[He whips his eyes back up to Aleos, but their fierceness can't hide the jagged cracks he feels dividing his insides into smaller and frailer pieces. He doesn't want to accept words of comfort from him. The bitter taste of resentment overwhelms him - here is someone who knew Kaori for longer than he ever had the chance to, who knows all kinds of things he wishes he did.

It isn't fair.

Everything he felt the day she left hasn't left him. His system is poisoned with all the festering regrets and what-ifs; his voice shakes with it, braced only by his anger.]

She doesn't even know who I am anymore. I can't do anything to protect her, or make her happy, or anything. [He shouldn't be this vulnerable with Aleos, but it spills out on its own.] How am I supposed to find comfort in that?