NINETEEN : EPILOGUE

“Luna, don’t run!” A burst of giggle was audible from the black ponytail-haired little girl as she twirls her way around the gallery like she knows the place with her heart. In the midst of her little escapade, she broke into fits of cute giggles as she was scooped up by a strong pair of arms that held her firm. “Luna, baby, if Mama tells you not to run, you shouldn’t do that, okay? And you know how important these paintings are for Mama, right?” The male told the child softly as she looked up and their gazes met. “Okay. I know. Sorry, Mama,” the little girl looked out towards her Mother who approached them.

Holding her hands out for her own Mother, Nana accepted her daughter’s gesture of apology and received the child carefully from the tall male. “Thanks, Sehun,” Nana sighed as she pats the girl on her back and kissed her hair. She let the girl down and looked at the younger male in front of her, “she’s been very active these days. I just thought of her as a boy instead of a girl sometimes.” They both chuckled at Nana’s comment as Sehun added, “well, no one would be surprised with the genetic pools you have.” Nana nodded and her attention was caught by Luna’s vibrant laughter from across the room.

Kris and Tao came with Baekhyun and Chanyeol in tow. Chanyeol had Luna in his arms and was tossing her slightly in the air. The four males all smiled at the little girl’s bright cheering of, “more! More! More!” “She’s beautiful, isn’t she,” another voice echoed from where Sehun and Nana were standing. “Sweet mother of kimchi! Xing ge, you should really stop popping out of nowhere and commenting in a deep voice! What if it was Jongin instead?!” Sehun said as he looked at his friend with his tight-lipped expression that Nana still – secretly – coos at. “Sorry,” he shrugged and smiled as Nana just shook her head while laughing.

Yixing excused himself as he was the host for the day at his gallery and a few minutes later, Sehun who was in a conversation with Nana was joined by Jongin, Jongdae and Kyungsoo. Nana met the latter two a while after she had Luna. She learnt that Kyungsoo and Jongin have something exclusive going on while Jongdae is always the, err, somewhat of a c*ck-blocker, you can say, since he’s away with Kyungsoo in a foreign country for quite a while. Suho whom in reality is called Joonmyeon arrived a little while after that and joined the group of males who were playing with Luna.

He had always become the person who takes care of everyone in the whole group – plus spent the most cash for everyone – hence the nickname Suho that got stuck to him forever. Nana looked at the 11 males who were now surrounding her daughter like they’re her guardians and she smiled at the thought of it. Luna indeed was a lucky girl to be loved and cherished by so many uncles. She moved towards the group and took a step beside Tao; her personal favourite little brother and nudged him at the side. His eye-bags increased in size as he turned to look at Nana and squeezed her into a tight hug.

“Jiejie, hi! I’ve missed you guys so much! Canada is ugh, Canada. No offense, Kris ge. But the last time I saw Luna was, like, when she was 1? And now she’s turning 3! How time flies,” he said as Nana nodded her head and smiled at him. Kris didn’t look bothered with the comment Tao made about his hometown, but the small, almost-inaudible comment that came after shocked Tao who went rigid in Nana’s arms. “You, bad, bad, panda,” Kris whispered into Tao’s ears and Nana swore she heard the younger male whimpered in Nana’s arms.

Nana; who befriended 11 crazy, hormonal males for years plus having Kyungsoo and Jongin as a pair thought that she developed a somewhat good gay-dar; and, holla! Kris and Tao seemed like there was something fishy going on between them as she felt her radar vibrating and the needles picking up on something. She laughed at the monologue she was having and punched Kris on the chest. “Watch it, lover boy. Boy’s precious to me, okay,” Nana warned and it earned a startling blush from Kris and a small chuckle form Tao who saw it. The large group then moved on towards the main hall for the fundraising event.

Paintings were sold to people who came and that day, Yixing and his gallery received a full house. Nana thought that it was actually because of the guys who attract more and more buyers, plus fangirls. She had to laugh when there were small cheers or yelps when one of her male friends actually made a bid at a high price. While Yixing monitored the almost ending event, one of his workers brought in a large painting which portrayed ball-like arrangement of purple heliotropes and at the very middle, a male figure emerged, his gaze upwards and a beautiful smile was visible from the upward curve at the end of his lips. At the very bottom of the painting, a butterfly trademark was visible.  

“Mama, look, Papa!” Luna who sat beside Kris jumped a little on her seat while pointing excitedly at the painting she saw ahead of her. The other guys looked at the mother and daughter and the only thing Nana could manage was a smile. “Next is the painting named ‘Eternal Love’ by Butterfly," the emcee announced. Nana remained an anonymous painter even after years of providing Yixing her paintings. She was already employed and appointed as the Project Manager at the company she works at. But it didn’t mean leaving behind her passion. Her talents – not bragging, but true – developed over the years and her paintings usually gets the highest bid among anonymous painters.

Pinching Luna’s cute dimpled cheek, Kris smiled brightly at Nana's daughter. “That’s right, Luna. You’re very smart! Like your Mama,” Kris praised the girl and she giggled at the compliment. Kris had always been Luna’s hero with his manly figure and gentleman attitude, hence the, cue *giggles* *head tilt* *rapid eye-battings*. Nana always wondered who gave her that trait. She had to laugh and they focused back on the painting which people were already bidding on. Among the 10 guys who sat with Nana and Luna, Suho; the already-affluent doctor and Sehun; the prosperous part-time model and talent-scout, were bidding against each other.

Another voice chimed in on the bid and eyes turned. The audience started buzzing with hushed whispers and some wild fangirls cheered as crazed flashes of camera brightened the room with whiteness as the owner of the angelic voice approached the crowd. Luna shrieked ecstatically as she let go of her mother’s hand and her legs sped for the figure among the crowd. Brown met brown irises as Luna raised her eyes to meet the gaze of the other male. Her calm feature broke into a glad grin as she saw the male retrieve their daughter into his arms. “Finally, I thought Luhan ge’s not coming,” Tao commented.

With Luna and Luhan holding hands, they approached the other 10 figures who acknowledged Luhan’s presence as they exchanged fist-pump and hugs all around. Luhan claimed his seat beside Nana and gave his girlfriend a kiss on her forehead. Even after years, the tingly feeling was still visible for Nana as she blushed at Luhan’s gesture of knowing how much she loves forehead kisses. He then produced a single deep pink rose and Nana received it with a smile Luhan guaranteed could stop his heart from beating for a few seconds. Then, the rest of the fundraising event continued and ended with a good note.

Nana invited the guys over for dinner which most of them declined due to some important matter that they had to attend to while some other agreed on coming. Luhan also had a schedule he had to attend to since his comeback stage is coming up just around a month. Yeah, Luhan has created his own name on the showbiz as a solo artist under Sehun’s father’s company in which Sehun would be appointed to as President sooner or later. The vacant villa then was filled with Luna’s and Jongdae’s laughter over the music room while Kyungsoo and Nana filled the kitchen with the groceries they bought for dinner.

As the guest, Nana didn’t want Kyungsoo to help her in the kitchen. Plus, with his up-and-rising career as a chef, Nana didn’t want to use that to her advantage and make Kyungsoo do all the cooking. But finally, with some puppy eyes pleading from both Kyungsoo and Jongin who wanted to help his boyfriend and a promise not to ruin the kitchen, cause God knows what they have in mind. So, Nana gave up and joined her daughter and Jongdae who was showing Luna some dance moves which Nana decide was just okay-for-a-sculpting-artist-from-France and joined in Luna’s laughter when he imitated a camel in the end.

Exiting the music room, the three of them headed for the villa’s leisure room to watch television when the house phone suddenly rang. Picking up, she answered the phone with a calm, “hello.” Turning back towards the sofa, Luna and Jongdae were no longer there and she could hear nothing coming from the kitchen over the soft noises of the show on the plasma screen television. An ear-splitting scream of a 4-yaer-old echoed among the walls of the villa, Nana panicked and dropped the phone from her hands as she was enveloped into darkness and breathed in what smelled like chlorine?!

♦

Nana woke up to total darkness and shivered from the October air’s chilliness. Surprisingly, she was wrapped with thick blankets, lying on something that felt like a soft mattress. When her eyes could finally register in the dark, she noticed that possibly, she was in a hotel room. Getting up to her feet, she quickly searched for any shoes and found hers neatly set to the side. Opening each and every door she could grab the knobs on, she frantically searched for her daughter. A note was left at the main door, and it just gave her a direction to go down to the ground floor if she wants to see her daughter again.

Nana’s heart practically skipped a beat at the mention of her daughter and without thinking, she dashed out of the room towards the elevator. It was weird since it seemed like no one was passing by for her to ask for any help and the elevator didn’t stop on a single floor which brought her to the ground floor right away. The place was quite deserted despite the grand entrance the hotel presented save for a few people behind the reception area and a few other people calmly leafing through newspapers. In fact, the grandiose turning door was beautifully decorated with golden bells, wreaths and lights.

Nana’s eyes felt like they could pop out any moment at the rate of her searching for her daughter while trying to get some help. She approached a man clad in security uniform whom was closest to her and as she was about to speak up, he turned to her with one sharp movement and suddenly loud music started blaring through the speakers. The security guy started dancing followed by a receptionist, a passerby and a few of the hotel visitors who were previously reading newspapers. The friendly looking receptionist then held her hand out to Nana and indicated that she should follow them.

Nana didn’t know why, but she followed the group of dancers no less. Quickening her steps, they moved outside and she followed them. When she was outside, there were about a hundred or more people who danced to the beat that blared through the hotel’s compound. Is this what they call a flash mob? Oh my God, why is it happening to me? The centre part where Nana stood at was left empty when suddenly 3 figures she knew quite well moved in among the crowds. Dancing with precision, Jongin, Yixing and Sehun danced while stealing smiles and winks at Nana.

Seconds later, three tall figures appeared from behind her and started dancing to the choreography. Nana caught Tao sticking his tongue out at her while stealing a high-five from Kris and a low-five from Chanyeol. Jongdae, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo joined the formation and danced their way as they looked at one another. Minseok and Suho later then filled in the empty spots and Nana waited for her lover. Suddenly, she felt a pair of small hands clasped on her eyes and Nana shouted Luna’s name. She turned around and was welcomed by both her daughter and her boyfriend.

Luhan released Luna from his grasp as the little girl jumped off of his arms and ran towards her beloved uncles who made her join the whole group dance. Luhan had his earpiece and microphone stuck to his face like the professional singer he was and smiled at her. Looking around, Nana sensed a hint of nervousness from Luhan as he took a step back and went on his knees. “I was mesmerized by you the moment we met when I thought you were a guy. I thought I didn’t like tomboyish girl and thinking that I’ll never see you again, instead destiny brought us together as we joined the same Hapkido club. Avoiding you seemed easy but it was easier having you around me.”

He paused and continued, “I was a beginner in love, but you made my heart skip a few beats on so many occasions that I thought of going to the doctor. I had to beat you since we placed a bet and the date was amazing, you were way different than I thought you would be and you were always hiding that pretty smile of yours like you can trust no one in this world. That was when I decided, I want to know more of you and take care of you. After all the hardships we went through, you were there for me all the time despite whatever that has happened. You even gave me a beautiful daughter.”

He paused once again and Nana thought that he must be hurting, going on his knees for that long. “Shim Nana, will you marry me?” The question came and Nana felt fresh tears dropped from her eyes as she clasped her hands on her chest. “Yes,” she breathed out in a whisper and Luhan slipped the diamond ring on her ring finger as he got up and the crowds cheered with a beautiful rain of primroses filling the compound. Hands laced together and the crowds cheering even wilder, Luhan scooped Nana up and they shared a kiss as Kris pressed his hand softly on Luna’s face to shut her eyes.      

THE END

So, here I am. Ending this story with a proposal from Luhan to Nana. Who expected him to die, huh? Come on, man up. LOL. No, just joking. Plus, 'Luna' is a combination of 'Lu'han and Na'na'. Thank you for staying around until the very end. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this. All my love to you guys who decided to stay, subbed and upvoted. Thanks, again :)

p.s I'm sleepy as hell although it's in the evening. Thank you all. And please, the grammar . Sorry bye, love you :*

Updated; November 30
Edited; December 1
Re-edited; Feb 19