Seogoong found Xero in the snow.

The flakes were slanting sideways across the landscape.  They snuck in wherever they could between gloves and jacket sleeves and under the folds of scarves.  The little bits stuck to everything, melting into freezing drops on bare skin.

Only five inches or so had fallen, but Seogoong watched his feet, careful not to slip on the loosely packed mounds. The road was deserted down by the power plant so he walked along the center of the street.

Down the other end of the road, some time ago, a boy in a black sweatshirt had stumbled.  Feet sliding, he let himself fall to the ground.  The wind howled overhead as he blinked against the storm.  His eyes focused in on the nearby snowbank.  He pulled himself toward it then collapsed again.  He finally cooperated with his heavy eyelids.  In the shadow at the side of the road, the snowfall blanketed over him.

When Seogoong remembered to watch the road ahead, he didn’t see anything but the giant metal spires along the curving road behind the chain link fence.  Everything was a pattern of white and gray making clean lines across the landscape behind the haze of snow.  There was also the patch of black dusted over with white on the road side.

He paused, squinting against the slanting bits flying in his face.  The wind blew drifts across the street toward the power plant and its field of towers.  It also blew the tufts of hair from the black patch lying still on the side of the road like a part of the landscape. 

Seogoong bounded over and knelt down in the snow.  The boy was in jeans and a black sweatshirt and tennis shoes and nothing else.  With gloved hands, he dusted the snow from the boy’s back and turned him over to reveal a face half obscured with pale hair.  He pulled the boy up until his back was resting on his knees, trying to keep him out of the snow.

He looked at the upside down face which seemed to almost cling to a smile.  He wondered faintly, "What were you doing out here?"

In an instant he looked up to see Hojoon hurrying toward him.

“I just found some kid,” he called to him.

Hojoon crouched in front of them.  Taking the end of his scarf in his hand he wiped the melted and melting snow from the boy’s face which was blotched with red from the cold.

Seogoong watched as he placed a hand to the other’s forehead and waited.

“He’ll be alright,” Hojoon said after a moment.  His glasses seemed impervious to the snow as he glanced at Seogoong through clear lenses even as the storm continued to light around them.

“Do you think he's one of yours?"

Looking at the boy again, Hojoon said, “Seems so,” without condescension.

Seogoong felt himself faintly smiling.  That meant the kid would be coming home with them.

Back then, when he brought the boy home, it had only been the handful of them staying in the hanger.  It would be another month before Jenissi's old friend would change his mind and come back, almost a year before Sangdo would invite someone in from the rain. Each of those meetings would be very different from this one:  more complicated, with more uncertainty, demanding more work.

As it was, that December Seogoong sat in the living room watching the boy bundled on the couch.  The couch had been scooted closer to the fire and the glow danced on the boy who was somehow pale without looking lifeless.  That implication of a smile clung to him long before he woke. 

When he did wake, his eyes blinked open as if he'd only been napping.

Seogoong knew that Hojoon and P Goon would want him to tell them as soon as he’d woken, but he waited.  He smiled because the boy was smiling with drowsy eyes, completely unfazed by any strangeness.

“Hello,” someone said, either him or the boy, it didn’t matter and he couldn’t remember.

“My name’s Xero,” the boy told him without being asked.  His voice was still half asleep.

“Seogoong," he answered.

“Thank you for meeting me,” Xero said to him. 

That was an odd thing to say, in Seogoong's opinion, but he was beginning to understand he'd probably be having that thought a lot with this boy.

"Where did you come from?" Seogoong asked him, partially because it was his job and partially because he wanted to be sure the answer wasn't Mars.

It didn't take long to see that Xero didn't have an answer. 

"How about a real name?"

"I like Xero a lot."

This wasn't an answer, but Seogoong was too amused to care.  Xero caught his attempt to pin down a smile and tried to share the look with him.

In an attempt to maintain professionalism, Seogoong continued, "What were you doing by the powerlines?"

He was sad when Xero seemed to retreat back into himself, eyes dimming like the answer was buried deep in his mind. "I fell," he said distantly.  Seogoong scrunched his face in confusion and was about to ask more when the younger suddenly broke out into a fit of coughing.

Xero leaned over the edge of the couch, violently coughing like something was caught in his throat.  Seogoong instinctually grabbed his shoulder to keep him from falling.

When the coughing subsided, the younger shook the fit off immediately, eyes crinkling again with an offhand "Wow," as if he was impressed with himself.

Seogoong was too distracted to respond.  He reached out and plucked a small black feather that had appeared at the edge of the boy's mouth.  He held up the damp feather so that Xero could see, expecting an explanation but getting only bright eyes watching him back.  A creeping sense of wonder entered Seogoong's thoughts at this strange kid he'd found in the snow.  Taking his chances, he asked outright,

"Xero, is there anything you can do that other people can't?"

Smile becoming almost impish in its twinkle, Xero turned to the tabletop lamp next to him and stretched his arm out to touch the bulb.  The lamp came to life with a steady glow.

Looking a little pale from the effort but smiling none the less, Xero settled back down on the couch, the lamp going off as soon as his fingers left it.  He looked for Seogoong's approval.

The older was staring at him in amazement, finally managing, "That'll do."

"Does that mean I can stay here?"

Taken aback, Seogoong laughed, "You don't even know where here is."

"I like it here, though," Xero said, playing with a loose thread on the couch, head resting again on the armrest.

Feeling a strange combination of wretched and endeared, Seogoong said, "Don't worry about it.  I think they're gonna like you.  Plus," he pointed at the lamp, "you already passed the audition."

He smiled at Xero, expecting him to be smiling back, only to see that the boy had closed his eyes again. 

Seogoong never did find out the answers to his questions but, of all of them, Xero seemed to be the least concerned about his origin.  Seogoong had found him in the snow, and Xero never seemed like he wished to be unfound.