The sun has come up and I woke up, running down the stairs to see Ahjumma in the kitchen. Her calm humming made me stop, remembering my conversation with the boys in the car. Pressing my lips together, I tiptoed into the kitchen and walked to the fridge to open it while her back was on me. My eyes scanned what we had and I grabbed fresh meat, unwrapping it quickly to put it on a plate when I heard Ahjumma talk.

“Harin? Oh, you’re awake. I’m making food—” She stopped talking when she saw me extend the plate to her, hopeful that she would take it. “What are you doing?”

“My sacrifice,” I told her, smiling and it took her awhile to understand what I was talking about. Realization dawned to her face and she shooed me away; half chuckling, half nagging before telling me not to listen to the boys and that the only sacrifice I could give her was to stay safe.

“Besides, how am I supposed to eat this raw?” she asked, putting the plate back into the fridge. “I eat normal food like you humans do.” She grumbled, going back to stirring the stew, talking under her breath about how she has lived the past 150 years as a human being. I couldn’t stop myself from looking surprised, but I knew better than to let her see. Giving her a flying kiss, I ran back up to freshen up.

I knew the moment I reached upstairs that the boys were up, hearing the sound of breaking glass when I saw the vase on the floor. I turned to see that it was Kai who was teleporting down the hall, but his leg had slipped. Before I could open my mouth, I blinked and suddenly the vase was back in its original place—unharmed. Frowning, I looked around, past a pestering Chanyeol and a slightly confused Suho to a Tao who had his eyes glow yellow. He saw me looking at him and lifted his hand to show that it was glowing. He must have rewound time. He must have seen the questioning in my eyes, nodding as if to answer my doubts.

“Yes, but I can do it only up to two minutes.” His hand fell limply to his side and he already looked like he was exhausted. “And I haven’t developed it enough to go to the future. Don’t think I will ever be able to.” He shrugged and stalked back into his bedroom, probably to rest his eyes more.

“Ong Harin!” I heard Baekhyun scream from the bathroom and I saw my brother come out of his room sleepily. He ruffled his hair and saw me, telling me that he’d check it out and to just do what I had to do. Leaving my brother to it, I walked into my bedroom and freshened up, brushing my long hair to the side and reaching for my cellphone.

I had forgotten all about it, so used of the Exode ways, I didn’t think to even touch it the moment I reached Earth. Once it , my eyes widened at the amount of calls and text messages I got.

Scrolling through my messages, I saw 47 messages from Jackson, 3 from Mark, and a couple from all my other friends who asked if I was kidnapped due to my parent’s money. Shaking my head, I could see that they were a bunch of conspiracists. Pressing into the group chat, I sent a sticker. In not even a second, the phone rang and I answered it, dragging the phone away from my ear with Jackson’s voice yelling as loud as he can.

“ONG HARIN! WHERE WERE YOU?! Ooof... Sorry, I totally forgot I’m in class. To which, YOU have to be here!” His yell turned into a loud whisper that still sounded like he was yelling. “You literally disappeared into thin air!”

“I was overseas,” I told him, racking my brains for an explanation. “Had to do something. I think I’ll take the semester off.”

“Really? What kind of universe did you go to that doesn’t have wifi?” He asked, and I could hear the professors voice in the background telling them to turn in their reports. “And I am doing all the work myself. Do you know how sad that is?” The rustling of paper could be heard and then a backpack being zipped up.

“You don’t even want to know,” I answered, not knowing how to respond to his wifi question. “You have any plans for the week?” I could hear the university bell and the bustle of everyone standing up. I high-key missed university but I don’t think my professors would allow me to take classes, considering I had missed so many classes.

We had a maximum 3-time absence in my university and that would mean I had to apply for next semester instead. Pushing the responsibilities away from my head, I decided that I’d think about it when EXO and my brother all went back to SM and I’d have time to myself to think about my future.

“I do,” Jackson insisted. “Oh- Sorry, man. I’ll see you in practice.” He was talking to someone else and I waited before he continued the conversation with me. “I want to know everything. Is it a family thing? Did they find out about your parents’ death? Oooh boy. I knew something was fishy about your family. Me and Yugeom talk about it all the time. I mean with all that left-over money and—”

I frowned, thinking about it too since Jackson brought it up. My parents seemingly disappeared though, with the new information from Ahjumma when Kris, Lay, and Suho came first. However, it was obvious how easy it was to come to Earth; if they were at Exodus they would have tried to find us by now. It’s not like we moved houses.

“It is about family, but nothing mysterious. I and Seungwoo were just trying to reallocate our assets,” I lied before repeating my question. “So, you have any plans this week?” I knew Jackson had the tendency to get distracted and I was used to his up-beat personality.

“Yeah. I have practice in an hour and I have a game tomorrow. Come to see me play,” he told me and I nodded, thinking about it. “American football.” I frowned when I heard it, trying to remember what Jackson participated in before.

“Wasn’t it fencing?” I asked him and he scoffed. “Why, what happened? Did you get kicked out again?”

“No. I didn’t get kicked out,” he emphasized. “I quit all on my own. The fencing team is literally a cult for overconfident men who think they can take advantage of women in parties. I reported them and told them to off. You proud?”

I couldn’t help but smile, nodding before telling him that I have never not been proud of him. I heard satisfaction in my best friend’s voice before he reminded me that I had to be in the game to watch him play in his first-ever American football match. Jackson was outspoken and very loud, but his loud was not childish, it was more confident and aggressive and I respected him for it. He said goodbye and I hung up the phone. The game was tomorrow, so let’s get over today first, I told myself.

[Jackson Wang, Harin's friend]

“Harin.” I looked up to see Wooseung by the doorway. “Let’s have breakfast first, I’m joining you guys today.”

“Okay, Oppa,” I answered and he went downstairs. ‘Oppa’ sounded weird to my mouth, but now that we were speaking Korean, I couldn’t just call him by his first name anymore. Language really does make a difference. I went downstairs to see everyone gathered around the dining table, eating rice and eggs. Bacon and vegetables were gone and I could see that Ahjumma was already trying to cook more to cater to 13 people.

Wooseung was making his morning juice and I ate an egg, thinking of where to go when I turned to Wooseung. “Where should we bring them today?” I asked, and he shrugged, adding a few pieces of celery into the juicer. “I brought them to the zoo yesterday and it was so chaotic.”

“I heard,” he replied, pressing the button. “I think Baekhyun was telling Seungwoo all about it last night. Feeding them to the giraffes? Gatekeeper? You’ve got talent for making Seoul like Soul, dongsaeng.” He chuckled and I winked at him.

“Harin, come and help me with this,” Ahjumma said and I shook my head, not liking the heat that came with the stew. I hated the heat and I enjoyed the cold all the time, even stirring the stew was something I refused to do if I could avoid it.

“Let Wooseung Oppa help you with it,” I told her and Wooseung nodded, turning to help Ahjumma. The perks of being the youngest in the family, indeed. I turned to see that Baekhyun was listening and was about to leave to the living room when I heard him ask Wooseung what an “Oppa” was. I guess Heechul’s language spell didn’t cover some parts. When I was in Exodus, under the spell, I knew words but sometimes I didn’t know what they meant.

“You call someone older than you. When someone is older you have to respect them, that’s the culture here. Also, someone you look up to and only if you’re close enough with that person.” Wooseung explained. I heard Baekhyun turn to Suho and call him ‘Suho Oppa’ and I burst out into laughter, my brother following suit. “No, no. Oppa is for girls to guys, only.”

After breakfast was done, everyone began to lounge in the living room when I heard a small thud in the backyard. Kyungsoo was the one who quickly ran out to check if something happened, his eyes flashing green as the vines grew on stand by in case it was something dangerous. However, we were greeted by a Lay, the man stepping into the kitchen before he was engulfed into a hug by an almost crying Suho.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Suho blurted out and Lay looked at him confused, returning the hug warmly. “You don’t know the hassle that I’ve been through!”

“I’m here now,” Lay reassured and I still doubt that he was ready for the chaotic energy Exo was. “Hey, Harin… Wooseung… Kids.” He smiled, running a hand through his hair and bowing to Ahjumma then sitting down on one of the chairs.

“Why did you suddenly come?” I asked, Lay fanning himself with his hand as I searched for the air conditioner remote to lower the temperature.

“Ms. Tiffany said she could sense Suho’s plea of help so she told me to come and help handle them.” He gave me a small smile and Suho seemed entirely grateful that there was another ‘adult’ in the house. His eyes went to the TV that was naturally put to National Geographic with an enthusiastic Chanyeol telling Wooseung about it as if Wooseung has never seen a “big giant predator called a giraffe” before.

“Oh, look. They must be related to Ms. Tiffany!” Tao said, pointing to the screen that had a bunch of egrates flocking around. I have no idea how he got to that conclusion but I nodded, playing along.

“Those are her cousins.” Wooseung laughed, turning to me just for our eyes to meet and we shared a smile. I pondered where I had to bring them, checking the time to see that it was a little bit over ten o’clock in the morning when Wooseung stood up.

“I was thinking we’d go bowling today.” He said clapping his hands and everyone, including Lay, looked at him almost immediately. “Bowling and then maybe we go to my favorite restaurant.” I was glad Wooseung took the lead, he was good at it. He had always wanted to be a tour guide, but since Seungwoo was the dominant one, he never got the chance.

“We’ll take two different cars then?” I asked and he nodded. “We’ll have to take both vans. I think you should take Senior Lay and Senior Suho will come with me.” I honestly felt like we were transporting a football team, counting heads trying to allocate everyone in two different vehicles. I saw Lay ask Suho what a van is and he answered that it was a type of silver horse.

Oh, I couldn’t wait to see his face when he sees it.

“Okay, sounds good.” Suho took deep breaths, like he was mentally preparing himself for the rest of the day. “One line, hold hands, walk.” He ordered, grabbing the Exodian flag, walking out the door just for everyone to follow him.

Day two, it is. Day two.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                          We had reached the mall soon after and we made our way to the bowling alley. Wooseung was laughing when he told me that Lay’s hand was glowing the whole ride to heal the vehicle because he thought it was sick. We all went to the counter to pay off the tickets for 90 minutes, taking around 3 lanes. I was relieved that there were very few people since it was a week day, so mistakes were not risky. I raised a hand and they all fell silent, waiting for me to speak.

“Okay. So, my brother has put all your names in the system. To make it simple, you aim for those white things there. Those pins, see?” I pointed at the pins. “And using the ball, you knock them down. Understand?”

“Yes,” everyone said and I picked up a ball, weighing it in my hands before turning and throwing the ball down the lane. I was not one for form and procedures, it was alright as long as the ball knocked down those pins. I knocked down six pins. It didn’t take long before they were all around the balls, trying to hold them. Sehun looked weirdly competitive, his eyes changing from uninterested to challenging.

“Kyungsoo.” Wooseung had said, looking up on the screen. Because of the amount of people, we decided to let people go one by one, lane by lane so they weren’t trying to wreck anything. Funnily enough, Kyungsoo grunted and grabbed one of the heavier balls, struggling to carry it as he wobbled to the front.

“Maybe get a lighter one, Soo,” Wooseung had said and Kyungsoo didn’t react to his new nickname, but stared at the pins instead.

“Heavy is good,” Kyungsoo said, stopping in front of the lane and dropping the ball on the ground. “They all die.”

“Wait, wait, no!” It didn’t occur to me what was happening, but Wooseung was quicker to react when Kyungsoo seemed like he was aiming with his feet. My brother reached him just in time to pull him back just when Kyungsoo was about to kick the bowling ball. “No, no, no.”

My brother was sweating despite the air-conditioned place and I think he underestimated the difficulty of bringing the boys to a mall. Taking advantage of Wooseung’s fluster, I saw Chanyeol trying to walk down the bowling alley lane, his long legs slipping. He fell flat on his face and I had to run over to tell him that walking is not allowed, the lanes were oiled so the ball could roll down easier to its target.

“Let me rephrase what Harin said- Only hands. Only throwing. Do not throw it above your head, throw it like this only,” Wooseung explained, showing how to do it and knocking all the pins down. Everyone clapped, even Sehun looked impressed and he turned to the side; practicing all by himself.

“Okay, Baekhyun. Next lane, Kai. Next lane, Lay,” Wooseung said before he pointed up to the screen. “Whoever wins this game, I’ll buy them video games.”

“What’s that?” Baekhyun asked curiously, Wooseu