A young man is sitting at a work desk, reading through his notes over and over again. He buries his head in his hands. “This can’t be happening. There should be another way. There MUST be another way.” He frowns and clenches his jaw, making his strong cheekbones look more prominent.

               Again and again, he reads his notes until the brightness outside his windows disappear, replaced by a grey darkness. Exasperated, the young man facepalms again. “No. There’s no other way...”

                He stands up, flicks a couple of switches on his wall, filling up the darkness outside with a serene violet light and walks out of the room.

                A few minutes later, he walks up to a door that looks like it’s taken off of a rocket. He knocks on the door and another young man shorter that he is, with spiky black hair and rounder cheeks opens it. He seems to be eating. “Oh hi, Chen!”

Chen’s jaws tightened. “You guys are eating? I’ll come back later.”

The guy who opened the door widens his eyes. “Bad news, huh?”

“Yeah. Look, Xiumin, I’ll just...”

“Oh, hi, Chen!” Another guy comes to the door. He’s taller than Xiumin is but his face looks just as young, though more feminine. His eyes are huge and he’s the only one who seems to be smiling. The air tenses suddenly and Xiumin’s eyes dart back and forth between this guy and Chen.

“Come on in, we’re having dinner.”

Chen looks desperate and anxious. “No, I’ll come back later.” The smile vanishes on the smiling boy’s face. “Bad news, huh?” He subconsciously repeated his best friend’s question to Chen.

Chen sighs deeply, closes his eyes very tightly and gripped the boy’s arms suddenly, losing all his previous cool and calm manner. “Your Majesty! Please! Dude, I’m so stressed out! I’ve found a way to cure Prince Sehun but you won’t like it!”

                His shiny eyes are clouded with fear, but His Majesty the deer-like boy drags Chen inside while Xiumin closes the door and brings Chen to a brightly lit kitchen. He grabs a plate and fills it up with food and hands it over to Chen. “You look like you haven’t eaten in days.”

                “He hasn’t. He seems to be insulted when I try to feed him.” Xiumin pipes up in between his munches. Chen looks at him with a glare. A very weak, totally unintimidating glare, though. The usual Chen is a witty, snarky person who doesn’t really say much, but when he does, it shuts others up.

                Chen cuts a bit of the food in front of him and puts it into his mouth. The other two boys wait patiently while he chews like a sick person and drinks the water poured out for him by Xiumin.

                After four bites and six consequent gulps of water, Chen puts down his eating utensils a little bit too loudly and facepalms. “Luhan, I’m so sorry! I tried, I really did! Ask Suho, he came in while I was studying and stuff, he knows what I’ve been...” His dramatic speech was cut off when Luhan puts a hand on his shoulders and say, “I know. I know that you’ve been working hard.”

                Chen sniffles very loudly and nods, as if pitying with himself. Xiumin stares at him and says, “You know, you can be overly dramatic sometimes.”

                Chen shoots him a glare which seems to be stronger now that he ate a paltry 10 grams of food. He turns his back on Xiumin and says to Luhan, “I’ve found a cure for Sehun.”

                Luhan brightens up but only slightly. “Will it work?”

“It will totally work.” Says Chen.

“There’s a ‘but’ though”, Luhan says quietly, lowering his head.

                “There’s a ‘but’ though. The cure...” Chen stops for a dramatic pause and sips a drink.

                Xiumin throws his hands in the air. “What did I say? Overly dra-“

                “The CURE”- Chen says with an emphasized note to shut Xiumin up, “-can only be found on Earth.”

                “Ah~” Xiumin says in an understanding note and steals a look at Luhan, who’s looking at the floor. “I was HOPING you wouldn’t say that”, Luhan says to Chen with a small smile.

                “Well, I was hoping that it wouldn’t come to this either.”

                Xiumin his head cutely as he asks Luhan, “What should we do?”

                “Well, I don’t know about ‘we’, but I, I will go to Earth to save my brother.”

                Chen, eating faster now, shakes his head. “Shu kent doe.”

                Luhan suddenly looks fierce and says, “And WHY can’t I go? We’ve prepared for a time like this, we’ve got all the equipments we need, I’m ready, and my brother really needs it. WHY CAN’T I GO?”

                Chen looks at Luhan. The deer-like boy lost all the cuteness there is to him and he’s looking like a provoked lioness. “You’re on the Project.” Chen says calmly.

                “Oh, crap.” Luhan closes his eyes and looked towards the ceiling.

                “And dude, I know you think you’re a fairy princess and stuff, but you’re the King. You can’t leave this place; you can’t leave your people.” Chen says.

                “Look what food can do for you. A plate of meatloaf and a glass of orange juice can apparently restore personality to people.” Xiumin grins. Chen smiles sheepishly in his direction. “Fine, Xiumin hyung, I’ll let you take care of my diet from now on.”

                “Dude, I already do monitor your eating habits but you don’t listen to me.” Xiumin replies.

                “Shut up, Xiumin, can’t you see our King is troubled?” All of a sudden, Chen snaps as he looks at Luhan, whose face seemed to have aged a decade, making him look 15. Xiumin rolls his eyes but immediately focuses back on Luhan.

                “What am I to do? I need to save Sehun.” Luhan says quietly. Chen and Xiumin can hear the quiver in his voice, though. They put their hands on his shoulders at the same time, one on each side.

                “You can still save him, you know.” Chen says in a very caring way.

                “How, Chen? How am I supposed to save my brother if I have to monitor this Project and I can’t go to Earth to get whatever it is that he needs?” Luhan asks, sniffling.

                Xiumin rolls his eyes. “Look, man, you know I love you, but honestly, sometimes you’re just as dramatic as Chen is. YOU’RE THE EFFIN KING! Send someone else to do the job.”

                Luhan immediately perks up. “Oh, yeah, I can do that.” His face brightens back and he leaves the table, skipping away to his brother’s room.

                Xiumin and Chen stares at Luhan until he disappears and the looks at each other.

                Chen shakes his head. “I love that guy, but sometimes I wonder how he became King.”

                Xiumin laughs. “If his dad wasn’t the father of our nation, do you think he’d become the King?”

                Chen ponders over this question. Frowning, he answers, “Strangely, I do. I mean, he can just do ‘puing puing’ and we’ll let him be the whatever the hell he wants, but I really do think he makes the best king out of all of us.”

                Luhan enters Sehun’s room without knocking and skips over to the bed. He kneels beside it and touches Sehun’s hands slightly. Sehun seems to be sleeping, his breathing slow and rhythmic. “Sehun-ah, there’s a way out of this, you know. Hyung will help you get through this”, Luhan says in a whisper.

                Sehun sits up. “Well, is there a way to get you to knock?” He said with a scowl on his face.

                “Were you pretending to sleep?”

                “Yeah, when I heard you bouncing down the hallway. And walk properly next time! YOU’RE THE EFFIN KING, not Little Red Riding Hood.” Sehun says in an annoyed tone.

                Luhan knuckles his brother’s head softly. “Did you just called me the ‘effin king’? Xiumin just called me the ‘effin king’ too. One day, I’m gonna use my effin king powers and punish you guys for always bullying me.”

                “Yeah, and one day EXOPlanet is gonna have three moons.” Sehun pulls his blanket over his head. Luhan tugs it away and throws the blanket on the floor. “Sehuuun, focus!”

               Man, how can a guy who looks like he’s five be this strong? Sehun wonders. His hyung has always looked the same. His personality never changes, too. He’s still the bouncy, cheerful kid like he was in kindergarten, when Sehun was born. Sehun doesn’t have many memories from his childhood but he remembers always following Luhan like a puppy.

Even when Luhan became King, his personality never really changed. He went through a mourning period after their parents died, but he was back to his normal self not too soon after. The citizens of their planet are used to seeing their king walking in with a regal face and expression then turn into a total baby when they tell him a problem or go completely psycho-nuts bat-crazily happy when they tell him something exciting.

Luhan is a good king, though. He identifies with his people and is really kind. For the record, he’s the second smartest person on EXOPlanet after Chen. AND he’s the second highest ranking warrior after Kris. As that title was given to him by Kris’s dad the former general, so that means a lot.

                “Okay, you looked even more stoned than usual, bro.” Luhan’s huge eyes are judging Sehun.

                “What is it?” Sehun groans and kicks off his socks.

                “Chen-“ Luhan doubts whether to tell his brother or not. Sehun’s health condition is a really sensitive topic to talk to Sehun about, just like his memory loss.

                “Chen found a way to cure you.” YOLO.

                “Oh.” Sehun makes room for his brother to sit on his bed. “How?”

                Luhan is relieved by his brother’s curiosity and the lack of flying things thrown to him. “I’m not sure, I didn’t ask. But it’s only found on Earth.” Oh yeah, I forgot to ask him how EXACTLY to cure Sehun.

                Sehun rolls his eyes. “So... I should go to Earth?”

                Luhan startled.

                “CHEN! CHENNN! Come heeeereee!” Luhan screams as he internally curses himself for his lack of attention for details.

                The door busts open and Chen comes in. “Xiumin left. He said he’s going to Suho’s.” Luhan nods impatiently and motions for Chen to sit on the bed next to him. Chen chooses to sit in the chair next to the window instead.

                “Okay, so how exactly do we save Sehun?”

                “Stop saying ‘save’, hyung, I’m not dying.”

                “Okay, so how exactly do we cure Sehun?” Luhan shoots Sehun a look that says, ‘Happy?’ and Sehun nods in satisfaction.

                “Well, on Earth, there’s this thing called the pharmacy, right? The medicine that Sehun needs can be found there.”

                “That’s it?” Sehun asks. “Go to the pharmacy and get it?”

                “Yeah, but we don’t have it in our pharmacy.” Chen thinks about the EXOPlanet pharmacy, ran by Lay the Healer. The pharmacy is quite well-stocked with the medicine that Lay makes, but they’re EXOPlanet medicine for EXOPlanet conditions. Sehun’s condition can’t even be cured using Lay’s gift.

                “I don’t even have to go to Earth?” Sehun enquires. Luhan turns his neck to look at Sehun a little too quickly and his neck hurts.

                “Nope.”

                “There’s no quests or anything? You just walk into a pharmacy and get it?” Luhan’s the one asking question now.

                “Yeah. What, are you disappointed or something?”

                “Kinda.”

                “You still need to send somebody dependable, though. The journey to Earth isn’t exactly like the journey to Lay’s place.”

                “I know that.” Luhan’s voice is a bit quiet. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Chen clears his throat.

                “So who are you going to send?”

----------------

“Ugh. You’re watching this show again?” A girl in her early-twenties scrunches her nose when she walks into the living room. She sits on the floor, pulling a coffee table close to her so she can work on it. Her housemate, the one who actually owns the house merely chuckled. “I know, I know, I hate it too... It’s full of curse words and make outs and lies and drama, but the whole thing is more ridiculous and more unexpected than your average soap. But you gotta admit it’s really addictive.”

“It is, that’s why I hate it. I heard my students were talking about this show in class today and it almost drove me nuts when I overheard them talking about it.”

Her housemate turns around to face her. “Whaaat? Your students watch this kind of show? But Byeol-ah, your class is 3A though.”

“I know, right? My innocent kids, I can’t believe it either. Haha, eonni, since you’re such a big fan of this show, maybe you should be their homeroom teacher instead.” The show that they are watching, ‘Give Me A Chance at Reality TV’ is a reality program, akin to Survivor, but with more curse words than a graffitied students’ bathroom. The people on it are always so greedy and desperate for airtime. Hence, they’re always suspicious of each other and they’re forever either sleeping or fighting with each other.

As they speak, a fight is breaking out between a heavily made up woman and a scantily clad man.

“Hyemi eonni, guess who’s the biggest fan of this show in my class?”

“Byun Baekhyun!” Hyemi answers quickly, almost spilling her cereal all over the place. She had Byun Baekhyun in her Home Ec class last year. He’s a cute, bright boy, but sometimes it seems like he loves attention a little bit too much.

Byeol shakes her head. “Kim Ryusik.” She tells her housemate in a dramatic whisper in between grading her students’ recent quiz.

“Kim Ryusik?! Kim Eunsik’s brother? He seems so quiet and reserved though! He should be watching, ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader’ or something... I don’t know, academic instead of these kinds of shows! I could’ve sworn that this show was made for Byun Baekhyun! I bet he’ll love being on this show!”

Byeol frowns a little at the quiz that she’s grading. 10? Well that doesn’t seem right...

“Yeah, he seems like a huge diva, right? I heard that he’s training to be an idol these days.” She says distractedly, puts the quiz paper aside and resumes grading the other quizzes.

“How’d he get into 3A anyway? He almost failed my class last year. I teach HOME ECS, Byeol, nobody almost fails the class but him.”

“Oh, he’s really smart, actually. His English and Geography is so-so, but he’s really talented in Physics and Chemistry. He plays too much, though. Today he tried to shoot a CF in class-”

“-Oh yeah, he does that a lot. In class last year, instead of knitting mufflers, he’s too busy modeling them, usually with age-inappropriate   poses”. Hyemi cuts in and chuckles at the memory.

                Byeol smiles. Byun Baekhyun can be a handful sometimes. He’s the uljjang of the school. To Byeol, he isn’t exactly gorgeous or overly good-looking, but Baekhyun has a star-like quality to him that draws people in, no matter how annoying he can be. Having healthy, glowing skin is a plus, too.

He was asleep when she walks into her Geography class today. Byeol guessed that he really must be training to be an idol since he’s tired all the time nowadays. Halfway through the class, Baekhyun murmured in his sleep. “Jessica-ssi, I’m sorry, but I’m going to Geography now.” It wasn’t really audible, but since he sits smack in front of her desk, Byeol heard him pretty well.

She decided that he’d had enough nap/day-dreaming time and ‘accidentally’ dropped her hard cover textbook on the teacher’s desk in front of him. He’d woken up with a backwards lurch and sticky drool on his face. “Oh, Lee seonsaengnim, you’re here!”

The class laughed at him and she went, “Yes, Mr. Byun, and thank you for postponing whatever thing you had with Jessica-ssi for Geography class, although I’m pretty sure it’ll be more worth your time if you’re actually awake.”

Baekhyun grinned and he motioned to go to the bathroom. Byeol nodded and added, “Come back in 5 minutes, we’re having a quiz on Chapter Four.” Minutes later, Baekhyun came back with a radiant expression on his face. He posed a while on the doorsill, wiping his face with a paper towel in, like Hyemi said, an age-inappropriate way. “All right, people! Let’s rock this quiz, I gotta go back to Jessica.”

He DID rock the quiz. That’s one of the things about Baekhyun that keeps Byeol from being too annoyed with him. That, and the nice gifts he buy for the entire staff on Teacher and Worker’s Day.

“He can be kind of a handful, but he’s okay at times. He tried to parody the X pencil CF during the quiz today, which took up like, half of the quiz time, but he still did well on it.” Byeol says.

“Yeah, I guess. I bet he joined Home Ec last year to meet girls anyway.”

“Emmm, I guess.” Byeol arranges the graded quizzes, looks through the segregated quiz again and puts it at the back of the pile.

Hyemi suddenly speaks up. “Have you heard him SING, though?”

Byeol raises her eyebrows. “Park Chanyeol?”

“Who?” Hyemi looks just as confused as Byeol felt.

“What?”

“Byun Baekhyun! Have you heard him s-“

                “OH! Oh my god! That boy can sing! I’ve gotta be honest with you, eonni. Sometimes, the hardest part about being his class teacher isn’t having to put up with his pranks or his kkab ways. Sometimes, it’s keeping yourself from fangirling over his gorgeous voice and stopping from throwing yourself at his feet.” Byeol rants and goes on to make a noise that sounds like asdasghjdgfhasdasjhkld.

--------------

Luhan’s pacing the room like the characters on the Earth dramas that he likes to watch always do when they’re stressed. And boy, Luhan is stressed! He’d been thinking of whom to send to Earth to carry out the mission of... going to and Earth pharmacy to take medicine for Sehun.

Stopping in front of a window, Luhan turns to his advisor Chen, who’s lounging on a sofa in the palace’s living room, playing with a game console. Luhan opens his mouth and says, “I pick Suho.”

“You can’t, he’s on the Tawin project too.”

“Oh yeah, darn it. YOU go then.”

Chen rolls his eyes. “Your Majesty, I’m the HEAD of the Tawin project.” And you can’t survive a day without me around, who are we kidding?

“Darn that Tawin project. Can’t we just-“

“No, we CANNOT cancel the Tawin project.”

“We can just-“

“No, we cannot just postpone it either. Your Majesty, you know how important this-“

“Will Xiumin go?” Luhan’s the one who cuts off Chen this time. Sometimes his advisor acts too wise-old-manly and Luhan had mastered the art of butting in when Chen is talking to avoid listening to his long lectures.

“I doubt it. You know how he is where Earth is concerned. He thinks that all the bacteria there are gonna eat him up.”

Luhan drums his fingers on the table. “Who ISN’T involved in the Tawin project?”

“Everyone else except you, Suho, and I. Come on now, we talked about this. You said 20 minutes ago that you’re going to send Kris, remember? Are you going senile already? That’s at least 40 years way too soon.”
                “Ugh, I know that I said I’m going to send Kris, but this job is a bit too... EASY for a warrior like him.  What if he finds it... I dunno, insulting?”

“Okay, first off, as a warrior, he knows that it’s his duty to carry out your orders. So what if he finds it insulting, what’s he gonna do, throw you off the throne?” Upon seeing the worried look on Luhan’s face, Chen continues hurriedly. “He won’t do that. Dude, we’re friends, he loves you, he won’t even THINK of doing anything mean to you. I bet he won’t even think NOT to do anything you ask.”

“You’re right. I don’t usually ask much of him anyway.” Luhan says, nodding urgently, as if to reassure himself to let Kris do the job.

Chen raises an eyebrow. You don’t usually ask him to do much? Are you kidding me? Luhan, he’s like your go-to guy. He really wants to say this out loud, but out of fear that Luhan might change his mind again, he suppresses the thought. “Um, right. Secondly, while the ‘mission’ might be laughable, the JOURNEY to Earth isn’t really that easy. Kris is a qualified pilot and one of the best we’ve got. He’s focused, he’s responsible... he’s the man for the job.” Chen says with a shrug.

Luhan nods.

“And thirdly,”

“There’s more?” Luhan slumps on the sofa next to Chen with a groan.

“Shut up, it’s the last one. Thirdly, who ELSE are you gonna send? In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not exactly overflowing with people, let alone people who are capable of handling rockets. Heck, some of us still struggle with manning the weather station.”

“Whaaat? Kyungsoo, you mean?” Luhan looks at Chen with a ‘seriously?’ expression on his face. Chen nods and Luhan groans. “I thought he got over it!”

Since the weather on EXOPlanet only really changes on eclipses which happen once every five years, manning the weather station is more like ‘me time’ to most EXO citizens. It’s a really easy job that still needs to be done every week for research reasons.

Chen grins. “He REALLY hates heights, okay? And why can’t we just take him off of the weather duty?”

Luhan pouts. “You’re just saying that because he’s your brother. Every EXO citizen HAS to do that job and you know it.”

“Of course I know it; I’m the one who made up the law.”

“Cocky bastard”, Luhan says under his breath.

“I heard that. And right now, you need to figure out who you’re gonna send as Kris’s travelmates.”

“Oh yeah, he needs two others, right? Well, I’ll just tell him to pick them out himself.” Luhan says with a satisfied look on his face as Chen rolls his eyes in the background.
 

----------------------

The school bell rings and students pour out of Class 3A and the hallways fill up with students from the other classes too. “Chanyeol, I wanted to see you.” Byeol calls out in between the glad sighs of her students and the loud excitement for the weekend.

                Chanyeol, a very tall student with unruly brown hair makes his way to the front of the class, facing his teacher. “Oooh, someone’s in trouble. Good luck, giraffe.” A boy with dazzling good looks say with a smirk as he exits the class.

                “Go home, Byun Baekhyun.” The teacher answers before Chanyeol can retort. She motions for Chanyeol to sit in front of her and they wait until the class empties and the hallway is quiet before she begins to speak.

                “You did very badly in your last quiz.” She hands Chanyeol a Pokki and eats one herself.

                Chanyeol frowns. “Seonsaengnim, I got a 10 out of 20. That’s not VERY BADLY. Can I have one more?”

                “Here, help yourself. And 10 out of 20 IS bad by your standards. You’ve been excellent in your other quizzes, so I just wondered if you have something particularly troubling for you in this chapter.”

                “I didn’t study, that’s all.”

                “That’s not like you. What’s up? Something going on at home?”

                Chanyeol blinks a couple of times. “Well, it’s not really anything big, but it happened the night of the quiz.”

                “Okay, that should teach you to maybe study earlier next time.”

                Chanyeol smiles sheepishly and a dimple shows up on his left cheek.

                “What happened though? And did you even eat today, or do you just really like Pokki?” Byeol asks with a genuine smile despite her slightly sarcastic words.

                “I LOVE Pokki.” Chanyeol nods. Byeol takes out another box of Pokki out of her desk drawer and hands it to him, smiling. “This drawer is locked, by the way, and don’t tell anyone I keep snacks there.”

                Chanyeol grins in a conspirative manner. “So my brother’s been sick, and he was admitted into the hospital that night. Yeah, I could’ve studied in the hospital, but-“

                Byeol cuts Chanyeol off by flapping her hand. “Pfft. I wouldn’t even remember how to read at times like that. What happened to your brother? Which one? Is he okay now?”

                Chanyeol nods again. “It was Bok-se. He had an asthma attack. He’s at home now.”

                “I see. Well, I’m glad he’s okay and I hope you’ll do better on your other quizzes. Truthfully speaking, though, you’re really responsible. I mean, at your age, I hardly ever study for my quizzes. And I can’t process the fact that you’re the same age as Byun Baekhyun, despite how you guys look the same age physically.” Byeol packs up her stuff and stands up. Chanyeol follows suit and they walk out of the classroom together.

                “Which reminds me; is he bullying you?” Their height difference wasn’t all that apparent when they sit, but standing up, the teacher has to crane her neck to look at Chanyeol’s face.

                Chanyeol laughs lightly. “I wouldn’t exactly call it bullying, teach, but yeah, he has been a pain in the for the last 10 years.”

                “Wow, you’ve known each other since elementary, huh?”

                “Yeah. We would’ve gone to the same kindergarten, too, ‘cuz there’s only one kindergarten around here, but the orphanage decided that year that they’ll just homeschool all the toddlers. Big mistake, by the way. Since we all live together, the idea of just sitting inside a room to learn and write and count isn’t really comprehensible by us kids. We’d rather run outside and play in the fountain like we always do. Most of the time, that was what we did. And our teachers are our caretakers. How are we supposed to understand that we’re supposed to be afraid of the ones usually giving us milk and cookies and help give us baths? So anyway, since I was hardly exposed to people outside of the orphanage, first grade is really awkward for me. I was like, socially challenged.”

                “Like you’re going through puberty early?”

                Chanyeol laughs. “Yeah, it was really confusing”, he says while looking at his teacher. He doesn’t like the look in her eyes that he’s seeing. The slightly pitying, I’m-your-class-teacher-let’s-bond-and-I’ll-try-to-understand-your-problems-and-help-solve-it look. He sighs.

                3, 2, 1.

                “How come you don’t talk this much in class?” She says, right on cue.

                “Here we go again.” Chanyeol starts to walk a little faster than Byeol. His legs which are longer than hers by almost a foot is definitely at an advantage here.

                “Aw, come on! Don’t try to run from me, I know where you live!” She runs up to him and he slows down. “And I know what you’re like at home when you’re with your brothers and sisters, so I KNOW you’re not suffering from depression or anything. It’s like, you enter school and “WHAM!”, you close your heart to everything happy and colourful.”

                “Like rainbows and unicorns?” Chanyeol tries to distract his teacher by poking fun at her exaggeration.

                “Not exactly rainbows and unicorns. Don’t think I didn’t see the rainbow My Little Pony you brought to school the other day. I bet you have a unicorn in your bag somewhere, too.” Byeol says with a smirk.

                Chanyeol blushes. “That was my-“

                “Sister’s, I know. Okay, so what’s up? Why do you... change so much when you’re in school?”

                “I’m uncomfortable, I guess. I mean, school feels too much like a popularity contest sometimes.”

                “Okay, but that doesn’t mean that you should pretend to be Goth and keep away from social interactions.”

                “I have friends!”

                “Oooh, touchy.”

                “Seonsaengnim, are you trying to rub it in or are you trying to help me?”

                “Help you? Why, do you think being anti-social is a problem?”

                “My god! I’m so glad we’ve reached your home! And I’m so glad the weekend’s here so I don’t have to go to school tomorrow!” Chanyeol screams in mock desperation, but he’s got a smile that clears away any hurt that might be carried in his words.

                “Yay! I can go over to the orphanage tomorrow!” Byeol throws her hands up in the air as she bounces up to the house. Hyemi, her roommate looks out of the front window and waves to Chanyeol.

                Chanyeol bows. “Annyonghaseyo, Jang seonsaeng! Please take Lee seonsaeng out tomorrow for a weekend-long vacation! She needs a rest really badly, I think the Teacher Disease has got to her. Seonsaengnim, rest well. Next time, I’d rather you scold me and take away my lunch money when I do badly on a quiz.”

                Byeol, now standing in the window next to Hyemi’s calls out to him, “I did scold you, you’re the one who began talking too much. Go home safely now!”

                Chanyeol bows again and makes his way home. Hyemi turns to Byeol and says, “I couldn’t hear a word of what he just said, but his voice is really y.”

                Byeol throws a sock to her roommate and goes, “Ugh, eonni, you cougar! He’s a whole decade younger than you are! He’s a freakin !”

-----------

A tall, handsome man with sharp features ponders over the conversation he just had with his King, the half-heart necklace he’s wearing. He just received orders to fly to Earth to find a cure for Prince Sehun. Kris won’t be using his powers, of course, he’ll be piloting Astral 5.6. Kris plops on his bed and rubs his eyes.

                He’d put up a brave front when talking to Luhan, but truth is, Kris is a little scared. He’ll be flying to Earth in a couple of days, after he’d made sure all the preparations are finalized and ready.

Earth.

Motherland.

                So the day has finally come.

Kris closes his eyes tight. He’s a little scared, that he is sure of, but there are also other mixed feelings inside. He’d seen those mixed feelings reflected on Luhan’s face earlier, too, when he’d accepted the mission. He wasn’t sure what Luhan was feeling then, but right now, one by one, the feels are bubbling up to the surface, eager to make him experience them separately.

                There’s anxiety, naturally; excitement, a huge chunk of curiosity, eagerness, apprehension, but mostly, Kris feels nauseous.

He jumps out of his bed and runs to the bathroom. When he exits sometime later, his brother Tao is standing right in front of the bathroom door, giving him a fright. Kris slips backwards and falls. Tao snorts and pulls him up.

“You can’t even exit a bathroom properly, and Luhan’s expecting you to go to Earth?”

Kris ignores Tao and enters his room. Before he can close the door, Tao pushes it back open with too much force.

Damn martial arts training.

Kris hasn’t been able to win a single arm wrestle since Tao learnt martial arts from the tapes that their father had brought from Earth. His six-year-old ego had been crushed pretty badly then, and now it’s become a recurring joke that EXOPlanet’s highest-ranking warrior can’t beat his own brother at arm wrestling.

Kris doesn’t mind when the others laugh at him. They can’t beat Tao either.

“Are you planning to go?” Tao asks fiercely.

“Do I have a choice?” Kris locks his hands behind his head and lies on his bed. “It’s not like Luhan’s telling me to have mushrooms for breakfast. I can’t go or hide the mushrooms in a flower pot when I think he’s not looking.”

Tao groans. “That’s not fair. I’m worried and you’re trying to attack me with your mushroom lecture. Why do you even make mushrooms anyway? You know I hate them!”

Kris sits up and mocks Tao’s expression. “If you hate them so much, try cooking for yourself next time. And why are you so worried anyway?” He’s asking offhanded-ly, to make it seem like he’s not worried about anything, to reassure his brother that he’ll be safe. He’s getting dizzy and nauseous again just thinking about the week-long journey that he’ll be making to get to Earth, but Tao doesn’t need to know that. Tao CANNOT know that.

Tao shrugs and rolls his eyes. Tao was always the dramatic one out of the two of them. “Um, hello? Our King is telling you to go to Earth to cure his brother when actually Earth is what caused his brother to catch whatever disease he has-“ Tao’s words trail off when he sees Kris’s expression.

“Don’t talk like that about King Luhan.” Kris is a loving, kind brother, but he can be very fierce sometimes. This is one of those times. He has a close friendship with Luhan and he’s one of Luhan’s most loyal, most trusted friends, apart from Chen and Xiumin.

“I’m just worried, okay?” Tao says weakly. He crossed the line, he knew it.

Kris sighs. “I’m worried, too, but it’s not fair for you to attack Luhan like that.”

“You always defend him! Come on, you HAVE to admit that he’s being a little...”

Kris glares at Tao. “A little what, exactly?” There’s fire in his eyes, quite literally.

Tao takes a deep breath. “Selfish! How can he ask you to go risk yourself to save Sehun?” Tao shuts his eyes after speaking, bracing himself for whatever’s coming his way.

“You’re Sehun’s friend too, how could you say that?” Through his eyelashes, Tao can see that Kris is standing near the door, jaw set and angry.

“Yeah, and I love him, but-“ Tao has said too much and Kris had left the room. He didn’t bang the door, but that made Tao feel worse.

He must be disappointed in me. So disappointed that he can’t even yell.

It’s not like Tao likes it when his brother yell, but yelling would mean that Kris can let off his steam. All that pent-up anger that’s been building up will be let out, and that would mean the end of it. Pissed-off, angry Kris Tao can handle. But silent, disappointed, judging Kris?

                Tao knows that Kris had been trying hard to raise him like a parent since their parents died. And even though they’re only two years apart in age, Kris had managed to set up his authority pretty well. Kris had been doing a good job at being a parent, and Tao at being brother-slash-child. While their relationship is pretty solid, it’s times like these when friendship is concerned that Kris finds himself going over every memory they shared, thinking, “Why can’t I get Tao to understand how important this bond with fellow EXO members is? When is he going to learn that we’re inseparable, we’re like brothers? That we shouldn’t have to think twice before helping them, because they won’t think twice about helping us?”

                Tao sighs and decides not to chase after Kris. He knows where Kris will be anyway. He’ll be at Lay’s, sitting by the bay window, staring at the peony bush beside Lay’s pharmacy. Lay would set down a glass of iced tea in front of Kris, but Kris wouldn’t even drink it until all the ice had melted. There would be no talking, just a silent understanding between friends.

                Tao wishes sometimes that he can understand his own brother like Lay does. Why Kris would blindly heed any orders given out by Luhan, why Kris would risk his life doing whatever the King asks him to do. Tao wishes that his brother, too, would sometimes listen to him, about how worried he is sometimes when Kris is out battling giant Cuvapeds out in the stormy desert. About how he is worried right now, when he thinks about how he might lose Kris once he sets out to Earth.

Meanwhile, Kris is sitting by the bay window, staring at the peony bush beside Lay’s pharmacy. Just like Tao had guessed. What Tao hadn’t guessed, though, is the raw fear and anxiety currently residing inside his brother’s heart.

Tao, for once, I need you to grow up and stop telling me that you’re worried for me. For once, I want to be the one doing all the worrying while you need to be the one telling me to shut up and quit whining like a baby.

For once, just this once, I need you to tell me you believe in me.

Just like our parents used to do.

                “Oh, okay. Thanks for the heads up.” Lay speaks into his beeper and puts it on the counter. He brought over Kris’s customary iced tea and hands it over to him. For the second time ever since Kris had been coming over everytime he has a fight with Tao, Lay speaks to him.

                “That was Kai. He said it’ll rain tonight. Suho’s been trying out the new phase of the Tawin project. Are you staying here?”

                Kris takes a sip of the iced tea. Wow, this tastes really good when the ice still hasn’t melted.

                “If you don’t mind.” Kris’s expression looks slightly sheepish and apologetic.

                Lay turns to head back to his work, but he caught a sight of Kris’s expression. “Whoa, okay. That’s new. No, that’s not new. That’s not your usual, ‘I’m-a-bad-parent-my-parents-are-gonna-roll-in-their-graves-when-they-see-what-a-fail-I-am-at-raising-Tao’ face. That’s your, ‘I-hate-it-when-my-wimpy-brother-gets-something-right-face’.” Lay says, crossing his arms.

                “Did you just call my brother wimpy?” y Kris is back.

                “I did, but only because I’m quoting you and your face sho-“ Lay evades a flying book- “your face shows that you DO think he’s wimpy sometimes.”

                Kris purses his lips. “It’s not exactly wimpy, it’s just- why are you talking to me? Normally you always leave me alone when I sit here.”

                Lay smirks and opens the fridge, rummaging through the heaps of vegetables and mushrooms to find something to cook for the night. “Okay, fine, have it your way. But since you wanna spend a night here, I’m expecting you to talk to me about it later.”

At that Kris gets up and says, “You know what, I’m better off...” Hold on. When I have a fight with Tao I come here to Lay. If Lay’s not around I’ll probably go to the King and trouble him with some of my commoner problems. But this kinda involve Luhan too, so I can’t bug him with it. Xiumin? No. Xiumin’s like Luhan’s biggest . Chen? Okay, dude, now you’re just being  crazy. Just stay with Lay, okay?

Kris turns back to the bay window with a embarrassed face. “You know what? I’ m better off here. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

                Lay laughs. “You weenie. I don’t know how Luhan ever picked you to be the Warrior.” His jab is unheard by Kris, who is once again lost in his thoughts.

                That night, Kris walks side-by-side with Lay, heading out to the hills near where Suho lives.

“Why are we here? We’re not going to Suho’s, right?” Kris asks Lay with a frown.

“No, we’re not. I just thought that Tao might come and look for you at my house.”

Kris looks at Lay gratefully. “Thanks, man.”

“Don’t thank me just yet, you haven’t told me what’s going on.” Lay starts to sit down.

“Dude, this ground is wet.” Kris looks at Lay on the ground.

“Yeah, I know. Suho made it rain, remember?”

Silence.

Kris is still standing. “Dude.”

Lay is staring forward with the deadpan look that he often does.

                Still silent.

“Lay. You forgot that it rained so you sat and now you’re too embarrassed to get up again, aren’t you?” Kris laughs.

Lay, blushing, tugs on Kris’s pants but Kris doesn’t budge. “Yeah, that; and now you can see my since I’m wearing white pants.”

“Have you heard of underwear before?”
“Shut up, Kris, my dad invented underwear.”

“Your momma.”

“Oh, yeah, it was my mum.  ANYWAY!” Lay, still sitting, looks up at Kris and pats the ground next to him. Kris sighs and decides to sit next to him, wet ground and all. He regrets it immediately. “Gross!”

“Shut up, weenie, this is only like the fifth time it rained in here.”

“Sixth. I remember, I’m older than you are.”

“ANYWAY! Geez, man, what’s it gonna take for you to focus?”

Kris takes a deep breath. Lay’s right, he’s stalled enough. He needs a favor from Lay anyway. “The King told me to go to Earth for Sehun.”

                Lay nods, but he doesn’t say anything. He turned his body to face Kris more clearly though.

                “So Tao’s worried about it. And he’s ing about; well, HINTING that Luhan’s being selfish because he’d rather ask me than go himself. It’s not like Tao doesn’t KNOW that Luhan can’t go, that Luhan can’t leave this planet. I dunno, I’m worried about Tao. I think HE’S the one being selfish right now, you know? If he keeps on judging everyone like that, I won’t be surprise if nobody will help him if he’s in trouble.”

Kris puts a hand on Lay’s knee. “You’ll help him, though, right?” He asks, suddenly worried. Lay nods.

                “Right. And it’s not like Luhan is just my boss or something, Tao knows him, they’re friends too. When I think back on times when Luhan does something nice for Tao and Tao gets all excited and cry as he thanks Luhan, I feel disgusted. It’s like he’s a hypocrite. It’s okay for Luhan to sacrifice something for us, but we can’t do anything nice for him back?”

Lay finally opens his mouth. “Dude, don’t say that about your brother. You know how much he adores Luhan.”

                “I’m not sure anymore, okay?” Kris rolls his eyes in a very Tao way, Lay thinks.

“He does. Your brother adores Luhan. And maybe he thinks that Luhan is being selfish, so what?”

“SO WHAT?” Kris is flabbergasted, but Lay continues calmly. “So what? It’s not wrong to think bad thoughts about your friends sometimes. I know how you are about friendships, and since I’m one of your closest friends, I really appreciate it. But dude, you GOTTA stop thinking that your friends are like an extension of your kidney or something.

                Kris stared hard at Lay. “To me, they are.”

                Lay stares back, with a snarkier expression. “Okay, am I supposed to cry hearing that?”

                “You’re an .”

                “And yet you come to me everytime you have a fight with Tao or anybody else on EXOPlanet. Birds of a feather flocks together, Kris. What I’m trying to say is, like all the other times you have a fight, step back from your Kris self and try stepping into Tao’s shoes for a while. He’s about to lose his brother for we don’t know how long because another guy tells his brother to save HIS brother. It’s not a personal thing against Luhan. And sure, Luhan’s our friend, but you’re Tao’s brother. He has a right over you more than Luhan does. Even if you’d known Luhan longer, Tao shares your blood. Bros before hoes, man.”

                Kris, who was listening intently, cracks up at Lay’s last sentence. “You just had to ruin the magical moment of your magical speech.”

                “What did I do?” Lay laughs innocently.

                “Luhan IS a bro, man!” Kris laughs some more. He feels better now that Lay assured him that Tao is not a hypocrite. He knows that himself, but it’s good to hear someone outside his own head telling him that.

                Lay starts to speak again. “So don’t tell me you’re not worried too?” Kris looks into his best friend’s eyes and immediately fell apart. “I do!” He buries his face in his hands. He’s disgusted by himself. A 6’3” first-class warrior, practically weeping at the thought of leaving his home. Scared. Terrified.

Lay peeks at Kris’s face. Relieved that his giant-like friend is not really crying, he pats his back.

“I don’t know what I’m scared of, really. What’s Tao scared of? What’s the worst that can happen, Lay?” Kris looks at Lay, eyes suddenly huge. Lay blinks a couple of times. He’s used to Kris being hilariously hysterical at times, but this is the first time he’s seen Kris channeling Luhan or Tao.

“Maybe my powers won’t work as well like they used to? Like Kai and Sehun? That’s okay, we’ve found other ways to fly.” Kris is having a monologue now, completely unattached to their planet. Lay doesn’t even know if Kris remembers Lay’s there anymore.

                Apparently, Kris does. “What if I lose my memory? Would that be a bad thing?” He asks Lay in a very child-like way.

“Yes, it is, my son. It is.” Lay says, but Kris doesn’t look like he heard him.

“But Chen’s been working on the rockets; he said this morning that things like that won’t happen anymore. What Kai did wrong was trying to use his powers to come back home. I’ll be okay. So I shouldn’t be scared.” Kris’s voice starts out strong but gets slower with every word. His last word is barely audible to Lay.

“So you don’t have to be scared.” Lay coaxes gently.

“I don’t have to be scared!” Kris nods with a very aggressive force. Lay chuckles internally. I wonder what Luhan would say if he sees Kris acting like him?

 “So, worries aside, who are you going with to Earth?”

Kris turns his head slowly. “Will you go with me?” Lay’s reminded of a scene in a movie he’s seen, in which a boy is trying to ask a girl to a dance. He decides against telling Kris that. “Naturally. I mean, besides me.”

Kris beams like Luhan. Lay scrunches his nose in disapproval. God, I hope he doesn’t plan on role-playing as Luhan for long. We’ve got enough warriors acting like five-year-old girls around here.

Kris must have noticed the judgmental look on Lay’s face. He sits up straight and says, “I don’t really know on who to ask. Do you have anyone in mind? ”

Lay gets up. “I don’t know either, man. Right now, I just wanna go home and change my pants. We don’t even have cows up on this side of town, but it looks like I’ve sat on some of their processed food products.”