The moment Arnaldo finished speaking, Valentina began to tremble uncontrollably. She lowered her head, gripping her own shoulders tightly. Tuan, weighed down by the reprimand, failed to notice her distress.
“I’m sorry,” Tuan said quietly. “My impulsive actions caused both of you a great deal of worry. I’ll do better… I’ll grow up, so I won’t put anyone else at risk again.”
“I’m glad you’re alive,” Arnaldo said, his voice softening. “This disaster has already taken too much from us. I don’t want to witness any more loss. I hope that from this point forward, the three of us can sit down together and learn how to truly become comrades.”
Arnaldo stepped forward and extended his hand. Faced with the man’s towering figure, Tuan hesitated for a moment before returning the handshake. The exchange went smoothly – until Arnaldo turned and offered his hand to Valentina.
She suddenly screamed and spun around, bolting from the room without warning, leaving the two men staring at each other in stunned confusion.
By the time Tuan snapped out of it and chased after her, Valentina had already locked herself inside her room. Inside, she collapsed onto the floor. Her fingers dug into her trembling shoulders until her skin bruised. Her teeth clamped hard onto her lower lip, desperately trying to suppress the terror surging up from the depths of her chest. Traumatic memories flooded back like dense fog, filling her mind and tightening around her until she could barely breathe.
“Valentina, open the door! It’s me, Tuna! I’m here. You don’t have to be scared anymore. Let’s talk, okay?” Tuan pounded on the door, raising his voice.
“Please… leave me alone, Tuna. I’m begging you. Just let me be alone for a little while…”
Hearing her weak reply from just behind the door, Tuan knew she was sitting right there on the other side. He stopped knocking, slid down to sit against the door, and lifted his gaze toward the ceiling of the ship. Memories of everything they had been through together began to cycle through his mind – some bright and beautiful, others aching and painful. All of them intertwined, pulling Tuan into a stream of recollection that felt as though it might never end.
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After a few moments of silence, he finally decided to speak, projecting his voice backward so Valentina could hear him clearly.
“This feeling… it’s strangely familiar, isn’t it? It reminds me of the day you ran away from the operating room, back when we were still kids. I remember it so clearly. That day, you used your abilities to take down all those big, burly guards, then crawled into the ventilation shaft that you and I had discovered together, just to sneak into Dr. Tien’s office. I nearly screamed my head off when I opened the locker and found you curled up inside. So after that, I had to sit in front of the locker – just like this – for hours, keeping those people from finding you, and on top of that, I had to keep talking so you wouldn’t be so scared. Haha. I remember we ended up laughing way too loudly, and that’s how they found you. They grabbed you by the head and dragged you away. Those bastards really were brutal, weren’t they, Vale?”
Valentina didn’t respond. Encouraged by the silence, Tuan continued his one-sided monologue.
“I know… those men treated you horribly. They were inhuman – cruel beyond words. Even now, I still feel sick when I think about the things you told me they did to your body. Those bastards deserve to die hundreds, thousands of times over before I’d ever feel satisfied. So, Valentina… I truly understand the fear of adults that you’re carrying inside you.
“I also happened to learn that the VOSTOK Project had countless failed test subjects, and… most likely, all of them are dead. Realizing that made a lot of things clear to me, Vale. A lot. You know, when I was little, I used to have many friends. But as time passed, one by one, they all disappeared – without a single goodbye. Everyone kept telling me they’d been adopted, that they were living happy lives with new families back on Earth.
“But… we weren’t stupid. Right, Vale? Sniff…
“We knew the truth. We knew what fate awaited them -– and what fate would eventually await us too, once we were no longer of any value to them. Growing up in an environment that ruthless, it’s only natural to be afraid of adults.
“But what I really want to say is this: no matter how horrific our childhood was, in the end… you and I still have each other, Vale. We escaped that hell together, and now we have no choice but to keep moving forward if we want to survive. So go ahead – cry as much as you need to. And when you’re ready, give Arnaldo a chance. I’ll go talk to him myself. I honestly believe he doesn’t mean us any harm. He just doesn’t fully understand the two of us yet.”
