Minho layed down on his old mattress and prepared his mind for sleeping, just a small nap before he made himself his second dinner of the few days he had free from his imprisoners. But just as he was relaxing into his bed, a bright light appeared out of nowhere, piercing through his eyelids with a loud bang following just after and shocking him wide awake. The light was far brighter than anything he had ever seen before, even through the cover of his eyelids, and he was certain that he would've gone blind if his eyes had been open just then. He sat up, his body shaking slightly from the impact of whatever had caused this disruption. His ears were barely used to hearing anything louder than a door slam or the sound of a small explosion from that one time he blew up his microwave, so the sudden noise left him disoriented and confused.
 

Minho jumped up once his head cleared and ran to the window next to his bed, ears still slightly ringing, then looked out in utter disbelief at what he saw. The white world he was looking at just minutes earlier had been half destroyed, the peaceful monochrome being disrupted by thrown-up earth and in the middle of the chaos was a banged up space ship looking object. It was no wider than his room but much taller, almost the height of his house. It was the shape of a cylinder with sharp, pointed ends and was painted white with marks and dirt all over it, blending in quite well with sea of white snow and ice. Part of the object sat in a large crater, made by what he assumed was the impact of his landing. It was quite the sight, considering the fact that he had never even seen an animal since he moved into the house.

Then he noticed something that almost brought him to tears. He looked up at the ever dreary sky, covered in clouds for the past decade, and saw a hole in the clouds. It was growing too, the dark shades of blue that indicated evening emerging from behind the everlasting clouds that had haunted him for so long. He could hardly believe his eyes; Minho had grown so accustomed to seeing only clouds when he looked up that the sight of something scared him. His eyes darted around between the foreign object and the newly made hole in the seemingly impenetrable cloud sky. He could hardly believe what he was seeing, did this foreign object really have the power to change up to much of what he saw as normal, everyday life.
 

He couldn't handle the suspense anymore and ran out of his room, hardly avoiding tripping over the random items strewn all over his floor, and dashed down the stairs. Not even bothering to put on proper shoes, Minho slipped on his - fairly pointless - sandals and ran into his garden. He barely felt the cool breeze as he sprinted across his vast garden, almost with the speed of an Olympic runner. He just had the find out what it was that had been able to cause such and impact and break what he was used to.
 

As he neared the fence that separated his garden and the endless fields beyond, he slowed down. Breathing heavily, Minho touched the fence for the first time in years. Before, there was always the force of the cursed barrier stopping him from even touching his fence but now it was gone. It was as if this ship-looking thing wanted to change everything, change his life. For the better or worse, he would only know when he confronted it. For it he knew, inside could be a person or a bomb that was ready to hurt him.

He climbed the fence with caution, trying his best to keep his loose sandals on his feet as he swung his legs over. and hopped down onto the thin snow that dusted the hard ground. He walked towards the large crater as more and more rocks from the impact of the landing appeared at his feet. He had to be careful, in case the object meant danger and he was required to run back. He didn't really have a back-up plan but he hoped there was still some sort of magic to protect him if need be. Although death sounded better than simply returning to his boring life, but that didn't really matter in the moment.
 

He reached the edge of the crater that seemed smaller up close. It was only around 4 metres deep and 10 metres across and considering the sound that came from its landing, it was quite small. He picked up a rock from beside him, deciding that it would be better to not approach it directly in case the object was a bomb of some sort. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, but years spent alone didn't really improve your common sense, Minho decided as he drew his hand back and looked for the best place to aim.

But suddenly, a small square on the outside of the strange object lifted up and in a panic, Minho threw the rock with all his might at the moving panel. It soared through the cold air and landed with a decent impact on what seemed to be a hand emerging from the object.

"Oww! What the hell? Who was that?" Came a voice from the same location as the hand that had fallen victim to Minho's panicked throw. A head followed the voice looking around frantically with a pained face, then the boy that had appeared spotted Minho, standing in the cold whilst wearing only shorts, a shirt and sandals. "Hey you! Did you throw that damn rock at me? It really hurt y'know," the young boy almost whine to him.

"Oh, uh sorry? I just panicked heh. Do you need help getting down?" Minho replied to the boy hesitantly and stepped forward into the deep crater.
 

"Yeah, I could do with a bit of help. Being trapped in a space shuttle for a month really gets your legs stiff. Who are you anyway? Aren't you cold?" the boy crawled to the side of the space shuttle that he just emerged from and looked down, "Catch me!" and he slid off the edge.
 

Minho rushed forward to catch the boy before he hit the ground, stumbling slightly from the impact. He helped the boy onto his feet then responded to his enquiries, "I'm Choi Minho, I live in that house over there. And no, I'm used to the cold after so many years so I'm fine."
 

"Nice to meet you Minho, I'm Lee Taemin from Earth, you've heard of Earth right?" Taemin brushed his hands of on his black jeans and looked around before looking back at Minho with a questioning gaze.

"I don't think I have, my parents never taught me about it. But I haven't been to school in years so maybe that's why. What's it like?"

"Let's go inside first, I'm freezing out here! When I left Earth it was Summer but I guess your planet has different seasons, right?" Taemin continued to quiz Minho as they climbed out of the crater and walked towards the warmth of Minho's house.

"What do you mean by seasons? Like the stuff that goes on food?" Minho was slightly confused as he climbed back over the fence and helped Taemin over and into the garden that he had grown used to over the years.
 

"No, silly! Like Summer, Spring, Winter and Autumn. You know, when it gets hot or cold and the weather changes and different plants grow?" Taemin seemed shocked that Minho had no knowledge of seasons, what kid of planet had he landed on?

"Oh I know those things, I learnt about them in my textbook a few years ago. We haven't had any seasons in years, not since 45089 at least. It's been winter for a decade, ever since I was 7. Even before then, we only had 3 seasons because our sun doesn't get very close so it isn't very hot." Minho explained as they walked into his house, Taemin sighing in relief at the warmth and immediately running inside. "Hey, take your shoes off! Mother and Father won't be happy that I brought someone inside, they're very strict about what I do."

"Yeah, yeah sorry," Taemin kicked off his shoes and pushed them towards the back door as Minho walked past him towards his kitchen. "So you really don't have any other seasons here? That must be so dull! And what happened in 45... whatever the number was. It sounds crazy if it cause a permanent Winter!" Taemin followed him to the kitchen where he sat at a chair and watched Minho take out two mugs.

"Want some hot chocolate? I'm sure you're quite