[There's a slightly pained groan as a corner of the tissue box kind of stabs Shuichi in the gut. Apparently that was not the best place for the tissues after all, hold on he needs let go for a second so he can move that before it happens again. There we go, that's better.]

[But other than that, Shuichi doesn't make a sound. He just holds the smaller boy in his lap and lets him cry all over his shirt. It's just a shirt for training anyway, who cares if it gets tears and snot on it. It's not like it isn't already a little sweaty, anyway. He does pat his back a few times though. Gently, hopefully reassuringly.]

[It's not until Kokichi has calmed down considerably that Shuichi finally speaks, still keeping his arms wrapped around him.]

I was half right, Oma-kun. After everything you did back then...you did deserve to be alone. The way you toyed with us and laughed at us...nobody would want to be friends with someone so heartless, you barely even seemed human at the time.

[Pure malice. You looked like malice given a human form.]

But...that Oma-kun was a lie, wasn't he? And you said it yourself...lies are infinite possibilities, right? That's not really who you are at all, even if you can convincingly act that way. So...I'm not going to take what I said back, not really. But I am going to apologize for it; I'm going to apologize to the Oma-kun who's here right now. Because he doesn't deserve to be alone, even if he made some really terrible decisions and mistakes that even he can't forgive himself for.