S H A W N

Last night, Shawn had asked Luca if he could stay in his dorm for the night and sleep on the floor there, because he didn't want to be in the same room as Nicholas. The accusations he'd had to endure felt like a dagger to his heart, but the pain it had caused him was nothing compared to knowing that he had probably lost his friend forever.

    When Shawn woke up, he saw Luca across the room, buttoning up his white shirt, which was already tucked neatly inside his trousers.

    "Morning," Shawn said sleepily as he sat up, yawning.

He winced in pain when his lower back gave a sharp ache from sleeping on the hard floor the whole night. He was still in his last night's trousers, but he was feeling so uncomfortable that he had to at least take off his shirt.

    "Good morning." Luca sent him a little smile before moving toward the mirror to wear on his tie. Shawn watched him with amusement as Luca struggled to get it right a few times, only to screw it up again and again.

    Shawn let out a lazy laughter. "What exactly are you doing?"

    "What does it look like I'm doing?" Luca was saying, but he groaned when a simple mistake ruined the whole process, and so he took off the tie again. "Ugh! You distracted me."

    "I really don't think I was the problem." He grinned.

But when he saw Luca trying to tie it for the third time, he got to his feet and walked toward him, not bothering to wear his shirt and cover up his bare chest.

"Here, give it to me. That was too painful to watch," said Shawn.

    Luca hesitated at first, looking up into Shawn's eyes. Letting out a sigh in defeat, he took his tie off and handed it to Shawn resignedly.

    Luca's white collar was already up, and so, without a single word, Shawn wrapped the tie around his neck. He noticed that there was a bit of dampness in Luca's golden hair; he had probably woken up early to take a shower.

    Shawn crossed the wide end of the tie over its narrow end. He was standing so close to Luca that he could smell the vanilla scent of his shampoo.

    He then looped the tie's ends to create a knot. Just as he was doing so, his hand accidently brushed against the bare skin of Luca's neck. Shawn felt a sudden shiver rush down his spine at the touch.

Scared of the strange feeling it had instigated within him, he got the urge to pull his hand back, to step away from Luca, but something was stopping him; as though invisible strings had clutched onto him, pulling him closer, refusing to let him go.

    Shawn took a shaky breath and pulled the tie's wide end up through the loop he had created, ignoring the loud batter of his own heart. He couldn't help the ache that was growing inside him, begging him to get closer, pleading for another touch.

    He tried to push the thoughts out of his head as he slowly began to tighten the knot. It always took him ten seconds to tie his own tie, but now he was taking longer than ever, as though deliberately lingering at every step, never wishing to let go.

    "Listen," Shawn started to say as he began to fold down Luca's white collar. Perhaps if he broke the silence, this unexplainable ache inside him would be shattered along with it. "I want you to know that I had nothing to do with Nancy's death. I... I would never..." His voice trailed off as he looked away. The tie was done.

    "I know," Luca whispered, and when Shawn looked up at him again, he saw that he was smiling at him sympathetically.

Shawn felt calmer at once, but then, why was his heart still beating so loudly?

    "Why did you break up with her?" said Luca, catching Shawn by surprise.

    "Nancy?" Shawn asked, and Luca nodded. "I... don't know. We were only together for a short time, but she was already talking about love. And... I wasn't ready for all that. I suppose I won't ever be."

    "But why? I know falling in love can be scary, but —"

    "You said it yourself; falling in love. To fall is to collapse; to collapse is to break. It means that you'll get hurt. So I have no intention of falling in love or getting attached to anyone," Shawn said firmly, but even as the words left his mouth, they felt forced. Untrue.

    Luca seemed to have felt the heaviness of his words and the weight of his lies, so he said the thing that Shawn didn't dare to say out loud.

    "We will all get hurt in our lifetime," Luca said with a little shrug. "The least we can do is to find someone worth the pain."

    In the silence of the room, their eyes met, and Shawn found himself unable to step away from him, even though he had no reason to stay this close anymore.

    He didn't know what had suddenly gotten into him in that moment, but as if out of his own control, Shawn raised his arm timidly, ever so gently, until he rested his hand upon Luca's rosy cheek.

    Shawn knew that this was going to destroy himself, to tear him apart and leave nothing of his heart. But he was addicted to destruction. He wanted the fire, as though he needed to be burnt in order to survive.

He wanted him.

    But instead, all Shawn managed to say was, "Your eyes are green."

    "Wh-what?" Luca muttered, his bottom lip slightly trembling as he started up at him.

    Shawn smiled, drinking his face in. "I always thought they were blue."

    Luca opened his mouth a few times but closed it again, unable to form the words, as though he had forgotten how to speak. But the next moment, the two of them jolted apart from each other when a loud knock at their dorm snapped them out of their daze.

    Clearing his throat awkwardly, Shawn ran over to where he had tossed his sweater on the floor last night and quickly threw it on, while Luca went to open the door.

    Arthur was standing on the other side. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he glanced over at Luca curiously. "Why are you so flushed?"

    "Er..."

    "Never mind that." Arthur shook his head briskly, cutting Luca off. "Get ready. We need to go. Now."

    "Go?" Shawn repeated, walking up to the door. "Go where?"

    "To our parlor," Arthur answered curtly. "We need to have a meeting. Isaac has gone to get Nicholas as well."

    Shawn frowned, folding his arms. "I'm not going anywhere he is!"

    "Yes, you will!" Arthur said firmly, making it clear that he had no choice in the matter. "Isaac and I found out who had killed Nancy."

    A shock and horror took them over. As soon as Luca wore his woolly vest and put on his oversized coat on top of it, the three of them left the residency hall and made their way down to the copy room, where they found Isaac and Nicholas already seated there in the parlor.

    "Okay, gather 'round," Arthur said, and so everyone took their usual armchairs around the wooden table.

    While Arthur was taking something out of his bag, Isaac began to hand out pieces of chocolate to everyone, seeing as they had skipped breakfast today. 

    "What are those?" Shawn asked Arthur, trying his best to avoid looking at Nicholas's direction.

    "Remember how I was trying to take pictures with my M.D.C on the night of the ceremony?" Arthur said, and Shawn nodded. "I had set the camera by my dorm's window, with the view of the courtyard; on the night that Nancy was killed. Turns out, the machine worked."

    Everyone listened and watched carefully as Arthur laid down five black-and-white photos on the table, which were the pictures he had taken of his hand that night.

    "Oooh, the sinister hands of the killer! How exciting!" Shawn said in a lofty and mocking voice, but Arthur ignored him.

    "My film roll had eight shots in it," Arthur began to explain. "These are the first five photos that I took, as test shots."

    He then took out a sixth photograph out of his bag, and placed it over the other five, piling them up on top of each other.

    "This is a picture of the courtyard outside the residency halls," Luca acknowledged as he saw the sixth photograph.

    "Yes, it is. But look at this," Arthur pointed at the far end corner of the photograph, which showed the back of two boys, leaving the courtyard. "This is me and Shawn. We were leaving, thinking that the M.D.C had failed, but it took our shot while we had our back to it. I didn't know that it had taken our picture until today."

    Afterwards, Arthur took a seventh picture out of his bag and placed it on top of the others. The seventh photograph was of a girl with long hair, walking across the courtyard. Even though the quality wasn't perfect, they could still figure out who that was.

    "That's Eve, isn't it?" said Nicholas. "She's leaving the building through the courtyard."

    "Yes, we figured that it was her." Isaac nodded. "She's the only girl in this whole place who has such a long hair."

    Arthur dug into his bag, taking out the eighth and final photo, placing it down upon the wooden table for everyone to see. The photograph showed a tall man in a strangely long tuxedo, walking into the building. It was John Carter.

    "We also noticed something else," said Isaac, pointing at the top of the eighth photograph. "See the turret clock on top of the residency building? It shows nearly half-past-six, which was the time Nancy had asked Carter in the letter to meet her in her dorm. Which was approximately around the time Nancy died that night."

    "Exactly." Arthur nodded. "When we read Nancy's letter to him, we weren't sure if John Carter had agreed to her request and had met up with her or not. But this... This is proof. This shows that he did go to see her that night."

    "I think we should leave the rest of the interrogations to the police," Isaac interjected before anyone else could respond. "They have way more experience than us in situations like this. We now have enough evidence to present to them."

    "I agree. I think we have to show this to the police," said Luca, pale in the face. "If any investigation needs to be done, they'll have the authorization to do it. They can open the case of her murder. And the sooner they do that, the more chance they have of finding her killer."

    "Then we better go now," said Shawn, getting to his feet. "To hell with our classes today. We'll talk to the professors later and make up some excuse or do something for extra credits."

    As if in agreement, they all rose from their seats and walked to the door, but Nicholas stopped them when he said out-of-the-blue, "Shawn, wait!"

    He turned around, glaring at him. "What?"

    "I am so sorry, Shawn," said Nicholas, the sadness and remorse visible in his eyes. "I know I'm a terrible friend and that you have every right to be mad at me. I... I don't know what got into me. And I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings."

    Shawn was quiet for a while, looking back at him. At last, he let out a sigh. "It's fine. I know what it's like to lose your temper and say things you don't mean."

    "So... you forgive me?" Nicholas asked almost shyly.

    Shawn rolled his eyes, grinning. "Of course, you stupid idiot."

    Nicholas chuckled out of happiness and relief, catching Shawn off guard when he leaped forward and suddenly brought him into a hug. Shawn froze for a moment, but at last he melted into it and hugged him as well, patting him on the back.

    "Oh, by all means, please keep hugging! It's not like we have a murderer on the loose or anything!" Arthur said sarcastically with an angry frown, making them laugh as they pulled apart.