“Many people underestimated love and fell blindly by its true power. You cannot underestimate love; love can be the strongest weapon to survive or the weakest reason to live.”

1:34 AM, December 25th

Headache occurred as soon as he sat on his chair. He forgot to drink his medicine, so he had to rub his head to ease the pain that he was feeling.

Detective Zhang Yixing a.k.a Lay was written down on the case file he was holding. He was immediately called at the middle of the night while celebrating his Christmas Eve with his family. He chose to leave his family because he's a passionate man who would do anything for justice, that's why he's one of the best in the field.

The room was small and dark, and the only thing that was lighting up the place was a lampshade sitting on the table. Some mirrors were around the room. Lay knew that those mirrors were two-way, so spectators could watch their interrogation.

Lay's sight blurred out when he chose to give his attention to the suspect—Luhan. His daughter adored the star before him. However, he was still a person, and no matter who's in front of him inside the interrogation room should be treated equally.

Tonight, Luhan was a suspect of a murder.

Luhan had an enigmatic look on his face, he didn’t exactly know what to feel. All he could do was to stare at the detective in front of him.

"Tell me about your co-star, Luhan," Lay asked, leaning his arms onto the table.

"Sehun's my best friend since we're little." Luhan looked at the detective who was frowning at him, waiting for him to continue. Luhan felt a stuffy feeling inside his chest, he couldn’t control himself, so he lost his composure. "Believe me, detective! I did not do i—"

Lay slammed the table hard to shut Luhan up. Luhan stuttered from the disturbing sound Lay made. "I don't want to hear that! Heard it many times, we'll get through it."

From what Luhan was seeing, the detective was having a rough time. He gulped, sat properly on his chair. However, Luhan couldn't calm down after everything that happened and after losing his composure. "I couldn't, I just can't. I've known him since summer camp when we were in grade school. Why would I kill him?" Luhan insisted, looking straight to Lay's eyes.

Intimidation ran through Lay's bones, feeling annoyed towards the man in front of him. Then he remembered, 'He's an actor.'

Lay felt stupid for a second. "You can't fool me," he said, shaking his head with a smirk.

Luhan did not speak a word, he knew the man in front of him was superior and more powerful than him.

"So tell me, what were you doing at his house?" Lay proceeded.

"To celebrate Christmas," Luhan bluntly said.

Lay twitched his brow a bit. "With him? Not with your family?"

"My family lived in a province; it's 6 hours away from here. Do you think I have the time to travel that far after my work?" Luhan raised his voice.

Feeling disrespected, Lay pointed his finger with grudge, brows furrowed, to Luhan. "Hey! I'm the only one who's allowed to ask questions here, young man." His head started throbbing once more, but he tried to compose himself.

Luhan clenched his jaws, bit his lip to calm himself, and let the detective continue.

His intuition told him that Luhan did it. The way Luhan acted inside the room made his suspicions clearer. Intuition does not lie most of the time.

Lay did not want to be outsmarted by an actor—who potentially could be smarter than a detective can. Actors have their ways, so do detectives. And Lay wanted this interrogation to go process by process until Luhan felt more involved and eventually spilled the truth. However, he also wanted it not to be long, he did not want Luhan to scheme his crime over the interrogation.

Lay started asking questions like, "What happened before the incident?"

Luhan took a deep breath before answering. "We had a press conference for our latest movie, then,” he paused and continued, “I was at the rooftop, smoking." Luhan looked at the detective who raised a brow at the sudden surprise. "You smoke, I smoke as well."

9:14 PM, December 24th

Thin warm air melted Luhan's frozen face when he lit up his cigarette. The soothing smoke that entered his lungs made him feel calm from all the strain he felt from work and false rumours. He tried to be free, even only for a second, as he respired the smoke out of his mouth and nose.

He was at the rooftop of the building where he and Sehun held their press conference. Luhan was staring at the night sky, letting the cold wind kiss his bare face.

The sound of the door opening from behind distracted Luhan from his lone moment. He turned his head around and saw his friend, Sehun, who came out from the rooftop door, digging his bare hands onto his pockets.

"I knew you were here." Sehun grinned as soon as he met his eyes with Luhan's.

Luhan scoffed and said, "Where else would I be?"

"The smoking area," Sehun joked with a shivering face because of the weather.

As soon as he stood next to Luhan, he eyed at the cigarette that Luhan was holding. "I thought you'd quit."

"Bad habits die hard," Luhan simply answered. He took one deep smoke on his cigarette before he threw it off the building.

Sehun did not respond back. He heard this from Luhan countless times. He did not care that much, he knew the reason why Luhan's having a hard time quitting from smoking. He knew too well. And he respected Luhan with that decision. But, he'd rather drink it off than smoke it off.

"Hey, how's Yoonjin, by the way?" Luhan asked Sehun hesitantly but with courage. The thought was always on the back of Luhan’s mind.

Sehun froze from his position, felt stabbed right to the heart. He gulped; he did not know exactly what to feel. However, he tried to compose himself and said, "We broke up."

Luhan did not speak a word, not yet. His mind didn’t process it immediately, and when it did, his jaw clenched, felt a sudden resentment that ran through his veins. He bit his lips, annoyed. He felt a sudden urge of wanting to punch Sehun in the face, but he could not. All he could do was to ask, “Why?”

Sehun looked at Luhan, his chest was heavy with an unexplainable guilt. Luhan was wearing a frown, he couldn’t look at Sehun and was looking away, he couldn’t even stand seeing Sehun on his peripheral view. Sehun knew right away that Luhan was mad, even the atmosphere said so.

Kang Yoonjin was Luhan's ex-girlfriend, his greatest love. They only dated for almost a year, but time didn’t define anything. He loved her very much. But they broke up because of Luhan's job—it was too complex for an ordinary girl like Kang Yoonjin. However, a few months after the break up, Yoonjin started dating Sehun.

"Ahh, so you were jealous and had some grudge against him," Lay concluded, looking directly through Luhan's eyes.

Luhan squinted his eyes, feeling offended. "Shouldn't you be more professional, detective?"

"Don't be so cocky just because you're popular!" Lay raised his voice, pointing his finger to him, trying to threaten him, and feeling provoked.

Luhan couldn't do anything but to stay silent.

"When was the last time you three met?"

Luhan was feeling a little bit frustrated but he tried thinking while looking above. "Uhh I can't really remember. I think I was at the café—"

"You have to be precise!" Lay demanded.

"Memory's unreliable," Luhan uttered. Lay shut up for a second, calmed himself down and let Luhan continue. "Last week, I was on my way on the taping and I bought some coffee. There, I saw them."

"You're lying!" The detective slammed his hand on the table, went for his files, and scanned it, which made Luhan confused. "You—It says here," the detective took a paper and showed it to Luhan, "you were with Yoonjin just last three days ago. And according to the news," he pointed his finger to one line saying, "Luhan and ex-girlfriend –Kang Yoonjin—caught dating again. Did Yoonjin break up with Oh Sehun, apparently Luhan's best friend and Yoonjin's current boyfriend?"

"," Luhan mouthed, looking away. "That's not true. Media can be a total pain in the . You just can't believe anything, detective."

"Then, why was it all over the news and papers?" Lay even showed more of the articles, which for Luhan were only rumours.

Luhan pinched the bridge of his nose that might release some of his frustration. "Rumours run faster than fire," he muttered. Then sarcastically said, "Welcome to showbiz, detective." He added, “I didn’t even know, until now, that they broke up.”

The detective felt provoked once more. "Rumours, as you said, said that you and Sehun ignored each other after you and Yoonjin broke. Is this true?"

Luhan did not deny nor agree.

But the detective continued, "It also said here that: one night, at a bar, Yoonjin was caught bruised and harassed because of you. Is this true?"

Luhan gulped, then leaned forward to the detective. "THAT IS ABSURD! I WOULDN'T DO SUCH THING TO HER, ALRIGHT?!"

"Then what happened?"

"BUNCH OF GUYS MADE FUN OF HER—GROPING HER! I JUST DEFENDED HER!" Luhan exclaimed, clearly furious.

"But then, it was reported that you didn’t have a single bruise. Then these guys were all beaten up. How are you able to handle those three men at once?"

"I had my training for self-defence," he simply responded.

"Sure, you did not abuse the girl, but you just made my job easier." Lay leaned forward to Luhan, with eyes looking directly to him. And slowly said in a deep low voice, "You have the ability to murder your own friend."

Luhan's eyes widened, astonished. "No—No. I couldn't do such... inhumanity."

"How come I feel no empathy in you? Your best friend," he emphasized, "just died."

Frown built in Luhan's face. "Empathy? You don't know how miserable I am right now. But you!" Luhan stood up from his seat, pushing his chair away. "You're the one who's making my empathy fade away! How dare you accuse me of Sehun's death?! I'm innocent! I have done nothing!"

Lay also stood up. As much as he wanted to pin the latter on the wall and beat him—he couldn’t. Officers that were behind the room, watching would accuse him of an assault. He must do his job properly and decently.

"Then, tell me. Who did it?" Lay said like he was demanding.

"I don't know." That was all Luhan could say.

"You don't know? You don't know?! HA!" Lay laughed. "You two were alone in his house, for 's sake! Who else would do it?"

Luhan's face softened, looking down, and feeling a sudden weakness. "I don't know."

"Look at me! Say that again," Lay ordered.

"I don't know." Luhan shook his head, looking at the detective in front of him with furrowed brows. "I don't know, alright! He just died in front of me!"

"But you didn't call the police nor the ambulance," the detective stated. "It was your neighbour who called."

Luhan froze.

"Why didn't you call 911 in the first place?"

Luhan sat again on the chair to calm down, so did the detective. "I-I-I don't know. I was scared, I didn’t know what to do." The detective was about to speak, but the actor spoke first. "There... There was a boy."

"Boy? What boy?" The detective's headache became worse from the sudden confusion. Besides, it was almost 2AM. He scanned the pages again to look at the crime scene photos. "I was informed that it was only you two inside the house."

"I know, but he vanished."

"Do you know this boy?" Lay suddenly felt alarmed.

"No, but we met him before the incident."

"We? You meant you and Sehun?" Lay assured, Luhan nodded. "What happened?"

9:32 PM, December 24th

Luhan went out first from the rooftop.

Sehun chose to stay for a couple of minutes on the rooftop to do some thinking. After he was content, Sehun went back inside.

Sehun was walking down the hallway when he saw Luhan crouching on his knees with a smile on his face talking to a young boy who was wearing a worn out coat—which was too big for him, and had very messy hair. However, he could see through the young boy’s eyes how delighted he was talking to Luhan. It wasn’t hard to figure that the boy was a fan.

"What are you doing up here alone, young man?" Luhan asked the boy, trying to be friendly.

"I was looking for you!" he said in excitement, almost jumping on his place. "I knew I'd find you here!" Luhan smiled softly. It was heart-warming for Luhan when he could see through a fan's eyes that they appreciate their work. "I watched all your movies with Sehun at the windows of a TV shop!" He said, gritting his teeth. He was also holding a DVD copy that Luhan just signed.

But the boy's story made Luhan suspicious. "Did you come here alone?"

"Yes, just by myself," the boy said with an enthusiastic nod.

"How did you get in?" Luhan stood up properly.

"I sneaked in," he bluntly said. "I'm really a big fan of yours—"

Footsteps distracted the two from their conversation, turning their heads where they heard the sound. It was Sehun, standing tall in the middle of the hallway watching them.

The boy's eyes widened in excitement, and jumped from his position then ran to Sehun. He got starstruck as he got nearer to Sehun, he forgot what to say; all he could do was to hand out his DVD copy of Sehun and Luhan's movie with a grin and eyes shining. Sehun did not hesitate and signed the happy boy’s copy for the kid.

"Merry Christmas," Sehun said with a soft smile.

"Y-you're the best!" The boy stuttered.

Sehun forced a smile at the boy, patted his head, not in the mood to entertain fans unlike Luhan.

The boy stared at Sehun too long from being starstruck, Sehun started to feel uncomfortable. "Can I have your necklace? That looks really awesome!"

Sehun ignored the kid and gave his attention back to Luhan. "Hey, let's go."

Luhan kept pace with Sehun, but he took one last peek at the boy they left behind.

The boy only stood there, grinning at his signed copy of his favourite movie.

"So, he was a fan," the detective concluded as he jot down notes on his notepad. "Then what happened?"

"We went to his house," Luhan said, referring to Sehun's house. "I prepared the drinks, he lit up the fireplace. We drank and rela—"

"You drink whiskey?" Lay interrupted and assured, since he saw a picture of whiskey glass on his documents.

Luhan nodded and continued, "And he had too much whiskey."

"And you?"

"So do I," Luhan admitted. "But he had more. We felt tipsy and heavy on the process, and we came to the point talking about Yoonjin."

11:38 PM, December 24th

“How was she?” Luhan asked. It was a hard topic but Luhan couldn’t easily take Yoonjin off his mind, especially now that she broke up with Sehun.

It took a while before Sehun could think of an answer. "Doing fine, I guess." He filled his glass again with whiskey. He even scoffed for a little because he was out of his mind.

"Aren't you concerned at all?" Even Luhan's eyelids were a bit heavy, emotions overpowered his consciousness.

Sehun spilled his drink from his mouth and hissed, "." He wiped his mouth with his heavy hand, completely ignoring Luhan.

Luhan immediately hit his temper. He was annoyed with Sehun's unreasonable behavior that he was giving to him. "Are you mocking me?" He said in a cold monotone, glaring at the fireplace.

"Mocking you? Pft. What are you talking about?" Sehun said, mockingly. Luhan had enough of his bull. He stood up, collared Sehun up from his seat, dropping the whiskey away from his grip. "Look what have you done," Sehun uttered, eyeing on the carpet where the glass dropped.

"Look at me!" Luhan tightened his grip to Sehun's collar. Sehun looked at Luhan seriously. "You...I trusted you to do what I couldn't do! And now, you act like you didn't even love her at all!"

Luhan fell down on the floor after receiving a hard punch from Sehun right on the face. " you! First of all, you said you were now cool with our relationship! And now, you act like you were never cool at all!"

Luhan stood up, wiping his bleeding lips. He punched back twice, and collared him once more. "And you