The ‘Empire’ Strikes Back…

'Ahh… The clouds are beautiful.'

"Yohan"

'I wonder what it tastes like.'

"Yohan"

'Maybe a water flavored vape. Well… I don't like smoking though.'

"YOHAN!"

Yohan jolted and immediately looked at Mr. Razor, who yelled out his name.

"I've been trying to call you for the past four times. You haven't been answering me at all."

"Um, sorry Mr. Razor, I was just staring at the-"

"Just answer the question Mr. Kim, you all still have a survey to take. You don't want to hold the class too long, don't you?" Mr. Razor asked, while tapping his right foot at a fast tempo, impatiently waiting for Yohan's response.

The whole class stared at him; he felt his body heating up with the amount of attention he's gotten.

"Mitochondria, Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cells." Yohan answered.

"Huh, indeed you're listening. Mitochondria is in fact the powerhouse of-" As Yohan heard Mr. Razor trail off to lecturing again, he looked to his right and made eye-contact with Ana who, shortly, looked away towards the teacher.

Ana was often considered the 'Ice-Queen' in his grade. She had blonde hair, glacial blue eyes, smooth glass skin, athletic in volleyball, and sprinkled on top of that. She has a FAT. Personality - But recent news about her father's death who served in the military made people distant towards her.

But hell, she's way above Yohan's league, and he knew that. He considered himself average. Average face, average grades, average life, he couldn't help but think that he was going to live 'The American Dream.' Not that he was American though.

The thought of it made Yohan's face seem exhausted and paid attention back towards the lecture.

"And now you'll all need to take a quick survey that has been sent all around the school's district." Who then started passing out the paper to each student.

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BE HONEST, What are you afraid of?

Darkness

Monsters

Death

All of above

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'Seems they're already in Halloween spirits even if it's the 3rd of October.'

"Mr. Razor, is this for a district Halloween event?" A curious classmate asked.

"Hmm…" Mr. Razor took a second to think about it, until he responded, "I think it's just for fun."

"Then I guess I'll pick d), I hate them all."

After pondering for a moment - Yohan chose none. He reasoned with himself, "Death is something you can't help but accept at any moment, everyone goes through death. Also, if a big scary monster so happen exist - I'd try to beat the fuck out of it since I have asthma. And Darkness. That shit is child's play, Blind people have lived with darkness for their entire lives. Being scared of the dark is for pussies." - Yohan 2022.

He wrote, 'e) None,' under the answer d) before circling it as his answer.

After he gave back the paper to Mr. Razor, the final bell rang and his legs energetically stood up. Before exiting out the classroom, he felt a soft grab from his right shoulder. Right away he felt irritated.

Socializing felt unnecessary to Yohan, and really wanted to make this conversation quick. So he looked behind him and saw that it was Ana. The annoyed face from Yohan shifted to curiosity after facing her.

'Well, Well, Well. The one and only Ana just touched an average looking Asian boy, that has to be a first.'

Yohan faced her and couldn't register the reason why she wanted his attention though, before she inquired and asked, "Why did you write 'none'?"

"Well. Because it said to be honest." Yohan responded, as he hesitated with his words.

"But it wasn't an option."

"I made it an option." He replied swiftly, slowly gazing off her hypnotic eyes.

People started to notice Ana was talking to the quiet guy from her class. She looked annoyed, then gave up the conversation and strode down the hall in long strides like a runway model.

'I wonder what that's all about.'

But Yohan couldn't be more interested, because today he was about to buy a book for his birthday.

* * *

It was already sundown when Yohan arrived after taking a quick pit stop from the nearest bookstore.

"Happy birthday! Congrats on turning 17, we're so proud of you!" That's what he imagined when he opened the front door of his Aunt's house, yet all he got was a hello from 'BooBoo.' Well, he didn't mind, since he knew that this was going to happen like every other year when it's his birthday. So he just petted BooBoo as she ran away towards the living room.

"Is that you Yo-Yo? Can you take out BooBoo for me, I think she needs to take a piss."

BooBoo sprung back to Yohan with her golden fur flapping up and down, as she leaped through the air, onto the grass to take a piss. While he waited, the houses around him all looked the same, just like every suburb in California.

"Come on BooBoo, time to come in." Yohan ordered the pup with a tired tone. The small golden pup ran back inside with a very content smile across her face.

"Yohan, come here!"

"What is it Jack!" Yohan was about to go up the stairs before expectedly hearing Jack calling out his name.

"I used 5 dollars to go. Buy. Chips from… Da gash shtation." He answered while munching down on the chips.

Yohan stormed into the living room where his cousin, Jack, gulped down his last chips while playing video-games from the T.V.

Jack looked at Yohan with a big smirk on his face. "Can you also throw this baggy away for me, thanks." Jack said, and threw the empty party-size chips directly towards Yohan's face. As it bounced off Yohan's forehead.

'Send your prayers.'

Yohan whined up his right leg to kick the empty party-sized chips into Jack's bitchy confidence - until he got interrupted by his uncle, Todd, from the other side of the room.

"Yohan! I'll give you 2 dollars by the end of this month." Uncle Todd said aggressively.

"But it's the start of October." Yohan tried protesting.

"Shush! I'm trying to read this article." Todd responded, while taking a sip of coffee from the dining room area.

"Oh sweetie, can you take out the garbage?" Aunt Seol chimed in coming from the same side where Todd was, but making sandwiches for dinner.

The frustration from Yohan died out slowly after hearing Aunt Seol's voice, this wasn't the first time Jack caused him trouble. Jack stared at him with contentment. He was a tall, big, white-freckled kid, only being a freshman in high school. Must've been a linebacker for the NFL before getting reincarnated.

Yohan sighed, he couldn't really do anything in the house. Living with his Aunt and Uncle was rough; they weren't his son anyways. Yohan was originally from Seoul until his parents died from a car accident, which made him have to move at an early age with his Mom's sister. Uncle Todd was never close with Yohan; he was a caucasian gambling addict that wasted all of Yohan's parent's money when they died. He's a total jackass, but Aunt Seol was always a little more lenient towards Yohan.

'Whatever'

He decided to go out and throw away the garbage as ordered, until suddenly out of nowhere he noticed something. Yohan rubbed his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was clear.

It was a strange cube-like structure hovering up above the clear dark skies. The structure was as big as the moon and looked menacing over the glistering white stars. This made Yohan feel shivers across his body.

What in the mothafuckin Great Value knock-off Star Wars is this?

Out of the blue - a text appeared right in front of him.

==========

Invitation to Aegnap

Accept? [Y/N] (300 sec.)

==========

Is this a hologram? It's floating right in front of me.

His right pocket started buzzing with notifications. Before he could check, he heard a loud scream. "AHH!" It was definitely Aunt Seol's.

Yohan immediately dropped the trash and hurried back inside to investigate what the hell was going on. Is this an alien invasion? End of the world? Is that what god really looks like? So many questions raced through Yohan's mind when running back inside. He quickly found Aunt Seol and Uncle Todd in the living room. Aunt Seol was kneeling down with tears flowing down her face. Todd was holding his hands together, sitting down on the couch in the living room, acting like he was always religious.

Immediately, Aunt Seol found Yohan right beside her and roared loudly. "MY BOY, J-Jack. He dis-disappeared after all devices announced an emergency. Where is he!"

"What does this mean? What does this mean!" Uncle Todd cried out repeatedly, trying to comfort himself with a slice of sandwich.

The beat of Yohan's heart started to pace up. That's when he looked at the flat screen T.V.

- - - - - - - - - -

!EMERGENCY!

EXTRATERRESTRIAL ACTIVITY IS ACTIVE.

PLEASE REMAIN CALM BY ALL MEANS AND STAY INSIDE THE NEAREST SHELTER.

- - - - - - - - - -

Yohan tried to gather his thoughts on what's happening while staring at the blue hologram screen

==========

Invitation to Aegnap

Accept? [Y/N] (30 sec.)

==========

'This situation is impossible, but there's evidence right in front of me that this is no joke. The end of the world is here.'

The palms of Yohan started to get sweaty when looking at the number counting down.

(15 sec.)

"Jesus oh Heavenly Father-." Aunt Seol started praying out of nowhere.

(10 sec.)

'Think, you've watched too many Star Wars movies before and know for a fact, that's Darth Vader in the cube right now.'

(5 sec.)

(4 sec.)

"Honey, I got the shotgun, don't worry." Uncle Todd professed.

(3 sec.)

(2 sec.)

"Let's go to the basement Yohan."

(1 sec.)

Death was right in front him. And there's nothing he can do but accept it.

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You have been registered.

Teleportation activating in (3 sec.)

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'Shit.'

"You damn brat there's no time for you to…"

Then… Yohan's mind went blank.