Between Earth and Elsewhere

How long is this crazy girl going to keep following me? Yeomyung wondered, eyeing the girl perched on the stairway that led uphill.

Maybe she’d had another target who moved away, and he was just the unlucky replacement. Yeomyung walked briskly past, refusing to make eye contact.

Like clockwork, she followed him again today—just as she had yesterday, the day before, and every day for the past five days. And as always, her wild rambling continued.

“I’m not just asking you to take me with you. I can be useful! I’ve lived on Earth for twenty-two years. I could teach you how to blend in, how to talk like an Earthling. See how well I speak? You barely talk because you’re not used to Earth’s language, right? Am I right?”

Yeomyung wondered if she only did this during his evening commute, or if she harassed others throughout the day. How did she even survive? Probably lived off her parents. They must be at their wit’s end with a daughter like this—maybe they let her roam hoping she’d meet with an accident.

“I may look weak, but I’ve fought reptilians before and won! But there are too many now. They keep multiplying. At first, I could spot them easily, but now… now I can’t tell who’s who anymore. They’re everywhere, harassing me. I need to leave Earth, fast.”

For five straight days, she’d trail behind him, talking herself breathless until she’d collapse, wheezing and gasping.

The first day, when he heard her desperate gasping, he’d turned back. She’d looked so fragile he thought she might die right there. That would’ve been trouble. So he’d kept his distance, waited for her to recover, then headed home.

“If you keep ignoring me…” she wheezed, “I’ll expose you as an alien! I’ll put up flyers everywhere! Then you can’t complete your secret mission—you’ll have to return to space in disgrace. Let me help you! I can help with the mission… All you need to do is take me with you… Oh God, I’m dying…”

Yeomyung stopped walking and turned around.

There she was, still dragging herself after him.

Something felt off.

Had her stamina improved? That shouldn’t be possible, but…

Yeomyung suddenly realized she was getting closer to his house each day. On day one, she’d collapsed at the bottom of the hill, far from his home. Now here she was, kneeling before him, gasping.

The pattern clicked: today, she’d been waiting under the streetlight three-quarters up the hill. Yesterday, she’d collapsed at that same spot. The day before, she’d made it to the blue-gated house below. Three days ago, the supermarket. Four days ago, the hill’s base.

She wasn’t randomly following him—she’d been starting each day from where she’d last given up. Yeomyung let out a dry laugh. He’d written her off as just crazy, but she was craftier than he’d thought. She was systematically working her way toward finding his home.

He couldn’t let that happen.

“Hey,” he said.

She looked up.

“Stop following me. Before I call the police.”

The girl’s face split into a grin. “We’re almost at your house.”

A chill ran down Yeomyung’s spine.

After glancing around the empty street, he crouched down to her level. “Go away. Do you think I won’t call the police?”

“If you were going to call them, you would’ve done it already.”

“It was borderline before. Five days of stalking, and now you’re near my house? That’s enough for the police.”

“Your Earth language is pretty good.”

Yeomyung realized threats wouldn’t work. He lowered his voice. “We’re almost at my house. Do you understand what that means?”

“That I’ll see your hidden spaceship?”

“You’re insane… You don’t even know what I might do to you inside, yet you keep following?”

The girl’s pupils trembled.

Thinking he’d finally gotten through to her, Yeomyung started to stand. Then she burst out, “Are you… going to modify my body?”

Yeomyung was speechless.

“I’m ready!” the girl exclaimed. “Do whatever you want, just take me with you! Please, I’m begging you!”

She clasped her hands together, still on her knees. Yeomyung jumped back, startled.

The girl looked ready to cry. A few passersby glanced their way.

She’s doing this on purpose, Yeomyung realized. She wanted to corner him, though he couldn’t guess why. A sinking feeling told him he’d attracted the wrong person’s attention.

He turned and began striding up the left hill.

The girl struggled to her feet, legs wobbling as she stumbled after him.

“Don’t leave me! Please, don’t leave me!”

Her voice held such raw desperation that Yeomyung turned back instinctively. Tears welled in her eyes as she stumbled toward him.

That desperation made him turn away again.

Desperation repulsed him. The sight of people clinging, their relentless drive—it filled Yeomyung with disgust.

That tenacious willpower. Responsibility. Family obligations. His grandmother’s endless scratching through the night. His dad’s unsettling, unchanging face—never laughing, never crying. His mom’s early morning clatter that always broke his sleep…

Why did everyone have to be so desperate? Always ruining the peace with their relentless pursuit of… what? If people just stopped wanting, stopped trying so hard, wouldn’t life be simpler? When stuck in mud, why not surrender to the sinking? Wouldn’t that bring more peace?

What did this girl want so badly? To go to space? Could people really wish for something that desperately? Was it impossible for humans to live without desperate wants? If so, maybe he wasn’t human. Maybe the girl’s ravings held a grain of truth.

Yeomyung ran up the hill.

He ran until he reached an empty lot near the top. Looking back, the girl was gone—probably collapsed somewhere, gasping for air.

Yeomyung himself was winded, sweat trickling down his neck and back. He dropped onto a bench to catch his breath.

After recovering, he took a different path down. A short walk brought him to his house, where he would have arrived if he’d taken the right path up.

Tomorrow, the girl would be waiting on the left path, searching for someone who wouldn’t come.

***

“I can’t eat all this.”

His grandmother scraped half her rice into Hyeonmyung’s bowl, leaving trails of kimchi and soy sauce mixed in.

Hyeonmyung didn’t hide his disgust.

His dad caught the look and said, “Mom, not again. Just eat what you’re served. Don’t go sneaking to the kitchen at dawn and fall like last time.”

“I won’t, I won’t.”

“Remember how much the hospital cost? How everyone suffered? Please, just eat your portion.”

“I can’t eat this much. Why are you shouting? I can hear you fine when you speak normally.”

“When have you ever heard us speaking normally? You’re always saying ‘What? What?’”

“When… when did I ever do that?”

“Really? You’re saying you never— This is driving me crazy.”

“I’ve lived too long, haven’t I? Should’ve died earlier… now you’re yelling at your poor mother…” Her voice quivered before breaking into sobs.

His dad released a heavy sigh, as if something was stuck inside him.

Used to the routine, Hyeonmyung quietly returned his grandmother’s rice to his dad’s bowl and ate his original portion.

Yeomyung ate in silence.

When do humans stop learning? he wondered. Living together this long, you’d think they’d learn to avoid fights. Yet here they were, having the same argument three or four times a week. They’d probably continue until death parted them.

Yeomyung felt trapped in a cycle—miserable, but not unbearable.

He put his empty bowl in the sink. “I’ll clean up around two.”

No one answered.

He slipped on his shoes and headed out, climbing the stairs to the street.

The air outside was just as humid and stuffy. Yeomyung lit a cigarette under the streetlight.

Cicadas filled the silence. He preferred their sound to human voices, which rarely made sense to him.

He exhaled smoke into the night.

“They’re everywhere, harassing me. I need to leave Earth, fast.”

Why had her words suddenly surfaced in his mind?

Maybe because he felt harassed too. Maybe because he also wanted to leave Earth.

He realized he hadn’t seen her in days—hadn’t even thought about her since leaving her on the path last Friday. Counting back… four days had passed.

Was she still waiting there?

Yeomyung checked his watch: 8:30 p.m. Three hours later than his usual return time.

He crushed his cigarette under his slipper and took a few steps toward home.

Then stopped.

After a moment’s hesitation, he turned and headed downhill. Nothing special waited for him at home anyway, and he was curious. Might as well check.

At the junction, he climbed the left path, keeping his footsteps silent. A small figure appeared in the distance—curly hair, dress, thin limbs.

Yeomyung pressed against the wall, creeping closer. It was too dark to see clearly, but it had to be her. Had she really come every day?

Sweat trickled down his neck as he watched. Even if she had, it wasn’t his problem. He hadn’t asked her to wait. Why should he worry about a crazy stalker’s wellbeing?

He squinted. At first, he thought she was crouching from exhaustion, but no—she was drawing something. A circle around herself.

She reached into a plastic bag and pulled out what looked like a metal rod.

Standing, she faced the sky and muttered something. Then she raised the rod high above her head.

“Oh, leader of the Third Galaxy of Gandatubas! If you can hear my voice, please respond!”