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Six million years ago, man roamed the face of the earth in its earliest form of tree dwelling apes. The first primitive primate, the root ancestor of the species later branched out to apes, Chimps and human lineages. Human evolution is the process of human beings adapting the natural changes over a long period of time as a group of a single species. The evolution, in simple definition refers to the changes that occur in a population of a species over time. These changes always occur in a genetic level whereby the changes within the species are passed from generation to generation; changes which don’t necessarily occur over a short period of time but through progression of thousands and millions of years. These adaptations occur when genes would mutate in different ways during the process of reproduction in such a way that they will later support the organisms in their survival. In Darwin’s theory of evolution, what is acclaimed as the survival of the fittest where the strongest and most appropriate adaptations will be able to survive and battle against the adaptations of other species, later making way for distinct changes within them. For an example, human; the most intelligent animal on earth, with an average brain capacity of 1500-1700 cubic centimetres and bipedal locomotion, adapted to their environment through a long process of evolution, going back six million years in time. From Australopithecines, the primary level of humans who first extricated themselves from their generic tree dwelling habitat to finally move on ground, to Homo Erectus, the first man to assume an erect posture, to Homo Habilis the first man to produce their own weapons for hunting and then finally Homo Sapiens or the modern human being. Human evolution, nonetheless, is a continuous process which even now, hasn’t quite really ended but still continues over time. In millions of years of time, the human being will be distinctly different from the human being now. Their intelligence, their bodily structure and adaptations will be different. This will continue so forth.

As it happens, however; Sung Gyu, at that time is convinced that no matter how much the human brain had evolved over time, making them the most intelligent creatures to roam the planet earth; they’re still increasingly stupid and that seems to be a constant with no prospects of a change. At least, in his case, it doesn’t.

Kim Sung gyu is in deep trouble. Ever since he made negotiations with a potentially deadly alien being, things haven’t exactly been so good for him. Sung Gyu might have impulsively thought it’s a great idea at that time. He simply hasn’t thought, he simply hasn’t realized that making a deal with an alien intruder does indeed come with a price.

The price in his case is that the alien – Woohyun – has now made his threat even worse, now that he’s already agreed to follow his orders, making it a point that Sung Gyu indeed has no way to escape.

It’s been two days since Woohyun appeared in the back beach of their once peaceful home. The said once peaceful home at the moment is pandemonium. There’s always a havoc on the run at every corner of the house, which, Sung Gyu assumes are his ways of threatening Sung Gyu even further until he’s finally give in. As of now he has replaced the bathroom shower two times, has to have a running shower with a gaping hole on the stall’s sliding door (Woohyun definitely has a personal dispute with plastic panelled doors as it seems to Sung Gyu), has bought about twice a dozen of various types of milk in various different flavours, has spent half his fortune (not quite so) on purchasing ordinary clothes and items for Woohyun and had postponed his work on his latest findings indefinitely at the expense of losing his research assistant for good. (Howon had a mug of piping hot coffee poured all over himself by Sung Gyu because the alien happened to suddenly appear from thin air at that time, which apparently is his easiest method of camouflage. But who the knows?) The only one who is having a gist out of it (except for Woohyun, of course) is his wife Eunji, who treats the alien with so much of affection and care as if she’s raising a pet puppy, and Sung Gyu’s always found this exceedingly disturbing, especially the fact that Eunji is the only person who manages to tame the alien from his impulsive nature; as would a mother.

At that point of time, Sung gyu is in his Primate museum, going through some of his old reports to prepare for a lecture which he inevitably has to conduct through an online platform since, because of his big mouth, he can no longer leave his house unless he wants to come back and find it flattened to the ground. The only way that Sung Gyu has managed to tame Woohyun is by showing him bits and pieces of his primate collection. It’s his first time bringing an outsider to his little museum, and it gives him a great sense of pride when he catches the delightfully fascinated look in Woohyun’s eyes. They were wide and glimmering as he takes in every detail of a stuffed Lemur placed in a glass container or a chimp skeleton hung on hinges. He asks question after question; clarifies his doubts on the humonictionary, and it’s a delight for Sung Gyu to once have a student who is completely unaware and doesn’t have pointed questions to ask in return.

“What is the purpose of this pointed object on this human’s rear?” He’s asked at one point, while examining Yeong-Yeong the skeleton which is kept on the side of Sung Gyu’s study table. He answers without even looking up; “It’s the coccyx bone, also known as the vestigial tail. It’s an organ which will disappear as evolution progresses”

He’s taken two hours from his busy schedule and taught Woohyun the entire process of human origin and evolution, which he’s listened to rather diligently and quite possible engraved into his mind; thus afterwards, anything he asks and says come with an impressive knowledge on human beings.

“Because humans don’t live in trees anymore” Woohyun clarifies.

“Exactly” Sung Gyu nods. And silence.

“Why do you study about this non-human species, Hyung?”

In response to this question, Sung Gyu finally extricates himself from his research reports in contemplation. In fact, it is something he had wondered himself a myriad number of times. What is his fascination with primates? Why Primates of all the beings? The answer to the question, however, has almost always been the same. “Because I like it” He smiles.

But Woohyun blinks in response. “Why is it important, I mean”

“Oh” Sung Gyu slaps himself on the forehead. Of course, that’s what he’s wanting to know, because ever since he arrived, Woohyun has hardly ever paid a personal interest on Sung Gyu, not as much as he had on Eunji (He asks her questions outside of ‘humans’ like “Have you had a good hibernation?” Sung Gyu is annoyed, to say the least, since his interest on his wife is quite over the line) “Well, primates are the beings who are directly connected to…”

 

During their two days of constant communication, Sung Gyu’s managed to gather a few more generic details about extra-terrestrials. Woohyun doesn’t sleep. He hibernates. The reason for this is that the planet of his origin, Terrania, is so small so much so that the days are so short for one to count by hours, minutes or second. Woohyun demonstrated this to Sung Gyu by taking his hand, examining his wrist watch and saying every ten seconds; “A day just passed, another day just passed, also another…” As it happened, a Terranian day is as short as ten seconds in human time, so in their time, a being sleeps for over months, years and centuries while in human days his sleep/hibernation lasts for only like six to seven hours. Woohyun is a very soundly sleeper; perhaps because the amount of sleep as an Envoy, he gets is minimal; and he can fal asleep just about anywhere. When he hibernates, however, he becomes invisible or camouflages into a nearby object in case of possible threats and attacks. So they had a to face quite a few troubles in locating him during the time of his sleep, with Sung Gyu wishing more than once that the alien has quite possibly disappeared.

Sung Gyu’s also learned that for the same reason, the Terranians have no age, the concept of time is none existent, and what matters to them mostly is the lifetime of each being. Therefore, Terranians sadly have no birthdays. This came up when Eunji suggested Woohyun stops calling them male human and female human but by honorifics. Yet they couldn’t really figure out his age since he didn’t know it himself. All he knew was that his lifetime still hasn’t ended. So in the end Eunji opted to making him address Sung Gyu as ‘Hyung’ and Eunji as ‘Noona’, but Sung Gyu had to intervene, pointing out that Eunji is visibly younger so they just stuck to ‘Eunji-Ssi’, which Woohyun diligently followed since then. What Sung Gyu cannot exactly assimilate from Woohyun, is their reproductive behaviour. He did answer his question, but it was merely a vague “One becomes two becomes one becomes three” Which Sung Gyu isn’t quite sure if it makes much sense.

Later that day, Sung Gyu finally completes his lecture over Skype while Woohyun is busy looking through Humonictionary; a few things he’s learnt during his time in the museum and they both go up to the kitchen to, as Woohyun says, consume something, only to find Eunji having returned home earlier than usual. Despite being held hostage by the alien, Eunji still has to complete her shifts at the hospital, and as always, Woohyun, being particularly lose on Eunji, claimed earlier on that Eunji doesn’t have to remain hostage but Sung Gyu, since he’s the one who made the deal. Eunji usually does the night shift, but ever since one of her fellow doctors got a transfer, she has to fill in for him, thus her shift changing to mornings which is a delight to both Sung Gyu and her. Eunji is still in her work clothes, hair slightly tousled in the heavy early autumn wind, wondering aloud as she looks through the content of the fridge. Sung Gyu sees her bottom sticking out, her skirt drawn up slightly, revealing her pale, long legs, and he quickly moves towards her before Woohyun can catch a glimpse of them. Alien or not, in Sung Gyu’s mind, Woohyun is still a man.

“Oh!” Eunji looks up at him with gleaming eyes, and Sung Gyu notices that her cheeks are slightly pink. She looks beautiful, she always does; and he feels something slowly stirring inside him. Sung Gyu’s been away from home for two weeks, and the day he finally returned, Eunji took off in a mad frenzy. Since the day she came back to him, they’ve been in the constant watch of a curious alien, so that gave them no chance to be intimate, and Sung Gyu’s had enough. He glances at Woohyun who is busy trying to drink from a carton of milk (He’s recently learned how straws work, which he’s most carelessly said is similar to his pores, and Sung Gyu didn’t broach the subject ever again) and back at Eunji before he leans closer and encloses her lips in a deep, passionate kiss.

“Mmpf! Stop!” Eunji fights against him, although by nature she’s evidently giving in. Sung Gyu smiles and kisses away the frown on her eyes. “Woohyun is here!” Eunji chides in a sharp whisper, and Sung Gyu pouts in response. “But I miss you” he says, dips down and tries to place a chaste kiss on her neck. She smells like cherry blossoms and spring with a slight hint of hospitals and surgical spirit, but still it manages to intoxicate him and he’s demanding for more, at which point Eunji pushes him away by his shoulders, and Sung Gyu, without protesting, follows. He strides off from her, bearing in mind that they can no longer get touchy and feely in just about any corner in their house because of a certain alien. It’s annoying. It’s almost as if they have adopted a nosy kid.

“Oh hello, Woohyunnie!” Eunji makes her way across the kitchen and perches herself on the chair next to the one Woohyun is seated in, on his straw with wide eyes as if he’s doing something evidently dangerous. “How was your day today?”

Woohyun nods slightly and finishes his drink in one go before responding to Eunji’s question. “I have spent time with Hyung and his primates. I have learned quite so much about these creatures. But I’m afraid I must go to the leader soon”

Eunji pouts and fingers the folds of her skirt as Sung Gyu heads to the table with a can of beer in hand. “Shouldn’t you fix your ship first?” He asks him, and Woohyun shakes his head. “It’s dangerous since the ship cannot camouflage. It might draw attention from other humans”

“Oh” Eunji bites her lip and looks at her husband. They’ve had this discussion before, the two of them, about what they’re going to do with the alien in their house. They definitely can’t home him for too long. Woohyun is dangerous. He has a spaceship and a weapon and inhuman powers. They can’t risk him being found out or even worse, him doing something reckless and irreversible, mostly because, being an alien, he has a bad temper and his own tendencies. On the other hand, there is no way in the world that they can take him to the leader; simply because they don’t really have one. The one whose is remotely close to a leader for them is the president, who is again not so much since they have a multi-party system, even with him as the head of state. Sung Gyu has wondered if he should divulge in Woohyun the rather complicated political system in human world, but then he figured it’s not going to be of use, still, because there’s a big chance that Woohyun would still want to meet the leader, no matter what the case is. There is no stopping him. So, for now he’s resorted to asking him conversational questions just so that he’d be distracted, eventually dropping the subject.

“What is it that you want to tell the leader?” Sung Gyu asks after a sip of beer. “You know, there are other ways we can contact him”

Eunji nods in agreement. “We can always send him an email” She says.

“Or a letter” Sung Gyu adds, but Woohyun looks unconvinced, looking back and forth at the two of them, not really understanding the concept of emails or letters. He shakes his head. “No, I must meet the leader myself. It is no simple matter that can be communicated in other manner”

Sung Gyu frowns and the two of them exchange a look of concern. Sung Gyu is this close to snapping at him, asking Woohyun to leave them alone and get someone else to bother, but he always holds in for the safety of their house and lives. Eunji is a lot better at handling the situation, though. She’s always been like that in cases like this, calm and composed. It’s usually the other way around in many other cases; but as it happens, what Sung Gyu really can’t stomach, Eunji herself can; making them a pair who perfectly complement each other’s quirks.

“Of course, Woohyunnie, I understand that this problem is of utmost importance” Eunji exaggerates her concern that he near snorts in reaction; but he holds himself back by maintaining a straight face. “And as two people representing the human kind, we’re here to help you with achieving that target”

Sung Gyu nods at Eunji and then at Woohyun who is watching his wife with greatest interest.

“But it requires a certain amount of planning and preparation since the human leader isn’t exactly someone you can reach so easily” Eunji carries on.

“True” Sung Gyu adds, playing along, his face stiff with all seriousness that he’s certain it will go numb if he stifles his laughter for far too long. “You need to go through a barricade of a vicious army” He says, recalling the guards patrolling the blue house at all times.

“There are hundreds of them, thousands of them, Woohyunnie. The three of us can’t possibly fight them all off on our own!” Eunji adds dramatically upon seeing Woohyun’s reaction of childlike curiosity, widening his eyes and paying them his complete attention. For some reason, Sung Gyu feels quite warm in his heart, watching him. Especially how he reacts to Eunji who always speaks to him with such a tender voice, almost as if he’s a child. In a normal situation, Sung Gyu should feel jealous of him, feel vary of Woohyun’s behaviour, get mad at them. But in this case Sung Gyu knows it that whatever Woohyun feels towards Eunji is the fondness someone would feel towards a person who treats them with the warmth of a mother. If anything, what Sung Gyu feels is that Eunji has been longing to behave this way for a child for a long, long time.

“But I come in peace” Woohyun adds, looking a bit troubled. “I do not have to fight a battle if I bring goodwill, do I?”

“Of course, you do” Eunji smiles at him warmly. “You bring peace, Woohyun. But the leader is a very private person and he makes it a rule to be difficult to reach. That’s because there are so many people in this country so if many of us try to reach him, it will be problematic”

“Oh” Woohyun says, his silver eyes looking downwards, genuinely crestfallen. He looks so much like a puppy denied of cuddles that Sung Gyu nearly pats his head; but then, Eunji beats it to him by softly Woohyun’s dark mop of hair. “So you see? We will have to be patient for a little longer, okay? Hyung and I promise to try our best to take you to the leader as soon as we are ready, hm?”

The way Woohyun looks up at her reminds him of a child looking at a mother who’s treated him with incessant warmth and love. And that’s probably the case too, because she does treat him with so much of care that it seems to give away some sort of a motherly vibe to Woohyun who is clueless and lost in a big, unfamiliar world. When Eunji smiles then, the world falls away. For Sung Gyu, of course. Woohyun, in return, smiles at the other. And Sung Gyu is, for a moment, stunned.

The alien can actually smile.

It’s something that he’s figured a while ago, that the alien is capable of showing emotion in the form of facial expressions in addition to the movements of the specs of silver in his eyes when he’s in his human form, but he must have assumed it’s too much of a hassle, that he does show his emotions on his face only when its Eunji that he has to. Sung Gyu has mixed emotions about this though. He’s not sure what makes him so different and hateful to Woohyun while he’s so nice to Eunji all day long.

“Aigoo! aren’t you sleepy?” Eunji’s bubbly voice rips through his inner thoughts and Sung Gyu finds Woohyun making broken static sounds and transforming back and forth from his alien form to human form, sort of like bad signals of a television channel; which is what he usually does when his batteries are dying, if he has any. Then Woohyun’s head falls on the table, and he groans. “I must hibernate”

Eunji laughs in response. “Of course, Woohyunnie. Why don’t you go to your room and hibernate comfortably on your bed?”

Eunji treats the alien so well that she has even prepared the guest room of their home as a little haven for the alien to recoil in when he’s tired and needs a sleep.

Woohyun climbs up on his feet, his silver eyes drooping, and gives both of them a small greeting which doesn’t sound very human but so much as a dying hyena and trod out the kitchen and up the stairs to his room to sleep. And it’s a good thing, because Woohyun hardly ever wakes up from his nap, not even Sung Gyu plays a base drum right next to his bed.

Once Woohyun has returned to the comfort of his bed, Eunji and Sung Gyu remain in the kitchen, the quietness surrounding them so loud that they can hear the waves rolling on the white sand outside. Its that time of the day again, when the hazy twilight seeps in through the glass panels, drowning the entire house in an auburn splendour. Eunji, sitting against the golden sun is beautiful in his eyes. She is an incredibly remarkable woman. Seven years ago, when he first met her in the large, dull laboratory with human skeletons and carcasses surrounding them, he was able to see right through her, right through the high walls she built around her; that perpetually cold demeanour and her ability to shut out the people and the entire world around her, remaining solely in her comfort zone, Sung Gyu saw it all. He loves every bit about her. Every imperfection and flaw. Despite everything, for him she’s beautiful, ferocious; she has a drive and consistency that he has seen in no other woman before. Nevertheless, she melts and softens under his love. She becomes a completely different person; and that’s what he loves the most about her; because only he had the ability to bring the best out of her even in the worst of times.

“What are you looking at?” Eunji asks him then, her soft voice ripping through the silence of the house. The sun coming from the glass panels before her are reflected in her eyes, making them glimmer like morning stars and Sung Gyu, as always, is mesmerized.

“You” He says and smiles. She blushes, even if she rolls her eyes and looks away, pretending to be irate by him. He knows it isn’t really the case. Eunji loves being constantly told and assured that she’s the person that Sung Gyu loves the most. He loves her quirks; the strange but subtle little details of her which not all can see since not all she would show them too. Sung Gyu loves how she hums on her own, lost in her own little world. He loves how she laughs at even the smallest thing which tickles her laughing buds, how she stands in the beach with the white sun on her skin, watching as her feet sink in. He loves how she loses herself completely when she’s happy, sad or deeply disturbed. He loves how she’s always able to make him weaker with just a simplest touch or a smile. Above all, he loves how she loves. He loves how she delivers her love to the entire world.

“What about me?” she asks him, pressing her hand against her cheek and watching him with great interest.

“How much I miss you, how much I love you…things like that” He smiles.

“That doesn’t really answer my question” Eunji frowns, and Sung Gyu climbs up on his feet, making his way around the kitchen towards her. “Yea? Then what does?”

“I don’t know” Eunji says as she stands up herself. She puts her arms around his neck, pulling him closer against her, and Sung Gyu breathes in that sweetest scent of her that he loves. It makes his head feel lighter, and he’s vaguely aware of their surrounding; the sunset, the kitchen confines, the waves lingering and rolling against the sand outside. Vaguely so, because the rest of his attention is now on the tenderness of the lips he’s about to claim. “Why don’t you tell me?”

He smiles in return before closing the hair-thread of a gap between them. Her lips are tender, warm and tastes of an intoxicating mixture of coffee and booze. He kisses her deep and long, his hand behind her head, fingers in her hair, holding her in place. Every time he kisses her, she kisses him, Sung Gyu comes undone. As always, she makes him weaker and stronger; a strange blend of emotions which are so overwhelming that he can’t exactly pinpoint how and where exactly she is taking him. It’s been like that, always. Whenever he kisses her, it’s always like the first time.

When the intensity of their lips heightens, Eunji gasps into the kiss and moves away the slightest, maintaining a gap between them which still hold their lips close and noses touching, her breath fanning his in a sweetest, warmest trace. “I miss you” She says, the tip of her finger running along his skin in a featherlight touch. “I miss you so much…”

“But I’m right here…” Sung Gyu whispers back and places a lingering kiss on her lips.

“Not always” She mumbles sadly as she pulls away and tugs at the collar of his shirt, her eyes downcast, buried in her own emotions. “Sung Gyu, I hate it when I don’t know what you’re thinking…I hate it when…” She sighs and presses her lips into a thin line. “Ever since that happened…I feel that you’re so far away…”

Sung Gyu breathes sharply and brings her even closer to his embrace. “Eunji” He whispers and looks into her eyes to see them gleaming, the twilight reflected in them so beautifully, yet he can easily trace the sadness inside. The sadness, somehow, he has ignited in her. “Eunji, I swear it has nothing with what happened”

At least not entirely. Sung gyu has tried to convince himself myriad times that he hasn’t indeed been conflicted or affected by what happened a year ago. Eunji finally became pregnant after two years of trying, and he was over the moon at that time. Sung gyu felt that he had finally won the world, that everything they have feared were slowly dissipating into the wind. He felt that their lives together were finally falling into the right course of time; but then, two weeks later, Eunji had come into his arms telling him that she’s lost again, that they’ve lost, when she’s suddenly had an unexpected menstruation, which turned out that she’s faced a miscarriage. Sung Gyu won’t deny that he was saddened by it. He was devastated, to see all his hopes and dreams rushing out right through his grasp like a hurl of a cold wind. Both Eunji and Sung Gyu had high hopes at that time. They prepared. They made plans. They shared their dreams and hopes together, so he cannot say that he was distressed as well as a little angry at the turn of events that his fate has taken him to. But there wasn’t anything he could do at that time other than forgetting what happened and move on. He supposes he concentrated on overlooking their dark days all so much that it had somehow given Eunji the inkling of something entirely different. Sung Gyu was afraid at that time, he still is, to breach the subject of a child ever again, afraid that it would give her the impression that he’s desperate for a child, that he’s somehow blaming her for what happened…amongst many other things. No matter how strong willed Eunji seemed to be, Sung gyu knew for a fact that she is far from it. She needs support. She needs consistency. And above all, she needs someone who believes in her. Sung Gyu has tried his best to give her all that she needs to pull through her difficult days. What he hasn’t realized, however, is that all through his attempts, worries and difficulties, he too has fallen into the same abyss of despair along with her, and the only solace he found at that time is concentrating completely on his work.

But now, he realizes, that his attempts have somehow gone to naught and has caused an even worse a problem, it’s time for him to change things. It’s his time to touch the very same subject that he has avoided for way, way too long.

Eunji is just watching him, wondering what his quietness could possibly mean when he says to her, right out of the blue; “Let’s talk about it”

“Hm? About what?” Eunji pipes up, raising her brows.

“About children. Let’s talk about it right now”

Sung gyu sees how her face perceptibly darkens, eyes filling up as she watches only him. He cannot quite understand what this reaction can possibly mean; whether he’s touched a sensitive matter and crossed a line or whether she’s finally relieved that he’s stopped being the coward who avoided it all along. Whatever it is, her reaction still gives him momentum, all enough to cup her face in both his hands and kiss her deep.

“Sung gyu, we never talked about it” Eunji says as he pulls away. She searches in his eyes; for what, he isn’t sure entirely. But he has the slightest inkling that it might be for his change of mind or uncertainty, which, this time around, he’s sure doesn’t exist. Because tonight, right now, he will tell her the truth.

“That’s because I was afraid, Eunji…I was so afraid and I thought not talking about it will at least keep that pain at bay” He tells her slowly, not once taking his eyes off of her.

“What are you talking about, Sung Gyu?” Eunji asks him.

“About you” He replies. “I didn’t want to talk about it because I was afraid it will give you the impression that I’m unhappy or forcing you or…I don’t know. I was afraid I will do or say something wrong and push you off the limit and I….” He gulps, realizing that he’s speaking too much. He does speak too much when his feelings become too overbearing for him. And true to his thoughts, there are tears filling up his eyes. “…I was so afraid I would lose you…” He sighs and runs his hands around her, pulling her against his chest. He feels her warmth engulfing him, her small built slowly convulsing in his arms, and he kisses her on her temple and presses his cheek on her head. “…I’d rather lose anything in this world but you…Eunji, I can never imagine my life without you…Although I wanted a child, although I still do, I’d rather not persist if it means that I will end up hurting you. I can never do that to you”

“I’m sorry” Eunji finally croaks out and pulls away, her face red and damp with tears. “I’m sorry I thought of you wrongly the whole time…” She gulped. “All this time, I thought you were avoiding the subject because you didn’t want it anymore. I thought it was your last straw and I blew it…” She sobs again and buries her face in his chest once more. “Oh! I’m so sorry, Sung Gyu…”

“What are you sorry for? You did nothing wrong, Eunji. We did nothing wrong” He sighs and closes his eyes, hating it that he’s made her cry for the umpteenth time since he married her. “It just so happened. And if anything, all we can do is correct it”

Eunji pulls away and meets his eyes. “Correct it? How?”

“By doing exactly what we refused to do” Sung Gyu says fiercely and pulls her up off her feet before setting her up on the table behind her. His eyes, he’s sure were fiery and determined, to corrects whatever the wrong he did, to mend that broken bridge between them, to compensate to all the happiness they missed out on during their bad days. “Let’s talk about it, right now”

Eunji doesn’t say anything. Not even as he moves closer, parting her legs, standing between them and cups her face to kiss her. She only and only responds with gestures so subtle and beautiful that they, as always, manages to send Sung Gyu into a raging euphoric whirlwind. He kisses her, deep long and sincere, all the emotions they couldn’t share in heartfelt words embedded into the moment of intimacy they share than ever before. Sung Gyu closes his eyes and breathes her in. He feels her, tastes her, find the lost pieces of him within her and connects the jarred strings of their hearts until they are good as new. The intensity grows as the time progresses, and soon Eunji is a whimpering, gasping mess in his embrace. He smiles, and heaves her up into his arms. “All good?”

Eunji smiles and put her hands around his neck. “Perfect”

The moment he finds himself carrying her bridal-style up the staircase, Sung Gyu is reminded of the first time he did the very same thing all those years ago. Sung gyu and Eunji had their first date in the same dull, white-walled laboratory they first met. He prepared her a small feast of a lunch, and they huddled in corner and shared sweet nothings, not a least bit intimidated by the skeleton, Yeong-Yeong who stood by the corner, watching them; the skeleton which later became the memento of their love. Three months later, he found himself carrying her in his arms, just the same way that he did tonight, from the front door of his apartment to the bedroom, and as beautiful and unforgettable their first time was on his bed in his dingy little apartment, it always feels the same, every single time they’d make love to each other; hauntingly everlasting.

He lays her down on their bed, his shirt long discarded and forgotten, and climbs on her, straddling her and kisses her long. His hands are trembling slightly as they fiddle with the buttons of her shirt, and her hands are running down and forth on the curve of his in feather light touches. Every time he kisses her, she gasps into his breath. Every time he pulls away, she keeps demanding for more, which he most sincerely delivers. All through the mess he somehow manages to find the zipper on the back of her skirt and is slowly working it downwards, the tips of his fingers fitfully dancing across her bear warm skin, his eyes closed and kissing her, when suddenly-

“Is this some form of human communication?”

It’s Eunji who screams first because Sung Gyu is fundamentally unable to process what’s happening right at that point of time. She pushes him away from her in such an intensity that he barely makes it from not tumbling off to the ground. And then he sees it. He seems him, the alien –Woohyun- standing by the dresser in their bedroom in his human form, arms by his side. Then he feels hot white rage bubbling inside him.

“Yah! What the are you doing here!?!” He doesn’t forget to hastily throw the comforter over Eunji’s head before scrambling to his shirt; hands near trembling in so much of anger that he can swear he’d kill him if he gets his hands on Woohyun’s neck; alien or not.

“This room is warmer” says Woohyun blankly, and glances at Eunji who has now only poked her head out of the comforter, struggling to fix her clothes underneath. “Is Eunji-Ssi okay?” He asks her in that same clueless voice.

And that only is enough for Sung Gyu to climb off the bed in utmost determination to end the alien for good; but then a hand grabs onto his wrist, stopping him. Sung Gyu halts and turns to find Eunji giving him a stern look. “Sung Gyu wait” She says.

“No, I can’t! He’s a ing ert, Eunji” He exclaims and fights against Eunji’s steel grasp, but she’s not one to budge; and her eyes are filled of concern instead of anger and embarrassment that she must be feeling at the moment. She sighs in return and finally emerges out of the comforter, her clothes messy but still in place, covering all the crucial places. “Calm down, Sung Gyu. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, can’t you see?”

Sung Gyu groans and looks over at where Woohyun is standing, and true to her words, he’s busy looking through the humonictionary, mumbling the word ‘Per…vert’ under his breath. He turns back to face his wife. “Then what do you reckon we do? He might be alien, but he’s still a man. I can’t have a thing like him sneaking up on us all the time, Eunji. Where is our privacy? Where is our freedom?”

“Sung Gyu-ah…” Eunji replies firmly and climbs up on her feet. “You stop being dramatic, nothing happened. At least nothing bad enough to be so upset. We’ll talk to him, okay?”

For some reason, Eunji’s calm and composed tone manages to smoothen his foul mood by a notch. Though he’s still enraged and incredibly embarrassed by what happened, he still manages to keep his mouth shut and sit back down on the bed. Eunji on the other hand, strides across the room towards Woohyun who looks up at her with a look of confusion etched on his face. Suddenly, Sung Gyu realizes something; rather, he sees it on his face. A look of blatant comfort a child would show on his face upon seeing his mother after being scolded by someone, particularly, a father. That’s the expression which appears on Woohyun’s face, and that somehow, makes him feel lighter. He really doesn’t know. When he’s asked, it’s only been a truly innocent question, nothing more. And Eunji with her motherly instincts understood it all.

Before he could stop himself then, a slight scoff erupted from his lips. ‘How can a grown man like him act so much like a kid?’ Sung Gyu admits, now, that if he’s ever met any other alien earlier, Woohyun will still be the most peculiar of all.

“…And we’ll talk a bit, okay?” Eunji says as she carefully leads Woohyun out of the room, who actually lets her, looking much like a little puppy lost on his way. Sung Gyu rolls his eyes and follows after him. The topsy turve that this strange little alien has brought into their lives, he realizes, is definitely a good change in life.

 

“You’re kidding me” Sung Gyu exclaims in a lowly whisper, looking at Eunji with his eyes widened in befuddlement. They are in Sung Gyu’s personal primate museum a few minutes after the bedroom incident, Woohyun watching a documentary of human evolution on Sung Gyu’s laptop with great interest while the two of them discuss what they must do with the alien invasion in their home. And what Eunji primarily suggested is that they took Woohyun to see the leader whom, as it happens, is the president of their country. Sung Gyu is having mixed feelings about this. For one, there is no possible way that ordinary citizens like them can get through to the president of their country. Second off, it’s a dangerous alien with super powers and weaponry capabilities that they’re talking about, although he looks perfectly innocent when he’s busy learning about human ancestors.

“No, not really” Eunji shrugs, looking too nonchalant despite what they’re talking about. “It makes sense, considering that we can’t keep him here too long, and he wouldn’t budge unless we take him to the leader”

“But that’s like, miles away!” Sung Gyu tries to reason out. “There’s no way we can take him in the flight, train or a bus; I don’t want him threatening other people with his weapon thing and put people’s lives into danger”

“Of course! we can’t take him in public transport, Sung gyu, he camouflages and disappears when he sleeps” Eunji responds in all seriousness. In fact, this is the most seriousness he’s ever seen her speak ever since they stopped being teacher and student, and amusing, given that it’s an alien they’re talking about. “But we can’t possibly keep him at home either”

“And I’m not going to drive us into our death either” Sung Gyu deadpans. “He’s already driving me insane, and I’m sure he hasn’t even done anything in his full potential yet”

“Sung Gyu” Eunji gives him a stern look. “It’s the only way we can do this”

Sung Gyu groans in utter frustration. “Why can’t we just send him in a taxi? I’m pretty sure we can afford that”

“And drive someone else’s life into danger? No, I’ll pass” Eunji retorts in a flourish. “Besides, as it happens, only we can keep him under control. God knows what he’d end up doing if we suddenly him into a completely different environment full of strangers. The last thing we want is a mad alien running on lose, threatening everyone”

“Well, at least it solves one problem” Sung Gyu shrugs noncommittally; but in his mind, he has an image of Woohyun in his silver suit and all his glory, pointing his weapon and yelling “Take me to your leader!” at random people and running all over the streets like a mad man. Though it will be quite a sight, he doesn’t think he’s take chances. Sung Gyu and Eunji have reputations, and he sure doesn’t want them marred by an alien if it gets revealed somehow that they’ve been homing a fugitive.

“Right, I hope you understand that it doesn’t” Eunji, who notices Sung Gyu lost in a daze, replies. “Anyway” she carries on. “Like I said, we should give him a ride to Seoul, the two of us. We can stay there for a while, trying to figure out what to do from that point. But at least we’ll have made that journey…besides…” She hesitates, reddening the slightest, and Sung Gyu raises his brows in return. “Well, we can have a little adventure ourselves as well. It’s been ages since I last saw Seoul. I don’t even remember what the buildings look like”

Sung Gyu snorts and rolls his eyes dramatically. “You’re exaggerating. We went to Seoul just a couple of months ago”

“A year ago,” Eunji points out gravely. “That’s a pretty long time. And also, what I think we really need is a break from everything, Sung Gyu. And spending sometime out of Busan will be a great opportunity to, you know, settle down a bit”

Eunji is quite right there, and Sung Gyu knows himself. It’s been ages since they last travel together, the last time being to Cambodia on one of his researches and Eunji had to face a rather unfortunate incident where this particular kind of monkey tried to grab her hair to use it as dental floss, and since then Eunji has profusely refused to join any of his primate related adventures. This somehow led for Sung Gyu to do his travels alone or sometimes with a research partner, often leaving Eunji over at their empty beach house all on her own. Sung Gyu has frequently felt that this could have been one of the causes for the drift between them, along with less interactions and lack of communication, so if anything, that could fix this problem if it hasn’t been fixed over the past two days is to spend one on one time together, away from work, away from home, away from their usual dull lives.

But Sung Gyu also thinks that they can do this without an alien involvement. He tells her this, but then she makes a point of it, saying that; “Do you think we will ever get out of town unless we have a purpose?”

She is kind of right there as well.

“Well yea, true, it might be kind of a holiday, but still…” Sung Gyu reasons again and glances at Woohyun who is now lying on his stomach, fully engrossed in his show. “it won’t exactly be the two of us”

Eunji smiles and glances at Woohyun as well. “That may be. But I still feel taking Woohyun will be all the fun”

Sung Gyu scoffs in return. “Well yeah, especially when we drive off a bridge”

“Oh there you go again” Eunji rolls her eyes, and Sung Gyu only smiles in return. For a moment, they’re both quiet, watching Woohyun sitting up, pulling out the humonictionary and tries to pronounce ‘Australopithecus’ as he types it off on his device in a rather cute manner. Above the sound of the lowly voices coming from the TV, only Woohyun’s exclamations could be heard, and in a house where a third voice has never resonated before, it sounds comforting, it sounds nice. Sung Gyu cannot help but feel that they have indeed adopted a very problematic child.

It seems that Eunji agrees the same. “It’s so weird. He’s a man but I always feel like he’s a kid who needs constant attention…” She says in a soft voice, watching Woohyun who is now triumphantly exclaiming the word once he’s gotten it right.

“Oh he does” Sung Gyu says smiling himself. “You leave him for one minute, he’d destroy something”

“Yeah” Eunji hums distractedly. “I found the land phone dismantled before”

Sung Gyu groand in frustration, averting his attention from the alien. “What? Ugh! At this rate, we’re going to lose all our saving on an alien kid”

Eunji only chuckles in response.

“Hey Eunji” Sung Gyu says after a while. “Why don’t we leave him in Seoul? That’s one way of getting rid of him”

“What?” Eunji gives him a look of dread. “Sung Gyu, how can you do something so cruel to a kid like that? I mean, look at him?”

They both do, and now Woohyun is on the floor, and it looks like he’s trying to re-enact Lucy the humanoid who first climbed off a tree. It’s rather cute, Sung Gyu decides; what with his floppy dark hair flying all over the place and that adorably small built.

“He’s so cute I don’t have the heart to do hurt him” Eunji squeaks in response before telling him pointedly; “And you, Sung Gyu, are better than that”

Sung Gyu just shrugs in response. But frankly, he too doesn’t feel like leaving the kid in a completely unfamiliar place, let alone leaving him at all. He remembers the first time he went to another country. Full of different people, a different language, different cultures. He remembers how lost he felt, even in a place full of humans just like himself. Thus, he can’t even imagine how it might be like for an alien for whom it is a different world entirely. But still there remains a question which still requires answers.

“Let’s say we do go to Seoul” He begins, giving Eunji a look of concern. “What happens then? We obviously can’t take him to the president. We can’t keep him at home either. What then, Eunji?”

Eunji contemplates this for a moment; her brows furrowed and eyes unfocused, deep in her thoughts. After a while then, she lifts her head and sighs. “I say we figure something out…”

“But Eun-,”

“We will, Sung Gyu” Eunji replies in resolve. “We always do”

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