Months passed. Lina began bringing him local tea during late-night study sessions; their father, who never learned to read his son's reports, measured success in new tools lined up in the kitchen drawer and a repaired motorbike that ran smoother than it had in years. Slimène found friends who argued about engineering ethics like a religion, and professors who teased him into confidence. In group projects, he was neither leader by decree nor follower by habit—he became the one who noticed when someone was left out and asked them to describe their idea.