Kalim looks about to protest – he wants to argue that there has to be some other way around the dismissal problem, that they can figure it out – but Jamil keeps talking, and successfully shuts him up.

Of course he's thought about that. Of course he knows no one can take care of him like Jamil does. Jamil is the only person in his life who he's really, genuinely, completely sure he can actually trust, even after everything that happened last year. Kalim is terrified of what his life is going to look like with someone else trying to do Jamil's job, and half certain that whatever it does end up looking like, it won't last very long. He's already resigned to that; he's already been trying not to think about it.

He shrinks in on himself a little, still sitting on the edge of the bed. He's so caught up in shit he normally does his best to ignore that it takes a moment for those last words to sink in – he actually notices Jamil's flushed face and indignant glare first, and thinks, stupidly, Why is he embarrassed? before his brain catches up to his ears.

He blinks, dislodging a few tears, and stares back at him.

"...I don't want to," he says wretchedly. "Jamil, I know it'll be awful, I know they'll do a terrible job, I know you're better than anyone else, but – otherwise you'll be sad forever. That's worse."