Archive of Our Own ^beta

it all happened way too quickly for kunhang to be afraid. he was never one to believe in aliens, well it wasn’t that he didn’t believe they were out there but the idea that they would actually visit earth and abduct people seemed completely outlandish and ridiculous to him. so when he was approached by a kind looking man in the street and asked in an accent that he had never heard before whether he would like to join an interesting research programme, kunhang never thought that agreeing would be consenting to being taken to an exoplanet in the next galaxy. he’d have to tell renjun about this when he got back to earth.

the aliens seemed kind enough. kunhang supposed, or rather he hoped. maybe they weren’t kind enough to explain the ins and outs of the operation before sedating him and making him wake up alone and confused on some kind of sci-fi looking spaceship… but other than that they had been completely accommodating.

it was, of course, hard to communicate at first. the man who had initially approached him was the only one who could speak any human language so any words he wanted to say would first have to be typed into a complex translating app, then would be spoken out by the computer that followed him around in perhaps the weirdest language the boy had ever heard.

he found out many interesting things whilst aboard the ship, this was their first mission to earth, he was the first human they had taken in for research and aliens weren’t so different to humans. in fact, the only difference seemed to be that they considered kunhang an alien rather than considering themselves to be. so all in all, whilst still on the spaceship, the human considered his alien abduction experience to be an all around positive one.

the trip to the planet ‘AH-875’ or as the ‘aliens’ seemed to call it ‘weishen’ didn’t take as long as kunhang had initially expected. he assumed he would be onboard for months, if not years considering the fact that it took humans 3 days to reach even the orbit of the moon. yet, his mind reminded that he had forgotten the fact that the aliens must’ve been much more technologically advanced than the humans from earth were considering the fact that they had managed to reach earth in the first place. so, realistically, the fact that the journey only took a little over two weeks wasn’t that surprising at all.

it was when they reached the planet that kunhang first fully felt completely overwhelmed. considering he had been abducted by aliens, he had managed to stay quite calm and level-headed on the ship yet as soon as he stepped off, that all changed.
the sky was almost littered with floating vehicles, kunhang couldn’t say they were cars because they looked almost nothing like one. in appearance they were more like small cable cars except for the fact that there was no cable and they appeared to just be floating in thin air.

there was barely any space on the ground between the buildings, in fact the only flat ground that kunhang had seen since landing was a small park near the airfield where they had touched down. heck, even the airfield itself had been on top of the ‘inter-planet’ airport that they had entered.

“this is like star wars,’ he had commented off-handedly to his guide who looked completely confused by his words.

“what is star wars?” she had asked in the same robotic voice that she had when introducing herself to kunhang. the boy still wasn’t entirely sure whether she was human or simply an android. anything seemed possible on the planet weishen.

“a movie,” he replied back to her and recognition flashed through her usually emotionless eyes before she gave him a smile and continued walking into the airport.

the inside of the building was like nothing kunhang had ever seen before, where earth has e-passports and interviews to get into countries, weishen had instant facial recognition and all interviews were pre-done in the visitors home planet to increase efficiency. for lack of a better explanation, kunhang thought that it truly was like a different world. oddly though, no one even batted an eyelid at kunhang, the two planets seemed to be largely the same where fashion and appearance was concerned. it was comforting, honestly, to see that there was at least one factor that could remind him of home. although, his guide had assured him, the researcher that he would be staying with was extremely ‘humanised’ and staying in his apartment would be just like being at home.

“he’s just like you,” she smiled almost affectionately, “he speaks like you too, he got his accent from watching all of the human movies that we managed to bring back from our missions, he has all sorts of odd old gadgets like a television, a cd player and a mobile phone and things like that. here we just use our mind wall to display anything we like on our wall, it’s so much easier because you just have to think and it will appear,” she explained as they walked through various corridors towards the parking lot.

“so did you used to have televisions?” kunhang asked curiously.

“we had something extremely similar, it was called the d-box but it hasn’t been used in long over 600 years,” she replied. kunhang was again, left bewildered.

when they entered the parking lot, the human boy was barely surprised to see hundreds of the ‘floating cable cars’ lined up perfectly in rows. what was surprising, however, was the fact that his guide simply walked over to hers and just opened the door, there was no lock or security system at all.

“don’t you have to lock your um..... floating cable car?” he asked finally.

she chuckled lightly before shaking her head, “no, it recognises me and i just told it there would be two people,” she spoke as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

“but you didn’t say anything?” kunhang protested. “i told it with my mind.”

“oh, of course,” he laughed lowly. for every second he spent in weishen, kunhang began to feel more and more like he had entered some kind of science fiction film or novel. he spent the entire ride to his researcher’s house wondering whether he was simply in a coma and all of this was a vivid hallucination, he made a mental note to ask his researcher this if they weren’t terrifying.

when the floating cable car finally stopped on top of a rather normal (by weishen standards) looking house, kunhang exited after his guide and this time wasn’t surprised when she just walked straight inside the building without need for a key. as soon as they stepped inside, a wave of comforting familiarity swept over the boy. it looked positively, human. they were stood in the living room, there was a sofa, a coffee table, a tv and some kind of device that kunhang had never seen before but he assumed it was some kind of fancy drinks machine.

“your researcher is on his way home,” the guide spoke after a few minutes, “he says you can put something on the television while you wait, somehow his genius mind has managed to connect it to human channels so i’m sure you will find something you’ll like.”

kunhang nodded before grabbing the remote and switching on the tv. it was surprising that it was exactly the same as his television back on earth, even the ‘samsung’ logo was printed proudly on the bottom as if a reminder that earth was simply hundreds of years behind weishen in terms of development.

he flicked through the channels for a few minutes as his guide looked on in bewilderment. it was almost funny seeing her being the one out of her depth rather than it being kunhang himself who was confused by literally everything going on around him. it was only when he finally clicked on a rerun of pokemon that he had seem numerous times that someone joined them in the living room.

he heard his guide speak to the man he couldn’t quite see in the strange alien language, he only assumed she was talking about him but regardless of what they were speaking of, the man’s voice seemed infinitely excited.

when the alien man finally rounded the corner and kunhang rested his eyes upon him for the first time, the human boy felt as if his entire body was on fire. he had rarely ever, no scratch that, he had undoubtedly never seen anyone that attractive. the alien had high cheek bones that were accentuated by his sharp eyebrows and piercing eyes. his soft looking hair fell beautifully onto his forehead and the beret that rested on top of it suited his face perfectly. if kunhang had known that aliens looked like this rather than the odd green things he saw in movies, he would’ve signed up to be abducted years ago.

“hi,” the alien greeted him with a perfect accent, “i’m xiao dejun.”

“wong kunhang,” the human managed to squeak out but not before his face blushed a deep red.

“i hope you’re comfortable here,” dejun continued, “i furnished this house to make it as human friendly as possible as soon as they told me that i’d have a human staying with me.”

“yes it’s the most normal thing i’ve seen in weeks,” kunhang grinned and dejun seemed to beam at this. the human boy thought that he might have to compliment the alien at every given opportunity if it meant he got to see that smile.

“well, i’ll be off then to give you time to settle in and get to know each other, they did make you sign all of the documents and things on the ship right kunhang?” the guide asked.

“no i didn’t sign anything,’ he spoke and she simply rolled her eyes.

“they’re useless, probably don’t even know what paper is,” she mumbled under her breath, “god knows how they got the job working with humans.” dejun seemed amused at this.

“i’ll print off new forms for him that’s no problem,” dejun smiled and the guide thanked him before leaving.

as soon as dejun confirmed that the door was closed, he turned around to take a proper look at kunhang. the boy felt almost uncomfortable under dejun’s curious gaze but the alien didn’t really seem to care as he started walking a full circle around the human boy.

“sorry if i’m making you uncomfortable,” he spoke upon seeing the nervous gaze on kunhang’s face, “you’re just not what i expected at all.”

“what did you expect?” kunhang questioned back with the single ounce of confidence he had.

“i wasn’t sure really,” dejun hummed, “i knew what humans looked like of course but your humour in your movies and television is usually so unfunny that i assumed you barely had any intelligence however upon meeting you i feel as if i am sorely mistaken.”

“you speak so nicely,” kunhang blurted out, “you can speak better than i can.’

dejun beamed once again at the compliment, “it’s a great honour to be told that by a human.”

moving in was easy considering kunhang had literally no items with him other than his wallet and mobile phone. he showed both to dejun when he fished them from the pockets of the clothes he was given before stepping off the ship, “oh wow, i’ve never seen a mobile phone in real life,” the aliens eyes lit up in excitement.

“you’ll be disappointed with this one,” kunhang began, “it’s so old and barely works anymore, not to mention the screen is cracked because my best friend yukhei let it slip out of his big ass hands.” it was then that kunhang stopped and looked at dejun, “i even complain about yukhei to aliens,” he thought aloud before giggling.

“well nothing about you has been disappointing so far kunhang,” dejun began, “plus it’s nice that you feel comfortable enough around me that you’re telling me these things already, i’m just like you really, we’re the same age which i think is why they let me be assigned to the first human we’ve ever had here.”

“or maybe it’s because you’re really smart,” kunhang said simply, “my mom always told me to never sell myself short so i am now relaying that to you.”

“ah, thank you,” dejun smiled brightly and kunhang swore that he saw a faint blush across the alien’s cheeks.

their first night together proved that although he knew most things, a lot of human customs were still foreign to dejun and of course, most weishen customs were still foreign to kunhang. this was proved in the fact that he simply couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet. it seemed that dejun hadn’t quite known how human toilets worked considering that not many characters in human tv shows ever seemed to use them. it took huge amounts of courage on kunhang’s behalf to call for his alien host and explain the situation.

“what’s wrong?” dejun appeared almost immediately and looked wildly concerned about kunhang’s welfare.

“i uh......” the human stuttered over his words, “how do you flush the toilet?” he asked.

“oh,” dejun blushed softly, “i didn’t know how to build a human toilet,” he said sheepishly, “they never show it in tv shows so i improvised.” the alien then proceeded to tap the toilet seat twice before an opaque film covered the entire toilet bowl and a loud suction noise was heard. the look on kunhang’s face must have spoke for itself because after a minute of silence had passed dejun spoke again, “i’m taking it that’s not how human toilets work at all.”

“no,” kunhang laughed, “it’s how i wish human toilets worked,” he laughed and dejun smiled an almost fond smile.

“you’re a lot cuter than i assumed humans would be.” kunhang choked on his spit.

“oh my god, i’m so sorry was that offensive, i swear i’ll never say that again,” dejun rambled worriedly, “they say it nicely in movies so i assumed it was a good thing for you.”

“no, no, no,” kunhang countered extremely quickly, “it’s really positive,” he smiled, “it just caught me off guard to hear it be said by someone as cute as you.”

“oh,” dejun spoke softly.

when kunhang lay in the comfiest bed he had ever felt that night, he shook his head in disbelief after recalling their interaction, “i flirted with a fucking alien,” he whispered into the darkness before falling asleep with a warmth surrounding his body.

the next morning, kunhang awoke to the sound of dejun screaming in the kitchen. he instantly pushed back his duvet and pulled on any clothes he could find before rushing to the alien’s aid. when he arrived at the scene, all that could be seen was dejun lying on the floor and a piece of extremely burnt toast lying in the sink.

“uh....” kunhang began, “dejun are you okay?”

the alien instantly stood up and rushed to kunhang before hiding behind his back. “your breakfast maker, i don’t know if i built it wrong but i didn’t realise it would be evil,” he almost cowered.

“what? the toaster? it’s no-” kunhang spoke but his sentence was cut short by a rock hard piece of toast shooting at high speed into the cabinet above it and also landing in the sink, “oh...” he managed to squeak out between his laughs, “dejun, that’s....” he giggled again, “that’s not.....”

kunhang couldn’t even finish his sentence but dejun simply looked confused and afraid, “what’s wrong with it? i built it based on what i saw on tv,” he spoke softly.

“did you see it in a cartoon?” the human questioned and the alien simply nodded in reply, “that’s why then, they don’t usually shoot the toast out they just pop up gently and stay in the toaster, as for the burning,” he paused, “i don’t know why that happened.”

“that’s just my cooking skills,” dejun admitted as he finally moved from where he was all but hid behind the human’s back. when the alien walked towards the sink and dejectedly lifted the two burnt pieces of toast from it, the saddened look on his face was almost enough to break kunhang’s heart.

“i’m sure we can figure this out,” the human spoke suddenly and walked towards the toaster to inspect it. dejun simply looked on with mild concern.

“all of the dials are on the side,” dejun explained as kunhang appeared to be looking for something.

“ah i’ve found it, you had it on 15 minutes,” kunhang explained as he turned the dial back down to 3 instead, “plus i think the springs on this are way too powerful or whatever you put in there to make the toast fly out like that.”

“that might be it,” the alien hummed softly, “maybe we’ll just have to catch it before it hits the cabinet next time.”

“i think that’s the only way,” the human giggled in response before getting to work. he placed a few slices of bread in the toaster and turned the dial up to 4 (which he hoped would correspond to 4 minutes,) then he took the soggy slice of burnt toast from the sink and tossed it into the bin.

“you seem like you know what you’re doing,” dejun commented and kunhang only laughed.

“of course i do, you built this place for humans right?” he flashed his new alien roommate a wide smile, “it’s only natural that i’ll know what i’m doing considering you built it so well.”

“oh,” dejun blushed once again, “thank you.”

they sat down for breakfast then, after kunhang had caught 4 flying pieces of toast just before they hit the bottom of the cupboard above. he found the butter in the fridge and was extremely impressed that dejun had even included the detail of the light switching off just as he closed the door. all in all, kunhang was once again feeling extremely satisfied with his alien abduction experience. not least because of the fact that dejun still remained one of the most beautiful people he had ever seen, alien or not.

“so, what kind of research do you have to do on me?” kunhang questioned as the alien boy stood up to place their plates in the sink.

“oh, i’m not sure if i’m supposed to share that with you,” dejun faltered for a second as he seemed to think hard about the human’s question, “although i’m not sure how much damage it would do considering that you’re basically stuck here anyway, it’s not like you could contact anyone and tell on us.”

kunhang gulped noticeably and dejun seemed to quickly notice his discomfort, “oh my god please don’t worry i swear to you it’s nothing bad and we won’t keep you here too long, i’m not gonna like chop your arm off to see how it works or anything,” he explained, “plus i’m almost entirely convinced that we are the same species, there seems to be no differences between us other than our culture but from what i have gathered from human news that i watched, you still have not figured out how to deal with the bad people of your species.”

“you’re completely correct,” kunhang almost whined, “do you know how many people get robbed on a daily basis? like i don’t know how many either but it’s a whole lot, there’s just so many bad people in the world or i guess my world,” he paused for a second, “have you completely eradicated all bad people here?”

“yes we did it a few centuries ago, of course we still get people who consider committing bad crimes but they never actually take place, the security forces are really strict here so they’ll be on to you in no time,” the alien smiled.

this explanation seemed entirely normal and perfectly good to dejun but kunhang couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy, there was no way they could catch every bad person on the planet before they committed a bad act if the entire population weren’t constantly being watched right? whatever, the human supposed that that was a question for another day.

“so are you actually allowed to tell me what you want to find out and like other information like why or how long you want to keep me here? i know i signed up but yukhei is gonna have noticed that i’m missing by now.” kunhang spoke half jokingly and half seriously.

“oh you mentioned him before right?” dejun smiled kindly, “that was all sorted whilst you were on the ship, he thinks you’ve gone on a backpacking trip where there’s no service, i was told that he was a little confused at first but apparently he believed it much more easily than was expected.”

kunhang was hardly surprised that yukhei just believed what he had been told, “yeah that sounds about right,” the human giggled.

their conversation ended at that and soon dejun had reached for a much more highly technologically advanced ipad looking machine and kunhang was trying really hard not to be nervous about being researched. the alien boy tapped a few buttons and then he refocused his attention on his study subject.

“here’s all the information,” dejun started, “you should be here for any time between a month and a half and two months, you’ll be staying with me the entire time,” he paused to read something from the weird ipad, “we have 5 topics to cover which are: human family relationships, human education, human politics and rulings, human friendships and romantic relationships and finally human crime and bad behaviour, do those sound like things you will be able to give good answers on?”

kunhang searched through his mind quickly before nodding with a smile, “yeah i think i’ll be able to tell you about all of those things.”

“that’s great!” dejun smiled gleefully, “i’m glad they’re all things that you will know about, i wrote the research program myself so i was worried i would have brought up topics that you don’t really have in your society.”

the human felt slightly confused at this comment, he knew that the people of weishen no longer had any crime or bad behaviour but surely they had all of the other things on that list?

dejun knocked him out of his thoughts quickly, “do you feel ready to start with the research today or do you want another day to settle in? i can understand that all of this has probably been a lot to take in for you so i won’t mind if you want a day to process it all.”

“no,” kunhang answered almost too quickly and he swore he saw the alien jump a little, “i like talking to you, it’s interesting to find out about you too.”

“oh,” dejun whispered softly under his breath, “well anything you tell me about your planet i will try to tell you the same of mine,” he sat silently for a second with a light pink spreading across his cheeks before collecting himself and speaking again, “is there a particular topic you want to start with?”

“how about human politics and rulings?” kunhang almost felt his soul leave his body when dejun had mentioned this category, “let’s get the boring one out of the way first.”

“i have to agree,” dejun giggled cutely and no kunhang’s heart definitely did not flutter a little.

“so do you want me to ask you or do you just want to try and explain?” dejun questioned and the human sighed.

“i guess i’ll just try and explain what i know.”

it took kunhang almost two hours to explain the intricate details of the different political systems on earth. from the difference between prime ministers and presidents to how different countries had monarchies that worked differently, kunhang knew a little more about politics than he had originally let on and dejun was a little more interested. his eyes widened in wonder as kunhang spoke of the british royal family and then of how elections worked in democratic countries and how other countries fixed the results. it was extremely fascinating and dejun just wanted to soak up every piece of information that kunhang had to give.

after the human had told everything he knew to dejun, the alien began typing even more ferociously on his weird ipad.

“what’s that thing called that you’re using?” kunhang interrupted him.

“what?” dejun asked in confusion, “what thing?”

“that,” kunhang pointed, “the thing you’re typing on?”

“oh this?”

“it’s an ipad 5006,” dejun commented and although the name had sounded odd in alien language, kunhang knew for sure what dejun had said.

“AN IPAD?!” the human exclaimed excitedly and the alien once again jumped in fear.

“what’s so exciting about that?” he countered.

“we have ipads too!” kunhang announced as if it was the greatest thing he had ever discovered, “we’re only on like the ipad air 2 or something i can’t remember but it’s so weird that we have the same things!”

“well, it’s not that weird if you think about it,” dejun began, “things always have to repeat at some point right? like if there’s infinite worlds there can only be a certain amount of things you can call this right?”

“stop being so smart, you’ve just made me talk about politics for two hours and now you’re saying that? you’re frying my brain,” kunhang complained.

it seemed that frying kunhang’s brain was something that dejun could do very well. during the next few days, they continued to talk about human politics and the human boy got to learn things about weishen politics too. he was fascinated by the idea that the entire planet had only one ruler and he had ruled for the last 39 years which kunhang found a little suspicious but he would never tell dejun that. all of the weishen elections were done online and from their home, the voting period was an hour long and election day was an international holiday, the results were announced instantly as the vote closed. it seemed extremely efficient but kunhang guessed that it was probably too efficient and way to easy to rig.

as well as finding more out about dejun’s planet, kunhang grew closer to the alien himself too. they found it extremely easy to live together, dejun would go out to work some days and kunhang would have a full meal ready for him when he arrived home. the human had gotten used to the aggressive toaster and the oddly well built toilet and the weishen things that dejun had in his home were no longer so foreign and impossible to use. kunhang felt safe and happy in dejun’s little apartment and he was beginning to think of how much he would miss it when he left.

they moved on to their next topic after about a week as dejun had already become bored of constant political conversations and kunhang had no more information left to give. human education was chosen next because kunhang had pointed out again that he wanted to get the boring topics over and done with as quickly as possible.

the first day of this topic passed with kunhang simply explaining the different school systems used in different countries and him showing dejun a picture of his own school that he found on his phone that they had managed to charge up. both boys were extremely fascinated by each other’s experiences and kunhang found himself listening to dejun’s tales of his school in awe. the biggest difference was perhaps the lack of exams in weishen, kunhang gasped aloud at this.

“that’s so unfair!” he whined, “exams are literally the worst thing i’ve ever experienced, i can’t believe you don’t have them here.”

“they were taken from the education system about 250 years ago because they don’t show students full potential just how good they are under pressure,” dejun explained.

“can i just let you know that i’m awful under pressure, my exam grades are so bad, i would’ve done so much better in your education system because it’s not like i’m really dumb i just can’t handle stress,” kunhang ranted and dejun’s eyes seemed to soften.

“i don’t think you’re dumb at all,” he spoke so quietly that kunhang barely heard it and the human felt his heart leap out of his chest. he had already accepted at this point that he was garnering an ever growing crush on his alien host and dejun saying things like that in such a cute way was really not helping.

kunhang’s time staring at dejun’s face as he typed information onto his weird ipad was rather rudely interrupted by an odd sounding doorbell and a shocked dejun running to answer it. the human boy couldn’t think of who could possibly be at the door, it could be dejun’s parents, he supposed, although the alien boy had never mentioned them or it could simply be a friend. regardless, kunhang wasn’t happy with the person’s disruption of their conversation.

“hi kunhang,” an excited voice spoke and the human was shocked to see his guide rounding the corner into the room. dejun seemed equally as shocked to see her but he played the accommodating host and sat her down and served her a cold drink all the same.

“hi!” the human greeted her back happily.

“sorry for just barging in without warning,” she took a sip of her drink, “i just wanted to check up on you and see how you were doing, i know dejun here will have been making sure that you’re okay but it’s part of my job too to make sure that you return to earth mentally stable and thinking that this was a good experience,” she laughs, “we don’t want to send you back traumatised.”

“no it’s going really well, dejun is looking after me perfectly, we’re like best friends now!” kunhang spoke excitedly and dejun just shot him back a fond smile. it was true, after all, because of all the time the boys spent together, it was kind of impossible not to become best friends. kunhang enjoyed learning about dejun and it wasn’t only due to the fact that they were so wildly different because things about weishen and their culture weren’t the only interesting things. the human found himself wanting to know dejun as a person, his weird traits, his bad habits, what made him happy, what annoyed him, his personal views and opinions and everything else.

“how are you finding weishen? i understand you’ll probably be finding a lot out about us from talking to dejun,” the guide asked and kunhang felt himself freeze a little.

weishen didn't seem like a bad place on the surface, in fact it seemed far from it, idyllic almost yet when as kunhang uncovered some of the things that made it this way, he began to feel the increasing sense that there were many things wrong. “it seems like paradise,” he half lied. the idea of no crime and no exams and no war seemed perfect but kunhang couldn’t help but think that the lack of privacy and of the ability to speak out dulled the impact of having all of those wonderful things. the weishen people didn’t seem to mind or know any different at all but as an outsider, kunhang was more able to see the problems in their system and there were many of them.

“i’m glad you like it so much,” the guide grinned, “it sounds like you might miss it here when you have to leave.”

he didn’t even want to think about leaving. the feelings that the human boy had for his alien host had long since surpassed the barriers of what was considered friendly and having to leave dejun knowing that he would never have contact with him again felt heart wrenching. even the alien himself stilled as she spoke and placed down his drink before throwing a light smile at kunhang.

“i’ll miss it a lot,” he spoke honestly, “especially my new best friend.”

“i’ll miss you a lot too,” dejun spoke back as they captured each other’s gaze for a second too long.

“well,” the guide broke the tension that had quickly swarmed the room, “i’ll take my leave now and let you get back to it, it was nice to see you kunhang.”

“it was good to see you too,” he replied kindly before she threw him a wave and dejun showed her out.

it was a few minutes before he returned and kunhang supposed that they were talking, probably about him. however, when dejun did return he didn’t look very happy, “what’s wrong?” kunhang sat up a little in his chair and when the other boy didn’t respond he moved over to sit next to him on the sofa.

“what is it?” he threw an arm over dejun’s shoulder without even thinking but the other didn’t seem to mind. instead he just hung his head and sighed deeply.

“apparently they’re unsatisfied and i should’ve began with the more important topics like relationships and family,” he groaned, “when will they understand that this isn’t all about what we want, you’re a person too and you have emotions and feelings and things that need to be adhered to to make you feel good,” he paused for a second, “i just- they don’t look at you like you are the same as us, they see you as dumb and like you don’t really understand what’s going on and i hate that because you’re so smart kunhang and you know more about life than i do, there’s so much i have to learn from you and it’s the same for them but they just see you as lesser,” he finished his rant.

“dejun, it’s okay, the only person i care about on this whole planet is you and as long as you don’t think i’m dumb or lesser i really don’t mind,” kunhang confessed and he felt his heart beat a little faster when he realised that dejun was upset and angered on his behalf.

“i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have told you all of that i’m just so annoyed by it,” he admitted and the human just responded by shuffling a little closer to dejun and pulling him in for a hug.

the alien boy clung back but their embrace felt awkward and kunhang worried that he had crossed a line so he began to pull back before dejun spoke, “please just stay like this for a bit.” the younger’s heart melted and he didn’t dare to move only to soothingly rub circles on dejun’s back.

after a few minutes, when they finally pulled away, dejun offered him a bright smile, “i can see why your people do that, it feels warm and nice.”

“don’t you hug people?” kunhang questioned back confused.

“no, that’s a you thing that we would consider to be odd, there isn’t much affection shown here nor is there any need to,” dejun explained.

kunhang didn’t want to push him further than he already had so he left the conversation at that but he could tell there was much more for him to find out about weishen. the planet he had thought of as a utopia has turned out to be corrupt and more like a bad dystopian novel than he would’ve liked. in fact, he would say the only positive things he had discovered from the planet were the cool cable car things and dejun himself (of course dejun was by far the best thing.)

they spent the rest of the night without doing any research, kunhang thought that it was best for dejun to forget completely and rather than talking about things that they had to talk about, they spent the night in comfortable silence. kunhang cooked dinner whilst dejun sat on the sofa flicking through the tv channels and settling on a child’s cartoon that kunhang hadn’t watched in at least 13 years. regardless though, the laughed over it together and the human found that his alien friend was surprising good at impressions, it seemed though that dejun was surprisingly good at everything.

“is there a talent you don’t have?” kunhang joked and dejun just turned to face him with a shy smile.

“what do you mean by that?” he questioned curiously.

“well, like you’re super smart, you’re a good singer like i heard you singing your alien songs in the shower-“

“alien songs?” dejun cut kunhang off with a giggle but he just shook his head when the human boy nodded enthusiastically.

“and then you did your impressions and i really just think that there is no talent you don’t have,” kunhang finished his speech with wide eyes and his arms basically flailing. it was evidently a topic he was largely passionate about.

dejun was stumped for a second, he knew that there were many things he wasn’t good at but the vigour in which kunhang had delivered his speech had made him feel more confident about every ability he had than he ever had before.

“i can’t draw,” the alien boy spoke after a while.

“show me, i bet you can, draw a cat,” kunhang said excitedly. he fully expected that dejun was simply being modest and he was actually going to draw a piece that even picasso would be proud of.

the older just sighed before pulling out a marker and a piece of paper, “are you sure you wanna see this?” he asked as he took the lid off the pen and tossed kunhang a warning stare.

“yes i am absolutely positive,” the boy replied.

after the confirmation, dejun got to work on his cat. it took him around 2 minutes to finish and he hid it from kunhang as he drew, this was probably a good idea considering how bad the drawing turned out to be. as he added the finishing touches, dejun snorted and he saw a wide smile begin to form on kunhang’s face.

“i’m sure you’re just over reacting, i bet it’s gonna be really good!” the youngest protested.

“i think you have way too much faith in me,” came the reply and as soon as dejun turned the drawing around despite everything inside of him trying to keep a straight face, kunhang broke into loud uncontrollable laughter.

“oh my god,” he breathed out between laughs and dejun couldn’t help but join in, “i think we’ve found the one thing you can’t do.”

“it’s not that bad is it?” the alien boy stared at the face of his cat and then back at the laughing boy in front of him.

“i mean…” he trailed off before breaking into fits of laughter again, “it’s it’s smile,” he spoke, “it’s so cute but so ugly.”

“you said it’s cute so i’m going to cling on to that and forget everything else you said,” dejun whined jokingly.

“no don’t worry i love it, can you sign it so i can take it home and get it framed?”

“it would be my honour.”

the night passed quickly then, with kunhang drawing his own cat which wasn’t much better despite his protests. they flicked through the music channels on the tv and kunhang sat back in awe at dejun flawlessly belted out halo by beyonce and in turn he rapped anaconda by nicki minaj complete with full freestyle choreography, all in all, kunhang would list that night along with some of the best in his life and he sincerely hoped that dejun would feel the same.

the research began again the next morning and rather than giving in to what he had been told, dejun had said that they would continue to do things the way that kunhang wanted to do them. so again, kunhang spoke about his experiences in school yet this time he talked of his days spent messing around in class with yukhei and skipping classes with his other friend yangyang.

“wait i remember the one time yangyang and i were supposed to be going to class but then he found this dead worm by the school gates and he got really upset by it,” kunhang had to stop halfway through to contain his giggles, “and we didn’t want to just leave mr wormington there to be crushed while we went off to class because we wouldn’t have been able to focus.”

“mr wormington?” dejun asked him incredulously.

“yangyang thought of the name,” kunhang brushed it off, “but basically we had to skip class because we had to move him and yangyang got really attached after we named him so we wanted to give him a proper sending off, so we used first period to go and find a jar to keep in him so we could transport him to his burial site.”

“you buried a worm?”

“yes we did,” kunhang nodded with a proud smile, “in second period we got yukhei to skip too because we knew he had brought a wireless speaker into school so we went to the local park, played some sad songs and yangyang buried mr wormington, i think yang even goes back sometimes and leaves little daisies and stuff, it’s kind of cute if you think about it.”

“well that was interesting, is this a common thing that people on your planet do?” dejun asked and the human just laughed before shaking his head vigorously.

“absolutely not, that’s completely just an us thing, i mean maybe little kids probably do it sometimes but not usually people of our big age, like this literally happened maybe two years ago?”

“you seem to have a very interesting life kunhang, i don’t even think we have the same kind of worms that you do,” dejun commented, “are yours like green and furry with big eyes?”

“definitely not, they’re brown and sad and slimy and look like a weird lifeless tube, have you not seen a worm on tv?”

“no, i don’t usually watch nature shows,” dejun spoke and kunhang vowed to change this. he spoke highly of the documentaries about animals that he had been shown in class and also those that showcased different landscapes around the earth, “it’s probably a really good way to learn about our planet.”

so at kunhang’s request, dejun spent the rest of the night in awe over some of the beautiful sights that the earth had to offer. the human boy learnt that his alien host had never left the city and that the beauty spots of weishen were cornered off and exclusively available to those with the money to pay for entrance. dejun didn’t seem bothered but kunhang found it so mightily unfair that the older boy would never get to experience the beauty of nature.

he brought the topic up again a few days later when they spoke about trips that kunhang had took with his school, “my favourite one was a trip abroad where we visited niagara falls,” he told dejun excitedly, “if you pass me my phone i have some pictures although most of them will be of yangyang and yukhei pulling weird poses.”

dejun nodded enthusiastically and kunhang scrolled through his camera roll for a couple of minutes before making the older boy jump with his sudden exclamation, “a-ha!” kunhang handed his phone over, “actually come and sit here and i’ll explain them to you as i scroll.”

“okay,” dejun spoke as he got up and sat next to kunhang on the sofa. kunhang instinctively wrapped his arm around the older and froze for a second after realising what he had done but dejun didn’t seem to think twice before leaning into his side and asking about the first picture.

“who’s that?” dejun asked cutely as he pointed to a rather strange photo of who he assumed to be one of kunhang’s friends.

“that’s yukhei,” the human laughed in response, “he’s soaked because we had just come from a speed boat ride and it was raining.” the picture was taken inside their room and the boy in question was posing with the hairdryer pointed straight in his face with all of his hair stuck up on end.

“he seems like a lot of fun,” dejun laughed and kunhang just shook his head fondly.

“that’s one way to describe it,” kunhang spoke.

they scrolled through what seemed like infinitely more photos from the trip and dejun found most of them completely hilarious. there were ones of yangyang pulling odd poses or short videos of him launching himself on top of yukhei, there were pictures of yukhei pulling, what kunhang called, ‘his justin bieber pose’ in front of various landmarks and finally there were seemingly normal photos of kunhang. oddly, these were the photos that dejun seemed most excited to see. they’d visited in the autumn so the human boy had been bundled up in a warm coat with fluffy gloves on and the sunset behind him had casted a glorious light on his face. dejun’s breath caught in his throat for a second, the picture was beautiful.

“i like that photo,” he commented, “you should print it out so i can have it when you’re gone.”

kunhang shot him a wide smile, “do you want me to sign it too?”

the older just laughed and shook his head slightly, “i mean you can if you really want to.”

“of course, then you can sell it off as the autograph of the only human who has ever stepped foot on weishen land and you can get lots of money and go and visit all of the nature places you want to see!”

dejun just laughed at the suggestion, “there’s one problem there, we don’t have auctions and no one but the government knows that you’re here.”

“wait so i’m like a secret alien fugitive?”

“well,” dejun ran the thought over in his head, “you’re not a fugitive but i guess you are a secret alien.”

“oh my god i’ve got to tell my friend renjun about this, he’s like obsessed with aliens so wait until he finds out that i’m the alien,” kunhang spoke with an excited glint in his eyes.

“do most people believe we exist?” dejun asked, now feeling particularly interested in what the human race’s perspective on aliens was.

“yeah a lot of people do but also some don’t, you must’ve seen the little green ‘we come in peace’ men who are in every film about aliens ever right?”

“yeah i have, i always laughed at that, that along with human humour is the main reason that a lot of people here think we’re intellectually superior to you, which i’ve found out is completely wrong, you’re just a few hundred years behind where technology is concerned,” dejun paused for a second to collect his thoughts, “i’m glad that you’re more similar to me than i first thought, it’s really nice to have someone to talk to and interact with in the way that we are so i’m thankful for that.”

“why are you so nice,” kunhang whined to which dejun giggled, “and you’re so cute as well, you know that on earth you’re literally like the perfect person?”

“really?” the alien asked in surprise, “you must be like a perfect person too though right?”

“not really,” kunhang spoke albeit modestly, “i have a few friends and i’ve had a couple of short relationships but i wouldn’t say i was like desirable or anything.”

“well i think you’re desirable,” dejun commented off-handedly and kunhang felt his heart speed up rapidly in his chest.

“thank you,” he breathed out, “i think you’re desirable as well.”

they got back to talking about the trip again and soon after it was time for them to eat, watch tv and go to bed however that night, kunhang found it really hard to sleep. his mind was racing about how he had already spent 2 weeks in weishen meaning that he only had a month and a half left. considering the uncontrollable feelings that were growing inside of him for dejun, the younger boy couldn’t even comprehend how hard it would be for him when he ultimately had to leave.

after almost two hours of constant tossing and turning, he ventured into the kitchen to grab himself a glass of water and was shocked to see a tired looking dejun also leaving his room. when the alien locked eyes with him a couple of seconds later, he startled a little but ultimately began to laugh, “you can’t sleep either?” he asked.

“no, not at all,” kunhang yawned, “too many thoughts and stuff.”

“i get that, i’m worrying that my research isn’t good enough and things like that but i’m also worrying about you,” the older boy trailed off for a second to search the emotions on kunhang’s face. all he found was confusion so he decided to elaborate, “i mean like are you comfortable here? and are you glad you came here? things like that, i don’t want you to not want to be here or i don’t want to think that i’m making you feel uncomfortable or anything.”

they walked over to the couch as dejun was talking and the younger boy just gave his alien host as small smile as they sat down.

“you worry too much,” kunhang spoke softly as he pulled dejun into what was their second hug. the boy seemed more used to the affection this time and he too tightly wrapped his arms around the human boy and cuddled into his side, “you know what i was thinking about?” the younger spoke after a second.

“what?” dejun questioned softly.

“how much i’m gonna miss you when i leave,” he breathed out, “like i know i’ve only been here for two weeks but i’ve spent all my time with you so i feel really connected to you i guess and because of that,” he breathed, “the thought that i’m gonna have to just up and leave and say goodbye to you really hurts.”

dejun turned his head slightly to face kunhang and after seeing the solemn expression on the older boy’s face he found it hard to keep the tears from springing up into his eyes. “why don’t you give me your address and i’ll send you letters and photos whenever we send a research ship over?” he suggested.

“like pen pals?” kunhang replied shakily.

“yeah like that,” dejun spoke and he too had a slight break in his voice.

they fell asleep like that. dejun’s head lay on kunhang’s chest and the soft rhythm of the human boy’s heart beat drumming in his ears. it was comforting for them just to be in each other’s presence, whether awake or asleep, and kunhang hadn’t had a sleep as good as he did that night for as long as he could remember. if that was because of the boy lying on his chest rather than the extraordinarily comfy couch, then no one had to know.

the next morning passed with a lot of giggles when they awoke and kunhang had both a pain in his neck and a dead arm which dejun was entirely too apologetic about. despite their painful awakening, falling asleep together on the couch quickly became a theme in their lives together with them ending up awaking with various aches and pains for the next 5 consecutive nights. whether it was the comfort that they got from each other or their want to spend every second possible close to each other, kunhang didn't mind. falling into a slumber with dejun tightly wrapped up in his arms was quickly becoming one of the best things about his life on weishen.

they moved onto their next topic a week later with dejun saying that if he had to spend another day writing about schools, he’d give up on his job. due to the fact that the older boy looked like he was becoming increasingly bored and the visit from kunhang’s ‘guide’ where she demanded that they begin with the more interesting topics, the boy decided on ‘human family relationships’ next.

“so what do you want to know?” he asked dejun as he sat down next to him on the sofa with a steaming cup of hot chocolate after finishing his breakfast.

“well maybe start with telling me about your family first and how big the average families are, how families work and stuff like that?” the alien boy suggested.

“oh well i have my parents and my sister, i lived with them until i was 18 and i moved out for university,” he began before launching into a whole description and talking about how he and his sister used to fight a lot when they were younger but they were really close now. he spoke of his love for his mom and ‘definitely her cooking as well’ and then of how his dad had taught him a lot of skills that he needed for life although his mom had been the one who had actually taught him the typical ‘father teaches the son’ things like shaving.

dejun seemed a lot more fascinated by human family life than the younger boy had expected and kunhang attributed this to the fact that things must have been much different on weishen. “so how’s it for you then?” he asked dejun after talking for almost an hour, “do you see your parents a lot or have any siblings or anything?”

oddly, dejun looked taken aback by this question, “oh, it’s entirely different here,” he spoke, “we don’t have parents, well i mean of course we have parents in the sense of people did give birth to us we’re not like made in a laboratory or whatever but your parents are just two people who signed up to the planetary birth donation association, they will randomly select a mother and father and they will have a child but as soon as the mother is pregnant she will be moved to a medical facility where she will live during the pregnancy and the father will just return back to his job or whatever he does.”

kunhang was in shock. the entire system seemed so wrong and immoral but dejun had spoken about it like it was the most natural thing in the world, “so you don’t know your parents or if you have any siblings or whatever?” he asked, “where did you grow up then? who did you live with?”

“i lived at one of the children centres just like everyone else, there were around 130 people in mine and i lived there until i was 11 when i was moved to a special centre for ‘intelligent’ children where i lived until i was 18 before i was moved to the upper education centre,” he spoke and kunhang wondered about what his life would’ve been like without the influence of his parents. the people of weishen were so obviously treated like robots but that was just normal life to them so they didn’t even realise.

“so who raised you?” kunhang asked, “like who played with you and talked to you?”

“no one i guess, we just played with and talked to each other, i mean when we were really young we used to have an hour every two days with one of the workers to help our development but most of our speech and things like that was learnt through the videos we watched.”

“oh,” kunhang spoke, “is that just normal to you?” he questioned and dejun gave him a nod.

“how does that seem to you? you’ve gone all quiet,” the alien boy pointed out, “you can be honest with me you know.”

“it seems…” kunhang paused, “i don’t want to offend you but it seems really robotic and like they’re raising you to become like emotionless beings and to me that completely erases the most important qualities that humans have,” he told dejun who simply nodded.

“i understand what you mean,” the alien replied, “from watching human television since i was 18, i agree with you that a nurturing family orientated childhood is the best way to raise a child,” he spoke carefully, “i think that our system here is more about making us orderly and ‘good citizens’ rather than allowing us to explore ourselves and reach what’s truly inside of us.”

kunhang fell silent for a second. this was the first time that dejun had so openly criticised something from weishen in front of him. the human boy was unsure whether it was the fact that he had expressed his discomfort over the weishen system that had made dejun feel comfortable in confiding in him or whether he just felt comfortable enough with him in general but it made him happy that the older boy had enough trust in him to tell him that. mostly though, he was happy that dejun was beginning to see the things wrong with their system. at first, kunhang had worried that he was just bringing earth’s morals into a place where they weren’t needed or wanted but after seeing that lack of allowance for expression in weishen, he knew that things weren’t right there.

dejun shifted a little in his seat and kunhang realised that he may have been silent for a little too long so he quickly formulated a response in his head, “that’s what i thought as well, i didn’t want to offend you by saying it, i don’t know how…” he trailed off to search for the right word, “patriotic you are here.”

the older boy hummed slightly and shrugged, “i guess some people are patriotic and some aren’t, most people are proud of being from here but then most people view our systems as normal and don’t even know that other systems exist.”

“wait so does the average person on weishen know that we exist?” kunhang questioned.

“yeah, a lot of people are really interested in these kind of things and a few people can speak human languages and stuff but that's mainly just because they find it cool, no one who doesn’t actively work on alien research knows much about you guys or your planet,” dejun replied and kunhang just nodded.

they returned to talk of kunhang’s family after their heart to heart conversation. the human boy talked mostly of family holidays he had been on or how his family acted on special occasions such as new year and the like. dejun seemed extremely interested in learning all of the traditions of earth and he was even more fascinated when kunhang told him the next day of how these family traditions and special occasions differed in different countries and continents.

through the families topic, kunhang hoped that dejun could understand him better as a person. he tried to talk about his family in a way that dejun could understand how deep the bonds were and how emotionally connected he was to his family, the way that the older boy’s eyes sparkled in wonder as he spoke about his mother (and how she would do everything she possibly could to make him feel happy whenever he was sad) made the younger’s heart hurt a little.

despite having any kind of technology ever even dreamed of and being an ultra forward thinking and seemingly perfect society, weishen lacked in so many things. the right to love, friendship and free expression of emotions proved to be the biggest and kunhang truly believed that the residents of weishen couldn’t possibly be better off without those things.

after three days of speaking about the family topic, the two boys decided to have a day off from research completely. a few days ago, kunhang had been speaking about trips he used to take to his local park with his family and dejun had mentioned that he too used to visit a park with the fellow children in his centre when he was young so they had decided to take the day off to visit.

although he wasn’t too enamoured with the planet in general, kunhang was still excited to get even a little peek into dejun’s childhood and visit places with him that would bring back good memories. equally, dejun was excited to show kunhang around and to make new good memories with someone who he was growing increasingly close to.

“are you sure we’re allowed to do this?” kunhang asked him as dejun dressed him in some weishen clothes and told him to not act like everything was weird and sci-fi.

“well they never said anything about not taking you out of the house,” the alien boy spoke in reply, “and it’s not like i’m taking you far, the park is only about 5 minutes away, besides if you stay cooped up in one apartment for two months it’s gonna start to affect you.”

“okay, i guess you’re right.”

they stepped outside of the apartment door and this time it wasn’t weird to kunhang when dejun didn’t bother locking his apartment or unlocking his ‘weird cable car thing’ before walking inside of it.

“these things are so odd,” the human spoke as he stepped inside, “i have so many questions,” he added as he tapped softly on the glass.

“what do you want to know?” dejun asked him and kunhang’s mind immediately produced at least 10 more questions that it had before.

“what are they called?” he asked before quickly grabbing on to one of the handles to avoid stumbling as it moved off.

“it’s a…” dejun paused for a moment, “it doesn’t have a name in your language so i’m trying to think of it in a way that would be easy for you to say,” he giggled.

“a loporah?” dejun questioned before repeating a similar sounding word in what kunhang thought must be the alien language under his breath.

“loporah,” kunhang repeated with a smile, “how do you even drive them? like both times i’ve gotten in one it just started moving,” he spoke in disbelief.

“i just think about where i want it to go,” dejun replied as if it was the most normal and simple thing in the world.

they arrived to the park just after the two boys had finished their q&a session and the loporah quickly parked itself before they got out. it had to be the weirdest place the human boy had ever seen and kunhang did a full 360 with his mouth wide open in awe. “kunhang,” dejun whispered under his breath.

“oh sorry,” the human boy changed his expression immediately, “wow this is so normal, what a completely normally park.”

they stepped into an arch shaped room which displayed the night sky on the ceiling and dejun stopped for a moment to look up, “people come here to stargaze,” he commented, “the light pollution here is quite bad so you can’t usually see the stars, the videos here are linked to cameras floating just above the atmosphere and they give a constant stream of space so when it’s dark it’s really cool to come and lie here.”

kunhang too looked up after focusing on dejun while he gave the explanation, it was true, the video was crystal clear and the view was beautiful but again the virtual sky was nothing like seeing the real thing. after lots of trips to rural areas, kunhang had many vivid memories of how beautiful the night sky was with no light pollution at all and staring up at the stars from down on earth would always be better than staring at a video in one of weishen’s parks.

however, despite the first part of the park being slightly underwhelming, the human boy could not say the same for the rest. dejun could only be described as like a kid in a candy store as he ran from ride to ride and told the other boy of the various times he had used them and commented excitedly on the new ones. the human boy could hardly keep up as he effortlessly played the virtual games and beat all of the high scores, that was until kunhang spotted his moment to beat the other boy.

“how about we play that,” he pointed to a game that looked suspiciously the same as a basketball machine you would find in a human arcade.

“noooo,” dejun pouted, “kunhang that thing is so old.”

the younger boy just raised his eyebrow, “it’s old? so why do you think i want to play it?”

the realisation hit the alien’s face quickly and he broke into laughter. “you have those things on earth?” he asked quietly.

“yes we do and i go to arcades so much that i’m really good at them so lets go,” kunhang grabbed dejun’s arm and all but pulled him over to the machine, “i can’t believe we don’t have to pay to play this.”

“no, the only time you have to pay is if you go to one of the really cool virtual game centres in the city, everything else is just free,” dejun smiled before purposely clicking the button to start the game while kunhang was distracted.

despite not being prepared at all, the basketball game did turn out to be the only thing that the younger boy won at and a few hours later when they were tired beyond belief, dejun pointed over to a old looking train and spoke, “come with me.”

the second they sat in one of the cars, dejun pressed a button and it began moving, “i thought this might make you feel a bit closer to home,” he admitted to kunhang, “no one really comes up to this part of the park anymore but it hasn’t changed for the last 800 years, it’s one of the only bits of untouched land that this city has left.”

as they ventured further and further from the main park, the landscape around them seemed to transform into something so beautifully earth like that kunhang felt a pang in his chest. the train eventually stopped just in front of a small run down playground and the human boy felt a bright smile spreading over his face, it was just like the one he used to play on as a child back home. there were two swings, a slide, a seesaw, monkey bars, a roundabout and he could barely believe his luck.

“i honestly can’t believe this is still here,” dejun spoke first, “but you look very happy to see it so i’m glad it is.”

kunhang flushed pink a little at the comment and rather than replying he walked to sit down on one side of the seesaw before looking at dejun expectantly. “you think i know how to use that?” the older asked.

“just sit down,” the younger spoke, “it’s really not that hard, i’ll tell you what to do.”

dejun tentatively walked towards the ride and yelped a little as he sat down and it balanced, kunhang just giggled and commented, “we must be about the same weight because neither of us have sunk.”

“is that all this ride does?” dejun asked, “like a weird set of scales?”

“no, just hold on and trust me okay?” kunhang spoke before pushing off with his feet and dejun screamed whilst clinging on to the handle bars for his life. after a few seconds though, he got used to the seesaw and was too pushing with his feet and laughing every time kunhang hit into the floor on the other side.

they spent almost half an hour testing out all of the rides, dejun talked of how he had only ever seen people use huge slides on tv and the only slides they had in the city were giant ones you went on in a box. kunhang was confused at this before just laughing and telling him that he hadn’t experienced real life until he’d tried to climb up a slide and then slide down when he reached the top.

it took at least 10 minutes of dejun’s constant whining that he was wearing slippy shoes before he reached the top. they slid down together after that before kunhang immediately ran off to the roundabout.

“dejun come and sit on here!” he called and the other boy ran over and stepped on to the roundabout, kunhang gave him a few seconds to settle and grab on to the bars properly before he held on to the other side and began running to push it.

“wait kunhang!” dejun yelled but it was soon replaced by a loud laugh as the younger began running full speed and pushed the roundabout to let it spin quickly. when the ride finally stopped and dejun tried to get off, he immediately starting swaying and kunhang had to run to catch him before he fell onto the tarmac below.

it didn’t work though and they fell to floor in fits of giggles before calming down and just staring up at the cloudless sky with bright smiles. “you know,” dejun began, “there’s something so nice about not having technology involved.”

“what do you mean?” kunhang countered.

“well, at the main park a lot of people just come on their own, like there’s so many things you can do down there that don’t require interaction with other people at all but here you can have the most fun if you come with your friends,” he explained, “i think from everything you’ve told me so far that is the key difference between my planet and yours, on earth everything is about interaction and working together and being connected to people but here everyone is so isolated and you have to work alone and suffer alone.”

the words broke kunhang’s heart. in the past few weeks, dejun had undoubtedly opened up to him and been so bright and happy in all of the time they spent together. the thought that he would soon have to leave and dejun would be alone again and back to living the monotonous weishen lifestyle, now with the knowledge that there are billions of people somewhere out there living a much brighter life hurt so much.

“would you prefer to have more interactions with the people here?” kunhang asked and dejun was silent for a few seconds.

“i’m not sure, i’ve always been a little strange i think,” he laughed, “i think my fascination with your planet goes a little too far and maybe that’s why i am beginning to see the things wrong with our society and am finding your lifestyle a lot better,” he hummed, “maybe it’s just the fact that i want to be able to express my emotions and have people i can rely on and trust without being viewed as weird and wrong.”

kunhang smiled sadly as he reached down to grab dejun’s hand and squeeze it reassuringly but just as he tried to let go, the alien boy clung on to it and held it tightly. the younger felt heat rise to his cheeks and the same warmth resonating through his chest and he looked over to dejun’s face where a satisfied smile lay on his lips and his tired eyes glistened.

“i wish i could take you to earth and let you experience everything, i mean it’s not perfect at all, there are a lot of bad people and people get ill and hurt and killed and some people fight each other and some people are hated for being who they are,” he took a deep breath as he thought of his own struggles with the same things, “but there is always a way to be yourself, there is always one person who will accept you and sometimes that one person is enough and they become someone you can trust unwaveringly and rely on for the rest of your life.”

dejun stared back at him now, “do you have someone like that or things like that?”

“yeah i do,” kunhang replied nervously, “there’s one thing about me and who i am that i struggled a lot with and i worried that the people around me wouldn’t accept me, it’s still hard even now but i told my friends first and they were so kind about it and it turned out one of them is the same,” he breathed, “and they accepted me and i slowly grew the confidence to tell my family and they accepted me too.”

they fell into silence again as dejun gave kunhang the time to calm down slightly before continuing, “and i guess having the people really close to me accepting me and still loving me was all i really needed to be able to live as my true self.”

“do you mind telling me what it is?” dejun asked softly and he squeezed kunhang’s hand in the hope that it was a human way of showing comfort.

kunhang nodded slowly before taking a deep breath, “i like men and women,” he breathed out and dejun’s eyes widened.

“is that normal for people on earth?” he asked curiously.

“yeah, i guess people like me are the minority but there’s still a lot of us, many people look down still on things like men and men liking each other or women and women but it’s getting a lot better, don’t you have it here?” kunhang asked and dejun just shrugged.

“we don’t really have romance at all here, men and women only ever get together through the programme to have children so i don’t think who you like really matters because no one ever gets together with anyone anyway,” he sighed, “but it’s whatever, we have our reasons i’ll tell you about it when we have more time or we do the relationships part but if you’re worried i really don’t think there’s a problem with you liking both men and women at all.”

kunhang smiled brightly as dejun continued, “i’ve seen it in lots of the human tv shows i watched and i was always curious about it as we were only ever told that humans had opposite sex relationships but i’ve found out about a lot more because of the tv shows.”

kunhang grinned, “you know, for someone who comes from a place where there are no romantic relationships at all, you’re so much more kind and accepting than so many people on earth.”

they left after that, hopping back on the train and still walking hand in hand until they reached dejun’s loporah. dejun took a quick detour on the way home to a take-out that he said, ‘serves food that i think is similar to yours.’ it turned out that by similar, dejun meant pretty much exactly the same so kunhang spent his night excitedly eating the weishen bread ‘petzy’ which tasted exactly the same as pizza despite looking rather different. they went to bed with bright smiles and full stomachs and both boys could hardly wait to wake up the next morning and see each other again.

the next day came along with a return to their research, “there’s something i want to ask you about human families today,” dejun had asked kunhang, “i noticed on television that a lot of people had things called a step-mom or a step-sister, what does that mean?”

“oh,” kunhang spoke, “well basically if your parents aren’t together and one or both of them get together with a new person that’s what happens.”

dejun just tossed him a look to say that he was more confused than before the younger had started speaking, “can you explain it with an example maybe?”

kunhang nodded, “yeah that wasn’t a very good explanation at all,” he admitted, “so if your mom and dad aren’t together anymore and say your dad married another woman then that woman would become your step mother and if she too had children from a previous relationship then they would become your step brothers or sisters or whatever.”

“that makes more sense,” dejun hummed before typing the new information into his ipad.

after that kunhang explained about all the many types of families on earth, half siblings, adopted families, fostered children, families with two moms or two dads and dejun listened to him like he was detailing the most interesting theory anyone had ever heard.

they talked endlessly for almost five hours before kunhang finally ran out of information to give and dejun, of course, had no information to give at all, it seemed that as they reached topics about human relationships dejun became less and less able to offer any weishen information. it was only when they reached the next topic of crime and bad behaviour that the alien boy was able to disclose more about his planet to kunhang.

“so do you have a lot of crime on earth?” was the first question asked and kunhang just nodded slowly.

“yeah it depends where you are i think, some countries have a lot more crime and some cities within countries have more crime that others.”

“and what about where you live?” the older asked.

“it’s okay where i live, we get robberies sometimes but i don’t think there’s ever been any really bad crime, maybe car theft is the worst we’ve had,” he paused to think, “i guess people get in fights a lot too but as long as you don’t start anything you should be okay and besides i went to school with a lot of the violent people so i hope that knowing me from a young age would mean they would spare me,” kunhang joked but dejun looked entirely taken aback.

“so it’s not safe?” he asked worriedly.

“no, it’s pretty safe, i was just joking by the way like people do get into fights but not that often and it’s usually sorted out without needing the police,” he nodded.

in the next few days they ventured into deeper topics like freedom of speech, police brutality and some of the darkest criminals that earth had seen (or the ones that kunhang had watched netflix documentaries about.) all in all, dejun seemed both terrified and fascinated by crime.

however he wasn’t the only one, when they had reached their 4th day of the crime topic and dejun had began to fill all of the information to his ipad, they were disrupted by a knock on the door. “not again,” the older boy had muttered under his breath as he rolled his eyes at kunhang and stood up to get the door.

“hi, i’m so glad to see you!” kunhang heard his guide’s voice and he was instantly confused as to why she had decide to greet dejun in his language rather than their own.

“yeah you too,” he heard dejun’s reply and he sounded so annoyed and disinterested that kunhang had to fight back a snort.

“hi kunhang,” she grinned upon seeing him sat in the living room. dejun’s rant about how everyone else on weishen saw him as less intelligent than they were had stuck with him and kunhang had began to notice the patronising way in which she treated him.

“hello, it’s lovely to see you,” kunhang spoke in an emotionless voice and despite his guide not even seeming to realise, seeing dejun try to hide his laugh behind her was reward enough.

she sat down straight away and made no effort to hide why she had visited, “i understand you have moved on to the crime topic,” she spoke steadily and kunhang felt instantly nervous. he had never had to disclose information to anyone other than dejun before and he trusted the alien boy with his life at this point but he had no trust in the guide at all.

“yes we have,” the older of the two replied with a harsh tone and kunhang found a little comfort in the fact that dejun wanted her here just as much as he did: not at all.

“have you told him how our crime system works?” she asked straight to dejun and kunhang was rather annoyed by the fact that she was speaking about him like he wasn’t even in the room.

“yes he has,” the human boy all but spat back before dejun even got chance to open his mouth.

“ah i see,” she still didn’t flinch and simply turned her attention back to dejun again.

“i would like you to ask him about the characteristics of someone who commits a crime so we can better improve our early intervention system,” she told him and dejun then looked up and met her gaze with a fiery one. the already cold atmosphere in the room chilled again.

“i will ask kunhang what he is comfortable with telling me, we have already talked about certain things and we will get around to the characteristics of criminals if and only if he feels comfortable disclosing that kind of information to me, the idea of this project was not to scare him or make him uncomfortable and it was not to further our own schemes on this planet, this is purely a research programme about the daily lives and morals of the people of earth and it should be treated as such.”

the room fell into silence and the tension quickly became so thick that kunhang found it almost hard to breathe.

“i am here on the orders of the co-ceo of the planetary research commission and i-“ the guide began to counter before she was cut off.

“i don’t care whose orders you are here on, i was consulted on how we should make kunhang feel comfortable here and i was the one who drew up the rules of this project and passed them by the actual ceo of the prc, i am the head researcher and the one responsible for kunhang’s well-being while he is on this planet and i will not be afraid to stand up to whoever i need to in order to keep him happy and safe,” dejun spat and despite the cool words he threw at the guide, kunhang couldn’t keep warmth from swelling in his chest when he realised that dejun was once again fighting his corner.

the guide fell silent again and she took a gulp so big that it was almost audible, the sheer shock and terror on her face was almost enough to make kunhang laugh but he managed to maintain his stoic expression as she opened her mouth to speak, “very well, i will be leaving now.” she got up immediately and began to walk but dejun called out after her.

“one last thing,” he spoke and she turned around to face him, “kunhang is an intelligent person with a beautiful mind, he is more than capable of answering your questions especially when they regard him, considering asking your questions to the person who they regard next time.”

not another word was heard before the door slammed and an exhausted dejun flopped down on to the sofa beside kunhang, “i’m so sorry you had to see that, i couldn’t just let her talk about you like you weren’t there, it’s so infuriating you’re not just this thing we can use and-“

“dejun,” kunhang interrupted his ranting by softly grabbing his hand and staring sincerely into the boy’s eyes, “thank you for standing up for me.”

“oh,” dejun whispered in shock and the younger boy just smiled at him before squeezing his hand again.

“what does that mean?” dejun asked in confusion.

“which?” kunhang countered.

“when you squeeze my hand what does it mean?”

“it’s to comfort you i guess,” the human boy replied softly, “or to let you know that i’m here for you.”

“it’s nice,” dejun yawned, “can you hug me again? that feels nice too, it’s warm and i like it.”

“of course,” kunhang blushed before wrapping his arms around dejun and letting him cuddle into his chest.

once again they fell asleep like that, it was only a short nap but dejun found himself feeling completely refreshed afterwards. there was something about being in the younger’s arms that made him feel warm, happy, safe and like he never wanted to be anywhere else. he began to think of how lonely it would be when kunhang left in just under a month, it felt like he had known the boy all of his life whilst simultaneously feeling like he was something new and exciting.

“kunhang,” dejun whispered and he wasn’t entirely sure why he had decided on awakening the younger boy. maybe it was the fear of losing out on the precious time that they could spend together but dejun pushed that thought to the back of his mind as the boy grumbled, “you won’t sleep tonight if you don’t wake up now.”

“but i’m comfy,” came the reply and dejun just shook his head before checking the time on his phone.

“but it’s 7pm and we haven’t eaten yet,” dejun replied, “come on i’ll make something nice.”

“okay,” kunhang relented and allowed dejun to pull him up and towards the kitchen while he was still half asleep. the younger barely registered what was happening for most of the time that dejun cooked but he did manage to feel a sense of pride that dejun could now perfectly find his way around a human-style kitchen and cook a human-style meal with relative ease.

“you should be a chef,” kunhang commented as he sat down at the table and dejun set his meal in front of him.

“there’s no need for chefs here,” dejun laughed, “you just get a better cooking machine.”

“that’s boring though, there’s love in the food you make for someone else but there’s never any love in food that a machine makes you,” the younger pointed out and dejun honestly couldn’t argue with his logic because he was entirely right.

“well do you want to show me how much love you can put into a chocolate cake after we finish eating?” dejun asked and kunhang nodded enthusiastically.

“will you help me?”

“of course.”

it was, unsurprisingly, a disaster. the mixture of an alien who was apparently the worst baker in any galaxy and a human who had no baking experience at all was still not as bad as the cake mixture they had managed to create. despite having no experience, both boys knew enough to know that there should never be random watery bits and lumps in cake mixture after it had been whisked continuously for 15 minutes.

“do you think it’s the ingredients?” dejun asked as he looked back at the recipe he had located on the human internet.

“no i think it’s just us,” kunhang responded truthfully and the older boy couldn’t help but agree, “just order one on your machine thing,” the human flopped down on to the couch.

dejun did as he was told and they spent the rest of the night eating various chocolate deserts as kunhang got a bit too excited over the food machine. however, it didn’t matter to the alien boy how much the items would be costing him because money didn’t even come in to his thoughts when kunhang was smiling so brightly with chocolate around his lips and even a spot of ice cream on the tip of his nose. it made his chest feel warm and a weird pain erupted in his stomach but it didn’t feel bad more so he just felt nervous and lost, what was happening to him?

he slept that night alone in his bed with his mind racing over hundreds of possibilities, why did he feel so connected to the boy? what could it possibly be? kunhang even followed him into his dreams, they had settled on earth and owned a small house together in the mountains, dejun worked as a florist and kunhang as a writer. the alien boy almost didn’t want to wake up.

it turned out that his dream was recurring. he encountered the same scenario night after night for almost the next two weeks that followed, he would discuss crime with kunhang in the day, they would do something utterly ridiculous but otherwise fun at night and then dejun would dream of him as he slept.

the weird feelings got worse too although this wasn’t only exclusive to dejun. kunhang too was feeling his stomach tie up in knots everytime dejun laughed and his heart beat a little faster whenever the boy looked unsure and asked for kunhang to squeeze his hand because ‘it felt nice.’ he knew, of course, what it meant but it still terrified him. with now only a week and a half left on weishen, the reality that he would soon have to leave dejun behind and never see him again was becoming almost too much to bare.

it got worse when they began the ‘human romantic relationships’ topic.

dejun had decided to drop the friendships part as kunhang had gone overboard with stories of his friends when they had discussed education and the boy had already found out everything he needed to know. this left the topic that kunhang had been dreading since the first time he realised that maybe his feelings for his alien host were more than just a mere crush.

“why do you have romantic relationships?” was the question that dejun had decided to open their conversation with and kunhang was immediately startled.

“what? what do you mean why?” he spluttered back.

“what benefit does it bring you?” dejun reiterated curiously.

“um….” kunhang thought for a moment, “well i guess you hope that every person you end up in a relationship with is the person that you will spend the rest of your life with, you get happy when they’re happy and it makes you happy just being around them.”

the alien boy nodded and tapped a few buttons on his ipad, “but from what i’ve seen and what we are taught here, it seems like a waste of time because it just brings too much pain, that’s why no one bothers here,” dejun explained.

at first, kunhang was taken aback by the fact that they were taught that romance was pointless but after learning everything he had about weishen society, his shock didn’t last long. “it does bring pain sometimes,” he began, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it at all, relationships bring you so much more joy than pain,” the younger paused for a second to think of a better explanation. “imagine you find someone you really really like and your heart beats faster when you’re with them, you feel tingles in your stomach whenever you’re near them because they make you so happy and just being around them is addictive, imagine feeling all of that just by being with one person, it can make you happy.”

the room fell into silence as dejun processed the words. a checklist formed in his mind of all the symptoms kunhang had mentioned: a faster beating heart? check. tingles in his stomach? check. happy when he’s around him? check. surely dejun couldn’t be feeling that way about kunhang.

“but how do you know?” the older let the words slip from his mouth before he could catch them and kunhang looked him straight in the eye before answering.

“you just do, if they make you happy and you want to hold their hand and hug them and kiss them and see them all the time because you get so much happiness from it then you like them.”

“kiss?” dejun just ignored his other words and focused on that, “is that where you put your mouth with their mouth?” he asked.

“yeah, you sort of press your lips together,” kunhang frowned a little as he thought of the best way to describe it, “and then you like move them a bit.”

“what does it feel like?” dejun asked again before he could stop himself.

“nice,” the other boy hummed. they stared at each other in silence after that and dejun couldn’t help but look down to kunhang’s lips. the boy had spoke of hugging and holding hands which were two things that dejun thought felt really nice with kunhang so surely kissing would feel nice too right?

“do friends kiss?” came the next question and dejun felt his heart sink when kunhang shook his head slightly.

“i mean, not usually,” the younger began and dejun found his gaze beginning to sink to the boy’s lips again.

“can we... uh… could i?” dejun stuttered almost so quietly that kunhang didn’t hear it but he did and dejun was secretly thankful of that fact as he didn’t think he would be able to garner the courage to say it again.

‘you… you want to kiss me?” kunhang asked shocked and dejun only replied with a shy nod and burning red cheeks, “i want to kiss you too.”

although he didn’t really understand what it meant, dejun felt his heart soar nevertheless. he carefully placed his ipad onto the coffee table and leaned closer to kunhang who mimicked the action until they were mere inches apart. “i have no idea what i’m doing,” dejun whispered softly.

“just copy me,” kunhang spoke as he placed his hand on the side of dejun’s face and closed the distance. their lips pressed gently together and dejun felt his heart beat so fast it was like it was going to jump out of his chest, the other boy began to softly move his lips and dejun copied his actions before tentatively lifting a hand to rest it on kunhang’s back. it lasted only maybe 7 or 8 seconds before they pulled away breathless and beaming.

“it made my heart beat really fast,” dejun admitted, “and my stomach is tingly when i see you and i want to hug you and hold your hand and kiss you more times, what does that mean?’ he asked timidly and the smile kunhang gave him was so blindly beautiful that he would say those words again a hundred times over just to see it once more.

“i think it means you like me,” kunhang told him, still with his hand of the older boy’s cheek, “which is really good considering i like you too.”

dejun threw caution to the wind at that point and surged forward to connect his lips to kunhang’s once more. they kissed then for what felt like hours until their lips were bruised and their hearts were so full that neither thought they could take anymore. after that, dejun picked his ipad back up and lay back on kunhang’s chest before he began to tap some buttons.

‘what are you writing?” the younger asked him as he pressed soft kisses into dejun’s coconut scented hair.

“i’m writing about how romantic relationships make humans feel,” the alien boy grinned up to kunhang.

“oh?” came the boy’s reply, “and how exactly is that?” he smiled.

“your heart beats so fast that you think it will never slow down, your stomach tingles and it’s weird but not painful and feels a lot like excitement and true happiness, you always want to be around them because they just make you so happy, when you hug them, hold their hand and kiss them you feel warm and safe and like nothing else in the world matters but them,” dejun read and kunhang felt his heart swell. the boy in his arms radiated affection and happiness and for kunhang to think that he was the cause of it all made him feel so insanely special. how could he be so lucky as to have someone as amazing as dejun fall for him?

they filled out the rest of the questions in the romantic relationships section easily within the next two days with dejun citing their lack of time left together as the reason why he wanted to get it done so quickly. when they finally finished and all of the questions were complete and topics done and dusted, dejun decided that they would once again spend time together at the park. this time however, they were visiting at night.

it was kunhang’s fault that dejun was so excited for this. he had spoken about how for one of the dates in his first relationship, he had taken his then girlfriend stargazing in a field nearby where they lived and dejun decided that that would be a perfect idea for their first date. so as night fell, they stepped into dejun’s loporah under the cover of darkness and dejun’s reassurances that very few people left the house after 8pm on a tuesday night. kunhang now knew to hold on to the handle bar and he knew the way to the arch, dejun surprisingly knew the password to open the door after it was supposed to be closed to the public and the password to lock it behind them.

“why do you get privileges?” kunhang joked as he lay down next to dejun on the blanket that the older had spread out on the floor.

“i got asked to join the planetary research commission here,” dejun spoke like it was nothing, “i’d always been so fascinated by the night sky and what could possibly lie beyond all of the stars we can see from here, the ceo of the commission noticed that i spent almost all of my nights here just gazing up at the stars and learning all of their names,” he stopped to point up to a small glinting star in the centre.

“that’s your star,” dejun smiled softly, “all of your family and friends and everyone you know that’s not here is just floating around that star on a little ball of rock.”

kunhang stared intently at the star, every person he cared about was there on that floating rock except for one person who had become so incredibly important to him in such a short space of time. that person lay right next to him, on a different ball of floating rock, millions of miles from the one that he called home yet despite his home being so far away, kunhang had managed to find a second home in dejun’s small apartment. a home with a toilet that was the most innovative thing he’d ever seen, a home with a toaster that was way too aggressive, a home owned by a person who radiated warmth, positivity and was just everything that kunhang had always been searching for.

“dejun,” kunhang breathed out softly whilst thinking over the words he was about to say. he knew the weight that they carried and despite knowing that dejun probably wouldn’t understand how meaningful they were, the human boy knew that if he left the planet weishen without ever saying them to dejun, he would regret it for the rest of his lonely life.

“yeah?” the boy turned to face him. his eyes sparkled more than the stars above them, his cheeks blushed redder than the sand of mars and kunhang had never felt this way for anyone in his life.

‘i love you,” he whispered.

dejun just smiled softly, “that means a lot doesn’t it? i always see in movies that the actress cries when the man says that to her for the first time so i figured it was really meaningful,” he spoke, “but if it means that i care for you more than i’ve ever cared for anything in my life then i love you too.”

what kunhang felt after hearing those words could only be described as pure euphoria, he rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows so that he could get a better view of dejun’s face. the older boy also had a bright smile spread across his lips and kunhang leant down quickly to press a soft kiss to them as dejun giggled beneath him.

“stop laughing so i can kiss you,” kunhang joked which just caused dejun to laugh more.

“i’m sorry,” dejun breathed out as he tried to control his laughter, “i’m just so happy.’

the younger’s heart burst fully at this and he let himself fall the last few feet into completely irreversible and unconditional love with the boy beneath him. his emotions had grown so strong in such a short space of time that there was no doubt in his mind that dejun was the one for him.

the rest of their night was spent giggling at each other’s silly jokes and basking in their love. planets and stars lay above them completely forgotten and kunhang totally immersed himself in dejun and dejun only.

however, just like the night turned to morning, their days together slowly came to an end and soon it was their last night together. both of them had vowed not to sleep and to simply savour every last second in each other’s presence that they possibly could. the weight of what was about to happen fell heavy on kunhang’s heart and as the clock ticked over to 4am he could hardly look at dejun’s face without his eyes flooding with tears.

“kunhang,” dejun spoke as he reached out to grab the younger boy’s hand. the crack in his voice was so uncharacteristic of him that it made the situation feel so much worse. the human boy stared down at their intertwined fingers and when dejun squeezed his hand the tears that had collected finally began to spill.

“i’m-“ kunhang tried to speak but his sobs broke his sentence and his words quickly left his memory. he sank to floor letting the full weight of the sadness consume him and he sobbed so hard he could hardly breathe. dejun desperately tried to calm him down but his tears were falling too and the sound of both of their hearts breaking in unison was so painfully loud that dejun too fell to the floor.

kunhang wrapped his arms around the boy next to him as they cried together, “i- i don’t want to say goodbye to you like this,” he spoke weakly as he tried to slow his tears but they just kept falling, “i want you to remember me when i…” he paused to fight back his sobs once again, “i want you to remember me when i was happy,” his voice broke again at the end of his sentence and he looked up at dejun’s tear stricken face for the first time since they had started crying.

seeing the boy so broken and tearful only amplified his own pain by enormous amounts, his usually bright and glistening eyes were dull and full of sheer pain, his bright smile was a mere memory as quivering lips replaced it and kunhang honestly thought that nothing could be more painful than this. he wondered for a second whether it was possible to actually die of heartbreak.

time passed so much quicker than they would have wanted and at 7:30 am, just half an hour before kunhang was due to leave for the airport, dawn began to break. at 6am dejun had wrote to the commission explaining that he would be personally escorting kunhang back to the airport and leading him to the ship. there was not a second that the boy wanted to waste and at 7:45am they clung to each other. dejun’s arms wrapped tightly around kunhang’s neck, the younger’s head hooked over his shoulder and his tears wetting the back of dejun’s shirt.

then the obnoxious noise of the timer that dejun set rang through the apartment. “dejun…” kunhang breathed out, “i don’t want to never see you again.”

the alien boy fought so hard to keep it together but kunhang’s eyes were desperately searching his face in a last attempt to commit everything to memory and the boy in front of him looked so broken that dejun doubted he would ever be fixed, “there's no other way,” he spoke from beneath his sobs, “it’s not like i’m gone completely,” he told him and his voice broke as he spoke, “and what’s two million miles huh?” he sobbed out, “i’ll still be thinking of you everyday and lying in the arch looking up at your star and lying on the couch that you were on, i’ll visit the playground all the time, you’ll always be here on weishen in my memory and i promise it will never fade i promise,” he broke down.

“do you have…” kunhang began, “my phone, i want a photo of you, i’ve took a few i know but i want to always be able to see your face when i miss you the most, i’ll never forget you, you’ll always be the person i love i promise and i can’t stop speaking,” he took a deep breath, “i don’t want to never see you again, i don’t want it please dejun i don’t know what we can do but i want to stay with you.”

dejun’s heart broke so many times as he played kunhang’s words over and over and he looked down to the sobbing boy in his arms. he met his eyes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, their tears fused together to create a beautiful concoction of pain and heartbreak and it settled on dejun’s lip as he pulled back from kunhang. they stood up in silence but their hands never disconnected. kunhang snapped a quick photo of dejun’s tear stained cheeks and broken eyes, dejun grabbed the device from him before quickly sending a few photos over to his printer so he could too could have memories of kunhang’s beautiful face.

then the alien boy grabbed his lover’s small bag of belongings and slipped his small cat drawing inside of it. kunhang took once last glance around the small apartment that he had called home for two months before dejun opened the door and led him outside towards the loporah. they didn’t even bother holding on to the handles as it began to move and both boys just collapsed to the floor once again. so many thoughts flooded into kunhang’s mind, the idea that he would never hear from dejun again, the idea that the boy would have to continue his life without him in it, the idea that he would grow old and anything could happen to him and kunhang would never know, he could just simply spend the rest of his life guessing about dejun.

they reached the airport and the walk through the corridors towards the ship felt like the boy’s were walking towards their death. they’d shown their last affection to each other when they were in dejun’s apartment and now they had to part for the last time pretending that they were nothing more than friends. when they walked through the doors and saw the ship, kunhang couldn’t swallow the lump in his throat and dejun pulled him over to one side in a desperate attempt to calm him down.

“kunhang, kunhang please listen to me,” he fought through his own sobs, “you have to listen to me, i will never forget you okay never, i will think about you everyday, i will miss you everyday, you will be the only person i ever love,” he said quietly and kunhang just began to cry harder.

“i don’t want to never see you again, i can’t cope with not knowing, when i get on that ship i will never see you again,” he sobbed and dejun held his hand carefully.

“i know, i know but i will try and write to you, i will contact you okay? it’s not gonna be like i never existed i promise,” dejun spoke but his thoughts were interrupted by the last call to board the ship.

“kunhang you have to go,” the older breathed.

“i can’t, i can’t,” kunhang breathed.

“you have to.”

he stood up at that and his shaky legs carried him towards the ship, “dejun i love you, i will never not love you,” he said breathlessly just before he stepped onto the stairs.

“i love you too kunhang, i will never forget you,” dejun replied and kunhang took one last long look at the boy he loved so dearly before turning around and walking up the stairs. the doors of the ship shut behind him just before he saw dejun fall to his knees as sobs wracked his body. the alien boy felt like he had died on that spot and he didn’t move until the ship had departed and kunhang was probably thousands of miles away and he would never hold him again.

he only left when asked to by security and he picked up his body and his heavy heart and managed to make his way back to his loporah and then his apartment before he broke down into tears again. the small room just felt so empty and wrong without kunhang’s big smile and even bigger personality.

he allowed his thoughts to wander for a moment to kunhang aboard the ship. he imagined the boy broken and sobbing or lying in his bed unable to move and he wasn’t far from the truth. they were only a few hours into their two week flight but those aboard the ship were already concerned for his wellbeing. the boy had hardly moved other than stumbling to his bed and wrapping himself up in the blankets before crying himself to sleep.

he had made so many desperate attempts to keep dejun from his mind for just a second but as they days passed, the thought of the boys tear stricken face refused to leave his mind and kunhang simply couldn't find any tears left that he hadn’t cried. it was only 4 days into the flight when he left his bed for the first time other than to use the toilet. he ventured into the main body of the ship and was instantly met by the same man who had found him on the streets.

“kunhang!” he greeted him, “i’m glad to see you’re feeling better, would you be okay to fill out some questions about your trip?”

kunhang’s mind flicked back to his experience on weishen and the beautiful memories he had made with dejun, the playground, stargazing, baking, singing, drawing, holding hands, holding each other, kissing and he just looked up at the man with eyes that held all of the pain he was feeling. “can i do it later?” he croaked out.

the man’s gaze softened immediately, “of course.”

they didn’t bother kunhang again after that, he just spent his time walking aimlessly around the ship and relating everything he saw back to things he had experienced with dejun. when there was only a few hours left of their flight, kunhang remembered the small things he had to look forward to, he would be seeing his friends for the first time in a few months, he’d see his family but not even those things could fully fill the dejun sized hole in his heart.

the ship landed in an odd wilderness and kunhang was escorted back to his hometown in a car, everything felt so painfully boring and bland and he just wished to be back in weishen forgetting to hold on to the handles of dejun’s loporah zooming towards the park.

when they stopped outside his house, kunhang thanked the man for the experience and in turn he was offered a smile and a stack of forms and questionnaires with the promise that they would be picked up in two weeks time. he’d barely stepped out of the car before yukhei and yangyang were running full speed towards him.

“kunhang!” yukhei called excitedly, “bro i missed you so much, why didn’t you tell me you were going? you didn’t even take any stuff? do you know how weird it was here without you? yangyang almost had to move out.”

“i missed you too,” kunhang smiled weakly and ignored the rest of his friend’s questions. they just exchanged worried glances before following the boy inside.

after flopping down on the sofa, kunhang opened his bag and reached inside to fish out his phone, instead his hand met a crumpled piece of paper and he pulled it out only to be face to face with the worst drawing he had ever seen: dejun’s cat. he instantly broke into tears, remembering the night it had been created on. he had told dejun that he was good at everything and the older just had to prove him wrong in the most spectacular way.

the alien boy had been so insistent that he couldn’t draw but still kunhang didn’t believe him, it seemed impossible that there was anything that he wasn’t brilliant at. kunhang thought that dejun was the most amazing person in the world.

yangyang and yukhei quickly rushed to his side and pulled him in to a group hug, he clung to them as he sobbed and the memory of instead clinging to dejun as they cried together wouldn’t leave his mind. he couldn’t bear the feeling in his chest as he sobbed out to his two best friends, “i’m never gonna see him again, i’ll never seen him again.” the bitter reality that he was back on earth and dejun was still out there, somewhere, millions of miles away on weishen felt like too much to handle.

his friend’s didn’t know how to cope either, it was obvious that kunhang hadn’t simply been backpacking but they were in no position to ask about his actual trip. yukhei stared down at the drawing that kunhang was clutching tightly and he reached down to lightly pull it from his friend’s grasp, “you’ll rip it,” he explained and kunhang just hung his head and nodded before letting something else of dejun’s slip from his grasp.

“kunhang,” yangyang spoke softly from next to him as his sobs began to calm down, “i think you need to tell us what happened.” kunhang’s mind began whirring, how could he possibly explain such a biazarre situation to his friends? he was abducted by aliens but with his consent and then he fell in love with his researcher? it sounded so entirely unbelievable but it was so ridiculously true.

“i was taken by aliens,” he spoke out behind a deep breath and yukhei stared at him incredulously.

“are you serious?” he practically yelled, “should we call renjun? are you okay?” he continued throwing out questions so wildly that it wasn’t until yangyang hit him that he realised that tears had began to fall down kunhang’s face once again.

“i’m sorry,” he apologised when he looked back at his friend. kunhang was always so positive and bright that seeing him this way felt much worse than anything ever had. his two friend’s wanted to do everything they possibly could to make him feel better, “what happened after that?” he asked.

“they wanted to research me,” kunhang replied, “so they assigned me my researcher, dejun,” he broke into sobs again just over saying the boy’s name and yangyang rubbed circles on his back in a feeble attempt to calm him down but kunhang just continued talking, “he‘s the best person i’ve ever met, he’s so beautiful, i’ll show you the few photos i have you’ll never believe how beautiful he is and he’s smart, he built a whole human house himself and connected to our tv and our wifi and all of the appliances were just like ours except for the toilet and toaster,” kunhang sniffed, “and i love him,” he continued suddenly, “i love him so much that i think he’s the only person i will ever love but now he’s millions of miles away and he’ll be alone and crying with no family or friends to support him and i can’t be there for him, he’ll never have anyone to love again,” kunhang breathed out.

his two friends had no idea what to say. the situation was so unlike anything they’d experienced before that they didn’t even know how to begin comforting their friend. at this point, however, it seemed like it would be impossible to comfort him at all. the only thing that could slow his tears and stop his heart from breaking and his head from spinning was having dejun back in his arms.

there was nothing his friend’s could do to make him happy. instead, yangyang decided to try and bring back some positive memories to cheer his friend up however much he could, even if it was only a little, “did he draw that cat?”

“he did,” kunhang spoke, “i’d heard him sing properly that night and i said to him ‘there’s nothing you can’t do well’ and he told me he couldn’t draw and i asked him to prove it and he did.”

the two other boys looked over to the drawing on the table, it was, as kunhang had said, awful but their friend didn’t seem to mind. to him, anything that dejun has produced was much more meaningful than random paintings in galleries even by the finest of artists.

kunhang finally tore his gaze from the cat and finally fished his phone from the bag. surprisingly it still had charge in it from the last time he had charged it in dejun’s apartment and he guessed, bitterly, that it was testament to weishen’s brilliant technology. with shaky hands, he unlocked it and it opened straight to the photo he had taken of his lover as he was about to leave. he drew a deep breath to hold back his sobs before showing his friend’s the photo, “this is him, i was about to leave when i took this but i wanted to remember even our worst day together because every second i spent with him was so precious and we were crying so much we could barely stand up,” a few tears fell down the boy’s face but he fought to hold them in as he scrolled to the next photo.

the others were all candid shots with the first showing dejun smiling brightly with the light of the fake night sky being the only thing illuminating his face. kunhang’s one true wish would to be able to take dejun stargazing on earth so he could see the wonder on the boy’s face when he first saw the night sky for real. “he’s beautiful kunhang,” yangyang spoke which knocked the boy from his thoughts and he just threw yangyang a bleak smile.

they scrolled through some more photos and kunhang cried a few more times with his friends trying their hardest to comfort him even though it was no to avail. his mother visited too and kunhang begged his friends to pretend that nothing was wrong but it proved almost impossible for the boy to recall various fake backpacking stories without thinking of dejun and crying. despite being millions of miles away, dejun was everywhere he looked. every time he flushed the toilet or looked at the toaster or saw a cartoon on tv, the face of the other boy would pop up in his mind.

his torment continued for days, it was rare for him to move from the sofa where he would just wrap himself in blankets and watch reruns of old cartoons that he thought maybe dejun would be watching to. it was horrible, how desperate he was to find any connection to dejun he possibly could.

by the ninth day of kunhang’s wallowing in self pity, yangyang had finally had enough and had decided to go into town to buy some of his best friend’s favourite chocolate cake. the bakery was in one of the city’s back streets and yangyang always had a hard time finding it. with google maps proving no help, the boy took to asking strangers for directions.

he first located an elderly man to ask but he was no help as was the second one so he decided to change his tactics and ask a kind looking boy his age.

“hi, sorry to bother you,” he began, “do you know where qian’s bakery is from here?”

the boy’s eyes widened as he set his gaze on yangyang and he began to speak in possibly the strangest accent that yangyang had ever heard, “are you uh... liu yangyang?” the boy asked.

confusion swarmed over yangyang’s body as he searched the other boy’s face to try and figure out just why he looked so familiar, “do i know you?” he asked.

the boy just completely disregarded his question as he countered with his own, “do you know someone called wong kunhang?”

it was then that it clicked in yangyang’s head, “are you kunhang’s alien boyfriend?”

“you know him?!” the other boy almost yelled in pure happiness, “yes! yes i am! i mean we’re not boyfriends i don’t think but yes i’m the alien please do you know where he is right now can you take me to see him?” he held onto yangyang’s arm with bright eyes that already brimmed with tears just at the thought of seeing his lover again.

“please, he’s been constantly crying for nine days of course i’ll take you to see him,” yangyang beamed brightly, “you have no idea how excited he’s gonna be to see you.”

they got to know each other a little as they speedily walked back to the apartment shared by the three human boys. dejun told yangyang some small things about weishen and some big things about his relationship with kunhang. it took them about 10 minutes before they arrived and yangyang texted yukhei not to answer the door and to make kunhang do it. he patted dejun on the back and whispered a quick, “good luck,” before running off down the street to ‘give the two their moment.’ dejun was secretly grateful.

he took a deep breath before raising his hand and knocking on the door. a loud voice was heard almost instantly, “kunhang can you get the door? i’m kind of really busy!” the person who dejun assumed was yukhei yelled.

“can’t you do it? i really don’t want to face anyone right now,” came the reply and hearing kunhang’s voice made dejun’s heart beat 100 times faster. he was mere metres from kunhang and he would soon be close enough to hold his hand and hug him and kiss him. that was, if kunhang ever let him in.

“please kunhang just get the door,” came another loud but this time pleading call.

“you owe me for this,” kunhang’s voice replied but it was much louder this time and dejun readied himself for when the door would finally open.

the moment he was waiting for came not even 10 second later. a disheveled looking kunhang who was wrapped tightly in a blanket swung the door open and immediately dropped the mug he was carrying when he saw just who had been knocking.

“dejun?!” he yelled as he surged forward and encased the boy in a huge hug. tears rolled from their eyes as they clung to each other afraid that if they let go they would be apart again. kunhang pulled back to press his palm to dejun’s face and then pinch himself in a desperate attempt to make sure that the boy in front of him was real.

“are you real? are you really here? dejun are you really here is this really you and you’re not just my imagination?” he asked with his desperation making his words so quick that the alien boy hardly understood him.

“no i’m here and i’m not your imagination,” he laughed and it was then that kunhang wrapped his arms tightly around dejun and began sobbing hysterically into his shirt. dejun followed soon after and they just stood for a few minutes, crying in each other’s embrace and barely believing that the situation was actually real.

they pulled away and looked each other straight in the eyes before dejun pressed a soft kiss to kunhang’s lips and broke out into a huge smile. “i missed you,” he spoke sweetly and kunhang just shook his head in disbelief.

“you have no idea how much i’ve missed you,” the younger pulled dejun in for an embrace yet again and dejun whispered into his ear.

“i think i do, yangyang told me all about it on our walk here,” he giggled.

kunhang just laughed and yangyang used this as his time to sneak past the two and into the house where he and yukhei stood watching the two with proud smiles.

their night was full of questions. dejun explained that it had took him 2 days to recover after kunhang left and 3 days to persuade the planetary research commission to let him live on earth permanently to ‘further his research,’ he also told them of how he was fully equipped with a human passport and they had added him to the records so it was like he’d been here all along.

the alien boy had all sorts of questions to ask yangyang and yukhei but kunhang decided to save them for tomorrow when renjun was coming over as he undoubtedly would have a lot of questions for both dejun and kunhang alike too.

they ended their night in each other’s arms as kunhang talked of how he was going to show dejun the mountains and how they would go to the country to stargaze. dejun told kunhang about his dream where he was a florist and the younger was a writer. they both shared their dreams of what they would do in their lives together.

“i know one thing i will do forever,” kunhang had whispered just as dejun was falling asleep

“what’s that?” the older asked.

“love you.”

and he did.

he loved dejun as they lay under the night sky days later and he pointed out all of the stars one by one, he loved him as he begged the weishen government for money to start a florists and succeeded, he loved him as he explained the loving meaning of every flower he had put in the first bouquet he ever made for kunhang. he loved him endlessly and eternally and dejun learned that love was the most powerful force on earth and perhaps across the whole rest of the universe too.