Like solving a mathematical problem, let’s analyze with simple eyes.

If the culprit is not an alien, there must be someone throwing a huge rock, or something similar to a rock, into Nam’s room. Though a big rock can break the glass window easily, it’s not that easy to move the tool away. It’s in the victim’s room, right? But no one mentioned something like a rock when they talked about Nam as if there wasn’t any rock.

All of us know the sound when someone throws a rock through the window. ‘Shatter’, and that sound is loud for sure. But the sign taking the neighbors to Nam’s house is the scream of his parents, not that sound. So, if the tool is not a big rock, then what breaks the window, causing no sounds and leaving a big hole in the road?

If we suppose the culprit is something nonhuman, we have another scary scene.

The time when that thing attacked Nam was half past thirteen. I didn’t check the clock, but according to Long’s irritating call at fourteen o’clock, I can guess that Nam was playing Sky Force, and I was his opponent then. Theoretically, my action was unrelated. Who will care about the brat whom the victim is talking with if we are going to slash his throat with superpower? Even if the others can come in time, they still cannot save a dead body. To prevent other people from recognizing the face, the culprit can do something much easier: just break the computer.

So why was my family’s electrical fuse switched off and Nam’s computer remains?

I don’t believe that it was just a coincidence, even a bit. But it’s not the worst problem here.

“I don’t think that you’re stalked or something, dude. According to your theory, what did ‘they’ attack Nam for? They didn’t even hurt him much. And your story is not enough to make it a hypothesis. We need a link.”

Although Long the brat is greedy and not faithful at all, his brain deserves to be called ‘genius’ because of his extremely sharp mind in all cases. In this circumstance, we turn back to the party, sitting in a corner, enjoying all the luxury we created while everyone is having fun. On behalf of a friend, what Long does when I am scared is… to make everything worse.

“W-what… What’s the link?”

It is absolutely right when saying that only the victim can feel the fear. Since the moment I discovered that something damn abnormal is targeting me, those freaky feelings have already filled my stomach and I can’t eat anything else. Anxiety tortures me, but the brat sitting next to me still orders one more roasted turkey and eats in joy while using his sharp brain to scare me.

After ‘destroying’ half of a roasted turkey, Long puts a bone on the table and tells me with his mouth still chewing a turkey wing, “Suppose it was Nam’s accident,” then this brat pulls the turkey bone from his mouth and leaves it in another place on the table, “And this one is your problem.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Mine is not full of saliva this way.”

“Whatever, it’s just a symbol, haha.” He laughs, “Between them is a space.” Then he picks two turkey bones on which he left some hideous teeth marks, putting them close to my face, and keeps explaining without caring about hygiene, “And to connect them, we need the motive.”

I pull my chair away from this brat at a slow pace. Because of those disgusting actions, I’m not that much fearful of the aliens.

“Why do you move so far? We’re discussing a top-secret issue, okay?”

“No, no, thanks, we can also talk at this distance. Put those bones down and be hygienic, thank you.” I smile back, “Please remember that your poor friend is being stalked now. Don’t be a fool in this situation.”

Glancing at me, Long throws two turkey bones into the used bowl, which the cleaner will come and collect after the party. While cleaning his fingers with a fragrant handkerchief, Long narrows his eyes.

“It’s not stalking. I have told you, dude, those creatures are not watching you.”

“What’s the proof?” I ask, slowly pulling the chair back to the old position.

“The motive, I have told you, this stupid thing.”

Well, skipping his words, calling me stupid, I have Long’s hypothesis, the updated version of all my analysis.

Why didn’t those nonhuman things kill Nam the poor kid? Long has two potential reasons to explain.

They couldn’t kill him, or they didn’t want to kill him.

If they couldn’t kill Nam, they might have faced some greater danger when killing him. Of course, I don’t know what it was. In case the victim was the other one, such as Long this brat, I might predict that Long has a whole missile system that could be deadly. He is damn rich, right? But Nam was not only poor but also timid and stupid… so this reason is not possible at all.

With the second hypothesis, those freaky creatures left Nam alive but slashed his throat. It is more possible than the first one. But is there anything more important for them than to kill Nam?

When he says to this point, Long gulfs a mouthful of fruit before putting a whole bomb into my mind.

“I guess their true target wasn’t Nam but you. Perhaps Nam, the poor kid, was something of a wrong target.”

I swear, this is the most shocking moment ever. My jaws drop to the ground, and my brain just… stops working. “Are you kidding me?”

“Just the hypothesis.” Long pats my shoulders with a look full of compassion. “And it’s likely that someone or something is protecting you as well. It was the one cutting off the power.”

Then he says nothing, glancing at me as if he is waiting for me, showing some surprising expressions. But, no, though his words are truly shocking and unimaginable, they can’t affect my overloaded mind. I look at Long without emotions, and a thought suddenly rises inside my mind with such a high rate of reliability.

Maybe both of us are crazy now.

I recall my school year. What have I done? Study all the time, just to compete for a ticket to the university. How many hairs have we lost? I can’t figure it out. Those things happening to Nam, the poor victim might just be a normal accident. There is a chance that the glass window did break with a loud noise, but my friends don’t mention it, right? The pressure of study ruins all of us and we are now discussing aliens and some damn thing ‘is protecting me’. It’s enough…

“Hey,” Long realizes my look, which is full of mercy, “Why do you look at me this way? You’re in a severe situation, okay?”

“Yes, me, okay, fine.” I answer, “It’s enough for us all, Long. I understand everything.”

Then I look at the ceiling, listening to the karaoke screen we got at this party. Someone with a husky voice is singing ‘Như Phút Ban Đầu’, a Vietnamese song meaning ‘like the first moment’. That guy’s voice thrusts my ears with the first sentence—and the meaning seems to humiliate me.

“I was like a crazy man because of you…”

It’s not the ‘like’. I was really a crazy man because of you, Long the miserable brat.

But no matter how crazy I am, the stuff named Long doesn’t understand. I don’t understand him either. He might fall into his fictional hypothesis, giving me the feeling that… Aliens are not real, but Long’s craziness is. The damn friendship we’re maintaining can’t make me feel any better now.

Momma, I want to go home!!!

“Dude, I got a conclusion.” The more Long says, the more excited he is, and when he realizes that I’m going to escape, he grasps my arm at a breakneck pace. He stares at me with his creepy glared eyes, which are now shining like street lights on his ‘impressive’ appearance.

Damn.

Now I sympathize with all my teachers who have had to suffer this guy. Whenever Long the brat is interested in something, his expression is exactly the same as an aggressive carnivore. I really want to take his hand out and run away, but I’m so fearful of his brownie face. And how weird it is. I also want to know what the conclusion is.

“W-what…” 

“Dude, you may have the fate of being a cosmic hero! Someone is protecting you in the dark, sorting out all your enemies and…” Needless to say, you’re crazy, kid.

I close my eyes in pain and helplessness, coming to the door and looking at everyone who is singing and dancing as if this place is an illegal nightclub with ‘weeds’. If it was a normal day, I might get angry, because those idiots are ruining my dear restaurant. But now, nothing in my mind can be greater than the sorrow that my dear friend is already out of his mind. He used to be so smart, so talented, he is even a student of Yale University… What the heck has stolen my friend?

I’m too tired of this world, I swear.

So I just stand there, saying with calmness. “Guys, I’m gonna be home soon. Enjoy the party.”

After announcing that, I feel so relieved. Today is enough for my fragile heart. I don’t understand why everyone pays all their attention to the fictional topic called ‘aliens’, but I’m weak. My health is not enough to think of the reason my crush is gossiping loudly that way as if everything is real. I walk towards the outside world in Khanh’s noisy voice, thinking that my first love is gone with those damn aliens.

“Nguyệt Anh, are you coming home now?” How sudden it is, I hear her voice.

I turn back and see Khanh standing at the door. “Yeah, what’s the matter?”

“Can you do me a favor, please?”