Kai yawns and stretches. “Must we do this now? Even Sun’s barely up.”

They’d landed for fifteen minutes and Kris is already moving some stuff out from the Astral. “Well, we need to do it if we want to keep these things.”

“What’s wrong with keeping them in the Astral?” Kai asks. Kris didn’t hear him, as he was back in the Astral, lugging stuff out. Lay was helping him to dismantle the furniture inside it.

“Where are you gonna put all the stuff anyway?” Kai asks as he looks around. The Astral had landed in a boarded-up field full of tall elephant grass. He scratches his knee and stares at the four-story building next to the field. “There’s a building over there. It looks to be unoccupied. Maybe we can put the stuff there.” Kai says.

Kris stands with his hands on his waist as he says exasperatedly, “Well, thank you for helping us to think of that. Now can you help me move these things out there? We don’t wanna get it rained on. It rains here more than it does on our Planet.”

Kai grumbles as he helps Kris move the pod bed to the abandoned building. “Wow. Must have been abandoned before they can finish it. The walls are all unpainted.”

Kris sneezes. “Must have been years since anyone last stepped foot in here, too, judging by the amount of dust this place has.”

They put the bed down in the cleanest room they can find then head back to the field.

“Hyung, when can we start to look for Sehun’s medicine?”

“Anytime.”

“Can I go now?” Kai asks tentatively with a side glance at Kris.

“Do you even know what to get?” Kris knows that Kai doesn’t really listen during the meetings.
“I can ask Lay hyung if you don’t want to tell me.”

“Actually, we can leave that stuff for later.”

“But we can also do it now.”

Kris rolls his eyes. Kai’s acting his age, which reminds Kris of Tao back home. And just like with Tao, Kris gives in. “Fine.”

Kai jumped in the air and grabbed Kris’s hand to high-five him against his own will. “But wait here a bit, okay, I’ll tell Lay to go with you. He knows what to look for.”

“Okay.” Kai says. He just wants to get out of this field anyway. His whole leg is itching really badly.

“Okay, so how would we know which one’s the pharmacy? Would it have a great big peony bush next to it? Will the place smell like tea and herbs?” Kai asks Lay. He’s in a good mood now that they’re out of that field.

“It’ll probably have ‘Pharmacy’ written on its front.” Lay answers. “Like that one.” He points to a pharmacy across the road.

“Wow, that was fast.” Kai says and walks to the roadside.

“Kai, be careful, there are a lot of cars here.” Lay says, even thought the road’s deserted.

“I know.” Kai says with a sigh. Looks like he’s gonna be stuck with two nagging Kyungsoos here on Earth.

They both enter the pharmacy and Lay tells Kai the name of the medicine they should be looking for. “Hyung, let’s try asking that lady over at the counter.”

They consult the pharmacist in charge.

“I’m afraid that the medicine that you’re looking for is out of stock. Nobody really uses that kind anymore, so we don’t usually have it in here.” The lady says nicely. “We do have several alternatives to that medicine, though. It’s not the exact same one, but it’ll still work for this condition.”

Lay looks at Kai for assurance, but Kai is even more uncertain than him.

“Or, we can call the manufacturer of the medicine you’re looking for, and ask them to send it to us. You can’t really do this yourself because this type of medicine is controlled, you know. How about it?” Somehow, the pityful look on the two boys made the pharmacist feel sorry for them. 'Must be new here', she thought.

“How long will that take?” Lay asks.

“From three days to a week.” The lady replies.

Kai shrugs. “We can spare three days.”

Lay nods. “Okay, we'll wait three days.”

“Great. If you can just put down your contact information here, sir, we’ll contact you once we the meds arrive.”

“Umm... I’m not too sure where we’ll be staying and our phones don’t work here, so I’ll just leave my name and ID, okay?”

The lady frowns but she says it’s fine.

Kai grins widely as they exit the pharmacy. “That was really easy. We’ll just have to wait for three days or a week and then we can go back home.”

Lay looks at Kai with a frown. This boy... He wasn’t listening in the meetings, was he? Kai, I’m sorry to tell you, but we’re not gonna be able to go back in a week. Astral’s not gonna last that long. We’re gonna have to put together another ship if we want to go home. He decides against telling Kai this as Kai’s in such a good mood.

“Hyung, I’m hungry.”

“Me too. Hey, I think I saw food in the store in that corner. Let’s go there.” They walk back to the corner where the traffic light is, and walks into a convenience store.

                Once they’re inside, Kai’s eyes got wide. “These are all food? AWESEOME!” He says, and starts to pile packets of food in their arms.

While Kai is checking out dried meat, Lay comes to him with a mountain of chips in his arms. “Hey Kai, what’d you get for Kris?”

“Nothing. What’d YOU get for Kris?” Kai asks off-handedly, distracted by a bright purple candy product.

“Nothing.”

“Hey, I think we’ve got enough. Let’s just come back whenever we get hungry, okay?” Lay says.

“Hello. Good morning.” Lay says, bowing a little to the guy at the counter. Then he and Kai walks towards the door with the food pile almost blocking their view.

“Why is he staring at us?” Lay whispers to Kai.

“I don’t know. Maybe because he’d never seen us around?”

“Excuse me? What do you guys think you’re doing?” The guy at the counter asks aloud. He’s really tall, about Kris’s height, and he’s got a moustache and a thin beard.

“Oh, we’d like these, please.” Lay says with a bright smile, indicating the mounds of food in both his and Kai’s arms.

“Aren’t you gonna...” The guys stammers.

“Oh yeah, where are my manners. Thank you!” Lay bows and walks closer to the door.

“ARE YOU ROBBING ME AT SIX A.M. IN THE MORNING?” The guy bellows out, the panic rising in his voice.

“What are you talking about, man?” Kai says.

“I’ll call- I’ll call the police!”

“NO! Don’t call the police!” Lay says, freaking out.

“THEN PAY!” The tall moustache guy screams in a shrill voice.

“Pay?” Kai scrunches his face.

“Yes, pay! You haven’t- you haven’t paid.” The guy says while holding a phone, ready to call the cops any minute.

Lay looks bewildered. “Umm, can we put these back?”

“Hyung! I’m really hungry!”

“Kai, come on!” Lay starts to go around the store again, putting back the things he got in their original places. The counter guy watches, puzzled. Kai stands rooted to the spot for about ten seconds, then goes “ARGH!”

He stomps his feet and proceeds to put back the fourteen things he took for himself.

Lay, finished with his stuff, goes to help Kai put all those things in their rightful place, circling the shelves a couple of times. Kai puts back a hexagon box with koala-shaped cookies in them and picks up a box of cookies shaped like cars. Lay sees him and slaps his hand, making Kai pout.

                After they’re done, Lay drags Kai to the counter area and Moustache Guy steps back, scared.

“We’re sorry. We won’t do this again. We thought that...” he looks at Kai, unsure of what and how to explain, but Kai is looking at the mirror on the ceiling. Seeing his reflection on it, he starts to groove to the music playing in the store.

Moustache Guy stares back and forth between Lay and the dancing Kai. He doesn’t really know what to say either.

“We put all the stuff back, I swear. You can check us if you want to.” Lay says, putting his arms behind his head like a suspect being searched by the police.

Moustache Guy comes out from the counter area, looks at Lay up and down, but stands in front of Kai. “You. Stand still.”

“What?”

“He’s gonna check you.” Lay explains, and waits in apprehension.

Kai growls but he lets Moustache Guy run his hand all over himself anyway. Kai looks really pissed.

Once out of the store, Lay faces Kai. “Okay, it seems that Chen forgot to tell is a very important Earth concept. What is ‘pay’?”

Kai shrugs. “I don’t know.” He steps back into the store and walks up to Moustache Guy while Lay wits outside. Kai sees his nametag: Kang Shijang.

“Mr. Kang Shijang, what song is this?”

“Are you trying to rob me again? Where’s that friend of yours?”

Kai rolls his eyes in impatience. “He’s outside. And no, we never tried to rob you or whatever. I only asked you, what song is this?”

Kang Shijang still looks at Kai suspiciously, but he listens to the song for a bit. “It’s called ‘Part of The List’, by Ne-Yo.”

Kai comes back to stand next to an anticipating Lay outside. “So, what did he say?”

“It’s Part of the List.”

“What list? The list that Chen gave us? Wait, how would that guy know about anything that Chen gave us?”

Kai shakes his head. “No, that song that was playing in the store. It’s called ‘Part of the List’.

Lay crosses his arms and frowns. “O-kaaayyy. So how does that help us in figuring out what ‘pay’ is?”

“It wasn’t supposed to.” Kai says, and he starts dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. Some guy in a suit walks past them, dropping a piece of paper in front of Kai. “You’re good.” He says with a smile and walks away.

“Wait! Sir, you dropped this!” Lay calls out after him, but the guy just laughs and waves from afar.

“No, hyung! I think he GAVE this to me!” Kai looks at the paper. It has a picture of a man on it and landscapes at the back. “Hey, I think I’ve seen this somewhere. Hyung! I think this is it! This is ‘pay’!” He says excitedly and pockets the paper.

“He paid you? With that? For dancing?”

Kai nods with a gleam in his eyes. He musters all his memories of Part of The List and the feel of that song, and starts to dance.

Lay watches him in wonder. He’d watched Kai dance before, but it takes his breath away everytime. Kai moves with a fluidity that doesn’t only goes along with the music, it portrays the music so well that one can write out the whole song just by watching Kai move. It’s like, he paints the notes in the air with his body. Lay can dance, too, and so can Kyungsoo, Sehun and Luhan, but not like Kai. Everybody stops to watch Kai dance when they’re on EXOPlanet, and everybody passing here now on Earth either stops or turn their heads. Kai is just that incredible a dancer.

Nobody dropped paper in front of them anymore, though. Instead, they just watch mesmerized. A small crowd forms outside the convenience store until Kang Shijang opens the door and breaks the spell. “Oh, first you try to rob me, now you’re dancing in front of my store? Is this a joke, am I on a secret camera now?” He looks around, as if searching for something, then heads for a girl under an umbrella who runs away immediately. “Shira, is that you?”

Kang Shijang turns back to Kai and Lay. The crowd has dissipated and Kai looks furious. “Why did you do that? They haven’t even paid me yet!”

Kang Shijang laughs. ““You want them to pay you to dance? Why? I can dance like that too.” And he starts to dance in a very rickety way, that you can just hear his hinges creaking and his joints cracking.

“Get a job if you want money!”  He says fiercely as he walks back inside the store.

Kai and Lay stare at each other. “Okay, so now we have to get paid AND get money too?”

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

Chapter 3 is done! Okay, so first of all, I've gotta say this. While I'm reading back this chapter, I thought, "This chapter is kinda boring." LOL, but don't  cosole me, I know it's kinda boring. But I still love it 'cuz I wrote it Lay & Kai are just so... so Lay & Kai! I can totally picture them leaving Kris out of their snacking plans, even though I'm sure they love Kris to bits.

And anyway, I hope nobody is confused as Lay & Kai were about the money thing. I'll explain it in Chapter 4. And I don't really want to set my story in a certain country, so I just left out details about how the money look like. And Byeol, Chanyeol & Baekhyun are coming back soon. The rest of EXO... Maybe next time, lol.

Oh, and yes, Lee Gwangsoo is Kang Shijang. I don't know, I think he suits the character of a mean manager very well. And his dance... XD Sorry if Kai's dance gifs don't really suit the story or too uny or too y or whatever. I don't own any of the gifs. I just own Kai. No, not really. *sobs*