Reality; in simple definition, are everything which are existent to all five human senses; vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Reality is what one wakes up to from sleep every morning; the sun in their face is reality, the ground their feet will touch is reality. Yet, it’s problematic, granted that there exist certain things which lie beyond the limit of human senses and understanding. For examples; phantom entities, illusory smells, currents and sound waves which are not visible to human eyes, and in some cases, are not in the limit of human audible range. Although they may appear vividly real, they are mostly considered as not a part of reality. Reality can be equated to what appears as existential to a sufficiently large group of people, ruling out cases of subjective hallucinations. Reality is stubborn; resistant. One could stop believing the existence of certain matter, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t exist. It can also be the other way around where one could believe a certain matter to exist, but in reality, it doesn’t. As a certain science fiction author put it; ‘Just because I believe there is a jam doughnut in front of me, doesn’t mean there actually is one’

Sung Gyu is confused; however. He doesn’t know what really his case is; whether there is a certain extraordinary entity existing in his house and he refuses to believe in it, or whether there really isn’t one but he believes there is. The truth of the matter is this; Sung Gyu no longer clarifies what is real, and what isn’t.

After the silver suit man had threatened him with his strange, unknown weapon, Sung Gyu had to call off all his appointments because the man thereby adamantly threatened him that if he attempts to leave his home without agreeing to take him to the leader, he will have to forget that he ever had a home; and judging by the man’s penchant of destroying things (Sometime during that day, the man managed to break the kitchen tap as well as the coffee machine while in the process of understanding human concepts) Sung Gyu couldn’t bring himself to leave; hence voluntarily turning himself into a hostage in his own home. Right now, the only things he can pray for is for Eunji to not return home tonight. Sung Gyu has tried to call his mother when he found a few minutes to spare (the man fell asleep by the back door, yet Sung Gyu didn’t dare escape at the expense of his dear home) but she never picked up, so he assumed that she was mad at him for having cut off mid-conversation. He didn’t try calling his wife since he hasn’t properly apologized to her and also he didn’t want to worry her. But usually, after each of her escapades, she returns home by night the next day since she’s doing a demanding job which doesn’t allow her that many leaves from work; and Sung Gyu is pretty sure she might return home by night today. It’s still late afternoon, so Sung Gyu sends Eunji a message saying that he will not be at home and that she shouldn’t return, also that he will fix something to extend her leave from the hospital. He has to keep her away from home at all cost, or she’d also be imperilled to the man’s hostage business. Regarding the state-of-mind she must be in right now, it’s last of what he could allow happening to her.

Sung Gyu sits in a kitchen chair, sips a can of soda and thinks about everything that has transpired during that time. He vaguely feels that whatever has happened (if it is indeed an alien invasion, which is still a stupid concept in itself) has to have happened after what he remembers as the eccentric explosion the night before, the one which left large hues of hoary ringlets in the dark blue sky. A UFO crash, it occurs to him, and then he feels as if he’s in the same level of stupidity as the man who is currently staring at a cheese sandwich Sung Gyu has placed on a plate before him after he claimed he was having the strange sensation in his abdomen which requires feeding, what, according to the humonictionary, humans refer to as hunger. Sung Gyu stares down at the ‘Alien’ in his kitchen and sighs. If he thought his life is bad as it is, before, now he thinks its absolutely despondent.

“We do not have solid food in Terrania” the man exclaims as he stares at the sandwich, looking rather perplexed. Terrania is apparently the place that he has come from which Sung Gyu is sure doesn’t exist in the world map. “We only have it in liquid form for easy consumption?”

Sung Gyu sighs again and stands up to retrieve a packet of strawberry milk from the refrigerator. He near gives the packet with the straw on, but then decides against it and pours it into a glass. He doesn’t understand why he even do such things. It’s as if his rationale understanding has flown straight out of the window. His reality has changed. And in his new changed reality, apparently, there is an alien Envoy sitting in his kitchen.

“This is consumable liquid” Sung Gyu emphasises as he places the glass on the table. He returns to his own chair and gives the other a pointed look. If he has a so-called alien sitting in his kitchen, he might as well get to know what his alien world might be like. “So” he balances his chin on his folded hands. “Terrania, huh? So, what is this? A planet, or a country in a planet…or?”

The alien man looks down at the glass questioningly, and pulls out his humonictionary, most probably to understand how one drinks milk from a glass. Sung Gyu stands up, picks up his glass and demonstrates by drinking from the glass himself. “This is how humans consume liquid material”

The alien’s eyes widen in pure fascination, and Sung Gyu swears the swirly silver material grows larger in his eyes. “Interesting” says the alien and he too, carefully takes small sips from the glass. The moment the milk hits his taste buds, his fascination grows, his eyes glimmers in excitement, and he looks almost like a child. “It’s very tasteful. What plant is this from?”

Sung Gyu rolls his eyes. “It’s not from a plant. It’s from an animal called cow who produces milk in her Mammary glands to feed her offspring”

The alien tilts his head as he looks through his humonictionary. He holds it up, showing an image of a cow, one that seems to have been taken by a very high-end camera, and shakes his head. “It is not a species of human. Why do humans drink what’s made to feed the young of a different species? Do humans not possess Mammary glands?”

Sung Gyu cannot help but think that this alien indeed does make sense. He doesn’t want to admit it, of course. He’s an academic. He doesn’t want some alien creature to outsmart his intelligence. “Humans do have Mammary glands. But they only feed the young” he clarifies. “Anyway, enough about this. Tell me what your world is like”

The alien drinks his milk so ravenously, and once he’s done, he places the glass back on the table as Sung Gyu watches him expectantly. “Well…”

According to the alien, Terrania, the planet where he’s been originated in, is an uncountable amount of light years away, in a different galaxy apart from andromeda which, according to the IGPF (Inter Galactic Planetary Federation) is known as the Xenopheda. Terrania is a very small planet, so small that it can hardly home all the beings which are originated there, and are often rehomed in a mobile residence situated in the outer space which is run by the IGPF, therefore most aliens working for the organization are Terranians. As it happens, there are over five thousand recognized planets by the IGPF in the universe which are home to living beings. They are all very far away from each other, continuously distancing as the universe expands. The IGPF is an organization which has formed through the alliance of some of the most powerful populated planets of the universe, and continues to form alliances with all the populated planets until it builds a uniformity between them so that they could take necessary incentives as a unified group to fight the impending apocalypse. The universe keeps expanding; but according to the IGPF, it is also possible for the universe to vehemently start shrinking until yet again forms a stiff, infinite singularity which will remain for millions and millions of years until yet another explosion will conspire. What is known to the humans as the Big Bang, for the extra-terrestrials, is the apocalypse. So, the purpose of sending envoys is to pass this message among humans so that they could also form an alliance with the rest of the galactic members.

“So, there has been a several of us sent to planet earth” the alien says as he continues to drink his second glass of milk. “Each of us to different regions in the planet. Planet earth is comparatively large, and those who have previously analysed human behaviour had claimed that there seems to exist a notion where humans differentiate between each other based on certain aspects? Something that doesn’t exist in Terranians, or any other planetary beings, so it was difficult to comprehend. The purpose of the envoys is to bring the message of unity from the other planets so that together the apocalypse could be fought”

Sung Gyu decides that everything he’s heard so far are taken straight out of a science fiction. He doesn’t know to what extent everything is believable; yet the man’s lack of knowledge in very basic human things as well as his pure, childlike fascination seems to say something. Not to mention his strange space ship which is now buried under sand and also the unworldly mechanical objects and weapons which are in his possession. Sung Gyu studies the ordinary human being as a living, and in his expert knowledge he can say that no human being has the level of intellect to actually invent the kind of high tech objects and weapons that he has, at least not in the present.

“So” Sung Gyu leans over the table towards the other. “You’re saying that you’re an alien who has been sent from some Planetary alliance to convince the planet earth to join them so that the apocalypse can be fought together. Is that it?”

“Yea” the Alien replies distractedly, and now begins to poke at the sandwich. He looks up at the other hopefully, and Sung Gyu feels a tug at his heart. He looks like a child, with those shiny silvery eyes and full cheeks. Sung Gyu almost wants to pet him, if not for the weapons which are stuck to his waist. “How do you consume this solid square object, human?”

Sung Gyu laughs, throws his head back and laughs as much as he can as if he’s compensating for all the times he couldn’t have a good laugh in his constantly dull life. “It’s a sandwich, a sandwich” Sung Gyu says and reaches across the table to take a piece of bread before he carefully demonstrates how one eats it. The glint of fascination in his eyes return, and he too takes the other piece of bread into his hand. He bites into it, seeming quite unsure as Sung Gyu watches him, feeling like he’s training a puppy, and a satisfied smile appears on his lips when the other begins to chew loudly, opening his mouth so large that Sung Gyu sees a set of gleaming white teeth inside. He has teeth. Really good, clean ones at that. Why does he have teeth if they don’t eat solid food? So he asks him this.

“Because this isn’t really what I look like” The alien simply replies; and this time, its Sung Gyu’s chance to look fascinated, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. “Really?”

“Yea” says the alien, and makes a strange sound in attempting to swallow the food. He almost chokes, but somehow his instincts kick in that he manages to swallow it with a loud gulp. He looks at Sung Gyu with an expressionless face and says. “the small square objects in the mouth you use to rip the solid food-,”

“Teeth” Sung Gyu supplies.

“Yea. Terranians have no teeth. They have pores”

Pores. Sung Gyu gulps hard, feeling a chill down his spine. “So….” He mumbles in a small voice, a little terrified. “If this isn’t how you look, how do you look like?”

The alien nods in return then, stands up in the middle of the kitchen and presses both his palms onto his face, his fluffy dark hair falling against his pinkish fingers. A loud, ear pitching screech comes from the general direction of the alien, a static sound follows; Sung Gyu near falls off his chair, and then when the alien reappears, Sung Gyu covers his eyes with both his palms and looks through just his parted fingers, terrified if it’s a creature who’d be sufficiently similar to a massive slug. But then what stands before him is a gratifyingly beautiful creature, so unworldly and breath-taking, so much so that he drops both his hands back into his lap and stands up, staring in wonderment.

“Woah” he awes at him and takes a few careful steps towards the creature.

He must be mad, quite literally. There is no plausible explanation as to what which is now standing in the middle of his kitchen in all its exquisiteness and glory. He looks moderately human like; two hands with five fingers, two feet, well, he’s more or less the same as his human form. Cute, full cheeks and puppy-like. But he also has strangely beautiful features which intrinsically differs him from a human being; which makes him an alien. His pristine skin is incredibly pale, almost chalk white which, he doesn’t know if his eyes are playing tricks, but is glowing. His hair, or fur, he isn’t entirely sure, is soft, flowy and gleaming silver with a slightest touch of lavender like the twilight. His eyes, if they were specked of silver before, are now completely so, glowing like diamond stones, so mesmerizing that he almost wants to cry. He does have a mouth, though. A mouth, as it happens, only serves the purpose of speaking, and the lack of teeth somehow minimalizes the eccentric beauty it has. Sung Gyu grasps tightly onto the table for a few seconds, trying to compose himself, and the first thing he asks is; “W-where…are the pores?”

This, somehow, ends up as a big mistake. The alien nods, his slightly long silver hair shimmering elegantly in the late afternoon sun, and then he undoes the top clasp of his space suit, and well…it’s pretty much all that he remembers before he faints and falls flat on the floor.

Sung Gyu wakes up to the deadly quietness in the house, and when he does, he finds himself lying down on the marble of the kitchen floor, and through his narrowed eyes he realizes that it’s already the time of sunset. The sunset in suburban Busan is beautiful, the hazy twilight lightens up the entire sky from the horizon, giving an eerily beautiful gleam to the entire house, the whole reason why he made most of its walls in glass and doors in thick plastic panels to let the evening sun seep in. And it does, spreading throughout the empty house and drowning it in an exquisite beauty. Sung Gyu sits up, lazily rubs his eyes and immediately realizes that he has, for some reason passed out in the kitchen, on the floor. Along with this realization, a recent but somehow quite distant memory seeps in. A beautiful silver creature, its hair purple and lavender in the white sun, a cold, hard weapon against his waist…. the alien.

Sung Gyu quickly shuffles up on his feet, and in a matter of seconds, he’s running all over the house, trying to find the strange creature from his imagination and also to find his lost sanity. But then, it’s no longer there. He leans on a wall and lets out a sigh. It’s been a dream after all then. He must have gotten drunk and passed out on the kitchen floor, and everything he’s seen and experienced for the past couple of hours are nothing but figments of his own imagination. But how can a part of hi imagination be so…real? Sung Gyu, as he has now gained his composure and sane mind, can now clearly recall everything that happened during the past few hours. The explosion in the sea, the spaceship buried in the sand, the man in a silver space suit who in fact has silver hair, glowing skin, mouth with no teeth and…

Sung Gyu’s hand moves to his chest at the memory of what which simply sent him blacking out the moment of first sight. He’s mentally scarred, for certainty. But in which world can there be anything remotely close to such a creature unless it’s been one invented in his own mind?

Besides, if it doesn’t exist, though he believes to do so, then it really shouldn’t exist, right? He feels slightly better as he keeps on convincing himself. There are things which are bound to exist. Him, for an instant, the late sun filtering into their glass panelled, home, and even the dead, stuffed loris in a glass box in their living room are real. But an alien form, something he remembers to have existed in a particular period of time isn’t one of them.

But then, he remembers everything ever so clearly. Hell, he can actually remember what they all felt like. He remembers everything he’s been told; there’s no way that he, who has not a single creative bone or cell within himself had imagined. It has to be real.

And then there has to be their back door, graced with a massive circle hole big enough for a fully-grown man to slip in. Also, the sand mountain on the beach. Sung Gyu has instinctively avoided them both as well as the patio when he has checked the entire house. But then again, he has no strength to go running around again. He’s pretty sure he’s seen it all in his dreams. After all, Sung gyu found himself lying flat on the floor. There is a very big chance that he has fallen drunk in the kitchen and been concussed for a while, drowning himself in a particularly lucid dream. It’s the only plausible explanation he can come up with.

Therefore, with a sigh of relief, he makes it into their living room, which is empty and on the white walls are eerie dark shadows formed due to the glass panels set overlooking the ocean below. It’s a complete mess. Their house almost always is, with Eunji always being busy with her hospital shifts and Sung Gyu being adamantly lazy. There’s been times they’ve located days old half eaten pizza boxes lying around, buried under piles of dirty clothes. Regardless, if there’s one place in this whole house which is cleaner than any other inch of it, it’s the Primate museum down below. Which he will not really pay a visit since he’s still kind of shook by the vivid dream he has had. He stares at the loris in the glass box, the latest addition to his collection and lets out a sigh. It’s been quite a havoc, bringing a dead loris on the plane, all the way from its origin; an exotic island. Sung Gyu’s job and fascination is vehemently connected that he, at occasions, cannot pull himself out of his resolute habits. He realizes now, however, through that great captivation he has towards the animals, he has somehow forgotten what truly matters in his life.

He passes by the glass container of the loris and moves further into the house, towards the sofa and stares at the glass panels before him. The sun has already set by then; yet there is still a hint of blue, grey and lavender at the edge of the horizon which he knows to remain there for a little too longer until the dusk will completely consume the night sky. He knows so because he has watched this happen for myriad times, sitting in this very room, his wife huddled in his arms. They were happy…they are. Then why do things have to turn out to be this way?

Sung gyu runs a hand through his hair and eases into the nearest chair. Usually Eunji returns home by this time of the day, regardless of from work or from when she’s gone to his mother’s house in Jeonju. Eunji must be coming back home, by now, but then he vaguely remembers sending her a few texts, indirectly implying that there’s been troubles back home. What troubles, exactly?

Right. The alien.

And then, as if on cue, Sung Gyu hears an unbearable ear pitching screech, one he’s certain he’s heard before but now coming too close to his ear that he thinks his head just about exploded. Everything happens so fast, too fast perhaps. One moment he’s sitting in a chair, peacefully reclining in the emptiness of his home and his life; the next, his home is not empty anymore. There’s the man, the alien man in his human form, rolling around on the carpeted floor, coughing. What’s even weirder is that the chair he’s been previously sitting on has now moved across to the other side of the carpet.

But then again, he’s sure there’s only one of these chairs. It’s a rocking chair, and had they had two of them, he’d have noticed.

The alien is now on the floor where the chair earlier was, coughing loud; and upon the realization that he hasn’t been dreaming all along, Sung Gyu falls back onto the floor with a thud. Still with his incessant coughing, the alien finally comes into a seated positing, hands on his knees and face red as if he’s been asphyxiated. Sung Gyu takes a moment to put two and two together, how he must have moved the chair and come to its place in its stead in a mere split of a second. But then slowly, realization dawns to him; or more likely, an assumption of what could possibly have happened within that time. “Wait…” He says, pointing a finger at the alien, who looks at him as if Sung Gyu has personally offended him. “Did you just…are you-are you…psychokinesis?”

The alien throws him an annoyed look which soon morphs into one more perplexed. “Human you just attacked me” He accuses.

“A-attacked…you?” As far as he is concerned, Sung Gyu was peacefully sitting in his own chair of his own home minding his own business; he does not understand in what way its threatening to anyone. On the other hand, why is the alien still here? He’s been convinced he’s finally woken p from one bad dream, but then, the centre subject of that bad dream is now sitting in the middle of his living room, accusing him of attack.

Or has he…still not woken up?

Most probably he hasn’t, because the next thing which comes out from the alien’s mouth is ridiculous and plain…plain wrong in so many levels.

“You did, I was the seating appliance you just sat on”

Sung Gyu’s quiet for a moment, thinking. By seating appliance, Sung Gyu assumes he refers to the rocking chair. He assumes so, but he doesn’t believe so, because no human being, retarded or not, has no ability to become a rocking chair although they desperately wanted to. (And who even does?)

“How did you move the chair there?” Sung Gyu asks finally, making up his mind. “It was just here”

The alien finally stands up, the silver in his eyes swirling around vigorously, and Sung Gyu is certain, whatever this…thing is, this is how he shows his emotions, since his face is mostly all around…blank.

“No, I am the seating appliance! You human sat on me!”

Sung Gyu blinks. “Huh what?”

The alien stomps, places both his palms on his face, and in fear that he’s about to transform into the silver creature with gleaming skin and the…pores, Sung Gyu slides back, covering his eyes. The ear pitching screech comes, followed by the static sound, and just as Sung Gyu assumes the alien form from his dream is standing in his living room; in the place where the alien stood is now…a rocking chair.

Its the same ing rocking chair that he sat on just a moment ago. The alien turned into a ing rocking chair, and Sung Gyu near faints. What is real? What is not real? What is reasoning even?

He clambers back onto his feet and backs away, closing up towards the door. There is no way that a man turned into a chair in front of his eyes. But then, as if providing him the very answers he needed, the familiar screeching sound comes, along with the static noise, and suddenly, the alien in his silver suited glory is standing yet again in the vey place that the chair happened to be. The he uncovers his face, dropping his hands to his sides. Sung Gyu tries to catch his breath, clutching onto his chest and everything; and when he finally against his composure, he breathes out; “What on earth is that?”

The alien looks at him straight with his inherent blank face. “It’s camouflage” He says.

“C-camouflage?” Only an alien can turn himself into a rocking chair and call it camouflage.

The alien is now looking into his gadget, namely the humonictionary, his silvery eyes illuminated but the bright light of its screen, his features, quite handsome and strangely so, greets Sung Gyu in return. “Camouflage is a mode self-preservation by disguising oneself in order to hide itself from a predator or a threat”

Sung Gyu wants to argue in return and state it quite clearly that he’s an anthropologist and knowledge of such phenomena comes to him as a privilege of being one, but what he really does is just nodding in return. The alien, as if he’s been asked to, proceeds to elucidate even further.

“Every Terranian is born with a skill; the criteria which decides how they contribute to their kind. Envoy Terranians are born with the ability to camouflage, to turn into any person or an object. Healers have their healing powers. Leaders have foresight, and so on”

“Uh…” Sung Tries to form a coherent response to the explanation that he never even asked for, but then fails. “Um, thanks?” He says and looks over at the rocking chair, which is now eerily rocking by itself. Enough bizarre things have happened in his house for a day that he isn’t even fazed by the movement of the chair that hasn’t been touched by either of them. Sung Gyu looks up and blinks. “Why do you want to camouflage into a…chair?”

The alien shows no emotion; at least his face doesn’t, but in his eyes, the silver specks just look bored. “I was just attempting”

Sung Gyu breathes loudly, and then nods. “Right…right”

There is silence between them afterwards, both of them just standing there on either corners of the room, and Sung Gyu, slowly coming to accept that he either hasn’t woken up from his concussion or he has been concussed again, decides to prod more into the matter, wondering if there’s anything else that the alien can turn into. He would very much like to see him turning into a slender Loris; but just as he’s about to voice out his thoughts, he hears the sound of the keys turning on the front door and-,

“” Sung Gyu mutters and runs straight towards the door. Eunji has come back home, walking herself right into a zone of disaster.