"…I—I think… I just… wanted to be acknowledged… maybe… I wanted… to live up to expectations…! I wanted… to be told I did well… that I did a good job… I wanted to be praised…! And yet… saying 'that's a shame'… you didn't have to say that…! I know, I know already…! I know you were worried about me, and that's why you said it… I understand that… but…!"
Yes, he understood. He knew those words had not been spoken with bad intentions.
But still… the part of him inside cried like a child.
He had wanted to be useful to that precious person called Legolas. He had wanted to meet expectations, to be acknowledged, and to be praised without reservation.
And what was the reality?
After being judged as simple, childish, and immature, he was labeled "disappointing."
The gap between the faint, unconscious hope he had held and the reality that completely crushed it was simply too wide.
