Junho frantically searched for his favorite black jeans while Junsu and Wooyoung got home. Chansung was already making food for them, while Junho waited for his roommate Taecyeon to return.

 

The door opened and in walked Taecyeon, the culprit in the ‘missing jeans’ case.

 

“YAH! OK TAECYEON! WHERE IS MY FAVORITE JEANS!?” Junho yelled approaching Taecyeon, whose tired look vanished the moment, he heard the word ‘jeans’. The image of Ro sitting on the computer chair flashed into his mind and he blinked, “I-I don’t know.”

 

“Don’t lie!”

 

“Yah…I don’t know. I havnt been home longer than you have. So stop bugging me. Ask the laundry man tomorrow,” he shrugged Junho off and then fell on the couch. Next to him was Junsu, with his eyes closed and Wooyoung, who lay on the floor with his eyes closed as well. Taceyeon looked at Chansung who was setting plates on the table, like an obedient makane and then looked at the empty white wall on the living room, when Wooyoung suddenly spoke, “I met an angel today…a real goddess.”

 

“I met a strange girl today as well..” Junsu sighed and Taecyeon also breathed out, “I met a very fine lady today…one with a lot of diet but a heavenly figure.”

 

“But mine was like a goddess right from heaven…if you’d had seen her, you’d forget all your girls…” Wooyoung sighed again.

 

The way the three of them continued sighing and discussing their ‘girls’ Chansung almost barfed. When did they talk so cheesy and strangely mushy?

 

“What’s happening to them?” Junho whispered.

 

Suddenly the door opened and Nickhun walked in with a strange look on his face, and everyone’s attention was drawn to it.

 

“No way…” Taecyeon shot up.

 

“But how…” Junsu shot up as well.

 

“Is that…” Wooyoung got up to his feet as well.

 

“Ro?” the three blurted out.

 

Chansung and Junho looked behind Nickhun and saw a girl with a tan complexion, doe eyes,  black hair and a brown wooden basket hung on her left arm.  Chansung didn’t say anything but Junho surely yelled, “MY JEANS!”

 

 

 

“I knew something felt off about the house today….” Chansung whispered to himself as Taecyeon explained about the clothes and how he met her. Then Junsu filled in everyone about his meeting about the cat and spicy rice cakes. Then finally Wooyoung told them about the thief and photoshoot, and then Nickhun told them about the coffee, but left out the sketching part.

 

“This is really funny,” Chansung burst out laughing and Junho slapped his leg, “Yah! My favorite jeans is destroyed and its funny to you!?”

 

“No, the fact that all four of them met the same girl on the same day, that’s funny,” Chansung continued laughing which seemed really lame and irrelevant to the others.

 

“Umm…Here’s your jeans and sweater…” Ro handed the jeans to Junho and the sweater to Taecyeon. Junho opened the folded jeans with sorrowful eyes only to notice that the stain was gone. The dark brown stain, which was hardly visible on the jeans earlier was totally gone and the sweater was also clean, “H-How?”

 

“I cleaned it. Isn’t that enough…” she whispered and then Taecyeon shot up, “You don’t need to return it. Keep it. Its yours now.” He pushed the sweater into her arms. Ro was now dressed in one of Nickhun’s lowers, and a long loose t-shirt that’s sleeves were longer than her arms. She had her fingers curled around the cuffs of the shirt as she held the sweater Taeceyon gave her, “I’s take it, but I can’t. I’m returning tonight.”

 

“You know, now that you’re here…eat dinner with us,” Wooyoung suggested and Chansung gave him a look, as if he didn’t prepare enough food and then Ro’s face lit, “Food? Sure.”

 

Everyone sat around the dining table and began eating, but Junsu and Taecyeon were seemingly reluctant, because they knew Ro had a huge diet, and they might run out if they ate too much. Ro ate one serving of rice very easily, then she ate the egg rolls and finally drank some coke and then looked at Junsu, “Earlier today…at the restaurant, what was the thing we ate?”

 

“Spicey Rice Cakes?” Junsu gave her a curious look, and she shook her head, “No, not the cakes…the long thread like things…”

 

“Ramen!” Junsu remembered and she nodded,  “Yes…do you have that?”

 

“We do,” Nickhun quickly got up and Junho muttered, “You know, if you eat Ramen at night, you’re face will bloat by the morning.”

 

“I don’t care…” Ro clearly heard him, but smirked.

 

Junho looked at her, and was mesmerized by the way she smirked at him, with her chopsticks at her lip. It was like Wooyoung said, Goddess like. Wooyoung noticed Junho’s speechless look and he stubbed his toe, whispering, “Snap out of it.”

 

“Sorry..” Junho looked back at his food and continued eating slowly.

 

Nickhun returned with ready to make ramen and kept the cup in front of her when Taecyeon and Junsu got up too, and brought one cup each, and Chansung looked at them, “Why?”

 

“You’ll see,” Junsu grinned.

 

And they did. In mere minutes, Ro gulped down four boxes of ramen like they were candy bars. She sighed and felt full when she sighed, “I love Earth’s food…”

 

“So…I never asked you this…” Junsu looked at Ro, “Where are you from?”

 

 

Ro gave them all a look, as they patiently waited for an answer and Taecyeon added another question, “And is your name really ‘Ro’..?”

 

“Yes, my name is Ro. Is that weird? You should listen to your names, ‘Taecyeon’ ‘Nickhun’ ‘Junsu’ ‘Chansung’ ‘Wooyoung’…although Junho seems a nice name. Well all are, but they’re strangely new to me too,” she sat back in her chair and Junho sheepishly smiled, considering it a comment.

 

“Fine, forget the name argument. But where are you from? You’re clearly not from South Korea…and since when did you speak in Korean!?” Taecyeon just noticed that the girl whom he spoke in English earlier in the morning was conversing in Korean better than any of them.

 

“I’m a quick learner,” she shrugged but still didn’t answer the question about where she was from, which clearly troubled no one but Chansung. He was the only one who didn’t see anything great in her. Okay, maybe he noticed the fact that she was exceptionally a natural beauty and had raven like black hair…and everything that the others spoke of, but he wasn’t attracted to her at all. He just knew that she was a guest, and his hyungs were asking too many questions. And she wasn’t answering the main question.

 

“Okay, I have to go now,” Ro got up picking up the cat, Orion’s basket and then Taecyeon got up, “I’ll drop you wherever you want to go.”

 

Ro glanced at her watch, it was 9 pm. She still had three hours before it was the lunar eclipse, and that was the perfect time to leave…but if these men kept on thundering her with questions and suggestions, how will she leave. She noticed the basket was  very light, and opened it only to notice that cat was gone, “The cat!”

 

“The cat…Oh you found your cat…I see,” Junsu muttered and then panic gripped Ro, “That damn creature…” she muttered and began looking for the cat, as did the others. Everyone was searching for the cat, while Ro kept on muttering curses as she turned the living room upside down.

 

“Found it!” They heard Junho call from his room. Everyone went in the room, and Junho pointed in the corner, where there lay a white crumpled dress, and on top of it was the little cat sleeping soundly.  The dress was the same white dress that Ro had discarded earlier in the morning and worn the new pair of jeans and grey sweater.

 

Ro approached the cat and then scrounged her nose and then was about to wake the cat up when Chansung held her hand, “What are you doing…?” he whispered and she replied, “Waking it up, I have to go now.”

 

Chansung pulled her up to her feet and then took her out of the room, and the others followed, wondering what the makane wanted. Chansung opened the balcony door and pulled her out in the cold, “Yah!”

 

“Whats wrong with you? Why don’t you answer our questions honestly? And where do you have to go so urgently. It’s nearly midnight now,” Chansung crossed his arms against his chest and tapped his foot. No one else said anything, because he was right. While they hadn’t noticed, she was clearly avoiding the main question.

 

“You’re really curious, aren’t you,” Ro laughed and then looked over his shoulder at the remaining five guys, “It’s a long story. You might wanna sit down.”

 

 

 

I am not from Earth. I was born on planet Saffon, which is almost seven galaxies away from this solar system. My planet is a peaceful advanced planet, just like Earth, and we people look like you as well. We don’t have big void like eyes, or long necks or pointy ears. Neither do we have any powers, like you humans think.

 

We’re normal. We get hurt, we have emotions and we breathe oxygen.

 

I am a scientist and I study bio specimens. I was working on a new species of fish that obtained from a different planet, a few years ago. It was a nitorgen based animal and didn’t survive in oxygen, so it was very fragile. And we didn’t really know what would happen to it, if it was exposed to our environment.

 

My subordinate, Doctor Ragnor, was very keen on experimenting its effects and changes in our environment, but I strongly opposed to it, until one day, Ragnor went ahead and released the fish in water stream, while I was not in the lab. The fish died, and it’s body burst into millions of dust particals, inside the water, and he thought that it was a fail experiment. Rognor was expelled for not following orders, and that’s when I committed the biggest mistake.

 

 

 

Everyone was looking at Ro with intent. There was something about her voice that was very convincing. Usually people won’t believe such things and would probably call her a lunatic, but this time, the most practical person amongst them, makane Chansung, also believed every word she spoke till now.

 

It was her cold dark eyes, that had a glint of honesty in them.

 

“What happened?” Junsu asked.

 

 

 

We disperse waste in a special treatment plant, where the water gets treated properly and is made so pure that it can be used to drink as well. So I let the dead fish water be treated and released in the main system as usual. But then people started getting sick…a disease that made them develop gills and made them prone to oxygen.

 

But the first signs were that the person would get dehydrated very easily.

 

So I was told to research it. And what I found over these years was that it was that very fish that caused the disease. I was so stupid. I should have known..I should have known that since the water contained alien matter, it shouldn’t have been sent to the treatment plant in the first place.

 

The fish, when it burst turning to dust, mixed into the water molecules and because I hadn’t studied it that much I didn’t know that the fish had poisonous qualities. And that very thing was all a trap. We went back to the planet and found living beings there, the ones who were primitive but able to converse. They told us that we had commited a ‘crime’ by taking one of their beings and I apologized but those stinking creatures, didn’t accept it. Finally we ran a mission there, sneaking into their archives and found out that the cure for that disease was in your galaxy with a man named Orion. We came to look for him, but I stayed back. He was killed in an encounter, and the cure was told to have been with his feline pet. No one could find the cat and the cure.

 

We lost all hope. People were slowly perishing from our planet. But I wasn’t ready to give up. We were told to accept our fates, but I never went along with that silly term. So I quietly took an expedition to Earth. I reached here, after almost a year’s journey. And my stupid plane crashed here.

 

 

 

Ro topped talking and got up, “Look, you will not understand this. You’ll probably think I’m some lunatic. But I have to go--”

 

Suddenly Taecyeon caught her hand and turned her around, “So youre just gonna go…leave us?”

 

“Yes. I have to save my planet. Its gonna die soon…” she freed her wrist and Nickhun got up, “Please don’t go…not now.”

 

“If I leave now…I’ll reach almost a year late. People are dying as we speak,” her tone was firm as she began leaving but something felt wrong. Like she didn’t want to leave this wonderfully green planet.

 

“Prove it…” Junho stood up, “Prove your origins…”

 

“Junho-ah..” Wooyoung looked at him and then Ro turned around, “I never said you should believe me. But still..” she reached out to her wrist and revealed a watch, but when she pressed a small button, the projection of a whole new galaxy took place around them. They felt like they were lost in space.

 

“This is one of the things I could get with me. It’s a 10D projector. You can touch, feel, smell, or what not in this,” her voice echoed as Wooyoung touched a burning hot star, and Junho touched a mini asteroid, “Wow…”

 

Ro pointed at a planet that looked exactly like Earth and a Yellow sun, “That’s planet Saffon. The only alive Planet in Galaxy 77.”

 

“Wow…it looks like Earth…” Junsu spoke and then Ro stopped the projection.

 

“Now, if you believe me, I have to go to…Ilsan…yeah that’s the place,” she turned around and quickly walked into the room, picking up the cat carefully with the dress still trapped under it and put it inside the basket, “Run again and I will turn you into a hedge hog.”

 

The cat was fast asleep to even hear her threat and then Ro pulled the basket in her hands. She turned to face all the 2PM members and bowed, “Thank you all for you help. Oh and..” she pulled out a stash of money and handed it equally to Junsu and Taecyeon, “For the delicious food.”

 

“We won’t accept it….” Both of them said together.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because those were our treats. Keep it,” Junsu pushed her hand away and then she gave them a bewildered look, “I don’t like keeping debts…it’s a crime on a planet, and also, I earned them honestly. I didn’t steal it.”

 

“We know. Keep it as a sovenier from this planet. Oh and take these too,” Junho quickly handed her his jeans and the sweater and smiled, “A gift from us.”

 

“But I…” she exhaled deeply and then kept the jeans and sweater on the basket’s top and spoke, “I’ll be going now.”

 

Ro was about to leave, but her feet didn’t move and a small voice at the back of her head spoke, ‘Stay…’

 

‘Stay…’ Nickhun thought with a sorrowful mind.

 

‘Please…don’t…’ Wooyoung looked at her, his eyes were a little watery.

 

‘Why are you going…’ Taecyeon’s heart aced a bit.

 

And Junsu stood blankly as he saw her turn. He needed to stop her. He didn’t know why. He just wanted to hold her and stop her from leaving, and he didn’t care about any other planet dying by a disease whose cure only Ro had.

 

“Let us drop you to Ilsan. If you walk, it’ll take you hours…” Chansung suddenly spoke and everyone looked at him with surprise. He was the only member who had found a lot of discomfort with Ro in the house, yet he knew very well what his hyungs were feeling.

 

“Fine…the faster the better,” she said and everyone rushed down to their van. Junsu drove while the others were sitting in the back and Ro sat next to Junsu. Her eyes were scanning the dark sky, full of stars while the little voice in her head were whispering the whole day to her.

 

 

‘Saved by Taecyeon…then had wonderful chocolate cake…he helped you from the cold. Then met Junsu…he treated you to Ramen and Spicy Rice Cakes, helped you get the cat down…roamed the streets of Itaewon…saved Wooyoung from a thief. In return he helped you model and make money. Brought the cure from the pet shop..then bumped into Nickhun at the coffee shop…he helped you get new clothes…and then you met the others. Fixed Junho’s jeans and Taecyeon’s sweater…ate food that Chansung made…ate Ramen…Ramen…what a lovely dish. I wish we had that…hmmm maybe I could ask the food researchers to work on it…its lovely. So is Rice Cake Dish…and chocolate cake…and the whether is so nice. Its fresh…unlike the white walls of a lab…’

 

 

Ro’s eyes widened, what was she thinking? She loved her lab. It was her safe place, her sanctuary. The place where she spent most of her life. The place where she worked ever since she was 13. How could she like anywhere else than that one place…? One place…her only devotion, her love, her life.

 

Ro slightly shook her head, with her thumb resting on lower lip, when she spoke, “The place where the meteor landed…there is a corn field a few kilometers away from there…my ship crashed there…”

 

“Okay,” Junsu took a quick turn and they entered the highway which was rarely used, because it led to the undiscovered outskirts of Seoul. Ro was still debating on how she liked Earth even though she was an alien to them.

 

“Here…” she whispered, and Junsu stopped right in front of the field. They couldn’t see the ship, but Ro jumped out and looked at them, one by one they all came out as well, “Thank you for everything. Because of you, a task I was anticipating to be completed in years, got over in just one day. You have helped me and my people a lot.”

 

“It’s okay…we just did our jobs…as humans,” Junsu shrugged and then Chansung, handed a poly bag to her, “Its Ramen…it’ll be helpful in your journey.”

 

“Ah…thank you so much,” she sounded so much polite than how she sounded earlier, a bit cold and distant.

 

Ro turned around and began walking inside the field, slowly vanishing into the thick corn. Nichkhun felt a pang of guilt when he realized that he couldn’t even show her his masterpiece. The one, if she wasn’t there, he would have never made it.

 

“Stop her…” Chansung was leaning against the car, as the five looked at him, “Don’t you want to stop her…?” his eyes first went to Taecyeon, then Junsu, then to Wooyoung and finally Nichkun.

 

“What are you…?” Junho’s words got lost when they saw a bright light from the field and a second later, something dark between the huge orb of light rose into the sky and vanished into sky. The six boys stood rigid, a little bit horrified, a little bit mesmerized by the sight, their eyesight went blank for a second but it rely to see the starry sky.

 

“She’s really gone, huh…” Junsu scoffed looking away and Taecyeon turned around, “She’s gone…let’s go.”

 

Everyone, except Nickhun began returning to the car. Nickhun stood there, looking at the sky…suddenly he wanted to leap at the sky and pull her back to him. How could he have let her go!? In three seconds, she made him forget his own world, and let him experience such a great pleasure of drawing the world’s new Mona Lisa.

 

No, her smile was way beyond any Mona Lisa.

 

 She was unique.

 

One of her kind.

 

And now she was gone…

 

“I hope you come back soon…” Nichkhun whispered, then turned around on his heel and walked into the car, while Junsu drove off.

 

 

_______________________________

 

(TT^TT)

"U can Cry Now," Nickhun's signature line to Vic umma. Ahahah

yeah...so i'm just gonna post a epilogue sort of next. And yeah i know sad ending .