angel horns ; norenmin [ ✓ ]

magic bandages¹⁶

shotaro blinked a few times and wiped his eyes, refusing to believe he just saw his uncle disappear with two other people right before his eyes. where had uncle nana gone? was he going to stay gone for a day or two like last time?

the young boy's stomach bubbled with worry as he hurried back up the stairs and into his room. he had to tell his dads, but he doubted they would see his text because they were on a date.

playing with the bottom of his old faded t-shirt, he then thought to ask his best friend about what had happened. maybe he knew.

shotaro knew how yuta was about him having other people's phone numbers, and he was jealous that his seventeen-year-old uncle was never constantly questioned about who he was texting, but shotaro knew it was only his friends. jaemin's friends were really nice.

hardly any of shotaro's friends have phones anyways, so the amount of people he would like to text and call was still fairly limited anyways. of course, he had uncle nana's and his dads' numbers, but he also had sungchan's.

okay, his dads didn't know about that, nor did they need to.

it was way too late for his best friend to pick up, but he surprised him by doing it anyways despite the fact he wanted him to.

"sungchan," he said into his phone. "i need your help."

"it's way too late for me to be using my phone," sungchan retorted. "if my parents come, i'll have to hide it and then call you back. anyways, what's up?"

"so, remember when i told you about my uncle disappearing?" shotaro asked his best friend, moving from his dresser to lay on his bed.

"uh-huh. isn't he back home?"

"yes, but he left again," shotaro told him. "like, i saw him with two other boys and then poof! he's gone like he wasn't there at all! do you know what that is?"

"sounds like teleporting," sungchan said thoughtfully. "ah, my mum's coming, hold on."

shotaro's best friend hung up on him. after a few minutes, sungchan was calling again and shotaro happily answered.

"like i was saying before i almost got caught," sungchan started with a snort. "sounds like teleporting or something, i dunno."'

"we can do that?" shotaro asked in awe. "do you think i can teleport to uncle nana?"

"er — if we could, we would know," sungchan retorted. "maybe those other people weren't even... human."

shotaro gasped. "then... are they aliens? aliens are real?"

"could be," sungchan replied. "what else could they be? humans can't do that."

"uncle nana got kidnapped by aliens so that's why he disappeared!" shotaro concluded, though that idea sounded way too far-fetched.

"taro, honey, who are you talking to?" came a voice from the doorway. shotaro had been too into his conversation with his best friend, he hadn't noticed sicheng opening his bedroom door to check on him.

surprised, shotaro whipped around his head to see his dad, giving him a curious look. "it's too late and way past your bedtime," sicheng continued.

"it's just my friend," shotaro said, putting down his phone without hanging up as he attempted to hold back an outburst.

"ah," sicheng nodded slowly, his frown remaining. "well, someone broke one of my plates downstairs and didn't even clean it all up. was that you or jae — "

"jaemin disappeared!" shotaro burst out. "there was these two guys with him and then they poofed away!"

all the colour drained from sicheng's face. "shénme?"