Tao's POV

Luhan had found Xiumin's cube five years ago and he kept this secret for nearly half a year before he let people know about his new boyfriend. Stepping in his room, it was obvious to see why he took the cube home instead of abandoning it where he found it. There were rubix cubes of all different sizes and a few that weren't even cubes. It was quite the collection, taking up several shelves lining his walls and a few scattered here and there about the room. Luhan took the metal cube out of a small lock-box stuffed behind his desk, picking the lock with a bent paperclip.

“I lost the key when I was in sixth grade,” he explained. “I like it better this way though. Not many people can pick a lock.” Honestly, I wasn't the least bit surprised that Luhan was one of the few who could.

Xiumin took the cube from him and held it before us. “This is a travel pod. There were eight pods like this one in total.”

“So there's-”

“Eight aliens here on Earth.” said Kai.

“And one by one, people have been finding them.” continued Xiumin. I found myself staring a little, trying to find the signs I missed before, but there really weren't any. He had assimilated really well. “We were worried because the eighth had been missing for a long time, but you found it, Zitao. You found and released Kai from the pod.”

“It was just lying there in a playground though. It wasn't exactly in an illusive spot.” How could he have been missing for five years?

“Yes, well, the pods all landed in different places-”

“And some got kicked around,” Luhan in. “Or they got passed around without people knowing what they are-”

“Poor Baek,” said Xiumin suddenly.

“He found Yeollie. Their pretty happy now.”

“But the one who opened his pod was awful.”

“How are the pods opened?” I asked, interrupting the side conversation. “There weren't any buttons or anything.”

Xiumin nodded and answered, “The cube reacts to heat and small samples of DNA that it extracts as you touch it. We need a host being to open it up for us so we know that the planet is habitable before entering it. It was meant as a safety feature. If none of the pods were opened after a set time, then they'd head back home. If the pod has gotten enough of both, it opens, but there's a time delay. Sehun, one of our own, got in serious trouble for that. His host threw the pod away and he awakened at the bottom of a river-”

“Oh, don't bring that up again. That was too close a call.” said Luhan, hand on his chest. “Lucky you heard the buzzing, or we wouldn't have been there to pull him out.”

“Anyways, Kai's pod must not have been touched enough or warm enough until you found it.”

I recalled running the cube through my hands several times as I walked home and several times again sitting on my bed to make sure there weren't any clues I missed as to what it was.

I remembered my first thoughts when I found out there was an alien in my bedroom and I had so many questions to ask back then. How did he get here if he's had to travel light years away? How old was he really? Did he remember his planet at all, or had he really been born here the moment I touched the golden pool?

What even was the pool? Did it keep him safe for the ride? Was it the same idea as egg yolk that feeds a growing chick or a chemical compound that could create life when given the right last ingredient? Instant human, complete with plump lips, toned abs, and more grace than any normally birthed hominid; Just add water. Clothes not included.

I was a little scared to ask these kinds of questions. Did I really want to know? I could just live my life happily without more knowledge that Kai wasn't like me and never would be.

“How long did you guys know that I had Kai?” I asked instead, though the other questions burned in my head.

“We knew you had a boyfriend walking aroun-”

“He's not my boyfriend.” I interrupted. “I can't really have an alien boyfriend.”

Luhan cleared his throat and gestured to Xiumin. “Meet Minnie, my alien boyfriend. You don't see me complaining. Honestly, we live in the twenty-first century. It's a whole new millennium to go out and try new and weird things. More people should open their eyes. This could be the future, these aliens and us humans coexisting.” He nodded as if his speech had been very informative and moving.

“But they're aliens. Their bodies aren't the same-”

Xiumin shook his head in disagreement and pulled a rubix cube from the wall, mixing it and solving it again and again until I felt a little dizzy from watching. “We have the exact same anatomy as a human. Our brains are a little different and sure, there are small chemical differences, but we would mix just fine.”

“To the point and away from... mixing,” My mind flashed back to Luhan asking us to call if we needed toys. “you thought I had a boyfriend walking around and then what?”

“We didn't actually know that he was the eighth visitor until I got to see him up close. He's doing well, but he doesn't quite move the muscles in his left eye quite like a human does.” he chuckled.

“Xiumin,” I my lips nervously, catching a slip, an almost insignificant odd word choice. “You called him a visitor? Visitors-Visitors leave...”

Hands stopping in their turning and solving, the alien looked at me with a sad expression. My eyes flicked over to Kai to see the same sadness, so out of place on his normally smiling face.

Of course. I should have thought of this more. I knew in my head that Kai would go back, but I guess I never truly believed it. He was just so snuggly and happy all the time, I never considered him not staying. He liked it here, didn't he? He liked me, didn't he? Why would he want to leave?

But he might not have a choice. What if Kai had to leave no matter what he wanted for himself?

Seriously, I should have seen this coming. All visits end, otherwise they wouldn't be visits anymore.

“Tao?” Kai gently called.

“You... are leaving, aren't you?” I had to hear it from him. My mind can't supply the answers for me anymore. Kai now had the language skills to be able to answer me. I should stop being a coward and listen. “Eventually you'll go back. I can't imagine it to be easy to travel back and forth, so I can count on not seeing you again-”

“Tao-”

“And are you going too?” I asked, rounding on Xiumin, whose face was unreadable. “What will happen to Luhan? Are you just going to up and leave after all that time you spent together?”

“Taozi-”

“What about all the laughs you guys shared," I continued, unable to stop. "And the smiles, the stories, and the moments where no one understood each other because of the language barrier, but you tried anyways, and the late night dramas, and that stupid panda plushie you keep hugging to sleep instead of me!”

Hands, Kai's hands, were wiping away the tears streaming down my cheeks. My thoughts had run past my lips faster than I could properly filter them. I'm not sure myself when it became about me instead of Xiumin and Luhan, I just knew that everything hurt right now and the tears weren't stopping.

“Shh... Tao, it's okay. Everything's okay.” he spoke soothingly, worriedly doing his best to get me to calm down.

Xiumin tried to help with, “We still have a few days until we have to leave-”

“A few days?” I choked. They'll be gone so soon?

“Well, everyone who was placed here has been found. Kai was the last one-”

Kai would be gone in a few days... I couldn't seem to shake the disbelief that startled me out of my broken breathing.

“Tao... Taozi, come with me!” Kai suddenly pleaded. “To my home.”

“Kai-” Xiumin warned.

“No. Tao should come too! And Luhan!”

“Kai, stop.”

“Don't you want Xiaolu to see our world?”

“Jongin!" Xiumin spoke firmly, the "real" name I gave Kai sticking out foreign in the air. "They have families here. They can't leave them. You haven't been here as long as I have. Family love is really strong here. And we didn't bring enough supplies with us to bring other organisms along anyways.”

Luhan was silent. “Won't you miss Xiumin?” I asked him accusingly through the tears. "How are you so calm?"

Quietly taking the hand of his boyfriend, he responded in a quiet tone, “We've been together for five years. Their visit was only supposed to last three, but since they couldn't find the eighth pod, it was extended. Really... we've been counting our blessings every day just to have this much time.” he flashed a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes as Xiumin leaned into him. “I'm sorry, Tao, Kai. You barely got to spend time with each other at all.”

“We could just not let them know-”

“The pod sends out a pulse when it's opened. It's already too late. They are set to leave on Saturday.”

Not long ago, if you told me that I would be collapsed to my knees on the floor of Luhan's bedroom wrapped in the arms of my alien pet while I wept into his shoulder, I would have escorted you to the nearest mental facility with a pasted on smile and a lollipop for luck. As it was, I climbed back through the window to my room with a heavy heart after the sobbing stopped. There was no way to explain my downtrodden appearance to my dad as I made breakfast in the morning and no way for me to care about eating as I thought about my one and only true friend leaving me forever.

***

Kai's POV

Zitao took me with him to that place he always went to that I hadn't been allowed to follow him to before: school. He said this is where he was taught all the things he'd need to know later on in life.

What surprised me the most was the number of people. They were everywhere! They were talking, reading, walking, running, and there wasn't a single corner that wasn't occupied by another human. Though I wanted to look at everything that was happening and absorb all this new knowledge, all the bustling made me want to huddle away somewhere I wouldn't be knocked over.

I felt like I'd be pushed away from Tao if I wasn't careful, so I took his hand and quickly laced fingers with him.

“It's okay. We won't be here long.” he said, pulling me along beside him down the halls. “I just have to turn in my homework and then I'll take the rest of the day off to spend more time with you.” He showed me a pained smile and squeezed my hand.

I wanted more than anything for me and Tao to stay together, even if that meant leaving behind one of our planets. There was so much I could show him and still more he could show me. There was too much to learn here and I've only been on this planet a small while. Zitao has been here all his life. I never grew bored of his stories and childhood memories; I don't think I could.

It seemed like life at home was going to become very dull. I could feel now how lifeless my world had been before. A world without Tao.

A world without Tao didn't seem worth living in at all, but I had responsibilities there. I'd just have to endure.

But still, it was going to be difficult each day when I didn't wake up next to this warm soul who had taken me in. It was going to be difficult when I didn't see the pair of brown, sleepy eyes studying my face like they were searching for hidden secrets. There'd be no more snuggling, no more goosebump-inducing touches, no more heart-fluttering kisses on those curved lips I was just starting to get to know.

I held onto Tao's hand tightly and never wanted to let go.

***

Tao's POV

I thought I'd go turn in my creative writing assignment without my alien visitor tagging along, but for some reason, Kai wasn't letting go of my hand for anything. I wasn't planning on letting Mr. Kim see the one I'd been writing about or letting him see me hand-in-hand with a teenage boy.

We awkwardly stood before his desk as I handed the paper to him, watching his eyes travel from the alien to our linked hands. To my surprise, the teacher looked on with sympathy.

“I take it you won't be joining us then,” Mr. Kim said, scanning through the document. “You look far too sick to be here, Zitao. I can tell from those dark circles that you'll need to rest for, let's say... a week?” He looked up then and winked at me, eyelid closing perfectly doll-like. “Don't worry, I'll take care of talking to your other teachers for you; I have to talk to them anyways to settle things before I leave. You just rest.”

Suho, the guardian of shy kids in our school, was an alien.

“Tao,” he spoke softly and I leaned in to listen better. “Go make every second count. I can't stand tragic endings unless they are done right.”

***

That week, I took Kai everywhere I could, letting him try new foods and see more places. We went for walks down the street, ducking into whichever shop caught his eye (which meant a lot of stopping because everything was interesting to him). I took him to the beach and he became so fascinated by the shells and little sea creatures that we ended up staying there very late and even came back the next day so he could experience it some more.

He officially became mine there at that beach as we strolled over the wet sand in bare feet. I stopped and took his hands, trying and doing a horrible job of explaining what it meant to be boyfriends and why I was finally asking him for this label. In the end, he told me to shut up. Even though I knew those dramas influenced Kai a lot, I still never expected the romantic kiss he used to shut me up himself when I still tried to make him understand how much this meant.

“You make life feel like a movie,” I told him as we broke apart, staying so close in each other's arms that our noses touched. “I love it, I love-” you. I love you, Kai. “I-I don't know.” I said instead, regretting the very instant I didn't go through with my thought, but still convinced it was better I didn't. I wanted him to know and I wanted myself to say it out loud, but how could I when we'd be parting in just a few days? The pain would kill us both.

“Kiss me again?” I asked into his skin, wanting to chase away the constant thoughts that reminded me he was going away.

I think some part of Kai understood everything I had felt in that moment. I could taste it on his lips when salty tears ran down his cheeks for the first time.

***

I hated my parents.

My mother who never thought to visit, my father who treated me like a housemate and nothing more; I hated them. I hated them because no matter what, I had to stay behind and take care of them. Even if, somehow, the aliens got ahold of whatever resources they were missing to carry an extra being on board, I had to stay behind for the ones who raised me, fed me, and showed me love. They still worried for me even if they were both living their own lives with me on the sidelines. I couldn't leave them.

I hated them for loving me just enough that I had to stay. Anything caring they did felt like another unnecessary reminder that it was impossible for me and Kai to be together and that him leaving was going to happen.

Each day I had to leave the house in my school uniform and meet Kai outside as he climbed through the window because my dad thought I was depressed. He wouldn't leave the house like usual until he was sure I wasn't suicidal. It was touching in a way, but extremely annoying to be watched like a hawk when everything was- well, it wasn't exactly fine, but I wasn't suicidal yet. I still had one more night with Kai, and there was no way I wasn't going to use every millisecond we had left.

In bed, my eyes felt uncomfortably dry after so many days of crying as I held him to my chest, golden light warmly filling the room. I felt every breath he took and kept the movement close to heart, trying to stay awake and burn his image into my memory. I will keep this moment forever, I decided.

I found Kai to be awake too when he shifted and nuzzled into my neck, warm breath grazing my hair and my ear. I turned and kissed him slowly to savor every bit of his touch on my skin, but it wasn't enough. Desperation gripped us both and the movements built until we brought our lips together harder, clashing teeth and bruising skin as if we could somehow melt into each other if we just pressed enough. Clothes became an obstacle, a barrier that blocked us from truly experiencing the love we were rushing into to fight against the deadline looming closer.

That night, the world crumbled away as we did everything we could to keep our minds away from Kai's departure time. It was a perfect moment cracked along the edges and we discovered that we still had tears in us yet when it was over and unforgiving daylight broke through the blinds.