Luhan has a talk with himself about the future.

There’s a certain guilt to be felt when falling in love with distant things. It’s a sin that was never written, but every human has experienced. Material happiness takes to new heights with each passing year, and we find ourselves sourced farther and farther from our original places in the universe. Each microscopic place where our souls will once die has been marked by a reservation notice. We’ll soon, one day, return as the stars we once were. One day, we shall be great again. However, for now,  we hover. Our existences are not as bright as they were, because it’s in our favor to be devoid of light. No longer will we illuminate the sky; no longer are we distant suns.

The_deer:  when can we meet?

TheHunDynasty:  not today

The_deer:  you said that yesterday...are we /ever/ gonna meet?

TheHunDynasty: yes, I promised

The_deer:  i feel like youre lying to me about something and thats why you keep canceling our meetups

TheHunDynasty:  thats not it, I just have a lot of stuff to do today. we will meet and im not lying to you

The_deer:  ...i want to meet today or not at all. fountain in the park in 10 minutes. i’ll wait for 20 minutes and if you dont show ill leave and never talk to you again.

(The_deer has left the chat)

Luhan closes his computer before seeing if he has a reply. He doesn’t want to  see an excuse decorate the bleak white screen anymore. He pulls his jacket on with lacklustre movements. He’s already assured himself that the other person will not show.

Though he has set the meeting time for ten minutes later, he arrives at the fountain early. Ants pool around the tips of his fingers as he digs them into the damp concrete he’s sitting on. He keeps a close eye on his phone. On the front screen, the time is displayed above the head of a slightly smiling boy. Luhan repeatedly unlocks his phone to both check the time and look at the boy’s face. He wants to make sure he can remember it enough to pick it out of a crowd.

Luhan sits in the exact same spot for an hour, forty minutes past the original time he’d set to wait. Though he expected the disappointment, it still adds an extra sting to the rain that’s falling as he walks home.

He doesn’t open his computer. There’s no need to. It’s four in the afternoon, and he plans to sleep.

Luhan wakes to a noise emitting loudly from his computer, and he’s barely awake when he opens the device with hesitance before observing the screen. Despite his jabs to the ‘off’ button, the screen continues to flash between black and static. He’s about to shut the computer completely, when a face takes residence on the monitor  in place of the static.

“Luhan, can you hear me?”

The face on the screen, the voice he’s hearing, is his own.

“Can you see me, Luhan?”  His first thought, is that he’s in a dream, and it’s this thought that allows him to finally respond.

“What’s happening?”

“I’m contacting you through a multimedia communication platform. I believe you call it ‘Skype’.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m you. More accurately, I’m your clone. In many respects, you’re my grandfather.”

“Is this a dream?”

“If it comforts you to think that way, yes. This is a dream. Would you like to know why I’m here, in your dream, Luhan?”

“Are you going to warn me that I’m going to die soon?”

“We’re all going to die, but you won't. Not yet, anyway. I will die, however. Very soon, I’m afraid.  The world, as I’ve come to know it, is ending. Right now, people are spending the last of their time and money to try to teleport  to safer places. Teleportation is  a risky process, and many of them have accidentally stranded themselves in the middle of open space.  At night, their frozen, dead bodies reenter the earth. When I’m feeling lonely, I watch them fall. From my window, they look like passing comets or shooting stars. It’s… beautiful. “

“Are you going to try that?”

“No. After this conversation, I plan to die naturally.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry. I am you, remember? As long as you’re alive, I will be too. I’m a fortieth generation clone, but I’d like to think we share a great deal in common. Would you like to know about our future?”

“Is it bad?”

“No, it’s lovely. As your clone, we share a few of the same memories. I find that our future, is a lot like our past.  Do you remember a drawing of a boy that you did in third grade?”

“David?”

“Yes, David. I’m glad you remember. David, the drawing, was our first love. Do you remember this? Your parents thought it was silly that you were so taken by an inanimate object, but he was beautiful to us. What happened to him?”

“I’m not sure. I think maybe I threw the drawing away.”

“Ah, well… fitting, I suppose.  In my time, when I was a child, a museum produced the first brain dead  clone as an art piece. The community was encouraged to watch the clone grow. As a child, I never knew the importance of this, but I named the clone David; like your drawing. Every day after school, I would sit with David until I was forced to go home.  Over time, I grew to love David very deeply.  When I was fifteen, David died. So as not to cause a fuss, the museum removed the body quietly, and never spoke of the art piece again.  When I turned nineteen, I met another clone like David. His name was Sehun.  I loved Sehun even more than I loved David, and we got together very quickly.  Sehun was a fortieth generation clone like me, and I liked that.  We spent almost every moment of  our lives together. Months quickly turned into years, and much like many clones our age, we planned on recloning together. “

“As an older clone, Sehun showed many signs of deterioration. Slowly, he lost the ability to perform daily functions… but I loved him as if he were original.”

“What happened to him?”

“He died.  Very recently.”

“I’m… so sorry.”

“I… I don’t have the mental capacity to process his loss, but sometimes...I sit alone and feel immensely sad. I sit that way for hours until I forget why I’m sitting there.”

“You were depressed.”

“Depressed… yes, I suppose so. Would you like to see my favourite memory of him?”

“Yes.”

The image that follows isn't intelligible in Luhan a eyes. It looks to be a mix of bright colors. Nothing is happening, the just seem to fluctuate across the computer screen until his face takes residence again. 

"Did you see?"

"Yes, but I don't understand it. What is it?"

"That was the first day I'd ever spent with Sehun. He'd taken me to the park. My vision was leaving  me at the time, and I could only process the colors. It was... Beautiful."