CHAPTER 002

The boy  jumped down from the tree and looked towards me. Me? Yeah, he looked straight at me. And, might I add, promptly looked away.

"Man, at least someone shows up to visit. No one comes around here.." The boy ran his fingers through his dark, black hair. "I mean, it would totally help if they could see me." He walked around the base of the blooming cherry blossom tree, slowly. He continued to talk awhile to himself.  

"Excuse me?" My voice cut through the silence. "I can see you." 

He looked at me again, this time for a full ten seconds, his face masked with disbelief. I saw him clearly for the first time. Clear pale skin, and exotic asian eyes full of intensity. I inched away, taken by surprise by this silent reply.

"You...can see me?" He walked over to me. Too close. He put his hand on my arm and jumped. "I can even touch you?" He sounded amazed, awed. I stared at him, debating if I should scream or kick him. Probably both.

"Yes, you can, like anyone else on this planet. Now take your hand off me before I call the police." Pretty lame threat, considering that I didn't even have a phone on me. But, it worked.

"Uh, sorry. I didn't mean it that way." He stopped suddenly. "Call me Chen. I'm..new here." I stared at him. He wasn't even wearing a school uniform! I narrowed my eyes. 

"New, you say. Where's your uniform? Why are you even here, on the lonely side of school? No one ever comes around here." I know, I sounded rude. Very. But what else would you do, if you saw this "new" kid hanging around some cherry blossoms?

"Oh, no no no. New to this world."

I stopped. Why was today getting weirder and weirder? First, he raves about how he can touch people, and second, tells me he's some sort of alien. Perfect. 

"So... let me get this straight. One, you are an alien. Two, you hang around this place because..?"

"I'm bound to this tree. I cannot walk away from it; if I tried...well, think of it like a barrier. I can't walk farther than 40 feet from this tree."

Hold up. Rewind. What did I eat for breakfast? Cereal. Lunch? Sandwiches. Nothing crazy...and I'm not sick.

"I don't get it," Chen continued. "People usually can't see me. People from your world are clueless. But the thing is, I even hide well from the people in MY world. They don't know that I use this tree as a portal to visit Earth. And, I usually can't touch things. Look!"

He tried to pick up a fallen branch from the ground, but his fingers slipped through it.

"Oh." That was all I could say.

"I think you don't believe me. Ok, deal. I'll try to walk 40 feet from this tree, and you'll see that I cannot make past that."

He started to walk, one foot after another, slowly walking towards the center of the courtyard. I counted silently in my head. Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, fourty, fourty-on--

Chen suddenly fell backwards. And I couldn't stop laughing. He looked like he rammed into a window; his face was smashed against some invisible wall. He got up quickly, face burning. 

"Ok, don't look at me like that. I believe you." I chuckled. "I'm HyoJin, an aspiring writer. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too...HyoJin." He slowly said my name, and gave me a half, crooked smile. 

And that was that. My first encounter with someone I would treasure for the rest of my life.