CHAPTER FIVE

Hana’s eyes twinkled with such adoration as she looked out of the window of her hotel room, Paris was indeed very beautiful but as happy as she was to be here, it would’ve been made better with Aiden and Kris around. Perhaps, we could go here some other time, she thinks to herself and tears her gaze away to unpack her luggage. There were certain conditions to her trip here that she didn’t tell her husband because she knew he simply won’t approve of it.

 

His grandmother was not present here contrast to what Kris was thinking. In fact, Hana went alone to attend the summit as CUBE’s representative in exchange for the fifty-percent that Kris asked for. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded though because the summit was not to be taken lightly, she needed to bag some investors and she had no idea yet as to how she was going to do that.

 

But, whatever it takes she would do it… all for Kris, Hana. Do this for him.

 

A little while later, a knock had landed on Hana’s door and when she answered it, three men holding several boxes each and one woman holding a clip board entered her room. Surprised at the sudden intrusion, she mustered up the best of the little English that Kris had taught her and asked “What is this?”

 

“Good day, Mrs. Wu…” the woman greets her as the men set down the boxes atop the bed and some on the dresser. “These are the items that have been ordered, we’ve charged it on your company. We sincerely hope that you have a good night and well stay here in Paris”

 

She was dumbfounded, all she understood was the greeting, Paris and good night; however, she smiled at the woman and nodded her head then said thank you for bringing the boxes in. After they have left, Hana quietly approached the boxes and opened one of them –a smaller box compared to the rest. Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she saw the set of jewelries inside.

 

The weight on her shoulders seemed to have increased because if these boxes were a message for her to wear every item inside then surely this summit is not gonna be just white shirts and coats. PING. Her phone sounds off, signaling a message from her boss:

 

Enjoy the night, dear. It will all be worth it, I assure you.

 

 

Everyone loved Aiden, especially the media and it didn’t take long for his candid photos of being spotted in Seoul to circulate around the internet and not only that but his dad aswell. The female population swooned at the sight of the businessman with his cute child, it made them love him all the more.

 

A cute baby and a hot husband, Kris Wu’s wife is certainly lucky.

 

So far, everything was going smoothly for Kris and his friends. Aiden had not yet unleashed hell and that was a relief; the baby had not left Kyungsoo’s arms and even so fell asleep along the ride to the restaurant where Suho had booked for lunch. Currently, Aiden was still fast asleep in Kyungsoo’s arms, head snuggling on his uncle’s chest as they waited for their order.

 

“Hmph,” Tao huffs, crossing his arms from across the table, he had been in a foul mood ever since the incident at the airport. He had no choice but to drag the giant panda with him since Aiden seemed to have hated him.

 

“Dude…” Chanyeol sighs turning to the grumpy panda, “can you not?”

 

“Can I not what?” Tao gruffs, not sparing him a glance as he was too busy despising Kyungsoo. “Sulk, geez… it’s killing my happy viruses” but Tao does not heed his request and keep staring over at Kyungsoo and Aiden, now making his other friend uncomfortable aswell.

 

Kyungsoo sighs slowly and glares at Tao, “Can you not?” “Alright…” Suho finally cuts in, “Tao, stop that because it’s not going to help you with Aiden”

 

The small chatter was put at a halt when the young boy began to squirm in Kyungsoo’s arms and pushed himself off of his uncle’s chest. Aiden looks around for a moment and meets with the twelve eyes that were on him. Baba? He scans the faces of each one in the room; Where’s my baba?

 

In Aiden’s eyes, the people in the room were anything and anyone but his uncles. Chen was a dinosaur, Lay was a white horse, Baekhyun was a puppy, Kai was a pretzel stick, Suho was an egg, Sehun was a white radish, Kyungsoo was Keroppi, Tao was still an angry panda –which made the boy frown-, Xiumin was a white onion and Luhan was like his mommy with pretty eyes and lips which made him giggle. Pretty ~

 

The young boy held out his hands to the last person he saw –now completely forgetting about his father- and called out to his doe-eyed uncle, “Mama!” and just like that, the whole table bursts out into a fit of laughter much to Luhan’s annoyance.

 

He takes the boy into his arms and rolls his eyes at his friends, “Yeah… ha-ha funny, that’s really mature guys”

 

Lunch went on with great food and some catching up. Aiden hadn’t warmed up to Tao yet so he prior to his volunteerism of feeding the baby, Chanyeol ended up with the task and pretty much enjoyed every moment of it as he cooed at the baby and the other giggled with joy at every choo-choo train and airplane that his uncle fed him. After lunch, they all momentarily parted ways with the father and son, as Kris decided it be best that the two of them rest while his colleagues attend to their personal amends.

 

“Tao, don’t forget your panda” Baekhyun reminds him as they rose from their seats to leaves. Groaning, the businessman picks up the huge stuffed animal and hands it over to a female waitress that happened to pass by, “Here…” the confused female rose her brow for a moment, “You can have it” he said and followed his friends out of the restaurant leaving the female awestruck and blushing whilst holding the stuffed animal.

 

 

 

“How are my two favorite boys in the world?”

 

Kris puffs out a sigh as he watched his son crawling around the hotel suite, familiarizing himself with the new environment while his dad talked on the phone with his mom. “So far, so good… how’s Paris?”

 

“Beautiful, we should come here next time as a family” she smiles on the other line. “Yeah, well don’t go and look for other guys while you’re there” “Idiot,” she laughs, “How could I when I’ve got the best man in the world?” “Aiden?”

 

“Other than him, you” and Kris couldn’t help but smile with pride, his ego was being fed so much at the moment. Aiden spots his hyung on the couch beside his dad and crawls over, he sits himself down on the carpeted floor and points at the stuffed alpaca, “Hoo ~”

 

Kris looks down at the boy and raises a brow at him, “Hoo?” he repeats the word in a question, “Hoo? What are you talking –” “It’s Aiden… hold on a sec”

 

“Hoo ~” the boy repeats and points at the stuffed alpaca, Hyung ~ I wanna play with hyung. Kris turns to his side and sees Ace, he picks up the alpaca and hands it over to the boy; Aiden smiles and hugs the stuffed animal then goes off to play with it, leaving his dad once more, “He meant Ace” he informs his wife, somewhat unsure if it was right.

 

For one thing, it was one of the proudest moments in Hana’s life: the day Kris had permitted Aiden to play with Ace. It seemed like the heavens had opened up that day and it took some time for her to believe it; it was Kris Wu afterall and, if not everyone then, Hana knows just how much he treasures the stuffed alpaca.

 

“Aigo, he’s very fond of Ace… I wonder who he got it from?” she teases and sniggers on the other line. Kris rolled his eyes at her, “and I wonder who he takes his whining from” “Last time I checked, I wasn’t the one whining to reject their grandmother’s offer and come with him to China instead”

 

“Yah, I never whined!” he defends himself while his wife laughs at him.

 

“Yeah, right, whatever… but I have to go get ready now, I’ll call you again soon”

 

“Alright then, have fun”

 

“You too ~” she sang before ending the call. Kris huffs out a sigh and tosses the phone aside, still the same as ever, he thinks to himself. He eventually leaves the sofa and called out for Aiden as it was time for his nap, Hana had specifically told him to always put him through nap time since the young boy could get a little cranky.

 

“Aiden, nap time ~” he calls out nonchalantly as he looked around the suite.

 

He checked the bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom even the closet but couldn’t seem to find the baby. He rechecked the bedroom again, under the bed and the cabinets but Aiden was nowhere to be found. Okay, he breathes, calm down Kris… I’m sure he’s just around here somewhere.

 

“Mr. Wu?” someone calls out from the living area and Kris exits the bedroom, he finds housekeeping services with his business suit but other than that, one fact horrified him: the door was left ajar. “How long have you left the door open?” he asks the girl, rushing past her to get to the door and looks right left in the hallway.

 

Kris left no time for the female to answer as he had told her to leave his suit there while he rushed back inside to grab his phone. An open door and a missing baby, definitely, not an ideal combination. If a heart attack won’t kill him then his wife surely would.

 

In haste, he dials on his phone and presses it onto his ear.

 

“Hello? We have a problem… Aiden’s lost”

 

 

“Hana is going to shave his head” Chen chuckles as he sat in the passenger seat of Tao’s car, “How do you manage to laugh in a situation like this?!” the driver exclaims in distress.

 

“I am pretty sure, she’s gonna bury him alive too” Chanyeol sniggers.

 

“Shave his head and bury him alive” Chen concludes.

 

“GUYS!” Tao yields, “I am disappointed in you! We received a distress call from a friend with a missing bundle of joy and you choose to laugh at his misery?! I am disappointed on so many levels!”

 

“Whoa, take a chill pill, Mother Hen… panicked states don’t solve anything so why don’t you cool your and drive properly or we’re gonna end up in a ing hospital and we won’t be of help to Kris. That would be much more of a disappointed, don’t you think?” Chen explains. With a huff, Tao rolls his eyes at them and goes back to focusing on the road.

 

Three cars reach the hotel.

 

Tao exits his vehicle and rushes inside with the others following close behind. Everyone was nervous, a lot of things could have happened given the span of time that Aiden had been lost. Every second was crucial yet they also knew that the more they panicked, the more it would be difficult to move.

 

As they reached Kris’s hotel suite, the distressed father was inside making calls to the hotel’s security if ever CCTV cameras caught the kid in the hallways.

 

“Did you guys notice anything on your way up?” he asks his friends as soon as he had ended the phone call. They all shook their heads and he sighs, heavily burdened and worried. “What happened?” Lay asks;

 

“I don’t know… I was talking on the phone with Hana and he crawled over saying he wanted ‘Hoo’”

 

“Who?” Chanyeol raises a brow, “Wait, who?” Xiumin strings along.

 

“Ace! He meant Ace!” Kris pauses to regain composure then continues, “Ugh… so I gave him Ace and he crawled away to play, I didn’t keep track and I was looking for him and then housekeeping and the door and…” he collapses back onto the sofa, rubbing his temples to ease the building headache.

 

“Hana is gonna shave my head and bury me alive” he groans, leaning forward and grips onto his hair as Chen and Chanyeol suppress the sniggers aching to escape their systems. Tao beams at the two for a moment then turns to his precious gege, “I’m sure he’s just here somewhere, he couldn’t have gotten that far”

 

“I already talked with some people, this won’t get out; I can assure you that” Chen smiles. “Suho also talked with someone, every police department in Seoul is aware of it and they’ll give us a call if they find Aiden” Luhan explains.

 

Kris wished that those words brought him some kind of relief but sadly they didn’t and it was only a matter of time before Hana’s motherly instincts kick in. worst case scenario would be, her flying from Paris to Seoul. He prays she won’t.

 

HANA

 

So far, the night was going thoroughly well. I was very much prepped up by the hotel’s salon and I am more than thankful that someone handled my hair and make up for me because otherwise I’d be a mess as I only know the very basics and judging from the possible events of tonight, no one is going to go plain.

 

Sure enough, when I reached the venue for the so-called summit (really, it was more of a billionaire’s party) my thoughts were proven right. My heart had raced so much, partly because it was the first time that I went to these kinds of things without Kris meaning I’ll have to know my way around and partly also because something does not feel right.

 

There was this strange feeling surging up in me that gave me the urge to call Kris; however, just before I could, I was greeted by a familiar face that I couldn’t be more thankful for.

 

“Yookyung!” I exclaim and abandon my previous plans of calling her cousin in Seoul. It was certainly been long since we had last seen each other; “Unnie! Wow, Yifan’s grandmother really went all out on you… well, I guess it’s only necessary, right?” she laughs then grabs two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter and hands one over to me.

 

“She just wanted me to be presentable, Kyung”

 

“You’re always presentable, unnie… especially now that you’re Yifan’s wife, I mean… almost everyone knows your name here” she explains as we walk amongst the crowd of businessmen and women.

 

Well, did you hear that? Almost everyone knows who you are... I gulp; that was scary to think about but perhaps that was the price to pay for marrying a powerful guy. This was bound to happen, right? Yookyung eventually cuts me out of my thoughts as she spots a group of businessmen, one of them being the CEO of the branch in London: Hyunseung.

 

“Kim Hana,” Hyunseung calls as soon as he sees me and excuses himself from the gentlemen he had been conversing with, “Wow, it’s been a long time… how are you? Are you still with Kris?”

 

“Yes ~” Yookyung cuts me off and pokes Hyunseung on the forehead with a smirk, “So stop flirting with her Hyunnie because she’s off the market” and she raises my hand to show the wedding band around my finger much to Hyunseung’s amusement and surprise, “Wow… so, it’s Mrs. Wu now?”

 

I nod my head, smiling. Yookyung excuses herself to go to the rest room and leaves me and Hyunseung amidst the crowd. He decides to introduce me around some other businessmen even those speaking English with him translating the conversation –which I was very thankful for because I think I’d be lost if he didn’t. The night was going fairly well and I have managed to talk a number of people into CUBE yet the moment Hyunseung left me at a table so I could rest, the previous feeling of something being very wrong kicked into me again.

 

Sigh, relax Hana and focus… Trust your husband, okay? Okay.

 

 

It had been over an hour.

 

An hour of deadly waiting and Kris was growing insane with every minute that had passed. There was still no news on Aiden, no call had come from the cops and no calls either from the hotel. How could I face my wife now? He was growing desperate and the possible scenarios plaguing his head was not making things any easier. What would Wu Hana do to him?

 

“She will hate me forever” he groans catching the attention of his friends in the suite.

 

Chen snorts, “She’ll probably wish you two never even met… but let me tell you that thinking about that won’t help the matter at the moment” the door then opens, Luhan, Tao and Chanyeol re-entering with tired looks on their face. They had gone searching the floors of the hotel including the fire exits, “No Aiden” Chanyeol announces.

 

“That’s it…” Kris says, raising his arms in defeat and walks into the small kitchen then grabs a breadknife from the drawer, “It was nice knowing you guys, firs the debt and now this, tell my wife that I love –”

 

SLAP!

 

Xiumin had raised a hand on his friend thus shocking the rest with his actions. Yes, he just slapped Kris to his senses and the taller one drops the breadknife onto the floor with a clank before crouching forward with his two hands pressing against the victimized cheek as he yells “AUUGHOW! What the ?!”

 

“Wu Yi Fan, are you going to give up on your son just like that?” Xiumin asks him, eyes glaring down on him with his arms crossed.

 

If Tao was disappointed of Chen and Chanyeol’s insensitivity then Xiumin was very much disappointed of Kris’s pathetic-ness (if that was even a word) he was a father after all and for him to give up so easily like this was definitely not what a father would be, “What would Hana say? She would be just as disappointed to know that you lost Aiden and you just gave up because you feel hopeless. If I were a father, I would go through the ends of the earth to find my son”

 

“And how could you say that when your own –” Luhan slaps a hand over Chen’s loud mouth as the rest glare at him. Talk about being an .

 

They all knew how sensitive the topic was for Minseok, if anything… it was the one thing that he never wanted to talk about: family. Because although the Kim family was very much adored by the public eye, there were certain things behind the lavishness that only Minseok knew.

 

“Because,” he starts, his hands clenched to fists, “that’s what fathers do… your own flesh and blood; isn’t that what they’re supposed to do? Make their children safe and happy?”

 

It was silent.

 

The air had become heavy around them and Kris felt a pang on his chest because Minseok was right, because Minseok knew –every single one of them knew- what it was like and they all swore the same thing a few years ago. No matter what it would take, none of their off-springs would get raised the way that they were.

 

And Kris swore again the very day that bundle of joy was born.

 

“Babuh ~” Nappy time was good, I’m hungry.

 

Everyone suddenly turns their heads and there by the open doorway of the bedroom area, on his hands and knees with Ace, was Aiden looking like he had just woken up from a nap.

 

“Aiden!” Tao gasps and immediately picks up the boy.

 

“Pana!” he giggles and hugs his uncle causing tears to jerk on Tao’s eyes, “Oh my god, FINALLY!”