-', ❝(014: 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻) ꒱ ↷👽🛸❞

"열넷"

"HUMANS ARE AN ODD SPECIES." Taehyung finally felt as though he could come out with his analysis of humans after spending so many weeks with one up close and personal, as well as watching human entertainment such as Euphoria. Aspen said it was a "good show" which must mean it is accurate to the human experience, correct?

Aspen glanced at his curious expression. It seems as though he's been thinking about this for a while, so she prompts him. "Why? I mean, you're not wrong, but why?" She was curious to see what in Taehyung's alien terms and standards was so strange about humans and Earth.

She probably shouldn't have asked because her egging him on only going him into a bit of a tangent.

"Well, for one, you have a weird infatuation with fire and heat. You "cook" your food before you eat it by heating it to the point that it's smoking, but isn't burned. It's odd and fascinating at the same time. Humans roll plants into paper and light it on fire to become intoxicated. You even inhale the smoke while embers burn away so close to your sensitive faces. You start fires and then instead of fleeing, you gather around it and start socializing. You use it to light glass jars full of scented wax to make your homes smell better." He had made a list of all the things he was fasinated about when it came to human culture. There was so much things he wanted to ask her about, to understand.

Aspen, however, found herself amused by his confusion. Something as simple as lighting a candle or a bonfire was foreign to him. He looked like he was having an existential crisis, a sort of confused panic that only makes her laugh.

"Why are you laughing, Human Aspen? I am being serious. You use powered pigments to decorate your faces and put ink under your skin as a beauty standard!" He flings his arms into the air with dramatic enthusiasm. "You say "ow" even when you haven't been hurt. You say it when you think you should've been hurt, but you aren't sure if you are." That one he had learned while watching Aspen. She would bum into something, whisper "ow" but keep going without even flinching.

Aspen began to laugh. She simply couldn't help it, he was simply to cute, too funny. Taehyung was confused on what she found so funny, he was being deadly serious.

"Oh, oh, Tae..." She choked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Aspen composed herself with a hearty sigh. "That was probably the cutest, most endearing thing I've ever heard in my life."

Taehyung was glad she found amusement in this, that he could get her to laugh. Sure, she sounded like a dying hyena with asthma, but she was happy nonetheless, so he was happy. She was falling all over him, giggling against his shoulder while she pinched his cheek endearingly. "You really don't understand what those things are, do you?"

Taehyung shook his head. "I do not. I would like you to explain them to me so that I can understand." He wanted to learn most about humans, he wanted to learn more about Aspen. Maybe in hopes that he could replicate what she does to make himself seem normal. Maybe he wanted to connect with her, to understand her life, her thoughts, her ways.

"May planets is very strict about things, you see." He explained to her. "We have different customs and traditions. I want to understand yours." Aspen can see that he's genuinely curious and interested to learn. She's never had to teach someone things that came naturally and seemed normal to her.

"Well," she began with a sigh, "if you're gonna be human for the time being, I suppose you should learn. They're things we don't even really think about or question much."

Taehyung sat up, posture pen straight as he prepared to learn. Oh how right she was. He was becoming more and more human as the days go by and he doesn't know how to stop it. He's getting actually hungry, his taste buds growing accustomed to the taste of human food. He gets tired regularly.

Aspen sat beside him, telling him about all the things he had mentioned before. She tried her best to explain it in a way he would understand. Most of his responses were "why" but there was only so much she could explain before she was at a loss of words.

She tried to explain other things to him. It seemed as though Taehyung was wrapping his head around most things just fine, some things he had some follow up questions to.

"Humans accept that on one night a year, an old, fat man breaks into their house, eats their food, and leave presents for their offspring all in one night? Has no one tried calling the authorities on this man? He is a criminal!" Taehyung couldn't believe humans would so recklessly endanger their offspring like that. What if this "Santa Claus" decided to steal away one of the? Who would catch this man.

Aspen sighed, a fond smile crossing her lips. "He's not actually a real person. Parents just tell their children that so that they'll behave."

Taehyung was truly horrified, yet, it wasn't entirely outlandish. "We have something like that on my planet. Children are told that if we defy our caretakers, a large beast called the Kaccou will snatch us away when no one is looking, gouge our eyes out to feast upon them and hang out organs from trees."

No, that's not at all similar. That was horrifying.

"Humans can survive a thin, sharpened metal cutting into their skin repeatedly?" Taehyung asked, making stabbing someone far more complicated and literal than it needed to be.

Aspen nodded once more. "Stabbing someone, yes."

He continued. "You can even survive a small metal object ripping through your body at upwards of 1,800 miles per hour?"

"Yep, that's called shooting."

Taehyung's lips turned into a pout and his finger came to tap on his chin. "Humans are far more durable than I initially thought." Yet, they are still so vulnerable and... squishy. They can die so easily and in the strangest was imaginable.

But then that also raised another question within Taehyung. He looked to Aspen, those big, round eyes staring at her in question. "Why would humans create such weapons of mass destruction to hurt or end the lives of other humans?"

Oh what an innocent soul. The world that Aspen lived in was cruel and unforgiving. Humans are creatures of war and destruction, leaving ruin wherever they stepped foot. Peace never lasted long among them.

Aspen knew this and sighed. "Because as much as humans are weird, they are horrible and have a craving desire to hurt other people. Humans are inherently selfish and bad."

Taehyung looked to her with confusion. His image of humans have been solely based on his image of Aspen and his interactions with her and Jin. Maybe media had a little influence on him, but he valued real life interactions over those performed by people pretending to be other people.

Sure, humans seem indecisive in what they want and their goals, what the choose as acceptable or not, but they didn't seem horrible or evil, or at least Aspen didn't.

She had no ill intentions with him as far as Taehyung could tell and she certainly didn't seem hell-bent on hurting him. She was hard and stern, but she was also kind and respectful. Taehyung could see that she was simply trying her best with the situation presented before her.

"You aren't like that." He spoke up, shaking his head in denial. He refused to believe it. "You aren't horrible or evil. You're good and kind and beautiful." Taehyung spoke with passion, adimant and sure in his assessment of her personality.

Aspen could feel her face heat up with his kind words. "I'm really not all that great." She waved her hand dismissively of his compliment.

Taehyung tilted his head. Why would she demote herself in such a way? Make herself less than what she was? A good, no, great person with a kind heart. It was all past him, beyond his realm of understanding. He was uneducated of the minds of humans, they way they worked and how most people tend to make themselves out to be lesser than they actually were.

"Yes you are. You are amazing, wonderful." Taehyung was saying any good word that came to mind because that's exactly how he'd describe her to anyone else.

Aspen slouched in the couch, burying her face into Taehyung's arm with embarrassment. Taehyung lifted his arm to look at her. "What? What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?!" His voice was panicked.

Aspen shook her head, looking away in any attempt to avoid his gaze as she grabbed the remote. "No. It's nothing. Let's just finish this episode before I start on dinner."

*.✧ Kᴀʏs Eɴᴅɪɴɢ Nᴏᴛᴇs

My sleeping schedule is all sorts of fucked up. I almost fell asleep in class for the first time.

Thank you all for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed and I wish you all a wonderful day/night.

사랑해

~Kay (｡・//ε//・｡)