Life on an Alien Planet

2. Four

1 day before takeoff. Yesterday was so unreal, I'm almost unsure if it was just a dream. I've met the whole crew, I made some friends, maybe some enemies, and the captain asked me to have the room next to him.

The way he shut Daz down like that, really makes me think that he's a worthy Captain. Then I remember why Daz was yelling at me in the first place. I wonder if S. Coups thinks what everyone else thinks, or what if he actually believes me.

So many people think I don't belong here, but the captain was the first to vocally disown someone who thinks that way.

Putting my thoughts aside, I splash some water on my face and put on a simple tee along with my new NSRM uniform. They were given to us a few days ago but we need to wear them today since we start seeing how quickly we can put our space suits on and off, in case of emergency, and wearing the uniform helps with putting it on. I finally leave my apartment issued by the establishment and on my way out I run into Elena, so we decide to walk there together while getting to know each other more.

We both get to the testing grounds 5 minutes early, so we both sat down in random chairs. She sat next to rat while I decided to sit alone since S. Coups was already sitting next to Mia. In a little bit, Moon Byul entered the room and when we matched sight of each other, she waved and sprinted towards me with a smile on her face. "Hey Wyan! You're early this time." She greeted as she sat down. "Oh! I just learned we'll be roommates on the Paladin!"

I smile at her, she's cute when happy. "The what?" to which she looks slightly confused, 

"Well it's usually called the SC-Paladin 01a, but our ship."

My face reddens, "O-oh I must've forgot, but we're roommates?"

She smiles, "Yeah! So look forward to seeing me more often~" she then jokingly winks at me, and I became too flustered to say anything before someone started speaking.

"Hello flight crew." A few scientists surrounded by 9 metal boxes started to speak "We meant to familiarize this to you all sooner, but there's been a malfunction we needed to fix. But now," the woman speaking opened a box labeled 'test' and brought out 4 objects and held them up, before putting them on a table near her. "We have a simpler and advanced forms of spacesuits, which you will be using; formally known as the SCS-03b."

"First, we will demonstrate how to equip and unequip the SCS-03b, then you all will try it on your own. Afterwards, you all will try 10-20 minutes of the same thing, to get used to putting it on or off in case of emergency."

She then starts to demonstrate how to put it on. "First, step into the jump suit. Once you are in, if you press this button here," she gestures to a blue button on a control panel, "the suit will fit to the size of your body, and secure your body from exposure while equally being easy to move in." And as she says that, the user wearing the test suit presses the blue button and the outfit quickly hugs their body, and though it looks a little bulky, it still looks loose enough to move around in.

The speaker continues then describes the control panel itself. The control panel has many different functions built into it such as voice command, fixing your suit, describing oxygen levels, and other stuff that I don't know how to use. On the spacesuit, there's an indent for the control panel itself, and then the tester put it on their wrist, then with a click it stays on. Finally, there's a sleek helmet with padding on the bottom to help secure air. The tester put on the helmet, twisted it slightly, and lets go. "Now with this you are able to go out in an oxygen free environment, and without any questions from the flight crew we will now show how to take it off." and they tediously show how to take the suit off.

After the slightly boring explanation, they give us each one metal box with our name on it. We spend the next 20 minutes putting on the suit and later taking it off and putting it on again. By the end me and Byul were practically laying on the ground in exhaustion. 

"Ok, break time. in an hour we'll be discussion a more in-depth synopsis of the control panel."

While catching my breath, I feel a tap on my shoulder. "Hey Wyan, since we have an hour to spare, why don't we go to a cafe or something? We haven't left the National Space campus in a while, it'll be fun!"

"I'd love you" I reply. Byul happily jumped up, and reached her hand down, offering to help me up. My mind weirdly races as I hold her hand to get up, but I distract the weird thoughts by talking to her while she grabs her jacket and we walk to the cafe.

She told me that she had a cafe in mind, so I'm just following blindly while she guides the way. 

Some time later, we finally make it to "Chloe's", a small yet vintage looking cafe and bakery. When we walked in, a small bell dinged followed by the worker welcoming us. I kept silent while Moon Byul ordered for us because she promised that she can order something for me that she know I'll like, based on my personality.

After the food came out, I courteously grabbed the bag while finding a table to sit at. When we sat down, she beamed, "ok ok, close your eyes. Wait, are you allergic to anything?"

"No Haha, I'll be fine." I reply, closing my eyes. I hear her crinkling the bag followed by a delicious aroma of freshly baked food. "Ok. you can open your eyes now." and as soon as I do I see a freshly baked pastry ball, topped with powdered sugar and surrounded with assortment of berries. "It's a Profiterole, or a cream puff. It's sweet, graceful, and full of surprises. Just like you." she explains, smiling. 

Smiling from her unexpected compliment, I take a bite and my eyes light up. The taste is warm, and the inside is filled with a delicious custard. "Wow, you picked the perfect thing. This is great!"

"I'm glad you like it. I told you I have an eye for this type of thing Haha." she picks up a Profiterole she got for herself and starts to eat.

We talk and laugh for a while, longer than it took to eat the cream puffs. In the middle of laughing, I look at my phone for the first time here and my eyes widen. "Oh Byul, the meeting starts in 5 minutes."

"Oh we should hurry." she says. We pick up our stuff and head for the door, but once outside I notice it's raining. "Well this is unfortunate." I sigh

"Here." Moon Byul interjects, giving me her jacket. I put it on and she then reaches her hand out, smiling.

I grab her hand and then she says, "we won't get as wet if we run." and just like that we start running as fast as we can through the rain, laughing and holding each other's hand. 

During this moment, I forgot all the stress and responsibilities I had, and just enjoyed the rain with Moon Byul.

We arrived at the meeting soaked and apologized for being late. The scientist there didn't really care, so we sat down and listened the explanation of the control panels, before being sent off to do extra tasks to get ready for launch.