BYUN BAEKHYUN: BEYOND DETECTIVE ▷ EXO GAMEBOOK

7

7

 

SCHRODINGER’S BAEK

 

The sea.

Baekhyun had spent his whole life by the EXO Planet sea. A vast expanse of crystalline waters against the backdrop of blood-red skies and coal-black islands. The sandy land was riddled with discarded shells of various creatures, if not big, chunky rocks. The Byun family generation house (a pun on generation ships, a house where three generations live under one roof) was strategically placed facing the sea. He’d always loved the view that greeted him every morning. The view was so magnificent, Lay had always begged Baekhyun to take him there.

One day, thirteen-year-old Byun Baekhyun was lazing around watching the Loiter, head sinking into the water-bag chair. The Loiter was showing a follow-up of Girl’s Generation’s anti-matter mining mission. Updates from the SS Dreamcatcher I filled the screen. Baekhyun was glad that the mission was doing well though the spaceship itself was unmanned. Baekhyun was glad as long as the confident look on Taeyeon’s face stayed. He hoped that Dreamcatcher I would land safely on Gliese 1288 e soon.

Grandma Darla was trying to look through the windows, but she couldn’t see a thing. She grunted and brought herself slowly up from the chair. Old bones cracked as she moved. The windowpane was coated by a layer of sand and dust brought by the wind. She left for the kitchen and returned with a soaked yellowed towel. Grandma Darla forced the creaky windows open and wiped the windowpanes with the wet towel. Gradually, her reflection came into view—a short-haired old woman with a cheeky rectangle grin. The view beyond the glass also caught her attention—her lazy grandson, almost sleeping in front of the Loiter. She glanced around. The veranda outside her house was also coated with sand and dust, some of which had stuck under her rough soles. That was too messy a sight for her.

“Baekhyun-ah!” she shouted.

A dazed Baekhyun jerked his head too fast and tumbled sideways from the water-bag. “Waeeee, halmeoni??” he yawned out.

“Don’t answer me in golae (whale) language.” Darla threw him a broom. Her tongue trilled over an old EXO Planetary accent. “Cover your mouth when you yawn and go sweep the lawn—I mean, veranda.”

Reluctantly, Baekhyun went out to sweep the floor. The wind was still blowing strongly in his direction. The speed of wind doubles here by the sea. Luckily, EXO-Ls had evolved a second transparent eyelid to keep sand off their eyes. To keep off all the sand, they had also built houses with flat roofs. Nevertheless, the veranda still posed a challenge. Grandma Darla had put off cleaning the veranda until the layers of sands had accumulated so thick, he began to grimace.

Baekhyun had always hated chores. Especially this one. Pointless. Sweep the dusts today and have more coming back for you tomorrow.

“Because you’re being so hardworking today,” Grandma Darla announced from the kitchen, “I’m going to cook baked molaesakwa. So, continue with your sweeping!”

Molaesakwa, the Southern term for the ‘Apple of the Sand’ was somehow similar to the Earth potato. The pull of EXO Planet’s two moons had caused crazy rise and fall of tides. At one time, twice a month, the sea will ebb very far away from the shore, leaving fertile, moist sand. Things stayed that way for a week. Grandma Darla used that little interval to plant small root cuttings that would mature in four days, growing into a fibrous root about half the size of human fist with black tendrils unwinding from it. Eaten on its own, it was sweet enough, but Grandma Darla always served molaesakwas with sugar dipping.