“You're home late for dinner. Were you with Taemin and Jonghyun again, working on that mysterious project you refuse to tell anyone about?” It was Minho's mother that the three of them heard after a little bit of silence - clearly, she had just come from the kitchen. Minho wondered if his father was here or not.
“Oh, and you brought another friend,” Noticing Kibum, she smiled, and Minho's instincts to keep the extraterrestrials quiet kicked in, but Kibum beat him to it.
“Better late than never, I say. You must have a wonderful skincare routine, your skin is so smooth!” Kibum perked up as he went to Mrs. Choi, and her face brightened up much more than Minho had seen in a long time. He couldn't tell if it was because she was flustered by the compliment, or if she was just happy to hear something like that, but it made her son fold his arms unhappily. Kibum was stealing his friends, had stolen his potential boyfriend even before they met, and now he was on his way to stealing Minho's parents! It was outrageous, but Minho knew it would only upset his mother if he started a fight (physical or otherwise) right here in the living room in front of her.
“Let's go Jinki,” He grumbled when the two began chatting animatedly about good skincare routines and products, things Minho had never shown an interest in learning about or using.

Him and the extraterrestrial made their way outside to the backyard to sit down on the grass, and they both looked up to the sky. Being in this tranquil setting made Minho forget all about the reasons for why he was annoyed, and he let out a calmed sigh through his nose.
“You are not happy about Kibum visiting your home planet?” Jinki murmured, and Minho turned his head to look at his friend. Originally, he was apprehensive to telling Jinki anything, then it had changed once he had grown closer to the alien, and now it was back to the same apprehensiveness as the start of their friendship. He wanted to close himself off from Jinki now, mainly because he didn't know if the other one could keep his mouth shut, and Minho didn't want Kibum knowing all of his business.
“I never said that,” Minho replied.
“It is obvious in the way you tighten your fists or talk to yourself under your breath. I have seen it when you have studied or worked on the spacecraft, and it is no different to how you react when Kibum is around. He frustrates you, yes? I cannot understand why. Will you not enlighten me?” Even though he didn't really have a reason to, Minho felt guilty about the way Jinki phrased the things he said. Or maybe it was just Jinki's tone. Either way, it compelled the human to speak about what was really on his mind instead of trying to lock it away for Kibum's benefit.
He then sighed, “I just didn't think that you'd like someone like...him. I mean, what do you see in him, anyway? To me, he just looks like a narcissist who thinks he can't be rejected by anyone around him,”
“He is not like that. He is confident, but he has not always been that way. I thought it has just been the excitement of coming to Earth that has made him extra talkative and loud,” Jinki had a fond smile on his face as he spoke, and it made Minho's stomach churn like the inside of a washing machine.
“Yeah? That doesn't mean I have to like him,” Minho grumbled, and he heard his friend giggle from beside him. At least one of them found it funny.
“You are jealous,” Jinki said it like it was a word he had never used before, which was probably true, “Kibum says it is a usual feeling for earthlings when they feel threatened that someone will take their beloved away,”
“I'm not jealous!” Minho said, but his flaming cheeks gave away that he was caught red-handed. Even if he made up a whole story about how untrue it was that he was just looking out for Jinki instead of being jealous and possessive, his body would say otherwise.
“If you are sure...” The extraterrestrial giggled, but didn't say anything else.
“You really don't mind him flirting with everyone? Or finding someone else to date?” Minho questioned. He couldn't imagine Jinki not having one ounce of jealousy, as patient and kindhearted as he was.
“No. As he had explained, it is normal and expected on the red giant. Why?”
“No reason. I mean, do you think he would have a problem if you and me...?”
“You and I? What do you mean?”

Minho bit his lip as he looked at the confused expression lining Jinki's face, unsure of how to properly explain this. He could explain chemistry to someone who had no clue how anything worked or had any knowledge of terminology, but he couldn't talk about his own feelings. Typical Choi Minho.

“I mean...if we had to be like you and Kibum,” He started, and Jinki scratched the side of his head as he thought about what Minho was trying to say.
“But you cannot become like us! The red giant has sophiscated technology, but nothing that could change an earthling into one of us!” Jinki exclaimed as he shook his head with an O shaped mouth.
“No. Not like that. I mean like...a couple. You know, since you and Kibum are a couple,” Minho chuckled, shook his head, and then glanced up at the sky again. The stars seemed to be smiling down on him, encouraging what he had in mind, but the more he stared at them, the more it felt like they were scrutinizing him in a negative way.
𝐻𝑒'𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑜𝑛! They jarred at Minho, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔?
He didn't have an answer for them since he didn't know if 𝐼'𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 would suffice. Not to mention it was a little dramatic and cheesy.

Jinki was silent for some time, but not in the way that he wanted to avoid the topic - his expression was the same as that when he was taking a test in school, just the look of pure concentration. He glanced up then, his face painted and illuminated by the moon, and he shrugged.
“I do not think so. Kibum is his own person, so I am unsure of what his reaction could be. I cannot speak for him. Perhaps you should question him about the situation yourself. He will be unbiased,” Jinki explained, and Minho sighed as he looked down at the grass, pulling out a few of the blades. Talking to Kibum about dating his boyfriend? That just didn't seem right. The two of them hadn't given each other a good first expression, so how could they be expected to discuss something so private and personal? Kibum would probably cut off his right arm before he gave permission to Minho!

“How would you feel about it?” He whispered now. He could hear his mother and Kibum still chatting away happily, switching to multiple topics in the span of five minutes. Although Minho didn't really like the extraterrestrial, he was glad his mother seemed to be happy to have someone new and so excitable to talk to.
“I mean, you're the one who would have to make the choice eventually, not that...loser,” Minho would've used another word, but he didn't want to cuss out someone Jinki liked so much. It didn't seem right, even if it was Kibum he wanted to use colorful language on.
“You are correct, but I am sure you are aware that I would still take Kibum's opinion into account,” Jinki nodded, then continued when he saw Minho grimace, “but I would not be opposed to the idea of...‘you and me’, as you phrased it,”
This made Minho's eyes sparkle, and he kept them trained on the extraterrestrial beside him as his stomach began to do flips from excitement.
“You...you really mean that? But you stay on Mars, how would we even make it work?” He his dry lips.
“Silly friend! Have you forgotten what I have said? I will come visit you!” Jinki's deep laugh seemed to make Minho's stomach vibrate, only making it more and more turbulent, and his face stretched into a smile as well.
“You would do that? Really?” Minho nibbled his bottom lip, and Jinki nodded with a large smile, “of course. For you, I would attempt to visit Earth every week,”
This made Minho's cheeks burn again, and for a moment, the sounds of his mother and Kibum's excited conversation fell away like he was on a boat that was pulling away from the harbor. The only thing Minho could concentrate on right now was Jinki's face that was right beside his, inching closer and closer ever so slowly, and the loving gaze that made his eyes twinkle. He hadn't noticed it until this moment, but this was the same look Jinki had been glancing at Minho with for some time now. He wasn't too sure when it had changed from the friendly gaze to something more, but he guessed it was sometime during the days when they worked on the spaceship together. In fact, it brought everyone closer, even the three friends that were already close to begin with (Taemin, Jonghyun and Minho).
At first, he had hated the idea of spending so much time on the project, but he had come to realize it was more of a blessing than anything else. It was fun, he had enjoyed himself, and after all, he had become one of Jinki's dear friends, maybe even something more. Was he thrilled about finishing it? At first, yes, so he could get rid of the alien, but towards the end, he was sad to see it was coming to a close. Jinki was never insufferable to begin with, it was just Minho who couldn't seem to imagine anyone coming in between him and his busy life. Maybe ℎ𝑒 was the insufferable one.

Not to Jinki right now, though.

Minho gulped, his dry throat burning as he found himself leaning in towards the extraterrestrial who did the same. A kiss beneath the stars? That was surely the most romantic thing Minho had ever witnessed until now; would they do it in the future as well? What if they could really make this work? Minho could see himself in a relationship with Jinki, even if he stayed on another planet and wasn't exactly human. Who cared about that? It wasn't if he was scared of Jinki, and he did want to go to Mars one day. What better way to do that than with one of their very own spacecrafts? And what better reason than to stay there on vacation with Jinki, his potential boyfriend? Oh, the things Minho would see up ther—

“Jinki! Come try these cute little things the earthlings call cupcakes! It has different colors and everything. What are you doing out here, anyway? Their grass doesn't taste that good! Come, come on!” Kibum suddenly rolled open the sliding door that led from the kitchen to the backyard, and both Minho and Jinki separated as soon as they heard it. They looked like children about to kiss, caught by a parent, as they stared at one another with big eyes, their backs straight like they had rods for spines.
Kibum didn't seem to notice what he had interrupted since he vanished inside as soon as he finished his statement, the door wide open behind him.

Minho cleared his throat to dispel the tension that had accumulated between him and Jinki, ruffling his hair. What was he thinking? A relationship with the extraterrestrial would never work! He lived on another planet, for heaven's sake! He was also dating Kibum already, and while it was the norm to have more than one partner on Mars, that certainly wasn't the case down here and it definitely wasn't what Minho's morals stood for. He'd still be dating someone else's boyfriend which was something he was heavily against. How often would Jinki be able to come if they were being honest? Every week would be a waste of resources, not to mention dangerous as he could be discovered somehow. Minho didn't want a boyfriend who was only around once a month or even once a year. That wasn't fair to him or Jinki. And what about Kibum? What if he said he didn't like the idea of them being a couple? Jinki would listen to him before he listened to what his own heart wanted.
If Minho did want to date Jinki, and Kibum was okay with that, then would it even go anywhere? Minho wasn't opposed to having kids one day and he did want to get married, but how would that happen if they couldn't see each other more than twice a year? There were just too many disadvantages to dating an alien, as cool as they seemed to be.

“I guess my mom made cupcakes. Let's go try them,” Minho forced a chuckle, their sentimental moment destroyed by the interruption, as he stood up from the grass to go inside before he could change his mind. Maybe the stars were laughing at him, after all, for believing in childish fantasies.

Mrs. Choi had no apprehensions about Kibum staying over, and she didn't mind having him and Jinki stay in the same room either. She seemed to be enjoying a full house for once and as expected, Mr. Choi wasn't around long enough to meet Kibum. The pair of extraterrestrials stayed for a few days, and every day Mrs. Choi would bake or cook something that warmed the whole house with the scent of heaven. She was extremely busy cooking, pouring tea or coffee or lemonade, and entertaining everyone with stories of her youth or taking them out on adventures. Minho was sure this was all for Kibum's benefit since Mrs. Choi never did much of this when just Jinki was here, but in all honesty, they weren't around much for her to entertain them anyway.
“Maybe Kibum isn't the bad guy and I'm just overthinking it. I should be unbiased when dealing with him,” Minho told himself one day as he looked in the mirror, then shook his head. There was no way he was going to start being nice to Kibum unless he gave Minho a reason to be. Why did the human have to be the bigger man? The aliens were the ones who had the advanced technology! Minho grumbled this to himself to reinforce his decision to not like Kibum, sounding like a sulky child.

Since Kibum couldn't imagine anything more boring as school, so he and Jinki went on a tour around the city while the humans were in school. Although Minho didn't like him that much, he had to admit Kibum was less suspicious than Jinki was to ordinary people - which was weird really, since Kibum walked around in outfits Minho had never seen put together by anyone else. However, Kibum did have more knowledge about how humans acted than Jinki did. At least he wouldn't stab ice cream thinking it was trying to hurt him like Jinki did.

On the weekend, the group was together, traveling around to museums and art galleries so both Kibum and Jinki could get the full tour experience. Kibum and Jonghyun were all over each other, Taemin was upset, and Minho was too busy preventing Jinki from touching anything to really think about his own relationship status.
They were in the last art gallery for the day when Taemin decided to act up.
“Taemin, don't touch,” Minho grabbed his friend's wrist who reached out to touch one of the frames of the artwork in front of them. Taemin didn't say anything, just made slight duck lips, and moved away from the painting. Jonghyun and Kibum were in their own world, much to Taemin's despair, and he did the same thing to the next artwork they came across. Maybe, with some type of luck, he would grab Jonghyun's attention and be able to talk to him. With Kibum here, he didn't reply to Taemin's texts or calls, and he was always with Kibum in person too, so Taemin could never get his attention long enough for them to talk.
“Taemin, it says don't touch!” Minho exclaimed when he had to pull the other teenager away from the artwork again, and it took a few more of these scoldings for Jonghyun's attention to finally be ripped away from Kibum. After noticing the continuous glances from Taemin to Jonghyun, Minho knew what was going on.
“Jonghyun, I think Taemin would like to speak to you. Do you think you could step away from Kibum long enough for that to happen?” Again, it was Minho who was speaking. It annoyed him that he had to be the one to resolve his friends' issues; they weren't children, and they knew what had to be done and said to fix this constant awkward silence between them.

Jonghyun shrugged, noticing his friend seemed uptight as he said this, and walked to one side so him and Taemin could speak.

Meanwhile, Jinki managed to catch Minho who had been avoiding him. Minho was admittedly a bit of a hypocrite, especially in a situation like this.
“Have you been upset with me these past few days? You have not said more than two words to me!” Jinki said, and Minho grimaced. He didn't want to confront the situation, but did he really have a choice in the matter?
“No. You haven't done anything wrong, I just...needed some space,” He said warily, eyeing Kibum who carefully observed one of the other paintings.
“Have you not had enough? You have been at school while I have been busy in your city. That is more than three kilometres of space most of the time!” Again, he seemed to be taking the term literally, but it forced Minho to smile. Moments like this was what made him like his friend in the first place.
“I didn't know what to say to you. I like you, Jinki. But the more I think about it, the more I realize we won't work,” Minho said, shoving his hands in his pockets as he rocked on his heels.
“Why? Am I not good enough?” Jinki's eyebrows raised upwards to the ceiling, his face taking on a concerned look.
Minho laughed with a sad edge to it. “No. You're perfect. It's just...complicated,”
Jinki seemed to be waiting for him to continue, so that's what he did.
“You live on another planet and you can't exactly come by every weekend to see me. I don't really want a relationship where I can't see the person often. And Kibum...if he says no, then it won't happen. And with how enthusiastic he is to become friends with me, I don't think he'll really want me around as your partner,” Minho said with a shake of his head.
“Even if he is unhappy with it, that will not sway my decision. I can decide for myself,” Jinki's voice had a certain firmness to it that surprised Minho, and he raised his eyebrows just a little bit.
“Your decision? What is it?” He asked, but before he could receive his answer, there was a commotion not too far away from them.

“...don't even know him! How long have I been around? You don't even care about me!” It was Taemin's emotional yell as he started walking towards the entrance of the art gallery.
“You know it's not like that. Taemin! Just listen to me...” Jonghyun followed soon after, and Minho sighed. It didn't look like they were working things out, after all. And once again, him and Jinki had been interrupted during something important. But his friends' feelings were important than his own, and he wasn't about to let Kibum destroy their relationship.
“I should go check on them. I'm sorry,” He said to Jinki with burning brown eyes filled with apologies, then walked out to find the other two of his friends who continued their heated argument by the car. He had to patch their relationship back together, and then he would continue his talk with Jinki.
“Jinki, I want to go home. I've had about enough of Earth. Drive us to my spacecraft, Minho,” But as he opened his mouth to break up Jonghyun and Taemin, Kibum came out with Jinki right behind him. Minho had been wondering about when they'd take their leave; well, it seemed like now was the time.