Baekhyun couldn't even remember how many of them there were in the beginning. Was it more than twenty? Less? At this point, he could maybe remember the names of about ten stars that used to be a part of the same constellation as him. 

They were a family.

Until it was only him and Minseo left. 

Star by star, everyone fell to the Earth. Sehun was first, sometime when humanity was in its infancy, then Seulgi in the early hundreds, Seulgi in medieval times, and Joohyun right after her—they probably met on that cursed planet if they had the luck to fall near each other. Then Minho and Kibum during the industrial revolution, Yerim during the war… 

He couldn't remember anyone else, but he knew, he was damn sure that there were more of them embellishing the sky during the night like little pieces of glitter thrown into the air. 

Until It was only him and Minseo. And then she fell too, leaving him alone in the place that was designed to be their home.

Decades passed with no one to talk to, no one to shine for during the lonely nights. The Gods warned him that when a star didn't gleam no one would wish upon them, and that would only weaken them. Until they couldn't hold up themselves in the sky anymore. But despite knowing it, Baekhyun hid from people, not wanting to look at the creatures that in his opinion deprived him of his family. 

It was their choice—he respected that. Minseo even asked him to go with her because it would surely be easier if they fell together. He refused like a coward.  

Stars weren't meant to fall this frequently. It was supposed to be the highest form of punishment from the Gods dealt only as a warning, but it was more of a slap on a wrist than anything serious. The Gods loved them, cared for them the same way a loving parent takes care of their children. But even the best parents were capable of making mistakes. 

Minseo fell not only from the firmament but also in love. With a mortal girl. She was cast out of the heavens for it and the only way she could return to the heavens or continue her stay on Earth was to make someone fall in love with her . 

When she achieved that, she didn't come back. 

Baekhyun knew his time on Earth wouldn't be infinite—there were certain conditions that had to be met before the gods would allow him to stay. He knew he wouldn't be able to make someone fall in love with him. Much less fall in love himself. He couldn't achieve the same thing as Minseo.

And yet he fell, knowing that he had limited time to find her. It was worth it even if he was meant to see her only once again. 

*** 

Farther Than the Sky

A story-driven game where all your choices matter and might eventually help you change the inevitable… and maybe even help you discover your origins. 

Recent reviews: Overwhelmingly positive (582)

All reviews: Overwhelmingly positive (53,301)

Developer: loey

Publisher: loey

Popular user-defined tags for this product: Great soundtrack, Indie, Multiple Endings

 

user: 6oWo9

105 products in this account 1 review

best game

 

user: 5racoons

33 products in this account 20 reviews

It's a good game but don't go on DeviantArt, not worth the trauma.

 

user: CHERRUBBS  

Very good game. Don't let the fandom scare you away.

 

Clicking off the website, Chanyeol swore to never read the reviews again.

 He knew he was lying to himself.

*** 

Chanyeol was a man who lived his life with a sense of quiet content. He liked his job at the planetarium, he enjoyed the early-morning walks with his dogs as he listened to another conspiracy theory podcast, he even thought his apartment was in the perfect location—not too far from his workplace or the metro station. And ultimately, he was reconciled with the success of his game. No matter how much stress it brought him in the beginning.

He had a good relationship with his family, amazing friends, and still… He'd felt like he'd been stuck in one place for years . Never growing, never changing, always just being content . Never heartbroken or euphoric, as if either of the extremes would break the delicate balance in his life. 

If one's life could be shown on a graph, there would be ups and downs, the line would tangle, rise and fall, never staying the same for too long. His would be a more or less a straight line, somewhere in the upper half. 

It was starting to get boring. 

Chanyeol wasn't unhappy—he was just fed up, looking for a way to reinvent himself. Or maybe not exactly fed up, more like guilty for not feeling satisfied with the success of his creative projects and only being ever stressed over them. 

His job was more of a hobby—just another thing to pass the time and kill the boredom that seeped into his bones with each passing day. He didn't earn much, but it wasn't like he needed it. Unless he made a terrible investment and went bankrupt, he could live comfortably for the rest of his life on the money he was making from the game. And the soundtrack, frankly, it was the OST that was making the bank.

Working at the planetarium wasn’t exciting in any sense of the word, but he got free tickets for some of the shows so he didn’t mind the boredom most nights. It gave him time to think about his next projects—at night, the planetarium was quieter than his faulty mind. 

Chanyeol noticed a long time ago, maybe when he was still a child who dreamed of this kind of life, that people liked to romanticize fame. As an adult, he wasn't famous in the "live fast and die young" kind of tragic way that was worthy of an art-house, movie biography with an indie soundtrack. Not really, he was famous but he wasn't a celebrity. The only people who knew his real name were users of obscure music forums. He wasn't well-known outside a small circle, but his work was, and that kind of fame didn't get romanticized often. 

And as much as he was grateful to lead a quiet life, it was… uninspiring. It was probably this desperate need of inspiration, of finding his muse again perhaps, that led him to the fourth-story window of the planetarium. Shooting stars weren't that uncommon and this one was barely visible as it simply didn't want to be noticed. As if it wanted to disappear in the vastness of the sky, its fall ignored by everyone. 

Except for Chanyeol. 

I want… something interesting to happen , he thought as the tail of the star vanished. While Chanyeol firmly believed that the saying "May you live in interesting times" was indeed a powerful curse, but , he had to experience it himself, just to be sure. 

And just as if the universe heard his plea, Chanyeol heard a noise outside. He ran out of the building without a second thought, his feet tripping on the stairs as he rushed through the long hallways of the planetarium. He was sure he saw someone fall—it must've been a human silhouette, there was no doubt in his mind.  

Staring at the stranger crouched on the sidewalk and feeling the chilly air on his face, Chanyeol took the first step towards him. He looked… like a normal guy, not someone who had just fallen from the sky. Sure, his hair was a mess and his shirt was half-ed, but that was expected after what he’d experienced. 

"Are you… okay?" Chanyeol asked dumbly, already reaching for his phone to call for an ambulance. "Do you need someone to talk to? Hey, please, say something or I’ll have to call for help. For your own good," he added, already unlocking his phone.

The man’s eyes widened. "What day is it?"

So the man failed the first question on the concussion checklist by himself. "Okay, this is not good… Do you remember what happened prior to the impact?"

"I mean, I just fell?"

"From where?"

The man aggressively pointed at the sky. Chanyeol was seriously wondering whether he was talking to someone who had just tried to take his own life.

"That's not good… Uhm, what’s your name then?"

"Baekhyun."

"Okay, then, who’s the president?" Chanyeol asked, dialing for the ambulance. This was clearly a concussion, no matter if the man got his question right.

"Syngman Rhee?"

Correction, this was a mild or a severe concussion. "Uhm, yes, hello. I’m pretty sure my friend has a mild concussion? Yes, yes, I asked him several things and he doesn’t really remember the impact…" he said, waiting for the paramedic on the other end to finish typing something into their database. "Yes, do you know where the planetarium is? Okay, okay—thank you, we will wait here." Chanyeol hung up, looking at the dazed man again who was now laughing. 

"That wasn’t the correct answer."

"Yeah, we’re not in the 50s anymore. Thank god."

Baekhyun drew his lips into a thin line, looking disappointed. He seemed about Chanyeol's age. And maybe it was just due to the injury, but he also appeared to be weary, as if he had to carry the weight of the entire world on just his shoulders. Or at least that was Chanyeol’s first impression. "What’s your name then?"

"Right, it’s Chanyeol. I work in the planetarium and I saw you… well, jump? It kind of looked like you fell from the sky. There’s no better way to describe it." There was just something heartbreaking in the way he looked at Chanyeol. Like he was his only hope even though they had just met. 

"Because I did!" Baekhyun insisted. 

"Did what?"

"Fall from the sky! I’m a star for ’s sake."

"Are you really?"

"Yes?"

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because I told you so!" he laughed. 

Chanyeol sat on the sidewalk next to him. "Why did you fall then?" 

Baekhyun sighed. "I wanted to find my sister again. We lost contact decades ago."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Chanyeol said, "Decades? You don't look a day over… twenty-four maybe. You look like you're in your mid-twenties."

"I mean, I don't know how old this body is? Not gonna lie, I don't know if it's supposed to have an age? How old are you, Chanyeol?"

"I'm twenty-nine in November." He shrugged. He really shouldn't argue with Baekhyun and let the medical staff deal with him.  

"Okay, so I'm also twenty-nine now." Baekhyun smiled. "Well, this body is. I wouldn’t even know how to measure my actual age."

"It must to be immortal," Chanyeol said, looking at the man, "to watch every person you love die."

Baekhyun laughed and it was the saddest sound Chanyeol had heard in a while. "You have no idea."

"Do we know each other?" Chanyeol asked, finally satisfying his curiosity. He'd been wondering about it for a couple of minutes. "Because you seem familiar." 

It was hard to explain. Chanyeol had a good memory for faces, but sometimes it was impossible to tell if he really recognized someone or if he just could tell they reminded him of someone he knew. It was the case with Baekhyun. He couldn't just quite figure out which of the possibilities it was. 

He seemed familiar as if he knew him at one point in his life. Maybe it was in a different one because he surely would remember someone so beautiful. And possibly very troubled. 

Chanyeol didn't believe in past lives, he hardly believed in anything spiritual at all, but he felt pulled towards Baekhyun like a magnet to metal. Like they shared a soul at some point. 

"I doubt it. Like really, it's impossible."

"I'm just saying… you sure you don't go to bars in this area? Maybe I've seen you around?" Chanyeol insisted, determined to learn what the stranger was doing prior to ending up in such a bizarre situation. 

"I'm telling you, it's impossible. Are you even listening to me?" he huffed, running his hands through his hair.

The ambulance pulled off right next to the entrance to the planetarium. The paramedics walked out of the car just a few seconds later. Chanyeol waved at them and got off the ground to walk through the necessary procedures. Baekhyun just continued to sit on the sidewalk, waiting for something to happen.

The paramedics guided him to the car, helping him make the biggest step. Chanyeol followed them and watched as one of them performed several checks.

"Oh wow, you can hear my heartbeat!" Baekhyun pointed at the monitor showing his pulse. "This is so cool!" He seemed much more lively now—kind of like he was putting on a cheerful mask. It all seemed like a front to Chanyeol, just an act so that people would leave him in peace. And maybe he was projecting to a degree, but something did seem off about Baekhyun just minutes before. 

One of the paramedics lowered herself to face Chanyeol. "Should we check for alcohol? Is your friend drunk?"

Chanyeol had to think for a few seconds. He was supposed to be this man’s friend—that was what he'd told them on the phone a couple of minutes ago. Friends should be able to recognize it when the other was drunk, right? "I don’t think he is?" he said, hearing the uncertainty in his own voice. "But he just… called me in the middle of the night, and I didn't really know what he was doing beforehand. So maybe it’s safer to check. For other things too..."

"Do you think this was… an attempt? He must’ve fallen from quite a high place to end up with such a concussion."

"No," Chanyeol said, somehow feeling that he was telling the truth. "No, I’m sure this was an accident but he might be embarrassed to admit it now—he’s sometimes like that."

"Are you close friends?"

The question caught Chanyeol off guard. "We know each other quite well, we’ve grown apart over the years due to my job, but we used to be really close," he lied, the words easily rolling off his tongue. He was used to omitting the truth; it was like second nature to him. 

"Oh, where do you work then?" the paramedic asked, preparing the breathalyzer. 

"I’m a programmer. I just work part-time here." This was the first true thing he’d said this evening. 

"Ah, so long hours… just like us here." She smiled. "Yeah, it’s easy to