Taehyung bangs his head on the table for what seemed to be the 100th time today. He has spent all day trying to get the program to work again. He has a feeling that it's beyond repairable.

"I'm going to head off. You should do the same," Hoseok says, putting a hand on Taehyung's shoulder. "Don't overwork yourself."

"How can I not? I never got to say goodbye to him, Hoseok. You don't know how much it eats me inside," Taehyung says, crying into his arms. "He means everything to me. You don't understand."

"I'm sorry, Tae... I do understand... It just hurts seeing you like this," Hoseok says.

Taehyung doesn't reply, making Hoseok sigh.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Tae."

The door closes, leaving Taehyung alone with his computer. He sighs, alone once again.

He wishes he had installed a backup system. He wasn't expecting all of this to happen, though. JK97 was initially made to live only 3-months. He smiles, thinking about how much they have accomplished. Over and over, they had broken what seemed to be the norm. They have written out what things are supposed to be, only for them to be shattered. Taehyung needs to continue that trend, but this latest roadblock is the most challenging.

"Wait a minute..." Taehyung pauses, thinking really hard. That's when it clicks. "The 0's & 1's backup communication protocol!" He completely forgot that he did have a backup plan. He frantically digs to find the function. When he spots the folder, everything starts to shatter down. He bursts into tears—happy tears.

The 0's & 1's backup communication protocol is what he installed in secret the day before JK97 left Earth. He then realises, maybe the program he installed onto JK97's internals extended his lifespan over the 3 month period, as it was originally designed to communicate back to Earth once his communicator battery runs out. The space program doesn't know about the function, so the protocol was left untouched.

He opens the program and starts to type a message. His heart starts to race as he types. The program automatically translates English into the coding language that is 0's & 1's.

010010100111010101101110011001110110101101101111011011110110101100101100001000000110000101110010011001010010000001111001011011110111010100100000011101000110100001100101011100100110010100111111

TH: (Jungkook, are you there?)

Taehyung waits nervously for a reply.

01010100011000010110010101101000011110010111010101101110011001110010110000100000011010010111001100100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000001111001011011110111010100111111

JK: (Taehyung, is that you?)

A smile widely displays across Taehyung's face as tears roll down his eyes. "It's really him."

01001001011101000010011101110011001000000110110101100101

TH: (It's me)

0100100100100000011001000110111101101110001001110111010000100000011000100110010101101100011010010110010101110110011001010010000001111001011011110111010100101110001000000101000001110010011011110111011001100101001000000110100101110100

JK: (I don't believe you. Prove it)

Taehyung frowns. What have they done to him? He was never distrusting. He thinks hard, trying to find something that will prove his identity. He starts to write.

0101100101101111011101010010000001101000011000010111011001100101001000000110000100100000011100100110111101100011011010110010000001101110011000010110110101100101011001000010000001010000011000010111010001110010011010010110001101101001011000010010110000100000011000010110111001100100001000000111100101101111011101010111001000100000011000100110100101100111011001110110010101110011011101000010000001110010011011110110001101101011001000000110100101110011001000000110111001100001011011010110010101100100001000000110000101100110011101000110010101110010001000000110110101100101

TH: (You have a rock named Patricia, and your biggest rock is named after me)

01001001011101000010011101110011001000000111001001100101011000010110110001101100011110010010000001111001011011110111010100101110001011100010111000100000010101110110100001100101011100100110010100100000011010000110000101110110011001010010000001111001011011110111010100100000011000100110010101100101011011100011111100100000010000110110000101101110001000000100100100100000011100110110010101100101001000000111100101101111011101010111001000100000011001100110000101100011011001010011111100100000010010010010000001101000011000010111011001100101001000000111001101101111001000000110110101100001011011100111100100100000011100010111010101100101011100110111010001101001011011110110111001110011

JK: (It's really you... Where have you been? Can I see your face? I have so many questions)

Taehyung smiles, wiping away his tears, sniffling. He proceeds to tell Jungkook about everything that happened and repeatedly apologises for leaving him alone.

0100100100100111011101100110010100100000011001000110100101110011011000110110111101110110011001010111001001100101011001000010000001100001001000000110111001100101011101110010000001100101011011010110111101110100011010010110111101101110

JK: (I've discovered a new emotion)

01010111011010000110000101110100001000000110100101110011001000000110100101110100

TH: (What is it?)

01001001001000000110011001101001011011100110000101101100011011000111100100100000011101010110111001100100011001010111001001110011011101000110000101101110011001000010000001110111011010000110000101110100001000000110100101110100001000000110011001100101011001010110110001110011001000000110110001101001011010110110010100100000011101000110111100100000011000100110010100100000011011000110111101101110011001010110110001111001

JK: (I finally understand what it feels like to be lonely)

"I—" Taehyung's bottom lip starts to tremble.

010100000110110001100101011000010111001101100101001000000110010001101111011011100010011101110100001000000110110001100101011000010111011001100101001000000110110101100101001000000110000101100111011000010110100101101110

JK: (Please don't leave me again)

Taehyung starts to type again, with much struggle. His fingers shake as his nerves begin to take over.

01001001001001110110110100100000011010000110010101110010011001010010000001101110011011110111011100101110001000000100100100100111011011000110110000100000011011100110010101110110011001010111001000100000011011000110010101100001011101100110010100100000011110010110111101110101001000000110000101100111011000010110100101101110

TH: (I'm here now. I'll never leave you again)

🤖

Years went by, and Taehyung made sure to communicate with Jungkook whenever he could. They didn't end up fixing the program, but Taehyung tries not to let it get him down. He is more than happy that he can still communicate with the rover. What they have is more than enough, and Taehyung is forever grateful. Because of the 0's & 1's protocol, the project stayed alive, as the space program had no reason to shut it down.

The team used its business partnership with ACE SPACE Magazine to consistently update the public on any news regarding JK97. Jungkook and Taehyung would talk about anything really for hours at a time. The small things are what mattered the most to them. Jungkook always keen to learn about Earth and discover new emotions, and Taehyung always wants to learn more about what Jungkook can do.

It's coming up to the 8-year mark since JK97 landed on Mars. The team had planned a celebration in the lab to honour Jungkook. Jungkook being jealous, made sure to make Taehyung promise to throw him a real party when he visits Earth. Taehyung never had the heart to tell him that it's improbable that Jungkook will be able to visit—well, at least in Taehyung's lifetime.

Taehyung sighs contently as he walks into the lab for another day with Jungkook. At this point, it doesn't even feel like working. He puts the kettle on and grabs a mug, ready for his morning coffee.

"Good morning, Taehyung," Jimin greets with a chirp. "Can you make me one too?"

Taehyung nods, grabbing another mug from the cupboard.

"Don't you think JK97 gets a bit lonely up there?" Jimin asks, tapping on his keyboard. "I was reading an article that analyses your chatlog with JK97. They think that he craves social interaction, just like we do as humans."

Taehyung hums in agreement. "I can't even imagine what it would be like up there. That's why I try my hardest to be there for him."

"We should totally make him a friend and send it off to Mars. We can call it PJ95," Jimin says.

Taehyung laughs. "Love the name. Very original."

"Right?"

"Speaking of Jungkook, have you talked to him this morning yet?" Taehyung asks.

"Haven't had time to. You can go ahead and boot the program up," Jimin says.

The kettle finishes boiling, and he pours the water into both mugs, stirring the coffee and milk so it's fully dissolved. He walks toward his desk, handing Jimin his coffee before sitting down. He boots up the program as he takes a sip of his coffee, cringing at the bitterness. "Shit, I forgot to put sugar in it."

The program boots up, and he sees a message from Jungkook. He smiles, waiting for the code to translate.

01001001001001110110110100100000011010000110010101110010011001010010000001101110011011110111011100101110001000000100100100100111011011000110110000100000011011100110010101110110011001010111001000100000011011000110010101100001011101100110010100100000011110010110111101110101001000000110000101100111011000010110100101101110

JK: (My battery is low, and it's getting dark. Thank you for believing in me)

"No..."

"What is it?"

"No!"

Taehyung frantically types a reply.

0100101001110101011011100110011101101011011011110110111101101011001111110010000001010111011010000110000101110100001000000110000101110010011001010010000001111001011011110111010100100000011100110110000101111001011010010110111001100111001111110010000001000001011100100110010100100000011110010110111101110101001000000110111101101011011000010111100100111111

TH: (Jungkook? What are you saying? Are you okay?)

01001001001000000110110001101111011101100110010100100000011110010110111101110101

JK: (I love you)

To be continued....

🤖

A.N: 

Thank you so much for reading! I really enjoyed writing this story and I'm so happy I got to share it with you guys. Sorry that it ended on a cliffhanger, but don't worry! I will be writing part two of the story !! Don't cry too much!!

Hope you all enjoyed it!

Love u~