Humans try to make their lives as simple as possible. But by trying to simplify the world, they overcomplicate it. That afternoon spent reading actually only happened in three hours. And after five weeks, one can finish reading a novel. Humans categorize and search for patterns, then easily fall into the rhythm that they created for themselves.

Hoseok would wake up early in the morning and commute two hours to the University labs and observatories. He would spend the day mapping star patterns, with a thirty minute lunch break to attempt conversation with coworkers, then work in the evening on drones and simulations for otherworldly conditions. He would spend a half hour after work at one of the many fast food places in the center of town, waiting for traffic to become less perilous. Then continue his commute home. It’s sundown by the time he’s unlocking his front door, so he digs out his telescope, makes a cup of instant hot chocolate, and observes the milky way from the comfort of his own backyard patio. He has no neighbors, his house is built on one of those roads on the outskirts of town that only rarely have other cars passing by. There are no noises, no lights to interrupt his observations. So he spends his night imagining life on other galaxies and the minerals on their planets and the speed at which the planets are rotating. He sees Venus on the horizon. He sees Orion’s Belt, he sees them all, can recite them by memory.

On weekends, he buys groceries and stays at home. Reading, charting, getting lost in celestial objects. It was a quiet life, one he loved, and one that he had been living for seven years.

But one day, the unexpected happened.

He met Taehyung.