“Come in! Come in! Where are you hurt? Should I call an ambulance? Or I could drive you to the hospital.” Jongin offered, pulling up a chair for this strange visitor.

“No, no.. no hospital.” the boy refused a bit too profusely. Hmm, maybe he was a criminal and had gotten hurt in a car chase, evading the police, and now he needed to keep a low profile. Well, at least he didn't look like he was planning on murdering him. That was something.

“My body does not require rejuvenation. I just need to get my ship and fix it. It crashed in the woods, I can't free it on my own.” he looked at Jongin with a pair of the cutest puppy eyes he had ever seen. He was a er for puppies. And, rejuvenation? It was not like he was offering to drive him to a day spa.

“I think you might have a concussion. And you look really pale, maybe you have internal bleeding, and you don't even know it. It's better to be safe than sorry.” Jongin said, determined.

“Nobody but you can know I'm here. I'm not supposed to be here.” the boy confessed, his slightly nasal, grating voice shaking a little bit. So Jongin's hunch had been right. He was harboring a dangerous criminal. Just his luck!

“I'm an extraterrestrial.” he told him, point blank. Jongin's jaw hit the floor.

“Woah. The concussion is worse than I thought, your brain is all messed up.”.

“No. My brain is in order.” the boy gave him a weird smile.

A mental patient. An escaped mental patient.

Man. This just kept getting worse.

“Okay, so.. I'm just going to make a quick phone call.” Jongin grinned awkwardly, reaching for his phone but the boy stopped him by gently grabbing his wrist.

“Please. I'll get in a heap of trouble if they find out I'm here.” he pouted. Jongin was uncomfortably aware of every cell that came into contact with the boy's hand. His touch was unbelievably soft and strangely comforting. He could feel his determination melt into a puddle of goo. He really wanted to help him, even though that meant enabling his psychotic delusions.

“I am telling the truth. I promise. Exorians never lie.” he nodded enthusiastically and removed his hand. It took a few moments, but Jongin felt himself slowly returning back to normal. Had he drugged him, somehow? A drug that was administered through the skin, and only had an effect as long as it was in contact with the skin? That made no sense.

“I still think you might be hurt, I mean look how pale you are.” Jongin handed him a small mirror.

“Oh, I look normal.” he took a moment to check himself out in the mirror, giggling. “Exorians don't have uh... multi color skin like you. Only one color.” he smiled. Wow, he was more delusional than he could have imagined.

“Please help me. Please believe me.” he reiterated softly, though his voice was a bit hoarse so it didn't sound as soft as he was clearly trying to make it, but it still had the intended effect.

“I believe that you believe what you are saying. But...”.

“I'll prove it! I'll show you my ship!” the boy jumped up and down at his ingenious idea. Jongin chuckled at how silly he looked. He was like a cute toddler who had finally figured out that the square cubes went into the square holes. He definitely did not look like a space traveling alien with superior intellectual power. Not even a little bit. He looked like a teenager who had been locked up in a mental institution all his life, all by himself, never seeing a single ray of sunshine and having no idea how to interact with people.

Jongin wasn't proud of it, but he had totally caved and was allowing that strange guy to lead him towards the woods, where he could easily kill him and get rid of the body so he would never be found. He was just powerless against those puppy eyes. There was nothing he could do.

That pretty, blonde psycho was holding a small apparatus that made a beeping sound every ten seconds or so, probably just some toy, but he believed it would help him find his ship. So he was just skipping along, his movements kind of awkward, following his toy gadget with a childlike smile on his face.

It didn't take long until the first crack in his fragile delusion appeared.

“Ehm, the woods are that way.” Jongin pointed in the opposite direction to where the boy was headed. Clearly, the toy's only use was to make that annoying beeping sound periodically.

“Huh?” he wrinkled his pointy eyebrows. “Oh! It was upside down... he he.” he chuckled sheepishly. Sure. Sure it was. Apparently, he was ready to do anything to hold on to his made up alien identity.

They had been walking for nearly 45 minutes. The sun was setting. The twilight created ominous shadows that just kept on growing, as if they were trying to catch up with them.

“What's happening?” the boy's voice trembled. And his voice wasn't the only thing that was trembling. He looked really scared. Without warning, he attached himself to Jongin's side. Jongin's heart jumped.

“Eee...” Jongin glanced around. They were at the edge of the forest. Everything was quiet. He had no idea what he was talking about. “What do you mean?”.

“Why is the sky disappearing?” he hugged Jongin tighter, all but climbing into his arms.

Jongin looked up at the clear sky. There was nothing out of the ordinary. It had almost turned black, the first stars making their appearance, twinkling happily.

“Uuuhm... it's not?” he didn't know what to say, he was worried the kid was having a psychotic break.

“Yes, it is! It's almost all gone!!” he whimpered, pointing his finger straight up.

“How is it gone? What is gone exactly?” Jongin wrinkled his nose, staring at the starry night.

“The sky! See! It's gone! There's only space up there now.” the boy said in a panic.

“You mean, it's not blue anymore?” Jongin finally figured out what he was talking about.

“Yeah! The sky is gone! Where did it go? Is it coming back?” he asked, worried.

“Don't worry, it's still there, it's just a different color, now that the sun is gone.” Jongin vaguely remembered something in natural science class about why the sky was blue during the day, it had something to do with the sun, he thought, but he hadn't been paying attention, so he couldn't explain it.

“Oh! You only have one sun? Wow... we have five at home, so we always have at least one sun shining, sometimes two.” the boy relaxed, but didn't let go of Jongin. “Huh, your sky is the same as your skin, it has many colors.” he chuckled, leaning his head on Jongin's shoulder. Even though he was from outer space, he really wasn't a stickler for personal space, that was for sure. Jongin's stomach churned. He felt weird.

That was one detailed delusion, he had clearly spent a lot of time on this made up world of his. But if he came from a planet with five suns, how was he so pale?

“There it is!!” he bounced up and down, pointing into the woods.

Jongin's eyes grew three sizes. There was definitely something there. And that something was definitely an unidentified flying object. There really was a spaceship! Did that mean...

...that he really was an alien?!