Xiaojun and Kun looked down the hallway, making sure no one was present before they left the art classroom. The last thing they needed was to get murdered in the first ten seconds. 

 

“So we head to the office and hope the others are there,” Kun said, restating the plan. “But the cars don’t work, how are we heading home?”

 

“Walking is an option, but considering how those things are outside, it’ll be pretty hard,” Xiaojun admitted. “I’m going to buy a horse when I get home.”

 

“Horses are lovely creatures, but they can get injured so easily,” Kun said. 

 

Kun stuck out his hand, palm facing up. Xiaojun stared at it for a few seconds, eyes darting from Kun’s face to his hand, before ultimately grabbing onto it. 

 

“Uh…” Kun’s face turned red. “Um, Xiaojun… I wanted one of the blades that you took apart.”

 

“Oh, right, I did promise to give those to you,” Xiaojun said, pulling his hand back, embarrassed through the whole ordeal. His brain would alternate between thinking about what Kun said earlier and how the hell they were going to survive from these aliens. 

 

Xiaojun took out some of the blades and handed it to Kun, not looking at him. “It’s not my fault!” he said, trying to defend himself. “Earlier you practically- uh, never mind.”

 

He handed the torn blades to Kun, speed walking. “Let’s just try to get to the office quickly.”

 

“Wait for me!” Kun sprinted quickly to catch up with Xiaojun. “You can grab my hand if you want to.”

 

Xiaojun could feel heat creep up his neck. “Um-” he held out his hand, hesitated as he held Kun’s hand, the latter entwining their fingers together. “I didn’t expect to hold someone’s hand in on hand and a weapon in the other, especially not after talking about my ex an hour ago.”

 

Kun hummed. “Well, there’s also aliens, you got to take everything into account.”

 

“True, true.”

 

***

 

“So you’re saying that there are aliens at this school,” Mark said, summarize Doyoung’s quick thirty second speech as they sprinted to the office (from what he was told, they were all going to go home quickly as a group.) “And- hold on, why do they want to kill us?”

 

“Humanity is stupid, I wouldn’t put it past them,” Johnny muttered, yelping when  Doyoung smacked his head. 

 

“You’re the stupid one, Johnny.” To Mark, Doyoung said, “we don’t really know, but they emit some type of green liquid and don’t talk, just screech at us.”

 

Haechan grabbed Mark’s hand and put it around his own waist. “They tried to kill me,” he said, pouting. 

 

“Yeah, they were clearly killing you when we walked in-”

 

Mark glared at Johnny. “Shut the up, you have no idea what we went through.”

 

“Don’t worry, Johnny and Lucas were almost murdered as well,” Doyoung said.

 

Lucas’ eyes widened in surprise. “That was not my fault-”

 

“We’re still going to die, aren’t we Mark?” Donghyuck whispered to Mark in secret, the other three arguing about some event and whose fault it was. 

 

Mark nodded. “Yeah, we probably are.”

 

They passed the hallway with all the dead alien bodies (with Mark and Haechan being freaked out for a few seconds, wondering how the hell did that happen) when they realized that the two Koreans from America, the NASA workers, were sitting against the lockers, talking to each other softly. 

 

Doyoung walked back to the hallway, whistling at the two Americans, startling them. “What are you guys doing?”

 

The two of them spoke at the same time.

 

“Having a mental breakdown and accepting death.”

 

“Thinking, which is a rare event- Jihoon, what the .” The taller one looked at the one named Jihoon. “Remember the pizza rolls.”

 

Jihoon appeared to be in thought for a few seconds before nodding. “Yeah, my bad, I forgot-”

 

“Oh, I have pizza rolls at my house!” Lucas exclaimed. “The group said we should go since I live the closest to the school.”

 

“Yeah, we’re all heading to the office, us three went to find these two idiots-” Doyoung said, pointing at Mark and Haechan. The two gave him a dirty look but he ignored them. “What-”

 

The group heard noises getting louder, like people sprinting towards them, so Doyoung stepped back into the hallway, turning the corner while stabbing the first thing he made contact with. 

 

Unfortunately, that had been…

 

Kun. 

 

Luckily, he stabbed Kun’s arm, not his chest, and Kun and Xiaojun (who was with him as well) just stared at Doyoung in shock along with him, not quite realizing what had just happened until a few seconds later. 

 

Kun’s eyes widened. “Did you just stab me?!?”

 

Doyoung let go of the knife, raising his hands in the air. “I swear to god, it was an accident.”

 

Xiaojun dropped some scissor blades he was holding in one hand, immediately making Kun face him so that he could look at the injury. “Oh my god, Kun-”

 

“I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt,” he said, trying to calm the latter down. “Although it might be the shock and adrenaline. Give me three minutes to start crying like a or something.”

 

“Well, looks like we found everyone,” Johnny said, looking back at the two adults. “It was just you six. We should probably head back to the office now before Yangyang starts tearing up the walls.”

 

***

 

“I feel bad about raiding everything in the school,” Renjun said, stuffing the last of the medical supplies they have gotten in the nurse’s room into his bag. “Imagine the teachers when they come here Monday-”

 

“The school is about to get a big fat check from the government,” Jaemin muttered. “I just want to go home.”

 

“The worst part is that the actual karaoke only lasted for like five minutes,” Chen Le reminded them. “And that’s the whole reason we came here in the first place.”

 

Jisung rubbed his hand over the bandages on his arm. “I actually want to go to the hospital,” he said, groaning in pain. “How bad do these burns get?”

 

“I need to go, too, my nose really hurts,” Renjun said, sneezing. “Ah, .”

 

“At least we won’t get in trouble for like tearing down the walls or something,” Jaemin said, referencing Yangyang who was spending his time peeling the paint. “We were just trying to survive, the school should get that.”

 

Jaehyun entered the room, kicking the last remnants of the door being torn from earlier away. “Remember to always have a weapon,” he reminded the group. “We’re going to head to Lucas’s house since he lives the closest.”

 

“Do you not find it creepy that we’re taking a detour towards the woods, though?” Jeno asked him. “Like… isn’t that where they first attacked Xiaojun?”

 

“Yeah, but it’s not like they’ll be in the trees, plus everyone will be on the lookout.” Jaehyun grabbed a broken part of the door and smashed it against the glass box on the wall containing the fire extinguisher. “And I’ll kill all those motherers.”

 

Taeyong came rushing into the room, out of breath. “Good news, they found everyone,” he told the group. “The American Soonyoung has a wound on his arm and Doyoung accidentally stabbed Kun’s arm but they’re okay-”

 

“Hold on,” Jaehyun interrupted him. “Did you say… Doyoung ‘accidentally’ stabbed… Kun?”

 

Taeyong shrugged. “They didn’t give me the details.”

 

“Doyoung’s lethal, got it,” Renjun said, hoisting his bag on his shoulder. “He always scared me.” 

 

Jeno frowned. “Doyoung isn’t lethal-”

 

“He stabbed my second mom, Jeno,” Chen Le argued. “He’s lethal!! Kun has never done anything wrong in his life.”

 

Si Cheng came into the room, a metal pole in his arm. “They’re almost done treating all the injuries,” he informed them. “I think it’s time to go.”

 

Jaehyun grabbed Taeyong’s hand as a reflex, looking at the rest of the group as he led Taeyong to the door. “Do we have everything?”

 

“I’m kind of sad the alien invasion of my dreams happened when I was at school doing karaoke but I guess it could be worse.” Jisung grabbed the fire extinguisher that Jaehyun had broken the glass case for. “Jaehyun’s right, we should kill those motherers.”

 

In a different scenario, Taeyong would have done the usual of correcting Jisung’s language, but to be frank, he also didn’t give a anymore. Everything he had been worrying about these past few weeks, since the end of summer break to the beginning of school, seemed meaningless now, knowing any of them could have almost died in the past few hours. 

 

What were his worries today? Bringing enough snacks for the meeting (which never happened anyways)? Worrying about what to wear? If Jaehyun was taking him on a date as a joke or not-

 

He had completely forgotten that he had said yes for going somewhere for dinner with Jaehyun after the 127 meeting today. It was an unspoken fact that clearly that plan was ruined and who knows if they would even get that chance, since a small part of him told him he probably wasn’t going to make it. 

 

Hopefully they all made it, but 21- no, 23 people surviving all at once? This wasn’t a story with a happy ending in the tag. 

 

There was no use to be pessimist right now, though. They all needed to think positive and rationally if they wanted to make it. What was that popular saying? Sometimes hope is all you have or something?

 

He looked down at Jaehyun who had interlocked their hands together. It was really warm, Taeyong noticed, also a bit sweaty since everyone was in panic mode right now. It felt nice, though, if he was honest. Yeah, it felt nice being with Jaehyun. 

 

Taeyong thought about Jaehyun constantly risking himself in order to not let them get injured, and it brought a smile to his face. Jaehyun really was a good person. 

 

He watched as the freshmen and sophomores in the Dream unit followed them out of the room, where everyone else was congregated in the office, all in a jittery state. 

 

“If I die, can you guys promise to serve pizza at my funeral?” Hendery asked everyone in the room.

 

“Can we all make a new rule?” Taeil said. “No talking about dying. Please. I have a mortgage to pay-”

 

“You are a seventeen year old Korean male,” Doyoung reminded him. “How can you possibly have a mortgage?”

 

Taeil glared at him. “My sims game?! The one I was talking about earlier?!”

 

“If I had a mortgage to pay, I’d rather die,” Si Cheng muttered. 

 

Taeyong clapped his hands together, bringing the attention to him. “Okay, so, if we remember the plan, it’s that we go out these doors and head to the left, where the forest is at. I know it’s tricky, since that’s where Xiaojun first saw the alien, but it’s better than being out in the open on the road. Plus, the aliens were out there as well, so they’re everywhere, and we have to leave somehow. Everyone agrees?”

 

All heads in the room nodded, so Taeyong continued. 

 

“So we go through the forest,” he reiterated. “As Renjun and Yangyang pointed out, there’s a small clearing that we can use to head straight onto Hanyu street, which Lucas’ house is nearby. We head there and hope his parents’ car works, and we all go back home and let the Korean government deal with the rest-”

 

“This is what they get for forcing unnecessary education standards on us,” Ten said, crossing his arms. “I deserve to get the rest of the year off for this traumatic experience.”

 

“How the hell is this traumatic for you, you just got engaged, dumb ,” Hendery yelled at him.

 

Kun’s eyes widened, turning to look at Ten. “You got what?!”

 

“YOU!” Ten pointed at Kun. “For my wedding present I want a toaster-”

 

“Guys, my YOGURT?!” Si Cheng reminded the group.

 

“So we go outside through the forest and crash at Lucas’ place, got it,” Jaehyun summarized. “‘Kay? No stupid acts, anyone, this is a life and death situation, and if someone gets hurt by your stupid actions, I will leave you blind-”

 

“Jaehyun, let’s not go through that extreme,” Taeyong whispered to him.

 

Jaehyun cleared his throat. “You will do all my homework for a year-”

 

“THAT’S NOT FAIR!!” Renjun screamed at him. “I just know Jisung here is going to do something-”

 

“What do I have to do with anything?!” Jisung yelled. “I am injured, nitwit!! I’m not going to up out there-”

 

“We’re going to die,” Mark whispered, hugging onto Haechan tightly. “Thanks for being my boyfriend for one day-”

 

“Damn it, I really wanted to get married,” Johnny said, sighing. “.”

 

“Guys,” Taeil piped in. “Do you think they’ll at least cancel school-”

 

“I WANT TO GO HOME-”

 

Everyone froze when they heard a loud smacking noise coming from the window. It was Soonyoung, who hit a metal bar on it, shattering the glass. 

 

Soonyoung stared at all of them silently  for a good few seconds. “I don’t know about you guys,” he finally said quietly, trying to calm his anger. “But I did not come to Korea for less than 24 hours only to die later because 21 students can’t do their part in cooperating.”

 

The students didn’t look away, not wanting to anger him. 

 

Soonyoung continued. “Now,” he said slowly. “We are going to go out there and go to this guy’s house, and me and Jihoon are going to go straight to Busan because Seoul, and then I’ll go home to nap for a week straight while binge eating bagels, we got that?”

 

They nodded furiously. 

 

“Jihoon,” Soonyoung said. “What information did you infer from the aliens, you took some biology classes, right?”

 

“Not much, but the thing I noticed about him when I asked everyone is that we have yet to see them if they run out of energy,” Jihoon pointed out. He looked at Mark and Haechan, cuddling in the corner. “It was you guys who said that they just pounded on the metal door and screeched, right?"

 

Mark and Haechan furiously nodded, already thinking about what felt like days to them being trapped but everyone says it was probably less than an hour. The sun was still high up in the sky, for crying out loud.

 

“They have to get their energy somehow,” Jihoon explained. “So either they have very high endurance and stamina - which might be the case, since they can break wood - or…” he trailed off, not finishing his sentence.

 

“Oh god, this is bad news isn’t it-”

 

“YANGYANG, SHUT THE HELL UP!” Renjun, Doyoung and Yuta shouted in unison. 

 

Kun waved them off. “Jihoon, just ignore them.”

 

“Well, I mean it could be bad news or it could make it a bit… easier,” Jihoon tried to explain. “There might be something… giving them that energy, if I explained it correctly.”

 

“So, something like with Wifi, but with energy instead of the internet,” Mark said. 

 

Jihoon nodded. “Yes, exactly, there might be a source that gives it to them-”

 

“Now that’s what I call the government’s problem,” Soonyoung said, grabbing Jihoon’s hand to help him get off the ground. “We should head out.”

 

“No, no, he’s got a point,” Si Cheng interrupted. “I mean, what are we going to do, let them chase us? They’re not going to get tired, anyways.”

 

Xiaojun’s eyes widened. “The forest.”

 

“Wait, what do you mean the forest?” Kun asked him, confused. “What’s in the forest?”

 

“You guys-” Xiaojun said, pointing at Soonyoung and Jihoon, “said that you’re coordinates led to the forest next to the school, which must be where they landed when they came to Earth, if there’s something giving them energy, it’s going to be from there.”

 

“So we’re not going to the forest,” Taeyong concluded.

 

“No, we have to go!” Xiaojun exclaimed. “If we don’t stop them-”

 

“That’s what the government is for, they take my taxes then they can do it,” Jaehyun said.

 

“Xiaojun, you’re injured, it’s not smart,” Kun said more calmly.

 

“Need I remind you, us guys aren’t going to do anyways?” Doyoung reminded the group. “We have, what, bandages and sticks? There’s no way we can fight off a group of aliens.” 

 

Taeyong bit his lip at the chaos that was forming again. He wasn’t good at managing groups of people, hell, he couldn’t even manage the 127 club.

 

This idea of his wasn’t going to work. 

 

“Guys, just ask Taeyong what he thinks,” Jungwoo told the group. “He’s the president of the school and the 127 unit, he can think of something.”

 

“Taeyong, please tell these idiots we can’t fight them off,” Doyoung pleaded with him.

 

“You killed almost everyone in the hallway!” Johnny argued with Doyoung. “What do you mean we can’t fight them, mind you, no one has died yet?!”

 

“Taeyong, we have to do it,” Xiaojun said. “Someone’s going to have them fight them off, please, our families are home alone, we can’t endanger them-”

 

“Can I just go to the hospital, please?!” Jisung yelled. “My arm really burns, it hurts, I just want it to stop-”

 

“Taeyong, we can fight them off,” Jaemin persuaded him. “We can do it, you always say to believe in us.”

 

“Taeyong, we have to go home, I’m scared,” Jeno said. “Please, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

 

All he could hear from everyone was Taeyong, Taeyong, Taeyong over and over, everyone expecting him to make a decision because he was the smart one, he was the leader, the president, the one who could figure things out, the one who can lead them to safety, the one who can help him fight off the aliens, the one who could do it, he was the one, the one, the one-”

 

He threw the bag he had been wearing with supplies onto the ground in front of him, startling everyone. 

 

“I’m not the Taeyong that you guys think I am,” he said, tears in his eyes. “I can’t even manage eight of you-”

 

“Hey, Taeyong, calm down, it’s fine-”

 

“No, it’s NOT FINE, JAEHYUN!!” Taeyong yelled at him, removing Jaehyun’s grip from his wrist. “Especially you, you have this image of me in your head that’s not true, and I’m sick of it!!” 

 

He slammed his keys and school ID on the desk in the office, glaring at everyone in the room. “I didn’t even want to be leader of 127,” he said angrily. “All the seniors picked me because you guys were too lazy for the role, why are you even in it if you’re going to go against everything I recommend and even doubt it?! All you guys do is be one your phones and complain and whine about wanting to go home and about the guys you like and how much you don’t want to be there, then don’t!! It’s that simple!! I ran for president to bring to change to this school and you guys and the rest of the student body don’t give a flying about anything!!"

 

He zipped up his jacket and stuffed his hands in his pockets, marching out of the office while Jaehyun tried to pull him back, only for Taeyong to angrily shove him away and sprint out of the office doors and to the outside. 

 

“Taeyong, don’t go!!” Jaehyun yelled after him, trying to walk out when he felt someone pull him back.

 

“I’ll deal with him,” Jihoon whispered, running after Taeyong who was marching outside in the open, exposed, not caring anymore if aliens ate him alive.