Archive of Our Own ^beta

Seokjin, confused and covered in dust, stares up at the pair of eyes that meet his, brown shades of warmth that are unfamiliar but somehow still gentle in the same breath. Eyebrows pinch from where they sit above, and with bated breath, Seokjin tries to focus on what the human is saying to him. 

It’s obvious this person is trying to say something, despite the fact that Seokjin’s ears are ringing and his hands are still filled with tremors. He doesn’t mean to, but he struggles to make light of the words nonetheless.

“…kay?”

But there’s still that weird ringing and it’s dark outside and he has no idea what’s really going on and—

“…you…okay…injured?...where…hurt…”

Seokjin shakes his head for a moment, reaching up to rub at his eyes. His hair sticks to his forehead so he pushes it away, as if that’ll help him focus. 

Another figure comes into view, a shorter human with a small frown and sharp eyes, although there’s a lot more caution in his features. Seokjin sighs, his mind a little fuzzy and warbled from the crash. Korean. They’re speaking Korean.

“…careful…don’t know…call…”

Seokjin clears his throat, still staring up at the pair. “I… crashed. I’m just startled, no injuries.”

The first person who had greeted him looks even more concerned than before while the second’s expression morphs into something of worry as well. Seokjin is still jittery, still worn-out from the impromptu landing and the horrendously long walk it had taken to find any sign of a town or city, but he’s uninjured for the most part. There are a few spots that’ll bruise, another handful will ache for a while, but overall, nothing life-threatening. 

“Here.” One of the voices finally comes into focus as Seokjin blinks tiredly at it. “Come with us. We’ll get you cleaned up.”

Exhausted and quite down on his luck, Seokjin lets his dusty hand be pulled, standing up off the seat he’d been residing on all night, and following the two humans who had come to question him.

He doesn’t fight it. He’s lost universes away and with his ship crashed, leaving him stranded, there isn’t really much else for him to lose. He’s been lost for a long time anyway.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“I don’t know, I found him outside the convenience store sitting on a bench.”

“You just brought a stranger home…?”

“He doesn’t look okay.”

“You should’ve just called an ambulance—”

“I’ll take him to the doctor in the morning if he needs it—it really just looked like he needed a place to rest for a little while, okay?”

“Hyung, you let this happen? He’s dressed in… a costume? A spacesuit costume?”

“Kook-ah is right. I think it’ll be okay. There’s a perfectly usable couch here. Worst case scenario… we get robbed and just gotta call the cops in the morning or something.”

“That’s… that’s a pretty bad worst case scenario.”

Seokjin hears the words, but they sound so far away, swimming and moving around in the space around him but never quite settling. He’d been guided to their home, laid down on what they refer to as “a couch” and covered with a blanket so thick he thinks he’ll probably kick it off at some point in the night. But it’s comfortable, even with all the eyes on him and curious questions. 

His own eyes have long been closed, sleep threatening to pull him under. He shouldn’t have followed so easily—there should have been some sense of self-preservation instincts kicking in. But, Seokjin feels defeated in all the worst ways, and lets himself drift off, hoping that this whole awful day doesn’t plague his nightmares. 

Tomorrow he’ll leave and figure out this mess, but for now, he sleeps. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“Shhhh!”

“I’m trying!”

Seokjin blinks awake, the blurriness of the world greeting him instantly. He has a bit of a headache, but he ignores it for now, trying to let the room fade into focus. It takes him a few more moments (and some more clattering around somewhere in the house) to make out the sunlight that pours through the crack in the fabric that covers the windows, a strange but tall plant that sits in the corner of the room, the blanket on the floor he most definitely kicked off like he knew he would. He wants to sleep some more, to just float off and give himself more time, but there comes another crash followed by—

“Shhhhhhhh!”

“I think that’s even louder than me dropping the pan—”

“Oh! He’s awake.”

Seokjin peeks over the top of the couch to glance right into the kitchen. His frame of view is small, but he can make out two people huddled together, holding some metal container that Seokjin doesn’t particularly recognize. He hardly knows much about Earth other than the fact that humans reside here and that the sun is awfully important to them, but his knowledge further than that is lackluster at best. 

He recognizes one of the people, the one with warm brown eyes that had stopped to see if he was alright, but the other he can’t pinpoint. It’s not the same person who was with them last night. 

“Hello!” The first one greets, putting the container away and stepping into the living room. “Good morning. How are you feeling? Are you injured?”

“No injuries,” Seokjin confirms, blinking slowly as the human sits on the arm of the couch, the remaining one in the kitchen following to stand a bit further back. “Thank you for giving me a place to sleep last night.”

“Of course! Ah, my name is Jungkook. And this is…” He looks over his shoulder and the other person waves his hand for a moment.

“I’m Taehyung.” He nods, chestnut hair pretty against his face. “Nice to meet you. I heard you got into an accident last night? Sounds scary.”

Seokjin mulls this over. “I crashed, yes.” He runs a hand through his hair, feeling the way it tugs at his scalp. He feels awfully dirty. “Sorry to have inconvenienced you. I know it must be strange to allow someone you aren’t familiar with into your home.”

Jungkook’s eyes practically sparkle, but he glances at Taehyung with an expression Seokjin can’t read. 

“And your name?”

Right. “You can call me Seokjin.”

Taehyung looks at him carefully in return, but clears his throat before speaking again.. 

“Well, we were going to get some breakfast ready if you’re hungry. Yoongi-hyung was the one who found you with Jungkook last night, but he’s still in the shower. If you want, he said you can use it when he’s done.”

Seokjin blinks, a bit confused again. “Shower?”

“Yeah, and I’m sure I can find some clothes for you too,” Jungkook chimes in. “You can probably fit something that I have.”

In all honesty, Seokjin doesn’t quite know what they’re referring to, but he stays quiet. He does plan on leaving as soon as he can to return to where he’d left his ship, and the less questions by then the better. 

“Do you want an omelet, Seokjin-ssi?” Jungkook asks warmly, always so kindly. “We don’t really do breakfast much around here so it’s kind of all we have. And some toast.”

Seokjin has no idea what an omelet is. 

It’s going to be a long day.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Turns out the shower is a small makeshift waterfall of sorts. Seokjin burns himself on the hottest temperature setting by mistake before he asks Jungkook to show him how to work the stupid thing. Jungkook shows him the knobs and where to find the soap and shampoo and such, which Seokjin struggles to figure out how to use anyway. He uses the soap in his hair and watches as the shampoo washes the dirt off his body. He considers it a success by the time his skin is free from that awful dust and grime he scrubbed at has swirled down the drain. By the time he exits the shower, he feels renewed and a lot better. 

Jungkook had left some clothes for him—a baggy shirt of sorts and some old denim jeans from what he had mentioned, so Seokjin puts them on quickly. They’re different from his tattered spacesuit that lays dirty and ripped on the tiled floor, but they’re looser and breathable, so he decides to leave them on for now.

By the time he returns downstairs, he hears Jungkook, Taehyung, and (probably) Yoongi all talking and sitting on the couch. Their conversation bleeds into the hallway, but when he steps into the living room, it dies down immediately. The three of them look at him with curious but polite expressions.

“Feeling better?” Jungkook asks from his seat. “I’m glad the clothes fit.”

Seokjin smiles politely with a nod. “Yes, thank you. I appreciate the help.”

“You said you crashed, right?” Yoongi starts, eyeing Seokjin who simply stands in the middle of their living room, feeling like he’s taking up too much space. “Do you need help with anything? A ride anywhere?” 

“Like to a doctor?” Jungkook adds, standing up from where he sits. “You seemed really out of it last night.”

Seokjin hums, considering. He’s fine, really. No major injuries, just a few scrapes and bumps, but nothing serious. He’d assessed himself in the shower, and overall, he’s okay despite the concern written all over everyone’s features. 

“A ride?” Seokjin shifts his weight from one leg to the other, ignoring the dull ache in one of his ankles. “What does that mean?”

“Do you need us to drive you somewhere?” Yoongi amends. “Is there somewhere you need to go?”

“Oh.” Seokjin nods, understanding the second question, not the first. “I planned on returning to where I crashed now that I feel better.” 

“Maybe your car needs a tow?” Taehyung suggests, but Seokjin is still lost. He feels absolutely confused about the whole situation as a whole, and while he considers himself fluent in Korean, some of the wording is a bit foreign.

“I’m not sure what that means,” Seokjin admits. “But if you’re able to get me back to where I crashed, I would appreciate it.” 

The three of them look at each other briefly, but it’s Jungkook who speaks first with that warm smile of his. “Okay. We’ll take you where you need to go. Let’s go.”

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“This is…” Taehyung’s hair whips violently with the windows rolled down, but it gets even worse when he sticks his head out the window to look around at the empty scenery.

“Really far,” Yoongi murmurs, finishing his sentence, hands loose on the steering wheel as if he’d long accepted this fact long ago. “You really crashed out here?”

“I did,” Seokjin confirms, carefully eyeing the inside of the machinery they referred to as a “truck” or something of the sorts. “I’m not lying.”

It’s like a much smaller version of his ship, but it seems to be rectangular and bound to the ground, unable to fly. He had tried to steel his confusion and unfamiliarity with such a device, but thankfully no one has noticed the way he grips the jeans he’s wearing with white knuckles. 

“It’s not that we thought you were lying.” Jungkook sits forward from the back to place a hand on the seat Seokjin sits in. The belt around his body pulls from how far he has to lean. It matches the one they had buckled Seokjin into, and it reminds him of the ones he has on his ship but simpler. “It’s just—you really walked from here all the way to where we found you?” 

Seokjin hardly remembers it in all honesty. A lot of it had been blurry and dark, but he can make out bits and pieces of his memory: lots of dirt roads and dust followed by the eventual sight of lights. He’d been able to follow that light which had turned out to be the beginnings of several buildings that lead him into the town Jungkook speaks of. He’d walked and walked until he couldn’t anymore. 

He can’t remember what his plan was, but it doesn’t matter now he supposes. 

“Oh!” Seokjin points at the hill he recognizes, the rock formation on top of it now missing. He’d knocked it off on the way down, so he remembers the distinct damage it left behind. If he looks hard enough, he can see the top of the smoke. “There!”

“Where?” Yoongi murmurs, squinting at where Seokjin’s finger is trying to guide him. “It’s just… dirt. Wait, is that smoke?”

The truck does travel off the road though, slowly rolling onto the dead grass on its exterior before Yoongi picks up speed again. They follow where Seokjin leads them, and while the car is silent aside from the rumbling of large tires against the ground and rock, Seokjin is relieved to be on his way back to his ship. It’s the only home he’s had for all these years, and while the crash had been devastating in terms of getting stuck here for a bit, he’s sure he can fix things up and wander around in the stars some more. 

He doesn’t really belong here anyway.

Yoongi drives the truck along the base of cliff for a while, skeptically eyeing Seokjin while glancing at Jungkook and Taehyung in the mirror that hangs in between them, and Seokjin should feel bad for causing them such worry, but he really can’t help it. He needs the assistance. 

“Here.” Seokjin points to where the ground slopes upward into a steep hill. It’s not particularly traversable by the truck, that much he can guess with how the machine can’t fly, but he tells Yoongi to stop so he can get out. The truck does pause soon after, but Yoongi looks at him like he’s crazy. 

“Here?” Yoongi’s hands are still firmly on the steering wheel, but he gestures to the outside with a nod of his head. “There’s absolutely nothing here.”

“It’s over the hill,” Seokjin promises. “I don’t think this truck flies, right?”

“What—?”

“Thank you for taking me here. I know it was out of your way. I can walk the rest.”

“Seriously?” Taehyung asks, Seokjin looking at him from over his shoulder. “How in the hell did you crash all the way out here?” 

“I was traveling and there was a malfunction. I’m not quite sure yet, myself. I’ll have to take a look at it.” 

Seokjin struggles to figure out how to work the door, but once he pulls on the latch and it opens, he hears a bunch of protests immediately afterwards. He looks at them all in surprise.

“We can’t just leave you here in the middle of nowhere.” Jungkook’s eyebrows are furrowed as he shakes his head, opening his own door. “Hyung, just give me a sec. I’ll walk him to his car and see what’s going on.”

“That’s not necessary,” Seokjin tries, but Taehyung opens his own as well, already stepping outside of the vehicle. “I mean it—”

“And if that’s your car on fire and causing all that smoke, how do you plan on getting back to town?” Yoongi questions, turning the truck off, the engine falling quiet immediately. There’s a bit of dirt in the air from where they had stirred it up with the wheels, but Yoongi joins Jungkook and Taehyung in getting out as well. Seokjin has no other option than to follow. 

“I don’t know what a car is,” Seokjin informs them, already walking towards the hill. The three of them follow, although cautiously, which isn’t surprising in the slightest. They have every right to be wary. Seokjin has led them somewhere far and alone, and he supposes they’ve given him more kindness than necessary. “But you can see it from the top of this hill. Once you see it, you will realize that you can leave me here.” 

No one responds but Seokjin doesn’t mind. He treks up the slope, batting away the dust that threatens to get in his eyes. It’s hot and dry here, his boots clunking against the brittle earth, but a ways later, they finally make it. As he nears the top, he jogs the rest of the way, a sense of excitement rushing through him. Finally, some familiarity. 

He waits for the three humans to reach him, and when they do, he’s met with nothing but even more silence. It’s a bit strange—he’s sure that they’ve seen a spaceship before after all. He surely can’t be the first here. 

“There it is,” Seokjin says, gesturing at his fallen ship. “I told you it was here.”

The ship is massive, which Seokjin only realizes considering the size of it compared to the truck they had all just been in. Thick black smoke curls out from all sides of it and there’s even a fire right at the entrance, but Seokjin is still relieved to see it. It looks thin from this angle and sits on the flatter side, but a lot of the bottom end has been submerged into the ground, the impact burying a lot of it into the earth from the force. Debris and rock are scattered all along the dried grass, but Seokjin had been fortunate enough to crash far enough from the surrounding trees that the fire still hasn’t spread. A lot of the dirt from the impact surrounds the perimeter, but the saving grace of it all is that it’s still in one piece. 

It’s all Seokjin needs. 

“That’s…” But Jungkook’s voice trails off soon afterwards. Taehyung’s eyes are wide to match the way his jaw drops, but his body looks as stiff as a board. 

It’s Yoongi who speaks next, but he sounds as if he doesn’t realizes he does. 

“What in the hell—?”

“Thank you for the—” A pause as Seokjin tries to remember what they had named it back at that house “—‘ride’! You can leave me here.”

“It’s on fire— ” Jungkook tries reasoning, grabbing onto Seokjin’s shoulder as he starts his descent down the hill. “You can’t go.”

“What’s a little fire?” Seokjin jokes, teases in that way he loves to do, but Jungkook’s lips don’t turn into a smile. They stay curled down into a frown. “You humans are so worried. It’ll be okay.”

“I agree with everyone else,” Taehyung pipes in as well, although his eyes don’t leave the wreckage. “We can’t just… leave you here. I mean, I don’t know? Can we?”

“I don’t know.” Yoongi mulls it over for a moment, glancing from the crash site back to Seokjin. “I don’t fuckin’ know at all.”

“Is this something we’re supposed to, I don’t know, report?” Jungkook’s clearly worried about the fire, eyes following the tendrils of smoke that reach towards the blue sky. “It’s not going to start a wildfire or something right?”

“It should extinguish in a few days and it won’t spread. It’ll be safe,” Seokjin concludes, nodding factually. “There is a back entrance I can use—”

“No reporting,” Yoongi quickly adds. “Who knows what they’ll do to him.” With a curt glance at Seokjin, it’s obvious he’s worried, but there’s still so much confusion there as well. “It’s probably best that you leave this here for the fire to die out. It’s not safe and it’s probably best that you aren’t seen around it much. If someone finds out about it, I can’t imagine it’ll be good.”

Seokjin looks at the three of them. He doesn’t mean to be impatient, but he’s sore and tired and he wants to sleep somewhere familiar. His feet hurt from walking so much and his bones ache in all the horrible ways he can imagine. Nothing life-threatening, but his heart needs that space to settle—he’s been stuck in an unfamiliar place all night and he’s exhausted. 

The hull of the ship suddenly groans, and while they all snap their attention to it, there’s no visible damage, but they can hear something crack on the inside. 

“I will be safe,” Seokjin decides, speaking with the most conviction he can muster up. 

“Absolutely not.” Jungkook still has his hand on Seokjin’s shoulder, but his eyebrows are furrowed in that certain way again, but he seems determined in his own right. “We’ll come back in a few days when the fire is out.”

“Until then, you can come back with us.” Yoongi is the one to say it, but he seems surprised the words came out of him at all. Seokjin doesn’t mean to impose—it’s clear they’re all worried. “Let’s go before someone shows up to check the smoke.”

Seokjin is prepared to protest, but Jungkook is already guiding him away, Taehyung and Yoongi following right behind.

He’s not sure why or what the real reasoning is, but once he sees the stern look Yoongi gives him when he looks behind to argue, Seokjin snaps his jaw shut and keeps the words to himself. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“So you’re an alien,” Jungkook concludes once they’ve returned to the house. There’s no segue to it, no easing in—just a point-blank kind of tone that makes Seokjin blink at him unknowingly.

The ride back had been virtually silent aside from Seokjin guiding them back to the road they came on, his memory seemingly a bit better than the others. Jungkook and Taehyung sat in the back again, both awfully stiff, while Yoongi just focused on returning to the city. 

“I’m not sure what an alien is,” Seokjin admits yet again, rubbing the back of his neck. “But I’m not from this planet if that is what you mean.”

“And that’s… your spaceship…” This time it’s Taehyung who speaks, still shocked and standing in front of the television set with wide eyes. 

“Your outfit from yesterday!” Jungkook is quick to jump in again. “It really was a spacesuit?”

Seokjin recalls the battered suit he had left on the bathroom floor earlier this morning, the navy fabric shredded and dirty from walking in the middle of nowhere for so long. He won’t be able to use those clothes anymore, but he’s also unsure of where to get a new one to replace it. He hopes the remainder of his belongings haven’t been caught in the fire as well.

“I’m sorry to impose on you,” is what Seokjin says instead, head hung a little low. “You do not need to offer me a place to stay.”

“We do,” Yoongi says, but not unkindly. While a stern tone is what Seokjin had expected (after all, what do they owe Seokjin?), Yoongi’s voice is soft yet resolute. “We brought you in. I don’t know what your situation is or what’s really going on, and if we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, I really wouldn’t have believed any of it. But here we are.” He points upstairs towards the second story of the home and looks at Seokjin with a surprisingly kind expression. “We do have a spare bedroom up there that you can use. Jungkook-ah and I live here, so it’s just us.”

“And I live next door,” Taehyung fills in when Seokjin sneaks a curious glance at him. “There’s a big group of us, really. I’m sure you’ll end up having to meet the rest of us at some point.”

“That’s… something we’ll deal with later,” Yoongi murmurs, standing up from his seat. “Jungkook-ah, show him the spare room, please. I’m going to go to the store and get some groceries so we can all eat dinner. Taehyung-ah, can you do us a favor and just make sure no one comes over today? I think we just need time to process all of this.”

Everyone nods at their given tasks, but before Seokjin can really process much of it, Jungkook appears directly in front of him, looking just as kind and sweet as ever. 

“Okay, let’s go. I’ll show you around the house. Let me know if you need anything or have any questions, okay?”

Seokjin nods a little dumbly.

What is he even doing?

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Seokjin settles in quickly, mostly because he doesn’t really have any belongings with him. No clothes, no nicknacks, nothing. The bedroom they were referring to is nice. It’s a decently sized room with a large window that Seokjin gets to look out at whenever he wants. The room itself is mostly bare, which Jungkook had explained is common for “guest rooms” and such. There’s just a bed, a large wooden container he called a “dresser” and a closet of sorts. Seokjin feels awfully intrusive, but Jungkook always looks at him with a certain kind of warmth that makes him feel at ease. 

Seokjin suddenly realizes he’s grateful.

The first night is difficult. He tosses and turns, exhaustion not quite pulling at him so harshly, but his sore body still wanting to sleep. It’s hard being somewhere unfamiliar, but he tries his best, watching the way the moon moves across his window pane with dry eyes and a small frown. The blankets are warm, though, and Seokjin holds them up to his chin, basking in its comfort. 

The third one is better, but still just as hard to fall asleep. He watches the same moon travel across the glass, but he feels a bit fonder of the whole situation. He’s hardly seen anyone else in the house—Yoongi, Jungkook, and even Taehyung come to visit him from time to time, but he hardly leaves. It’s not that he tries to avoid them or that he wants to be rude, but he sees the worry and concern in their expressions and he feels guilt over it. 

Guilt for strangers who are under no obligation to help him.

By the end of the week, Taehyung barges in with a huff, his handsome face twisted into something firm. It’s not unkind (none of them ever are), but he definitely seems determined about something. 

Seokjin sits up in bed with a huff of his own. “Is something the matter?”

“Seokjin-ssi, we need to get you out of bed. Come on. Let’s eat together. Our friends are coming over and you need a shower.”

“I do not need a shower—”

“You’ve hardly left the bed at all since you’ve been here. Let’s go. You’re coming with me.” Before Seokjin can argue, Taehyung squints at him and lifts his index finger up to interrupt. “Yoongi-hyung and Jungkookie’s orders.”

Seokjin is reluctant when he slides out of bed, but he listens nonetheless. 

He soon finds himself dragged outside, the sunlight bright and painful to his eyes, and when he cries out, Taehyung just simply laughs, tugging on him even further. Seokjin lets himself be guided, but soon enough, he finds himself in yet another home, one absolutely unfamiliar to him. He’s ushered upstairs, clumsily trying not to trip on the steps while he’s pulled along, but he catches a glimpse of the pictures on the walls, several of them containing Taehyung with a bunch of other humans, some who look like him, others who do not. 

This must be his own home. 

“Shower time!” Taehyung instructs, thrusting a towel in his general direction, Seokjin catching onto it the best he can. “You’re gonna shower here and you can pick something out from my closet, okay?” 

Seokjin feels a bit overwhelmed. He’d spent this whole time in the comfort of the bed he’s been using, huddled underneath the blankets as he wondered about what his next steps were and what to do about that ship of his, yet now he’s being moved around left and right, being instructed to get up and pull himself together. It’s a lot of whiplash, but Seokjin tries his best to follow along regardless. 

The shower turns out to be similar to Yoongi and Jungkook’s, and Seokjin is able to manage turning it on all by himself. He bothers to read the back of the bottles this time around, noticing the text scattered across all of the containers, and makes sure to use the shampoo first and scrub himself down. 

By the time he finds himself back in Taehyung’s bedroom, damp hair in his eyes, Taehyung has the closet thrown wide open, a boxy grin on his face as he looks on proudly. 

“We look like we could be similar sizes. Try something on that you see and hopefully it fits.” 

Seokjin, still dripping wet with nothing but a towel around his waist, scours the closet under Taehyung’s watchful gaze. His eyes are a bit sharper than Jungkook’s, but in their own way also hold the same kind of warmth that Seokjin recognizes on both of his hosts. Yoongi is warm in his own way too. They must all be.’ 

The closet is filled with all sorts of clothes and fabrics. A lot of them are unfamiliar to Seokjin, feeling the different textures in between his fingers, admiring the bold patterns on some, the beautiful colors on others. He’s not entirely sure what is appropriate to mix and match with, or what he could possibly need, so he glances at Taehyung dressed in loose jeans and a tight black shirt of sorts tucked into the belt. He looks comfortable and that’s what Seokjin wants to mimic. 

He goes through the entire rack dutifully. There are a lot of clothes to go through, which Taehyung must acknowledge in some way considering he patiently waits for him, even when Seokjin starts from the beginning all over again. He pulls a few off the bar and examines them, and when Taehyung’s eyes light up, Seokjin feels like he finds something that might work. 

But a part of him is still nervous, so he asks anyway. “What do people wear when they want to be taken seriously?” 

Taehyung tilts his head to the side, contemplating the words in honest. “Do you feel like you’re not being taken seriously?”

“No, I do,” Seokjin amends, tucking the garment he was holding onto back onto the closet’s bar. “It’s not that. I just am unfamiliar with your customs and normalcies. I don’t want it to be obvious right away that I’m a bit oblivious to a lot of things…”

Taehyung nods in understanding, palm tucked under his chin as he taps his fingers against his cheek. “They say if you dress in fancy clothes, some will take you more seriously.” 

“What’s something that reflects that?” 

Taehyung steps forward into his closet and rifles through a few of the sections, long fingers locking onto several of the hooks before pushing them over. There seems to be a certain kind of organization to everything, although Seokjin isn’t quite sure how it works just yet. 

“These are called dress shirts. They’re a bit on the more expensive side.”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to lend me these then.”

“I don’t mind. Pick one.” Warm. Taehyung’s grin is so warm. 

Seokjin mirrors the movements, moving some pieces aside so he can see what the other options are. There are a lot of choices to make, some with incredible colors that feel smooth across his skin, others that feel rough when he runs his fingertips across them. He’s not sure what looks proper or what would be ideal, but in the back, he finally notices something.

It looks like a two piece set, something for the top and bottom, and when Seokjin pulls the collar aside, he notices a white garment tucked under it as well. This seems like the least inconvenient thing for Taehyung to have to give him—one thing on a hanger versus Seokjin needing to take several. Plus, something about it calls out to him, whether it be the black color or the way the material feels, he’s not sure, but he pulls it off anyway to show Taehyung. 

“This,” Seokjin declares, completely final. “Can I try it on?”

Taehyung’s eyes grow wide. “You want that?” 

“What’s wrong with it? It was with your fancy clothes—”

“I mean yeah, you can, but I wore that years ago to prom—”

“Prom?”

“Ah, you know, never mind. If that’s what you really want. But for today, let me pick something out for you instead.”

Seokjin gets to try on what he picked in addition to another outfit Taehyung hands off to him. He calls this new outfit “jeans and a cardigan” which is meant to be casual in comparison to the other one, which is for something more sophisticated or serious. 

That feeling of gratitude sinks in him yet again, and for the first time, Seokjin finds himself grinning up at Taehyung’s light jokes, even if he doesn’t quite understand all of them. If he thinks Jungkook and Yoongi are warm, it’s definitive that Taehyung is too. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“This is Seokjin,” Jungkook introduces, Seokjin holding his hand up in a wave of sorts at the several others crowded in the living room. “He’s…”

“The alien,” one of the strangers says, eyes trailing up and down Seokjin, as if he expects some crazy appendages or superpowers. He sits there with blond hair and long legs, and a pretty face to match. “I feel like I wouldn’t believe you, but considering Yoongi-hyung is saying it, too…”

“Hey!” Taehyung chirps up from where he stands next to Seokjin. “Jungkookie and I are reliable sources!”

No one else comments on it any further, Jungkook pouting from where he sits next to Yoongi, gaze lingering on who Seokjin assumes is the rest of the group they mentioned once before. 

“I’m Jimin!” The one with blond hair greets, eyes still curious, but smile genuine. “I see this is why we weren’t allowed over this week.” 

“I’m Hoseok,” another says from the second couch, his expression the boldest with his eyes as wide as his mouth can be. “I’ll be honest… I didn’t expect this to be real, but Yoongi-hyung swore up and down that it was true.” 

“And you are both reliable sources,” another speaks up, the last remaining stranger in the room. He tosses a quick smile at Jungkook and Taehyung, and Seokjin notices the dimples that bracket his cheeks. “But Yoongi-hyung wouldn’t joke about aliens. You both would.” He turns back to Seokjin with a polite grin and nods a little while he speaks. “And I’m Namjoon. Nice to meet you, Seokjin-ssi.” 

“Seokjin,” he corrects, nodding back. “Why does everyone add that ‘ssi’ noise at the end? Should I be doing the same to you?” 

“For now, I think that would be best,” Yoongi responds in kind, pulling himself up from his seat on the sofa. He moves to stand next to Seokjin, and Seokjin leans into the familiarity, even if only a tiny bit. “It’s an honorific. It’s meant to be polite—”

“Let’s just forget about being polite!” Jungkook retorts, sticking his tongue out. “Seokjin doesn’t know about any of that stuff. Don’t make him worry about something else right now.”

“That’s fair,” Namjoon chimes in, and Seokjin smiles kindly at Jungkook, not quite understanding yet again, but knowing that it’s something meant to make things easier for him, and is therefore something kind and helpful. “ Seokjin , it’s nice to meet you.” 

“I feel like I have so many questions,” Hoseok says, laughing at his own words, hand covering his mouth while he giggles. “This is so bizarre!” 

“Seokjin is nice. And look how cute he looks in the outfit I picked out for him!” Taehyung gestures towards the clothes he’d had Seokjin wear for today’s meeting with the group, and everyone does coo and giggle at Taehyung’s excited energy, praising him (and for some reason, Seokjin). 

They spend the rest of the day talking and getting to know each other. It’s a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but there’s a certain sparkle to both Yoongi and Jungkook’s eyes, and it’s evident how much care and love they have for their friends. It settles Seokjin’s nervous heart, knowing how trusted and revered these others are, even if he’s not too familiar with them at all yet.  

As the day goes on and the sunlight outside fades to dark, it turns into a game of sorts, Seokjin getting to ask a question in return for every one they throw at him. It’s a lot, a little overstimulating, but they all seem thrilled to have him there, so he answers. In a way, it’s surprisingly fun.

“So, what is it like up in space, Seokjin?”

“Cold and empty, but really pretty. What is it like to swim in the ocean?”

“Cold and empty too, I guess? Maybe? How do you know Korean?”

“I know hundreds of languages, some not even of this universe. You learn a lot when you’re traveling through space by yourself. You pick up a lot of books along the way too.”

“Seokjin, how big is your ship?”

“Huge. I built this one myself and I made sure it was as big as I wanted. How many houses do you own?”

“... In this economy?” 

“My apologies.”

“Oh! I know! How old are you?”

“203—oh, in Earth years? I would say… 34? Are you all younger?”

“You’re the oldest out of all of us!.”

“But I’m not old ,” Seokjin defends. 

“Okay, are there other aliens out there?”

“Of course. But not in your universe. It’s lonely here.”

“It’s not lonely on Earth, though.”

Seokjin thinks about this for a moment, genuinely taking the time to consider it. “No,” he concludes. “I suppose not.” 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“Good evening, Seokjin!” Jimin cheers, also barging into Seokjin’s room as if this were a normal occurrence. He’s holding something extremely large in his hands, needing both of them to carry the weight, but when Seokjin asks about it, Jimin just gleams. “It’s a telescope. I found this in our attic, and I feel like you might have more use for it. We haven’t used it in years. I’ll help you set it up, and you can keep it here for a bit!”

He drops the container on the bed, Seokjin barely pulling his feet away in time. When they both unlatch it and pull the lid off, inside sits a black tube with glass at the end of it. Beside it sits a bunch of other, smaller pieces, and while they are just as confusing to look at as he’d expected, it also seems to be in great condition despite Jimin saying it hasn’t been used in a while. 

“I have no idea what this is,” Seokjin confesses while Jimin looks at him with another grin. Despite the news, it doesn’t falter. “What does it do?”

“You might be able to see home with it.” Jimin is awfully convinced by this fact, but Seokjin ponders that sentiment for a little bit. Home? Where is that even located nowadays for him? Perhaps it’s still sitting in the middle of nowhere here on Earth. Or does Jimin think his home is a planet? “Let’s put it together, and why don’t we find out?”

Seokjin spends the rest of his evening assembling the telescope pressed up against Jimin’s side. As it turns out, he also has no idea how the thing works or how to attach it all, but they do their best to figure it out nonetheless. The instructions have long been lost, but with some frustrated groans and rumbling laughter when something doesn’t work, they fumble their way through it together. 

Jimin is honey sweet, soft around the edges with a comfortable presence, and Seokjin finds himself terribly endeared by such a human. It’s no wonder everyone in the group orbits around his gravitational pull. 

Something sits heavy in the pin of Seokjin’s stomach when he thinks about the group as a whole, but he chooses not to focus on it too much. The excited expression Jimin wears grounds him to their task at hand. 

At some point they do go downstairs to meet Yoongi and Jungkook for dinner, but once they’re done and Jimin kicks them and their curious gazes out of Seokjin’s room when they try to see what the fuss is about, they finally finish assembling the whole thing. Night has fallen upon the neighborhood, the only light really coming in from the street lamps outside and the moon overhead. 

Jimin looks terribly proud as he stands the telescope up by the window, parting the curtains all the way before he pushes the panes open to meet the sky directly. There’s a bit of a chill that enters the room, but he quickly leans over to peer into some piece of the contraption before grinning so widely that his eyes pull into warm crescents. 

“Try it out for yourself.” 

Seokjin mimics what he’d just seen the human do, and when he looks into it, his heart lurches. He can see clusters of stars in the night sky, bright and flickering lights that he’s grown used to over the last several years. And while they’re so familiar and in a way, he supposes he should grow tired of them, they look absolutely beautiful from here on Earth. Because here, his feet are grounded to a warm place, safe and open, and this house holds Seokjin in a way that he hasn’t been held in a long, long time. 

Seokjin gasps when Jimin giggles, adjusting something on the telescope to make it clearer, and it’s almost as if he can count them one-by-one. The nighttime sky is incredible from down here now that Seokjin isn’t swallowed by it everywhere he goes—isn’t drowning in each flickering light.

“Do you like it?” Jimin asks once Seokjin gives him a turn on the telescope. He doesn’t look at the sky for nearly as long, but he doesn’t seem disinterested or anything of the sort. He looks happy. 

“It’s incredible,” Seokjin affirms, not able to help the smile he wears. “Thank you. I love it.”

“Do you hug often?” Jimin already steps closer, wrapping his arms around Seokjin’s taller frame. Seokjin knows of the earthly tradition, but he never grew up with them. When he shakes his head, Jimin huffs, amused. “Well too late. This is a hug, and you normally give them to your friends and family.”

Friends? 

Seokjin copies the motion, wrapping his arms around Jimin. They hardly know each other, so Seokjin isn’t quite sure that he can really call them friends , but Jimin’s warmth, for some reason, doesn’t let him dwell on that fact for too long. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

The next person Seokjin finds himself around, who isn’t one of the original three humans he initially met, is none other than Namjoon. 

The day has just started, and with a newfound sense of determination and unhindered dedication, Seokjin decides today is the day he can return back to ship and get to assessing the damage. He’s wearing yet another outfit Taehyung had loaned him, an additional cardigan with some simple jeans and a t-shirt, so he feels ready. There’s the possibility that the ship is still on fire, and he does have a way of checking, but he ignores that thought for now, just wanting to get out of the house and clear his head. 

With the birds still chirping and the early sun is still low in the sky, Seokjin steps outside the front door, making sure to lock it behind him like Yoongi had demonstrated in the event he ever needed to leave the house, and he stands outside, hands on his hips, ready to tackle everything on. 

Then, with a sudden realization and a quick glance at the truck parked in the driveway, Seokjin freezes. 

It’s not like he knows how to drive or how to get there without walking. 

It had been such an awful walk the first time. 

He deflates just a little bit, shoulders sagging as he makes a few frustrated noises that he honestly didn’t know he had the capabilities of doing. It’s quiet this early, but his sounds are a bit too loud than they probably should be. What was he thinking? He should have waited for Yoongi to wake up.

“Seokjin-ssi—Ah, Seokjin, is everything okay?”

Seokjin looks at the voice directed towards him and sees Namjoon sitting on yet another weird contraption with two wheels and lots of metal pieces sticking together. The wheels spin as he travels closer, hands tight around some rubber pieces, but he slows to a stop right in front of Seokjin’s feet. 

“Namjoon?” Seokjin asks, bewildered. “What are you doing awake this early in the morning?”

“I like to exercise at this time. What about you?”

“I wanted to go back to the ship and see if the fire has been put out,” Seokjin says, and Namjoon’s eyes widen with each word. “But I forgot that I don’t know how to drive your vehicles. Or that I don’t own one myself.” 

“Is it far?”

“It took us a while to get there in Yoongi’s car, so I think so.”

“You know, I might have an extra bike for you if you’re interested in getting around more. Is that why you’re always hiding in your room?”

Seokjin flushes at that immediately. It isn’t, but he also hadn’t quite expected Namjoon to blatantly point something like that out to him. 

“No, I’m just shy and nervous around others I don’t know.”

Namjoon looks at him with another kind expression that Seokjin feels like everyone always gives him. He recognizes it on everyone immediately, because like Namjoon, their faces soften and they smile at him, ever so faintly. 

“I’m the same sometimes. Come on. Let me get you that extra bike.”

Seokjin follows Namjoon, who has gracefully come down from his seat and walks with what he assumes is a bike of his own, based on what the human was saying. Namjoon’s house isn’t much further either, just on the opposite side of Yoongi and Jungkook’s, mere steps away. It seems that Yoongi and Jungkook’s house is nestled in between Namjoon and Hoseok’s on the right with Taehyung and Jimin’s on the left.

It’s no wonder why they’re constantly visiting each other’s homes. 

Namjoon doesn’t guide him through the front door, though. Instead, he leads Seokjin to the backyard, propping his own bike against the side of the house and grabbing the one that had already been resting there. He wrestles it out from some weeds for a moment, but picks it up with a huff and plops it in between them. 

“This bike was Hoseok’s, but he stopped riding it with me a while ago. Why don’t you use it for a little while? I’ll check the air on it right now for you.”

They spend a lot of the morning changing out the tires when Seokjin points out the back one is flat and soft to the touch. Namjoon looks terribly concerned that he had almost given it to Seokjin in such a state, so they get to work. 

Seokjin pumps the air with the lever after Namjoon replaces the flat with a spare, the human telling him when to stop pushing on the lever. He even helps clean it off some, Namjoon wiping everything down and testing the seat himself before he instructs Seokjin to head back out onto the street. 

“I don’t know how to drive this,” Seokjin says while Namjoon sits him on the seat anyway. Namjoon doesn’t look too concerned, although the smile on his cheeks is softly bracketed with those dimples Seokjin recognizes. What a strange but pretty thing for a human to have. For a moment, Seokjin wants to poke them. 

“It’s okay. I’ll help teach you. They say that once you learn, you’ll never forget how to ride it again.”

“I’ll always remember?”

“Always.”

While Seokjin’s original plans were to head to the crash site and check on everything, he figures that it’s okay to push it off until tomorrow. He needs to learn how to get there on his own, so that’s what he’ll do today in the meantime (with Namjoon’s help). 

Namjoon places the front wheel in between his thighs, hands tight on what he calls the handlebars. Seokjin is instructed to pedal slowly, which he does with wobbly legs and sweaty palms. The bike lurches a bit and it’s awfully terrifying to be on something that’s moving that he can’t quite control yet, but Namjoon, true to his word, doesn’t let go. 

He tells Seokjin to focus on balance at first, to keep his weight centered, otherwise the bike will completely fall to one side. Whenever Seokjin wobbles to the left or right, Namjoon uses his corresponding leg to keep the wheel straight and from tipping. 

There’s lots of praise and reassurance, and lots of giggling from the both of them as Seokjin yelps and screams when he feels gravity pulling him and the bike to one side, and Namjoon simply laughs and guides him right side up. 

They spend all morning working on it, Seokjin squealing and growing frustrated when he feels like he’s not getting used to it, but Namjoon is as patient as can be. It takes a while, but eventually, Seokjin learns how to balance himself properly, and that feels huge.

“There you go!” Namjoon exclaims, hands still gripping the handlebars for guidance but is now walking backwards in front of the wheel, no longer holding it with his knees. “Do you want me to let go?”

“Namjoon, if I fall, I am going to be so upset with you—”

“It’s okay! I think you’re ready!”

“I don’t think I am—!”

But the blasted human lets go anyway, and Seokjin calls his name out in a panic, feet still pedaling, but this time he’s on his own. He can’t see Namjoon anymore, the bike cruising past him easily, even at its horribly slow pace, but Seokjin is doing it. He’s learning.

He rides in a few sluggish circles, the bike wobbling but Seokjin now capable of balancing himself out. He’s gripping onto the handlebars for dear life and his legs are still shaking, but he’s riding a bike. 

“See?” Namjoon calls out, happily joining Seokjin’s bubbling laughter. “You’re a pro!”

“… Namjoon I don’t know how to stop…!”

“Oh…!”

Namjoon chases after him and grabs onto the handlebars himself, letting Seokjin crawl to a stop. His heart is thrumming and he feels so stupidly proud of himself, but he hasn’t felt anything like this in years. 

Once the tires officially stop moving, Seokjin unceremoniously climbs off the seat and feels the way his feet finally settle onto the road, happy to feel solid ground underneath them. 

“You did it!” Namjoon cheers, awfully warm and sweet, and Seokjin beams. 

“I did!” Seokjin holds his hands up and clenches them into fists. It’s something he’s seen Jungkook do when he wins at a card game they’re playing, and Namjoon laughs at the motion with such a friendly grin that Seokjin almost wants to cry. 

He did it.

He really did.

There’s such a sense of pride and joy that sits within him that he just doesn’t know what to do with it.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“I’m heading out today!” Seokjin announces, barreling down the stairs as quickly as he can. “The fire should be put out by now!”

The house is surprisingly empty when he steps into the living room. The scene is missing Jungkook singing along to music as he wafts in between the furniture with familiarity and confidence, each step timed in a dance that only he really knows. It’s also missing Yoongi, sitting on the couch reading a book, its pages torn and worn with use, but Yoongi loses himself in it each time, as if he’s never read such a thing before. 

Even Taehyung and Jimin are missing, the rambunctious duo always glued together despite Seokjin’s initial meeting with Taehyung sans Jimin. It’s strange to see the house look this way.

Seokjin frowns. 

Why does this feel so… bizarre?

“Yoongi-hyung and Jungkookie are out running errands." Seokjin jumps at the voice, awfully startled to see Hoseok stepping out from the kitchen, a polite smile on his face. "I think they’ll be gone for most of the day. They said they tried to wake you but you wouldn't budge.” 

It’s a surprise to see this human here without Yoongi and Jungkook, but Hoseok stands comfortably in this room, as if this was simply his own home as well. Seokjin smiles a little when he thinks about it—that must be a nice thing for someone to feel. 

“Oh, thank you for letting me know.” 

“Is there any reason that you’re dressed in a full suit?” 

Seokjin blinks down at what he had slipped on this morning, the clothes tightly fitted to his frame and a bit short at the ankles and wrists, but he’d been determined to wear it. “Taehyung gave it to me. I wanted something that you humans would take me seriously in, and he said that fancy clothes are used for that. This was in that section of his closet, so he gave it to me. This is my fancy outfit.”

Hoseok looks at him with a sparkle in his eye, and while Seokjin doesn’t quite understand what it means completely, he notices that Hoseok looks somewhat endeared. 

“Well, you said you were headed out now, right?”

Seokjin nods, smiling. “I think enough time has passed that the fire should have been put out by now. I should be able to assess the damage.” 

Hoseok’s eyes are wide, and he bursts into a fit of laughter. “That’s so cool! I know the situation you’re in, but it’s a completely different thing to hear you say it out loud.”

Confused, Seokjin pouts. “What do you mean?”

“Ah, sorry. It’s just that we don’t get aliens often. Humans are split on whether they exist or not.”

Despite himself, Seokjin’s pout worsens. “But we do.”

Hoseok chuckles, bright and tinkling. His smile curls prettily, and Seokjin stands in awe for a moment. “Yeah, you do. But it’s dangerous for humans to know that, I’m pretty sure. We suck sometimes.”

Seokjin hums, understanding the implications of it. He’d been warned as a child that there are places out there in the universe that wouldn’t be kind to him, that he should never visit. Earth was right on the top of that list, but with an emergency situation, he’d had no choice. But he remembers that first day with Yoongi, Jungkook, and Taehyung. 

“No reporting. Who knows what they’ll do to him.”

Seokjin wonders how he’d been pulled along into their home, how easily he’d grown to trust them, but he supposes he really didn’t have any other choice. He was effectively stranded in a strange place, and without their help and hospitality, he’s sure he would’ve been worse off. 

“But you guys have been very friendly,” Seokjin notes, recalling all the dinners and time he’s spent with everyone. This may be his first time talking to Hoseok individually without the others, but he has seen him around and spent time with him next to the others to know he’s as kind as the everyone else. “You, too. Thank you for treating me well.”

Hoseok seems surprised to hear such a thing, his lips pressed together with wide wide eyes, but he instantly breaks out into a smile right after, grinning so widely that his cheeks turn a little pink. “Did you need a ride to your spaceship? Is that why you were looking for hyung and Jungkookie?”

“I wanted to see if they were available to drive me, but since they’re gone, I can take care of it myself. Namjoon taught me how to ride a bike after all.”

“Oh, he did? Wait, you’re going to bike all the way out there?”

“I know where it is,” Seokjin promises. “I’m tied to the ship after all. Even without the smoke, I’ll find it.”

“‘Tied to the ship’ you say?”

Seokjin blinks a few times and focuses his vision. Hoseok’s surprised face starts to ripple like drops in a puddle, and before long, it shifts out of view, the ripples changing and morphing into a different image, one of his ship, the exterior of the hull a still image, but still mostly buried in the dirt. It’s hard to tell, but there doesn’t seem to be any smoke this time, and that’s enough confirmation for Seokjin to want to at least try.

Hoseok makes a startled noise, and when Seokjin’s vision refocuses, he sees the human leaning in closer, oohing and ahhing with an excited expression.

“What happened?” Seokjin questions, taking a step back. “Did I do something?”

“Your eye!” Hoseok reaches up and gently taps the corner of his right one. “It grew white and glittery, like—oh! Like space! Like the center of a galaxy kind of thing.”

Seokjin’s shoulders drop a little, relief settling over him. “Oh, is that all? It happens when I try to locate my ship. Aren’t you able to do that?”

Hoseok blinks slowly. “Um, no, humans can’t do that.”

“Oh. It locates my home whenever I need it to. It gives me a sense of direction on where to travel to get back safely.”

Hoseok seems a little startled and a lot excited, and he nods energetically, eager to have seen something like this in person. “Wait! Come with me.” Hoseok heads into the kitchen immediately, waving Seokjin over who follows diligently, softly padding on the floor as he enters. Immediately, the fridge doors and cupboards are opened. “I’d drive you if I could, but I don’t have a car. If you’re going to bike all the way there, please take some food with you.”

“I should be okay—”

“I’ll make you something. Please just wait a little bit! I’d feel better if you left with something to take, okay?”

Seokjin patiently waits at the counter, hands locked together on the top of it. He watches as Hoseok throws some fruit in a bag, a banana here, a container of washed grapes there. He adds a few packaged items that Seokjin doesn't recognize but has seen the others eating from time to time, and he thinks it’s too much food, but Hoseok insists on even quickly making a sandwich to join the other snacks. 

“Here, take this with you,” Hoseok insists, handing the plastic bag over. “I don’t cook like Yoongi hyung does so it’s not much, but I just hope it’s enough for a little while. You’ll be coming back for dinner, right?”

Seokjin nods affirmatively, fingers gripping the bag tightly in their grasp. “I hope so. I’m not sure how long it takes to drive the bike.”

“Ride the bike,” Hoseok corrects softly, the most joyous of smiles on his lips. “We say you ‘ride’ the bike. Not drive it. You drive like… cars…”

“Ah,” Seokjin pauses, thinking about the new information. “Thank you. I have a feeling I make these errors but no one ever tells me I'm incorrect. I appreciate you.”

Hoseok’s cheeks are tinted. “If you have any questions, please ask us. I’m sure we’d all be more than happy to help you.” 

And with that, Seokjin nods once more and heads out the front door. He pulls the bike out from where Jungkook had hid it behind some bushes (“We’ll need to buy a bike lock, Seokjin. Please wait until we go to the store! Hide it until then. People like to steal bikes around here.”), and after some slight navigation and hooking his bag on the handlebars, he kicks off the curb and heads down the road. 

The street is a long one, filled with green lawns and lots of other houses that seem like replicas of Yoongi and Jungkook’s, but Seokjin huffs at each one he passes, feeling a strange sensation of pride that he thinks none of these other homes look as warm and inviting as the one he’s been staying in all this time. In a way, he supposes, it’s irrational to feel this way—it’s not like it’s his home to take pride in after all. But he simply doesn’t care. They just don’t compare. 

His home is his ship. It always has been, and it always will be. 

Something acidic sits in his throat, and it’s a strange sensation, one Seokjin considers at great lengths further and further into his bike ride. 

With another huff, Seokjin pedals even harder, the wheels on his bike turning quicker and quicker to pull him out of there. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

The fire, as it turns out, has finally given out, making way for Seokjin to push through one of the back doors he’d escaped from when he first arrived. The metal creaks under the weight of how hard he has to pull them open, the slab off its hinges, but he eventually steps inside for the first time in a couple of months, taking in a deep breath. 

It doesn’t exactly smell like home to him. There’s an ashy scent to a lot of the ship, Seokjin swiping the air in front of his nose with each compartment he checks. The kitchen seems the most undamaged, but he assumes most of his food reserves have gone bad with the generator shut off all this time. It doesn’t seem to help that the ship is still pretty warm, the cooling units broken down in the crash, so a lot of the perishables have likely spoiled by now. 

With a heavy sigh, Seokjin assesses what can and cannot be fixed. Any generators and computers will need to be assessed at a later time, likely when he has the chance to sit out here all day to dedicate the proper time needed, but for now, he tries to see what has to be done to get the ship back off the ground. 

He digs a tablet out of one of the storage chests, and to his luck, it glitches on with some effort, its energy supply still active. He uses it to take notes—a lot of the lights inside need to be repaired, there's glass decorating the floor in almost every compartment from each shattered bulb, and some of the outside ones will need to be fixed as well without any question. Some furniture items were thrown aside from the impact, which Seokjin will have to sit up right too and put back in their places, and he’ll need to figure out how to recalibrate the ship’s navigation system based on an external piece of it laying on the grass outside, completely not where it should be. 

The list of things grows longer and longer. The plants need to be salvaged if possible (and prevented from spreading to this planet’s ecosystem if Seokjin doesn’t want to be the root of an ecological disaster), all of his perishables need to be thrown out, lots of sweeping to do as well, and he’ll need to focus on replacing some storage shelves that were damaged from the flames. There is simply a lot to do, and even worse, even harder to do for one single person, but Seokjin is determined to get it done either way. 

This is home after all. He needs to make sure it’s ready for him to come back to. 

So he gets to work, picking up debris and noting down which rooms need the heaviest work. Glass shards and rubble get removed bit by bit, piles of it accumulating in the center of the ship to toss away later, and by the time Seokjin even gets halfway through checking on each of his plants in the back compartment, he’s sweating profusely, body still aching from all the exertion.

In all honesty, he hadn’t thought of the pain much at all recently, but he supposes that with this level of physical activity, it’s to be expected that he would be feeling some kind of pain. It’s been a long time since he’s even exercised properly, simply spending his days eating Earth food (how could he not when Yoongi’s cooking is so good?), learning about his new housemates, and just experiencing new things. His shoulders aren’t nearly as stiff and a lot of the bruises he had has since long disappeared, but it’s in times like this where he realizes he still needs to take it easy. It’d been a fairly intense crash after all. 

So he works some more, cleaning and fixing and thinking, and in a way, it’s nice to be able to do something, to feel useful and productive, but as he takes a break and sits outside by himself, he almost feels bothered by something. 

Hoseok’s sandwich is delicious, a bit plain for something definitely thrown together at the last minute, but Seokjin is so incredibly happy he has it with him anyway. He munches on a few of the snacks as he just enjoys the fresh air outside, the breeze free from ashy undertones and muggy thickness. He thought the break would’ve helped the small pit in his stomach, but it doesn’t, and again, he finds that he doesn’t know why it’s even there in the first place. 

When he decides it’s time to get back inside to work some more, he stands and wipes his brow free from sweat with the back of his wrist before he returns inside through the front this time. As the door shakily slides shut behind him, he takes in a deep, dusty sigh. The sound of it seems loud in the large, quiet space around him.

As it turns out, Seokjin realizes a little belatedly, he feels lonely. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“How was it?” Yoongi asks once he greets Seokjin for dinner, hands busy working a few of the pots on the stove. The kitchen is filled with heat from the burners being on, but Yoongi doesn’t complain, just ties his long hair up with a rubber band of sorts as he smiles smally at Seokjin walking through. “I’m sorry we missed it. I would’ve taken you if I had known you were going today. I didn’t mean to send you off alone.”

Seokjin can’t help but grin in return, his own curl of his lips much bigger than Yoongi’s, but he doesn’t mind. Yoongi has that gentle, soft soul to him, and in a way, it’s calming in the chaotic mess that Seokjin’s thoughts are at the moment. 

“The fire has cleared up,” Seokjin informs, watching the way Yoongi reaches for glass containers and shaking some flakes into some of the food. It smells good, really fragrant and strong, and it almost makes Seokjin’s stomach grumble on the spot. Human food is surprisingly bland compared to the other things he's tasted, but even better than other universes too. Yoongi's cooking? Makes his stomach grumble each and every time. “No need to worry. I have my own transportation now.”

Yoongi looks amused through and through. “People don’t normally just bike miles and miles out of town.”

“Hoseok made me food, so I had a lot of energy.”

Yoongi seems to be a little perplexed, but he doesn’t question it any further. "Ah, I saw him here earlier. He went home to shower but should be back for dinner." Instead, he just stirs whatever is in the pot some more, eyes lingering on Seokjin’s hands pressed onto the countertop. “You have a pretty bad cut.”

When he looks down, Seokjin grimaces at the wound. It’s more wide than it is long, and for a little while, he struggles to recall where it had even come from in the first place. But images of broken glass and rocky scrap being cleaned up from the floor flicker in his mind, and it’s of no surprise that he’d gotten hurt at some point. 

“Ah, I was cleaning up the ship. There was some broken glass—”

The stove clicks off, the flames extinguished immediately. 

“Come with me.”

Seokjin’s gaze trails after Yoongi for a couple of moments before he realizes that he should be following. When Yoongi guides him through the house and into his bedroom upstairs, Seokjin can’t help but look around, curiosity getting the better of him. He’s never really been in Yoongi’s bedroom before. Jungkook's a couple of times, sure, but they’re usually in the guest bedroom he occupies, helping him with the telescope or listening to records and music they bring him, trying to figure out his “music taste” or something like that. 

It’s the first glimpse Seokjin really gets of Yoongi like this, and he supposes that if his room is so personal to him, it means Yoongi’s might be as well. 

The room is incredibly clean and simple, basic furniture being the main focus of it all. A lot of the wood is on the darker side of things, dark wood, dark paint, dark accents, but it’s inherently spotless, almost nothing out of place. There’s even a vase of almost black flowers sitting on top of the dresser, flowers that Seokjin recognizes from Namjoon’s own personal garden.

Yoongi pulls out a plastic container by its handle and sets it on top of his bed. He instructs Seokjin to come and sit, and when Seokjin finally settles on the bed, Yoongi reaches out for his wrist as he works on getting that container open. It’s hard to tell what all the items inside it are—he only really recognizes some of the cotton things. But Yoongi gets out a small bottle and twists off the cap before he looks at the label for a moment. 

“This’ll hurt, okay?”

He rips open a small paper packet and pulls out the cotton pad within it, soaking up whatever liquid comes from within the bottle. And with a quick glance up to Seokjin before returning to his hand, he presses the cotton right onto the cut and the fire that burns Seokjin is instant. 

He hisses and retracts his hand immediately, trying to get rid of the pain, but Yoongi chuckles a little, nodding as if he understands. 

“It’s important. It’s a disinfectant. Especially since you were out in the dust and dirt, it’ll help clean it.”

Seokjin for a moment doesn’t believe him. Why on earth would the humans make something that helps clean wounds so painful? There are all kinds of interstellar plants that produce the same thing, and Seokjin knows that none of them hurt like this. The skin around the injury feels dry and tight now, clearly irritated from the strange liquid, but Yoongi looks at him so patiently and kindly, that Seokjin reconsiders. 

Not once has Yoongi ever hurt him or given him any reason to believe that he even would. He and Jungkook quite literally plucked him out of the street, invited him into their home, had him meet all of their friends, and have given him shelter and food without a single complaint. They have never made him feel like a burden or that he was a problem of any kind, when in reality, Seokjin would argue that he’s surprised with how warm and kind they have been to him, a practical stranger. 

They’ve made him feel a little less lonely in this strange place. 

Slowly, Seokjin gives Yoongi his hand back. Yoongi delicately dabs at the wound again and t still stings, the burning sensation entirely unpleasant, but as a stray lock of Yoongi’s hair falls out from where it’s tied up and frames his face as he works, Seokjin relaxes a little. He focuses on the softness of Yoongi's face in the meantime.

He knows that he’s safe here after all. 

Yoongi fixes him up and makes sure to give a few extra bandages for later, telling Seokjin it’d be best to change them out at some point to keep it clean. As they head downstairs and Seokjin helps Yoongi set the table, Jungkook and Hoseok join them as well tonight, happy to say hello. 

He thanks Hoseok again for the sandwich, to which Hoseok’s eyes light up so brightly that it makes Seokjin feel so terribly warm. 

“I’m glad that you liked it!” Hoseok says, chopsticks barely having time to leave his mouth before he speaks. “I’ll make one for you tomorrow too. Fixing your ship must be a lot of work.” 

Dinner goes well, Seokjin chiming into the conversation now where just a month ago he would’ve preferred staying in his room. Now, he understands what they’re talking about more, even if not completely. But whenever they stray to something he doesn’t know, they pick up on how quiet he falls and bring the conversation back to something he does. 

Seokjin doesn’t realize that’s what they’re doing at first, but by the third time Yoongi has glanced at him before starting the same discussion about Namjoon’s garden, the very same one Seokjin is constantly asking questions about lately, he picks up on it. 

“You don’t have to cater your conversation to me,” Seokjin chides playfully, taking a sip of water from his glass. “Keep talking about the—the television show—”

But it doesn’t seem to deter any of them. If anything, Jungkook’s eyes widen as he gasps. “I know! We should show Seokjin!”

“I know what a ‘TV’ is,” Seokjin defends, almost offended at the insinuation. “I’m not a caveman—”

“No,” Hoseok amends, patting Seokjin’s shoulder as he giggles. “The TV show we’re talking about. It’s a really good one. The three of us usually watch it on Thursday nights like today, so maybe we can watch it from the first episode to catch up for next week so you can join us!”

Seokjin falls silent. They speak of next week like Seokjin will be here, that he will also be here for any following weekly showings of this story they speak of, and they say it so convincingly that Seokjin almost believes it himself. That he can be a part of their weekly rituals, be a part of their routines for a long, long while. 

They don’t even really give Seokjin room to decline the offer—Jungkook is already mentioning how there happens to be a marathon showing this week and that they can set time aside for it. Hoseok is in complete agreement, eagerly smiling and gasping at the prospect of getting to watch something he loves from the very beginning. Aside from work, Yoongi says he’ll be there, also really interested in this sudden marathon of sorts.

Seokjin wants to thank them and say no, but they all look so happy and excited that the words are hard to find. They struggle to come out of his mouth properly. 

Instead, he swishes his noodles around in his bowl, the broth that was once flavorful and absolutely delicious now no longer appealing. 

He doesn’t know if he’ll be here next week or the week after that. 

In reality, Seokjin has no idea how much time he has left before he has to leave, but he knows that it’s coming soon. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Seokjin spends a lot of the next few days working on getting his ship fixed. It’s a lot of work and after a while, taking the bike all the way there and back is a bit of a hassle, but he makes do. It gives him time to think about where he should go next—what his following plans will be. 

He wonders if he should ask Jimin if he can take the telescope with him. It’s not something he necessarily needs—his ship has much newer, much more advanced technology to do the same thing, and even better, but the gift was personal, and just for him, so he decides he wants to take it.

There are some other things he wants to bring with him as well. Jungkook’s small little record player, Yoongi’s guitar that he left for him to learn in his downtime, Taehyung’s fancy suit, Namjoon’s bike, the jewelry and accessories Hoseok has gifted him over time. 

So many little gifts, little moments that were geared to make Seokjin feel at home, and he can’t imagine leaving them behind unless he has to. He has no idea what to do with a whole bicycle—he’d only really be able to ride it around his ship from compartment to compartment, the scenery never changing. Nor does he know what to do with a record player that can only play the same three records he’d also been given. 

But for some reason, he can’t fathom letting those things go.

The ship is large, but Seokjin makes a lot of progress with the way he works. Cleaning up is the quickest and easiest—he works diligently and efficiently, changing his bandages whenever he hears Yoongi’s voice in his head and stopping to eat lunch when he hears Hoseok’s. It’s a good system, one he carries out for a few days in a row, and before long, the inside of it is clean and spotless, almost like the way it had been before he crashed (aside from a few broken pieces of furniture and plants that didn’t survive no longer taking residency). 

He figures that he has to work on the outside, but from what he can tell as he checks the perimeter of it, everything looks pretty good after some of the progress he's already been making. He does have to replace a few of the windows, which he thankfully was able to craft and cut inside, sealing the glass in no time, but for the most part, his ship had survived pretty well. 

As he sits at the main computer, it boots on, but by checking all the other engines and systems, he notices that a few things are still in need of being repaired. The cooling system for one seems to make a jittery noise when he turns it on, and while it works, he worries about its longevity and notes down on his tablet that it’s something else he’ll need to take a look at. The misting system in the plant room is faulty as well, two of the eight sprinklers shifted from the crash, leaving them unusable temporarily. Another thing to add. 

However, these things are easy to fix, and when Seokjin checks his supplies to see what he can pull out to use, he realizes that if he works through tomorrow and the day after, the entire ship will be ready to lift off. 

It’s… much sooner than he had expected. It feels like it leaves him with little to no time at all. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Seokjin returns to Yoongi and Jungkook’s home, the news on the tip of his tongue, but he runs into Jimin at the doorway first. 

“Seokjin!” Jimin chirps, his smile reaching his eyes. He seems relieved. “We were about to go look for you.”

Blinking slowly, Seokjin processes the words. “Was I missing?”

“Well, we hadn’t heard from you and it’s dark out!” 

Seokjin glances out behind him, at where Jimin is pointing at, and indeed the moon hangs high in the sky, the world around them dark and muted. He’d left the ship with the sun still out, but the ride had taken so long that nighttime easily came while he was still on his way back. However, it still takes him by surprise that they were going to look for him. 

“He’s back!” Jimin calls out, and immediately there are a few noises in return.

First comes Taehyung, who barrels around the side of the house, throwing his arms around Seokjin’s torso, locking his arms by his side. He practically yells when he speaks, but he too, seems terribly relieved. 

Belatedly, Seokjin notices a flashlight in his hand. 

“We couldn’t find you anywhere!” Taehyung says sternly, sadly, shaking Seokjin a little as he pulls away. “We didn’t know what happened to you!”

“I'm sorry.” Seokjin is earnest in his apology, softly patting Taehyung’s biceps as they tighten around him. “I left later than I intended. It took me a while to come home too.”

“Oh, good, he’s here!”

Seokjin is finally released from the hold on him so he can turn to see Namjoon behind them, hands on his knees with his own flashlight clutched in between his fingers. It still shines onto the pavement below. He seems tired, his own breathing rapid and shaky, and it’s then that Seokjin notices the sweat at his brow. 

“He just got back,” Jimin informs, stepping out from the house and patting Namjoon’s back. “Did you run here?”

“I’ve been running all over the neighborhood. I thought maybe… ah—let’s not talk about sad things. All that matters is he’s here.”

“Hoseok-hyung is at the convenience store you were found near,” Jimin relays the information on when he sees Seokjin looking around for the others. “Yoongi-hyung and Jungkookie are in the truck driving up and down the road you normally take. They’ll probably be back soon to check in with us.”

Guilt settles in Seokjin’s chest easily enough, the weight of it thick and pressing, and for a moment, his lashes feel damp against his control. He doesn’t mean to get so emotional, but everyone had gone to find him. Seokjin. Because he hadn’t shown up for dinner. He feels completely undeserving of such care. 

“I tried to take a different way back,” Seokjin responds quietly, voice thick and weary. “Less people see me this way and I thought it'd be safer. I am sorry—”

But Namjoon already wraps his arms around him, and soon enough, they all are hugging him, laughing and patting his wavy hair. They’re incredibly affectionate in the way they try to reassure him that he had done nothing malicious or wrong exactly, but to just keep in contact or let them know he plans on being late. They don’t intentionally make him feel bad, but he does anyway, because he’s still in shock that they had gone to such extreme measures.

When the familiar black truck pulls up in front of the house, Jungkook practically barrels right out of the front seat, the wheels not even at a complete stop before his feet are on the ground. He sprints towards Seokjin and throws his arms around him, pulling their bodies closer and closer with each shaky breath. Jungkook isn’t crying, but Seokjin feels close to it. 

“Thank goodness you’re safe!” Jungkook exclaims, nose buried in Seokjin’s suit collar. “We couldn’t find you anywhere and it’s not like you to be gone for so long!”

Seokjin explains to him what he’d explained to the others, promising he had simply lost track of time and tried to take a different way home to remain undetected by others, and Jungkook’s grip loosens up with each word. They sit together on the doorstep, Jimin, Taehyung, and Namjoon standing behind him, Yoongi and surprisingly Hoseok making their way up the lawn in a hurry. They must have picked Hoseok up on their way over.

Seokjin promises to everyone that he’ll make sure to let them know in the future, to keep at least someone updated on where he is. It feels a bit strange to make such a vow, but when he sees the concern on everyone’s features and memories of the relief that had followed when they saw him safe, he knows it’s the right thing to do. 

“I’m glad you’re safe, Seokjin,” Hoseok comments, hand on his hip as he smiles down at the clingy Jungkook still wrapped around him. “In all honesty, I thought you had been found out and someone came to take you or you’d been hit on your bike or something—something so awful and scary!”

Yoongi looks at Seokjin with something a little guilty on his own. It’s a weird thing to notice—why would Yoongi possibly be remorseful of something? 

“Jungkook-ah and I thought you’d maybe left without telling us,” Yoongi explains, slow despite the emotions heavily written all over his face. 

“I told you this morning I would be going to the ship today, didn’t I? Apologies if I forgot.”

Yoongi’s eyes dart away at the same time Jungkook stills, limbs stiff and eyes avoidant. 

“We thought you’d left… Earth. And didn’t say goodbye.”

Yoongi’s words sink in on Seokjin like never before, and it’s finally then that he wants to cry. He attempts to keeps it together, but his chest burns and his hands ball into fists by his side. He’s not upset or angry or even hurt at all. Instead, Seokjin feels sorrow for causing such thoughts, to see the sad faces of everyone around him reflecting all the turmoil he feels inside. 

“I—” Seokjin chokes a little. “I apologize. I will not do it again. And…” He looks everyone in the eye, one by one, savoring the connection. “I would never leave without saying goodbye to you all. Do not ever worry about that.”

Yoongi cracks the gummiest of smiles Seokjin has ever seen, shy and kind, and everyone giggles and lets out sighs of relief. Even Seokjin himself feels comfort in the shift in tone, smiling as Jungkook hugs him even tighter, a cheery grin looking back at him.

Everyone heads inside and Yoongi works on reheating the food, explaining that once Seokjin hadn’t shown up, they immediately went to look for him, so they must all be starving. All seven of them crowd the table, and it’s loud and noisy and chaotic, but Seokjin takes his fill of the food so kindly given to him and the love that he feels from each and every person that sits beside him. 

Thoughts of leaving them soon sit heavy, but he pushes them away for now. Instead, he goes to bed for now, full in so many different ways possible. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

True to his word, Seokjin tells Yoongi and Jungkook in the morning that he may be late again, but he intends to try to be home before dinner. It's still difficult for him to gauge the timing. Yoongi has work for most of the day it turns out, but he smiles at Seokjin so warmly, so sweetly, that Seokjin wants to grin right back, and says they'll wait to eat dinner with him. 

Today, however, Jungkook seems to have free time on his hands, because he asks to accompany Seokjin to the ship. At first, Seokjin wants to decline—it would be much too dangerous to have Jungkook around all the glass and debris and mess, but he realizes that he has had most of that cleaned up by now and there… really is no excuse to say no. Yoongi seems disappointed that he himself doesn’t get to go on the ship, and Jungkook has to convince him not to call into work sick for the opportunity. It’s a childish thing, really, one that Seokjin feels like he doesn’t get to see on Yoongi all that much at all, but Jungkook just giggles and giggles, teasing Yoongi for the thought entirely.

“Don’t worry, hyung,” Jungkook singsongs when Seokjin agrees that Jungkook can come with him for the day. “There will be another opportunity for you to see the ship! He’s there all the time now, so maybe your chance will come soon.”

Yoongi just huffs, looking a little pouty, and Seokjin laughs. 

“Yoongi! Don’t look so glum! I didn’t know you wanted to go that badly.”

But Yoongi ignores the both of them, swiping up the last hard boiled egg from the bowl he set on the table for them, mumbling about getting ready to go to work. The teasing felt warm despite Yoongi’s grumbling nature, and Jungkook nudges Seokjin with his shoulder and a grin. 

“Since hyung is obviously taking the truck to work, I’ll grab my own bike from the back and we can go whenever you’re ready.” 

Seokjin gets ready, slipping into his suit again that Taehyung had shown him how to wash and keep clean, and when he meets Jungkook downstairs, he notices Yoongi still loitering around, swinging his keys around one finger. Seokjin looks at him, expecting to receive news that he will be truant from work, but Yoongi shrugs instead. 

“I’ll drive you guys as far on my way to work as I can and you can bike from there.” He looks up at the sky, dark clouds lingering over them in gloomy fashion. “It looks like it’s going to rain. Are you sure you guys want to go?”

Seokjin plans on going regardless, sunshine or rain or snow, but when he glances at Jungkook for confirmation, the human simply grins, all toothy and sweet. 

“Yes, hyung. Maybe you can pick us up on your way back? Meet us at the same spot you drop us off at and we’ll make sure to be back there.”

Seokjin helps load the bikes onto the back of the truck, listening to the way Jungkook and Yoongi discuss the details—where Yoongi will probably drop them off, what time Jungkook will ensure they’ll return by, if the helmets are packed and Hoseok’s lunch for Seokjin is in Jungkook’s backpack. (Seokjin has already agreed to split the snacks since their friend didn’t know Jungkook would be accompanying him when he prepared everything yesterday.)

Seokjin makes sure to answer where he can too, dutiful in keeping his promise and maintaining that kind of communication. He wonders if he feels like a child for it, if he feels like they’re smothering him or parenting him in some kind of way, and while the frustration bubbles at first, Seokjin comes to the realization that he is so simply wrong. 

No one has ever prohibited him from going to the ship or even leaving the house for that matter. Just as long as Seokjin leaves a note or tells someone, it seems to calm their worries. They feed him without complaint, provide him shelter and clothes, and not once do they ask for anything in return. They don’t demand anything of him, and when he says he is leaving, they just ask what time he’ll be home. He wonders if it's reminiscent of a child telling their parents about their whereabouts, but they have been nothing but respectful. 

He remembers their worried faces when he hadn’t returned home the other night and they didn’t have a way of contacting him, how worried they were and how he’d been told they thought someone had found out his secret at the ship or that he had even left them without so much as a goodbye. He knows he shouldn’t confuse their care and friendship with such a thought. 

The drive is oddly nostalgic of sorts, although they are missing Taehyung this time. Seokjin sits in the front, but there is no need to give directions—Yoongi seems to know the way for the most part. Seokjin isn’t nearly as nervous or estranged on this trip. He recognizes Jungkook’s humming in the back seat, a simple but pretty melody to match the one slowly pouring through the radio speakers, and he recognizes Yoongi’s warm presence beside him, quiet but kind as he takes time out of his morning to get them as close to their destination as he can. 

Things really have changed in the last couple of months. 

They don’t quite leave the city by the time the truck pulls to the curb. People are bustling about and some humans are even jogging by, but Jungkook seems to know where they are, because he simply pats Yoongi’s shoulder from the back seat and gives him a large grin.

“Thanks, hyung!”

Seokjin blinks, looking at Yoongi. “Thank you, hyung…?”

Yoongi’s cheeks are red and he’s clearly flustered, but Jungkook is practically cackling from the back seat. Seokjin has no idea what he’d even said—everyone else always calls Yoongi “hyung” so why is it strange that he does?

“Ah,” Yoongi chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. “Seokjin, you’re much older than me.”

“We call him ‘hyung’ because he’s older than us,” Jungkook confirms, poking his head forward and in between the seats. “I’m the youngest, so I call everyone ‘hyung’, but out of our friends, Yoongi doesn’t call anyone ‘hyung’ because he’s the oldest. It’s a respect thing.”

Seokjin hums. “Ah, so I shouldn’t call you ‘hyung’ is what you mean.” Seokjin looks at Yoongi for confirmation, to which the human just nods. “What do I call you?”

“You’ve been calling me ‘Yoongi’ this whole time, which is good,” Yoongi says, all soft and gentle. “You don’t need to change anything, Seokjin.” He reaches out and pats Seokjin’s shoulder lightly, reminiscent of Jungkook just a few moments earlier. “Don't worry about it too much.”

He doesn’t mean to, but Seokjin frowns despite himself. “But I respect you, too. I want to show that.”

Yoongi’s eyes are wide and bright, and he has such a wide, gummy smile that feels so happy when it's directed towards Seokjin. He looks awfully endeared, and there’s something so nice about this, something that makes Seokjin understand Yoongi is genuine and honest with his words. 

“You don’t need to call me by anything for me to know that,” Yoongi concludes in one, swift string of words, and with that, a different vehicle blares some sort of horn from behind them, and Seokjin startles at the sudden loud noise. 

“What in the world—?” He gasps, but Yoongi quickly unbuckles his seatbelt with a simple push and instructs him to get out with Jungkook, the other human already out on the sidewalk and shutting his own door behind him. Before Seokjin leaves, he looks back at Yoongi with his own smile, and nods. “Thank you. Yoongi.”

As he shuts the door, the vehicle behind them blares that horn again, which Jungkook bows his head for a moment, although he seems less than thrilled about it. They work on unloading the bikes and Seokjin watches as several cars work to move around them, the truck a little too large to be safely out of the road completely with the way it’s pulled over to the side. 

Yoongi doesn’t move at all. He waits until Jungkook waves him off first, both of their bikes safely unloaded, and it’s finally then that the both of them watch the black truck peel away, the cars behind them zipping past now that this part of the road has finally cleared. 

“Come on, Jin.”

Seokjin blinks. Jin. It’s a simple shortened version of his name, but with all the talk of names and how to address others, there’s a soft curl to Jungkook’s lips as he says it, and it makes Seokjin’s heart swirl and float at the same time. It sounds friendly and melodic, in that way that Jungkook’s voice always gets when he’s delighted or in a good mood. 

To have it directed towards him, much like Yoongi’s own warm presence, feels like a treasure. 

Seokjin is a bit lost on where they are, but Jungkook guides them on their bikes to the main road and Seokjin follows close behind, the pedals underneath his feet growing more and more familiar with each passing day. They weave in and out of other humans who walk on the streets, and most of them make way until Jungkook guides them onto the road Seokjin finally recognizes—the one they all took out to the ship that first day. 

It’s a funny thing now, to be guided by someone else when Seokjin had been the lead originally, but he follows Jungkook without complaint, passing handfuls of people on the sidewalks and in the stores they ride by. 

He’s entirely grateful for these bikes—without a vehicle like Yoongi’s, walking would truly be a pain. Namjoon is definitely a lifesaver. He'll have to tell him that.

Eventually the city streets bleed into smaller ones and vehicles trickle off the roads one by one. Things grow quieter, the bustle slowly being left behind, and it isn’t long before it’s just Jungkook and Seokjin out on the road, dirt kicking up small clouds from their tires on the ground. 

It’s different to have someone by his side, to no longer travel these paths alone. The company is surprisingly welcomed, even if it’s difficult to talk during their riding, especially with Seokjin just a ways behind Jungkook’s own bike. But he likes this. He really, really does.

Eventually, Seokjin does have to guide them once the asphalt really does thin into single lanes and it’s easier for Seokjin to tell where they are than Jungkook, and by the time they made it around the cliffs (a shortcut Seokjin takes when he’s feeling more productive than he is sentimental), he can hear Jungkook gasping at the sheer vastness of such a ship. 

“This is…” Jungkook starts, words trailing off as they leave their bikes against some rocks for the time being. “Insane. I can’t believe I get to visit an alien spaceship.”

“That’s funny, considering you are friends with an alien,” Seokjin teases, and watches in delight as Jungkook’s face scrunches up in that famous smile of his. “It’s clean for the most part. I… actually don’t have much left to do.”

Jungkook pauses a little at this, his sneakers stepping in through the entryway, the door sliding up to let them in and dropping shut behind him. It makes him jump which Seokjin immediately goes to tease him for. The lights flicker on in rows, and in just a few moments, the entire ship is alight, computers turning on, and the ventilation systems booting up from being at rest. 

The ship is… pretty much entirely functional at this moment. 

Jungkook looks at him, confused. “If it's mostly fixed then why—”

“Let me show you around,” Seokjin interrupts quickly, gesturing towards the first door on the right. “This clearly is a rare opportunity, right?”

Jungkook looks conflicted, but easily takes the offer anyway, letting himself be guided throughout the ship’s various sections. Seokjin shows him the plant room first, allowing Jungkook to ask a million questions about each and every pot and container that houses all sorts of life not native to Earth. The confusion that was once there gets replaced with eagerness and anticipation, his eyes bright and wide, and Seokjin feels relief at this. It feels like he can breathe a bit better.

Up next is the library, various texts in all kinds of languages scattered across different desks and shelves and stored in different categorical orders. Jungkook gasps every time he plucks up a text that he can’t read, asking about its origins and the languages they’re written in. Seokjin reads him a few lines from each one upon request, Jungkook’s interest growing with each foreign tongue spoken to him. 

Following that comes the kitchen, which Seokjin apologizes for not having any food to show him from other planets and universes—he’d had to toss out the spoiled food ages ago. All the cabinets and freezers currently sit empty, everything completely cleaned out, but Seokjin tells tales of the different cuisines he’s eaten instead, Jungkook listening to each story with vigor. Seokjin speaks of different animals and their meat, of tastes sweeter than candy and cakes, of spices completely unknown to this universe. It feels good to recount his travels, to remember a lot of where he’s visited and spent his time, and it feels even better to have someone to listen to him. 

The rest of the ship comes naturally, Seokjin’s sleeping chambers are soon to follow (where they stop so Jungkook can see the kinds of clothes Seokjin normally wears on a typical day), then so do the computer rooms. He has a couple—it’s only natural when he has a ship this large—and he spends his time showing Jungkook what they all do, even if only surface-level. 

Jungkook asks for pictures, which Seokjin easily displays on the screens, and he tells the stories behind all of these ones too. 

All sorts of images flash before them, of all different galaxies and places, of pink waters and lands made of clouds, of icy tundras with blue suns and starry skies decorated with purple stars. Jungkook’s eyes are practically glued to the screen, enraptured with everything he’s being shown, and it makes Seokjin giggle and smile to see such an intense reaction. 

There are too many pictures to count, and by the time Seokjin closes the program out, he looks at Jungkook fondly, but he’s surprised to see a small pout there instead.

“You’ve been traveling alone all this time, huh?”

Seokjin blinks and clears his throat, swiveling in his seat a little. “Yeah, it's just me I suppose.”

“Wasn’t it lonely?”

Seokjin clears his throat for a second time, his body terribly stiff and rigid. “I’ve met all kinds of souls and beings—all different types of civilizations.”

“If that’s what you like, and that’s what makes you happy, then of course!” Jungkook corrects himself, rubbing the back of his neck softly, clearly a bit embarrassed. “I just… Ah, sorry, I really didn’t mean it like that.” He seems truly apologetic, and Seokjin isn’t sure if it’s because he himself likely looks distraught at the question and Jungkook really does feel guilty over it, or if it’s because Seokjin intrinsically feels… defensive. 

He thinks of the pictures they just viewed, of the stories he’s told and of the histories of each and every image. He’s smiling in all of them, experiencing incredible things out there, and what Jungkook has to say at the end of it is actually a question? 

Wasn’t it lonely?

… Yes. 

“Ah we should head back if we want to meet hyung for our ride home,” Jungkook murmurs once the quiet drags on a little too long. He’s still smiling, and it doesn’t seem to have lost much of its genuinity at all, but there’s something a little strained there too. “We have some time, but hyung works hard. I don’t want to keep him waiting when he probably just wants to go home.”

Seokjin puts all the systems and computers to rest, and in no time, the ship falls silent once again, the lights dimming in response. He guides his guest out, making sure the door slots shut behind them, and as they walk over to pick their bikes up for the journey back, Seokjin puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. 

“Let us walk a bit, okay?” Seokjin requests, much to Jungkook’s confusion. The tension is there, and Seokjin really hates it. “It’s hard to hear each other when we’re on the bikes. I want to talk for a bit. If we have the time.”

Jungkook seems even more confused, but he shrugs a little and nods. “Sure thing.”

Once they’re back on the main road, Jungkook looks at him curiously, dark hair framing his face in a way that makes him seem so, so young, and Seokjin just smiles at it in reflex. In a way, Jungkook just has that kind of power on him. To make him feel so charmed.

“How do you know Yoongi?” Seokjin asks, the both of them slowly walking on the side of the road, their bikes in between them. It’s vastly empty—a part of the road that a lot of foot traffic and vehicles hardly ever see, and it gives them space to talk amongst themselves, a gentle breeze brushing across their faces. “I realized that I never asked.”

“He’s a childhood friend,” Jungkook responds in kind, a gentle smile surfacing as well. “I’ve known him for most of my life—I actually don’t really remember a time where he wasn’t a part of it.”

Seokjin hums thoughtfully. It makes sense in a way. He can tell how close the two are, how fond they are when it comes to one another, and they definitely spend an incredible amount of time together. They even share the same home. 

“Have you always lived together?”

“Oh, no. Not when we were kids anyway. He actually finished college by the time I was starting it, and I needed a place to stay while I focused on my studies, so while he was applying to jobs, I was taking entrance exams. We crammed ourselves into a small studio apartment for several years until I graduated and until he had saved up enough money to afford something else.”

“So the home you live in now. You saved money up for together?” 

Jungkook looks a little saddened by the question, and it’s evident that Seokjin asked something disheartening. He isn’t sure what he had said, but before he can apologize, Jungkook nods, although the movement is minute. He takes his time answering, the clicking of their bike chains the only noise really noticeable between them, but Seokjin patiently waits. 

“It belonged to his parents. They passed away while we were trying to leave that cramped apartment. They were very kind to me growing up—our families were close. Work friends of many years is the story of it.” Jungkook clears his throat, and when Seokjin looks over to check for tears, he’s relieved to find none. The human just seems a little nostalgic. “It was really hard on the both of us, but they left the house to him as their only child.”

“But you mentioned that you both saved money for it?”

“It was terribly old. The foundation was practically rotting and there were a few safety things that had to be updated to fit newer laws and stuff. It was a lot of work. But… we were determined to keep it going. Yoongi asked me to come with him, and I couldn’t even dream of saying no. We both invested a lot into the house, so while we didn’t necessarily buy a new one or find somewhere else to rent, we did pay a lot to keep what we have.”

Seokjin doesn’t understand much of the process, admittedly. He isn’t sure what old houses mean versus newer, modern ones, or what kind of work really goes into these things, but by the way Jungkook speaks of it, it seems that it had been quite the accomplishment. He holds a lot of pride for it, that much is clear, and Seokjin pats him on the back for a moment, much to his surprise. 

“You’ve both worked hard. Your home is beautiful. I think it really shows.”

Jungkook’s eyes practically glisten, and it finally looks like they’re starting to glass over with tears, but the human simply flashes him that heartwarming smile and holds his head high. 

“I think so too.”

“How did you meet the others?”

“It’s a weird mix of relationships with each other,” Jungkook laughs heartily, nose scrunching in the process. “You sure you want to hear about it all?”

“Of course!” Seokjin’s grip tightens on his handlebars for a moment, losing focus on steering the bike straight, having to correct its path so he doesn’t run it right into Jungkook’s wheel. But he looks at him in earnest and hopes his feelings are conveyed properly. “I’d love to hear about everyone, if you’d like to humor me.”

Jungkook indeed does tell a long story of Namjoon and Taehyung being cousins and having families who live within the neighborhood as well. Namjoon’s family owns their own home a few blocks over, and when the house next to Yoongi’s went up for sale, Namjoon was able to secure a contract for it because the homeowners knew his family and heard of the hardworking success he had in college. Hoseok was a college roommate of sorts, who also moved in once Namjoon did, and those two are extremely close as well.

When the house on the other side of Yoongi and Jungkook’s was vacant from its previous inhabitants passing away from old age, Taehyung and Jimin were soon to move in, Namjoon spreading word of its vacancy to his cousin who was looking for a place to stay with his best friend, and the rest was history. 

Eventually Yoongi and Jungkook were added to the mix of the houses, Jungkook quite the friendly neighbor and Yoongi soon to follow. They’ve all been in each other’s lives for several Earth years, and Jungkook speaks on this time extremely fondly, that smile never once dropping throughout the entire explanation. 

“You really love them,” Seokjin muses, noting Jungkook’s warm composition. “It’s wonderful to hear you have company like that in your life.”

Jungkook nods happily, looking down at where his feet step on the asphalt. Not a single vehicle has come by to pass them yet, and it truly feels like they’re the only ones out here. 

“Seokjin, I’m sorry for what I said on the ship.” He looks up quickly, making direct eye contact as he speaks. “I didn’t mean to say you were lonely or anything weird like that—”

“You were just asking because your own home and life are so full,” Seokjin kindly fills in, finally understanding where the question had originally come from. “You don’t need to apologize for something like that.”

The worried expression Jungkook wears quickly melts into something softer, something much more relieved. “I know, but it was a silly thing to ask.”

“In all honesty, it is lonely,” Seokjin admits, and Jungkook’s eyes quickly skirt back to him in shock, as if he wasn’t expecting such an answer. “I don’t think I realized it until you asked. But thinking about it some… I suppose I am lonely sometimes.”

“Do you have any family?” Jungkook tries, clearly hoping for good news. 

“No family, no friends. Just… me.” Seokjin hums, thinking about things properly. “It’s been just me for a long, long time.”

“What comes next, Seokjin?”

“I don’t know,” he responds, just as earnest. “I don’t know where to go yet.”

“Is that why you’re still here even though your ship is all fixed?”

Seokjin glances at him, caught red-handed. “Of sorts.”

Jungkook laughs, cheeks a little pink when he does, and it feels good like this. It brings a smile to Seokjin’s face, and it makes him feel warm too, as if he really needed this talk between the two of them. It’s not that he doesn’t trust any of the others or doesn’t feel like he can come to them. 

But Jungkook’s warmth has always been so contagious, and he really wants that right now. 

“Well, let’s get on our bikes. If we head out now, we’ll just make it.”

Jungkook pulls his leg over the center of the bike to sit down, and Seokjin immediately does the same, getting ready for the trip back. It had been pretty quick earlier this morning thanks to the truck, and Seokjin is greedily excited for the fact they’re getting a ride from the truck back too, relieved to have a break of sorts for once. 

Before they pull into the city, Jungkook looks over his shoulder and back at Seokjin. The wind tosses his long hair around, strands of it whipping around his face, and with a brilliant smile and rosy cheeks, Jungkook speaks to him, as if it really is something he wants to get off his chest. 

“I’m glad you’re still here, Jin.” Jungkook’s eyes curve into pretty crescents when he says this, as if he’s pulling the words right out of his heart. “Please stay as long as you’d like. I’m sure the others would agree with me, too.” 

Seokjin’s heart thrums at such a declaration, something so bold and sweet, and so very Jungkook. 

The words stick with him as they enter the city again, noises of vehicles and construction and chatter filling in the space around them when it had just been their voices alone before, and the sensory whiplash is strong, but it gives Seokjin time to digest and sit with the words he’d been given. 

He holds onto them for a while, feeling their kindness and warmth, and they linger with him, even when they load their bikes back onto the truck and Yoongi picks them up, asking Jungkook all sorts of questions about the things he saw and got to experience. They talk and chat and laugh, and even then, the words cling onto him and ask for his attention no matter what goes on around him. 

Seokjin is still convinced that he’ll have to leave at some point, because he has other planets to visit, other galaxies to sail through, but this? This eases his heart and lets him breathe for a moment, even if just briefly. 

Please stay as long as you’d like. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Seokjin spends another week on Earth. It’s filled with reading flourished Korean texts next to Jimin on the soft couch, gardening in the early morning with Namjoon covered in mud and petals, and going on trips downtown for coffee and desserts with Hoseok. Other days, it’s also filled with painting alongside Taehyung in his backyard decorated with all sorts of materials on their clothes, learning guitar and earning calluses with Yoongi as they pluck metal strings, and singing along with Jungkook in the kitchen to songs Seokjin doesn’t hardly remembers, his key off and the melody jolted, but the both of them laughing and giggling all the same. 

For the first time in what feels like a long time, he’s happy. 

Jungkook’s words continuously ring in his head, but it constantly feels like Seokjin is running on borrowed time. He’s in a foreign place, one he still doesn’t completely understand or know everything about, and he’s been taking food and shelter and companionship for free with nothing in return. He figures there’s only so much his hosts can tolerate, even if they’ve never given him any sort of inclination that they’re tired of him or his presence. But he makes the decision for himself anyway, because in the end, it’s going to hurt him the longer he stays, the longer he’s happy here. 

He knows he’s probably destined for a life of wandering the stars with no clear goal—that’s how it’s been for years anyway. He doesn’t know anything else or any different. 

So he finally sets a day.

“You’re leaving?!” A few voices from around the table question, all in different tones of surprise and shock, but still startled nonetheless. 

Jungkook’s chair scrapes along the floor and even with the grating sound it makes, he doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t seem completely caught off guard—he knew Seokjin’s ship was ready to go before anyone else in the first place. But his eyes are wide and his pout practically matches Yoongi’s, and it’s then that Seokjin really takes a look at everyone else. 

Namjoon and Jimin’s expressions are stony, much harder than usual. It’s not angry or hurt, that much Seokjin can recognize after spending time with them like he has been, but he can tell they’re sad. Hoseok sits with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, but he doesn't speak either.

Taehyung looks like he can’t believe it, like the words are false and filled with incorrect information, and Yoongi looks down at his hands laced in his lap, likely fiddling with them in the way he usually does. 

No one says anything for a while. They all sit and process, and Seokjin does too. He’s closed his heart off to the feelings of sadness he sees reflected on everyone else, because he knows that once he boards that ship to leave, he’ll be crying the entire way. He wants to save face now, to give himself that privacy when the time comes. 

Because in reality, his heart is breaking, and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

“When?” is the first question, Namjoon’s deep voice rumbling it out in a quiet murmur. 

“The day after tomorrow,” Seokjin admits, ignoring the way he wants to flinch at the sorrow it brings everyone even further. “I know it is such short notice, I apologize, but I don’t know how much longer my ship can stay out there undetected. I worry that someone will find it, especially with how frequently I visit the same spot over and over.” 

There still doesn’t seem to be a lot of reaction from everyone, although Seokjin knows they’re trying. He figured there’d be some kind of sadness from everyone, but again, he closes his heart to it and pretends their time together has been enough to make the memories fond enough for everyone to forget anything else. The pain will subside, he’s sure of it. 

“Ah, well—” Yoongi starts, clearing his throat. “Well, congratulations on your ship being in working order yet again. I know you’ve been working really hard on it.”

Suddenly the entire room fills with “oh” and “yes, congratulations!”

They all seem happy, Yoongi’s politeness clicking with all of them to give the same grace, and Seokjin is filled with lots of hugs and pats from everyone coming to congratulate him on accomplishing his goal. It feels bittersweet, but they all truly have been supportive of him as well, so he basks in the joy the news brings too, not just the heartache. 

“We should have a farewell party,” Hoseok suggests, nudging Seokjin’s shoulder with his own. “It’s where we have a big celebration and a last goodbye.”

Seokjin smiles, appreciating the thought, but he looks at all of them earnestly. “Thank you, but… can we do something smaller?”

“You want something intimate then.” Jimin hums as he thinks, his ringed fingers tapping on the tabletop while he considers a few more options. “We can just do a final dinner? All seven of us tomorrow night?”

“Works for me,” Taehyung agrees. “We can do dinner and dessert and just spend time together.”

Plans start being made while Seokjin listens as they all start to discuss what to bring and who will bring what food. But Seokjin just feels his heart hurt more and more with each passing minute. Everyone is putting so much thought into this, so much care and attention, and Seokjin feels so undeserving of it all. Why would they possibly go to such lengths for him? 

But it’s agreed upon that dinner will happen tomorrow at six in the evening, Hoseok and Namjoon will bring some meat for Yoongi and Jungkook to barbecue in the backyard, and Taehyung and Jimin will bring dessert from their favorite place downtown. Seokjin makes them promise no gifts—he doesn’t think he can take anything with him like he’d originally planned, and the trip by bike doesn’t let him bring a lot with him, so they all agree, albeit reluctantly. 

It’s definitely a bit emotional when they all leave the table—Yoongi and Jimin have work in the morning which instigates everyone trickling out one by one, each tossing a saddened smile towards Seokjin’s direction as they say goodnight. He’s sad to see them all go, but tomorrow will be a good time too. He knows it.

Eventually, it’s just him left at the table, Yoongi going to bed and Jungkook taking a shower before he does. 

Seokjin’s thoughts are loud and rattling, but as he sits and thinks some more about everything, he knows that this is his best course of action. He can’t keep staying here, can’t keep setting himself up for attachments that will become even more difficult to sever when he does leave. It’s important that he does this now to save himself (and everyone else) from even worse pain further down the line. 

The house grows quiet after a bit and Seokjin only retires to bed himself when he hears Jungkook’s door quietly shut from upstairs. Seokjin drags himself up the stairs and collapses into bed, feeling every bit drained as possible. He’s exhausted emotionally and mentally, and while physically he feels a lot better than when he arrived on Earth, his eyelids already feel heavy as they flutter shut the moment his head hits the pillow. 

There’s so much to feel and to process, but Seokjin tries not to focus on it too much. He doesn't have much time left in this room, in this house, and he doesn’t want to fill its walls with so many negative emotions and thoughts. 

For now, Seokjin sleeps, hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Their last dinner together as seven is unsurprisingly chaotic and loud and filled with laughter and good food, but everyone takes care not to be emotional about it too much. (Which, Seokjin admittedly appreciates.) He plays along, yelling and making jokes with everyone else like he isn’t hurting on the inside—like he doesn’t wish this moment would last forever.

The barbecue is incredible, and Yoongi makes the extra effort to “cook it the best he ever has” (Hoseok’s words, not his). 

They play some of Seokjin’s favorite records in the backyard as they all sit around the table, smoke and spices filling their noses, fun, upbeat music filling their ears. It’s the most relaxing day Seokjin has had while being here on Earth, and it’s one he knows he’ll cherish deeply for many years to come.

They eat and eat, Jimin even taking over at some point to give Yoongi a break because everyone eats their fill and then some. They all talk and tell stories, and Seokjin even gets to share some of his own, everyone asking questions and keeping the conversation alive and brimming with smiles and good feelings. His cheeks even hurt from all the grinning and laughter.

The night eventually winds down, and Seokjin has a feeling that everyone wants to say their proper goodbyes to him individually. First comes Namjoon who tells him he appreciates the time they’ve spent together, that having someone in the garden with him is something he’s always wanted and was happy to enjoy for a little while. He promises to plant strawberries in the back, Seokjin’s favorite, and already Seokjin wants to bawl. 

Hoseok follows, thanking him for always taking the time to “hang out” whenever Hoseok needed a friend. They spent a lot of time talking and listening to each other, and going down to the heart of the city was something Hoseok loves to do and is glad he got to show Seokjin a part of that. He’ll miss Seokjin’s companionship and Seokjin agrees that he’ll miss Hoseok’s in return.

Jimin is sweet and lovely, and he hugs him over and over again. Jimin mentions that he wonders if he’ll be a little lonelier now that Seokjin isn't there to read books with him and ask a million questions over the nuances and details that he doesn't understand as someone not from Earth, and when Seokjin flushes red to the tips of his ears, Jimin just laughs and promises that he’s going to really miss the company. Seokjin is sure he’ll think of Jimin when he reads any Korean texts.  

Taehyung is next, pressing his cheek to the crown of Seokjin’s head and thanking him for being a friend, for accompanying him on days creativity struck, for showing him incredible things and taking him to different worlds, even if only in recounted stories. As part of the original group who was there when Seokjin had been discovered, Taehyung has a little more wetness to his voice and an expression that is a tad bit glassier. He thanks Seokjin also for letting him dress him up whenever he wanted, and tells Seokjin that his prom suit looked much better being worn these days than it did sitting in the back of his closet. 

Jungkook and Yoongi wait until everyone leaves to say their own pieces. As they stand in front of the house, waving everyone off one by one, they somehow find themselves in the back of Yoongi’s truck, sitting all squished up against each other with Seokjin in between. 

The nighttime sky is heavy overhead, dark and twinkling with all sorts of planets and constellations, and in a way, Seokjin is excited to be back amongst them, drifting in and out of a place so ethereal and beautiful. It’ll be a long journey ahead, he’s sure.

“Thank you both for giving me a place to stay,” Seokjin starts, eyes not once leaving the stars that hang above them. “In truth, I don’t know what I was thinking—wandering and walking around on a planet I knew could be unsafe. But… I’m glad I did. And I’m glad you were the ones to have found me.”

Jungkook sniffles some, but it’s difficult to see if there are any tears in the dark, even with the dim streetlights that occasionally pepper the street. Seokjin is a bit chilly, never quite one for the cold, but he figures he can bear it for a little while. 

“You’ve been a good friend to us.” Jungkook still looks at the sky too, as if it’s almost too difficult to say it to him directly. “I’m sad that we don’t get more of it, but I’ll treasure what time we did get together.”

“You’re more than welcome to clean out the bedroom I have been borrowing. I’m sorry about the mess I’ll be leaving behind—the posters and records and everything—”

“Your room will always be here,” Yoongi insists, entirely resolute and firm. It makes Seokjin huff out a smile. “We’ll keep it here for you. In case you ever want to visit.”

Visit? Is that even possible? It’s something Seokjin will have to give time to sleep on, to even consider and put enough distance in between first. 

“I appreciate it,” is what he offers instead. 

“So, you’re leaving at sunrise, right?” Jungkook asks once they’ve shared their warm smiles. “Are you taking the bike? We’d be more than happy to drive you.”

“It’s alright. I’ll take the bike—it’ll let me prepare mentally for the journey ahead for a bit. I’ll be lifting off in the morning, once the sun rises. It gives the navigation system a smaller chance for any errors or miscalculations when there’s a bit of light. I’ll likely leave before you both wake.”

“Absolutely not!” Jungkook gasps, finally looking at Seokjin directly. He even rests a tight hand on Seokjin’s shoulder for extra emphasis, but he looks deadly serious. “We’ll wake up. Please wake us up when you go, Jin, and we’ll make sure to say goodbye properly.”

“Please do,” Yoongi echoes, dark brown eyes meeting Seokjin’s properly. “We wouldn’t want to miss it.”

Seokjin smiles sadly, nodding despite the fact he already knows he probably won’t do such a thing. 

It’ll be harder to leave—he’s already so close to cracking and considering other alternatives, to maybe visit in just a few weeks or to make it a proper schedule to come see everyone. He can’t afford to have that final nail in the coffin. 

Eventually, it gets too cold for all three of them, and with an early morning ahead of Seokjin, he reluctantly chooses to send them all inside, back into the warmth and comfort of their respective beds.

Seokjin listens quietly, hearing Yoongi’s door shut first like it always does, followed by Jungkook’s own clicking into place. Like this, Seokjin takes a shaky breath and climbs into his own bed for the last time. He takes in a deep breath, trying to memorize the way this room smells, how the blankets feel against his skin. He tries to carve the existence of this place into his heart for good, so he can remember a place like this for a long time to come. 

Because god, is he really going to miss it here.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Seokjin wakes much earlier than the sun, and he isn’t sure if it was because he had planned to leave in the middle of the night or if it’s because he had trouble sleeping this whole time. In a way, it all feels like some sort of blur. 

He starts to pack a few things in the dark of his room—a sweater he’d somehow ended up with from one of the others for the cold as he takes the bike over, a small book that holds crossword puzzles for the trip (something he finds that the humans have something really cool going on with those), and a few snacks he’d kept stashed away in a drawer for the future. 

Originally, he had wanted to bring everyone’s gifts with him: the telescope, suit, guitar, records, and a few other trinkets here and there he’d managed to pick up over time, but in a way, it just doesn’t feel right. These items, for whatever reason, feel like they belong here to him. So he takes care to hang up Taehyung’s suit the way he had found it on the hanger all that time ago, crisp and fancy and nostalgic. He leaves Jimin’s telescope by the window, in case the others ever choose to come look at the stars again, maybe to find Seokjin’s ship up there. Yoongi’s guitar is left against the wall, where the sun’s rays will pour over it like liquid gold in the morning. Hoseok’s bracelets and necklaces are organized neatly by size and purpose on top of the dresser in ceramic dishes, too beautiful to be lost in the vastness of space. Jungkook’s records sit organized and neat by the player he’d also gifted, in the event the youngest wants to put on a song that reminds everyone of their time together. 

Seokjin is meticulous, but for all the gifts they’ve given him, the only thing he can do in return is leave them warm and happy memories. With a quick note he scribbles in the dark, he makes his bed one last time and leaves the slip of paper on his pillow. 

I hope that you remember this room as fondly as I do. Thank you for everything. I will never ever forget any of you.

And like that, Seokjin shuts the bedroom door behind him and quietly makes his way out of the house that had taken care of him all this time. He’s sad—so incredibly sad, but he knows this is what he must do. 

With a deep sigh that clouds in the cold nighttime air, he kicks off the curb and listens as his bike chains click down the street, carrying him off to future stories to be had and told. 

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Preparing the ship is easy and takes no time at all. The systems boot up pretty quickly and there’s no doubt that everything is in good, working condition. All information about his ship is positive and stable, and that lets him know that he really is ready to leave Earth once and for all. 

The bike ride over had taken longer than he originally planned, almost as if were dragging out the inevitable, but he’s still early enough to have arrived before sunrise. 

As he waits for the engine to warm up, the ship practically coming alive once again, a reminiscent sound of the hull creaking a bit upon the vessel being used in full for the first time in a while, Seokjin feels bittersweet about the whole thing. He wants to be happy that his hard work had paid off and that he’d accomplished getting his ship back in working order, but he’s also still hurting, still sad about his departure. 

Seokjin types in a random set of coordinates into the computer, completely unsure of where it’ll take him, but not completely caring about it either. Since he’d come to Earth, he hasn’t considered where to go next at all. So why not let random chance take care of that for him? 

As the systems work their magic and start to come to life, Seokjin waits patiently, wondering about all sorts of things. 

He’ll have to find some food wherever he ends up—his freezers are empty and bare. He probably also needs to find a place big enough to land his ship. He’d gotten lucky with Earth. It’s larger than a lot of the other planets out there, and he has more than enough space here on its ground. He probably also needs to refill his sprinkler system’s tank—his plants would probably survive with the water from this planet, but he’s already determined to leave.

With a deep sigh, he closes his eyes and takes a moment to breathe. 

This is all surreal, and it feels like it isn’t really happening. He’s going to open his eyes again and when he does, he’ll be back in his bed with all of those friendly humans downstairs like they always are. 

But when Seokjin blinks open and takes a look around, all he’s greeted with are computer screens and flashing lights, and well, that’s to be expected after all, despite the small twinge of disappointment he carries.

Eventually, the systems flash that they’re finished booting up and he should be ready for takeoff at any moment. Seokjin’s palms are sweaty—it isn’t like he’d been able to take it for a test run or anything like that, so there is still a small chance everything fails. 

With a hand on the startup lever, Seokjin focuses his vision, the edges of it swimming and rippling into something else entirely. Just like what he had done with Hoseok that one time to check on the status of this ship, Seokjin’s eye flashes as he tries to focus on the picture of the exterior. It’d be a safe option to double-check everything on the outside is okay as well. 

But… something’s wrong.

The vision that comes into view isn’t of his ship at all. In fact, it’s…

It’s Yoongi and Jungkook’s house. 

Hoseok blinks slowly. “Um, no, humans can’t do that.”

“Oh. It locates my home whenever I need it to. It gives me a sense of direction on where to travel to get back safely.”

Seokjin clenches his eyes shut and is entirely unsurprised when his cheeks suddenly feel wet. Rolls of tears stream down his skin in thick waves, uncontrolled and quick, and the heartbreak finally settles in. Even his own biology is telling him that his home is no longer this ship—it’s back at that house, with Namjoon and Jimin, with Hoseok and Taehyung and Yoongi and Jungkook—

He wipes furiously at his eyes, the heels of his palms pressing firmly to try to stop it, but he can feel the shudder that racks through his body, the shakiness of the way he struggles to breathe, and he realizes that this is just a lost cause. 

The icons and programs on his screen blink back at him in an array of colors, mostly greens and blues, all positive signs of liftoff. But the tears don’t stop and Seokjin’s heart is entirely shattered in his chest, and with a broken sigh, Seokjin sits and revels in the fact that he has no idea what to do.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Hitchhiking has never been Seokjin’s forte. He’s not sure if he looks dangerous or like some hooligan, but every single time he tries to flag down a ride, they speed past him like he doesn’t exist at all. The first couple of times he expects it. The handful of times after that are more annoying than anything. There’s only so many travelers that pass by—this part of the road is known for being empty, especially at this time of morning anyway. 

Admittedly, Seokjin is tired and emotional and just having quite a rough start to everything that pertains to this day. 

His feet hurt from climbing up and around so many rocks and boulders, his hand covered in dust waving out only a couple more times before he decides he’s just not going to get lucky and find a single soul to help him out. 

The tears are still trickling down his cheeks, even if to a lesser degree, but he feels so defeated that they might as well come back in full force. 

What a mistake. He shouldn't have left the bike on board. Maybe it’s a sign—

Then, as if the universe had heard his pleas and hopes and wishes, a familiar black truck speeds down the dirt road, dust and rocks flying into the air behind it, and Seokjin holds back a sob. He’d recognize all of those heads peeking out of the windows anywhere. 

“Jin!!!”

Seokjin waves his arms above his head furiously, even though he knows they can see him with the sun’s rays that start to peek over the cliffs and trees, casting the ground in a waking glow. 

The truck immediately pulls over, Yoongi’s eyes frantically wide as he tries his best to break quickly without sending everyone hurtling forward. Everyone’s there, some even piled into the bed of the truck. 

Doors open and feet hit the floor, and before Seokjin can let out the sob he’s been holding, he’s knocked into the ground in a pile of limbs and tears and jumbled speech. 

He doesn’t even know who is on top of him, but he hugs them anyway, nuzzling into their neck. With one inhale, he knows it’s Jungkook, and soon more weight is added, Jimin and Taehyung adding to the mess, and Seokjin fights to breathe underneath the pressure. But it’s good, he can’t stop crying and can’t stop smiling, and everyone is talking over each other in a mess of words, and it takes some maneuvering to finally catch his breath, but when he opens his eyes through the dampness, he sees Yoongi, Namjoon, and Hoseok all looking down at the pile with wet smiles too. 

“You lied!” Jungkook says first, shoving at Seokjin’s shoulder with his own damp lashes. “You said you’d wake us up! You said that we’d get to say goodbye! You promised you'd never leave us without letting us say goodbye!”

Seokjin inhales shakily, the heel of his palm pulling at the corner of his eyes. “It hurt too much. I couldn’t—I didn’t want to go—”

“Then why did you?” Jungkook hugs him again, and it’s so tight that Seokjin gasps for air, but he returns the sentiment, his own arms wrapping around the human by his side. “You could’ve stayed—you—”

“What are you all even doing here?”

“We realized you left and you told us your ship was leaving at sunrise, so we woke everyone up to come try to say goodbye—”

“Jungkook-ah, let him breathe.” It’s Yoongi’s voice, as calm as ever, and eventually all four of them scramble up from the ground, Jungkook still holding onto his arm, Taehyung and Jimin helping wipe the dirt off his clothes. “Jin, you haven’t left yet. It’s a little past sunrise.”

Seokjin sniffles but nods, letting his body be swayed around as they help clean him off. He giggles at some of it, but figures everyone deserves an answer. “I… want to stay…”

Yoongi’s eyes are wide instantly, and Jungkook’s hold is tight on him. 

“You want to stay longer?” Hoseok questions, although in a leading tone. 

It’s Namjoon who finishes the thought with, “Or… for good?”

Seokjin breathes. He closes his eyes and takes in a jagged inhale yet again, trying to calm his erratic heart. This is so much pressure and there are all kinds of emotions running through his head, ones that he can’t even begin to process. But this is his chance. 

This is where he wants to be.

“For good,” Seokjin announces, chest puffed out as he says the words he’s been only thinking of in private for so long. Words he hardly could ever admit to himself. “I want to stay here on Earth, with you all, for good.” 

There’s a lot of commotion after that, lots of cheering and hugs and even a few kisses planted on his cheeks. He tosses his head back and laughs, honestly lets the weight on his shoulders slip off, embraces the freeness that comes with the affection and love these humans have been so kind to give him. This moment is everything he could’ve asked for. 

In the middle of it all, the ground rumbles for a moment, and everyone stops to catch their footing. The noise is loud, but Seokjin recognizes it instantly. He can make out the way the ground gives way and chunks of earth fall from new heights. There’s a quick cracking sound, something sharp and echoing, and before he can explain anything, he sees the top of his ship peeking over the cliffs.

“Is that—?” Jimin chokes out, hand shielding his eyes from the dust that starts to spray. 

“Your ship,” Jungkook gasps, quickly glancing at Seokjin for the reason why. 

“I set it to some random coordinates,” Seokjin announces over the noise, making sure everyone can hear him. “I don’t know where it’s going, and… I won’t be there to find out.”

They all huddle together, watching the way his ship breaches the cliff side, navigating its way to avoid the rocks but still safely make it into the sky. It’s faster than Seokjin remembers—or maybe it just simply feels that way this time.

Everyone is cast in shadow for a little while, the ship massive enough to block most of the new sunlight peeking over the horizon. The ship is so much bigger from the ground, and eventually, the bottom of it finally rises over the peak. It twists in circles, the center of it spinning as it lifts off, rocks and debris still falling from its rim, and right now, Seokjin takes it all in. 

That ship was his everything for so long. It got him through all sorts of journeys and travels and dips in his life, but he also remembers the vision he had at the center console, that familiar house just outside the city warming his heart in every way possible. 

Seokjin reaches up and waves, the tears rolling down his face all over again. He sniffles as he curls his fingers towards a ship that has no concept of appreciation, but without it, he never would’ve crash landed here. 

He never would’ve found them otherwise.

The ship pulls out and after a few more minutes, they can hardly see it in the sky anymore, the distance too great to even try. Seokjin is so awfully emotional. He knew it was the right thing to do—if Yoongi and Jungkook are right and it’s safer for Seokjin not to be found, it was best to get rid of the thing that could be traced back to him, a life form not of this planet, or even this galaxy. 

For a moment, silence hangs over all of them, but there are still a few tears shed by those other than himself—Jungkook and Taehyung are both wiping at their cheeks and Hoseok is even a little red in the nose. If he looks a bit closer, he can see Yoongi’s lips pressed in a thin line as a few tears are shed on his end, even if he looks away to hide it.

“Can we go back?” Seokjin croaks out, huffing out a burst of soft laughter. “I’m covered in dirt and I’m starving.”

“Of course,” Yoongi agrees once he clears his throat, nodding back to the truck. “Hop in. There’s always room for you here.”

Jungkook steps right into view, the remaining five humans standing behind him with matching smiles on their faces and so, so much warmth and kindness to give. 

“Yeah. Let’s go home, Seokjin.”

And Seokjin grabs onto his offered hand and sniffles at everyone walking beside him. His heart completely happy and ecstatic, but he knows this is where he's meant to be. He shouldn't be up there wandering lost in space, traveling for the sake of it. He's meant to be here on Earth.

With his brand new family.