SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy)

Ilya starts looking for any meeting. He deliberately forgets his gym uniform to get into the Life Safety room (Ruslan oversees the uniform storage). He shows up after class, posing as a "volunteer," to screw on gas masks. Ruslan initially aggressively chases the boy away: "Get to your mugs, march. Don't bother me."

But one evening, when Ilya brings back Ruslan's forgotten phone (it fell in the hallway), he finds Ruslan without his balaclava. He's sitting there, clutching his temples, clearly in the midst of a panic attack or a flashback. His pupils are wild, his breathing ragged. Ilya doesn't run away. He simply sits down on the floor next to him and starts blabbering nonsense about his algebra, his cat, and the rain outside.

Ruslan, surprised that the teenager isn't embarrassed by his condition, looks at Ilya for the first time as something other than furniture. He sees long eyelashes, trembling fingers, the scent of a cheap chocolate bar. And at that moment, something inside the soldier cracks.