The way back was done in a comfortable silence. Haseul had her flashlight in one hand, no longer afraid of scaring off the fireflies, but Jungeun kept hold of her hand – if the brunette thought it was weird, she didn’t show it, instead she had a small smile on her face as they walked.

During the past hours they talked about a lot of things: Haseul’s childhood, her hometown, her worry about her parents growing old and still living a poor life and her dreams to become a successful pilot and one day, hopefully she would be able to give them a better life…Jungeun listened to it with attention, her heart growing soft the more she knew about the brunette. Slowly, she became brave enough to tell the girl about herself as well. She told Haseul about where her love for art came from, about how she once lived in a small house as well, one that she could barely remember, Jungeun even spoke about her lonely years in the castle and how lucky she felt when Yerim finally came into her life.

More than being of different species, they were from two different worlds in many ways. Haseul came from a humble, yet loving family, while she was born as part of the most prestigious Saeg families, just to be left behind by her mother and treated as a nuisance by her father. Nevertheless, these differences didn’t make her uncomfortable, somehow it brought them closer.

They walked slowly under the excuse of it being safer, but for both of them it wasn’t true.

Haseul smiled to herself, catching one of Jungeun’s stares. A nice, warm feeling running through her body as their joint hands swing lightly. She didn’t know about the rest of the Saegs, but she knew for a fact that when it comes to Yerim and Jungeun, disliking physical contact was a lie. Jungeun was rightfully wary of people, however, now she felt like they were closer – both physical and mentally. Kim’s skin was always a little colder against hers, but it was soft and her hand fit right into hers, making it hard for her to reject the gesture when the girl had taken a light hold of her hand – Haseul just let her fingers slide between the girl’s, making the grip a little stronger as they walked.           

Hear about the young princess life made Jo realize how much that journey meant for Jungeun and herself as well. She had seen it as only a way to make easy money, but it wasn’t like that anymore. Even before that night she wished to make the trip a nice one for Jungeun, to keep her promise to Mr. Kim not only because it was her duty, but also because she genuinely wanted to see Jungeun enjoy herself. Now she wanted it more than anything. Life hadn’t been easy on the younger woman and this trip was her one chance to experience everything she had missed, and it included making friends – real ones. There was only so much she could do for the blonde, yet she was determinate to do it all. That’s why Haseul smiled at her and started to hum to one of her mom’s favorite songs, making sure every moment they spent together would be a good one.

Jungeun’s attention was divided between the pretty night sky that met the ocean at the horizon, and stealing glances at Haseul sharp side profile. The place that looked so lifeless and eerie at first, now looked much more welcoming. People may have left, but nature was fully blooming there and she was learning to appreciate it, perhaps because Haseul’s sweet voice humming to an old song had a calming effect on her.

It was nice to be out there, only the two of them, feeling the wind hitting her hair gently and the smell of the ocean. She didn’t have to worry about anyone noticing her eyes, she didn’t have to try and hide who she was or be on the defensive. It might’ve been too soon to trust Haseul, but it came to her naturally, as if everything about Jo was genuinely good and right and she could rely on her without hesitation – maybe she was being foolish, but right now it felt like it was worth it. Haseul had brought her here and made her understand the real magic behind her mother’s words, turning what was a bittersweet memory into a new, brighter one.

Their steps came to a halt when they reached the ship, and Haseul had to take a step back to open it, breaking the contact of their hands. Jungeun crossed her arms, feeling suddenly awkward. The pilot didn’t seem to notice it, she just made sure the girl was safely on her seat before taking them out of there.

They had barely reached the correct altitude before a blinking icon appeared on communication screen. The girls exchanged a glance, and Jungeun was quick to lower her head as Jo accept the call. 

A very familiar face greeted them, a serious expression making the woman look more intimidating than usual. Haseul tried her best to not sigh, knowing that they were in for a scolding. “It’s Sooyoung.”

“Sooyoung?” Jungeun echoed, still not daring to look at the screen.

“Yes, it’s Sooyoung. And you two can stop acting like kids and come back now.” The older brunette woman informed with a tone that Haseul knew could only mean trouble. There wasn’t even a bit of mischief in Sooyoung’s eyes when she spoke next. “No need to hide, Jungeun. We’ve bigger problems.”

Lifting her head, the Kim looked at the screen only in time to see Ha turning it off. The aggravate expression on her face sent a shiver through Jungeun’s spine – not the pleasant one she felt when Haseul was close by, a very different one, one that could freeze her heart.

Jo reached out to tap her knee lightly, a stiff smile on her face. “Don’t worry. Sooyoungie can be dramatic sometimes.” The brunette’s words, however, didn’t carry the usual sincerity. A white lie, she was trying to calm her down when Haseul herself wasn’t calm in the moment. “Just hold on tight. We’ll go a little faster and once we’re back on board, I’ll deal with Soo, so don’t worry.”

Jungeun nodded, not because she believed Haseul’s words, because she was struggling to, but because they both didn’t have a choice now. She could only hope it was indeed something Jo could fix.

Back at Raven, Jungeun didn’t need to hide her eyes. Only Sooyoung and Vivi waited for them, and even though she had never revealed herself to them, she knew she didn’t need to worry about it now.

Haseul stopped right in front of the duo that waited for them at the garage, giving the girls a nod. “Is everyone okay?” Was her first question, in a tone much deeper and clean than usual. Right now she wasn’t the goofy captain that treated Raven like a baby and the crew like her own little family, it was Jo’s serious and reliable side speaking.

Vivi was quick to answer, her usual gentle smile looked a little more unnatural than normal, as if something was making even the android tense. “Yes, the youngest are asleep. I just checked on them.”

The pilot nodded, a wave of relieve washing over her. She had tried to maintain a composed facade and focus on taking them back, so she wouldn’t make Jungeun nervous, but deep down Haseul was anxious. Sooyoung’s expression had sent her shivers and she didn’t like the tension she was feeling now. “Do we have issues with the ship?” She glanced at Jungeun for a second. “Or any news?” Had Mr. Kim gave them new orders? Or maybe he had figured out about Haseul taking the young princess to Osaka and was furious about it – it would be better than having Raven failing when they were so far away of their destination, still she prayed it wasn’t the case, not only because of the money they would lose if the contract was broken, but also for Jungeun who would have to go back to a life she hated.

“No. But we need to move now, Japan is not a good place for us in the moment.” Ha informed, her longs legs already moving towards the conference room. Apparently Raven was programed to move as soon as the emergency spaceship was back, what wasn’t usual at all. Although they could stay up in the sky for long periods of time, they usually would spend the night in a safe place in the ground to save fuel and avoid dealing with hostile unregistered aircrafts. It wasn’t usual to Sooyoung to go against their plans, if she was doing it, there must be a good reason.

Another shiver run through the short brunette, making her give Jungeun a stiff smile as they followed the other women. Wasting no time, she accessed the control panel, checking where they were heading to. Jo bite back a curse when she notice it was the space above the open ocean – they never did it, it was better to stay close to land in case they needed to go out for an emergency, if Vivi had chosen such place things were probably worse than she expected. “What is the situation?”

Sooyoung moved to touch the panel on the wall, making the glass colored as a map took form. Jo noticed red dots marking locations – all in Tokyo – , as well as some numbers she couldn’t understand.

“Attacks against Saegs.” When Ha finally spoke, she pointed out each location. “All over Tokyo. Possibly coordinated.” She made a pause, taking a deep breath as if she was trying her best to remain calm, and pointed to a specific dot – exactly where they were earlier. “Only a couple hours after we changed our location.” With a light tap on the screen, a video of the place was shown, on it was possible to see the mess the purists had left behind, including a body of a young woman.

“Purists?” Haseul interjected. Purists, groups of humans that was adamantly against coexisting with the Saeg, were a problem that the government was never able to completely eradicate. Most of the time, the people that were part of the movement, were just a couple of folks that would be influenced by enraged leaders that pushed all their problems into the other species, ignoring the fact that without the newcomers Earth would’ve perished.

“It’s our guess.” Sooyoung replied, her tone only getting heavier.

 Exchanging a glance with the taller woman, Jo clenched her fists and tried to contain the expression on her face. Purists attacks usually happened in cities were Saegs were minority and the said attacks were always small. What Sooyoung was describing was far from a normal occurrence.

“Something on the news?”

“No. As usual.” Underreported cases of hate crimes were common – the government didn’t want to expose that even after 200 years there was still conflicts between the two species. However, it only made things worse for them now. The locations couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, she had to take action.

“Vivi, coordinates to the Saeg base at the Moon. Sooyoung, make sure we’ve everything we need to stay in orbit for a while.” Haseul ordered. Earth was no longer safe if the purists, or whoever was behind this, were attacking. “We have our outer shield, I’ll take us out of here before anyone can even catch glimpse of Raven.”

Just an hour ago she was having a good night with Jungeun and feeling like they were slowly becoming closer and creating a connection, but luck wasn’t on their side clearly. She didn’t know what was happening exactly, whether there was someone looking for the princess or the purists had just decided to mass attack – one or way or another, it was bad news for them and she had to make sure Yerim and Jungeun were as far away as possible of this mess.

Looking over her shoulder, she met Kim’s scared red eyes that seemed so full of confusion now. If things were bad for her, she could only imagine how Jungeun was feeling now, knowing her race was being hunted down in the very own places they had been to just a couple of hours ago. Jo wished she could go to her and give her a hug, reassuring everything was fine, but there was no time for it now.

“Jungeun, you have your identification documents, right? Bring it to me now. Yerim’s too.” She didn’t think they would have to leave Earth in a hurry, hopefully they would be able to go through security without much trouble, or else they would be in trouble.

The younger girl nodded and Haseul risked a smile. “We’ll keep you safe.”

Jungeun didn’t answer, she only nodded again, before leaving the room.

Jungeun paced nervously back and forth, waiting for Yerim to get ready. In all her life she had been under protection – first her mother, then the king and all the security of palace. But now, her life was possibly in risk and she was having a hard time dealing with it. Even though Haseul had promised to keep them safe, it was hard to not feel scared.

Even in the palace, she had heard about Purists before. The news were never detailed, all that she knew was that some people were not as accepting and they caused problem once in a while – but she had never heard about violent attacks. To imagine that there was people out there who would kill someone for the simple fact they were different…Her mind was filled with painful memories of all the books she had read about Earth’s previous wars and the prejudice that had led to them. It was hard to believe that humans could be so vicious, especially now that she had met such a nice and caring group of them.

Humans and Saeg were very similar at first, but when you look closely, you’d be able to not the differences beyond colored eyes and pale skin. The Saeg were mainly a rational and peaceful species, their people had to remain closely together due to the harsh conditions of their original planet and adapting in a new one. Their population was small and not as prolific when compared to humans, and their places in the society were clear even before birth – hence why cases like hers were so frowned upon to. Now, after two centuries on Earth, such differences became less prominent as both species had to live together, yet clearly for some such differences were enough to generate hate. Suddenly she understood why her father spent so much time working to make sure the relations between both species were good, it wasn’t about having the upper hand in business, it was about keeping them safe.

“Jungeun, I’m ready.” Yerim finally said, fixing her cape over her shoulders. It was the first time Jungeun saw her wearing the formal Saeg clothes instead of more comfortable clothes ever since they came on board. They were about to face authorities and it was better for them to look the part they were assigned to.

The older girl nodded slightly, feeling her hands colder than usual as she pressed them firmly against each other. “Just give honest answers, they don’t have any reason to suspect you.” She instructed, her protective side coming into light as she tried to push back her fear. Yerim would be okay, she was a noble just like her identification said, Jungeun didn’t want her to put herself in risk by making up some story to try to support Kim. If once leaving Earth caused her worry, now it seemed like the best option and she couldn’t afford them failing to do so.

“Calm down, Jungie. The king himself sent us, I’m sure he took some precautions to make sure we can come and go with no problems.” Choi’s voice didn’t have her usual bubbly quality, it was replaced by a serious tone that didn’t match her. “My mother told me they don’t even look at us, they just check the numbers and we’re out of here.” The purple eyed girl smiled, caressing her friend’s arm gently.

Yes, the king had sent them. But they weren’t supposed to leave Earth this soon. Jungeun’s mind, was finding it hard to believe on Yerim’s optimistic words. The identification document she was carrying had picture on it – warm, sparkly blue eyes in her face, making her look more like a copy of her mother rather than herself. The name on it was also different, the same one she used to have before her mother left her at the palace: Choi Jungeun, she was adopting her mother’s surname to hide under a facade of being a common Saeg instead of a royal.

Kim had the blue contacts Sooyoung gave her on, making it hard to face herself into the mirror. It shouldn’t surprise her how much she resembled her mother, after all the image of Yuju was always on her mind even after so many years, still it felt weird to see her reflection now, only adding more tension to her already stressed self.

It was wrong to wish to have humans eyes, the average brown ones that Haseul had gifted her through the contact lenses, but right now she just wished she was born with. No red, no blue, nothing that reminded her of her parents and all the danger that comes from being born from them.

Therefore, she didn’t answer Yerim, she only took the girl by the arm and headed to were the rest of the crew was waiting for them. The faster they went through security, the sooner she would be able to get rid of the contacts and out of danger.

“The attacks…When did it happen?” Haseul asked as soon as Jungeun left the room and she was busy preparing everything for their journey. Luckily, Raven was more than ready to do this work and they would be able to be out of the planet in a matter of minutes under Haseul’s reliable hands.

“It wasn’t only here. There were also attacks in other locations, very coincidentally all of them were places we visited.” Sooyoung seem to expect the question, and she didn’t hesitate taking a place beside Haseul to act as her co-pilot. “The first one was in Seoul, only 3 days after we left, the second in the day after we visited Moscow, and you already know about Tokyo.”

The shorter woman grimaced, she already suspected it, but the confirmation of her worries made her even more uneasy. “No Purists then.” It was too much of a coincidence that all the places attacked had been visited by them before. “I guess Mr. Kim indeed had a good reason to take her out of the planet.”

“Yeah. But his timing could be better.” Ha replied, a touch of sarcasm in her voice. Haseul couldn’t blame her. While she and Jungeun were out, she must’ve gone through a lot of stress as she learnt the news and couldn’t reach them right away.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I should’ve told you.” Haseul admitted with a sigh. They were lucky this time, but she had to be more careful in the future. “As soon as we pass the security check, let’s call the whole crew. It’s time to make things clear.”

“That’s why I told you to always keep the tank full.” Ha nagged, but Haseul knew she was trying to easy the mood even if only slightly.

“I know. I’ll pay you food next time we’re not under attack as a thank you.” The pilot replied without taking her eyes off the screen as they started the proceed to departure.

To Jungeun’s surprise, the rest of the crew was sat by the table in the conference room when Yerim and her arrived – even though Yeojin was trying to sleep on it and Hyejoo looked as grumpy as it gets with her messy hair and oversized clothes. This time Yerim didn’t go sit with them, staying close to the fellow Saeg and holding onto her hand to help her keep the nerves under control.

“Take a seat, we’ll have to leave the stratosphere and it can get a little bit bumpy.” Haseul informed, her voice slightly less tense now. The girls did as they were told and in a moment the chairs had everyone safely wrapped – the buckles didn’t seem to bother Yeojin, who just leaned back her head on the seat, trying to take a nap while sitting. By how relaxed the girls seemed to be, Jungeun presumed they weren’t aware of the news yet.

Vivi, who sat at her left, gave her usual calm smile. “It will only take ten minutes. Haseul is skilled and Sooyoung will make sure we’re stable.” The android said as if to assure the Saeg girls that everything would be okay – Jungeun wasn’t worried about leaving the planet, she had seen Haseul piloting and she was pretty good at it, however she was grateful for Vivi’s calming presence.

Kim nodded with a small, stiff smile. She thought about asking Vivi about how the security check worked, but she didn’t get the chance as Haseul prompted Ravel to assume a new angle, the needed to go up as much as possible to use Earth natural rotation to work with them, saving up fuel and making their entrance into the exosphere much easier.

‘Bumpy’ wouldn’t be the word she would’ve used to describe the feeling of being pushed back as if she was falling without moving, but the feeling wasn’t that awful and as Vivi had promised it only last for a couple of moments. Jungeun took a deep breath, turning her head to see Yerim smile widely.

“This is so cool! Can we do it again?” Exactly what she’d expect from Yerim and she would have laughed if they weren’t in such delicate situation and seeing the girl’s warm smile Kim wondered if she wasn’t just trying to distract her from more serious matters. Jungeun gave her a small, grateful smile.

Once Raven was stable, the buckles were gone and they could move again. Haseul walked to them, coming close to give them a smile. “I know the officers on duty now. They won’t give us trouble.” She grinned and Jungie could tell by her expression how relieved she was. “I’ll do all the talking, so you two can relax.”

The princess was having a hard time doing so, but Haseul’s confidence made her at little more at ease. The pilot wouldn’t be so relaxed if she had doubts regarding it, and the rest of the crew seem to be completely comfortable as well, so she should trust her on this.

Standing up, she stood in line with the rest of the crew as the image of a pretty brunette with dark chocolate eyes and a grin on her face appeared on the ship’s screen. The girl that looked even younger than Jungeun, was wearing an indigo blue uniform with a nametag where you could read ‘Jeon Heejin’. “Good night, my friends. Where are we heading today?” The girl’s tone was so friendly and easy going that it was impossible to not relax.

Jungeun was expecting that the officers would come on board and check on them personally, but apparently a quick conversation would be enough. Jeon asked a couple more questions and Haseul answered it all with a smile, before asking them to put their ID’s into a scanner, one by one stepping up to do it under the chocolate brown gaze.

As the last one to go through the process, Jungeun tried to keep her breath steady and not hide away like her instinct wanted her to do. “Choi Jungeun. Civita district.” She said, thankfully not stuttering.

“Hm…” Heejin’s gaze analyzed her for a moment, before the girl broke into a radiant smile. “It’s not very often that I see Saeg from different levels with the same surname. Are you two related?”

“Oh? No.” Jungeun shook her head, hating herself for getting flustered with such silly question. “We’re only friends.”

“I see.” Jeon nodded, her smile didn’t even faltering although Jungeun could swear her she saw her intelligent eyes sparkle with something else. “Well, I guess it fits you well.” The officer, for Jungeun’s surprise, winked playfully before a voice calling her could be heard in the background. Heejin turned around, facing whoever had called her and exchanging a few words that Kim couldn’t discern. When the young officer turned back, her smile was a bit less bright, almost cautious. “I need to go now, Sihyeon is supervising a commercial ship and it’s always a trouble.” Heejin sighed, waving them goodbye at the same time a green message appeared on the screen, signalizing they were free to go. “Okay, guys you may go. Have a nice trip! And Sooyoung, I’ll message you later, so don’t leave me hanging!”

As sudden as it started, the call came to an ending and Jungeun couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh – one that found eco on Haseul’s. The blonde exchanged a look with the pilot, who just nodded slowly as confirming they were out of danger now. Kim knew in the back of her head, that what just happened wasn’t anything like an inspection should be and she wondered how they were able to get Heejin to give them a free pass.

 “So, can I please go back to sleep now?” Yeojin said, completely unaware of the previous tension in the air. Haseul broke into a laughing fit that was probably a result of the relief she felt, and nodded positively.

And just like this, the inspection was over. Yerim left out a little squeal, hugging Jungeun tight, as the older girl sighed. At least for now and thanks to Jeon Heejin, they were safe.

A/N: Hello guys! I know this chapter may look a little odd to some of you, but it will be important for the future of the story. Hope you guys liked Heejin here, her appearence was brief, but very much needed.

Next chapter will be here in 2 or 3 days, and the story will probably have around 12 chapters total, so things will move a little faster from now on. Oh and in case you guys noticed, we have some cools artistic designs for the characters now, all thanks to my friend Charlie! The maknae line stickers will be added soon. 

Thank you a lot if you read 'till here, I apologize for any mistakes and see you soon!