( twenty )

Note: This chapter will be long.

“Ara?”, Chanyeol still cannot believe that she was awake. ‘Was it I?’ were only the question running through his mind. It was as if those doe-shaped eyes of hers welcomed him for the very first time.

“What am I doing here?”, her eyes ogled around the four corners of the room painted with pure white as she heard machine sounds and the booming voice of this boy next to her. The room was quiet, very quiet and then she was still as a doll lying on a bed she didn’t want to be in. Ara aimed to break the ice as she pushed herself to sit but Chanyeol hindered her to.

“You’re just recovering. I advise you not to move.”

Still not getting what he said, Ara shook her head and decided to do on what she think was right as for the moment. “Ara I said,”

Chanyeol laid down his command, but she didn’t follow him – which put him to hold her arm. His eyes focused on Ara, only to her. Ara hasn’t seen him like this before. With his eyes so icy cold, she couldn’t do more but to freeze at the moment and listen to him. There was a moment of awkwardness between them. Silence filled in. Chanyeol breathed heavily as he starts off.

“Do you know how much I’m worried of you?”

Restrained, worried and puzzled, Ara fixed her eyes to his. “Tell me, why are you so deep-seated when I told you not to do what is not supposed?”

“Why did you.. “ Chanyeol struggled to find the right words. “.. why are you so strong? Did it ever cross your mind that you will win against me in a swimming competition?”

She waited for his next line. Her mind was still processing, filling the empty holes in her memory. Ara blinked her eyes, lost. Then she recovered a picture of her, being cradled by him. She remembered not exactly what has happened. However, she can’t determine whether he was reprimanding her or not, whether he was happy, or maybe for another clue why he is so protective of her perhaps.

“I.. I don’t know.”

She was honest. She just wanted to save their relationship.

“Do you know how much I worried for you? How much I spent my every days thinking of you, how you were or were you alright? Do you know how many times I -” He was cut off.

“I get it.”, Ara squinted. “You wanted to make my life harder.”

“No. It wasn’t that.”, he was taken aback of what she said.

“But you weren’t talking to me for quite some time.”

“That’s because you lied to me.”

“And I said I am sorry.”

“Just sorry?”

“Look, I know that -”, Chanyeol chuckled. He can’t take looking at Ara’s puzzled face.

“I know Ara. I was ready to forgive you but you challenged me on a match. I can’t force myself to talk to someone who did something wrong to me, right?”

Still, he was straightforward. “But what your fault really is, you haven’t still stalked me for so long that’s why you didn’t know that I’m an athlete during middle school.”

“You are?”, her eyes grew larger. “And hey, I’m not a stalker.”, she threw him a throw pillow on the side of her bed. The pillow landed on Chanyeol’s wide forehead as he continued laughing.

“I hate you.”

“And I hate you even more.”

When their laughs ceased, Chanyeol clasped his fingers into hers and then slowly, his deep soft voice cringed into her ear.  

“Bambi, I missed you.”

The door creaked open, dismissing all the harmony of their laughter. It revealed Luhan, standing still, mouth slightly open, his hand’s grip on the knob loosened and immediately, he ran to Ara, tackling her with a hug. There came who followed him were Sehun and Lay. They too, can’t believe what they’re seeing. She’s finally awake, smiling and looking healthier than before. Like how Luhan approached her, they ran to her, crowding her and tightly envelope her in their embrace.

“Bambi! You’re finally awake!”, Luhan cried still trapping the woman in his embrace.

Ara chuckled, “It’s okay now. You don’t need to worry.”

They let go and showed their deep fulfillment seeing her conscious state again. Luhan saw the necklace on Ara’s neck and smiled. He turned to Chanyeol who was watching their little reunion and walked to him.

“Thank you.”, he said, patting the guy’s shoulder.

“For Ara, I will do anything.”

---

“Where are you going?” Kai grabbed Miyoung’s arm, ceasing her from her brisk walk. He was sitting comfortably on the couch, his feet were on it too and she was behind the furniture, heading towards the main door.

“To Ara. Heard she’s finally awake.”

“Really?” Kai’s eyes widened and he sat himself quickly. While standing, he coughed and felt weak, as if his body betrayed him, he fell feebly on the couch.

“Kai!”, she screamed.

Seeing Kai in this condition hurt her heart, she ran to him dropping the packed lunch to the floor. It didn’t scatter since it was packed tightly.

“Are you okay?” She grabbed his arm, ushering him to sit accordingly.

“Miyoung, you have to do me a favor. I don’t have enough time.”

“What..?”

“The necklace. Ara must have probably got it now since she’s awake. You need to take it from her…” He held her shoulders and stared right into her eyes. Sparkling, his eyes were sparkling ─ that’s what she thought. It was truly captivating that even his sickly behavior wouldn’t change her view. “…so we can go back to planet EXO together.” He held her hand, still not breaking the eye contact.

She gently took her hand back. “I…I can’t.”, she said, bowing down.

Kai looked at him in utter disbelief. “Why can’t you? That’s our mission from the very start, to catch the three aliens and return the necklace. Now that I’m telling you Ara have it…in fact, Ara has it all along. I don’t know why you don’t catch it but she’s wearing it all the time. How could you not see it? Are you bli-”

“I know.”, she said stiffly and looked at him straight in the eyes. “I know she has it from the very start…the moment I met her.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Do you even know why I always stick around her Kai?”

He didn’t answer, but his expression was definitely stunned. He never thought she knew. He always thought she was too dense to notice that the one they were after was right there all along. When he thought she was falling behind, she was in fact, ahead of him, not just by one step but by a dozen.

“T-then why didn’t you take the necklace.”

“She needs it more than we do.”

“But what about the mission? The necklace doesn’t belong to Ara, it belongs to the queen. I need to return it so-”

“So what? So you can be rewarded? Can’t you think of someone else other than yourself? At least for once don’t be selfish. It’s her life we’re talking about here. And I’m not putting that to risk.”

She stood and walked out the door, slamming it. Kai tried to follow but he felt his body weakened. He coughed; he was feeling sick than ever. If he stays any longer in the planet, his illness will worsen and he might die.

---

The door opened after two knocks. Everyone’s attention directed to the person entering the hospital room. When a familiar head poked, Ara’s lips curved to a smile.

“Miyoung.”, she stated softly.

“Ara!” Miyoung ran to the girl on the bed and hugged her tight. Tears almost let down her eyes as she her friend’s hair. “I’m so glad you’re awake now.”, she whispered to her ear.

“I’m alive and healthy now.” She grinned. “Thank you.”

“By the way, I brought you fruits.” Miyoung grinned, showing a bag of fruits in front of Ara. The latter clapped happily to show her sincere appreciation.

They had their talk and they shared laughters until Miyoung had to go.

“Sorry to break the fun guys. I have to go. See you next time Ara.”

“See you! Take care on your way home.”

“Do you want me to send you home?” Luhan offered.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to.”

“But you’re so nice to my little sister here. Just take this as a thank you from us.”

“Thanks.” She grinned.

---

As soon as Miyoung opened the apartment’s door and lights, the brightened view showed a lying Kai on the floor. He was crouching and all covered in blankets. Her eyes widened and he ran to him, worried on his being. “Kai…” She felt his forehead with the back of her hand. “…you’re cold.”

She searched for a thicker blanket and made a hot chocolate for him. She couldn’t take seeing him like this, it was torture. She helped him sit straight and observed his features. He was no longer the conceited jerk he was, instead the vulnerable Kai.

After drinking the hot chocolate, Kai tightened his grip on the blanket and wrapped himself more.

What Kai didn’t get was that why was Miyoung not falling sickly like he was. They both stayed in almost the same amount of time here on Earth yet she seemed healthy. Regarding the three alien brothers of Ara, he knew what was keeping them protected. It was her, Ara. Once an alien was shown unconditional love by a human being, and was acknowledged by this alien, he will remain healthy and alive. Ara’s brothers knew Ara loved them which kept their capability to stay and act as humans remain.

In Miyoung’s case, he assumed that maybe there was some human who loved Miyoung, to which kept her alive.

It was then when he realized something, Miyoung had been there when he needed someone the most. She was always there beside him and all he did was treat her bad. Then came the thought that what if Miyoung marries this person she found, she’ll go with him and he’ll be left alone. To be alone wasn’t the one he feared the most. He swallowed a chunk of saliva. He feared losing her.

“Kai-”

She stopped as soon as she found herself trapped in his embrace. It was warm and it made her heart jump over a thousand times again.

“Please stay with me.” She heard him whisper.

She nodded. “Yes Kai, I’ll stay with you.”

“You must’ve found someone already for you to be in that condition.”, he said still not letting her go.

The question startled her but as she was about to respond, she felt his lips crashed to hers. It didn’t take long before Kai pulled away.

“Please stay with me…forever.”

“If it will take you forever to notice it, I might as well say it now. If I’ll stay with someone for eternity, that’ll be you Kai. I don’t know but you’re too dense to figure that I love you.”

“Really?”

She nodded her head.

“I love you too.”

She noticed, after her confession, he was no longer shivering. He was somehow glowing now unlike earlier when he was pale.

He turned to her with rounded eyes. “Miyoung…you’re human?”

“Half-human.” She grinned.

---

Chanyeol and Ara sat by the steps in front of the main door of her house. They were watching the scene, so peaceful and lively.

While Ara was eating a bar of chocolate, he sneakily grabbed her free hand, inserting her fingers in between his before giving a cheeky smile.

“Look.”, he said as he stared at their entangled fingers. “Your hand fit mine’s perfectly.”, he continued, giving her hand a light squeeze.

She giggled and slapped his arm playfully.

“Yah! I was just trying to be sweet.”

“Cheesy you mean.”, she corrected.

“Want to know what else fits yours perfectly?”

“What?”

He grinned and grabbed something from his pocket. “This one.”, he said revealing a ring.

“Wait - is that a…”

“Wedding ring, yes.”

“Did I hear wedding ring?” Luhan’s voice startled the two, making them held onto their chest. They turned to their backs and saw Luhan coming out of the door. “My Bambi is still not ready for weddings.” He glared at Chanyeol. “Even if you’re a nice guy and that you’ve known each other for years. I wouldn’t give her to you. Until she’s 25 years old, she’s mine.”

“Hyung, did I say a wedding ring? I meant couple ring.”

Luhan crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “Yeah right. I’m watching you.” Luhan gave him a last glare before heading back inside. “This chocolate bar is mine, too!” He snatched Ara’s chocolate and ran inside laughing.

“Yah! Luhan oppa!”, she screamed about to chase him when she felt a hand stopped her and started pulling her somewhere.

“Chanyeol, where are we going?”

“It’s a secret just follow me.”

She shrugged and did as he said. The moment they arrived at a familiar place, her eyes rounded. “The playground.”, she stated.

He nodded. Before Ara could say something, Chanyeol immediately brought something up.

“Remember the drawings we made?”

“Yeah.”, Ara said running to the slide, and crouched down to point out their drawing but what she saw stunned her. The drawings were still there as well as their names ‘Chan-chan and Bambi’. But the surprising part was, there were speech bubbles drawn on top of the two drawings. Above Chanyeol’s stick figure, there were words written inside the bubble. It said: ‘Bambi will you be my girlfriend?’

Then Ara noticed that her speech bubble didn’t have anything inside it. That was when she knew what she should do. Unfortunately, she didn’t bring a pen with her. The atmosphere was quite awkward for her and Chanyeol noticed her little inner sufferings.

She heard a thing dropped and her eyes looked at the ground. It was a pen. Chanyeol coughed, indicating something. Ara’s lips formed a smile and she grabbed it, writing her answer: ‘Yes, Chan-chan.’

Chanyeol threw his arms in the air and soon brought Ara in his arms to a tight embrace. When he let her go, he spoke. “Actually, that ring earlier was for future purposes. For now…” He took the ring from his pocket. “I want to bury this here and we shall go back here once you’re 25.”

She slapped his arm.

“Ouch! Was that necessary? - I mean when we are both ready for marriage.” He grinned.

She chuckled and pecked him on the lips. He blushed at the moments their lips touched. It was quick and he wanted more.

“This playground built our friendship. I wish it’ll also build our relationship. Let’s fill in what we missed, Ara.”   

He said before giving her a passionate kiss.