CHAPTER NINTEEN

Hana quietly chews on her food, she could not seem to shake off the sudden uneasy feeling on her shoulders brought about by Vanessa’s word and the latter notices the tension in the atmosphere thus she tries to break it off by starting another conversation, “Are you okay, Hana?” she asks feigning a look of concern and Hana is quick to respond with a smile then nods. “Are you that bothered that Kris and I are doing business?”

“You know…” Hana takes a quick deep breath and raises her eyes to meet Vanessa’s, “If I didn’t know you any better, I would have mistaken you to be someone who has quite particular interest on my husband, Ms. Vanessa” she smiles as Vanessa laughs heartily, “Well wouldn’t that be a mess? But I mean, you know how many women would kill to be in your shoes, Mrs. Wu”

Hana maintains the hard smile on her face and picks up her glass of wine, “I don’t suppose you’re one of those women though, Ms. Wei?” she sips on her wine making sure to keep her eyes locked on the woman sitting across her but Vanessa only laughs it off and shakes her head; however, contrary to Hana’s expectations of her saying no, she had quite a different reply, “Who knows but I mean, I am only but a woman too, Hana”

“Mrs. Wu…” Hana corrects and it takes Vanessa by surprise at the sudden change of tone and demeanor seeing as Hana did not seem to have it in her. But Vanessa takes it as a challenge, it seems like she would have more fun in the process of things should Hana decide to get her hands messy.

“I’d prefer you to call me by that, Ms. Wei” Hana smiles, “so as to constantly remind yourself that there are certain boundaries you shouldn’t cross.”

Hana

I stared at the phone in my hands contemplating for the past fifteen minutes as to how I should approach Kris, I am admittedly aware that he had done some business deals with Vanessa but I had no clue as to what exactly that was because I never really questioned it and he deemed it irrelevant. After today’s lunch though, my perspectives have changed and I did not exactly like the feeling of paranoia creeping up on my sleeve. I take a deep breath and settled with a quick text and placed my phone away before turning my attention to my computer, my heart lightened a bit at our framed family photograph that sat beside the screen.

A pop up sound pulls my attention away from the photograph and I turn to see that it was Jongdae asking how things were going, I answer with the typical ‘fine’ but before he could type a reply, I resumed typing and pressed enter. I brought my hands together as I waited for his response and five minutes later it came drawing out a lengthy breath of air from me.

Jongdae pockets his phone. It had been awhile since the investigator had last told him of his findings and every day it was getting a little frustrating but Jongdae did not let it get much into him, he still had a few cards up his sleeve and he made sure to reserve some chess pieces since Kyuhyun seemed to want to play. Jongdae liked challenges, every frustrating move made by the opposite side always pushed him to up his game one step further even when things seemed hopeless he would find a way. He always finds a way around it.

He pushes the door open to the common’s room and enters. Xiumin, Kyungsoo, Luhan, and Jongin were there having their lunch while Yixing was asleep on the couch with a book over his face. “Where’s Suho?” he asks as he takes a seat beside Xiumin and grabs one of the chicken pops from Luhan’s plate and pops it into his mouth, the latter pouts and pulls his plate away from Jongdae’s reach.

“I think he has a meeting” Xiumin answers. They have not seen their big boss lately, he’s been going out and about with meetings with barely any time to spare for drinks at the bar –in fact, they haven’t had drinks in a while and it’s been a long time since they all actually got together. Kris was in China with Chanyeol, Tao was always busy with fashion shows and launches, Yixing was always tired (Jongdae sighs as he takes a sorry peek at his sleeping friend) trying to fill in for some of Suho’s schedules, Sehun –god knows what that kid was up to these days-, and then Baekhyun was –“Hello gentlemen!” speak of the devil, Baekhyun saunters into the room walks up to the coffee maker pouring some for himself in a cup.

“Don’t you have a schedule?” Luhan asks the new arrival as he takes a seat beside Jongdae, Baekhyun sips on his coffee before answering with a nod of confirmation, “Yes but my flight to London has been moved tomorrow at 5AM, so I’m free until then”

Yixing wakes up from his slumber, the leather couch squeaks as he stretches his arms over his head before sitting up and lets out a yawn, “You guys want to go out for drinks later on?” he suggests out of the blue and everyone exchanges look before shrugging their shoulders and agreeing to the plan. “Wait, isn’t Kris’s birthday coming up?” Kyungsoo suddenly remembers and Luhan sighs, “Too bad he’s in China though…”

“We can always go to China and come back” Jongdae suggests and everyone turns to look at him, he smiles smugly “Just like the old times”

Kyungsoo scoffs, “Not a chance, things are way too unstable for us to go on a rendezvous”

From: Hana

To: Kris

Baobei, I’ll be home a bit late. I have to finish some things, please pick up Aiden :)

Kris puffs a sigh at the message he received, he types a quick reply telling her not to push herself too hard and that he’ll handle the little kid for the remainder of the day then pockets his phone. Chanyeol notices the deep look on his friend’s face and inquires if he’s alright as he did not want to suddenly have him falling unconscious, “Yeah, Hana’s just going to get home late” Chanyeol nods his head in understanding, “Ah, so that means you’re left with Aiden?”

“Yeah, I have to pick him up in three hours” he says as he checks his watch. The two gentlemen had just gotten back from lunch, as they entered the front doors of Wu Prime a familiar face appears from the elevators, Sonya grins upon seeing the duo and immediately strides over “Yifan, Chanyeol!” a surprised smile spreads across Chanyeol’s face and Kris gives her a small smile, “Wow, long time, no see! Where have you been?” Chanyeol asks her, it had been a really long time since the last time they saw her even Kris -who was residing here in China- had not heard any news about her and his cousin Chun.

Sonya tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear, “I just got back from the States, things got pretty messy so we decided to come home and unwind for a while” she turns to Kris, “and I was hoping if I could talk to you… in private?”

“Sure.” Kris bids his farewell to Chanyeol and sends his temporary substitute to go and fulfil the remainder of his schedules for the day. Once alone, Kris leads her to the building’s café. The place was close to empty with just a few employees here and there as most spent their lunch in their respective departments seeing as it was a busy time of the year. The two sat by the windows overlooking the pocket garden where his late mother’s rose bushes were planted, the flowers were still in a bud and Kris wonders if they had always been like that. He doesn’t remember seeing them bloom for quite a long time now. He had a portion of the bush taken from Seoul and brought it to China as it made him feel a bit closer to her.

“Your grandmother called me,” Sonya pulls him out of his train of thought, he turns to her meeting serious eyes “she wants me to remind you of the time of how you almost lost it when you made suspicions of me coming to steal you from Hana” she chuckles breaking the tension but Kris is the least amused by it. First there was Chanyeol and now her and his own grandmother. He rolls his eyes at her, “Honestly, I’m getting a tad bit tired of being constantly reminded not to cheat when I don’t even have plans of doing so in the first place”

Sonya nods her head with an understanding smile, “I know that your resolve is as strong as Captain America’s shield,” Kris snorts to the side, “but a little reminder every now and then is not so bad, Kris.”

Kris sighs deeply and shakes his head with a smirk, “Let’s cut to the chase, what are you doing here? Surely, you wouldn’t fly a thousand miles just to tell me not to cheat”

“Alright,” Sonya adjusts herself to sit upright, “Vanessa Wei is set to buy out CUBE after your grandmother steps down” Kris raises a brow in question, “And I should be concerned because…?” “Hana will become CEO with fifty percent of the shares going into her name, Vanessa owns twenty percent and that’s a fairly large amount. The majority of the shares will go to her if she corners Hana into selling her own, either way she’ll get an equal amount if she gets lucky enough to convince other investors to sell their shares to her.”

He still did not get it though. Despite the fact that he wanted his family to steer clear of Vanessa Wei and the mess that came along with her, he did not exactly see what was so bad about her and Hana co-owning a company –especially CUBE. Sonya props an arm on the table and rests her chin against the back of her palm, “if Vanessa can’t have her way with you, she will have her way with someone else and what better way to get what you want than to take out the competition.”

Kris feels his stomach turn a bit at the thought of all the possible things that could happen to his wife, rage follows as he mentally imagines taking revenge for whatever happens to Hana. No, he would not allow it; he will not allow anyone to pluck a single strand of hair from his wife.

“That’s impossible –“ he tried to say but Sonya merely scoffs, “Oh come on, Kris. You and I both know that anything is possible; our family names have bloodstains on them. These kinds of scenarios have happened once before between your parents and Stephanie’s mother.”

“What are you talking about? What the hell does my mom have anything to do with this?”

Sonya frowns at how clueless he seemed to be, she leans back on her chair and looks at him as if scrutinizing his whole image, “How do you think you inherited Wu Enterprise in the first place?”

“I’m the first born male and my mother was the former CEO” He states as if it was the most obvious thing in the world but Sonya remains blank and unconvinced, she shakes her head “Your mother bought out Stephanie’s mother, did you never question how your father and Stephanie’s mom met?”

Silence falls upon them. Kris did not want to talk about this right now; he saw no point in bringing up the past to stain whatever image his mother had left behind. All he knew was that he only had respect for the lady; she was and always will be perfect in his eyes despite whatever it was that she had to do in order to secure him his future, by all means possible. Kris stands up from his chair but Sonya speaks before he could, “I do not mean to insult anyone, Kris; however, it serves as a concrete example that these things to happen and Vanessa will make history repeat itself.”

“Hana would never stoop down to her level” he defends his wife but Sonya merely shakes her head, “we never know but let’s hope you’re right. Your grandmother may have chosen her for a reason, she has good judgment but you and I have no idea how Hana will run this” Sonya gets up and fixes her shirt, “I suggest you don’t interfere with your wife though… her unknown moves could give Vanessa a run for her money.” With a final smile, she turns to leave a silent Kris watching her back retreat further and further away. His phone rings but he does not pick up, too caught up in the rush of thoughts invading his brain about the revelations that he had just heard.

“Baba!” Aiden exclaims in excitement and immediately runs toward his father that was waiting for him by the car, from a distance his teachers stood in awe and admiration –just like every day whenever Kris was there. Oh, how lucky Mrs. Wu was indeed to come home to such a handsome husband every single day.

“Hey kiddo” he ruffles the young boy’s hair as he bends down to his eye level. Aiden proudly shows him a handmade card with a stick drawing of Hana, Aiden, and him –to which Kris wows, it looked exactly like one of his art styles; it literally looked like one of Kris’s art. “Mama is going to love this” he tells the young boy and Aiden grins brightly, proud of the compliment that his father gave him. “Should we go pick out flowers now, you still remember Mama’s favourite, right?”

Aiden nods and Kris gets up, opening the passenger side of the car and help his son up; he straps Aiden with the seatbelt and rounds the car to get into the driver’s seat. The show for the teachers end as the father and son leave the school. Aiden goes on to tell his dad about his day in school and Kris tries to distract himself from his thoughts by listening to his son babble on about how he learned how to write the complete set of the alphabet and even numbers from one to ten.

“Baba, who is Cho Kyuhoon?” Kris abruptly stops the car at a red light and turns to Aiden, “Who?” Aiden tries to repeat the name again and despite the difference in pronunciation, he was certain that the boy was talking about his petty half-brother. “Why do you ask?”

Aiden shrugs, “he came to school today and talked to me but you and mama said not to talk to strangers, so I didn’t but he kept asking about you and mama” Kris sighs heavily and starts driving again as the light turns green, “Aiden, you should never go near that man, okay?”

“He said he was my uncle” the boy blurts and Kris mentally palms himself, “you know, like Uncle Xiu, Uncle Tao, and all my other uncles” he says as he counts with his fingers. Kris takes a deep breath, “Aiden, next time he comes again, tell teacher to call me, okay?” Aiden puffs up his cheek before flashing an OK sign at his dad with his fingers and a smile. They eventually arrive at their destination and Aiden excitedly enters the store with his dad, greeting the lady behind the counter and runs along the shop in search for what he thought his mother would like.

Kris quietly watches him with a small smile as the lady assists the young boy. For a moment, it feels as if he was watching himself –was this how his mother looked at him? As if he was the world? Because he felt like Aiden was all that mattered to him at the moment, he wanted to badly protect him from all the harshness of the world he knew but he didn’t know how. He did not want his son to end up in the same damned hole that he had been subject to from the moment he was born. No, certainly there must be a way to change the young boy’s path.

He knew that Hana would want it as well.