Chapter 18 — The Machine of Dreams

The opportunity that Bảo Châu had been waiting for to talk privately with Hoàng Nam finally came on a Friday evening, when the whole team had left, leaving only two people remaining to complete the technical presentation that needed to be submitted to the organizing committee before the deadline at the end of the week. The atmosphere in the factory was unusually quiet, with only the sound of typing on the keyboard and the sound of the ventilation fan running steadily.

"Hoàng Nam," Bảo Châu spoke up, putting down her pen, deciding she couldn't delay this conversation any longer. "We need to talk."

"About what?" he asked, not looking up from his computer screen.

"About you hiding something from us," she said bluntly, her voice determined even though she was still trembling inside. "About you being absent for no reason, about your lack of concentration, about you treating us like we don't trust you enough to know what's going on with you."

Hoàng Nam paused on the keyboard, finally looking up at her, his defensive eyes clearly visible. "I'm not hiding anything," he replied, his voice tense. "I'm just trying to handle my own business."

"What personal matter has such a serious impact on the whole team?" Bảo Châu continued, feeling that the frustration that had been pent up for weeks was now starting to flow out. "The other day, Đức and Tấn Phát spent the whole afternoon choosing the wrong materials, just because you weren't there to give feedback. The whole team is worried, trying to make up for your absence, and you just pretend like nothing happened."

"I'm sorry about the materials," Hoàng Nam replied, his voice somewhat harsher. "But you don't understand. It's not that I want to be absent, I have no other choice."

"Then tell me!" Bảo Châu turned up, her voice higher than intended. "Why are you so determined not to share? I thought we trusted each other enough, after everything that's happened these past few months."

Hoàng Nam was silent for a long time, his teeth clenched, as if trying to suppress something. "Sometimes things are not easy to share, Bảo Châu," he finally said, her voice tired. "Not because I don't trust you, but because... I don't want to drag you into my mess."

"But you're already in there!" she countered, feeling tears begin to well up in the corners of her eyes from both anger and pain. "I care about you, Hoàng Nam. Not just as a teammate. Yet you keep treating me like an outsider, as if I'm not important enough to know what's really going on in your life."

"It's because you're important that I don't want to talk!" Hoàng Nam jumped back, his voice also louder, revealing the tension that had long accumulated underneath the calmness he had tried to maintain for many weeks. "You don't understand, Bảo Châu. My family wants me to give up this club, give up everything I've built over the past three years, to focus entirely on studying for the medical entrance exam. What if I tell you, the whole team? They will look at me with pity, will worry for me, will try to shoulder more responsibilities just because I am not strong enough to solve my own problems. I don't want that. I don't want to be anyone's burden."

The truth was finally told, but instead of bringing the feeling of relief that Bảo Châu had hoped for, it made the atmosphere between the two even more tense. She stood silently for a moment, trying to digest what she had just heard.

"Do you think we will consider you a burden?" she asked, her voice shaking with hurt. "Hoàng Nam, that's exactly what a real team should do — share the burden with each other, not let one person bear it all alone in silence. You think that keeping everything hidden is protecting us, but in reality you're just pushing us away, making us feel like we're not trustworthy enough for you to share with."

"It's not like that," Hoàng Nam protested, but his voice was less harsh, replaced by a deep fatigue. "I just..."

"What are you pointing at?" Bảo Châu interrupted, unable to contain her frustration. "You just want to endure everything on your own, like you've always done until now? I thought we were past that stage, after everything you shared with me on the steps that day, after that night by the river. Turns out all of that was just temporary?"

That sentence, although unintentional, touched something deep in Hoàng Nam's heart. He looked at her, eyes filled with hurt and confusion. "It's not like that," he said, his voice quiet. "What I shared with you is sincere. It's just... different family matters. It's much more complicated, and I don't want you to worry more because of things I don't know how to solve yet."

"I was worried, Hoàng Nam," Bảo Châu replied, his voice softened but the hurt was still intact. "I've been worried these past few weeks, watching you grow more distant, more and more tired, and not knowing what I could do to help. That feeling is much worse than knowing the truth, no matter how difficult that truth is."

Hoàng Nam was silent, did not respond immediately, just sat there, his hands clasped together on the table. The silence was long and heavy, different from the warm, quiet moments the two of them had shared before.

"I need time to think," he finally said, his voice hoarse with fatigue. "Sorry for making you sad."

"I don't need an apology," Bảo Châu replied, standing up and packing her things with slightly shaking hands. "I need you to trust us enough to give us a chance to be by your side, instead of deciding on your own that we're not strong enough to face difficulties with you."

She left the workshop that night with a heavy heart, uncertain whether their conversation had brought them closer together or pushed them further apart than ever before. On the way home, the tears that she tried to hold back throughout the conversation finally rolled down her cheeks, not necessarily because of anger at Hoàng Nam, but because of pity for the burden he was carrying alone, and because of fear that the distance between them might never be mended as before, right at the time when the team needed solidarity the most to face the biggest challenge ahead.

When she got home, Bảo Châu couldn't hold back any longer and immediately called Thục Hiền and told her about the whole argument that had just happened, her voice mixed with sobs. "I don't know if I did the right thing," she said, curling up on the bed and hugging her pillow tightly. "I just want him to trust us, but have I pushed him too hard?"

"You're not wrong, Châu," Thục Hiền replied, her voice gentle but firm. "You're just stating the truth. There's a big difference between respecting someone else's personal space and letting them isolate themselves to the point of hurting even the people who care about them the most. He needs to hear that, even though she may not be ready to accept it right now."

"But what if I pushed him further away?" Bảo Châu asked, her voice still shaking with worry.

"You still did the right thing," Thục Hiền affirmed. "Sometimes loving someone doesn't mean always being nice to them. Sometimes it means daring to tell the truth, even when that truth is hard to hear, because you believe they deserve to be treated better than to be left in silence."

The conversation with Thục Hiền somewhat helped Bảo Châu calm down, but the feeling of insecurity still did not completely disappear. She lay awake for a long time that night, her phone placed next to her pillow, secretly hoping there would be a message from Hoàng Nam, even if it was just a few short lines. But the screen remained black all night, and she fell into a fitful sleep with a heavy anxiety that she had not felt since the day she entered the Robotics Club.

The next morning at school, Bảo Châu and Hoàng Nam coincidentally ran into each other in the hallway during recess, but both only gave each other a shy nod, neither of them took the initiative to start a conversation. That distance, even though it was only a few steps, felt farther than ever compared to the closeness they had built over the past months, and Bảo Châu couldn't help but wonder if things between the two of them, between the whole team, could ever return to the way they were before.

That whole day, she couldn't concentrate on any class, her mind racing between the words he had said and the words she wished she had said differently. At the end of school, instead of stopping by the factory as usual, Bảo Châu chose to go straight home, needing some quiet time to sort out the mixed emotions in his heart before facing Hoàng Nam one more time.