CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Two weeks had passed and November strolled around the corner, everyone was busier than ever since they were nearing the end of the year and usually things for the current year needed to be all wrapped up before the New Year arrives. Mr. And Mrs. Wu were no exemption and had worked their asses off day to night, Kris being the worst of the two seeing as he had way too many in his hands to juggle which required him sometimes to spend the night at the office or would come home at ungodly hours in the morning, given the circumstances they would sometimes be forced to leave Aiden under the care of Yookyung or Stephanie but they made sure to make up for their absence on the weekends.


Today, was one particularly busy day at Wu Prime and Kris had been working non-stop. Recently, Vanessa Wei seemed much more demanding which resulted to him paying extra keen attention on their transactions plus the added paperwork that she had slammed on his work area but at least he didn’t have to spend hours in his office with her, her visits averaged on once every week compared to the last where she was almost always at the building just to chat or whatever.


Yixing, Chanyeol and Sehun were in town for the week but as much as he’d like to spend some time with them just to catch up, he was limited to lunch and nothing else. He knew his wife would want them to have dinner together but the extended work hours and demands made that a little hard to pull off, the boys understood though seeing as they had their own businesses to attend to.


“You look like crap, no offense” Sehun comments at the eldest as they sat together for lunch at a nearby restaurant, Kris didn’t have the luxury of time to eat somewhere far thus they opted for something nearby; “And you could use some spa time and a nice trim” he adds to his statement which Kris rolls his eyes “Maybe when I get  done but as of now, shaving is the only thing I can do”


“You should take it easy... You don’t look so good” Yixing tells him with genuine concern because from what he could see, Kris looked a little sick and although he understood that he had work to get done, the thought of him landing himself at the hospital one of these days really didn’t sound too far off... And it doesn’t sound appealing to the ears either.


“Is Hana still mad at you because it looks like she’s refusing to take care of you properly” Chanyeol questions him and Kris is quick to brush it off “No, we made up and please don’t blame this on my wife, she’s just as busy as I am”


And speaking of his wife, Hana was in just as much of a pickle as he was.


She was in the middle of filing through the stacks of folders that have become make-shift hills on her table when a knock came and she called for the person to come in, it was most likely her secretary since she had asked her to buy her some take out since she couldn’t get out -she was very much determined to get at least half of her work done today so she could go home and prepare some home made dinner for her family, even though Kris will probably be home late... Again. Anyway, contrary to her expectation of seeing the tight-lipped woman with her plastic of take out, she instead sees her sister-in-law and not only her but a toddler also came running towards her “Mama!”


“A-Aiden!” she exclaims in surprise and quickly gets out of her chair to receive the boy in her arms, she looks over to Stephanie and casts her a thankful look while the latter smiles and holds up a plastic of Chinese take out boxes, “School finished early and Yifan couldn’t get out of the office too so, I picked him up” she explains, “Thank you and sorry for the trouble, Stephanie”


“It’s no big deal, jiejie” she sets down the box on the coffee table and Hana joins her there to eat, leaving her work for awhile. Aiden was babbling, telling her about his day at school and how he saw a puppy today and asked if they could also get one “If daddy says yes” Hana tells him and the boy giggles in excitement over asking his dad later on at home.


Hana smiles, running her hands through the boy’s hair as she feels her stress levels lessen somehow; it was always nice to see Aiden, he was such a ball of sunshine and rainbows and never failed to amuse her.


“Yifan’s birthday is this month, do you have any plans?” Stephanie asks as she digs into her own box of food; Hana sets Aiden to sit down beside her on the couch and takes the other box of food “People would expect something grand...” she hums, “but I was thinking of something more intimate, you know... Just us family?”


“Yeah, that would be much more preferable!” Stephanie grins in agreement.


“We must buy cake!” Aiden suddenly exclaims, he had been listening to the conversation and happened to get excited at the thought of his father’s birthday, Hana had always told him that these kinds of things were important and that they should be made special. His mother and aunt laughs, “What cake should we get your Baba, Aiden?” Stephanie asks and Aiden is quick to answer with a shout “Chocolate!”


It was probably the only time Kris would ever eat sweets since he really didn’t like them much.


“Mrs. Wu,” the voice of her secretary interrupts them and she excuses herself to take the call “Yes?” “You have a guest; Mr. Cho is here to see you”


Hana legitimately felt chills run down her spine at the sound of the name and Stephanie flashes her a questioning look -she was not aware about Cho Kyuhyun, Kris nor Hana never discussed anything about him; with a heavy swallow of the lump in , she presses on the button to respond “I’ll be right out...” although she really would rather stay in where she is safe from his prying hands. Hana excuses herself from her sister-in-law and exits her office, sure enough there was Cho Kyuhyun standing by her secretary’s table.


He smiles as soon as he sees her and makes an attempt to kiss her cheek but Hana extends a hand out to shake before he could do so, he looks down at the hand and chuckles before taking it and giving it a firm shake; afterwards, Hana pulls her hand away and tries her best to maintain a straight face “How may I help you, Mr. Cho?”


“Why so stiff, Hana?” Kyuhyun chuckles “I just dropped by to see how you’re doing”


“I’m doing fine although I am very busy at the moment, so I’m sorry if I won’t be able to entertain you for long” she states in a blunt manner, her face still void of any emotion at all which only seems to amuse Kyuhyun more. He was very much aware of her discomfort, her unprecedented fear of him and the fact that she didn’t like him very much, it only drew him to her more. Every woman has their breaking point, Kyuhyun was determined to see how far she’d go “Why so stiff? I don’t bite” he laughs which gets a fluster out of her.


“Mr. Cho, if there’s nothing else you need then I will need to get back to -”


The sound of her office door opening cuts her off and a pair of arms wrap around her legs, the two look down to see Aiden looking at Kyuhyun in a curious manner “Who is he, mama?” and in that moment, Hana’s facial color drained because this was the last thing she wanted. Quickly, she bends down to Aiden’s level “Go back inside, Aiden... Mama will be there in a bit”


“Come on, Aiden” Stephanie ushers him, quick to feel the discomfort in the atmosphere. Thankfully, Aiden runs back inside before Kyuhyun could have the chance to speak to him and when Hana stands back up, the man looks rather displeased “You won’t even introduce me to my nephew?”


“Mr. Cho, please...” Hana was frowning at this point “With all due respect, I know that you are an important shareholder in this company but my husband would not like it if we were to see each other without any needed business transaction; so, if there is nothing business-related that you would like to discuss then I will get back to work... Good day”


Hana’s secretary takes a discreet peek at the two, she watches her boss turn on her heels and walk back to the office while the gentleman in the suit lets out a frustrated sigh, he suddenly turns to her direction catching her off guard.


“Can you set me up on a dinner meeting with her?” he inquires and the secretary scrolls over her boss’s schedule to see if she could find him a slot but sadly, (rather fortunate for Hana) “Sorry, sir but Mrs. Wu is booked for the month and either way, even if I could squeeze you in here, it would still be subject to her decision whether she’ll accept or not” Kyuhyun pushes himself off her desk and stalks off. What a weird man, the female behind the desk thinks with a shake of the head.

The gentlemen clad in suits exit the restaurant with Kris in the back busy fumbling with his phone, he was in the midst of sending his wife a message when all of a sudden, his world seemed to have spun in a way that told him something was up. Noticing the sudden waver in his steps, Yixing is quick to move towards his superior and caught him before he could collapse on the ground “Yifan!” he shouts to which Kris groans in response as he tries to steady himself, he could feel the air getting knocked out of him and it suddenly became a little hard to breathe “What’s wrong?” Chanyeol asks in panic which Sehun gets his phone ready just in case he would need to call for the emergency hot line.


“I’m fine...” Kris insists as he steadies himself on his feet, “I’m fine.” he breathes in hard before steadily making his way to the back of the car that was waiting for him.


The others exchange glances with one another before Yixing decides that maybe it would be best if one of them goes with Kris to the office just to see to it that he arrives safe, Yixing himself volunteers and the other two agree with Sehun offering that he would be the one to attend to the other guy’s appointments for the day then with a nod they separate ways. Yixing climbs into the back seat of the same car where Kris was at and the latter gives him a confused look “What are you doing?” 


“I’m going with you to the office” he says as he shuts the door “You look like you’re going to pass out, do you want to swing by the hospital?”


Kris gives him a dismissive wave of a hand as he leans his head back and closes his eyes “No, I’m fine... I just need to rest for a bit” “Alright...” Yixing sighs although he really would insist that the man goes to see a doctor just in case. He knew that Kris was a hard-working man but sometimes he would get so much into it that he would forget about his health, as a good friend, Yixing refuses to see him tear himself apart with work even if he’s doing it for the company or his family.


He observes his friend from the side, there were deep circles under his eyes, he was thinner than the last time he had seen him and he looked pale in a very unhealthy way; he doubts that Hana hasn’t noticed these things and he knows that she must be doing her very best at taking care of Kris but he couldn’t equally blame her for she was going through the same thing. For all Yixing knows, she could be as unhealthy as her husband! The thought made him frown and so he shakes it away, he just hopes Aiden wasn’t in the same condition.


“By the way, how is Aiden?” he asks and notices the small smile forming on his friend’s lips, Kris kept his eyes closed probably imagining the image of his son at the moment “he’s fine and healthy, if that’s what you’re worried about... Hana pays extra close attention to him at home so there’s no need to be worried”


“That’s good to know, although it does alarm me if you both are taking care of your health as well?”


“We’ve just been busy, Yixing...” Kris sighs “as soon as this is all over, I’m taking them for a vacation overseas”


Yixing chuckles “That would be good, where do you plan on taking them?”


“Canada, maybe”


“Ah... It’s been a long time since you’ve last been there, right? I’m sure Aiden would love to see the huge waterfall there” Yixing smiles, they truly do deserve a break after all this is over. He wasn’t quite sure about the files that Kris was dealing with but he was sure that Wei Industries were on one of those and the thought itself was unpleasant, he couldn’t help but wonder when all of this was going to end because more than anything at the moment, he wanted that debt settled but for some reason, Jongdae would not allow it and Kris went with whatever the latter would advise. Don’t get Yixing wrong, he knows that Jongdae is doing his very best to carry out whatever orders he had from Kris and he had most knowledge about the whole ordeal but basing upon Yixing’s own judgment, he’d rather much just pay and get it over with. It wasn’t like Kris could not pay, even if he had to sacrifice a piece on the chessboard -which is code for: Wu Enterprise Seoul.


But, whatever it was that Jongdae was on to, he hopes that he’d get it on the fast lane because the time line was taking its toll on their chairman.


A beep resonates throughout the quiet atmosphere of the car and Kris picks up his phone, he smiles at whatever he’s received and types a quick response like a love struck high school teen. Yixing snickers at the side but Kris ignores him. At the very least, Hana could still manage to make him grin like an idiot.


When they finally did arrive at the office, Kris was feeling a little bit better and told Yixing to head off to his appointments seeing as he could take it from there, Yixing was reluctant to leave but followed orders anyway and reminded Kris to take it easy before finally leaving. Taking his friends advice, Kris took his time getting to his office, he was slow but he figured that it would be better than to force himself and end up on the ground; he leans himself against the cold wall of the elevator as it slowly made its way up, he could feel his shoulders going heavy and a throbbing sensation was beginning on his left side of the head, great... A headache is the last thing I need.


He exits the compartment after the sound of the ding where the doors had slid open and slowly makes his way towards his office, his secretary’s desk was empty so he figures that Meifen was still out for lunch, he could take the time to rest his eyes until her arrival, he needed her to run him some errands anyway. He reaches out his hand to the door knob and slowly pushes it open only that he had never made it inside.

Aiden was fast asleep on the office couch, his aunt had already left and his mom was back behind her desk working, it was little after noon and her office was dim save for the lamp on her desk since she didn’t want the afternoon sunlight penetrating the huge glass windows to disturb her son. As she was filing through the stacks of folders on her desk, a sudden pang of some unexplained force hit her and she felt herself grow uncomfortable all of a sudden, she directs her gaze to Aiden and quickly walked over, she places her hand over his forehead but he was fine, the feeling remained in the pit of her stomach; she takes a deep breath and attempts to calm herself, “It’s probably just the stress...” she tells herself and walks back to her desk to ask her assistant for a glass of water when the female had beat her to it.


“Mrs. Wu, there’s an urgent call waiting on the line for you, it’s Ms. Peng” Hana frowns and presses on the button to answer “Put her through”


She hurriedly picks up the phone as it rings and the sound of Meifen’s panicked tone reaches her ears, it automatically caused her to pale and grow cold “Mrs. Wu! I-I was trying to call you on your direct line but I couldn’t get through -” “My phone’s battery died, what is it?”


“It’s Mr. Wu, I don’t know what happened but -” a gasp escapes her lips and her eyes grow wide “Where is he?” Meifen hurriedly gives her the address of the hospital and tries to explain the situation further more but Hana had already dropped the phone and quickly ran to Aiden’s side, she gently picks up the boy in her arms and grabs her keys from her desk before rushing out of her office, “Mrs. Wu, where are you -”


“Cancel everything I have, there’s been an emergency!” she calls out to her assistant and disappears through the elevator doors. She securely holds her son in her arms, he was still fast asleep and thank goodness that he was because she really did not want him to see the state she was in at the moment; she keeps herself in the most calm state that she could manage knowing that it would be dangerous to drive if she lets her panicked state get the best of her, once she had reached the basement parking she immediately walks fast towards her car and secures Aiden in the passenger seat before strapping herself behind the wheel and drives off.


A million thoughts run through her mind as she drove, she hadn’t given Meifen the chance to explain but she hopes that whatever has happened isn’t serious. Her heart pounded inside her chest as she sped through the road, wheezing past other vehicles and the urgency seemed to have made the heavens bless her with green lights throughout the drive.


When she reaches the hospital, she spots Chanyeol had also just arrived and as their eyes met the latter had screamed out her name. He runs over to her and spots Aiden in the passenger seat, “go ahead, I’ll look after him” he tells her and Hana sends him a quiet look of thanks before rushing inside the emergency room. She didn’t even need to ask a nurse because her eyes couldn’t be mistaken when she saw him lying unconscious on one of the beds with an oxygen mask over his face and other apparatuses sticking on his skin like tentacles.


“Hana” Sehun calls for her attention but she couldn’t look at anyone else at the moment, she only had her eyes on Kris and just as Yixing was about to reach for her, Sehun holds him back with a shake of the head.


“Yifan?” she calls out to him with hopes of him cracking his eyes open but there was no response, the heart monitor continued to beep on the side as the doctor arrived and the two other gentlemen had explained to him that she was the wife. With a nod of the head, the doctor stands on the opposite side of the bed and calls for Hana’s attention “Mrs. Wu, may I speak with you?”


“How is he?” came an automatic question as soon as he spots the man in the white coat, the doctor clears his throat and closes the curtain on them for the needed privacy “He’s fine for now but we still need to run some tests just to be sure, for the mean time he would need to stay here until he’s okay to be discharged... The stress levels must have taken their hit on him, I’m guessing that he must have exerted himself too much; however, there is one thing I’m concerned about...”


Hana swallows hard “What is it?”


“His heart beat was very faint when he came in, we were afraid he wouldn’t even make it and we had to take measures, thankfully it returned to it’s normal beating.”


“What does that mean?” she asks even though she didn’t even want to hear it, she didn’t want to hear that there was something wrong with him, she wanted to hear that he was healthy, that it was just stress, that it was everything but a possible life-threatening disease; “this is all just assumption for now and I cannot confirm anything until the tests are ran on him but it could be Myocarditis”


Myocar- what? What does that even mean? Hana didn’t know how to respond, she was confused, frustrated and for some reason angry at the moment. The doctor goes on to explain, it had something to do with the heart but whatever explanation he gave, she couldn’t even begin to comprehend on what to do.


“Can you leave, please? I need a moment...” she breathes and the doctor gives a respectful nod before leaving.


Meanwhile, a female figure had entered the lobby of Wu Prime and she directly heads for the front desk, the female behind the desk recognizes her immediately and throws her a surprised look while the female smiles at her and speaks “I came to see Mr. Wu, please”


“He’s not in at the moment, ma’am... ”


Vanessa’s face grows puzzled, “Why?” she asks but the employee was reluctant to give answers and in the end told her that they were forbidden to disclose on anything, she tried asking for the possible whereabouts instead but even the answer to that was denied. She leaves the building with a frown on her face, her plans were ruined for today and she hated it whenever it was, to think that she was so excited to finally lay out the master phase of the whole ordeal. Pulling out her phone, she dials Kyuhyun’s number to see if he knows of anything but even he responded with confusion.


“What do you mean?” he questions in demand for an answer “He’s not here, that’s all they said and they won’t give me answers” “Tch... Try tomorrow, I was at Hana’s office earlier today”


“And how did that work out for you?” she asks, voice laced with sarcasm which Kyuhyun rolls his eyes to “Better than the progress you’ve made, perhaps but whatever... Go do whatever it is you need to do”


“I’ll head to CUBE” she informs him and ends the call.

When he opened his eyes to the bright light on the ceiling and the feeling of thin air getting injected through his nostrils, he knew that something was not right and his guess was proven right when he heard the beeping of a heart monitor and the sight of dextrose dripping slowly onto the plastic chord that was injected onto his vein. He gave up on attempting to sit up once he felt the weight of his body, it felt like it was tripled and not to mention that his throat felt so dry at the moment, he craned his head to the side and noticed the person holding onto his other hand, she was leaning forward from her seat and was fast asleep.


Whatever happened, he would be filled in on it later but right now, he needed to wake up his wife otherwise she would suffer from neck pain later on. He gave her hand a squeeze and as if some kind of button had been pushed, she shoots her head up. He smiles at her as their eyes meet “Hey beautiful” he rasps but Hana didn’t say anything, all she did was lurch forward and gently wrapped her arms around him though at an awkward angle.


Kris was thrown into sudden panic when she felt her shiver in his arms and when she pulled away, she had immediately turned to wipe away the tears that had fallen from her eyes, “Sorry... I was just worried” she grinned once she turned back around to face him.


“Don’t cry, whatever happened isn’t your fault...” he says just barely above whisper, he hasn’t felt this weak ever before and to experience it now was alarming him.


He looks at his wife and only then doe she notice how stressed out she look, she seemed just as equally exhausted and not to mention that she seemed to have gone thinner; he knew that she was busy too but surely, she couldn’t be as busy as him. A frown graces his face and she gives him a puzzled look “Is something wrong?”


“Nothing... You look like you need some rest too, aren’t you going home?” he asks and she responds with a frown “I’m fine, baobei and no, I’m not going home... Who else would look after you?”


“What about Aiden? He needs you, baobei”


“And you don’t?”


Silence falls upon them both, Hana walks back to his side and sits down “We’ve got a lot to talk about, Kris but until then you have to get better... Just let me be here, the boys have already volunteered to take care of him while you’re in here; right now, I’m your wife... In sickness and in health, remember?”


A heavy sigh escapes Kris’s lips before he nods and she finally smiles.



Stephanie entered the premises of the hospital and immediately asked for his brother’s whereabouts, the nurse gave her the room assignment of the chairman and she thanked her with a smile before carrying on her way, she was just about to enter the elevator when she caught sight of Sehun with Aiden in his arms, the boy was  on a lollipop as his uncle made conversation with him while occasionally  his hair. She approaches the two and Aiden is the first to see her “Auntie Fanny!” Sehun turns his head and casts her a smile “Hey there, Stephanie”


“Hey you two” she greets, giving Aiden a ruffle on the head before the boy leans forward to peck on her cheek “How is Yifan?” she asks and the other is quick to fill her in on the details while leading her to the room; Chanyeol and Yixing had just gone out of the room when they arrived and they greeted the younger female. Chanyeol turns to the young boy in Sehun’s arm with a grin and ruffles his hair “Your baba’s awake now, kid; why don’t you go greet him?”


Aiden’s eyes light up at the news and he wriggles himself out of Sehun’s grasp so the man puts him down and Yixing does him the favor of opening the door, sure enough it was as his uncle had said and the moment he saw his parents -and more importantly, his father- he runs up to his mom with an excited shout “Baba!”


Kris smiles at the boy as Hana picks him up and sets him beside his father that was still lying bed-ridden, he still had the oxygen mask over his nose and mouth so he settles for a pat on his child’s head “Hey buddy...”


The other guests follow inside, they were relieved to see the chairman had already awakened from his unconscious state seeing as he had been on lights out for quite a long time. It was agreed upon them that Chanyeol and Yixing were to extend their stays in Beijing for the time being, they would be the ones to overlook operations at Wu Prime and stand in Kris’s place until he’s deemed fit to work again -which they doubt would be soon but the priority at the moment was his health; Kris had originally planned to work from home but Hana had trashed the idea and imposed strict house rules once he gets discharged, he would do nothing else but rest at home until the doctors give the go signal for him to return to Wu Prime.


“You should take it easy, gege; we won’t let anything happen to Wu Prime while you’re gone” Stephanie assures him with a smile, Kris sighs but only to grow worried about the faint ache in his chest whenever he took in deep breaths, it was alarming him because he was sure that it could be anything but normal, he turns to his wife “What did the doctors say?”


As if it were some sort of magic word, a knock lands on the door and a man in a white coat enters the premises of the room; he gave the occupants a brief smile before turning to the patient and his wife “Good evening,” he greets as he approaches them and they return the greeting except for Kris, who only stared at him in anticipation of what he had to say. Sehun notices the sudden tension in the atmosphere and speaks “We’ll go and buy some dinner”


“Come on, Aiden” Yixing picks up the boy and they leave the premises of the room.


Hana sits quietly beside her husband, gripping on his hand as if it were a life line while the doctor reads down the clipboard containing files related to Kris.


“How are you feeling, Mr. Wu?” he asks, it was a start and Kris would have played along with this petty stalling but not now, not when he feels that something was off so he just gets right down to it and demands, “Just tell me what’s wrong with me and we can take it from there” it was out of superiority, it was roughly a rasp but it held every power he had to his name. The doctor nods, “Okay then... Your test results came out and it is as what I have predicted, Myocarditis --it is an inflammation of the heart muscle; you may feel shortness of breath, irregular heart rhythms, light headed, irregular heartbeat and you sometimes lose consciousness due to the abnormality of your heart’s beat”


“And how do we cure this?” Hana asks; surely, it was not as complicated as it sounded and the cure would hopefully be at arm’s length, the doctor pockets one of his hands “Of course, we’ll have to try treating it with medication, you will need to rest as long as possible too and we will have to put you on a low-salt diet -I’ll be giving Mrs. Wu further instructions on that; and hopefully, in a few weeks or months, you’ll be back in shape but in the even that it gets worst then...”


“Then what?” he asks and the doctor continues, “In some cases of Myocarditis, a heart transplant would be in order... But in the current state of your heart, we’re still pretty far off from that option. I’ll be sending you the list of your needed medicines.”


Hana takes a deep breath and forces a smile towards the doctor, “Thank you, doc...” and the specialist returns the smile with a brief bow of the head “I’ll be leaving you for the rest of the night, I’ll do my round again tomorrow...” he turns to Kris, “make sure to get plenty of rest, Mr. Wu; it would be best to take advantage of your time here to gather some sleep” with that, the doctor gives the couple one last brief bow of the head before excusing himself and then leaves them.


Kris is quiet, he doesn’t know what to make of what he had just heard. Sure, he had been told that he was still far off from that open-heart surgery but the thought of even having an illness with such a complicated name made his stomach turn, when had he began to neglect his health? Perhaps it was the abusive work hours and overtimes that he put upon himself, taking work even at home just to get them done and over with. Hana observes him from the door, she didn’t know what to make of it either and refused to believe that her husband was sick -but here, she beheld the facts and knew she couldn’t run away from them; she felt bad for it, she felt responsible for the cause of it -when had she been such a neglectful wife? Was her job and the pressure that Madame Li pushed upon her for CUBE’s presidency blinded her from the long nights that Kris wasn’t asleep beside her? How many times had she not taken notice of the bags under his eyes and the extreme intake of morning coffee?


“I’ll be fine...” he says after noticing the dazed look on his wife’s face and Hana snaps her attention towards him, seemingly lost and that she hadn’t heard what he just said, “What?” “I said, I’ll be fine... It’s nothing that a few medications and a lot of rest can’t resolve.”


Hana sighs and shakes her head with a smile, “No more coffee for you, Mr. Wu” she tells him as she approaches him and returns to the chair beside the bed, Kris chuckles softly “I can live with that... I hope tea would be an alternative” “I’ll have to take a leave from work -” “No need for that... Once I’m good for discharge, I’ll just stay at home and -”


“No.” Hana tells him firmly, “I’m going to look after you until you are a hundred percent better and you are not changing my mind, Kris.”


He couldn’t argue with that; right now, he didn’t want to because maybe, he wanted nothing more than the selfish attention he’d get from his wife -maybe, he wanted nothing else but to have her take care of him; it would be nice. So, he just smiles and sighs in defeat.

Madame Li had just ended her day at the office and was about to leave when a knock came on her door and a familiar face enters although it was one that she really did not want to see, nonetheless she smiles and greets the visitor “Hello, Vanessa... I was just about to leave, do you need something?”


“I just wanted to drop by and maybe have a chat with you, Madame Li” she smiles sweetly “I don’t think we have bonded much yet and I have yet to express how honored I am to be a share holder of your company”


The elder lady drops back to her seat with a smile and brings her fingers together as Vanessa takes one of the visitor’s chair, there was something thick in the air that the elder woman could not quite put her finger on. Vanessa was such an odd person in her eyes, as if the girl walked around with a mask over her face and chains behind her back, it was weirder how the young lady had rejected the lady’s cash payment for her grandson’s dilemma and rather suggested that she takes a share instead.


“This is just business, my dear... I would prefer it if we are to keep things on a professional line” Madame Li states to which Vanessa chuckles “Oh Madame, please loosen up around me, I assure you that I am harmless and only want to make good ties with you” “I’m sure you do” the lady agrees blankly “and I assure you that we are, so there is no need for you to try so hard, Vanessa”


Kyuhyun had informed her of how utterly vague his grandmother can be and not to mention that she could get easily suspicious so interacting with her would be like treading on shallow waters but Vanessa was stubborn too and she liked nothing more than a challenge. If she could get the woman to like her then it would inevitably eliminate the odds of the lady meddling with her plans for Kris thus making it easier to lessen suspicions and hopefully, it would be easier to win the majority’s trust.


Vanessa takes a deep breath, “I suppose that what they say about the Wu family is true... Trust issues and all” “This the business world, naivety gets you nowhere...” Madame Li explains in defense. A world of eat or be eaten, certainly one is to take the necessary precautions and trust comes with a grave price.


“I’ll be frank with you, Vanessa”


Vanessa’s smile remains plastered as the lady continues, “I am well aware of your frequent visits to my grandson’s office and the fact that wine is often involved, I don’t like it one bit; I trust my grandson as he is old enough to know what is and what isn’t right and I do believe that he loves his family far too much to do anything that would break it apart” “Are you implying that I will do something to cause havoc?” the younger lady insinuates in a ridiculed tone, Madame Li takes a deep breath “That is for you to prove... I don’t know what you want to happen, I only know that you exist because of a debt that my son-in-law had apparently left behind.”


Silence fills the air then is slowly broken by a laugh, “Madame...” Vanessa chuckles, “you’re thinking too much into things”


“I do hope that I am... Otherwise, Kris will be very upset.”