CHAPTER 57

Day four. Sigh.

But it felt like weeks already since Kris left. Hana hauled herself out of bed to get ready for the day as usual but unlike before, she was less motivated to go to work. Maybe it was because Wu Enterprise felt different without the presence of someone important.

Beep. She picks up her phone from the kitchen counter as she stirs her coffee

Good morning :)

- Kris

She smiles.

Good morning to you too :)

- Hana

Sip. Ah, that's good coffee. She walks into the dining room and sits down, cup on one side and her phone beside it. Scratch Wu Enterprise feeling different, the whole South of Korea felt different for her.

She bit back her lower lip and picked up her phone, she types: When are you coming back?| but after awhile, erases the question and lays her head on the table, puffing out a sigh. That sounds so selfish, Hana. She thinks to herself and closes her eyes. So this is how it feels like to miss a significant other... it's so different from missing Mom and Dad. Lifting herself off the wooden surface she pouts

I wonder what Mom and Dad would have said if they met you personally? She sips on her coffee. Would Dad like you? Would Mom cook everytime you come over? Sigh.

Beep.

Breakfast?

- Kris

She chuckles. Since when did he even bother to exchange casual texts?

Having coffee right now before work. You?

- Hana

Kris Wu... she puts down her phone and stares at it. You are acting strange so early in the morning. She catches a glimpse of the time on the top side of her screen and starts for the bathroom.

Like everyday, she would spend twenty minutes inside the bathroom and ten minutes to pick out an office outfit then five minutes to do miscellaneous things and by seven thirty, she's ready to go. Hana takes her bag and grabs her phone from the dining table where she left it, leaving behind the unfinished coffee, not bothered to clean it before she goes.

There was a reply from Kris.

Done with breakfast. I'll text you later.

- Kris

Sigh. She taps a reply: Please come back| but doesn't press the 'send' button, instead she erases the whole thing and retypes her reply

Ok. Have a good day! :)

- Hana

Come back.

Ding.

Sehun and Luhan both step out of the elevator and into the lobby, conversing about something related to their respective departmental stocks. Various pairs of female eyes were on the two as they passed; a certain undeniable reality at Wu Ent. was that, the big bosses were all charming and being charming had its advantages and disadvantages.

The reason why Kris Wu was always so strict was because he wanted to keep everyone in line but often times, it was his colleagues who often stood out of the line. Take for example: Kai.

“Sir” the two young men stopped as a female employee had stood before them. “Yes?” Luhan asks, pocketing one of his hands. Sehun looks at her in an amused manner after noticing a red paper bag in her hands with a nice red ribbon. Early morning entertainment, this, I like. The younger once mentally chuckles.

The female employee bit back her lower lip and held up the item in her hand at Luhan. Sehun's brows raise in bewilderment while Luhan only looks at the girl in a blunt manner.

He points a finger at the item “What's that?”

The female hangs her head low in a bow “A... a g-gift, sir”

“For what?”

And she falls quiet. Sehun clears his throat to the side, feeling the tensed but awkward atmosphere. Luhan then spoke once more “You're an intern under my department... right?”

This time, the girl raises her head and nods. Oh darling, don't give him such hopeful eyes. Sehun shakes his head inside his mind upon seeing the little sparkle of hope and happiness in her brown orbs. Everyone in the lobby was now staring at the scene.

“Sehun, what do you know about this girl?” he asks the guy standing beside him.

Sehun looks at the girl and gives her a quick smile before turning to Luhan “Ah, right. She's a graduating college student from a business university, average grades, wealthy family and the youngest of the four” Lastly Sehun mentions her name in question and she nods.

He was good at memorization, his brain was literally something Wu Enterprise had to take care of because he had read so many documents and could memorize every bit of information about the company. For this reason, Kris had put him in-charge of hiring.

Luhan looks at the girl

“Do you honestly think that just because the former CEO –now the chairman- of this company has dated an employee that other bosses would do so aswell?”

And cue, your world crashing down onto the merciless ground. Sehun chuckles mentally once more after seeing her getting taken back by the words. Luhan kept a blank face as he continued to speak “Are you going to confess that you like me if I accept that gift? How sappy... this isn't high school nor is this college nor are you living in a movie, this is reality and this is business, you are at Wu Enterprise to work, not to confess to your bosses that you like them”

Ouch. Sehun keeps looking at the girl in hidden amusement.

“Withdraw your internship if you can't be professional and if you think that after this, you'll cry and I'll apologize you can dream on. Now, if you'll excuse me...”

And just like that, the two walk away from the female employee.

“Damn, how harsh can you get?” Sehun chuckles. Luhan sighs and scratches the back of his neck as they make their way to the company cafe “So this is what it feels like to be Kris”

“Yah, did you just do that to see what it felt like to be Kris?” Sehun looks at him weirdly. Luhan smirks “Ofcourse not, I just really found that annoying and not to mention it adds to my stress”

Sehun shook his head “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You need to chill out, when was the last time you had gotten laid?” Luhan smacks him in the back of the head causing him to almost fall forward “Pabo (Idiot)”

“YAH! What was that for?!” Sehun yields in question as he rubs the back of his head but Luhan only rolls his eyes at him “You're such a baby. Anyway, my life is my own business, keep your nose out of it”

Ring. Ring. Ring. Luhan takes his phone out of his pocket. “Bwo?” he looks at the screen in confusion and stops walking all of a sudden. Sehun stops when he notices that Luhan was no longer beside him and turns back around “Yah, what's holding you up?” Ring. Ring. Ring. He stares at the phone in Luhan's hand and points “Aren't you gonna answer that?”

Snapping out of daze, Luhan slides his finger through the screen and presses the small device onto his ear “You called”

“Ofcourse I did. Tch. Anyway, I need you to do me a favor”

“Favor?” Luhan raises a brow.

Sehun strides back over to him and whispers “Who is it?” but Luhan only looked away and kept his focus on the phone call.

Sigh. “Do we really have to?”

“Yes”

“But --”

“No buts. It's his orders. Do it or I'm uploading that little video of yours. Bye.”

“Aish” Luhan pockets his phone. Sehun –impatiently- slaps Luhan's shoulder “Ow!”

“Who was it?” he causally asks in monotone. Luhan rolls his eyes at Sehun “Jongdae”

“And you were so confused because ~ ?”

“Because he never calls me unless deemed important and for all I know, he's been relaxing the whole week so what could he call for that's important?”

Sehun hums animatedly then snaps his finger in a sarcastic manner, he says “Oh! I know, maybe because he asked you an important favor” the younger looks at the elder one with an obvious stare. Luhan rolls his eyes at him “Tch. Shut up, we have to go somewhere and do him the favor”

“Aish, but we have lots of things to do today! I wanna get them done before the weekend and it's already Friday tomorrow!” Sehun whines but Luhan chooses to ignore it. He grabs Sehun by the wrist and begin dragging him out of the cafe “Either we do the damned favor or lifetime haunting videos of us get uploaded on the web; choose your fate”

Sehun's face falls blank “On second thought” he swipes his wrist away from Luhan and walks along “I'll do the ing favor... what is it anyway?”

He asks, looking at Luhan.

Hana.

Groan.

I lay my head on my paper-filled table as Victoria sits across me on the visitor's chair. She sips on her can of soda while I loathed, feeling heavy and unmotivated.

“Wow, so this is what happens when Kris is miles away from you” Victoria says in amazement.

Sigh. “No...” I say, closing my eyes “This is what happens when I'm not motivated; it has nothing to do with Kris” Actually, it has every bit to do with him. I bit back my lower lip as I continued to keep my eyes closed. Things were much better when he was here, I was always motivated and worked up because of his deadlines. Despite being his girlfriend and all, I was no exemption to his 'Time Rule'; 2:00 was and always will be different from 2:01.

“Yeah ~ sure” Victoria chuckles at her own teasing words. “You know, I don't get you sometimes, why don't you just ask him when he'll return, atleast you'll have something to look forward to”

Hm. I lifted my head and looked at her with bright eyes “Really?”

She nods her head “It beats you loathing around in misery with no clue whatsoever when exactly he's coming home” Sounds like a good idea... but. Sigh. “What now?” she asks.

I bit back my lip once again –sorry, force of habit- and fiddled with my fingers “Well, that's the problem... you see; I... I can't”

“Why not?”

“Just because” Because I don't want to sound selfish! It sounds selfish! The sentence itself! I want him to spend as much time with his Dad as he can because I don't want him to regret anything! But... but... No! Even if it's hard for me! I just want him to be with Dad right now because he needs Kris more than I do... but...

“Hana...” Victoria sighs “He's your boyfriend, you have every right to ask without feeling like you're too clingy”

Sigh. Knock. Knock.

Our heads both turn to the door “Come in” I call out. The knob turns and Chanyeol's head pokes in with a bright smile on his face. Victoria stand and greets him. “Can I talk to you for a second, Hana?” Chanyeol asks. Victoria turns to me with meaning “I'll be heading off now, Ms. Kim... See you later” she then mouths: Call Kris before turning around and walking past Chanyeol after giving him a courteous bow of the head.

The door closes. “How are you?” he asks casually with a bright smile, flopping himself down onto the seat where Victoria sat earlier.

“I'm good” I return the bright smile. I'm also unmotivated and down. Shut up subconscious.
Chanyeol chuckles and gives me a teasing stare “Do you miss him?” Very much. “Who?”

“Aw come on, don't play dumb. You know who!” he brightly chimes like the happy-go-lucky guy that he is. I gave up and threw my arms up in defeat “Okay, Yes I do” my cheeks heat up at the admittance as he shook a finger at me and teases me much further making me laugh. “Ah-ha, I knew you'd admit it... well, too bad because he's not coming home yet”

I purse my lips together in a small smile and nod my head “I saw that one coming” I tell him and he laughs.

“Anyway, I came to ask if you're available for dinner tonight. More like a conference dinner with a bunch company heads, none of us can make it so we need you to represent Wu Enterprise”

Wait, what? Me? Represent? I blink my eyes at him in surprise. “M-me?” I point to myself.

He leans left and right as if looking for someone behind me then turns to me “I don't see anyone else behind you so...?” Gulp. Representing Wu Enterprise alone at a conference dinner? That's... that's almost equal to carrying a boulder, what if I screw up and Kris hears about it?

“Hana, I'm waiting for an answer” Chanyeol sang, hauling me back to the reality of the situation. “What if I say no?”

He pouts his lips “Then we can say goodbye to a chance of having more investors” Aish.

“Is there really no one else?”

“Nope. You're the only one left illegible given the circumstance that you just so happen to be the Head of Finance again and atleast until further notice”

Cue: a boulder falling onto my shoulders.

“Okay”

“Hana”

I snap back into reality at the sound of Kai's voice. Oh yeah, lunch. Everyone at the table was looking at me: Kai, Tao, Lay and Suho.

“You okay?” Suho asks.

Blink. Blink. Smile. “Yeah” I nod my head “Just... thinking” I turn to my food and begin to eat the untouched delicacy on my plate. Tao takes a sip of water and turns to me once more “Don't think too much. Over-thinking kills, you know”

“Says who?” Lay asks in protest and disbelief “Says Tumblr!” Tao shoots at him.

“Says what?” Kai asks. Suho sighs “Yah, no shouting infront of food” No wonder I feel comfortable around Suho. He acts both like a mom and dad. The person of subject in my thoughts turns to me “Hana, eat... if Kris returns and you're malnourished, he'll throw a fit”

I nod my head and do as he says. “Umm...” I put down my spoon on the soup bowl and turn to them “Can I ask a question?” “Sure, go ahead” Lay said. Deep breath Hana. Deep breath. Just ask.

“Do... do you have any idea when Kris is coming back?”

“Nope” Kai said almost immediately. “Are you --” “Nope, no clue at all” Tao said, keeping his attention on his plate as he shook his head. Sigh. “Why? Is it important? Does he have things to attend to?” Lay asks.

She looks down and picks up the chopsticks but doesn't make any move of eating, she only poked the tender meat on her plate.

“I kinda... just miss him”

The whole table falls quiet and they all look at her, unsure of how to react at her words. “Hana...” Lay was first to call out to her in the midst of silence “It's only been four days...” he says with caution.

Tao elbows him to the side. “Ow” he glares at the man beside him who also glares back at him.

“But it feels like weeks”

Suho exchanges looks with Kai. The acting mother of the group looks at the girl with a comforting smile but she kept her eyes on the food on her plate “Hey don't feel so down! He'll be back before you know it!”

Out of the blues, she laughs sheepishly at herself and bow her head numerous times “Sorry! I didn't mean to be so sulky! Sorry, I'll finish my food now” and does as she says. Kai swallows hard before inwardly sighing and shook his head in an almost unnoticeable manner.

4:00 PM

Hana put away all her work. Finally done. She breathed out in great relief, she was finally free tomorrow and this weekend. No more work to be done!

The door knob turns and the door opens; she looks at the cracked open door and a hand pops in holding a white paper bag. Kyungsoo pops his head in and she smiles at him. He walks inside and closes the door behind him, he places the paper bag on top of her desk and pockets his hands.

“What's this?” she blinks her eyes innocently as she stands up and looks inside of it. She saw a box. “As usual, whenever you have events to attend to, he asks me to buy you stuff to wear”

A sigh escapes her lips. He really should stop spending so much on me. She looks at Kyungsoo “I can't accept this, I'll just wear a previous --”

“Hana, I already bought it and I'm sure it will suit you perfectly”

She ran a hand through her hair. Why must I always be left with no choice? “Alright... but I'll pay for it”

“No”

“Yes”

“No”

“Yes”

“Hana”

Sigh. “I always lose to you guys” she pouts and takes away the bag. Kyungsoo smiles at her “You always will” he jokes.

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