Heya looked closely at the gift box her mother brought to her room.

"Reen gave me this. She saw it under the Christmas tree." Her mother informed her.

"Oh! I still get Christmas gifts?" Heya said, trying to sound nonchalant but her heart was beating really fast as she accepted the gift box from her mother.

A few years ago when she was still dating Zhu Liang, she often recieved Christmas presents from him. Zhu Liang always spent Christmas with his family, he adored his parents. But he always made it an habit to fly down or drive down to wherever her family was celebrating Christmas to give her a gift. Something told her this gift was from him.

"Something tells me it isn't from Yan Shen." Her mother said with a suspicious look.

"By chance..."

"I don't care whoever it is from." Heya interrupted before her mother would mention that particular name. "I'll see you later. Merry Christmas mum." Heya forced a smile before closing her bedroom's door.

She locked the door with the key and walked quickly to the bed to unwrap the gift box, all the while, her heart continued to beat really fast and loudly from anticipation.

Eventually, she opened the gift box and saw a card. She reached for it and opened it so see a handwritten note. When she saw the handwriting, she closed the note and sat down on her bed. It really was Zhu Liang. What was he thinking leaving her a gift there? What if someone else had seen it?

After steadying her breathing, she opened it and read,

"There is nothing as beautiful as a woman with confidence. Always wear your confidence Li Heya. That is my wish for you this Christmas. Merry Christmas." At the bottom of the note, he left his initials, 'ZL'.

She looked at the box and saw a little bottle of perfume which she guessed must have cost quite a lot.

Where did he get all of this from by the way? It wasn't as if he had planned to meet her during this trip. But she didn't ponder on that for a long time because she kept reading the note over and over again, with a tiny smile on her lips.

"Merry Christmas to you too." She said to the note.

~~~~~~

Joreen had a total of six gifts while Reen had seven. They saw the curious eyes of people waiting for them to open their gifts but the sisters didn't. They looked at themselves, as if having a tacit agreement, they placed their gifts inside two empty baskets beside the Christmas trees and began to walk towards their room.

"Hey.. not fair. We should see." A little girl whined but the sisters giggled and increased their paces until they were inside their room.

Reen didn't bother to start opening her gift first. She turned to Joreen who held a gift box that had been given to her by 'the man she loved'

"Do you think it's uncle Hoy?" Joreen asked as she continued to look at it.

"I don't think he is that cheesy. And I can swear that isn't his handwriting."

Joreen looked at it and nodded. It looked like a right handed person had scribbled it with a left hand, vice versa. Or it had been written by a child.

"Let's just see what is inside." Reen urged.

Joreen slowly opened it even though she was anticipating to see what was inside.

After successfully opening it, she saw a lot of chocolates inside the little box with a note and picked up the note. The handwriting was similar to the first one.

'You always remind me of chocolates. Brown, pretty and tasty. Merry Christmas love.'

"This... is creepy." Joreen said as she threw the note on the bed.

"Wait here... I'll just call mom and dad to come see this." Reen said before she disappeared from the room.

Joreen hated to admit to herself that she was scared. She wondered if this was Kyle's doing but she couldn't conclude it was Kyle without any proof besides, there had been a gift for Reen from Kyle and that wasn't his handwriting. Maybe it was a stalker fan? She had heard tales of how some fans deluded themselves into thinking they had a thing with their celebrity crush or even go as far as imagining their celebrity crush felt the same way about them. This wasn't the case right?

She tried to calm herself down by going through the other gifts which were five in number. One was jointly from her parents, one was from Changyu and Jianjun another from Sara, there was one which said 'from a fan' and the last one had no name it was simply addressed to Luo Joreen. That particular one caught her eyes and she reached for the box, quickly unwrapping it to uncover what was inside.

A jewelry box came into view. She opened it and inhaled sharply when she saw a diamond anklet. It was literally sparkling, making her blink a couple of times.

She gently touched it, scared to lift it because it was simply too beautiful. It was designed with tiny leaf shaped pendants with diamond studs around it.

Who got this for her? This looked really expensive and must have been bought for thousands of dollars!

She tried to remember if she told anyone about getting a ankle bracelet before, because she had always wanted one.

And she remembered...

Early this year, she had said passively to her assistant that she would love to wear one but was skeptical because of what a lot of people thought about it. Li Hoy had been present during that conversation but as usual, he was busy with a document so she didn't think he was paying attention to them.

Was it possible he had heard her and even remembered something like that?

She checked the around the box and the gift wrap for any name but there was nothing other than 'To Luo Joreen' and it was typed, not handwritten.

Maybe she should ask him? She considered while lifting it. It was sparkling so much that she wanted to drop it back inside the box but she didn't. She sat on the bed and wore it around her left ankle, a smile blooming on her face.

"It's perfect!" She exclaimed excitedly.

Disregarding what Reen said to stay inside the room, she left the room without bothering to open the other gifts.

She went to the next room and knocked, her heart beating really fast as she waited for the door to open.

When the door opened, she looked disappointed to see Mr Ping.

"Merry Christmas Miss Luo." He greeted with a smile.

"Merry Christmas Mr Ping. Is... uncle Hoy inside?" She asked, biting her lower lip in embarrassment. Although he had seen her drunk and heard most of what she said to Li Hoy thankfully, he wasn't raising the topic or teasing her with it.

"No. He went to the beach. The left side of the building."

She nodded and thanked him. She was about to turn around when he called her,

"Miss Luo?"

She turned around, waiting for him to speak.

"Please be careful and look out in case you are being followed."

"Oh.. yes. Okay." She nodded and thanked him once again before she walked away. She felt surprisingly different, wearing the anklet.

Fortunately, she didn't bump into Reen or her parents so she guessed her parents weren't inside their room. Maybe they were by the sea or looking around, she had no idea but she had to be extremely careful so as not to bump into them.

But just to not make her sister worried, she texted Reen to let her know she was fine and she only went out for fresh air.

When she got outside, she noticed the sea area was slowly getting crowded. She could see couples and even children running around while laughing. Some were playing games while some were swimming close to the bank. The sun was rising already so it wasn't as cold as it was earlier.

She followed the direction to the left side of the building, and because the building was quite big, it took her a while before she got to the other side.

She wasn't surprised to see it was empty. She wouldn't walk down to this side for minutes when she could have fun in the front. But it made sense that Li Hoy was here. He would even walk down here even if it took hours just so he wasn't mixing up with the others.

She looked around for him while also trying to keep herself from tripping or bumping into a rock. Some rocks were as tall as her and it greatly obstructed her view.

After looking around for a few minutes, finally, she saw him. He was sitting quietly while staring at the sea, wearing a sweatshirt and what looks like track pants.

His face looked serious like he was worried about something, and he did not even notice when she got closer.

It was only when a rock almost tripped her and she gave out a squeak that his head snapped towards her.

Yea. She always embarrassed herself. Joreen wasn't even embarrassed anymore.

Meeting his piercing gaze, she thought maybe it was a bad idea coming here.

"Do not mind me. Just keep doing what you were doing. I'm.... just... taking a stroll."

She stuttered and began to walk past him.

A frown slowly began to form on her face when he didn't say anything else or ask her to sit beside him. He only nodded at her silly excuse and looked away from her.

After walking pass him, she stopped and looked over her shoulders. He was still looking ahead.

She took a deep breath and turned to walk pass him again.

"Do not mind me really... I... am just passing." She repeated. When he still didn't say anything, she blew up at him.

"You aren't going to say anything!?" She looked at his face seriously, and surprisingly heard him chuckle before tapping the space beside him for her to sit.