A Difference

"All right, Yu, enough joking," Alina helped the man to get off the table, "Sit on that hot seat!" then led him to a special chair with very sensitive hexagonal plates.

"Not as hot as you."

Alina looked lopsidedly at Yu who was hiding his smile. "Still keep trying, huh?"

"I am," said Yu. "As long as you're not angry, I'll keep trying."

"Oh my God, Yu…" Alina also helped Yu to get up to the special seat. "Lie down, please!"

Yu lay like yesterday on the chair while Alina threaded the fine needles into every instrument attached to his body. Then, with a transparent tablet on the table, Alina activated all the systems on the instrument.

"Get ready Yu!" she said.

The man winced as the fine needles on each instrument on his head and along his vertebral column pierced his skin. Not because of the pain, but because he was a little surprised that the needles felt cold to him. Yu had been given some kind of painkiller before by the doctors.

"How are you, Yu?"

"Never been better."

Alina put the tablet back on the stainless steel table, after which she activated the large and thin screen on Yu's left.

"You're going to inject me with that weird liquid again?"

"Not until you calm down a bit," Alina replied.

"I've calmed down," Yu said. "Very, very calm that even I feel like I've become a statue."

Alina smiled as she shook her head, she walked towards the stainless table again. She knew well enough, Yu was teasing her for arriving late this morning, and it forced him to sit for a long time, like a statue, alone.

"Come on, Yu!" she said, reaching for an injection device filled with a special yellowish liquid. "Don't be so angry with me. I'm only fifteen minutes late."

"I am not angry at you."

"Oh, really?"

"Well, a little bit."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"No. It's more like a disappointment."

"Disappointed?" Alina dragged the wheelchair towards the special chair where Yu was lying. "Oh, Yu… don't expect too much from me."

"No, I'm not. I just–"

"I know, Yu. You who have never known a woman more closely must expect a lot from me. I can understand that. It's just…"

"It's just, you're from the elite and I'm just a guy from the lower classes."

"Hey, come on now!" Alina glared at the man. Then she rubbed a cotton swab soaked in alcohol on the man's arm. "I told you, didn't I? I have never discriminated against someone's social status."

"Then?"

"Like you said earlier," said Alina, tearing the seal of the syringe in her hand. "I'm engaged, Yu."

"Aah, so it's true, huh?"

"I'm sorry…"

"No, not necessary. You already said I'm the only one who hopes too much."

"You know," said Alina. "Sometimes, even though we have free will, we can't resist the rules—I mean, about something in a family."

"Aah, I know," Yu smiled blandly. "Your parents must have forced you. Am I wrong?"

"No. You are right. That's what I meant," said Alina with a deep breath. "And now, calm down for a moment."

Yu followed the direction of the beautiful young doctor. In the next second, Alina injected the special liquid into Yu's arm.

Again the man's brow furrowed because he felt the cold as the needle pierced his skin.

"And done," said Alina. "Like yesterday, Yu. You should calm yourself down for about fifteen minutes."

"Yeah, I can remember that."

Yu entered a phase where the serum injected by Alina had increased the activity of his right brain.

From the large and transparent screen, Alina made sure that everything about the man was going well. Activity and brain waves, heart rate, oxygen levels to blood pressure.

And when the hexagonal pieces began to seem to move smoothly as the sensors on each piece themselves read the movements in Yu's body, Alina could smile in relief. All processes went very well.

Before she returned to her chair, Alina checked once again every device attached to the man's body. After that, she grabbed the transparent tablet on the stainless table, and then sat down on her chair, to the right of Yu.

"Yu?" said Alina. "You hear me?"

There was a moment's silence while Yu's hands and feet seemed to be twitching. His eyes were open, but he couldn't see what was around him.

"Yu?"

"Yeah!"

"How are you there?"

"Fine, I'm fine."

"Can you tell me where you are now?"

"Who knows!"

"Yu!" Alina smiled. "Don't pretend to get my attention!"

Yu laughed at that. "Alright, alright. Hmm, I don't know, really."

"Yu!"

"I mean," said Yu quickly. "Yesterday, I saw a galaxy, didn't I?"

"Well, that's what you told me," said Alina. "And, what now?"

"Dead planets?"

"You seem very confused to me."

"Hmm, the moon?"

Alina stifled a laugh as she shook her head. "Come on, Yu. You can do better than this!"

"I'm serious," said Yu. "I didn't see anything other than that space object."

"Oh, I see?"

"Tell me," Yu said. His hands and feet moved like someone swimming. "What's the difference between a planet and a moon?"

"Oh my God, Yu," Alina took a deep breath. "You're not joking are you?"

"Do I sound like I'm joking?"

"Come on, Yu," said Alina. "You must know the difference between the things. From the size of the things alone, you can tell the difference, right?"

"How can I tell the difference between them when I have never stepped on an object called the moon?"

Alina took a deep breath. Indeed, she thought. The man's words did make sense, even more so when faced with it head-on as with Yu himself.

"Did you see any particular object circling it?"

"I told you didn't I?" Yu said. "That one big object is all I see."

"What about gravity?"

"Gravity?" Yu repeated with wide eyes. "Ah, you're right. I felt a force trying to pull my body closer to the object itself. You're right, it looks like a planet indeed."

Alina couldn't help but smile as she shook her head in response to the man's behavior.

It's just that Alina quite understands. Yu, however, had never received an education instead of thinking about extraterrestrial bodies.

"You said it was a dead planet?"

"Hmm, that seems to be the case," said Yu.

"How can you be so sure?" asked Alina, again she looked at the big screen on Yu's left. "Are you on that planet now? I mean, have you stepped in there?"

Alina looked at Yu's feet, she smiled again. The pair of legs looked like they were still paddling like they were in the water. That means, Yu, in his subconscious, is still floating in the orbit of the planet.

"Am I allowed to descend to that planet?"

"As long as you feel up to it, why not?"

"Oh, I see…"