I... see.

[He'd tried not to think of it again. The orphanage. Not because he didn't care or because it didn't matter to him. But at a certain point, the thoughts of it were too much to bear.

Too many memories. Good ones, tainted by... everything else that happened.

He'd forced himself to put it out of his mind. Not once had he considered that, maybe, someone else still had him in theirs.]

I'm sorry. That I never contacted you or anyone else. I probably should have. Things were just... busy.

[Busy. It's perhaps the most blatant lie he's told so far. He'd never sent a single letter, not just because it didn't feel right. But because, even if he'd somehow worked up the nerve, there's absolutely no way that Dahlia would have allowed it.]

But you... you stayed... You know, that really seems about right. Even after growing up, you seem a lot like then, still. And suddenly chasing after someone you hadn't seen in so long? yeah.

That sounds about right, too.

[It just makes sense, somehow.]

I'm glad we're meeting again now, at least. Not... before.