Author’s Note:

 

Okay, so first of all… THANK YOU FLOATING CABBAGE FRIENDS! I didn’t get to update you guys for some time and when I come back, I see the comments and didn’t have any idea the story was featured until I read all the ‘congratulations’ ~ /le creys a river of tears/

So, anyway, as a thank you and to make up for my absence here is CHAPTER SIX! Yehet!

P.S.

I hope you all forgive me because I was in the hospital for some time since I had to get my appendix removed and only got discharged yesterday. Thank you again soooo much!

Yehet for the gold star! :D

CHAPTER SIX

HANA

 

The formal dinner had begun not long ago after the host of the party welcomed everyone.

 

I was seated with Hyunseung –thank God- and other Korean and Chineses business men and women, some of them which I recognized from not long ago. Specifically, there was President Park Jungsu of ELF Shares Corp. and surprisingly, Kim Heechul sat along with us; he was still the same.

 

“Oh,” he says in a surprised tone as he looks over to me –three seats away- “Kim Hana, correct? Ah wait… Wu Hana, now” he smirks. His face looked like it was saying ‘I knew this would happen’; I politely smiled and nod my head at him, “Long time, no see, Mr. Kim”

 

He still looks like the devil.

 

“You two know each other as well?” Mr. Park asks and Heechul nods at him whilst taking a sip of his wine, “Ofcourse! Well…” Heechul pauses to put down his glass, “especially with her status right now, who wouldn’t know her?” he laughs.

 

Everyone on the table follows through as well and I can’t help but feel a little tiny among these people. No Hana, don’t… remember, you’re a Wu now.

 

“Right…” I whisper to myself and do what I do best: smile.

 

The conversation continued to flow with Heechul leading most of it as he tells tales of how it was in his business and everyone exchanged stories –everyone but me, that is, and I preferred it that way. I laughed along and nodded when deemed, trying to keep myself as low as I possibly could.

 

“So Hana,” but ofcourse… trying doesn’t always mean succeeding.

 

I turned to Mr. Park, “Yes?”

 

“How is Kris? I haven’t heard from him in a long time after the wedding” gulp, I smile politely, “Kris has been busy with Wu Prime, he rarely attends parties because of work but he’s doing well” “How is he as a husband?” a woman from across the table asked –I believe she introduced herself as Im Yoona earlier- “He’s very accommodating”

 

More than that actually, Kris is amazing in so many ways as a husband. In fact, he never fails to entertain me.

 

“Shame that he didn’t get to attend the summit this year; Paris was a favorite of his” Hyunseung says and I feel a bit guilty, questioning myself if it was because of Aiden and the fact that I told him. Was he originally intending to go to the summit then changed his mind when I told him because then no one would take care of Aiden?

 

“Yep,” Heechul agrees and raises his glass, “I remember all the women we had in the past summit. There was a girl named Chantal, she was his fav –” Mr. Park elbows him on the side and everyone on the table fell quiet, eyes turning to me.

 

Women? Chantal?

 

Hyunseung clears his throat, “Anyway, Mrs. Wu,” he emphasizes as he glances at Heechul, “you’re no longer affiliated with the Wu company, correct?”

 

I mentally shook my head, focus Hana! You’re at a summit right now as representative for CUBE, be professional. I smile and nod my head, “Yes, I…uh… work under CUBE now”

 

“I heard you used to be Wu Enterprise’s Finance Head then got demoted to being the CEO’s PA” another businessman said. Okay, now I feel like a pipsqueak. “I sincerely do hope you get promoted soon, dear” an older businesswoman said with a sympathetic smile.

 

I clear my throat quietly and smile back at her.

 

“Well, with the rate that Hana is going at, I’m sure that she’ll be promoted sooner than she would expect” Hyungseung says, casting me a cheerful smile and a wink.

 

Demotion… I never thought of it that way.

 

 

Meanwhile, in Seoul…

 

“Guys! Guys! Look!” Yixing shouts as he runs back to the living room, full of eleven grown men, with a blanket in his hands. Everyone turns to him and he smiles with pride, “I found this in the corner of the bedroom by the door, I think Aiden slept there”

 

“No ” Jongin snorts with sarcasm. Joonmyeon sprints over to the boy on Kris’s lap and covers his little ears; he then shoots a glare over at Jongin, “Language, Kai”

 

The said male mumbles a quiet apology then rolling his eyes. It was a little over noon and the guys had flocked to Kris’s hotel room after word of Aiden being found had gotten out, relieving them from the near-panic state that they were in.

 

Aiden pulls away his uncle’s hands from the side of his head then turns back to his dad. He leans himself forward then eventually lies on his front on his dad’s chest, snuggling as he embraced his dad as far as his little arms would go and cue Tao going ‘Aww’ whilst clasping his hands together and staring almost enviously at Kris.

 

“Well, now that this is all over… I shall be heading off and will see you idiots at dinner” Chen announces, he gets up from his seat and salutes his friends then he walks over towards Kris and Aiden and gives the little boy a ruffle in the head “You go and drive your dad crazy again, okay kiddo?” he chuckles.

 

Kris beams a glare at him but Chen casually ignores it and smirks at the chairman, “You owe me”

 

“And I already paid the favor, now go” he still didn’t really know what the latter needed butter for and now that he thought about it, he was beginning to think twice if granting that request was such a good idea.

 

Eventually, the other also began to make their leave; one by one they went saying that they would see each other again during dinner; everyone was then gone… everyone but Minseok.

 

There was still that little tension in the air between them both about the happenings of earlier. In fact, they hadn’t said a word to each other after Aiden had been found and in a way, Kris understood where his friend was coming from. So he began by thanking him for knocking some sense back into his brain.

 

“No problem, Kris” Minseok smiles at him, finally cutting that little string of tension.

 

Aiden wriggles in his dad’s arms and Kris puts him down on the carpeted floor, the boy immediately goes to his precious Ace-hyung to play once more leaving his father and uncle to talk.

 

“Sorry for the slap, the emotions got me carried away” he laughs as he sheepishly scratches the back of his neck. Kris lightly presses his thumb on the reddened area –the shape of Xiumin’s hand- and hisses a little before saying “its okay… I guess I needed that”

 

It was then quiet for a moment as the two of them looked at Aiden, observing as he went about, laughing and giggling on the floor with the stuffed alpaca.

 

“You know…” Minseok starts, “My mom said she and dad would often argue about me”

 

Kris keeps his attention on his son as Minseok continues

 

“Dad always wanted me to excel in everything I do so he had me signed up for every ridiculous class there is and mom would get mad at him because there was no more play time for me… so he kind of, stopped his antics for some time because of mom”

 

Young Kim Minseok hid behind his mother as she argued with father. She had pulled him out of piano class just a few hours ago and took him home, it was already seven when she picked him up and class hours had ended at three. He was supposed to be at home, relaxing after school yet there he was, in a four-walled room playing the piano for hours since he got there with the teacher constantly scolding him. He didn’t even know why he was doing it; his dad just told him so.

 

It had been a common scene in Minseok’s life, where his mother would argue at his father. The man was on overachiever, always wanting Minseok to be on top of his class, to be on top of everything because there was “No time for playing, Minseok. I need you to be prepared for life.”

 

And he, a naïve child, only did was his father wished of him, not realizing that his childhood was being wasted on things that could be done later on when he grows up. He couldn’t remember the last time he held a toy in his hand; his father had locked up the play room after his fifth birthday.

 

“He’s just a child!” his mother yelled, clearly upset and mad at his father. He was, too. Minseok could tell by the way his brows narrowed and the frown on his face, “Which is why I am preparing him for life ahead –”

 

“With what, ridiculous lessons that he might not even be interested in? I understand that you want him to excel but for you to punish him just because he got a B in class or because he decided to play rather than pick up the violin and play it for hours, that I will not tolerate!”

 

It was silent.

 

Then his father’s gaze fell on him and with a cold tone of voice, he said “You are a disappointment to me, Minseok” and with that, he left the room, slamming the door.

 

He could still clearly even remember it; when he got so sad that he decided to run away and his dad didn’t even bother looking for him. It was his mom that found him and when they got home that night, his father didn’t even acknowledge his presence, it was a painful memory.

 

Minseok chuckles, “Don’t be that dude, man”

 

Kris smiles a little at him, “I don’t plan to be”

 

 

“I have a proposal ~” Tao sang as he entered Joonmyeon’s office.

 

Suho looks up from his laptop and raises his brow at Tao; the latter sat himself down on one of the chairs and smiles at the CEO. If anything, he didn’t want to be disturbed at the moment as he had already wasted much of his work hour at Kris’s dilemma earlier on; apparently Tao was not going to let him have his way.

 

Knowing him, Joonmyeon had no choice but to listen, otherwise he might throw a fit and sulk for days. He just couldn’t figure out how Kris handled him, “what is it, Zitao?” he asks, quietly sighing as he closes his laptop for the time being –he doubts he would be able to use it while Tao is here, anyway.

 

Tao then sits up straight with an excited look on his face, “I was thinking…” Oh god… my senses are tingling… Joonmyeon swallows hard and cuts him by asking a question, “This isn’t one of your crazy ideas, right?”

 

“No! Now listen” Tao fends and continues on, “I was thinking that maybe we could help Yifan-ge with Aiden” “And how do you propose to do that when we’re all busy these days?” Tao grins, which sends shivers down Joonmyeon’s spine.

 

“Kris will be here for a week, right? So being that we’re twelve, we can be in pairs and take turns taking care of Aiden”

 

He’s crazy. I knew it.

 

Joonmyeon sighs and Tao’s warning senses of rejection spike up immediately. It was time for the back-up plan, “you don’t even have to get involved! You and Kris can go about your business and we’ll take care of Aiden” he grins at the CEO in a reassuring manner.

 

The two look at each other for a moment.

 

Joonmyeon being a little doubtful and Tao looking hopeful; say yes, say yes, say yes… he mentally chants.

 

“You’ve talked to the others about this?” Joonmyeon asks Tao and he nods, “And what did they say?” he follows up another question to which Tao answers gleefully, “They agreed, they even said they’d have fun and if I remember correctly, Chen said he’d have a blast taking care of the little one”

 

“And you’ve told Kris?”

 

“Err… not yet but I’m sure he’ll say yes! Now please, will you just say yes?”

 

Joonmyeon looks at him again; he knew that Tao was undoubtedly fond of their nephew and if anything, he treats Aiden like the most precious gem in the world –believe it or not, he treasures him like his Gucci collection and as for the others, they adored the little one but Suho wasn’t sure that they were up to the point of wanting take care of him like Tao was.

 

Finally, he sighs and picks up the phone and waits for the other line to pick up.

 

“Hello, Kris?”

 

Tao smile grows far too similar to that of the Cheshire cat as Joonmyeon speaks to the person on the phone, “Tao said he had a proposal, not one of business but I think you shoulder hear it out…”

 

Meanwhile;

 

Sehun, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were working on a commissioned project inside one of the meeting rooms. Two cups of coffee and a cup of large chocolate bubble tea lay on the wooden table along with files, documents and three laptops. No one was talking and the only sound in the air was the tapping on the keyboard and the occasional scribbling on the paper but other than that, neither bothered the other as they were all too focused on finishing work.

 

They would have gotten done half of it already but because of the emergency earlier, they had to set it aside.

 

Too succumbed in their own work, the three fail to notice the door opening; Lay enters and looks around the quiet conference room then sits down beside Chanyeol as silently as he could and leans himself forward, folding his arms and closing his eyes to sleep.

 

Sehun sighs and stops typing; he looks past his laptop’s screen and calls out at the guy leaned forward on the table, “Yah… Yixing-hyung, you can’t sleep here”

 

Yixing moans in disappointment, “But why not? It’s not like I’m bothering you guys” he raises his head and pouts at the blonde guy. Chanyeol reaches for his coffee and takes a quick sip then he turns to Yixing for a brief moment, “Not the first ten minutes, no offense intended but you’ve had a bad snoring habit lately”

 

“You have no proof!” Yixing defends himself; Baekhyun sighs and whips his phone out of his pocket then plays a video of Yixing snoring “There’s your proof” he says.

 

Just as he was about to huff and exit the room, the doors burst open and an excited Tao waltzes in with a huge grin on his face and a piece of paper in his hand, much to three of the four men’s annoyance. “Damn it, Zitao… we have to get done here” Sehun mutters as he swipes his bubble tea and angrily takes a sip but Tao merely ignores him, too much in the moment of how happy he felt.

 

“Guess who’s babysitting for the next days!” he announces, waving the piece of paper in the air.

 

Lay swipes away the piece of paper while the other three’s minds go into a mode of loading the information that Tao has just passed on.

 

“Hey, Sehun, look! We’re paired together!” Lay smiles and Sehun almost spat out his bubble tea at the realization of what Tao’s words meant.

 

RING. RING.

 

Tao fishes out his phone and looks at the screen, “Oh look, Chen’s calling…” he slides his thumb over the screen, “Hello?”

 

“HUANG ING ZI TAO, I SAID NO SUCH THING!”

 

“Oh shush, it’ll be fun! Plus, I paired you up with Baekhyun!” Tao smiles; Chen wasn’t so fond however, “Just you wait, I have tons of paperwork –” “Don’t we all? Stop being such a drama queen” he rolls his eyes at his exasperated friend

 

“You are so ~ going to wish you never messed with the Chenminator”

 

BEEP. “Chenmi-what?”

 

Chanyeol shakes his head, “A new Gucci says that you’ll make Aiden cry more than you make him love you” Ears tingling at the word GUCCI, Tao smirks and crosses his arms, “And if he loves me? You give me two limited editions”

 

“You’re on” it was a deal.

 

 

It was a little over past six and dinner with his colleagues was a couple of minutes away.

 

Usually, Kris would be ready an hour before; however, Aiden was not as keen as to his father’s ideal routines. Kris had spent twenty minutes running around the hotel suite trying to get Aiden in new diapers –after the little guy ran off with a powdered - plus thirty minutes getting him in his clothes, suffering from a sore jaw after Aiden accidentally kicked him while he was putting the boy’s pants on.

 

Now, he only had less than ten minutes to get himself together.

 

“Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba  ~” Aiden kept babbling repeatedly as he sat infront of the television, watching Pororo while his dad went to and fro in a brisk manner, multi-tasking –brushing his teeth, fixing his hair, doing his tie and putting on his shoes;

 

RING. RING. RING.

 

“Shi ()” he cusses and runs to the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth then rushing back to the room to pick up his phone, “Hello?”

 

“Hey,” it was Hana –sounding tired, most probably from all the partying and if he was correct, it was an ungodly hour where she was. He wipes off a stray white toothpaste mark on the side of his lip and throws off the towel aside, “Hey honey, why… why are you still up?”

 

“The party ended late, I just got in…” she yawns “How are you? Did you have dinner?”

 

“No… err…” he tucks his phone between his ear and shoulder to button his cuffs, “but we’re on our way to getting dinner” “I see… well, you know what you can and can’t feed Aiden; is he being a good boy?”

 

Kris rolls his eyes; his reply coated with sarcasm “You have no idea”

 

“You can handle it… you’re Kris Wu” she smiles and so does he; he wishes that he could handle it like he handles business but no, Aiden was hard to control –uncontrollable, in his opinion even. Kris feels a tug on his pants and looks down to find Aiden, staring at him with wide eyes.

 

Who are you talking to, Baba? “Aiden wants to talk to you… I think” he says, unsure then bends down to the boy’s level and puts the phone against his ear, “Bapudobamamana ~” he babbles making his mother laugh and he too laughs at the sound of her voice, “Mama ~”

 

“Hello baby ~ aigo, mama misses you”

 

Aiden loves mommy ~  “Mama jamabadapapada lala ~” he giggles rather cutely which surprisingly made his daddy smile like an idiot. After awhile, Kris pulls away the phone and Aiden runs back to the living room at the sound of the television “We have to go now, the guys are waiting”

 

“Alright, have fun and say hi to them for me”

 

“Will do; I love you”

 

“I love you too”

 

With that, the call ends and Kris makes the final touches then exits the bedroom “Alright Aiden, time to go see your crazy uncles again”