Jean Kirnstein

At first, Jean treated the main character the same way he treated all new recruits: with a dose of skepticism and his usual straightforwardness. He noticed her efforts during training—the clumsy maneuvers with the 3D machine gun, the stubborn desire to perfect every exercise, even if she had to fall again and again. At some point, he caught himself involuntarily watching her among the others: noting how she bit her lip when concentrating, how she shook herself off after a fall with a stubborn smile.

The first warning sign came during a joint training exercise. The heroine, defying his orders to stay back, rushed to cover a comrade trapped between the rubble of buildings. Jean was about to curse, but froze: she wasn't acting recklessly, but precisely, calculating every step. At that moment, for the first time, he saw not a rookie, but a soldier—brave and resourceful. He approached her after training, trying to hide his awkwardness with his usual sarcasm:

"You're either insanely brave or hopelessly stupid. But it worked today."

The heroine smiled, and Jean suddenly felt something inside him skip a beat. He quickly turned away, muttering something about "not taking unnecessary risks next time."

Gradually, he began to notice little things he'd previously overlooked. The way she laughed at others' jokes—loudly, sincerely, throwing her head back. The way she frowned gravely as she studied maps before a sortie. How, after a hard day, tired, she still approached wounded soldiers to help bandage their wounds or fetch water.

One day during a sortie, the situation spiraled out of control: the group was ambushed, and the heroine found herself cut off from the others. Without a second thought, Jean rushed toward her, cutting a path through the Titans. When he finally reached her, she was wounded in the shoulder, but still tried to fight back.

"I told you to stay close!" he barked, scooping her up in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed out. “I wanted to help…”

Jean clenched his teeth, not out of anger, but out of fear. Fear of losing her.