Astronomy // Duty After School

Chapter Seven.

"H-Hey..." Chi-yeol stammered, not sure what he was looking at even though they had been in the sky for a year at that point. "Wh-What is this? What?" Il-ha was the first to get to his feet.

"Can't you tell, you idiot? It's a sphere," Il-ha said. "Wow, fuck. I've never seen it so close up."

"Hey, wait a second!" Chi-yeol yelped, hurrying to his feet as Yeong-hun and Il-ha approached the sphere.

"Gosh, what?" Il-ha huffed.

"You can't, okay?" Chi-yeol protested. "It might be dangerous."

"Gosh!" Il-ha exclaimed, tousling his hair. "That asshole got my phone taken." He then held his hands up in a phone shape. "I could have gotten so many followers. Gosh, how unfortunate..." Yeong-hun gave a scoff of a laugh, walking forward to approach Il-ha. Chi-yeol quickly stopped him. Yeong-hun removed his hand from him and continued walking toward Il-ha.

"Really? Why don't you upload your bullying, then?" Yeong-hun suggested. "I'm sure that would be crazy too." He smiled tauntingly. "You piece of garbage." He moved to walk past Il-ha, who grabbed him and shoved him.

"Hey!" Chi-yeol yelped and (Y/n) let out a small shriek as Yeong-hun was pushed into her, falling against the sphere while Yeong-hun still had his footing. An apologetic look immediately came to both boys' faces as they most certainly did not mean for (Y/n) to get hurt.

"Gosh, won't you two stop? You aren't accomplishing anything by fighting all the time," (Y/n) mumbled. Yeong-hun looked away, pushing his glasses up his nose, and Il-ha, ashamed, also turned away. Chi-yeol moved to give (Y/n) a hand back to her feet but stopped upon seeing she had already done so herself.

"You're a piece of garbage," Yeong-hun muttered, glaring at Il-ha while (Y/n) brushed herself off. "You just get angry when things don't go your way and use your..." He trailed off upon spotting that both Chi-yeol and Il-ha were gazing past (Y/n) and at the sphere. He, too, looked behind her and (Y/n) stopped moving at an unusual sound. She glanced up, spotting all three boys' faces lit up by a purple light. This resulted in her slowly turning around and gazing up at the arachnid-like creatures which had leaf-like legs and swishing tentacles.
(Y/n)'s shriek tore through the air as two tentacles shot out toward her. She held her arms up in defense, resulting in the tentacles wrapping up her arms and dragging her in the creature's direction. It hurt, it really hurt losing circulation in her arms and she was sure the tentacles had broken the skin's surface. The boys finally broke out of their shock and looked for something to help, though, in their panic, the most they could think to do it pull (Y/n) away from the creature. (Y/n) managed to turn her wrist and pierce the tentacle. This made one of the tentacles falter slightly and (Y/n) was able to free her arm.

"You kids!" shouted a shoulder, rushing over having heard (Y/n)'s scream. With four kids fighting for one of their lives, (Y/n) was able to free her other arm and they all fell back with yelps. (Y/n) barely managed to stop herself from falling. The soldier rushed in front of them, holding his gun up to aim and kill the creature. He paled at the reminder that his gun was full of blanks. The kids froze in place as the man was snatched upside-down into the air by the creature, its tentacles wrapping around the soldier. "Get out of—!" The soldier's voice was drowned out by the tentacle closing around his face. The four watched wordlessly as the soldier's corpse was wrapped in the tentacles and the creature curled back up into its original sphere shape.

"H-Hey... Sir?" Chi-yeol called out in a voice that sounded so incredibly distant. (Y/n)'s arms and left hand were bleeding like crazy due to how tight the tentacles had wrapped around her arm. The kids' platoon leader rushed onto the scene right as the tentacles had finished tightening themselves. Seemingly not wishing to let go of its original target, the creature shot out one tentacle at (Y/n) for a final time.