“Can you please just calm down?” Baekhyun asked staring up to Luhan.

“When Suho finds out you told them you better take all the blame. I’m not cleaning this up for you.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes towards Jinhee who was complaining to Kyungsoo about keeping secrets from her.

“I’ll have you know that the way you people go about running your planet is absolutely outrageous. Don’t your people need to know? Don’t you think I needed to know?!” She practically hollered at Kyungsoo who was half paying attention half preparing that evening’s dinner.

Chanyeol made a sour expression, “Who is she to talk to authority like that?” He spat feeling rage build up in him. “And why is Kyungsoo tolerating it?”

“Let her be. She’s upset” Luhan said in Jinhee’s defence, “You know how Kyungsoo is with these sorts of things. It doesn’t faze him like you.” Chanyeol shook his head staring.

“Do Kyungsoo are you even listening to me?!” Kyungsoo threw his head up from thinking immediately,

“Don’t say my full name like that. You should have more respect.” Jinhee coward back bitterly, “I understand what you are trying to say, and believe me Luhan and I wanted to tell you about the war that is to come, but we were told not to by Suho. Now if you wouldn’t mind I need to run out and grab -an extra serving for dinner since your oh-so-delightful cousin will be joining us.” Kyungsoo slid from behind the kitchen counter and started towards the door.

Jinhee hopped off her stool and ran after him, “Kyungsoo can I come?” She asked still jogging to his side. He paused looking at her, “I know you want me to stay here where I’m safe but I haven’t been out in a week. Let me go to the cafe for an hour and see Seongyeon and Seungri.”

Kyungsoo bit the inside of his cheek. “You have to promise you won’t tell them any of this.” Seongyeon nodded following Kyungsoo out.

---

Upon arriving at the cafe Jinhee ran to the front counter and greeted her friends cheerfully. “Jinhee, only an hour.” Kyungsoo called from the front door. “Seungri knows how to contact me if anything goes wrong.  I’m running to the market.” The three girls waved good bye to Kyungsoo on his way out.

Seungri opened to welcome Jinhee back to the shop when her sister cut in. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THE PAST WEEK?!” Jinhee laughed.

“I’ve been –“ oh . “I’ve been working elsewhere. Kyungsoo decided I didn’t fit this position at this cafe so he moved me across the planet.” Seongyeon started her spasm of questions, which Jinhee answered with smiles.

The three of them sat around the bar counter talking for half an hour before Seongyeon remembered about the Hwanggeum incident. “What happened to your cousin? Kyungsoo went running out of here after getting a call about her,”

“She um – she-“ Jinhee searched her mind for an excuse, “I actually don’t know what happened. She didn’t tell me” Really that’s the best you could come up with, Jinhee? She groaned in her head. Seongyeon nodded suspiciously.

Lucky for Jinhee, Seongyeon didn’t dwell on the situation for so long and was quick to change the subject. “I have something to show you!” She squealed excitedly dragging Jinhee to the front corner of the cafe.

“Really Yeonnie?” Seungri called with a laugh in her voice. Seongyeon stuck out her tongue displaying a photo of herself on the wall. That read underneath Employee of the Month. Seongyeon stood with pride, eyes sparkling widely at Jinhee. Jinhee stifled a laugh, smiling and nodding in approval.

The two girls sat in front of Seongyeon’s photo leaving Seungri to read an old manga she had found and recently been engulfed in. In the midst of the conversation a small chime rang through the cafe.  A man tall and muscular strut into the cafe followed by a boyish teenager following close behind.

The first man to intrude on the quiet cafe mumbled to his partner then made his way separately to towards the front counter while the other found a table. He stood patiently at the cashier. Seeing how oblivious Seungri was to the presence of the man Jinhee stood up from the table.

“I’ll take this one. I sorta miss working here.” She smiled down at Seongyeon who nodded her off.

Jinhee hurried behind the counter and stepped into character. “Hello” She said cheerfully, “Welcome to Bubble Tea, can I take your order?” The man stood for a second examining her.

“You wouldn’t happen to be Jun Seungri would you?” He asked in a deep raspy voice that matched his appearance. He was taller than Jinhee by quite a bit, it was intimidating. His eyes were round and white blonde hair covered his head.  Jinhee shook her head trying hard not to look in Seungri’s direction. “Does she work at this cafe?” Jinhee nodded quietly. The man stood tall, “Well?” He pressed for more information. “Can you point her out for me?” Jinhee looked over at Seungri,

“T-that’s her.” She stuttered. The man thanked her and walked over to Seungri. Jinhee was stuck in her place with a mixed emotion of confusion and fear. She could pick up faint murmurs that the man was saying to Seungri but not enough to make out words or phrases.

As subtly as she could Jinhee was looking over at Seungri, whereas not so subtly Seongyeon was full on staring in curiosity. After a couple minutes of back and forth talk between the two Seungri pulled the man back into Kyungsoo’s office after being interrupted by Seongyeon’s curiosity and awkward offering of bubble tea. 

Jinhee was making her way back to Seongyeon’s table when Kyungsoo peaked his head in the door.  “Jinhee.” He called waving his hand for her to follow him. Jinhee puffed her cheeks looking at Seongyeon. Jinhee mouthed a goodbye trying not to ruin the stillness that had fallen on the cafe and chased after Kyungsoo.

Jinhee walked along Kyungsoo’s side, “Kyungsoo, “ She called softly, Kyungsoo acknowledged her with a small grunt, “Do you know who that man was? He doesn’t look like the majority of the population.” Kyungsoo remained silent. “Kyungsoo, do you know who he was?”

He nodded clearing his throat, “That was a Matonian leader.” The sentence was simple and to the point leaving Jinhee with a million questions.

“Then why was he here?” She asked begging for more answers.

“You should know better than to ask questions you don’t want to know the answers too.” Kyungsoo replied sternly. Jinhee recognized this is not ground she should be walking on and left her questions alone.

---

Hwanggeum talked peacefully with Sehun and Kai. She had finally finished decorating her room and was telling Sehun and Kai every little detail of every band posted on her wall.

“Oh and this one, oh they are such s to each other, but you can tell they are true brother.” She said up on her toes pointing to a Teen Top poster in the high left corner of her wall.

“Aren’t these bands like over a thousand years old?” Sehun asked noticing the faded colours and tattered edges. Hwanggeum just looked up at her messy collage. “And you’re never going to see them in concert because they are long gone now. Why do you still obsess over these people?” Hwanggeum sat back on a stack of flattened boxes.

“Who wouldn’t want to obsess over them? It’s a completely different world when you think about it. A different age of music and dance, fashion and culture. You watch it all evolve and it’s like you are actually living with them.” Sehun watched Hwanggeum’s side profile as she drifted off into her own daydreams.

Kai bit back a laugh, “You’re technically in love with men that are older than those who built the space capsule that allowed humans to travel out of the solar system. Isn’t that kind of past being a pedofile?” Hwanggeum laughed with the two of them.

Interrupting their laughter the phone rang. “I got it.” Kai said walking towards the phone that was built into Hwanggeum’s wall.

“So tell me more about this band here.” Sehun said pointing to a band with scary orange rounding the pupils of their eyes. Hwanggeum smiled, “They don’t really look like the rest of your beloved idols.”

“That’s VIXX. This was an otherworldly concept.” Sehun’s face twisted into a weird arrangement of emotions. 

“I don’t look like this. What kind of world were they trying to mimic?! I have yet to see any civilizations with glowing orange globes for eyes. Or at least not one of Homo genus decent.”

“Sehun we have to go. We have a meeting with the elder.” Kai broke in after hanging up the phone. “Also VIXX was named after the first Homo genus decent organism to leave their own solar system. Some astronomer named them VIXX and only the richest people knew about them.”

Sehun looked dumbfounded by Kai exposing elders to Hwanggeum, “I already told her. Don’t get your in a bunch. You think she wouldn’t find out living in this house.” Sehun held his bottom lip between his mouth keeping himself silent.

Hwanggeum didn’t know how to react to the sudden flood of information, “How do you know that stuff about VIXX?” She asked flipping her legs in Kai’s direction ignoring Sehun’s presence.

The tanned boy replied, “I’m full of fun facts.”  With a wink he signalled Sehun to follow him out the door.

Sehun caught a small blush on Hwanggeum’s cheeks before waving goodbye and exiting.  

“She’s really growing fond of you.” Sehun hissed in jealousy. Kai laughed at Sehun’s frustration. “You know you are going to get us in trouble with the amount of stuff you tell her. What happens if Suho finds out? Both of us are done for.” Kai hushed his younger,

“Don’t let your heart talk for you. I have no doubt that Jinhee will know soon if she doesn’t already.” Kai hurried down the hall taking sharp turns with Sehun at his side.

The two of them entered a large room in the building where the meeting was being held. Sehun opened the door in front of him letting a thick rumble of leaders’ voices. He took his seat beside Kai and waited for instructions from Suho.

“Quiet now, quiet, please.” Suho cut silencing the room.

“Why aren’t the Matonians here?” Xiumin asked bluntly noticing their absence.

“The elder requested only the twelve of us gather today.” He answered leaving confused looks all around the room.  “They should be here any time. Is there anything in particular that comes above the basic information the elder needs to know?”

Baekhyun raised his hand, “We need to notify the elder of the Tedikian attacks and Hwangge and Jinnie.” Chen smacked the back of the smaller’s head.

“Duh. Suho’s talking about stuff other than that. Like how the planet’s actually doing.” BAekhyun faked a punch back rubbing the back of his head with a pout sitting on his lips.

“How is it doing?” Chen asked right after.

Suho rummaged through a stack of papers laying on the podium before him.  “I notified the planet of danger.” He said calmly, of course the leaders already knew of this. “But no one seemed to be taking any measures to prevent danger from coming. So, I asked for volunteers for the start of our military.” All eleven leaders were quiet and attentive staring up at Suho. “1 706 volunteers.”

Chanyeol smiled dopely. “That’s good!” he exclaimed clapping his hands together. Suho shook his head. “That’s not good? Why is that not good?” Suho sighed placing the papers down.

“That number is not high enough taking into consideration our population. Our planet is big, and the population follows suit. We need at least one million soldiers to maintain a proper army force.”

Kyungsoo’s mouth dropped open while Chanyeol’s fell into an ’o’ “Don’t you think that is a tad excessive” He asked doe-eyed.  Suho shook his head once again.

“The bigger the army the better are our chances of surviving against the Tedikians.”  All the leaders thought about Suho’s words. It really looked like their planet was coming to an end. Everyone sat in fear, not only would their planet be overtaken by Tedikians, but under their rule.

“Suho we can’t m-“ Yixing started before the door softly creeked behind them. All tweleve pairs of eyes fled to the back door. The doorknob twitched turning a full rotation and letting the doors fly open.

Swifter than a fox a black clothed man glided up to the podium. Suho ran to his seat knowing it was no one other than the elder. The quick movements and change of attire shocked the leaders. They had never encountered the elder in such a fast pace.

It stood looking out at the crowd. “Leaders.” It called. Rough and horse voice cracking midsentence into a beautiful women’s voice. All the leaders stood in awe mouths a gap and eyes wide. “The time has come for urgent measures.” The womanly voice overpowered that of the rough decent. The sound was almost sad and fragile.

“Would you like to hear what progress we have made?” Suho interrupted.

“Don’t interrupt me.” The elder’s voice screeched much like a hawk.  Suho whimpered to himself backing down. “We don’t have much time.” The elder scanned the anxious leaders’ faces. “You know what danger our planet is in and now I must go. I leave you twelve responsible for what happens to the planet for I will not be around any longer.” Its voice was becoming rapid and sounded frightened.

“What’s going on?” Kris asked getting impatient.

“In order for the planet to survive I must die.” Cried the elder.  This was the most human state any of the leaders had seen an elder. “I must give myself to all of you in order for you to fulfill the legend.” The hooded face hung towards the ground and it gave a heavy cough.

“But –“

The elder shrieked, “Take care of the girls. You need them to survive.” The twelve leaders watched the elder shake viciously. They heard it whisper, “I don’t want to die. I’ve lived to long to die.” The elder brought its head up as if it was looking straight to the back wall and everything was silent. “Goodbye.” It said happily and the cloak fell to the ground.

Black smoke came up from the hood of the cloak pouring over an invisible wall and pooling at the leaders feet. Many leaders sat shocked while others hesitantly reached out to let the smoke dance across their fingers.

Luhan dipped his hand down in a cup form forcing some of the smoke upwards closer to his face. There was no specific smell to this gassy substance, but it felt almost heavy. The smoke twirled in his palm and glided around the area he had captured it with. It did not spread into a bigger mass but instead s around his bare forearm under his clothes.

When Luhan looked around the smoke wasn’t dissipating like one would expect but doing the same to the other leaders. The smoke wrapped itself around the leaders’ bodies encasing them in a black coat of gas. Then all at once it vanished.

Luhan looked to Sehun and Kai who were whispering about the event that just happened. We are alone now. He thought to himself. At the young ages of nineteen to twenty three and they were left to rule this planet in a time of war. Alone.

*A/N: WAAH, I'm sorry I was gone for like ... three weeks randomly. I was really hammering down on my dances and then went into a VIXX coma followed by an Infinite coma... Also just recently started watching dramas so that's very time consuming. Please forgive me.

Happy reading, Ship on

-Aurelia