"Do you feel okay?"
"Yes. I still don't know why you made me come here in the middle of my second period of class."
The doctor sitting in front of Gu Luo readjusted his glasses on his nose and let out a sigh.
"Well... I received some information about you earlier today, and I had to do a check-up."
Behind his large desk, the school doctor was going through a pile of papers on his right.
The school infirmary smelled of lavender. This smell always made Gu Luo feel sleepy.
He could already feel drowsiness taking over him. He already regretted spending last night playing instead of sleeping.
The doctor let out a simple sigh of relief, as if he had found what he was looking for, and grabbed a sheet of paper. He turned, his eyes switching between the paper in his hands and Gu Luo.
"To be honest, I need you to answer a few questions before I let you go back to class." He pointed at the sheet in his hands. "I have to fill in all these boxes."
Gu Luo, who didn't really have a choice, simply nodded.
"Good. Have you heard of a rumor concerning a place called Utopia?"
The boy was surprised by the doctor's question and took a few seconds before answering.
"Of course. It's the thing that suddenly appeared a few years ago in the north of our country, replacing an entire part of our country. Even though the media tried to hide it, everyone knows that this place exists."
The doctor held Gu Luo's gaze for a few seconds before scribbling something on his sheet.
"There is no point in telling me it's false. Everyone knows."
The doctor immediately replied in a calm tone.
"That's not my intention, I assure you. However, it seems that it bothers you."
"What bothers me?"
"Well, the fact that the government wants to hide the existence of this place."
The room remained silent for several long seconds before Gu Luo decided to answer.
"I'd rather say it was stupid of them to believe that such a big lie would go unnoticed."
The doctor muttered under his moustache. "I see..."
"And does the fact that you're the only one among your classmates who understood our government's deception bother you?"
Gu Luo flinched. The doctor had seen right through him.
"I suppose it does..."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know how they don't realize it. Doesn't it seem strange to them that all the people who lived in the north of the country have never been seen again, all because of a nuclear accident?"
"..."
"Especially since no one is allowed to approach that place. The border separating the north from the north of the country is guarded 24/7. If it's not to hide something from us, then I don't know what it is."
"And you never thought that you might be wrong?"
"Of course I did, obviously. But the fact that these rumors and the latest events surrounding the nuclear accident happened at the same time isn't a coincidence. It's far too much to be true."
The stocky doctor took notes on his sheet again.
"It seems like this subject is very important to you."
"Not that much."
He scribbled on his sheet again.
"Wouldn't it be the fact that you were lied to that bothers you the most?"
Gu Luo rubbed his hands against his legs.
"No."
A glimmer appeared behind the doctor's glasses, and he wrote for a moment on his sheet before placing it in his printer.
Only the sound of the scanner starting up disturbed the silence of the room.
"No..."
The doctor had just repeated Gu Luo's words.
Gu Luo didn't understand why the doctor had repeated what he had just said. He didn't know what to say, and it made him uncomfortable.
"How do you do in sports, Gu Luo?"
It was an unexpected question from the doctor, who until now had seemed to want to psychoanalyze the fifteen-year-old boy.
"I don't know. I do well, I guess."
The doctor repositioned himself in his chair to face Gu Luo, which made him feel as though he had said something wrong.
"You seem like a rather indecisive person, Gu Luo."
"Is that a bad thing?"
The atmosphere in the room had completely changed.
"I don't think so. It can become one, though. What do you think?"
Gu Luo answered immediately.
"From my point of view, when it prevents me from making decisions, then it will be a bad thing."
"I agree with you."
Gu Luo felt reassured that a healthcare professional agreed with him. He started to think that this doctor he was seeing for the first time really knew how to make his patients feel at ease.
His respect for this doctor only grew. That's why he felt bad about lying to him. Even though what he had told him was close to the truth.
Anyway, this wouldn't be the first nor the last time Gu Luo would lie to an adult.
"Why did you lie to me?"
Gu Luo's heart skipped a beat.
The doctor was looking him straight in the eyes.