The sun glared on Minho's face; he wasn't that fond of the sunlight in the morning, especially when it woke him up before his alarm did like now.
He grumbled as he tried to hide his face in his pillow, but the skin on his back started burning up instead.
Annoyed, sleepy, and plain old frustrated, he lifted his head to glance at his windows; he was sure he had closed his curtains! He always had! It was a habit at this point.
But no - right there, in front of him, his curtains had betrayed him and were open to invite the sunshine of the morning inside.

He flopped down on the bed again, glaring at his window as if it could break just from the furious look in his eyes. It took some time, but then he realized just what had happened last night.
Minho hopped out of his bed when he saw the couch was vacant, and he was about to begin calling out for Jinki when he saw the man in the garden. He seemed as if he had just woken up as well, but he was just standing up from the grass like he had been sleeping there this whole time.
Minho's head fell to the side, and he stared at the other one who waddled around the garden until he began pulling out some plants and eating them! He would pull a plant straight from its roots and hold it by its stem, then take one large bite out of it like Minho bit into dumplings or rice cakes. It was all just very strange.

Minho would've continued staring for hours (and he wanted to, really), but his mother would wake up soon, and her son doubted she'd take kindly to an odd man with antennae digging up her garden to eat.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Minho hissed as quietly as he possibly could with his deep voice once he made it outside. His hair was disheveled, but make no mistake, he still looked as if he had walked straight out of a photoshoot.
“Eating! Homosapiens have wonderful sustenance. Now I can see why the other space nations wanted to come here and take your sustenance,” Jinki said, and the two little yellow dots of his antennae blinked happily. Minho was so flustered by everything he heard in that sentence that he vigorously shook his head and waved his hand as if he were swatting the words away like a fly.
“No, stop doing that. This isn't food! Well, not for me, but vegans exist...but that's not the point! Stop eating my garden!” He grabbed Jinki's wrist then, pulling him inside as he casually ate a leaf.
“Oh! I thought I heard you talking to someone outside. Who is this? A friend from school?” Mrs. Choi asked as she adjusted her robe that she always walked around in at home after she had just woken up.
“Gree-”
“No. Just...don't, Jinki. Yes, mom, this is a friend from school. Uh...drama club. Science club. They're currently working on some research into outer space. Yes...well, we should be going now, or we'll be late for school!” Minho then rushed up the stairs; he was never good at lying, especially to one of his parents.
“I didn't even get his name! Jinki, was it?”
“Yes, it's Jinki. But we really do have to go now, mom!”
“You still have an hour until you have to leave. What's the rush?”
“Science project before school,” Minho shrugged with a hint of guilt on his face, unhappy that he had begun weaving a web of lies already and he hadn't even known Jinki for 24 hours.

“Now listen. You can't talk or make jokes with anyone! And I really mean it,” Minho was sure he had already said this last night, but he would say it again just in case, “if you do, they'll kidnap you or something! And send you back to Mars...red giant,”
“But that is a good thing, is it not? Do not misunderstand, I enjoy this planet you live on, but I do still love red giant!” Jinki exclaimed, his light brown, almost pink, eyebrows pulling up together.
Now that Minho could see him in proper light, he realized Jinki really did look odd. His hair was curly and a light pink mixed in with a red color. He had odd eyes too! They were light blue, and with the way he spoke definitely made him seem like an extraterrestrial. Not to mention his antennae.
“No, it'll be very bad! They'll do all sorts of experiments on you,”
“Experiments? What are these experiments that you speak of?” Jinki seemed as interested and curious as he did while he was pulling up plants and eating them. He looked like a chef of some sort, trying to sample only the finest produce for his meal.
“Never mind. Just stick with me when we go out, okay? Don't wander off, and don't follow anyone except for me! Just become my shadow,” Minho couldn't seem to stress this enough; now that he had finally met an alien, he didn't want him to be taken away. He would help Jinki get back to his home planet, and that would be the end of it. He'd remember this short encounter for a very long time, but no one would ever believe him if he told them this had happened. After all, otherworldly beings were still myths and rumors.
“Your shadow! But, friend, that is impossible! Some of the other space nations were blessed with shapeshifting abilities, but not mine!” Jinki exclaimed again, looking concerned just like he had before.
“No, it's...a metaphor...never mind that. Just let me get ready. Then we'll call my friend and we'll go check on your spacecraft,” Minho nodded, already grabbing some clothes from his wardrobe - he didn't want to miss school, which was why he was planning on checking out the site now and not later. He also didn't know how he was supposed to hide his new friend from the rest of the world while he was at school. He obviously couldn't bring Jinki with, and leaving him here with Mrs. Choi just didn't seem like a good idea in general. Jinki would go eat the garden again, or experiment with water, or...just be weird and give his true identity away. The sooner Minho was able to resolve the issue, the better, so he hoped the spaceship could be fixed this morning so Jinki could be out of here before some scientists discovered him and decided to perform harmful tests on him.

“Friend, friend!” Jinki called from the window. It sounded urgent, but Minho was sure it was just that the extraterrestrial had burnt his fingers touching that lava lamp that had fascinated him last night.
“Friend!” Still, Jinki persisted.
“What? What is it?” Minho asked with a frown as he emerged from his bathroom, pulling his shirt down over his abdomen.
“Look!” Jinki pointed to something outside of the window, and when Minho moved closer, his eyes widened at what he saw.
There, where the spacecraft was as visible as the sun that shined on it now, was where a large crowd had gathered. Even from here, Minho could see the yellow tape of the police tied around the spaceship to form a perimeter for the civilians to stay behind. A jogger or someone had probably passed the spacecraft earlier than Minho had even woken up, and called it in. He was sure he could even see some scientists poking around by the spaceship.

There was no way Jinki would be leaving today.

Minho groaned, then laid his forehead against his window. He had to think of a plan now; what to do with Jinki until after school, how to get him to his spaceship now that it would probably be seized by the scientists for research, and what to do if they somehow broke the spacecraft into little pieces that couldn't be salvaged. When Minho said he wanted to meet an alien all those years ago, this wasn't what he meant!

He decided on letting Jinki come with him to school and use the excuse that he was a new student to whoever asked. He made Jinki wear a hat so that his antennae would be hidden, and although the extraterrestrial was unhappy that they had to be bent to be hidden, he still did as Minho said. He was excited for this adventure he would be embarking on known as “school”, mainly because he didn't know what to expect and also because he was excited to see more human life.

As Minho had expected, there were numerous people (even teachers) who asked about the newcomer, and Minho was sure that was only because of Jinki's odd appearance. It was rare to see learners in this school dying their hair or wearing eye contacts, so it wasn't too hard to understand why people were interested in Jinki and why he was here, as well as how and when he had arrived. To them he probably just looked like a learner from another country, but Minho knew better. As long as he spoke for Jinki and prevented the alien from talking for himself or to anyone else, maybe this day wouldn't be that hard to endure. However, it was only morning time before first class, so Minho couldn't be too sure...but something about the way everyone kept staring at Jinki who tugged on Minho's arm and chattered away made the human feel as if he was about to be mentally drained.

The first few classes weren't too bad. Since Jinki was a new face, most teachers didn't pick on him to answer, but when they did, Minho physically cringed at what answers the extraterrestrial gave.
“Oh, on the red giant, we do not have any economic struggles! Everyone is happy and everything is in abundance. I do not understand why you earthlings use little pieces of paper as a way of receiving sustenance...” Jinki had answered in response to a question from the economics teacher. Needless to say, the teacher didn't ask him anything after that.
When the time came for math, Minho was sure Jinki wouldn't have a clue about what was going on, but he was pleasantly surprised instead.
“Ah, we used to do these equations and theorems when we were in children's school on the red giant. Very simple, do you not think so, friend?” He directed this at one of the people in the math class that were struggling with the workload and they burst out crying. It seemed more like a college than a high school to Minho at that moment.
No one approached Minho and his little group during break time, not even the cheerleaders; everyone still felt a little strange around the newcomer, so they kept their distance. It wasn't anything negative - they wouldn't jump him after school for being weird - they just felt a little intimidated and preferred not to get involved with him until they were completely sure he was at least somewhat sane.
Jonghyun and Taemin, two of Minho's friends, shot him a few looks during lunch - he hadn't told them of how Jinki got here yet, and he planned to do it during the break, but with Jinki so near, he didn't want to get into it and have the extraterrestrial rambling on and on about it. He only shook his head as an indication that he would tell the two of his friends what happened after school.
The rest of the classes passed in a similar fashion; a teacher would rarely call on Jinki, and he would give a strange enough answer to make them back off, even though he was truly enjoying his time there in school. It was definitely a new experience considering the way they did things back on Mars was just a little bit different in terms of education.

Minho met his friends with Jinki on the football field after school.

“You want to explain how this new friend of ours literally appeared out of thin air?” Jonghyun asked as he looked up from the grass with Taemin right beside him, picking out a few ants from the blades of green grass to squish in between his index and thumb fingers.
“I did not appear out of thin air, friend I came from the red giant! I was passing by over earth with my spacecraft when something went wrong with the circuits and I crashed here on your home planet. Minho was kind enough to attempt to help, but the other homosapiens have seized my spacecraft before we could get the chance to repair it! I am not sure how to get home now,” Jinki said before Minho could even open his mouth, and when both Jonghyun and Taemin glanced at their friend simultaneously, he just shrugged as if he had heard it a hundred times before. Which he felt like he had.
“Then let's break into the science lab and steal it back!” Taemin said, the ants he was hunting for already forgotten.
“Don't be silly now. It was probably taken in by the science facility in the city, not by the science lab here at school,” Jonghyun interjected now, then looked back at their friend while squinting against the light of the glaring sun.
“So? I say we still break in and steal it!” Taemin nodded as if he had just come up with the best idea, but all Jonghyun did was sigh as a response to that comment.
“Wait, wait, wait. Do you guys really believe that he's an alien?” Minho frowned again - he was sure he had frowned more in the past night and day than he ever had last year.
“Uh, yeah. It's pretty obvious. Look at him!” Taemin said as he motioned to Jinki who began picking fistfuls of grass to eat, looking once again like a chef sampling produce for a meal, “if that doesn't give it away, the way he talks definitely does. If it was a charade, he would've given it up the moment you didn't pull out a camera to record him,”
“And here I thought I'd have to move heaven and earth trying to convince you guys. You believed it way faster than I did. But anyway, what are we going to do about this situation? If you guys noticed it, how long will it take other people to notice it as well?” This last part was just something that Minho was wondering aloud, but it was a good question nonetheless. It even made Taemin and Jonghyun murmur amongst themselves.
“Well, I don't really think breaking into the science facility in town is such a good idea, but Taemin does have a point. Not about to stealing the spaceship, but just seeing if it'll maybe be possible to send Jinki into space from there. If not, then...” Jonghyun trailed off.
“We build one ourselves!” Taemin finished for him. Minho laughed at this, “you're not serious, are you, Jonghyun? That spaceship is from Mars, who knows what materials they used for that!”
“Actually, I think our friend Jonghyun has an excellent idea! I have noticed that some of your infrastructure here on your home planet is complex, much like ours back on the red giant. A few different metals will not be much of an issue, I am sure. As long as I can get back home with it, it will be suitable enough for the job. I can also show all of my fellow extraterrestrials what an excellent addition I have brought back from a trip to your home planet!” Jinki smiled, but Minho simply shook his head.
“There's no way we can pull something like this off, you guys! Think about this rationally. Where will we even hide something that big until it's finished? And how will we know how to build something like that?” He said, and Jinki spoke once again, “it is not as complex as you may think, I can do it myself!”
“There you have it, Minho. Jinki said we can use our own resources, and he'll show us what to do. Problem solved,” Taemin nodded happily.
“No, nothing has been solved! We don't have a place, we don't have any of the resources in question and no obvious way of getting them, and we don't even know how long it will take to do something like this. We can't just skip school, and vacation time is a very long way from now. There's just no way we could do this,” Minho couldn't seem to convince his friends that this all was just one big, bad idea. They just weren't listening to a word he said, and that in turn frustrated him greatly.
“There's an abandoned warehouse not too far from my house. We used to play with cola and mentos all the time there, you guys remember that! And I'm sure we could find some scrap metal lying around somewhere in one of these scrap yards. As for how long it will take, we'll just have to work on it little by little until it's eventually finished! We can do this. We really can! We'll just find a way to balance school and our...project. What else are we supposed to do? Jinki is our friend, right? So, we can't just leave him hanging! How else will he get back home? Weren't you the one that said we should always try helping people who need it, Minho?” Taemin was really trying to win their friend over now. Everyone except Minho was sold on this idea, and although he hated to admit it, it did all make sense. It didn't seem like such a crazy idea when everything was broken down like that.
“Ugh...fine! But only to keep an eye on all of you! We have to make sure not to fall behind on our homework or fail tests because you know the teachers will call our parents and-”
“Oh, quiet down already with all your worrying. Nothing bad will happen. If we all put our heads together, you know nothing can stop us,” Jonghyun said, and so everything was decided. They'd get into the science facility first, then construct their own spacecraft if they couldn't send Jinki into space from there. It seemed simple, but breaking into a facility to check on something that was probably one of the most confidential discoveries in there at the moment would be much more difficult than the students realized. Not only that, it would be very hard to keep Jinki hidden from the world until the right time came. Still, they were young and believed they really could do anything, so nothing would deter them from their current mission.

The question was; would they be able to handle all of the pressure they'd be feeling soon, and would they be able to live up to the promise they made to Jinki about sending him back to Mars?