“I'm so glad you're here.” Jongin snuggled up to Sehun, pulling him into his arms and squeezing him lightly. He was getting quite used to having someone to sleep next to, someone to spend his nights and his days with. He hadn't realized how lonely he really was before.

“Thanks for crashing into my life.” he whispered sweetly.

Sehun giggled, hugging him back.

“Usually, human teenagers aren't left alone like this, you know.” Jongin confessed into Sehun's shoulder.

“Most teenagers have two parents, caretakers, a dad and a mom. On Earth, it's the people who made you, the ones you share genetic material with, who take care of you. It's not just their job, they don't get paid to do it, they do it because they want to. Because they love you.” his voice was shaking. He had a hard time talking about this. He had never really talked about this with anyone. His dad never ever talked about his mom, and he was hardly ever home anyway. And Jongin had never really felt close enough to another human being to be able to share his innermost thoughts like this. Until now.

“But I only have a dad. And he often has to go away, to make money. To buy food.” Jongin explained. It was technically true, although a lot of the time, his dad's trips were less out of necessity and more to escape. Jongin knew he reminded his dad of his mom, apparently he looked a lot like her. And this house was full of memories and ghosts, where they had all shared such a happy beginning, all of life's wonderous firsts. A house once filled with laughter and love, now only brought his dad pain. Jongin couldn't remember much of it, but the feeling lingered in his heart. The feeling of family.

“Ah, because you don't have a replicator and you don't like it when that paper is replicated.” Sehun aha-ed, like he understood everything now. That cutie.

“You're right. If you use the replicator to replicate money, you can end up in a lot of trouble. You have to promise me you won't do it. You know what, just promise me you won't replicate anything unless you ask me first.” he said in a stern voice.

“How am I supposed to ask you, if you're not there. Like today?!” Sehun pouted, with the torn face of a person facing great injustice.

“Hmm, you have a point.” Jongin nodded. “We need to get you a phone...”.

“Wait, I might have an old one lying around, it might still work.” he jumped out of bed and started ransacking the closet.

“Found it!” he exclaimed cheerfully.

He plugged it in and thankfully it still worked. He handed it to Sehun, happy to be able to give him such a nice gift.

Sehun frowned. “What's this?” he said, unimpressed.

“I want one like yours.” he scrunched his nose, complaining.

Jongin sighed.

He had saved up for a year for his phone, there was no way he could afford another one.

“What about the bond? Can't we just communicate through that?” Jongin suggested, surprised that he was only realizing that now.

Sehun laughed as if he had told him a joke.

“It's not magic, we're not telepathic.” he giggled, like that was ridiculous, but an invisible bond that connected two people together forever, that was completely normal?!

“We can only sense feelings through the bond, it's biological, so more on a chemical level than exact thoughts.” Sehun explained.

“Hmm.” Jongin pondered. “Do you think your replicator can handle a phone?” he asked hesitantly. They were treading down a dangerous path.

Sehun shrugged. “I don't see why not. The tech in these phones seems to be super rudimentary. Let's just try it!”.

Jongin wanted to wait until the morning to try it, but Sehun was so psyched up that there was no stopping him. He was like a little kid at Christmas, so cute.

Even though Jongin had witnessed the powers of the replicator before, it still amazed him. It was so unbelievable, that you could just make a copy of anything out of thin air. Well, supposedly it wasn't just thin air, but still, it was like something right out of a science fiction movie.

“Yay! It worked! Now we have matching phones.” Sehun grinned, ecstatic.

They crawled back into bed, and Jongin started showing him how everything worked. Since the phone was low tech on Sehun's standard, it didn't take him long to get the hang of it. But there was one thing Jongin hadn't thought of. It also replicated the SIM card. He worried whether there was a possibility they could crash the phone company's server, or alert the authorities, by using the two identical SIM cards at the same time. Sehun didn't think much of his warnings, and just tried it anyway. And oddly enough, it worked. All they had to do, was send themselves a message, and both phones received it. Calling didn't work though, they just kept getting the busy signal, but that was okay, they could just call each other through kakaotalk

“So... why don't you have one of those mom type persons?” Sehun suddenly asked, deep in thought.

Jongin felt as if a thin needle had pierced his heart. All his insides turned to stone. This was the reason he never talked about this, with anyone. His body just shut down by the mere mention of his mom. She had disappeared when he was five years old, without a trace, and his dad hadn't even bothered to go look for her. He didn't even report it to the police. He just shut down completely, becoming a work robot, choosing work over Jongin. And when Jongin was old enough to understand what had happened and asked him if they shouldn't try looking for her, even though it was late, perhaps getting some help from the police, his dad just got mad at him and forbade him to do a single thing.

“Just because.” Jongin shrugged and showed Sehun the games that were installed on his phone, to distract him. While he acted like it was no big deal on the outside, he was filling up with tears on the inside. Sehun probably felt it through the bond. Whether he did or not, he gave up on the conversation, attached himself to Jongin like a baby monkey, a huge baby monkey, and let him show him how Candy Crush worked.

“I don't get it? It doesn't really accomplish anything? And it's so simple, even a baby could do it! Why do people like this? This is utterly pointless!” Sehun looked at him with disbelief, clearly thinking this was the stupidest invention of all time.

“Just try it.” Jongin handed him the phone.

Jongin rubbed his eyes, realizing he had fallen asleep. It was the middle of the night and the room was pitch black, except for a square of light beside him, lighting up Sehun's face. It was a very spooky kind of lighting, but Sehun was still handsome as hell. He could see dark circles forming under his eyes, which were glued to the screen.

Jongin sat up to get a peek at what Sehun was looking at so intensely. Sehun didn't even seem to notice that he was awake. He was too focused on matching those candies. He was playing Candy Crush like a madman, having already finished 421 levels in one night. Apparently it didn't matter whether you were human or alien, the addictive power of that game was universally overwhelming.