[When was the last time she had been hugged like this? She honestly couldn't remember— for as close as she and Yuri had been, that wasn't the sort of friendship they had, and even a clasping of hands had seemed significant between them. This was something else, as novel as it was comforting.]

Something like that. I don't... want to be the kind of person who resents what's happened to me. Things I can't change. It seems like such a waste, but...

[But even feeling that way, even knowing logically that letting herself be upset, or hurt, or distressed wouldn't do her any good in the long run, sometimes a person just... had to feel those things, to let themselves be sad for a little while.

She's gone so long without allowing herself that one concession that everything has begun to lump together, too many thoughts and feelings all intertwined and shoved aside to be dealt with at some other time that she never allowed to come.]

I wanted to think of this place as a second chance, but it's hard to do that when I hate what's happening to me, and what I see other people being forced to go through.