Minseok was sure he had lost his mind by now. He had skipped every class in his University because he wasn’t even making a step towards the building itself. He had not attended a single meeting nor had he gone by his father’s company in the late afternoon, let alone do any of the asked projects. He had also cut himself from the outside world because he didn’t want to buy a new cell phone and the SIM card which was in his jacket’s pocket was still tucked in there.

And above all, Minseok didn’t as much as thought that what he did was wrong. Because, plainly, to him, it was not.

He knew that staying with Luhan was the right thing to do when the other had asked him—more correctly, begged—for him to stay by his side and ignore everything and everyone. And that’s exactly what Minseok did and he couldn’t even bear any emotion of regret in him as he lay in between strong arms which held on him so tightly.

Yesterday they had both returned to Minseok’s apartment to get cleaned off and Luhan had also insisted that he could not stay there anymore, repeating a couple times how he had lived there for too long already. When Minseok had asked him why, Luhan’s answer was more surprising and shocking that he would have thought.

“I have left too much of my scent in here. If they track it, you’ll get in trouble.”

In all honesty, Minseok was a bit freaked out and he still was. But no matter what, he couldn’t let the other off on his own, knowing that he would be suffering in silence with everything that had happened just a couple hours before. So, Minseok managed to somehow convince him that booking a motel room was a very good idea.

They couldn’t go for the expensive motels in case Minseok’s father decided to search for him and they ended up in a rundown love motel, sleeping on a –hopefully—clean bed; Luhan had inspected it and had ensured that he didn’t smell anything suspicious on the sheets. With only a backpack packed with a change of clothes, Minseok and Luhan were off. On their way here they had stopped by the bank to withdraw money and pick up something to eat as a very late midnight snack.

And everything had slowly turned to the present where they were sprawled on the bed with an old American movie playing on the old TV screen hanging on the wall. To Luhan, it was pretty amusing since he wasn’t of the generation to witness the TV programs slowly become of color and he was actually watching the movie. On the other hand, Minseok had found himself busy with his laptop, which he couldn’t leave behind as much as he wanted.

He wasn’t doing much; he was just looking through articles of news like he would usually do until he stopped at a rather interesting one.

‘A small girl discovers huge strange hole’

Guiding the arrow with his hand on the touch pad, he clicked on the article’s tittle and was brought to a new page. His eyes moved at the image attached; a middle aged man standing by a huge deep hole in the thick, hard-looking soil. It was by far too big compared to him and the scenery seemed to be of the ends of some forest.

‘The unexplainable hole was discovered by a young girl when she wandered away from her family while they were camping…

…no whatsoever explanation is given about the cause of this strange hole…

…scientists support that it had been a meteor the satellites failed to record whist people insist it had been some alien force…’

Minseok’s eyes looked up at Luhan, the alien sitting cross-legged with his back straight, his head a little tilted up as he stared at the movie playing. Mixed thoughts rushed in his mind, his brain recalling Luhan’s words about how he had ended up on Earth and how long ago it had already been.

3 years.

He really wondered where Luhan had actually landed if it took humans to find the proof 3 whole years—he only shook his head at their slowness. If it was some other kind of alien force, they could have been already controlling the Earth through that time span.

“Luhan…” Minseok called from where he was lying on his belly, his laptop placed just in front of him, his arms propped and his fingers sprawled across the keyboard. When Luhan glanced at him with full attention, he pointed at the laptop screen.

The blonde leaned a little closer, reading quickly the article with a blank stare.

“Was that yours?”

“Huh?” Luhan glanced at him as if in a trance and then a small smile etched his lips. “Yeah…”

Minseok looked back at the image, shaking his head in disbelief. “That looks like it hurt.”

“Oh, it did.” Luhan nodded, his lips pursed in a line. “I remember I had spent two days there without moving until my bones were back in their places.”

Minseok grimaced at the image, looking back at Luhan with sad eyes. “That should have hurt too much.”

Luhan shrugged and returned to staring at the movie as if the topic was not something that surprising or shocking or strange in any way. The brunette couldn’t even believe how he plainly brushed it off and resumed watching TV as if he had just asked him what they should eat—and maybe then, Luhan would still spend more time talking about it than this.

It kind of ticked him off the way Luhan didn’t seem to care about the matter at all. Minseok could only guess how bad he must have been hurt to having spent two days recovering. Who knows in what kind of pain Luhan must have suffered all alone, somewhere not even he knew.

He wanted to scold the other for taking it so lightly but he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he stood up and walked off. He could feel the other’s curious eyes on him but he ignored it, heading for the bathroom and starting the water in the sink. He grabbed his toothbrush and decided to just brush his teeth—his pet-peeves would show up whenever. But this time, he also wanted to busy himself with something that would somehow put his mind at ease.

Rinsing his mouth, he placed the toothbrush and toothpaste back in their places, his hands wetting his face a little before he wiped it with the white towel. He slowly made his way back into the main room, his eyes accidently locking with Luhan’s curious stare.

“Are you going to sleep?” He asked softly and Minseok shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t have a lot to do and I am bored of the internet.” He replied simply while he shut the laptop’s screen and put it away on the bedside table.

“How can you get bored of so much information?”

Sighing, Minseok shrugged nonchalantly again. “You get bored of it after a while.”

“You humans don’t know what it is to appreciate what you have.” Luhan hissed and Minseok sent a glare at him.

“And you aliens have no self-respect whatsoever.”

Luhan stared back before his lips made a small ‘o’ shape. “Oh… So that’s what you’re so worked up about…”

Minseok didn’t bother to respond, letting the other think it through on his own. Instead, he lay in the bed, pulling the covers to his neck and turning his back at the blonde. He couldn’t hear anything for a couple moments and he secretly longed for the other to say something. But he didn’t want to make a try himself. He knew that he had every right to be at least a little irritated with the way the other was not taking care of himself.

If anything, Luhan looked more of a masochist; not afraid to be hurt and actually taking the pain too lightly. And that alone made Minseok annoyed. Luhan didn’t deserve to be hurt in any way and it was not embarrassing to show you have been hurt either. He couldn’t understand Luhan’s point of view at all, however he tried to look at it. He could understand a lot of things; just this was one of those he was unable to.

The old bed creaked and Minseok’s ears perked up, feeling the weight change on the mattress until he could see the blonde head peeking from over his shoulder from the corner of his eye. Turning his head away stubbornly, he refused to look at him.

“Hyung…” Minseok’s teeth gritted, regretting giving the other the permission to use it on him. “Hyung.” He remained unmoved. “Kim Minseok.”

At the change of tone, Minseok couldn’t but look at him with wide eyes. Luhan was staring at him with worry and he could feel a little regret for acting like this—still just a little. “What?”

“Don’t turn your back on me. I told you I want you by my side.” Luhan said almost innocently and Minseok’s brain started an inside war with his heart, the latter winning almost too quickly. The younger looked too adorable with his eyes widened and his eyebrows forming a pleading frown. When Minseok turned to lie on his back, Luhan’s face showed all kinds of glee.

“It’s just that you should not take your pain so lightly, Luhan.” Minseok mumbled lowly, looking up at the other.

“I’m sorry.” The apology came too easily from Luhan’s lips and before the brunette could even wonder if the other actually meant it, he was caught in a soft kiss.

His heart started beating fast and when he parted their lips, he was sure he wore a blush. “We should get some sleep.”

Luhan shook his head as he moved his hand to point with his thump over his shoulder. “It’s still day.”

Minseok pursed his lips, knowing that it was still, pretty much the middle of the day. However, he didn’t really want to just sit around and be lazy. At least, if he had to, he would catch up on some sleep. “So what? You kept me awake all night yesterday.” He hissed and Luhan grinned almost too widely for his liking. The blonde leaned closer to him and Minseok glared.

“That is not an invitation.” Although he took the whole matter far too calmer than what he had first expected, he still hoped that it would be a little longer before he lived through all that. Sure, it had been nice, but he didn’t want to spend half hour in the shower either. Let alone sleep in dirty sheets.

Luhan pouted as he stared at him but Minseok did not buy it at all. “Fine, what can I do to keep you awake?”

This time, it was Minseok who showed a very wide grin on his face—a mischievous one, at that.

“I know exactly what.”

Minseok had never babysat before in his life, he always held children and bugs under one category in his mind through his 23 years of being alive. He never liked how they had so much energy and seemed to never stop prancing around the place, seemingly to never get tired. He never liked their small attention span either, he always despised whoever did not listen to him when he talked to them. And he never liked how noisy they were at all, as if they owned the place and screamed from the bottom of their tiny soul.

If his family had to have an heir at some point, he would have preferred it to be long into the future because he did not have the patience to keep an eye on a noisy little bug on two legs that run around him and the whole place.

Weirdly enough, he did not show even a frown when Luhan was just that; a young child.

He wasn’t sure how the other had changed from a hesitant young man who had to think thorough whether it would be wise of him to go to a public place into a young boy trapped in an elder’s body. Minseok’s eyes followed the alien who, although had agreed to follow him to the mall, he still had the hood over his head, ran around from one store to the other, looking at all the products offered.

In all actuality, Minseok might have even found it cute how the younger boy acted so carelessly in the crowds, loudly calling for him whenever he saw something interesting enough to show him—which was more frequently than he would have liked.

“We came to buy you clothes, not stare at fish.” Minseok noted when Luhan was staring closely at a big tank filled with some kind of fish the elder had no idea of—not that the blonde knew.

Luhan pouted at him slightly and then nodded, grabbing Minseok’s hand like a little child would do. It brought a light blush to Minseok’s cheeks, feeling a little awkward to holding hands with someone in a public place, a male nonetheless. “Let’s go!” Luhan exclaimed with a grin, pointing ahead of them as if he was ordering an army to battle. He tugged the elder along, who only shook his head at him with a heart-felt laugh.

Keeping the alien still and make him try on some clothes was a torture for Minseok after the blonde’s patience had popped. It required much convincing and forceful pushing into the changing room for