final
Bird and PipesChanyeol didn’t know how he came to life. It was sudden and unexpected. One day he was sitting around in a folder in png format and the next day he was alive and flying, large beak and a pair of tiny wings.
He panicked when the ground rushed to meet him right after someone touched the space between him and the ground. He couldn’t flap his wings, he figured out later, which perplexed him. What surprised him more was the fact that he was being tapped by human thumbs. He hated being tapped. It was annoying and made him feel violated. And after a few times of painful head-butting the ground, he decided that he also hated the owner of those thumbs, which was a male human with a freakishly large eyes and thick lips.
But an object could only hate for so long. A few days later, he started to like how the scenery changes from day to night and the vibrant colors his pixelated feathers turned into. He guessed that his life wasn’t so bad, save for the rhythmical tapping and constant falling, which were getting less and less frequent.
***
One day, he heard the human speaking to another human in human code.
“Yixing I think we should make some challenges. The staying air-borne is getting boring.” Chanyeol heard, but couldn’t decipher what the codes mean. He was used to programmer codes, not human codes.
“Yeah Soo, I kinda wanna put some things there too. Like maybe, say, lines? Or bricks? Like in Super Mario.” The other human said.
“No no, not bricks, how about the pipes? I think pipes would look better with the scenery.”
And the next day he woke up, Chanyeol noticed a few strange things. He wasn’t alone in the tiny square. There was number above him and in front of him in the distance, he could see something. Despite his large eyes, he couldn’t really see well, so he was eager to get closer to the object. The usual tapping irked him less as he curiously gazed ahead.
Chanyeol think, no, knew that it was love at the first sight. As he floated closer to the green tube, he could see the shiny object more clearly. Chanyeol think he was the most elegant object he had ever seen in his boring life. He was tall, unlike himself, and he looked so strong and sturdy.
Chanyeol was just starting to greet the green tube when his beak touched him and he fell directly to the ground, staring straight up at the sky, petrified.
Chanyeol heard the green tube’s surprised “What was that?! Hey are yo-” and suddenly he was fluttering his wings in the sky again, his previously yellow feathers now blue.
He spotted the tube again in the distance and curiosity got him once more. This time he acted fast.
“Hey green tube! I’m Chanyeol. What’s your name?” He called out.
“Oh hi there I’m Kai. Was that you who hit m-“ and Chanyeol fell to the ground when his bottom touched Kai. “-e just now… ouch, why did you fall?” Kai’s question was left unanswered as Chanyeol went back to floating in the air, Kai now far distance ahead.
A few falls and bumps later, Chanyeol figured out that he couldn’t touch Kai lest he fall. Chanyeol never hated the thumbs more at that time. The conversations were always cut because the dumb owner of the thumb couldn’t maneuver him. He went past 4th Kai once and that was the longest he’d spoken with Kai.
***
Chanyeol thought Kai was the nicest object. He was caring and sweet, always blurting out automatic “I’m sorry, are you okay, Channie?” whenever he fell and “Be careful!” whenever Chanyeol came too close to him. He fell more in love with him in that short 10 minutes of ‘play again’ button abuse. Their conversations were what Chanyeol waited for. The tapping and thumb were completely forgotten as Chanyeol anticipated the sight of Kai.
He was gliding through the 56th Kai a week later when Chanyeol noticed that the conversation he had with Kai were not cut half-sentence. The thumb was expertly tapping on the right corner of the screen, lifting Chanyeol’s body up and past the gap between upper Kai and lower Kai.
“You look stunning in red, Chanyeol-ah.” Kai said to Chanyeol, making the latter’s eyes pop out more than it originally did.
tap tap tap
“K- Kai…” he stuttered.
tap
“I know it’s probably weird, but I like you very much, Channie. Since the first time you bumped into me, I’ve always thought you were cute.” Kai said shyly, lower tube lowered as Chanyeol glided through. “I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”
tap tap tap tap
Chanyeol smiled, overjoyed. He had thought that Kai couldn't have liked him because he always bumped into him. His smiled widened as he spoke, “I like you too, Kai-yah. In fact I’ve loved you since you were created. You always make the fall less painful, and you’re the sweetest object I’ve ever met.” Chanyeol managed to confess his bottled up feeling towards the tube.
“You compliment me too much, Channie.” Kai smiled and Chanyeol felt the thumb falter, and he fell down, face bumping against the side of Kai’s hard body.
“See you Kai.” Chanyeol laughed.
“See you later Channie. I love you.”
***
“I’ve always wondered if your feathers felt as pixelated as it seemed.” Kai blurted out one day.
tap tap
“Kai, you know you can’t touch it.”
tap tap tap
“Yeah, But it doesn’t change the fact that I want to.” Kai smiled sadly at Chanyeol.
Chanyeol grimaced. He suddenly felt really bad for not being able to provide Kai the thing he wanted the most. He couldn’t deny that sometimes he wished that their relationship was different, less complicated. He wanted to be able to touch Kai instead of avoiding him. It was like choosing between presence and touch, if you touch, he disappears until the owner of the thumb decided to press the ‘play again’ button.
It was devastating for both of them. And Chanyeol started to avoid Kai more. He wanted to be with Kai for a longer time, even if it means that he couldn’t touch him.
The ‘play again’ button was pressed lesser as time passed and the owner of thumb grew bored. It used to be hundreds times a day and now the human rarely played one time a day.
Every time Chanyeol saw Kai, he always greeted with a quiet, “Hello Kai-yah.” And got a, “Hey Channie, I’ve missed you.”
Each passing day Chanyeol grew more fearful as he watched the other application got erased whenever the phone memory got too full. Both he and Kai knew that one day they were going to be uninstalled because the insufficient space. It made the moment they meet less lovely and more depressing. The ‘I love you’ muttered were painful like it might be the last time they could say it.
Chanyeol knew when the owner of thumb installed an application called Hay Day, his time with Kai was not long anymore. The owner of thumb never clicked on them anymore, always looked past the thumbnail of Chanyeol in the app menu.
And one day after a month not meeting Kai, the owner of thumb unexpectedly clicked on ‘play’. Chanyeol found himself flying in the air once again, drifting towards Kai.
“Hello Kai-yah, it’s been a long time.” Chanyeol smiled happilly, excitement clearly shown.
tap tap
“Hey Channie. I miss you so much.” Kai watched Chanyeol glide through him.
tap
And both of them sighed in content, just feeling each other’s presence in silence. There were no need to speak out their thoughts, both had long accepted the reality that they couldn’t love like lovers were supposed to be, they could only do it from afar.
“Hey Kyungsoo, are you playing flappy bird again?” Chanyeol heard a human voice say.
“Yeah, I think I’m gonna uninstall the game. I’m playing for the last time.” The owner of thumb mumbled distractedly.
Chanyeol and Kai stared at each other lovingly as the 130th Kai passed, not understanding a word the human said. When they reach the 139th Kai, Chanyeol accidentally bumped upper Kai. And both Chanyeol and Kai laugh in surprise.
Chanyeol bounced away and shouted, “See you later Kai-yah. I love you!”
Kai smiled and shouted back “I love you too Channie! Don’t take too long okay!”
“Okay Kai-yah. I’ll be back before you even miss me.”
Both of them knew it was beyond Chanyeol’s control but it felt nice, like they were in a normal relationship.
But Chanyeol was wrong, he never came back to meet Kai.
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