to the moon and back | namjin

Chapter 2: the sapphire eyes that encapture

It's been 11 days; almost half of Namjoon's notebook had its papers marked with messy scribbles of numbers and words. It's been 11 days; Namjoon had already completed most of his research and is taking his sweet time in admiring the Moon at this rarely close proximity before his plan to return back to Earth in around 20 days or so is executed.

It's been 11 days since he's seen eyes that resembled the dazzling stars that surround Namjoon.

Perhaps Namjoon had been too busy to spare attention on anything else. But now that he's admiring the Earth again, his thoughts naturally return to keep him occupied.

Namjoon recalled the encounter a week ago. It was unexpected. Indeed, Namjoon admits it because it was something so out-of-the-ordinary that Namjoon couldn't seem to believe it. He is a man of science, after all, a man devoted to research and science ever since he developed his interest in astrology and explains everything with a scientific explanation no matter how big or small the point is. Seeing a human being (can he genuinely call it that?) crouching in front of him with its arms tucked in between its chest and knees as he studied every detail of Namjoon's face made him question his beliefs. The being's actions were so humane that if Namjoon's conscious allowed himself to think intuitively for once, he would've almost believed that being was actually a human, a human who somehow adapted to the Moon's environment after a failed space mission.

Namjoon let out a deep sigh, sliding his arms out of the sleeves of his suit to drag his face down from behind the glass helmet. The astronaut had expected to come to the Moon to experiment and research without any distractions, but the more he pictured the being's eyes, it made Namjoon groan again.

Crackle.

Namjoon's senses spike up, holding in his breath when he hears the familiar crackle of his radio. He's sitting up straight now but hesitant to turn around. Even though the alien didn't seem to have any intentions of attacking him, there is no saying that it might change its mind.

Crackle.

The radio sparks again, louder and longer this time. Slowly, Namjoon turns his waist around to glance behind him. The sight constricts his breathing, his eyes widening and his fingers digging into the white surface under him.

Instead of the alien he'd seen 11 days ago, this creature has hair as dark as coal. Its eyes shined a vicious yellow, a stark contrast to the vibrant blue lingering in the back of Namjoon's mind. Its skin had the same faint blue tint beneath pale skin and its lips a deep blue. If the astronaut hadn't paid attention to the first alien's posture, he would've assumed the creature with yellow eyes had no harmful intentions either. That thought soon disappeared when Namjoon catches sight of the being's hands gripping the side of a rock, its nails sharp like talons.

Namjoon's body freezes when the creature's nail scrapes across the rough surface of the boulder, slowly revealing its body into the light. Namjoon had no time to feel embarrassed of its lack of clothes (apart from its white and skin-tight shorts, camouflaging with the surroundings). The creature begins to stealthily advance towards him, its yellow eyes never leaving Namjoon.

Do something, anything! Namjoon's mind screams at him, but as much as he called for his limbs to move, to make a run for it and find any defense mechanisms back at the shuttle, the creature's lips pull back to a snarl, now on all fours and ready to pounce.

Truthfully speaking, Namjoon convinces himself that he was going to die on the Moon. He thinks back to his bonsai trees shining under the sun at his window, his silly friends that loved to send jokes in their shared group chat at 2 AM, and the cat next door that always seemed to arrive at his door at precisely 5 in the evening. Namjoon is going to lose all that because of an undiscovered intergalactic creature hungry for food.