Newcomers

Sneaking out

After turning off the cameras that would point to his path and checking his surroundings, Cody took the ropes that Dani used for rock climbing to slowly climb out of his bedroom window and scale the wall of the firehouse. He jumped down and rubbed his sore hands against each other. He turned around unsuspectingly and jumped in surprise when he saw Seojun standing right there in front of him.

He swiftly covered his mouth so that he wouldn’t scream and looked around to see if anyone in his house had woken up.

“What are you doing? You scared the shit out of me!” Cody whispered harshly. Seojun tilted his head, looking confused. “You told me to be quiet though.” He said softly. “Yeah, but you could’ve given some kind of indication that you were there!” Cody said. “Oh. My bad.” Seojun murmured. “Don’t worry about it, let’s just go before anyone sees us.” Cody replied, pulling Seojun by his hand.

“Where are we going?” Seojun asked. “You’re holding my hand too tight.” He added. They had been walking for a while now and Cody hadn’t slowed down once. “Oh, sorry about that.” He said absentmindedly, loosening his grip on Seojun’s hand. “So are you gonna answer my question Cody?” He asked. “Just a second, we’ll be there soon.” Cody said, pushing loose branches out of his way. “You said that five minutes ago though. Is this a plot to murder me?” He joked. Cody chortled, breaking out of his concentrated state. “No, I’m not. Sorry, I just had a rough night, I’m kinda stuck in my own head right now.” He said.

Seojun looked concerned. “Huh? What's going on?” He asked. Cody paused. He couldn’t tell him anything about this, it could put all of them in jeopardy. So instead of telling him, he lied. “Nothing much, just a classic case of overthinking. You know?” He said. “I’m fine now, I just wanted to get out of the house since I couldn’t get to sleep.” Seojun nodded. “Yeah I get it. Sometimes it gets really stuffy at my place.” He said. “Because of all the people?” Cody jabbed lightly. Seojun rolled his eyes. “Sometimes.” He said.

“Okay, we’re here.” Cody said, pushing through some reeds. Seojun looked around at the scene with wide eyes. “Wow, I’ve never been here before.” He said. Far in the middle of the forest nearby Mrs. Neederlander’s other house was a mid-sized pond that was fed by a stream. The water was bright blue and shone since it reflected the moonlight. Lily Pads with pink and white flowers floated on top and frogs croaked nearby.

“Probably because you'd get lost before you found this place.” Cody chuckled. Seojun sucked his teeth. “Hey…” He said, exaggerating an expression of offense. Cody rolled his eyes and took off his shoes to sit with his feet in the water. “I’m surprised you didn’t insist on swimming.” Seojun said, sitting beside him. “Nah, I didn’t feel like doing all that tonight.” He said. “But you did feel like hiking for fifteen minutes.” Seojun teased. Cody jokingly smacked his shoulder with the back of his hand. “Shut up! I don’t have to explain my logic to you.” He said. Seojun burst out laughing. “Okay okay!” He said.

They sat quietly for a few moments, listening to the sounds of the night before Seojun spoke again. “So, what made you decide to come here.” He asked. “I just like coming here or going to the beach. It’s relaxing being by the water.” Cody said. Seojun nodded. “Back home, I used to walk through the flower fields nearby. They were always beautiful until the winter. In the summertime they were tall and bright pink and that's when my entire family would come and eat in the fields by the ocean.” He said. “I miss that, we haven't gotten to do that in a while.” Cody was slightly surprised but listened closely, this was the most he had ever talked about his home since he’d met him.

“That sounds really nice.” Cody said. Seojun nodded. “Yeah it really was.” He said, looking out at the lake. “Can you tell me more?” Cody asked curiously. Seojun smiled. “Sure I guess. In the spring it got foggy really often but only above ground and around the town, so you could see through the area just not anything past it.” He said passionately. “And the sunsets there were the prettiest thing I’d ever seen, though my little brother used to insist that the sky looked like pee.” He added with disgust at the last memory.

Cody smiled and thought back to that odd dream he had had just a couple of hours before. The yellow sunset and the pink flowers sounded just like the ones that he had seen.

Am I going insane? Could that really be real? The people in it said that it was a vision, does that mean something?

“Talking about it like it’s gone forever is kind of strange.” Seojun said, shifting his seating position. His hand landed over Cody’s and he kept talking without noticing. “Why would it be gone forever?” Cody asked, turning to Seojun. Seojun looked at him with big bright eyes. “Uh-” He paused and completely froze for a moment. Cody frowned with concern and moved his hand to tap him. “Seojun?” He asked. Seojun blinked rapidly. “Sorry, lost my train of thought.” He said. As he spoke his eyes flashed a bright glowing green so fast that if he blinked he would have missed it. He leaned back a little in surprise. Seojun didn’t seem to notice. He started to get up and motioned for Cody to come with him.

“We should probably get going, it’s getting pretty late.” he said. Cody stood up and looked at his phone, it was 1:13 in the morning. “Yeah you’re right.” He said, yawning as soon as he realized it. Seojun yawned right after him. “Really, you had to make me catch it too?” He joked. Cody snickered. “I couldn’t resist.” he replied mischievously.

They walked back quietly and they made it back across the street from Cody’s house at 1:40. “You’ll be fine getting back?” Cody asked. Seojun nodded. “I’ve walked around here at worse times.” Seojun said. “Maybe you should make sure someone knows where you’re going if you’re walking around so late. You never know what could happen.” Cody suggested. “Yeah, I guess you're right.” He said. He patted Cody lightly on the back and turned on his heels. “See you later Cody.” He said. Cody put his hand over his shoulder and smiled a little. ‘Yeah, bye Seojun.” He said, waving with his other hand. Seojun waved over his shoulder and walked away.

Carefully, Cody climbed back up into his room. He was grinning from ear to ear as he snuck around the house to turn the cameras back on. He and Seojun could really call on each other whenever, meaning that he had at least a little of Seojun's trust. While that was great for him, how would that turn out when they told his family about the bots? He could end up losing that trust and Seojun too.

He crawled back into bed and looked out of his window with sleepy eyes. If only there was some way he could look into the future and know that things would be fine. Then it clicked in his head. The secrecy, the strange description of his homeland that matched that dream from earlier, the sudden arrival, and all the confusion about the world around him. Could Seojun be causing those “dreams”? Was there more to him than just being from South Korea? If any of that was the case then what was going on and why is he here? And what else had Cody missed?