"Mom! Dad! I’m home!” Jinam shouted as she stepped inside the small house.

            Her parents hurriedly ran down the stairs. When they laid eyes on us, I could see surprise cross both their faces. Her dad looked like he was going to kill us, but the mom was just lost for words. Jinam didn’t seem to notice, but the aura in the room automatically changed. We managed to flash a couple friendly smiles and bow to the parents, but the room’s tension didn’t get any lighter.

            “Jinam…” Her mother whispered to Jinam after she took off her shoes.

            “Yes?” She innocently asked.

            “Can we talk?” Mrs. Park pushed her daughter to the bottom of the staircase where her husband was standing. He gave us an evil glare.

            “Um…. Jinam, I thought… B-Bomb was a girl…” Mrs. Park whispered.

            “Oh, um… yeah, he’s a guy.” Jinam whispered back, “So?”

            “’So?’” Her father hissed, “He and he’s friends are probably dangerous! Look at those dreads!”

            “Don’t be so dramatic, honey.” Mrs. Park said, “I mean, he has such a cute baby face,” She directed to Zico. “And after all, they did walk her home.”

            Before Mr. Park could say anything more, Mrs. Park spun around and welcomed us, “Hello, boys. Come in and sit down.”

            We were ushered into their small living room. Introductions were made and Mr. Park glared at me and every one of my friends. If his daughter weren’t infront of us, he would’ve killed us all.

            “Do you guys want something to drink?” Mrs. Park asked sweetly as she moved toward the kitchen.

            “Oh, no.” Jinam spoke, “We’re gonna go upstairs and start working.”

            Mr. Park stiffened and his eyes grew wide, “Upstairs? In your room? Unsupervised?” It looked like his veins were about to pop.

            “Okay,” Mrs. Park said and motioned toward the staircase with her hand. “I’ll bring some snacks up later.”

            Her father glared at us and was about to protest, but was interrupted by his wife asking for help in the kitchen. He sighed and moved to kitchen but not before yelling, “I’m checking up on you every five minutes!”

Jinam rolled her eyes and motioned for us to follow her up the stairs. Once we got up to her room we could finally breathe.

            “Your dad is scary, Jinam…” U-Kwon stated with wide-eyes.

            “He’s only like that because I haven’t had a friend ever since elementary school…” She explained, “Still, it’s no excuse for the way he’s acting…”

            I looked around her room. It was the blandest thing ever. The walls were grey, the ceiling was grey, the carpet was grey and the curtains were grey. Her bed was tucked into a small corner and the covers were white. The one thing that stood out was the gargantuan device sticking out the window.

            Jinam set her hands on the machine, “This is my alien-detector.”

            “What?” Jaehyo shouted, “We’re gonna help you find aliens?”

            “Of course! What else would you do with me?” Jinam answered with a joke.

            Zico looked over at me. “You actually agreed to help her?” He said, “Do you even believe in aliens?” He gave me a face.

            I only returned it with the same face, “Yeah… why do you think I agreed to help her?”

            “Okay!” U-Kwon readily said, “What should I do?” He went up to her with eyes twinkling.

            “We have to wait for everyone else, sunbae.” Jinam said.

            U-Kwon chuckled, “Jinam, just call me ‘oppa!’” He said with a gorgeous smile.

            “Oh, okay… o-oppa…” She blushed a bit and looked down.

            Taeil laughed a bit and looked toward me. I wasn’t jealous or anything, if that’s what he’s thinking. I mean, just because she’s calling U-Kwon “oppa” doesn’t mean I’ll get all defensive and make a huge deal out of it.

            “I’ll help,” Taeil said. “And you can just call me ‘oppa’ too.”

            “Okay, oppa…” Jinam said awkwardly. I guess she never had anyone she could speak so loosely with.

            “Me too!” Kyung happily stated.

            “A-alright! Um… should I speak to you formally or informally?” Jinam asked.

            Kyung laughed, “Just speak to me informally~”

            Jinam put up her thumbs, though I could tell by her scrunched up mouth, she was really new to having friends. Zico and Jaehyo agreed to help, even though I’m sure neither of them believed in aliens. They even told Jinam to speak casually with them. I guess their master plan is to get buddy-buddy with Jinam, so I’ll get jealous.

            “Noona, I wanna help, too!” P.O shouted cheerfully.

            “Great! Um… Minhyuk-sunbae?” Jinam looked over to me. I looked up at her, “Should I call you ‘oppa,’ too?” She asked unsure.

            It felt quite embarrassing for her to call me ‘oppa’ especially, since I could spy my friends giggling to themselves from the corner of my eye. “Uh… no it’s okay. Just call me ‘B-Bomb…’” I tried to say coolly.

            “Okay!” She said a little too cheerfully, because I could see the guys making faces at me. “That’s still a weird nickname, by the way…” She turned away from me, “Awesome! So, umm… let’s see… Yes! I need to show you how my baby works!” Jinam went over to her detector, “Okay, even though it looks like a satellite it’s a telescope that detects earth-like planets in our solar system. The Americans proposed to make this a project but was cancelled. It-“

            All of a sudden, the door flew open and it was Jinam’s father. His face was stern and irritated. All of us jumped a bit and then froze as he surveyed us suspiciously from the top of his spectacles.

            “It hasn’t even been five minutes yet!” Jinam shouted, embarrassed by her father.

            “I’ve decided that surprise check ups were best.” Her father explained. He looked over all of us again with an even more powerful glare. Then he slowly closed the door, keeping eye contact with me the whole time. I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding when the door clicked shut.

            Jinam sighed. “I’m gonna die…” She said under her breath. “Anyway! Umm… Oh, yes!” Then she went on explaining that the telescope interpreted alien transmitting information it captured from space. I really didn’t listen to all of it; there was no point. By looking at it, her “detector” was just amateur work, and it could never do anything as impossible as finding alien transmissions in space. Though everyone else seemed to believe everything Jinam was saying, I knew it wouldn’t work.

            “So, what are we all going to do?” Kyung asked.

            “Um… I don’t know….” Jinam confessed, “I wasn’t expecting so many people… Well, most of the time nothing pops up, but we need to just watch the screen to see if anything is out of the ordinary….”

            All of us waited for Jinam to say something more. But she just stood looking at us with the same expectant face.   

            “That’s it?” I asked.

            She nodded, “Yep. That’s it… Well, we have to make sure the machine’s working properly, constantly…. But other than that, we just sit and wait. Okay, any questions?”

            Jaehyo raised his hand, “I have one. Uh, how did you get this?”

            “Oh, well. I have an uncle in America, who works for NASA. And since the project was cancelled, they gave the machines to him to dispose of them. But, he didn’t want to part with it, so he shipped over to us and we kept it in our storage. I saw and decided to use it for my alien hunts.” She explained casually.

            We just sat in silence. Her story was too bizarre to believe, but her face said it was true.

            “And your parents let you keep it?” P.O asked amazed.

            Jinam picked nervously at her fingers, “Yeah…I said it was a school project….”

            “And you parents believed you?” P.O asked again.

            Jinam nodded her head. We were utterly speechless at how—how can I say this nicely—blind her parents were. The look on Jinam’s face said she knew her parents were a bit dim, but she had accepted that fact and used it to her advantage.

            “Hey, I was thinking.” Kyung said, “What if we helped you tweak it a bit?”

            Jinam gave him a glad face. “’Tweak it?’” She asked excitedly, “Wait…” She said with narrowed eyes, “Are you saying my machine as is, is incompetent!?”

            “No! I’m not saying your machine is bad, but just, you know, we could improve it,” He suggested. “P.O, here, is really smart!”

            Jinam still glared at Kyung, but then threw the expression away quickly, “Okay!” She said nonchalantly.

            So, BlockB started working on the machine. We were so into modifying it, Jinam didn’t have to do anything. She just stood aside and watched all of us yell over each other and smack one another every once in a while. I looked over at her and she was very easy to read; she didn’t know working could be so fun.

            “Hey, U-Kwon, give me that thing!” Zico shouted.

            “This thing?”

            “No, he wanted this one!” Jaehyo explained as he gave Zico a cord.

            “Hyung, that was mine!” P.O whined.

            “But I need it!” Kyung moaned with fake cuteness.

            “Stop getting into my space!” I yelled at Jaehyo.

            “I’m not!”

            “I can’t concentrate!” Taeil shouted aggravated.

            Though it was very quiet and I shouldn’t have heard it over all the screaming, I heard a small and airy chuckle over from Jinam. I looked back and saw her laughing silently to herself. It was kind of cute. Ugh, what am I thinking? I turned back to my work but then I saw Taeil give me a smug smile. I returned it with a glare.

            “Let’s see if it works!” Kyung asked excitingly as he jumped up.

            “But I’m not done, hyung!” Zico complained.

            “Neither am I!”

            “Yeah, I’m not done, either.”

            “Kyung, I think you’re the only one done…”

            Kyung’s face went down. He sighed and skipped over to Jinam. I heard them make conversation as we kept on working.

            “Yeah, sometimes we can get a little over board with things.” He explained.

            She said something inaudible to Kyung that made him smile largely. I strained my eyes to hear, but I couldn’t make it out.

            “Yo, love bird! Give me that thing-er!” Zico commanded with a hand out to me.

            “I’m not a love bird and I don’t know which ‘thing-er’ you’re talking about!” I shouted back.

            He moved his hand toward my left, “That twisty thing-er.” He explained.

            I rolled my eyes at his attempt to clarify. “This one?” I asked as I picked up a grey tangled cord.

            “Yeah that thing-er.” Zico said as he snatched it from my hands, “Thanks.”

            “Stop reaching over!” Taeil shouted, annoyed.

            At this, the BlockB members laughed; Taeil shouting at anyone was rare so we never took him seriously.

- - -

            Kyung looked over Jinam who was staring intently at the rest of the guys tinkering with the machine. He chuckled to himself. “Yeah, sometimes we can get a little over board with things.”

            Jinam looked over to him, “That’s okay. It’s fun to watch you guys.”

            At this, Kyung smiled brightly, “Thank you. Wait a minute, aren’t you suppose to talk to me informally?”

            “Oh, I’m sorry!” Jinam said as if she insulted Kyung, “I forgot.”

            He laughed again, “It’s okay. You’re just gonna have to get use to it.”

            She nodded, “I’ll remember next time.”

            Kyung looked at Jinam, “You know, you’re not at all like I thought.” Jinam looked up at him with in intrigued look, “Well, when U-Kwon told me that you were B-Bomb’s girlfriend, which I know you are totally not, I had an image of a really sweet gentle innocent freshman. But after I saw you for the first time, you were………hmm…not as sweet and gentle and innocent. You’re actually really fun!” He chirped.

            Jinam smiled, “Well, thanks! I could say the same thing about you.” Kyung gave her a curious stare, “Yeah, when I first saw you guys I was surprised that Min-I mean, B-Bomb had any friends. You guys are actually really nice.”

            Kyung grinned, “See? You just talked informally with me. Doesn’t that feel good?”

            She laughed, “Yeah! Though… it’s still kind of weird to speak so casually…”

            “That’s okay,” Kyung insisted as he patted Jinam’s back.

            Before either of the two could say anything else, P.O got up and asked Jinam to help with the finishing touches on her machine.

- - -

            Jinam pranced up to the machine and looked at it attentively. Her hands went over to the cords and pulled a few out. I could hear U-Kwon whimper a bit. She put a few of Jaehyo’s cords into U-Kwon’s place. For a moment or two, she took out and put in different cords. She put some back in their place.

            Jinam sighed, “Okay.” She pushed in a couple codes and the machine was on.

            All of us stared fixedly at the machine, making sure that nothing would go unexamined. Nothing yet and the telescope wasn’t picking up anything either. I started to lose what little belief I had in the detector.

            A little while longer, we heard a knock on the door. “Jinam, your father thinks it’s best if you and your friends ate your snacks downstairs, so he could make sure that you were ‘unharmed emotionally and physically.’” Mrs. Park quoted as she opened the door a crack.

            “Now?” Jinam whined.

            Mrs. Park sighed, “Yes, now… I think your father’s going to explode.”

Jinam glared at her computer then sighed herself. She got up and shepherded us down the stairs, where her father was waiting. He glared hard at all of my friends, but the stare he gave me was the hardest. For some reason, he really did not like me.

            As Mrs. Park was fetching the snacks from the kitchen, Mr. Park started to chat with us, coldly.

            “So, how exactly did you meet my daughter?” He asked me methodically as he reached over to grab his word search.

            I looked toward Jinam for anything to say, but she just gave me the same look. “Uh, I offered to sit next to her in lunch, since she was alone.” I lied.

            Mr. Park nodded slowly, “Ah, so you’re an extrovert.”

            I nodded, “Uh, yes… sir.”

            Mr. Park nodded again, but switched his attention to U-Kwon. “So, are you a friend of Minhyuk’s?” He asked without looking up from his word search.

            “Uh, yes sir.” U-Kwon answered as a icy shiver crept up his spine, “Minhyuk told me that he was going to work on Jinam’s science project with her, so I asked if could help.”

            “And since BlockB were all conveniently and coincidentally with us at the moment, I decided to bring them all along!” Jinam quickly added so her father wouldn’t ask any questions about that.

            We all gave Jinam a face. I did not even consider for a second that her father was going to believe such a sketchy lie like the one she just said. We turned to Mr. Park, who still hadn’t looked away from his book.

            “I see…” He replied and from the way he said it, he actually believed Jinam.

            Finally, Mrs. Park emerged from the kitchen with a tray of snacks. “Oh, don’t mind my husband!” She said, “He’s just worried about his little daughter.” She placed the food on the coffee table, “Just eat up, okay?”

            The food did look good, but we were too scared of Jinam’s dad to move. Zico leaned over and picked up one of the cookies from the tray. He could feel Mr. Park glare daggers into him, as he took a small bite from the cookie.

            “So how is the food, Jihoon?” Mr. Park asked. P.O twitched frightened, but then realized that he was talking to Zico. I smirked a bit, even if I was still scared of Jinam’s dad; I could see the others hide their smiles as well.

            “Oh, it’s delicious.” Zico said after a quick silence. He looked to Jinam’s mom, “Thank you, they’re really good.”

            She smiled gracefully and took a seat next to her daughter.

            U-Kwon dared to move and grabbed a cookie. “This is great!” He stated after he had taken a bite. He picked up another and handed it to his neighbor, “Try it, Kyung.”

            After Kyung ate it, everyone started to eat. The tension was still lingering in the room, but it lessened a bit. When the tray was empty, Mrs. Park asked if we would want more, but Jinam insisted that we should get back to work. As we walked toward the stairs, I could feel Mr. Park drill one last glare into the back of my head. I tried to walk calmly, but I did sort of scurry up the stairs, not that I was scared…

            “WHAT THE HECK?!” I heard as I entered the grey-infested bedroom. I looked over and saw Jinam wrap her arms tightly around Jaehyo, who was the closest to her.

            “OH MY GOSH, LOOK!” She screamed as she shoved Jaehyo’s face into the computer screen, “LOOK AT THAT, OPPA! LOOK AT IT!” She jumped up and down, while holding onto P.O’s shoulder. Jinam saw me in doorway and shouted at me, “Mi-I mean, B-Bomb! Look!”

            I walked into the room; I looked at the computer and my eyes, just slightly, widened. The computer screen had Cetgharan codes on it.

            “ITS INTERCEPTED ALIEN INFORMATION!” She yelled happily, “Ah! I can’t believe it! I love you guys! I could just kiss you all!” She grabbed my head and shook it around, and it hurt… a lot.

            “Get you hands off my head!” I screamed, and she let go, only to squeeze me in a very tight hug. I looked over at the snickering BlockB and tried to glare at them, but then I started to feel numb in the feet, “Jinam, let go! Please!”

            She lifted her hands abruptly, “Ah! I’m sorry, B-Bomb! I’m just so happy!” She scampered off and hugged Taeil as tightly as she had me. I didn’t know someone could be this happy…

            After Jinam had given everyone one of us a quick and deathly hug she scampered to the computer screen and looked at it as if it was the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.

            “Now all we have to do is de-code it!” She declared with ease.

            She scanned us all with twinkling eyes, but the BlockB guys just looked at her like she was crazy. Besides me, no one could de-code something like that.

            “Uh… Maybe not…” Zico said wearily, “I mean, it’s like what? 10.00? We got to be getting home, right?”

            Jinam thought for a moment, “Hmm…. Well, my dad would like that…” She finally said.

            U-Kwon nodded, “Yeah… I think maybe we over stayed our welcome.”

            Jinam shrugged, “I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind-“

            “But our parents would.” Jaehyo insisted. I guess since they really didn’t believe in aliens, they decided that this is as much help as they’re going to give her.

            “Are you sure?” Jinam asked again, very skeptical.

            We nodded. This was good for me. Jinam couldn’t decipher the codes by herself. So I just need a plan to get that code out of her computer. I can’t believe her machine worked. But then again, I do have superior intelligence.

            After we convinced Jinam that we should be going home, she remembered something.

            “Wait! Uh…” She tugged us into a huddle, “I have compelling evidence that there is an alien somewhere in the countryside. If you guys want to come, tomorrow at 7, I’ll be at the front of the school.” She explained.

            BlockB nodded, but I could see none of them wanted to actually go with her. They all were too tired to go somewhere so early on a Saturday. We got out of our little huddle and went down the stairs.

            “Leaving already?” Mrs. Park asked sweetly.

            “Ah, yeah.” Zico said, “We really have to be going. Thank you for your hospitality.” He bowed at her fully.

            She chuckled, “No problem, you are Jinam’s friends. So there’s no worry.”

            I looked over at Zico and he tried to look sincere, but both Zico and me knew it. He was not Jinam’s friend.

            All of the other BlockB members bowed at the parents, but did not talk to Mr. Park at all. After the small departing pleasantries, BlockB slipped on our shoes and we out the door.

            “Man, she’s so weird…” P.O said as we started walking.

            “Yeah, she is…” Zico agreed, “Well, I’m not going to help her tomorrow…”

            The others nodded. They didn’t want to get dirty just because some girl wants to find some weird alien. They thought that this whole alien thing was just a bit too serious. They didn’t have time for a witch-hunt.

            “What about you, B-Bomb?” Kyung asked.

            I looked up and shrugged, “I don’t think so. I don’t want to wake up so early.”

            From the corner of my eye I could see Taeil shake his head and a small smirk crawl up his mouth. I glared at him, but if I said anything the conversation would turn to me and I need this time to think of a plan to get my parent’s letter away from Jinam.

- - -

            Jinam closed the door and went up the stairs to start working on that alien code.

            After she left, Mr. Park looked up and sighed, “Youngmi, I don’t like that boy…”

            “Which one?” Mrs. Park asked as she sat next to her husband, “The one with the dreads?”

            “No…B-Bomb. I don’t like him…” He replied with a cold glare.

            “Why not?” Mrs. Park playfully questioned.

            “The way he looks at Jinam.” Her husband responded.

            Mrs. Park smiled and grabbed his hand, “It’s okay, Jaehwa. Children grow up…”

Ah... Kind of a happy sad chapter. Sorry I'm so late! DX What over a month?! Really did not like this chapter at ALL!