Viv slammed the door, leaving Daph knocking to explain what had happened with her vague doubts, which had dragged them into the argument that had just occurred a few seconds ago. As soon as Viv locked the door, she sat down on the floor, her back against the door, her knees drawn up towards her body. She couldn't cry, not because she didn't want to, but because some habits from her old job had left deep marks on her mind, making it too hard to get out of it quickly. Viv just sat there, unmoving, as if recalling the time that Vuv had buried deep in her mind because of the sad memories it brought.

Around the time Viv was seventeen years old, she no longer had any close relatives and was training at a camp with others from many different races. At that time, Daph was a former intern and was rumored to be the daughter of a mysterious agent who was a special trainer at the camp. Even though introverted Viv had experienced enough to make her strong and independent, being forced to live in an environment with hundreds of strangers still made her worried and scared.

She met Samira, an Arab girl with deep brown eyes, a mysteriously sad face, and a tough appearance—things that were not what Viv had thought of when she imagined an Arab girl. Samira was liberal enough to take the initiative to greet Viv the first time they met, a bit of an extrovert, Viv thought, completely opposite to her.

Samira was extremely enthusiastic and proactive with Viv in everything during the months-long training period. Of course, she was still very nice to everyone, but with Viv, it felt a little special, and Samira let Viv realize that on purpose. Viv didn't want to be a bait for some childish game that people could play when they were bored, so she decided to quietly avoid intentional interactions from Samira as a form of self-defense to stay away from potential humiliation. Samira noticed this and dragged Viv into the training room when everyone else had fallen asleep, confessing everything she had done from the bottom of her heart.

Neither of them openly called it love, but maybe it was—a pure teenage love. Almost everyone in the camp realized it, but they continued to live as usual, still seeing Samira as a rare, talented, and optimistic girl from the Middle East who always stuck with another quiet girl.

After enough time, Viv realized some things that Samira didn't want to show to others. Samira usually waited until everyone had finished bathing, making sure no one else entered the bathroom, often very late at night. She was so skillful that hardly anyone questioned her strange habit until, accidentally, Viv had food poisoning from eating something she was allergic to without knowing it. Viv hurried to the shared bathroom, and it was the first time she witnessed the panic and fear on Samira's face. However, Viv was not sober enough to perceive Samira's confusion; she was throwing up everything she had eaten while Samira quickly put on her clothes and ran to her chamber.

The day after, Viv went to see Samira in private, but Samira was no longer the same as usual; her face looked like she was afraid Viv would look down on her.

"What happened to you?... You're so pale" Viv gently whispered to Samira, while the person who was really unwell was herself.

"You saw something, didn't you?" Samira said in a trembling voice full of concern.

"I saw what?" Viv asked again, surprised, looking at Samira with confusion.

The expression on Samira's face changed extremely complicatedly, from worry to confusion, then to surprise, then to relief, and finally to hesitation.

"I really love you, Viv," she murmured, then kissed Viv's forehead lightly. Viv was surprised because even though Samira was proactive, she had never been as straightforward as she was now.

"I want to tell you a story... A story that maybe you are the only one who has ever heard about me," Samira gazed at Viv intensely, her voice trembling but clear.

"When I was ten, my mom said she would take me to the playground... the place I thought I would never go" she paused for a moment, then continued, "The playground my mom mentioned was not the place with slides, seesaws, and sandpits as I had imagined... That horrible place had an old lady holding a razor blade... dark, humid, cold." Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered that hellish time.

"My mom pinned me to the ground, and a blade slashed through... Blood... too much blood... I thought I couldn't survive." Her eyes remained fixed on Viv, no matter how the story went on.

"When I came here, I realized that I was unlike anyone else here," then she continued in a choked voice, "I heard people call that female genital mutilation."

After hearing the whole story, Viv looked at Samira with a surprised and heartbroken expression. She looked Samira up and down in confusion and whispered, "So that means... yours..."

"Yes, Viv" Samira nodded slightly, her whole body leaning against Viv. Viv just gently hugged her and comforted her from the irreversible pain.

"I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry, Sam" Viv murmured into Samira's ear, her eyes filled with tears of heartache as she couldn't imagine what had happened to Samira.

"It's not your fault", Samira gently touched Viv's cheek with her hand, then continued to bury her head in the crook of Viv's neck and sob.

But Viv and Samira's time together did not last long. One night, Samira was assigned to be on duty in a very dark and deserted area where people could not even see their hands in the dark. After discovering a group of strangers identified as members of a long-standing gang lurking around that area and attacking the training camp, Samira and the other guards tried to hold out until rescue arrived. Sadly, Samira was accidentally shot by another guard in the extremely chaotic and dark situation.

When rescue arrived, the gangs had all been destroyed, and Samira had no breath left. That night, no one could sleep.

When Viv saw Samira lying motionless on the ground, she could not keep calm and panicked, running to hug the still warm body. Viv didn't know how to scream miserably like a normal person when they saw their loved one was no longer alive; she just sat quietly holding Samira's head, her sobs choked but small, like the sound of a mosquito. Her mouth kept whispering something; looking at her mouth shape, one could guess a few words like "Sam, please look at me."

Daph quietly approached Viv, rubbed her back, and comforted her, "She will be very angry when she sees you crying like that." After that, Daph signaled for the others to help bring Samira's body back to the camp.

Samira's mother refused to accept her daughter's body; she was eventually taken back to the headquarters in the UK to be buried. It was also good, Samira would not have to return to the place where she had suffered pain, both literally and figuratively.