Space Between us /Vhope/

Prologue

1957–Maine

A palm of a hand pressed over Jung Hoseok's mouth, waking him with a scary gasp. Seokjin hovered over, signaling him to be quiet. "Come look at the sky." He hushes so the younger brother nods and he takes his palm off his mouth.

It was cold outside, the breeze is even colder despite the season being Spring, but it is the state of Maine. The two brothers hurried outside, and up the hill covered in soft dandelions the green of fireflies. Hoseok peered upward to the clear night sky glowing with millions of stars.  "The moon looks like a banana."

"Its called the waxing crescent." Hoseok corrected Seokjin.

"Whatever. Its not a the last phase till new moon." 

"Yeah cause it already happened." He rolled his eyes at his brother who chuckles. They are both space nerds but only Hoseok hides his passion for it in fear of bullying.  "If you brought me out here just to stare at the moon, I'll beat you up tomorrow."

"It's for Sputnik, it'll fly over soon."

"Really! Who told you?"

"They said it on the radio. Just wait." Seokjin ran back to the house, leaving Hoseok sitting on top of the hill by himself. He looked at the glowing dots that formed a big kite shining better than most stars.  "Hello Big Dippy." He greets, relaxing to the sound of crickets.  

Watching the pool of dots above, he jumps to his feet after one of the dots glided. A sound he couldn't recognize came out his mouth at the shock.  "Jin, it's Sputnik!" He yells, hearing running steps behind him.

Seokjin arrived holding the radio in his arms. Both of their heads moved slowly as they followed the dot rapidly moving across the sky.  "This is what it sounds like." He turned on the wave radio and sank in silence as the only thing that filled their ears is the 'beep, beep' sound of the satellite.

"It can be heard each time it rounds the globe. Isn't that neat?"

"For an object flying at 18,000 miles per hour, it is a milestone in history." Hoseok rambles to his older brother. There isn't a time a textbook is not in his hands.  "I'm gonna go into space. I'll touch the stars with you."

"Ha, I'm not going with you."

"Why not?"

Hoseok faced Seokjin smirking,  "It's cold and scary up there. I'm good here." He shrugged,  "yeah. Here, where we get rocks thrown at us. You can come work with me at NASA, Hobi. You're so smart you can help me, help them achieve milestones."

To this, the younger man only shrugged once more. He graduated early and with honors for his high wits, but never found a good place to nurture his skills for aerodynamics.  "You always built plastic built rockets, you can build one for us. I told the board about you."

"Jin, I'm not an astronaut like you."

"You can be a great aeronautical engineer. The first Korean to do that. We can achieve great things."

Hoseok remained silent. Seokjin already is the first Korean man to successfully enter the space program and begin aerospace training. "Why would they need me?" Hoseok asked, starting to go back down the hill. His brother caught up, resting his arm over Hoseok's shoulder. "You're good at mathematics, physics, chemistry, you can communicate. Hobi, you're a genius. I know you can do this, I don't want you to continue hiding." He basically begged.

While everything he said is true, society scares him to death. Seokjin got in his way to stop him from walking. "Please, Hobi, we gotta change society's view on us. We're nothing if we don't."

Leaving Maine to live in the south terrified Hoseok. Maine has been safe to roam about without a worry in the world. Especially in the rural least populated areas. But in the south, things are insane down there with segregation and the civil rights movement.

He is basically at fault with the colored; an enemy to the white folk. But he has to be honest with himself and come to terms that he has no other choice. Seokjin is his only family in a country that hates outsiders. They'll never survive without each other's protection.

So, Hoseok stared into his brother's deep brown eyes. He sighed deeply,
.
.
.

1958, Virginia

Hoseok hunched over the railing outside the main STEM building. A big gulp of puke rised up and out, spewing all over the freshly tarred parking lot.

Seokjin came up behind him, caressing his back in a circular motion. "I told you not to eat that sub." It wasn't the ham sub he ate earlier that made him sick, but the overwhelming nerves and anxiety of facing the recruiters. Seokjin had previously said the interview would only be conducted by one person. Not the head of every department together in one lecture hall.

A punch to shoulder shoved Seokjin backward, "you insolent dufus I was ready to die back there."

"Did you die?"

"I wanted to!"

"But you didn't!.." he brings his brother into his chest and Hoseok happily hugs him back. "That job is definitely yours."

"How can you tell?"

"Not one person paid attention to nothing else but you. They were sold. We're going out for drinks tonight."

*******

Alcohol usually turned Hoseok into an energetic ball of crack-cocaine. If he could be an animal it be a ferret, by how much he hops around.

That was four shots of rum ago.

Now he's lost his smile and is now a judgmental frown that would make anyone think he's a major hater. His entire face is glowing red from the alcohol content invading his bloodstream.

"Hobi, listen to me." Seokjin snapped his fingers to bring him back from the abyss. He hadn't realized the beautiful woman of deep olive skin sitting on Seokjin's lap, and her arm wrapped around his shoulder. "Hey missus."

"Well hiii." The lady replied in her heavy southern accent. "This is Anya, she works at Langley with us too. Communications."

"Respectfully, badass-ery." Hoseok stammered.

His older brother explained to her that he's drunk though everything is a blur. "I got you a gift so you can hang it in your new office." Hoseok fixed his rude looking gaze on his brother getting something from under the table then set it on top. "Ah!" He shrieked.

A celestial map of the night sky with astronomical objects laid out on a grid system. "That looks interesting." Anya says as she adjusts herself on Seokjin's lap. "A star chart. They are used to identify and locate constellations, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets."

"Nerds huh." Seokjin coughed jokingly. "Thank you elder sibling." Hoseok winks and then starts to roll the map. Said elder sibling shot him a disgusted expression,  "just say Hyung." 

"Aniyo."

An hour passed like a blur. Seokjin had left with Anya to their place while Hoseok remained at the table looking over the star chart. He picked himself up knowing he's good enough to walk back home. The night sky is clear, he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to peer upward. 

It looks like the chart. Even more curious, he opens the map and holds it up.  "It's camouflaged."

"It sure does appear camouflaged." Hoseok shuts up after thinking that maybe he isn't speaking to himself. He turned his head to see a man about his age, perhaps a little younger, standing next to him. Eyes to the sky as well.  "If you move it just a tad," he moved Hoseok's arms to the side so the map blends with the stars perfectly by the way he holds it.  "You can barely see yourself holding it. Its like you're reaching out." His deep yet smooth voice was music to Hoseok's ears.

He faced the stranger, taking in his unique features. V-shaped face, marked by slim cheeks and a structured jawline. The way he's dressed denotes simple elegance, an upper middle class. What stands out the most in his face are his unique eyes. The stranger has both monolid and double eyelid eyes, which give his face a striking aura.

Too handsome to be real. 

"Maybe you should snap a photo so you can stare longer."