Jongin opened his eyes, strangely well rested. He usually never woke up before the alarm. Groggy, he fumbled for his phone on the nightstand without getting up. He had managed to convince Sehun that it couldn't function as a picture frame forever, and that he would get him a bigger, better one with a real photo in it later. Sehun had made him promise.

When he couldn't feel his phone, he sat up in the bed, lazily using his eyes to look for it. It wasn't there. He had clearly left it there last night after having carefully set the alarm. Weird. He had a real knack for losing stuff. He glanced around the room, something on the floor catching his attention. His phone! It lay sprawled on the floor, like it had been thrown there.

In a panic, he jumped out of the bed, checking whether his phone still worked. Phew, it wasn't broken and it without any trouble. Jongin gasped.

9:20 AM

His class started at 9 o'clock sharp! What happened to the alarm? He had set it for 7:50 AM and an emergency one for 8 o'clock, just in case.

Jongin quietly but quickly threw on his school uniform. He glanced over at Sehun, who was fast asleep. Sehun looked so peaceful, and gorgeous. Jongin was overtaken with a warm, cozy feeling, making him want to crawl back into bed, but he didn't have time to snuggle up to Sehun all day, admiring his impersonation of a handsome, sleeping prince. He didn't even have time for breakfast, ignoring the roaring monster in his stomach that was demanding food, and lots of it.

The moment Jongin was out the door, it started again. That heavy feeling in his chest. Maybe he really did have a problem with his heart. And again he ignored it, but decided to drop by the school nurse if the pain persisted.

It got worse and worse with every step. As he closed the outer gate of their property, it felt like his heart was being pulled out of his rib cage, like it wanted to stay home while he went to school. It hurt like hell. He felt queasy, clammy sweat sticking to his forehead. He started seeing little black spots, that slowly grew until everything went completely black.

“Mmh water...” Jongin mumbled, his throat dry.

“We have to go back to the house for that, I don't have any on me.” a familiar voice mumbled.

Jongin opened his eyes. Ah, it was his favorite face in the whole universe. Sehun smiled crookedly at him, a hint of worry in his eyes.

“Where were you going? Were you going to leave me?” Sehun pouted. A sliver of bitter loneliness made its way to Jongin's heart along the invisible bond between them.

“It's Monday morning, I have to go to school. I'll be back this afternoon... Ah! School! I'm super late!” Jongin got up on his feet, not really wanting to leave Sehun's lap, but he had no choice, he was already in a heap of trouble for being so late.

Jongin had probably missed the whole first period. His dad was going to be livid, ranting on about him still being too much of a kid to be left alone, threatening to get him a babysitter while he was away. That was the last thing Jongin wanted. Especially now. How was he going to explain to the almost seventy year old Ms. Marsh that he was harboring a fugitive alien boy, who slept in his bed every night. He was pretty sure she wasn't open minded enough to let that slide.

“You'll just faint again.” Sehun warned him, still hurt that Jongin was really considering leaving him behind. It was only until this afternoon! Jongin had never met anyone as clingy as Sehun, but surprisingly, it didn't really bother him. Jongin actually found it quite cute, and very flattering. It was nice to feel wanted, and needed.

“Yeah, I'm going to go to the school nurse the moment I get to school. I'm probably just anemic or something. Ooh! And then I can ask her for a sick note to excuse my absence this morning. Perfect!” Jongin realized, relieved.

“She won't be able to help you, if you can even make it all the way to school.” Sehun told him, sounding like he knew something Jongin didn't.

“What do you mean? Do you know what's wrong with me?” Jongin raised his eyebrows, trying to read Sehun's mind, but apparently that wasn't one of the perks of the bond. He had no idea what was going on in Sehun's head, he just had an inkling of how he was feeling - slightly abandoned, a bit concerned and full of affection for him.

Sehun nodded.

“So...?? Spit it out! Did you infect me with some weird, incurable alien disease?” Jongin frowned, hoping his joke was as farfetched as he had intended it to be.

“No.” Sehun chuckled feebly.

“Then what?” Jongin asked anxiously.

“The bond.” Sehun said.

Of course it was the bond, it was always the bond. What more surprises could there be?

“We have to stay together. We are one. The bond can't stretch this far, and it hurts when you try and stretch it too far, so please knock it off. You have to take me with you when you're going places.” Sehun complained, rubbing his chest.

It took a moment to sink in.

This bond-thing was a bigger deal than Jongin could ever have imagined. Not only was he stuck with Sehun for his whole life, but he was stuck to Sehun's side for the rest of his life? So Sehun had to follow him everywhere? How was that even supposed to work. Jongin had to go to school. He couldn't take Sehun with him. First of all, who was he going to say Sehun was? And it was pivotal that Sehun wasn't exposed as an alien, but that silly boy couldn't even lie.

Jongin had no choice. It was either taking Sehun with him to school, or the school would call his dad and the nosy Ms. Marsh would come over and discover everything.

“Fine. You can come.” Jongin chose the lesser of two evils.

“Yay! My first school day!” Sehun beamed, hugging Jongin to pieces, awakening the swarm of butterflies in Jongin's gut.

“But you can't hug me while we're at school.” Jongin warned him sternly.

“Why!?” Sehun pouted dramatically.

“That's just one of the school rules, no hugging.” he lied.

“Why can't I just wear this? I even covered the upper part like you're always asking me to do!” Sehun said stubbornly, wanting to wear his futuristic overalls to school, instead of Jongin's old school uniform. It was never going to fit Sehun, but there was nothing they could do about that, Sehun had to look like just another student.

Promising Sehun truckloads of chocolate, he got him to wear his uniform, Jongin's trousers turning into hilarious new-agey three quarter pants on Sehun. Jongin had to bite his lip to keep himself from cracking up. Although, Sehun actually made it look kind of stylish. Apparently everything looked good on that outrageously amazing body of his. The fashion world would kill to have a model like him, but they couldn't have him. He was Jongin's.

“And you can't tell anyone that you're an alien.” Jongin coached him on the way to school. They were so late.

“What if somebody asks?” Sehun asked.

“Nobody is going to ask.” Jongin snorted.

“But what if they do?” Sehun insisted.

“Then just tell them you're human” Jongin sighed.

“Why would I tell them I'm human, when I'm not?” Sehun asked, perplexed.

This was going to be a disaster, Jongin thought.