“Kwon Soonyoung.”

 

“Lee Jihoon.”

 

The officer wrote down their names in his notepad, another officer into a tablet. “And you guys said you weren’t Korean?”

 

“Korean descent but we were raised in America,” Soonyoung explained, speaking up for Jihoon. “We have traveling Visas and such but everything’s back at the school.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t know if that school will be standing much longer, anyways,” Jihoon said. “To think we haven’t even been here for a full twenty four hours.”

 

Soonyoung looked around them, with an enormous amount of people in the forest. He could barely see the other teenagers, as help had been distributed to everyone. An ambulance had already left not even five minutes after having arrived, probably taking the more seriously injured ones who were in critical care. Hopefully no news of death. 

 

“Considering how you two don’t appear to have any critical injures, I think it’s okay to take you guys a ride back to the school to retrieve your documents before we take you two to the hospital for your minor injuries,” the officer said, referring Soonyoung’s shoulder injury and Jihoon’s ankle. “Is there any other relevant information you would like to share?"

 

“Oh, actually, we’re employees at NASA,” Soonyoung pointed out, surprising the officer. “So would the hospital be able to tell us when communication opens back up? I want to share any observations and findings we had while our memory is still fresh, I guess.”

 

“Yes, yes, certainly, actually I believe one or two of them are present at the moment,”: the officer said. “I can go retrieve them, if you politely give me one second.”

 

The officer left, going after a NASA worker, leaving Soonyoung to turn to a sitting Jihoon, an ice pack on his ankle. “How does it feel to be the person of the year on Time?”

 

Jihoon gave Soonyoung a dirty look, flipping him off. “First of all I don’t even know what brought that joke, second of all Trump was man of the year so that title automatically .”

 

“Come on, Jihoon, I am trying to say that I think cough cough you’re going to get recognized,” Soonyoung explained, sitting down on the floor beside him. “Think about it. You got firsthand experience with these aliens.”

 

“I- you were here with me the entire time, why me?” Jihoon asked him, rolling his eyes. “You’re stupid.”

 

“Okay, first of all, who’s the one who noticed all the inconsistencies in the papers?” Soonyoung pointed out. “You don’t get it Jihoon, you were the only one who predicted their existence before they even landed on Earth, that’s a pretty big deal.”

 

Jihoon opened his mouth, ready to argue back with Soonyoung, but closed it when he realized he wasn’t going to win. “Well, we kind of have to survive this first-”

 

“Wooz, I’m pretty sure you won,” Soonyoung said, laughing. Damn, he really… he really just fought against aliens with his long term best friend. “The aliens attacked the Earth and we won, Jihoon.”

 

***

 

“Haven’t seen you in a hot minute,” Ten said, sitting next to Kun. 

 

Kun rolled his eyes, not even sparing Ten a glance. “I can’t believe I decided for us to have a movie night today. Now look at what happened.”

 

The whole group of high school students were finally at the hospital in the city. Even though some didn’t have any injuries (like lucky Ten over here), all of the officers wanted to ask them questions about the incident, and many medical professionals said it was important to make sure they get assessed for potential trauma. 

 

Kun’s shoulder had been treated already, so they let him sit outside of Xiaojun’s room, where he was unconscious, if he could remember correctly. They didn’t want to give him any information, but seeing as Kun was the only one able to tell them information about Xiaojun in the first place, there was a bit of leeway. 

 

Ten had already told the FBI or whatever all the stuff that he knew, so he decided to be with Kun a bit. “He’ll be fine, idiot.”

 

“You don’t even pay attention in class, you have no clue what his medical diagnosis could be right now,” Kun pointed out.

 

“Okay, and? I’m not stupid though,” Ten argued back. “Kun, I’m trying to make you feel better, take it or leave it. Least you haven’t seen Yangyang crying about Yuta.”

 

Kun raised an eye. “What about Yuta?”

 

“He got impaled and like not even an hour after he and Si Cheng started dating, man it’s been a while trip for Yuta, he also had the concussion from earlier- Kun calm down, you turned pale.”

 

“You’re- you’re saying one of our classmates got IMPALED-”

 

Ten slammed his hand over Kun’s mouth. “We are in a hospital, you old boomer,” he reminded him, taking his hand back off. “No yelling! I just got rid of Hendery, I don’t need you, too."

 

“I- you can’t just say like that out of nowhere!” Kun scolded him. “Don’t you see all the we just went through?”

 

“You know, we could have died, Kun,” Ten pointed out, getting out of his seat. “Be thankful. Anyways, I’m going to check out Johnny, he has a fear of needles. Let me know if Xiaojun wakes up.”

 

Kun watched Ten walk away, heading towards the stairs. The hospital had multiple floors and they were all kind of spread out depending on the severity. Those who weren’t affected were probably going to be able to go home soon when their parents showed up, and thankfully they could put this night behind him. 

 

During this time, Kun noticed that a woman, a bit older than them but still looking quite young and a bit familiar (though Kun had no idea how), was racing down the hallways, stopping in front of Kun. “My baobei,” she cried out in Mandarin, looking around. “Where’s- I need a doctor-”

 

Kun’s eyes widened. “Excuse me, ma’am but are you… Xiaojun’s mom?” he asked in disbelief, using Mandarin as well. “I mean- Xiao De-”

 

The woman crouched down so that she could maintain eye level with Kun. He could see how much she was trembling and the dry streaks on her face. “Please tell me he’s okay,” she said in a low whisper, her voice cracking. 

 

Kun thought of how hours ago (hours? It felt like years) Xiaojun, back in that one art classroom, told him about his ex and his father and all the his mother had gone through 

 

It was not a good end of the school year for me. Let me tell you, today is better, despite me almost being killed.

 

“He’ll be fine,” Kun said, repeating Ten’s words from earlier minus the idiot comment, as he forced himself to smile at Xiaojun's mother. God knows she probably needed it. “He’s strong, he’ll be okay.

 

Luckily, that statement turned out to be true. 

 

***

 

It was four in the morning when Taeyong finally allowed himself to go outside for a bit, holding his bag close to him. 

 

His usual books and school supplies had been left at school, and from Taeyong understood of what they had been announced, school was going to be postponed for an indefinite amount of time. The Korean government is estimating it to be two weeks, but should more time be necessary, they might have to switch to online learning in the meanwhile. 

 

No doubt this sounded like heaven to his classmates, many which had left with their parents who came looking for them. An alert had been sent to people in the city stating that if their child had stayed after school at the Neo Culture Technology School, they had been sent to the Areumdawo Hospital in the city, where many of them had come to pick them up. 

 

What bothered the students was that apparently, only their phones had made the weird shrieking noise and turned itself off. Taeyong concluded it must be because they were around that weird satellite thing that they ended up destroying, but luckily the rest of Seoul and the world had internet. Lucky bastards. 

 

Taeyong put his phone to charge earlier in the waiting room of the hospital after being questioned, and it like normal. He had a couple of missed messages from his parents who were probably still in Jeju, but nothing major.

 

“You good?” Taeyong looked up from where he was sitting on the curb and saw Jaehyun looming over him, all patched up as well. “It’s a wonder how you’re still awake. I mean, I know it’s Friday, but still.”

 

“I- yes, this indeed has been an...interesting night,” Taeyong mumbled, staring at the phone in his hand. “Nothing went as planned.”

 

“Well, what did you have planned?” Jaehyun said, sitting down on the sidewalk curb, leaving a good two feet of space from Taeyong to make sure he wasn’t uncomfortable. “I know it wasn’t these stupid aliens.”

 

Taeyong crossed his arms in front of him, looking up at the sky. “I think that if I predicted aliens, that would make me a psychic which I am not.”

 

“Indeed you are not,” Jaehyun said. “Remind me if you do become one, though. I could use winning lottery numbers.”

 

“I- the lottery,” Taeyong trailed off, looking down at the pavement. Despite it being four in the morning, the hospital had lights outside at all times, so they had no trouble seeing. “Well… today was really just school, a meeting I had with a teacher, the unit meeting,… our date, and going back home to study,” he explained. “Though I’m not sure if you heard, but they cancelled school for a bit.”

 

“Oof, hell yeah I remember that, we could definitely use a break after all this we went through today.” Jaehyun shut his eyes, stretching his arms above him, wincing in pain as he forgot about his energy. “I’m looking forward to it.”

 

Taeyong made a face. “I’m not,” he muttered.

 

“HMMST?” Jaehyun raised an eye at him. “Did you- don’t tell me you actually want us to have homework during this.”

 

“I- look, doing homework and studying helps me relax,” Taeyong explained, lifting his arms up in defense. “I don’t- Jaehyun, I don’t even leave my house.”

 

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay in your house and napping,” Jaehyun defended himself. “As long as there’s no studying. You’re insane, you know that, right? How do you even treat stress with- homework is literally the most stressful thing for me.”

 

Taeyong shrugged. “I… don’t know…” he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. “I just want to go home and sleep and worry all about this tomorrow. We barely survived today, you know.”

 

Jaehyun looked away, nodding in agreement. It has indeed been a few hours since they’ve been rescued, and, well… the worst was over, he supposed. Haechan and Yuta, who had been the two that they feared might not make it, underwent surgery and were now sleeping peacefully in their rooms, set to make a full recovery. Everyone else’s cuts, burns, scratches and pains have been treated, including Jaehyun’s himself, though he lied through his teeth about the pain still lingering in his arm. 

 

Sighing, Jaehyun got up from where he was sitting, making Taeyong look up at him. “Well, I’m a-” he let out an unexpected whistle. “Head out I guess. My parents are on their way to pick me up, they went to sleep quite early so they weren’t caught up on any of the aliens news.  Imagine their surprise when I called them to say pick me up at the hospital at like 3 am.”

 

“I- oh my gosh, please tell me you didn't scare them!” Taeyong exclaimed, covering his mouth to hide his laughter. While he hoped to never put his parents in that position and make them worry unnecessarily, he could only imagine how Jaehyun broke the news to his parents. “JAEHYUN!”

 

“Okay, to be fair, it sounded funnier in my head but then I got yelled at…” Jaehyun looked around the empty parking lot around them, which circled the hospital. “Hope I don’t get my whooped tonight, if aliens won’t kill me, my parents will.”

 

“After all the work you went through today,” Taeyong said, smiling. He was really glad that nothing had happened to Jaehyun. 

 

A car pulled up to the curb where they had been sitting, and up closely, Taeyong could see the woman sitting in the passenger seat, rolling down her window. “JUNG JAEHYUN, WHY IS YOUR ARM BANDAGED-”

 

“Mom, this is Taeyong,” Jaehyun interrupted her, pointing to Taeyong. “He’s the president of the school and the leader of the 127 unit.”

 

Taeyong pulled his tattered sleeves down, making eye contact with the mom for a split second before looking away. “Uh, nice to meet you-”

 

“OH, IT’S THAT BOY YOU PLANNED ON MEETING TODAY!” she exclaimed, and Taeyong could feel his cheeks go red. 

 

Jaehyun coughed. “Mom, aliens almost killed me, now is not the time-”

 

Taeyong watched as the two continued to bicker for a good minute before Jaehyun turned around to wave at Taeyong. “Well, I’m leaving,” he said, opening the car door. “Please don’t do homework when you get home, enjoy this sudden break from school.”

 

“School has only been in session for two weeks,” Taeyong said, rolling his eyes, giving him a grin. 

 

Jaehyun grinned as well, getting into the car, but before he could fully close the car door, Taeyong suddenly made an outburst. “Jaehyun, wait!” 

 

“Hmm?” Jaehyun stuck his head out of the car. “What is it?”

 

“I- maybe… if you’re not busy…” Taeyong stared at the phone in his hands, not wanting to look into Jaehyun’s eyes. “Maybe we can go eat ice cream.”

 

“ yeah we’ll eat ice cream,” Jaehyun said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tae.”

 

***

 

Being best friends for many years meant that sometimes, you were going to see them cry. It doesn’t happen that often, if Haechan was honest to himself, but it happens, and it’s not rare. It doesn’t take long for one of them to get too emotional all of a sudden and pour their heart out, the latter immediately comforting them. 

 

So, when Donghyuck woke up from a skull-crushing headache, his eyes adjusting to the bright light in the room, his first reaction to seeing Mark crying on a chair beside him was to wonder what happened that could make Mark cry this much and how he must immediately make him feel better. 

 

Donghyuck opened his mouth, ready to speak out, but at that moment, no sound came out of his mouth which was too dry. 

 

The sounds of Mark sniffling though only made Donghyuck feel more like , and he had to be there for his best friend, so he tried speaking louder, finally producing a sound, his voice cracking. “Mark.”

 

At the sound of Donghyuck speaking, Mark looked up, his wet eyes widening. “H-hyuck-”

 

“Why are you crying?” Donghyuck continued, cutting straight to the point. He tried to think of the events of the past twenty four hours and hoped he had nothing to do with this. 

 

Before Donghyuck could say anything else, though, Mark leaped from his chair and gave Donghyuck a bone-crushing hug, resuming his choked-up sobs. Donghyuck could feel Mark’s wet cheek pressed against his, and he could only conclude his friend had been crying for quite a while. 

 

“I was so scared you weren’t going to make it,” Mark whispered, low in Donghyuck’s ear, leaving Donghyuck speechless.

 

With Mark hugging him and thus rendering him unmobile, Donghyuck was able to look around the room and after noticing all the equipment around him with fancy names that he will never remember, that’s when Donghyuck realized he was in a hospital room. 

 

And, considering how he was on the bed, he was the one being treated. 

 

“What the happened?” Donghyuck said, grabbing Mark’s arms to pull him away slightly so that they could make eye contact. “, I already said Mark, I wanted to pretend to have amnesia and not know anything-”

 

“You- Haechan, we just fought aliens!” Mark exclaimed, lifting his arm up to get ready to slug Donghyuck only to remember last second that he was injured. “This- it’s not funny!”

 

“Course it is!” Donghyuck said, giving Mark a grin. He was the injured one, he was allowed to feel whatever emotion he wanted to. “Mark, come on, you’re probably exaggerating-”

 

“You were stabbed, Hyuck!” Mark exclaimed, balling up his fists. “You- you lost so much blood, I thought… I thought you weren’t going to make it.”

 

Donghyuck frowned. “What do- what do you mean stabbed-” he tugged on his shirt from the collar to see his chest, and to his horror, saw his entire abdomen bandaged. 

 

Memories from the night before started flooding his head, from the failed karaoke to running through the woods, climbing up the water tower to did they really do that in the classroom?!?! 

 

He stayed silent for a few seconds, remaining in shock, before finally making eye contact with Mark again. “If I did die-”

 

“Please do not make any death jokes right now,” Mark pleaded. 

 

“Mark Lee! I have a headache, I will do that later.” Donghyuck grabbed the hospital blanket and tugged it upwards, trying to cover himself with it as he suddenly felt cold. , did he lose that much blood? How did he get stabbed anyway? “What would have been my last words anyways?”

 

Mark’s eyes widened. “Why- why do you want to know about that?”

 

Donghyuck squinted his eyes at him. “Well, maybe because I’m injured??? And I have a headache so I don’t remember everything yet?? Obviously because I want to make sure I didn’t say something stupid, idiot.”

 

“W-well, that is not my problem,” Mark stammered. “Besides, didn’t you just try to pretend that you had amnesia?”

 

“I didn’t try because I already ruined it before I thought of it,” Donghyuck defended himself. “You have a bad habit of deflecting questions, Mark.”

 

Mark sat back down on the chair next to Donghyuck’s hospital bed. “You should probably go back to sleep, Hyuck.”

 

“I- I don’t need sleep-”

 

“It is 5 AM,” Mark pointed out. “Sleep, please. I’m just glad you’re okay, Donghyuck.”

 

Donghyuck didn’t break eye contact with Mark, realizing the dark circles that were present on the older’s face, the tiny smears of blood still present on his face, scratches and bruises dotting his arm, his red eyes that were begging for the night to be over. 

 

“Mark, you know I love you, right?” he asked, ignoring Mark’s surprised face as he scooted to the right side of the bed, away from Mark, patting the empty spot besides him. “Come on, just sleep.”

 

“I can’t do that,” Mark harshly whispered to him, glancing at the room door as if a nurse was going to come in any second now. “Plus you need the space-”

 

“You can have with me in a classroom but you can’t lie next to me in a hospital bed for a nap?” Donghyuck argued back with him. “Mark, you haven’t even washed your face, how long have we been here again?”

 

“Hey, you might want to keep the classroom stuff down to a low,” Mark continued to whisper. Thank god the cameras at the school were off during that time. “And I’ve washed my face! How dare you.”

 

Donghyuck rolled his eyes. “Clearly,” he mumbled, before making aegyo eyes to Mark. “Please sleep next to me? I miss you.”

 

Mark looked around the room again before slipping off his shoes, climbing into the bed next to Donghyuck, who pulled the covers over them. “Be careful, you have injuries and you need to get better.”

 

“What I need is for you to hug me while I take a nap,” Donghyuck insisted, Mark immediately obeying as he wrapped his arms around Donghyuck’s waist, pulling him closer. “Thank you."

 

“Go to sleep.”

 

“No.”

 

“Haechan.”

 

“I was almost killed, I should be able to do what I want for a bit.”

 

“That’s not funny and that’s not how it works either.”

 

A/N

so... after a few weeks of depression, wanting to die, family issues, work and school... i am b a c k. 
hopefully. considering its summer. 

im really sorry for the wait yall i feel like absolute lmao but like i said... i never abandon a fic. im going to update my other stories soon, Staggering fall of youth next and mayhaps the hyungwon one these next two days so hopefully i dont go in a spiral again. 

also!! this story is ending in one more chapter!! i'm so emotional right now but remember there'll be a sequel! probably around july! Its going to be so much better tbh