SEVENTEEN : THE END IS NEAR

Three and a half years passed as Nana graduated with a First Class Degree honours. Dressed in her rented-tailor graduation outfit and cap, she had a bouquet of flowers in one hand. A few white casablancas, soft pink ranunculuses, white stephanotis babies and violet statices decorated together; she was really proud of her 3-year charming boyfriend who made all the right choices and took the effort to actually Google and learn floriography for her – ugh, fine, I actually saw his browser’s history. Excuse me? You’re asking for rated stuff?! I’d like to skip that question.

In fact the man himself was holding her in his arms as he held up his mobile phone for a selca. At the count of three, Nana courageously turned her face to the side to give Luhan a peck on the cheek. The picture came out perfect and Luhan was grinning like a silly creep. “Congratulations, love! You’re like an official adult now!” He said as she raised a brow and asked, “hey, what’s that suppose to mean? I was an adult even before you graduated. You’re the child between us.” Before he could reply her comment, a pair of hands pulled Nana away from Luhan and squealed, “Nana! Congratulations, dear!”

It was Audrey; a Chinese girl-slash-Yixing’s girlfriend whom he met back in China – well, his mother arranged their meeting since Yixing had to ‘keep his words’ on a promise he made 3 years ago, remember? – and they’ve been dating for half a year now. Nana hugged Audrey when the other girl enveloped her in an embrace. Luhan didn’t have a good vibe on the girl. She seemed to be a bit mysterious to him added with her randomly weird advances made at him when they’re alone if they hung out together at times for a double date after Yixing came back to Korea with her.

Well of course Luhan didn’t tell any of the other two with him since the three had the same passion: art. Sometimes, he even felt left out when they start talking about arts, but, Nana, oh my Nana, would always make those feelings disappear into thin, forgettable mist. He heard that Yixing’s mother brought the two together and that things went well. She may be a Chinese, but grew up in the States and studied there; taking up business. Luhan didn’t dwell too much on her background, but as Yixing’s friend, he was worried for his buddy and only wanted the best for him.

Yeah, yeah, call him creepy, but Luhan actually contacted Minseok and asked him to run a background check on the girl. Thank God he decided to ask Minseok instead of the others cause Minseok was the only sane one who wouldn’t go lunatic and ask Luhan a thousand questions on why was he checking out on his friend’s girlfriend when he already have an amazing girl in his life. Plus the matter was kept hidden from any of them and the only thought the two bear in mind was: ‘Yixing’s well-being’. The said guy was standing behind his girlfriend as the three of them chatted about a party at a newly opened club to celebrate Nana’s graduation day.

Luhan wanted to disagree, but seeing Nana’s aegyo attack?! Plus a little whining; which the two things that Shim Nana would hardly do, and would never do in public places, Luhan caved. Nana was never demanding and Luhan admit it, he could be quite possessive of Nana and the thought of sharing her with others is a big no-no. But still, as night reached, the café-turn-bar at night place was already crowded with human bodies mingling around each other despite the first day of its opening when the four of them arrived. In the end, Luhan found out the truth behind his girlfriend’s courageous acts that night.

As he stared at her serene feature inches away from his, he recalled the memory of the first time the beautiful girl confessed her feelings to him. Well, he had to wait for like another 8 months from the time he confessed to her since he had to go through internship for his course’s demand and Nana had to take a break halfway through her semester since her step-mother died in a car crash. Alexander came back from the States as well, but Luhan and the other guys were there most of the time to make sure he was no threat for her. He smiled at the memory albeit feeling the weight of sleep heavily hanging on his eyelids at that moment.         

When Luhan came back to the university after completing his internship, Nana had been avoiding him and his calls. Telling him that she was busy with a lot of things; didn’t have the time to talk to him at the moment and Luhan knew straight out she was lying. But, as he approached the two large parcels that came to his room; the first thing he unwrapped was the larger than life painting of wild lilacs surrounding two figures kissing in each other’s embrace. It was labeled as the year’s ‘Art Festival Winner’ and stared at the painting longer than needed.

When he looked at the larger box next to the painting, he was even shocked when his girlfriend sprung out of it with pure embarrassment painted all over on her pretty face and said: “Welcome back, Luhan. I missed you.” And with a tinier whisper, she breathed out an ‘I love you.’ To which Luhan pulled her out of the box and shared a bone-crushing hug with the girl. They spent the day together; catching up on each and every topic they could come up with despite the fact that they talked on the phone almost every single day.

Luhan brought the girl back to home base in Beijing, China to meet his parents. Although the son and his parents were having a rocky relationship due to his career path choice, Nana successfully won his parents with her charm. Nana even became the catalyst between Luhan and his parents to get the family together in a short time. To shorten things, Nana won all of the Xis hearts and Luhan’s parents were more than glad to have Nana by Luhan’s side. With those beautiful memories of the girl, Luhan’s eyelids finally gave in to the battle and snuggled up to his wonderful lover.

♦

“Hey, baby, I’ve got to go somewhere and have this painting I promised Yixing oppa for this year’s auction delivered. Plus, I’m not showing you this one because I just found out from Han that you were the ‘mysterious exotic-Japanese buyer’ who had been purchasing my paintings behind my back!” Nana said as she read the text Yixing just sent her to come over to his gallery for the painting. Delicately rolling the painting up into a scroll-like form and stuffing it in carefully into a tube, Luhan sneaked up to her and gave the girl a back hug while placing a soft kiss on her sensitive neck.  

“Nana, your butterfly signature is always there at the bottom. Plus, I love your paintings. You’ve never drawn the same flower twice and there are so many emotions going on. I just had to,” he said as Luhan pulled the tube away from her hands and lifted her up. “Luhan! Put me down,” thrashing around, she tried to get out of his grip. But they never made any of their Hapkido moves on each other, unless necessary. Finally, they ended up on the sofa and Luhan tickled her sides. “Luhan…oh God…stop…I…can’t…breath!” she said as she turned their positions with one swift move.

“Seriously, Luhan, how old are you? I have to go first, and we’ll continue this when I get back later, okay?” Nana said as she saw the glint in his eyes. “Fine, fine. After all this time, Xing is more important than me,” and he pouted. Goddamn you Luhan. Oh God, stop, stahhppp. She kissed those inviting lips and lingered longer to show him that he was more than the word ‘important’. “Go, before I put you behind bars, Mrs. Xi,” Luhan said with a low tone that sounded like a growl to Nana. She pecked his lips one more time as she pushed herself away from Luhan and out of the door in a swift move. “Love you!”

Nana nervously drove her car to a part of the district further away from Luhan and her shared apartment. She didn’t want anyone to see her, especially Luhan since she wanted to surprise him. Well, of course she didn’t know what the result would be yet, but, she had a positive feeling about it when she held her hand close to her belly. When her name was called and the doctor finally received the tests result, she redirected Nana to the other side of her room and made Nana lie down on the pink covered bed. The Ultrasound machine beeped into life as the doctor applied cold cream on her flat belly.

As the cream took its effect, the hand held machine was already against her body as Nana’s eyes widened at the pea-size being that the doctor pointed out to her on the screen and congratulated her. Oh how Nana wanted to jump from the bed and fly home to Luhan there and then. She thanked the doctor as she left with a huge smile plastered on her face. Driving back towards the gallery, Nana received a text from Audrey saying that she wanted to meet and that she could give the painting to her instead of Yixing since her boyfriend had an emergency matter to attend to.

Nana followed the instructions on the GPS as and stopped by a neighbourhood area which she wasn’t familiar with. Nana parked her car outside and went in when the gates opened. Standing at the main door, Audrey smiled at her, but somehow, the smile didn’t seem to register on her face as she welcomed Nana with a voice that gave her the chills. “Welcome to Hell, Shim Nana,” and a hand suddenly grabbed her face as she breathed in the sharp scent of chlorine and an all-too-familiar voice. “Long time no see, baby girl.”

♦

“Hey Yixing! What’s up? How are the movie and dinner plans tonight?” Luhan asked later on in the evening as he went through his contract with an entertainment company to debut as a solo artist. “Hi Luhan. Nothing much, been at the gallery the whole day. Yeah, plan’s cool. Audrey’s still outside, said she had some business. She’s coming back soon. Where’s Nana, by the way? Told me she was coming today,” he replied. “Well, yeah, she left earlier this afternoon. Thought she’d be home sooner,” Luhan replied as he counted the hours Nana had been outside.

“Oh. Let’s just call them up and maybe move the plan next week,” he said and Luhan unconsciously nodded, facepalm-ing himself at his silliness, “yeah, sure, later.” Before he could make another call, his phone rang and Minseok’s name appeared across the screen. With a single swipe, Luhan answered the call, “hi Minseok. What’s up?” “Hey, Luhan, nothing; just called to tell you that I emailed you. This Woo girl, you sure she’s dating Yixing only?” “What are you saying, Minseok? She is Xing’s girlfriend,” he said as he opened up the file attached and Luhan dropped his mobile at the sight of first picture that popped up on his screen under the file labeled ‘Audrey Woo’.

The puzzles seemed to be connected and in place at that moment when he read deeper and deeper into the information Minseok gathered. He knew that his instincts were never wrong when he thought that something was wrong with the girl. The pictures were obviously dated during the time Audrey and Yixing started their relationship. But, instead of his best friend in the pictures, it was actually Alexander. An unknown number came up to his screen as he received a call. What he heard was barely above whisper, but that angelic voice was crystal clear to him. “L-Luhan…s-s-don’t save me!” Added with the sound of a slap, Luhan felt his fear erupted as he shook angrily at the horror he was listening to. 

Like seriously, who thought that that was the end of it? Okay, the title caption might have given it away but, alas, with the time skip, of course some would think that it's the end already. But, oh well, I was just thinking of using the max numbr of chapters. I think it's just nice, and completes the story as a whole. And heads up, there might be an unpleasant ending to this. Just saying ~

p.s A SHOUTOUT TO MY FRIEND, USERNAME supergirl94ily. 생일 축하 해요! to you, babe! This chapter is dedicated to you!

Updated; November 12
Edited; Feb 19