Pressure

At night, Eucali ended her call with Tulan. Hesitantly, she opened her phone and began composing a message to Hesta—honoring the promise she had made that afternoon, she roughly repeated her situation to Hesta.

Out of politeness, Eucali had not asked about Tulan's background during their call. But the other woman's warm, gentle tone and quick, precise way of speaking conveyed an air of trustworthiness. Eucali could almost picture what Tulan looked like, and the expression she wore as she spoke, simply from her voice... Clearly, she and Hesta came from the same world.

At the end of their conversation, Ms. Tulan asked many questions about Hesta. Her tone was like that of an older sister worrying over her younger sibling. When she heard that Hesta could now go to and from school alone, make new friends, and even attend certain formal events, Tulan actually let out a satisfied breath, her voice becoming immensely gratified—as if Hesta were not an adult who had retired and come to District 14 for university, but a bewildered toddler entering kindergarten for the first time...

Eucali found it hard to understand Tulan's attitude toward Hesta, just as she could not understand Tulan's diagnosis of her. At first, Tulan asked whether she often ground her teeth. Eucali was confused, so Tulan rephrased the question: "When you're nervous, do you clench your teeth hard? Especially when you're intensely focused or under excessive pressure?"

Eucali immediately relaxed her jaw, because while she had been trying hard to remember whether she had a teeth-grinding habit, she had already clenched her teeth.

"From what you've described, it sounds a bit like temporomandibular joint disorder. If there have been any stressful events lately, you need to pay particular attention to regulating your emotions."

Eucali clenched her teeth again as she