I clutched his sweater tightly, watching everyone with wide eyes. They ignored me, as usual, but I still felt jittery with fear as we made our way through the crowd.

How had I ended up with him, though? I always told myself I would meet him someday. I never dreamed it would be like this, on this planet, surrounded by Differs, though.

We stopped, and he hugged me closer to himself. Once again my stomach fluttered. I chided myself. We were the only Earthlies among the Differs and Rances. He wasn't just trying to keep me, and to think so would be selfish. He was holding on to Earth, too.

As was I, I supposed.

"Sorry," I apologised for the I-don't-know-th time. "Sorry it has to be me..."

He shook his head and frowned, glancing at me with disbelief and anger towards whatever made me feel like I wasn't good enough to be here with him, as he'd done so many times before.

I blushed madly under his gaze, even though it was only on me for less than a second.

He tugged me closer and softly spoke, "No. Stop saying that. I wouldn't have chosen anyone else, if it would've been up to me."

I knew this was a lie. He hasn't known of my existence until we were thrown together on the stupid spacecraft to send us away as "exchange citizens".

I hated the idea of the Exchange Program for Better Futures, but I had been chosen to be one of the few subjects for the organisation.

He had been chosen too, and not even within the small group of exchange citizens had he noticed me, little Skylar.

The chosen "volunteers" were sent to the three other life-sustaining planets. There was Earth, of course, and four Other Worlds besides. The one he and I were on was called Differant, and the people here were called the Differs and Rances, based on which Differant cultures they lived by.

The world closest to our system was called Musacia. It sounded wonderful there. Two of the seven exchangees from Earth had web sent there, to the planet of joy and music and laughter and dancing. Much different from here.

The remaining three exchange subjects had been sent to the third Other World, Lakiñetaro. Lakiñetaro was said to be worse than even here on Differant, so Earth had sent three exchangees there instead of just two, like every where else.

The fourth planet was forbidden. No one knew why, but it was sort of just a natural thought that it was the "bad place." You weren't supposed to say it's name.

And obviously, he and I had been sent to the remaining planet: Differant. The journey here had been easy enough, but every moment since arrival has been chaos. I thought that eventually I would get used to the heavy crouds and depressed air, but even after a week of enduring the sickening place, I was no less Earthly and more Differant than when I had arrived.

But I wasn't the only one. When we arrived at Differance's International Beyond Station(they called outer space "the beyond" here, in translation), the transporters had instantly loaded he and I off the ship and we were buried into a throng of Differs. At that time, I was used to small gatherings, not large ones, and definitely not crowds like these. He was used to crowds, what with being famous on Earth and all, but it had even terrified him at how many beings were mashed into the station.

I had quickly lost sight of him in the thick crowd, and I had panicked, thinking I'd never see him again and that I would be stranded on a foreign planet with just myself. I had retreated to the wall and flattened myself against it, sobbing and watching desperately for a glimpse of his trademark hairstyle, or his leather boots, or SOMETHING.

And just as I had been about to give up, accept that I was alone, he had found me, throwing his arms around me and crying into my hair. I remember feeling so relieved, so grateful, as we sobbed into each other's arms. I had discovered the feel of his sweater, now familiar to me, up close for the first time. It was magical, however depressing the situation had been. It was strange how quickly two individual could bond with one another, given specific circumstances.

And here we were now, huddled together outside in the city, making our way along to the hotel within the massive swarm of Differs.

Occasionally we would see a Rance, but not often here. This was the Differ half of the Differant world. Rances were very welcome, as beings here loved what Earthlies would call "tourists" or "visitors", but no one liked to travel here.

"Wonder why," I snorted silently to myself. It took hours to get anywhere specific because of the densely packed swarms about the streets, airports, spaceports, grocery stores, and— well, everywhere else.

We continued on, and he still didn't loosen his grip on me. I was blushing again, being so close to him. He was, after all, my fairytale-reality.

How had this happened? Why me? What does he REALLY think about this setup?

There I was, back to my Earthly habits, trying to figure out the mind of this amazing boy. Back to trying to put myself in my idol's shoes. Back to fangirling. Back to ridiculous hope.

Back to thinking about him. Back to thinking about Harry Styles.