CHAPTER TWENTY

“Baba,” Aiden calls up to his father, an apron tied around his waist as stood behind the stove, Kris looks down at the young boy that held the large bouquet of flowers in his arms. He looked rather adorable with his flushed chubby cheeks and pout, he looked just like the mini version of his -faced dad when he frowned like that. “What’s up, kid?” he asks the boy before he continues to stir the contents of the pot then scoops out a portion to taste.

Aiden tilts his head to the side, “can I please have a little sister?” and Kris chokes back on the soup, violently coughing as he hits the side of his chest. Aiden looks at his father intently, his mouth in a firm frown yet he looked rather hopeful that his father would –for some reason- adhere to his plea but the thing is, the three year old just does not get just how big his request was. “Please!” he pleads once more and Kris puts aside the scoop before bending down to the boy’s eye level, “Why do you want to have a little sister?”

The kid puffs up his cheeks, “So that I can have someone to protect!” Kris didn’t know if he wanted to laugh, to slap himself, or to pinch the boy’s adorably chubby cheeks –in the end he gives him a sigh, “You have Ace –“ Aiden shakes his head cutting his father’s words, “No! Not like Ace-ge! Ace-ge is a boy and he’s older than me!”

For a moment Kris asks himself. He tries to picture their family portrait with another member, a little girl with the brightest smile, the prettiest eyes, the most adorable face, she would have long dark locks, and she would be a spitting image of his wife; he smiles to himself, he imagines Aiden always all over her and swearing to protect her the moment that he sees her being cradled in his mother’s arms. It’s a blissful thought but soon, Kris begins to remember the aftermath of birth and pictures himself shooting out of bed at two in the morning as loud wailing erupts in the household –he swallows hard; he sees the bags appear below his eyes again and afterwards, his office would become a wreck on days that Hana nor he can leave the young for someone to babysit. Ah yes, the not-so-good times. He feels his stomach turn at the memories, fun as they may have been, they were equally exhausting.

Was he really willing to go through lengthy months of sleepless nights… again?

“Listen,” he grabs the boy firmly by the shoulders and forces a smile; “Mama and Baba can’t give you one right now, kid. It’s a very big responsibility and also, mama will become sick if we give you a baby sister –alsoIdoubtshewouldwanttogothroughninemonthsofhellagain- but maybe in the future” he takes a deep breath, “Mama is very hard to convince, kiddo”

Lo and behold, the famous kicked-puppy expression appears on the young boy’s face but alas, such is the will of his father and he had no choice but to wait for the said future. Aiden looks down sadly on the roses in his arms and quietly says, “Okay…” Kris ruffles his hair and chuckles at his son’s disappointment, “Don’t worry, for now you can just help me protect mama from the bad guys”

Aiden looks up in shock at his father, “Bad guys are after mama?!”

Kris gets up to his feet and turns back to the boiling pot, he nods his head as he resumes stirring, “Yeah.” He smirks at the thought of two people in particular, “Really bad people. So, what do you say about protecting mama for now?” Aiden nods his head in full vigour, “Yes! No one must hurt mama!”

“Alright!” Kris gives the boy a ‘fighting’ sign before he points his finger towards the direction of the dining room, “Now go put the flowers down and check the table, kiddo!” “Yes!” and with that, Aiden sprints towards the direction where his father pointed as the elder turns back to his cooking.

Not ten seconds later though, Kris hears a soft thud followed by a whimper then a cry, he quickly tosses aside the mixing spoon in his hands and hurries off to the direction of the sound almost slipping on the floor but quickly catches back his balance and rushes towards Aiden that was now on his knees slumping, crying, and the bouquet of roses was now in a mess. On the young boy’s head was a small growing bump and horror crosses upon Kris’s face as he realizes that his wife would freak once she sees it. Aiden climbs onto his father’s arms, wrapping his little arms around Kris’ neck as he continues to sob and Kris picks him up bringing him back to the kitchen to get some ice while rubbing the boy’s back to sooth him.

“Sit here for a moment, buddy” he tells the boy as he sets him down on top of the counter while he reached into the freezer for an ice pack, he turns back to the boy that was still crying and gently places the pack over the –now evident- bump on the boy’s forehead. Aiden wails at the initial contact but his dad continues to sooth his back, telling him that it would be over in a second or two.

Just then, a knock lands on the front door before opening and Hana rushes inside upon hearing the softened sobs. She’s greeted by the mess of roses on the floor of the dining area and finds her husband and son in the kitchen, Kris putting an icepack over the boy’s forehead as Aiden clutches on his dad’s shirt. Hana finds herself staring in awe at the sight for a good while, it was quite rare to see the father and son like that seeing as Kris was frankly not a very hands-on type of father. She puts her bag and files on the table before heading to the kitchen, “what happened?” she asks as she approached the two and Aiden is quick to turn towards his mom with a sad pout paired with watery eyes. Kris presses a quick kiss on his wife’s cheek and Hana returns the favour before taking the ice pack from him and takes it away for a moment to see the blushing blotch on the young boy’s forehead.

“He slipped and hit his head on the floor when he came to put the roses on the table” Kris peeks over her shoulder to the mess near the dining area and clicks his tongue, “Looks like we’ll just have to get you a fresh batch tomorrow, sorry baobei” Hana chuckles and peeks at the mess of roses on the floor, Aiden sniffles “Sorry mama…”

“Aigo,” she lightly pinches the kid’s cheek before pressing a kiss on top of his head, “it’s okay, you know your dad also used to be a bit clumsy” Kris looks at his wife incredulously as he tries to backtrack on exactly when and where was he ever clumsy? Kris Wu? Clumsy? It never matches. “What?” Hana leers at him as her eyes remind her of the times after marriage when he almost burnt the house down because he forgot to turn off the stove after boiling some water one morning when the coffee maker broke, the time he ate her strawberries when she was pregnant with Aiden, or that time when he fell face first on the floor one morning.

Kris shakes his head. Out of the blue, a strange scent begins to linger in the air and Kris is thrown into a panic as he realizes that it was his pot that was burning thus he quickly rushes off to turn off the stove with his wife laughing at him.

“See?” she tells Aiden and the boy begins to smile as his forehead begins to go numb from the pain. “Atleast dinner is ready” he sighs in relief, Hana puts aside the ice pack and helps Aiden off the counter. The boy hurries off to the dining area while his mom walks over to his father; she wraps her arms around his aproned waist as he busily transfers the creamy soup onto a big bowl. Hana smiles at him, “it’s a surprise that you actually cooked dinner, baobei”

Kris smirks, “you’re so lucky that I’m your husband then, do you know how many guys out there can cook?” Hana thinks for a moment with a pout then begins to list off someone males that she knew could cook, “Well… there’s Chanyeol, Yixing, Suho, Xiumin, oh and Kyungsoo –his cooking is probably the best”

“Eeehh!” Kris turns around and pokes her forehead, “you’re supposed to be biased with me, babe!” he whines and Hana laughs some more at his childish pout, his reactions to her teases were always so priceless. Hana takes the bowl of soup from his hands and walks to the dining area to serve it, “Your cooking is the best in all of China and Korea, baobei” she tells him and Kris can’t help but smirk, “Ofcourse it is” he replies as he takes out the main course from the oven.

The scent of back ribs fills the air and Aiden eagerly hits his plastic spoon and fork atop the table as his mom sets down the bowl of soup infront of him and his dad follows up with the platter of meat, generously covered in sauce.

Hana sits down across Aiden’s high chair and Kris takes the seat at the end of the table, “Aiden, you do the prayer” Kris tells him and the boy nods obediently then brings his hands together and closes his eyes, he begins “Papa God, thank you for this food that will go to my tummy. Please let there always be yummy food on the table, thank you. Am—“ the boy pauses for a quick second as he remembers something, “also, Papa God, Baba said that he and mama can’t give me a baby sister so I thought you could give me one” Hana’s eyes widen in surprise and Kris shoots his son a look of mixed confusion and question, “Amen.” Aiden ends his prayer and flashes his parents a grin before pointing at the baby back ribs and asks his mama for a share.

Hana looks at Kris and he looks back at her with a shrug and shake of his head. She turns back to cut up some meat and places it atop the boy’s bowl of rice, “what’s this about a baby sister, sweetie?” Hana asks the young boy across her as she now serves a piece to her husband.

“I want someone to protect, Mama” he answers before taking a piece into his mouth, “but Baba said that you will be sick so you can’t give me one and he said that for now I should protect you because bad guys are after you” she felt her heart flutter, it was touching to hear but equally funny too. She can only imagine what they had talked about before she got home.

“Did you talk to him about the birds and the bees?” she asks her husband and Kris almost chokes on the piece of meat he had just put in his mouth, “No, that’s too early to even talk about!” he flusters remembering the time his dad had talked to him about it. Hana laughs, “You have plenty of time to prepare your speech for that, baobei”

Aiden lifts his spoon in the air as if asking permission to speak, “Mama, where do babies come from?”

Kris now chokes on his food and Hana laughs, she reaches over to rub his back soothingly whilst handing him a glass of water to drown his coughs. Aiden looks at his father with wide, questioning, and naïve eyes. Kris gestures with his hand as if trying to speak but his coughs were stopping him, Hana turns to the boy “Honey, we’ll talk about that later but for now, how’s school?”

“It was great mama!” he grins and goes on to telling his parents about all the stuff he has learned that day, “Teacher taught us how to count to fifty, then we drew something and –oh! We made a card and I drew us on the card, mama!” he grins proudly while his mother listens to him fondly with a smile on her face. Kris takes a deep breath before proceeding with his meal. “Wow, so you really learned a lot today” she wows as the boy ends his rambling, Kris turns to his wife “and what about you, baobei? You stayed out later than the usual” Hana sighs and casts him an apologetic look “it’s quite hectic at the office lately but I think it will be over soon enough, I just have some things to take care of”

“Just take it easy” he tells her with a small smile knowing that the stress would only pile up from now on. For some reason Kris didn’t want to meddle with his grandmother’s plans despite the fact that Hana’s promotion to such a title soon enough would put a lot of things on the line, he felt in himself that she could handle it. If she had the guts and the patience to deal with someone like him every single day of her life then he knew that she could do just about everything else. But despite of his decision to support his wife in whatever choice she may make business-wise, a part of him feared that the job might swallow up her time and leave less for their family –especially Aiden.

As dinner ends and the night grows old, Aiden leaves to bathe with his mom while Kris volunteers to put away the dishes in the washer.

Kris

It’s a surprisingly peaceful evening, I can barely remember the last time we had such a smooth night since Aiden came along. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tiring as heck to take care of a growing baby boy but nonetheless it’s fun and I can’t even seem to imagine what life would be like without him. (Childishly) Jealous as I may be of Hana’s divided attention since the little bundle of mixed emotions came along, it’s always quite a sight to see the joy in her eyes whenever she looks at Aiden and I should know because I always seem to catch her staring at the boy every chance she gets and the way she takes care of him, always seeing to it that he feels the love that we shower him amazes me to say the least.

To say the least, Hana is a great mother.

“…London?” Aiden questions in a funny accent and it’s followed by Hana’s giggle. I stop just beside the door to Aiden’s room, quietly taking a peak to see Hana helping him put on a shirt then she sits him on her lap and dries his hair with a towel. “It’s a faraway place but it’s very beautiful, it’s one of the places that your baba took me to” so, she still remembers that huh? Aiden follows up another question, “what did you do in London, mama?”

Hana hums for a moment to recall the memories and I find myself quietly chuckling at the sudden blush that spreads across her face. Even I remember all those amazing memories of London, especially the first night. “A-ah, we ate cakes, sweetie” Hana quickly answers as she finishes off drying the boy’s hair and transfers him onto the bed; she puts away the wet towels and tucks him in bed. As Aiden yawns, I push the door open and enter the premises of the room as it was about time to say goodnight anyway.

“Wait baba!” he suddenly sits up in bed, face serious as he looks at me “you forgot to tell me where babies come from!”

Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry and I question myself if such a thing should even be taught or explained to a kid at three years old. It was already enough of a surprise when he told me he wanted a little sister –not that I’m complaining or anything, in fact I would be happy to make him one- and now he’s seriously asking me where babies come from. I didn’t even care to know about any of this until I reached seven years old and even then my own father couldn’t explain it properly to me. So, how the hell am I going to tell him without the use of too explicit content?

“Kiddo,” I pocket my hand and slide my free arm around Hana’s waist, “it goes like this… when a man and a woman are inlove, the woman will give the man permission to enter the igloo and when he goes inside the igloo, he makes her some milk and he leaves the igloo, after nine months a baby will come out of the igloo… and that is called, the igloo of life”

Hana bites back her laughter; I could feel her shoulders shaking already. Aiden frowns deeply in thought then turns back to me again, “so does that mean baba is a snow man?” I shrug my shoulders, “You could say that…” “So, babies come from an igloo?” I nod my head in affirmation before bidding him one last goodnight and drag my wife with me out of the room.

“An igloo… huh?” Hana laughs as we make our way to our room. I know that it probably wasn’t the best explanation but whatever works, works and besides Aiden can just ask me about it again some other time and maybe then I’ll come up with a better answer.

“Aiden is three years old, Hana…” I tell her, she goes away to the bathroom while I rummage through the closet for some night wear, “how can a three year old be interested as to where babies come from?”

Hana appears by the doorway, leaning against it with her arms crossed and an amused smile on her face, “maybe he’s just curious, baobei” she tells me and I scoff, I settle for some black sweatpants and white shirt and throw the used clothes into the hamper; “He was also curious about what happened to London” I smirk and the blush re appears on her face once more giving me the turn to be amused. Come to think of it, have I ever mentioned that Hana always has some generous cleavage up for show whenever she wears a bathrobe? No? Well, she does and she looks extra attractive with her hair cascading down one side of her shoulder –specifically right now.

“You remember,” I extend my arms and grasp onto the shelf of her side of the closet, trapping her between my arms effectively, “…don’t you?” She doesn’t turn around but continues to casually rummage thru her night clothes. Ah, so she’s going to play it this way. I take a step forward a bit, leaving much less space between my front and her behind, her breath hitches a bit at the brief contact and she suddenly turns, “Ofcourse, I do” she says with a pout and tries to escape from the entrapment but I press my body completely against hers and the fluster on her face deepens, much to my amusement.

Hana pouts and slides her arms around my waist, “Please let me pass” she says with puppy dog eyes but more than that, her cleavage is really such a sight especially in a position like this. Ugh, when was the last time we did it?

“You look really nice in just a robe, babe” I tell her and the soft chuckle coming from her made her chest rise a bit, rubbing against mine forcing me to bite back my lip. God, she is still such a tease. “I look better with just the sheets though, right?” she smiles cheekily at me and in the next moment, she had locked herself in the bathroom after taking advantage of the sudden trance that her words had put on me.

Damn it, “I almost had you!” I shout through the door to which she replies with a laugh and, “sorry baobei but the doctor said no strenuous activities!” Tch. As if a piece of door panel could keep her safe from me, the spare key to the bathroom door was lying close by and sometimes Hana could be so gullible to such technicalities but, as a man who respects the professionals and –of course- my wife, I will keep my hormones in check for now.

Hana exits the bathroom and finds her husband lying down on his side of the bed, one arm behind his head and the other holding the remote flipping through channels, his eyes looked bored and a bit sleepy but he seemed to be fighting the drowsiness. She crawls towards his side of the bed and slips her arms around his waist then rests her head on his chest in a cuddle, Kris puts away the remote as he settles for Adventure Time then begins to light his wife’s damp hair.

“It’s bad to sleep with wet hair, babe” he informs her. Hana replies with a small hum not really giving a care as she wanted nothing else but to stay as they were at the moment. “Baobei…” Hana calls him, “…what kind of business are you and Vanessa really discussing?”

For a moment, Kris is surprised that his wife had brought up the woman and very specifically asked about their transaction. Hana breaks away from the embrace and sits up to look at him after sensing his silence, mistaking his surprise for hesitation. Kris had never seen her eyes as serious as they were now, despite the calm and collected expression that was plastered on her face at the moment. “Where is this coming from all of a sudden?” he asks her but Hana doesn’t give him answers and instead tells him, “Just tell me, Yifan.”

Kris sighs, “She’s the one that came to collect my payment for the debt, Hana”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” she frowns feeling a bit offended because it came off to her that he did not trust her enough with these kinds of things. They were supposed to be husband and wife, she believed that more than anyone else, she at least deserved to know what exactly was going on in her husband’s life. Kris finally sits up and cups his wife’s face with his hands, for a moment he looked her straight in the eyes before compressing her cheeks together to puff them up and he rolls back with a laugh.

“Wu Yifan!” she scolds him, slapping his arm. It takes another minute or so before his laughter dies down, he wipes away a fake tear and pats his wife’s head, “Ah ~ you’re adorable, baobei” Hana pouts and Kris responds by wrapping his arms around her and lies back, pulling her on top of him.

“You have nothing to worry about, Hana…” he assures her with a soft smile, “I’m not called Kris Wu for nothing and I’m not stupid enough to pay something that I don’t have the slightest clue about… I’m going to protect you and Aiden from all of this mess.”

He presses a kiss on her forehead, “Trust me.”

Hana sighs before she starts to lean in towards him, Kris readies himself for her lips; however… “Mama, Papa?” the two break apart at the speed of light with Yifan accidentally pushing off his wife causing Hana to land on the floor with a thud and small shriek. Aiden stands by the door way with Ace around his arm, he was rubbing his eyes sleepily and a cute pout was on his lips, “I had a nightmare… can I sleep with you?” Hana rises from the floor and walks over to her baby, she picks him up in his arms and brings him to their bed.

Kris pulls back the thick duvets as Aiden settles himself in the middle, he drifts back to sleep not a minute later and he sighs. Hana looks over at him and casts him an apologetic smile before tucking herself under the covers as well, Kris picks up the remote and turns off the television before reaching over his wife to kiss her good night.