Archive of Our Own

"Hey, what are you doing there?"

Jaemin freezes, hands ready to pull open the window on the side of the building. It's in the middle of the night and the sidewalk is empty — it was empty.

He turns his head to see, over his shoulder, who is talking, but he keeps in place and doesn't move his hands away from the window.

"Are you trying to steal something?"

It’s a boy who’s speaking. He looks small in a too-big hoodie for him, hair brushed away from his face and held back by a neon green snapback hat. Jaemin now knows about the existence of those things because the current place he’s in came with a wardrobe full of them.

And he hates them all.

“Go away,” he grumbles, turning his attention back to the window. The boy is too small to be able to stop him, so Jaemin doesn’t feel threatened by having his back facing him. He could probably easily throw the boy to the ground if it ever came to that. “Just leave.”

“Shit, dude. Are you really trying to steal something? I was just kidding, y’know... Huh... Are you really sure you wanna do that now? I’m kind of a witness here, you know?”

Yes, Jaemin knows that very well. Still, he only grunts something and cracks the window open. Fucking finally.

“What are you even going to do? That’s the Mayor’s house... Even I am not stupid enough to do this.”

Jaemin throws him a glare. “It doesn’t concern you, so stay out of this.”

He’s got one leg through the window, hands supporting his body, when the boy talks again, “Well… Good luck, I guess. If you, like, end up getting arrested can I stay with your snapback? The police won’t let you stay with it... Believe me, I tried once. They take away everything you have with you.”

Jaemin lifts one hand to his head. Ah. He had forgotten he had that monstrosity on.

“Just have it and leave me alone,” he says, throwing the tie-dye snapback on the ground. Jaemin finally jumps through the window and lands quietly on the floor.

From the outside, a voice sounds out maybe a little too loud for that hour of the night, “Ha! Thanks, dude! Good luck with your theft!”

It’s after sunset and Jaemin is standing in the middle of an empty field, surrounded by grass from all sides, miles away from the town. He’s supposed to receive some kind of message, something to update him on his mission — or at least that’s what the kid (another alien trying to do their job) told him, anyway.

But it’s boring.

Dear god, it’s so incredibly boring to wait alone for something that he isn’t even sure what it is.

“Hey! Are you also waiting for the aliens?”

Jaemin jumps, startled by the voice that sounds out just next to him.

When he looks, it’s the same boy from the other night — the one that talked so loudly that made a neighbour call the police and got him arrested.

Jaemin’s face morphs into a scowl and he glares at the boy. His heart is beating fast, his hands sweating with the scare, and he hates how this human body has so many limitations. He didn’t even hear him approaching! Outrageous!

And then the small and unrefined brain he’s currently using decides to process what the boy had said.

“What? What do you mean by that? What are you even doing here?” Jaemin asks, utterly confused. He’s pretty sure he’s been alone for the past two hours, having stared down at every single blade of grass in the vicinity. He doesn’t know how this boy got this close without him hearing him — and why he’s so far away from the town. There’s only one explanation possible. “Are you stalking me?”

The boy is drowning in another big hoodie, something yellow and orange that clashes terribly with his hot pink shorts. Jaemin isn’t the best at fashion — especially boring, dull, and uninspiring Earth fashion —, but even he can see that whatever the boy’s wearing is not the best combination. At least he isn’t using another snapback this time. These are really fucking awful.

“Huh? No? I’m waiting for the aliens?” The boy answers, his dark hair flying all over with the strong wind. He pauses for a moment, looking up carefully at Jaemin’s face before he opens a big smile. “Heeeeey! You’re the snapback boy! Did you get arrested? I was eating some ice cream in that store by the corner and missed everything that happened! But I did see a police car passing by!”

“Yes,” Jaemin answers through gritted teeth, staring straight at the darkening horizon. “I did.”

“Well… I told you that that would probably happen… Hey, do you think the aliens will take a long time to arrive? I kinda have something to do in a while so it’d be pretty nice if they were here soon.”

Jaemin gulps, his throat parched. “Aliens aren’t real,” he says, voice faltering. It sounds weak even to his own ears.

But the boy only laughs, standing right by his side as they look at the empty field. “Duh. Of course they are real.”

“They… aren’t.”

The boy turns to face him, smiling wide, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You’re just saying this now, but after you meet one you’ll get it. They’re real, trust me.”

And that makes Jaemin stop. He’s very aware of how they’re not supposed to divulge any kind of information to a human so… how could this one human boy know about them?

“Have you… ever met one?” He tries to ask smoothly but stumbles his way with the words.

“No,” the boy answers easily. “But I saw online that today’s humidity levels make a good day for spotting aliens. And here is the hot spot—there’s a great YouTube video from twelve years ago that says so. Did you get any luck yet? Any shiny, round thing in the sky?”

Ah.

Jaemin can’t help but exhale loudly. There’s no way this boy can even be remotely serious. He must just really enjoy fucking with him—and Jaemin just fell for it. “No,” he grumbles. “Because aliens aren’t... real.” It’s still hard to say and Jaemin knows he needs to get a grip. He can’t let his cover slip up any more than what he already did. “Can you just… go?”

But the boy shakes his head and points to the ground as if making his point. “Look, I get it that we all must have our safe places to mop around and be edgy and shit, but here is the place from the video, so, like, I can’t really go, you know? Or at least, I need to stay here for fifteen more minutes,” he says, checking the time on his phone. “And then I will have to go. Just… wait a little bit?”

Jaemin looks up at the sky, staring hard at the little stars that shine, and sighs. He fucking knows he won’t get his message until this boy is far, far away, so he’ll have to keep staring at the fucking grass on the ground for some more time.

Jaemin is in one of those pretentious coffee shops full of weird lines on the walls and too many people trying to take pictures in front of the weird lines on the walls.

The boy in front of him has a badge pinned to his chest — Lee Jeno, it says, but Jaemin knows him by another name that his currently human throat can’t pronounce even if he tried.

“Everything okay?” Jaemin asks, sipping a little from the beverage Jeno had slid on his way. Not that bad, honestly. Jaemin had tasted a lot of worse things in the last few weeks.

“Pretty chill,” Jeno answers, all very like a normal human guy. He’s done a great job in blending in with all the humans. “But all the essays I still have to submit are killing me, ugh... Though making coffee art is cool and relaxing, so that helps me with the stress… Oh! Do you want to try making some yourself?”

Jaemin scrunches up his nose. “No, thanks.”

Of all the roles they have, Jaemin thinks he was lucky enough to land on the “just don’t fuck things up”, which left him free to do whatever he wanted. At least he wasn’t stuck in college like poor Jeno who still had to work and do his part on their mission.

“It’s very relaxing and I’ve been training back at my dorm with my roommate. He says he likes the free coffee,” Jeno says, with a far-away look in his eyes, but then he shakes his head and looks at Jaemin, his voice taking another tone, one more careful. “How have you been?”

“The usual,” Jaemin replies. “Some home invasion, investigating some big people… I got chased by a dog once. An old lady tried to mug me but it didn’t work. I heard that some people already got inside the government. Things seem to be going well in general.”

“But… is everything good with you?”

Jaemin is quick to nod. “Yes. No interferences. And you?”

“Everything’s chill.”

That’s great to know. That means less work for Jaemin to pass on to his superiors — and for Jeno too, since he won’t need to write anything special about Jaemin. Great. Chill.

“I got held up in the middle of a field waiting for a message,” Jaemin says, sipping again the warm drink. Somehow it tastes better than before. “It came in a fucking piece of paper, can you believe it? I spent hours there. It was terrible.”

Jeno straightens himself up, smiling a little. “Oh! I also went to a field! But it was for a class trip. I got a text message last week, though. I forgot to turn the wi-fi on, so I had, like, almost a hundred notifications later.”

Jaemin wrinkles his nose, lifting his drink again. “That sucks.”

“Hey! Snapback boy!”

He doesn’t go by Snapback boy on this planet, but Jaemin still turns — something in the voice makes his body move before he even realizes what he’s doing. And then he sees the boy from the field, the boy that got him arrested, wearing the tie-dye snapback he had thrown at him and jumping over the little cemetery wall, walking in his direction.

What the fuck.

“What the fuck,” Jaemin says.

The boy is in another big hoodie, but this one is white with pretty pastel flowers that clashes terribly with his neon pants. His dark hair is all held back by Jaemin’s snapback on his head and his eyebrows lift up when he smiles in a greeting.

“Long time no see! I thought the aliens might have really taken you away there in the field!”

Jaemin blinks. “What?”

“The aliens! The ones I said that were going to come!” The boy replies, all enthusiastically. Jaemin thinks it’d suit an afternoon in the park — and not a talk in the middle of the sidewalk, during the night, after he just saw the boy jump over the cemetery wall. “Did you manage to see them? I went back the next day, but there weren’t any big circles left in the field.”

“Ah… no.”

“Oh, bummer. I guess that the humidity levels weren’t that good then, huh?”

“... yeah.” Jaemin looks at the cemetery and back at the boy. “What were you doing there?”

“At the field?” He asks, confused, eyebrows scrunching up in the middle of his forehead.

“No—there.” He points at the cemetery.

The boy turns his face, looking back at where Jaemin was pointing, and giggles. “Oh,” he says. “Just making sure no vampires had been turned recently.”

Jaemin kind of chokes, kind of wheezes, all in the same breath. “What?”

The boy shrugs. “I know, I know. Not the best job, but someone’s gotta do it. My friend has been sick lately, so I need to do his part too.” Jaemin gets a little worried that there are more people like this boy in this town. “But no vampires! Graves are all good! You can keep walking safely on the streets. Just worry about the normal criminals.”

“I… don’t think vampires really exist, you know.”

The boy lifts an eyebrow and crosses his arms against his chest. “Well, have you ever seen one?”

“... no.”

“So you can’t prove they don’t exist!”

“... just like you can’t prove they also exist.”

Jaemin doesn’t know why he’s having that discussion, in the middle of the night, with that boy, but somehow he finds himself in that position. And when he realizes that it’s not the worst time he’s ever had since he arrived on Earth, it makes his head feel kind of light.

How did that even happen?

Humans are so weird. They’re probably rubbing off on him. Maybe it’s the human body he’s currently using—yeah, definitely.

The boy continues talking about unturned graves and vampires and how apparently zombies aren’t real, but getting a cold from just looking at the moon is, and Jaemin is so confused that he starts to get a bit worried about that boy.

“Are you okay?” He asks later, silently chastising himself for showing a bit of empathy—weakness.

It’s the human body, he reasons to himself.

The boy stops, a little startled, and stares at him.

“Yes… Well, I was feeling okay, but now that you said that, I don’t think I’m that well. You see, I was ghost hunting early, so there’s a possibility I might be possessed and not know yet. I feel kinda dizzy now.”

It ends up only being low sugar blood levels because he said he hadn’t eaten in a while. Even Jaemin, having not been that long on Earth, already knows that he needs to keep feeding his body so he won’t end up sick and weak. He doesn’t get how the boy let himself feel like that (having lived on Earth as a human for a long, long time, so he has had plenty of experience and knowledge), so Jaemin buys him a small chocolate bar from a nearby convenience store and leaves soon after, a new name ringing inside his mind as he gloomily makes his way across the city.

Renjun.

Life goes on. Jaemin avoids empty grass fields and cemeteries. He meets weekly with Jeno and they exchange information, but there’s only so much one can do in that small city without getting too bored.

Unfortunately, Jaemin can’t do everything he wants all by himself. Sometimes he has to wait for others to do their parts so he can continue or to receive a message with new instructions or what his next steps should be.

And during these quiet moments, where there isn’t much to do, he wanders through the city, trying to collect as much useful information as he can to stay active and just doing something. But it’s boring—dear god, he has no idea how humans can live their lives like that, just staring at the skies changing colors and waiting for another day, hoping for something more exciting to come around the corner.

So, if one day he ends up walking next to the cemetery and puts his head inside just to check up if there’s a boy hanging around there, at least there’s no one by his side to see him doing that. He can deny he ever did anything like that.

Jaemin looks at the two young boys sitting in front of him, listening intently to what Jisung is saying — he’s a young one, not even having gone through his first galaxy trip before getting into the mission to destroy the Earth. Jisung was a hard one to get the hang of, having practically disappeared after stepping on that planet, but Jaemin had successfully hunted him down to the school down the street of Jeno’s coffee shop. He didn’t know how they had missed him for so long (and he didn’t want to dwell on what that said about his work and his performance).

“Like, I’ve been infiltrated for a few months,” Jisung says, nonchalantly, fumbling with the straw in his cold drink as he kind of looks at Jaemin, kind of looks at somewhere above his head. “It’s been pretty good so far. Nothing bad happened yet.”

Chenle, his best (human) friend, turns his attention away from his ice cream cone to Jisung for a second, just to say, “You told me, like, five minutes after we met what you were.”

Jisung splutters, his relaxed expression molding into mild-panic as he glances at Jaemin before looking away again, a blush quickly spreading over his cheekbones.

Jaemin sighs—a deep, long, sigh resounding from his chest. The idea of humans getting involved isn’t good at all, but it had already happened, so what could he do about it? It’s not like Jisung would like him much if he made his “friend” go missing.

The Earth was going to be destroyed in the end, anyway.

“We were already best friends by then,” Jisung tries to explain, floundering with his words and wildly moving his hands around. He looks to the side, fixing Chenle a look. “You also felt the connection, right? I couldn’t keep that away from you. It’s a big thing that could get in the way of our deep bond.”

Chenle licks his ice cream, shrugging. “Sure.”

Jisung goes back to his cold drink, looking proud. Jaemin looks up to the ceiling for a hard second before signaling with his hand for Jeno to bring him another one of those warm drinks he was starting to enjoy more and more.

“Tell me about what you’ve done until now, Jisung,” Jaemin says.

Jeno, after bringing Jaemin his drink, pats the top of Jisung’s head when he goes away, going back to behind the counter and keeping his act of being a good human and barista. Jaemin looks down at his drink and nods. Jeno was really good with the coffee art.

It’s a small town — big enough to have some stores to go and things to do, but small enough to make Jaemin be bored out of his own mind when he’s not busy stalking someone or trying to get information.

And he’s so bored.

So Jaemin walks down the street at night, searching for something to entertain him. Jeno is too busy in his own awful mission of having to blend in with the humans to have some free time — so damn busy that Jaemin had resorted to voluntarily hanging out with Jisung and his human friend once or twice. It couldn’t get worse than that.

The streets aren’t packed, but some people still walk around. And it makes sense — it’s very late, after all. Still, the plastic tables outside the little, dingy bars are full of old men drinking and laughing out loud, their voices thundering through the night’s silence.

Jaemin usually wouldn’t pay them any attention unless one of them was part of his mission, but then he sees him. The boy. Renjun.

With his tie-dye snapback on his head.

Before Jaemin even realizes what he’s doing, he’s already close to him and can hear the conversation that’s going on between Renjun and an old man.

“...big, green arms! They were as big as some buildings, I tell you! They zapped me up to their spaceship, cut me up right there, and then brought me back! Be careful with them, they’re dreadful, evil things! The ones with the red eyes and ugly, big wings—”

Renjun is leaning forward on his chair, seemingly very interested in the talk. Jaemin couldn’t let that talk go on anymore. Talking about his kind was one thing. But talking about them having ugly wings? That was too much. Too. Much.

“Renjun?”

Calling out his name immediately grabs the boy’s attention. Renjun looks to the side, eyebrows scrunching up before he fixes his gaze on Jaemin and opens a bright smile.

“Dude! You’re alive!” Renjun beams wide, voice high.

The old man looks wide-eyed at Jaemin, drink sloshing dangerously in his hand. “You!” He roars. “You’re one of them!”

“What?” Jaemin asks.

Renjun shakes his hand, a small smile spreading across his lips before he lifts up from the plastic chair and pats Jaemin on the shoulder. “He’s okay,” he says to the old man. “He’s a human just like us.”

Jaemin feels cold run through his veins. “What?”

“He is not!” The man yells, drink spilling down his hand. “I saw his kind! They steal people’s bodies and use them as if they were their own! They tried to do that with me!”

Renjun shakes his head, laughing again. “It’s okay,” he says directly at Jaemin, patting him once more on the shoulder as if consoling him. “I think the drink finally got to him. It took a while though… Are you going somewhere now?”

Jaemin chuckles worriedly. He looks from the old guy who’s still ranting about aliens and stealing people’s bodies to Renjun.

He should say yes and just leave. Report this drunk man and have him gone from the face of the Earth immediately — he’s a threat to their plans.

“No, why—”

He doesn’t have time to finish. Renjun holds his hand and pulls him away.

“Let’s go ghost hunting! I don’t want to be possessed anymore and you’re new meat for them!”

“Your blood sugar levels were low that time. They won’t possess you,” Jaemin tries to say, but he finds that he can’t when Renjun keeps holding his hand. He feels hot. Brain doesn’t quite seem to work. Human bodies are so weird.

Suddenly they’re walking fast down the street. It’s night and it’s cold, the wind is unforgiving upon them, and Jaemin knows this body can’t hold the cold very well, but he still runs hot, his hand sweaty and mouth dry.

A weird night. Probably a side-effect of the drunk old man.

“Where are we going?” Jaemin tries to ask, but he finds that his tongue seems heavy, the words don’t quite make it out. And he’s not even chattering or trembling because of the cold. He just feels hot.

Renjun lets out a little giggle from his side, tightening his hold on his hand for a second. “You’ll see,” he answers in a sing-song voice. Jaemin isn’t looking at him, his gaze is fixed at the street ahead of them, but he can practically hear the smile on Renjun’s voice. “It’s going to be fun!”

Jaemin doubts that.

It ends up being fun. He has fun. The exploration part of an old and rotting building isn’t very interesting and Jaemin is more amused by the jumps and scares Renjun seems to have with anything around them than anything else. Still, it makes for an okay way to pass the time. He even laughs out loud sometimes because of Renjun’s shrieks and the way he tried to hide behind Jaemin. Yeah.

Renjun is scared and he holds Jaemin’s hand the entire time. Jaemin makes sure he’s safe — he was a human, after all. They were more fragile. And Renjun had that thing where his sugar blood levels would go down and he’d feel sick… Hypoglycemia! He remembers the name now! He’d researched all about that to make sure he could recognize any early signs if it ever happened again.

Yeah, their goal might be the Earth’s destruction and the end of the human race, but that doesn’t mean it had to start with Renjun and his hypoglycemia.

Renjun only lets go of his hand when they arrive at an abandoned park. It doesn’t seem to have anything fancy close to it, just some simple houses and small apartment buildings.

Renjun bids him an enthusiastic goodbye, thanking him for having joined him in the exploration and ghost-hunting even if it had resulted in nothing. Jaemin nods, accepts it all, and says goodbye back, but he watches Renjun turn and it just slips from his mouth:

“Will you get back home okay?”

It’s only some basic human courtesy. He’d seen movies talking about that. Some videos too. He’s just playing his part. Nothing else. It’s not like he’s worried or anything like that.

Renjun shrugs. He looks small in his big hoodie and in the middle of the park with no one around them. “I guess.” He leaves quickly, not looking back at Jaemin, and Jaemin watches him go with the taste of something bitter on the back of his throat. Renjun’s answer, the way he spoke, nothing about that settles well with Jaemin.

There’s something else there. And he’d love to find out the answer, to understand what, but Jaemin also knows that stalking isn’t very well seen on that planet so he forces himself to turn around and go away, leaving the park behind him even though there’s the feeling of something not quite right bothering him all along.

Jaemin learns a lot of things as the days pass by.

Dogs are very cute creatures and every human must stop when they see one to pet it and coo for at least 7.9 seconds. There are fluffy tiny cows that are very soft and will lick your entire hand if you aren’t careful enough. A burned tongue is very annoying and when someone says the food is hot you should be careful before eating it.

Humans have a lot of unspoken and unwritten rules and Jaemin finds it very annoying. Yes, he had to read the Constitution and all the laws to know what one wasn’t allowed to do and to brag about what he’d broken and ignored, but there are so many of them that people just seemed to know about! It’s completely unfair to him! How’s he supposed to just pretend at having grown up around them and knowing every single one when he hadn’t?

And okay that Jeno seems to have no problem in figuring them out — he didn’t count. Jeno was chosen to mingle with the humans for a reason, after all. And Jisung had the help of Chenle to figure things out, so he was okay too.

So Jaemin turns to the Internet in search of answers to his questions. He walks around and types on his phone when he finds something he doesn’t quite understand so he can research it later, when back into his safe place, and learn about human etiquette and customs.

Why is a holiday a holiday? How to find out what makes you sick. Fashion inspiration 2021 spring. How to find someone when you don’t have their number or contact besides their name. Places with chocolate near me. How to invade the government. Movies online for free with subs HD.

Coffee is what Jeno gives him every time they meet. Jaemin finally asks after a few weeks.

“What did you think it was?” Jeno asks, raising an eyebrow. “I told you I make coffee and coffee art. Why would I give you something else?”

Humanity fits Jeno very well and Jaemin would never think that Jeno had once been a purple blob of energy with teeth and a hunger for life forces. With his shiny badge that has his name, colorful patches of rainbows and hearts on his apron, Jeno seems harmless and kind.

A chill dude.

“I don’t know. Something,” Jaemin replies. “I was trying to discover it using an elimination method but it ends up that it’s quite hard to do that when one has only tasted water and hot chocolate and you have a menu with over 50 items.”

“Do you… want to try and experiment something else?”

“Oh, no, thank you. I’m very satisfied with this here,” Jaemin says, pointing to his coffee. “I was unsure about it but it’s grown a lot on me recently.”

“Are you sure?” Jeno asks, tilting his head to the side.

Jaemin looks down at his phone and the time. Seven minutes left until Jeno’s break is over. He thinks about Jeno’s proposal — and that’s his first mistake.

Jaemin’s second mistake (and his biggest one) is drinking juice and tea inside the shop but choosing to drink a milkshake outside while walking around the town.

Jeno starts his shift with Jaemin’s orders and bids him goodbye as Jaemin leaves the coffee shop with a strawberry milkshake in hand. It’s hot that day and there’s no wind. As soon as he steps outside, Jaemin regrets leaving the coffee shop with its air conditioner blasting the cold air, but he squares his shoulders and walks away.

He sips on the milkshake for a while until his stomach decides to let him know it hadn’t been a good idea to drink it at all, and Jaemin desperately tries to find a place to go to.

Aimlessly walking around, Jaemin had ended up in a more empty side of the town, no shops around him, and Jaemin resorts to running down the sidewalk until he finds a portable toilet that welcomes him from a distance with its bright blue colors.

In 15 minutes of hell, Jaemin curses the milkshake and the entire lineage of people that had made that monstrosity ever be once possible, leaving the plastic box feeling lighter and slightly dizzy. The door closes behind him and Jaemin walks away for a few minutes before he sits down on the grass and closes his eyes, filling his lungs with fresh air.

He hates that human body so damn much.

For a while there’s silence until a voice cuts it like a knife and makes Jaemin’s eyes widen as he focuses on the figure standing in front of him.

“Dude! You just have something that attracts the supernatural, I swear! This is the place that someone once saw Mothman, what the fuck! Right here!”

“What…”

Jaemin is still feeling a little light-headed. He wouldn’t be too surprised if Renjun was just a hallucination made up by his mind.

“Come on, give me your number so we can trade information and all! You obviously have some very good contacts to always manage to find the good places before me!”

Jaemin blinks. Stares. And shakes his head. “I don’t have a contact,” he says dumbly. He feels like he left half of himself behind. He wonders if he’ll ever feel whole and complete ever again.

“Whoa. Whoa. I searched online for hours until I found out about this place. I can’t believe you have vibes that tell you were to go!”

“Vibes?”

“Vibes!”

Jaemin pulls up his phone and types in a note app: “How do I know if I have vibes?”.

“Okay.”

Renjun, keen on meeting Mothman (Jaemin had never heard that name before and he makes a face when Renjun tries to explain to him the appeal of a big moth), sits down next to him on the grass. Jaemin briefly wonders if Renjun doesn’t have any other place to go to, but he doesn’t say anything or complain out loud, not minding Renjun’s presence as much as he’d do before.

Which is weird. A lot. And probably had something to do with his Big Bad Milkshake Experience. Yeah, that must’ve been the reason why.

Renjun adds his number and starts to text him three hours after they say goodbye to each other, sending him lots of images and links to videos that are 3-hours long. He also sends links to forums and old websites, most of which Jaemin can’t really access because apparently one needs to be an active member of their community before being leveled-up to get access to the contents — and Jaemin isn’t going to put any effort there at all.

Being on Earth and pretending he cares about people and whatever it’s already bad enough when he can’t wait to just leave that fucking planet; he needs to put a façade up and pretend almost every hour of the day he’s outside, so he really doesn’t want to lose any other free time he might have reading about ghouls that live in the sand.

Renjun, though, doesn’t seem to mind his reluctance and sends him the screenshots of the forums and talks, leaking their content.

If they find out I’m doing this I’ll be dead, he texts before sending 42 screenshots about a theory of lizards living on the moon and eating stardust for breakfast, but it’s okay because I need to share this knowledge with you.

And sharing knowledge is something Renjun seems to do a lot, because soon Jaemin is added into a groupchat (his second groupchat on Earth, the first one being with some of the aliens that lived close to the town he’s in so they could share some information) that has only three members: him. Renjun.

And Donghyuck.

Donghyuck.

Jaemin first gets to know him by the alias of “cryptidhunter666” before he changed it to “Lee Donghyuck, Cryptid Hunter”. Renjun sent three messages with lots of emoji and exclamation points before Donghyuck changed his name to “renjun’s soulmate 💖” which got him even more texts from Renjun (who even sent an angry dog picture) before Donghyuck changed it simply to “Hyuck”.

‘hey wassup i hunt the supernaturals with renjun lol u the new guy with the good vibes, huh? welcome to the club my dude’

Jaemin didn’t want to be in that group. He didn’t want it all — especially when his mind finally connected the dots and he realized that this one “cryptid hunter 666”, this “Lee Donghyuck”, was the friend that Renjun had commented on who helps him scout the locations and search for supernatural beings.

Self-preservation hits Jaemin square in the chest and he leaves the groupchat immediately. One thing is meeting Renjun in the middle of the street and getting roped into ghost hunting, but another is staying and interacting with those two humans.

Jaemin gets two seconds of freedom and quiet before he’s added back into the groupchat, Donghyuck’s message being the first one he sees:

‘omg i think a ghost just took him out of the group!!!! renjun u were RIGHT he has the vibes we needed all along’

The next time Jaemin meets with Jeno is for another one of their weekly face-to-face encounters to make sure that everything is going fine and well as always, but this time — this time Jaemin knows. He has knowledge.

Jeno's on his break, a kind smile on his face as he sips from a glass of water, and Jaemin has in front of him a warm coffee with the drawing of a cat (a very cute one, Jeno really deserves the praise for the great job he's doing with all of them), but all the patches and pin badges on Jeno's apron catch Jaemin's eyes in a different way now.

There are rainbow patches and one of a white cat inside of a teacup, a pin badge of books and pronouns written over the image of a happy and blushing frog, some embroidered patch of a painting close to the one with Jeno's name, but there's also one with a dark moth with glowing red eyes and "Mothman Love Club" written underneath it, just like there’s also one of a spaceship abducting a cow and another that says "LOCAL CRYPTID".

Jaemin stares. And then he stares a little bit more.

Jeno briefly talks about his week while sipping from his water before he addresses Jaemin's intense eye contact.

"Is there something bothering you, Jaem?"

"This," Jaemin says, pointing to Jeno's badges. "Do you know what they are? Do you..." he lowers his voice a little, carefully looking around them before he continues, "do you have any idea what they even mean? You can't just say you're a cryptid! You'll draw attention to yourself!"

Jaemin expected Jeno to react with surprise, maybe taking them all off before he apologized and Jaemin would explain to him everything about cryptids and the supernatural he'd learned from Renjun and Donghyuck, but Jeno is the one to surprise him by chuckling while shaking his head, leaning back on his chair.

"It's all fine," he says. "Some people just do that for fun and don't really believe in them, it's just a joke. This one," he points to the badge of the cat and his pronouns, "are the ones I bought but the others were gifts from my roommate—you know, the one who likes all the free coffee. He's very into the supernatural and these funny things. He even has a big collection in his room."

Jaemin groans, mind going back to Renjun and Donghyuck. How the fuck there are even more people like those two? Three of them now? In that town? That was three too much for Jaemin.

Definitely too much.

"Please don't tell me you're going to get into that too."

Jeno raises an eyebrow. "How could I even do that? Jaem, I'm fully aware of what we are and what we're going to accomplish here. There's nothing on this planet but us and them. I just have these badges because they're nice and it makes my roommate happy when I put them on or ask him about these tales he likes so much."

Jaemin hums appreciatively and nods his head. He also observes how Jeno's cheeks are dusted pink and his fingers fiddle with the "Local Cryptid" patch — and that's something different. It had been a long, long time since he'd last seen Jeno in a corporeal form like that and with another color but purple; the body he'd snagged for himself this time was a nice one. In a way, it fits him.

Their talk is brief and quick since Jeno is a slavery to the concept of "work"that the humans have, so he needs to get back behind the counter and get orders from hungry people, but it's enough for them to catch up and for Jeno to let Jaemin know that Jisung was doing well and had successfully managed in making one of the politicians get a fake speeding ticket and pay for it, spending the money on some ice cream for himself and Chenle.

Jaemin felt proud of him. For his first galactic mission, Jisung was doing very well.

Jeno doesn't charge him for the coffee and Jaemin watches him work for a little bit, enjoying the free wi-fi from the coffee shop. He downloads some apps and answers some messages, ignoring the groupchat with Renjun and Donghyuck that had over 200 messages already even though he'd checked it before arriving at the coffee shop.

Before leaving, Jaemin hears some customer paying some compliment to Jeno's supernatural patches, showing him the ones they also had on their jeans jacket, and Jaemin rolls his eyes before letting the door close behind him.

Humans.

Jaemin's line of work involved many things: stalking, cyberstalking, following someone without their knowledge, and breaking into homes. Sometimes he'd steal some paperwork, distract someone so another could sneak past them and do whatever they needed, try to make sense of technology and hack an important figure by pretending to be a lost prince from a far-away country. It rarely meant talking directly with someone, but sometimes he couldn't avoid it and that meant having to voluntarily strike a conversation with humans. And even play nice with them.

But not all deserved the nice treatment.

Some old ladies were too nasty and mean, commenting on his fashion choice and his hair (even though Jaemin had researched all about fashion) and almost brought him to tears until he got a grip and remembered: he was better than them. He was gonna live. And they wouldn't. They didn't deserve to see him feeling bad.

So when the man he's been following for the past five days refuses to come with him to a dark corner, Jaemin is forced to pull him by a grip around his collar and slam him against the brick wall, hand closed in a tight fist and pulling the collar of his buttoned shirt tight enough to remind the man who was in control there.

"You see," Jaemin says, his voice low and dangerous. "You have some information I need. And you're going to give it to me because I'm asking nicely right now, okay? And if you decide you don't want to do this..." Jaemin relaxes a bit the grip he has around the man's collar before he tightens and pulls him close, smirking when he hears a sharp intake of breath. "Well. We don't want to think about this possibility, right? So let's just make this a bit easier for us... You know what you must do, John."

John gulps. His Adam's apple bobbles up and down a few times and his eyes dart around, not looking directly at Jaemin. "I—"

"Hey, sir! I think you dropped your wallet!"

And there, standing at the sidewalk with the shitty lampposts shining over him, is Renjun. This time he's wearing some black leggings with another big hoodie, something pastel green with big spots of bleach all over it.

Jaemin takes a big, big breath in. Fuck.

"H-help..." John wheezes out, eyes wide. "Please, I—"

"This is your wallet, right?" Renjun repeats, lifting up a black piece of cardboard.

Anyone could see it wasn't a wallet at all, but John nods his head and Jaemin relaxes the grip he has around his collar, eventually letting go of it and watching as the man runs away, the piece of black cardboard held tightly inside his fist.

Jaemin purses his lips. Now he'll have even more work to do: track the man down again and actually get the information he needs. But he has a more worrying issue on hand right now: Renjun. He'd seen something, he'd have questions, he'd be wondering — and that wasn't safe or good at all.

Renjun watches the man leave until he's far away and walks closer to Jaemin, his steps a little tentative, a frown marring his forehead.

"I thought you were a good one," he says and Jaemin swallows down heavily. Oh, fuck. What does Renjun even know about? Did Jaemin let something escape? Was he too clueless about humans and Renjun did some research on the side and came up with theories? Jaemin thought he'd been doing a good job as a human. "But your vibes failed you this time, Jaem. He's not a cryptid, he's just an accountant who works close to that convenience store we go to! He eats there too! Don't you remember seeing him there before?"

Jaemin briefly closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath in, his shoulders losing some of their tension. "Oh... Him..." He's never seen that man before he started his stalking, but Renjun doesn't need to know that.

Renjun doesn't seem convinced. His brows furrow even more and he crowds close to Jaemin until Jaemin is the one with his back against the wall, Renjun invading his personal space with a worried expression. "Jaem, do you..." He bites his lip before continuing, "are you having some problem with taxes?”

He's heard that word before but he can't remember now what it means. Fuck. Fuck! Jaemin tries to use that small and little brain inside his head as much as possible, but it's human and faulty and doesn't come up with anything, so he lets out a grimace and says "S-sure..."

Renjun gasps a little and pulls back. Jaemin worries he said something wrong until Renjun continues, his eyes scanning over Jaemin's face as if seeing him under a new light, "You’re a tax evader, right? I knew there was something different about you and it wasn't only the vibes."

Licking his lips, Jaemin says, "Yeah."

He's close to Renjun. Very, very close. They've never been this close before and it's... different. It's night and it's cold, the lights of the lampposts don't get too much to where they are and Jaemin curses his human eyesight because he can't make out too many of the details of Renjun's face. Somehow, it feels different being under Renjun's gaze and knowing that Renjun is carefully watching him.

Pursing his lips for a moment, Renjun takes a few seconds to speak up again, his voice a little uncertain, "Like... that's not very cool of you, y'know. I get it that some people have their reasons—though it's a lot more annoying when it's the rich who avoid the taxes that they should pay. Oh—Oh! Are you rebelling against the system or something like that? Is this, like, your move?"

Jaemin tentatively nods.

"Then it's fine," Renjun says, "still not that nice of you but it's for a good cause, I guess. Anyway, now that I know you're a tax evader, that's one more thing to add to my list about you."

"A list? About me?"

Renjun smiles wide. Even with almost no light, his eyes seem to brighten up and he just oozes energy. "Yes! I have a list of everyone I know! Even one about me!"

Jaemin doesn't quite know what to make of that. A list about him... Huh.

So he nods his head and Renjun grabs his hand, pulling him away from the dark corner. "Now let's go hunt some spirits! I was on my way to the cemetery when I saw you with the accountant guy—and I'm so lucky! Because now that I'm with you I know we'll manage to find something nice! You always find the good spots, anyway!"

They don't get to go to the cemetery like Renjun planned, because when they're walking towards there, Renjun is hit by another dizzy spell and they need to stop at their usual convenience store. Jaemin makes Renjun sit on the curb as he goes inside and buys some chocolate, energy drinks and a turkey sandwich with whole-grain bread (Jaemin had read lots of articles to know which food would be better if Renjun ever felt sick again), and grabbing some basic medicine that he slides on the pocket of Renjun's hoodie before they part ways that night.

Renjun looks up brightly at him when he leaves the store, plastic bag hanging from his arm, and pats the concrete on his side, silently inviting Jaemin to sit next to him.

Jaemin sighs deeply and hands him the plastic bag, carefully watching Renjun to make sure he eats everything.

"You need to take care of yourself," he says. "What if I'm not here to buy you something when you get sick? You need to carry some food or sweets with you."

Renjun bites into his sandwich, his eyes twinkling just as much as the stars above them. "Do you plan on leaving soon?" He asks. Jaemin doesn't answer. Taking his silence as a "no", he continues, "Then I don't need to worry about taking care of me if you're gonna stay here and can do that." He finishes with a laugh, clearly meaning it as a joke and nothing too serious, but Jaemin finds in himself that he doesn't find it funny nor can he fake it too well as he grimaces, his stomach turning into knots when he remembers the destiny that the Earth and the humans would have soon.

He watches Renjun closely and he wonders if there would be a way of sparing some humans. Maybe not all of them deserved that ending, as annoying as humans are.

"Now, this isn't our typical exploration," Renjun says, all serious. "It's a big one so we all need to be careful and protected. Hyuck, did you bring everything we'll need?"

From the side, Donghyuck nods.

Jaemin met him in person, for the first time, 21 minutes ago when he arrived at the abandoned parking lot together with Renjun. He and Renjun had been walking close to a park for the past few hours, bird watching and talking about nothing in general, but as the sun started to go down, they left for the designated place of the meeting and Jaemin finally got to see Donghyuck.

He was nothing like he expected. He thought that maybe he'd be just like Renjun — on the smaller side and with a questionable fashion sense, but Donghyuck was different. With sunkissed skin and dark hair, he wore the style of clothes Jaemin saw on Pinterest under the tag of "artsy lesbian aesthetic" where even his socks had been carefully picked to make a statement. He was bigger than Renjun with his shoulders squared back and nose high in the air, confidence leaking from his pose.

Donghyuck was a striking figure who'd hugged Renjun tight when they arrived and clapped Jaemin on the back as if they were long lost friends, even going to the point of ruffling his hair and putting his arm around Jaemin's shoulders as if he was the tallest one there until Renjun makes him move back by asking for the equipment.

(And Jaemin was the tallest one. He glared at Donghyuck but Donghyuck didn't move. From that moment forward he realized that Donghyuck would be a pain on his ass. Another one.)

Donghyuck takes from his (brown, full of handmade patches) bag two tinfoil hats and Jaemin freezes. And steps back.

"I'm not wearing this," he says, looking at the two atrocities in Donghyuck's hand. "I'm not."

Renjun furrows his brow. "It's very important to take all the precautions we can. These hats will protect us from anything that might want to read our thoughts—this way we won't be at a disadvantage of them knowing our every move."

From the side, Donghyuck puts on his tinfoil hat and uses his phone camera to fix his bangs, striking a pose and taking a selfie after. Jaemin wonders if he's sleeping and this has all been a dream.

It would make sense. Never before, at any ghost hunting he did with Renjun, this ever happened. Never. So why now? It doesn't make sense — it all must be a dream. A terrible dream.

Renjun purses his lips. He looks a little disappointed as he puts his own tinfoil hat. Jaemin stares.

"Are you sure, Jaem? I won't force this on you but I'm worried something bad might happen to you. This is the worst place we've ever gone to before, so we need to be careful."

Jaemin is pretty sure no spirit, demon or ghost would try to do anything with him, but Renjun truly believes in what he's saying and Jaemin almost feels a little bit swayed because of Renjun's bright eyes and pouty lips. He's almost — almost! — accepting it when his brain starts working again and sending him messages: He's pouting! He knows the power he has! He's using you!

Jaemin pauses. Was Renjun doing that unconsciously or with purpose? Did he want to make Jaemin wear a tinfoil hat so bad he'd resorted to that? Jaemin knew about the power of cuteness, of course, he'd watched documentaries and two YouTube videos. People and animals on Earth would sometimes put their "cute" look on to get things they wanted or to appear innocent.

Renjun's lower lip jults out a bit more but Jaemin shakes his head. "It's okay. Nothing will happen to me."

Renjun's shoulders lower with the defeat but Donghyuck snorts from the side, "I hope you know how to run fast."

And Jaemin does end up needing to run fast. After Donghyuck and Renjun.

The two friends are very bad at scary things and ran away from the abandoned fast food store in the first five minutes, one tinfoil hat being left behind on the greasy floor. Renjun didn't hold Jaemin's hand because Donghyuck was there and Jaemin grumbled under his breath, walking behind the duo, until they heard a banging noise somewhere far away and, in the next second, Donghyuck and Renjun were running away as fast as they could.

"Dude, that was crazy!" Donghyuck yells into the night sky. He still has his tinfoil hat on and is almost buzzing in place, walking in circles. "Amazing! Our best exploration until now!"

Renjun is still catching his breath, a big smile on his face, and Jaemin looks puzzled at them both.

What the fuck.

That hadn’t lasted even five minutes when sometimes he'd explore places with Renjun for hours, walking hand-in-hand through the woods or empty classrooms, talking about life and the latest news. He waits for Renjun to say something about how fast it was or how they didn't even get to go inside a room, but Renjun stays quiet and celebrates together with Donghyuck, so Jaemin doesn't bring anything up.

They end up walking down the streets, Renjun and Donghyuck sharing theories and ideas, talking loudly about a moldy spot they had seen on the wall and what it could've meant, and Jaemin is done. Done.

The exploration sucked ass, nothing had happened, and Donghyuck is loud and makes Renjun be even louder but almost in an annoying way. Jaemin isn’t happy at all. Donghyuck's presence changed the dynamic that existed in the previous explorations and Jaemin was pushed to the side. Renjun wasn't even talking with him or holding his hand while they talked. Things were obviously different.

Puffing out his cheeks, Jaemin stares at the duo in front of him. The sidewalk is too narrow for them three to walk side by side, so of course Jaemin stood behind them.

He stops in place and crosses his arms, thinking they wouldn't notice him stopping until they were way ahead, but Jaemin is surprised by how quickly Renjun also stops and turns to look at him, a confused look on his face.

He opens his mouth to say something, but Jaemin is quicker and cuts him off, "Don’t you guys need to get home or something? Won't your parents be worried that you guys stay until late at night on the streets? Maybe they should care about that."

It comes out full of bitterness and Jaemin immediately regrets it when he sees how Renjun's face closes. Donghyuck, though, seems to inflate and his face gets red, open hands turning into fists. "What did you say?" Donghyuck asks, narrowing his gaze.

"Don’t you guys have, like, a curfew?"

Jaemin feels like he's standing on the edge of a precipice and Donghyuck will be the one to give the final push to send him spiralling down. Renjun avoids his gaze and Jaemin knows he fucked up big time. Big, big time.

Donghyuck snorts. “The orphanage doesn’t care about anything like that. They’d be more than glad if he didn’t come back and there were fewer people for them to handle."

He. Jaemin is quick to get the fact that Donghyuck didn't say "we" and it was more than easy to connect the dots when Renjun looks mellow and Donghyuck is ready to pounce on him at any second now.

He feels like shit and he doesn't utter a single thing when Donghyuck and Renjun quickly walk away, leaving him behind on the cold night, their figures disappearing as they turn around the corner.

I don't fucking care, Jaemin thinks to himself as he walks back to his safe place, kicking the gravel on the ground, feeling as if his insides are burning and there's something lodged on the back of his throat. I don't care about humans and hurting their feelings at all. I don't care.

At 3 in the morning, Jaemin googles: "How to stop caring about someone's feelings'.

He doesn't get any results that help him. They all say to talk and communicate to get in touch with inner feelings and Jaemin isn't too keen on doing anything like that.

So he gets busy. It helps that just when he's waking up he gets a letter delivered by a bird (a very rude bird that keeps making noise against the window until Jaemin opens it) with instructions of what to do. Jaemin goes to a far-away field, scares some old people, and gets important contacts he passes along to one of the aliens that live on the building next door.

On the next day, he gets a text from Jisung that says "Hey, wanna eat some ice cream later today?" and he goes. He fucking goes. Of course that Chenle is there too. And a lot of other humans enjoying their ice cream. These days, all humans remind him of one — Renjun. And that isn't good for him. A YouTube video he watched about "How To Get Over Her In Three Easy Steps'' said to not do something that reminded you of someone, so Jaemin eats a spoonful of ice cream, ruffles Jisung's hair and says he's doing good, pats Chenle on the shoulders and says he's sorry he's a human, and leaves back to his safe place, away from humans.

But no more instructions come to him after scaring the old couple that lived in the middle of the field, and though Jaemin mopes around town and kicks gravel on the floor, the days also don't pass any easier.

It's just when he's walking next to the public cemetery that Jaemin stops and reevaluates all his moves. Whatever he's doing it's obviously not working, so he goes to the only person he can think of: Jeno.

This time he doesn't meet Jeno at the coffee shop, but at the bus station. Jeno has just left work and his face is one of tiredness, but he quickly musters a smile when he sees Jaemin approaching.

"Hey! I was just thinking of you!"

"I told you I'd come to see you," Jaemin says.

"Well, yeah, but you didn't show up while I was working so I thought that maybe you had forgotten."

Jaemin sits next to Jeno and cuts straight to the chase: "So, I fucked up."

Jeno's smile fades away from his face. "Who do we need to eliminate? Who compromised the mission?"

Ah. Jeno thinks this is about the mission... Jaemin waves one hand dismissively. "No, it isn't about that." He ignores Jeno's raised eyebrow and mumble of "Are you doing something else besides the mission? Since when?" and continues on, "How do you apologize to a human? How does that work?"

If it's possible, Jeno's expression gets even more confused. "What?"

Jaemin takes a deep sigh. He looks at the street, at the bus Jeno's supposed to get in approaching, and places his hand on his shoulder. "Let's take a walk and I'll explain it to you, okay?"

Jeno nods and doesn't hesitate in following him, standing by his side as Jaemin retells everything that happened in the last few weeks, watching carefully and not saying a thing until Jaemin finishes, only to say, "What the fuck did you get into, dude?"

Jaemin goes there on purpose because he knows that Renjun will be there. He wouldn't miss the opportunity to watch the full moon.

So Jaemin shows up at the abandoned park with a bouquet of yellow flowers he picked up earlier on the sidewalk, a plastic bag with one chocolate bar and a few sweets, and a pamphlet about hypoglycemia and what to do when you're not feeling good.

Renjun doesn't look surprised to see him there.

"I knew you'd come here," Renjun says, as soon as Jaemin appears. Jaemin stops in place. For a second, he thinks that Renjun isn't even talking to him, but then Renjun lifts his head from where he's lying on the grass and looks at Jaemin. "Come here and watch her too." He turns back to his original position, head pillowed on his arms, eyes glued to the sky.

Jaemin drops the plastic bag next to him and he lays down too. It's a little weird after a few days with no contact in between them, no texts exchanged. He expected Renjun to make a scene, to scream and cry like in the movies he saw in preparation for this moment, but he does none of that.

"I'm sorry," Renjun says quietly.

Jaemin feels his eyes widen and he turns to the side, staring at Renjun's side profile. "What? Why are you saying this? I should be the one apologizing."

Renjun shakes his head a little. "You didn't know. And Hyuck kinda blew it out of proportion. And I ghosted you too—sorry. You deserve better than this."

"I... don't even know what to say."

At this, Renjun finally looks at him, lips curling into a little smile. "It's okay," he says, "we can just watch the moon."

"Okay."

Jaemin tries to watch the moon from a human point of view, of someone who was familiar with so few natural satellites, but it's hard when he travelled across galaxies before, saw the birth and destruction of many. This moon is nothing special (not even that pretty, he thinks) but it's something that Renjun adores, so he continues his little experiment until Renjun sits up and stretches, turning to fully face him.

"So, what did you bring me this time?"

It's like nothing had happened in between them. The movies (and the WikiHow articles) said humans talk about problems so they can move on from that, but one thing that Jaemin definitely had learned while on Earth is that humans have a lot of rules and ways to do things that diverged from what they said one should do. So he follows Renjun's lead and gives him the plastic bag and the bouquet.

"I hope you didn't have an episode, but I still brought you an instructional pamphlet because it could have some information you don't know about."

But Renjun's attention is entirely focused on the yellow flowers. His fingers brush carefully over the petals, his gaze not straying away from them until some time has passed and he clears out his throat.

"Thank you," he says. He seems to hesitate, but eventually decides to continue on, "Nobody has ever given me flowers before."

Jaemin also hasn't received flowers while on Earth with this body he has now, but the way Renjun says it seems to carry a different meaning. Something heavier, something he doesn’t understand yet. So he only nods. "I brought you," he states, a little dumbly, and points at the bouquet in Renjun's hand.

At that, Renjun giggles and grins. "Yeah, you did..." He holds the bouquet with just one hand as he digs inside his pocket in search of something before presenting his palm to Jaemin, and Jaemin can't believe what his eyes are seeing. A tiny tinfoil hat. "I don't think this will work like the big ones, you see. But it's better to use this one than to not use any at all. So I made you this."

Jaemin carefully picks up the tiny tinfoil hat, afraid of damaging it. "Oh."

"And I didn't know for sure you'd show up today, but I had a feeling. And I'm glad I was right about it."

Renjun's smile is wide and so happy that Jaemin can't help but smile back at him. It's weird to feel so much joy and brightness inside of himself. It has definitely been a while since he felt this light and bubbly while having a corporeal form — it was almost like he felt that he could float even though he rationally knew it was impossible because of gravity.

It’s just weird.

“I really love the moon.”

Jaemin hums. "I know. You said that twelve times already."

"Yeah, but I really love it. My dream, when I was a kid, was to be an astronaut so I could go to the moon..." Renjun sighs. "Well. This is the closest I'll get to it. I wonder how many lizards are there now."

"The ones that eat stardust for breakfast?"

Renjun makes a positive noise. "It makes sense they'd also eat it for lunch and dinner, right? I tried saying this in the forums and they kicked me out! Can you believe it?!"

Jaemin snorts. "Oh, no."

"But it's okay because they're just in denial and one day they'll accept it. Or then I'll discover that I'm wrong. But I'm not wrong right now because they can't prove it, so it's fine."

"That doesn't seem to make much sense, but okay."

Renjun makes a little noise, but he continues to look up at the sky and the moon. "C'mon Jaem, you need to live it up a little. Use your imagination. I know you could come up with a lot of things."

"I guess..."

There's silence before Renjun breaks it again. "Look at her shining so much in the sky. She's so pretty! The moon is so pretty!"

“You humans like the moon a lot, it seems.”

“I don't know if you noticed it before but you say humans a lot,” Renjun says, snorting. “That's so funny. You're almost starting to sound like an undercover cryptid.”

Jaemin swallows dryly. "M-maybe I'm a... lizard from the moon."

Renjun chuckles at that, shaking his head. "Ah, if only..."

Two days after he meets Renjun under the full moon, the group chat where Jaemin's in with Renjun and Donghyuck starts to get swarmed with messages out of nowhere — and that's the clue that Jaemin gets that things are back to normal. He didn't seek Donghyuck to talk with him nor did Donghyuck do the same, but Jaemin wasn't bothered by it. He didn't care if a human was pissed with him or hated him; he, in a way, cared only about Renjun's opinion — and that was something Jaemin wasn't ready yet to think about, so he stored it somewhere far away inside his brain where he’d never have to reexamine it.

They send links and videos and screenshots of blurry images that mean nothing, but they all manage to make Renjun keysmash and Donghyuck send long voice notes rambling about the many different things that he can see in two pixels. Sometimes the talk deviates to another side and Jaemin is rendered speechless because he just can't comprehend what they're even trying to say. Mothman sexy? Wanting to fuck a vampire? Why would they even want to do that?

Donghyuck is the one who's more forward about those things, but Renjun isn't too far behind.

'damn i'd bang a werewolf so freaking bad lol'

'hm, idk about that because the idea of knotting makes me a little reluctant'

'wdym thats the best part dude'

Jaemin stares hard at the texts he's reading. It's not the first time he needs to google terms and things to even try to get an idea of what they're talking about. Last time he wasted two precious hours of his time reading about the Loch Ness Monster and all the other lake creatures.

'what about u jaem do u think u would be an alpha or an omega'

Jaemin locks his phone and pretends he didn't read it. What the fuck.

It ends up being that learning human culture from actual humans is a lot easier than just reading or watching videos about it. Even if said culture is a little questionable because Renjun and Donghyuck do enjoy talking about monsters and the supernatural a lot, and Jaemin ends up reading the messages and learning about them too. He doesn't really pay them too much attention, mostly just scrolling through and sending an emoji or two when needed, but it's when he reads one specific word that he stops and pays all the attention to the convo that happened just a while ago.

Aliens.

'i hope aliens are pretty and down to some dicking ngl'

'hmm... do u think they'd have, like, humanoid forms or just be something microscope?'

'they could be very small but as long as they have tentacles im good and into it'

Jaemin can't help himself. They're talking about him—his kind.

'Why?'

He imagined that it would take a while for someone to reply, but Donghyuck is quick in replying 'let me show u lol' and sending him three different links.

That day, Jaemin learns about a new world. Hentai, it reads on the top, and Consentacles is right below.

Jaemin is very aware of how Renjun didn't say anything explicit about liking or wanting tentacles, and he can't help but wonder what his opinion on them would be.

They all three go on one more ghost hunting trip together (which makes Jaemin sulk like the last one, though it doesn't end in a fight) before they resume to be only with Renjun.

Jaemin doesn't know where this all came from because he didn't say a thing, but he's glad and happy about it because without Donghyuck it means he can hold Renjun's hand and be the brave one there. They also don't end as soon as they step foot inside a building, so they can walk through lonely parks and rooms, seeing the architecture and how nature clings to the broken walls and concretes after years of isolation.

It's nice. Renjun still wears his mismatched clothes and his ugly snapbacks, but his hand is warm and Jaemin likes to have their fingers intertwined. Renjun, also, still makes sure to use his tinfoil hat when they go to a more "intense location" and Jaemin brings his small one inside a pocket. Renjun complains that he should use it on his head, but Jaemin pretends he doesn't hear it and just pulls Renjun into another room to distract him.

There are messages and notifications on his phone, but it's only when Jeno knocks on his door with a worried look on his face that Jaemin realizes the effect of his actions.

Ah.

“You are a very hard guy to find, Na Jaemin,” Jeno says, resting his chin on the palm of his hand and gazing at the boy in front of him through his eyelashes while he sits sprawled on the little chair in Jaemin's living room.

Jaemin makes a little noise from the back of his throat. "I've been living here for a while, though."

Jeno doesn't pay him attention. "I got a message yesterday to check up on you because you missed two of our weekly assessments and haven't finished the mission you were assigned three weeks ago. So... what's going on, Jaem? This isn't like you."

Jaemin gulps. He must think fast. Fast enough to come up with something that won't make Jeno curious or worried. And something smart too.

"You won't say anything?" Jeno raises one eyebrow.

"Uh..."

"You know you can trust me. We did so many things together, we lived through so much, you know I won't report you if you did something illegal. What really is happening with you?"

It's entirely mortifying for Jaemin to talk about Renjun again. He's just a fucking human and yet—yet he's making Jaemin do these things. Making him take his mind out of his mission. Making him think about other things but the Earth's destruction. Making him enjoy his company and want to be by his side.

It's infuriating,

Jeno listens with a worried expression that slowly becomes a smile. He chuckles and pats Jaemin on the shoulder. "So you have a crush on him?"

What the fuck.

"Wh—" Jaemin chokes on his spit and coughs until Jeno slaps him on the back and clears his airways. "This human body sucks. This is, like, the fifth time this happened already. One day someone will die from this."

Jeno continues looking unimpressed at him. "So you like this human boy?"

Jaemin doesn't choke again because his mouth is still dry, but he does wheeze pitifully and covers his face with his hands. "He wears a snapback unironically!" He cries out. "And it's so ugly and his fashion sense is terrible and he doesn't eat enough so his hypoglycemia always acts up and he thinks that cryptids are hidden on this planet!"

"And yet...?"

"He's kind of cute, I guess."

Jaemin doesn't say anything more because he already incriminated himself enough, but the heart inside his chest beats fast and loud and he feels warm.

"That's very nice for you, Jaem. It's been a long time since you liked someone... But you can't forget about the mission, okay? You're free to talk with the humans and do whatever you want, but don't forget about the main reason why we're here. We have to follow the plan."

Jaemin nods. "I know, I just... got a little bit distracted. It won't happen again."

"I'm not saying that you need to stop talking or hanging out with your human, but just... remember to do your tasks. And reach out to me if it gets too much or you need help, okay? I'm here for you too."

Jeno has a kind look on his face and Jaemin nods once more before the topic is dropped.

Jaemin takes one day for a self-reflection before he picks himself up. He puts his head back into things, doing the missions when he receives the messages and trying his best to aid with their plan to destroy the Earth. Renjun is understandable about the decrease in their hunting and explorations, bringing Donghyuck with him or just going alone, doing his own little thing while Jaemin runs across empty fields, threatens people and does some basic home invasion.

He doesn't ask Jaemin what he's doing and for that Jaemin is glad because Renjun has, somehow, become something close to a friend to him and Jaemin doesn't want to lie to him. Omitting things is fine, but lying right in front of his face doesn't seem right.

So some days Jaemin doesn't see Renjun at all, too busy running all over town and trying to invade the Mayor's house once more (and not being caught this time), speaking with drunk old men and climbing to the roof of the police station building to receive a message that's delivered by a pigeon.

But other days Jaemin is just sitting on a bench in a park, enjoying some ice cream, and Renjun would show up running on his side and exclaiming something about "Penguin-men are going to dig a hole because of the eclipse tomorrow!". They didn't. And nothing of what Renjun ever said did become true or happened, but if Jaemin wasn't busy he'd play along with him because he had nothing better to do and that town was incredibly boring if he wasn't busy on a mission.

The library would get dull after a while. The movie theater smelled off. The restaurants were weird if you went alone. And Jeno was busy with work, classes, and his own missions, so it seems like the obvious answer is to tag along with Renjun so Jaemin would have something to do.

While exploring abandoned buildings is something that keeps Renjun on the edge, always looking around the corners and jumping at every little sound he hears, holding Jaemin's hand so tightly that Jaemin needs to ask him to relax his grip a little, walking through the cemetery ends up being something calmer and easier.

Renjun holds Jaemin's hand while they walk, their fingers laced together, and he searches for turning graves or signs of vampires. Jaemin just enjoys the evening. It's a nice day and it isn't too cold, so he has a good time.

Before they leave to go on their own ways, Jaemin gives Renjun another chocolate bar (a little crumpled on the edges) and Renjun gives him a small, flat rock.

"This will keep any spectrums from taking you away," he says, all serious. Jaemin bites back a smile and hums, turning the rock on his hand. It looks like a normal rock—actually it looks a lot like one of the rocks from the side of the road. Just a simple pebble. "Remember to keep it with you."

"Oh, thanks. I'll keep it safe with me."

Renjun nods, satisfied, and Jaemin feels his fingers tingle. He wants to hold Renjun's hand again.

Jaemin’s favorite kinds of missions are the ones he can finish quickly or the ones in which he can use something he learned in a movie — breaking a window and crawling inside a home, jumping from the roof to the grass and rolling to the side, throwing toilet paper over a house and running away before the owner caught him doing that.

But doing missions together with other aliens sometimes had its perks — when Jeno was his partner. Jeno knows how he likes to do his job and his habits, so it’s easier to adapt and to do what they’ve been told to achieve. Not at all aliens would accept Jaemin’s ways and would prefer to keep discussing with him about “appropriate gear” and “being as discreet as one could ever be”, making them waste precious time.

Thankfully, because of the weekly meetings and by redirecting complaints to their superiors, Jaemin no longer needed to work with other aliens besides Jeno. So when a snake crawls over his sleeping body and wakes him up by throwing up a letter over his chest, Jaemin is delighted in seeing that he and Jeno are supposed to steal some information from the house of a police officer.

He meets Jeno before the sunrise and in front of an abandoned convenience store. Jeno is rubbing his hands together and looking more tired than ever before, his hoodie pulled over his head and his sweatpants with blue and white paint splattered all over them.

“Did you get into a fight with some paint buckets and lost? Why do you look like this?”

Jeno smiles in a greeting and his expression relaxes a little when he sees Jaemin. He still looks tired as fuck, but he looses some of the tension in his body. “My roommate saw a movie and he wanted to paint a galaxy on the ceiling of our dorm. And then we had a paint fight.”

Jaemin scratches the side of his neck. “Okay…”

“We didn’t get to finish painting because I had to write three essays and it’s been 36 hours since I last slept, but we painted the base of the galaxy and we’ll finish it another day while marathoning some movies. He likes to watch rom-coms.”

Jaemin raises an eyebrow. It’s a little cold since the sun hasn’t risen yet, and when Jaemin puts his hands inside the pockets of his jacket, he remembers that the rock Renjun had given him is there and he holds it inside his fist. “Are those the movies with the explosions and big fights? I saw one where they fight aliens but they’re so bad,” he says, snorting out loud, “as if the humans could ever win against us.”

Jeno shakes his head. They start to walk to the designated place of their mission and cross the streets without looking at both sides. “Ah, no, rom-coms are movies about love that are a little funny. We actually got the idea of painting the ceiling and the paint fight from another movie we watched. It was very fun, though.”

Jaemin hums. He, too, would get ideas and investigate human behaviour from movies. “So humans like to throw paint around just because?”

“I guess. Humans have some strange rituals, but painting isn’t that bad. You just need to be careful with what you’re wearing.” Jeno stops walking for a second to look down at his sweatpants. “Those were my favorite pair and the paint won’t wash away anymore.”

“You should make your roommate give you a new pair since it was his fault.”

Jeno waves his hand in a dismissive move. “His clothes also got all dirty, but it’s okay. We had fun and he says that clothes don’t matter as long as we make good memories and are happy.”

Scrunching up his nose, Jaemin briefly thinks about the wardrobe in his place and the enormous quantity of snapbacks. He doesn’t totally agree with Jeno because some clothes are really awful (like snapbacks and brown fringe vests), but Renjun does wear terrible outfits and Jaemin still talks with him. So, yeah, maybe clothes don’t matter that much as long as it’s not snapbacks.

They break into the house very easily. There’s no one inside and Jaemin had made sure by ringing the doorbell, so Jeno breaks the doorknob and they enter the place without any big problems, finding the laptop thrown over the couch.

“Well. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”

But Jaemin speaks too soon. A cat appears from the room next door and they freeze in place. It’s orange with bright blue eyes that look straight at them before it jumps to the couch and lays over the laptop as if daring them to touch it.

“Well… fuck.”

Jeno makes a high-pitched noise from the back of his throat. “It’s so cute…”

Jaemin looks hard at the sharp teeth and claws out in display. “Not cute. It’s mortal. And deadly. It wants to eat us.”

He’d seen a movie like that — a big creature that would hunt down all the humans before it got destroyed, not stopping until it had devoured every single one of them.

“What?” Jeno asks, scrunching up his eyebrows. “It’s just a cute kitty. Look—it’s even showing its belly for us. Oh! Do you want some scratches, baby?” Jeno steps forward, hand outstretched, and Jaemin watches everything going down in slow motion around him.

Oh no, oh no, oh no—Jeno is going to get eaten and the mission will be a disaster and everything will be terrible and—!

Jeno touches the cat and rubs its belly while smiling and giggling at every purr he gets back. Jaemin watches confused, wondering where the mortal machine that was supposed to keep a home safe was. They retrieve the laptop and Jeno leaves the place with a big smile and a red nose, sniffing every two seconds.

“I told you it was mortal,” Jaemin says, stressing every word, “You’re going to get sick now. Jeno, the humans don’t have a good medical system! What are you going to do?”

“It’s okay,” Jeno replies, all brave even though his eyes are red and his nose is clogged. “It was for a good cause. The cat was very fluffy.”

Jeno won’t stop sneezing and tearing up, so Jaemin drags Jeno to a 24-hour drugstore and begs the employee to save his friend’s life. They leave with some allergy medication and two popsicles even though the sun is just starting to rise and it’s still a little cold.

“Never again,” Jaemin hisses as he looks at his friend, his eyes narrowed. Jeno ignores his look, holding the laptop under his arm, and continues licking his popsicle.

“Only if they’re cute.”

“No. No more cats for you.”

“You can’t stop me.”

Jaemin makes sure to send a long message to his superiors about Jeno and his new-found cat allergy and how it’s strictly necessary to remove him from any future missions involving those felines.

Jaemin's hatred for the human race resurfaces whenever he interacts with a human that isn't Renjun.

They're just so... annoying. Full of themselves. They act as if they owned everything and the universe worked around them when, in fact, they're all so very small and nothing more than a little speck in the grand scheme of things.

The sand is a bit annoying, but Jaemin doesn't pay it too much attention when he's laying down, head pillowed by his arm and his eyes focused on the night sky above him. A power outage made the entire town go dark and Jaemin immediately took the chance to go down to the beach and stargaze by himself. There's no light, no building or car to disturb, and it's the clearest starry sky Jaemin has seen since he first arrived on Earth.

It reminds him of other planets he visited before, of places so far away that it's hard for the simple human brain to understand.

"Ah, you're really here."

Jaemin jumps from where he is, his heart beating fast inside his chest, and once more he mentally curses that human body who just won't alert him when someone is standing close.

It's Renjun. Of fucking course it's him. Renjun always seemed to be able to just... know where he is.

"What are you doing here?"

Renjun smiles. He's dressed in a flannel shirt and bright blue shorts with the silhouette of palm trees printed on them. And a neon orange snapback on. Even though it's night. "You say I like the moon and watch her, but you seem to like the stars a lot. I just knew you wouldn't miss the chance to look at them tonight."

"Ah..."

Renjun sits down next to him, their legs brushing against each other, and Jaemin feels his body all warm.

God. He really wishes he could just understand how human bodies work and all.

They don't really talk much, not when the sky is so pretty and bright, when so many stars are out there and they can all be witness to their beauty. Jaemin doesn't know when it happened, but when he realizes, he's holding Renjun's hand and Renjun's thumb brush over his knuckles in a touch so gently, so softly, that it makes Jaemin's throat hurt because he can't remember the last time he was treated with so much care like this.

Jaemin can't help but think of Jeno's words. About the destiny that the Earth and its inhabitants would soon have. About his mission.

He breaks the silence with a low voice, “Do you really believe in everything you hunt? The ghosts and spirits and vampires? The aliens too?”

Renjun shakes his head a little and smiles like he holds a big secret, his eyes crinkling at the corner. “What do you think?” He lifts one hand to his head and takes his snapback and there, resting over his head, there’s a little tinfoil hat.

Jaemin coughs and snorts before he starts to laugh loudly, warm spreading through his belly and entire body.

He’s fucking smitten.

Fucking humans.

The next time he meets Jeno, Jisung and Chenle are also in the coffee shop eating whatever they can without worrying about paying later because Jeno is too nice. But there's something in Jeno's posture and expression that tells Jaemin that there's more than what meets the eye. He knows Jeno more than anyone else in the entire universe and he knows that there's something wrong. Something off.

It's hard to find a secluded place to talk without the fear of someone stumbling into them and listening to whatever they might say, but Jeno pulls Jaemin into a broom closet and closes the door behind them. It’s as much privacy as one can get in a coffee shop.

Jeno looks the same — hair pushed to the sides and the same bright eyes, a mole under his right eye that makes people sigh, and his apron full of patches and pins. But there's something that seems to radiate from him, and Jaemin is quick to latch on to that.

"Who discovered us? Have they been eliminated? What's their location?" Jeno never loses his cool, so it must be something big, something dangerous, to make Jeno be off. “Have we been compromised?”

But Jeno looks down at the floor and blushes. He fucking blushes.

“Maybe… Maybe humans aren’t that bad, you know?” His voice has a soft edge to it and Jaemin stares hard.

“What?”

“Jaem, I… I kissed one of them.”

“What?”

The world stops, crumbles down, and is rebuilt all in one single second. Jeno blushes even more and Jaemin can't look away from him, a gasp leaving his mouth.

A kiss? From a human? Of course that Jaemin knows what that is — he did his research with movies and the Internet, after all, so he's aware of things. But he didn't expect that to happen between an alien and a human. He didn't expect Jeno to do something like that. With a human!

"Jeno, you... You kissed? Someone?" Jaemin perks up and straightens himself, scratching the side of his neck. “W-what?”

Jeno's face is incredibly red and the tip of his ears flush bright too. He avoids Jaemin's gaze for a few seconds, but then he meets his eyes and falls into a fit of giggles. "I did," he says, "and it was good."

Jaemin leans forward. That's information he doesn't have. That's something new. It’s very important for one to have knowledge. "What? Who...?" He starts to ask but the words fail him. There are a lot of things running through his mind and he can't focus just in one.

"My roommate," Jeno whispers, his hand involuntarily brushing over one of the patches on his apron. 'LOCAL CRYPTID' looks back at him. "Our lips touched and he laughed and then I laughed too and they touched again. It was very soft but then he did it harder and—" Jeno cuts himself off, looking to the side.

Jaemin's head spin. Brushing lips with someone just because you liked them?

"Does he know about you?"

Jeno shakes his head. His face is still red as it could ever be, but the smile diminishes a little. "He doesn't know about me, but I think I like him. Like, really like him. And kissing him just makes me want to kiss him even more."

Jaemin gulps. "Are you sure that kissing is something safe? Maybe humans use that as a weapon. Maybe it's a way of control and you're under your roommate's spell and he knows something now."

Jeno chuckles at that. "When you kiss someone," he says, "you'll know what I mean. It's not like what you're thinking, it's different. And I think he likes me too."

Words are hard to come up with when Jeno has just dropped this bomb upon him. Jaemin doesn't know what to think, what to say. His mind is filled with too many possibilities, too many ideas. One side of him says that any close contact with humans is very dangerous and should be avoided at any cost, but another side of him wonders how it would be to brush lips with someone you like. To have soft and warm lips against his.

Someone very specific, his traitorous mind supplies, making up images of a close-up look of Renjun's face and his plump and pink mouth. Fuck.

The seasons change and time is running out. Jaemin starts to feel the weight of time as the plants start to become different around him and as the wind brings another scent with itself.

There's something that will happen at the end of it all and Jaemin doesn't feel ready anymore for it. Before, a few months ago, he'd been. But he isn't too sure about it now.

Renjun brings him to the woods in search of some fairies and Jaemin thinks he's pretty when the sun shines golden between the leaves and illuminates his face. He's pretty and another human would have tried to kiss him, but Jaemin doesn't know where he stands on that when he isn't a human. And yet he wants to kiss him — he does, doesn't he?

Fucking hell.

Does Renjun want to kiss him too?

He obviously needs the opinion of someone who knows about those kinds of things — about humans and kisses and humans wanting to kiss other humans. Or beings. Whatever.

There isn't an exact date to when the destruction of the Earth will happen, but it's not in the distant future. Jaemin can feel the change in the air, can feel the way others of his kind are getting ready for something, for the other shoe to drop.

It's not soon but it also won't take long. And there's no more time to lose. He needs to do something and do something now.

It all comes down to Jeno at the end. He kissed a human before, so he's the expert there.

Jaemin doesn't even wait for Jeno to settle down inside his place before blurting out what's been plaguing him for a while, "How did you know you wanted to kiss a human?"

Jeno opens up a smile and sits on the small chair next to the windowsill. "Is there a human you want to kiss, Jaem?"

"Is there a way of knowing?"

"Who is it?"

Jaemin crosses his arms against his chest, grunting. "Just answer me. I don't wanna be mocked. I just need some answers."

Jeno rests chin on the palm of his hand, eyes fixated on Jaemin's figure. "Give me a break and indulge me, Jaem. I've been working like a dog, having to go to classes and pretend I'm interested in them and do missions. Can't you share some gossip from your life to lighten things up? Tell me about your human."

Jaemin huffs, but he sits down on the floor in front of Jeno and hugs his knees against his chest. "He's ridiculous and I don't know why I like him but I need to know if he likes me too so we can maybe kiss. That's it."

"Is it the one you talked about before?"

Jaemin rolls his eyes. "Of course it is. Why would I even get close to another human? Just one is already too much, thank you."

"You're cute. You're like this little, angry cat that hisses all threateningly but, deep inside, you're adorable and just want a bit of attention."

"Shut the fuck up," Jaemin snarls. "This is not about me right now—we're talking about humans and how to know if they want to kiss someone and—"

"Does he look at your face and your lips a lot?"

Jaemin stops and thinks. It's not like he's been documenting every place where Renjun looks at, but he thinks that, yeah, maybe Renjun looked at his lips once or thrice.

"I don't know what I'm just making up inside my head or what's the truth." Jaemin lets out a deep sigh. "This sucks. Maybe I should just leave this town or ignore him forever."

"Until the Earth's destruction and his death?"

It knocks the breath out of Jaemin and his head hurts. That's the problem — that's the fucking problem. He doesn't want Renjun to die. He's a human but Jaemin doesn't want him to have the same end as the others. He's selfish and egoistic and he wants to spare Renjun from the fate of his planet.

"Fuck this."

Jeno places a hand on Jaemin's shoulder and squeezes it. "Yeah, it sucks a lot. I didn't expect to fall for a human when I signed up for this mission too."

Jaemin rubs his face hard with the palm of his hands, groaning out loud. "Does your roommate know about you already?"

Bright spots dance on Jaemin's vision when he lowers his hand, but he sees clearly Jeno's pursed lips.

“No.”

“Will you tell him?”

Jeno doesn't hesitate even for a second, "I think so. I want to take him away from Earth before the destruction, so if he accepts, I'll go back with him."

And that gives Jaemin an idea.

Jaemin can't just come up to Renjun's face and go "Hey, I'm an alien. Wanna leave the Earth and everything behind to travel with me?" so he makes a little list:

1. Come clean to Renjun and explain who I am;

2. If Renjun doesn't immediately run away, then say I like him;

3. Try to see if Renjun likes me back too;

4. [undecipherable scribbling]

4. kiss????

5. Ask if he wants to leave the Earth.

6. more kisses????

He watched the movies. He skimmed through the classics. He knows how this needs to go: a big revelation, something emotional, something that will bring the both of them to tears. Then they'll hug and confess and be happy ever after until someone discovers they have cancer and dies (but Jaemin is an alien and has access to better technology and medical care than humans, so this part isn't needed).

Jaemin invites Renjun to hang around in the park they always used to go to. It's a known place for them so it'd tug at their heartstrings. He packs some food and sweets, some energy drinks for Renjun in case he needs it, and gets there with a heavy mind and a very increased heartbeat.

It's night and the stars are out — the moon is shining bright. A perfect night for Renjun. It would make very nice memories.

So Jaemin gives the sweets to Renjun. Gives him the energy drink too. And then he opens up his hand.

Renjun looks at his outstretched hand, furrows his brow, and puts the sweets back on Jaemin’s palm.

"Oh, no, no!" Jaemin exclaims, chuckling nervously. He gives them back to Renjun and says he doesn't want the sweets, he just wants his hand. "I won't eat it," he adds, voice cracking.

Renjun lifts an eyebrow. "Well, I sure hope so. I do need my hand."

Jaemin internally grimaces. "I have... something very important to tell you. And I've been hiding this for a long, long time. I mean—since we met each other. Since I got here, to be more specific."

"Okay..."

"And I—you see, this isn't easy for me at all. I shouldn't divulge such information because it's dangerous, but I feel like I need you to know about it. I can't hide it from you anymore."

Renjun raises his other eyebrow, a curious look on his face. "Is it something bad?"

"It depends on what you consider as bad," Jaemin chuckles nervously. "But... Well... Uh—I'm not... Uh... I'm not who you think I am."

"Jaemin?"

"Yes but also no."

"This is very confusing and you aren't making any sense."

Jaemin takes a deep breath. His hands are sweating like crazy and his neck prickles. He wants to give up on this stupid idea, wants to run away and never come back, he wants to — to do something. Something he doesn't even know what it is.

"You see, I—"

"You're a murderer, aren't you?"

Jaemin freezes. Blinks. Frowns hard. "What the—I’m not—"

“An assassin. You aren’t a good person, right? And this is why you can feel the vibe of spirits and ghosts so well because you’re haunted by all the souls you took?”

“I—”

But before Jaemin can say anything, Renjun’s eyes widen and he gasps, hands going up to his face. “Wait—are you really a murderer? Because, like, I can accept you being a tax evader, but I don’t vibe with the murder shit, dude. That’s fucked up.”

Jaemin rolls his eyes and huffs, annoyed. This isn’t going like he planned. Instead of tears and hugs he’s being framed as a murderer. “I already said I’m not a murderer..”

“Huh. That sounds exactly what a murderer would say, you know? Just to throw me off?”

Not for the first time since he landed on Earth, Jaemin closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. The Earth’s destruction wasn’t coming as quickly as he wished for.

Fucking hell.

Why the fuck did he end up liking such a dense human?

“I. Am. Not. A. Murderer,” Jaemin says, stressing every word. His blood runs hot and he can’t think straight anymore. “I’m not a human either. I’m an alien. I came from outer space and I’m here now.”

There’s silence for a moment and Jaemin can only hear the rustling of the leaves in the trees around them. Renjun looks carefully at him, his eyebrows scrunched up. “...thank god,” he mutters, shaking his head. “For a moment I really thought you’d say you were a murderer. Alien… huh. That’s cool, dude. But, like… Are you stuck here? That’s so sad. Earth really fucking sucks and it’s an awful place to be trapped in.”

Jaemin keeps staring at Renjun. “What’s your obsession with me being a murderer?” He asks and then immediately waves it away. “And I know—Earth sucks and it’s going to be destroyed soon.”

“Fucking finally.”

“Aren’t you… surprised? Confused? Don’t you have questions?”

Renjun rubs the side of his neck. “I have a lot of questions but I think I’m in shock right now so I can’t really think of any. I’ll make a list later—oh! I’ll have to update your list now! And mine too!”

Since Renjun hasn’t run away yet, Jaemin proceeds to execute the second step of his list. He takes it off his pocket and shines his phone flashlight on the list to be sure of what he must do, but Renjun is right there so it’s a lot easier to just show him all the steps and don’t have to worry about following the right order.

“Read this,” Jaemin says, giving him the ripped piece of paper.

“One: come clean to Renjun and explain who I am. Okay. Two: If Renjun doesn't immediately run away—which I didn’t, let me remind you of this—then say I like him… Three: try to see if Renjun likes me back too…” Renjun’s voice trails off and he looks up. “You like me? Like, you like like me?”

Jaemin points to the note. “It’s all written there.”

“But here it says you must tell me and not… not show me. So you should speak out loud…”

“Uh… I didn’t think this far ahead.”

“But you did,” Renjun says, “you even wrote more steps. Look. Four—okay, I can’t read this one. You crossed it lots of times. Ah—Four: kiss? Five: ask if he wants to leave the Earth. Six: more kisses?”

Jaemin shifts in place, a drop of sweat sliding down the side of his neck. “So—do you like me? Because I… I… I like you… I… I do… I do like you…”

Renjun looks down at the list in his hands one more time. “Okay, so now you need the confirmation that I like you back so you can ask me for a kiss?”

Jaemin nods. He wonders if it’s too late to run away and never show up again. To dissolve into miniscule particles until there’s nothing left of him. To dig a hole and hide inside of it until the Earth gets destroyed.

“Dude… I’ve been flirting with you since the first day… I even gave you the tip about the police.”

The world seems to stop and resume its rotation in a different way, because Jaemin doesn’t feel stable at all. A little dizzy. Maybe, in the end, he’s the one with hypoglycemia after all.

“O-oh,” he wheezes out. “That’s—that’s—”

“That’s…?”

“Oh.”

Renjun laughs. “You’re very cute.”

Renjun is the one who walks closer to him and puts his energy drinks on the grass before lacing his arms around Jaemin’s neck. His eyes are kind and they shine bright under the moonlight.

“Have you ever kissed someone before?” He asks, voice low.

He’s close — so, so close. Closer than he’s ever been before. Jaemin gulps and shakes his head. He doesn’t know where to put his hands, doesn’t know what to do. All the movies and books fly away from his mind and Jaemin is left clueless.

“It’s okay,” Renjun says. “You can put your hands on my waist. Or my shoulders. Around my neck too. You can hold the side of my face or even play with my hair. I’ll tell you if I don’t like something. And you do the same for me, okay?”

Jaemin nods. His heart beats fast and Jaemin wonders if, maybe, this will be the end of this human body. Jeno had survived his kiss—hell, he even had more than one. But maybe the body Jaemin was in was different and it wasn’t capable of handling all of those different emotions.

“Do you want a kiss? You can always say no and I won’t be mad. It’s about what you want too.”

Renjun’s never been this careful before — measuring his words, minding his tone, delivering it as softly as he can. Jaemin feels himself shaking under his touch, but he doesn’t want to pull away. It’s weird to imagine him wanting the touch of a human so damn bad — but it’s happening now. It’s happening and he doesn’t mind it as much as he thought he would.

“I want to,” Jaemin breathes out. His breath grazes Renjun’s face and Renjun opens up a big smile. He hums happily and gets closer, the tip of their noses touching.

And there, right there, Jaemin doesn’t feel small anymore. There are billions of stars shining over them and a billion more so far away they can’t even see. He and Renjun are nothing more than a little dot in the universe. Maybe something even smaller than that. But when Renjun’s thumb caresses the side of Jaemin’s neck, when Renjun closes his eyes and leans in, his lips brushing against his, Jaemin feels like the universe begins and ends right there with him and Renjun.

He feels bigger than he ever felt before.

They don’t say goodbye this time because before Jaemin can say it and go on his own way, Renjun holds his hand and pulls it in an attempt to get his attention.

“I want to show you something,” he says, serious. “You trusted me with your big secret and I want to share my secrets with you too.”

Renjun won’t tell him what it is before they get close enough, but when Jaemin reads the name “Orphanage” in front of the building, he realizes where they’re going to—Renjun’s place. The subject that had made things awkward between them and made Donghyuck threat him with a punch before.

“You don’t own me anything,” Jaemin tries to say. “You don’t need to show me anything you don’t want to.”

With a plastic bag hanging from his arm, Renjun sends him a closed-lip smile. “It’s okay… I mean, as okay as it can get. I don’t feel proud of this and I hate this place, but they let me stay after I turned 18 because I didn’t have money and no other place to go. I work here for a bit in exchange for my room.”

The building is old and the walls show that with all the mold and decay incrusted on them, the stairs creaking with every step, dust and dirt clinging to every corner. Renjun’s room is small and almost claustrophobic, and they had to climb a side wooden staircase to even get there.

It doesn’t surprise Jaemin that the walls of Renjun’s bedroom are covered in posters and prints, images of Mothman and Bigfoot, of unnamed cryptids and news plastered all over them.

On Renjun’s small single bed there’s a blanket with the picture of the Loch Ness Monster, a tinfoil hat in the making perched on the side that falls onto the floor. Jaemin sighs before he picks the hat and gives it to Renjun who puts it on his side table, patting down the blanket and inviting Jaemin to sit down over the printed back of the Loch Ness Monster. On the floor, there are some lists with names of people written on the top, but Jaemin can’t see one with his name in it.

“I don’t know why but I thought you roommed with Donghyuck.”

“Oh, we did before, but then he decided to be all smart and get an early admission to University so he lives there in the dorms for now.”

“Ah…”

Jaemin squeezes his own knees, feeling out of place inside the room. A lot had happened in very little time. He feels a little overwhelmed, but also like he’s dreaming.

“So… you’re alone here?”

Renjun makes a positive noise. “Yeah. Uh, so like… do you wanna make out or something?”

Jaemin clears his throat. Life on Earth taught him that there’s a lot he didn’t know about before. And that there would be a lot of first times for him too. Like making out.

So Jaemin nods his head and lets Renjun guide him.

After the novelty passes, Renjun comes crashing down with all the questions. There are so many of them, so many different things, that Jaemin sometimes needs to resort to Jeno for an answer because he just doesn't know. What was natural for him was a mystery and something unthinkable for Renjun, so Jaemin needs to come up with terms and ways of explaining what came almost as instinct for their kind.

The thing is — while Renjun is busy trying to get all the answers, Jaemin is also busy trying to get all the smooching he can. So they compromise and for every answer that Jaemin gives him, Renjun gives him a kiss, and that makes Jaemin go the extra mile on his answers so he can get a nice kiss too.

He didn’t expect for that thing to be so damn addictive, but maybe it’s because Renjun is the one doing it. He can’t see himself kissing just some random person and enjoying it as much as he is. It’s because it’s Renjun who holds the sides of his face, it’s Renjun who climbs on his lap or who pushes him down on the bed, it’s Renjun who laughs against his mouth and makes Jaemin heart beat so damn hard that his face flushes.

He feels dumb and light and happy. That’s it — he feels happy.

Jaemin does his missions and helps his kind and invades some houses, but Renjun is always on his mind and he can’t wait until they can see each other again.

Lovesick, Jeno says to him when they meet for their weekly appointment and Jaemin talks about everything that happened, but maybe spends too much time talking about Renjun and their dates (because their outings and explorations are officially called as that now) and how Renjun’s eyes shine under the moonlight and how his lips are softer than he ever thought it was possible.

Whipped, Chenle adds from the side, slurping loudly as Jisung eats another plate of blueberry pancakes because Jeno is too nice to say no. Jaemin ignores them and continues to focus on Jeno and on his description of how Renjun’s hand feels in his. It's a vital piece of information that everybody should be aware of, anyway.

It’s been a long time since Jaemin cared about someone, and even longer since it had been in the romantic way. Renjun makes him happy and giggly and almost like he wouldn’t care about putting a tinfoil hat in public just because that would make him happy.

(He doesn’t put on the tinfoil hat. Thankfully, Jaemin still has enough sense left and, after all, he has a mini hat he can cover with a beanie. Or a fucking snapback. Whatever it is in his wardrobe.)

Renjun is cute in everything he does: when he flinches because he thinks a ghost is following them, when he skips on the sidewalk after a walk in the public cemetery, when he holds Jaemin’s hand tight and looks up at him, a furrow on his brow as he comes up with another question about the universe and what’s out there. Renjun is cute and Jaemin thinks he could never have enough of him.

It’s about Renjun with his awful fashion style and collection of snapbacks and love for a supernatural that doesn’t exist. It’s about Renjun who’s unafraid to be who he is and who lives like that every single day of his life, even if people around him don’t understand his way or his views.

Renjun doesn’t hide who he is. He’s not afraid. He’s unapologetically himself and Jaemin admires that a lot.

So when Renjun comes to him with an answer after some days of thinking, Jaemin is more than happy to know that he’d be by his side for the foreseeable future too.

It’s clear when the end is coming. There’s a change in the air, a change on the way things work around them.

Besides, Jaemin receives a message with instructions on what to do and when he is going to be picked up and brought back to the reception area before he could get into his own spaceship to carry on to his own devices. That also helps a lot.

He doesn’t feel sorry for what’s going to happen for it’s not his place to judge who deserves or not their ending. It’s not his first or second mission destroying an entire planet, so he’s used to it all by now. The only difference is that this time something else is coming with him — someone.

He gives hints to Renjun and lets him know to get ready, to prepare his things and to say his goodbyes, to gather the memories he wants to bring into the new chapter of his life. He’s — very understandably — disappointed to be separated from his friend Donghyuck, but there isn’t much time to dwell on that when the end is coming fast upon all of them.

Jaemin confirms his plans with Jeno and Jisung, updates them on the Renjun situation, and leaves to settle any affairs he didn’t have completed.

There isn’t much to do but wait. He tags along with Renjun to the places he likes and helps him create new memories, saving them for when Renjun decides he wants to remember them all in the future. Jaemin manages to grab a camera and learn how to use it, snapping pictures and videos for Renjun to have some visual souvenirs too.

And, when the time comes, Jaemin gives Renjun a kiss on the forehead before they part, telling him, “Don’t look at the moon tonight. I know you love her very much, but do not look even if everyone tells you to. This is very important.”

Jaemin doesn’t doubt that Renjun’s phone would be blowing up with messages and notifications, all saying something like:

“the moon is so pretty tonight”

“Look outside your window right now!”

“Look at the moon!”

So he makes sure to text in all caps to grab his attention:

“DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON!!!”

“DO NOT. LOOK. AT. THE. MOON!”

“HEY!!!! DON'T DO IT!!!”

It will be hard to fight the instinct. It’s only natural. But Jaemin is sure that Renjun can do it, that Renjun will hold his ground and fight back and not look up. He’s closing the front door of the place he stayed in for the last months when his phone rings, Renjun’s name blinking on the display.

“Do not look,” Jaemin immediately says, his voice tense. “Please. Just hold on for a little more. I’m coming to get you now.”

“This is so hard…” Renjun’s voice is static-like and sounds almost far-away, like he’s sleepy and struggling to even talk. Jaemin feels his heart squeeze inside his chest. “There are so many messages and I just… I feel this in my chest, I feel this need to go after a window and see. I need to look. I need to—”

“No! Renjun, Renjun! Hold on tight! I’m coming, I swear, I’m coming right now!” Jaemin exclaims, starting to run across the streets, his heartbeat sounding loud on his ears, chest contracting with the idea of being late .

There’s silence for some brief seconds before Renjun’s voice sounds out, weak, “Now?”

“Now.”

“Okay. I’m waiting for you. Please, hurry.”

Click. The call ends and Jaemin runs faster.

Jaemin’s arms are around Renjun’s shoulders and he carefully guides him, making sure that the eyepatch with Mothman’s red eyes are still covering Renjun’s eyes and he can’t see anything.

Before, Renjun had confided in him about the expectation he had of how everything would end. Would it have loud noises and things falling down from the sky? Big waves to destroy everything? Large spaceships zapping up the aliens and leaving the humans behind to fight against the giant creatures that would be waking up from deep inside the earth?

No, Jaemin had said, it’ll be very boring. You’ll see.

Renjun didn’t believe him at first but as they stay waiting in the middle of an empty field, Jaemin reminds him of that.

“I don’t know,” Renjun says. “It’s my first time leaving the Earth, y’know. So it’s kinda exciting for me even if we’re just waiting.”

“Believe me, there’s nothing interesting here. Just some grass. And more grass. And then even more grass.”

“Well, it’s not like I can see to confirm that.”

There’s the chill breeze that ruffles their clothes and hair. Jaemin shuffles in place and makes sure that the eyepatch is still covering Renjun’s eyes. Good. The moon looks normal for him, but he’d bumped into humans in the street who were paralyzed and just still, looking at the moon and unable to move or do anything else.

“So… Are we just going to stand here?”

“You’ll definitely feel when it happens, don’t worry. There must be a long queue or something. Last time was a lot quicker but it was also a smaller planet, so there weren’t that many of us there.”

Renjun hums.

“You know, last time I said they should issue some warning before or anything but they just insist on—”

There’s a bright light that leaves Jaemin blind for a few seconds and he’s unable to see anything but pure white. His body suddenly feels weightless before there’s the pressure of a hundred oceans right over his chest, bright spots showing up at the corner of his vision as the sounds slowly start to come back to him.

“Fuck.”

Jaemin blinks quickly until his vision adapts itself and he can see properly, his fingertips tingling. He sees Renjun still laying down on the floor and goes to help him get up, sliding his eyepatch off his face.

Renjun shrieks, shielding his face with his hands. “What the fuck! Give me that back! Give me back that shit!”

“Calm down, calm down,” Jaemin says. “We’re okay now, we’re safe. You can open your eyes.”

It knocks the breath out of his chest to see Renjun trust him so wholeheartedly, to see him put his hands away and tentatively blink, trying to adjust his eyes to his surroundings. His mouth parts and he looks around wide-eyed. “It looks like a dentist office,” he says, awe in his voice. “And the reception part of one. Why is this so boring-looking? There isn’t even a window to see the stars.”

Jaemin eyes the white walls and concrete floor that surrounds them. “I guess they try to make something familiar? So the transition will be easier? They can’t just throw us into the middle of a blackhole and call it a day.”

There’s a receptionist desk at the far end of the wall, pink smoke behind the desk with a blue skeletal hand holding a pen.

“Well, a transition as easy as it can be, I guess,” Jaemin adds.

Renjun is still rubbing at his eyes as he stares at the desk and the smoke and the hand when Jaemin, at the corner of his eyes, catches the figure of Jeno showing up out of thin air and crashing onto the floor.

“Hey, Jeno! You made it!”

Jeno beams in his direction, getting on his feet a lot faster than Jaemin and with the practice of someone who had done that a hundred times before. Jaemin opens up his mouth to say something when he sees Donghyuck appear from behind Jeno and he deflates. What...

“Hyuck! Hyuck!”

Jaemin sighs deeply as Renjun sees his friend and runs in his direction, hugging him tightly and screaming each other’s names all over, falling on the floor as they cling to each other.

“He is your roommate?” Jaemin asks with a heavy voice when Jeno approaches him. Jeno nods, his cheeks dusted pink.

Renjun, still holding on to Donghyuck for dear life, points at Jaemin. “He’s an alien!”

“I know! Him too!” Donghyuck yells, pointing at Jeno.

Renjun lowers his voice. “Does he have tentacles?” He probably meant to be discreet and not gather attention, but it’s hard when they’re almost all by each other’s side and Renjun and Donghyuck are loud. Jeno flushes. Jaemin suddenly remembers the links Donghyuck had sent him and how he never asked Renjun about his opinion on them.

“We’re not at that point yet, but I hope so.” Donghyuck tries to whisper but it’s a big fail and Jeno very pointedly does not look at Donghyuck.

Jaemin sighs and rubs at his forehead.

Donghyuck and Renjun are still hugging each other, but Renjun focuses his attention on Jaemin and he furrows his brow as he says, “So… hypothetically speaking, of course, can you change your body whenever you want? And does your true form have any tentacles?”

Jaemin stares hard at Renjun and refuses to answer, pulling him in the direction of the receptionist desk.