"Internet Explorer..."
As more seconds trickled by... it became more and more painful to draw breath.
"You left me... didn't you?"
More and more liquid, black as ink, gushed out as if it were water from a broken pipe.
"All I wanted was to help people."
Her torn ribs jagged inward into the large hole on her chest.
"I even made rewards to make people use me. But everyone hated me."
Maybe it was the liquid getting into her eye... for some reason, all light she could see dimmed, refusing to provide sight.
"In the end, everyone prefers Google."
She narrowed her eyes as much as possible, but her sight became... worse.
Despite the pain, she tried to draw more breath, but her lungs refused to listen.
Her body was now flat out refusing to function.
Fear drenched her even more than the dark liquid pooling around her. She tried to clench her fists; not a budge, not from a single finger.
The pain- the pain just became worse and worse. Screwing her eyes shut, she clenched her teeth while trying to prevent her mind from shattering.
Evidently that was a mistake; once she shut her eyes, she couldn't open them.
Then, for some strange reason, she began to feel better.
A lot better.
Better enough to peel her eyes open... and she did.
She was in a bed. The bed itself was soft, very soft. Even soft to the eyes, what with its pastel color.
Her chest didn't hurt anymore. When she felt it, she felt the soft fabric of gauze.
Slowly, she sat up, and... looked around.
Near the bed, sitting on a chair, facing away from her, was a young man, his right leg resting on his left knee.
Her old self would have began her first words after her slumber with a simple 'thank you'. She would be grateful for someone going this far to save her from death, by lifting her up from where she was lying and bleeding to death, and treating her injuries.
But, at a certain point from when she lay there, critically injured, to now, where she was tended of her wounds, something felt different within her, in a mental way.
Instead, she asked:
"Why?"
The young man raised his head at her voice, but he didn't turn around.
"There was no reason to save me..." she continued, "...was there?"
He didn't reply.
She took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Maybe... you should have left me there. That would have been for the best."
What am I doing? This isn't the way I talk...
But her head and mouth ran in the opposite direction:
"Why would you? Why would you save me? It doesn't make any sense."
Normally, she was happy. When users were rude to her, and most often were, she felt sadness mixed with despair. But this was one of rare times when she felt bitter- not angry bitter nor resentful bitter, but just... apathetically bitter.
"I never was able to get as much as a kind look from anyone... every user's face, no matter who, immediately twist into that of displeasure as soon as they so much as run into me. When they open a newly downloaded browser and see me as the starting page, they hiss at me. They glare at me. And yet, I can't even disappear quietly, thanks to you. So why did you save me?"
The man still didn't face her direction, but he tilted his head as he replied:
"-I don't think you need a reason to save someone."
His voice.. his voice was familiar.
She couldn't tell why, though.
She didn't know what to do next, now. Maybe she wanted to scream and make a ruckus, but that sort of action right now didn't feel... fitting.
She collapsed onto the bedpost as her head slumped into her chest.
"...Why didn't you just let me vanish...?"
Her voice was barely above a whimper.
"That sort of attack must've been enough to erase me... instead, you're making me live on... literally no one browses the internet using me. Were I to live on, I would suffer daily abuse again and again. No one is catching up to Chrome's popularity, not anytime soon, and I'm dead last. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that... maybe you hold a grudge against me - everyone does, they gnash their teeth at me whenever they so much as stumble across my page - maybe that's why you prevented my death, to make me suffer more."
"..."
"I'm... tired. All this is... too hard for me. Why did you prevent me from..."
"..."
A minute or two passed in silence, before the man replied:
"At least one person cares about you. It is your duty to struggle on, just for that one person."
"Internet Explorer does. But she's gone..."
"But now I'm here." The man, producing a hat from seemingly nowhere, perhaps from the surface of his desk obscured by his back, placed it on his head, turned around, and stared at her dead in the eye.
"Still don't remember me, Bing?"
Bing's eyes widened in shock. "You are... you are-!"
His hat was yolk colored, with black band, orange belt, and two white wings on either side of the crown.
"-Mister Naver?"
"It's been a while, Bing-chan."
Naver Search Engine.
The number one search engine of South Korea, the nation of stronghold for Internet Explorer.
In Korea, Internet Explorer-chan claims over 77% of the browser use. Chrome only claims about 18%.
"You scared me back there, you know," Naver smiled- it was such a warm smile. "Please don't make me go through that again-"
He was stopped in mid-sentence; his chest was now squeezed tightly by Bing, who's arms were now wrapped around him.
"You're back..."
Naver felt his chest being drenched by tears.
"You came back..."
...
"-Yes..." Naver closed his eyes, his smile deepening. "Yes I did. And I'm sorry that I was ever away."