Thanks for those observations, Kinshuk. You zeroed in how this — “the protagonist simultaneous loves and lies to the person she is most attached to — works as an active dynamic throughout the story. You can feel tension within Billi, plus, at any given point, she could go with her instinct to tell the truth. This is one of the many reasons why the story works so well in that this dynamic tension plays in *every* scene, whether up top, i.e., characters actively discussing whether to continue to lie or tell the truth, or below the surface, i.e., unspoken but present within the characters who are actively *not* telling Nai Nai the truth.

Thanks!