4 months after the crash, planet Earth. 

"Yo Key! Key! Key!! YAH KIM KIBUM IF YOU DON'T-" the door flew open, revealing a disheveled and very pissed off Kibum. 
"Frog." Kibum growled. The taller boy gulped, taking a hesitant step back. "I told you not to call me Kibum anymore."
"Sorry Key." He replied sheepishly. 
Kibum sighed and ran a hand through his tangled black hair. "What was it you wanted Minho?"
"Oh! Umm, I just, I thought, maybe you wanted to go out and play foot-"
"No." Kibum dead panned, slamming his dorm door in his friend's face. 
With a sigh, Kibum sat back down at his desk, fingers settling onto the keyboard once more. Scattered across the desk were empty water bottles and ramen cups. On one side of the monitor piles of files were stacked a foot high each, stuffed with papers that only Kibum knew about. 
It had been four months since the super computer malfunctioned and left Jinki and Jonghyun stranded. Since then, Kibum had switched schools, changed his name, and been told to get a fresh start by at least 20 different adult figures. 
"It's a tragedy they decided to run away." The news said. 
"They were so bright and had such a hopeful future." Their teachers said. 
"We understand this is traumatizing, but you need to move on Kibum." His parents said.
No one understood. No one understood that Kibum wouldn't, no, couldn't move on until he solved the problem and brought them back. 
It was his fault they were gone. 
He was the one who found the supercomputer. He was the one who convinced them to enter it. He was the one who opened the damned bugged file that threw their lives into chaos.
It was all his fault. 
He felt like a murderer, the blood still staining his hands. It sickened him to know that was possibly the truth. After all, he hadn't a clue what happened to the two after the system error. For all he knew, they were dead. Their bodies intact, but their beings, their souls, trapped inside a broken down machine. Forever.
Kibum couldn't stand the thought. 
So he was determined. He was determined to find out who created Aerok. He was postitive, if only he could find the creator, he could fix everything. He refused to let his mind stray to the possibility that the creator was dead, or missing, or worst of all, didn't know how to fix it either. He had to hold on to the hope that this was the solution. 
Hope was all he had left. He couldn't lose that as well. 
His fingers flew across the keyboard on autopilot, searching for anything that might connect to the supercomputer. So far he'd had no luck, but honestly he couldn't really be surprised. 
Not for the first time, Kibum wondered if what he was doing was pointless. He didn't even know where to start looking. He didn't know when it was created, by who, or what the computer was even made of. The power source itself was something highly unattainable outside of military grade weaponries. For all he knew he had stumbled across a former government project. What were his chances he would actually access information in relation to this-
 

Man claims son is trapped in imaginary world

Kibum's hand stilled, cursor hovering over the article title. 
It was probably nothing. Just some dumb tabloid looking for a story and some quick cash. But even so... The what if played at his mind, teasing him. 
It seemed too easy though. After all this time, to find what he's been searching for in some third-rate magazine? If the story was even true in the first place, what was the likelihood it was actually connected to what he was searching for? 
Have hope. Chance it. What's the worst that could happen, another dead end? Kibum thought to himself.
He clicked the link. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six months after the crash, Aerok 

The first thing they noticed was the boy’s clothes. They were ragged and torn, one sleeve hanging by a thread. Jinki's heart picked up its pace as his eyes wandered over the boy's pale, dirty face,, matted black hair, wide chocolate colored eyes, and skinny frame. 
Even looking like he's been through a war he's cute, Jinki couldn't help but thinking, immediately chastising himself for thinking of anything but the boy's health at that moment. 
Jonghyun's grip remained tight on his weapon, eyeing the scrawny boy with clear suspicion. Jinki on the other hand dropped his weapon and stepped towards the boy, hands up to show he meant no harm. The injured boy scampered backwards, a yelp of fear escaping him.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you." Jinki said softly, though he attempted no further advances. 
The boy stared at him, unmoving. 
“What’s your name?” Jinki asked gently. The boy was silent for a moment, as if struggling to speak. 
“I am Tae-” The boy paused, mouth hung open. “Tae-” He tried again, frowning when he stopped after the first syllable. He blinked rapidly, looking like a confused deer. Jinki thought he looked absolutely adorable. “I... I can’t remember.  The rest of my name... I don’t know.” He whimpered, shaking slightly. 
Jinki felt his heart go out to the boy.  He ran forward, ignoring Jonghyun's protests, and wrapped his arms around Tae, whispering calming words in his ear.
"Shh, it's okay Tae. You don't have to remember right now. Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"
Tae nodded, letting Jinki lead him back to the camp. Jinki helped him sit down on a stump and knelt down in front of him. Taking the edge of Tae's hanbok in his hand, he gently peeled it away from the boy's bloody shoulder. Tae winced, biting his lip in pain. As Jinki pulled the top down more, Tae blushed and looked away, hands fluttering in front of his chest as if attempting to hide himself behind them.
It wasn't as bad as it looked, Jinki quickly realized. There was quite a bit of blood, but most of it seemed to stem from a single cut on his forehead, and another on his shoulder. The other scratches and bruises likely came from branches and nettles Tae had no doubt crawled through to get to their camp. 
The shoulder cut was a bit deep, and tinged an odd florescent purple at the edges. He must have been attacked by something, though Jinki couldn't remember what left that type of mark. 
Taking a wet rag, Jinki dabbed at the wound, trying to clean off as much blood and dirt as possible. Tae watched him work in silence. Back on earth, Jinki's parents were both employed in the medical field, his father an EMT and mother the head of the ER. He thanked them now for teaching him how to care for the sick and injured as he began cleaning up Tae's wounds.
Jinki pulled some gauze from their first aid kit, and began wrapping it around the cleaned but still bloody shoulder wound. Red stained through the gauze and, not for the first time, Jinki questioned if they were really in a computer program. Everything seemed far too realistic to be made up of simple pixels. 
"Jonghyun, will you throw another fish on the fire? I'm sure Tae is hungry." 
Jonghyun grumbled something neither could hear, but did as he was told, pulling a fish from their ice chest and skewered it on a stick. He removed the two other fish and replaced them with the raw one. After he did so, he took a seat beside Jinki, and handed the elder one of the two fish while taking a vicious bite out of his own. He frowned and sighed angrily when Jinki held out his piece to Tae as an offering. 
The boy took it, sniffing it slightly before taking an experimental bite. He hummed in happiness and continued to eat, looking a bit like a starving animal as he did. Jinki questioned when the last time the boy ate was. He was skinny, very skinny, the bones of his wrists pushing against his skin. It took a long time to starve in Aerok. Jinki wondered just how long the boy had been living here.
Once finished with his food, Jonghyun turned and faced Tae with a hostile expression, leaning forward slightly. Tae shifted back, tensing, eyes flashing with fear. 
“Where did you come from?” Tae visibly relaxed at the question, feeling less in danger as long as Jonghyun was only talking.
“That way.” Tae said, pointing towards the digital sea. 
“Is there a town over there?” Jonghyun asked.
“No, not town. There.” Again, Tae pointed to the sea.
The two looked at each other.
“Tae are you... are you saying that you came from the sea?” 
Tae nodded happily. “Over there!” He chirped. 
It wasn’t possible. The digital sea was where all things went to die. There was no way someone could have survived it. No way someone lived in it. 
"That's impossible." Jonghyun said, voice full of disbelief. Tae frowned, not understanding.
"I..."
"How did you get here?" Jonghyun questioned loudly. "Who are you? What are you?"
"I'm Tae." Tae repeated, blinking in confusion.
"People don't just come wandering though the woods. What are you? You aren't an AI." 
Jinki could feel Tae beginning to shake again, cowering into his side.
"Jonghyun." Jinki's voice was soft but stern. "That's enough."
"But hyung-" Jonghyun protested. Jinki cut him off with a hard look. 
"I'm sure Tae must be exhausted after everything he's been through. Let him get some sleep, and save your interrogation for the morning."
Jinki helped Tae up gently, pulling the boy's uninjured arm over his shoulders and wrapping his own arm around Tae's waist. 
"Where are we going?" Tae asked nervously, pulling back slightly.
Jinki smiled reassuringly. "It's okay, we're just going into the house over here."
Jonghyun watched them turn their backs and head in the direction of Jinki's home, hands clenched tightly and eyes steely. Shaking his head angrily, he stormed into his own home, slamming the door shut behind him. 
Jinki flinched a bit at the sound, hating that he'd angered Jonghyun. He just couldn't understand why Jonghyun was so angry about the boy's appearance. With a backwards glance and a small sigh, he made up his mind to talk to the younger. Feeling the weight of Tae against him, he added a small 'tomorrow' to the end of his thought.
Inside, Jinki helped Tae out of his torn clothes and into a clean undershirt and pants.
"I'll go into town soon to buy you a new hanbok, so for now just borrow my clothes, okay?"
Tae nodded, a small smile on his face. "Thank you hyung." He said. Jinki couldn't help but smile at his words. 
"Come on, let me help you into bed." Without further warning, Jinki swooped Tae up so he was being held like a princess, and carried him over to the bed. 
"Hyung- what- ah- let me down!" He squeaked out, face bright red. Jinki laughed at laid him on the bed. 
"Sorry, I couldn't resist." He smiled sheepishly. Really, he hadn't known what came over him, it had just seemed like a good idea in the moment. Now, however, he realized how strange that must have been for the younger. Clearing his throat awkwardly, Jinki gestured to the bed. 
"You can sleep in my bed, I'll take the floor-" a bony hand on Jinki's wrist stopped him, and he turned to look back at Tae.
"What is it?" 
"Don't go." Tae whispered desperatley, eyes shining with something Jinki couldn't quite pin-point. "We can share."
Jinki paused, unsure. He'd only known Tae for a few hours, he couldn't possibly trust him yet, could he? But looking into those deep brown eyes, Jinki knew it was no use trying to refuse.
Tae was frightened and confused, it only made sense that Jinki would comfort him for the night, the elder tried convincing himself. Besides, what harm could it really do? Tae was weak and injured, he didn't have the strength to take on Jinki even if tried. 
In the end, he conceded, slipping out of his hanbok and laying down beside the younger. 
Almost immedietly after, Tae curled  up against Jinki's side, hands taking firm hold of Jinki's undershirt. Jinki stiffened, both in surprise from the act of intimacy and because Tae's body was cold as a block of ice.
"T-Tae." Jinki gasped. 
"So warm." The boy muttered, eyes still tightly closed. "So warm." 
Jinki willed himself to relax a bit, and for his heart to stop beating so quickly. After a few minutes, Tae's breathing evened out, his hands loosening their hold. Jinki pulled back slightly, eyes roaming over the boy's features.
 In the moonlight, he looked absolutely gorgeous, lips slightly parted and hair fanned out across the pillow. Gently he pushed some of the hair off of Tae's face, revealing more of his pale skin and delicate features. Jinki's heart thumped unevenly, and with a frown, he placed his hand on his chest.
"Aish, my heart, what are you doing?" He whispered into the night. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kibum's eyes widened as he scanned the page, his right hand gripping the mouse tightly while he bit the nails on his left nervously. 
For the first time in months, he felt something other than the crushing depression weighing down on him. Hope, true hope, not the false emotion he'd been playing at all these months to force himself to not give up. 
Kibum swallowed hard, nervous but determined. This was it, he thought. This was his chance.
"Professor Lee." Kibum mumbled under his breath. "I think it's time I pay you a visit."