Theres some bullying and harrasment in this chapter please be weary

“ing wake up Byun!” Baekhyun hears the voice of one of his superiors as he pounds on the door, and Baekhyun immediately wakes up and sits in bed trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. 

He pulls on a shirt and goes to press the button that unlocks his door, staring bleary-eyed at the night pilot of the ship. 


“What took you so ing long?” says Jowon, as he glares at the young pilot, giving him a disgusted look.

“Um” Baekhyun says trying to gather his bearings, his voice is still laced thick with sleep “I—” he begins, but Jowon cuts him off.

“What if there was an emergency!” He yells, and Baekhyun immediately startles and stands straighter.

“I-I… Is there—??” He says worried, and Jowon rolls his eyes.

“Obviously not,” the older deadpans, “but your tardiness could cost the lives of passengers, pilot! You never know when something could happen.” and Baekhyun gulps. He wants to stand up and defend himself, but it's no use. So he just clenches his fist and stays silent. “Now I need you to take control of the ship, because I can’t anymore.” he says, and Baekhyun stares at the digital clock on the wall that reads it’s five AM. He should at least get to sleep two more hours before his seven AM alarm rings.

“Um?” He says lamely, still confused and tired. He had just barely gone to bed after two a few hours ago because the ship was going through a rough patch in the Adler belt— the captain wanted him to be there to have experience with how to navigate the tough terrain— but now he has to be up again?

“Don’t question your superiors, you just ing listen and do it, okay?” Jowon says, before he turns on his heel and leaves Baekhyun at the door without another word, tired and exhausted. Baekhyun’s about to head in when he catches a glimpse of Jowon with his arm around the night engineer’s waist leaving with him in the direction of his room, and Baekhyun clenches his fist before he sighs and let’s it go. 

He’s rarely one to get mad, usually choosing to face troubling situations and adversity with a smile on his face and jokes. But there’s only so much one can take when everyone in the aviation crew hates him and want nothing to do with him. Baekhyun sighs again, but then hurries to get ready; washing his face and slipping into his uniform. Knowing Jowon, even after all the talk of being alert and whatnot, the elder probably left the pilot seat empty deciding it was no big deal to leave the ship in auto pilot without supervision for a few minutes. But that’s not a risk Baekhyun is willing to take so he lightly sprints through the halls after he is dressed and ready, passing the dimly lit corridors, before reaching the empty cockpit. 

He quickly logs into the systems and checks to make sure everything is on course, sighing thankfully when it’s clear. He finally sinks into the chair with a deep sigh and goes through his daily check up, making sure all parts of the ship are functioning and all the cameras are running and operating. When things look good he settles deeper into the pilot's seat and lets his thoughts wander.

Baekhyun came onto the Two Moons six months ago, right after graduating from the academy. It had been a dream of his to be a pilot on this ship, but he never thought he would achieve his dreams so soon, especially not right after graduating. However, he had been lucky, and one of his professors who had seen him working hard through the years at school— and who Baekhyun had talked to his dreams about— wrote to the captain of the Two Moons, when the captain was seeking out new crew at the time. 

His professor had actually worked on the ship with Captain Minhyuk when they were both just lower level pilots. This was before the Captain had moved on to head the ship, and his professor growing tired of the adventurous life on the Two Moons, had settled down on a planet he had visited a few times, wanting to take it easy. However, the two still kept in contact, and so when Minhyuk brought up his dilemma, his professor recommended him, and the captain immediately took his professor up on the offer to hire Baekhyun. It had been thrilling and amazing at first, but all good things come at a price, because people who had worked years to get to work on the ship, didn’t appreciate a fresh-out-of-school graduate with no prior experience coming in, and taking positions they had worked years to get. It didn't matter that Baekhyun picked up everything within weeks, it didn't matter that he worked so hard. To them, he had cheated his way in and so he must be bad, and Baekhyun felt like his dreams were slowly transforming into a nightmare.

Immediately there was gossip, and a few pranks were pulled, but it was only limited to the people in his department- the small aviation crew, who had a personal vendetta against him. 

Baekhyun would say this was like highschool— well, the academy in this case— however he had always been popular with everyone back on his planet and in the academy. His smiles, easygoing attitude, along with grades made him fairly well loved and respected. And he also loved in turn, befriending and getting to know everyone and making friends by the tens. He loved people, and definitely didn't need a reason to be hateful to anyone, but apparently the crew on Two Moons thought differently.

Plus, the popularity he had in the other departments, as the handsome young pilot didn't help him. Every single pilot in the aviation crew disliked him, and he didn’t know how to improve the situation. It was bearable at first, but recently, things were getting worse with the taunts being a little bolder, and the pranks going a little too far. Baekhyun puts his arm over his eyes as he thinks.

It's not that kids back at the academy didn't get jealous of each other, but kids there were his own age— they were all equals and when one was jealous not much could be done. If they threw an insult, he threw one back. However, here, everyone was older and he couldn't just go around using fists and words. He was working and this was a job.

Baekhyun wasn't used to this. He wasn't used to hostility, especially when he hadn't done anything wrong truly in the first place. He was used to smiling and making jokes, and people playing back.

In a way Baekhyun can understand them. The two moons is a revered and famous ship throughout the galaxy. It's a ship that was created by the united galactic alliances for sole the purpose of rescuing people from planets where the dead had infested, and transporting them to a safer planet that was taking refugees. He can understand them because one can only dream of landing any kind of position on a ship like this.

But still, it’s funny because everyone else aside from them was actually welcoming. It was a big ship and he still talked and joked with other crew he happened to bump into, but everyone else had a lot to do, and not a lot of time to spare. They mostly kept to their own departments so it was hard to really become close to them. 

Well most of them. Baekhyun had gotten to know some of the other crew well, and if not for them, he doesn't think he would have stayed on the two moons for as long as he has. Even though this was his dream, and this was all he had wanted, the alienation and bullying was hard for him to swallow. 

He felt weak and pathetic when he had thought of quitting like that; but being ignored when he tried to get along, having drinks and food dropped on him on purpose, and once even having garbage dropped into the washer when it was washing his clothes. Baekhyun keeps quiet, but mostly because he's lost on what to do.

But he has made friends now, and Baekhyun’s thankful for them. The Captain's mates and Chef Kyungsoo in the kitchen have kept him strong. And he hasn't told them about any of the bullying yet, but that's because just knowing that there are people on his side who care for him is enough. First mate Minseok, especially, comes to mind and he blushes trying to snap out of it. 

“Friends!” Baekhyun tries to remind himself.

The ship has a captain, and a first, second, and third mate. Minseok was the first mate and he worked closely with captain Minhyuk looking over the aviation department, engineering department and doing other jobs the captain required of him. The second mate Yixing kept track of the cargo, and overall account of things abroad as well as route and travel. And lastly, the third mate Kris had his hands tied with the safety and security of the ship and passengers, making sure everything from food, to the passengers themselves followed code and were hazard free. 

The mates often all walked around together, all three of them taking note of different things regarding parts of the ship, and meanwhile, the captain handled bigger issue like finances, rescue operations, and galactic politics with upper management, and making sure the ship and rescue operations ran as smoothly as possible. Thus in turn, the mates made sure that their greatest weapon in the whole mission, their ship, ran as smoothly as possible too.

Baekhyun had met the three of them on the first day of his job after Minhyuk had introduced him to the crew and had sat him down at one of the pilot’s seats. Minhyuk had asked Jowon to help him get accustomed to the equipment and teach him, but Jowon had sat down for approximately five minutes, and given Baekhyun a monotoned low down of everything, grazing over most details, before returning to his seat and continuing his animated conversation with another pilot.

Baekhyun had been confused and unsure, and he didn't want to touch anything because he was afraid he would mess up the ship's systems, so instead he sat there, hands in his lap hoping one of the two pilots on duty would help him out or talk to him, but when that didn't happen he just sat there uncomfortably unsure of what to do. That's when Minseok, Yixing, and Kris had shown up. At first they just walked in and looked through the systems, Yixing and Kris had went to talk to the captain, who office was only a door down while Minseok flipped through the flying records, but then he looked up and looked confusedly at Baekhyun for a second before realization dawned on him.

“Omg! You’re the new pilot right?” he exclaimed excitedly, and Baekhyun had nodded unsure of who they even were but Minseok was there in a second, introducing himself and Yixing and Kris too when they returned. And he immediately asked if Baekhyun had everything figured out, and when Baekhyun gave him a deer caught in headlights look he had laughed and immediately jumped in to explain everything to him. He had been incredibly patient and an amazing teacher and after a week of the three of them stopping by, Baekhyun felt like he had gotten a hang of things. Baekhyun smiles thinking of their first meeting and then his thoughts drift to last night instead.

He sighs again, smiling a little as he thinks of how Minseok had patiently sat and taught him how to easily navigate through the asteroid belts last night, and he was daydreaming when the very voice that he was fantasizing about woke him up from his thoughts.

“Baekhyun?!” and said pilot jumped as he heard the voice behind him, not even realizing the door had been opened.

He turned around and saw Minseok standing there dressed and ready to go as he came into the compartment and logged onto the machine. “What are you doing here right now? You should be asleep. Where’s