Mia describes the lead-up to the twins’ thirteenth birthday in Korea, when seven-year-old Eugene began nightly wailing and jumping. To spare their exhausted parents, Mia and John canceled hoped-for celebrations and camps. On the morning itself, after Mia jokes about Friday the 13th, Eugene violently destroys both cakes. Enraged, Mia slaps Eugene’s hand while grabbing a last bite; a platter shatters and slices her palm. Their parents focus on managing Eugene, and the twins withdraw into a strategic, hyper-polite “(Not) Silent Treatment.”

Days later, their principal pulls them from exams to the hospital, where a nurse explains Eugene has ulcerative colitis causing severe pain and a bowel obstruction; surgery is underway. Learning sugar can worsen pain, Mia and John use their practiced “Vulcan mind-meld” logic chain to conclude Eugene smashed the cakes to prevent them from hurting, reframing his outburst as pain-driven rather than malicious.

Mia pauses to explain their family’s Star Trek bond and the Mind-Meld Logic-Chain Game that taught them to think jointly and drain emotion for clarity. A footnote recalls a Klingon opera trip with Mom and Mia’s early idea of turning Eugene’s sounds into a language—signals of long-standing attempts to understand him.

Mom arrives and confesses she took Eugene to an institution that morning to explore options; the administrator suspected gastrointestinal pain, called the hospital, and surgery followed, resolving the crisis. Mom apologizes for neglecting the twins’ needs and mishandling the birthday, acknowledging that sometimes the needs of the two outweigh the one. The moment offers mutual forgiveness and frames the family ethic that still shapes Mia’s present.