Chapter 5 — The Machine of Dreams

During recess the following Monday, Thục Hiền pulled Bảo Châu to a familiar corner of the school yard under the old poinciana tree, where the two of them often sat and talked since tenth grade. But instead of opening the snack bag as usual, Thục Hiền stared at her friend with suspicious eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked bluntly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Huh? There's nothing wrong with me," Bảo Châu was bewildered, confused by the unexpected question.

"You've been smiling to yourself all this time," Thục Hiền pointed out, her voice full of accusation. "Besides, for three days in a row, I invited you to go out for drinks after school, but you refused because you had to 'visit the factory for a little bit'. What do you mean by that 'little bit' of yours that lasts until six or seven o'clock at night?"

Bảo Châu felt her cheeks burning and tried to keep a calm expression. "Well... the team is in the midst of preparing for the regional qualifiers. There's a lot of work to do."

"Many things, or are there many reasons to be close to someone?" Thục Hiền squinted her eyes, a mischievous smile gradually appeared on her lips.

"Don't make nonsense inferences," Bảo Châu objected, but her tone was so unconvincing that even she realized it.

"Okay, okay, I won't force you," Thục Hiền raised her hands in surrender, but her eyes still couldn't hide her curiosity. "But, Chau, I'm happy because you're happy. During the first few weeks of the school year, you were moody all the time, I thought you were going to be depressed because of those mandatory club regulations. Now, seeing you tell stories about screws, plastic sheets or something, your eyes keep sparkling, I find it very strange, but a good strange thing."

Bảo Châu was silent for a moment, considering her best friend's comment. "I didn't expect it either," she admitted, her voice lowering a bit as she thought more seriously about the question. "At first I hated going in there, you know. I thought I would just sit quietly in a corner, work enough hours and then go home, not having anything to do with those machines. But now..." she paused, searching for the right words. "Now I see that the job of designing a robot's outer shell is really no different from painting, it's just that there are a few more interesting limitations that force you to be creative within the framework. Besides..."

"Besides, that handsome and talented club president is also a big reason, right?" Thục Hiền interrupted, giggling.

"I didn't say that!" Bảo Châu quickly objected, but her red face betrayed her words.

Thục Hiền laughed even harder, patting her best friend's shoulder affectionately. "Okay, I won't tease you anymore. But honestly, I'm glad you found something that makes you excited. At the beginning of the year, I was worried that you would spend your entire senior year depressed because of that ridiculous rule."

That afternoon, while the two were eating in the cafeteria, a group of classmates sitting at the next table accidentally mentioned the Robotics Club in an unfriendly tone.

"I heard that this year's Robotics Club is recruiting kids who don't know anything about technology to fill the quota," a male friend in the group said with a laugh. "Probably going to be empty-handed in the qualifying round like last year, that team will never be of any use."

"Yeah, those nerds spend all day in that factory that smells of motor oil, it's boring," another friend chimed in, making the whole group laugh.

Bảo Châu felt a wave of anger rising in her heart, a reaction whose intensity she herself was surprised by. Before she could think, she stood up and turned to the next table.

"It's not fair what you say," she said, her voice harder than she expected. "The Robotics Club is not a place for people who 'know nothing'. Their captain has represented the school in the city-level competition since the tenth grade, and the whole team is working more seriously than any other club in the school that I have ever seen. If you have never stepped foot in that factory, then don't judge what you don't understand."

The whole table fell silent, somewhat surprised by the unusually harsh reaction from a student like Bảo Châu, who was famous for her gentleness and rarely argued. A girl in the group smiled wryly and waved her hand. "Eh, we were just joking, it didn't mean anything."

Bảo Châu sat back down, her heart still beating fast because she had just spoken up to defend something in a way she had never done before. Thục Hiền looked at her, her eyes both surprised and a bit proud.

"Oh," Thục Hiền exclaimed, a smile slowly spreading across her lips. "That is the clearest answer to my question just now."

"What question?" Bảo Châu asked again, still breathing heavily from her recent anger.

"Whether you really belong there or not," Thục Hiền replied, her voice gentle. "People don't protect things they don't care about, Chau. A few weeks ago, if someone said bad things about the Robotics Club in front of you, you'd probably just nod in agreement and get it over with."

That comment made Bảo Châu pause and look down at the tray of rice in front of her, thinking about what her best friend had just said. It was true that just a few weeks ago, she had been standing in front of the school's notice board, complaining about the mandatory regulations that pushed her into a strange place where she thought she would never belong. Yet now, she had stood up to protect that very place as if it were an inseparable part of herself.

That afternoon, when Bảo Châu went to the factory as usual, she told Tấn Phát what happened in the cafeteria while waiting for Hoàng Nam to check the new programming code. After listening, Tấn Phát burst into laughter and called out to Hoàng Nam who was working hard in front of the computer.

"Hey, Hoàng Nam, do you know the news? Bảo Châu just fought a duel to protect her club's honor, isn't that cool?"

Hoàng Nam looked up and looked at Bảo Châu with strange eyes, mixed between surprise and something warmer that she couldn't name exactly. "Really?" he asked, the corners of his lips curled up slightly.

"It's not really an argument," Bảo Châu replied, a little embarrassed by the sudden attention. "I just don't like hearing other people talk bad about things I... care about."

That sentence, even though it was said naturally, made Bảo Châu startled and realized. Care about. She used that exact word to describe her feelings for the Robotics Club — no longer a mandatory burden, no longer a place she reluctantly visited to meet the allotted hours, but became something she really cared about, truly wanted to protect.

That night, before going to bed, Bảo Châu opened her sketchbook, not to draw the robot, but to sketch the factory scene in her memory — rows of tables cluttered with parts, fluorescent lights falling on attentive faces, and in the middle of the picture, the vague shape of a bird spreading its wings, symbolizing the robot the team was creating together. She looked at the finished drawing and realized that the journey from a girl forced to enter a strange world, to a member willing to stand up to protect that place, had taken place silently without her knowing. And perhaps, this was just the beginning.

That weekend, while cleaning up her desk, Bảo Châu accidentally found an old notice about mandatory STEM club regulations that she had stuffed deep in a drawer since the beginning of the school year, intending to throw it away a long time ago but kept forgetting. She picked up the paper, rereading the words that had made her feel like the world was crumbling beneath her feet just a few weeks ago. Now, rereading it, she only finds it funny at her own overreaction at that time.

She texted Thục Hiền, along with a photo of the old notice: "Do you remember the day I stood crying in front of this notice board? Thinking about it now, I feel so embarrassed."

"Remember, that day you acted like the world was about to end," Thục Hiền texted back with a burst of laughter emoji. "Who would have thought that now you would become so fond of that club that you would argue to defend it in the cafeteria. Life is truly unpredictable."

Bảo Châu smiled, folded the paper, but this time she didn't throw it in the trash as she originally planned, but carefully stuck it in the middle of the sketchbook, as a small reminder of how sometimes the things you fear and oppose the most could become an unexpectedly precious part of your life. She thought about the upcoming club meeting on Monday, about the new design she was cherishing for the robot's head, and even about Hoàng Nam's face that rarely smiled every time he saw an idea that really surprised him. For the first time since the beginning of the school year, she found herself looking forward to a new week of school, not for the schoolwork, but for the upcoming afternoons in that small workshop, where she had no idea she would find an important part of herself.