[Liem can’t find it in him to return even the slight suggestion of a smile that Matt offers along with his name. He doesn’t want to be more real to this man than he already is. He doesn’t want to tell him his name, or where he’s from, what his own upbringing was like, what kind of dreams he had for the future. Nothing good can come from Matt knowing anything about him or about the world he came from—not when his goal is to see the world that Liem would return to burnt to ash for his cosmic forest.

He closes his eyes and takes a breath. When he opens them again to look entreatingly back at Matt, his gaze is shadowed with exhaustion that goes beyond the weakness of his body.]

Please. Just forget you saw me here.

[Isn’t the weight of an entire existence enough to bear? He doesn’t need to take Liem’s fate into his hands as well, not for an hour, not even for a moment.]

I know you mean well, but I can’t do this right now. I haven’t had a moment to myself since I was brought to this place. Can’t you grant me that, at least until someone else finds me?