A smile in purgatory 火海一笑 (BxB)

Drill Sergeant

Contrary to popular belief, Syrius is not the only star in his corner of the universe.

However even HE doesn't know that.

Due to his extreme brightness, most stars distance themselves from him, so they too could shine.

But some stars, just a very small handful of them, clutch to him instead. They are so close, too close, that he can't see them - he doesn't notice their existence at all. They are so dark they look invisible. Those stars are sometimes nicknamed brown dwarfs, or brown stars. In spite of this name their real color is more purple-red. As to why they stay with Syrius, the reason is simple.

They do not shine because they have a temperature and a luminosity below the stellar range. They are hard to detect in the normal wavelengths and can only be detected using infrared. Few telescopes are built with infrared light. Most astronomers do not pay attention to them, are not interested in studying or observing them, however they do exist, undeniably so. These stars hang on to Syrius, clenching hard, because they are so dark they could not find their way in the galaxy. Before Syrius, they get lost all the time. After Syrius, they found a lighted path to follow, a home to settle. They enjoy his brightness. He is their light. The only light they knew. They worship him like he is their god. His luminosity also brings them warmth that they long for.

But he doesn't know they are there. He can't see them. He thinks he's alone.

When something is too close, you can't see it. Try looking at the tip of your nose -without a mirror- how often do you see the tip of your nose throughout the day? Rarely if ever.

This means, Syrius is not as lonely as he thinks he is.

~ ~

Wednesday morning, when Kexing arrived at work, he handed in his "homework". Hanson only put 3 questions in it. He got all 3 answers wrong. Hanson went through each question with him, showing him where to go, how to find the information, a few times raising his voice because Kexing was driving him crazy. But after a while, he managed to calm down and continue his explanations. When he was finished, he asked if Kexing understood. Kexing nodded.

So Hanson printed the same homework once more, without the answers in it, and told Kexing to take it home and redo it. Thursday morning, Kexing handed the homework, and out of the 3 questions, he only got 1 correct. Hanson repeated the same process, shouted at him a few more times - it was getting harder and harder to contain his anger - Hanson reexplained the same homework all over again, and printed a new copy for Kexing to take home to redo.

Friday morning Kexing finally got all 3 questions correctly. Hanson asked one question on the fly, to see if Kexing would get it right, and how long it would take him to find the right answer, and of course he didn't get it right despite taking over 20 minutes to figure it out. Hanson yelled at him and smashed his fist down on the desk. The staff sitting nearby thought Hanson would punch Kexing. Actually they would punch Kexing too if they could. He was driving them crazy too. Sitting next to Kexing and Hanson for the last 3 days, and hearing the same explanations over and over, the staff themselves figured out how to search materials in the database, yet Kexing was still not catching on. They too would punch Kexing if given the opportunity.

Anyway, Hanson went to drink some cold water and when he returned, he printed 3 new questions for Kexing to do over the weekend.

That same Friday, Brian asked Hanson to meet him at his office at 3 pm.

"Hanson, how's Simon Wen Kexing doing? It's been 2 weeks you work with him. Just checking on you guys. We do a 2-week performance review, then a 30-day, then a 90-day, then he becomes permanent with full time benefits."