Kyungsoo doesn’t mean to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom because he had one too many pieces of watermelon before bedtime. He doesn’t mean to over hear the sound of the television downstairs as he walks down the hall to head for the toilet. Maybe he is a little curious as to what the grownups watch late at night when the kids are all asleep. Maybe he could have just taken himself back upstairs and went back to bed. But he definitely doesn’t mean to have the image of a weird cockroach crittery alien thing digging into a bleeding school nurse’s ear burned into his memory as he dashes back to his room and buries himself under his blankets.

Kyungsoo’s mind is a jumbled mess as it races all night, thoughts chasing after one another. Aliens aren’t real. It’s just a movie. The nurse is actually a very nice lady. Kyungsoo screws his eye shut tight, fists clenched against his temples. He tosses and turns and finally falls into an uneasy sleep around four in the morning.

By the time Kyungsoo wakes up, he is pretty thoroughly convinced that the school nurse is an alien.

--

“Are you sure?” Youngjae asks, cookie crumbs off of his fingers.

“It was real! I saw it!” Kyungsoo says impatiently as he tries to explain to Youngjae that the school is in danger of an alien invasion. “This bug thingy went inside her ear and she was all wrinkly and things popped up on her face and it was aliens!”

“Are you gonna eat that?” Youngjae points at Kyungsoo’s peanut butter ritz bits.

“That’s not important right now!” Kyungsoo huffs, stamping his foot. “If we don’t do something now, the aliens are going to take over the world!”

Youngjae takes his crackers anyways.

“The world is ours! Nobody takes over the world except us!”

Kyungsoo tries to snatch his bag of ritz bits back.

“Okay, okay,” Youngjae concedes. “I’m listening.”

“First, we need to find her spaceship. Or her alien weapon things and all that stuff.”

“And then?” Youngjae asks, munching on a cracker.

“We need to destroy it!” Kyungsoo punches a fist into his palm.

--

“But it’s cheeseburger day,” Youngjae grumbles as Kyungsoo leads him down the hall, dragging him by the hand.

“This is more important than cheeseburgers,” Kyungsoo states firmly, glancing around the corner to check that no teachers are patrolling the halls. “If aliens take over, there isn’t gonna be any cheeseburgers.”

“I guess,” Youngjae sighs, glancing back wistfully at the cafeteria doors.

“Look, this is the nurse’s office,” Kyungsoo points to the office entrance. He releases Youngjae’s hand and leans into the door, hands placed on either side of his head. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Maybe aliens eat lunch too?” Youngjae suggests, tiptoeing to try to look in through the window. But the window is located some three feet above him so he gives up.

Kyungsoo reaches for the handle and quietly, carefully opens the door.

Youngjae peeks inside first. It’s empty.

Both boys slowly enter the office. Kyungsoo lightly closes the door.

“Okay,” Youngjae says. “What are we looking for?”

“Anything weird or alien-y. Maybe something silver like spaceships?” Kyungsoo pulls open the bottommost drawer of a filing cabinet.

“Mm,” Youngjae nods, heading over to the nurse’s desk. He opens a drawer and digs around. Nothing but papers.

“Look!” Kyungsoo whispers excitedly, waving Youngjae over to a white cabinet full of medical supplies. Youngjae walks over to where Kyungsoo is crouched on the ground and peers over his shoulder.

“It must be some alien laser thing,” Kyungsoo says, lifting up a diagnostic penlight. Youngjae takes the pen and flips it over a few times before handing it back.

“Weird,” Youngjae nods before heading back to the desk. He pulls out the chair and climbs on top, rifling through papers and peering inside the pencil cup. Youngjae is just about to reach over and check out the computer when Kyungsoo calls for him again. As he turns to look over his shoulder, Youngjae’s elbow knocks over a bottle of coke.

“Woops,” Youngjae says, jumping off the chair and picking the drink back up. He places the bottle back where it fell from and heads over to Kyungsoo.

“What? Did you find something else?”

“Yeah look!” Kyungsoo is about to show Youngjae something when both of their heads snap up in the direction of the door.

The doorknob is jiggling.

The nurse is back!

Kyungsoo and Youngjae glance at each other, fear and panic in their eyes. Youngjae quickly looks around, thinking fast, and drags Kyungsoo under the resting cot.

Shh! Youngjae motions Kyungsoo.

The door swings open and the nurse walks in carrying a plastic grocery bag. She sets it on her desk and heads over to the coat closet, taking off her jacket along the way. While her back is turned toward them, Kyungsoo counts to three with his fingers and both boys crawl as fast as they can towards the exit. They both stand up very slowly and very quietly make their exit as the nurse hangs her jacket and closes the closet door.

“That was close!” Youngjae exclaims as they head back in the direction of the cafeteria.

“Yeah! That was so scary!” Kyungsoo agrees, breathing a sigh of relief. “What if we got caught?”

Youngjae wrinkles his nose. He doesn’t want to think about stuff like that.

“But we didn’t really find anything,” Kyungsoo frowns, sticking out his lower lip. “We’re gonna have to do some more digging.”

“Oh well,” Youngjae shrugs. “Hey! Maybe we still have time for a chee…”

“Ahh!”

Youngjae and Kyungsoo jump, startled, as they look back towards the door they just came out from.

The nurse rushes out through the door, a dark coke stain blossoming over her white uniform, calling for paper towels.

“Lots of paper towels! Hurry!”

a/n:  im sorry guys ㅠㅜ im having a really hard time finding the motivation to write lighthearted happy things right now. i think i have winter blues. all i can think of are angstangstangst. its actually kind of really depressing. ANGST PLOTS ARE CRIPPLING MY LIFE. but im trying >.< have patience with me please. thank you for your kindness <3 btw the movie i am referring to here is the faculty. the scene where salma hayek gets attacked. i love that movie.