Voices overlapped sharply from beyond the inner wall. At first, Sohyun’s calm tone cut through now and then, but even that was soon swallowed by the turmoil.
What are they even doing?
Hayeon stamped her foot, itching to burst out right this second. But that was all she could do.
Even if the whale’s heart were to let her out kindly, there was no way she could calm twenty-four people at once.
Jeong Hayeon was the “official all-rounder.” In other words, she didn’t have any one ability that truly stood out when a crisis hit.
Chaeyeon unnie can run things. Jiyeon unnie can dance ballet. Dahyun unnie can lead people. And me? Seriously, what even am I?
Before tears could even well up, Hayeon fanned her face with both hands. Even the confidence that was usually her greatest weapon was plummeting.
In the middle of it all, one of the Mocos stumbled and bumped into Mayu, and the sharp tip of the spear she was holding pricked the membrane of the whale’s heart.
BOOOOOONG BOOONG. BOONG. The whale’s scream boomed like thunder.
And then the world flipped over. Before Hayeon could even grasp what was happening, a violent gale ripped through everything.
When she finally came to, she and the other five members were fluttering like sheets of paper, drifting through open space.
They must have been blown out through the whale’s blowhole.
Right after that, the whale threw its head back and spat out a boulder the size of an asteroid. All eighteen members were clinging to it.
Nien’s voice, “Hold on tight!” overlapped with Hyerin’s terrified scream… and to make matters worse, the rock carrying them was headed straight for Earth.
If it keeps going like that, they’ll fall and die. But worse than the impending impact was the fact that Hayeon wanted to jump onto that meteor.
If the six of them were only going to drift through space, lonely and scattered, then she would rather face the end together with all twenty-four.
Holding tight to Soomin’s, Yeonji’s, and Joobin’s hands so they wouldn’t be swept away, Hayeon stared blankly at the meteor.
They probably don’t even know we’re still here. She was in the middle of that bitter thought when the pink-haired member clinging to the rock lifted her head.
It was Kim Chaewon. Someone, Hayeon couldn’t have been happier to see shot upright and locked eyes with her.
“Breakfall!” Chaewon cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted.
“What?!”
“Breakfall! You know it!”
Right. Hayeon let out a short, incredulous laugh.
Sure, “martial-arts girl” might be Chaewon’s thing, but she herself had learned it too.
How ridiculous that she had let her broadcast persona bury her real abilities.
Once we get home, I’m drawing you as many caricatures as you want. Hayeon poured silent gratitude toward Chaewon.
“Guys, catch me!”
The moment the words left her mouth, all six members, and even the aliens who had been swept out with them, linked up into a single line.
Using drifting space debris as stepping-stones, Hayeon pushed off one after another.
The momentum in zero gravity sent them all soaring, then brought them down onto the meteor’s surface.
She rolled and caught the members who dropped a beat later. Everyone was safe.
“Nice!”
Right then, the meteor entered the atmosphere, and a curtain of flames bloomed around them.
From here on… Hayeon hesitated for a split second, then shrugged lightly. We’re together. We’ll make it through.
In the middle of the fall…
Seoah watched in silence. She carefully observed everything.
The falling meteor, the twenty-four members clinging to it, and even the one alien that had been dragged along for the ride.
One of Seoah’s greatest strengths was that she never acted rashly; she rather poured all her effort into assessing the situation first.
“It’s fine. Most meteors burn up as they fall, so this one will just—poof—and disappear…” Yooyeon headed toward the edge of the rock, then glanced back with a baffled look. “Okay, why is this one… totally fine?”
“All the better for us,” Seoyeon said, speaking for the first time after having been dazed for so long.
“Means we’ll have plenty of time to get answers. Bring the pilot here. We can finally hear what’s really going on.”
“Right now?” Nakyoung protested.
“If not now, when?”
All eyes turned to the pilot, Moco. The creature hopped about urgently, then tried to explain something through wild gestures, but none of it made sense to anyone.
“Oh, right. I’m the only one who hears this.”
Kotone, who had been listening intently to the alien’s endless rambling, took off the crown and placed it on the Moco’s head instead.
“There. Now it should translate, right?”
The moment Kotone finished speaking, questions flooded in: “What was happening?” “Why are the countless ships invisible from Earth?” “Why was there a divide between what they could and couldn’t touch?” and “What that whale truly was,” all of them surging toward her like a foaming wave of question marks.
But the first thing that came out of the Moco’s mouth was nowhere near a tidy answer.
“Why are there so many people?”
“Oh, look who’s talking!” Kaede shot back.
“How was I supposed to know all of you would get involved?” the Moco said, folding its arms as it strode into the middle.
Before long, the twenty-four members sitting in a circle around it had turned into a tribunal.
“Then who were you trying to call if not us?” Nakyoung raised her hand for no real reason.
Moco turned its head in disbelief. “That kid! The one at the concert!”
The Moco tapped the pendant at its neck, and a hologram of an unfamiliar girl appeared. She looked about Seoah’s age, and that alone made Seoah feel a strange sense of kinship.
“Her?!” Seoyeon lurched to her feet and nearly lost her balance, supported just in time by Dahyun.
For Seoah, this might have been the first time she’d ever seen Seoyeon truly raise her voice.
“Why? You know her?” Nien asked.
“I saw her at a fansign,” Seoyeon said, pressing her fingers to her brow. Her face had gone so pale that her skull-like features showed through.
“She couldn’t say anything. She just cried. I don’t even know her name. What does she have to do with any of this?”
The Moco sighed and adjusted its monocle.
“I should have explained from the start. Fine, fine, blame me for losing the translator. Though maybe blame yourself as well, for burning the key on fighting the moment you got it.
Anyway, that girl woke Zenith. The whale our city is inside. The ground shook like an earthquake.”
The Moco plucked the broken sword out of Seoyeon’s hand.
“You’ve probably figured it out already. Unlike you, we are beings made of waves, not particles.”
“Ohhh, so that’s why,” Sion clapped softly. “That’s why we couldn’t touch the moon rover. And why we couldn’t see those cities from Earth, even though they were right next door. So if there were, say, a loaf of bread made out of waves, we could eat it like this, right?”
“…Right?” The Moco frowned.
“Thank goodness.”
The Moco cleared its throat.
“In any case, we were living perfectly fine using wave technology. We could leave the original particle-form intact and create copies.
That’s why the city from the Sun exists identically inside Zenith, and why you can be here while remaining on Earth at the same time.”
Xinyu nodded in understanding, while beside her, Yubin whispered something to Jiwoo.
“Can you imagine how perfect this is? Things made of particles can’t hurt us. We’re practically immortal.”
“That’s not technology. That’s stolen whale power!” Kotone planted her hands on her hips.
“Yeah, yeah, call it what you like,” the Moco grumbled.
“But what exactly did we do wrong? The whale isn’t even dead. Its heart stopped, yes, but it could beat again at any time.
If it had just stayed asleep, we could have gone on peacefully. Then it suddenly woke up because some girl cried at the exact frequency of Zenith’s heart!”
“What kind of crying does that?” Hyerin tilted her head. “What on earth happened to her?”
“No idea. What I do know is that right before I decided to go down to Earth, she had decided to leave it.
The concert? She only went because she heard a meteor would fall.”
“So the girl’s crying resonated and restarted the heart? Like shattering a glass with your voice?” Yooyeon pressed her hand to her forehead.
“I… I just can’t accept that. Even if arguing won’t change anything, I can’t accept it.”
“So what were you planning to do with her?” Seoyeon asked, one hand calming Yooyeon.
“Lock her up. As always.”
The Moco shrugged as though it were the most natural answer imaginable.
“Then the whale goes back to sleep. We just use the key to load her into Zenith’s rocket. It’s what our ancestors have always done. Twenty-four times, in fact.”
“So that mural was about that?” Xinyu muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. “But then why tell us to stab the heart?”
“That much won’t kill it. It’s just a ceremony. And to the other Moco, you were the first guests they’d had in centuries, so…” The Moco trailed off.
Seoyeon’s brows knit. “Fine. Then what happens to the girl once you lock her away? Do you split her like us, detach a wave-copy, and only imprison that? The real girl keeps living back on Earth?”
The Moco avoided her eyes and forced a thin smile. The implication made the entire circle stir uneasily.
“Right now, that is the only method we have,” the Moco said quietly.
“Since we’re already heading to Earth anyway, we may as well do it properly. Hand the girl over to me. I’ll restore you all to normal afterward.
Then you go back to your lives. Keep doing your idol thing. It’s none of my concern.”
10 minutes later
Seoah had deliberately placed herself a little way away from the heated discussion.
Whether they accepted Moco’s proposal or not was something the older members would decide.
People always said Seoah was mature for her age, but she knew very well that praise like that often came with the expectation that she should stay tied down by it.
Just like Dahyun had said back on Neptune, the youngest’s job was simply not to get hurt. Even if she wanted to do more, stillness was considered a virtue.
She stared blankly at the flames licking the edge of the falling meteor. Soon, she felt someone settle quietly beside her.
“What are you doing, fire-gazing? Ugh, cute.” It was Lynn.
Seoah turned her head away for no real reason.
Lynn calling her cute was nothing new, but right now it only made her uneasy.
“Why? Are you scared? We’ll probably be able to go home soon. So don’t worry.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… weird.” Seoah pouted.
“You heard them. That girl cried, and that woke the whale Zenith up.
If she cried, she must have been hurting over something. So the plan is to sacrifice her to save the world?”
If the universe had been thrown into crisis because of one child’s grief, why was that child’s happiness not valued as highly as the universe itself?
Weren’t the two worth the same? Seoah could not accept Moco’s logic.
“It is kind of strange.” Lynn gently patted Seoah’s head. “If it bothers you that much, why not go say something?”
“Should I?” Seoah asked back.
“What do you have to lose?” Lynn shrugged.
Maybe she’s right. Seoah steadied herself and headed straight into the center of the circle of older members.
With every step, her thoughts fell into clearer order. By the time she reached the middle, her resolve had distilled into a single, simple sentence.
She took a deep breath.
“We’ll stay.”
Every eye, including Moco’s, swung toward her.
“The Neptune whales wanted to see their mother. So do we really have to put Zenith back to sleep?”
Seoah continued before Moco could interrupt, shaking her head a little.
“Since it’s already awake, why don’t we just… let it live freely?
If the problem is that the cities shake when Zenith moves, then we can make a smooth route for it.
We live together. And if something goes wrong, we can calm it down with the power we’ve been given. All we have to do is stay. No one needs to be locked up.”
She squared her shoulders and waited.
“Seoah, think carefully,” Sohyun said gently. “I get how you feel, but this decides whether we can ever go home again.”
I know. Seoah nodded. And I’ve already made up my mind.
The first to agree with her was Joobin.
“Yeah. Even if we stay here, it doesn’t mean we’ll be cut off from everyone forever. Whatever our bodies on Earth experience, those memories and emotions will come straight back to us here…”
Several members, including Jiwoo, looked at Seoah and Joobin as if unsure whether to believe them.
“Then let’s vote,” Seoah pressed forward. She couldn’t back down now.
“We all think about it for a bit, then decide, do we bring that girl here, or do we stay instead? If even one person is against staying, we go back.”
A murmur rolled through the group, and soon it felt as though everyone had accepted the Seoah’s proposal.
They were given five minutes.
Seoah watched Xinyu and Hyerin speaking in worried tones, Yooyeon and Seoyeon sharing a deep conversation, and even Chaewon, usually playful, joining in with an uncharacteristically serious face.
During that time, the meteor slowly cracked open, and through the fissures the Earth came into view.
They were close enough now to distinguish countries, mountain ranges dusted with snow, and cities glimmering faintly below.
So today really is Christmas… or maybe Christmas Eve? Seoah took a small step back from the fracture.
There suddenly seemed to be so much she was about to lose.
If she chose to remain with Zenith, she would never again hold her doll Toto, never again eat a perfect bowl of spicy bibim-naengmyeon.
There would be no Christmas spent with family. Even though it had been her idea, her heart faltered.
But it was still bearable. If she could save even one person, she was ready to give everything.
That had been the very reason she’d wanted to become an idol in the first place. Job aside, she wanted to become someone others could lean on.
Someone who gave strength just by existing, someone who, even indirectly, could save a life.
Now that she truly had become that kind of person, it was time to act on it. Seoah resolved to protect that younger fan’s life.
When the time was up, all twenty-four members stood in a circle.
They turned their backs toward the center and closed their eyes.
Moco presided from within the ring, muttering for quite a while about how “none of this was remotely normal” before clearing his throat.
“All who wish to remain here as guardians of Zenith and the Moco, raise your hands.”
“And those who wish to seal the cause of all this inside the rocket and return to your original lives…”
A breath of silence passed.
“That’s enough,” Moco sighed. “Unanimous.”
Reactions varied.
Mayu and Nien smiled bitterly, Sullin let out a breath of relief, Nakyoung simply collapsed to the ground, but beneath all of them lay the same emotion.
It was the right thing to do.
Everything moved quickly after that. Kotone suggested summoning the baby whales; Hayeon called them with a dolphin-like whistle; Xinyu and Dahyun organized boarding; Sullin checked, one by one, that no one was missing.
They were the same older sisters Seoah had always known, only now they looked even more reliable.
“You did well,” Seoyeon said as she lifted Seoah onto one of the smaller whales. “Really well.”
“This time, yeah…” Seoah hesitated. “But now we really have to live here. What if I was wrong?”
Seoyeon didn’t answer for a while. Then she climbed on behind Seoah and grinned.
“That’s what I’m here for, to fix things if something goes wrong,” she said brightly.
“Don’t go acting like you’re all grown up already. You’ve got a long way to go.”
With that, the baby whales surged upward. The meteor that had once loomed so ominously shattered apart.
Seoah watched until every fragment melted away like candle wax before finally facing forward again. Stars embroidered the void of space like snowflakes scattering in stage lights.
“Merry Christmas,” Seoyeon said with a smile.
After returning to Zenith, the members began debating how to carry out Seoah’s plan.
In the end, after a long discussion, tripleS concluded. Just as chance had split them apart, they would divide into four teams of six.
Each team would head to the Moon, the Sun, and Neptune.
Alongside the Moco, building beacons on each celestial body so Zenith could follow a safe, fixed course. One team would remain inside Zenith itself, tending to its heart and making sure the Moco did not do anything rash.
“And since it doesn’t look like these transformations are going away anytime soon…” Sullin smiled slightly. “Why don’t we help the Moco rebuild their cities so that, eventually, they can leave Zenith altogether? Then Zenith can go back to living peacefully on Neptune.”
The members responded with warmth and enthusiasm.
Even the pilot Moco, who had looked sour the entire time, finally dropped his shoulders in resignation. At Seoah’s feet, it muttered.
“Superheroes. All of you.”
Hero.
It clearly meant it as a grumble, but Seoah’s heart still raced.
Just like when her debut had first been confirmed, she was suddenly full of expectation for a new life.
It felt strange that tripleS would now be split into four, but just as they had always been twenty-four and one, they could become four and one as well.
There was nothing left to worry about.
This is going to be fun.
