Chap­ter 15 — Too Late opens with the jun­gle clos­ing in, its dense green­ery whis­per­ing secrets and dan­ger with every step. Bulan leads Vir­ginia care­ful­ly through tan­gled paths, ever watch­ful, not just for preda­tors, but for the moment when truth can no longer be post­poned. Though he appears strong and res­olute, his mind churns with uncer­tain­ty. The man Vir­ginia sees as her sav­ior is haunt­ed by the fear that her grat­i­tude may with­er once she knows his ori­gin. Still, she places her trust in him, sens­ing in his actions some­thing pur­er than appear­ances or rep­u­ta­tion could reveal. Bulan, fear­ing her rejec­tion, with­holds his sto­ry and choos­es only to offer his name. In her heart, Vir­ginia wres­tles with her own doubts, torn between fear of the jun­gle and admi­ra­tion for the brave, qui­et man guid­ing her through it. Their silence, though brief, deep­ens their con­nec­tion more than words could.

In the qui­et after­math of dan­ger, Vir­ginia learns of the fate of those who defend­ed her—beings labeled mon­sters by oth­ers but remem­bered by Bulan as com­pan­ions who act­ed out of loy­al­ty. This rev­e­la­tion soft­ens her view even more, not only toward Bulan, but toward what oth­ers might call unnat­ur­al. To her, their deaths are not the end of mon­sters, but the noble acts of beings with hearts capa­ble of sac­ri­fice. Bulan lis­tens as she mourns them, deeply moved but unable to speak his truth. His dilem­ma grows—if she can see good­ness in them, might she see the same in him? Yet fear roots him in silence. He con­sid­ers steal­ing away with her into the wilder­ness, far from judg­ment, far from civ­i­liza­tion. But a man who loves with puri­ty does not steal free­dom from anoth­er.

The moral bur­den weighs heav­i­ly on Bulan. More than the mys­tery of his ori­gin, it is the ques­tion of whether he deserves love and dig­ni­ty that con­sumes him. He fears he is a con­struct, a thing shaped in a lab­o­ra­to­ry, not born of nature or soul. But Virginia’s pres­ence calms the storm, her accep­tance pro­vid­ing what he nev­er knew he needed—hope. Still, he can­not allow him­self to act on his desire. Not while the truth remains unspo­ken. The mea­sure of love, he real­izes, is not in pos­ses­sion, but in the act of putting the oth­er first. His deci­sion to pro­tect her hap­pi­ness over his own becomes his first true act as a man, not a cre­ation.

As they press deep­er into the unknown, their bond is test­ed by every sound, every rustling leaf, and every moment of doubt. Vir­ginia, though afraid, does not com­plain. She clings to Bulan’s strength, unaware of the war he fights with­in. Bulan remains silent, his eyes scan­ning the shad­ows, his heart aching with each step that leads her fur­ther from home, and pos­si­bly from the truth. The jun­gle is mer­ci­less, but it is also alive with lessons. For every threat it holds, it also offers clar­i­ty. And Bulan begins to see that the mea­sure of his iden­ti­ty lies not in blood or biol­o­gy, but in his choic­es.

Even­tu­al­ly, he resolves to tell her every­thing once they reach safe­ty. This promise to him­self brings a frag­ile peace to his heart. He may not be ready to explain what he is, but he knows who he is becom­ing. That dis­tinc­tion mat­ters more. The man walk­ing beside Vir­ginia is not the one born in a lab—he is the one who stood against mon­sters, who guid­ed her through the dark, and who chose love above self. This qui­et vic­to­ry, born in the shad­ow of doubt, is the first step toward the redemp­tion he nev­er thought he need­ed.

Their jour­ney is far from over. But in this chap­ter, both hearts grow braver. Vir­ginia, in plac­ing her trust where there is no cer­tain­ty. Bulan, in offer­ing his actions where he can­not yet give his truth. It is in these unspo­ken gifts—courage, restraint, and selflessness—that the roots of some­thing endur­ing take hold. While dan­ger still lurks and truth remains veiled, the path ahead promis­es not only per­il, but the pos­si­bil­i­ty of under­stand­ing, for­give­ness, and love that sees beyond what the world deems pos­si­ble.