My Brother From Another Planet

Jungkook and Taehyung were putting their video game consoles on fire. They were playing their favorite game of Alien Extinction. Since day one, this was the most interesting piece of things Taehyung had found in Jungkook's room. He would laugh at how ridiculous the human beings imagined aliens to look like. As amusing it was to him, the more unbelievable it was to Jungkook that the boy sitting next to him could be the thing he was shooting in the game.

It was the weekend, what meant that their game time would be cut short. Aunt and uncle were coming over for a garden party, which meant their weird cousin Namjoon to be present as well. Weird in the meaning of two young boys, who found the older adult too serious for their own liking. What was funny, however, was that he was only acting mature, to look somewhat apart from the two goofs of brothers, because he had to give out the image of a responsible and reliable adult. Nonetheless, the boys liked to make his life a living hell whenever they could.

"Jungkook, Taehyung!" their mother called out from downstairs. "Come and help your father with the grill!"

None of them reacted. They were too busy, killing off Taehyung's relatives in a video game.

The younger had his tongue sticking out from the corner of his lips, while the older had been glaring at the TV screen and punching the buttons so hard, he'd be getting blisters all over his fingers. It was a big misfortune to Jungkook, ever since Taehyung got a hang of playing the game, because he was way too quick in reaction and action. He saw the villains come before they were fully on the screen and was first to kill them with his weapon. He even mastered the hardest combos not even Jungkook could get a hang of after playing it for years. Perhaps it was an alien ability.

The screen suddenly went pitch black. The boys yelped in distress and panicked. In a moment of complete dispair, they spotted their younger sister standing next to the TV with a electrical cord in her hand. It was unplugged.

"Butthole!" Jungkook cursed at her.

"Yein!" Taehyung whined.

"Mom said something, freaks," Yein said proudly, waving the cord in her hand. "Go work," she said, smiling devilishly.

Jungkook glared at her, while Taehyung was on the verge of crying. Jungkook grabbed Taehyung by the shoulder and they stood up together. Jungkook had to bite into his tongue not to swear aloud at his little sister, however Taehyung didn't hold back. As exiting their room, Taehyung stick out his middle finger and flipped the younger off. The bad influence of the rebellious cousin of theirs.

"Mom!" Yein widened her eyes and started to run pass them, trying to race them into the kitchen, where the head of the family was situated.

Jungkook and Taehyung shared a look, as if both knowing the outcome of their sister complaining to their mother and they started to chase after her.

It was too late. Yein had already told on Taehyung's inappropriate gesture, provoking the two brothers more.

"Taehyung, what did I tell you about these things?" their mother sighed at the sight of them. Her hands were covered in the grill marinade. "I don't want vulgar things spoken or made in my house, are we clear?" she said and raised her eyebrows at both of the boys, who only glared at their sister. However, the mom of the family turned to Yein, giving her the same look, meaning those words to each member of the family.

"Hey boys," their father entered the scene with a big foil tray in his hands. "I haven't seen you since the morning. Were you playing?"

"Yes," the two replied in union.

"Oh my, you two really are like twins," the father laughed and shook his head.

 

"CPR, dummy," Namjoon corrected Jungkook as they hovered over the lifeless body of a boy, which Namjoon had fished out of the back yard pool.

"Is he dead?" Jungkook asked, scanning the young boy in front of him. What was he doing in his pool? He didn't look anything like one of his friends.

"I hope not," Namjoon said, suddenly very scared. He started touching the boys vital spots, the neck and the wrists, however he seemed not to be able to find any pulse. Hence he tried his breathing, he placed a finger under the boy’s nose and finally he felt a light breeze coming from his nostrils. "He's breathing," Namjoon exclaimed relieved.

"What do we do?" Jungkook asked.

"I'll go get a towel. Wait here," Namjoon said and quickly returned to the house.

Jungkook, left alone with the stranger boy, he was kneeling by his body. Copying Namjoon's experienced actions, he put a finger under the boys nose as well and he felt the breath tickle the side of his index finger just very lightly. He touched the boys forehead, pushing few strands of damp hair out of his face and he felt a very cold skin under his palm. Even the structure of his skin felt so different than Jungkook was familiar with. It was smooth, almost slippery. To find any difference, Jungkook touched his own forehead at the same time and there he felt more structure. A little roughness and a little tickling feeling of the small hair and pores and everything there had been.

He leaned closer, inspecting the drowned boy and there was something really interesting in his face. It was nothing like Jungkook has ever seen. His face was so well made, that it almost seemed perfectly even. Not even a girl was that evenly faced, not even Jieun, the neighbor girl.

Inches away from the other boy's face, Jungkook was trying to pull his eyelids apart to open his eyes. Suddenly the boy opened both of his eyes and headbutted Jungkook. The kid flew back to sit, holding the painful spot on his face that just met with the stranger's head. He winced in pain and curled into a defensive ball, while the other boy just sat there, confused and shaken.

"Namjoon!" Jungkook called out after realizing that the boy just woke up. The boy jolted at the loud sound of Jungkook's voice and covered his ears in the process. He was staring the the boy with wide, shocked eyes, almost frightened. Jungkook slowly put his hand down from his hurting forehead and looked at the boy straight in the eyes. Two pairs of almost translucent grey eyes. "Who are you?" Jungkook asked.

The boy raised a hand from his ear toward Jungkook, trying to make contact. There was something shocked, frightened, confused in the stranger's eyes. Somewhat it seemed as if he has never seen Jungkook. It was probable, but why was he looking as if he hadn't seen a human, whatsoever?

"Jungkook, what's wrong?" Namjoon came trotting out of the house, stopping mid-step as he saw the boy reaching out for Jungkook. "Are you okay?" Namjoon asked Jungkook.

"Yeah," he said, however the bright red bruise on his forehead said otherwise. "He headbutted me," Jungkook admitted and rubbed at the pulsating spot on his forehead.

Namjoon put the towel around the boy, however he jolted away from it and crawled to his feet, running a little farther from them. Jungkook stood up instantly, shocked by that action. Namjoon and Jungkook stood side by side, watching the weird kid in front of them, who was covering both of his ears still.

"Hey," Namjoon tried to search for the right words, "boy. What's your name?" The boy only stared at them silently. "Where are you from?" Namjoon tried again, still no answer. "Do you think he is deaf?" he whispered to Jungkook.

"Definitely not," Jungkook spoke from previous experience. "Maybe he can't speak," he suggested and looked up at his cousin. It was time for some miming.

Namjoon made a step forward and pointed toward himself. "Rapmon," he said softly. He was pointing a finger at his chest, coming step by step closer to the intruder. "I am Rapmon. He," he pointed at Jungkook, "Jungkook." He pointed at himself, repeated his name again, then pointed at Jungkook and repeated his name. The boy slowly uncovered his ears and looked at the two boys. He blinked confused before pointing at Namjoon, then at Jungkook, then finally at himself.

"V," he said.

"'Scuse me?" Namjoon chocked, coughing it off.

"V," he repeated, pointing at himself again. Namjoon cleared his throat ridiculed, but decided to put away the weirdness.

"What is your last name?" he asked again. The boy tilted his head in confusion. Namjoon sighed and pointed at himself again. "Kim, Namjoon," he said and pointed at Jungkook. "Jeon, Jungkook," he said and pointed at the third boy.

"V," the boy said simply, blinking his eyes in confusion.

"What a weird nickname. Who would name themselves with a letter?" Jungkook scoffed.

"Shush," Namjoon hushed the younger and waved him off. "Where are your parents?" Namjoon tried to communicate again, event though the faith has slowly started to spill out between his fingers. The boys stared at him with no response again. "," Namjoon mumbled, making Jungkook widen his eyes. "Where is your mother? Mom? Mama?" Namjoon experimented.

"Mama?" the boy, V, mumbled confused.

"Yes, your mama. Where is she?" Namjoon suddenly felt like he can finally get some answers.

"Mama," V pointed to the sky. Namjoon and Jungkook suddenly felt heavy misery drop on them. His mother is probably dead.

"And your papa?"

"Mama, papa," V nodded his head still pointing at the sky.

"Your parents are in Heaven?" Jungkook asked, taking a step forward, stepping in front of Namjoon. The other boy suddenly smiled and took a brave step forward as well. Jungkook seemed taken aback, but stepped forward again and the boy copied him. "What?" Jungkook pulled his head back in confusion.

"What?" the other boy did the same, even imitating Jungkook's dumb expression.

"Hey," Jungkook called out. "Being a copy cat is not nice," Jungkook warned him.

"Hey," the other boy imitated. "Biingapikatsnotice," V grinned at the end.

"He is copying you," Namjoon spoke breathlessly.

Jungkook tried doing some kinds of weird motions to test the strange boy. As expected, the boy followed his movements, although it seemed like he was having fun, because he was laughing out loud. Namjoon watching that scene from afar, well, take away all the strange occurrences and it would look as if it was a normal behavior between kids of the same age. As if they knew each other...

 

Jungkook was flipping chicken wings on the grill with some tools, while Taehyung carried a long garden table out of the storage room all by himself. They were asked to help out their father, yet as soon as they came to the patio, the old man was nowhere to be found. Their mother was preparing some refreshments inside the house and Yein was bouncing around the garden with Kkanji. It seemed as if the two boys were the only ones working at this point. Both Jungkook and Taehyung as well felt intimidated by this, especially Yein and their father, however the old man was not present, which made their younger sister the only target of their frustration.

First everything went peaceful, quiet, only the radio played some famous pop-songs from the kitchen’s opened window. Few screeches were audible as Taehyung managed the table with all the chairs around it. The light sizzling sound was accompanied by the amazing smell of Mrs. Jeon’s famous chicken grill marinade as Jungkook flipped over to grill them evenly. Eventually, this ultra quiet afternoon was disturbed by a little intruder, annoying and blood sipping leech of the name Yein. She, done nothing all afternoon, found it the right place to relax and cool down in the pool. So she did, with an entrance of a Canon ball, splashing water to every side of the back yard. Jungkook only felt few drops hit him on the bare arms, but Taehyung got a near shot. He even faced the pool prior, probably sensing that something was about to go down. Clothes dripping with water, hair damp and plastered to his face. The boy looked like a walking fountain. Without hesitation Jungkook took a glance, being more shocked than angry at his sister, however he felt sorry for his Brother. Yes, sorry, although there was something immensely hilarious about the whole drenched rooster kind of look and he couldn’t keep his laughter in anymore.

“Oh shucks, sorry Taehyung,” Yein murmured as she swam to the side of the pool to grab onto the edge. She wore the frank but pretentious expression of apology, however Taehyung didn’t buy it. He was more than used to that act.

“You’re going to regret that,” Taehyung proclaimed and raised a finger in the air a determined grimace on his face. Jungkook’s face froze in reaction and Yein suddenly started speed-swimming as far as she could from the edge.

“V no!” Jungkook said, launching forward to stop his brother, but it was too late.

Taehyung was known for being fast and reckless, not giving his actions much thought before actually doing them. Just as now, he only jumped into the air and forward, creating a difficult angle to even aim for the pool and landed a perfect, sharp arrow into the water, making the water almost too still. In the next moment Yein’s head disappeared from the surface of the water in a hasty gasp for air and suddenly Jungkook felt helpless. What was going on?

“What is going on?” the mother came trotting out of the house, cleaning her hands on a towel, watching the pool intensely. Jungkook himself was not sure of the response he was supposed to give. Knowing Taehyung for years now, he was sure he wasn’t dangerous, although he was clearly unpredictable. And he might held few secret surprises for the Jeon family as one of his kind. “Yein?” the mother quickly knelt down by the side of the pool, searching for any evidence of her daughter’s well-being.

Yein came out of the water, raised fists first, but that was not ending there. She was raising into the air, standing up straight on one leg, doing a weird cheerleader pose. Taehyung’s head followed bellow Yein’s feet as he was holding onto her, keeping her some support. They both had goofy smiles on their faces and those poses were ridiculous at the best. Both Jungkook and his mother let out a sigh of relief they didn’t know they were holding in. What were they expecting anyway? Taehyung wasn’t harmful.

“Stop playing around you two before anyone gets hurt,” she stated and walked back inside the house.

“Mom! Did you see my liberty pose?” Yein called out after her mother and tried to climb down from Taehyung’s shoulder to race after her mother.

Jungkook sat down at the edge of the pool, soaking his feet in the cool water and Taehyung soon swam closer. It was definite that the older was displeased with the last action of the younger, but what could he do? Those might have been instincts or something, however nothing happened, right? Taehyung folded his arms on the edge of the pool, pulling half of his body out of the water, but stayed inside. He was fully dressed, but soaking wet. He looked at Jungkook with a pleased smile, while the other has sighed heavily.

“You can’t do this V,” Jungkook started.

“What?” the other boy asked clueless.

“That,” Jungkook couldn’t find the right vocabulary to announce the word. “Look, having fun is ok, even aggressive fun as this was. But it gets a little… suspicious? Yeah, in your case,” Jungkook pointed out, choosing the most sensitive and remote words not to upset Taehyung in any way. He was way too sensitive when it came to his nature.

“Well, you can hit Yein, you can choke her, you can trip her…” Taehyung thoughtfully listed out all the deeds Jungkook has done to their sister so far and it was not the end of the list. “You can steal her stuff, you can make her cry, you can hurt her. You even pushed her down the stairs that once!” it came out excited, yet horrified and the younger looked at Jungkook with wide eyes. “You can’t be that harsh on Yein!”

“V, this is not the point,” Jungkook shook his head, trying to get all the bad things he has done out of it. “I’m her brother, we are siblings, by blood. It is not right, that’s true, but if I hurt her, she won’t... it won’t be so painful, you know.”

“I’m not going to hurt her Jungkook,” Taehyung promised and gave him the first ever serious look of the day. “I’m not going to hurt anyone. Maybe those who hurt you and my family, but I would never hurt humans that I love,” he insisted with all the meaning. He meant it and Jungkook knew it. “And we are brothers too, yet I would never push you down the stairs.”

“That was an accident,” Jungkook defended himself.

“Purposeful accident?” Taehyung pushed on, making Jungkook nervous. The older stood up and left the weird brother of his in the pool. “Hey! I remember you doing in purpose-accidentally!” he called out for the last time.

Soon the Kims arrived, warmly greeting with everyone. Namjoon’s mom strode right to Taehyung and started Play-Doh-ing his face with all the baby talk. Well yeah, Taehyung became a big attraction in the family. Namjoon shook hands with Jungkook, who, for the first time, didn’t mind the manly, adult approach. To say the least, all the degrading nicknames of a child Jungkook now downfall onto Yein and she became the sport, squirt, creep and all that. Jungkook felt proud of reaching this level.

“What’s up, squirt? How you doing with all the lady stuff?” Namjoon asked, grabbing Yein into a headlock. She protested at first, but everyone could tell she loved being the center of attention. Especially big cousin Namjoon’s.

“Fine,” she said and tried to break free. “I’ve joined the cheer team!” she bragged, making Jungkook and Taehyung roll their eyes. One thing that has been sipping in their blood the last month was Yein’s cheerleading team. That little leech knew exactly what the brothers hated and she made the best out of it. Soon there would be no blood in them and they will be empty body bags of human boy Jungkook and the weird brother of his Taehyung.

“You’ll be jumping around in miniskirts in front of all the grandpas of your classmates? That is something to be proud of,” Namjoon laughed, earning a warning look from his mother.

“She’s safe,” Jungkook showed up. “Who would want a bloody blood er anyway?” he laughed and Namjoon felt amused as well. That, as expected, offended Yein and she marched away, out of sight.

“Hey, how are you doing?” Namjoon asked.

“Doing good,” he said with a troubled undertone. “I’m failing math again. I’m worried I won’t pass the finals,” Jungkook said concerned.

“That’s a handful,” Namjoon puffed a heavy exhale out and thought for a moment. “You know, you can always ask for a tutor,” the older suggested.

“I don’t want a tutor. I’m not a retard,” Jungkook protested.

“Ho, ho, I’m not saying you are. It is normal for kids your age to get a tutor, especially for math class,” he admitted.

“Have you had problems with math too?” Jungkook questioned.

“No,” the cousin laughed. “I have never had trouble with math, what is hilarious,” they shared a laugh.

“The big RM is a math nerd, what a reveal! I should call the tabloids,”Jungkook joked and was hit on the shoulder by the older lightly. “Why don’t you tutor me then?”

“Sorry, man, I’m booked. I’m tutoring my classmates already,” Namjoon informed apologetically, when an idea came to his mind. “Why don’t you ask V to teach you?”

“V?” Jungkook asked puzzled for a moment and scanned the room for his brother, seeing him with two chicken wings sticking out of both corners of his mouth and a green straw with soda in the middle. “He knows math, all right, but he can’t explain it.”

“What do you mean?”

“He means that his system works on much more complex calculations than ours and he can calculate any problem in matter of a quick glance, but the numbers come naturally. He doesn’t need an explanation or the process of getting the final result,” Mr. Jeon entered the scene with complete light foot walk, gaining all the attention of the boys. But he was right. Taehyung’s mind is very much functioning on numbers. Mr. Jeon as physic professor did research of Taehyung right after his arrival and since then, after all the years passing, he had gotten many magnificent results. “He does not need to learn mathematical problems, just like you don’t have the need to learn your mother language. I’d say it is more important for him to count than speak,” Mr. Jeon assumed and rubbed on his chin, getting new ideas for research, seemingly.

“Thanks for the explanation dad,” Jungkook said as his father walked away the same way as he came. Undetected. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the weird one in this family.”

“Tell me about it,” Namjoon laughed. “Are you sure he is not hypnotizing them into some kind of insane coma?” he joked.

“Trust me, if that was one of his abilities, I’d be the one he’d try it on,” Jungkook chuckled himself and spotted Taehyung’s bouncing head behind Namjoon’s shoulder and as fast as it was approaching, Jungkook extended his arm to the side, getting a clean catch of the rushing Taehyung in his grasp.

“Nice catch,” Namjoon complimented with adoration.

“Thanks,” Jungkook smiled proudly and locked Taehyung in his embrace. The thinner one started to trash around, trying to break free from his brother’s arms, making weird noises and grimaces. “Where are you going without me?”

“Yein wants karaoke,” he said with a choked voice, even if there was no limb cutting him off of air.

“Are you her servant or something?” Jungkook laughed hushed and gave Taehyung a nut cracker on the head. “Come on, we’ll show them karaoke,” he suggested and his brother suddenly fell limp in his arms with a delighted grin on his face.