The coffee table was a mess, and that’s saying a lot when the owner of the mess was none other than Luhan. Baggy eyes worthy of entering a competition against Tao, stubbles on his chin due to not shaving for two days, hair that looked more like a bird nest, wrinkled shirt and un-matching  pajama pants – a crisis just as important as World War III.

Luhan knew he looked like right now, he also knew that if Kris was here, his horrendous look will be immediately captured in Kris’s HD camera phone and used to blackmail Luhan sometimes later, probably to make him treat Kris to another expensive dinner. But Luhan was also a workaholic, right now his only attention was on the messily organized paper pile placed in front of him.

His slender fingers clutched tightly onto a black-inked pen, darting across the handwritten characters.

• Sehun

• Kyungsoo

• Jongin

• Daehyun

• Myungsoo

• Jeongmin

• Hanbyul

The list continued, mostly made up of the names of the top academic students in CRIA. Most of whom Luhan had kept a close eye on in that one week he had transferred here, and almost none of them, Luhan believed, is the culprit. They either have an alibi or are like Sehun, automatically omitted because Luhan just didn’t think they are it. Suddenly, he paused, pen in between his lips as he took some time to think then quickly writing down another name.

• Victoria

Anything is impossible, he thought. Of course, that is before he realized that Victoria’s achievement in reasoning was barely a pass, the young woman only excels in forensics. “Aish!” Luhan had enough; he threw the pen out randomly, somehow managing to land in his coffee cup, tainting the entire beverage with ink. Nothing seemed to be on his side today, he grunted a little bit childishly, he wanted his violin right now, to relieve all the stress, but his violin is safely under his bed all the way in the United States, forgotten when Luhan hastily packed for his trip to South Korea.

Sighing, Luhan finally made the ultimate decision, he was driven into a corner, and the only way out was using it. He figured that it was no harm and that it was okay to use this given the degree of difficulty of this investigation and the little information Kris provided and the information the FBI refused to give. Baekhyun’s words threw him even more off-track than when he first started investigating, plus excluding Sehun as a suspect meant that Luhan was once again, starting from zero, and man he had always hated that number.

Without a second of hesitation, Luhan stood up, swiftly grabbing his coat hung on the stand and left his permanent place of resident.

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

“Um…” Jongin chewed on the end of the pencil, “what about number ten?” He heard the muttered answer from the other end of the line and quickly scribbled it down. “Okay okay, number eleven then.”

“Jongin you need to start thinking yourself,” Kyungsoo complained from the other side, “Sehun and I had been giving you the answers from question one already and you are suppose to help too.” Sehun replied in agreement.

“Sorry sorry, last one I promise,” not. Jongin, Kyungsoo, and Sehun were having a three-way conversation on the phone trying to finish, last minute, their assigned homework. Like usual, Kyungsoo was doing all the work, Sehun occasionally, not a lot of times, helped, while Jongin just waited for the answer to come out from the speaker. Sehun, not Kyungsoo this time, said the answer to number eleven. Jongin quickly circled the answer, D, without even reading the actual question and choices of answers. “What about number twe-”

“Jongin!” his mother’s voice interrupted from the kitchen. Jongin sighed then realized that it was a perfect opportunity for him to dump the load of work on his best friends again.

“Hey, my mom called. Finish the worksheet without me and text me the answers okay? Thanks. Bye.” Jongin quickly hung up before his friends could get a chance to retort. Sashaying his way to the kitchen, he greeted his mom lazily. “Wat’ up?” he said it in a gangster like manner.

Jongin’s mother sent him a glare before pulling something out from the fridge. “Your father forgot his lunch again, do me a favor and give this to him.”

“Can’t you do it?” Jongin groaned, he would rather do his assignments now.

“I am busy.” His mother said curtly, “now, off you go. Don’t go wandering off.”

“Yea yea,” he kicked off his slippers right on the spot, grabbed the lunch container and ran out the door without his runners being properly tied. A beam of hot afternoon sunlight shone directly on his face, making Jongin grimace. This is going to be a long day.

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

“Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency,” Luhan read the characters embedded in the huge platform in gold. It took him a little bit longer than expected to get here since Luhan was no longer familiar with the streets of Seoul. He made a wrong turn to the right at one intersection and had to walk around two blocks to get back on track. This better be worth it, he thought to himself.

Luhan had to admit, the long walk here allowed him to clear his head a little bit. His mind had been in a bad state lately, for some reason, maybe a certain boy, that Luhan didn’t want to accept. Other than that, he felt that he was being led into an even bigger maze, with many truths just waiting to be discovered by him.

When the game turned into a maze, you need to be extra careful and cautious of the players, there will be traps. Everyone will follow the traps each other had set for them, jumping in without a clue. And who knows, the next one just might be you.

He was reminded by his father’s warning and a chill was sent down his spine, Luhan shivered, and it’s ing May right now. Shaking his head, he went inside the building.

The victims were undercover FBI agents investigating the criminal organization called SME, but both found dead not far from CRI Academy. He wasn’t dumb to not understand that Baekhyun was suggesting that someone from CRIA could be a part of SME, but Luhan wasn’t foolish enough to treat everyone in that school as a criminal, not yet.

Anyone can be the culprit. Students, teachers, staffs, headmaster, even the janitor who cleans up the school, all of whom who could be the genius evil mastermind. Luhan realized that he was contradicting himself using his father’s words. It was always times like these that Luhan was reminded of him.

“Take it easy,” he whispered to himself, learning to control his emotions well, “I am LN, nothing is impossible.”

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Kim Jungkwan was having a bad day, a terrible terrible day.

He managed to score a headache early morning today, almost running late for work, and forgetting to bring his lunch. If Jungkwan wasn’t a full grown man who is also titled the most serious policeman in Seoul, he would probably lie on the floor and bawl like a little kid without candies, but no, he had a reputation to live up with.

Plus, the bad memories that keep coming back lately made it harder for Jungkwan to concentrate. Especially after meeting that boy in Jongin’s school, he reminded Kim Jungkwan so much of him…

His eyes suddenly zoomed into focus when he spotted the lean figure not far away. That’s him, he thought, a little bit too excited for his mood today, why is he here?

“Hey boy!” Jungkwan called, trying to get the boy’s attention. The boy turned around in confusion, seeing Jungkwan motioning him to come over, so he did.

Just when Luhan was about to ask for direction, someone called him, or at least he believed the ahjussi1 was; Luhan had gotten used to being referred as ‘boy’ due to his young appearance, he didn’t like it, but he couldn’t do much about it.

It was after he walked over did he get a clearer look of the man’s face, the very same he saw during the incident in CRIA. Jongin’s father, Luhan thought after one glance, a police.

“Officer Kim,” Luhan shifted his posture and straightened his back, he always had much respect for police, not the idiotic ones like those that believed his parents’ death were purely a coincident, but ones that are like his father – witty and courageous.

“Boy, what are you doing here?” Luhan was sure that the ahjussi in front of him knew that he shouldn’t be categorized in the ‘boy’ age group, still Jungkwan continued to call him that and Luhan didn’t bother correcting him.

Luhan hesitated, rethinking whether he made the right choice coming here. He decided that he could trust the man in front of him. Reaching a hand into his jean pocket, Luhan pulled out a business card and handed it to Jungkwan.

EXO Detective Agency

Name: LN

Contact: x-xxx-xxx-xxxx/[email protected]

Jungkwan was taken at surprise when Luhan suddenly handed him the card, but his reaction after reading the three neatly printed lines wasn’t at all what Luhan had expected. Jungkwan put the card into his pocket carefully, expression unchanged, “I want to know your real name, what is it boy?”

Weird. Luhan had seen many, many reactions when he handed that business card to police and clients. Most, almost all of the reactions were surprised ones, ones that clearly spelled are-you-joking-me-someone-young-like-you-is-a-famous-detective or it’s-not-April’s-fool-today-is-it. He must admit, he liked those reactions, a lot, it amused him, makes him think how simple minded people are. But the man standing before him was different.

“Luhan.” He spilled his name, deciding to be honest for once, he also trusted the man, the man he had met only twice.

There was a moment of silence until the man spoke, voice cautious but full with hope, “you’re Luming’s son right?”

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Luming was a man of many things. He was exactly what the second character of his name stands for ‘Ming2,’ – bright, understanding, honest, and many other positive adjectives that aren't described with that character. Jungkwan remembered being in the same division as him, they went from rivals to friends. Acquaintance, Luming had called Jungkwan, because at that time they had both been too stubborn and too young to admit so.

He was always a happy guy, while Jungkwan preferred to act more serious, he thought it makes him look more mature but Luming always complained about it making him look older. “You are twenty, with that face you can pass as a forty years old!” Jungkwan didn’t think so, he’s forty now yet he still looked the same he did twenty years ago.

While Luming was generally a happy guy, he was the most happiest on two days, one being the day of his marriage. “I got the most beautiful woman as a wife!” Luming had exclaimed proudly while kissing his love and showing the rings in their ring fingers. Bai Weiyao was indeed beautiful, and on top of that very smart, a requirement for a medical professor. The other being the day Luhan was born. Jungkwan remembered picking the newborn baby with his own hand, being stared by a worried looking Luming – probably worried that he might accidentally drop his precious son – and Weiyao, still lying on the hospital bed.

“You really don’t have to envy me that much,” Luming smacked his lips, taking the sleeping child back to his arms. “You just have to work harder with Chungae,” he gave Jungkwan a knowing smirk before returning to giving his son the un-dividing attention.

Luhan is a smart kid, Luhan is naughty, Luhan likes to play before bedtime. Somehow Luhan became all that Luming talked about, Jungkwan never failed to notice the satisfaction and happiness in his voice. Jungkwan was happy for his friend, a little bit envious too, sometimes stealing Luming’s photos of Luhan just to make fun of him. All was well.

One day Luming was unusually jumpy. Being his best friend Jungkwan naturally asked him about it, only to see for the first time in his entire life, Luming’s eyes being filled with fear.

“Are you… okay?” Jungkwan had asked.

“Can I trust you?” was Luming’s reply. Jungkwan nodded as a reply, but Luming shook his head in return. “I don’t want you to get into any of this.” Jungkwan looked at him questioningly and was about to persist until Luming asked again, “can I trust you to take care of my family?”

Jungkwan didn’t hesitate, he was glad he didn’t, “of course, we are friends aren’t we?”

For the first time, Luming didn’t insist him to use the word acquaintance.

Well, Jungkwan never got the chance to fulfill his promise.

He remembered coming back from his vacation with his family and rushing to the graveyard. Million words rushed into his brain when he stood there, the names of his best friend and his best friend’s wife carved on the gravestones. Jungkwan remembered the day as the first time he cried in a decade.

Being informed that Luming’s son was being taken care of by a family of Weiyao, Jungkwan stopped his search for Luhan, and his promise went unfinished.

Standing in front of the boy with the same bright eyes – eyes that hid an entire starry sky beneath, Jungkwan knew this was his chance to carry out that promise of his.

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Jungkwan was currently engaged in a heated staring contest with the back of Luhan’s head, except that the back of Luhan’s head didn’t stare back. He could pass for a creepy e by the way he acted right now, although he couldn’t