In the end, I had to tell myself that--despite all apparent evidence to the contrary--he was not a good person. When I finally did confront him[*], his entire explanation for ghosting me (since this phenom is so common these days we've had to invent a term for it) was "I grew disinterested in you." It's like he forgot--or choose to ignore--that he was dealing with another human being whose feelings and well-being were important in their own right.

One of the things I realised too late in life was what a good judge of character monshu was. At the time, I thought it was jealousy or displacement that fueled his dislike of Ragoton, but I think he saw through him in a way I wasn't able to since he had similar misgivings about other people who ended up screwing me over one way or another and I'm really going to feel the lack of those instincts going forward.


[*] IME, confronting someone who has wronged you almost always turns out to be less satisfying than you think it will be.