⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Later that day, Jongwoon made his move.

When Hyukjae went towards the direction of the lockers, Jongwoon walked past him and purposely bumped into his shoulder, causing the younger to drop the books he was carrying to the floor.

“Ah, I’m so sorry,” Jongwoon apologized, dropping to the ground in an instant to pick up the fallen things.

“Oh, no no, it’s fine, I can do this by my—” Hyukjae’s voice got lost in his throat the moment he looked up to see Jongwoon’s face.

Jongwoon’s eyes met his, and in that instant, Jongwoon tuned into Hyukjae’s thoughts.

‘Oh god. It’s Jongwoon.’

Hyukjae just kept on staring at him, tongue-tied, unable to speak a single word. Jongwoon didn’t move an inch, keeping eye-contact for as long as he could, trying to penetrate inside Hyukjae’s head to search for the answers he needed.

‘Lee Hyukjae! Get a grip!’

“I–I… Th–Thank you for helping me!” Hyukjae jerked his head away at that moment, hastily taking the books from Jongwoon’s hands and immediately standing up. Jongwoon hissed internally at the broken eye-contact and quickly stood up as well, reaching out to clamp a hand on Hyukjae’s shoulder, preventing the latter from turning away.

“Hold on,” Jongwoon said.

He could feel Hyukjae freezing under his touch and it sent warning bells ringing in Jongwoon’s head. Did this guy really know something about them? If so, was he really willing to turn in that kind of information to the police? What evidence did he have? Jongwoon needed to know.

It was just like Kyuhyun said. Their lives were indeed at stake here.

Jongwoon shut his eyes as a certain memory sprang inside his mind and disappeared as quickly as it came.

No more.

No more experiments.

No… more…

“Y—Yes…?” Hyukjae said, visibly swallowing as he turned to face Jongwoon. Unfortunately, his gaze was transfixed on the ground below them, clearly refusing to look Jongwoon in the eyes.

Jongwoon felt his heart pound in his chest. Hyukjae seemed afraid of him. So it was really true…?

I have to do something.

“Look… uh…” Jongwoon scrambled for something to say, something that wouldn’t make him seem like the usual merciless alien monsters people often portrayed them as on TV. It wouldn’t do if he scared Hyukjae even more; he needed to take a soft yet firm approach if he wanted to convince this human that they were not, in fact, the dangerous beings people believed they were.

Thankfully, Hyukjae didn’t do anything to wrench away from his grip, something that relieved Jongwoon’s mind somewhat. It was frustrating to be unable to know what Hyukjae was thinking, though.

Unfortunately, life was a . The bell rang in that instant, causing both of them to jolt in their positions out of surprise.

“A—Ah,” Hyukjae finally spoke up, yet his gaze never left the floor. “I… I have to go. I’ll be late for class…”

“But I need to talk to you,” Jongwoon said, his pulse racing at the realization that his chance to convince this human was already slipping.

That caught Hyukjae’s attention and he looked up in surprise. “You… need to talk to me…?”

‘Oh god. Oh god, oh god. He wants to talk to me.’

“Yes,” Jongwoon said, taking on a softer tone this time. “I have something important to tell you.”

Hyukjae must be completely shocked, because Jongwoon couldn’t hear his thoughts at all. That in itself was both alarming and frustrating at the same time. It only meant one thing: fear.

Maybe he should’ve chosen his words carefully.

“S–Sure, o–okay,” Hyukjae stammered out, his hands shaking as he tried to balance the books in his arms. Jongwoon retracted his hold, not wanting to worsen the situation even further, and took a cautious step back.

At that moment, he saw Jungsoo and Kyuhyun on their way towards their classroom, and they paused in their tracks to look at him. Jongwoon caught their eyes and nodded.

“When…?” Hyukjae asked meekly.

Jongwoon turned his attention back to him and frowned. He had classes all day and theater club business afterwards. When would be the right time?

“Tomorrow,” he finally said. “Meet me in the school backyard at 7PM. That’s when my theater practice ends. Are you free?”

’S–Seven…? At n–night??!’

Of course. Of course he’d think it would be dangerous to meet with an alien somewhere dark, where hardly anybody would be around.

Jongwoon sighed internally.

“Don’t worry. There’ll be lots of peo—” At that moment, the second bell rang. It was really time to go.

“I—I’m sorry, I have to go to class now,” Hyukjae mumbled out before finally running off.

Jongwoon cursed himself and began walking towards the direction of the classroom as well.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

“Well?” Kyuhyun asked when classes finally ended and they met up in the school backyard fifteen minutes before Jongwoon’s after-class activities. “Did you read his mind?”

Jongwoon nodded solemnly. “He was clearly scared of me. He couldn’t even keep eye-contact with me. I’ve decided to visit his dreams later tonight and try to talk to him.”

Kyuhyun frowned, seemingly displeased by this development, but nodded anyway, trusting his brother’s decisions. “Try not to scare him too much. You look even more intimidating when you glare like that.”

Jongwoon raised an eyebrow. “I’m not angry. Do I look like I am?”

“I know you’re not angry, but your face always looks like you’re mad at the world or something,” Kyuhyun remarked. “Technically, it is true, but you should try to play along with the people of this world, too. You may be popular, but those kids are also scared of you.”

Jongwoon frowned. “But this is my usual expression…”

Kyuhyun sighed. “See, this is exactly why that Hyukjae guy was so scared of you earlier. You should learn how to smile sometimes, hyung! And stop narrowing your eyes all the time, you keep scaring off the girls who want to approach you.”

“I’m not interested in girls,” Jongwoon said quietly.

“Okay then, you keep scaring off the guys who want to approach and flirt with you,” Kyuhyun corrected himself without missing a beat.

“I am not interested in guys, either,” said Jongwoon.

Kyuhyun looked at him strangely. “Then what are you interested in? Monsters? Aliens like us? Unless you’ve forgotten, we’re the only ones of the same kind that we know as of now. Your life is pretty boring though… okay, listen, this is what I think. You should never get close to humans, but you can’t let them be scared of you forever, either! What if they suspect something—”

While Kyuhyun was in the middle of his nagging, Jongwoon had already walked off towards the direction of the school building. The youngest was only made aware of this fact when Jungsoo cleared his throat loudly, effectively catching his attention.

Jungsoo glared at him disapprovingly. “Was that really necessary?”

“What, what?” Kyuhyun raised his arms in a form of surrender. “I was just saying–”

Jungsoo shook his head. “Save it. We should just wait until later when Jongwoon is done visiting Hyukjae’s dream tonight. In the meantime, I’ll go ask Heechul for help.”

“Help with what?” Kyuhyun said, frowning. He was still wary of Heechul and Donghae, the only two humans in the world who knew their real identities. If those humans ever decided to cave in to the government and tell them everything they knew, it was going to be the end for the three of them.

However, that possibility in itself was slim, mostly because Kyuhyun knew that Heechul and Donghae would never tell.

Kyuhyun had sharp eyes. He saw the way Heechul looked at Jungsoo every time he thought the latter wasn’t looking. It was sickening to watch, but if Heechul’s obvious infatuation for Jungsoo was going to be beneficial on their end, then Kyuhyun had no reason to complain.

As for Donghae… that guy was such a goody two shoes and a pacifist to top it all off. He constantly followed Heechul around like a lost puppy and was even very friendly with Jungsoo even though he already knew the truth about their identities.

Kyuhyun huffed. One wrong move, though. One wrong move and those humans were going to be toast the moment he was finished with them.

“I need him to take a few strands from Hyukjae’s hair,” Jungsoo said. “Remember? To visit dreams, Jongwoon needs to have something that contains that person’s DNA.”

“True,” Kyuhyun said, still feeling a bit uneasy about this kind of situation. “I hope that idiot Hyukjae won’t rat us out. Or else he’ll be dead meat!”

Jungsoo shushed him disapprovingly. “Hyukjae is a good guy. And he’s a friend of Heechul’s. I trust him.”

Kyuhyun looked at him, and the distaste was clear in his eyes. “You’ve always trusted people too easily, Jungsoo-hyung.”