Episode 5

Jimin closes his eyes, "What's it say?"

"I thought you wanted to sleep." Jungkook's voice is flat, but the hitch tells Jimin that he's gloating. He loves gloating.

"I do."

"Then why do you wanna know what it says?"

"Curious."

"How're you gonna read it if you're sleeping?"

"Read it out loud."

"What?"

Jimin opens one eye again, a grin slipping over his lips, "Read it out loud. Then I'll know what it says and not have to read it myself. And I like your voice--you have a nice voice. I hear you singing in the public showers all the time."

Jimin can't really tell if it's the morning light hitting Jungkook's face at just the right angle, or if he's just blushing too hard, but the effect is nice. Jungkook's cheeks are a soft shade of morning pink, dipping in gold as he takes a deep breath and lowers his eyes to the page.

Jimin had never known so many things about cherry blossoms but he thinks that pretty as they may be, they'll never be quite as pretty as Jungkook's blush that morning.

"I've decided that cherry blossoms are my favorite flower," Jungkook says that night, their shoulders pressed, looking up at the night sky.

"You haven't even seen a real one before."

"Yeah, I know, but I saw them in that book and they're really pretty. And maybe when we get to this new planet and make friends with the people there, we can convince them to plant some."

"Jungkook, you know that they're extinct right? Where are you gonna get the seeds?"

Jungkook turns his head to give Jimin a look, "You wanna tell me that we've been able to genetically engineer human beings, control the entire genome down to the last letter, and we won't be able to reproduce a cherry tree seed to plant on whatever planet we're gonna land on?"

Jimin huffs. "Alright, alright. Point taken," and then he sighs, wistful and soft, "think it'll be nice there? Wherever we're going?"

"Better be--I'm trying to start the first ever zero-grav team there."

"All you need is a ball and a zero-grav field. That can literally be done anywhere in space cause no gravity in space, remember?"

"Yeah, but how awesome would it be to have like, aliens versus humans games?" Jungkook is grinning too wide.

"You're so weird--one second you're talking about planting cherry trees, the next you're talking about orchestrating zero-grav football games between two species." Jimin shakes his head and lets out a laugh.

"What can I say? I'm a man of many interests."

Jimin scoffs, but it turns into another laugh and he's nodding, "Of course you are--hey," he lifts his head up from the quilt and reaches around him, pulling out a book, a thin book, and flipping open the cover, digging a pocket fuse out to shine it on the pages.

"Which one's that?" Jungkook asks, turning onto his stomach, chin resting against Jimin's shoulder.

"The Little Prince," Jimin says, pointing to a picture of a tiny blond-haired boy standing on a planet with flowers and tiny mountains.

"Is it good?" Jungkook asks as Jimin flips to the first page. He shrugs.

"Dunno yet."

By the time they finish, the both of them feel like their hearts are going to pump right out of their mouths and they go to sleep promising each other to always love sunrises more than sunsets. And Jimin decides that this is his favorite book of all time.

Notices fly through every single holographic device in the entire world--the last ship is leaving in two days. Bring only what you need and nothing else. Supplies will be provided on the ship and partitioned after the headcount has been completed. Please check to make sure you are on the registered name list to confirm your space upon the spacecraft.

"We've confirmed, right?" Jimin asks, peering over the top ofThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Jungkook is sitting at the other end of the sofa, speeding through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

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