Myungsoo desperately tried to explain. “Jieun, please let me explain. We’re here for an important reason—“

I cut him off by running out the door. I quickly signed out, unpinned the badge, and hurried out. Myungsoo caught my arm, but I shook him off. Outside, I ran into Hana and Eunji.

“Jieun!” they both greeted me happily, but seeing my frightened face, their smiles quickly faltered.

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” Hana remarked.

“Are you okay Jieun?” Eunji asked worriedly.

“Jieun!” I heard Myungsoo. I turned to see him dashing down the stairs.

“Hurry, take me someplace else,” I begged my friends. “I’ll explain later.”

My friends didn’t question me further. We ran off to the train station, where we bought tickets to the station near Hana’s house and got onto the train. Right when we stepped on, I saw Myungsoo outside. The doors closed when he got close. I immediately felt guilty at first but confusion and fear took over. I began to shake. My friends wrapped me into a hug, trying to calm me down until we got to the stop. When we reached Hana’s place, I sat down on her couch while Eunji and Hana rushed around, closing any blinds and locking any doors. When they finished, they sat in front of me.

“Spill Jieun. Why were we running away from Myungsoo?” Hana demanded. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing actually. I’ll explain starting from the day after we all met…” I began to explain what had happened: meeting Kevin, finding out we were siblings, how I got the pendant that was hanging around my neck, and why I ran from Myungsoo. I didn’t say he magically healed my finger and made up a lie about why I ran, hoping my friends would take it. It seemed like they did because they were silent for a few minutes. Then Eunji broke the silence.

“Give them a chance Jieun,” she said quietly.

“What?” Hana and I said.

“Maybe he had a motive which is why he acted that way.”

“Maybe… but—”

“I saw the way he looked at you when we departed. He looked heartbroken,” Hana mused.

“Maybe…” I began to think that my actions were too harsh on poor Myungsoo. After contemplating a few more minutes, I made my decision. “I’ll go back. I’ll give them a chance.”

“Yay!” Hana and Eunji tightly hugged me and sent me off at the train station. As I rode back, I practiced what I would say in my head. Boys. I want answers. Now. Is that too harsh though? I practiced until my stop, where I rushed home. I rang the doorbell. The door was immediately answered by Myungsoo, who pulled me into a huge hug.

“I’m sorry Jieun, I never meant to frighten you,” he whispered into my ear as we hugged.

“I forgive you,” I said back, as the rest of the boys rushed to form a huge group hug right there in the hallway.

“Jieun, we were so worried—”

“Are you hungry? We have a little bit of leftovers from dinner but Daehyun might’ve eaten it all—”

I pulled out of the hug to calm everyone down.

“I’m fine everyone. I am hungry. For answers,” I glared at each of them and crossed my arms. The boys avoided my eyes. Finally, Mark pulled me into the living room to explain.

“Ok, everyone one of us in this room are not human beings. Including you Jieun.”

“What!?” I shot up. Kevin pulled me back into my seat. Mark continued like I had never interrupted.

“All of us, except for you and Kevin, have powers. You see, we were sent here to Earth to find you. Our planet Ayries was invaded by some mysterious force. Your parents, the king and queen—”

“King and queen?” I interrupted again. “Then that means…”

“That’s right Jieun. You and Kevin are Ayries royalty,” Mark held up his pendant. “This pendant means we are all from planet Ayries, the royal side at least.”

“We’re all royalty?” I was a bit confused.

Mark continued, “All of us were your knights. We tried our best to stop the invasion but our powers were not enough. The queen was worried for your safety, since you were so young that time. The queen and king told us to search for you when you reached that age and they used the legendary Ayries Crystal to stop the invasion but it killed them to do so. The Crystal was able to reincarnate you and send you down to Earth. We waited for that age to come and sent ourselves down to Earth to find you. Kevin stayed behind to rule and repair the planet for a bit. The Ayries Crystal wasn’t supposed to erase your memories so when we had finally found you, we were a bit confused at first. In the end, we were convinced you were the one and called Kevin to come down to confirm it.”

“And here we are now,” Kevin concluded.

“So… if we’re all not human beings, what are we exactly?” I asked.

“We’re more like aliens in this world, but perfectly normal on planet Ayries,” Minseok said.

“How did the crystal kill my parents?” I questioned.

“The Ayries Crystal is extremely powerful. It’s like the Legendary Silver Crystal plus Sailor Saturn’s Silence Glaive in Sailor Moon,” Daehyun tried to explain.

“Except they aren’t reborn after,” Ren sadly said.

“Show me your powers,” I wanted to see them after seeing Myungsoo’s.

Mark stood up first. “My power is mind reading. I’ve actually used this on you a few times Jieun, even though back on Ayries, it was impossible for me to read your and Kevin’s minds.”

Daehyun stood up next. “My power is the wind.”

As he said this, a gust of wind suddenly came out of nowhere behind him, almost blowing the skirt of my dress up in the process.

“Daehyun!” Mark scolded.

“Sorry…” he apologized sheepishly as he sat back down.

“You’ve already seen my power Jieun, but it doesn’t just work on injuries,” Myungsoo said as he stood up and walked into the kitchen. He walked back with the dying potted plant that I had been watering every day, trying to help it grow again. He closed his eyes and cupped his hands around the flower. I watched as a light came out of his hands and the flower began to gain color. In a few seconds, the whole flower looked like it had just bloomed. He put the flower on the table and sat down.

“I have the power of ice, snow, frost, whatever you want to call it,” Xiumin stood up and began circling his hands around the new flower on the table. A little sphere of frost began to cover it. He gestured to it. I leaned forward and poked the circle, only to have it crumble away. Ren shot his hand forward at the falling frost. Light as bright as the sun came out of his hands and the falling frost turned into water droplets.

“My power is water,” he told me proudly.

“And my power is flight!” Jungkook stood up and jumped into the air. I expected him to fall back onto the ground but he stayed in the air, flying around the room like Peter Pan. I watched as he circled around the room and gently landed in front of me. I applauded as he took a bow.

“Jieun,” Mark suddenly called me.

“Yes oppa?” I looked over at him.

“We have to tell you something…” Mark was suddenly hesitant and closed his mouth.

“What is it?” I wanted to know. After a few more minutes of silence, Kevin broke it.

“We... have to leave soon Jieun…” Kevin finally said.

“Leave where? This house?” I was a bit confused.

“No… now that we’ve found you… it’s time to leave Earth and return to Ayries.”