Part 1 of 2

A Ripple in the Still Water

It was another morning in Chaoyang District, home of the central business district in the capital city of China, the Municipality of Beijing. The sun was shining brightly above the metropolis known as one of the most populated cities in the world. In a glass-tinted-office at highest floor in one of the many gigantic skyscrapers soaring to the sky, a lone man was carefully examining some papers from the huge pile of paperwork sitting on his desk.

Although it was still early—even many of his employees hadn’t showed up yet—the handsome dirty blonde haired man had already started to work diligently. His sharp and clear brown eyes were scrutinizing every single word written on the documents. His fine-looking thick eyebrows would be knitted and his pink thin lips would be pursed when he found any peculiarity in the paper on his hand. His long and slender pale fingers would then be tapping the modern-designed glass table in annoyance before he reached out for his expensive Mont Blanc pen found in the pocket of his tailored-well-designed suits. He would quickly write his comments on the paper, knit his brows and tap his pen to the table when he wasn’t satisfied, and write some more on the documents. He wouldn’t sign a paper before it was perfect and his perfectionist trait hadn’t made it easier. When he was done with a document he would smile a bit, rest his knuckles for a while, before he either grabbed another one or glanced at his pricey laptop screen for any important mails. His strong dedication to work was one of the many qualities that distinguished a Wu from the rest of the world.

Being a part of the proud Wu clan, the hard-working Kris Wu was definitely not an ordinary man.

He was—according to the Chinese magazines—the definition of perfection. Aside from his good looks—which could tempt even a married women and turn straight men into gays—he was also known as one of the most successful men in the mainland of China. In the age of 38, the brilliant but sometimes ruthless businessman had earned the position of a CEO to a well-known multinational company in China. The owner of a master degree from Berkeley was also known for his excellent manner. His politeness and his ability to socialize with both the older and younger generation had made him famous in the socialite community of China.

Therefore, many were left broken hearted when the Wu family announced their only son’s marriage to a beautiful heiress from Korea, Seo Joohyun. However, no one had tried to get in the way of the wedding of the once known as the most eligible bachelor in China. The lady he was marrying was as perfect as he was—if not better. The goddess-like beauty was a smart and elegant woman who belonged to the affluent Seo family of Korea. Everyone dubbed them as the ideal couple of the 21^st century.

However, the seemingly perfect marriage wasn’t as beautiful as what people thought. Not every marriage was a happy one and theirs was one of such case. It wasn’t that they despise each other or something; although it was indeed an arranged marriage, they had learnt to accept each other—if not more—from their 25 years of engagement. They had been engaged since her birth and their family had encouraged them to be closer with each other ever since. They did grow to have a strong bond with each other—even stronger then with their own sibling and cousins—but love is another different matter.

People said that love can develop with time but that wasn’t happening in their case. At least, it was what they thought. The so-called chemistry that they were waiting for had never arrived. There were never sparks of excitements when they touched, no butterflies in their stomachs when they talked, and clearly no skipped heart beat when they saw each other. So they decided to call their relationship as being purely platonic and pursued other relationships when they were still engaged. They had gone through numerous flings before their parents finally demanded a marriage between them.

Being an arrogant man he was, Kris had never admitted to anyone that they were not in love with each other. Thus, he accepted his parents request and asked for her hand on marriage. After all, who could make a better wife than the gorgeous and graceful Joohyun? He was a perfect man and thus he needed a perfect woman: Joohyun was clearly the only option for him.

He thought that they would learn to love each other with time after they were married but he was wrong. They didn’t grow to love each other in their 25 years of engagement, why would he expect love to develop in their currently 3 years old marriage?

A marriage without love is like a cup without water in it: it is only an empty place that wouldn’t benefit anyone. Their marriage was nothing but a façade; each passing days had been torturing them with the unbearable emptiness. They were still able to withstand each other and stand side by side at the moment but he didn’t want to think of how much longer they would be able to keep holding on to their marriage. He was a proud man thus he didn’t want to acknowledge any failure and so he decided to overlook his on-the-verge-of-breaking marriage with over working himself every night and day.

Maybe, just maybe, time would solve their problem.

Kris hated it the most when people disturbed him when he was working so he glared angrily at his secretary when the said man came into Kris’ office with a thick brown envelope in his hand.

“This better be important, Yixing.” He hissed in an intimidating manner, making the younger man shiver in horror. It was never a good idea to piss off Kris: it was as dangerous as waking up a sleeping fire-breathing dragon. The poor secretary, Zhang Yixing, nodded in fear before tremblingly handing his employer the envelope.

“Y-yes, Sir. T-this is from Mr. Xiumin. H-he s-said it is very urgent.”

Kris raised his brows in surprised. Xiumin was not a regular employee of his; the martial artist was one of his most trusted men who only dealt with his most private matters. Albeit being short and baby faced, Xiumin was the head bodyguard of his household and was also in charge of keeping the pride of the house, in every way possible. Therefore, an urgent message from him might indicate an upcoming threat to the house.

“Where is he? Did he deliver this on his own?” Kris asked sharply while carefully inspecting the package. He already had a feeling of what was inside of the envelope since it wasn’t the first time Xiumin had sent him such packet.

Yixing gulped nervously before answering, “He had just left, Sir. He said that he had other important matter to attend.” The young man fiddled with his fingers, obviously afraid of the employers’ reaction.

Kris clicked his tongue in disappointment before shooing Yixing out of his office. It was typical of Xiumin to not meet him and simply leave written message and packages since the said guy had always been paranoid of other people overhearing his conversation. When his secretary had left his workplace, Kris quickly broke the seal of the envelope and took out its content.

The first thing that came out was a short letter containing Xiumin’s messy handwriting.

Master Kris,

I’ve found this happening a couple times since last week. You might want to reconsider who your friends are. I bet the main house hasn’t found out about this yet but if you don’t fix this soon you may regret the action that the main house may take.

Xiumin

Kris closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose in frustration as he fished out the rest of the packet. A couple photographs were falling to his table but even without seeing them he knew what were pictured in them. There were only two words that were formed in his mind.

Not again.

He opened his eyes and at instance he took a look at the photos he knew his intuition was right. The photographs captured a beautiful lady with pale milky skin and long straight hair—his wife. She wasn’t alone in the pictures, though. In all of them, she was accompanied with a man who seemed too close with her for his comfort. They were holding hands or chatting or leaning on each other shoulder in the pictures. Nothing vulgar was caught on the photograph but she was never one to carry out such acts. Nevertheless, the photographs were sufficient for him to conclude one thing: she was cheating on him, again.

Kris brushed his hair with his hand in aggravation. He had stopped his flings in honor of their marriage and he was expecting the same thing from her but, unfortunately, she hadn’t. It was the first time she cheated since their marriage but if he counted the times when they were previously engaged then it wasn’t her first time for doing the sin. It wasn’t that he didn’t do the same thing—cheating on her when they were only engaged—because he did; however, Joohyun had never bothered to be secretive about it that she was always got caught.

The first time his parents had known about her cheating on him, he ended up receiving their wrath since they had deemed him as being unable to keep his possession from being stolen. Inability wasn’t supposed to be part of his trait, so ever since that incident Kris had made Xiumin followed his fiancé around and asked Xiumin to report to him whenever she was cheating. Since then, Kris had successfully avoided his parents’ fury by either reprimanding his fiancé himself or asking Xiumin to take care of her newfound lovers.

AN:

Special thanks to Dcseokyu- unnie (Deasy-unnie) and Dear 24 Rere who had read this chapter before I took it down and left me really-really beautiful comments that I had to take down as well because of the process of taking down the chapter. I really-really-really-REALLY appreciate them. I'm so so sorry. T_T

I ended up not making any changes on this one but instead making a whole lot of changes in the second part.

Thank you everyone.

with many-many-many thankful love,

himalayancat