Anticipation always outran fear. Before Xinyu could even voice her unease, the aliens burst into giggles and began guiding the members forward.
“Cute, right?!” Kaede’s bright shout rang out from afar.
The twelve members who had been scattered across entirely different worlds rushed into one another’s arms as soon as they reunited.
Jiyeon and Lynn even pointed at each other’s outfits, joking that they’d somehow ended up in matching couple looks.
But Xinyu’s steps led her toward a quiet corner instead of the plaza. Beside a small patch of sand, Sohyun was crouched down.
She was watching as one of the aliens drew pictures on the ground.
“Mm, mm. Okay. And then?”
Sohyun brushed her hair back with a serious look, then lifted her head as she sensed Xinyu nearby.
“Oh, you look beautiful.”
“Of course I do.” Xinyu spun in place with her usual playful grin.
“What are you doing?”
“I think I know what they want.” Sohyun propped her chin on her hand, deep in thought. “Seeing it as a drawing makes it clearer. This whale is supposed to be at rest, but…”
She raised both hands in the air, then let them drop with a trembling motion.
“It suddenly started moving. So if it means stabbing its heart… that’s the only way to stop the whale and bring peace back to the universe.”
The alien in front of Sohyun broke into a wide grin and threw both arms into the air. It seemed Sohyun’s interpretation was right.
Can you even speak alien now? Xinyu marveled. Then, all of a sudden, a familiar vibration buzzed from inside her skirt pocket. It was her phone.
How on earth is a phone getting a signal in space?
“Nakyoung?”
Nakyoung’s voice over the phone was full of urgency. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.” Mixed noises crackled through the line.
“Whatever happens, don’t kill that whale! You hear me? No matter what…”
Then the call cut off.
While Xinyu was still reeling from the sudden message, the aliens were putting on a small performance in front of the members.
Twenty-four of them, dressed in ornate costumes like a transformed tripleS, launched into a synchronized dance.
They gripped their sticks like spears, repeatedly jabbing at a sphere that looked just like the whale’s heart.
Don’t do that?
Xinyu tried calling Nakyoung again, but all she got was an automated voice telling her she was outside the service area.
What do we do? Worry tightened Xinyu’s face as she looked at Sohyun.
Thirty minutes before the call, somewhere out in deep space…
How am I supposed to make sense of this mess? Dahyun gnashed her teeth.
Seoyeon’s charge the moment that meteor-like craft crashed into the stadium had been nothing short of heroic.
Even so, those colossal skeletal fingers brushed them aside like eraser shavings across a desk. And now, six members were barely staying afloat in a thick, sticky blue sea.
All except Seoyeon, still sinking under the weight of her armor.
“No way!” Kotone burst out of the water, the first to dive after Seoyeon as she went under. “And down there, I saw like skeletal sharks? Whales? A whole bunch of them, charging at us.”
“I’m good at diving,” Seoah cut in.
“Seoah.” Dahyun lowered her voice, stern and heavy. “Just staying afloat is all we need from you right now. We can’t lose another person here.”
Seoah’s lips trembled into a pout.
Great job, Seo Dahyun.
Dahyun averted her gaze from Seoah. She might as well have admitted they had already lost one.
She could’ve softened her words, covered it up somehow, yet she chose to spit out the truth, harsh and bare. She hated herself for it.
“What about the spacecraft? It fell here with us, right? Someone check it.”
Before the sentence even ended, Nakyoung swam toward the egg-shaped craft. Her strokes looked clumsy, like a dog paddle, but she moved fast enough.
The problem came with the rain. Droplets began falling, tiny as dust, but so hard they sent sharp pain ripping through the skin. Dahyun cupped her hands and caught a handful of glittering fragments.
Diamonds.
She remembered a fun science fact Yooyeon once told her: Neptune had diamond rain.
Each shimmering speck burst across the surface, sending ripples outward. But instead of overlapping like normal waves, every ring met in the middle and collided, erasing each other in perfect symmetry.
It broke every law of nature. Yooyeon would lose her mind over this. Either that or fall in love with it.
“It’s wrecked!”
Nakyoung yelled, hands cupped around her mouth.
Still, it could be shelter from the rain.
“Ko-chan.” Dahyun placed a hand firmly on Kotone’s shoulder. “Take the others and get under that thing. You can do it, right?”
“Of course.”
Kotone nodded. That confident grin of hers, the one that showed the slightest flash of upper teeth, was strangely reassuring.
Dahyun pretended to follow the others, then, the moment everyone drifted far enough away, she dove straight into the water.
Her eyes burned like fire, but after a few desperate blinks, she adjusted. Bare-boned fish swam toward her with violent intent.
Ignore them. Just go straight.
Dahyun squeezed her eyes shut and plunged deeper into the dark, and at last, she reached Seoyeon.
Even lifting Seoyeon’s body the slightest bit felt like her arms were about to shatter. By the time she realized she needed to strip off that armor, Dahyun’s lungs were already screaming.
Please.
Dahyun clutched Seoyeon and the armor still weighing her down and begged in silence.
If one of us has to sink, let it be me. Just give me the strength to save Seoyeon. And if I’m honest, I’m scared… so give me the strength to fly up with her.
She was a breath away from losing consciousness.
Then, the metal holding Seoyeon down broke apart and flowed toward Dahyun, wrapping around her instead.
The moment she inherited the armor, air surged back into her chest, and strength flooded her limbs.
Dahyun shot upward like she’d bounced off a trampoline. The surface split with a bright, ringing crack.
The instant she broke through the water, Seoyeon gasped violently in her arms, coughing up air.
Thank goodness.
Dahyun heard the cheers of the others as she drifted back toward the wrecked spacecraft. The sharp silver crown sitting crooked on her head irritated her, so she simply shoved it into Kotone’s hands.
“What now?” Nakyoung asked, a mix of relief and dread tangled in her voice. She held Seoyeon’s head on her lap and grumbled, not forgetting to complain even now.
“Seriously, Seoyeon lives life like it’s a video game. Maybe discuss things with us first, genius. Ever heard of teamwork?”
She’s not wrong. Dahyun sank onto the remains of the spacecraft.
“It’d be great if I could fly right now…But I don’t know if I have enough power to carry you all. Moving Seoyeon alone nearly knocked me out.”
The pale, lifeless sunlight outlined the long tailbone of the space whale cutting across the sky.
It was clearly the same creature that had appeared on Earth, shuddering now as if trapped inside a nightmare.
“Oh, holy—what?” Kotone’s voice cut through Dahyun’s trance.
“What? What is it?”
“This crown…” Kotone pointed at the silver piece on her head. “I heard something inside it. Like a whale song, but translated. It…it wants us to save its mother.”
“What are you even saying?” Nakyoung scoffed.
“No, really! I heard it. I still do!” Kotone shot upright. “And you’re the one who had that weird prophetic dream!”
“That’s different,” Nakyoung muttered, pouting. “Whales don’t talk. What is this, penguins in a Seokchonhosu or something?”
“It’s true!” Kotone yelled back. Around them, three smaller skeletal whales circled restlessly.
“You sure, Tone?” Dahyun stepped back.
Every time she met those hollow eyes, vertigo twisted in her chest. Every snap of their jaws made her wonder if she’d be eaten next.
They were terrifying to look at; nothing about them was beautiful.
Kotone leaned forward until her forehead pressed against the skull of one whale.
“They used to live peacefully here,” she whispered, eyes closed as if listening for every syllable. “But the Mocos came.”
“Moco?” Nien tilted her head.
“Pink aliens,” Kotone said, wincing. “Neptune whales are apparently the only creatures in the universe that can move between wave and particle states.
That’s why the Mocos showed up to exploit that ability. They caught the adults, froze them…and used their bodies as cities.”
“But that huge whale attacked us,” Nakyoung objected. “I mean, it literally tried to kill us.”
“It didn’t mean to,” Kotone murmured, stroking the whale’s bone. “And the Mocos, if they want to, they’ll kill the mother. The one we saw on Earth.”
“You’re kidding.” Nakyoung trembled. “Why not just go save her themselves? They can fly, obviously.” She pointed at the massive whale overhead.
“No, they have to be adult whales to fly.” Kotone snapped.
Nakyoung backed off with a shrug. “Could’ve said that earlier.”
“So that means,” Nien counted under her breath, “we’re supposed to save that whale now. Right? How?”
“By flying up there,” Dahyun said, pushing herself to her feet. Her whole body felt impossibly heavy, but she still believed she could do it. She had to.
But her attempt to launch into the air fell short. She merely hopped, slipping on the spacecraft’s slick surface, and Nien had to catch her before she fell back into the sea.
“No,” Nien said firmly. “Not like this. We need something else…”
Then Seoah spoke up from the water, eyes wide. “What if we go together?”
“Together?”
“Yes. With the whales.”
Oh.
Dahyun finally understood. Maybe this shining silver armor wasn’t meant to burden one person at all.
“Seoah, thank you.” Dahyun steadied herself beside Kotone, letting the three skeletal baby whales gather around her.
Beyond beauty, look past the surface.
Dahyun placed her palm on the whale’s skull. It was warmer than expected.
The silver material that had once wrapped Seoyeon, then Dahyun, unraveled into countless threads. They spun through the air, weaving three sets of wings.
The whales launched skyward, all at once.
“Wow,” Kotone breathed. “This means we ride them, right?”
“Apparently.” Dahyun shrugged, feeling lighter.
Right… why did I think I had to stand alone? There are twenty-four of us. One might stumble, but together, we will never fall.
The six climbed onto their mounts in pairs. Kotone threw her arms around Seoah and took off first, then Nakyoung shoved the barely conscious Seoyeon into position.
Lastly, Dahyun and Nien mounted the last whale.
Terror still crawled across Dahyun’s skin, but with Nien giggling like she was on a roller coaster, even fear felt manageable.
Then parts of the whales’ wings scattered like scales, drifting down to form flowing yet weighty outfits around Dahyun and the others.
The baby whales carved through the pitch-black darkness, weaving back and forth as they closed the distance to their mother.
“Hold on,” Nien said, pointing toward the giant whale’s mouth. “Aren’t those… our girls?”
Sharp eyes. Inside the mouth of the massive whale, freshly turned from the sun, six members, Xinyu included, were darting through the bone corridors, welcomed by the pink aliens they had only ever heard about in stories.
Nakyoung suddenly pulled out her phone.
“That’s not gonna work,” Kotone snapped.
“I don’t care. Worth a try.” Nakyoung pressed the screen to her face and waited.
And waited… Someone picked up. She fired her words like bullets.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Whatever happens, don’t kill that whale! You hear me? No matter what…” Nakyoung froze, expression hollowing. “…It cut out.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere…
Hayeon could only whisper one word: wow.
She and five other members had woken inside a space wrapped in thin and pulsating like muscle membranes, stretching in every direction.
Ivory-like tubes pierced through the walls, and though they had slid down through those tunnels, they weren’t wide enough to climb back out. The entire chamber throbbed, rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
It felt as if they had stepped into the heart of some enormous creature capable of swallowing worlds. A heart filled not with blood vessels, but with telescopes.
But the telescopes weren’t what interested Hayeon. Nor was she concerned about why her body brimmed with energy.
Energy like this only came during an adrenaline-spiked performance. All six members now wore snow-white magical-girl outfits, but that alone couldn’t explain it.
Are we dead? Hayeon wondered silently.
Is that why I feel so strong? Is this the afterlife?
“We should do something,” Hayeon said flatly. “We can’t just sit here knowing nothing.”
Maybe it was the spark they needed because the girls, who had been slumped over moments ago, began buzzing with noise again.
The spacecraft’s pilot seemed to agree, hopping in place.
The alien was bright pink, wearing a single round lens over one eye, with pupils black as the night sky. However, communication was the problem.
“Hey, look!” Yubin tapped Yeonji’s shoulder. “The others are here.”
“What?”
“Lee Jiwoo. She’s hopeless with machines, but somehow she got the focus right.” Yubin pointed, slack-jawed, at one of the telescopic lenses.
It showed Earth—or more precisely, the stadium where the disaster had struck.
And there they were, the entire group of tripleS. All twenty-four, not just eighteen.
“But we’re there too,” Hayeon murmured. Is this some kind of astral projection? Or…
“Oh! I think I get it,” Jiwoo cut in. “My hands are empty, but it’s like I’m holding slime. Look! Isn’t that version of me down there touching slime?”
Soomin, nose pressed to the lens, gasped. “Wow. She is. In the corner. Playing with slime.”
“Then I know what this means.” Jiwoo strutted toward Yubin, smug. “Slap me.”
“What?”
“Hurry up.”
Yubin never asked twice. A loud slap echoed across the room.
“Ow,” Jiwoo whined.
“Obviously, it hurts. I slapped you,” Yubin scoffed.
Jiwoo pouted, then turned to Hayeon. “See that?”
“Captain Hayeon has made her observation,” Hayeon answered dramatically. “They reacted to it. Look.”
On Earth, Jiwoo flinched, clutching her cheek, confusion written all over her face.
“So we interact with them,” Joobin muttered, scratching her head. “I don’t know how it works, but the question is… how can we use this?”
“Ohh, that’s my Joobin,” Soomin teased.
“No, seriously. We’re all half goofing off, and Joobin’s the most responsible one here,” Yubin laughed.
“Maybe you should learn from, Captain.”
Soomin turned the point of the conversation back toward Hayeon. It didn’t matter how many times Hayeon demanded, “Why am I the leader?” Sudden as it was, the authority behind it felt unquestionable.
Truth be told, she didn’t hate it.
Leading five people through a place she didn’t even understand was overwhelming, yes, but earning that kind of trust without asking for it filled her with a quiet joy she couldn’t deny.
“Alright, let’s organize this,” Hayeon said, clapping her hands.
“First, our actual bodies didn’t teleport. We’re split, like astral doubles.
Second, that… fox-bunny-thing over there is supposed to be our guide, but we can’t understand a word it says.
Third, we have no clue where the other members are.”
“Then we look for them,” Yeonji said, cutting straight to the point.
“Right. Then here’s the mission.” Hayeon snapped her fingers. “We use every lens in this chamber to locate our members. They might not be on Earth at all.”
The girls rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Searching for members scattered somewhere in the universe was like hunting for a needle in a cosmic haystack.
“All I see are spacecrafts and cities,” Jiwoo complained. “There are so many… why didn’t Earth ever detect them?”
“Good question,” Yubin replied lazily.
Hayeon sighed and glared at the pink alien. Would it kill you to explain something, you pilot? The creature only meowed again, as if desperately trying to communicate.
If it was intended to look for us, it should’ve packed a translator. Did it lose it?
Suddenly, Yeonji and Joobin gasped, clutching each other’s hands. “I think we found them.”
“Who?” Hayeon’s face lit up.
They followed Yeonji’s pointing finger…and froze. Just beyond a thin outer membrane, the shadows of tripleS flickered. Xinyu, Sullin, and ten others stood poised with long spears. And farther away, six more members sprinted forward, Nakyoung shouting, “Don’t do it!”
“We’re right here!” Hayeon shouted back. No reaction. Not even a flinch. Their voices couldn’t reach beyond the barrier.
“Are we trapped?” Soomin asked weakly, half joking, like humor might save them from a panic attack.
“Everyone, step back.” Hayeon drew a breath.
No matter how physically divided tripleS had become, she could only pray that their hearts hadn’t fractured too.
Q. What will happen in the next scene?
1. Heart lurches / Wall falls, but whale stops
2. Walking Dead / Members became skeletons
3. Spits out / Whale spits out all members
4. Inner Conflict / Members clash beyond the wall
