"Before I made the choice to change," he said slowly, "I sometimes wished I would die."
"Why?"
Satori's eyes met hers, dark and fathomless. "Because being invisible while being seen is the worst kind of loneliness. Everyone looked at me and saw only what they expected—a failure, a disappointment, a Zero. No one saw me. Not until you."
Natalia remembered how she had treated him before—with contempt, with disgust, with casual cruelty. The memory churned in her stomach, acid shame rising in her throat. She could recall with perfect clarity the countless times she'd walked past him in the hallway, her lip curled in reflexive disgust, or the cutting remarks she'd made within his earshot, never bothering to lower her voice because he hadn't mattered enough to warrant even that small courtesy.
"Satori, I—" The apology died on her lips, inadequate and pathetic in the face of what she'd done.
