Cho” she takes her hand away and smiles uneasily while Kyuhyun clicks his tongue in disappointment, “Didn’t I tell you to call me Kyuhyun?”

 

Hana keeps mum and the silence builds up the tension again. Vanessa clears , reminding them of her presence aswell “Excuse me gentlemen but I should remind you that there are ladies present” Kris glances at her and smiles a little, “my apologies, Ms. Vanessa and Mr. Cho, there is no necessity for my wife to call you by your first name”

 

“No,” Kyuhyun interrupts as he eyes Hana, “It makes me feel old to be called like that and besides, I wouldn’t mind getting compensation everytime she fails to call me by my first name”

 

Kris frowns, “by compensation you mean?”

 

“I don’t know” Kyuhyun shrugs and smiles smugly at Kris “maybe a treat for coffee? I would love to get to know you more, Hana”

 

Vanessa tightens her hold on Kyuhyun’s arm but the man seems to have not taken the warning that had been silently given; Kris, however, takes note of how Hana’s grip had tightened once again and makes it a cue to leave before she begins to get upset with him, he had no plans of ruining her evening and would rather enjoy it than waste it on Cho Kyuhyun. As he was about to speak the microphone being tapped captures the attention of everyone in the room and as they turn, they find the emcee standing onstage “Ladies and Gentlemen, the hour of the night has come where we are to honor the Man –or Woman- of the Year”

 

The whole room in quiet as they anticipated the announcement to be made, it was the kind of award that entitled the awardee an endless right of pride and brag. The prestigious award was only given to one business-holder that has driven their company to the very top of the food chain, receiving such an award came with many perks such as the businessman’s net-worth rising into unimaginable ends, their company rating and worth rises aswell and so on.

 

“The Man of the Year award goes to…” the emcee pauses to take out the card from the envelope, “Congratulations Mr. Wu Yi Fan of Wu Prime Corporation”

 

Kris quietly breathes out in relief and turns to Kyuhyun who fashioned a blank stare, “I hope you didn’t expect to get that but then again… we all can’t be worthy, right?” with a smirk, he begins to make his way to the stage to accept the award with Hana by his side while the other couple watches. Kyuhyun takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, he hated situations like these where he ends up standing motionless but he had to stand his ground, leaving would give his brother the impression of how sour he is and he didn’t want that.

 

“Are you okay?” Vanessa asks, noticing the sudden grim look in his eyes as they watched Kris accept the award, Kyuhyun smirks “Ofcourse it’s just a petty award, Vanessa”

 

“One of the many that he has achieved” she comments and he whips his head to glare at her, he warns “Are you saying that I am a loser compared to him?” “No,” she rolls her eyes at him “I’m saying that you are second to him… as you have always been”

 

“Like you?” he retaliates and leaves her to be alone, she frowns.

 

 

Two pairs of feet run out of a room leaving a trail of soft mischievous giggles and baby powder sprinkled on the floor like snow in December. Luhan turns around with a fresh diaper in hand and is dumbfounded when he finds no baby on the bed, he looks around the room for a moment before cursing to himself because getting that kid into the tub was hard enough now he had to go and find him to get him changed.

 

“Aiden-ah, you’re going to catch a cold if you don’t get dressed!” he shouts and hastily runs out of the room to look for the boy. Meanwhile, Stephanie grows alarmed at the sound of his voice and drops the pan back onto the stove to see what was wrong, she runs into Luhan halfway and the latter grabs onto her shoulders before she could fall back then steadies her “where’s Aiden?” she asks and Luhan frowns “he ran away”

 

Looking around, the two spot the sprinkles of baby powder on the floor which leaded up to another room in the house; they follow the trail into Kris’s home office and see it lead behind one of the tall drawers. Luhan gestures Stephanie to keep quiet as he creeps up to where the boy was supposedly hiding and just as he was about to jump on him, Aiden suddenly emerges and makes a mad dash for it leaving his uncle to flop forward onto the wooden floor, he runs past his aunt and laughs wildly to hide again.

 

“Ugh” Luhan sits up in irritation “do you enjoy wiggling your willy around the house, Aiden?!”

 

Getting an idea, Stephanie runs back to the kitchen and pulls out bottle “Who wants yoghurt milky?!”

 

As her voice rings out throughout the house, Aiden pops his head out of his hiding place in the living room and rushes to the kitchen with a bright smile on his face. “Me!” he jumps with a hand raised in the air and Luhan emerges aswell still with the diaper in hand, as soon a she spots Aiden he swoops the boy off his feet and exclaims “Got ‘cha!”

 

“Milky!” Aiden pouts as he was clearly not amused by his uncle’s actions –nor did he really spare him a glance- and kept holding his arm’s out to the yoghurt milk bottle that his aunt held, as Luhan started to walk away with him he suddenly broke off into a loud cry which catches the two by surprise.

 

He wanted his milky, was that so much to ask?

 

“Oh…” Luhan goes as the boy continues to cry with tears now falling from his eyes, Stephanie grows alarmed and rushes to Luhan’s side to give the boy the bottle but the uncle stops her “No, he’ll get used to it” “But Luhan –” Luhan sighs and set the boy down to stand on the floor, he then grabs him gently by the shoulders and talks to him as he wipes away his tears “Aiden-ah, listen to uncle”

 

Aiden continues to cry. I want my milky! “Aiden-ah, if you continue to cry we won’t give you the milky” and abruptly, the boy stops wailing and settle for a humming kind of cry, his tears were still falling and he was still with a powdered .

 

“Aish,” Luhan wipes his tears again, “do your parents spoil you? Kris is such a weakling… Aiden-ah, if you get dressed and behave, uncle and aunt will give you milky okay?”

 

Aiden sniffles for a moment then nods his head in agreement making the two adults smile; after finally changing the boy into his jammies he was presented with the promised award while his aunt and uncle then flopped themselves in the living room to watch a movie. Stephanie glances down at her watch and sees that it’s past nine o’clock yet the boy was still running around the house with the alpaca in his hands as if he had his own world, the two of them were too exhausted to even reprimand him for bed time and decides to let him wear his energy out.

 

“You shouldn’t have given him cake” she tells Luhan, the man looks at the boy who runs past them then puffs out some air “Just let him be, he will need all the playtime he can get” “I guess but don’t you think someday he’ll wish that he had slept whenever he could?” Luhan thinks for a moment about her words then shrugs “Nah... I have a feeling that Kris won’t be so hard on him, he loves the kid too much”

 

Stephanie watches Aiden for a moment, he slumps down on the floor by the hallway and begins to converse with the alpaca with the words he could muster and every now and then she would hear him shout mom or dad and while Luhan was busy focusing his eyes on the movie she couldn’t help but succumb into her thoughts; surely, Aiden was far too young to understand the world around him, she wonders however would he begin to understand it because from what she knows the world that his mother and father were currently facing were too messy and even she can’t understand it well. She slightly understands the position Yifan had when he was young –the position that many children of families with large businesses had; maybe the strict upbringing were not for nothing, they were not just for discipline, maybe it was to build them a backbone strong enough to bare it all.

 

Yifan was a fine example of that. He was a man with such a strong backbone that setbacks never seemed to bother him, he always found a way through or around his problems no matter how big or small they were, he always plastered that blank emotionless face whenever he faced clients, businessmen, businesswomen and commoners alike.

 

But…

 

“Let’s just say that the Kris I’ve known now and then, are very much different” she remembers what Hana had once told her when they talked about her brother.

 

“Hey Luhan…” she calls out to him in a mumble, her eyes still plastered on Aiden “Hm?” “What’s Yifan like to you, I mean, how have you known him?”

 

Luhan takes a quick glance at her then follows her eyes to Aiden before turning back to the television, “He can be a big ” he snorts, “and to be honest he was someone I never saw myself as being friends with but life happens and here I am babysitting his kid for him”

 

“Come on,” Stephanie pouts “get serious for one minute here” “Why the sudden question?” he a brow up, grabbing his can of beer and taking a sip –apparently, Kris was hiding a stash of it because Hana disapproved of alcohol in the house and Luhan just so happened to have found it under the sink cabinet; “I’m just curious”

 

“If you’re wondering if Kris would raise Aiden the same way as he was then let me settle your worries because that’s not going to happen. He is more than determined to give the kid a happy childhood regardless of what may come; your brother may be a cold-hearted ” he whispers the last word before continuing, “but he’s a man who becomes totally different in the face of family. In my own point of view, Kris would willingly give up everything for the sake of family. The reason why he cherishes Hana and Aiden so much is because it’s the closest thing to the kind of family he has always wanted as a child, he doesn’t want to repeat his own parents’ actions –no offense intended to you but when his dad broke his mother’s heart and they got separated, Kris lost himself”

 

Although he meant not to offend her she still couldn’t help but feel a little hurt but then again, Luhan had a point. Turning away from Aiden, she looks at Luhan and asks “If by any reason, Yifan doesn’t fully pay the debt by the time he steps down and hands over the company to Aiden, how do you think the kid would handle it? I mean… the world we know is pretty much a mess”

 

Luhan looks at Aiden and diverts his attention to the family portrait hung up on the wall of the hallway, he smiles “He’ll pay, trust me… Kris always finds a way”

 

 

Suho enters the bar of the venue where there were less to no people at all –save for the bar staff and bartender; he looks around for a moment then spots a lady sitting by the bar, looking a little bored so he approaches her and takes the empty seat next to where she was, “Old Fashioned” he tips at bartender. The woman glances at him for a moment then turns back to her own drink taking a lazy sip.

 

“Hi” he greets with a casual smile at the woman and she responds “Hello”

 

The bartender places Suho’s drink before him and walks off to the side of the bar, continuing his previous task of cleaning the glasses; he takes the first sip of his drink before continuing his goal of conversing “I don’t believe we’ve met yet, I’m Kim Joonmyeon” he holds out his hand to the girl which she takes with a smile “Vanessa… Wei Vanessa”

 

“Ah ~” he fakes surprise and fascination, ofcourse he knew who she was otherwise why else would he waste time stalking into such a lonesome bar than enjoy the night with his friends? Suho had duties however, one of them being to talk to this woman. She was the target. “So you’re the one that Kris owes several billions?”

 

She chuckles and nods, “I guess I am and you are one of his subordinates?” “Business partner, rather” Suho informs making her smile in amusement. Atleast, he was garnering her attention and so to keep it smooth he smiles back at her “I’m curious as to why he has such a huge debt though”

 

“His father owed my father and when those two passed away, it goes down to the next in line… rather than call it a debt, I prefer it be called damage control” he a brow up at her statement, damage control sounded a bit strange to his ears; “Damage control?” he questions and she nods “Yes, unfortunately” she sighs “my father and Mr. Wu somehow came to a bitter story but I’d rather not talk about that”

 

Curious and intrigued, Suho decides to press his luck “I can lend you an ear” he offers with a smile but Vanessa didn’t seem as keen as to telling the story much to his disappointment.

 

“You and Kris are friends, correct? He made you CEO of Wu Enterprise before he moved to Wu Prime to fill in his father’s shoes” Suho grows a little alarmed that his cover had been blown but then again –who the hell wouldn’t know him? As the CEO of one of the biggest companies, surely his name was on the must-know list. Hence, he kept his composure by chuckling and nodding “and you are Vanessa Wei, CEO of Wei Industries since 2010”

 

Vanessa nods her head, “Correct, after my father passed away and left me to deal with the person in debt to him” “Why now though?” he questions.

 

“Pardon?”

 

“You’ve sat there since 2010 and Mr. Wu died two years ago that means you’ve been transacting with him for two years about the debt, when he stepped down and Kris took over how come we’ve never heard of you, not even once? For someone reputable such as you, surely, we couldn’t have overlooked it nor missed it by chance”

 

She falls quiet for a moment then sighs heavily, “You ask so many questions, Mr. Kim; but if you should know, I happen to like the element of surprise” she smiles flirtatiously at him and places a hand on his thigh “and besides, I had to know who and what I was dealing with before taking any actions. Kris Wu is someone that no one would want to mess with” Suho smirks, “Your actions seem to speak otherwise, you’re literally asking for him to sentence you”

 

“That,” she leans close to his ear, “or I was just being a good girl and did my research”

 

She places a soft kiss on Joonmyeon’s cheek before hopping off of the bar stool and sashays her way out leaving Joonmyeon as the remaining customer. Intrigued by her words, he pulls out his phone and makes a call.

 

“Hello?” came a groan from the other line then heavy breathing making Suho hiss “What the , Jongdae?” “Ugh… what do you want? I’m in the middle of something here” Jongdae grunts and breathes heavily in a pattern, Suho swear he hears a females muffled moan in the background and scrunches his nose in disgust –why the was he even surprised? “Oh God, forget it. When you finish whatever you’re doing –and please don’t tell me because I already know- run a background check on the whole family of Vanessa Wei” without waiting for a reply, he ends the call.

 

Tao walks past the crowd of people and reaches the doors to the bar, just as he was about to grab the handle it opens and a female emerges bumping into him. He apologizes quickly while she on the other hand seems stunned at the sight of him and quickly leaves, confused by her actions Tao raises a brow at her retreating figure and proceeds on his way inside where he finds Suho.

 

 

Minseok knocks on the hardwood door for a couple of times before it opens and he grins to find his bestfriend, Luhan. He sniggers at the doe-eyed man’s disheveled hair state and annoyed look, Minseok could not help but wonder what they were doing before he got here –and if it involved something such as a lip-lock he would surely tell Kris.

 

“Sorry to interrupt the moment but I kind of got bored with the party” he fakes a sorry look and enters the house. Stephanie sits up from the couch, hair disheveled aswell and her cheeks flustered a deep red as she croaks out “H-hi”

 

“Onion!” comes a bright giggle and a pair of running feet, Minseok automatically bends down with his arms wide open where the boy runs in and hugs his neck. He gets up to his feet with Aiden in his arms and turns to the two babysitters flashing a teasing look “I surely hope that you two were not doing anything rated because if so then shame on you for traumatizing this cute angel”

 

Luhan scoffs while Stephanie’s blush only goes a darker shade –Minseok almost thought she would faint. “Dump the dirty thoughts, Minseok; we just fell asleep” “On the job? That’s subject for negligence of duty, you guys are supposed to be babysitters, what if this little guy slipped and cracked his skull?” he casts them both a wistful look before placing a kiss on Aiden’s chubby cheek making him giggle and hug him.

 

“Where are Yifan and Unnie?” Stephanie asks to change the subject which seemed to have worked “Still there, Kris won the award… yet again” Minseok informs and Luhan smiles “Good, Yixing owes me his day offs for the whole month next month”

 

Minseok raises a brow at him, “Did he bet on Kyuhyun to win?” “Nope,” Luhan whips his phone out to text the guy “He bet on our precious Suho because according to him, CEO Kim has been so hardworking that he thinks he deserves some credit”

 

“That’s sweet of Yixing but I think he forgot the part that Joonmyeon invalidated himself from the competition this year”

 

Luhan smirks and Minseok looks at him in wary “He forgot and you didn’t tell him, did you?” “Yup” Luhan answers, popping the p.

 

“You’re cruel” he leers at Luhan before quietly adding “I like it.”

 

“Aiden’s asleep” Stephanie points out and Minseok notices the boy’s soft breathing as he snuggles up to his neck. Luhan breathes out in relief and inspects the boy’s eyes to make sure “Finally, it took forever for him to sleep”

 

Stephanie gets up from the couch and volunteers to put the boy to bed. Once alone, the two gentlemen decide to get a couple of beers in the kitchen where Xiumin tells Luhan of the events that happened from Kris being extra sappy to meeting Cho Kyuhyun, the latter man seemed to be surprise to hear of the Cho’s presence because from what he’s known Kyuhyun has long been a dead man –atleast in Kris’s book but you get what he means.

 

“What about that Wei girl?” Luhan remembers Suho telling him that he’ll be talking to her at the party. Minseok thinks for a moment then his eyes light up “Ah! Yes, Hana met her and so did Kris but I don’t know about Joonmyeon… hey, come to think of it” his face grows a little suspicious “she looks really familiar, I think I’ve seen her before but I’m not sure”

 

“Maybe you’ve slept with her before?”

 

Minseok slaps him in the neck making him jump in his seat and yell, “I am not a man- like you all” he declares, Luhan glares at him “Sheesh, did you have to slap me?! And for your information, I am not a man- aswell stop stereotyping me with the rest of our peasants for a crew!”

 

“I’d like to hear you call Kris a peasant, basically your statement includes him in that so-called crew”

 

Luhan scoffs “You think I have a death wish? I don’t”

 

The two are quiet for a while as they simultaneously sip on their beers, “So, what’s the game plan because surely Cho Kyuhyun does not come in peace” Luhan asks, putting down his emptied can of beer on top of the island counter and Minseok does the same “For now, we just have to make sure Hana and Aiden are kept out of this”

 

“What if he makes advances on her? He’s a charming man, you know”

 

“I trust Hana, she’s too much of a proper lady for that and besides she loves her family”

 

Luhan purses his lips in a thin line then nods his head in agreement to Minseok’s statement. They fall quiet again, Minseok looks around the space before looking at the beers then questions “By the way,” he picks up the empty can to examine it, “Doesn’t Hana have strict rules against these, where did you find them?”

 

“Oh,” Luhan laughs “Kris was hiding a box of them under the kitchen sink”

 

“What a peasant” Minseok coughs.

 

 

Of all the things that Chanyeol dreaded in his life having to be the one that drives home a drunken friend is third on his top ten lists especially if that said friend just so happens to be named Zhang Yixing, he was just the absolute worst when drunk. No, he doesn’t throw bottles and threaten to bomb the room when he’s drunk but he just gets really emotional –more emotional than a pregnant woman and a girl on her period.

 

How did it come to this? Chanyeol asks himself as he drags along the drunkard towards the long hallway away from the eyes of the other people who would find it unethical, “Mama ~” Yixing groans in a voice that sounded close to crying, Chanyeol ignores it and continues to go over the events of the evening that would somehow explain why he was left with this job? For all he knows, he just went to the bathroom, had a nice dinner, mingled a bit and then this… where –the hell- were his friends anyway? He could remember having margaritas with Xiumin then the next thing he knows the baozi-cheeked man had gone MIA on him, rude.

 

“I like marshmallows ~” Yixing purrs with his eyes closed and a cat-like smile as is continuously dragged by Chanyeol, “I like !” he shouts making Chanyeol scoff “You don’t say?” “I meant the cat” Yixing slurs the clarification of what he really meant, his friend only then rolls his eyes at him.

 

“Why are you even drunk?” Chanyeol questions him but Yixing doesn’t answer, he suddenly drops onto the ground and begins to yell hysterically as if he had just been stabbed repeatedly throwing Chanyeol into panic “Yixing?!” he shakes the man who was on the floor in a fetal position clutching at his abdominal region, “Yixing, what’s wrong?!”

 

He was legit scared because should his friend be poisoned by alcohol then his life because he will, no doubt, face charges for murder because who else would be to blame? He’s the only one with the guy here! “!” Chanyeol clutches at the roots of his hair as he tries to think of what to do.

 

“! I’M GONNA ING DIE!” Yixing yells and Chanyeol would’ve slapped him already if it weren’t for the fact that he was panicking at the moment, “SOMEBODY CALL 911!” Yixing cries in despair "OR 8610-SOMETHING! LIKE WHY THE IS THE EMERGENCY HOTLINE FOR CHINA SO ING LONG?!" Chanyeol fishes out his phone and dials the emergency hotline.

 

“What’s your emergency?”

 

“Help! My friend’s dying, he was drunk and suddenly he just collapsed on the floor and started shouting like he’s being burned or something!” Chanyeol shouts over the phone as Yixing continues to roll on the floor in pain, “…is that 911?” he asks in a hushed tone as if the pain was too much for him to handle that he could barely speak, Chanyeol nods frantically at him “Yes, I mean no, I mean hold on they’re –”

 

Yixing grabs Chanyeol by the wrist and whispers for him to come close, “Tell them…”

 

Chanyeol holds his breath as he waits for his friend’s words.

 

“Shawty, fire burning on the dance floor… oh ~”

 

Chanyeol’s eye twitches at the words as he drops the phone on the floor, Yixing lies his head back as if he had died; three seconds later, a loud slap echoes through the hallway followed by a painful shriek.

 

 

 AIDEN

 

“Mama”

 

Where was Mama and Baba? I look around the room and find them nowhere in sight, I sat up in bed and looked around again before I decided to roll off and land on my two feet. I see the open door and walk towards the shining light because maybe my Mama is there but after walking for so long I only find two of my uncles sleeping on the floor in the living room, “Mama?” I call out again but she is not answering me.

 

Maybe she’s in… wait, is that Pororo on television?

 

 

The car pulls up into the driveway and the doors are opened by the chauffer, Hana thanks him while Kris exits on the opposite door and rounds the car.

 

“Have a good night, Mr. Zao” Kris bids the aged man with a small smile as he guides his tired wife towards the house, Hana also bids the man goodbye and walks up to the front steps of the house with her husband. As they were about to open the door, the faint sound of the television running enters their ears making them look at each other “Isn’t it late already?” she asks Kris.

 

He looks down at his watch and frowns, “It is… maybe they forgot to turn off the television and fell asleep?”

 

“Perhaps” Hana agrees with her husband’s guess and pushes the door open. They both walk into the living room only to be surprised at the sight of two grown men passed out by the couches, a baby boy sitting infront of the television –far too close!- and not to mention a violent-slash-gore show of Happy Tree Friends playing.

 

“Oh my –” Aiden turns to the sound of his mother’s voice and his face lights up like a million light bulbs, he shoots up to his feet and runs towards her with open arms and bright grin “Mama!”

 

Meanwhile, Kris walks over to the two sleeping gentlemen and crosses his arms as he taps his foot on the wooden floor. Hana takes it as a queue to take Aiden to the bedroom and leaves the gentlemen in the living room. Luhan scrunches his face in annoyance at the tapping sound and cracks an eye open, his blurred eyesight gives him the vivid image of what looked like a pair of shiny shoes that were continuously tapping on the floor, he closes his eyes again in hopes to drown out the sound with sleep but as the thought hits him, he suddenly shoots up from the sofa and ends up falling over on top of Minseok, who was lying on the floor.

 

“AUGH! !” Minseok shouts in pain and shoves off Luhan.

 

Luhan scrambles up to his feet and kicks Minseok while hissing for him to get up because the man of the house was home and for a moment Minseok was confused, until he felt the spine-tingling gaze on him and realizes what Luhan meant, and when he sees ‘Happy Tree Friends’ playing on the television he thought to himself, I may aswell make my life worth it.

 

“Aiden watched it, didn’t he?” Minseok questions and Kris nods his head, he sighs heavily “Okay but before you kill us, I just want to say that…” dramatic silence as Kris waits, “You are a peasant for hiding beer from your wife”

 

Kris rolls his eyes at them both before cracking his knuckles.