Chanyeol was sitting in front of the television, eating a bowl of cereal and paying rapt attention to the press conference that was taking place before him. It hardly seemed to be real, but having lived the last few months, he knew that it wasn’t a dream.

Aliens were real and the camera was focusing on one right now.

The individual on the screen looked sort of human. Okay, honestly it looked really human. Of course the only people who actually looked like that were models, actors and other celebrities. The aliens were gorgeous, really, and that was part of the reason Chanyeol was so creeped out by them. They looked so perfect that it was extra obvious that they just weren’t human.

Chanyeol could hardly believe that the entirety of the world, for the most part, was allowing these aliens to move in. Like the world wasn’t too crowded already, what with their own species barely fitting in every nook and cranny. Chanyeol figured the aliens were trying to fix that problem now, with this press conference. They had announced that people from Earth who wanted to take a chance for adventure could travel to their planet and live.

Chanyeol could see several problems with Earth, but you’d have to be pretty desperate to want to travel to an entirely different planet and live. Earth had problems, but it was home.

“We’ve already gotten several thousand humans coming forward saying they’d like to come to our planet, and this is great.” The alien diplomat said, his tone friendly and excited. “Our planet is double the size of Earth and because of natural disasters a few decades back, the population is only in the hundred thousands.”

“Then go back there and stop making our crowding even worse,” Chanyeol muttered through his mouthful of cereal.

“Be nice, Chanyeol,” his mother chastised him from across the room. “They’re very advanced, maybe they can help us with technology and medicine and stuff. Think of all the good they could possibly do here.”

“They couldn’t even help themselves from nearly being wiped out,” Chanyeol said, rolling  his eyes. “They probably lost all their technology.”

“Speaking of technology, don’t forget the cord to your laptop. It’s plugged in behind your dad’s recliner,” his mom said, ruffling Chanyeol’s hair affectionately.

Chanyeol stood immediately to retrieve his cord. He’d been sure he’d packed the thing up already. It wouldn’t do at all to forget the cord to his laptop when he left for college. After he secured the cord in his backpack, he took a minute to look around at the bags he’d be taking with him when he moved two hours away and lived full time in a dorm hall.

It was pathetically small, to be honest. He had three suitcases, one of them full of his collection of hats, and the other two packed full of his entire wardrobe. He had a duffel bag with a few odds and ends he’d need, like his shaving kit, his ipod dock, his alarm clock, toothbrush, and things like that, and his backpack was full of text books and his laptop.

It was sort of sad that the first seventeen years of his life could fit into three suitcases, a duffel bag, and a backpack. His mom poked her head in his room and tried to smile brightly. He knew she was facing the same situation he was. He’d never been out of the house for any extended period of time. She would miss him just as much as he’d miss her.

“That’s all of it?” she asked with a laugh. “Don’t worry, when you remember what you’ve forgotten next week I’ll send it right out to you.”

He cracked a smile but tried to hide it by rubbing his mouth with the back of his palm. “Thanks, mom.”

She kissed his cheek before she walked over and grabbed two of the suitcases to carry them to the car. He watched her go with a lump in his throat and prayed to whatever god was out there that he could hold in the crying that was definitely going to happen until she’d taken him to his room and left him there. She’d raised a man. He wanted to make her proud by not crying in front of her.

He put his backpack on, grabbed the duffel and the suitcase, and turned, exiting the room.

Halfway down the hall he stopped in his tracks, eyes wide. He jogged back down to the room at the end of the hall and opened the door. He’d left the light on. He wouldn’t need the light on anymore. He wasn’t going to be back until Christmas.

“It’s big!” his mom said as she pushed her way into the dorm room that would be his home for the majority of the next four or five years. “It’s nice.” She turned to him with a watery smile. Not good. If she cried now, Chanyeol would definitely cry, too.

“Yeah, it’s not bad,” Chanyeol replied, coming into the room and dropping his luggage on the floor. “I wonder which bed I should take?” He glanced at the bunk beds. “I want the bottom, but what if my roommate wants the bottom?”

His mother wrapped her thin arms around him tightly, sniffling into his hair. “I raised you to be so considerate,” she said, her voice thick with unshed tears. He sighed and pulled her into a tight hug.

“I’ll be okay, mom,” he said. “It’s only two hours away. I can come home every Friday if I want to.”

“And you’d better come home sometimes,” she said, looking up at him sternly, as though it didn’t matter that he was nearly a whole head taller than she was. And it really didn’t matter. He was still as terrified of her anger as he had been when he was a child.

“I will,” he promised, just as she burst into tears. It was like a faucet was , and before he knew what was happening, Chanyeol was crying as quietly as he could into her hair to muffle the sound. Her hand was rubbing his back soothingly like she’d done every time he was sick or scared for his entire life.

“Oh.. Oh, god, I’m so sorry,” a sudden voice said quickly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, I’m so sorry.”

They broke apart quickly and Chanyeol turned to get his first glimpse at his new roommate. The guy was blurry, and rather short from what he could see, and Chanyeol wiped his eyes discreetly. His mother was much faster to recover. She laughed a little and cleaned her face off.

“It’s okay, honey,” she said. “You must be Yeollie’s new roommate.”

“Yeah. My name is Baekhyun,” the boy replied. “But I can go if you still need some time,” he offered.

“No, no, no, that’s alright. It’s nice to get a distraction, right, Yeollie?”

She approached Baekhyun where he was standing stiffly in the doorway and grasped his hand gently, pulling him inside the room. Once he was in the light she gasped and took a step away, her palm coming up to .

“Oh my goodness, Baekhyun, you’re so beautiful,” she breathed.

Baekhyun smiled shyly and reached around, scratching the back of his head. His eyes crinkled in an adorable smile that melted her heart.

“Thank you,” he replied shyly. He glanced past her at Chanyeol. “Y-Yeollie?” His mother laughed and grabbed the boy in a tight hug.

“This is my son, Chanyeol,” she said, pulling him over to where Chanyeol stood, still trying to clear the emotion from his eyes. “We’re from  two hours away. Where are you from, Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun glanced between the two of them, unsure. Chanyeol took a good look at his new roommate, and his mother was right. He really was beautiful. There was something in the unearthly beauty of his features at made Chanyeol freeze.

“I’m actually from Exo,” Baekhyun replied carefully.

His mother gasped and looked at him better. “Wow, that’s so fascinating! I didn’t know that students from your planet where enrolling in our schools yet!” She hugged him again and Chanyeol wanted nothing more than to put miles of distance between his mother and the alien.

“There are a few others that are attending this university,” Baekhyun replied, his bright smile again at the obvious acceptance she had for difference. “I’m glad you’re not uncomfortable. A few people have been sort of… Reluctant to adjust.”

“I’ve always been very open minded,” she replied. “I hope someday soon we can get together again and talk all about what life is like on your planet!” His eyes widened and he grabbed her arm gently in excitement.

“Maybe you can visit! It literally takes like three seconds to go through the portal and you’d arrive in the national park in the capitol! It’s very different.”

Chanyeol reached out and grabbed his mother, pulling her away from the alien and toward him. “Let’s not get carried away, it might not be safe.”

“It’s perfectly safe, nobody’s gotten lost or hurt the entire time it’s been functioning.”

“I didn’t mean the travel,” Chanyeol replied, eyeing the alien with clear dislike. “Are you going to help me unpack mom?”

“Oh, right,” she said, distracted by the task.

Baekhyun bit his lip and looked away from Chanyeol. “Do you want to be on the top or the bottom?” he asked.

“Bottom,” Chanyeol replied, suddenly not caring about being considerate at all. “I’ll take the bottom.”

“’kay!” Baekhyun replied, grabbing his bag off the floor and making his way up the small staircase to the platform his bed and desk was on. “It’s really nice here,” he mumbled. “I like the weather. It’s a bit colder on Exo, but it’s not totally unbearable.”

“Does it rain there?” his mother asked, glancing up at Baekhyun as she took Chanyeol’s clothes out of his suitcase and folded them neatly.

“It rains, but it’s not the same as here,” Baekhyun leaned over the rail around his loft. “Rain is really bad. It comes down very hard, but it doesn’t rain often. It’s one of the natural disasters that killed so many people. Rain and wind storms that knocked out the power in the winter and people froze to death.”

“Oh how terrible,” she replied, eyes knitted together in distress.

“It took nearly a decade to get back on track, but most of the technology and stuff survived. It was just a matter of waiting for the ice to melt.”

“Does it snow?”

“Snow?” Baekhyun glanced at her in confusion. “The white stuff that’s really cold?” At her nod he chuckled. “Nope. But there are wind storms which are pretty annoying sometimes. One time I got stuck outside in the wind storm and got a concussion because I was thrown in the wall of the house.”

“Oh my!”

“Yeah, my dad had to run out and save me,” Baekhyun laughed. “It was stupid, I was just trying to save our family pet that was outside and I end up getting a concussion. But the pet wasn’t in the least bit injured. I held her against me and got hurt instead.”

“Awwww you’re just too sweet, Baekhyunnie!”

Chanyeol glared briefly at his mother and cursed her bleeding heart. She was bonding with the alien, and it creeped him out. He hung his jeans and dress clothes up in the closet by his bed and started unloading his knickknacks on his desk as they made idle chitchat about the differences between Exo and Earth. He talked about Exo like it was heaven. If it was so great, why did he even leave?

“Well, you’re all moved in, son.” Chanyeol glanced over his shoulder to see that his mother had arranged all of his clothes in his dresser, color coded and everything. “Don’t let your laundry get nasty,” she said, coming close to him and running her fingers through his hair. “I know you’re a man, but you’re more than capable of doing you own laundry.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Chanyeol replied, smiling a little. “I won’t be gross.”

“And study hard,” she said, pinching his ear. “You worked hard to get a scholarship, don’t blow it by going to college parties and picking up loose girls.” There was a quiet giggle from the loft and Chanyeol glared over to see the alien peeking over the rail at them. “You’ll make sure he studies, right, Baekhyun?”

“I’ll do my best, Ms. Park!”

“Good boy,” she let go of Chanyeol’s ear and hugged him tight. “Get settled in. I can find my way out. Make friends with your roommate. I want you to bring him home for the weekend in a few weeks.” She glared at him sternly. “He’s so skinny he could do with a home cooked meal.”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes and hugged her tight, not wanting to let her go. When he finally released her, he was fighting back tears again. She bid them both goodbye and left him there with the alien.

“Your mom is really sweet,” Baekhyun said quietly.

“Yeah, don’t talk to me,” Chanyeol replied, grabbing his headphones and backpack off the desk, moving onto the bed.

The alien didn’t speak again, and Chanyeol didn’t bother to look at see the alien’s reaction. Did it even have feelings? Chanyeol grabbed his cell phone. Three missed calls from Kris and a text.

“You get to campus yet? Lunch?”

“Yeah I’m here. And you’ll never guess what I get for a roommate.”

“No , you got one of those Exo alien things, too? Mine’s name is Jongin. Yours?”

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol sighed and glanced up at the loft above his bed. “Of all the roommates I could have ended up with, I didn’t expect this.”

“Me either. But it’s alright. Jongin’s kind of cool. He plays video games.”

Chanyeol snorted at phone. Leave it to his best friend to make friends with an alien on his first day. He was one of those rare humans that actually looked as physically awesome as all those freaks did, so maybe that was his deal.

“I was gonna go to the cafeteria for some food. You going?”

“Depends, you bringing your new friend?”

“Well, he has to eat, too, and we’re all freshmen. Bring your roommate too.”

“I’m not really hungry,” Chanyeol’s stomach growled as he typed the lie, but he didn’t care to have lunch with a bunch of aliens.

“Maybe next time,” Kris responded.

“,” he muttered, stretching out on his bed.

A tousled black hair peeked over the edge of the loft and glanced down at him. “I was going to take a shower, do you want to use the bathroom first?”

“Nope, knock yourself out,” Chanyeol replied, rolling over and pushing his head under the stiff university-provided pillow.

There was a soft pitter-patter of feet tip-toeing down the stairs of the loft and Baekhyun disappeared into the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his neck.

Chanyeol groaned and wondered how he’d get through the next few months living in the same room as an alien.