A boy notices a gecko as he and a group of other boys go through a medical screening during their attempt to become officers in the Pakistan Air Force. He imagines the gecko falling from the wall and into “the crack of [another boy’s] raised ass.” Then, he looks at the boy, feels attracted. He gets the results back from the medical screening. He passes. The boy is not sure why he’s trying to join the Air Force, figures, “That’s the way it was…Before people did anything with their life, they applied to the armed forces—and only after they had been rejected three consecutive times, and hence rendered ineligible forever, did they think of doing something else.” The boy figures he applied, especially, to get out of his mother’s house for a while, to evade (temporarily) her disapproval. The interview process for the Air Force is rigorous. “[T]heir baggage was searched, [their] documents were verified, and [their] phones were confiscated. Later in the evening we were served tea and then a dinner of aloo gosht and roti. At eight sharp we were asked to return to our rooms, which would then be locked from the outside.” The boy wonders, “What [am] I doing in this strange, threatening place?” and “Could I make it to the end?” The boy he watched beneath the gecko comes up and taps his shoulder, asks if he remembers him from earlier. He says he doesn’t. They small talk and end up sitting together at breakfast, though they eat in silence. Later, they meet again, outside. They talk some more, their “bodies touch[ing] occasionally." Sitting with him, the boy “fe[els] a mixture of lust and revulsion.” The more his crush talks, the more he realizes how different they are. “How humble and innocent” this other boy is, “[h]ow rich in his poverty.” He is covered in crumbs from his snack and the boy dusts them off his shirt. “[His crush] looked at [him], surprised, but did not recoil. Just smiled. Then he looked at his crotch, where more crumbs had gathered.” The boy asks if he should wipe those crumbs too, but then there’s an announcement over the loudspeakers, and his crush says they should “go to the mosque and pray with the other boys.” When the boy says he doesn’t pray, his crush tells him he should pretend because the officers are always watching. When the results are posted that day, the boy hopes he’s still in the running because he “wanted to be able to spend more time with [the other boy].” He makes it through. He imagines that his crush is in his room. He imagines a future where "they both graduate as flying officers, deeply and madly in love with each other.” The next day, they see each other, but their eyes do not meet. Later, when they see each other again, his crush gives him “a lazy, boyish hug.” The boy continues to go through the rigorous interview process and seems to fumble part of it, so he’s not sure if he’ll make it through. At night, the others gather around to watch a Pakistani movie, but the boy decides to miss it. He “had no interest in the movie, so [he] decided to return to [his] room and read.” His crush comes into his room. They tease each other, try to figure out who’s taller. They decide to lie down to check, as “[i]t’s more accurate that way.” They are lying in bed when the boy grabs his crush, pinning him down, even as he tries to break free. They get caught, get sent to the leader’s office. Because the leader is also a Syed, the boy gets a break, but his crush does not. The boy doesn’t know how his crush will be punished. He wonders: “What had he seen in me on the first day, when he sat several rows away and smiled at me and waved in my direction?” He wonders if his crush saw himself in him or “[b]ehind the veneer of my sleek clothes and a plagiarized sophistication, did he see the potential for cruelty…my willingness to be selfish?” He cries at night thinking about what might’ve happened to his crush, and the other boys throw things at him to try to get him to stop. Eventually they give up. In the morning, the results are posted. He made it through.