I looked up when I heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. A few moments later a quite bare Jimin with nothing but a skimpy towel around his waist walked in.

I couldn't help it. My eyes immediately swept over his bare upper body appreciatively, taking it all in. The Marks covered his chest and abdominal area the most, transforming his torso into a web of shimmering silver lines.

And speaking of the abdominal area, oof, I really did need to start taking notes on this guy's workout routine. Something fluttered a little in my stomach.

"Feel better?" I asked, suppressing the feeling.

Jimin crossed the room and jerked his arm towards me. "You tell me."

I leaned forward. The injured skin around the Marks was more of a soft pink now than the angry red it had been a little bit ago. Thankfully the Marks weren't bleeding anymore. "It appears better. It just looks like you might've gotten a nasty burn."

Jimin withdrew to the other side of the room with an unimpressed grunt. "Should've healed all the way by now," he muttered.

"What was that?"

Jimin opened a drawer and pulled out several pieces of clothing. "You've learned in school haven't you? Us Outworlders have regenerative healing factors in our blood that allows us to heal from cuts and injuries within the minute."

I did learn about that in school though it had slipped my mind. Mainly because I was absolutely mystified how superglue could even cause so much damage on his skin in the first place.

"The fact that this injury isn't closing up as fast is... interesting," Jimin finished, pausing to glance down his arm once again.

I could sense the other word he'd been wanting to use: concerning.

Thankfully when I'd finally managed to free him after twenty minutes of painstakingly dabbing warm water all over his body, we only found one other place where the Marks had been irritated from the glue on his leg, though it was nowhere as bad as the damage done to his arms.

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged as he pulled on boxers underneath the wrapped towel, never mind that he was basically getting changed right in front of my vulnerable eyes.

"It's your funeral," he said cheerfully. "I have yet to figure out how I'm going to win the next round but I promise you it's going to be memorable."

I grimaced at that. "No but seriously, Jimin." I leaned forward. "If I'd known the glue was going to hurt you like that I never would've done it."

He paused and glanced over at me. A curious glint shone in his eyes. "You're kind of a different little biped, aren't you partner?"

I frowned. "Huh?"

"I believe you, Jiyeon." Jimin shrugged. "I'm sure you didn't know. Even I don't know why the glue caused my Marks bleed." He paused. "It's just, most humans I've encountered really don't care about Outworlders."

Surprise filtered through me at that. "You guys live among us though," I pointed out. "You guys work with us, play with us.... You're integrated in our society. Do we not care for you?"

"You do know that labor laws are different for Outworlders than they are humans, right?" asked Jimin quietly.

No I hadn't.

By now Jimin had slipped on some jeans and he discarded the towel around his waist. "The average working hours for humans is 8, right?"

I nodded.

"The average working hours for Outworlders is 11," he said. "Also, we don't have protection for our minors like humans do. Our minors can be overworked and not compensated for overtime. And that's just one difference people often overlook."

Holy crap. Labor law repercussions could be severe, especially if employers did not follow the rules with human minors. I'd never realized... no, it barely even crossed my mind if the laws applied to extraterrestrials.

"Why doesn't the Infinity Council do anything?"

"We invaded your home, technically speaking," said Jimin. "We really don't have the right to demand equity at the moment. Especially as there are still people who remember Earth before us."

"But you yourself didn't invade Earth, your parents did. You couldn't help that you were born here."

"It doesn't matter. I'm still an alien."

I sighed and glanced up at the ceiling. "Well. I hope that whatever I do when I grow up help changes this inequality."

Jimin snorted.

I scowled at him. "I'm serious!"

"Why do you even care so much about what happens to my kind?"

I stared at him. "No one deserves to be pushed down or undermined. Yes, you guys invaded Earth. But humans have accepted you guys into society. Not to mention you guys... you have no other choice, right?"

Jimin wordlessly looked away, mouth thinning a little.

No one knew much about the original planet the Outworlders had come from; and the Outworlders themselves were unforthcoming with such information. It was almost like a taboo to even speak about their origins in public places.

All we humans knew was that their home planet had been called Valgard, located in a system near the outer rim of the Milky Way Galaxy.

And that something terrible had driven the Outworlders from their home.

"Outworlders came here to save their race," I added. When Jimin still remained silent I cleared my throat. "Anyways, you guys are integrated in our society now. Shouldn't extraterrestrials receive the rights we humans do?"

"Perhaps." The uncharacteristically sharp edge in his tone told me the conversation was over.

I'd always had a soft spot in my heart for the aliens. I never knew why. My parents and grandparents were wrong to wanting to segregate the aliens. Their motives were understandable, but that didn't mean it was right.

Now, more than ever, I hoped that I could somehow contribute and change the way Outworlders lived among us. If it weren't for the Marks, and yes, the morphing, Outworlders could be mistaken to be just like us humans.

It was the Marks that immediately alerted people what they were. It was their skin that set them apart from "everyone else".

The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully. Jimin had head out later in the morning to run errands and 'take care of business' as he'd worded. That gave me the opportunity to curl up on the couch and hit online school.

After coronavirus, the educational system had heavily shifted teaching onto digital platforms. I only had to go to in-person school about two days a week now.

It was late afternoon when I finally clicked my laptop shut, having completed my assignments.

Jimin still hadn't come back yet. I briefly wondered what exactly he did. Did he go to trade school? Did he work?

I knew extraterrestrials often went to trade school or jumped straight into working full-time after high school. Only a few of them actually went to college. I briefly wondered if that was just another subtle sign that I'd missed that showed aliens weren't held equally in society— the inability to get higher education.

I headed to the bathroom to wash my face. My eyes were feeling a little strained from the screen all day.

I'd just closed the door and turned on the faucet when a soft skittering sound caught my attention.

I turned just as hundreds—and I mean hundreds—of large cockroaches spilled out from under the toilet seat. They began crawling towards me.

A shriek tore from me and I ran for the door. But the handle was locked.

I was trapped.

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