[Year 19 of Exile]

[Sehun]

“Yixing-hyung, have you seen Jen?”

“No, I haven’t.” Then, his tone turned dark. “Is something wrong?”

“Um,” I turned to look at Kai, who was hovering beside me and whose eyes kept darting around as students flooded the hallways. “We can’t find her.”

I heard a soft swear before he ordered us to teleport to him immediately.

“How is she missing?” He gruffed, looking up from his book as we landed softly in the empty chairs that shared his table. “Have you checked everywhere?”

We nodded, eyes downcast and somewhat ashamed at our inability to find the girl we had swore to protect with our lives.

“Then have you called her?” He closed his book and shoved it inside his bag before urging us to look at him. We nodded again and he sighed.

“She didn’t pick up, no matter how many times we called her.” Kai explained as he twiddled his thumbs and peered cautiously at our hyung. “It’s like she doesn’t want us to know where she is.”

“That girl…” Yixing-hyung pinched his nose bridge. “I wonder what happened for her to behave like this.”

Wouldn’t I want to know, hyung.

“She wasn’t very friendly this morning either.” Kai pointed out. “She opted to sit alone during the bus ride to school and that’s saying something.”

“Let’s inform the rest so we can do a massive search in the community.” We nodded and whipped out our phones to text our hyungs. “Are you two really sure that you have checked everywhere in the school, even the library? I don’t want to kick up a huge fuss only to find her safe and sound cooped up somewhere we ought to have looked in.” He frowned, eyes staring at us and I suppressed the urge to gulp.

Oops. Too late. “Well, we haven’t checked the library and some areas in school…” I timidly confessed as Yixing-hyung’s narrowed eyes bore down on me. “But I’ve already informed the hyungs…”

Just then, my phone rang and we all jumped at the sudden noise. I fumbled with it and was about to answer when a loud slamming of books echoed throughout the library and the scurrying of feet followed.

Well, that was weird. And I think I hear the librarian cursing.

“Phew, that was close.” I panted as I hurried down the large steps and towards the school buses. “If I stayed a little longer, I would have been found.”

I clutched the library book that I had hastily borrowed close to my chest and boarded one of the leaving buses. Scooting closer to the window, I leaned my head on the pane and stared outside at the passing streets.

It’s been a few days since I eavesdropped on the boys’ discussion in Kyungsoo’s kitchen. I was shocked to hear about that damned man associating with aliens and wanted to know more, so I googled about it online and I have to admit, I didn’t take his ambassador role too happily and probably broke a few pencils. Well okay, a box of pencils.

Anyway, the word ‘aliens’ struck a chord in me as I read the numerous online articles about him so I decided to check out the library for books that wrote about aliens. History books popped up in the search and I somewhat knew in my guts as to what might happen.

After all, it’s not everyday you get to hear from your own mother’s mouth that you’re the prophesied saviour of the world, where I probably might save us all from another impending alien invasion.

“Jen! Time for dinner!” Gramma hollered from below as I flipped the page to start a new chapter of the book I had borrowed. “Give me five more minutes!”

“Jen, get your down here this instant!” She shouted back and I groaned. Rubbing my bleary eyes, I shut the book and made my way down. Summer vacation starts tomorrow, so I guess I’d have all the time in the world to read that book. Don’t fret too much, Jen.

Sitting beside grandpa, I propped my head up with my palms and gazed fondly at gramma who was ladling soup into bowls and then turned to look at grandpa who was reading his newspaper intently. I’m glad that I have them. I wouldn’t know what I’d be now if it weren’t for them.

Just then, the back door burst open and Luhan ran in. His eyes darted madly around the kitchen before they landed on me and before I know it, I was swept into a sweaty hug. Contemplating whether to return the hug (partly