the silence after i gave the answer, it wasn't the old pregnant pause anymore, the one that used to make my scalp tingle with dread, waiting for the correction that never came. it just… hung there, empty, and for a second, my chest felt like it expanded, a strange, almost unfamiliar lightness, even as my brain immediately started tallying all the angles i might have missed, all the ways i could still be wrong, the phantom limb of impostor syndrome still twitching, still checking the locks even when the door's clearly bolted from the inside.