Chapter Text
Will he pass by again today?
The creature wondered, peering at the passersby from behind the bush's thinning branches.
It was early autumn, and the few leaves still attached to it barely served as a hiding place. Yet that wasn't a concern for he was nearly invisible to the human eye. Tiny as a raindrop, he shimmered in silence.
Every day he would settle on that tree, watching humans wander, unaware of his presence.
He did not belong to their world.
He came from far beyond the stars.
After a long voyage through the cosmos, he had found refuge on the blue planet and chose to remain for a while, at least, but he soon discovered Earth was not build for his kind. He could breathe its air only for twelve hours, past that, his body stiffened, his cells igniting a slow, aching burn.
And still he stayed.
Slowly, he grew used to its life and fell in love with its creature.
He did not possess a true body, his essence mirrored that of water, able to take any shape, color or size. Yet he had never dared to mimic the human form, how could he? He wouldn't even know where to begin.
He didn't know how to communicate, nor how to nourish himself, let alone live a normal life among them, so he contented himself with quietly watching the inevitable passing of their lives from behind those leaves.
Three moons had passed since he began his quiet watching from the shadows.
There was one person who lingered in his memory, he always passed by at the same hour, a bag in hand, dressed in an elegant uniform. He never knew where he went, nor what the bag held, he only watched quietly, his morning departure and his late return, when he had to drift back into the stars.
That person became the first face he saw at dawn, and the last before vanishing into the dark.
Through him, he also met music.
He didn't undestand it, didn't know its meaning, but he had never heard anything like that in his life. Accustomed to the defeaning silence of space, the sound that reached him felt almost foreign.
The melody, however, left him in a daze. Just a hint of it, through the human's earbuds, stirred something in him, tiny vibrations tingled his senses whenever he passed under that tree, and with each passing day, he fell deeper in love with those songs, unable to resist their pull.
I wonder how it works
He asked himself, swaying gently among the branches.
But then, one day, he didn't come, and the next day he was gone again.
He felt lost.
That human had become his anchor and now, in his absence, the loneliness howled.
He felt again that quiet sorrow, betrayed, abandoned as he once was, by those of his own kind.
He stood on the verge of a crisis, ready to turn his back on the planet, when a fragile scrap of paper drifted past, caught in the leaves of a bush, unfolding a drawing of human shape.
The figure was a bit stylized and weathered, its details blurred by time and elements. A dark, unsettling thought flickered in the creature's mind.
Could he become one of them?
He was weary of his solitude, tired of wandering, with no place in the vast universe. So he chose to replicate the form in the drawing, adjusting the parts he could not decipher, and foolishly materialized atop that tree, carrying the weight of a body the branches could not bear.
He tumbled to the earth, pain radiating through his fragile new form. Branches cut his face and hands. He gasped, unfamiliar with that feeling. He pressed his palm gently to his aching side, as if the warmth of his own touch might soften the pain.
"Hey are you alright? What were you doing up in that tree? " The boy asked gently, sliding the earbud from his ear, his steps light as he approached. But the creature could only gaze up in silence, the words falling around him like rain on stone, meaningless.
He could not answer, nor stand; the weight of that borrowed body held him down. It was quite a sorrow, inhabiting a shape that was not his, each movement a struggle, each breath a foreign sound.
"You didn't hit your head, did you?"
The alien took a step back, fear flashing in his eyes. He hadn't expected that his first encounter would be with him, the human who had stirred such despair in his heart.
The creature shook his head, confused, and tried once more to rise, this time reaching for a nearby pole to steady himself.
"Let me help you." Minho's voice was a quiet plea as he slipped the earbud into his pocket and stepped closer.
The creature glanced around, startled, breath trembling and brought a hand to the stinging in his cheek. He felt a substance wetting the tip of his finger, something like his own, but as he lifted it into the fading light, he saw the difference.
It was red.
"Are you bleeding?" The brown-haired boy asked, his voice soft and hesitant as he edged closer. The fear in his eyes was unmistakable, was he running from someone?
"Should I call for help? Have someone come for you?" he kept asking, his words lost on the alien who could only feel the pain, the only thing his trembling body recognized.
The boy stopped a few steps away, his eyes filled with a quite sorrow; he looked no older than him, his long, pale hair veiled his face, barely revealing his eyes, large and vulnerable like those of a frightened fawn, trapped between two worlds that were never meant to meet.
"What's your name?" He asked softly, trying to coax at least the boy's name from his lips, but the blonde remained silent, untouched by his words.
"Maybe he can't speak...or perhaps he's foreign...what should I do?" Minho sighed, running a hand through his hair in helpless frustration.
He didn't know sign language and he felt embarassed speaking in english unless absolutely necessary. He tried anyway, whispering words into the empty space between them, but the silence remained unbroken and the alien's silence seemed to grow deeper, more unreachable.
"Damn I'm late...but I can't leave you like this." He muttered, glancing at his watch, his thoughts pulling him in two directions.
A sudden cough startled the alien, who quickly ducked behind the pole, hiding as if it could shield him from the world. Minho pressed his hand over his mouth, struggling to stifle the remnants of his lingering cold, the coughs still rattling in his chest. He had already missed too many lessons because of his illness.
He couldn't afford to stay home again, skipping yet another day. But there he was, frozen in place before a stranger, trying desperatly to communicate, while the minutes slipped away, unnoticed, like water flowing through his fingers.
"My name is Minho." He introduced himself, placing a hand over his chest, trying to gesture in a way that might bridge the silence between them.
"And you are?" He mouthed the letters carefully, pointing to the creature, but the alien only shook his head, lost, unsure of what to do. He felt a sting in his eyes, the unbidden swell of tears.
It was sadness he knew all to well, a sadness that wore many faces, no matter the form. Without a word, the creature turned away, his body trembling, and began to run.
"Wait!" Minho screamed, reaching out, his hand a fleeting gesture toward the boy who stumbled awkwardly, disappearing into the distance, his footsteps echoing down the empty street.
"Should I follow him?" He wondered, but before he could even answer himself, the boy had vanished from his sight.
He realized that following him might only cause more trouble, so with a sigh, he turned and resumed his walk to the university, where his friends were waiting for him at the entrance.
"Feeling better now?" the dark-haired boy asked with a smile, only to receive a bored grimance in reply.
"We missed you." the oldest of the group added with a grin, reaching out to hug him, but Minho quickly stepped aside, causing him to almost stamble into thin air.
"Chan there's no point in trying, you know Minho doesn't like hugs" Changbin teased, his voice laced with amusement.
"Especially yours." Hyunjin added with a smirk.
"But he let's Felix hug him!" Chan muttered, pouting slightly.
"That's because Felix is a cat, just like him" Seungmin interjected, squeezing past them with a stack of books in his arms, cleraly anxious about being late.
Together they made their way into the classroom and took seats that, for the most part, were scattered far apart. Only Chan managed to settle next to the brown-haired boy.
"Are you okay? Still not feeling well?" The oldest asked, glancing at Minho, who sat unusually quiet, his gaze lost in thought.
"Huh? No...I'm fine. Just...thinking"
"About what?"
"I had a strange encounter this morning"
"Oh? Spill"
"Well...I was walking my usual route when someone literally fell from the sky"
"What??"
"I mean.. he fell out of a tree"
"What was he doing in a tree?"
"I have no idea. I went over to check on him, he looked hurt"
"And?"
"...He didn't say a word, like not even one, he didn't seem to undestand me" Minho replied, his voice trailing off, eyes still clouded by the memory.
"Maybe he's a foreigner?"
"That's what I thought too, so I tried speaking english...but nothing changed. Then I wondered if maybe he was deaf or mute but..." Minho sighed, running a hand through his hair. his gaze distant.
"He looked so scared and...sad? He ran off before I could say or do anything else"
"That's really weird.."
"I wanted to follow him, but I'd have missed yet another class...and honestly, I wouldn't have known what to do, he didn't seem very comfortable around me"
"Had you ever seen him before?"
Minho shook his head. "Never..."
"Maybe he just moved here, trying to get used to this place."
"And you think hiding among the trees helps with that?" he raised an eyebrow, a trace of irony painting his words.
"Maybe he was looking for a cat." Chan shrugged, the fell into silence.
The lesson began, and both of them took notes, trying to focus on the professor's voice, but Minho mind wandered, drawn back to what had happened that morning.
That fleeting moment had cracked open the dull rhythm of his days and now it lingered, like a half-remembered dream he couldn't shake.
Would he ever see that boy again?