The years that followed were gray.
Now seventeen, Shoya walked through halls of silence, every face marked with an "X." He avoided eye contact, conversations, and mirrors. Loneliness wrapped around him like a shroud. His mother did her best to help, but even she couldn't reach the boy who no longer believed he deserved to be seen.
One day, standing on the edge of a bridge, he remembered the girl he had tormented the one who had never raised her voice in anger. And for reasons he didn't fully understand, he turned away from the water.
Instead of ending things, he would seek her out. Not for redemption that was too much to hope for but for a proper goodbye.