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"And there's room! Open country. Woods and fields. I like the outdoors. You know, room to grow," Hyunjin said.

"Now you're back to advertising," Y/n gave him a look whilst smiling.

"Can't it still be true?" Hyunjin said tilting his head, challenging the girl.

HIBERNATION BAY

Hyunjin and Y/n walk down an aisle of hibernation pods.

"You know how much the Homestead Company's made off its first planet, Homestead I? Over eight quadrillion dollars. That's eight million billion. Colony planets are the biggest business there is. Did you pay full price for your ticket?" Y/n asks, looking over at Hyung who was walking right beside her. Y/n wasn't short but compare to Hyunjin she was.

"No, I'm in a desirable trade," Hyunjin smiled.

Triumphantly Y/n says, "So they fill your head with dreams, discount your ticket, and you fly off to populate their planet and pay HomeStead ten percent of everything you do for the rest of your life. You think you're free? You're just part of the business plan,".

Hyunjin waves at the rows of sleepers. "So, all you see here is five thousand suckers?" Hyunjin questioned whilst smiling.

"I see zeroes on the HomeStead Company's bottom line," Y/n said turning to Hyunjin.

"I see five thousand men and women changing their lives. For five thousand different reasons. You don't know these people," Hyunjin said as he walks up to a hibernation pod. Glances at the data screen. He covers the screen with his hand. "This guy. Banker, teacher, or gardener?" Hyunjin asks smiling. Y/n studies the sleeper: a barrel-chested man of 50 with grey temples and a jutting jaw.

"Banker," Y/n says.

"Gardener," Hyunjin smiles. Hyunjin moves down the row, peeks at another screen, covers it. "Is this Madison, Donna, or Lola?". Y/n peers over Hyunjin: a birdlike young woman with long red hair.

"She's too silly to be a Donna. I think she's a Lola"

"Madison. Chef, accountant, or midwife?" Hyunjin says raising his eyebrows.

"She has to be a midwife. There's no way you made that one up," Y/n chuckles.

Hyunjin chuckles as well, "She's a midwife. I didn't know they still had midwives," Hyunjin smiles looking at the women with Y/they move among the sleepers, quizzing each other.

Pointing at a man and woman side by side Y/n taps Hyunjin," Married or strangers,".

Hyunjin thinks about his answer, "married,". Y/n nods an impressed nod.

"Sixteen, twenty-six or thirty-six," Hyunjin says indicating to a young woman.

"I'd almost say sixteen... twenty-six," Y/n says.

"Right," Hyunjin smiles.

Y/n points to an older woman, "Politician, historian, or artist?"

"I don't know. Artist?" Hyunjin guesses.

"It doesn't say. But I'll tell you this: I like her. We'd be friends," Hyunjin looks at Y/n seriously.

"You think you can see that?" Hyunjin asks.

"Don't you?" Y/n asks. Hyunjin looks at the woman in the pod. Smiles.

"Yeah" he says smiling.

FORWARD OBSERVATION DECK - DAY

Hyunjin and Y/n sit at opposite ends of a sofa - their feet almost but not quite touching. They are shipping brightly coloured cocktails.

"That was my plan. Travel to Homestead II. Live there for a year and see what emigrating's really like. Then back to Earth. I'm the only passenger on board with a round-trip ticket," Y/n said before taking a large gulp of her drink.

Hyunjin perplexed by her answer, "I left Earth for a new life. But you end up back where you started,".

"I end up in the future. Two hundred and fifty years in the future. On Earth, which is still the centre of civilization, overcrowded or not. And I arrive in the future with an amazing story. A perspective no other writer has. Literary immortality," Y/n says.

"And what's this amazing story?" Hyunjin asks.

"The selling of the colonial dream," Y/n smiles.

"Big plans," Hyunjin respond.

"My friends threw me this huge farewell party. Everyone came. It was the happiest, saddest night. And look what it's all come to," Y/n sighs. "Hyunjin, I can't think of anything else to try. To save us, I mean. I don't even want to think about it anymore. So, what is there to do around here?"

MOVIE THEATER - DAY

Hyunjin leads Y/n into the movie theatre. The lights come up. The curtain opens. Y/n looks around in wonder. A bundle of cables snakes down the aisle.

"Watch your step. I've made a few changes," Hyunjin says, lending a handout for Y/n to grab. She takes his hand, and he leads her to his favourite seat. Next to Hyunjin's favorited seat there's a cluster of machines with power cables and hoses running to them. Hyunjin and Y/n sit. A screen beside Hyunjin lists movies. "I got tired of running up to the projector room, so I moved the controls down here. Thirty thousand movies to choose from. I've only watched about five hundred of them," Hyunjin laughs. He taps a button on another machine, which produces a bucket of hot popcorn. He offers Y/n some. "Popcorn?" Y/n grins and takes some.

GYMNASIUM - BASKETBALL COURT - DAY

Hyunjin and Y/n play one-on-one. She's not especially good, but fiercely competitive. They jostle and scramble, laughing. Y/n snags the ball. For a minute she just stands there, beaming.

"What are you so happy about?" Hyunjin laughs.

"I'm up two points!" She cuts around him toward the basket.

DECK TWO - VIRTUAL MUSEUM - EVENING

Hyunjin and Y/n walk through the museum's white rooms. The walls display a Jackson Pollock collection. Y/n goes to the control podium. Scrolls through the menu, covers her eyes, and chooses blind. The wall panels fill with Hieronymus Bosch paintings -medieval visions of Hell. She winces and chooses again. A sombre collection of portraits by Dutch masters. She frowns. Hyunjin steps to her side and selects. The walls fill with abstract landscapes - stark plains and oceans, with lonely figures isolated in the vastness. The images pull Hyunjin and Y/n in: they stand before a dark seascape. Without thinking she reaches out and tucks her hand in the crook of his elbow.

ONE MONTH LATER

SWIMMING POOL - MORNING

Y/n swims laps, cutting through the water. In the balcony above the pool, Hyunjin stands watching her. Y/n, making a turn at the end of a lap, catches a glimpse of him but doesn't let on. Underwater she smiles.

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