It was easy to take form of the complex multicellular organism here on this terrestrial planet. 

 

Three of them were dropped in what the biome appeared to be a forest. There appeared to be a tower, to which they identified contained water substance. It would be easy to make the base here. That way, the organisms would have time to prepare their defenses because they can attack the living beings. 

 

They needed to understand the language, though, so they needed to bring a being back to their pod in the ship and absorb the information stored in their versions of a brain. That way, they could also understand the customs here on Earth so that they could assimilate. 

 

A total of six of them came to this planet and were responsible for their downfall. It was the test that they had been assigned, and they’ve been given their resources. 

 

Now it was time to put it to use. 

 

***

Two janitors went outside to have a smoke during their break. Hopefully, they could stall out here for a long time. 

 

“So I caught two teens making out today behind the bleachers,” one of them said. “A Chinese and a Korean. Glad they didn’t do anything worse, I’m ing tired of cleaning up everywhere.”

“As if these people didn’t have homes where they could ,” the other said. He took a long, drag of his cigarette before continuing. “Did find some pot in a student’s locker, gonna use it later.”
 

“Better hide it from your wife, she’s already on your case about that girl you’ve been banging,” the first one said. 

 

The second dude, a short, chubby guy, walked to the corner and walked away, out of sight from his co-worker. “Give me a sec, I’m taking a piss.”

The taller dude shrugged. "Whatever you want, buddy. I'll be right back." 

 

He headed back into the building to get a drink of water from the water fountain since his forgot to bring his water container to work today. At least it wasn't the passing period of t students there; he ing hated seeing all the annoying kids everywhere, thinking they had life made. 

 

Of course,, he didn't like working after hours of the school either. Why did others get to rest? It's not like those kids ing deserved it. 

 

After having his fill of the water, he went back outside to look for his co-worker who was nowhere in sight. 

 

"Hello? Man, where are you hiding?" He turned around the corner and was thrown against the wall, his skull crushing on impact, his body falling on his co-worker pool of blood.

 

***

 

Jaehyun fumbled with his phones as he tried to dial the one number that would help him out in this critical situation. 

 

The phone was ringing while Jaehyun lifted it up to his ear, his hands shaking and his heart racing. He started packing down the hallways of Taeyong's house as he waited for his friend to pick up.

 

Johnny's voice sounded very groggy; he must have been taking a nap. "Hello?" he said, yawning into the line. 

 

"I knew this was a bad idea!" Jaehyun shrieked into the loudspeaker, only getting a hmm from Johnny in return. "It's not gonna work, !"

 

"Hold on, what are you doing again?" Johnny asked him before Jaehyun screamed and ended the call. 

 

He tested against the wall of the hallway for a few moments, trying to catch his breath. This was not going to work. Taeyong was going to hate him and their whole friendship would be ruined, and that was the last thing Jaehyun wanted.

 

He counted to ten in his head before cursing the Thai and his stupid boyfriend. How Jaehyun was friends with Johnny was beyond his reasoning. 

 

Calming himself down, he tried to reason with himself. Even if Taeyong rejected him, it didn't seem likely that they would stop hanging out, right? They would still be good friends. 

 

Without thinking, he marched himself back into Taeyong's room, where the latter had been writing in his notebook before looking at Jaehyun. "Is everything okay?" Taeyong asked.

 

"No, nothing's okay," Jaehyun answered. "I'm in love with you."

 

Taeyong's eyes widen, his face starting to turn red. "uh.. come again?"

 

"I want to be more than friends," Jaehyun explained, wondering where he was getting this confidence from. Too late to back down now. "Can we…. Perhaps see Friday as a date?"

 

***

 

"Today is Thursday~" Donghyuck started singing in the hallways the next day, skipping his way as Mark followed closely behind him. "I'm so excited~"

 

Mark ignored him, instead trying to calm down his raging heartbeat. "What are you looking forward to?" He  asked carefully.

 

"Well, YOU have the meeting with your committee, so  I am going to spend that time doing my homework cause I'll miss you," Haechan replied, batting his eyelashes at Mark. "And Chen Le asked me if I could sleep over at his house tonight "

 

"Tonight?" Mark asked. "Today is Thursday."

 

"Well, you see my friend," Donghyuck reminded him. "Friday sleepovers are reserved for my best friend in the entire world."

 

Mark ignored his beating heart as its pace picked up. "You're coming to my place?"

 

"Hell yeah." Donghyuck stopped at his locker to get out his books. They were taking their time since Mark had actually woken up on time today and they had plenty of time to spare. "Two sleepovers in a row, yes. Oh, Jeno said he wanted to do something on Saturday, so maybe it'll be a third one."

 

"Oof, that's going to be a good one," Mark said. "Jeno has the biggest gaming collection I've ever seen."

 

"Look at you, mister gamer." Haechan slammed his locked shut. "Me and Chen Le are gonna go shopping for homecoming, anyways. He wants my opinion since he claims I have a better taste in clothes than Renjun."

 

Mark's eyes widen. "Homecoming? He's your date?"

 

"God no." Donghyuck took out his phone and unlocked it, opening the photos app. "He only has eyes on you-know-who. Although he denies it. You know how the younger ones are." 

 

"You're younger than me," Mark pointed out. 

 

"Details, details. Look, I was thinking of buying a dress like this," Haechan showed his phone to Mark. "It's pretty."

 

Mark has known about his friend liking to crossdress for years, although Donghyuck did it rarely. His parents didn't approve of it, and although they were never home, Donghyuck didn't like to risk it, doing it only on special occasions.

 

It's been a while since Donghyuck had done it, Mark thought. The last time they went to a dance was when Haechan graduated middle school, inviting Mark (who had finished freshman year) since he didn't want to be lonely. That had been over a year and a half ago.

 

Just the thought of Haechan wearing a dress again made Mark's cheeks get red.

 

"Do you plan on getting a date?" Mark asked him. Last time he checked, Donghyuck didn't have a crush on anyone, but feelings could always change.

 

Donghyuck shook his head. "Nah, we should all just go together as a group. I'd rather hang out with you than any date."

 

***

 

In Korean lit class, Xiaojun and Kun were passing notes.

 

The teacher was droning on and on about some author that Xiaojun had never heard about and would never hear about again. He didn't even know popular Chinese authors and he's spent his entire life there. He agreed that literature and its impact should be taught, but at least make the class interesting for crying out loud. 

 

He started doodling the Chinese character biáng all over his notebook. It was the most complex Chinese character known to man, having almost 60 and can't even be typed into a computer. Xiaojun had memorized it in the past because he liked ordering the biáng biáng noodles.

 

While writing the character, glancing at the teacher every now and then so that she thought he was paying attention, he suddenly felt something small hit his foot.

 

He bent down and discovered a balled up note. He would have ignored it, thinking someone was out to call him again like they did back in his old school, but this school looked pretty accepting to him; a lot of kids were out and open about their relationships. He doesn't even talk, so how can someone make that assumption about him anyways?

 

Grabbing the note, he opened it carefully so that no one could hear the wrinkling of the paper. There, he discovered that someone had written it in clean, Chinese handwriting.

 

I never knew you had a liking to biáng noodles. Did your school had it as a punishment, too?

 

-K

 

Ah, it had been Kun. Kun sat behind him during class, so he must have looked over his shoulder and saw what he was doing. 

 

Xiaojun turned around to look at the Chinese, who had been listening to the teacher. He stole a glance of Xiaojun, though, and gave him a small smile before paying attention again. 

 

Xiaojun grabbed a post-it from his stack on the desk and wrote a reply. 

 

Nope, I just thought it was cool. I could really use some, though.

-X

 

He rolled it up in a small ball and used his foot to roll it gently behind Kun. He could the latter use his foot to roll it over before picking it up to read it.

 

Soon enough, he felt another ball of paper roll over under his feet. 

 

I only have Singaporean noodles and Kompyang for lunch. I can give you some.

 

-K

 

Pretty soon, Xiaojun and Kun had a conversation made entirely of paper and post-it notes. 

 

Thanks, but it's fine, my mom made me some Kimchi. Not used to this Korean food tho :P

 

It's fine, I usually get a lot since Yangyang steals everything and shares it with the group. - K

 

Kun I know it's you you don't have to keep adding K

 

I'll stop it if you accept the noodles - K

 

Fine I'll eat the noodles. Don't you think it'll taste weird with kimchi though?

 

Give Yangyang the kimchi  - Q

 

Now why are you adding a Q?

 

It's my family name, Qian. You said stop the K, not the Q. - Q

 

The intelligence of calculus is getting to your brain, Qian Kun

 

It evens out with Yangyang's and Hendery's dumbness - Q

 

***

 

Lunch with the WayV unit was extremely chaotic, per usual.

 

Yangyang, Hendery, Xiaojun and Kun were always present, since Si Cheng, Lucas and Ten alternate between sitting there and at the 127 table. Today, though, all seven were present, so it was even more hectic than usual. 

 

As Kun predicted, Yangyang took 2 of his for Kompyang, munching on one of them while tossing the other to Hendery. Lucas kept stealing bites of his noodles until Kun yelled at him and gave it to Xiaojun, who was delighted. Before Xiaojun could give Lucas the kimchi, though, Ten stole it, claiming that Lucas didn't deserve it.

 

All of this happened in the span of 40 seconds. 

 

They were talking about the movie Friday, which everyone was excited to see. However, Lucas, Hendery and Yangyang wanted to crash the two other units who were meeting that evening as well and, in lack of better words, annoy them.

 

"I want to see Jungwoo, he's staying after with the 127 unit," Lucas complained, wallowing in his rice. "It's not fair."

 

"Well, Johnny said he's gonna crash into our movie at one point and see if we have food left," Ten said. "That is, if they don't steal all the snacks Taeyong is surely going to bring to their meeting."

 

"Who wants to work on college applications, that's so boring," Yangyang said. "Isn't the Dream Unit doing karaoke? Kun, you're going to see your son, right?"

 

"Chen Le is a better son than all of you," Kun said, finishing his Kompyang quickly. "Of course I'm going to see him, I love him."

 

"Jisung's gonna freak if you said that in front of him," Si Cheng sai, typing away on his phone. "And y'all need to stop talking about 127, I'm in that unit."

 

"All you do is Japanese ," Ten said, causing Si Cheng to spit out his bubble tea. "You're going to his soccer meet tomorrow, aren't you?"

 

"His meet was canceled, something about the coach not showing up today," Si Cheng said. "And I have never seen a in my life "

 

"Did you hear two janitors also went missing?" Hendery said. "There's no clue where they went." 

 

"You're next if you don't shut up," Ten argued back.

 

"Man, you guys always talk about bad stuff," Lucas interrupted them. "Why can't you say good news, like about Jaehyun and Taeyong?"

 

The Taeyong name sounded familiar. "Who's Taeyong?" Xiaojun asked. 

 

"Student body president and leader of the 127 unit," Ten answered. He shoved his phone in Si Cheng's face. "Here, I found a pic for you on google-"

 

"Ten get that away from me!" Si Cheng yelled, grabbing Ten's phone and throwing it at the table, which landed on Xiaojun's noodles. "Please don't tell me that's your boyfriend's!"

 

"I said it was on Google, , how are you so naive?!" Ten yelled back.

 

"Taeyong and Jaehyun are going on a date!" Lucas told Xiaojun, ignoring Ten and Si Cheng's bickering. "They're in my committee and I always knew they liked each other. I'm seeing them later after school."

 

Hendery pouted. "I'll never go on a date."

 

"Not all dates are worth it," Xiaojun said, finishing his noodles. Lucas had stolen a good chunk of it. "But they seem like a good couple."

 

Si Cheng reached over and stole Yangyang's orange, the latter whining. Si Cheng then proceeded to peel it and throw the slices on Ten's tray, causing the latter to scream and fall off his chair. 

 

"Wait, can you do it again, I didn't record," Hendery said while Ten started reciting death threats.

 

Kun sighed. "Just one normal lunch period. It's all I asked for."

 

***

 

Seoul was… amazing. 

 

After the long 23 hour flight from DC to Seoul, having slept during most of the flight, Jihoon couldn't help but be filled with adrenaline as he stepped outside of the airport, his suitcase lunging behind him while he stared at the view. 

 

The city was full of people. Kind of reminded him of DC, only here it was a place full of Koreans like him, normal people instead of those who worked for the government. It was different from what he was used to, but that didn't make it bad, instead, it was almost refreshing.

 

Soonyoung appeared in front of him, grinning. "So, what do you think?" he asked him in Korean.

 

"It's amazing," Jihoon said. "I've never been in another country before."

 

"We can do some sightseeing later if you want to," Soonyoung offered. "They're letting us rent a car, so we won't be at the mercy of the buses." 

 

"We should ride the bus at least once, though!" Jihoon exclaimed. "And we'll be able to go to a convenience store and make ramen there, and there's karaoke, and maybe see a Kpop group and-

 

Soonyoung let Jihoon rant. They probably weren't going to have enough time to do all those stuff, but it wouldn't hurt to let Jihoon daydream a little. Plus, it's not like they would force them to work 18 hours, they'll be fine.

 

"Let's go to the hotel," Soonyoung suggested, reaching out to grab Jihoon's hand. "We have to report in two hours and I want to take a nap."

 

Jihoon smiled, and it made Soonyoung's stomach flip for some unknown reason. "Let's see Korea."