Karina nodded to the caretaker to signal she understood. After the caretaker left, she approached Dylan's desk.

Squatting down to his level, she looked at Dylan, who was fully absorbed in his block puzzle. "I know how to put this together. Would you like me to teach you?"

Dylan paused for a moment.

Karina pretended not to notice. "It's tricky, isn't it? And it seems like this block is part of a set. Are there more pieces somewhere?"

Dylan glanced at her, and Karina initially thought he would ignore her entirely.

To her surprise, he responded. "Yes, there are... in the room."

The sentence was short, but it was enough to make Karina's heart soar. Communication-even this little bit-meant there was hope.

*

*

She followed him to his room to retrieve the rest of the blocks, and the two of them spent the entire afternoon building together.

a meal, placing it on

barely glanced at the food, even as his stomach growled audibly. He showed no intention of picking up the spoon, seemingly indifferent to his

let

said, "This is the method I was teaching you, but I haven't shown you the rest yet. Do you want to keep learning? If so, how about

him with another growl. Karina chose not to point it out, instead nodding with understanding. "Alright. But I am hungry. How

face taking on an unexpectedly adult expression, as if he were seriously weighing the

of genius. But their brilliance often came at the cost of emotional barriers that kept them from connecting

patiently, not rushing him, giving him

Dylan finally set down the blocks and quietly

continued working on the blocks together, and by evening, they had

Dylan jumped in surprise and

of the other children

in admiration at the completed puzzle. "That's

want to play too! Can I, Director?" another

gently. "Of course, but you'll need to ask

immediately ran up

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